Dancing Your Pants Off

Now modern interpretive dance is just one of the millions of things I know virtually nothing about.

In truth, dance just isn't my thing.

In elementary school, I hid in the boys' room whenever they announced a ladies' choice number at Tune Time.

In high school, I played keyboard in a rock band, so I was performing when everyone else learned to do the pony, and the horse, and the funky chicken.

In college, I vividly remember staring in wide-eyed, stoned wonder for 4 hours at 2 of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen who walked over after the mixer and told me and my Neil Young-lookalike friend Frank Haircut, "we do know how to dance and you missed your chance" before leaving out the door forever.

I am still having nightmares from the time a few years back when my wife dragged me to a dance recital for her god-daughter that I swear featured 7,000 munchkins and went on for a week-and-a-half.

And there was that episode just last month where Fidel Castro tried to evict me from Cuba for attempting to kill the well-endowed professional Cuban salsa dancer who was trying to instruct me in her art. All I did was stomp on her feet, blindly stumble, and desperately grab her endowments, which caused her to scream and both of us to wildly crash into a precious, irreplaceable Santeria altar. And I swear I was during really well for the 3 seconds before the unfortunate mishap.

Now I tell you all this to set the stage to try to explain my inexplicable decision to purchase 2 tickets to the Kennedy Center tonight to see the Keigwin + Company dance performance. It may have had something to do with the preview of the performance I had read in The Washington Post. That preview said innovative and hip company director Larry Keigwin grew up dancing behind his bedroom door to an '80s MTV playlist: Michael Jackson (when he was alive), Madonna (when she was young), Whitney Houston (when she was still alive) and the original cast recording of "Cats." The previewer promised an evening of provocative and stylish entertainment. I like provocative. Stylish can be good. And there was that fact that my wife was still smarting from my ruining her romantic Havana Valentine's Day with my very unstylish Salsa stumble.

I bought the tickets. I wanted to have a good view so they were directly center stage. But given my previous dance record, I wanted to be safe so I made sure they were in the last row in the 2nd balcony of the massive Eisenhower Theater. You know, just in case.

We arrived at the theater and after climbing a whole lot of stairs, we found our seats. Despite our distance from the stage, the view was great. Just like a rock concert, they were playing warmup music. I made out Boy George's "Karma Chameleon." And 2 or 3 hits by Madonna I recognized. Hey, I may be able to get into this modern dancey thing, I thought.

The lights dimmed for the 1st of 4 scheduled movements - "Megalopolis." 12 dancers in futuristic black and silver garb moved around the stage in impressive machine-like motions. Then there was a part with a darkened stage and a dancer with 2 flashlights performing to a pulsing MIA song. Then more futuristic marching to a minimalist, but still driving soundtrack. Then another brief club moment. Then a curtain. I wasn't certain exactly what I had seen, but I had enjoyed it immensely. If I had to say, it had something to do with the impersonality of the future world and man's search for connection and meaning in such a place. Like Charlie Chaplin's classic silent film Modern Times. In fact, the whole thing was sort of like a fast-forward version of Chaplin's film with 2 extra doses of a night in a hot NYC club. I was content with my interpretation of the work. But I knew if I wanted to,  I could find out the real story by asking anyone around me. I could tell I was in the midst of modern dance experts. They had vibrant stylish scarves draped fashionably around their necks and wore expensive dangling earrings. And that was just the men.

The lights dimmed for movement 2 - "Mattress Suite." On stage left, you could see a solo dancer in a wedding dress. In the center was a mattress on its edge. Stage right was still dark. Then the lone dancer began to move. "Oh my God no," I silently screamed to myself. She was dancing to an opera track. I hate opera. I mean I really hate opera. I hate opera so much that it has made me deathly afraid of any full-figured woman. I am terrified that if I so much as look at one, she will break out in a high-pitched powerful song in a language I have no chance of understanding. I closed my eyes, but I couldn't close my ears. It got worse. A 2nd opera track. I finally opened my eyes. There was a man in a wedding tux dancing. But wait. What was that in the darkened back corner of stage left? It couldn't be. This was the staid, proper Kennedy Center. But it appeared the early dancer was disrobing. I strained forward to see better. Yes, she definitely was suggestively swaying slowly as she slid her wedding dress down over her shoulders. In the faint stage back light, I saw glimpses of her white bra. She let the dress fall to the floor. Now she was in just bra and panties. In my concentration on the 1st dancer, I had failed to recognize that the 2nd male dancer had also stripped to his tidy-whities. The pair flipped the bed down.. For the next few minutes, they bounced, and intertwined, and flipped and retwined on the bed. But then something happened and the woman stormed off stage, leaving the male to dance a hauntingly sad solo with the mattress to Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine." Then somehow there were 3 dudes (including the married guy) cavorting on that much used mattress to a Verdi backing. I didn't care for this much, but those earring wearers I referred to earlier seemed to really get into it. In the final scene, the female wedding dancer returned to close the movement with a beautiful solo dance to Etta James' "At Last." Much of this was done while touching the now again upright mattress. To be honest, unlike the 1st movement, I really didn't have a thematic clue about this section other than it involved multiple looks at different aspects of love. But I did like the costumes, except the ones on the 3 dudes.

After intermission, the lights dimmed for the 3rd movement - "Love Songs." Now my wife swears I don't have a romantic bone in my body, but I was convinced I would like this movement the best. First, there were no stupid opera tracks. And I was extremely familiar with all 6 songs the 3 couples would be dancing to. Two were by Roy Orbison - "Blue Bayou" and "Crying." Two were by Aretha Franklin - "Baby, I Love You" and "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I love You)." Two were by Nina Simone "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and "I Put a Spell on You." As I thought, I loved the movement. After the curtain came down and I finished applauding, I turned to my wife. "See, I can do romantic," I said. She just shook her head.

Now, I was really ready for the final movement - "Runway." According to the previewer, it was a look at modeling in a 1960s-meets-techno-music sort of way. And sure enough, 12 dancers turned the stage, and indeed the entire bottom of the theater, into a giant runway. The women wore pastel-colored 60s mini-dresses and sported high-poofed hair. The men wore black suits with white shirts and skinny black ties. I was still taking in the initial costuming when it suddenly got even better. Four of the 6 females stripped down to bra and panties which matched the pastel colors of their dresses. Four of the men also stripped down too, but you can't expect everything in a dance performance to be perfect. All too soon the final movement, and indeed, the performance was over. One bow. Two bows. One breast. Two breasts. Then fini. Our night with Keigwin + Company was complete.

Now I'm sure you're asking - Dave, given your past history with dance did you really enjoy the performance? And the answer is an unqualified (and with my lack of knowledge about modern dance I mean really unqualified) yes. I give those big thumbs up even with the 2 opera tracks and 3 dudes cavorting in their tidy-whities on that mattress. In fact, I was so moved by the 4 movements that I am going to take my wife to National Geographic on April 13th for a night of Cuban Salsa dancing. And to keep in practice, I am going to make a few visits to the posh, discreet Gentlemen's Club just across the street from our apartment. I know I can learn some really cool dance moves from those talented hard working girls, especially Kat, and Krystal, and Kandi, who I have been following closely on the internet. I definitely want to keep abreast of this dancing thing. And I'm virtually certain that I won't be subjected to any opera songs. I believe they are banned in Gentlemen's Clubs. I just hope that same ban applies to earringed men in tidy whities.

Tales, Tips, and Tidbits
I'm sure you understand that I may have played fast and loose with a few facts in my above re-creation of our neat night with Keigwin + Company. First, my Villanova University buddy wasn't named Frank Haircut. His real name was Frank Hackett, but we did call him Frank Haircut and he was a dead ringer for a 1970s Neil Young. Obviously, there really weren't 7,000 munchkins at the described local dance recital. The dancers weren't munchkins at all; they were cute little girls and there couldn't have been more than 6,973 of them tops.. Finally, for full disclosure, I wasn't  ordered out of Cuba by Fidel Castro. It was really his 80-year-old younger brother, Raul. I just always thought Fidel was way cooler. Now as to my enjoyment of the Keigwin + Company performance, my only concern is that my meager writing talents failed to convey how much I truly enjoyed the night. And I swear, no matter what you think, it was all about the dancing, not the costuming.

Watergate Once Again

Like so many of the young men who came of age in the late 1960s and early 1979s, Thomas Mallon believes that Richard Nixon was the dominant political figure of his time. .

Mallon, an author of historical fiction and head of the Creative Writing Program at George Washington University, says his fascination with Nixon began when he was in the 4th grade. "I was a 9-year-old with a Nixon-Lodge button running around telling people not to vote for Kennedy because he did not have enough experience," Mallon now says with a laugh..

Later, Mallon actually met both Nixon and his wife Pat as the couple was riding in a Long Island motorcade and shook their hands. "It was an open-air car and Mrs. Nixon was sitting on top of the seats. She had these spiky high heels that were digging into the red leather (of the seats). Now I was 16 and hardly knew what pornography was, but that image stayed with me," Mallon said.

During his college years, there was Nixon behind the Vietnam War, the shootings at Kent State, the political unrest, the ending of the military draft, the end of the Vietnam War, and finally the end of the Nixon era itself with the Watergate scandal and Nixon's resignation in disgrace as President of the United States.

And it is that Watergate scandal period which provides the setting for Mallon's latest work Watergate: A Novel. Tonight he appeared at Politics and Prose to read from the novel and discuss the background behind the book, which obviously included many hours spent with the Watergate tapes.

For his reading, Mallon chose the chapter where Nixon's secretary Rosemary Woods is introduced to readers. Mallon said Woods, who feels rejected by Nixon's reliance on his aide Robert Haldeman, is one of about 6 major characters in the work.

Mallon told the audience his main purpose in writing the book was "not to write about the skulluggery, but the emotional toll that made this story intimate." 

When asked what he considered Nixon's key flaw, Mallon replied: "I think the saddest and his real undoing was his worship of toughness."  He added that he believes that is why Nixon used so much obscene language on tapes and made so many crude ethnic remarks. "Nixon called it 'our gangster language.' It was their locker room talk," Mallon said.

The author also dismissed the idea that Nixon, while guilty of ordering a cover-up of the Watergate break-in, actually ordered the bungled burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices. "It is inconceivable to me to believe that he knew in advance. Listening to the tapes, he would have had to have been a phenomenal actor. Actually, it often seems that he is trying to pretend he knew more than he did," Mallon contended.

Nixon was, and remains, a pivotal figure in 20th Century American history. "It's never difficult to start a conversation about Richard Nixon," Mallon noted.

Mallon's book has been receiving critical praise and is already on the best-seller list in Washington. The author said that while he appreciates positive comments from readers, as a writer of historical fiction, those comments can sometimes be troublesome.  "I worry when people say 'I learned so much history from your book.' It's historical fiction, not history. The adjective trumps the noun," Mallon said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
I am a contemporary of Mallon, graduating from high school in 1969 and Villanova University in 1973, so I share aspects of his Nixonian fixation. I was an active protester against the war, twice being tear-gassed in Washington during demonstrations. I worked against Nixon's re-election in 1972, getting spit on and dejected for my efforts. I was a cub newspaper reporter the week that Nixon resigned. The Washington Post team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and Rolling Stone gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson, who demonstrated a legendary loathing for all things Nixon, were my heroes; the disgraced Nixon was evil personified, a vile leader who had soiled the presidential office forever. But as I aged, I became more understanding of the complex man who was Richard Milhouse Nixon. I no longer had to, as an American patriot, give him a 1-finger salute every time I saw his image. I reassessed his record - relatively strong in domestic affairs, outstanding in most foreign matters. But there was always Vietnam, and Watergate, and those damning tapes. Today, my assessment of Nixon is that he was essentially a tragically flawed figure, his insecurities and rises and downfalls almost Shakespearean in scope. Mallon, who admits to being conflicted about his current opinion of Nixon, alluded to those horrible insecurities when he delivered this true background tidbit during his talk. As a young man, Nixon was smitten with Pat. She didn't return the love. He had a car. She didn't. He offered to drive her around on her dates with other men. She accepted and he did just that, an almost cringe-producing action much more pathetic than presidential. But as this ugly, endless.GOP presidential season filled with fear and loathing lurches on, it's almost enough to make you long for the Nixon days again. But before we get to0 carried away by the past, there is always Vietnam and Watergate and those damning tapes.

Mexico and Its Masks

This is a story about how Adolph Hitler's hatred for Jews indirectly helped bring a marvelous new exhibit of more than 140 Mexican masks to the Mexican Cultural Institute here in the Columbia Heights section of DC.

It goes like this ...

In 1938, rightly fearing Hitler's horrendous plans for Jews, the family of  the young teenager who was to become Ruth Lechuga was able to board a ship and escape to Mexico, eventually planning on relocating in the United States. After a short stay in Mexico, the ship sailed on to Ellis Island, only to find that America was letting no more Jews enter the country. Mexico agreed to take the immigrants in and provide them safety from the Nazi terrors.

This act created a life-long gratitude toward Mexico on the part of Ruth. All her life, she was fascinated by the beauty and depth of Mexican culture. She spent years traveling to all parts of Mexico collecting masks and other items that represented the history, the culture, indeed the spirit and soul of her adopted land. Eventually, she possessed more than 10,000 items in her collection, including more than 1,400 masks.  .

Early on, Ruth as she preferred to be called, received instruction in photography so she could more accurately account for her findings. "I'm not a great photographer," she once told her friend and anthropologist Marta Turok who helped her catalog her immense collection. "But it gives control and documentation to the objects that I have collected."

Eventually, Ruth died, but Turok continued to work on the collection. "I looked at it as an anthropologist," Turok, who served as curator for the exhibit said in an opening-week talk at the Institute today. "Taken out of context and displayed just as art work they (the masks) are beautiful, of course. But when you work in the context about where they came from and what they mean for the people, they say so much more."

The masks, which are different for each of the regions of Mexico, have been employed in ceremonies since long before the Spanish conquered the land. "The masks were used to transmit stories to present and future generations," Turok explained, a function that still continues today. She showed slides of an early 21st Century festival which captured a masked replica of Osama bin Laden and a fireworks display depicting the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

Of all the various ceremonies that Mexicans enjoy that use masks, the Day of  Dead is probably the most familiar. But there are ceremonies celebrating nature, religious beliefs, and historical events.

"And, of course, behind each mask is a mask maker," Turok said.

But Turok says she fears the centuries old tradition may be ending, a victim of changing times and dwindling resources.  "It's a new crisis," Turok told the capacity crowd which packed the large hall at the institute to learn about the masks and their traditions. "Generations X and Y are into different things. And even the older people are urging the younger to leave and seek a better life. They say "do you want to live in this dire poverty? Don't become an artisan. Become something else.'"

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Cliches are cliches because they are true. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So let's dispense with the words and look at some pictures taken by my mask-collecting wife Judy.

    

Live from The Wire: (David) Simon Says

David Simon discuss a scene with cast during shooting

The drug-filled scenarios from The Wire were fiction based on reality, but the fact is that America's failed war on drugs is actually part of a systemic class war that is "killing the poor" and a shockingly visible sign of "what is going wrong with the American experiment," says David Simon, the co-creator of the 5-season HBO series which many critics agree is the greatest show in television history.

"We are brutalizing the poor at an incredible rate. The drug war is a war against the poor. That is all it is. It's just shameless and it's got to end," said Simon, responsible for what is termed the complete trilogy of modern urban life - The Wire, Homicide: Life in the Streets, and The Corner.

"We don't know what to do with the poor. We don't have work for them. So we're putting them up as someone to be feared instead of part of the American collective,"  Simon added.

Simon, who spoke for 90 minutes today at his alma mater, the University of Maryland, as part of the Dean's Lecture Series, said prison numbers support this class destruction. "America has more of its population in jail than any other country on the face of the earth. When we started The Wire (in 2002) there were 500,000 people in prison. Today, there are 2.3 million. Then, 34% were incarcerated for a violent crime; today that number is 7%," Simon said. "Why are we doing this? It's as if we are saying we don't need these people."

Simon fears there is another dark motive for continuing the war on drugs and increasing the national prison population - corporate greed. "Now we have for-profit companies taking over the prisons," he said. "They want to grow the prison population for money. It (the drug war) hasn't worked for 40 years. It didn't affect anything and yet it goes on. What's happening in Mexico is a holocaust. Our drug war really means that we are willing to fight to the death of the last Mexican or the last 14-year-old on the corner."

He pointed out that despite overwhelming facts to the contrary, many Americans in power still see drugs and the addiction problems that often ensue as a moral issue, rather than an economic and medical one."Morality is really cheap. There's no (legal) work in the inner city. It's destructive, but really it's a rational decision for a kid there to sell drugs. The only people hiring are in the drug trade," Simon said.

Not content with destroying the poor, unbridled corporate greed also threatens to eviscerate the middle class, Simon said. "When we were writing The Wire we were trying to write a cautionary tale about America," Simon said.  "The middle class is being eviscerated. The truth is this was 20 to 30 years in the making. Labor is in decline. Organized labor made this country great. (In the series) the police, the union workers, the immigrant sex workers, the teachers, the news people are all seeing this. Capitalism is a great economic engine. But we're forgetting the need to marry it to a social consciousness. You are a fool if you think capitalism is going to result in social justice."

Now a revered television maker, a respected social critic, and a winner of the the half-million dollar MacArthur Genius grant, Simon said he had no inkling of his future when he was young. His introduction to introspective political and social thought came early by way of his family. "We were all lefties. I remember sitting at the table and having all these incredible discussions. We had a house with a lot of books, a lot of newspapers, a lot of periodicals and a lot of debate.  It was a house to have arguments and I mean that in the best way."

After college, Simon was hired as a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. "I was a generalist. I wasn't chasing a career. It was a way of kind of being a voyeur and not growing up," Simon said. "Journalism was a very pure way for me to learn something and then tell a story and then the next day you do something different."

Then he was  assigned to the crime beat.  "There I was, a 22-year-old thrown into covering crime," he said. "I was aloof from the cop culture. I got into 15-minute arguments with the desk sergeants. So the game was on even before I got out in the streets.  I realized I was only being told things from 1 perspective. I was missing some of the things I needed. I had to get out and learn, meet people on their own terms"

As his perspectives widened, Simon's writing blossomed in detail and depth. One of his most famous articles, written in January of 1987,  featured a corporate chart of the complete workings of the large drug gang of Baltimore crime lord Melvin Williams. "It was full of smart people who were really organized. This looked a lot like corporate America." Simon said.

While his articles "gave some people (at The Sun) the fidgets," Simon said "they left me alone and they didn't promote me. It was an inertia that worked out for me. Had they made me cover higher education, I would be a different person today."

Simon wrote a book that was turned into Homicide. Then came another that became The Corner. Finally, Simon took a buyout from the paper and began work on what was to become The Wire, which has been praised as a thorough, riveting, Dickensian-like telling of modern American inner city life.

Throughout his talk, Simon stressed that The Wire was a collective effort among his creative partner Ed Burns, a former Baltimore cop and teacher; the writers which included 3 of America's greatest crime novelists - George Pelecanos, Richard Price, and Dennis Lehane; and the talented cast and crew of the show.  He said he is "shocked by what a long tail" The Wire, which ended in 2008 after 60 episodes and 5 seasons, has grown. For example, it is regularly taught in university campuses like Harvard across the country in courses as varied as drama, urban history, sociology, and ethics.

Simon said that while he is pleased with the public reception the show continues to receive,  he really hopes viewers consider the complex arguments it showcases. "The last thing I ever wanted to do was to sustain a franchise. Drama is life without the boring parts, although some people probably feel we put too many of those in. We were angry (about the state of America) and we were trying to tell about real lives and real problems and spark real arguments and real discussions. We never considered ... the people love Omar so we can't kill Omar or the people want more Stringer Bell,  let's give it to them." 

While most of Simon's talk was extremely serious about extremely serious topics, it was not without its humorous moments. When informed by an audience member that President Barack Obama had, once again just 1 day earlier, repeated during an ESPN interview that The Wire was his favorite TV show and that its moralistic gay hitman Omar was his favorite character, Simon laughed as he remarked, "I wonder what audience he was shooting for. I really need for him to talk about Treme (Simon's new HBO show about New Orleans recovering from the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina)."

Simon also gave shoutouts to his Mother who was in the 2nd row of the auditorium Like her son, she too graduated from Maryland, but there was a major difference. "She was summa cum laude and I was summa come nothing," Simon said.

In his introductory remarks, Simon said he had totaled up the student tickets he had received while a student at Maryland and the generous amount of his speaking fee and "just realized that I got every dollar back." Actually, that wasn't true. As he does with all his speaking fees, Simon turns his speaking money over to a Baltimore group that works with Baltimore kids, a pledge he has been keeping since The Corner was released. That shows concern. That shows compassion. That shows commitment. In essence, even more than The Wire, that shows the real David Simon. I bet his summa cum laude Mother was proud even though Simon expressed her initial concern that "I would use some profanity that she'll tell me later I should be ashamed of."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Although most of Simon's powerful talk was directed to laying out a cogent, compelling argument about some of America's most glaring faults, some solutions were also suggested. They included:

• admitting that even if a person takes no action on the drug problem, we are all actively or tacitly involved. During the discussion, an audio clip was played conveying this idea. In that clip, Omar, a known but moralistically motivated hitman is testifying against a drug dealer and the opposing attorney is trying to portray him as a vicious criminal who would say anything to which Omar replies: "I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It's all in the game."
• if you find you are on a jury that is trying to convict someone of a non-violent drug offense, use your Constitutional right of jury nullification. "You have the moral right not to uphold an immoral law," Simon said.
• encourage the government when it negotiates favorable trade agreements with other countries to makes certain  those countries encourage proper working conditions and promote strong unions. "Tell them to say we're not going to sanction child labor or a dead labor leader in a ditch," Simon said.

Visible Influences of an Invisble Man

Richard Wright in 1928

Richard Wright may have felt invisible in a white-dominated America when he wrote the classic African-American novel The Invisible Man in 1952, but his influence is clearly visible on many young Black writers such as Jabari Amin and Danielle Evans, who came to the Library of Congress today to honor the author on the occasion of what would have been his 98th birthday by reading from both his and their own works and explaining how Wright had affected their writing.

Amin, the author of What Obama Means for Our Culture and The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't and Why, read Wright's short story "Afternoon," a tale of  a few hours in the life of 2 young Black boys, Buster and Riley.

He followed that with a powerful, poignant reading of his own short story, "Genesis," which he said was inspired in part by Wright's tale.

Jabari Amin

 "It was lingering a little in my mind," Amin said, before reading his story of a dramatic afternoon in the lives of 2 friends, Crispus and Roderick. Amin's marvelously crafted tale combines the unlikely elements of a pint of Sealtest chocolate ripple ice cream, baseball card stats about Curt Flood, a neighborhood bully, an unexpected action, and flowing red blood to magnificent effect.  (Note: If you read only 1 short story this year, make it "Genesis." It would rank in the top 10 modern short stories I have encountered.)

For her part, Evans, who is a professor of Literature and Creative Writing at American University, said she felt incredibly fortunate that in her profession she "gets the pleasure of rediscovering Wright every semester."

Danielle Evans

Evans, who won the 2011 PEN Prize for a first book for her short story collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, chose to read excerpts from The Invisible Man. She said the novel has had an enormous impact on her.

"I was understood by the book before I understood it," Evans said. "What beautiful language it has. He (Wright) had all the words for the things I'd always known but couldn't name. It takes a 2nd or 3rd or maybe even 4th reading before you see how wonderfully structured it is."

She said she was particularly struck by how Wright  "dares to try to make sense of America" and show how we are "always haunted by the American past and the ways in which we can feel the past in the present."

Evans jokingly said she was using photocopies of the pages of Wright's work because if she brought her tattered, taped copy of  The Invisible Man to the Library of Congress she would "be arrested for book abuse or something." 

She said that she believed reading her own work after reading from Wright's masterwork was like "being after Beyonce in a beauty contest." Evans then proceeded to read from the opening of her new novel in progress which opens with an insightful rumination about railroad cars and then shifts to focus on Phil, a 50ish black man, and his initial encounter with a 20-something young white woman Diana on a sweltering Washington DC afternoon.

After hearing Evan's read from her unpublished work, I can't wait to pick up the novel which features my new home city. Until then, I guess I could wisely spend some of my time re-tackling  Wright's work.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
As they plan to do  at each of the Library of Congress' author birthday celebrations (the 1st was for Langston Hughes - for more details on that ceremony see our Feb. 1 posting) Library researchers also presented a variety of Wright-related items from their extensive collections. Among the items  displayed were:

• the original typed manuscript of The Invisible Man
• a neatly written outline on yellow lined over-sized paper for the first 8 chapters of an unpublished novel
• a letter to friend and All the King's Men author Robert Penn Warren which began "We've been thinking along the same channels'
• a letter to author William Faulkner arguing against the release of poet Ezra Pound from jail.

A Slave in the White House

Paul Jennings, born in 1799, was a remarkable American. He came to Washington at age 10, when the nation's capital was more a plan on paper than a city of magnificent national edifices. He lived in the White House. He helped save the iconic portrait of Gen. George Washington from the flames of the British assault on DC in 1812. He wrote the 1st White House memoir. He participated in the largest attempt of slaves to flee for freedom in the nation's history.

And he accomplished much of this as a Black slave, owned by both President James Madison and later by Madison's wife, Dolley, and eventually freed with financial help from the great American statesman and orator Daniel Webster.

Today, Elizabeth Dowling Taylor, came to the National Archives to talk about her book A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madison and provide insights into the life and deeds of Madison's manservant.

Jennings was born in Virginia, one of about 100 slaves Madison held at his Montpelier estate. He moved with Madison as his manservant to the White House.  After Madison's death, Dolley was supposed to free Jennings, but she reneged on the deal. He was able to purchase his freedom in 1845 and worked to free the rest of the members of his family. In his 1st year of freedom, he helped 77 slaves in DC unsuccessfully attempt to flee to freedom in the North hidden aboard the schooner "The Pearl." In 1865, he wrote A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison, a book which historians agree is the 1st White House memoir. When he died in 1874 after a 2nd career as a paid governmental worker, he owned not 1, but 2 homes at the corner of L and 14th Street in Washington.

"(Jennings') story is one of determined courage and a successful pursuit of the right to rise, one of the fundamental cornerstones of the American Dream," Taylor said."Sometimes, we think of slaves in the collective, but Jennings' story shows that each slave was an individual with their own talents and desires."

During the question and answer period, Taylor was asked how Madison, and indeed George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, could have been president of a country founded on freedom and still have held slaves.

"There's no direct answer," Taylor said. "Today, we look at slavery as a moral issue, but they (the founding Presidents) knew it as a moral issue, too."

For his part, Madison called slavery "an evil of great magnitude no matter what way you look at it."
But the 4th president, like his slave-owning predecessors, was still a man trapped by the conventions and mores of his time. "He may have felt it was a great blot, but he could not envision a pluralistic society (made up of Whites and Blacks). He felt 'we can't share our country with them.'''

Madison favored what he called a double operation. In his view, any emancipation would have to be joined with the transportation of America's Black populace to western Africa for colonization. "As immoral and shameful as he thought slavery was, he put up with it," Taylor said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips

Her 1st questioner asked Taylor what it was like appearing as a guest on The Daily Show with John Stewart. Taylor called her appearance, which occurred on the 2nd day her book had been released, extremely fortunate timing. "It helped give the book a great sendoff," she said. "It was great fun. I was very nervous for weeks, but I was able to get a grip and really enjoy it" You can check out the interview with Stewart by clicking here.

Words About London from Those Who Know

You could examine Craig Taylor's new book about London and Londoners by the numbers. It would read like this. Five years of interviews. More than 200 people interviewed. 84 included in the final book. 960,000 words before editing (enough to fill 10 books). 300 double-A batteries for his tape recorder.

But that would miss the point. Taylor, a Canadian who has lived in London for the past 12 years, hasn't written a book about urban statistics; what he has written is a book about the thoughts and feelings of people, specifically people who call London their city.

Tonight, the loquacious and youthful looking Taylor appeared at Politics and Prose to discuss his newest work entitled Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now - As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It.

Taylor began by thanking the large crowd, almost all of whom indicated with a show of hands that they had lived in or visited London. He contrasted the size with the last book talk he gave in Britain. "Only 1 person came," he said with a laugh. "It was a a shame because I had brought 3 actors to read the voices (of those included in the book). And I think that 1 person just came in to get out of the rain."

The book - modeled in the format of that mastered by oral biographer Studs Turkel - was a result of Taylor's natural curiosity and his "very complicated love affair" with London.

"London is not a city that welcomes you with a red carpet when you arrive. I felt the city was pushing me out," Taylor said. So, to better understand his new city, he took to the streets and pubs, letting people tell of their own often complicated relationships to London in their own voices.

Taylor called his work a snapshot, not a complete picture. "My publisher hates it when I say this, but the book is a big failure of sorts. I was never able to define London.  I wanted to explore how elastic that term Londoner is by wrenching it from its old, staid definition," he said.

With the upcoming 2012 Olympics scheduled for London, Taylor said he feared "a great rose tint is about to descend on the city" and he wanted to capture the negative as well as positive aspects people believe are an integral part of London life. "Some people hate London, but there are great, imaginative ways to express that hatred," Taylor said.

The love/hate dichotomy was evident in the 3 selections Taylor chose to reads to the audience. There were the words of Emma Clark, the "mind the gap" voice of the London Tube Underground whose former boyfriend bemoaned the fact that he would now keep hearing his former companion wherever he went. There was the intriguing Miss Absolute, a dominatrix who convinced the wrong man to get down in the London streets and kiss her boot. And then there was the hilarious voice of Tim, a financial worker who insisted he lived in "Londin," not London. Here's how he describes his Londin life:

I get on the Tube at Elephant and Castle. I get off the Tube at Bank and go to work. The next day I get on the Tube at Elephant and Castle. I get off the Tube at Bank and go to work. The next day I get on the Tube at Elephant and Castle. I get off the Tube at Bank and go to work. The next day I get on the Tube at Elephant and Castle. I get off at Bank and go to work. I don't think I know what an elephant is anymore. I can't really summon the mental image on an elephant. I hear that word and I just start walking to work.

Taylor said that the Terkel kind of storytelling has no formulastic plan, no one proscribed method of doing it properly. "I think you just shut the hell up. Don't interrupt. Just let the people go," he said. Of course, the final product does involve organizing and manipulating subjects' words for clarity. "This was not just smash and grab journalism. There was some massaging of reality, but I feel pretty comfortable that I was true to these people," Taylor maintained.

Asked what he learned about the people he interviewed, Taylor said he was constantly amazed at how much expertise people possess. "I mean there's a woman (the dominatrix) who beats people on the ass. But that's expertise. I was in such a privileged position to hear these people's stories." he said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips

I love Politics and Prose. With its 500 book talks a year, knowledgeable staff, and well-stocked shelves, it is my favorite bookstore, not just in DC but in the whole world. But Politics and Prose outdid itself tonight. I am a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen and you can imagine how elated I was when I discovered that P&P had the new Springsteen CD Wrecking Ball for sale, a full week before its scheduled release. And with a gift  card my son, daughter-in-law and 2 grandkids had given me for Christmas, I was able to pick up both Taylor's book and new Springsteen CD for free. Thanks Michael, Shannon, Audrey, and Owen. And thanks Politics and Prose.

How Do We Overcome Today?

Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallah prepares the program

They came - the full-figured homeless woman who distributes her newspaper; the openly-gay young Howard student; the Latino transgender; the striking young woman angered by Rick Santorum's anti-black, anti-poor rhetoric; the activist from Cameroon - to hear 2 living legends of the Civil Rights era talk about the 1960s struggle for justice. (See post below).

But an overflow crowd that packed Busboys and Poets tonight also came to see if former SNCC (Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee) protesters John Lewis and Julian Bond and discussion moderator and DC Congressional representative Eleanor Holmes Norton could offer them words of wisdom and guidance for the battles they believe should, and must, be fought today.

Lewis agreed there is still much work to be done if we want to, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, "redeem the soul of America."

"It's too quiet," he said. "We're not there yet. People are hurting. People are still suffering."

All 3 panelists pointed out that while injustice remains, today's times are simply not the same as those of the 20th Century and earlier.

"The issues today are different. We would fail if we were to ask you to do the same things we did.  Don't feel sorry you didn't get your head beat (in the 60s) like John Lewis did. Understand what you can do to make a revolution today," Norton said.

As an example, she cited the case of 22-year-old DC resident Molly Katchpole, who, while working 2 jobs and living paycheck-to-paycheck, took on the powerful Bank of America and got that financial institution to rescind its decision to add an additional $5 banking fee.  "Your inspirational leaders are here today. Trust me, that young woman will go down in the history books. She used Facebook. We had a mimeograph machine. You have the internet, your cell phones, your iPads," she said.

Lewis cautioned anyone interested in change to make sure they stayed on the proper, high moral road. "We used our bodies as a nonviolent weapon. We were beaten back, but we always came back. We walked with dignity and pride.  We didn't walk with our pants down around our butts," he said

Bond said it is paramount to remember that when it comes to justice, all Americans should be in the battle together. He said he was particularly disturbed with studies indicating that black Americans are the most homophobic Americans. "It's shameful. It's disgusting," he said, noting that blacks should be leading the way for all people in the fight for rights.

Bond also cautioned anyone interested in change not to discard older institutions such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) which was founded in 1909. "There is a reason why it is always the last man standing," Bond said, noting that the organization has survived attacks from lynchings to a southern federal judge calling it "Niggers, Apes, Alligators, Possums, and Coons" from the bench of the US court. "It still is the organization of change for most people," Bond said. "When people face discrimination, they don't call Michael Jackson. They don't even call Michael Jordan. They call the NAACP," Bond said.

Lewis said that while the struggle for equality and justice can be painful, and, at times, painfully slow, change can come. Sometimes it is on a national level. But sometimes it is more personal. Lewis told of a visit he had from an older white Southerner. "Mr. Lewis," the man said. "I was one of the ones that beat you. I was wrong. I am sorry. He cried. I cried. We hugged," Lewis said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
There's no doubt that tonight's session was one of the most moving and most informative events Judy and I have attended since we moved to DC. Although probably none of the participants  will ever read this post, I want to thank John Lewis, Julian Bond, and Eleanor Holmes Norton, for all they have done and continue to do to make America better. I also want to thank all the young people who attended last night, fully intending to continue the battle so that my grandchildren can have an even better America. It is also fitting to thank owner operator Andy Shallah and all the staff of Busboys and Poets who work so diligently to offer a regular venue for such powerful social programs. So, to all of you, a big heartfelt thanks.

2 Legends of Civil Rights

A Civil Rights Trio: John Lewis, Julian Bond and Eleanor Norton Holmes

For John Lewis, one of the most beaten, bloodied, but never bowed veterans of the Civil Rights era, the decision to become involved in the Freedom Movement was as simple as black and white.


"I grew up in the South and I saw the for whites and for coloreds only signs and I didn't like it," says Lewis, now a long-time Congressman from Georgia. "My parents were worried and said 'don't get in the way' but Dr. Martin Luther King inspired me to get in the way, to get into trouble."

Tonight, Lewis was joined at Busboys and Poets by his friend of more than 50 years and fellow Civil Rights activist Julian Bond, a longtime Georgia legislator and now a DC-area professor, for an informative, insightful 2-hour discussion by 2 revered black men who not only lived history, but made it.

Bond said he was called to the movement as a young Morehouse College student appalled by "the system of apartheid" operating in the south in America at that time. "The society would not let me achieve all I could have or should have," Bond told the overflow crowd, which packed the Langston Hughes room and even filled every foot of the stage which wasn't being used by the 2 presenters and the night's moderator, DC Congress representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, herself a member of  many of the same battles that Lewis and Bond fought.

In fact, the Lewis/Bond/Norton trio, all early members of SNCC (The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) encapsulated many of the attributes that led to the actual overcoming of America's blatantly policies and laws: Lewis with his courage and firebrand oratory (Bond called him "the bravest, most courageous person we had ever met"), Bond with his erudite brilliance and impressive writing talents, and Norton with her keen legal mind.

History has shown that SNCC, often referred to as the shock troops of Civil Rights, played a crucial role in forcing America, and particularly the South, to finally live up to the creeds called for in its Constitution. "Jimmy Carter said if you wanted to scare Southerners, the name of Martin Luther King wouldn't do that. You just needed to say 4 letters S-N-C-C," Bond said.

Obviously, much of the night was filled with riveting inside tales of the turbulent 60s. For example, Bond told a fascinating story about how he was able to obtain housing for a group of alternate Georgia delegates to the infamous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago."I was in charge of finding rooms for about 50 people and, of course, we couldn't. The Convention was in town," Bond said. After being turned down at yet another hotel, he was approached by a well-dressed black man who said maybe he could help. The bow-tied man went back into the hotel and returned having procured the needed rooms. But a towering problem still remained - Bond and his group had no money. The man replied that Bond should see if his boss - a certain gentleman by the name of Right Honorable Prophet Elijah Muhammad - could help. So a meeting was arranged where Bond would ask the leader of the Black Muslims and his followers for financial assistance. Bond said after making his plea, the Muslim women said the money which "he'll give to the White devil" should not be offered. The Muslim men said it should. Mohammad turned to Bond and said, "we listen to the women, but we do what the men say to do" and handed him $3,000.

Lewis jokingly noted that he "wore a backpack before it was fashionable." In that backpack, he stored at least 2 books, a toothbrush, toothpaste, 1 apple, and 1 orange so he would always be prepared for yet another of the inevitable jailings for his protest.

While SNCC was committed to the high moral road of non-violence in both rhetoric and action, such a stance was extremely difficult given the range of assaults against members. Bond recalled one time when group leader James Farmer exclaimed: "If we can't sit at the table, we're going to tear the fucking legs off the table."

And while all the various Civil Rights groups tried to work together for the good of the cause, disputes about terms and tactics could arise. Lewis detailed the story behind his altering his speech at the 1963 March on Washington, the same protest that produced Martin Luther King's immortal "I Have a Dream" speech. Lewis was one of 6 Civil Rights speakers scheduled that day. However, when a preview copy of his remarks was circulated, objections arose over their nature, specifically lines that said if advances in Civil Rights were not immediately forthcoming, African-Americans would be "forced to march through Georgia the way (Civil War General) Sherman did." Lewis said he was called to a meeting to get him to temper his remarks. "Dr. King pulled me aside and said 'John, this doesn't sound like you,'" Lewis said, explaining that eventually he was allowed to give an altered speech.

Several of the tales filled with violence elicited gasps from the crowd, many of whom were born long-after the 60s. Lewis recalled his encounter with an Alabama sheriff who carried a gun on 1 hip, a nightstick on the other, and an electrified cattle prod in his hand. "I think he woke up mean," Lewis said. "He was a sick, vicious man." Norton recalled finding 50-year-old Fannie Lou Hamer brutally beaten in a sweltering Mississippi jail simply for having the audacity to believe she had the right to vote. Norton said even more horrifying was the fact the white jailers had forced a black trustee of the jail to administer Hamer's beating, threatening him with even worse brutality if he didn't submit to their orders.

Lewis and Bond said they were particularly gratified to see so many young people in attendance.  Bond pointed out that much of the initial Civil Rights push was "youth-oriented." Lewis agreed, but added the caution that the fight for freedom can bring danger, no matter what the age of the participant. He specifically cited the Mississippi murders of  20-year-old southern black James Chaney and his two white activist northern partners, 20-year-old Andrew Goldman and 24-year-old Michael Schwerner.

"They just wanted to help," Lewis said. "They were jailed and then turned over to the Klan. And then they were murdered. We talk about terrorism. This was terrorism. The South was terrorist territory. They didn't die in Vietnam, they died right here in our country," Lewis said, noting that they and all the others who sacrificed for the struggle should never be forgotten.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
In her opening remarks, Norton set the stage well for the remarkable 2 hours that were to follow. "This is Black History month and you're supposed to find yourself some blacks in a history book or somewhere," she said. "We thought we'd bring you some live TV tonight. There's lots of black history walking around the streets everyday. Tonight, we have 2 legends, 2 veterans of the campaigns when the South (for blacks) was terrorist territory."

Talking Basketball and Art

Ball and Chain by Thomas Hank Willis

When Darrel Walker was growing up in the tough projects of  Chicago in the 1960s, he remembers that only 2 pieces of art adorned the walls  of his home - one picture of Martin Luther King and one of John F. Kennedy. "That is what Grandma Velma had in the house," the ex-NBA player and former head coach of both the Washington Wizards and the Toronto Raptors says.

Now, however, he has become a leading collector of African American art and today appeared at The National Gallery with his friend, former NBA player, and fellow art collector Elliot Perry to detail his journey from the inner city to professional basketball to the world of avid art collection.

Walker credits former New York Knicks star Bernard King (who he describes as the Godfather of  the small group of NBA players/art collectors) with leading him to discover his passion for art. "As a young player I just wanted to go to the clubs and hang out with my friends," Walker said. "But Bernard was persistent. He got me to start going to museums and galleries. He got me reading and studying about art."

Walker explained that the first 3 art pieces he purchased were one work each from noted African-American artists Robert Colescott, Jacob Lawrence, and Romare Bearden. Today, he has enough valued works in his personal collection to publish his own catalog.

Perry, who played with 4 different NBA teams in his career, credits Walker with turning him on to art.  The two first began discussing the subject during a long basketball trip to Japan put together in 1996 by NBA great Charles Barkley. "I didn't know anything about art," Perry said. "But Darrel became my coach and adviser. He would tell me what catalogs and books to check out."

He noted that the idea to become a real collector was solidified when he viewed the collection of Dr. Walter Evans in Little Rock. "A light came on in my head. That's what I want my collection to look like," Perry said.

Today, Perry says he finds 3 great values in his passion. Obviously, there is the joy of collecting and displaying the work. But he also enjoys supporting contemporary African-American artists and building personal relationships with them.  "Every artist that I collect now, I know personally," Elliot said.

Walker says he too cherishes personal contact with artists. For example, he was able to meet Lawrence, recognized as one of the giants in the art world, on 2 occasions. The first time was over martinis and Lawrence, according to Walker who was buying, had "a lot of martinis." By the time of their next meeting Lawrence, who died in 2000, was living in an assisted living home. "He was talking and I just wanted to see his room. Now Lawrence was a great collector of tools. There was not one piece of art on his walls. But there was this big table full of tools from the 30s, and 40s, and 50s, and 60s," Walker said.

Walker said that talking to an artist about his or her work helps you better understand the art. "They'll break it down for you," he said.

Perry said that while a lot of people seem intimidated by art, that shouldn't be the case. "With art, there is no firm conclusion. What is art? It is everything. What you like is good art. You should not be waiting for someone else to validate your opinion," he explained.

Walker credits his art collecting for expanding all his academic interests. "My wife says I wouldn't be on-line now trying to finish my (college) degree if I had been reading like I do now when I was first at the University of Arkansas."

He added that he considers collecting art "my 24-hour job now. Take everything away from me and leave me my art and I'm fine. I plan to leave my collection to my children. They have one rule - if something should happen to my wife and me at the same time I've told them - 'don't do anything. Call Elliot first. He'll tell you what to do about the art.'"

So what advise would Walker, so used to guiding young men on the basketball court, give to anyone interested in beginning a collection? "I know art is not for everyone. Do what you want to do. Read, educate yourself, visit museums. If you like to collect art, collect it. But it is enough to just enjoy the beauty that art provides," he said.

Perry, ever the loyal follower of his art coach, agreed, adding that encountering art can only change you for the better. "It is transformative as much as it is informative," he said.

Tales, Tips, and Tidbits
The idea of 2 black athletes collecting art and talking knowledgeably and passionately about the subject certainly doesn't fit the stereotype many hold of professional basketball players. Dr. Michael Harris, a professor, curator, collector, and artist himself, moderated today's well-attended discussion in the auditorium of the East Gallery and got both Walker and Perry talking about that very subject. Dr. Harris began by jokingly noting that  if he had been a better baseball player, people "might not think I'm smart." Walker acknowledged that the image of the modern athlete is big money, expensive drugs, and fancy cars. "But every athlete is not like that," Walker said. "Many athletes have some insight. My Bentley's are up on my walls."

Picturing the Struggle for Justice

Rosa Parks in limewood sculpture

From the days leading up to the American Revolution to today's various Occupy movements, a crucial focus of the American experience has been political, social, and economic justice.

In its exhibit The Struggle for Justice, the National Portrait Gallery employs portraits, pictures, and sculptures to portray the ongoing fight in 6 areas: They are

• Civil Rights
• Labor Rights
• Women's Rights
• American Indian Rights
• Disabled Rights
• Gay and Lesbian Rights

The largest item in the exhibit is a huge photo of a well-dressed black man in the 1960s carrying a sign reading "If we must die, let us die as free men, not Jim Crow slaves."

Of course, all the familiar faces - Martin Luther King, Betty Friedan, Ceasar Chavez - are on display. But lesser known figures such as Fred Karamatsu, a Japanese-American victim of America's dark  decision to intern thousands of loyal Japanese-Americans during World War II, is also pictured. When their family was finally released, the Karamatsus returned to their East Oakland, California, home to find that vandals had smashed the glass in their greenhouses and all their nursery plants had been sold off. It took years for the family to recover and Karamatsu was active in demanding justice for his people. Finally, in 1988, the U.S. Congress formally apologized for the internment and each detainee was awarded $20,000.

Another face which might not be familiar to all visitors is Larry Kramer, a gay rights activist and playwright. Kramer is probably most known for starting ACT UP (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power) which employed confrontational techniques used during the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City which first shone a light on the gay movement.

Several quotes are included in the ongoing exhibit, as well as 6 video shorts on the 6 different struggles.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
One of the greatest things about living in the DC area is the amazing amount of things to do and see daily. Of course, sometimes event times clash. Today was such a day. In addition to the Oscar preview and the Struggle of Justice exhibit, my college alma mater, Villanova, was playing arch-rivals Georgetown in Big East basketball at the Verizon Center. We opted for the exhibits over the game for 3 main reasons:

1. There will always be more Villanova-Georgetown games
2. The cheapest seats for the game were $40 each and the exhibits were free and
3. I figured the Wildcats would lose to the Hoyas and I really didn't want to witness that. I was right. The final score was Georgetown 64, Villanova 47.

A Critic Looks at the Oscars

The Artist - A silent salute to the best picture of 2012?

As you are reading this post, the 2012 Oscar race has become old news. The winners will have been announced, the speeches will have been delivered, and the red carpet will have rolled up for yet another year.

But for many people, the real fun of the Academy Awards comes before the ceremony when film fans and critics, like the gamblers in the new HBO show Luck, try to demonstrate their movie prowess and pick the winners who will walk away with the trophies. In fact, the Oscars now rank 3rd in office pools behind NCAA basketball tourney March Madness and the NFL's Super Bowl.

Today, Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday appeared at the Newseum to discuss the year's Oscar races and maybe give some last minute tips to those who had yet to complete their pool selections. The discussion proved so popular that, in a rare move for the Newseum, a second session was added.

So, with the Oscar ceremony a little more than 24 hours away, what film did Hornaday believe would take top honors? Her choice - The Artist. "Yes it will win and yes it should win," she told the capacity crowd in the Inside Media studio. She said the silent film would win despite criticism from some quarters that "it is derivative, it's a pastiche, it's not universally loved."

Hornaday said a shared theme of this year's 9 best picture choices appeared to be a sense of nostalgia. "It's uncanny. With the exclusion of Moneyball, from a zeitgeist point of view, these films seem to be grappling with memory and a look to the past," Hornaday said. "But even that (Moneyball) is a call for something more traditional. And then you've got Billy Crystal (returning as host)."

Hornaday also revealed her own personal choices in several categories. She said she would like to see Moneyball star Brad Pitt win the best actor Oscar. "It's so easy to dismiss him as just a pretty face and a movie star," she said. "But he has taken on some really challenging roles."

Hornaday said she expected one of the closest races to be in the best actress category between Viola Davis for her role in The Help and Meryl Streep, the star of The Iron Lady. Hornaday said both were deserving. "You have these weak movies anchored by these 2 tremendous performances," she observed.

Like all passionate movie goers, Hornaday said that this year's awards also represented some snubs in who was left out of the voting. "(Directors) David Fincher and Christopher Nolan seem to be shut out of academy love," she said.

Responding to a question from the audience about how she finds time to see all the films that she needs to see to review, Hornaday humorously called her work ethic "pathetic."

"It helps to go to film festivals where you can see a lot of films," she said. "But this year, I didn't make it to all the shorts. You're always going to miss a few."

Asked about a change in this year's rules which disallows the inclusion of any song that only plays in a movie's credits from being nominated for best song, Hornaday said she understands the reasoning behind the move. "I think the academy wants the song to be an integral part of the narrative. They're trying to get at the song as an aesthetic element," she said.

Hornaday agreed with an audience member that the Oscars show does not provide as much actual entertainment value as other awards shows like the Grammies. She said the Oscars might benefit from following the lead of the British best picture show, which is edited before it is aired. "It's funnier and much more fun to watch. It's not a long, self-indulgent slog," she noted.

One audience member wanted to know where Hornaday planned to watch the Oscars. "Usually, I just stay home with my popcorn," she said. "But this year, the Post has asked me to blog about the event. So I'll be on my couch with my PJ's and popcorn, but I'll have a laptop, too."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Host John Maynard opened today's discussion with references to an article that Hornaday had written earlier this year entitled "Dear Movie Goers - Get a Grip." In that piece, Hornaday commented on movie viewers in a Connecticut art house film theater walking out on Terrance Malik's challenging best-picture-nominated film Tree of Life, which she admitted is "a very obtuse movie." She also detailed the story of an Austin woman who is suing the makers of the movie Drive because there really wasn't much driving in it and another who expressed anger that The Artist was a silent movie.
"We have Angry Birds, we have angry voters, and now we have angry movie goers," she said, noting that she plans to use that article as a springboard to a series of informal articles about the viewing experience and what should be realistic and acceptable.

Genesis Reboot: A Do-Over for the Garden of Eden

What if a well-intentioned angel grabbed the power to start our world all over again. With new light. And a new tree of knowledge. And a new Adam and and a new Eve. And new brothers Cain and Able. And no plans for an apple or a serpent. Could that idyllic perfection be maintained? Or would human flaws and frailties doom the do-over to the same result we find in the Biblical tale. And, oh yeah, what if a mischievous demon just happened to worm his way into the story? How would that affect the outcome?

This ambitious, thought-provoking scenario forms the basis for Synetic Theater's latest production, Genesis Reboot which is playing until March 4th here in Crystal City.

The playbill lists 7 verses of Genesis from The King James Bible as the play's synopsis. In actuality, the play was written by long-time theater company member Ben Cunis and his brother Peter, with much input from the 6-member cast. Cunis directs the 90-minute performance which has received a Helen Hayes recommendation.

Eve, Adam, Angel, Demon, and apple in the new Eden

In his director's note, Cunis says the play does not seek to simply retell the familiar story of Genesis.
"We wish to confront the very idea of retelling," he said. "What does it mean to revisit the past? What does it mean to re-create? What is the role of the creator once the creation exists? And what if that creation is alive?"

The temptation and torments of Eve

 
The play, which is part of Synetic's New Movements series, is somewhat of a departure for the widely-recognized physical theater company since dialog is integral to the performance. However, as is always the case with Synetic, the real power is provided by the mesmerizing merger of movement, scenery, set, costume, and music. All of the action takes place around an innovative, intriguing metallic-like tree of knowledge. Costume enhancements and the backing soundtrack with hints of garbled computer commands further emphasized the Victorian steampunk meets modern mechanistic feel of the new Eden.

So does the reboot work? Or does it suffer fatal error? Is it a brave new world of good or of evil or of something else all together. Are we left with poet William Blake's bright Songs of Innocence or a much bleaker Songs of Experience? Angel or demon? - Cunis and his talented company leave that for the viewer to decide. But, if you take in the play, you will be both entertained and challenged. And what more can you ask from mythical creation than that.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Following the performance, Cunis, musical composer Clint Herring, costume designer Kristy Leigh Hall, and all 6 cast members engaged in an enlightening question-and-answer session with the audience. Cunis said that the play was an outgrowth of a short story about Cain and Abel his brother had written. For the play, Cunis wrote the scenes with Adam and Eve, his brother the scenes with Cain and Abel, and they shared the writing on the scenes with the angel and the demon. The actors said their central task was to find the humanity in the mythical archetypes and bring that to the stage. All agreed that the effort was truly collaborative and ever-changing, even after the debut when the final scene was reworked to make it more powerful. For example, Herring credited actor Joseph Carlson, who portrayed the demon with trickery and zest, with providing the key idea for his character's music. "What I had written wasn't working. Joe brought in what he was listening to to get into his character. It was The Black Keys. Now I'm not The Black Keys, but I can write something straight forward rock and roll. And that worked," Herring said.

Sticky Fingers The Jam Band Way

From the 3-note beginning riff of "Satisfaction" to their maybe-to-be 50th anniversary tour this year, the Rolling Stones have always been near, or at the top, of my rock n' roll list.

How do I like the Stones? Well, let us count the ways. I trace my  love of blues back to the early Stones albums. In all the classic rock bands I have played keyboard in since 1966, Stones' tunes have always been prominent on the song list. In college, I remember studying and partying to Get Your Yas Yas Out. At our wedding, I wore a 3-piece cream suit similar to the one Mick Jagger wore when he married Bianca. "You Can't Always Get What You Want" was played by the organist in the church, and we happened to cut the cake to "Honky Tonk Women". When our son was born in 1973, I convinced my wife we should call him Michael Keith. My cell phone ring tones have been both "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Gimme Shelter".  I have seen the Stones live more than any other act. In fact since 1st seeing the them at the Philly Spectrum in 1969, I have only missed 1 tour.  And my wife and all my bosses over the years share a conviction that my attitude comes from too much emulating the "the we're the Stones and we'll piss anywhere we want" swagger of Jagger, Richard, and the rest of the band.

Obviously, my ratings of  Stones' songs, albums, CDs, and live performances have changed over the 48 years I have been following them. These days, I vacillate between Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers as my favorite Stones' collection.

Of course, I am not alone in my admiration of the Stones. They, along with the Beatles and Bob Dylan, are among the most covered artists in the world. One of their admirers is leader of the jam band Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, premiere horn player Karl Denson. Denson, who cites Sticky Fingers as his favorite Stones' CD. Since late 2011, his band, joined by guest New Orleans guitarist Anders Osborne, has been touring the country, performing the album track by track in its entirety. 

Tonight, we headed to the intimate State Theater in nearby Falls Church to check out Denson's take on Sticky Fingers.

Osborne opened the night with a 45-minute set of loud (and I mean table and chest rattling loud) power trio blues.

Then, after a break and a 3-song warmup sequence, he joined Denson and the rest of Tiny Universe, for all 10 of the Sticky Fingers songs. The augmented band played relatively straight versions of Brown Sugar, Bitch, Wild Horses, and Can't You Hear Me Knocking. But it was on special arrangements of some of the lesser known tracks that the most magical moments occurred. You Gotta Move became both southern gospel soul and New Orleans strut. Osborne's best guitar moments came on an extended ride in Sway and alternating country-picked guitar solos with the Universe's regular guitarist on Dead Flowers. The best jam of the night came on a lengthy, ethereal full-band jam at the end of the eerie, haunting Sister Morphine.


Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
 For those of you not completely familiar with Sticky Fingers, here is the complete track listing:

1. Brown Sugar
2. Sway
3. Wild Horses
4. Can't You Hear Me Knocking
5. You Gotta Move
6. Bitch
7. I Got the Blues
8. Sister Morphine
9. Dead Flowers
10. Moonlight Mile