Archive for February, 2008

Judith Jamison Ankles Ailey Job

Judith Jamison, whose name is virtually synonymous with that of the Alvin Ailey company, will step down as the troupe’s artistic director in 2011.

“Indiana Jones” To Debut at Cannes

According to Variety:
Parlez-vous Francais, Indiana Jones?
The long-awaited fourth installment of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s period action-adventure pic will debut at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, May 18.
That’s four days before “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” opens day-and-date worldwide May … Read more »

“Peter Grimes”: A Varied Musical Feast

Ellen Orford, the unhappy schoolteacher in Benjamin Britten’s 1945 opera, “Peter Grimes,” sings of “this unrelenting work,” and it would be tempting to apply that phrase to the totality of what some say is Britten’s finest full-scale evening. Despite “Grimes”’s grimness, I can’t agree with … Read more »

ScarJo & NatPo Show: How Accurate?

Royal biographer Antonia Fraser asks: “Do the many inaccuracies, not to say travesties, in historical movies matter compared with the general illumination and insight they may bring? The latest offering ‘The Other Boleyn Girl‘ (to be released February 29, starring Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman) … Read more »

New Coldplay CD: “Different”

Rolling Stone magazine’s Evan Serpick recently visited Coldplay in their northern London recording studio where they’re hammering away at their still-untitled fourth album, due in May. The band teamed up with legendary producer Brian Eno and pointedly tried to remove all outside influences this time … Read more »

William F. Buckley Dies at 82

To some of us, he will always be remembered as the conservative who recommended that all HIV-positive people be tattooed; others will remember him for his serpentine persona on the long-running chat show “Firing Line.” I’ll say this for him: he was unvaryingly unctuous but … Read more »

Last Night’s Snooze Competition

I had to laugh last night as I flipped back and forth between the Clinton-Obama debate (the snooziest to date) and PBS’ broadcast of the New York Philharmonic’s concert (pictured) in North Korea. The orchestra’s visit to what Washington still looks on as a … Read more »