Sassy. Sarah Vaughan.
Jun
23
2011
Sarah Vaughan deconstructs the great standard, “I’ll Remember April.” Tune by Gene de Paul, lyrics by Patricia Johnston and Don Raye.
Forget it, Jake, it’s China[town].
Robert Towne’s great line was my mantra on the recent China trip. At least one time every day, there was good reason to say it. Not one of the 20-something dancers on the bus knew the meme — or the film reference.
René Blum and his Ballets Russes get another go-round in new book 1
Jun
21
2011
Blum’s female universe, bountiful & beautiful, en route to New York, 1938 (photo courtesy of the author, click for detail) “In October 1938, the company sailed to the United States with the new Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo under the artistic direction of [Léonide] Massine and [René] Blum, who was billed as founder … for a ...
Mao & Gu: twins separated at birth?
Jun
18
2011
In China for three weeks, the only television I watched was the dramatic series about the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. Airing nightly around 11 pm, the show stars an actor named Gu Yue, uncanny as a Mao Tse-tung lookalike. I enjoyed my daily dose of communist propaganda … a nice way to cap-off ...
Vincent Price: “Shock” … and art
A pretty decent selection of late-night movies — just what you need when you are strangely full of energy from about one till four am — is getting me through my post-China jet lag. Last night I whiled away the hours with “Shock,” a 1946 film noir starring horror guy Vincent Price as a dicey ...
Washingtonians wrap up China tour in Hangzhou 1
Tonight in Hangzhou, the historic resort city on the West Lake, now a bastion of high-tech industry: the final performance of the three-week tour of Central China by Lula Washington Dance Theatre. Mid-way through the itinerary, in the dusty back stairwell of a Henan province (Xinyang) theater, Keith Lommel, cultural attache at the U.S. Embassy ...
Lula Washington kicks it in Xinyang City with Rennie Harris’s fabulous REIGN
Jun
11
2011
Hip-hop and house dance hit Henan Province hard last week. Lula Washington Dance Theatre kills in this blistering piece created for them by choreographer Rennie Harris. If you live in China where the government blocks youtube.com, view it here. video courtesy u.s. embassy in beijing, keith lommel, videographer, translator, china hand, sound mixer
Jiaxing party animals. Yes, *that* Party.
Arriving in Jiaxing, we remember our Chinese Communist Party (CCP) history. The party was founded under the guiding eye of Comintern agent, Grigori Voitinsky, in Shanghai’s French concession. It was July, 1921 — China’s summer of love. The first party congress had 53 attendees. Immediately feeling the heat from the Kuomintang authorities, the group transferred ...