Michael Janairo

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Author: Michael Janairo

  • Oscar hunt: Where to watch the nominees in the top categories

    The Academy Awards often present Capital Region movie-lovers with a problem: Can all the movies in the top categories be seen before the Oscars are handed out?

    This year, the Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, Feb. 24, but some movies nominated in the top six categories — picture, director, actor, actress, supporting actor and supporting actress — have come and gone (including “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “Flight”), while one hasn’t screened yet in the region, “Amour,” which opens at the Spectrum 8 Theatre in Albany on Feb. 8.

    What follows is a guide to 13 movies, which of the top six categories they’ve been nominated, whether they are still playing in theaters and when they will be available on DVD.

    The bad news is, if you haven’t seen “The Master” yet, you won’t be able to until after the Oscars show. It gets released on DVD on Feb 26, two days after the Academy Awards. For more information on showtimes and contact information for movie theaters, please see the movie page at http://www.timesunion.com/movies/

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    ENTER THE TIMES UNION 2013 OSCAR BALLOT CONTEST

  • Fleetwood Mac adds Albany to tour for June 19, 2013

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    Pollstar.com, a concert industry trade publication, has announced that Fleetwood Mac has added new dates to its tour, including a June 19, 2013, stop at Times Union Center in Albany.

    No official word yet from the venue, though.

  • Help welcome Times Union intern Nana Adjei-Brenyah

    .Nana Adjei-Brenyah, a senior English major at the University at Albany, has joined the Times Union arts and entertainment team today (Jan. 23) as an intern for his spring semester.

    Say hello and wish him well.

  • Library music series features Broad Street Chamber Players

    Bethlehem Public Library — 451 Delaware Avenue in Delmar — presents a free concert by the Broad Street Chamber Players at 2 p.m. Sunday Feb. 3 with works by Bach, Telemann and others.  Broad Street Chamber Players are: flutists Elizabeth Chinery and Sharon Levin, cellist Jay Shulman, and pianist David Smith.

  • Sandy Hook Students Record “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” Benefit Song

    The Associated Press reports:
    Children who survived last month’s shooting rampage at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School have recorded a version of “Over the Rainbow” to raise money for charity.

    Twenty-one children from Newtown, Conn., performed the song Tuesday with singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Most of them are current and former students of the school, where 20 first-graders and six staff members were killed.

    They recorded “Over the Rainbow” on Monday at the Fairfield, Conn., home of Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, two former members of the Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club rock bands. Copies went on sale Tuesday on Amazon and iTunes, with proceeds benefiting the United Way of Western Connecticut and the Newtown Youth Academy.

    Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/crime/article/Newtown-shooting-survivors-record-song-for-charity-4195164.php

  • Photos: Xu Bing’s ‘Phoenix’ at Mass MoCA

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    By Tim Kane

    Stacks of large shipping crates reveal and conceal Xu Bing‘s installation “Phoenix” at Mass MoCA.

    With arrows pointed upward, the crates guide and serve as a metaphor for China’s rise on the global stage, yet wall you off from what’s on the other side — two massive talismans representing contemporary China.

    The containers are reminiscent of the Great Wall, built centuries ago to keep Mongol invaders out, but, unlike the 5,500-mile wall, they provide a path — albeit circuitous — to two imposing birds, measuring 100 feet long and with a combined weight of nearly 20 tons.

    The birds are made from debris Bing collected at a construction site in Beijing amid the flurry of building activity under way in the country. They don’t soar but flutter, almost clanging forward, suggesting China’s ascendancy isn’t a single upward arc. (more…)

  • New York State Writers Institute announces spring 2013 schedule

    VISITING WRITER SERIES

    February 4 (Monday): The Burian Lecture presented by Colman Domingo, actor, director, and playwright

    Seminar – 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

    The Burian Lecture – 8:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus

    Colman Domingo, rising star of the American stage, received a 2011 Tony Award nomination for Best Performance in a Broadway Musical for “The Scottsboro Boys.” He wrote and starred in the autobiographical off-Broadway play about 1970s West Philadelphia, “A Boy and His Soul,” winner of the GLAAD and Lucille Lortel awards. His film credits include Spielberg’s Lincoln and Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer.

    Cosponsored by UAlbany’s Theatre Department and funded by the Jarka and Grayce Burian Endowment

    February 6 (Wednesday): Jorgen Randers, author and environmental scientist

    Reading/Discussion – 7:30 p.m., Lecture Center 7, Academic Podium, Uptown Campus

    A founding figure in the new field of “sustainability studies,” Norwegian environmental scientist Jorgen Randers coauthored the enormously influential 1972 book, The Limits to Growth, which predicts that world population growth will ultimately lead to the collapse of the earth’s resources. His new book is 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years (2012), a fresh perspective on humanity’s immediate future- or possible futures.

    Cosponsored by UAlbany’s School of Business, Office of Environmental Sustainability, Rockefeller College, and College of Computing and Information, as well as the System Dynamics Society (more…)

  • 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.