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Noir Nights at ArtsEmerson

Rare films noir on view via ArtsEmerson's Noir Nights on June 9-12 provide more than a shadowy, morally ambiguous counterpoint to all the bright summer weather and shameless outdoor fun that will not doubt go on at the same time. They're also a reminder that Boston's long tradition of cinephilia survives quite strongly if you know where to look. (Street cred: The first movie I remember seeing, aged approximately 4, is Chaplin's "The Gold Rush" on the big screen at the old Harvard Square.)

True, the heyday of the revival house is long gone, along with the Orson Welles and other temples of cinema that reigned in the 1960s and '70s. But for those who aren't satisfied with "Hangover II," we have the Kendall Square, the Coolidge Corner and the Brattle. And those who want to drink deeply from one particular cinematic well at a time can find plenty of choices over the course of a year at Harvard Film Archive and the Museum of Fine Arts, among other non-theater venues.

ArtsEmerson is bidding to be part of that group with programs in the Bright Family Screening Room, in the Paramount Center, 559 Washington St. The 170-seat venue room is named for the family of Emerson alum and "Friends" producer Kevin Bright. And for those four nights the room's state-of-the-art projection equipment will be put to use in the service of twisted sisters, dark crime drama, tortured guilt and irresistible corruption. Yay!

Noir Nights is inspired by - and uses pristine new and archival prints from - Noir City, the Noir Film Foundation’s annual Los Angeles celebration of film noir, screened on 35mm. There are some big names in the six films - Olivia DeHaviland, Ray Milland, Ginger Rogers, Edward G. Robinson and Joan Fontaine - as well as directors Robert Siodmack and Fritz Lang. But of most interest to cinephiles is the fact that these films are comparatively little seen today, in large part because they're not available on DVD.

The films are: "Dark Mirror" (1946), directed by Siodmack, with DeHaviland playing twin sisters, one of whom is responsible for "a grisly murder"; "Cry of the City" (pictured above, 1948) also by Siodmack, with Richard Conte as a vicious New York hood and Victor Mature as his childhood friend, now a cop; "So Evil My Love" (1948), noir transplanted to Edwardian London with Milland as a con man; "Alias Nick Beal" (1949), a Faustian tale with Thomas Mitchell as a DA dragged down  by Milland's mysterious tempter; "Tight Spot" (1955), with Ginger Rogers as a gangster's moll turned witness under tight guard; and "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" (1956), directed by Lang, with Dana Andrews and Joan Fontaine in the tale of a main who gets himself framed for murder in order to discredit capital punishment.

More fun than beach volleyball, right? Tickets are $10, or $7.50 for members, and are available in advance at www.ArtsEmerson.org or 617-824-8400.

Ryan Landry gives "Psycho" mom her closeup

Ryan Landry turned "Psycho" inside out at the Emerging America festival this weekend. The premiere of Landry's one-act "Psyched" gave us Larry Coen in a bravura turn as Norma Bates, Norman's mommy not-so-dearest. Landry's version of the twisted tale, directed by Caitlin Lowans, tells how things got to be so darn dysfunctional in that big spooky house overlooking the Bates Motel.

I guess I have to say spoiler alert, but just about everyone knows the story of Alfred Hitchcock's indelibly brilliant movie (based on Robert Bloch's book) - how Norman kept his dead mom alive in half of his shattered mind, and how "she" drove him to kill wearing a housedress and wig. "Psyched" is the prequel, I guess, but Hitchcock's tale comes to seem just a coda to the Grand Guignol back story that Landry has concocted. Norma is more interesting; poor, pent-up Norman just got more press.

We learn of mom's troubled midwestern beginnings and her tawdry welcome as yet another pilgrim to not-so-glamorous Los Angeles. An unplanned pregnancy and a desperate job search follow, and then she lands a gig doing makeup for the dead at the rural Bates Funeral Home. Then things get really weird. And bloody. Of course, this being Landry, perversity and hilarity go skipping along hand in hand (or hand up skirt, more likely).

The audience for the first of two sold-out shows in tiny Deane Rehearsal Hall (in the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts) was packed with local theater names, including John Kuntz, Kerry Dowling and Spiro Veloudos. The phrase I kept overhearing after the show was "Larry was on." Coen, who frequently appears with Landry's Gold Dust Orphans troupe, was indeed a wonder as the matronly Norma, whose violent urges seemed less outrageous than her enormous self-centeredness. Amidst all the insanity and smutty one-liners, Coen let us see the wounded soul inside. The nude scene was pretty good too. Uh huh, that's right.

The second cast member of the cast of two was Jonathan Popp, who played Norman and various other characters. For much of the play, he was kept busy as the mechanism of Landry's Rube Goldberg-ian comic contraption, running out one door as one character and coming in another door as someone else, then lunging for the microphone to provide the voice of Norman's nasty dead grandmother in one of Norma's hallucinations. As Norman grew, Popp got to stretch out a little more. But with his fine deadpan and physical comedy skills, I kept thinking that he'd be a natural for one of those three-actors-play-86-roles shows that are now hot, like the also-Hitchcock-related "39 Steps."

The Orphans' ingenious low-budget gonzo aesthetic was on full display here, even though the show was presented by the Huntington Theatre Company, where Landry is a playwriting fellow. Aside from Coen's lovely dress, the production design included backlit scrims, a can of (cream of mushroom?) soup and hanging corpses made of bubblewrap and duct tape. At one stabby juncture, the audience got spritzed with blood (water), eliciting a couple of cheerful shrieks in the darkness. The fourth wall was not just broken but violated repeatedly thoughout.

The Huntington is one of three Emerging America organizers, along with the ICA and the A.R.T. It's not optimal to give a real review to a show in its very first performance of any kind, but here's hoping they continue to develop "Psyched." Landry has tackled Hitchcock before (his "Gulls" translated "The Birds" to Provincetown), but "Psyched" turned the dials a notch in a different direction. It's worth going further, as long as Coen is willing to wear that dress again. No knock on Popp, but in the unlikely event someone can convince Landry that less is more, I could see "Psyched" as a one-man show.

Photo: Larry Coen in "Psyched." Photo by Paul Cantillon.

Chihuly at the MFA: Glassy eyed

You've probably already decided if you're going to the Museum of Fine Arts to see "Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass," the big new exhibit of blown glass works from the studios of Dale Chihuly. Odds are either you love his beautiful and bizarre sculptures or you find them annoying in their overabundance, both individual and collective. People have strong feelings about Chihuly, as the reaction to Sebastian Smee's Globe review last month showed. Letter writers and online commenters split between those endorsing and those outraged by Smee's view of the exhibit as resembling "daily deliveries of unwanted flowers after a regretted one-night transgression."

Well, maybe. But I found myself walking back for seconds.

Smee wrote that he has "no quibbles with Chihuly’s factory-style operation, his terrific rate of production, or his immense popularity. None at all." The first two issues do bother me. Unless you're a conceptualist addressing the mass-produced, digitally distributed nature of our society, "factory-style" is not a term you want applied to your creations. Extruding mass quantities of purty things in assembly-line fashion belongs to the realm of craft or even commerce, not art. Chihuly is no longer hands-on with much of the work. He functions as sort of a guiding spirit here and in the myriad other places where Chihuly glass is displayed. Any three masters of fine art students ought to be able to produce reams of artspeak hashing out whether that's enough. I'll just say it troubles me and leave it at that.

People are also divided about the presentation of the exhibit, primarily in the shadowy, subterranean Ann and Graham Gund Gallery beneath the new MFA courtyard. Beautifully subtle lighting and staging flatter completely over-the-top presentation like the overstuffed "Ikebana Boat," above, and the 58-foot-long sea floor tableau (my interpretation) of "Mille Fiori," below.

Yes, it's tasteless at times and overabundant and even a little Disney. The way some people feel about that, you'd expect the next Chihuly exhibit to be in the bargain aisle at the Christmas Tree Shops. (A stroll through the exhibit gift shop says that's unlikely; small pieces of Chihuly glass on sale are in the four-figure price range.) But walking through the exhibit, I found myself seduced by the surfaces and reflections, the Seussian forms on that sea floor and the strange and beautiful qualities of light found in the depths of his "chandeliers," below. If there's deeper meaning to any of Chihuly's works, it's not apparent, but as Smee notes, not really needed. This is beauty for beauty's sake, overripe and sometimes goofy. Turns out, if this is wrong, I don't want to be right.

The one real bump in the presentation was the much-vaunted "Persian Ceiling," a small room where the glass ceiling supports a thick layer of scattered glass pieces - as if the "Ikebana Boat" had a glass bottom and you were looking up at it. Nice idea, perhaps, but badly executed. The room is small and claustrophobic and crowded. The only way to enjoy the ceiling without twisting onself into a pretzel is to lie down on the floor, which is not practical for most. And there are enough little gaps between the glass pieces that, looking up, I was repeatedly blinded by white spotlights that illuminate the work from above. It felt, at the time, like a morning-after reminder of the daylight outside, of the consequences of dallying here.

Image credits:

Top - Dale Chihuly
Palazzo di Loredana Balboni Chandelier (2011)
Monterrey, Mexico
Blown glass, steel
Courtesy of Chihuly Studio
9 x 7 x 7’
Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
© 2011 Chihuly Studio, all rights reserved

Dale Chihuly
Ikebana Boat (2008)
de Young Museum, San Francisco, California
6 x 16 x 7’
Photo by Teresa Nouri Rishel
© 2011 Chihuly Studio, all rights reserved

Bottom two images by me, all rights reserved.

 

Boyle's Frankenstein at the Coolidge, live from London

A couple of years ago the Globe sent me off to see a movie about the Mumbai slums with a cast of mostly unknowns. Truthfully I expected it to be an "eat your vegetables" cinematic experience, but as you've probably guessed, the movie was "Slumdog Millionaire," the eventual Oscar winner for best picture. I fell completely under its spell at the screening and went off happily to interview director Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting," "28 Days") at the Ritz afterward. His enthusiasm for India was contagious, and I got to write about "the mingled scents of saffron and sewage," in my story. So I would pretty much follow him anywhere.

Boyle's "127 Hours" is in theaters now, with sleepy-eyed Oscar host James Franco. But another interesting Boyle project that will be on view at the Coolidge Corner Theatre twice in the coming weeks. Boyle is directing a buzzed-about London stage version of "Frankenstein," with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternating the roles of Victor Frankenstein and his creation. And two performances of "Frankenstein" will show live in high-definition at the Coolidge, allowing you to have your choice of monsters.

The 7 p.m. telecasts on March 17 (with Miller as Frankenstein and Cumberbatch as the Creature) and April 4 (the other way around, as pictured) are part of the popular NT Live series at the Coolidge featuring National Theatre productions from London. They've pretty much sold out since the opener last season, "Phèdre" with Helen Mirren. So get your $20 tix in advance if you can, at www.coolidge.org/ntlive or the box office.

James Levine stepping down as Boston Symphony Orchestra music director

Boston Symphony Orchestra music director James Levine will step down Sept. 1. (The complete BSO announcement is below.) Levine will, however, retain his post as music director at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Geoff has comments from Levine and BSO managing director Mark Volpe here.

I suspect sadness, as Volpe describes to the Globe, will be the main feeling around Symphony Hall for quite some time to come. The artistic heights Levine managed to reach in his stay here since 2004, despite many interruptions for health problems, suggest where Levine could have taken the orchestra over a decade or two if he was physically able. But we're not going to get that. Ultimately this is an opportunity missed.

Any minute now, the debate about whether his attempt to run both orchestras simultaneously was a good idea will start up again. But for the moment, sad seems sufficient.

Just in From the BSO:

  BSO MANAGING DIRECTOR MARK VOLPE ANNOUNCES THAT JAMES LEVINE WILL STEP DOWN AS BOSTON SYMPHONY MUSIC DIRECTOR AS OF SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

DISCUSSIONS ARE UNDERWAY TO DEFINE A NEW ARTISTIC ROLE FOR MAESTRO LEVINE

BSO Managing Director Mark Volpe announced today that as of September 1, 2011, James Levine will step down from his current role as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2004. Discussions between the BSO and Maestro Levine are underway to define an ongoing new role for Mr. Levine.

Mr. Volpe has also announced that the BSO will immediately form a search committee to begin the process of appointing the next Boston Symphony Music Director.

“The BSO has been incredibly fortunate to have had one of the greatest conductors of our time at its helm since 2004,” said BSO Managing Director Mark Volpe. “That being said, given Maestro Levine’s health issues, this has been a challenging time for all of us in the Boston Symphony Orchestra family, especially our beloved orchestra and devoted audiences.”

“We wish Maestro Levine the absolute best as he steps down from his role as BSO Music Director to tend to the health issues that have forced him to be away from the music-making he so profoundly loves,” continues Mr. Volpe. “We look forward to continuing our conversation with Jim about defining a new role where he can focus solely on the music and defining artistically stimulating projects that would be meaningful to him and the orchestra, building upon his BSO legacy thus far. As we begin the search to appoint the next BSO Music Director, it is imperative that we take this time to express our deepest gratitude to Jim for the extraordinary performances that have inspired his loyal listeners in Boston and around the world.”

“Given the challenges regarding my health and the ensuing absences they have forced me to take from my work with the BSO, I believe it is best for everyone, but especially the orchestra and our wonderful audiences, for me to step down as music director,” said James Levine. “I make this decision knowing that I need to focus more of my attention on getting back to better health, so when I do return to the BSO podium I can continue the important work the orchestra and I have done together during the period of my music directorship. As the BSO and I define a new relationship that I hope will benefit all involved, I wish the orchestra the very best in the search for the next Boston Symphony Music Director. It has been an honor and a privilege to have served in that role these past seven years.”

With his many accomplishments during his seven years as BSO Music Director, there is no doubt that James Levine will join the ranks of the greatest conductors in the BSO’s 130-year history," said Stephen B. Kay and Robert P. O’Block, co-chairmen of the BSO Board of Trustees. "On behalf of the BSO’s Board of Trustees and Overseers, we want to express our enormous gratitude and deep respect to Maestro Levine for sharing his brilliant musicianship with our orchestra and all of us who cherish the music of the Boston Symphony. We wish him the very best in his continued recovery and look forward to his return to the BSO in a new role that is beneficial to all involved." “We’ve experienced some of the most meaningful and endearing musical work of our lives under the leadership of James Levine,” said BSO concertmaster Malcolm Lowe. “On behalf of all the musicians of the BSO, our heartfelt best wishes go out to Maestro Levine as he continues to focus on recovering from the health issues that have forced him to take time away from his BSO schedule. We look forward to continuing our very important work and influential collaboration with Maestro Levine when he is able to return to the BSO podium.”

JAMES LEVINE AND THE BSO: OVERVIEW AND A BRIEF BSO HISTORY
Now in his seventh season as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, James Levine is the BSO’s 14th music director since the orchestra’s founding in 1881 and the first American-born conductor to hold that position.  In September 2011, he will step down as Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director.  James Levine made his BSO debut in April 1972 and became music director in the fall of 2004, having been named music director designate in October 2001.  His wide-ranging programs balance orchestral, operatic, and choral classics with significant music if the 20th and 21st centuries, including newly commissioned works from such leading American composers as Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Peter Lieberson, Gunther Schuller, and Charles Wuorinen.  Mr. Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra made their first European tour together following the 2007 Tanglewood season, performing in the Lucerne Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival (in Hamburg), Essen, Dusseldorf, the Berlin Festival, Paris, and the BBC Proms in London.  At Tanglewood in 2008 he was Festival Director for the Elliott Carter Centenary Celebration marking the composer’s 100th-birthday year.  Mr. Levine and the orchestra recently released a two-disc set of Mozart symphonies (Nos. 14, 18, 20, 39, and 41, Jupiter) on the orchestra’s own label, BSO Classics, following upon their previous releases of Brahms’s German Requiem, and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé. Digital releases include Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, and William Bolcom’s Eighth Symphony and Lyric Concerto.  All of these recordings were taken from live performances by Maestro Levine and the orchestra at Symphony Hall in Boston.

James Levine is also music director of the Metropolitan Opera. Also a distinguished pianist, Maestro Levine is an active chamber music and recital collaborator, especially in Lieder and song repertoire with the world’s great singers.

(BSO photo by Michael Lutch)

BSO announces plans to fill the Levine-sized hole in its schedule

The bad news came this morning. Now, this from the Boston Symphony Orchestra in via email:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: Wednesday, March 2, 2011 

JAMES LEVINE TO WITHDRAW FROM HIS REMAINING SCHEDULED  CONCERTS OF THE BSO’S 2010-11 SEASON, MARCH 3-19, INCLUDINGSYMPHONY HALL, CARNEGIE HALL, NEW JERSEY PERFORMING ARTS CENTER,AND KENNEDY CENTER APPEARANCES, THOUGH ALLCONCERTS WILL TAKE PLACE AS SCHEDULED

BSO ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR MARCELO LEHNINGER TO LEAD MARCH 3-4-5-8 SYMPHONY HALL AND MARCH 15 CARNEGIE HALL PROGRAMS FEATURING PREMIERE OF HARRISON BIRTWISTLE’S VIOLIN CONCERTO WITH VIOLINIST CHRISTIAN TETZLAFF

ROBERTO ABBADO TO LEAD MARCH 10-11-12 SYMPHONY HALL PROGRAM WITH PETER SERKIN PERFORMING BARTÓK PIANO CONCERTO NO. 3; ABBADO ALSO TO LEAD MARCH 16 CARNEGIE HALL PROGRAM JOINED BY JOSHUA BELL PERFORMING BRUCH VIOLIN CONCERO IN G MINOR; MESSRS. SERKIN AND BELL FILL IN FOR THE AILING MAURIZIO POLLINI, WHO HAS THE FLU

ANDRIS NELSONS, IN HIS BSO DEBUT, TO LEAD MARCH 17 CARNEGIE HALL PERFORMANCE OF MAHLER’S NINTH SYMPHONY

 ROBERTO ABBADO TO LEAD MARCH 18 AND 19 CONCERTS AT NEW JERSEY PERFORMING ARTS CENTER AND KENNEDY CENTER WITH PETER SERKIN AS SOLOIST IN BARTÓK PIANO CONCERTO NO. 3

 MAESTRO LEVINE IS FORCED TO CANCEL APPEARANCES DUE TO ILL EFFECTS FROM A RECENT PROCEDURE ADDRESSING HIS ONGOING BACK ISSUES, FURTHER COMPLICATED BY A VIRAL INFECTION

 BSO Music Director James Levine has had to withdraw from the remainder of his scheduled 2010-11 Boston Symphony Orchestra appearances, March 3-19, due to the ill effects from a recent procedure addressing his ongoing back issues, further complicated by a viral infection. Though all concerts will take place as scheduled, Mr. Levine has had to withdraw from conducting appearances at Symphony Hall (March 3, 4, 5, and 8; and March 10, 11, 12), Carnegie Hall (March 15, 16, 17), the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (March 18), and the Washington Performing Arts Society at the Kennedy Center (March 19). 

 SYMPHONY HALL PROGRAMS IN BOSTON

BSO Assistant Conductor Marcelo Lehninger will conduct the BSO’s March 3, 4, 5, and 8 program—unchanged from what was originally scheduled—featuring German violinist Christian Tetzlaff in the world premiere performances of Harrison Birtwistle’s Violin Concerto. The program also includes Mozart’s Rondo in C for violin and orchestra and Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2, also featuring Mr. Tetzlaff.   

Roberto Abbado will lead the Symphony Hall March 10-11-12 with pianist Peter Serkin in Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3, substituting for Maurizio Pollini, who has had to cancel his BSO appearances due to the flu.  This program will also include Haydn’s Symphony No. 93 and Beethoven’s Symphony No 5.

 CARNEGIE HALL, NEW JERSEY PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, AND KENNEDY CENTER

BSO Assistant Conductor Marcelo Lehninger will conduct the BSO’s March 15 Carnegie Hall program, featuring German violinist Christian Tetzlaff in the New York premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s Violin Concerto as well as in Mozart’s Rondo in C for violin and orchestra and Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Andris Nelsons will make his BSO conducting debut leading the March 17 Carnegie Hall performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. Roberto Abbado will lead the March 16 Carnegie Hall concert, which will feature Joshua Bell in Bruch’s Violin Concerto in G minor, substituting for Maurizio Pollini, who has had to cancel his BSO appearances due to the flu. This program will also include Haydn’s Symphony No. 93 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C.   

The March 18 New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the March 19 Kennedy Center concerts will be led by Roberto Abbado and feature pianist Peter Serkin in Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3. This program will also include Haydn’s Symphony No. 93 and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C.

(BSO photo by Michael Lutch)

Spalding's Grammy = Esperanza indeed, but...

Lots of questions after last night's Grammys. Is Madonna going to let Lady Gaga do that to her song? Muse, really? And finally, Train? Really? Have you no shame?? But these are common types of questions for a ceremony - an industry - in which the band responsible for "Drops of Jupiter" escapes justice keeps winning awards. There was one less-expected question a lot of people around the country were asking last night, though, which was, Who is Esperanza Spalding?

Never mind that she's a favorite of Prince and President Obama, as well as many in the jazz world, and was recently the subject of a long New Yorker profile. Spalding's triumph as Best New Artist was a puzzlement to many watching the Grammys, and not just because of who she beat out. She's hardly a household name, has never been a guest judge on "American Idol" nor, as far as I know, been photographed by the paparazzi smooching John Mayer. So widespread was the puzzlement that NPR Music's A Blog Supreme had to post a (pretty excellent) Spalding primer. My favorite reaction to her win, quoted in the NPR blog, was via Twitter: @jazzfamoose NEWS ALERT: Bieber fans amassing in Tahrir Square in protest.

Those of us in Boston know who Spalding is, though - the genre-jumping jazz bassist and singer who was asked to join the Berklee faculty at 20 and made a lot of friends around town with gigs in little rooms like the late, lamented Bob the Chef's before moving on to, well, Prince and the New Yorker.

Truth is, though, the frustration of true Beliebers is not without foundation. Spalding's 2010 album "Chamber Music Society" didn't garner a Grammy nomination, much less a statuette, and "new" is, as often, a dubious term. Her album "Junjo" came out way back in 2006, before Bieber was even a gleam in Usher's eye. Even those of us who know who she is were surprised at her win over Bieber, Drake, Mumford and Sons, and Florence and the Machine.

Spalding is terrific, and, bonus, looks like a star. But I don't hear a lot of people arguing that "Chamber Music Society" is a major artistic statement to which attention must be paid. It's hard to say why this became Spalding's Grammy year. So while the jazz world should certainly celebrate her win as a hope-ful sign, I wouldn't read too much into it as far as jazz's place in the music industry. As deserving of stardom as Spalding is, her win this year is only slightly less baffling than most of Grammy's decisions.

At ICA, Oscars take it in the shorts

The Institute of Contemporary Art once again presents the year's Academy Award-nominated short films in separate programs of animated and live action shorts. These are two Oscar categories in which most folks don't get the see the nominees. Each program will include all the nominated short films from their respective category, plus a few short-listed films that didn’t make the final cut.

The animated program - suitable for ages 7 and up - features "Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage," "The Gruffalo" and Bill Plympton's "The Cow That Wanted to Be a Hamburger" (pictured). It runs Feb. 21, 24, 27 and March 3, 5 and 6. The live action program, not for the kiddos, includes "Wish 143," "The Crush" and "God of Love" (pictured below). It runs on the same dates except not on March 5. Tickets, $10, and show times at icaboston.org, the box office or (617) 478-3103.

Coolidge goes national with Science on Screen

The indie/arthouse/revival theater scene is not what it was for movie fans back in the day - shed optional tear for the Orson Welles here - but Boston still has some smart programmers. Exhibit A: The Coolidge Corner Theatre’s Science on Screen program will spread to other non-profit moviehouses this year thanks to a $150,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Now in its seventh year, Science on Screen pairs feature films and documentaries with presentations by scientific and technological experts. It makes learning fun and sometimes draws a sellout crowd. Discussions have ranged from a talk by MIT music-and-media guru Tod Machover with the documentary "Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey" (right) to an explanation of the function of zombie brains in "Night of the Living Dead."

On Wednesday at the fourth annual Art House Convergence gathering in Utah, just before the Sundance festival, Coolidge leaders will announce a program to provide $7,000 grants to six to eight theaters that want to implement Science on Screen on their, well, screens. The money can be used to rent films or to pay for speaker honoraria or travel expenses, since not every community theater has institutions like MIT and MGH close at hand. The money can also be used for marketing, staff time or other costs associated with the program.

The theaters must present a minimum of three Science on Screen events during the year, and are expected to pitch at least one program idea of their own. The Coolidge is distributing a sort of Science on Screen how-to guide and will mentor them along the way; the grant will also support the program at the Coolidge.

All this comes about thanks to the Sloan Foundation's program for improving public understanding of science and technology through the media.

The Coolidge's next Science on Screen presentation will feature Dr. Jonathan Shay, who will introduce Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" (left) on Jan. 24 with a talk on combat trauma. Shay was a staff psychiatrist at the Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in Boston, where he treated combat veterans with severe psychological injuries. He retired from clinical work to devote himself full time to prevention shortly after winning a 2007 MacArthur Foundation "genius grant."

WGBH host harmonizes with MFA's Art of the Americas wing

The Museum of Fine Arts Boston's new Art of the Americas Wing continues to be the arts topic of conversation among most people I know: Have you been? I'm waiting for the crowds to go down. After tweeting the opening a few weeks back, I went as a civilian for the first time last week, with my wife and my mom. General consensus that the art is terrifically well presented. I wish we hadn't gone on a day when 200+ sales guys (and they were mostly guys) from a certain Boston software company (Hint: It begins with O and ends with -acle) were there for some sort of group-bonding scavenger hunt. They mostly huddled in front of the Sargents and Stuarts and Copleys in their business-casual duds, gossiping about work, backs to the art. I actually saw two of them chest bump. That's still a thing? Yuck. But some of them tried to be polite, making way when they realizing they were blocking my mom, who is in her 70s, and my wife, who has a cast on one foot. "Sorry for team building on your museum day," one of them told Mom, and he seemed to mean it.

So anyway. If you haven't been to the new wing yet, or if you've been and want to stay in tune with the experience, I've got a radio show for you. On WGBH's 99.5 All Classical (Motto: The station that doesn't have call letters anymore), host Cathy Fuller is doing a twice weekly music-and-art hookup. She told me Monday that she's one of the folks who haven't been to the new wing yet - and judging by the weather outside as I write, she may not make her planned trip tomorrow. But she knows a lot of the paintings already, and every Monday and Thursday at noon, she's offering a piece of music or two to match a particular picture. It's a neat little idea that's she's going to carry through the month.

"I just really wanted people who are listening to the radio to start thinking about getting over there," Fuller said. "There's no relation necessarily between two pieces of art that were created in the same year, other than that they were created in the same year. But as soon as you present two pieces of art to any sort of interested, engaged mind, then the connections and the way of thinking just get charged."

Monday's focus, for instance, was on what I think is one of the greatest of the masterpieces on display. Winslow Homer's 1885 "The Fog Warning" (above), shows a doryman at sea, at day's end, an ominous approaching fog bank threatening his ability to row back to his distant ship. Fuller paired it with American composer Edward MacDowell's sometimes dramatic Piano Concerto No. 1, which was itself finished under time pressure.

"It's very special the way you can get your brain to find a vocabulary for talking and thinking about art if you're thinking about two kinds of art at once," Fuller said. "I think it's nice to get the listeners thinking visually as well as musically."

One of her best pairings was last week, when she matched Edward Hopper's "disconcerting" 1932 work "Room In Brooklyn" (right) with George Gershwin's songs as performed by William Bolcom. It's a fascinating contrast between the composer perhaps most closely identified with New York City and Hopper's image of a woman - Lonely? Alienated? - staring out at the rooftops.

On Thursday (1/13), she'll pair Gloucester native Fitz Henry Lane's "New York Harbor" with pieces by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, performed by Boston pianist Michael Lewin. She writes, "It glows - and, like Homer, Lane seems to have an understanding of water so uncanny, it's astonishing."

Next Monday (1/17), the MFA will offer a free open house to celebrate Martin Luther King Day, with activities including jazz and multi-media performances, art-making for kids and adults, and 10-minute "spotlight talks" by museum staffers about some of the art in the new wing. Fuller had already chosen to highlight Georgia O'Keefe's 1927 "White Rose with Larkspur, No. 2" on that day, but one of two pieces of music she'll highlight is William Grant Still's ballet "La Guiablesse." Still, she writes, was often called the "Dean of African-American composers," best known for his popular Afro-American Symphony. Click to her host notes to read more about her choices.

So check out Fuller's pairings. Really, though, you should get yourself down to the museum and see the new wing and all the great art in it. I'm sure the team-building is over by now.

(Images: The Fog Warning, 1885, Winslow Homer, Oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Otis Norcross Fund. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Room in Brooklyn, Edward Hopper, 1932 Oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Hayden Collection—Charles Henry Hayden Fund. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.)