American painter David Reed will present a lecture called “Vampire Painting: Painting in Our Time of Media” at 6 tonight (Mon 10/22/12) at EMPAC, 110 Eighth St., Troy. The lecture is free.
Reed, whose painted abstractions, installations, and video works have been on the New York and international scenes for more than 30 years, recently opened a large-scale survey in Bonn, Germany, “Heart of Glass.”
His work has long been invested in relationships between painting and cinema.
Recently, on Late Night with David Letterman, the beautiful and talented actress Lucy Liu made a comment that some people are saying is racist: that she doesn’t like to get to tan or dark because then she would look like a Filipino.
You can watch her make the comment in the first minute or so in the clip above. Letterman rightfully responded to her question, “You know what I mean?” by saying, “No, I don’t” and “There’s nothing there that I can comment on.”
As many readers know, I have a Filipino heritage, so I am especially attuned to such statements, especially since what Liu says seems to be trying to specify a single look for all the tens of millions of Filipinos who come from all sorts of different backgrounds, including Spain, Portugal, Malaysia and China.
Of course, Liu was just talking about not running outside because she would get really dark, and then it wouldn’t look right for the character she plays, Dr. Watson, on the TV show “Elementary,” which she could’ve said without mentioning Filipinos.
By mentioning Filipinos, however, she was recasting a kind of traditional attitude throughout Asia — that the whiter the skin the more beautiful the woman — and that attitude has everything to do with issues of race and class, and who gets to define beauty.
Liu’s statement seems disappointing and unfortunate, but it reflects a truth about the the broad — and ever growing — category of person in America, the Asian American; namely, that Asian America isn’t monolithic, but is filled with divisions and prejudicial attitudes.
Below are some photos of Filipinos and of Lucy Liu. What is she talking about?
The views and opinions of our audience are very important to us. So we look to you, our most devoted readers, to tell us what you value about Preview and what you would like Preview to be in the future.
Everyone who completes the survey can enter into a drawing to win a $50 gift card to Regal Theaters and a $50 American Express gift card so you can enjoy dinner and a movie.
Saratoga Performing Arts Center Chairman of the Board Susan Phillips Read, center, listens to Marcia J. White, President and Executive Director, left, speak during a SPAC board meeting at the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce, on Oct. 4, 2012 in Colonie, NY. Ed Lewi is at right. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union)
By STEVE BARNES
As the Saratoga Performing Arts Center looks toward welcoming two new dance companies next summer and returning the New York City Ballet to a two-week season in 2014, the organization reported essentially flat attendance and modest income gains for classical programming during its 2012 season.
The City Ballet and its longtime resident sibling at SPAC, the Philadelphia Orchestra, over the summer each drew audiences about 4 percent smaller than in 2011. Their attendance was approximately 35,000 and 34,000, respectively, according to figures released by SPAC at Thursday’s meeting of the SPAC board of directors.
The ballet company’s ticket income for its two-week July residency was about $991,000, an increase of 6 percent, while the orchestra generated approximately 7 percent more ticket revenue, about $970,000 over three weeks in August, the board learned at the meeting, held at the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce office. Continue reading →
Artists of the National Ballet of Canada in Giselle (Photo by Bruce Zinger)
By Tresca Weinstein
Longtime supporters of the New York City Ballet may have gotten their feathers ruffled by SPAC Executive Director Marcia White’s recent announcement that, come summer, the company will no longer be the only ballet game in town. But no one should feel threatened — there’s room for lots more tutus in what was formerly NYCB’s territory.
The addition of other ballet companies (Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada) to SPAC’s 2013 offerings should in no way dilute or detract from City Ballet’s time-honored place in the Capital Region’s cultural firmament.
If anything, it will shed light on the company’s strengths and versatility by providing a context in which different perspectives and artistic visions can coexist. Each of these three companies brings something exciting and valuable to the stage; together, they may even expand the region’s dance audience. Continue reading →
Check out these great shots behind the scenes, publicity images and production shots of “How to Train Your Dragon.” Are you going to go?
[nggallery id=7626]
“How to Train Your Dragon”
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday; 11 a.m. 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Times Union Center, 51 S. Pearl St., Albany
Tickets: Prices vary by day and time, range from $19.50-$69.50
Info: 800-745-3000; http://timesunion.com
Be sure to pick up Thursday’s Times Union to read about the show in Preview, the weekly entertainment section.
The 10-day event begins Friday, Oct. 5, as a way to draw attention to the diversity of arts offerings in the region. And once again I have mixed feelings.
Yes, it’s great the event supports the arts in all its diversity. That includes big-name guests to our region: Nobel Prize-winning novelist J.M. Coetzee at the New York State Writers Institute on Oct. 12 or Warren Haynes on Oct. 13 at The Egg come to mind.
Earlier this month, the people behind MoHu — a 10-day celebration of the arts in the Capital Region — gathered to announced that the second annual MoHu festival will take place beginning Friday, Oct. 5, with more than 100 venues, artists, and arts organizations from all over Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and Saratoga counties banding together to display the strength and diversity of the cultural programming that makes this area so special.
One of the main goals of the MoHu festival is to raise awareness of the diversity and quality of the arts in the region — to let readers like you know more about what’s going on in the area around you — in the areas bordering the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers. (Get it? That’s where “MoHu” comes from, Mohawk and Hudson.)
Last year, the MoHu organizers hoped to have 50,000 attend various MoHu-labeled events, and they say an estimated 52,272 people turned out for music, dance, theater, comedy, poetry and visual arts. The figure is an estimate, because not all events were ticketed.
One of the events of note is a free event called “Drums Along the MoHu Festival Finale” at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14, at The Egg in Albany. The event features four percussionists – Brian Melick, Devesh Chandra, Robot Aston Ellis and Zorkie Nelson – will perform musical works that celebrate the diversity of the Capital Region.
Another new thing this year is a pre-MoHu fundraiser, called MoHu Takes Flight and labeled as a “an interactive arts cocktail party to kick off and help support the second annual MOHU Festival.” The benefit includes opportunities for art-making and watching. It takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, at the Eclipse Hangar at the Albany International Airport. Tickets are $50 for the public and $30 for MoHu artists. For more information about the benefit, contact Leesa Perazzo 518•382•3884 x187 or lperazzo@proctors.org
The Palace Theatre has announced another rescheduling of “Sandy Hackett’s Rat Pack Show,” which had been scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 15. (The Saturday date had been the rescheduled date for the event which was originally slated to be Friday, March 23.
Tickets for the show will be honored on the new date. For those unable to attend, refunds are available at the original point of purchase.
Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 9, performance are on sale at the Palace box office, Ticketmaster.com and by phone at 800-745-3000.
Call the Palace Theatre box office at 465-4663 for more information.
