Culture & Arts

People are saying nice things to you all the time.

But I'm guessing you let most of them slide right past you. And some of you even deflect them ("Oh, no, it's not that great...") or immediately turn them around ("No, no, YOU are the genius...")

I'd like you to consider the possibility that you're being a little rude whenever you refuse a compliment.

First of all, the person is stating a truth. It may not be true for you, but it's true for them. If they think your story is the best one they've ever read or that your church solo moved them or that you look nice in that sweater, that's their business, and they get to be right.

So acknowledge that they are right. And don't go around inflicting your opinion on them.

Just because you know you were a bit flat on the last chorus or that this sweater isn't quite what it used to be doesn't mean you need to tell them all about it.

Retain your empathy: remember the last time someone did that to you? You tried to say something nice and the person just wafted it away? Felt kind of icky, huh?

Here's the other reason to take compliments seriously: they offer you valuable market research.

If someone says they find you fun or thought-provoking or nice or smart as a whip or inspiring, then use that language in your next brochure/email/elevator speech.

Imagine you're at a holiday punch bowl standing next to someone you'd really like to impress and they ask you the oft-dreaded question, "So, what do you do?"

You may answer, "How kind of you to ask."

I'm a singer. I sing at weddings and other church events, and I also sing with a group that visits retirement communities. Someone recently said my work was 'uplifting' -- which made me feel great, because that's really what I want to do -- lift people's spirits."

Nice, huh? You not only described your work but also conveyed the flavor and tone of your work and some of the truth about who you are.

It's not bragging if it's true.

P.S. This same strategy applies to criticism. If someone says your work is overwrought or shallow or kinda pitchy, dawg, then thank them for sharing their thoughts with you and DO NOT argue with them. Yes, your ego will flare up a bit. So go punch a pillow. But then remember to incorporate the information into your spiel.

So your next email might say something like, "I'm teaching a new class that teaches sign language to 9-18 month-old children. Some people might find this work superfluous or overly precious, but research shows that offering young children additional means of communication increases SAT scores by over 30 percent."

(I completely made up that last part, by the way.)

See how acknowledging the truth clarifies your message?

Keep a running list of all the compliments you get and see what the trends are. Use those words to communicate the truth of you.

Here's a compliment to start your list: you are good and brave.

photo credit: DG Jones via photopin cc

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As symphony orchestras buckle, opera companies bite the dust, and ballet companies abandon live music or fold altogether, count as a rare blessing the Joffrey Ballet and its continued alliance with the Chicago Philharmonic.

The partnership delivered a glittering performance of Swan Lake on Saturday night, underpinned by a sensitive reading of Tchaikovsky's glorious score, with Scott Speck at the podium and Janet Sung on solo violin, alternately wistful and electrifying.

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Choreographer Christopher Wheelman embedded the classic tale of bewitched swan-maidens in a jewel-box setting at the Paris Opera of the 19th century, in the rehearsal studios haunted by French painter Edgar Degas. The traditional court scene of Act III is transformed into a fancy dinner at a club of the type frequented by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, complete with strippers and can-can dancers.

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While daring in some aspects, Wheeldon did not mess with the concept of the White Swan/Black Swan. The Odette-Odile character is often regarded as a metaphor for the composer's double life as a closeted homosexual -- the cause of great psychological turmoil, described candidly by Tchaikovsky in letters which for many years were censored by the Soviet authorities.

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Wheeldon's is hardly the first, nor the most radical, revision of Swan Lake. Yet purists may object to his elimination of the court scenes and the bracing folk dances that add a more respectable character to Act III than the striptease and the can-can; they may also object to Wheeldon's swapping around of the music to fit his frequent shifting of the space-time continuum.

Here's what Ballet to the People thought of Saturday night's performance: review of The Joffrey Ballet in Swan Lake at the Auditorium Theatre.

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Photos by Cheryl Mann:

1. Victoria Jaiani, Dylan Gutierrez and the corps de ballet of The Joffrey Ballet in Christopher Wheeldon's Swan Lake
2. Victoria Jaiani in Christopher Wheeldon's Swan Lake
3. Anastacia Holden in Christopher Wheeldon's Swan Lake
4. Dylan Gutierrez and Victoria Jaiani in Christopher Wheeldon's Swan Lake
5. Victoria Jaiani and Dylan Gutierrez in Christopher Wheeldon's Swan Lake

The Billy & Ray of the vague title Mike Bencivenga gives his play at the Vineyard are Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. By practically sheer accident the two men--and only after director Wilder had a rift with longtime partner Charles Brackett--collaborated in 1943-44 on the screen adaptation of James M. Cain's steamy novel of the same title.

While censor Joseph Breen was breathing down their necks, they focused on making the film version even steamier. It was an aim that film noir fans will cheer them for achieving with innumerable subtleties but not without much friction along the way.

The daily battle didn't go without notice at the time, although apparently no one recorded it in its entirely--or filmed it. But Wilder spoke about it and, in particular, to James Linville for a 1996 Paris Review interview. He also allowed Charlotte Chandler, no relation to Raymond, to write the 2002 biography Nobody's Perfect.

It's likely those are at least two of the sources for what is a highly amusing, highly polished comedy about the several months the temporary partners hashed out the seven-Oscars-nominated classic.

Less than comic, however, is the worry Jewish immigrant Wilder (Vincent Kartheiser) had about the family who'd stayed behind in Europe and are reported missing or the secret drinking Chandler (Larry Pine), supposedly on-the-wagon to elderly wife Cissy, slowly allowed to get out of hand during the pair's sessions.

As Wilder baits Chandler, who'd never been on a movie studio premises before (let alone attempted a screenplay of his works or the works of others), Chandler refuses to get over his disdain of the $750-weekly assignment and continually objects to Wilder's quirks. The director-writer's handy-dandy secretary Helen Hernandez (Sophie von Haselberg) tends amiably to the two men's demands and neophyte producer Joe Sistrom (Drew Gehling) hovers about wringing his hands over seeing no pages.

Billy & Ray--which has little in common with David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow about two Tinseltown execs working on a script and aided by a secretary and more in common with Neil Simon's Sunshine Boys--wouldn't be half the fun it is without the players, swinging into it under Garry Marshall's first piece of Manhattan stage direction. (The opus was initially produced at Burbank's Falcon Theatre by Marshall, Kathleen Marshal LaGambina and Sherry Greczmiel.)

No regular Manhattan theater regular will be surprised by Pine's impersonation of the Ivy League-ish Chandler, who looks and behaves nothing like his Philip Marlowe. After all, Pine--who recently played the brittle title character in An Unauthorized Biography of Walt Disney and then cross-dressed for Casa Valentina--makes everything he takes on seem as if he's simply doing it off-the-frayed--cuff. Pine is especially funny on author Cain's deficiencies, one dishy quote verified in the Paris Review chat.

The welcome surprise is Kartheiser, best (and perhaps only) known as the ambitious Pete Campbell on the soon-to-wrap Mad Men. What he offers here is a complete transformation. Speaking loudly in a Viennese accent (no dialect coach mentioned in the program) and carrying a big stick, he says ungrammatical things like "What did he did?" He also says about the groundbreaking he wants to do with Double Indemnity that "It's time the pictures grew up." Nosirree, Mad Men freaks, Kartheiser looks nothing like Pete Campbell, and bravo for that.

Gehling does completely right by the anxious Sistrom, a New York transplant afraid he's about to be sent right back where he started from. Von Haselberg is so good at what she's asked that she should soon cease to have it mentioned that her mom is Bette Midler. She does have a bit of the wonderful Divine Miss M strut.

Her blocky '40s shoes are a big help, as found by costumer Michael Krass. As a matter of fact, all the duds look authentically '40s--especially Helen's ensembles and the casual wear Wilder affects. Chandler's outfits resemble any professor's who might have been crossing a campus in the last several decades, and in his blue suit Sistrom gets to be the suit.

Billy and Ray--that's how Wilder insists they address each other to Chandler's chagrin--carry out the ultimately extremely successful bellicosities in a sleek Paramount office designed by Charlie Corcoran, who may not have read the Linville interview and its mention of the man's digs. Apparently, Wilder had hung a prominent sign featuring the question, "What Would Lubitsch Do?"--Ernst Lubitsch being a strong Wilder influence. Also, there are photograph of Wilder with fellow director-writers like Akira Kurosawa, John Huston and Federico Fellini. Corcoran has a Picasso and a Lautrec on the walls he puts up, along with portraits of various Paramount pretties.

At one moment, Wilder steps out on the walkway leading downstairs and spots Bing Crosby in white collar for the filming of Going My Way. Things were certainly going Crosby's way, since all the 1944 Oscars for which Double Indemnity was nominated, went to Der Bingle's release. Nice that Wilder and Chandler get a bit of a payback with Bencivenga's entirely satisfying entry.

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Kimber Lee's brownsville song (b-side for tray)--the all-lower-case letters are Lee's stipulation--starts out at a tough level with gray-haired Lena (Lizan Mitchell) angrily declaring that the story about to unfold should not begin with her. While insisting, she does get across that the subject matter is a grandson, Tray (Sheldon Best), who was shot four times and killed as an innocent bystander in a local shoot-out.

Thereupon the dead boy's story gets underway, and it's an upsetting one, as Lee intends it to be. Clearly, she has in mind putting forth one ghetto youngster to stand for all of the promising young men and women done in by stray bullets and who then turn up in the kind of news coverage that never seems to stop.

Tray is a skilled boxer, who's also a candidate for a college education and a caring brother to younger sister Devine (Taliyah Whitaker). He's being tutored on his required college essay by Merrell (Sun Mee Chomet), who's his and Devine's estranged mother, a woman who lost her bearings after her husband died. By horrific coincidence, the dead husband and father was, like Tray, also killed by four bullets.

The admirably and unfailingly good Tray holds down a Starbucks barista job, where Merrell, needing work, lands a position. Tray helps her learn the ropes, and he tolerates his pal Junior (Chris Myers), who's constitutionally sullen and doesn't get Tray.

Kicking off the drama as robustly as Lee does, she can't resist allowing sentimentality to slip in before the final fadeout. It's her commitment to showing the great loss to society suffered when young people disappear in a violent society doing little to improve itself. Who can blame her, when, for instance, she reveals the essay Tray writes that qualifies him for no less than a hefty grant he'll never claim?

As directed with understanding by Patricia McGregor, the actors are impeccable. Andromache Chalfant's set gets the point across. It's dominated by a corrugated garage door with Tray's face painted on it over the insistent word "Memory." The same goes for Asa Wember's evocative sound design.

The enterprise has the feel of a rap song made stage-ready. Perhaps that's the explanation for the "b-side" in the title, although if records with what used to be widely known as b-sides (as opposed to the more commercially-intended a-side) still exist, I'm caught off guard.

Oh, I see, Lee may be implying that boys like Tray are unfairly regarded as no more than b-sides. If so, how damning is that?

Nightlife culture is constantly evolving, constantly changing. Event organizers and club owners are forever trying to get ahead by coming up with the next big thing, whether it's the most desirable party night or the unique bar experience.

Berlin-based artist and DJ Isabel Lewis has come up with her own concept that is refreshingly different, originating in her passion for several different areas of nightlife culture. Her musical background, appreciation for food and drink and love of theatre and choreography, has inspired her to host so-called 'Occasions', arrangements of these different elements that invite her guests to enjoy themselves under her hosting guidance.

"[In] the celebratory atmosphere, people feel relaxed, they can have a drink, and they can have something to eat,' she says of her 'Occasions', during which she aims to elicit the participation of her guests by simply being inviting.

She was born in the Dominican Republic and grew up on an island off the coast of Florida. As an artist she is interested in people's experiences, as a dancer she explores the influences of movement and as a DJ she loves the impact a set can have on the audience over the course of an evening. Reacting to the need for a specific sound, or a particular level of bass, and sensing when it's time for a drink, sparked the idea.

She was part of the ICA's Off-Site project at this year's Frieze Art fair and hosted several 'Occasions' at the Old Selfridges Hotel. Different from exhibitions or live shows that work with the concept of audience observation, her 'Occasions' offer an experience that amalgamates all the senses.

"My interest in the last [few] years has been more and more in how can I create a type of experience that brings together the human sensorium, that doesn't just rely [...] on our visual sense," she explains, while sitting in her Berlin flat, holding up a small vile. To complete the sensory experience of her evenings she is introducing the sense of smell, working in collaboration with Norwegian chemist and researcher Sissel Tolaas. The idea is that at a certain point during the evening you break the vile to let a smell enter the space around you, in order to round-up your experience.

With her 'Occasions', the artist manages to create a relaxed, communal space that allows people to experience whatever they choose, after being offered a hand-tailored, multi-sensory evening on a platter.

Text by Ruth Amelung for Crane.tv

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My name is Sean Bradford. I've been "busking" for over a year in Berlin and the last few months in other European cities, including Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo. I'm currently doing a city tour #popupbradford, to help build my fan base and also spread my original music as I am an emerging artist.

I feel like I need to say something about the latest Erykah Badu busking incident, not only because I have a bit of experience on the topic, but also because I don't think her experiment cast the proper light on what can be a helpful and also powerful tool.

First off, there are rules and etiquette to busking, also known as street performance. Rule number one is you never ask people for money. They will give if they want, because they appreciate that you are sharing something with them. This is not an act of desperation, but an act of self-promotion.

Second, there are certain things -- a sign, amplification, CDs, fliers, etc. -- that legitimize what you are doing. I won't tell you how much I make, but the least I ever made (the first time I busked on Warschauer Strasse in Berlin, crying, wearing atrocious pink shorts and sunglasses in the middle of a hot and busy summer day -- I made 12 euro in less than 30 minutes.

Also, Times Square is not an accurate representation of any place on Earth, except for Times Square. I was an actor in The Lion King for over two years and the most anxiety-ridden part of my day was deciding whether or not to approach my theatre (on 45th and Broadway) from the top, exiting at 50th and walking down or walking up from 42nd. It's a madhouse: crowded, noisy, full of New Yorkers rushing to work, tourists looking up and the continual sirens of an army of police cars. It's so loud I used to do my entire vocal warmup while walking to the theatre and no one would even notice. This is not a suitable place to do anything except pass through to a destination... or if you're a tourist, wonder if all of America looks like this.

And while I don't think singing outside in NYC for promotion or money would work (maybe in Union Square or the West Village) due to the sheer noise level alone, there is a strategy to play in places where you can be heard and also represent yourself as a brand. I know numerous artists who consistently make or made a decent wage from performing outside (Amanda Palmer also did as a street mime), but in every city I play, I also pass people with only a few cents in their guitar case or hat, and I must say part of it is how you represent yourself.

If Erykah Badu (who by the way I love as an artist) wanted to do the experiment correctly, she would have been prepared. She could've made a sign with a fake name to see if people recognized her. However (though I wasn't there) it seems the situation wasn't so much about the performance as it was the act of "begging" through music. I heard this story first in Slovakia, then in the airport in Vienna, then via Gawker and lastly on the U-bahn in Berlin on my way home. The media has used this as a social commentary on New Yorkers and the variables are not a reflection on the art of busking, the point of busking or the potential earnings that could be made. The state of NYC is another matter, ousting creatives to the far edges of Brooklyn or New Jersey because of outrageous prices. Art can not flourish in an environment that doesn't allow for it to grow. And that is a result of rising rent costs, lack of performance venues and the cutting of arts funding. But don't blame New Yorkers who are working their asses off just to survive. Blame the city. And, Erykah, get a sign and mic and I guarantee you'll make more money... even in Times Square.

You can see some of my busking experiences by searching #popupbradford on Instagram or Facebook.com/iamseanbradford

A shabby, ramshackle Datsun 120Y, with only the steering wheel in its proper position and graffiti all over the four-wheel structure packed with praises for the movie Na Maloom Afraad stands not in a scrapyard but outside a cinema complex in Karachi's upscale locality.

Movie buffs and especially those who wish for the Pakistan movie industry to revive are flocking to cinemas nearest them to promote the local movie industry known as Lollywood.

Na Maloom Afraad evolves around three individuals whose paths happen to coincide by luck. All these men, tried by hard twists and the impeding turns of life, be it problems at their workplaces or not having enough savings to pay their rents-saying the characters enacted are very closely associated to how an average Karachiite suffers day in and out.

The movie is shot around the landmarks of the metropolis which the local audiences can very much relate to as these areas are very much common to their daily commute. Unemployment, price hikes of basic goods, rickety dwellings and unrelenting rise in noises, the flick successfully captures the core problems in the approximate 145 minutes of its running time while not omitting the dire situation this metropolis suffers from intermittently.

Every now and then be it at the call of any political party, party leaders, influential groups, the city and its citizenry experience sudden closures for time unknown.

A Karachiite is not new to the concept of Namaloom Afraad (unknown persons) who are mentioned frequently in news broadcasts.

From muggings, assassinations to target killings all fall under the cover of being carried out by these "unknown persons". To this day most of these namaloom afraad are commonly referred to as unknown assailants who loot and plunder on the cosmopolitans streets without being caught.

The flick itself moves around how the leading characters acted out by veteran actor Javed Sheikh as Shakeel Bhai, the rising heart throb of the small screen Fahad Mustafa as Farhan and Mohsin Abbas Haider as Moon.

The comedy knitted motion picture has the right touches of humour attached to it not over or under doing it. It also brings to limelight how innocent civilians get influenced by mafia's and fall prey to them once their financial needs are fulfilled by those running the illicit trade.

The trio, each belonging to a different mindset, each with his own set of challenges get together to torch down a bank once the situation of the city worsens using it to their own benefit by staying under the cover of 'Na Maloom Afraad.'

Na Maloom Afraad revolves around the mundane struggle a citizen, specially an individual residing in the multi ethnic, intertwined city of diverse cultures and how people come up with ways to beat the harsh realities they face.

In recent years, good films from the Pakistan movie industry are produced and to say that Na Maloom Afraad will help replenish the local film industry cannot be denied. Despite the low budgets that film producers have, indeed some great direction is being done.

The rusted, dilapidated car is just a single such vehicle in front of which visitors are seen posing and getting their snaps taken. Karachiites get to witness burning automobiles whenever there is a political crisis and it is in those moments that Karachi walas (citizens) rush to their homes rather than getting their pictures taken with the blazing vehicles.

Pictures: Edel Verzijl

It is difficult enough to create an inimitable signature as a creative.

It is masterful to be able to maintain that signature while shooting commercial, as well as artistic photography.

Dutch artist Edel Verzijl has been balancing that act since the late 1990s when she diverted her career from painting to photography, translating the classic sfumato style while shooting film exclusively. Her new book Amygdalae, provides the unique luxury of intimate access to her artistic and female persona, equally.

"I show my photography within a stream of poetry, like in a dream, where the moods flow from one picture to another. It's a survey of ten years, with most of the images being recent, while the older ones also blend in with the newer ones. I usually have the image in front of my eye that I than try to realize through my photography. So I am really trying to visualize the picture behind the picture."

Striking her way in which she portrays (young) women. Fragile beings, their faces and bodies surfaces for dreams and fantasies, at all times allowing vulnerability, seemingly providing a closer look at Verzijl's eternal, inner girl. Her description of youth is not necessarily perky-optimistic. There is room for melancholy. There is time for having a bad day while finding and developing the inner self. Sadness and the beauty within are allowed, becoming powerful details of her overall aesthetics.

"I think I have a closer relationship with women because I like to evoke the spirit of female beauty - and not in the way a man looks at a woman. Fashion photography, for example, has been in the hands of male photographers for the longest time. That started to change about ten years ago. Male photographers objectify women more, for me women are spiritual beings. That's the feel I try to evoke when I shoot women. I try to figure out what is their being or their soul, which is actually not that difficult. Intuitively I search for that and I try to establish a nice relationship. They trust me and I try to put them at ease."

Verzijl creates an elegant synergy of the commercial and artistic face, creating fluent segues. Her dreamy sequences and snapshots seem to portray an understated sex appeal that communicates strength without the common stimuli. She manages to tempt her audience by withholding a smile, a provoking gesture, even an entire face at times, making her art work unpredictable, experimental and fresh.

A very classic painting style, the sfumato effect serves her photographing technique artistically and commercially. Defined by Italian painter Leonardo Da Vinci, British art historian Ernst Gombrich describes it as follows. "...This is Leonardo's famous invention ... the blurred outline and mellowed colors that allow one form to merge with another and always leave something to our imagination." Verzijl creates a dream like atmosphere. "Sometimes there is a halo around a model," she explains. Classic film lights support her effort, sometimes daylight and ever-so-often a combination of the two. "I am more or less creating a movie scene, but then I am really shooting a frozen image."

Verzijl lets childhood memories, dreams, intuition and artwork influence her shoots, and feels that she is one of a few photographers worldwide, using and implementing her technique that defines so beautifully the line between a set of different realities.

Artist and photographer Edel Verzijl.

Photo/Jesse Jenkins

Most of the time, a song gets stuck inside your head for hours, days courtesy of a catchy chorus or well-written verse. In the case of Bastille, however, their orca-whale-sized hit "Pompeii" produced a mind gloriously filled with repeated "eh ohs." Still on heavy rotation on alt and pop stations a year later, the UK band's breakthrough hit, which mind you also includes wonderful lyrics (methinks a song solely of "eh ohs" wouldn't cut it), propelled them to the stardom they had previously found in their homeland.

"Pompeii" was only the beginning here and there. Following their Haunt EP, they dropped their full-length debut Bad Blood to much fanfare. Both albums, by the way, featured that timeless song about people frozen-in-time in that ancient Roman City and Bad Blood launched more hit singles to make many an ear dance. "Bad Blood" killed. "Flaws" is currently doing just that. Yes, one-tick ponies they are not. They are, of course, human beings. Ponies can't make music, but I digress.

The band is fronted by Dan Smith, who originally started Bastille as a one-man band but soon brought drummer Chris Wood, bassist William Farquarson, and keyboardist Kyle Simmon aboard. Crafty lyrics and catchy music are a trademark element to each and every song from the band. There is also a cinematic quality to each track that truly paints a picture. Their music videos literally do just that. It's no wonder really. Front man Dan is a cinephile (everything from David Lynch to horror flicks tickle his fancy) who over sees it all. Case in point: you will go to there. But enough background. Just Google the band if you need to. I want to jump right into my A-Sides interview with the melody maker Smith, which took place right after two sold-out shows at the iconic Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Speaking of which, the band seem to sell-out faster than a drunk chicken on a moped. Anyway, let's get on with it.

You've been touring so much since Bad Blood broke here, but the album and its predecessor have lived with you for so long. How anxious are you to get back into the studio?
We never really stopped making new songs. I love writing and the process of bringing songs together with production, so we've been constantly working on new material. Mark Crew, the only producer we've ever worked with, has been joining us on tour as often as possible. We set up a studio in back stage rooms or on the tour bus and we've started a lot of the new album that way. There was a period at the end of last year when we'd been touring non-stop and I'd started to miss the recording process so we just decided to do something about it.

Freshness. Laura Palmer is the name of an EP and a killer song of yours. Are you excited David Lynch is bringing back the series to Showtime? If so, can you videotape yourself dancing like "The Man From Another Place" and send it to me?
I'm so excited about the return of Twin Peaks. I almost can't believe it's actually happening because it seems like the actualization of a collective, mass geek fantasy. It feels almost too good to be true. P.S. If you want to see me dancing as weirdly as the Man From Another Place you only have to see one of our gigs to see the true horror of my dancing.

It's not that bad, man! Getting back to your music, it's been such an amazing year-plus for you guys, is it hard to let it sink in when you're performing nightly?
We still tour with the same group of people that we've always toured with and we're not particularly self-congratulatory, so I think to a large extent the complete extent of what's happened for the band hasn't totally sinked in. There are obviously moments of realization about how far we are from playing rundown clubs around the UK, especially when we're asked to play at massive events or huge venues.

It can be surreal sometimes. I always like being really busy though, and I wouldn't ever want to be someone who sat back listing their achievements. We often feel surprised at the situations we find ourselves in, but I think it makes us appreciate the awesomeness and the weirdness of it all the more.

"Pompeii" was and is such a huge hit for you guys, and rightfully so, rather than tell me about how the song came together and whether you knew you had a hit on your hands in the UK and the US, tell me instead how you perfected the "Eh-eh-o eh-o" part.>
I think it started as a keyboard line. It wasn't massively thought out to be honest. A lot of the first album was initially written and recorded on my laptop in my room, so I'd often just layer up my vocals or whatever I had to hand. I doubled up the keyboard lines with vocals that became the "eh oh". Then when it came to making the album, we asked our friends from a band called To Kill A King to come down to the studio and help layer up what became the chant that's on the record.

Well done. Is it possible if you weren't born on Bastille Day, and were born on say Groundhog Day or Simchat Torah, that your band name could've been Groundhog or Simchat? >
The public holiday possibilities are endless dude. Groundhog would have been a brilliant name.

Side project band name? Boom. Anyway, I'm so impressed by your unique and off-the-wall cover choices - from TLC's "No Scrubs" to the amazing Corona/Snap! mash-up of respectively "Rhythm of the Night" and "Rhythm is a Dancer." How do you select covers and how do you know which to take to the public, and which to just keep in-house?>
Thanks dude. The covers really came about after we did "What Would You Do?" by City High when we first started gigging and didn't have enough songs for an encore (if we were ever asked to do one). We thought it would be fun to play a song that people remember and are somehow able to sing along to word for word, but don't necessarily remember who it's by.

It's fun to take songs from a completely different context and reframe them. We did two mixtape albums called "Other People's Heartache" and "Other People's Heartache pt 2" which were full of those kind of covers and mash-ups, mixed with film music and film quotes. Doing the covers gives us an opportunity to experiment with different sounds and genres using the canvas of someone else's songwriting. There haven't been many examples of times when we've done a cover and not put it out in some form.

#songawaycancer
As announced Oct. 1, A-Sides is in the midst of its own "challenge" to the viral masses - a la ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, A-Sides' Sing Away Cancer Challenge is asking musicians and all walks of life to create a short video of themselves singing any popular song's chorus but with anti-cancer and/or cure-geared inspiring lyrics. All I ask is for you to donate to a cancer-related charity of your choice, tag your video "#singawaycancer" and denote on your donation somewhere "sing away cancer." It's so important to know if this would-be viral campaign will work, and it's so not important if you can carry a tune or not. There are so many worth causes to donate to.

A-Sides "Delve Into Twelve" Countdown
Each week A-Sides unleashes its Top 12 tracks of the week AKA the "Delve Into Twelve"based on the following contributing factors: songs I'm playing out that particular week NO MATTER WHEN THEY WERE RELEASED (think overlooked songs, unreleased tracks, and old favorites), songs various publicists are trying to get me to listen to that I did and dug a bunch, posts and trends I've noticed on my friends' Facebook walls, and -- most importantly -- the songs my two-year-old-plus son gravitates toward by stomping his feet in approval. Yeah, you read that right. This weeks follows below (LW= last week's rank).

12. "Futures" (retro cut) - Jimmy Eat World
11. "Kathleen" (LW-9) - Catfish and the Bottlemen
10. "Shut Up And Dance" (debut) - Walk The Moon
9. "Two Weeks" (LW-10) - FKA twigs
8. "Boom Clap" (LW-7) - Charli XCX
7. "Geronimo" (LW-4) - Sheppard
6. "Cigarette Daydreams" (LW-6) - Cage the Elephant
5. "Champions of Red Wine" (8) - The New Pornographers
4. "Iris" (LW-4) - U2
3. "Home" (LW-3) - Dotan
2. "Beggin For Thread" (LW-1) - Banks
1. "Inside Out" (LW-2) - Spoon

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About A-Sides Music

Jon Chattman's "A-Sides Music" series was established in August 2011 and usually features artists (established or not) from all genres performing a track, and discussing what it means to them. This informal series focuses on the artist making art in a low-threatening, extremely informal (sometimes humorous) way. No bells, no whistles -- just the music performed in a random, low-key setting followed by an unrehearsed chat. In an industry where everything often gets overblown and over manufactured, I'm hoping this is refreshing. Artists have included: fun, Courtney Love, Air Supply, Birdy, Sleigh Bells, Aretha Franklin, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, Echosmith, Charli XCX, Pharrell Williams, American Authors, Imagine Dragons, Gary Clark Jr., and more! A-Sides theme written and performed by Blondfire.

Gustavo Dudamel will conduct his first ever complete Beethoven symphonies cycle, July 8-12, 2015, in Bogotá

I was recently in Bogotá, Colombia, for the press launch of the classical music season at the Teatro Mayor and Biblioteca Julio Mario Santo Domingo. Since its opening five years ago, this vast arts complex has fulfilled the mission of the Santo Domingo family who imagined and built it, and the vision of Ramiro Osorio who directs it. The Teatro juts out into a flat urban landscape in a series of rectangular concrete shells. Inside the space is open and welcoming, a gracious mix between a cultural palace and a convention center, with two splendid concert halls and a warren of modest offices, media, green and storage rooms.

Two events of international importance highlight the new season.

First, Gustavo Dudamel, youthful conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will conduct his first ever complete Beethoven symphonies cycle at the Teatro in five concerts July 8-12, 2015. His orchestra will be the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar de Venezuela.

The Beethoven celebration will kick off two days earlier on July 6 with a "Concierto Binacional: Colombia, Venezuela" gala at which Dudamel will conduct both his Venezuelan Orquesta and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá in even more Beethoven: the Emperor Piano Concerto and the Choral Fantasy.

The other big news was the announcement of the Second International Music Festival of Bogotá. It will be called Bogotá es Mozart and will consist of 63 concerts of music more than 99 percent by Mozart spread over the first four days of April, 2015, performed at at the Teatro and 13 community venues.

The Teatro’s first International Music Festival of Bogotá in 2013 was called Bogotá es Beethoven and consisted of 55 concerts of music by Beethoven. The tickets were 93% subsidized. The concerts were 90% sold out.

Many of the musicians, who ranged from rarely spotted legends like Boris Berezovsky to the Ysaye Quartet making some of their last appearances on stage, said the audiences, consisting of families with kids, teenagers dating, young power couples, singles and classical music’s usual demographics in U.S. Concert halls, were among the most openly, intuitively and generously responsive they had ever played for.

It was some of the finest Beethoven I have ever heard. I attended 25, and 5 were easily once in a lifetime performances, and another 10 were absolutely sublime, illuminating the unique relationships musicians and audiences have with Beethoven.

Gustavo Dudamel's choice to perform his first ever Beethoven symphonies cycle in Bogotá is a statement of belief. More than just a convenient stop on the tour to try out his first complete Beethoven symphonies cycle, the fact that Dudamel is conducting his first Beethoven cycle in Bogotá with his Venezuelan Simon Bolivar Orchestra is a statement of belief in the two neighboring countries, an implicit acknowledgment that each has many lessons to learn and teach. In fact, the special place Bogotá holds in Dudamel’s heart stems in part from the fact that Colombia modeled its own, now five-year old and broadly successful youth orchestra program on the Venezuelan el sistema model from which Dudamel arose.

When I asked about his affection for Bogotá, Dudamel explained,

Both my orchestra and I have a long history with Bogotá and with Colombia. Firstly, we are neighbors and brothers, sharing a common, extraordinary history and culture. We feel like we are in our home-away-from-home when we are performing in Bogotá which is why we probably give more concerts there than anywhere else on tour in South America!”

Since the mutual affection that exists between Dudamel and Bogotá mirrors the relationship Dudamel has with Los Angeles, perhaps the Los Angeles Philharmonic could invite one of Colombia's national youth orchestras to play alongside it in summer concerts, as the Houston Symphony is doing next summer. And since the Bogotá connection in Houston is the Houston Symphony's new music director, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, who is Colombian, perhaps Bogotá-Los Angeles-Houston represents the hub of a new classical music empire.

More realistically, it would be a great opportunity for three music loving, educationally challenged communities to share their experience as classical music presenters and, more crucially, as educators whose major initiatives bravely cross both multiethnic and multidisciplinary lines.

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Whatever else you might think about The Death of Klinghoffer, John Adams's 1991 opera with Alice Goodman's libretto, there's one thing it is not: anti-Semitic. By no stretch of the desperate and frightened imagination is it the work of anti-Semites. It does, however, depict anti-Semites as characters who express their feelings -- human figures primed to commit inhumane acts in response to perverted reasoning.

Nevertheless, white-hot controversy is dogging the opera's Metropolitan Opera House premier engagement after many productions elsewhere, only some of them protested. The circumstances have, not surprisingly, clouded the reality of the Adams-Goodman work.

Stridently impassioned cries of "shame" from people at the opening night rally who haven't seen or heard The Death of Klinghoffer -- and insist ignorantly that they don't need to -- and the appearance of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, famous for objecting to the Brooklyn Museum's "Sensations" exhibit, have to some extent deflected attention from the opera itself and turned it into an either-love-it-or-hate-it matter.

Too bad, because there's much to say for and against this nearly three-hour fictionalized musical report covering what happened on the cruise ship Achille Lauro in October 1985 when four terrorists (singers Sean Panniker, Aubrey Allicock, Ryan Speedo Green, dancer Jesse Kovarsky) boarded and eventually killed the Jewish, wheel-chair-bound Leon Klinghoffer (Alan Opie), while his wife Marilyn (Michaela Martens) thought him safe in another part of the boat.

Throughout the two acts, many characters are heard expressing in retrospect their version of what occurred over the several days the cruise ship hovered along the Syria shore, such that the action shifts back and forth from those recalling their ordeal to those experiencing it in the moment, in particular the flummoxed captain (Paolo Szot).

Before Adams and Goodman get to that, however, there's a prologue in which first a Palestinian chorus and then an Israeli chorus intone their sorrows and hopes about existence in the centuries-compromised Promised Land. Both are elegiac in tone, and it has to be pointed out that since both elegies are sung by the same choristers, there's an underlying conciliatory metaphor concerning people being the same no matter what their religious convictions and allegiances.

(The Palestinian sequence was booed by a small group at the opening, later a man shouted several times that "the murder of Leon Klinghoffer will never be forgiven," and later than that a lone woman shrieked a derogatory remark. Both were taken from the auditorium.)

The opera's somber tone prevailed, it should be needless to say, and that's simultaneously the strength and weakness of Adams's score, all of it conducted with proper respect by David Robertson and directed with care by Tom Morris. At one point Robertson had the presence of mind to hold the orchestra silent until the insistent male heckler had shut up -- or been shut up.

Though it isn't quite so, the impression given during The Death of Klinghoffer is that, out of respect for the extremely sensitive subject matter, the composer has deliberately limited himself to very few notes in a mid-range. Therefore the shifting moods don't shift that much from character to character, from aria to aria or throughout most of the recitative.

Among those heard from after surviving the ordeal are a Swiss grandmother (Maria Zifchak) on shielding her grandson, an Austrian woman (Theodora Hanslowe) on waiting out the couple of days in her cabin and a British dancing girl (Kate Miller-Heidke) for whom the incident is not much more than irritating.

Sometimes, although not that often, Adams ratchets up the instrumentation to match a sudden build in the terrifying drama. Spectacularly, there's an intensifying single note sustained just before Klinghoffer is assassinated by a single shot to his head. It's fired by terrorist Omar (Kovarsky, when he's finished choreographer Arthur Pita's anguished conflicted-participant moves).

It's after that as well when the departed Klinghoffer, rising from his wheelchair, delivers a moving final declaration, "Aria of the Falling Body." His utterance is only surpassed by Marilyn's later aria, emoted when she learns her husband is dead and she refuses to accept consolation from the captain, whom she harshly accuses of being sympathetic to the hijackers. Earlier, Leon has verbally accosted one of the terrorists, and it's an understandable outburst that surely is meant to signal his being singled out for the first of the projected hostage murders, none of which are ultimately committed.

Opie, Martens and Szot sing well and with force, as do all the soloists and Donald Palumbo's chorus members. Their accomplishments are even more impressive when the unusual pressures under which they're performing are taken into account.

Those concerned that Adams and Goodman favor the terrorists should be aware that Marilyn Klinghoffer has the last word, literally -- i. e. she sings the grief-stricken closing four words, thereby giving weight to the argument that the creators haven't at all overlooked or trivialized the Klinghoffers in their issue-oriented opera.

Since attention has been so resolutely focused elsewhere, it may be of less than pressing interest that the Death of Klinghoffer production isn't esthetically pleasing. Set designer Tom Pye and video designer Finn Ross have combined their assignments for a hodge-podge of moving ship staircases, encroaching walls sometime showing radar graphs or surging oceans. Certainly, prettiness isn't called for to conjure the tragic event, but something more imposing than the jumble on stage wouldn't be out of place.

Hardly by the way, sections of the original score have been removed since 1991, and perhaps those are the ones inflaming the men and women who were wearing signs that proclaimed "I am Leon Klinghoffer." Then again, the protesters seem to be ranting as a result of the very fact that the opera exists and romanticizes the hideous affair. That is absolutely uncalled for.

Rendez-vous With Art by Philippe de Montebello and Martin Gayford
Thames & Hudson Publishers, 2014

Imagine if you had all the time, money, and knowledge of art to fly around the world, visit museums, galleries, and churches in the company of the world's top art critics, and then describe what makes great works of art -- ones with which most people are not familiar -- great.

If you can imagine all that, then you would be Philippe de Montebello, for decades the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, talking about your favorite works on visits to Florence, Madrid, New York, and other delightful locales.

Your conversation partner would be Martin Gayford, art critic and author, and together, on someone's dime, you would be crisscrossing the planet in search of great works to describe in a book.

That book would be Rendez-vous With Art, which consists of edited conversations between the two friends in galleries and in their living rooms via Skype.

The book raises fundamental, fascinating questions about art that typically aren't raised elsewhere. How important is it to see a place of art in the place where it was created? What changed when museums took hold and artists began to create pieces for museums instead of churches or private homes? What good is going to the part of a museum where icons like the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo reside when you can barely get close to the artworks because of the scrum of humanity packing in behind guides, flashing their cell phones to take pictures as if doing so were some sort of religious ritual?

Philippe de Montebello offers fascinating new takes on well-known artists like Titian, Velasquez, Goya, and Rubens, and he also introduces readers to far less known and anonymous artists. The pieces they examine range from familiar works of European painting to distinctly unfamiliar sculptures from Cambodia, Northern Iraq, Babylon, and other locales. Once you experience art the way de Montebello does, you will never look at a painting, a sculpture, or even a museum visit the same way.

The narration can get a little precious at times, such as when Gayford tells us specific things about de Montebello that we don't necessarily need to know. That he is "almost a perfectly transatlantic person," whatever that might be. That his back hurts and therefore they need to leave the Louvre. Or maybe I'm being churlish.

My favorite moment of the book describes de Montebello's purchase of the Duccio Madonna, a small painting from the late thirteenth century that if you or I passed by it in a museum on our way to the Monets or the Mona Lisa, we would scarcely have given it a second look. de Montebello spent roughly $45 million for the piece, after having literally held it in his hands for an hour.

What went through his mind in that hour? He says that as director, he had to wear a number of different hats all at once. He had to be an informed art lover, admiring the beauty of the work. As an art historian, he needed to recognize the fact that this painting marked "the transition from medieval to Renaissance image making. It represented a key moment, a break from hieratic Byzantine models to a more gentle humanity."

He also had to decide whether to raise the $45 million that the painting demanded. de Montebello again: "First and foremost were the old-fashioned notions of quality, craft and skill. Did the work sing? Did it stop me in my tracks and did it then hold my attention? Was I reluctant to turn away from it too quickly?"

He also needed to be concerned with the "physicality" of the work -- it's lasted 700 years. How much longer would it survive in a museum? And then, how do you determine its ownership history or providence? How do you know it's legitimate? Finally came the competitive instinct -- the Louvre wanted this piece as well, or one by this same artist, and since few come to market, de Montebello knew he had to make a quick offer and a high one.

That's the sort of fascinating insight you discover in de Montebello and Gayford's Rendez-vous With Art. If you can't devote the next 30 years of your life to running the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but you do have a hunger to learn more about artists and works of art with which you may never have come in contact before, then you might want to read this book. If it doesn't want to make you drop what you're doing and visit the nearest museum, then face the facts: you're a Philistine and there's no hope for you.

That doesn't make you a bad person, but that's just how it is.

Since I moved to Bushwick, New York in early 2013, I've witnessed the rapid neighborhood changes commonly identified as "gentrification." With Bushwick bordering the notoriously hipster home of Williamsburg, it's easy to recognize the changing social and economic landscape of Bushwick as a reflection of gentrified Williamsburg -- three dollar sign restaurants, rising rent and young freelancers posting up at coffee shops eating acai bowls. My rent alone for a three-bedroom apartment in Bushwick jumped to a $300 increase after one year. I wasn't lying when I said the changes are happening fast!

Williamsburg off the Bedford L stop has gotten so popular (and overpopulated), corporations such as Whole Foods, Madewell and Dunkin Donuts are moving in. The historic Domino Sugar Factory is getting torn down for new development and construction of another high rise condominium has started on Kent Street & N 6th. I wouldn't be surprised if Williamsburg looked more like Manhattan over the next few years. In addition, with the influx of people and corporations in Williamsburg, it isn't surprising that the changes are spilling over into Bushwick.

While attending the CineCause Women's Initiative in Los Angeles last week, I met a talented actress and filmmaker who created an original web series about the inevitable gentrification I've been witnessing around Bushwick. It's called, "East Willy B," and it perfectly packages the story of Brooklyn's changing neighborhood with humor, wit and style.

East WillyB chronicles the adventures of Bushwick Sports Bar owner Willie Jr., and his motley crew of bar regulars, as they deal with the trials and tribulations of living in an ever-changing Brooklyn. Named the "Latino Show for the New Generation," by the New York Times, East WillyB is a fresh new comedy which explores the humors and tensions when cultures collide in the face of gentrification.

Check out the first episode below.

While observing the changes of Bushwick and interacting with long time residents around the neighborhood, it's important that I recognize my own role and presence as a factor in the gentrification process. Sure, I'm not a trust fund kid; but being college educated and having advanced career opportunities put me in a privileged demographic that proponents of gentrification (like my landlord) will want to take advantage of. So am I part of the problem? Yes. Can gentrification be stopped? Probably not. Is it possible for development to happen while integrating the livelihood of longtime residents and diverse cultures? Keep your eyes on Bushwick and find out.

Attention, my friends, I have breaking news. Last week, Los Angeles County Museum of Art got invaded by a small but vicious army of soldiers --some on foot, others on horseback. All of them looking extremely intimidating. And all of them dressed to kill.

The new exhibition at Resnick Pavilion gives a splendid presentation of the Japanese armor worn by Samurai for close to 700 years --from the 12th to the 19th century. The gallery is flooded with dramatic red light, and the first thing you are confronted with upon entering are Samurai horsemen, charging right at you. Staring at their elaborate suits of armor, including helmets and faceguards, it's difficult not to think about an over-the-top opera production or Hollywood blockbuster movie.

A suit of Japanese armor might weigh up to 45 lbs, and is made with iron and leather, as well as precious and semiprecious metals. The level of splendor of these suits reflected the income, rank and prestige of a samurai family, which was determined by the battlefield valor of their ancestors. All the objects in the exhibition come from the private collection of Ann & Gabriel Barbier-Mueller, and their namesake museum in Dallas.

Upon entering the top floor of the Broad Pavilion, you hear the smooth, seductive sounds of jazz. And then, you see nightclub scenes that capture the irresistible spirit and high energy of the Harlem Renaissance in the '20s and '30s. The new exhibition, "Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist," is a full scale survey of the artist's career, and of his contribution to African American culture during the Jazz Age.

Many of the 45 paintings on display in this traveling exhibition have never been seen before in LA. The exhibition follows the long and restless life of Archibald Motley (1891 - 1981), who lived in numerous cities, including Chicago, Paris and Mexico City. In Self-Portrait (Myself at Work) 1933, the artist proudly presents himself in full artistic armor, with tilted French beret, splayed paintbrushes, full palette and nude model on the side. The studio looks like it could be in Paris during the era when Josephine Baker, with her song-and-dance act, ruled the Parisian nightlife.

The artistic reputation of Archibald Motley was undeniably connected with his paintings depicting joyful, crowded, explosive scenes, where everyone and everything is possessed by velvety sounds and syncopated jazz rhythms. These are small paintings with big personalities. And there is no surprise that they are the most well-known and reproduced works of his career.

The exhibition also includes less familiar works by the artist, showing his interest in capturing people in quiet and introspective moments of their lives. One of the most moving is an elegant portrait of the artist's aging but still formidable grandmother. The family matriarch, she sits in a chair in a well-appointed room, while humbly mending green socks. In another portrait, Brown Girl After the Bath 1931, we see a nude model studying herself in a vanity mirror. The portrait is both sensual and very melancholic. And somehow, this is a feeling, which for me, permeates the whole exhibition and lingers with me still.

To learn about Edward's Fine Art of Art Collecting Classes, please visit his website. You can also read The New York Times article about his classes here.

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Edward Goldman is an art critic and the host of Art Talk, a program on art and culture for NPR affiliate KCRW 89.9 FM. To listen to the complete show and hear Edward's charming Russian accent, click here.

Those unabashedly buff Ballet Boyz, late of the Royal Ballet; kick off the 2014-15 Dance Celebration season this month as part of artistic director Randy Swartz's programming that includes performances by seven international companies. For three decades Swartz has nurtured the Annenberg Center as a vital venue for every genre of dance arts- from classical ballet to the iconic American companies of Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Merce Cunningham, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane and Martha Graham, just to mention a few.

BalletBoyz (photo: Panayiotis Sinnos)

In an interview this month, Swartz admitted that it has been more difficult in recent years as the arts have continued to be diminishing grants, corporate underwriting drying up and a drop in subscription sales. The series only receives a relatively meager grant from the city of Philadelphia, still, "We're among very few venues who present such a variety. Jacob's Pillow, The Joyce, American Dance Festival and only a few others," he said a week before the season opener.

Because dance companies routinely have to schedule performance tours two years in advance, the current season looked dicey, with full funding not cleared until late spring. It was so down to the wire this year and it hurt advance publicity and sales.

Even with these escalating challenges, Swartz says, "The artistic work continues to be more exciting, innovative and artistically sound. " But, past those hassles and being "Constantly worried," Swartz's enthusiasm and commitment is unbending. Swartz cites the inherent risks in presenting such a wide range of artists, new and old. "In some respects because we don't present a single unified artistic focus," he said.

"We had to wait for to secure the funding to announce to the public the upcoming season. In spite of the fact that we make a high percentage of our budget through ticket sales, we still had to wait until May this year for other funding to be in place," Swartz explained.

Still, Swartz has been able to build 'key' audiences for diverse dance-theater styles and is particularly proud that "we've commissioned work, presented world premieres, brought back artists on a continuing basis that supports their creative efforts and development. We're a dance presenter which is not always a draw in itself," but "without this mechanism in place," Swartz said.

Swartz's theme this year is 'visionary voices' and international dance includes seven companies from other countries starting with BalletBoyz which began five years ago by Royal Ballet dancers William Trevitt and Michael Dunn, left the ballet and started to chronicle the lives of dancers on video, which became very popular in England.

Noting their innovative approach Swartz notes "The BalletBoyz evolved into a serious dance company doing it in an unconventional way that completely connects to audiences. Now they are a troupe of ten men, all extraordinary dancers. " For the Philly performances, they will perform works by Russell Maliphant and Liam Scarlett, who are choreographers in residence at the Royal ballet.

Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre makes its Philly debut with two "Various Stages of Drowning: A Cabaret and Dining Alone. "Rosie Herrera is part of our initiative of new choreographic voices. She is Cuban-American and South Beach is her dance playground with an aesthetic that reflects a 21st century point of view. She's been called the Pina Bausch of South Beach. Gender bending, pop cultural, exploring themes that are serious, but she comes at it with humor. She deals with serious topics that can make the audience laugh until the punch line comes. And they say whoa!"

Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre (ph: Adam Reign)

RUBBERBANDance GROUP from Montreal started by out a LA street choreographer Victor Quijada, a mix of hip-hop, break, ballet and capoeira that he took to another level as narrative dance theater, this time in a work titled 'Empirical Quotient.' Quijada successfully transplanted his company to Canada and they tour internationally.

New Zealand dance troupe Black Grace performs with strong narrative storytelling mixed with "an incredible mixed-cultural bag from Pacific Islanders, whether they are dancing to music by Philip Glass and Bach. Very powerful." Choreographer Jessica Lang, originally from Philadelphia, started her company (Jessica Lang Dance) in 2011 and will be making her Philly debut at Dance Celebration. Jessica Lang is 2014 Bessie Award winner, that is Swartz says " Structurally, rhythmically and visually, this is just exquisite choreography."

Pilobolus Dance Theater has been a Philly favorite for decades and they this piece combines dance-magic ala Houdini with the troupe collaborating with comics Penn and Teller. "it's about escaping. Penn narrates the piece and it's definitely choreographed, but whether you want to call it dance or magic, who cares?" Swartz said. "Just to see them getting out of this bondage in front of your eyes, that's one aspect. It a three- ring dance circus."

Another company with an avid Philly fan built from their frequent appearances at the Annenberg is Parsons Dance. Choreographer David Parsons will present a premiere and a recent work that opened in New Orleans set to a jazz score. Of course, no Parsons performance is complete without his punched- through another- dimension company classic 'Caught.'

Swartz said he debated about the Pilobolus work, but he said the point of Dance Celebration series is to explore every aspect of theatrical dance and movement. "It's a very specific physical feat to see this, it's like a human Rubik's cube. So I felt that it definitely belongs because part of our mission to explore every aspect of theatrical dance and movement."

2014-10-21-KibbutzContemporaryDanceCompany.jpgUriNevo.jpg

Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Co (ph: Uri Nevo)

Next month, the dynamic Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company from Israel will dance "If At All" which Swartz describes as having "Israeli sensibility and culture from everywhere." They are followed a week later by the fiery and soulful Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca performing 'Antigona' a full-length flamenco ballet.

(ph: Andres D'Elia)

For a complete listing of the 2014-15 Dance Celebration season check www.AnnenbergCenter.org // 215.898.3900. The Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut St. Philadelphia PA

These days, I watch the news feeds from Hong Kong. I only half-listen to the announcers, the people on the barricades or the experts. Instead, I listen to what's going on behind the live shots of the talking heads in front of the action. I'm listening for music.

Hong Kong's courageous Umbrella Revolution already has a soundtrack of its own. One song is "Under a Vast Sky" by Beyond, Hong Kong's greatest rock band, with lines that still resonate many years after the song's first release: "Forgive me for embracing freedom in my life."

The other is "Do You Hear the People Sing," the anthem at the heart of the musical Les Miserables: "It is the music of the people/Who will not be slaves again."

But I'm actually listening for another song, or songs -- songs that have inspired captive peoples for hundreds of years. I'm listening for "We Shall Overcome," "Ain't Nobody Gonna Turn Me 'Round," "We Shall Not be Moved," "This Little Light of Mine." At some point, a microphone will capture a protest spiritual or a freedom song in Hong Kong.

I know this because those songs have been sung in the Arab Spring and on Tiananmen Square and at a thousand thousand rallies, protests, mass meetings and jails around the world, just as they were sung in Montgomery, Albany, Birmingham, Selma, Chicago and Memphis.

According to Zora Neale Hurston, these songs were first spread by High John de Conquer, the African American mythic spirit of survival and defiance. From slavery to the civil rights era, High John sped along the mystic grapevine of black America, spreading courage and hope. Today High John is spread by social media.

In early September, a man named Bob Kraft -- who I do not know -- posted on his Facebook page a call for pro-democracy forces to gather at the Hong Kong Wall at Hong Kong's Central Government office where all assembled would hear the stories and learn the freedom songs of the American civil rights movement. I don't know how many people showed up -- if any. But if not then or there, then High John de Conquer took the message somewhere else, again and again and again.

People sing freedom songs because they have power. Christian people, Islamic people, Jewish people and people with no religious faith at all sing them. They have been orally transmitted from generation to generation in an almost apostolic succession, waiting only for the need to arise. Like ancient stories of King Arthur, said sleeping dreamlessly under some hill in Wales, waiting to be summoned in the time of England's greatest need, the protest spirituals and freedom songs are always there. Waiting. Waiting to be called upon again.

I have spent the last eight years tracking these songs, from the fragmentary records of the Antebellum South to the singing of "We Shall Overcome" at the funeral of every great African American freedom fighter for the last fifty years. I have immersed myself in them. When I hear them sung on a scratchy recording of a nameless mass meeting near Greenwood, Mississippi, the hairs rise on my forearms. Brother, there is power here.

One of the great heroes of the civil rights movement, Bernice Johnson Reagon, once said, "When you get together at a mass meeting, you sing the songs which symbolize
transformation, which make that revolution of courage inside you. You raise a freedom song."

So, each night, I flip among ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera or PBS and listen for the sounds of Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution. I'm listening to history being made, to history being sung. I'm listening for the digital footsteps of High John de Conquer.

Robert Darden is an Associate Professor of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media at Baylor University. His book Nothing But Love in God's Water: Black Sacred Music from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement will be released this month from Penn State University Press.

New Yorkers expect the best of everything, and recently I had the opportunity to see one of the best: Zoltan Maga, Hungary's most celebrated violin virtuoso, a man who brings Hungarian cultural traditions to the rest of the world.

This October, Maga and his unique Budapest Gypsy Orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan for the first time. Their music has earned them worldwide recognition for its fusion of classical, folk, pop and gypsy music.

Fifteen musicians, using only their instruments, repertoire and language of the show, took the audience to Western Europe and back without ever leaving their seats.

The group of violins, violas, cellos, clarinets, pianos, double basses and exotic cymbalos played in the Hungarian Gypsy, Romanian and Russian styles. I found their music both fascinating and powerful as it carried my mood from nostalgia to euphoria to melancholy during the course of the performance.

The Hungarian melodies were played in a strict order: first came the slow movements -- the ballads or lassans -- then the medium tempo palotas and finally the fast czardas and the even faster friss czardas. The Romanian melodies were a different creature altogether, with simple melodies but complex rhythms. The Russian melodies included famous, slow movements alternating with faster czardasses. The night also included unique Cossack songs played in the Gypsy style.

Part of the beauty of gypsy music is the harmonies the cymbalo and the bass add to the score. Some examples of this can be heard in pieces from composers like Leo Weiner in his Divertimento No. 1, Op.20 or from the unforgettable Franz Liszt and his Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.

Maga has performed for kings, popes and rulers worldwide, and I can say with 100% certainty that he is the fastest violinist I have ever seen. His command of the instrument was very impressive; Maga can make a guitar, flute, or flirty whistle out of his violin, often simultaneously.

The Budapest Gypsy Orchestra performed in New York City as part of its worldwide 100 Concerts tour. For those who have not had the pleasure of seeing Maga live, PBS will be shooting a television special titled Zoltan Maga: From Budapest with Love, which will air throughout the United States in March 2015.

Last year Everyartist Live set a world record for the most works of art created on a single day. 230,000 children in 46 states shared a day of painting, drawing, imagination and creativity. On Thursday, they intend on breaking that record.

Everyartist Live! is aiming to reach over 250,000 kids this Thursday.

The goal of course is not to break records but to reach children. Brendan O'Connell, an artist and co-founder of Everyartist.me says, "Our culture is really experiencing a creativity crisis. We find that kids this year are less creative than they were ten years ago."

For O,Connell the answer is simple, our future depends on our ability to innovate. The creative capacity of our young people will determine whether our country, and our world, flourishes or not. All around us are changes that demand creative solutions, from addressing climate change to delivering health care.

Artist and co-founder of Everyartist.me Brendan O'Connell

Time magazine dubbed Brendan O'Connell as America's Brand Name Painter. In addition to articles in Time, the New Yorker and others he has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning and the Colbert Report. His Ted Talks presentation is concise and to the point. In it he reminds us that the world our children will inhabit has not been invented yet and it is through their ability to be creative that will determine that world. Kids initiate their creative thinking abilities before they develop reading, writing or arithmetic skills. It is creativity that drives innovation in everything.

In a 2010 survey of 1,500 chief executives conducted by IBM's Institute for Business Value, CEOs identified "creativity" as the most important leadership competency for the successful enterprise of the future. Research also demonstrates a strong connection between childhood creativity and creative output as an adult.

It is creativity that drives innovation in everything.

However, the creativity of our country's children is not being sufficiently nurtured and encouraged. A 2011 study carried out by The College of William & Mary, indicated that creativity scores, based on the Torrance assessment index have been steadily declining. The research suggests that the decline is particularly serious for younger children.

At the same time budgets for arts programs across the country are experiencing deep cuts. The reduced class time for arts is also caused by a perception that arts, while nice to have, are not essential. The arts are, in fact, essential for what we as a nation desire for our children: academic achievement, social engagement and innovative thinking. Kids initiate their creative thinking abilities before they develop reading, writing or arithmetic skills. It is creativity that drives innovation in everything...creativity is what moves people to new ideas and advancements.

Some of the thousands of artworks that were created during last years event.

Everyartist.me is a creative solution which aims to help spur expanded engagement in art activities among elementary school age children. Their signature event, Everyartist Live!, will take place Thursday Oct. 23, 2014. The theme for this years Everyartist Live! Event is "My Favorite Story" and is aimed at reaching over 250,000 young people.

As O'Connell points out, "Art is seen as a nice to have rather than a core subject. Everyartist is taking on the long term 20 year solution of addressing the creativity crisis." Buckminster Fuller put it like this, "To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." That is exactly what Everyartist.me is doing. Whether you are a parent, an educator or a concerned citizen, you can find more information about how you can participate and spread awareness throughout your community at Everyartist.me.

All images courtesy of Everyartist.me

Takashi Murakami's upcoming New York show foregrounds faith in the face of disaster.

Photo by Shin Suzuki. Artwork © Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.

History has shown us time and again how wars and natural disasters can dramatically alter an artist's work and career. It's a huge subject, but in Western Art History, think about how the first and second world wars led to Dada or the French avant-garde's "return to order" or Picasso's Guernica.

In retrospect we may consider the 2011 Great Tōhoku Earthquake and tsunami the major career-altering event for Takashi Murakami.

Murakami is well-known for his large-scale "Superflat" sculptures and paintings mixing Pop, animé and otaku themes. But after experiencing one of the deadliest and most damaging natural disasters in Japanese history he has done what some have called an "about-face."

He's moved away from previous themes in his work, such as "capitalism and the money game" and created new works engaging with ideas surfaced by the disaster, such as his recent film, Jellyfish Eyes, and his "Arhat Cycle" installation at the Palazzo Reale in Milan. Murakami has also raised money to assist victims and called for government admission of the environmental damage. As well, he's researched Japanese art created in response to historic natural disasters in the service of his work.

Photo by Shin Suzuki. Artwork © Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.

Murakami's upcoming exhibition at Gagosian Gallery, titled "In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow," continues to take the earthquake and tsunami as its departure-point.

According to the gallery, the show will feature an immersive installation of sculptures and paintings, which will investigate "the role of faith amid the inexorable transience and trauma of existence." More specifically, the works will merge "earlier faiths, myths, and images into a syncretic spirituality of the artist's imagination." Totemic sculptures will feature demons, religious sites, and self-portraits, while paintings will combine classical Japanese techniques with imagery from Abstract Expressionist paintings, science fiction, manga, as well as Buddhism and Shintoism.

Visitors will access the installation through a 56-ton replica of a sanmon (sacred gate). The gate will feature eclectic arhats, clones of his fictional creature Mr. Dob; and karajishi, mythical lions that guard Japanese Buddhist temples.

Photo by Shin Suzuki. Artwork © Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.

Accordingly, it seems proposing faith in the face of disaster will be the primary theme of the exhibition. How did Murakami arrive at this perspective? There are some clues in interviews he has done. For one, he has said that the events of 2011 "birthed in [him] a desire to understand spirituality." He's also commented that he believes, as an artist, he can heal people and that he sees himself as "carrying on the genes of a number of artists whom [he respects], such as Hayao Miyazaki. They did not create their own works only to be accepted by the public. They did it because they really wanted to change the world."

***

Foregrounding faith in response to trauma and disaster is interesting at this historical moment, since this has not been the trend of 20th century avant-garde Western artists. (Yes Murakami is Japanese, but he is characteristically discussed in the terms of Western art history.)

As is well-known, any genuine discussion of faith is difficult to find in modern and contemporary Western art history. Its absence was arguably caused by its absence in the liberal circles that create and embrace modern and contemporary art. Religion in the modern era was (and is) considered everything art has not been: conservative, against individualism, repressive, old-fashioned, intolerant, dogmatic, and divisive.

Does religion exist at all in today's art world? Yes, but most often as documentary or anthropological art about religion. It's also been said that contemporary art viewing experiences are similar to traditional religious experiences. They are ritualistic, and involve homages, reverence or worship in large, quiet spaces. Yet they're not actual religious experiences or artworks proposing new avenues of faith.

If modern and contemporary artists have not turned to faith in the face of trauma in the 20th century, what paths have they taken? Some have chosen to make works that bear witness by showing unflinching evidence of the human damage. Others have created memorials to idealize the dead and show their heroism. Still others haven't engaged at all with the disastrous events in their work -- this is what happened most often with 20th century abstract artists. Instead they opted to raise money or become engaged with the issue in other ways outside of the studio. Finally, there are many artists who have chosen to express nihilism and anger and hopelessness in the face of trauma.

How we receive, attend, review (and purchase) Murakami's exhibition may be some barometer of the state of religious art today. Another (final) thought here is maybe Western audiences won't consider this work immediately religious, since it is concerned with primarily Eastern religious traditions (i.e. Buddhism and Shintoism). As well, while it's the trend, we probably shouldn't compare Murakami with modern and contemporary Western artists, but instead (or at least more) with Japanese artists and Japanese art history (which is obviously a major historical departure point for his work, due to his research). This will enable us to better evaluate whether or not his approach is truly unconventional.

All of this now said, you should plan ahead, and not miss this exhibition.

Takashi Murakami, "In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow" opens at Gagosian Gallery, 555 West 24th Street New York, NY, on November 10th, 2014.

Photojournalist Jim Domke designed the first Domke camera bag in 1975 while he was on staff at The Philadelphia Inquirer. The bags haven't changed much over the years (for good reason) except for the new Next Generation line that just launched. I had a chance to try out the Domke Metro Messenger and I'll tell you a little bit about it in case you're considering this or similar bags.

The first thing you'll notice is that this is a really sexy bag. Credit to Domke for creating this military green color and using the RuggedWear material. The RuggedWear is a waxed and oiled cotton material that looks a little like leather but seems to be more durable and weatherproof. It's not waterproof, but I'd be comfortable spending a day with this bag while shooting here in the Seattle rain.

The metal clasps on the bag look great and feel like they will last forever. I'm a bit disappointed about the plastic clasps that attach to the shoulder strap and I'm not sure why they chose to go that route. Perhaps the plastic was a lot lighter than metal.

The interior is a perfect size for me, as it fits two DSLR camera bodies with space for lenses, a flash and plenty more (read: snacks). It comes with moveable dividers and customizable pouches, which is pretty standard nowadays, but still awesome. My 15" Macbook Pro fits perfectly in the "tablet" sleeve, which I think would even fit a 17" laptop without issue.

The bag weighs in at 5.25 pounds, which isn't light. I absolutely love the 2.2 pound Tenba Messenger bag, which was given to me at the Eddie Adams Workshop in 2008 (read: humblebrag) and is still my workhorse. The two bags are very similar in design, except ... the Domke bag is way cooler. It's going to weigh more but it has a much more classic, and classy, look. And don't get me wrong: It is still extremely practical and built for working professionals.

All in all, I do really love this bag. My guess is that Domke wasn't worried about the competing Tenba, Think Tank, or LowePro messenger bags, because Domke sells a ton of bags and has nothing to worry about. What I think the designers wanted to do was compete with the Filson line of bags co-designed by Magnum photographers David Alan Harvey and Steve McCurry. Those guys are awesome, and Filson is awesome, and they are making pretty cool bags with a similar look. But, if I am going to shlep my gear around the city all day on assignment, I would probably lean toward a Domke bag.

Hopefully this review was helpful, and just let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks for reading.

Bag reviewed: Domke Metro Messenger in RuggedWear Military (also available in RuggedWear Black and Cordura Black)
MSRP: $499.99
More info on the Domke Next Generation bag line: http://tiffen.com/products.html?tablename=domkenextgen

See more from Seattle photographer David Ryder on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or at photographer-in-seattle.com.

St. Louis Symphony Associate Concertmaster Heidi Harris and Principal Double Bass Erik Harris performing at Washington Metropolitan Church, part of the IN UNISON program. Photo courtesy of St. Louis Symphony.

On Monday night, demonstrators protested the Metropolitan Opera for performing John Adams' "The Death of Klinghoffer." Three weeks ago a very different kind of demonstration was held in Powell Symphony Hall. Just before the start of a performance by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Brahms German Requiem, demonstrators unfurled banners reading "Requiem for Michael Brown" and "Racism Lives Here" above a drawing of the iconic Saint Louis Arch. Next the protesters sang several choruses of "Which Side Are You On," a 1930s protest song dating back to the bitter miners' strike in Harlan County, KY. It was all over in three minutes. The demonstrators departed peacefully, on their own volition, chanting "Black Lives Matter," and the scheduled performance proceeded.

What happened in those three minutes and what does it mean that it occurred in Powell Symphony Hall? Anyone who watched the video or heard the radio broadcast can see for themselves the confusion, fear, support, and anger the demonstrators inspired in the audience and on the stage. A full range of views and feelings is on display. The explosive and divisive issue of race with all its messiness, emotion, and frustration, had entered the concert hall. Whether orchestras are seeking a place in the country's continuing conversation about race, or that conversation descends on them, race is an inescapable fact of life for orchestras as it is in the rest of America. Orchestras have a long way to go to achieve racial diversity in the board room, onstage, and in the audience. But they are not standing still.

The Brahms Requiem is one of the most sublime expressions of loss, healing, and redemption. The demonstration organizers report that they carefully chose the occasion of its performance as the time and place to engage -- a testament to this canonic work's relevance and enduring capacity to take on new meaning as the context around it changes. Admittedly, the St. Louis Symphony did not choose this new context; it chose them. But the choice of time and place was an affirmation that the St. Louis Symphony and the Brahms Requiem matter, especially, as this simmering city confronts the most urgent issues triggered by the Michael Brown shooting.

This was not the St. Louis Symphony's first connection to Ferguson. Last month the orchestra participated in a concert in a Ferguson church in support of the community. The concert, billed as "Heal Ferguson," was organized by Brian Owens, St. Louis Symphony staff member and a Ferguson resident.

The concert was not a one-off gesture from the St. Louis Symphony. Its origins go back to 1992 when the St. Louis Symphony acknowledged both its challenges around racial diversity as well as the incredible opportunity in making music together with the choral talent resident in Saint Louis' African-American churches.

IN UNISON Chorus performing at St. Louis' Powell Hall. Photo courtesy of St. Louis Symphony.

The SLSO built a relationship with more than forty African-American churches that remains a robust collaboration including a 120-member chorus recruited from the church choirs that performs two times per season with the orchestra in Powell Hall and once in a free community concert at a partner church, and performances by SLSO musicians in twenty churches annually.

The St. Louis Symphony performance in Ferguson reminds me of a story relayed by director Peter Sellars in his keynote to over a thousand delegates to the National Conference of the League of American Orchestras in LA in 2006:

We arrived at this church on a Saturday afternoon, and it was in the middle of a full gang funeral for a young man the community valued who'd been shot in gang crossfire. And the church was filled with mourners and a kind of heaviness over the pointless violence that's going on right now in our cities -- this sense of losing the best of a generation. In certain neighborhoods, you do not expect, if you're a young man, to live past the age of 25. The orchestra had programmed the Egmont Overture of Beethoven. Those opening chords in that grief-stricken community were overwhelming... That Saturday afternoon is my most important experience of Beethoven in my whole life. And it needed the audience to teach me what Beethoven was trying to express.

Issues of race and repertoire have been making dramatic and widely observed appearances in orchestras lately. In June, the rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot, in a performance with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and a group of spontaneously assembled women from the audience, sparked vitriolic debates about race and gender when a video of the performance went viral.

Aaron Flagg, Professor of Music and Dean, The Hartt School, and board member of the League of American Orchestras and Stamford Symphony, offers a thoughtful reflection on the event in the current issue of Symphony Magazine.

The performances mentioned here, and dozens of others across the country, demonstrate orchestras' growing awareness of the civic and creative possibilities that result from crossing the racial divide, the power of the orchestral experience to unite, and ultimately, the relevance of the art form to critical issues of our time.

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Art vs. Begging and the Reality of Modern-Day Manhattan

'Na Maloom Afraad': Revival of Pakistani Cinema in Progress

Contemporary Artist Edel Verzijl -- Redefining Femininity

A-Sides with Jon Chattman: Bastille's Dan Smith on "Eh Ohs," Covers, and the "Awesomeness" and "Weirdness" of Success

Gustavo Dudamel Will Conduct His First Ever Complete Beethoven Symphonies Cycle, July 8-12, 2015, in Bogotá

First Nighter: The Death of Klinghoffer on and Off Stage at the Met

Book Review: Rendez-vous With Art by Philippe de Montebello and Martin Gayford

The Gentrification of Bushwick -- As Told By 'East WillyB'

Samurai and Jazz Invasion of LACMA

Dance Celebration Dances on With Stellar Line-Up

Protest Music and the Hong Kong Umbrella Revolution

From Budapest With Love

Everyartist Live! and Why Creativity Matters

Takashi Murakami After Tōhoku

Domke Metro Messenger Camera Bag Review

A Relevant Requiem in St. Louis