by Sandy | Oct 1, 2011 | Actors, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Dance, Dancers, dvd, Film, Movies
If you like the theater and/or you dance sing, act – you know about the audition process and how nerve wracking it can be.
“Every Little Step” is a very entertaining documentary about that very same weeding out process – whittling from thousands, down to the very few special people who were chosen for the final tryouts to be in the 2006 revival of “A Chorus Line”. This legendary 1975 Broadway musical about dancers and their lives was conceived and directed by the late Michael Bennett. (Although in order to make the final cut, these young hopefuls had to be triple threat material – dancer/singer/actor.)
The film gets the viewer involved and invested early on so that you start to root for them all to win the few prized spots in the show.Their passion and hard work is awe inspiring.These performers love what they do regardless of the disappointments. As one young lady said, “If you don’t have something to ‘fall back on’ you won’t fall back – you just keep going.”
“Every Little Step” – Excellent!
“What I did For Love” (by Marvin Hamlisch, Edward Lawrence Kleban):
“Kiss the day goodbye
Point me t’ward tomorrow
We did what we had to do.
Won’t forget, can’t regret
What I did for love…”
by Sandy | Sep 26, 2011 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Film, Movies
This movie was on broadcast TV over the weekend – couldn’t resist watching – and I noticed all the cuts. Between the commercials and the deleted scenes, a lot of the momentum, and energy was lost. Watch it on DVD for the full experience.
The brothers Affleck – Ben directs, and Casey stars – are responsible for this turbulent film. Based on a Dennis Lehane book, “Gone Baby Gone” starts as a child abduction case – a little girl goes missing in Boston, can she be found in enough time? (The longer a child is missing, the higher the possibility that the situation will end badly: child never found or child deceased.)
The actors, led by the thin, wavery voiced Casey Affleck as the private eye,Morgan Freeman, and Ed Harris as the cops and Amy Ryan as the mother of the missing child, are terrific.
The movie unfolds with the unfortunately familiar process – a massive search for the 4 year old involving police, family members, tons of press camped outside the home, etc. Then, one of the relatives of the missing child hires a private detective to question neighbors, thinking that those who would rather not talk to the police may talk to him. The drama escalates, the mystery widens and becomes complex as the layers are peeled and we are introduced to the over the top, out of control characters who may or may not be involved in what happened, including the little girl’s foul mouthed mother.
The plot thickens and morphs into a compound mystery. The “who” changes to “what” and back again to “who dunnit” like a pin ball careening around. So many twists and turns that at times I did have to ask “Hunh? What just happened here?” Certain events may have been added and made obscure on purpose (“Red Herrings”) just to heighten the mystery, but it works. I was entertained thru all the surprises until the sad ending. (“Sad”, but not for the reasons you might expect.)
“Doing the right thing” – what it is/what it isn’t – is such a personal thing, as it should be, since we have to live with our choices. But, the results of our choices/ decisions often radiate outward and cause repercussions for others.
by Sandy | Sep 21, 2011 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Books, dvd, Film, Movies
I kept noticing this “Tattoo” book that stayed on the Bay Area paperback best seller list last year forever. I got curiouser and curiouser. Rather than read it, I cheated and watched “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” on DVD first and then bought the books – yes, plural. I was so hooked on the main characters and their adventures that reading the whole trilogy by Swedish writer Stieg Larson was the only option. I had such a great time! 
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
The books are cleverly dense with detail, suspense, intrigue and double dealing. The screen writer was selective in what was included in the 3 subsequent movies, but they are well done (I think “Tattoo” was the best). I love a mystery – who disappeared, who was betrayed, who covered up. The 2 main characters, fearless, antisocial “Lisbeth Salander”, fiercely brought to life by Noomi Rapace and investigative journalist “Michael Blomkvist”, played by Michael Nyqvist, were great, but I must say that everyone was. Directed by Niels Arden Oplev, they did a super job.
The action takes place in Sweden – I marvel at the similarities and the differences to American life. A conspiracy is a conspiracy, politics is politics, muckraking is muckraking regardless of the language. The methods to uncover evil machinations are now global with the blanket use of the internet. Hacking has never seemed so exciting. A warming – some scenes are violent, but, they do give insight as to why our “Girl” behaves as she does.
Of course I’m sorry Mr. Larson passed away in 2004, especially since after reading the final book and watching the DVD (“The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” ), I got the distinct impression that our non-heroine/heroine, Ms Salander, was not finished – there was more to do, more to reveal and dig up, more people to disturb. Sigh… (Hope that didn’t sound too callous?)
I don’t know why, but there is an American remake due out this Fall – David Fincher as Director (He did Social Network), David Craig (the most recent actor to play James Bond) and relative newcomer Rooney Mara as the tattooed girl. It better be good!
by Sandy | Sep 19, 2011 | Art, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums
MAM, Museum of Art Miami, located in the heart of downtown, has an ongoing exhibit called BETWEEN HERE AND THERE which displays its collection of Modern and Contemporary Art. 
“This presentation represents the first long-term installation of Miami Art Museum’s permanent collection, which was established in 1996. …Miami is a crossroad for people and ideas from different parts of the world, a city defined by a complex interplay between international issues and local perspectives. It strives for a collective language through which the diverse experiences of its population can be expressed and understood. This tension between many individual circumstances and a common, civic vision gives Miami its rich and unique texture, while also paralleling broader patterns of globalization in 20th- and 21st-century culture.”
BETWEEN HERE AND THERE
Miami Art Museum / MAM, 101 West Flagler Street, Miami, Florida (in the Philip Johnson-designed Miami-Dade Cultural Center)
(Image: “Regard the Class Struggle as a Main Link in the Chain”, Kehinde Wiley, 2007
Oil and enamel on canvas, 96 x 72 inches)
by Sandy | Sep 5, 2011 | Art, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Exhibits, Museums
Those colorful, often funny illustrations that accompany Rolling Stone Magazine music reviews that so many of its readers look forward to will be exhibited in NYC until October 22, 2011.
“Rolling Stone and the Art of the Record Review,” an exhibition of over 80 original illustrations commissioned for the Record Review column of Rolling Stone magazine, will be on view in the Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators… The art featured in this exhibit spans four decades representing music legends such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Tyler, Whitney Houston, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and many more. It has and continues to be Rolling Stone’s belief that art is the best way to present new and legendary albums and their reviews to the world.”
“Rolling Stone and the Art of the Record Review” Until October 22, 2011
Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators
128 East 63 Street
New York, NY 10065
by Sandy | Aug 15, 2011 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Books, Culture, Exhibits, Learning
Los Angeles will host its popular Black Book Expo again this year at the L.A. Convention Center. This one day event will offer “authors, storytellers, spoken word and poetry performances, musicians, exhibitors, children’s book authors, emerging writers, publishers, booksellers, panel discussions, editors, book reviewers…”
The Los Angeles Black Book Expo (LABBX)
L.A. Convention Center – Saturday August 20, 2011
