In memorium: Chris McHale
Sep
18
2023
Christopher Ian McHale (b. March 30, 1954) passed away suddenly of heart disease at home in the East Village of Manhattan on September 12, 2023. He was an actor from early in his life to nearly its end. While he appeared occasionally in movies (The Devil’s Own, Sunset Park, F/X, The Seduction of Joe Tynan) ...
Connie Corleone to tell-all at ‘The Godfather’ 50th-anniv screening
Sep
12
2022
The Godfather: Part II (1974) directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel ‘The Godfather’ by Mario Puzo. Talia Shire as Connie Corleone. Paramount Pictures. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) She was a member of la famiglia. So hewing to the family code, she was tight-lipped. Like Michael. (And unlike the blowhard, Sonny). ...
Hollywood Heritage’s Halloween hangout with ‘glamour ghoul’ Vampira 2
She was born Maila Nurmi, which seems ghoulish enough. But she went by the mononym, Vampira. For those of us who did not grow up in Los Angeles watching this strange, mysterious lady host horror movies on late-night television (I grew up in Pittsburgh, where our Vampira was not nearly as sexy: “Chilly Billie” Cardille, ...
What a dump! Kidhood drive-in movie theater exposed by day
Sep
7
2020
Pittsburgh’s South Park Drive-In, 1970 Really? That mound of dirt on the uphill side of a crud Western Pennsylvania road? That was it? The pleasure dome we entered, exalted, five of us in a red Chevy station wagon? The car’s “back-back” piled with pillows and blankets? My father, captain of the ship, adroitly steering to ...
Drift away! at the movies, with ‘Floating Cinema’
Aug
17
2020
rolling, rolling down a river You know how your attention drifts away when you’re at the movies? And you find yourself thinking about how bad the film is, or how much you rather be sitting at a lunch counter eating a hamburger? Well … now your entire body can drift away — cuz … you’re ...
Death of a dancer: Elyse Borne
Dec
21
2019
Elyse Borne, after a long battle with cancer, passed away December 16, 2019. After her career as a soloist with New York City Ballet, Ms. Borne further distinguished herself as one of the world’s foremost George Balanchine repetiteurs, and over a period of 20 years from 1996-2016 she staged, with permission of the George Balanchine ...
post sponsored by the Carpenter Center
A minute + five years: ‘A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham’ to Long Beach 1
Dec
19
2019
Drive (2017) It’s been a minute since Kyle Abraham’s velvety, street-smart choreography hit the dance-friendly stage of the Carpenter Performing Arts Center. In 2015 at the Center, Abraham was one of four choreographers to partner ballet goddess Wendy Whelan in the much-heralded “Restless Creature.” That minute has now extended to five years. On January 25, ...
Space is the place, Americans
Oct
7
2019
natalie in the sky with diamonds Is Donald Trump president of outer space? No? Well, then, I’d like to go there immediately. Thanks to Hollywood, we have a few options. I enjoyed the new Natalie Portman movie, Lucy in the Sky, about a female astronaut who in observing that “space is so big and we ...
Death of a dancer: Lawrence Rhodes
Mar
31
2019
Lawrence Rhodes, Brunilda Ruiz in “Time Out of Mind” – Harkness Ballet 1965 Michael Avedon photo courtesy Finis Jhung I first saw Lawrence Rhodes (1939-2019) dance with the Pennsylvania Ballet. Growing up in Pittsburgh, the company was a point of pride. The below photo is very much how I remember Rhodes’s dancing. His elegance, power, ...
To be young, gifted & Aretha Franklin: Queen of Soul in ‘Amazing Grace’
“Amazing Grace,” with two-million vinyl discs exiting record stores, was the top-selling gospel record of all time and Aretha Franklin‘s top-selling album. Released in June 1972, the album coincided with the very same month I graduated from an all-white high school in suburban Pittsburgh. Right around that time, on Sunday afternoons, I used my new ...