The Arts in New York City

What makes a gangster? Is it T.I. and his recent arrest on gun charges? Is it 50 Cent getting shot nine times? No it is not. They may call themselves gangsters but I recently saw a movie that showed me otherwise. American Gangster starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe showed me what a true gangster is. It is a historical fiction movie that shows us the life of the historic mob boss Frank Lucas. Denzel correctly captures the ruthlessness and reckless abandon for others yet he still humanizes Frank Lucas. I don’t want to ruin the movie but despite showing me the mind of a gangster, I was also brought back to a time I could not experience otherwise: Harlem in the 1970s. Overall the movie was long-winded but I enjoyed this two-and-a-half hour epic.

did you take your photo today? make it rock, make it sing, make it great, and more than anything, make it yours!

check it out at http://macaulay.cuny.edu/gallery/main.php

Meet at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street (between Astor Pl. and E. 4th St.), ABSOLUTELY NO LATER THAN 6:45pm.

Hopefully your recent experience of writing a brief piece for an audience gave you some fresh insight into theater, language, and performance. Still I can’t guarantee that this event won’t leave you scratching your head a bit so if you’re interested, here is some info to consult:

• information on the play cycle
• a radio story regarding the plays and the playwright
• the ‘play of the day’ from the play cycle
• a brief article about the play cycle from the NYTimes.
• a long but very engaging profile about the playwright by the critic Hilton Als, from the New Yorker.

You might enjoy this article from the NY Times.

For information regarding the performances discussed in the article see this link.

PS For my part I have enjoyed remembering your spoken-word pieces for the past day.

For information on the fall 2007 Baruch student production of Neil LaBute’s “The Shape of Things”, directed by Brian Rhinehart, click here.

Performances run from November 13-17, evenings at 7:30 and also a Saturday matinee at 2:00pm.

Here’s the Wikipedia entry discussing the play – once you see the production, you can add to the entry with your own critique!

Hi Folks,

Enhanced Podcast [ 8:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Just testing out the podcast upload.
More uploading info to follow.

//Lynn

could we record our work as a podcast and show it in class?

I am doing a skit for it… is it ok if it contains profanity?

I don’t know if you noticed these articles form the NY Times, but you might be interested in them…

• from today (Nov. 4), an article about music, and the people who make it, for “Family Guy” (the FOX animated show), discussing the complexities and unexpectedly broad range of the music involved
• also from today, an article on dancers working to get their bachelor’s degrees, since their dance careers are virtually guaranteed be over by the age of 35 (does dance remind you of an underpaid, less rule-bound, even more cutthroat version of professional sports yet?)
• from Oct. 31, a preview and discussion of the dance we went to last night and,
• from Nov. 2, a review of the performance

To upload PDF images you must open the image first and “save as” jpg. Then upload your jpg as usual.

Also note that file names need to be changed to plain text and numbers without spaces, symbols, etc.

If your image file preview is too big, just click “show:title” in your upload options box before posting to create a simple link that will open in a new page.

This is not ideal in that it does not create an instant thumbnail, but it is better than leaving it as a pdf in which case users have to go through many more steps to actually see the image (see example below).

theseagull.jpg

//Lynn