We have seen the future of dance, and it is fun! For two nights in June, Klaus' company, Ballets with a Twist, took viewers for a spin with its 21st-century take on an American tradition -- blasting the boundaries between high art and entertainment.
With Emotional Creatures, which opened a few days ago at Berkeley Rep, Eve Ensler has taken a broader focus. Rather than limiting attention to issues of sexuality, she has attacked a huge gamut of abuses faced by young women.
What I would like to do is to suggest looking for art outside the art-industrial hive where those who, for whatever reason, are not compelled to conform, are free to create work not doomed to sameness.
There is good news for lovers of Art Nouveau, one of Europe's oddest cultural phenomena.
One of the strongest assets of LGBT film festivals (which accept gay couples as not just a given, but as a norm) is that they allow audiences to enjoy romantic farces in which a protagonist's sexual orientation might be the very least of his worries.
In her fourth feature, Your Sister's Sister, the Seattle writer-director introduces her protagonist, Jack (played by Mark Duplass, star of her 2009 movie, Humpday), by giving him an angry diatribe to deliver -- one that sours a party held in honor of his late brother.
My favorite memory of Emma is reading it in a hammock at the edge of my uncle's orchard outside Tel-Aviv. I loved it best among her books at the time, and I'd brought it with me almost as a talisman since I'd never been so far from home.
The sci-fi movie masterpiece Blade Runner turns 30 this month, and it's still ahead of where we are culturally.
These days it's difficult to be creative. Once again the arts community is having to justify the need for public spending and quantify their social worth.
When you look at the drawings, you see masks, mammals, human forms, weapons, statues, night sky insects, birds, elementary math, reptiles, feet and hand prints.
Jun Kaneko has succeeded in creating an expression of the Totally Other that not only boggles the mind in its complexity, but says to the operatic world: The times they are a'changin'.
Nora casually reminded me about that little cooking movie she had just made with Meryl Streep. Of course! Then she started telling me about this chicken recipe that she had made the night before. In honor of her memory, I thought I'd share "Nora's Famous Chicken" with all of you.
Stephen H. Warner was killed in an ambush near the Laotian border on February 14, 1971. He didn't have to be there. He wasn't supposed to be killed.
Balance is something that Billy Siegenfeld knows inside out. In his Jump Rhythm Technique, and in the art of Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, he explores where balance comes from and what it's made of, where to find it and how to use it.
Nora Ephron is gone -- and I can't believe it. Professionally, her legacy will be that of an exceptionally gifted and versatile artist who could do it all, and do it all incredibly well. Personally, she'll be cherished as a wife and mother, and a devoted, giving, treasured -- and irreplaceable -- friend. Indeed, she was as talented at friendship as she was at everything else she tried.
Last October, thousands of Tibetan exiles were able to "return home" -- at least temporarily -- when Tenzing Rigdol smuggled 20,000 kilograms of native Tibetan soil into India.
Since watching Hemingway & Gellhorn a few weeks back I've been spending much of my free time absorbed in this piece of history and personality I'd never heard of before.
Adel Zakout, 2012.28.06