The Northern Lights Film Festival is becoming the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival this year in its third go-round. The fest is Sept. 29-Oct. 1 this year. And organizers promise the new web site goes up tomorrow.
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« May 2006 | Main | July 2006 »
June 30, 2006
June 27, 2006
Welcome back Rex Trailer!
Awesome. On July 19, Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the legendary Boston kids' show "Boomtown" with star Rex Trailer. Festivities include a Redbones BBQ and a screening of the Boomtown movie, as well as a chance to meet Rex. Tingle was on the show as a kid; myself I remember walking from our house in North Conway one summer evening down the street to see Trailer make a personal appearance at Mount Cranmore. He made a semi-magical appearance down the mountain, which to a 6-year-old was pretty cool, although he probably just rode in from the service road on the back side. Tix are $25 and include food. Call 1-866-811-4111 or visit the web site.
June 23, 2006
Pops, Jacket, future, past
We got to the second night of My Morning Jacket's Symphony Hall collaboration with the Boston Pops on Thursday. While I don't think there were any blindingly brilliant artistic revelations, every moment was enjoyable. And I mean starting from the time we entered to see the cargo-shorts-clad MMJ contingent rocking out to local bands in both lobby bars, while silver-haired season-ticket holders watched from outside the doorways. (Reviews of Wednesday night's show are here and here. Pictures are here.)
Keith Lockhart and co. are trying hard to attract a new crowd with these Pops on the Edge shows - Guster played last year - and the youngsters who came seemed to be trying to play ball, many of them with loose neckties hung over their wrinkled duds as a concession to what they imagined to be the dress code. The oldsters, meanwhile, were more likely to be wearing Polos and khakis as a concession to the heat, although some were still in suits. They stood watching Jake Brennan and the Confidence Men and The Unbusted from a safe distance, either wincing at the guitar noise or smiling bemusedly. Lord knows they needed a G&T or a glass of wine to salve their sensibilities amid the tumult, but they only went to the end of the bar farthest from the band, got their drinks, then edged back out into the corridor. Only one tux-clad fiftyish guy stood watching Brennan from inside, nodding along.
When we took our seats at a table in the hall, we were joined by two twentyish lads who never troubled to so much as look our way, so intense was their focus on the stage. One was a hyper dead ringer for A.J. Soprano, and he came equipped with digital recorder, digital camera, notepad and pen; I think he was some kind of MMJ blogger, to judge by his t-shirt from last weekend's Bonnaroo Festival, where MMJ played, and the fact that he was still wearing his Bonnaroo press wristband four days later, a beloved talisman. Throughout the show, he shot flash pictures (sometimes running to the front of the aisle to do so), whooped, hollared and shot the devil's horns at the stage. Entertaining and annoying at the same time. I hope to find his post sometime today. But it was certainly a different sort of Pops crowd. He wasn't the only one howling and shooting the horns, a gesture that has lost whatever metalhead meaning it once had, now signifying a sort of generalized You rawk, dude! The suit-clad retiree to me left found it all most amusing.
The members of MMJ also made an obvious sartorial concession, suiting up in tails for the occasion, and dressing their stage teddy bear in a tux. But seeing a chubby, hairy guy playing a Flying V electric guitar on the stage of Symphony Hall was still pretty different, regardless of the wardrobe.
Oh, and how was the music? Well, those reviewers got it right. The MMJ performance of "Gideon" on Letterman last week with a dozen Pops players (video here) seemed to have a powerful tension that I never quite felt Thursday night. Still, MMJ's music is intensely atmospheric in a way that resembles the (otherwise very different) Coldplay and Radiohead, and if the matchup with the orchestra never seemed to change the nature of the songs very much, it added color and texture. On several of the dozen or so songs, it was hard to hear the orchestra's contribution until the brass kicked in. It all gelled best at the end, on the roaring "Run Thru." I'm not sure we've come all that far from "Conquistador," though. What was terrific was hearing Jim James' intensely emotional if not exactly conventional voice in the acoustic perfection of Symphony, especially on "Run Thru" and "Bermuda Highway," the show's coda, which found him alone in front of the orchestra.
Watching the orchestra's faces during the show was almost as entertaining as watching the crowd. The percussionists seemed to enjoy getting out some of their odder instruments for an introductory stroll through the aisles - what the hell was that thing that sounded like a theremin, anyway? - but the bass players leaned on their instruments with decided ennui during a long period when they weren't needed.
Lockhart seemed to enjoy the festivities as much as anyone, although the tight pants and open-necked, shiny black shirt getup was not so much hip as it was sort of a caricatured Latin lover look. Odd, because otherwise he and the Pops have gotten this pretty much exactly right with Guster, MMJ and next week Aimee Mann. Previous attempts to hip up the orchestra generally have only gone as far as attracting the sort of totally safe, Boomer-approved artists who might now be found doing car commercials. Trust me, Lockhart bumping butts with Cyndi Lauper on the Esplanade a couple of years ago did nothing to attract the younger audience. But MMJ is precisely of the moment, and the collaboration was cooler than anything I could have imagined the Pops trying even a couple of years ago. And it rather casts the choice of Aerosmith as this year's July 4 guest stars in a different light. Next year, at least try Coldplay. Because they're the mainstream now.
Maybe the most encouraging thing about Thursday night was that I actually heard some new music I liked. Although The Unbusted were clearly holding back on the rawk in the staid confines of the upstairs bar, several songs sounded radio-ready. Singer/guitarist Joe Keefe had all kinds of diffident Conor Oberst/Paul Westerberg charisma and real control over his aching voice. (He was also one of those who'd slung a tie around his neck as camouflage.) I will be looking to hear them in a bar soon, before they pop. And that's the first time I've ever gone to Symphony Hall and found a band I hope to track down at the Middle East. Whether that translates to an increased audience for symphonic music, though, is still an open question.#
Image: courtesy Boston Pops
June 21, 2006
Cornejo will dance here
Announcement just now from Boston Ballet: Erica Cornejo, currently a soloist with American Ballet
Theatre, will join Boston Ballet as a principal dancer for the 2006-2007
season. “Erica is a gifted dancer, wonderfully musical, and her
joy in dancing is evident to anyone who’s seen her perform,” said Boston Ballet
Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen. “She is a terrific addition to a roster
already deep with talent.” The roster for the 2006-2007 season will be
finalized in August.
Contributing factors? "Cornejo is married to Boston Ballet Principal Dancer
Carlos Molina, and is the sister of ABT Principal Dancer Herman Cornejo."
The Ballet lists her credits: Erica Cornejo was born in San Luis, Argentina and began
studying ballet at the age of four. She attended the school of the Ballet del
Theatre Colon in Buenos Aires, and eventually became a member of the company
before going on to dance with Julio Bocca’s Ballet Argentino. Cornejo joined ABT’s Studio Company in May 1998 and,
later that same year, joined ABT as a member of the corps de ballet. She was
promoted to soloist in 2003. Cornejo has created leading roles in Within You
Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison (Stanton Welch’s “Isn’t It a Pity?”
and David Parsons’ “My Sweet Lord”) and Lar Lubovitch’s “. . .smile with my
heart.” Her diverse repertory includes the Cowgirl in Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo,
the lead Pirate Woman in Petipa/Sergeyev’s Le Corsaire, a flower girl in Don
Quixote, His Experience in Natalie Weir and Stanton Welch’s HereAfter, Clara in
The Nutcracker, the Debutante in Antony Tudor’s Offenbach in the Underworld and
leading roles in Kirk Peterson’s Amazed in Burning Dreams, Paul Taylor’s Black
Tuesday, Mark Morris’ Gong, Ji?í Kylián’s Petite Mort and Sechs Tanze and
William Forsythe’s workwithinwork. Earlier this season with ABT, Cornejo won
rave reviews dancing the role of one of the Stepsisters in James Kudelka’s
Cinderella, a ballet that received its United States premiere with Boston
Ballet in 2005. Cornejo will continue to dance with ABT through the remainder
of the company’s New York season at the Metropolitan Opera House.
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