Spielberg’s Shortcomings

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts our town, Arts our town downtown, Arts west side spirit, Our Town, Our Town Downtown, West Side Spirit

Media short sides with American aristocracy—and dishonesty The worst Steven Spielberg production ever is, without doubt, his Barack Obama homage, Steven Spielberg’s Obama. Unlike his disingenuous Obama-in-disguise campaign feature film, Lincoln, this two-minute second satirical short looks artless and slapdash; it was made for last weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner—an annual event for fatcats that
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Suspending Reality

Written by NYPress on . Posted in Arts our town, Arts our town downtown, Arts west side spirit, Our Town, Our Town Downtown, West Side Spirit

Burning Man collaborative art comes to Wan-Der-Lust By Elena Oumano The six artists behind “Wan-Der-Lust,” a month-long, (now through May 15), mixed-media pop-up exhibit on the ground floor of 72 Wooster Street, announces its mission in a black painted scrawl over the entrance: “Wanderlust is about the primal impulse for exploration. The work assembled expresses
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The Detroit Way

Written by Jay Nordlinger on . Posted in Arts our town, Arts our town downtown, Arts west side spirit, Our Town, Our Town Downtown, West Side Spirit

A revived orchestra comes to Carnegie Hall with its maestro, Leonard Slatkin From May 6 to May 11, Carnegie Hall will present a festival called “Spring for Music.” It offers five orchestras in six concerts. The orchestras come from around the country, and one of them was to have been the Oregon Symphony. The Oregonians
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Recall and Response

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts our town, Arts our town downtown, Arts west side spirit, Our Town, Our Town Downtown, West Side Spirit

Cicely Tyson brings realness to The Trip to Bountiful Broadway’s new Black (or non-traditional cast) production of The Trip to Bountiful comes alive when Cicely Tyson as Carrie Watts, an elderly Texas widow longing to return to her titular hometown, stands up and sings a church hymn in a desolate bus station. It is the
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Eye on Auctions

Written by NYPress on . Posted in Arts our town, Arts our town downtown, Arts west side spirit, Our Town, Our Town Downtown, West Side Spirit

By Caroline Birenbaum Many incredible works of art are on view at New York auction houses in the next few weeks as the spring season shifts into high gear. The traditional contest between the two mega-houses begins with auctions of Impressionist & Modern Art, where works from important private collections are the name of the
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When Barbra Met Louis and Chaplin

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts our town, Arts our town downtown, Arts west side spirit, Our Town, Our Town Downtown, West Side Spirit

Lincoln Center Honors a home girl Funny that the Film Society of Lincoln Center paid tribute to Barbra Streisand last week with its 40-year-old Chaplin Award — even though Streisand’s movies are not the kind typically shown in Film Society programming. As a fundraiser, it was unparalleled. Co-chair of the event, Ann Tenenbaum announced that
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Toy Storytelling

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts our town, Arts our town downtown, Arts west side spirit, Our Town, Our Town Downtown, West Side Spirit

Ozon critiques filmmaking, class and desire  Sloppy storytelling has become so standard for American filmmakers (Side Effects, The House Behind the Pines) that Francois Ozon’s new trifle In the House feels especially pleasurable. Storytelling is its subject in the same sense as Todd Solondz’s 2001 Storytelling. Ozon plays with his increasing filmmaking skill to illustrate
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Romances and Revivals

Written by NYPress on . Posted in Arts our town, Arts our town downtown, Arts west side spirit, Our Town, Our Town Downtown, West Side Spirit

Two no-holds-barred Off-Broadway love stories By Leslie (Hoban) Blake The most romantic fairy tale revival in town right now isn’t Cinderella, but the Roundabout Theatre‘s revival of Lanford Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning Talley’s Folly, lovingly directed by Michael Wilson. “They tell me we have 97 minutes here tonight… without intermission,” begins Danny Burstein’s Matt Friedman
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Ride On Time

Written by Melissa Stern on . Posted in Arts our town, Arts our town downtown, Arts west side spirit, Our Town, Our Town Downtown, West Side Spirit

A meditation on the nature of time and history at Grand Central Station What do you think passes through someone’s mind as they dash though Grand Central Station? I would wager that the most common thought is something along the lines of  “What time does my train leave?” or “Will I be on time?” Time
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A Legacy Is Born

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts our town, Arts our town downtown, Arts west side spirit, Our Town, Our Town Downtown, West Side Spirit

Broadway’s Motown means more than it can say Barry Gordy, founder of the legendary record label Motown had to do something. His landmark artistic venture had some of its historic stature stolen by the lame-brain drama and trifling music of Dreamgirls (which traduced the story of Motown group The Supremes for a cliché-ridden yet widely-promoted
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