Results tagged “finearts”

Rudolph Valentino. Ray Charles. Jerry Lee Lewis dancing on pianos, for God's sake! Dance in Seattle had anything but a boring 20th century. We were prowling around the internet this morning and discovered that today is the anniversary of the date the city banned a really bizarre but popular 1920s and '30s fad called "dance marathons" within its city limits. That was enough to pique our interest, and we've spent the day researching what was happening in the world of dance during the 20th century. Here are some of the highlights, thanks in large part to our favorite local history website: HistoryLink.org.

Attention Pearl Jam fans and Flatstock attendees: You need the new, superfancy art book Pearl Jam vs Ames Bros: 13 Years of Tour Posters.

Francophiles attending the Beaujolais Nouveau gala in Bellevue Friday will have the chance to bid on more than a dozen travel packages (tickets to Paris? ho-hum...) as well as some rare and valuable works of art. An original lithograph by the French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is likely to draw the most interest.

(This story actually took place years ago but just came up in conversation recently and everyone at Seattlest realized it needs to be preserved here for posterity and for future historians to study...)

The conversation at Seattlest Home Headquarters last weekend went something like this:

All right, so Seattlest hasn’t yet seen Così fan Tutte, which is playing right now at Seattle Opera. In fact, tonight, Friday night and Saturday night are your last chances to see it, with Friday and Saturday being your best bet for seats.

Kirsten Anderson, owner of Roq La Rue and all-around supreme being, is lecturing on Pop Surealism and the rise of tonight at the Seattle Academy of Fine Art. Lectures are what made me drop out of school, you say. But this lecture is about Lowbrow art which you love, we respond. Pop art is for freaks and the Academy of Fine Art is not the right venue to talk about it, you say. "The movement is now getting grudging, if bewildered, respect from the 'High Art World,' and while it remains slightly vilified, is voraciously collected by forward-thinking collectors," the Academy says. I'm deaf, you say, what good is a kick ass lecture going to do me? There are slides, we say.

It's funny, because just the other day Seattlest was nattering about composer Adam Guettel and his winning ways on Broadway, and now the Met is jumping up and down in our inbox trying to catch our attention with some "let's eat Seattle's lunch" news.

We could die happy now. Seattlest went to Pacific Northwest Ballet’s “Valentine” performance last Friday. We wish we’d gone earlier, so we could tell you about it in time for you to go as well, since Sunday was the last performance. Ostensibly, we purchased the tickets because Valentine was billed as a more contemporary collection of dances from PNB, and we’re not much for the usual ballet stuff with the tutus and the tiaras and the traditional classical scores. We were most excited for a collection of duets choreographed by one of our favorite modern dancers, Twyla Tharp, set to a variety of Frank Sinatra songs. Good, solid romantic stuff.

After being closed last year for reroofing, the Seattle Asian Art Museum opened January 14 with four new shows. The wily curators at SAAM knew you weren't paying attention, though, so they scheduled the Grand Reopening for this Saturday, the 21st. The celebration inside features "music, dance, and theater from Asian cultures," a grouping that includes Sumo wrestling and DJ Anup Shastri. There will be FREE Starbucks Coffee served between 10am and 1pm for the incredibly budget-conscious and possibly anemic. Suggested admission for adults is just $5, which is so inexpensive it doesn't make it worth our while to tell you that children get in for even less.

The wake of late playwright August Wilson is today from 11am-8pm and tomorrow from 11am to 6pm at the Bonney-Watson Funeral Home. He'll be buried in Pittsburgh this weekend.

On Friday night Seattlest caught the Washington Ensemble Theatre's production of Crave. Not to be confused with one of our favorite restaurants in town, this play is the handicraft of Sarah Kane, a brilliant, troubled artist who spat out five intense and violent works before hanging herself at age 28. The marketing we've seen for the play would like you to think that the play is "sexy and brutal." Make no mistake---this play is definitely brutal, but focusing on the topic of sex does not automatically make something sexy. Crave is certainly anything but.

Seattlest enjoyed a rare night of theatre this weekend. We saw Patience, a lovely show put on by Seattle’s Gilbert and Sullivan society. Now, if you’ve never seen a Gilbert and Sullivan show before, we suggest thinking of their oeuvre as a cross between Oscar Wilde and Cole Porter, with an occasional dash of pirates (see Pirates of Penzance) and some satire thrown in for good measure.

Seattle may not be the heart of the burlesque revival, but we're definitely an artery. Several talented local troupes help return the word "saucy" to our vocabulary--the Atomic Bombshells, Glitzkrieg, Burning Hearts Burlesque and others. There are regular shows: Burning Hearts' Bed Room Club happens Thursdays at the Fenix Underground, and the Pink Door hosts a show every Saturday night. And when the Bombshells return from the east coast this fall, they'll be back at the Mirabeau Room for weekly performances.

Ok, so officially the project we're about to mention takes place in northern California, but Seattlest sees this pertaining to a larger geographical area. One that we call "Bigfoot Country." If it happens in Bigfoot Country it matters to Seattlest.

It’s summer, or at least it is practically everywhere else in the country, and every classical musical group in this town and towns nearby seems to be taking a summer hiatus. Seattlest thinks a lot of people are heading out of town this weekend anyway, so perhaps this break is a good business move for the classical folks.

Perhaps Seattlest is overstating things when we say that most people, when they think of classical music, think of stuffy concert halls, people dressed like penguins, and paying a lot of money for an uncomfortable nap. Of course, we say this only when we feel especially pessimistic about people's perceptions of classical music.

Seattlest went to see the opening of Three Sisters at the Intiman last week, and we’re just dying to tell people about it.

Seattle has many classical music outlets, primary among them Seattle Symphony. Next week (from June 23rd to 26th), the Symphony is bringing Verdi's Requiem to Benaroya.

Wonder Bread plant in the Central District, a mere half mile away. We had seen the Wonder Bread sign from across the city, a beacon of nostalgia from when folks thought that bleaching food made it more nutritious. Turns out Interstate Bakeries vacated the warehouse over five years ago. Now the PI reports the block is being bulldozed for redevelopment and several groups in Seattle are requesting the sign be preserved, much like the Rainier Beer ‘R’ and the blue flame from Washington Natural Gas – both now on display at the Museum of History and Industry.

The musical “Light in the Piazza,” which had its premiere at Seattle's Intiman Theatre in 2003, moved on to Chicago, then Broadway, and bagged six Tonys last night. The New York Times notes it was the biggest single winner of the evening:

Seattle Opera had a presentation of Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann last night, and Seattlest was there. First we sipped wine in the lobby and raised our eyebrows at McCaw Hall's mid-'90s condo aesthetic: metallic silver columns and artistic use of chainlink fencing. (We raised our eyebrows separately, because we can do that.)

Late last night Seattlest was mingling with the post-concert crowd in the Founders Room at Benaroya Hall. We'd just had our socks knocked off by an Erwin Schulhoff piece in the Music of Rembrance concert commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day. (Which makes Schulhoff's death one more thing we have against Nazis.) According to our notes, try the cheese plate, skip the house Pinot.

Seattlest has no idea how it happened, but London's Reduced Shakespeare Company is bringing their abridged version of the complete works of ol' Bill Shakespeare to the Tacoma Actors Guild (TAG) for a two-week run from March 24th through April 10th.

Another day, another great opening at the Northwest Film Forum. This time it's The Nomi Song, a documentary by Andrew Horn, opening tomorrow night. The subject of Horn's film is Klaus Nomi, an interesting dude, to make a vast understatement. Klaus wasn't "normal" by any means, and this film charts his journey from Berlin opera usher to androgynous robot/alien/New Wave cult icon.

The men in South Korea really know how to treat a lady. At least, that's what we gather from Bad Guy, playing now until Thursday at the Northwest Film Forum. This is the latest film from Kim Ki-Duk, director of the acclaimed Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall...and Spring, and, to say the least, it's not so pleasant.

Truthfully, we don't know that much about this event, but judging by the people involved and the press that's already out there we think it's going to be worth your Saturday night. The Degenerate Art Emsemble is a 45 piece orchestra composed of "adventurous classical and improvising musicians."

If the Academy Awards---now but a distant, boring memory---got you feenin’ for some short films of the animated, live action, or documentary variety, you’re in luck. The Northwest Film Forum, located on Capitol Hill between Pike and Pine, is currently showing seven of the Oscar-nominated animated and live action shorts, all in one sitting. The selection includes both winners of the short film Oscars, Ryan for best animated and Wasp for best live action. Act fast, because these films will only be showing twice a night, 7pm and 9:15pm, now through Thursday. Tickets are $8, available here.