All hail the Cinerama Dome at 55
Again we travel to 1963, the year when the groovy Robert Frost Auditorium found footing in Culver City, California. Across Los Angeles, those 55 years ago, a geodesic structure boasting a movie screen of 32 x 86 feet with a 146 degree curve opened on Sunset Boulevard. It’s very exciting to wish The Cinerama Dome, ...
Happy birthday, Jerry! Love, WSS kids
When was the last time a film clip got a standing ovation? Well, it happened last night. The audience at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills erupted in appreciation after watching Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, on screen, kicking it to Leonard Bernstein’s thumping music and Stephen Sondheim’s wicked lyrics (all still ring ...
Hey, arts·meme people ~ we made it to ten! 7
May
23
2018
It’s our tenth birthday. On May 24, 2008 we were hanging around with nothing to do. We’d finished our homework, played with our Barbies, chewed some gum, kicked the can down the road. We were bored stiff! So we starting scribbling on a Word Press blog-template custom-created by Mark Levine. Topics: all kinds of arts ...
Happy 50th Mr. Rogers from fellow Pittsburghers at arts•meme 4
Feb
19
2018
Click the arrow above for the sweet sound of Fred Rogers inviting you to be his neighbor. “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” debuted fifty years ago, on February 19, 1968, produced by WQED-Pittsburgh. We’re global now. But arts•meme‘s editorial and technology team has roots in the friendly, neighborly city of Pittsburgh. Proud that Mr. Rogers drew ...
Birthday letter from Tippi Hedren 1
Jan
19
2018
Ed. note: This gorgeous photo arrived from glamorous actress/activist Tippi Hedren who takes the occasion of her birthday to send an “ask,” which we are sharing with delight. Today is my birthday! I am 88 years old! Woo hoo! Some have asked, “What do you want for your Birthday, Tippi?….Anything special?” I said, “Yes, it ...
arts·meme at nine, an industrious arts builder 4
May
24
2017
Happy birthday dear arts·meme, happy birthday to you~! On May 24, 2008, we launched your favorite arts blog. We’ve been assiduously building ever since. Brick by brick, story by story, we have accrued a steady pile of nearly 2,000 blog posts. It’s all interwoven, as we like to feature artistic mash-ups, mostly in dance and ...
Happy birthday, Barrie Chase! 1
Wishing a wonderful birthday to a leggy lady, the great Hollywood dancer Barrie Chase. She not only graced Fred Astaire as his final partner, she brought her own strong, vixen presence as a solo dancer (on view in the video, dancing to “The Girl from Ipanema”) to millions of American television viewers in the 1960s. ...
arts·meme turns eight, expresses self 18
May
23
2016
arts·meme has been a good little girl. She writes timely blog-posts, publishes them with nice pictures, inserts proper hot-links. Now it’s her turn to show off. Do-mi-so-do-so-mi-do. Fa-la-la-la. To celebrate the blog’s eighth birthday (founded on May 24, 2008 by Debra Levine with Mark Levine as talented tech man), arts•meme would like to sing you ...
MoMA plots Jerry Lewis movie-birthday-bash 1
Feb
7
2016
Jerry Lewis turns 90 on March 16, 2016. That provides Museum of Modern Art film curator Dave Kehr with a solid reason to honor this most American of cinema artists with a career retrospective. Lewis’s best movies, all presented in rare 35mm prints, will be amped by special features: outtakes, screen tests, home movies, and ...
Happy 100th, Frank! Love, The Wallis
For many he remains forever young, but the truth is Frank Sinatra would turn 100 on Dec. 12, 2015. Honing in on just one aspect of his performance career — his movie-making — The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is rolling out a screening event of three of Sinatra’s best known films. From ...