Art: Earlier this month, China claimed the title of the world’s second-largest economy, overtaking Japan for the No. 2 spot behind the United States. It seems a local achievement for a nation that has long been a much-desired global trading partner, and a new show at the Norton Museum of Art focuses on one of the more familiar offshoots of that commercial energy. On the Silk … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 20-22
Film: Tilda Swinton broke into the wider consciousness back in 1992 with her star turn as Orlando, the androgynous hero/heroine of Virginia Woolf’s gender-bending novel of a Tudor-era Zelig who begins as a debonair male court poet in 1588 and ends up in 1928 as a married woman. In Sally Potter’s lovely-to-look-at film, Quentin Crisp makes a marvelous Queen Elizabeth I, … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 13-18
Music: Brad Paisley got his start in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, and since then he’s gathered up every important award in country music. He’s on the road a lot, too, and on Saturday afternoon, he’s at the Cruzan for a stop on his H20 World Tour. The tour will feature a “water world plaza” meant to evoke summer and water fun, as part of Paisley’s efforts on behalf … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 6-12
Film: Robert Oppenheimer had a very good idea of what his Manhattan Project had unleashed in the New Mexico desert in 1945, but at the time, his team was all alone in having become “Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Today, an estimated 23,000 nuclear weapons exist, and the makers of the powerful Countdown to Zero want you to understand how terrifying a prospect that is. Approved … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 30-Aug. 5
Dance: Julie Kent, long a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, takes the title role tonight and through the weekend in Giselle, with the Boca Ballet Theatre at Florida Atlantic University’s University Theatre. Kent, one of the best-known ballerinas of her generation, partners with another ABT standout, Marcelo Gomes, for these three performances of the beloved … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 24-28
Music: Things might be a little soggy out there thanks to Tropical Storm Bonnie, but as of this writing, the Vans Warped Tour, 2010 edition, is set to hit the Cruzan Amphitheatre on Saturday for a day of bands and extreme sports. The skateboard company Vans, which launched this festival in 1995, welcomes 72 bands to this year’s tour, one of them being West Palm’s own Hey … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 16-20
Art: Work in ceramics by a group of artists who all have connections to the University of Florida opens today at West Palm Beach’s Armory Art Center and runs through Aug. 28. The 13 artists, assembled under the rubric Motley Moxie, shared the same working environment or instructors at UF, but have widely varied approaches to clay. The artists, in alphabetical order, are Pavel … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 9-12
Film: Those who clamored about The Twilight Saga last week can now take in a far better, darker trilogy, now that they have that out of their system. It is the Swedish mystery novels by the late Stieg Larsson, whose introduction on film was the riveting The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, about a Goth computer hacker named Lisbeth (the terrific, deadpan Noomi Rapace), who teams up … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 2-5
Film: There is an alternative to the vampires and werewolves of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and the sci-fi fantasy of The Last Airbender. It’s I Am Love, a sensuous film from debuting Italian director Luca Guadagnino with a starring performance by Oscar winner Tilda Swinton that is her best work yet on celluloid. She plays the Russian-born wife of a Milanese businessman who has … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 25-27
Theater: Gable Stage’s Joseph Adler is often eager to showcase new talent, as he does with Stephen Karam’s Speech & Debate, which features three recent graduates of Miami’s New World School of the Arts -- Jackie Rivera, Ryan Didato and David Dearstyne -- in a quirky, contemporary comedy about geeky high schoolers growing up and fitting in. Karam may still need some seasoning … [Read more...]