Arts & Culture

Etta James - "At Last"

Etta James died today of leukemia.

 

 

 

If you want to read about Etta James' life you might like one of the following:

   

 

 

If you wanted to listen to some Etta James you might like to borrow some of these CDs :

   

 

When an artist has over a 50 year career it's hard to know which period or style of singing best personifies them. The youtube clip at the top is Etta James in the latter part of her life - below is Etta James in the early 1960s just after her 1950s hit Dance With Me Henry.

 

 

If you want to try something a bit different and unexpected from Etta James you might like to listen to or even buy one of her last albums Matriarch of the Blues.

 

 

 Enjoy her music and rest in peace Etta. 

Geordie in the Pitmen Painters - Find out how actors learn accents & dialects @ Toronto Reference Library

Recently, we had an actress ask a question about learning a Geordie accent. Not being familiar with that one, I asked her some questions and it came out that she was acting in the Canadian premier of The Pitmen Painters  by Lee Hall (author of Billy Elliot) at Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton.  The play is set in the north east of England, near Newcastle upon Tyne, and focuses on a group of miners in the 1930s and 40s who want to learn about art appreciation.

Did you know many actors come and use the Stage Dialects Card Catalogue Index at the Performing Arts Department 5th floor Toronto Reference Library - it's arranged by country and or language and lists books, CDs, videos, cassettes and even records that have specific accents for regions, cities and ethno-cultural groups.   This information is sometimes also available through our online catalogue where you could find:

• British North Country Dialect Instruction
• British North Country Accents for Actors
• Urban Voices : Accent Studies in the British Isles
• Standard British Dialect Instruction

 

You can also try on Youtube, although the quality may vary on some posts.  A more authoritative online tool may be the British Library's "Sounds Familiar" website.

 

 

 

Death and Rebirth in the Motor City

In 2010 two oversize photography books were published on the same subject. Detroit Disassembled: Photographs by Andrew Moore and The Ruins of Detroit by two French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. Looked at together they provide a much more vivid and comprehensive portrait than either could on its own.

Accounts vary, but it seems that by the middle of the last century, Detroit, founded in 1701, had reached the height of its development and fell into a decline as it's successful citizens relocated elsewhere. Moore, Marchand and Meffre have captured unforgettable and humbling images of urban decay. The message of these images is sobering.

As I delved into the 300 year history of this city I was interested to find Frontier Metropolis: Picturing Early Detroit, 1701-1838. It too is an oversize book and is filled with maps, drawings, watercolours, and vintage photographs.

Could there be a greater contrast between the book covers above and this image of Detroit's modest beginnings?

Let's go on a little tour of the city known affectionately as Motown, and The Motor City, with Johnny Knoxville as our host. Guided by Detroit locals he visits and explores inside some of the most picturesque ruins. Here is a link to Part One of a three part documentary. All three parts make for fascinating viewing.

But even more fascinating in this documentary is the message of hope. Young people are moving back into the abandoned areas and reclaiming them for clubs, bars, restaurants and those harbingers of urban renewal: artist's studios.

 

Official City of Detroit motto? Speramus Meliora, Resurget Cineribus (We hope for better things, It shall rise from the ashes).

Amazing Grace Kelly

I went to see the Grace Kelly exhibition at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on King Street West (it is on until January 22).  I was surprised by how intimate a portrait of her it presented, with many of her personal possessions on display, from letters, home movies, clothing and jewellery to items from the public realm such as her film posters.  Luckily for her curious fans, Grace Kelly described herself as "...one of those people who keeps everything."  Growing up in Philadelphia, Grace Kelly knew by age 11 that she wanted to be an actress.  She performed on stage and then in films, and at age 25 won an Academy Award for playing Georgie Elgin in The Country Girl.  The dress (seen below) which she wore to accept that Academy Award is on display at the exhibition.

      

Examples of Grace Kelly's classic elegance are plentiful at this exhibition.  In 1955 Grace Kelly went with the famed Hollywood costume designer Edith Head to Paris to buy accessories at Hermès for Alfred Hitchcock's film, To Catch a Thief.  It was at Hermès that they bought the bag which became known as the Kelly bag, after Grace.

              

In May 1955 Grace Kelly attended the Cannes Film Festival and it was there, at a Paris Match photo shoot, that she met Prince Rainier of Monaco.  The following April, Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier at a lavish wedding ceremony in Monte Carlo.  Helen Rose designed her wedding dress, and an exact replica of it is on display, along with archival footage of both the religious and civil wedding ceremonies.

  

After her wedding, the now-Princess Grace's world became even more glamorous than that of a Hollywood film star.  In 1956 Van Cleef & Arpels became official jeweller to the Princely House of Monaco, and Princess Grace wore haute couture gowns.  There is a strikingly modern purple Givenchy evening dress on display, as well as a delicate blue chiffon Christian Dior evening gown, amongst other couture gowns and outfits.  Grace Kelly was nearsighted, and extended her style to her eyeglasses, which included several pairs by Oliver Goldsmith.

             

Princess Grace had a passion for pressing flowers and there are several large framed examples of her artwork.  She even wrote My Book of Flowers about flowers and her techniques.  The greatest treat in the exhibition for me, however, is at the end where home movies are shown of a relaxed and very happy Princess Grace with her family.

                    

Michael Ondaatje, "Divisadero" and Daniel Brooks @ Toronto Reference Library from Page to Stage

Please join as David Young interviews  Michael Ondaatje and Daniel Brooks (Necessary Angel Theatre) on the adaptation of Ondaatje's "Divisadero" (the novel) into "Divisadero: A Performance" (the play).

This special fusion evening of Canadian literature and theatre is free and will take place on Monday January 9, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in the Atrium at the Toronto Reference Library.  Necessary Angel is giving everyone who attends the event at Toronto Reference Library a $5 discount coupon on tickets.

 

 

Michael Ondaatje - author of the novel Divisadero (Governor General's Literary Award, 2007) - set partly in the gambling parlours of California and Nevada, and partly in a village in south-central France.

Daniel Brooks - artistic director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company and director of "Divisadero: A Performance".

David Young - host, Toronto Reference Library Playwright-in-Residence Oct-Dec 2011. You can borrow some of the plays written by David Young.

 

         



"Michael Ondaatje collaborates with Daniel Brooks to adapt his novel Divisadero - a violent and passionate story exploring themes of memory, identity, love and the grip of the past on the present. An examination of the intimate relationship between the speaker and the listener, and of language's ability to weave a magical spell." (Necessary Angel Theatre Company)

Divisadero: A Performance by Michael Ondaatje and directed by Daniel Brooks is produced by Necessary Angel Theatre Company, Toronto.  It will run at Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Ave.), February 8th - 26th 2012.

  

 

 

A Creative Space of One's Own

For the artist in everyone, some books to browse

 

                    
  

                                    

 

Delightful!