HubArts.com

Here's why I spent a sunny, warm Friday afternoon in a darkened movie theater

"Echelon Conspiracy."

Brando and Zinn - you say you want a revolution?

Howard Zinn will introduce "Burn!" at the Coolidge on March 9, as part of the theater's 75th anniversary festivities. The movie from the late Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo ("Battle of Algiers") stars Marlon Brando (left) as a British mercenary who instigates a slave rebellion in a Portugese colony to benefit his countrymen, but later must put down the uprising he started. The film dates to 1969, so no doubt there's a Vietnam allegory in there somewhere. Apparently it's Zinn's favorite film - what, you were expecting "Breakfast at Tiffany's?" Tickets are available in advance at http://www.coolidge.org/showtimes or on the day of the show at the box office, 290 Harvard St. in Brookline.

More damage control from Brandeis: Now it's the media's fault

Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz has sent yet another "Dear Brandeis Alumnus/a" e-mail to confuse everyone with bullshit "clear up some of the misconceptions" surrounding the university's financial plight and the not-closing of the Rose Art Museum. In other words, one more attempt to un-bungle the situation. I'll include the complete missive after the jump, but here's the part y'all care about (emphasis mine):

Q. What is the situation involving the Rose Art Museum?
A. Unfortunately, there has been a great deal of misinformation circulating in the media regarding the Rose. The facts are:
 1. The Rose is NOT going to close. The Board of Trustees voted to keep the Rose open as a teaching and exhibition gallery that is even more fully integrated into University life and the academic enterprise. A faculty-student-trustee committee is looking into ways to accomplish this goal. We envision a day when the Rose will host additional events, welcome more visitors from both on and off campus, and exhibit student and faculty art alongside some of the collection's notable works. We are pleased to share the news that a donor recently stepped forward to help fund the continued operations of the museum.
 2. The Board of Trustees voted to authorize Brandeis to sell a limited number of pieces in the collection -- if the need arises in the future. Nothing will be sold into the currently depressed art market.

OK, now let's COMPARE AND CONTRAST that statement to look at the first email he sent out on January 26 (emphasis mine):

I am writing to tell you that the Board of Trustees met today and voted to close the Rose Art Museum. The decision was difficult and was reached after a painstaking assessment of the university’s need to mobilize for the future and initiate a strategy to replenish our financial assets.

The Rose has been a marvelous addition to the Fine Arts program, and we are grateful to everyone who expressed their love for art and admiration for Brandeis’s academic mission by helping to create, build, and support the museum. Choosing between and among important and valued university assets is terrible, but our priority in the face of hard choices will always be the university’s core teaching and research mission. Today’s decision will set in motion a long-term plan to sell the art collection and convert the professional art facility to a teaching, studio, and gallery space for undergraduate and graduate students and faculty.

Yeah, we in the media really got it wrong. I still think this guy is going to have to fall on his sword by the end of the semester. The complete new email - including the cliffhanger "Will the University's future be as bright as its past?" - is after the jump.

New artistic director takes helm for New Rep's 2009-2010 season

New artistic director Kate Warner (left) will direct three plays in New Rep's 2009-2010 season, starting with... "Mr Roberts?" Really? Yes, the season will kick off Sept. 13 with the 1948 Tony Award-winner about the officer who has to work the middle ground between the action-starved crew and overbearing captain of a cargo ship that seems to be missing all the action in the Pacific in World War II. Four more mainstage productions are on tap at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown: David Mamet's biting Hollywood drama "Speed-the-Plow," the New England premieres of the comedy "Indulgences" and the drama "Opus," plus "Hot Mikado," a modernized version of the Gilbert and Sullivan musical. In addition to "Mr. Roberts," Warner will also direct "Indulgences" and "Hot Mikado." The Downstage @ New Rep series will feature Lisa Kron's one-woman show "2.5 Minute Ride" and the New England premiere of the comedy "boom," both in the Black Box Theater. Christmas will bring the return of "A Christmas Carol" to the Main Stage and "The Santaland Diaries" to the Black Box. Subscription packages - which don't include the Christmas shows - are on sale now. Details at 617-923-8487 or via e-mail at tickets@newrep.org. The main body of the announcement is after the jump.

MassMoCA channels Jackson Browne?

I know times are tough, but...the title of the next big show at MassMoCA is "These Days: Elegies for Modern Times." It's a group show, loosely organized around the Jackson Browne song "These Days." The song is  tattooed on the inside of my skull from many many listenings long ago, via on Browne's 1973 album "For Everyman," but apparently he wrote it when he was 16, and it was first recorded by Nico back in 1967. Wikipedia describes it - ambivalently but I think accurately - as "a classic of morose introspection."

The MassMoCA announcement quotes from the lyrics: "These days I seem to think about/ How all the changes came about my ways/ And I wonder if I'll see another highway." It goes on to say, "As the world shifts around us in ways that are profoundly disorienting, Browne's song resonates." Artists George Bolster, Chris Doyle, Micah Silver, Robert Taplin, Sam Taylor-Wood, and Pawel Wojtasik contribute existing pieces and new installations that are "infused with that lyric's sense of wonderment, and with the poetic and musical tradition of the elegy."

Now, I can pretty much recite the song from memory despite having not listened to it on purpose in probably 15 or 20 years, and I don't remember those lines. They don't show up in an online lyric search either, although those are notoriously unreliable. The LP is in a box somewhere in the basement, so finally I downloaded the song on iTunes - let's see if the IRS okays that expense - and no go. It turns out MassMoCA is using a verse that only appears in Nico's version. That's the version that appears in the "Royal Tenebaums" soundtrack, which I'm betting is where they heard it. At least I don't have to imagine that the contemporary art elite is sitting around listening to the singer-songwriters of 1973 in their spare time, chugging tequila sunrises and singing along with "Take It Easy."

The exhibit opens April 4 and will be up until Spring 2010. Complete release after the jump.

Morning reading: "A little light pimping..."

• ...features in my theater review in the Globe today. "The Random Caruso" is a tale of Hollywood backstabbing that's not quite vicious enough, although the Centastage cast is good.
• Greg Cook's gallery reviews are always worth reading, even when short.
• Executives of that Plymouth movie studio project swear up and down that they're on track. Why do I still find it hard to believe in this economy?
• I got busy making curry for the Oscars on Sunday and forgot to point you to Jeremy Eichler's in-depth chat with James Levine about past and future BSO seasons. Definitely worth a read.

Break in Gardner Museum robbery case? Doubt it.

WCVB is reporting on the air and online that an MCI Norfolk inmate says the art stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in March 1990 is stashed in the walls of a safe house in Maine. The source of the story appears to be the inmate's attorney, though, and this is about the 73rd alleged solution in the case. None of the previous breaks have panned out, and quite a few of them also involved prison snitches. And gee, the anniversary of the crime is just a couple of weeks away. Still, if the FBI recovers the Rembrandt (right), the Vermeer and other masterworks taken, valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, it would be huge. As the museum's own web site still somewhat plaintively declares, there's a $5 million reward for information leading to the return of the artworks "in good condition."

UPDATE: Told ya so.

Image: Oil on canvas, inscribed on the rudder: Rembrant (sic). f::/1633,  161.7 x 129.8 cm, via Gardner Museum

Bacharach will attend his Berklee tribute

Berklee College of Music just announced that Burt Bacharach will indeed appear at Great American Songbook: The Music of Burt Bacharach at the Berklee Performance Center next Sunday as part of the Sovereign Music Series. Berklee alum Paula Cole and assistant professor Didi Stewart will be among students, alums and faculty performing Bacharach's smooth and sopisticated pop tunes like "Walk On By" and "Say A Little Prayer" under the direction of Prof. Ken Zambello. No sign that he'll take to the piano, although you never now.

Bacharach's longest collaboration was with lyricist Hal David; they wrote dozens and dozens of hits for many stars, with Dionne Warwick a favorite performer. Bacharach's resume encompasses everything from "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" to an album of collaborations with Elvis Costello. He was also married to Angie Dickinson. Dude. Tix for the 7:30 show are $30, on sale now at Ticketmaster.com, and the Berklee Performance Center Box Office, (617) 747-2261. More info.

One reason to root for "Slumdog" at the Oscars

My interview with Danny Boyle in the Globe in November.

Opera Boston announces 2009-10 season

...but I'd rather finish this margarita than write an item at 7 on Friday night, so I'm just going to give you the press release, straight up:

 Opera Boston announces 2009-2010 season

Highlights include world premiere commission Madame White Snake;
Woodruff, Blythe, Maniaci, Huang, and Podleś company debuts

Tancredi, Gioacchino Rossini, Oct. 23—27, 2009 with Ewa Podleś
World Premiere: Madame White Snake, Zhou Long, Feb. 26—March 2, 2010
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Jacques Offenbach, April 30—May 4, 2010

(BOSTON) – Opera Boston announces its landmark 2009-2010 season, including the company’s first commission, to be presented at the Cutler Majestic Theatre: Rossini’s Tancredi, Zhou Long’s Madame White Snake, and Offenbach’s La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein. The season marks the company debut of visionary stage director Robert Woodruff, former artistic director of the American Repertory Theatre, and the Boston stage debuts of three internationally-renowned artists in title roles: Polish contralto Ewa Podleś, Chinese soprano Ying Huang, and American mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe. All performances in the 2009-10 season will be conducted by Opera Boston’s Grammy-nominated Music Director Gil Rose. The world premiere of Madame White Snake is presented by State Street Corporation.