Michael Janairo

Web Analytics

Month: January 2013

  • ASO with Yo-Yo Ma @ Palace Theatre, 1/12/13

    ALBANY — Sure, it’s only the second week of January, but Saturday night’s Albany Symphony Orchestra performance with Yo-Yo Ma may go down as the concert of the year.

    What the sold-out crowd of 2,851 witnessed at the Palace Theatre was a magical combination of “the world’s greatest concert musician,” according to conductor David Alan Miller, and a hometown symphony that continues to be on fire. Over the course of four diverse pieces, audiences were given top-notch musicianship replete with lusty playing by both soloist and orchestra, especially in the three movements and 40 minutes of Antonin Dvorak’s of the immensely crowd-pleasing Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191.

    (more…)

  • Good job, Albany: One weekend, three shows, all sold out

    Albanians — pat yourselves on the back.

    This weekend, three shows in Albany from wide ranging genres — bluegrass, comedy and classical — have all sold out.

    That’s right, John Oliver of Daily Show and Community fame has sold out his comedy show at The Egg tonight; likewise the Gibson Brothers, who were the subject of a great interview by Michael Eck in Thursday’s Preview section. And on Saturday, the Albany Symphony Orchestra with soloist Yo-Yo Ma has sold out its show at the Palace Theater.

    So expect restaurants and bars to be busy tonight and Saturday night in and around Albany. Give yourself time to park.

  • Rock for Recovery at Valentines raises $4,193

    Albany promoter Greg Bell of Greg Bell Productions has announced that the two-day Rock for Recovery concert event at Valentine’s raised $4,193 for two charities in regards to the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.

    The proceeds will go to EverRibbon: My Sandy Hook Family Fund, which aims to raise $2.6 million for the 26 families that lost loved ones in the tragedy, and Newtown Youth & Family Services, which provides mental health and support services to children and families.

    The Rock for Recovery concerts had featured Conehead Buddha, Dr. Jah and the Love Prophets, Skunk Hostage, The Lucky Jukebox Brigade, Timbre Coup and Way Down on Friday night; and Black Mountain Symphony, Erin Harkes Band, Matt & the Bad Ideas, Sean Rowe, Super 400 and the Hearing Aides on Saturday night.

    Valentine’s is located at 17 New Scotland Ave. in Albany.

  • Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival announces 2013 season

    [nggallery id=9133]

    By Tresca Weinstein

    Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blues.

    For the 2013 season at Jacob’s Pillow, Executive Director Ella Baff has put together a marriage of dance and theater, classical and contemporary, with each of the traditional wedding-gown elements in place.

    (more…)

  • Review: Downton Abbey Season 3

    [nggallery id=9203]

    The more things change … well, that’s it, isn’t it? Things do change, no matter how fervently Lord Grantham and fans of “Downton Abbey” may wish otherwise.

    The third season of the justifiably popular British import, created and written by Julian Fellowes, comes to PBS on Sunday with the first of seven new episodes set in 1920.

    It is the dawn of a new age, not only for the residents of Downton Abbey, upstairs as well as downstairs, but for England as well. The Great War is over, and society is changing. Women are getting their hair bobbed and wearing their dresses shorter — well, the younger ones anyway: Certainly not the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith). (more…)

  • Mick LaSalle: Critics and audiences must confront movie violence

    [nggallery id=9193]

    By Mick LaSalle

    We enter 2013 with the sickening, dispiriting events in Newtown, Conn., still fresh in mind and yet without much conviction that anything can be done to prevent such future horrors. Obviously, the overriding issue is that we have a gun problem in the United States and a political climate that has been, at least until now, too timid to do anything about it.

    But we also have a culture problem, and we know this. We know, because though Newtown shocked us and stopped us in our tracks and continues to haunt our imaginations, it did not surprise us. If the Newtown killings were an act of terrorism, the whole country would be mobilized to protect itself from the Other. But this felt like something from within, not just from within our borders, but from within the soul of the nation. And in talking about matters of the soul, our cultural gatekeepers have been just as timid as our politicians.

    Fourteen years ago, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and Gloria DeGaetano, in “Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill,” were warning us about the effects of violent video games and movies on young and impressionable minds. They compared the games that kids play with the conditioning that soldiers get in order to desensitize them to killing. They pointed out that by the time children reach adulthood they have witnessed hundreds of thousands of simulated violent deaths and have come to associate witnessing death and mayhem with pleasure.

    (more…)

  • Rock and Recovery Sandy Hook benefit shows

    The destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy was one thing, but that was an act of nature; the events in Sandy Hook Elementary School were manmade, which makes it a different kind of tragedy, one that hurts in a different way.

    So we’re very proud to say some of Albany’s finest musical groups have come together for a two-day extravaganza that will raise funds for the families of victims of this horrifying event. On Friday, there will be Conehead Buddha, Dr. Jah and the Love Prophets, Skunk Hostage, The Lucky Jukebox Brigade, Timbre Coup and Way Down.

    And if that wasn’t enough, Saturday’s lineup includes Black Mountain Symphony, Erin Harkes Band, Matt & the Bad Ideas, Sean Rowe, Super 400 and the Hearing Aides.

    There will be silent auctions and raffles during the show, many ways to contribute to this cause. Do yourself a favor and go, to both nights even, and start the new year off in a positive yet rocking way.

    When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday

    Where: Valentine’s, 17 New Scotland Ave., Albany

    Tickets: $10

    Info: 432-6572

    — David Malachowski