papeetepatrick

Since shoe size has been brought up among other relevant minutiae (including lowness of shoes and feet), I thought I should, in descending perhaps still lower, mention that I had a hilarious friend I once worked with at one of the Valentino shows, and she once lamented her then-current infrequency of dating by saying 'I'm so desperate at this point, I'd take a shoe size', which may or may not be a well-worn phrase but if Tallulah wouldn't have said it--and she would--then Marlene Dietrich would have.

Yes, but there are many zen spaces in the City. Not that I disagree with this, but I think, more importantly, it was a zen space within Lincoln Center itself, which seems to me an even larger accomplishment under the circumstances--that was the one place where the magic was, no matter the garishness elsewhere.

Oh yes, that and much more. Juilliard has been defaced in many ways, in the last 11 years alone, internally and externally; and especially in 2003, with the 'anniversary makeovers'. Its main flaw at first was the 4th floor practice rooms not being properly sound-proofed (and its wretched cafeteria, now 'demolished'), but the first was remedied to some degree, and the latter is like an amusingly homey tacky thing. They've added PoMoisms in and out, resembling some disease learned about in magazine stories about Frank Gehry, and literally destroyed beauties inside as on the 5th Floor. The library has been left mostly the same, but there has also been this silly tendency to put 'memorials' all over the place, including in the halls. Of course, things changed when Juilliard went provincial with the Rose Hall dormitory. We grew up much faster in the old days, having to get apartments at the age of 18. When I was 20, and went to the Palais Garnier a few times, I thought it was very 'opera-house heavy and overly grandiose', although I now appreciate the architecture of the place. I'm just talking about the inside. This is all very interesting about the 'costume jewelry of the time'. Thanks. Most theater of any kind came with something at least a bit garish until relatively recently. Avery Fisher is not garish, but that has not made it especially loved. Yes, they should have. I agree with what I can understand of what you wrote, and am fascinated by the rest.

Thanks, Susan-they're just a few blocks over from me. It's possible they didn't have them ready 6 weeks ago when I talked to them. Will do.

Susan, could you tell me if you got them through a website with tickets, etc. I had no idea they were already on sale. Are you going in spring? I couldn't find the ticket sales location. When I called them, they said nothing about tickets ready yet, and didn't know various other things, whereas they did know all about the Kennedy Center perfs.

Sublime report, Natalia, and incredibly good news as well. I had planned to go down for this about a month ago, until I called up the company and found that they'd be doing it here in May--which I wouldn't even think of missing. But now that you have found the company in such remarkable shape (I found them to be at City Center in 2005 as well), I look forward to it even more. Glorious.

Oh dear, this does give pause--BAD pause. I didn't know it was quite that dire, and this is a truly serious symptom that it could have changed so severely. Drb, thanks for the info on the works. That gives me some initial images already. I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks, GWTW and Ray. I hope you'll tell us your additions to Macaulay's piece, which I thought an exemplary kind of review--both this one and the one of the Ailey gala made me want to go. I find my impressions of his work vary tremendously, and that he is more natural when reviewing non-ballet work, although sometimes I like some of that too--when he doesn't seem to be writing 'history'

Thanks, kfw--no, I don't, but I need to look at that and I know where they'll have it. I would really have liked this program though, and may try to keep the May thing in mind, although it's not the smallest trek from here. But sometimes things like that can seem even rarer outside big metropolitan areas. Edited to add: I just looked at the schedule again, they'll be in Brooklyn in April. I imagine I'll opt for that even though the other does sound a bit more special--but you need to be able to stay over, and I don't know from Beacon, New York.

http://nytimes.com/2008/12/09/arts/dance/09merc.html?8dpc This sounds fabulous. I wish I could have seen it. Lots of older work I haven't seen. Plus this there in May: http://www.merce.org/thecompany_hvr.html

I think this is appropriate for this thread since it concerns what's in the book. I agree, 'Mozartiana' is anything but a minor ballet. It's tall even, one might say.

Thanks, all. I'll be seeing 'Go in Grace', 'Fiesta Barocca' and 'Suite Otis'. Abatt, do you also know about the 2nd and 3rd of these. I was limited to when I could go because I'll be out of town though the biggest chunk of this. I still think it will be worth it on many levels, not least of which Jan. 2 is a depressing sort of day almost invariably. Mashinka, do you mean a 'live musical performer' for 'Revelation'? Was there once a time when the smaller companies always had live music? I mean the 'big smaller companies', because the little performance spaces with new young companies always had recorded music. Sometimes this isn't terrible, I remember solos by Robert Stryker (sp.?) in the 70s and 80s that were just fine. One of these was to a score by Steve Reich, which I thought was just dynamite at 19, but would never want to hear again, as it depended purely on novelty and trendiness.

...you mean blonde? I mean yellow! He,he. Just being annoying...never mind me. . Anyway... back to Miss Somova... Makarova used to sometimes have yellow hair, I think it's common enough with Russians. Miss Somova is a beauty even with yellow hair, though, although much has been made of her long fingernails, etc., and many references to other aspects of her frightful taste, despite her natural beauty.

Plus, I decided on the Ailey, although the tickets with Marsalis were mostly sold. Now this I think, is selling well. To get a reasonably priced seat, I had to wait till Jan. 2. and will hear the Sweet Honey in the Rock a capella female Gospel group, which ought to be divine.

The episode with his daughter is well-known, I remember it well from the Memoirs, which I read 10 or 15 years ago. Thanks for pointing this out, Farrell Fan, I wouldn't have seen it. It is full of the usual Bentley-style howlers, even more embarassing than usual (his 'oversize tale' is particularly de rigueur, one supposes, although it comes as little surprise as the faux-ponderous 'I, for one, will invite him in'....who could have ever guessed, eh?--although she could hardly outdo her Movedo Watch ad description with poor Darci). I can suppose only that she has become a sort of cult. Subtlety, move over! fuggedabouteet

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/arts/dan...1&ref=dance Well, this sounds like a gala that makes some of the others look pretty ridiculous. I may go to one of the performances if I can find out when they have live music. Plus I've never seen the Ailey Company live. I'd been thinking of going to Limon tonight, but the Joyce offers perhaps even more discomfort than City Center, so I don't know. But Limon is just up the street and bargain tickets. I was glad to read this Macaulay piece, which is one of the best things I've seen by him. Not one use of the word 'supreme' or even 'incomparable' (I don't think.)

That IS a good point, and one we all should have noticed. And that Swan Lake wasn't exactly the most indispensible item anyway, I'd have been as happy with nothing at all. But I hadn't realized that NYCB hadn't done any DVD in 15 years. Now I notice we are always looking for some new DVD from POB, and I, for one, keep wanting them to come to the U.S. and do Wuthering Heights, but it seems like they won't, and anyway, won't do Wuthering Heights. But it's been recorded, I believe azulynn said this, for French TV and so might eventually get DVD status.

I loved Somova in Ballet Imperial back in April, totally to my surprise. I thought she was horrible in all the clips I found on YouTube and Vishneva had been scheduled for that final performance. I was horrified, but then thought Somova was glorious. But then, it's true, I don't judge with the same standards as the balletomanes, although I was pleased at the time that I had the same feeling about Ms. Somova that one of BT's dancers did. My intuition is that she might be a kind of performer that won't ever be consistent, but will sometimes by celestial. I'm glad she got the promotion, it was a big risk, but I don't why the Maryinsky wouldn't know what they were doing (although plenty of other companies are reputed not to as well...there have been innumerable rumours about wrong decisions by NYCB and ABT, and these have stretched into years of dispute...)

My understanding is that 'credit crunch' has been recently used for specifically credit-related matters (interbank lending, TED-spreads, consumer loans of all kinds) as well as just for the recession in general. The terms are fairly meaningless this time around, because 'the official recession' wasn't declared until Monday. They acted like this declaration was a big deal, even though most of us have lived through a number of recessions, and it seems a pretty anticlimactic term compared to 'global meltdown', 'financial crisis', 'worst since 1929', which everybody has become very free with for some months, beginning immediately with the failure of Lehman Bros. (except, perhaps, the last one, which only kicked in about 3 weeks ago.) From what I've read, deflation is more on the horizon as a distinct possibility rather than already affecting things. Prices rose last year, but lower prices are not yet reflected in the general economy yet (at least not nearly everywhere, housing of course, though), because deflation as a widespread phenomenon is not certain at this moment. That's what the fiscal stimulus is supposed to help with once it's passed in January. I'm sure the general economic conditions would affect ROH though, namely, lack of consumer confidence bolstered by a blip on the chart by Black Friday in the U.S. and people simply not spending, which they are not. All sorts of 'specials' in all fields would be expected during the holidays, esp. since merchants are hurting and people are going out of business and losing jobs right and left. How exactly this is like Britain I don't know. One of the strangest things I've noticed is that I've cut back on spending without really having to; it's as if 'not spending' is almost 'in the air', I don't know. And then people who have fixed incomes are the ones buying up things like houses at bargain-basement prices. It's, of course, not at all fashionable to flaunt wealth right now, as the Big 3 CEO's learned without having realized that's what they were doing. Deflation is bad for the economy in general, but can mean bargains for certain people who will have the same income but be able to pay less.

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I was also interested when I began to notice that Cape Canaveral started being used again (and don't know exactly when), and Idlewild never was. But it does vary, I think, and I don't know anybody who still says Philharmonic Hall, which was beautiful that way, much more IMO than New York State Theater is, which is just out of habit we may prefer it; in that Philharmonic Hall is like Metropolitan Opera House, more imperious without somebody's name. I sometimes call the theater that used to be the Vivian Beaumont that, although it's long not been, but that's because I only went there when it was and can't always remember what it is now. I think Avenue of the Americas is still used in a business way (including verbally, as by a receptionist), esp for the Rockefeller Center area buildings like McGraw Hill, but agree that individuals do always say 6th Avenue. I don't know anybody who still says Carnegie Recital Hall for Weill Hall, though, but they never refer to the big hall as Isaac Stern instead of Carnegie Hall. There are lots of examples of names that ruin theaters, as with the Theater de Lys which became the Lucille Lortel. At least, Alice Tully Hall started out that way.

Quiggin, thanks for putting me onto the wiki for Koch Industries. It's definitely relevant, although I wasn't able to tell just from this article anything with any kind of suspect character in the businesses; but it's not a very detailed article. I think dirac may be right, though, that $100 million is 'chump change' for the Koch family, though, because they are the second richest private company in the U.S., with Charles and David owning about half of the business each, which is worth $98 billion. No shareholders, and will be only 'over my dead body', says Charles. And the two are the 39th and 40th richest people in the world, worth $17 billion apiece according to list of wealthiest people in the world.

Your video preservation project is nice, but it sounds to me as though you spend about $50 million with what you have outlined. Gotta think BIG! If it's got to be fair with the Podunk School, remember that the biggies always have to be bailed out first or there will be nothing but systemic shock. I put lots of 'lower-downs' in my plan. I also think all sorts of ideas may be thrown out here at the beginning, and then they can be trimmed. Some of it ought to be illegally diverted to new work, since there may be no oversight, even though Kathleen has defined 'new work' as the province of private funding. I don't mind if we fund some new work and don't care if they're all Americans either--just so they make the work for America. I certainly don't think we need to be 'sensible' about all this, or at least not all the time (there's plenty of time for fantasy and no-nonsense when you don't have any power over the funding), and anyway Farrell Fan started out with such an extreme plan that anything that followed it was bound to seem almost podunk-friendly.

Half the money--$500 million-- to Martha Graham Dance Company, they need to always be able to have live music, and they hardly ever do--and better NYC schedules. Large amounts to Kylian performances, some of which have had to be cancelled this year in LA and not putting them at the Joyce, but rather at the KOCH--perhaps $50 million. Then $5,000,000 each to Farrell, Taylor, Cunningham maybe, with always emphasis on new work as well as preservation of old--make sure they always have live music. $100 million to papeetepatrick (I won't explain, but it's necessary), large monies to the World Music Institute for Indian and Javanese and other programs of Asian dance--perhaps $30 million. $200 million to Miami City Ballet so it can become the major Balanchine Dance Company, and then just move it to the KOCH THEATER and call it the New York City Ballet, because Villella is the best person to be in charge of Balanchine on a large scale. $10 million to Mel Johnson and rg to write histories of ballet and another $50 million for Mr. Johnson and rg to build a Ballet Museum near Ground Zero, where fundraising of Wall Street investors can occur on the side, in order to increase the funds already used for buying up toxic assets....I haven't got time to add this up, so if it goes over budget, there should be somebody willing to make up the balance. Monies to whomever to make possible a U.S. tour by POB, perhaps $30 million.

Wonderful work, Kathleen, thanks. I have way too many opinions on all these, loving a few of them (the Flatiron especially-literally every time I see it), to which I'd add that I like all of Madison Park and its collection of surrounding buildings (with the Flatiron as the special jewel) quite a bit more as a 'world in itself' than Union Squar--which has a few buildings of interest, like the 19th century 'skyscrapers' toward the North of Union Square West, one of which was one of the Warhol 'Factories.' I don't care much Union Square Park as a place to spend time as with some of the other small parks, but I like it okay. The old 20s, 30s buildings at Madison Park entrance me every time I go there--the lobbies of some of the insurance buildings with murals, etc.. But mainly wanted to say that I just don't find that prospect of Lincoln Center disappointing, even with space between the houses--it seems sort of ancient classical, sort of American, and on the east side of B'way you can see all of the complex except the part hidden by Fisher Hall,which has to be taken in separately (the Library/Museum and theater and pool). I think it's just grand, and am glad this thread has made me focus on it more specifically, since I've heard criticism of it all my life. I think it's quite a triumph that there could be such a spread in Manhattan like that, especially spilling across the street. Other possible 'read as wholes' complexes might include Rockefeller Center, but definitely the WTC area, and that would include the 80s World Financial Bldgs. around the destroyed WTC, which don't look terribly good by themselves (80s urban architecture has not been often easy to love, and although I do love the much earlier Seagram Building, I have to admit I can't stand Johnson's ATT Building either, it's just awful, and hateful to work in too--it's just so cloddish.)