Arts + Culture
The holidays have become the traditional time for productions of the Nutcracker. The ballet, through Tchaikovsky’s evocative score, depicts a child’s inner life and imagination—a world transformed by dancing snowflakes and exotic lands of sweets and fantasy. What better time to indulge a bit of fantasy? Here are two, not-to-miss stagings, from the classic to modern interpretations.
Planning a roadtrip to Dollywood next year? While you're in the kitschy wonderland of Pigeon Forge in eastern Tennessee, be sure to add the brand-new Titanic Museum to your must-see list. The three-deck replica of the ill-fated ship will guarantee an educational (albeit ridiculous) experience in addition to riding the roller-coasters at the buxom blonde's theme park.
A few weekends back I went to go see the classic horror film Carrie at the Loew's Jersey Wonder Theatre, a beautiful vintage movie theater in Jersey City. As I settled into my plush velvet chair, I overheard a middle-aged man boast of seeing Carrie when it came out in 1976 at the exact same theater. While nearly 40 years later the movie’s special effects appear dated and not scary, the 1920s splendor of the theater itself is stunning (did I mention the retro-priced $6 ticket too?).
There are four other Loew's Wonder Theatres in the New York metropolitan area that were built between 1929 and 1930. While the Loew’s Kings in Brooklyn remains abandoned, the others have all been restored to their Jazz Age opulence and are now used as movie houses, concert venues, or churches as described below.
2010 is shaping up to be a great year for Americans to travel to the Argentine capital, which celebrates its bicentennial next year with a wave of new hotels, a grand theater reopening, and one of the best exchange rates of the decade.
HOTELS
Spain-based NH Hoteles is celebrating its 10th anniversary in the country by inaugurating not one but two new Buenos Aires properties: the nominally green, 116-room NH Tango (whose décor, appropriately enough, is themed after that quintessentially Argentine dance); and the sleek, 176-suite NH 9 de Julio, so named for its position on the mammoth 10-lane boulevard traversing the city. Both hotels are located downtown, near such tourist attractions as the Obelisque and the Teatro Colon. Another addition to the city: the luxury 91-room Blue Tree Buenos Aires Ker, in tony Recoleta.
The sister exhibition to Switzerland’s important contemporary art fair, Art Basel, begins today in Miami Beach. Buzzy Art Basel Miami Beach is back for its eighth year, with a new, 20-percent larger exhibition space featuring bigger booths and additional restaurants and lounges. Also new this year is the Oceanfront area at Collins Park—populated by a collection of Pae White-designed neon huts, the sandy space is set aside for film and video programming as well as a variety of art performances and talks.
Though down almost a million visitors from last year, Las Vegas is gearing up for next month’s debut of MGM Mirage’s CityCenter, an $11 billion, 68-acre megaplex that seals the city’s reputation for over-the-top innovation. T+L checks in with Vegas expert Howard Lefkowitz, CEO of booking site Vegas.com, on America’s top vacation destination.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York and the country’s most significant cultural complex is getting a makeover. In February, the center unveiled the thoroughly renovated Alice Tully Hall, one of the city’s premier spaces for chamber music. Next month's opening of the Atrium at Lincoln Center offers a first: a visitor center with a box office at which it will be possible to purchase same-day tickets, some at 50 percent discount, to performances presented by Lincoln Center and its resident companies (think TKTS for Lincoln Center, but better—the attractive indoor space has a ‘wichcraft café, free Wi-Fi, and an info desk, among other amenities).
Never has a pop icon been so happy to turn 35. Last week on November 1, 2009, the beloved cat turned the big 3-5 (that’s 137 in human years).
To celebrate the Japanese import, Royal/T in L.A.'s Culver City is hosting a free Hello Kitty event entitled Three Apples—a nod to H.K.’s weight, as listed on her official bio—bringing together over 30 artists inspired by the flirtatious feline. A portion of the art’s proceeds will help fund community service projects in Los Angeles.
Last night at the Paris Theater in New York City, Travel + Leisure’s editor-in-chief, Nancy Novogrod, introduced director Jason Reitman and his new movie, Up in the Air, starring George Clooney. The creator of some of the smartest films in recent years—Juno (2007) and Thank You for Smoking (2005)—gave special thanks to his father seated in the audience, Hollywood film producer-director Ivan Reitman, before the lights went down.
Based on the 2001 novel by Walter Kirn, one of the T+L’s contributing editors, Up in the Air is a film for travelers—and for the times. George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, an Omaha-based axe-man for hire who spends 322+ days a year on the road doing the bidding of distressed companies, racking up frequent flier miles, and relishing his untethered life. “Make no mistake, moving is living,” he atones.
In arts and culture circles, Dallas and Fort Worth have long been highly regarded. Fort Worth has remarkable museums and later this month Dallas adds to its luster when it opens a new performing arts center, touted as the most significant since Lincoln Center. But for anyone who grew up in Dallas-Fort Worth, as I did, amid the symphony orchestras, opera and ballet companies, and distinguished architecture, sports loomed large, and amid the professional sports teams the Dallas Cowboys loomed the largest.
Recently, the Cowboys unveiled a new $ 1.15 billion stadium (above) before a national television audience during the first, regular-season game against the New York Giants (for the record, the New York Giants won). But it may come as a surprise that in addition to the stadium's state-of-the art this and that, including the world's largest HDTV video board, is an art collection. And not kitschy “sports” art but the real thing.
