Culture

Placido Domingo is to sing an unprecedented duet in Arabic with an Egyptian singer at a concert in Dubai next month.

He’s the “smart tenor”.

We didn’t make it to Williamsburg for The Civilians last night. The weather was awful, and the downtown trains weren’t running, so we gave up.

We did go today, for a studio visit with the sweet and talented Meredith Allen, followed by visits to Plus Ultra and Bellwether.

We had a great dinner at M — and I see they’re having an Eileen Myles reading on December 18.

If I were in SF, I would go see the latest show by Assume Vivid Astro Focus at Peres Projects.

Check out Sick Bionic Woman.

We went to see “Our Country’s Good” tonight at Culture Project. Loved it — go read James‘s account.

The other highlight of the evening: I met Dakota in person finally, rather than only via email. I hadn’t realized she was so beautiful. I have a thing for smart attractive New England girls.

I just saw a fabulously weird Ken Russell movie — yes I know that seems redundant — called Salome’s Last Dance, in which Oscar Wilde’s play is presented in a brothel.

It’s worth seeing, especially for what seem to be the only movie role of Imogen Millais-Scott, as Salome.

I was going to watch Y tu mamá también, but my DVD’s subtitles were a bit wacked. Even two or three line subtitles would appear for only a second (or less). Has anyone else seen this?

We went to the opening for the Illegal Art show at the CGBG Gallery. We went mainly because of Eric Doeringer — we have #1 of the CD 2002 project, but we also ran into the lovely Simon and Dan.

We’re going to see some theatre by The Civilians on Saturday night at Galapagos. Who wants to join us?

We’re going to see Boca tomorrow night (Monday the 11th). Are any of my lovely readers planning on joining us? Leave a comment or send an email.

I’ve seen two things in the last few days that I highly recommend. I’m too tired to do a good writeup on either one, but here they are:

David Drake: Son of Drakula at Dance Theater Workshop. David has amazing range, and just gets better every time I see him. This work goes from his research into the Drakula family tree (his real last name) to his visits with possible family members in post-war Yugoslavia. I was very impressed by the writing and his performance.

Landford Wilson’s “Book of Days” at Signature Theatre. Some of the reveiws were uneven, but I thought it was excellent. I can’t say for sure whether I would think so with a less stellar cast and direction, but its politics are in the right place, and as someone who grew up less than 100 miles from its setting in Missouri, it certainly felt accurate. Miriam Shor, of Hedwig fame, was amazing as a small-town Missouri girl with a love for hunting and a chance to play Joan in a local production of Shaw’s St. Joan. It was hard to believe I was seeing the same actress I saw on stage in Hedwig.

If you find yourself in Times Square between now, and January 22, 2003, look up at the big TV screen to see videos by William Wegman, courtesy of Creative Time.

Aaarrrgh. I can’t help myself. I said I was going to try to concentrate on politics a bit less after the election, but I’m not succeeding.

OK. Here’s a non-politics post, except for the fact that White Box is one of the few non-profit art spaces that still has the nerve to do political shows.

We attended the benefit last night, and picked up some works by:

Carlos de Villasante

Rey Akdogan

Alejandro Diaz

Michael Meads — We already had 3 photos by him. There’s an opening tonight for his new show at Nikolai Fine Art on West 22nd Street.