Tysons' Tesla Takedown

She banged her drum at the Tysons' Tesla Takedown, Mar. 29, 2025 in Vienna, VA/By Patricia Leslie

It's official: The percentage of Americans supporting Tesla Takedowns is about 75% based upon a scientific study of supportive horns, arm waves and thumbs up from drivers who passed the Tesla Tysons' dealership Saturday and showered their support upon the 100 or so demonstrators bemoaning  swasticars and their architect, Elon Musk.

Fox News reported about 275 domestic protests and 500 across the world were lodged against Musk and Trump over the weekend.

At the Tysons' Tesla Takedown, Mar. 29, 2025 in Vienna, VA/By Patricia Leslie

At the Tysons' Tesla Takedown, Mar. 29, 2025 in Vienna, VA/By Patricia Leslie

I know the number of participants is growing because I attended for the first time Saturday and have plans to attend more. 

A man (a security guard?) dressed all in black stood outside the Tesla entrance but nothing to fear since all was peaceful, and three Fairfax County police cars waited at the ready in case the situation changed. 

At the Tysons' Tesla Takedown, Mar. 29, 2025 in Vienna, VA/By Patricia Leslie

At the Tysons' Tesla Takedown, Mar. 29, 2025 in Vienna, VA/By Patricia Leslie

At the Tysons' Tesla Takedown, Mar. 29, 2025 in Vienna, VA/By Patricia Leslie

At the Tysons' Tesla Takedown, Mar. 29, 2025 in Vienna, VA/By Patricia Leslie

Musk said Tesla protestors were "paid." Ha!  He should know since he pays voters but paid we were not, reminding me of August 18, 1995 in Nashville when Newt Gingrich (with emphasis on the last syllable) put in an appearance at a Nashville bookstore to promote his new book, to be met by 200 protestors of whom I was one. 

With my children I watched the local news later that night to learn that Gingrich said the protestors were paid $10 each.

My 11-year-old son looked at me and said, "But you weren't paid, Mom!" Of course not, I told him:  "It's just another example of how politicians lie."  

The Tesla Takedown movement grows with more demonstrations planned. Go to Indivisible or Tesla Takedown to learn more.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Liza with a L for loving her true story

 

 Happy 79th Birthday today, Liza Minnelli!

After the audience had seen his new film, Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, writer and director Bruce David Klein addressed an appreciative crowd at Cinema Arts in Fairfax, Virginia Saturday afternoon to talk about it, a must-see movie for any Liza fan.

Klein used the word "explosive" often in his telling to describe Liza. Answering a question in the Q and A session, he said Liza saw the film after it was finished and “loved it;" she had no control on the script or anything about it.

Making the film was like "sculpting," Klein said, crafted from thousands of hours of film, carving it into the final piece presented on screen.

Liza's illustrious mother, Judy Garland (1922-1969) made the film more difficult since her ghost could have dominated the production but Klein instead focused on Liza's "mentors" like Kay Thompson who took Liza under her wing after her mother's death. 

That the film focused on her mentors and not her Oscar, her Tonys, Emmy, Grammy and other awards made Liza very happy, Klein said.

Liza's father, Vincente Minnelli (1903-1986), stage and film director, was equally as notable as her mother and more influential on Liza than her mother, Klein believes.

When Liza was 5 or 6, her father had dresses made for her in her size from the costume designs in the films he was working on which would have been Father of the Bride (1950), An American in Paris (1951), and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).

Liza touches on all four of her marriages, three miscarriages and relationships with so many men, it left me spinning and breathless (envious) trying to keep up. 

Her fragility on screen is supported by her persona in several interviews, all accompanied by a piano which just happened to roll into every room of interviews "in case Liza wanted to sing," an understatement Klein said because Liza loves and wanted to sing. 

And sing she does! (All while maintaining her heavy      cigarette habit!) 

Mia Farrow is interviewed at length, and, in separate sessions, Joel Grey (now almost 93!), George Hamilton (85), and Michael Feinstein (usually on piano) are among others who deliver glowing spiels about Liza.

The only parts of the film I thought were too lengthy were the visuals of "chapters" in Liza's life ("Don't hang around with people you don't like").

Clips from her films are included, of course, making me wish, Mr. Cinema Arts Owner, for a Liza Minnelli film weekend.

patricialesli@gmail.com 

 

Skating for a cause: a legacy

One of the skaters at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Tears rolled down the faces of many of the skaters and me and others in the audience at Sunday's Legacy on Ice, the fundraiser set up in just over a month to honor first responders, aviation rescuers and the families of the 67 victims killed January 29, 2025 in the plane collision over the Potomac River at Washington's National Airport.  

Never have I been in such a crowd of thousands who remained silent and somber throughout the afternoon while they watched the show on ice.

No one talked; no one whispered in Capitol One Arena, known for its boisterous crowds when the Capitals play hockey.

Skaters at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Skaters at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

A skater at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025. Did he forget to bring his uniform?/By Patricia Leslie

Although we expected the show to last about 90 minutes, the performers kept coming, for almost 2.5 hours.

As the skaters came out, they each carried a white rose, which they lay upon a table.

During a pause, first responders arrived in uniform, marching in, to sit on a front row. Representatives from Washington's professional teams attended and were recognized.

Although some falls occurred, each skater got back up in a millisecond and continued on his or her routine.

Olympic star Johnny Weir came out of retirement to skate for Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025. It may look like it from this picture, but Weir did not fall/By Patricia Leslie

Olympic star Johnny Weir came out of retirement to skate for Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

A skater at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Isabella Aparicio who lost her brother, Franco, and her father, Luciano, from Dunn Loring, VA in the crash, at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025. At the end of her performance, she fell to her knees and sobbed, and the audience sobbed with her /By Patricia Leslie

Isabella Aparicio at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Isabella Aparicio at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Brielle Breyer who was killed with her mother, Justyna, in the crash, was honored with this skate by one of her coaches at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Brielle Breyer's coach at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Skaters at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Skaters at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Maxim Naumov whose parents, Olympic stars Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov died in the crash, skated at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025. Skating with determination, Maumov ended his performance, dropping to his knees and holding his head in his hands, sobbing for several seconds until three skaters came out and helped him up/By Patricia Leslie

Friends of Maxim Naumov came out to help him off the ice after his emotional performance at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

By the time headliner and world champion Ilia Malinin came out to end the afternoon with his quad leaps and backward flips to thrill the crowd, my phone had run out of power to photograph him and others.

Lighted skaters ("robots") at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

"Robots" at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

A skater at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Legendary skater and Olympic star Peggy Fleming at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Legendary skater and Olympic star Peggy Fleming at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Skaters at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Skaters at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025 who surrounded a skater in black with white wings/By Patricia Leslie

It's no surprise that the Washington Post got the price of the tickets wrong in its story Monday since who's left there to check facts? 

While some of the tickets may have been $30 like WAPO reported they all were, prices ranged from $18-$19 to more than $60 which is what we paid for excellent seats.

Also, the Jeff Bezos Trump echo conveniently omitted the large donation Monumental Sports made to the effort:  $200,000. Its owner, Ted Leonsis (and his granddaughter?) were pictured on the big screens over the center of the ice.

Monumental announced that $1.2 million was raised at Sunday's event with more to come on Sunday, March 30, 2025 when NBC broadcasts Legacy on Ice at 1 p.m.

After a national skating competition in Boston March 25, a similar benefit in Boston may be held.

I believe these were local skaters who raised a white bouquet at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Skaters at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Skaters at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

A skater at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

'

A skater at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Skaters at Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Olympians Scott Hamilton and Nancy Kerrigan, both dressed in suits, skated off the ice with the other stars at the end of Legacy on Ice, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2025/By Patricia Leslie

Vienna's 'Rumors' is hilarious

Steve Rosenthal is Ernie Cusack, the husband of Cookie (Anne Hilleary), right, in Vienna Theatre Company's Rumors/By Eddie Page

 Football game?

What football game? Who's talking football?

There was an important football game in the DMV on Sunday but who was minding the television? There was a lot more action in the games on stage at the Vienna Theatre Company where players were flying high and fast! 

Who's talking? Who cares?

Well, they were all were talking, some at the same time in Neil Simon's play Rumors presented to a packed house on Sunday afternoon.

From left, Kate Bierly is Cassie Cooper; Dave Wright is Lenny Ganz; Anne Brodnax is Claire Ganz, and Liz Owerbach is Chris Gorman in Vienna Theatre Company's Rumors/By Eddie Page

The play is a one-night stand on a summer evening in New York when words and actions go awry as Rumors’ characters try to sort out what's going on. 

Leave it to Neil Simon to make merry from stress.

Four couples meet at Myra and Charley’s house to help the happy couple celebrate their 10th anniversary, but, … where was Myra? 

And Charley?  He was missing, too.

A gun goes off, and soon another! (Prepare yourselves for really loud bang, bangs with bang!  bang! adult language.)

Ken (Ilan Komrad) and Chris (Liz Owerbach) are the first party goers to arrive and discover Charley is hurt, but is he still alive?

They try to hide the truth, if only they knew it. Ken soon loses his hearing due to another gunshot blast and repeats what he thinks he is hearing but he's not.  

(With the dynamism of a talking human volcano and under the directorship of Eddie Page, Komrad’s antics and expressionism while he weaves on the second floor from bedroom to bathroom and back again are wild comic scenes.)

Meanwhile, Chris patiently puts up with her husband’s sudden peculiarities to welcome Lenny (Dave Wright) and Claire (Kim Paul) who've been in a car accident in Lenny’s brand new BMW and into the fold of lies and super lies they fall at the party. (Or, is it a wake?)

Arriving next are the funniest couple, the oldest, the most doddering, Ernie (Steve Rosenthal) and Cookie (Anne Hilleary), who well display the mannerisms of old folks.

Cookie has an aching back and can’t find her grandmother's precious earrings. 

Wait!  What’s this? She's holding them in her hand.

And here comes the youngest but certainly not the lovingest couple, Glenn (Nick Koutris) and Cassie (Kate Bierly), who argue over ... what else? You got it! Crystals! Yes, crystals! (You have to be there.)

The couples bicker and lash out at themselves, trying to cover tracks and spill the beans to the...oh, no!

Here come the cops in the form of Officer Welch (Christian Aguilar) and more police to question the circumstances and for sure, Aguilar is so real as a cop, he’s gotta be a real cop with his long drawn and suspicious speech, holding his belt while he ambles in the parlor, walking around from side to side.

Whatever can the anniversary party tell the police?

It’s an entertaining show that gains momentum with each passing scene, as one couple after another enters, argues and becomes confused by the crime.  

What crime?

Michelle Harris dresses the actors to the nines for the festive occasion. Lighting director Ari McSherry has hands working fast to shine on those commanding the stage which are all of them.

Charles Dragonette composed a realistic parlor and upstairs setting, complete with bar and fluttering art of flowers on the walls to set the stage for flittering flirtations of flames, but who’s talking?

Affairs? Who?

Bob Hannan's skillfully designed sounds of cars, phones, and crashes complement the fun. 

Other production team members are Margaret Chapman, properties; Art Snow, special effects; Adrienne Kammer and George Farnsworth, set construction.

Vienna is fortunate to have one last weekend of this hilarity to leave you smiling when you exit the doors. 

What: Rumors by Neil Simon

When: 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 2025 and 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025

Where: Vienna Community Center, 120 Cherry St., SE, Vienna, VA 22180 (703) 255-6360.


How much: $16.


For more information: vtcshows@yahoo.com or call the Community Center, ph. 703-255-6360 

Patricialesli@gmail.com

Mark your calendar now for 2025 New Year Eve’s reservations at

 

Thompson Italian in Falls Church/Thompson Italian website

Thompson Italian in Falls Church (or Alexandria) before they sell out again! 

A six-course feast with different wines from Italy at every course. And fresh glasses to boot with every wine!

A memorable evening (for an understatement) and worth every dollar! ($198 or $260 with tax and tip).

Beginning with the first course...

That would be Steak Tartare Crostini served with Alta Langa sparkling white from the Mirafiori winery in Italy's Piedmont region. Both wine and steak, delicious/By Patricia Leslie

 

The second course was blackened tuna carpaccio, served with Roero Arneis, a dry white, and Tenuta Carretta Cayega, aged in stainless steel tanks, and Tenuta Carretta, aged in barrels, all from the Piedmont. The aged-barrel wine was a little heavy, especially in competition with the Roero Arneis and the tuna and salsa verde/By Patricia Leslie

 

Next up was yummy burrata with pomodoro sauce, basil and toasted focaccia (pictured below) accompanied by Broccardo's Barbera and Nebbiolo also from Italy's Piedmont region.  By this point, we were getting pretty full, but (it was a "miracle") kept going/By Patricia Leslie

The toasted focaccia/By Patricia Leslie

This was heavy and I could not eat all of potato-taleggio agnolotti, truffle butter and parmesan, the fourth course served with Pakravan-Papi's cabernet from Tuscany/By Patricia Leslie

The fifth course was osso bucco (veal shanks with saffron risotto and gremolata) which came with wine from Tuscany's Casanova di Neri's Brunnello di Montalcino. The wait staff offered me a "to go" box since I had no room left for even half of it/By Patricia Leslie

This was the last course, a cranberry-hazelnut tart with brown butter, apple cider caramel and orange gelato served with a sparkling Tenuta Carretta's Nebbiolo, classico metoda from the Piedmont region. Even this (!), I was unable to finish, alas/By Patricia Leslie

 I can't wait for next year!/By Patricia Leslie

For the third year in a row, my pal Cashmere (?) and I had a heckuva good time eating at Thompson's NYE, practically none of the wines (or courses) we were able to finish, unlike our first year of celebration when we drank every last drop (until close to the end when we had no more room). 

I honestly can't remember driving home that year, but Cash reminded me I slept in the car for a while in a parking lot. (Perhaps awakened by the low temperatures.)  Since then, it's been riding a good old, reliable bus.

 And now we pace ourselves and don’t consume every last drop and feel better the next day, too! 

It's a delicious, delightful, dazzling tradition! 

YOLO!

Patricialesli@gmail.com

An art lover's must read

If you love anything about art, this is a fascinating excursion into the wild world of art.

The Devil in the Gallery: How Scandal, Shock, And Rivalry Shaped The Art World (2021) by Noah Charney is full of outrageous art, with detailed descriptions and reproductions in black and white and color, most from Wikipedia.

Nothing is sacred here. All art's scandals and controversies are included which build more traffic. (Natch)

And the more controversial, the better: “It is difficult to think of any artist who was involved in a scandal that proved their absolute ruin both in the short and long term.” (P. 45)

The book spans about five centuries, from Caravaggio in the 16th century to contemporary artists (Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Ai Weiwei and more).

Caravaggio was a murderer which has not affected his long-term following:

“Being a bad person, even a murderer, does not seem to negatively impact an artist’s legacy.” (P. 44) 

And he wasn't the only one. 

Performance and body art which desecrates the body to shock and draw attention is nothing new. Hang yourself with nails, float in human waste. Invite onlookers to use tools to hurt the artist. It’s all been tried before.

Many of the depictions are too extreme to describe here.

What’s new?

“Shock has become the new norm.” (P. 87)

Washington's Museum of the Bible is included on page 127 about stolen art.

Charney, the author of The Art Thief and other books, founded the Association for Research into Crimes against Art, and has been a nominee for the Pulitzer Prize. He has taught at Yale, Brown, and American universities. 

It's a must read, must see book! How I wish an institution would mount an exhibition! Enough of the exclamation marks, but I can't resist.

patricialesli@gmail.com