Spinning Plates

I very much enjoyed Spinning Plates, a documentary following three restaurants in the US. One is elegant and challenging with exquisitely crafted contemporary concoctions. Another is a family owned establishment that has been a fixture of a small town in Iowa. The third is a struggling Mexican place in Arizona.

Spinning Plates offers an in-depth portrayal of the restaurants and the owners, who all have very different stories. The main theme is the personality and heart that goes into creating and maintaining a restaurant. Each owner has a different philosophy about food and dining experiences, and each has endured personal struggles that influenced the story of their restaurants. Achatz's cancer; Breitbach's fires; and the financial difficulties of the Mexican establishment's proprietors.

The documentary is pleasant and interesting. Inspiring and sad at the same time.

American Horror Story: Murder House

This past week I watched the first season of American Horror Story, Murder House. It's about a family that moves into a haunted house. The husband and wife are having marital problems, and the daughter is alienated and depressed. Throughout the 12-episode season they are terrorized by ghosts as well as a strange neighbor, Constance. The house becomes so cluttered with ghosts, and with complicated plots involving all the various characters, that I thought for a while it was going to fall apart. But it ended up being engrossing and worked through the various plot lines in satisfying ways.

The first three episodes were incredibly scary and I had nightmares. But then you get acclimated to it and it feels more like a melodrama than a horror story, even though it never abandons the creepy and scary techniques of the genre.

One thing that really made this show work was the quality of the acting. Jessica Lange was just fantastic. So was the actress who played the daughter. Unfortunately Dylan McDermott as the father contributed seriously awful acting that was difficult to endure. But, like the other forms of horror, I got used to it.

After it was over I found myself missing all the inhabitants.

AGAIN! Rococo Rouge, Company XIV

I can't get enough of an amazing thing! Tonight I saw Rococo Rouge for the second time, and it was just as stunning, if not more so, than last week.

We had more center seats tonight, which made a difference, as last time I had a pillar of some sort kind of obstructing my view. Tonight we saw the performance full frontal, and it was incredibly sexy, and dramatic, and beautiful.

Everything about Rococo Rouge hits the right note. The diverse and uniquely talented singers, the choreography, the mesmerizing acrobatics, the wondrous costumes, the decadence and high camp. All the performers were wonderful, but the host or emcee, Shelly Watson, with a powerful singing voice and fabulous regalia, stole the show for me.

I can't wait to see what Company XIV's next production is!

HOME at Corridor Gallery

Yesterday I went to the opening of HOME, a group art exhibition at Corridor Gallery, curated by Meridith McNeal.

What a truly fantastic show! There were so many different works all exploring aspects and meanings of "home". Each piece had much depth and nuance, and the way the works dialogued with each other added to the complexity.

Some standouts were the Deborah Simon's installation, "Roost" -- mixed media sculptures of a colony of bats, hung and lit in a way that created haunting shadows on the walls. Valerie Hegarty's sculptures of wounded crockery were wonderful to look at and very moving. Susan Hamburger's intricate ink drawings of stacked paper cups and kitchen plates were beautiful and intimate.

I was also very moved by Flavia Berdindoague's pieces that looked like mounted animal hides, but were made with institutional blankets used for the homeless, prisoners, and disaster victims.  One of the pieces featured a beautiful story created by Berindoague and inscribed on the blanket:

It was a frigid winter night
I was hungry
The streets were empty and dark
I was surprised to find an open door
There was bread on the table.  I fried eggs
I was attracted by the shine on the chandelier's crystals
The objects in the room were familiar images
The blue velvet of the curtains
The same blue of the chair seats that we used to have dinner my wife and I
A breeze of profound sadness filled the room
I felt lonely -- I felt Nude
I wrote a note -- I tore it
I understand I was a slave of fear
I turned off a light and left

Also on view were lovely works by Felix Plaza; beaded objects by Diana Rickard; a "micro-home" created by Greg Kloehn -- a temporary homeless shelter created out from discarded materials; a large multi-faceted photographic piece by Amanda Williams; bittersweet photograms by Rachel Rath; Catherine de Zagon's photograph of homes in Vietnam; Guiseppe Di Lelio's drawings exploring decay and regeneration; and a stunning photograph by Carrie Mae Weems.

Glenn Lieberman at Atlantic Gallery

The other evening I saw an excellent exhibition at Atlantic Gallery, Glenn Lieberman, Repossession: The Catskills. These arresting photographs captured a lovely decay and disrepair in this region that was once a thriving go-to summer destination. Many of the photographs are black and white, and these focused on images of homes and structures in their natural element. There was also a series of color photographs of the desolate and decayed interior of the famous Grossinger's Hotel. These were fascinating. The piles of disintegrating materials, and light bursts of color, such as the pink bathroom tiles under the rubble. A beautiful show.

Company XIV: Rococo Rouge!!!

I enjoyed stunning entertainment tonight! Company XIV is the most amazing performance troupe in the city! Rococo Rouge is a delicious confection of beautiful singing, sexy and commanding costumes, burlesque numbers, and acrobatics. There's nothing else like it. Utterly raunchy and masterful.

I had seen their luscious version of The Nutcracker earlier this year and was excited to see them perform again in an intimate venue on Lafayette Street. The performance space was loungy and elegant and decadent, the perfect place for this company.

I enjoyed every moment of Rococo Rouge, but I think my favorite tonight was the sultry blonde chanteuse.

(The second, better photo here is taken from the company's facebook page)

Rachel Lee Hovnanian: Plastic Perfect

I very much enjoyed the Rachel Lee Hovnanian exhibition at Leila Heller Gallery. The work in Plastic Perfect explores the relationship between mass production and contemporary human experience. Many of the pieces focus on sugar and excess, such as an installation of Frosted Flakes boxes with white sugar streaming over the surface. Or the installation that featured a room covered in Cherios, with puddles of sugar, in which a hologram of a mouse munches on a treat.

Plastic Perfect had included the fascinating "Perfect Baby Showroom", part hospital nursery, part storefront. Viewers were invited to put on robes and sanitize their hands before holding the hyper-realistic babies in their arms. They were also invited to take a selfie of the experience.

I enjoyed the large photography in the exhibition, which depicted people in bed, darkly lit, each looking at their cell phones. These were haunting images of 21st century intimacy.