by Sandy | Jan 10, 2011 | Art, Arts, Entertainment and Music, Blogroll, Books, Culture, Movies
Shakespeare’s Macbeth is my favorite.
I know, if I wish to impress, I should say – Hamlet, King Lear, etc.
They may be “deeper”, but, they’re not as much fun.
Macbeth has witches (3) it has ghosts (8 plus), (Hamlet only has a flickering dad). The play has a “moving” forest and a man with a questionable birth. This is drama! 
You are grabbed with the first scene and it won’t let you go until that pesky forest starts to inch forward, (I hope I haven’t given too much away)
I’ve seen Macbeth on stage once – the witches were in Japanese white Butoh masks(interesting). I have relied on an occasional reread and film rentals to revisit this story of power and madness. There are several British color versions from the 70’s and 80’s, but, the Orson Welles version is my favorite. He starred in and directed a stark, black & white minimalist film (read low budget with paper-mache sets, and cardboard crowns) in 1948.
Welles, as Macbeth, and Jeanette Nolan, as Lady M, bring the play to life. They, and the rest of the spirited cast, proceed to climb the scenery, without there being much to climb. (The sets are pretty bare). All underlying ambition and greed of the passionate duo is uncovered, They eventually embrace their baser nature with relish and self destruct. Sound familiar?
Wm. Shakespeare’s flawed characters transcend centuries and we can still relate.
Love it.
by Sandy | Aug 5, 2010 | Arts, Entertainment and Music, Books, Cable, Creativity, Events, Writers
Los Angeles will host its popular Black Book Expo again this year on Saturday 8/21 at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel. 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) * August 21st * 11:00- 5:00
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by Sandy | Jul 19, 2010 | Blogroll, Books, Culture, Education, Events, Learning
Los Angeles will host its popular Black Book Expo again this year on Saturday 8/21 at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel. 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) * August 21st * 11:00- 5:00
by Sandy | Jun 9, 2010 | Blogroll, Books, Culture, Education, Exhibits
12th Annual Harlem Book Fair & Arts Festival – the largest annual African American book fair and it’s free! 
Featured on Friday, Saturday and Sunday July 17 until July19, will be over 200 exhibit booths, there will be music stages, panel discussions and children’s activities.
Harlem Book Fair 7/17 thru 7/19, 2010
“The vision of the Harlem Book Fair is to partner with local and national leadership organizations under the banner of literacy awareness, affirming HBF as the nation’s largest African American literary event celebrating family literacy, community empowerment, and community cooperation. “
by Sandy | Apr 9, 2010 | Blogroll, Books
In a past issue of “Vanity Fair” magazine, there was a feature about Bobby Kennedy called “The Last Good Campaign”. It is a meld of a collection of pictures from “A Time It Was: Bobby Kennedy in the 60’s”, by Life Magazine photographer Bill Eppridge and text from a book that covers some of the same events, “The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America”, by Thurston Clarke.
It is a look back at March of 1968, when before the coming tragedies of that year, there were high expectations, hopes and joys when many Americans, both young and old, thought that they had found the man who would bring an end to the Vietnam War, wipe out poverty and make the world a better place.
We never got the chance to find out what impact, what changes, what great things might have happened if Bobby Kennedy had lived. I regret that.
by Bob Martin | Dec 8, 2009 | Art, Books, music
Listening today to Robin D.G. Kelly on Fresh Air speak about his new book
Thelonious Monk
“Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original” and about Monk’s dancing in a circle. Kelly says that Monk was actually leading the rhythm section of the band or quartet when he got up from the piano and started to rotate.
I’ve seen Monk a few times at the Randall’s Island Jazz Festival and at New York Town Hall and remember the dancing and not finding it strange at the time and I never got he was doing anything other having a good time. I’ll take Kelly’s research in writing this book as fact and I did not see it that way at the time. Monk’s dancing only got strange when he started to do the dance when not on stage.
Monk’s repetitive movements could have been a sign of autism and here again Kelly dismisses this completely. I think we will never really know sure. The book sounds like a good read and present for the holidays.
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