Results tagged “vietnam”

When Harold Pinter’s masterpiece The Homecoming first premiered on Broadway some four decades ago, the dramatized hostility was met with equal hostility from the bourgeois audience, as witnessed by the playwright himself:

One of the greatest theatrical nights of my life was the opening of The Homecoming in New York. There was the audience. It was 1967. I'm not sure they've changed very much, but it really was your mink coats and suits. Money. And when the lights went up on The Homecoming, they hated it immediately. 'Jesus Christ, what the hell are we looking at here?' I was there, and the hostility towards the play was palpable. You could see it.

Continue reading "Opinionist: The Homecoming"

Prestige filmmakers take note: If you want the Times critics to really love you, what you need to do is put the fear in them. At least it worked for Tim Burton; his adaptation of Steven Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd gave reviewer A.O. Scott nightmares. And for that, Scott deems the film “close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme – I am tempted to say evil – genius.” (Current Rotten Tomato rating: 88% fresh.) One big question was whether the non-singing actors cast in the film would be able to pull it off; according to Burton the film is almost 90 sung. Well, it worked for Scott:

Johnny Depp’s voice is harsh and thin, but amazingly forceful. He brings the unpolished urgency of rock ’n’ roll to an idiom accustomed to more refinement., and in doing so awakens the violence of Mr. Sondheim’s lyrics and melodies.

In Ryan Seacrest is Famous, his debut collection of pop-culture enthused short stories, Dave Housley makes you think, makes you laugh, and, if you're a writer, inspires you to run to your computer and get started on that premise you've been putting off. Whether it comes in the form of an alcoholic clown, people obsessed with Fight Club, or a DJ hiring a prostitute in an attempt to win back his old flame, Housley's stories...

EVENT: Berlin takes over New York this month with the Berlin in Lights Festival. Through the 18th you can soak up the German city through film, music, art, architecture and more. This evening you can check out a couple of Berlin-esque events. First up is the "Urban Design and Memorials" dialogue. A panel discussion which will touch on the "challenges of integrating memorials into the urban fabric, and how Berlin and New York address issues...

Two movies set in New York are coming out today, and both are getting a lot of press, promo and opined upon.

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week?

Author, critic and journalist Steven Heller started out as someone who, in the words of Paula Scher, "had been more or less oblivious to design," but went on not only to launch the careers of some of our most well-known illustrators, but also to chronicle graphic design in more than 100 books. Heller also has been a contributing editor to Print, Eye, Baseline and I.D., writes obituaries for The New York Times and a column for the Book Review. A Times art director for 33 years, 30 of which he spent at the Book Review, Heller, a New York City native, is the co-founder and co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author program at the School of Visual Arts (he has lectured at SVA for 14 years). Today, a retrospective of Mr. Heller’s work opens at the School of Visual Art’s Visual Arts Museum.

FILM: BAM features the work of Al Santana tonight. The Brooklyn filmmaker "has been a fixture on the independent film and video scene for years and his work ranges from documentaries about the transatlantic slave trade to coping with 9/11." Santana will be on hand for a Q&A tonight as well.

While no one is questioning the fiscal stability of New York City the way they were during the 1970s, municipal spending has nonetheless exploded during Mayor Bloomberg's five years in office, far in excess of anything his predecessors accomplished over the last three decades.

Movie blogger Jeffrey Wells counts 12 films about America’s entanglements in the Middle East coming down the pipe this year. It’ll be some feat if even one of them matches the urgency, power and electricity of Iphigenia 2.0, Charle’s Mee’s self-described “sampling” of Euripides’s Iphigenia at Aulis. You may know the essential storyline: Agamemnon’s army is left stranded en route to the Trojan War when the goddess Artemis stifles the wind to punish him for hunting a sacred deer. Before Artemis will let the army sail on, Agamemnon must make it up to Her by personally slitting his daughter Iphigenia’s throat. It’s an unthinkable act that Agamemnon struggles to avoid, but his soldiers ain't having it. Death is certain for some of them; if the man who sends them to it can’t stomach that sacrifice himself, how dare he demand it of others?

MOVIES: With another version of Hairspray hitting the big screen this summer, it seems to be a season of decades past and, of course, hair! Movies With a View brings back the musical tale of Central Park hippies, small town boys headed to Vietnam and the '60s as they show the film Hair tonight.

MUSIC: Not long ago we saw the movie Once, and absolutely loved it. Busker meets girl, deep connection through music...you get the idea. Now the two main characters are touring and singing the songs from the soundtrack. The male lead was of course the singer of The Frames, Glen Hansard, and his female counterpoint is Marketa Irglova. Tonight they take the stage at Gramercy, so it's your chance to see them off the big screen and right before your very eyes. We wonder if they'll stay in character?

This week Bruni goes to P*ong, the dessert/savory restaurant brought to us by pastry chef Pichet Ong (formerly of Perry Street and Spice Market), awards the restaurant one star. Finds the restaurant "tantalizing, often irritating," and says it challenges one's ideas of what should be sweet and what should be savory. But the desserts are the restaurant's strenth, says Bruni, and also it's too crowded and the service is not good enough to make staying for a longer meal worth while. He likes the special cocktails, though.

EVENT: The New York Book Club at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum presents…"Breaking News: How the Associated Press Has Covered New York City". The panelists include "Hal Buell, longtime AP photo editor who put images of the Vietnam War in newspapers across America; Richard Drew, AP photographer who has covered New York events including 9/11; Edie Lederer, longtime UN correspondent and first woman to be the foreign chief of bureau; and Valerie Komor, corporate archives director of the AP."

translated into 13 languages, a third that's in the works, and a development deal with Revolution Studios.

FR.OG -- This sleek space in SoHo brings together Chef Didier Virot and his partner from Aix Brasserie, Philip Kirsh, in a tribute to parts of the world that had at one time been colonized by the French and influenced by French cuisine. The name stands for French Origin (it has nothing to do with amphibians), and the menu provides a global culinary romp with stops in Vietnam, Morocco, Lebanon and, of course, France. The sleek, trendy space (pictured above) seats 120 on two levels including some seats with a view into the open kitchen. Be sure to try the FR.OG martini -- vodka with a touch of cardamom and star anise. 71 Spring Street, between Broadway and Lafayette, 212-966-5050.

The prolific journalist and author David Halberstam died yesterday in a car crash outside of San Francisco. Halberstam, a New Yorker, was traveling in a car that was broadsided while trying to make a left turn. Two other cars were involved in the crash, none of the drivers were seriously injured. The NY Times obituary notes that Halberstam "was killed doing what he had done his entire adult life: reporting," as he was on his way to interview a football player for an upcoming book.

SCIENCE: The UnCoolKids have done it again, scoping out the science events around the city. Tonight is Café Scientifique:

Earlier this week, the Daily News looked at the YouTube video showing a classic meltdown at the Kensington Post Office. A man, frustrated about the service, yells, "Get the manager over here! I want the manager. We'll see how long you have your job, sweetie." An employee says, "Who the hell do you think you are?" only for the man to reply, "I'm the customer, you stupid bitch." Yeah, that sounds about right.

10. Vietnam Veterans Memorial - Maya Lin with Cooper-Lecky PartnershipNew Yorkology has a list of the NYC structures in the top 150, and looking at what both the public and architects (they made some pre-selects), the rankings are all over the place. Sure, the Brooklyn Bridge is #20 and the Woolworth Building is #44. But the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue ranks #53, higher than the Flatiron Building (#72). Heck, even the new Hearst Tower ranks ahead of the Flatiron!

Yikes! The Department of Education claims that a teacher charged the city for tutoring a child who was dead. According to the DOE, Cheryl Edwards said she spent 154.5 hours tutoring a sick 15-year-old student between January 23 and June 12 and received $5,864.82. The catch: In mid-January, the boy's mother took him to Vietnam (their native country), where he died on January 29 after 6 days in a hospital.

ART: Running through March 7th at Gavin Brown's enterprise at Passerby is "Radical Living Papers". Some of the passionate writers of forty years ago will have their words become a part of this exhibit, which serves as a snapshot of the Vietnam War era and a history of counter-culture and alt press. Publications (all from the 60s and 70s) include Rolling Stone, The Black Panther, Freep, The Seed and the Los Angeles Free Press.

Yesterday, the police arrested Francisco Torress of Queens, as well as Herman Bell and Anthony Bottom, in connection with the 1971 murder of a San Francisco police officer. Bell and Bottom are currently serving jail time for murdering two NYPD officers in 1971; while Bell and Bottom were convicted of the 1971 killing NYPD cops Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones, Torres and his brother were found innocent due to insufficient evidence. A SWAT team descended on Torres's home in Jamaica, Queens yesterday morning. A neighbor told the Post, "We thought he was a disabled Vietnam veteran. That's what he told people."

SIGNING: If there is one person we could think of that doesn't need an autobiography...it might as well be Rupert Everett. Yet, he'll be signing his new book "Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins: The Autobiography" tonight. He wasn't just in "My Best Friends Wedding", he was also friends with Warhol and has been to easter egg hunts in Elizabeth Taylor's garden. Fabulous.

Maybe it was the umpteenth “F Bush” tag that seen in the subway station. Or maybe it was President Bush’s interview on Sixty Minutes last night. But recent news about the war, troop deployments and civil rights has infused us with feeling like we're in the 21st Century version of the Wonder Years. This is not the Sixties, but it seems like today’s commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr. has gotten some of us in that Sixties kind of mood.

Governor Spitzer has nominated Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Theodore T. Jones to a position on the NY State Court of Appeals, the state's highest court. You may remember Jones's name from such incidents as the Transit Strike of 2005. Jones is the one who fined the TWU $2.5 million and sentenced TWU president Roger Toussaint to 10 days in jail.

You know it's the beginning of January when the gyms are filled with New Years resolution exercisers and the movie theaters are filled with post-New Years dreck. Frankly, it's best to focus on getting caught up on last year's best (see our Top 10 and the subsequent comments for suggestions) and leave this week's releases for suckers with movie money to burn.

The story about Wesley Autrey jumping into the subway tracks yesterday afternoon to save a fellow straphanger at the 137th Street downtown 1 platform gets more amazing. It turns out that Autrey and two other women had helped 20 year old Cameron Hollopeter right before the fall - Hollopeter had a seizure and Autrey used a pen to keep his mouth open. They called for a station agent's help, but Hollopeter got up and stumbled into the tracks before help came.

It was bound to happen: Supporters of former mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential ambitions are in talks with various September 11 victims' families. Why? To perhaps create a 9/11 halo/force field around Giuliani when he may be attacked by opponents. The NY Post had the exclusive scoop on how some families have been contacted, including high-profile FDNY widow Marian Fontana, who was invited to a Giuliani exploratory committee dinner. Fontana says that while she appreciates Rudy's efforts post-September 11, she feels "not ready to endorse," preferring to know what their views on different issues are.

- Parents who have a sever facial deformity. No guidance on how this might be judged.