by Sandy | Nov 25, 2008 | Arts, Entertainment and Music
Nice article about Berry Gordy the founder of “Hitsville, USA”, with great photos, in the December “Vanity Fair Magazine”. Those performers that he touched are interviewed and give their take on his influence on music, the world, etc.
A friend said to me,“who would’ve thought that we’d still be talking about “our” music after all these years?” I guess if “Doo Wop” can still thrive on PBS, also “ours”, why shouldn’t the music of Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Smokey Robinson, & the Miracles, and Martha Reeves?
Vanity Fair Magazine, December issue
BTW: The picture is of the “The Temptations” at their peak, “left to right, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin, Otis Williams, David Ruffin, and Eddie Kendricks) prepare for the Gettin’ Ready cover shoot, 1966. By Frank Dandridge/courtesy of Motown Museum” (We loved to see what color suits they wore on stage – they were always sharp! No baggy pants here.)
by Sandy | Nov 8, 2008 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Books, Creativity, Film, Theater, Writers
Suzan-Lori Parks is an author, award winning playwright and screenwriter. I was going to categorize her as an “over achiever”. But, that’s probably a disservice – she is just doing what she has to do. Doing what matters to her – with excellence.
She won her 2002 Pultitzer Prize for the play “Topdog/Underdog”. I saw this in San Francisco a few years ago and enjoyed this clever, funny and explosive story about 2 brothers – “Lincoln” and “Booth”. You might imagine how it ends, but, it will still shock you.
Like in the Akira Kurosawa’s film “Rashomon” , where the same scenario is told from different points of view, this play illustrates how 2 boys in the same family can remember differently and be affected differently by the same traumatic event. Their perceptions colored their actions and attributed to the way they chose to lead their lives.
(The NYC Public Theater production had Jeffrey Wright and Don Cheadle as the siblings – you can just imagine the power of that duo.)
Ms Parks had an idea to write a play for every day of the year, the result is “365 Days, 365 Plays“ which she wrote between 2002 – 2003. Starting in 2006, they were presented at theaters, coffee houses and auditoriums across the country. Some venues could do a few of the plays, some as short as one page , and other locations could only stage one. However, all were seen before the end of 2007, just as she envisioned.
365 Days/365 Plays (2006)
Topdog/Underdog (2001)
Fucking A (2000) (as in Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter”)
In The Blood (1999)
Venus (1996)
The America Play (1994)
Devotees in the Garden of Love (1992)
The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (1990)
Betting on the Dust Commander (1990)
Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (1989)
