
The Designated Mourner
June 8, 2009Whether furiously lisping the word ‘inconceivable’ throughout ‘The Princess Bride’ or waxing philosophical with his longtime collaborator and director Andre Gregory in ‘My Dinner With Andre,’ Wallace Shawn has always been nothing if not quirky. Now he’s taken control of a tiny abandoned men’s club in lower Manhattan for a nightly performance of his monologues musing on the demise of the cultural elite to a lucky audience of 30. The monologues are part of a play penned by Shawn, for which he is joined onstage by his longtime companion, the writer Deborah Eisenberg and by actor Larry Pine.
Picasso’s World of Children
May 14, 2009Tokyo’s gallery-goers can’t seem to get enough of Pablo Picasso, and the title of this exhibition at first sight really seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel. In fact, this is as intriguing a collection of works as has been assembled in all the last year’s Picasso exhibitions put together. By focusing on works which feature children, the curators have pulled together pieces which represent just about every period of the great man’s work, from his early straight portraiture to his later experiments with shape and colour. Here, it’s Picasso, rather than his subjects, whom we watch grow up.
North By Northwest
April 27, 2009The Boston Common gets cinematic this summer as the centrally located public park opens itself up to an outdoor film series aptly dubbed ‘Screen on the Green’. The series features classics such as tonight’s screening of ‘North By Northwest’, the Hitchcock thriller staring Cary Grant, who is mistaken for a spy and is subsequently crop-dusted, chased down on Mount Rushmore and attended to by the film’s heroine, the lovely Eva Marie Saint.
Mako Restaurant
April 24, 2009Makoto Tanaka, the head chef at the posh Chinois on Main, has finally opened his own restaurant, Mako, located in Beverly Hills. Its fusion of Asian and Mediterranean food is a little more ambitious than Chinois, and not necessarily better. Order the oysters and the vegetable plate or the tuna and the lobster, but stay away from the fried rice, duck and sashimi. However, it’s wise to note that the menu is still in its infancy and Tanaka has been adjusting it every day. The restaurant has an informal though sleek atmosphere, the wine list is extensive and the staff knowledgeable.
Spirit of the Dance
April 21, 2009Hot on the leaping heels of Michael Flatley, who danced his way through Tokyo in February, come 29 dancers of the Irish International Dance Company with a programme of traditional Celtic dance and music. Since the public appetite worldwide for people in steel-tipped shoes jumping around as if possessed by devils appears to be insatiable at present, tickets for this show are likely to be hard to come by. Expect few surprises, but then that’s not what the audience is going for in the first place.
Posted by hurricon 
Posted by hurricon 
Posted by hurricon 