'Marley' movie is spectacular

A film by Kevin MacDonald

Rush to see it before it leaves.

Saturday's 5 p.m. screening was sold out at E Street.

If you like the man and his music one nanobit, you will love this  flick. Omgosh, it's fantastic.

It is more than a documentary. It's a documovientary. Entertaining and enlightening about one delightful and ultra-talented human being. Expertly crafted with interviews with Marley's wife, mother, siblings, children, a teacher, friends, fellow musicians, producer, and even his nurse in Germany who aided him on his deathbed, and many sessions with Bob Marley himself.

It's gripping and funny:  a video biographical sketch of the phenomenal man, singer, composer, and musician with a look at contemporary Jamaican history. Marley's wife, Rita, members of the Wailers, his daughter, Cedella, and son, Ziggy, add incredible perspectives and stories to the Bob Marley treasure trove.

Rita Marley in Marley

Marley's daughter, Cedella, in Marley

Why isn't anyone selling his albums at the theaters? I was so happy I already had Legend at home.

The film's background and collaboration between the executive producer, Steve Bing, and the director, Kevin MacDonald, are described in the New York Times which tells of Bing's years-long efforts to make the film which had the family's blessing.  

Prediction: This movie will win an Oscar(s).

Marley had 11 children by seven women which is easy to understand one you've gotten a taste of his charm, magnetism and just plain adorableness. Many said he was a shy man to whom women flocked.  He was an all-round good guy, too, sincerely interested in the well-being of his fellow Jamaicans, blacks worldwide, and not so driven by chasing a dollar. Even whites weren't that bad.

His family's reaction to the discovery of a melanoma on Marley's toe, the ultimate cause of his early death (at age 36), was "Why, that's a white man's disease." (His father was white.) Racism is not unknown in the movie.

At the end of the film the anticipated loud applause came, and more than the usual number of moviegoers hung around to read all the credits and sing softly to the music. A 70+ year-old white- haired white man danced solo in the aisle.

Young, old, black, white, they were all there.

I nominate Bob Marley for a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize.

I wanna love you and treat you right;
I wanna love you every day and every night:
We'll be together with a roof right over our heads;
We'll share the shelter of my single bed;
We'll share the same room, yeah! -
Jah provide the bread.
Is this love - is this love - is this love -Is this love that I'm feelin'?
Is this love - is this love - is this love -Is this love that I'm feelin'?
I wanna know - wanna know - wanna know now!
I got to know - got to know - got to know
Bob Marley, Is This Love
Copied from MetroLyrics.com

Rise up this mornin',
Smiled with the risin' sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,Sayin', ("This is my message to you-ou-ou:")
Singin': "Don't worry 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right.
"Singin': "Don't worry (don't worry) 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right!"
Bob Marley, Three Little Birds
Copied from MetroLyrics.com

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National Gallery of Art hosts 'Louvre' symposium

Samuel F. B. Morse, Gallery of the Louvre, 1831–1833
oil on canvas, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

This Friday and Saturday the National Gallery of Art will hold a public symposium devoted to Samuel Morse's Gallery of the Louvre, a 19th-century painting of 38 paintings hung, according to the artist's desires, in a grand salon at the Louvre. 

Artist Morse (1791-1872), yes, the same person who developed the Morse Code,
rearranged painting placements and did not draw them to scale, according to Peter John Brownlee of the Terra Foundation for American Art, the owner of the work and lender to the National Gallery.  Mr. Brownlee is one of the Friday guest lecturers.

Morse's subject matter can halt visitors in their tracks as they walk the main level of the West Building and come upon Gallery of the Louvre where a detailed brochure names the paintings in the work and the history behind it. The art is wonderfully intriguing and mysterious and full of details which you can see for yourself now through July 8, the last day of its display in Washington, D.C.

How many single paintings can you cite which warrant a two-day event filled with commentary, questions, discussion, eight lectures by experts from around the globe, and a film?

Here's the schedule:

Public Symposium
Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre in Focus
Held in conjunction with the exhibitionA New Look: Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre

April 20, 2012 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.West Building Ground Floor, Lecture Hall
3:00–3:05
Opening Remarks
Faya Causey, head of academic programs, National Gallery of Art
3:05–3:10
Introduction
Franklin Kelly, chief curator and deputy director, National Gallery of Art
3:10–3:40
A New Look: Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre
A documentary on the extensive six-month conservation treatment of the Gallery of the Louvre, this 30-minute film shares new information about the painting and features interviews with conservators, curators, and other specialists. Produced by Sandpail Productions for the Terra Foundation for American Art.
3:40–4:25
Morse's Materials and Techniques
Lance Mayer and Gay Myers, independent conservators
4:25–5:00
Samuel F. B. Morse's Lectures on the Affinity of Painting with the Other Fine Arts and the Creation of Gallery of the Louvre
Peter J. Brownlee, associate curator, Terra Foundation for American Art

Saturday, April 21 from 11:00 to 5:00West Building Ground Floor, Lecture Hall
11:00–11:10
Opening Remarks
Faya Causey, head of academic programs, National Gallery of Art
11:10–11:20
Introduction
Franklin Kelly, chief curator and deputy director, National Gallery of Art
11:20–11:55
Samuel Morse's Louvre in Context
Andrew McClellan, professor and dean of academic affairs for arts and sciences, Tufts University

11:55–12:30
American Artists and the Louvre
Olivier Meslay, associate director of curatorial affairs, Dallas Museum of Art
12:30–1:30
BREAK
1:30–2:05
Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre as a Religious Painting
David Bjelajac, professor of art and American studies, The George Washington University
2:05–2:40
1832: The Gallery of the Louvre and the Electric Telegraph
Jean-Philippe Antoine, professor, department of visual arts, Université Paris 8
2:40–3:15
The Tradition of Paintings-within-Paintings
Catherine Roach, assistant professor, department of art history, Virginia Commonwealth University
3:15–3:40
BREAK
3:40–4:15
Painting and Technology: Samuel F. B. Morse and the Visual Transmission of Intelligence
Richard Read, Winthrop Professor, School of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts,
The University of Western Australia
4:15–4:50
The Forest of the Old Masters: The Chiaroscuro of American Places
Alexander Nemerov, Vincent Scully Professor of the History of Art, Yale University
This program is coordinated with and supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art

I would like to thank Marie Stafford for directing my attention to the book The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris (2011) by David McCullough which tells the stories about the Parisian lives of Mr. Morse and others.

In the West Building at the National Gallery of Art/Patricia Leslie


What: Samuel Morse's Gallery of the Louvre

When: Now through July 8, 2012, every day from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m., Sunday

Where: West Building, National Gallery of Art, Fourth through Ninth streets, NW, on the Mall

Admission: No charge

Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, L'Enfant Plaza, and/or ride the Circulator

For more information: 202-737-4215

(Update) A "must have" for Morse fans:  Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention, edited by Peter John Brownlee, Terra Foundation for American Art, distributed by Yale University Press, 2014

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Space shuttle flyover is an intergalatic hit

Discovery's second cruise over the National Mall above the National Museum of the American Indian (left) and the National Air and Space Museum (right) on its way to the U.S. Capitol/Patricia Leslie

In the distance to the right of the Washington Monument, Discovery approaches the National Mall for its third flyover/Patricia Leslie

Discovery comes/Patricia Leslie

Onlookers on Seventh Street, NW, as Discovery approaches the Smithsonian Castle/Patricia Leslie

Discovery from Seventh Street, NW/Patricia Leslie

Discovery from Seventh Street, NW with a fighter jet, escort/Patricia Leslie

Discovery from Seventh Street, NW escorted by a fighter jet, with barbed wire from the Mall soil aeration project(?)/Patricia Leslie

Discovery heads to the U.S. Capitol/Patricia Leslie

In the distance Discovery flies to the right of the U.S. Capitol where throngs stand on landings to watch/Patricia Leslie

Can you find Discovery over the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on its second flyover?/Patricia Leslie

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury,

I present to you, Discovery, on its adieu flight with a note of gratitude to all those who funded and engineered and planned and completed its mission and everything else.  (Why, that would be...us!)

Incredible! Stupendous! Bravo!

Talk about a mind-blowing scene: Here it came, from the direction of the Washington Monument while we stood on 7th Street on the Mall waiting, waiting, waiting for what was to be a numbing, emotional scene, the likes of which we'll never see again.

After the first flyby, we were ready to applaud Discovery, NASA, and all the thousands who have made the space shuttle program the success it has been.

It was magnificent to behold. The people of the United States put this 30-year show together, including the logistics for Discovery's retirement celebratory tour at our nation's capital.

It's as if they (the big 747, the mother ship, carrying her wee one on her back) were almost flying in slow motion, escorted by a fighter jet, and I suppose a wing tip and salute to us the people down below were all in the imagination.

Everybody on the ground wore big smiles and happiness, and no complaints about anything were heard. (Not even about those confounded dust-blowing machines at work on the soil project on the Mall. What?) 

In the days of criticism heard round the world about the U.S. government, in the days of negative hearings on Capitol Hill and those in and beyond the Beltway, on the day taxes were due, to those who say the "government" can't do anything right, I say: Attention, y'all: The government got it right today.

You go, government! I am proud to be a part.

And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the people who died,
who gave that right to me.

And I'd gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

(Lee Greenwood)

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Dancing talk at Glen Echo, Chapter II

Glen Echo/Patricia Leslie

For Chapter I, go here

Chapter II

Scene:  The dance hall at Glen Echo.  Susan (mid-60s) has gone again. This time spring has arrived, and it's not necessary to cover up in a fleece to keep warm.  Dancing is good exercise and besides, few men at Glen Echo are overweight.  She dances with Kevin, Ted, and George until she meets Larry (75?), and she dances with him for three numbers before:

Larry:  Let's go talk.
He takes her arm and steers her to a sitting area.
Susan:  (Talk?  Talk?  We just met.  What are we going to talk about?)  Oh, okay, sure.

They move to the rim behind the columns and sit down on a bench. 

Larry is not George Clooney. He is not Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, or Seth Myers, but he is not Rush Limbaugh either.  Larry attempts to take Susan's hand, but Susan is not a "toucher" and retreats.   They chat a few minutes about their locations in the stations of life, and Larry says he is a retired government worker from West Virginia. 

He tells her that his wife has left him, and Susan finishes the next refrain with him in her mind:

Larry:  And I am lonely.
(Pause) 
Susan looks at the dancers longingly wondering how she can get away.
Larry:  Do you like to do things 'arty'?
Susan:  What do you mean?
Larry:  You know, museums and things.
(She brightens for Larry has just named her passion, but does she want to follow her passion with Larry?)  
Susan:  Yes!  What do you like to do? 
Larry:  Well, I have heard some good things about 1776 at Ford's Theatre.  Would you like to go see that?
Susan (is weak.  She would like to see the play, but with Larry? She continues to mull over an escape route.)  Okay!  Good!   That sounds good.  (Slightly nodding her head.   Lies!  Lies!  Lies!)
Larry:  Let's go dance some more.

Glen Echo/Patricia Leslie

They return to the dance floor where Larry's belly sometimes brushes against her. She has to concentrate on the steps and conversation for her on the dance floor is nothing more than monosyllables. 

Larry is not a bad dancer and after three more numbers and weary of smushed toes,

Larry:   Here, I am going to let you go, so you can dance with someone else.
Susan (wistfully):  Okay.  You can dance with someone else, too!

Earlier she had noticed the arrival of two good-looking men in suits and ties, both with almost shaved heads, and she would like to dance with them, but it is weird they never remove their jackets, and their apparel suggests they may be Secret Service agents without the curly-cue plastic cords hanging from their left ears, but where are they?  Perhaps the president was having dinner in Bethesda, and they are on White House break.

The band plays on, and one of the suited men swishes past her in his open coat, holding one arm bent behind his neck and his other arm rests on the shoulders of his dancing partner.  Under his white shirt is a protrusion of either 1. a row of breasts or 2. a plate of armor. 

Susan dances twice more, once with a Glen Echo employee, before she leaves the dance floor and hides for a few moments in the restroom from Larry whom she has not seen for a while.   Peeping out from the door, she exits and creeps around the sides in-between the columns, and finds her dancing bag. She makes a getaway, content that contact information is secure.  Besides, the band was not that good anyway.

It pays to get out.

What: Dancing to live music

When: Thursday - Sunday nights, some Sunday afternoons

Where: Glen Echo, 7300 MacArthur Boulevard, Glen Echo, MD 20812

How much: $10 to $16

For more information: Call 301-634-2222 or email info@glenechopark.org

patricialesliexam@gmail.com

State societies party with cherry blossom princesses

Maya Halbert, the 2012 Tennessee Cherry Blossom Princess, with Brett Logan, board member of the Tennessee State Society, at the reception at Bobby Van's Grill/Patricia Leslie

Sports rivalries among some Southern states were largely forgotten Tuesday night at Bobby Van's Grill where members of the state societies of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama met to mix, mingle and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the planting of the cherry blossoms in Washington with distinguished guests, the states' cherry blossom princesses.

From left: Keiko Asakura Halbert, the proud mother of Sammy Halbert (center) and Maya Halbert, the 2012 Tennessee Cherry Blossom Princess, all from Nashville, at the Tennessee State Society reception at Bobby Van's Grill/Patricia Leslie


Mississippi Cherry Blossom Princess, Grace Swoope, comes from a family of five princesses that includes her mother, Mary McDaniel Swoope (1981) and her aunt, Peggy McDaniel Welch (1978), now an Indiana state legislator.

As they say in Mississippi, beauty runs deep.

From left, Peggy McDaniel Welch, Indiana state representative and 1978 Mississippi Cherry Blossom Princess, with her niece, Grace Swoope, 2012 Mississippi Cherry Blossom Princess, at the Southern state societies event at Bobby Van's Grill. Grace is a costume designer whose resume includes The Help and Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino's upcoming film. /Patricia Leslie

In elegant attire, the princesses performed their duties well, warmly welcoming guests to the reception, made even more pleasing by perfectly cooked steaks found upstairs.

Mary Lou Collector, the oldest Tennessee State Society member, with Grace Swoope, 2012 Mississippi Cherry Blossom Princess/Patricia Leslie

For once, the state societies' crowd seemed more than just 20 and 30-somethings from Capitol Hill, since walking around and staking claim to the title of Ms. Tennessee State Society Oldest Member was Mary Lou Collector, who was joined at the party by other "seasoned Southerners."   

Said one Alabama alum when "sports" inevitably came up for chat: "Basketball?  Basketball?  Who cares about basketball?  This is the SEC where football is king!"  Amen, brother.

It pays to get out.

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Titanicabilia swells this month

The book/History Press

The centennial of the tragedy occurs April 14-15, 2012, 100 years from the date when the ship hit an iceberg just before midnight on April 14, 1912 and sank less than three hours later on April 15 taking 1,496 lives* with it.

Related books, films, special presentations, street theatre, lectures, a memorial cruise, an original stage play, a concert, and an original stage play are scheduled.

National Geographic has an exhibit, and Amazon has listed at least 17 Titanic books and three children's books which have been published in the last year alone. At Tysons Corner on Saturday at Barnes and Noble, four Titanic films were prominently displayed with only one or two copies of each remaining on the racks.

One of the new books at Amazon is Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic: A Centennial Reappraisal, a compilation by 11 Titanic scholars who examined all the evidence gathered by the 1912 American and British inquiries, and later, and who applied modern-day knowledge, science, and engineering to produce an academic treatise complete with a chronology, illustrations, photographs, diagrams, references, and investigation for every shred of information known.

One of the authors, Samuel Halpern, a Titanic expert, systems engineer and technologist, presented a talk on the book recently at National Archives where about 150 turned out at lunchtime to hear more about the wreck since no one can ever get enough information. (Tourist children were only able to sit still for a few minutes before rushing out to examine merchandise at Archives's gift shop, but the adult Titanicologists remained transfixed.)

Mr. Halpern presented facts and figures: 2,208 were on the boat, and 1,496 died.* Of first and second class passengers, just 6.4 percent of the women and children died, but 53 percent of the women and children in third class went down with the ship.

Titanic expert Samuel Halpern at National Archives/Patricia Lesllie

A few of the refutations uncovered by the researchers: Visibility on April 14, a moonless night, was "assumed" to be two miles, but it was only a half mile. About 60 percent of the capacity of the lifeboats, designed to carry 1,176 passengers or just over half the passengers, was utilized. Lifeboat drills were never conducted, leading to that requirement since.

Once the iceberg was sighted, a warning of 37 seconds was reported, however, later studies reveal the warning was actually between 50 and 55 seconds before the collision.

During the first 45 minutes after the wreck, about 13.5 tons of water poured in the 12-foot-square hole carved by the iceberg, eventually leading to the ship's division in two parts and its sinking due to instability. The initial report of the ship's location was 13 miles from the actual site. The book supplies the evidence to back up claims cited, Mr. Halpern said.

For Titanic devotees, there are a few societies to consider joining: the Titanic Historical Society, Titanic International Society, British Titanic Society, Canadian Titanic Society, Irish Titanic Historical Society, Shannon Ulster Titanic Society, Belfast Titanic Society, Scandinavian Titanic Society, and a new word:  Titanicology.

*The number of passengers, fatalities, and survivors which are listed in Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic differ slightly from Wikipedia's count. patricialesliexam@gmail.com

Not to miss: the NYC Ballet at the Kennedy Center this weekend

Charles Askegard and Maria Kowroski in Fearful Symmetries/Paul Kolnik

If you are lucky, you may still be able to buy tickets for the ballet Saturday or Sunday. Maybe both. They are worth it.

The music is utterly captivating, and I did not even stay for the finale, West Side Story* which means the value far outweighs the cost to get in.

As a matter of fact, the music by George Gershwin (Who Cares?) and John Adams (Fearful Symmetries) put out by the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra under the spirited direction of the New York City Ballet's Clotilde Otranto was so splendid the music could have stood alone without grace on the stage to illustrate the notes. (Elaine Chelton was the pianist for Gershwin, and she may have been the woman who joined the dancers on stage at the end of Who Cares? to receive audience appreciation.)

The dancing for the first two acts (Gershwin and George Balanchine, choreographer, and Adams and Peter Martins) was not traditional ballet but a welcomed change of pace, moderate jazz ballet and some ballet waltzing, always attractive.

The evening's performance began with a medley of Gershwin tunes performed against a silhouetted outline of New York which changed color and lights, depending upon which of 16 numbers was played. The ballerinas seemed a mite off in the first two pieces (Strike Up the Band and Sweet and Low Down), outperformed by their male counterparts, flashing by in silvered sequined (or so they seemed from the chandeliers) costumes with bow ties, who were tighter and fewer in number, thereby reducing stress and increasing ease of symmetry.

By the third selection (Somebody Loves Me), the loved ballerinas had settled down and were in stride and more confident, like horses out of the gate. (Sorry!)

Without question the audience's Number One Gershwin favorite was the lonely and haunting, The Man I Love, danced passionately under "moonlight" by Sterling Hyltin and Amar Ramasar, who possessed the honors in all three final Gershwin duet selections and one solo requiring a male dancer. The chemistry between these two was undeniable (even from "on high") to be envied by all who seek the link.

Teresa Reichlen from Clifton, Virginia, is one of the company's principal dancers, and she performed beautifully with Ramasar to Embraceable You and in a solo, My One and Only. Another ballerina deserving especial mention was Ashley Bouder who danced solo to I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise and with (who but?) Ramasar in Who Cares?

But my favorite of the night was Adams's Fearful Symmetries, a crashing buildup filled with tension and horns and percussion which grew louder and louder like a coming train wreck just ahead, and no end in sight. (And no seat sleeping for the weary.) It was absolutely magnetic, a modern Alfred Hitchcock, creating and softening friction but one of my two seatmates did not care for it. (Oh well, who can please all? It pleased me, and I am rushing out to buy the CD right this night. )


The male and female dancers in oranges, pinks, and rosy reds on the bare stage (save shadows) added final touches on a delightful evening of solid entertainment. Just close your eyes and soar into that good night.

*You've attended a production one too many times, haven't you? For me, my last time with West Side Story was a traveling stage production in Nashville about 10 years ago. I still cannot bear to hear one note of the music. Who needed it anyway to have a good time Thursday? Not me.
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