Baltimore21201.Com - The Blog

As Matlock used to say, "Them's good eats. GOOD eats."

Phew. Heavy stuff comin' through.

 

'SNOW NOIR NYC' - January 25th 2013.

 

Our actual walk around New York in the light snow last Friday was a complete joy—we were headed to Williams Sonoma, Columbus Circle to purchase additional barware, Dorset triple-old-fashioneds. This was a quick experiment in creating tension by removing color, and adding shadow and dissonant notes. Watch full screen.

Come hungry: 470 lbs of fingerling potatoes for dinner at the SAG Awards.

This is one of my favorite posts every year. The stats are amazing and the information goes on and on and Award Season is a fun January Event.

 __________________

19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards^® "By the Numbers"

LOS ANGELES (Jan 2013) — To create a dramatic arrivals area, impressive stage and intimate dinner setting for the world’s leading actors who are gathering on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, the SAG Awards^® staff must transform the Shrine Auditorium entrance and the adjoining Exposition Center. The Shrine complex is a Los Angeles landmark built in 1920 in Spanish Colonial Revival style with Moorish detailing. It’s grandiose and beautiful on the outside, but the inner space of the Shrine’s Exposition Center, with its 34,000 square foot wooden floor, paint-trimmed overhangs and bare columns, has to be redefined for each event.

This year’s SAG Awards stage and décor is a contemporary interpretation of the streamline moderne style that emerged during the 1930s that pays homage to old movies palaces of that era. Architectural details such as paneled molding are highlighted by a color scheme of black, white and silver, which will be transformed by the application of colored lighting appropriate to each segment of the show. Among the design elements are a broken proscenium arch that is echoed by the broken frame surrounding the oversized screen set against a field of fiber-optic stars upstage, on which the nominated performances and tributes will be projected. On either side, vertical steel tubing echoes the organ pipes so often found in vintage movie theaters and 10-foot tall Actor^® statues sit on platinum pedestals in front of them. Actor^® recipients will move from the showroom floor to the stage via steps edged in aluminum and silver, while presenters will make their entrances and exits through oversized airy metal gates A black and white checkerboard floor complements the entire look.

FOR THE STAR-STUDDED ARRIVALS AND TO TRANSFORM THE SHOWROOM the SAG Awards will:

• Lay 15,872 square feet of red carpet in the arrivals area, edged by 585 lineal feet of hedges
• Accommodate 300 fans in three-row six-foot high bleachers placed along an 180’ section of the red carpet arrivals area
• In the event of rain, protect the red carpet from the elements by 23,530 square feet of tenting
• Post five 10’ Actor^® statues along the red carpet and onstage
• Lay 11,800 square feet of black carpet in the interior Shrine entrance and the showroom
• Drape the interior Shrine entrance with 4,575 square feet of charcoal/silver shimmer fabric
• Post three 10’ Actor^® statues along the red carpet
• Cover the showroom walls with 15,000 square feet of black drape to create a neutral background and block sunlight
• On the stage, install 600 feet of silver aluminum pipe connecting two monumental 16-foot high gates on which a ziggurat evolves to a sunburst design. Each is capped by 10-foot fiberglass staff detail, which is repeated at the base. The gates are surrounded by 100 feet of over-scaled custom-cut case moldings, which are repeated downstage with another 75 feet of custom molding to create a broken proscenium arch.
• Float a 20’ wide “silver screen” framed by 100 feet of custom crown molding in front of 200 running feet of 30’ high fiber-optic star cloth
• Line the stage floor with 300 4’x4’ sheets of black and white checkerboard Formica
• Above the stage hang a 5-foot crystal empire chandelier that will be echoed by four chandeliers hung from the Expo Hall’s ornate ceiling

TO SET THE DINNER TABLES, the SAG Awards will:

• Create custom table coverings from 1,306 linear yards of gunmetal crinkled organza, complemented by 1,200 silver satin matte lined napkins
• Place over 3,600 Optique champagne, wine and water glasses, 2,400 pieces of Montecito silver flatware and 1,200 square white china dinner plates, on 86 rectangular dinner tables and more than 2,400 glasses at two 16’ beverage bars and two wine tasting bars
• Soften more than 1,200 Silver “Fanfare” Chameleon Chairs with more than 1,200 silver seat cushions
• Create a stunning visual setting through the use of florals. This year's inspiration is a modern approach to “Classic Hollywood” created with the use of a series of metallic silver containers highlighted by white floral and accentuated with a variety of rich textured foliage. The compositions incorporated the textures of thousands of various foliage stems. The use of looped bear grass, magnolia leaves, green dianthus, various sized ti leaves, ribbon foliage and dramatic calathea leaves create the foundation for the arrangements.  Over 3,000 stems of white miniature calla lilies and white roses compliment thousands of stems of orchids, both dendrobium and phalaenopsis. Adding to the dramatic look is the addition of hundreds of stems of arabicum lilies. The look and layers of textures create a whirlwind of motion.

THE DINNER MENU

Guests will dine on antipasto plates conceived by James Beard Award-winning chef Suzanne Goin, deliciously prepared and artfully arranged by Lucques Catering, consisting of:

MAIN PLATE:

• Roasted beets and blood oranges with feta and black olives
• Slow-roasted salmon with green rice, labneh, capers and nasturiums
• Beef tenderloin with fingerlings, arugula and horseradish cream

VEGAN PLATE:

• Roasted beets and blood oranges with mint and black olives
• Cauliflower couscous with pomegranate salsa
• Farro with kale, young broccoli, currants and pine nuts

THE BEVERAGES

Two multi-generational family owned companies are the official SAG Awards vintners. Champagne Taittinger is providing champagne for the SAG Awards for the 13th consecutive year.  New in 2013 is Gallo Signature Series, which is providing still wine for the SAG Awards. Taittinger, Gallo and second-year still water sponsor, FIJI^® Water, are also generous supporters of the SAG Foundation.

Champagne Taittinger is serving:

• Fun fact:  Each magnum contains 500 million bubbles!
• 1 Magnum of Champagne Taittinger Brut La Française for the Champagne Taittinger toast that opens the SAG Awards Red Carpet
• 160 Magnums of Champagne Taittinger Brut La Française at the SAG Awards dinner
• 155 750 ml bottles of Champagne Taittinger Brut La Française at the showroom bars
• 288 750 ml bottles of Champagne Taittinger Brut La Française at the SAG Awards Gala
• Champagne Taittinger is also providing Two Methuselah (6 Liter) bottles of Champagne Taittinger Brut La Française to be signed by Actor^® recipients for the SAG Awards auction benefiting the SAG Foundation

Gallo Signature Series is serving:

• 240 bottles each of Gallo Signature Series Napa Valley Chardonnay and Gallo Signature Series Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir at the SAG Awards dinner
• 36 bottles each of Bridlewood Estate Winery Blend 175, Edna Valley Vineyard Chardonnay, Edna Valley Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc and William Hill Estate Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon at the showroom tasting bars
• 24 bottles each of William Hill Estate Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Gallo Signature Series Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and three cases of William Hill Estate Napa Valley Chardonnay in the Green Room

FIJI^® Water is serving:

• 3,264 liters of FIJI’s natural artesian water served in the showroom and at the SAG Awards Gala
• Another 12,600 third-liters served to staff, crew and the more than 800 media and 300 fans in the bleachers as well as placed in the Gala gift bags. 

IT TAKES MORE THAN A VILLAGE!

By Sunday, January 27, more than 700 staff and crew will be hard at work to make the SAG Awards a reality.

Sources:
Marybeth Bentwood, Director of Public Relations Kobrand Corporation
Nate Collier, Associate Marketing Manager, E&J Gallo Winery
Benn Fleishman, SAG Awards Executive in Charge of Production
Suzanne Goin, Chef & Jessica Goin, Catering Director, Lucques Catering
Keith Greco, Keith Greco Designs, SAG Awards Art Director
Chris Matsumoto, CJ Matsumoto & Sons, Florist
Mickey Moscynski, SAG Awards Arrivals Art Director
Lauren Murray, FIJI Water Public Relations Manager
Andrea Wyn Schall, A Wynning Event, SAG Awards Event Supervisor
John Shaffner & Joe Stewart, SAG Awards Production Designers

The 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, one of the awards season’s premier events, will be simulcast live coast-to-coast on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, at 8 p.m. (ET)/5 p.m. (PT) from the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles. An encore primetime telecast will begin immediately following on TNT at 10 p.m. (ET)/7 p.m. (PT). The ceremony will also be telecast internationally, as well as to U.S. military installations overseas through the American Forces Network Broadcast Center.

Recipients of the honors for Outstanding Action Performances by Film and Television Stunt Ensembles announced at 6:15 p.m. (ET)/3:15 p.m. (PT) during the red carpet pre-show webcast on tntdrama.com, tbs.com and People.com which begins at 6 p.m. (ET)/3 p.m. (PT)

The 19^th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA will be produced by Jeff Margolis Productions in association with Screen Actors Guild Awards^®, LLC. For more information about the SAG Awards, SAG-AFTRA, TNT and TBS, visit sagawards.org/about, “like” us at facebook.com/sagawardsofficialpage, follow us at twitter.com/sagawards, follow us SAG Awards on Google+ at google.com/+SAGawards, on Instagram by following @sagawards, and on Tumblr at sagawards.tumblr.com.

A personal note to my fellow union members: Always remember Rule Number 1. Your compliance means the world the Baltimore-Washington, SAG-AFTRA Local.

Reuters: Veteran journalist Barbara Walters was admitted to a Washington. D.C., hospital over the weekend after she fell and cut her head at the British ambassador's residence, a spokesman for the ABC television network said on Sunday.

Barbara Walters, photo courtesy AP

Jeffrey Schneider, a senior vice president with ABC News, said Walters fell on the stairs on Saturday evening while attending an event.

"Out of an abundance of caution," Walters, 83, went to the hospital, where she remained for observation on Sunday, Schneider said.

"Barbara is alert (and telling everyone what to do), which we all take as a very positive sign," Schneider said in a written statement.

But it seemed like such a good idea in '66.

Breakfast at Tiffany's, Theatrical Poster

Despite having a book by playwright Edward Albee and a score composed by Bob Merrill, Breakfast at Tiffany’s—the musical—never actually opened on Broadway. Originally titled Holly Golightly, it closed after just four previews.

The cast was directed by Joseph Anthony and included Mary Tyler Moore, Richard Chamberlain, Sally Kellerman, Larry Kert, and Priscilla Lopez. It was designed by Oliver Smith, choreographed by Michael Kidd with assistance from Tony Mordente, and produced by David Merrick.

Merrick closed the show in previews, in his own words, "rather than subject the drama critics and the public to an excruciatingly boring evening."

One of the original posters—with the word "smash" covered in yellow tape—hangs on The Flop Wall at the Theatre District eatery for Broadway-types, Joe Allen Restaurant in New York.

Dr Martin Luther King, Jr (1929-1968) — I celebrate the man and his life with music.

 

 

 

 

 

You were grace on earth, Dr King, and I will continue to thank you for all of your work for of my days. 

Patti LuPone's new CD: Grammy material

Patti LuPone at 54 Below, photo courtesy Karsten Moran, New York Times

The new live album "Patti LuPone Far Away Places," which was recorded during the two-time Tony winner's engagement at 54 Below last summer, was released Jan. 15 by Broadway Records. We received it yesterday.

My review is one word: PERFECTION!

Seven-time Grammy Award nominee Robert Sher (Gypsy, How to Succeed, Nice Work If You Can Get It) produced the album. LuPone earned acclaim for the concert evening that opened 54 Below in June. She returned for a second engagement in August and also played a special New Year's Eve performance there.

54 Below, Broadway's Nightclub, New York City

The live album also includes dialogue and stories that thread the evening together. The songs featured on the CD are:

"Gypsy In My Soul" (Clay A. Boland and Moe Jaffe)
"Nightlife" (Willie Nelson)
"Bilbao" (Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht)
"Far Away Places" (Alex Kramer and Joan Whitney)
"Black Market" (Frederick Hollander)
"Come to the Supermarket in Old Peking" (Cole Porter)
"I Wanna Be Around" (Johnny Mercer)
"Ah, the Sea is Blue" (Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht)
"I Cover the Waterfront" (Johnny Green and Edward Heyman)
"Pirate Jenny" (Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht)
"By the Sea" (Stephen Sondheim)
"I Regret Everything" (Bill Burnett and Marguerite Sarlin)
"Hymn to Love" (Edith Piaf and Marguerite Monnot)
"Travelin' Light" (Jimmy Mundy and Trummy Young)
"Nights on Broadway" (Bee Gees)
"September Song" (Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson)

The New York Times wrote, 

Ms. LuPone was born to sing the louche songs of Brecht and Weill, and the arrangements for a limber quintet — led by the pianist Joseph Thalken and featuring an accordion, banjo, violin, and guitar — lent the music a pungent Weimar flavor. Especially evocative were Mr. Thalken’s lilting 1930s hotel orchestra-style jazz arrangements of “I Cover the Waterfront” and “Travelin’ Light,” which Ms. LuPone invested with a wistful, torchy sensuality.

 

The show’s dramatic high point was a feral, scary interpretation of “Pirate Jenny,” the murderous revenge fantasy from “The Threepenny Opera,” delivered with a sneering glare that could turn you to stone. No one, save perhaps Maria Callas, has expressed more fury through a curled lip and an evil eye than Ms. LuPone, who can deploy the same features as easily for farce.

You can read The Times full review here. Know someone who loves Broadway or cabaret? Every song by Patti LuPone is a Valentine.

 

From SAG: Live streaming video event with Jessica Chastain, 'Zero Dark Thirty.'

JESSICA CHASTAIN

Please join us for a one hour LIVE STREAMED Q&A with Oscar Nominee
Jessica Chastain, currently starring in ZERO DARK THIRTY.

Tomorrow - Thursday, January 17th
4:00 PM EST / 1:00 PM PST
To watch the Q&A go to:
http://www.sagfoundation.org/videogallery/livestream
To watch the Q&A you DO NOT have to log into our website. Just go to http://www.sagfoundation.org/videogallery/livestream.
ZERO DARK THIRTY Stars Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, Edgar Ramirez and James Gandolfini
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

From Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker"), "Zero Dark Thirty" is a chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy SEAL Team 6 in May, 2011. For a decade, an elite team of intelligence and military operatives, working in secret across the globe, devoted themselves to a single goal: to find and eliminate Osama bin Laden. Zero Dark Thirty reunites the Oscar® winning team of director-producer Kathryn Bigelow and writer-producer Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) for the story of history's greatest manhunt for the world's most dangerous man.

After 20 years, 'Polyester' at the Charles.

Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote:
Ordinarily, Mr. Waters is not everyone's cup of tea
- but Polyester, which opens today at the National
and other theaters, is not Mr.Waters' ordinary
movie. It's a very funny one, with a hip, stylized
humor that extends beyond the usual limitations of
his outlook. This time, the comic vision is so controlled
and steady that Mr. Waters need not rely so heavily on
the grotesque touches that make his other films such
perennial favorites on the weekend Midnight Movie
circuit. Here's one that can just as well be shown in
the daytime.


John Waters'
POLYESTER

The first Charles Theatre screening of Polyester in more than 20 years! John Waters’ larger-budget “women’s picture” satire stars Divine as tormented housewife Francine Fishpaw. Featuring Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, Mink Stole and many of your friends and neighbors. 

Saturday, January 19 11:30 AM; Monday, January 21 7 PM; Thursday, January 24 9 PM.

1981 Dir. John Waters 1.85. 86 Min. Color.
TRAILER

WINTER REPERTORY FILM CALENDAR

The Players:
Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, David Samson, Mary Garlington, Ken King, Mink Stole, Joni Ruth White, Hans Kramm 

and a credited cast of dozens

Stiv Bators, Cookie Mueller, Mary Vivian Pearce, Jean Hill, George Udell,Joan Erbe, Steve Yeager, George Figgs, Garey Lambert, Tom Diventi, Susan Lowe, Chuck Yeaton, Brook Yeaton, Stuart Rome, Paula Rome, Jay Leno, Rick Breitenfeld, Jim Hill, John Brothers, Derek Neal, Michael Watson, Sharon Niesp, Marina Melin, George Hulse, Tony Parkham, Paul Holland, Alberto Panella, Frank Tamburo, Nancy Morgan, Keats Smith, Gordon Kamka, David Klein, George Stover, Marv Egoff, John De La Vega, Mrs. Horner, Katie Casey, Gail Kondylas, Judith Klein, Alan Hauser, Lynda Lambert, Dorothy Braudy, Leo Braudy, Pat Figgs, Joan Insley, Sam Insley, Kitty Samson, Steve Waters, Treva Barnes, Sharon Waters, Anne Mallory, John Allen, Jay Allen, Tommy Allen, Hilary Aidus, Jay Bennett, Rocky Collins, Denny Dormody, Bernard Jay, Karl Otter, Charles Roggero.

The Charles Theatre
1711 N Charles Steet
Baltimore (of course) 21201