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Call her the original Hollywood cougar.
Long before Demi Moore or the Courtney Cox TV show, Norma Desmond sunk her claws into the young struggling writer Joe Gillis in Billy Wilder’s classic noir film “Sunset Boulevard.”
Andrew Lloyd Weber’s version of “Sunset” opened Thursday night at Cohoes Music Hall in a solid production directed by Jim Charles that captures the musical’s creepy psycho-sexual tension that veers more toward the Gothic than the noir. Continue reading →
The Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan is known for descriptive language and delicate narratives, dealing with history, exile and return.
Zaqtan, who is also a novelist, playwright and newspaper editor, is slated to discuss “Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me,” his first collection of poetry published in English. Zaqtan, however, hadn’t yet arrived in the U.S. by Thursday afternoon. The local appearance is part of a two-week tour, originally scheduled to begin Tuesday in California, that is co-sponsored by groups hosting his readings and underwritten by the Poetry Foundation.
The New York State Writers Institute announced on its Facebook page that the PEN American Center and the ACLU are pressing the State Department to grant the poet a visa. The organizations have suggested that the visa is being held up for political reasons.
Don Faulkner, director of the Writers Institute, says Zaqtan’s work has a political component, but he is generally considered uncontroversial and has been involved with numerous … conferences and seminars.
“What we’ve gleaned is by all estimations he’s very much seen as a a bridge-builder,” says Faulkner. “He’s regarded, at least in intellectual community in Israel, as a very positive force.” The Writers Institute has received no complaints about booking Zaqtan, Faulkner says.
If all goes as planned, Palestinian-American poet Fady Joudah, who translated “Straw Bird,” will appear with Zaqtan.
If Zaqtan can’t make it, Joudah, who recently won the Yale Younger Poets Prize for his own work, will still appear 4:15 p.m. seminar, 8 p.m. reading; Tuesday. Free. Standish Room, Science Library, UAlbany, 1400 Washington Ave., Albany. 442-5620; http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst
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In his new work, “(glowing),” onstage at EMPAC Friday, Japanese choreographer Kota Yamazaki creates minimalism out of information overload.
His inspirations include, in no particular order: an essay by author Junichiro Tanizaki on the Japanese aesthetics of darkness and shadows; the moody, slo-mo dance form known as butoh; Japanese home design; traditional African dance; and contemporary and classical movement.
In Friday’s premiere, Yamazaki’s ethereal-looking dancers will be joined by dancers from Senegal and Ethiopia. The choreographer studied fashion design in Tokyo before segueing into the dance world, and won a Bessie Award in 2007 for his work with the Senegalese company Jant-Bi.
He’s now based in New York City with his company, Fluid hug-hug.
On Saturday, March 31, Yamazaki and his dancers led a free public dance workshop at EMPAC that featured both traditional African dance and butoh.
At a glance
KOTA YAMAZAKI/FLUID HUG-HUG: “(GLOWING)”
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: EMPAC, 110 Eighth St., Troy
Tickets: $18
Info: 276-3921 or http://empac.rpi.edu
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Here’s a video primer of Season 1, with some teasers of Season 2 of the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones,” which returns to the cable channel on Sunday night.
I’ve had the chance to watch the first four episodes of the new season. If you saw the first season, then you’ll be happy to know that Season 2 is even better so far. If you’ve never seen the show, perhaps you’ll want to join in.
Sure, some people are turned off by the very notion of fantasy, even if it is an HBO-style Soprano-esque hard-hitting cut-throat adult kind of fantasy (with nudity and sex thrown in). But what makes the story work is not only the hard-hitting politics, but the great development of multiple characters, especially the clear-headed (and hedonistic) Tyrion Lannister, a role played by Peter Dinklage who won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his portrayal.
In recent weeks, lots of people have joined Pinterest. That includes the Times Union at http://www.pinterest.com/timesunion. But the sites terms of service had people scared about content ownership, copyrights and legal ramifications.
Now Pinterest has announced it is changing its TOS, especially by eliminating the part that said it could sell your content. That should make users happy.
Here’s the text of the email:
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Ernie Williams and I were separated by a generation or two, but we both enjoyed fishing, took to music early and loved the blues the most.
We grew up in very different worlds.
Much of his world wasn’t pretty. Every now and then, he’d talk about how it was years ago, “When black was black and white was white,” as he said, when races didn’t mix. When coaxed, he would tell harrowing stories, but they aren’t worth retelling now except to say that even though Ernie was someone who experienced the hatred of racism, he wasn’t a bitter person.
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Tweets and more from the Times Union-College of Saint Rose panel discussion “Tethered 24/7: Staying Human with Today’s Technology”
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Cast members from the Broadway musical Million Dollar Quartet perform during Proctors 2012-13 Broadway season anouncement in Schenectady, NY Tuesday March 20, 2012. MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET is the new smash-hit musical inspired by the famed recording session that brought together rock 'n' roll icons Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins for the first and only time.( Michael P. Farrell/Times Union )
Members of the Broadway cast of “Million Dollar Quartet,” one of the five announced shows, showed up Tuesday night at Proctors to perform selections from the musical to help the venue launch its next season.
“Million Dollar Quartet” tells the story of one legendary night – Dec. 4, 1956, when Sam Phillips brought Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins together for a recording session. The jukebox musical includes songs such as “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Great Balls of Fire” and is slated to run for one week, Jan. 22-27.
The other four musicals are:
Subscriptions to the Broadway series are now available. Contact Proctors for more information at 346-6204 or visit http://www.proctors.org.
What do you think of the season?
On Tuesday night, Proctors will announce its 2012-13 Broadway series, the big money-maker for the Schenectady venue.
Back in January, I took a stab at guessing which five shows would hit the boards in the old Vaudeville house.
Here are my guesses (the first three will be beginning their first U.S. tours later this year):
I chose “Fela!” and “American Idiot” because they seem like fun shows that are now touring but haven’t played Proctors, yet. Other shows in that category include “Billy Elliot,” “Les Miserables” (the 25th anniversary edition), “Mary Poppins” and “Million Dollar Quartet.”
What would you like Proctors to announce tomorrow night?
