Chez Robert Giron

Frida Kahlo
Now what on earth do these all have in common? It was an extremely busy weekend, what can I say.

Though the exhibit, courtesy of the efforts of the Embassy of Mexico, museums, Arlington County and countless others, is not the actual original work (these are reproductions), the show is quite revealing and speaks a great deal about the reach Frida Kahlo and her husband artist Diego Rivera had in their time. Along pictures of Mexican peasants one will find photos of socialites and Soviet Illuminati.

Go see the exhibit, it's free:
Artisphere in Arlington

Angela Gheorghiu
Next on this busy weekend, I took in Angela Gheorghiu at the Kennedy Center with the Washington National Opera Orchestra directed by Eugene Kohn.

The performance started off a bit off note but she and the orchestra soon warmed up and when she stuck to her operatic repertoire she soar. For example, Vive amour from Chérubin and Song of the Moon from Rusalka got the audience wanting more. Certainly she won our hearts with O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi and Ebben? Ne Andro lontano from La Wally--this is Angela at her best. I forgot to mention that she changed her gowns three times during the performance. Then when she had us in the palm of her hand she sang I Could Have Danced all Night and lost some of us. I turned to my partner and said (sorry to be so catty) "Stick to your own kind." But almost sensing the quasi damage she had done she ended with Granada and won the battle.

Mozart
This ended Saturday's taste for art and music. Then on Sunday, we took in Così fan tutte again at the Kennedy Center, but with Joey Prieto (wonderful), Teddy Tahu Rhodes (great singing), William Shimell (also super) and on the female side we had: Elizabeth Futral, Renata Pokupié and Christine Brandes-all superb. Now many of us were surprised to see Mozart set in Washington, DC with the women from Georgetown and the men from Baltimore at least while in biker costumes, complete with tattoos. Nonetheless the opera works and was sung extremely well, but the plot and evil twist on women in light of Rush Limbaugh's attack on the Georgetown students hit us all at the end like a lead balloon--flat. Both my partner and I turned to each other and said, Mozart needed an editor. Too long and the ending needs to be fixed, given the movement of the culture and women's rights, but it's still good music.

Shakespeare in Klingon II--The Wrath of (Michael) Kahn
I have never heard so much Klingon in my life and I never knew that linguist Marc Okrand who developed the Klingon dictionary is on the board of directors at WSC Avant Bard Theatre housed at the Artisphere, though the special event this evening took place in the Spectrum Theatre, with a donor reception the Hotel Palomar.

Sue (Fox 5) and Joe Palka hosted and did a rather funny Klingon weather report but the To Be or Not to Be performance in English and Klingon with Brian Crane, Andrew Miller and Brad Graper was truly a gas. Then came The Wrath of (Michael) Kahn which traced the effect Kahn has had on the Washington theatre and the lives of numerous actors. It was well worth the evening and I don't know why I am writing about this now because I have to get to bed to prepare for a conference in Philadelphia but I needed to say my peace.

Attention
MC-TP/SS Veterans & Active Duty Military,
Students, Faculty, Staff, Administrators

Help the Veterans & Active Duty Club Through Community Service!
Please Donate Food and Personal Care Items:


■ The Club will distribute items to homeless veterans and those in need.
■ Stop by the Club’s Table on March 8th - 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM in the
ST Building (ground level) TP/SS campus.

The Club will receive all food and personal care donations throughout the spring semester and store in the Veterans & Active Duty Club room located in Building P3-104A, which will be distributed to those in need. Items may also be left with Ms. Youngblood in P3 (2nd Floor).

Contact Information:
Veteran Darcy J. Sessions/Club President:
dsession@montgomerycollege.edu – 760-505-9165

Veteran Jonathon Hollingsworth/Club Chair for Community Service:
Autechre214@yahoo.com – 410-736-3665

Virginia Youngblood/Staff:
Virginia.youngblood@montgomerycollege.edu – 240-567-1378

Robert L. Giron/Club Advisor:
Robert.giron@montgomerycollege.edu – 240-567-1379

Calling all Francophiles and philosophy / ethics majors in the DC area.

If you are a fan of Albert Camus or if you simply enjoy good theatre that will provoke thought, then you must get to the Artisphere in Arlington to see the WSC Avant Bard production of Les Justes [The Just Ones].

The play in a newly translated version adapted by Rahaleh Nassri is not only fresh to the ear but also current given our history of terrorists, etc.

Sublimely directed by Jay Hardee and equally acted by a well-balanced cast the flow of words will hit you like a professorial comp session--not that it is bad, it's simply that by the time you process something you are hit by other thoughts going through your mind. But in truth that is what is required of this play as we watch a plot unfold--how else would one plan an assassination?

I suggest that you see this play before the tickets sell out; it's truly a must see play for it touches on various compelling quotidian issues yet it is set in a different century of European Resistance.

Click on the link below for details:
WSC Awant Bard

The story The Music She Will Never Hear by Kristin FitzPatrick of Alameda, California was chosen by previous winner Daniel Degnan as the winner of the 2011 Gival Press Short Story Award. The stories were read anonymously. The cash prize is $1,000.00 plus online publication.


Photo by Marlin Ezell.

Those who made the top listing include the following:

Runner-up
The Second Wife by Ann Darby of New York, New York.

Finalists
Cross
by Jendi Reiter of Northampton, Massachusetts.

Sparkles
by Patricia J. Warren of McLean, Virginia.

That Sardi's Smile
by Mark Connelly of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.


To read the story, click on the link at ArLiJo:
The Music She Will Never Hear (visit: ArLiJo)

It is extremely rare when one can boast about a relative turning 100 years of age, but today I am proud to say that Tante Germaine GIRON of Lorraine, France joined the select group of centenarians.

Happy Birthday, Tante Germaine, and good health!

--Il est extrêmement rare quand on peut se vanter d'un parent tournant 100 ans d'âge, mais aujourd'hui je suis fier de dire que Tante Germaine GIRON de Lorraine, la France a rejoint le groupe d'élection de centenaires.

--Bon anniversaire, Tante Germaine et bonne santé!


I suppose there is something in my genes that will have me possibly lurking around at an old age, God willing. My father will be 92 this year, though his parents didn't live to be quite old his grandparents passed the 80 mark; my mother will be 81 and her father lived to be close to being 95 and her mother 87. So something tells me I had better keep in good shape for the advanced years.

Finally, Happy Birthday to my sister, Jeannie, whose birthday is also today and who is quite young!

There are two plays currently in the DC area that I recommend highly.

1. Really Really

First of all, in Arlington at Signature Theatre there is Really Really by playwright Paul Downs Colaizzo which is stunning and masterfully acted by a well-chosen cast.

I don't believe in giving the details away but just know that you will leave thinking about this play for quite some time because the content is disturbing on various levels. The most troubling is perhaps general ethics and the saying "what goes around comes around" just doesn't make things better. This close knit group of 20 something are played by Evan Casey, Lauren Culpepper, Danny Gavigan, Paul James, Bethany Anne Lind, Jake Odmark, and Kim Rosen.

The direction by Matthew Gardiner and set design by Misha Kachman are so carefully done that they seem natural and the very first night of preview was so on target that one would never know it was the first night for the play.

Yes, it's nice to be entertained by song and dance but sometimes one simply needs a good shot of drama and trust me this will fulfill that need of yours. Children need not attend and for adults who are shocked, well, get a life and look around you and see life for what is really out there. Some of it ain't pretty.

Go out and see Really Really because it's really, really good!

Click here for the theatre's homepage:
Signature Theatre


2. Red



I have many loves in life but I simply can't live without art, so if you have the same reaction or inclination, then go to Arena Stage and see Red by John Logan.

The play is based on Mark Rothko's life and once again the actors are superb. Edward Gero plays Rothko and Patrick Andrews plays his assistant Ken.

In this short play directed by Robert Falls, without an intermission and rightly so because it would simply break the continuity, you will be given a tablet of intellectually stimulating conversation and equally intriguing you will leave thinking about the concepts and interpersonal relationships and perhaps ask: Why are people they way they are?

I suppose if we knew that and had that under control we wouldn't need psychologists or the like and we would all be happy and go lucky--a paradise like Hawaii but reality tells us that the human nature tendency is one towards boredom so at least change and drama keep us on our toes and less bored but, boy, at what cost?

Anyway, I also suggest that you get to the Phillips Collection to see the famous Rothko Room and experience his art after having seen this provocative play.

Phillips Collection

Click here for the theatre's homepage:

Arena Stage

Calling all poets to the 2012 Split This Rock Poetry Festival!

If you have the inclination to listen to some fabulous poets and/or simply to rub elbows with those who think alike, then be sure to put March 22-25, 2012 on your calendar. This somewhat annual festival has been held since 2008 in Washington, DC, and from the looks of the program it will be quite a busy event this year.

Here below are the goals of Split This Rock:

1. To celebrate the poetry of witness and provocation being written, published, and performed in the United States today.

2.To call poets to a greater role in public life and to equip them with the tools they need to be effective advocates in their communities and in the nation.

The name "Split This Rock" is pulled from a line in “Big Buddy,” a poem from Langston Hughes.


Don’t you hear this hammer ring?
I’m gonna split this rock
And split it wide!
When I split this rock,
Stand by my side.

The work of writing the poems that split open the injustices in society is in some ways a solitary act, but it is also an act that requires community. Split This Rock calls all of us to split this rock, and to do it together.


For more details please click on the link below:

Featured Poets for Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2012


Program for Split This Rock Poetry Festival


Register for Split This Rock Poetry Festival

Read this compelling award-winning memoir written by Ellis Avery in ebook format. The book was published by Gival Press in 2003.

The Smoke Week: Sept. 9-11, 2001 tells the story of the week of 9/11 and what New Yorkers saw, felt, and experienced during this tragedy. This award-winning memoir is both personal and stands as a testimonial of this historical nightmare.


"Here is Witness. Here is Testimony."
—Maxine Hong Kingston


"Real work of art" --Bruce Newman, The San Jose Mercury News


“...Stories will keep falling for years to come. Poets do it best, I think. Nothing to wrap up. Ellis Avery arrives at her Smoke Week like any New Yorker, hadn’t planned to live through a disaster, yet she talks exactly like she did. It happened to her in a city that she knew and is learning to know differently. Her account is human, historic, falls exactly like poetry, and is simply a very good read.”
—Eileen Myles


Biography:
Ellis Avery teaches creative writing at Columbia University. She is the author of a novel, The Teahouse Fire and her most recent work The Last Nude. Her work has appeared in The Village Voice, Publishers Weekly, and Kyoto Journal, and has been produced onstage at New York's Expanded Arts Theater.

Buy an ebook now at Barnes and Noble (Nook):
The Smoke Week at BN.com

Buy an ebook now at Amazon.com (Kindle):
The Smoke Week at Amazon.com