by Michael Janairo

Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company celebrates 21 years at The Egg

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By Tresca Weinstein, Special to the Times Union

Melissa George and Laura Teeter, dancers with the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, have been living parallel lives for quite some time now. Both women graduated from the Boston Conservatory in spring 2004, joined Sinopoli’s company that summer, and have been with her ever since.

“I didn’t anticipate being here this long, but the longer I stayed, the more confident I became, and the more I felt my artistry growing,” Teeter said recently. “I was pretty lucky to land the perfect job for me right out of college.”

In their time with Sinopoli, Teeter and George have seen the company’s public profile grow as well, along with its reputation and base of support. This year, the troupe celebrates its 21st anniversary as the resident company of The Egg. Its annual “home” performance is slated for 8 p.m. Friday.

What accounts for the longevity of the company and its dancers’ long runs? (A third dancer, Claire Jacob-Zysman, has been with the troupe for six years, while Marie Klaiber, Andre Robles and Sara Senecal are newer additions.) George sums it up in two words: “Ellen’s passion.”

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by Michael Janairo

Martin Sexton, Joan Osborne, Daughtry and more coming to region

Martin & Joan at The Egg
The Egg in Albany has two new concerts from artists about to release new albums – imagine that. First up on Saturday, March 3, Syracuse native Martin Sexton takes the stage solo and acoustic. If you’ve already seen him, you know the singer-songwriter’s voice can go from a blues growl to a soulful croon to a gospel-tinged falsetto, often within the same song. Get a primer when his five-song EP “Fall Like Rain” drops next Tuesday.
Speaking of the blues, Joan Osborne has a CD full of blues covers due on March 27. That will give you a few days to listen before her show at The Egg on Sunday, April 1. Osborne’s breakthrough album “Relish” with its hit single “One of Us” came out 17 years ago, but she’s been working toward this one her whole career. As she puts it, she was waiting until “someday, when the time was right and my voice was ready.” About to turn 50 – gulp! – the time seems to be now.
Tickets for both go on sale Friday at 11 a.m.
“Idol” hands at Palace
In a week when “American Idol” returns to the airwaves, it seems fitting that there is news of one of its biggest alumni – if not one of its winners – is coming to town. Season five fourth-place finisher Chris Daughtry brings his band Daughtry to the Palace Theatre in Albany on April 28, in support of their current release, “Break the Spell,” and the Malaria No More foundation. Get tickets beginning Saturday, Jan. 28. Continue reading →

by Michael Janairo

Big Picture: Writers worth seeing this spring

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Times Union Studio shot of Entertainment Editor Michael Janairo for his upcoming Unwind “Big Picture” Arts Column, shot on Wednesday, June 16, 2010, in Albany, NY. (Luanne M. Ferris/Times Union)

The New York State Writers Institute recently released its spring schedule, but in thinking about writers coming to the region this spring, my first thought goes to Darin Strauss.

His books include the memoir “Half of Life” (2010), in which he recounts how he killed a classmate in a car accident and its aftermath, which won a National Book Critics Circle award, and his 2001 debut “Chang and Eng” (2001), a fictionalized account of the famous conjoined brothers.

It was because of that book that I first heard Strauss give a talk in the common room of a dorm at Skidmore College. I was a student at the New York State Summer Writers Institute, studying with Marilyn Robinson and Russell Banks, and he was one of the alumni with a success story – the publication of his first novel. He said he had worked on the novel at the Writers Institute at Skidmore, and was especially impressed with the sharp-eyed Douglas Glover, who at that time would read manuscripts from students and offer a one-on-one critique that was both thrilling and terrifying.

What I remember best was how Strauss responded to the question of what it was like going from a writer working away, often alone, to having published a book. He said something like, “You know the saying, ‘the quiet before the storm.’? Well, it’s like the quiet after the quiet.”

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by Michael Janairo

New York State Writers Institute announces spring 2012 season

The complete listing of the Visiting Writers Series and Classic Film Series schedules follows.

VISITING WRITER SERIES

February 2 (Thursday): Alan Lightman, novelist and science writer

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

Reading – 8:00 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

Alan Lightman, theoretical physicist and bestselling author, is renowned for accessible works of fiction and nonfiction that explain the “grand ideas” of physics. His most recent book is Mr. g: A Novel About the Creation (2012), which Publishers Weekly called, “a touching, imaginative rendition of God’s creation of the Universe.”

February 10 (Friday): Teju Cole, novelist and street photographer

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

Reading – 8:00 p.m., Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus

Teju Cole is the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel Open City (2011), the story of a young Nigerian-German psychiatrist who wanders the streets of Manhattan exploring the city’s landscapes, people, and his own feelings of isolation. The New York Times named it a “2011 Notable Book” and described it as “an indelible novel [that] does precisely what literature should do: it brings together thoughts and beliefs, and blurs borders…A compassionate and masterly work.” Continue reading →

by Michael Janairo

Skidmore’s Steven Millhauser a Story Prize finalist

The Story Prize announced today the three finalists for the annual award for books of short fiction.

The three short story collections were chosen from among a field of 92 books submitted in 2011.

The finalists are:

• The Angel Esmeralda by Don DeLillo (Scribner)
• We Others by Steven Millhauser (Alfred A. Knopf)
• Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman (Lookout Books)

The finalists were selected by Story Prize founder Julie Lindsey  and Director Larry Dark. The judges for this year’s award will be award-winning author Sherman Alexie, Indiana University comparative literature professor Breon Mitchell and Louise Steinman, the curator of the award-winning ALOUD reading/conversation series for the Los Angeles Public Library, and co-director of the Los Angeles Institute for Humanities at USC.

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by Michael Janairo

How did people react to the news of Trader Joe’s coming to Colonie?

Lots of people responded to the news. Check out what they had to say.
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by Michael Janairo

Schenectady actor James DiSalvatore in CBS’ ‘Unforgettable’ tonight

Tonight at 10 p.m. on CBS Ch. 6, Schenectady native James DiSalvatore will appear in a small role in the crime drama “Unforgettable.”

DiSalvatore will be familiar to Capital Region theatergoers, with roles in plays such as Curtain Call Theatre’s 2007 production of Agatha Christie’s “Witness for the Prosecution” and Alberto Casella’s 1928 classic “Death Takes a Holiday” in 2004 at Schenectady Civic Players.

The actor will be back in Schenectady tonight to watch the show with family and friends at Gaylords Tap Room, 1889 State Street, Schenectady.

Break a leg, Jim!

by Michael Janairo

Art feud: Hockney takes on Hirst over use of assistants

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The painter David Hockney, who was recently honored by Queen Elizabeth with the Order of Merit, has put up a poster at a new exhibition at the Royal Academy in London that says, in part, all of the work in it was “made by the artist himself.”

In an interview, Hockney is said to have included that statement as a direct indictment against the work of another art superstar, Damien Hirst, who uses assistants to produce work that is credited under his name.

The AP has the story here.

Richard Dorment in the Telegraph in London weighs in with an opinion piece that says Hockney is well aware of the use of assistants throughout the history of art, but that:

When Hockney notes that in his forthcoming show at the Royal Academy “all the works were made by the artist himself, personally” he is teasing a younger artist who probably deserves it and can certainly take it.

It’s what he said later in the interview that I find so moving. “I used to point out, at art school you can teach the craft; it’s the poetry you can’t teach. But now they try to teach the poetry and not the craft.’’ He’s saying that students used to be taught how to draw perfectly at the expense of their individuality. Now scores of students graduate from art colleges believing that everything they do or touch or say can be labelled a work of art but they couldn’t draw a rabbit if you held a gun to their heads. There you have it: the difficulty of teaching art in a nutshell.

What do you think?

by Michael Janairo

Big Picture: Notes on how to be a critic

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Times Union Studio shot of Entertainment Editor Michael Janairo for his upcoming Unwind “Big Picture” Arts Column, shot on Wednesday, June 16, 2010, in Albany, NY. (Luanne M. Ferris/Times Union)

Happy New Year!

2012 looks to be an exciting year in arts and entertainment for the Capital Region, with events such as the Broadway musical “Memphis” in April at Proctors in Schenectady, Roger Waters “The Wall” in June at Times Union Center in Albany, the release sometime in late summer or fall of the filmed-in-Schenectady “The Place Beyond the Pines” and, in November, the exhibition “Heroes and Villains: The Comic Book Art of Alex Ross” at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.

The Times Union will have plenty to contribute to the ongoing dialogue about the arts in the region. In that spirit, and buoyed by the promise of a fresh year, I have a three-part agenda that is like a New Year’s resolution, except that it is more about what I want from others than just about what I will do. (Is that even allowed?)

1. I want to read more thoughtful comments on the Arts Talk blog at http://blog.timesunion.com/localarts, where everyone is welcome to comment.

2. I want better comments online in general, because nowadays everyone’s a critic.

3. I want to skew the word critical to its more positive definitions. Too often it means “nitpicky” and “negative”; however, the word also means “analytical” and “vital.” It’s all in the dictionary. Look it up. I’ll wait. Continue reading →