Mars is hot right now. For mega-rich space cowboys like Elon Musk and Bas Lansdorp, the fourth rock from the sun is their next frontier, their Xanadu, their far-flung solution to climate change. But the founders of SpaceX and Mars One are not alone: Thousands have already applied for private space missions some 20 or 30 years down the line, even if it means never returning to … [Read more...]
Archives for September 2015
Talented cast makes for fine ‘Fantasticks’ at Broward Stage Door
By Dale King Broward Stage Door Theatre in Margate opens its 2015-2016 season with the musical, The Fantasticks, a touching and tender tale mixed with comic touches and some whimsical characters. Overall, the show is fun and entertaining, featuring talented players with excellent voices. They seem to revel in the occasional silliness and a scene of mystical reverie that … [Read more...]
FAU creates Theatre Lab; Tyrrell named director
By Dale King Louis Tyrrell is going back to school -- literally. The founding artistic director of the former Florida Stage in Manalapan who went on to create the Theatre at Arts Garage in Delray Beach following the previous venue’s 2011 bankruptcy, is launching a new educational initiative. Six months after resigning from his Theatre at Arts Garage post last March, Tyrrell … [Read more...]
U.S. pianist’s Chopin survey impresses as she heads to Warsaw
The music of Frédéric Chopin remains unique in music history in that most of what the Polish composer wrote is in the active repertory. Chopin is critical to the repertoire of pianists everywhere, and next month, Rachel Naomi Kudo, a 28-year-old American pianist from the Chicago suburbs, heads to Warsaw to take part in the 17th International Chopin Competition, having won a … [Read more...]
West Palm to transform into outdoor museum in November
By Sandra Schulman Murals and public art are making big waves in Palm Beach County, with paintings stretching up to 10 stories high on buildings in and around town. Glamorous gallerist Nicole Henry of Nicole Henry Fine Art in West Palm Beach is ready to unveil a big project to bring attention to the enormous possibilities here in town. She has announced an ambitious exhibit … [Read more...]
‘Everest’ brings tragedy home with frightening power
How do you make Mount Everest laugh? Make a plan, of course. Plenty of intrepid climbers have made plans to summit the world’s highest mountain, and most live to tell about it. There have been more than 5,000 successful ascents as of 2013, but about 240 people have died on the mountain. Many of their corpses are still frozen on some godforsaken peak, ominous additions to the … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Sept. 12-13
Film: Within every great comic is a dramatic actor yearning to break through. Or that’s how the show business cliché goes. But it is true about Lily Tomlin, who gives a remarkable, tough, smart-mouthed performance in a brief – only 78 minutes – low-budget film called simply Grandma. She is Elle, a lesbian poet whose granddaughter, Sage (Julia Garner), arrives on her Van Nuys … [Read more...]
Shyamalan’s ‘The Visit’ inspired, creepy and hilarious
Near the beginning of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit, on a train en route to a weeklong stay with grandparents they’ve never met, 15-year-old Becca (Olivia De Jonge) and her 13-year-old brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) discuss the worst possible scenarios. “What if they’re scrapbookers?” “What if they think boy bands are cute?” Shotguns, butcher knives, and inexplicable projectile … [Read more...]
The View From Home 72: Ferrara, Resnais, Truffaut and Esmail, plus World War I, Patrick Stewart and Vincent Price
Welcome to New York: Even while changing the names of everyone involved and preceding his narrative with a lengthy disclaimer, Abel Ferrara’s Welcome to New York (IFC, $18.78 DVD, $14.59 Blu-ray) borders provocatively on slander, and that’s partly what makes it so exciting. Gérard Depardieu plays Devereaux, a French politician transparently modeled after Dominique … [Read more...]
Lake Worth’s Bamboo Room revived once again
It’s only slightly more than 48 hours before the July 31 grand reopening of the Bamboo Room (www.facebook.com/TheBambooRoomLW) — the historic, if on-and-off, Lake Worth live music venue from 1999 to present-day — but general manager Ben Foster appears calm. At least on the surface. “They just hired me,” he says, “so it’s pressure-packed, but I’ve opened a lot of venues before. … [Read more...]