Salman Rushdie on book tour in D.C.

Salman Rushdie, left, with Robert Siegel at Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University/Patricia Leslie

Despite last month’s warning from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that a fatwa or decree issued in 1989 calling for the assassination of Salman Rushdie may still be in effect, Rushdie addressed a sold-out Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University Monday night where there were no security checks.

No magnetometers, no wands, no bag inspections.

The British-Indian writer who spent ten years in hiding because of a book (Satanic Verses which angered and still does, some Islamic leaders in Iran) came to talk and answer questions posed by NPR’s Robert Siegel about Rushdie’s latest book, Joseph Anton: A Memoir, which describes his undercover life. (The book is named after two writers Rushdie admires, Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov, and was a pseudonym Rushdie used.)

While he was in hiding, Rushdie said writing “saved my life….Writers are used to sitting in rooms, staring out the window, wondering what the hell to do.” It’s a good thing he wasn’t a movie producer, he said, for he would not have been able to work. 

“One of the great things about the history of literature,” is that writers are “always taking on tyrants.” Writers speak the truth and tell it "to their faces….If you give in to a bully, you ensure there will be more bullies, not less. We know this as kids. We should remember it as adults….

“The nature of democracy is disagreement….You don’t have to resolve the argument. You just have the freedom to discuss it.”

Many of the evening's questions came from members of the audience which Siegel read to Rushdie.

One person wanted to know if Rushdie had any regrets about Satanic Verses.

No, none. “I’m very proud of it," Rushdie said. "It’s one of the better books I have written. Now that the fuss has died down,” he hopes people will read it like it was intended, as a novel. That’s “beginning to happen.”

He talked about books which pass the test of time because readers like them. “Now, finally, this book [Satanic Verses] has a chance to pass this test.”

Answering another question, he said he tried writing Anton in the first person but didn’t like it and switched to third.

He named James Joyce, Marcel Proust, and Franz Kafka as great contemporary writers.

Kafka wrote “dark and scary” things which, at the same time, were “quite funny.”  Rushdie, 65, born in India who speaks with a British accent, was quite funny, too, and at ease, comfortable in the surroundings, and made the audience of about 1,500 laugh several times.  He has been married four times.

He was friends with the late Christopher Hitchens (there’s a “big hole in the world” without him), and they frequently played games including substituting “hysterical sex” for “love” as in Hysterical Sex in the Time of Cholera, and Hysterical Sex is a Many Splendored Thing.

Rushdie said he thought his death sentence would end in a year, but it lasted for ten. It was a situation for him that “endlessly went on.” It wasn't isolation which bothered him as much as claustrophia. He was surrounded by four “enormous men” who were not his closest friends, yet while he was in hiding, everyone kept quiet: housekeepers, the police, neighbors. It was “a battle between love and hate. The reason I am here," he said to applause, "is the power of love which proved itself to be stronger.”

Rushdie has lived in New York City for the past 13 years. The U.S. "is where I began to get my freedom back.” 

His decade-long confinement enabled him to write: “I got a f-ing good book out of it,” he said to cheers, and when he exited the stage, a standing ovation.

The event was sponsored by Politics & Prose Bookstore and The Center for Inquiry-DC.

patricialesli@gmail.com

'Cole Porter' is a hit in Falls Church

Cole Porter fans will not want to miss the story of his life and loves told in songs and narrative in Cole Porter: You're the Top! now on stage at Creative Cauldron in Falls Church.

The passion between Porter (Sean Thompson) and his wife, Linda Lee Thomas (Carolyn Cole) glows throughout the non-stop original musical as their eyes lock, and they sing and dance to 26 of Porter's compositions, magnificently assembled by co-directors Laura Connors Huff and Stephen Gregory Smith from Porter's repertoire of more than 800 creations.

Of course, the crowd's favorites are the expected:"Let's Misbehave," "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love," and "From This Moment On," to name a few. 

Did you know Porter wrote a song about a gigolo?  The directors include some lesser-knowns, too.

Carolyn Cole and Sean Thompson star in Creative Cauldron's Cole Porter:  You're the Top!/Photos by Gary Mester, Written in Light Photography 

With the audience right there on three sides, "It Ain't Etiquette" to get up on the stage and dance with the stars although it was mighty tempting to join them "Ridin' High," singing and whirling around the fabulous black and white set (Margie Jervis) from table to piano to chaise lounge and back again, telling Porter's and Thomas's stories about "I Love Paris," "I Happen to Like New York," and Porter's break-through.  That he was attracted to men and she was eight years older did not diminish (much) their immense yearning for one another since Linda gets a kick out of Porter who has her under his skin.

If you thought it might be tough to sing and dance at the same time, never fear!  Thompson and Cole make it look, oh, so easy. "In the Still of the Night" it was "Alright with Me" to "Experiment" and take "All of You" "Night and Day." (Fortunately, there is no sing-a-long.)

Adding oh-la-la to the evening's enjoyment are the sounds produced by Alvin Smithson, musical director and pianist, Kim Martin, drums, and Vince Calcaterra, bass and violin, accompanied by excellent lighting design (Paul Spiegelblatt) and choreography (Kara-Tameika Watkins).

(Edgar Allan Poe fans will remember Thompson from Creative Cauldron's production last year of Nevermore, and Cole who starred in Women of the Blues.)

What: Cole Porter: You're the Top! 

When: Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., through October 28, 2012

Where: Creative Cauldron "where imagination bubbles over" at Artspace, 410 South Maple Avenue, Falls Church, Virginia 22046

How much:  Prices start at $20

For more information:  571-239-5288

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

Kathleen Turner sizzles in 'Molly Ivins'

Kathleen Turner in Philadelphia Theatre Company's production of Red Hot Patriot:  The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins. Photo by Mark Garvin

What better place for a hardy liberal like Molly Ivins to be featured in a one-woman production than in Washington, D.C. where bars host special drinks and nights devoted to events like the Super Bowl of Politics AKA the Great Debates and every third house throws a debate party?

Kathleen Turner, 58, star of Body Heat, The War of the Roses, Prizzi’s Honor, The Accidental Tourist, and Romancing the Stone, is s-m-o-k-i-n-g in Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins at Arena Stage, and if you don't have your ticket, well, you don't have your ticket, and please be prepared to stand ($50).  (Okay, there are a few pricey seats left.)
 

She’s got the twang, the mannerisms, the delivery to bring back to life the lively and hot-tongued Ms. Molly by way of playwrights and twin sisters Margaret Engel and Allison Engel who based their script on Ivins's writings, interviews, speeches, and the Engels' talks with Ivins's friends and colleagues.  (Ivins died in 2007 of breast cancer.)

The show's props, staging, and direction flow ever so smoothly under the tutelage of David Esbjornson.  Turner's "prop star" (Nicholas Yenson) is absolutely “spot-on.”  Such a nerd.  Those glasses.  He reminds you of every high school brain you ever sat beside in chemistry class.  He walks so fast across that stage, he is like a candidate trying to exit the platform after another gaffe.  Shrub.

The show's been playing for more than a month (August 23), and it's still filling up every night.  I probably was the last person to visit the "new" Arena Stage, and what a treat.  Not just the production but Arena, too!  Spot on.  Hey!  Anybody ever thought of an Arena Madness?

Who:  Kathleen Turner as Molly Ivins

What:  Red Hot Patriot:  The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins

When: Now through October 28, 2012 (except Mondays) 

Where: Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024

How much: Standing room tickets start at $50 and there are seats left

Duration: 75 minutes (no intermission)

Metro station: Waterfront

Parking:  On the street or in a nearby lot

For more information:  202-484-0247

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater at Night from 6th Street, photo by Nic Lehoux, Bing Thom Architects

 

patricialesli@gmail.com

'George Bellows' tape is a treat at the National Gallery of Art

George Bellows, Beach at Coney Island, 1908, private collection

Only precious few days remain to see the fabulous George Bellows show at the National Gallery of Art in Washington before it departs for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and later, the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

The exhibition ends in Washington October 8.

An audiotape available at the entrance to the exhibition will make your visit more enjoyable and is certainly worth the $5 charge.  (Most art enthusiasts don't mind having to fork over a few bucks to hear professionals discuss great works and provide guidance, especially when institutions charge nothing for admission.)

One of the featured works on the tape is Forty-two Kids (1907) which shows boys having a lark of a time, swimming sans bathing suits, jumping off a broken wooden dock into a dark abyss, their future? 

George Bellows, Forty-two Kids, 1907, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, Museum Purchase, William A. Clark Fund

Rather than a daytime scene, the light illuminates the naked boys on the dock which is surrounded by the black water and night, which consumes half the painting. Inspection reveals some of the children have already jumped in, and floating in the distance is a solitary boat, perhaps a life boat to rescue the children from their probable trajectory.    

The catalog says this painting came close to winning the annual Lippincott prize at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1908 but after voting 8-2 in its favor, the jury reversed its decision, probably because of a perception Mr. Lippincott might object to the work's nudity.

Said the artist, it was not the naked children which intimidated the jury, but "the naked painting."

Bellows (1882-1925) was associated with the "ashcan school" which concentrated on social conditions and life of poor people in New York tenements in the early 20th century.  He often portrayed the friction between modernity and the past.  

One example is Men of the Docks (1912) (an "ambitious, very successful picture," according to the curator on the tape). In the center of the work across the river are the city's tall buildings while in the foreground, emotionless longshoremen stand between a huge modern cruise ship in the sunlight and on the left, a small industrial boat in the shadows.  Those who do not have their heads hung low look to the left of the scene as if awaiting notice they have been replaced by modernity.  (Bellows painted Men of the Docks in the same year as the Titanic sinking.)

George Bellows, Men of the Docks, 1912, Randolph College, founded as Randolph-Macon Women's College, 1891, Lynchburg

Both Members of This Club (1909) is one of Bellows's most famous renderings of an illegal sport and all its blood, sweat, and gore. The narrator says the fighters are literally trying to kill each other, and they look it.  Be sure and study the faces of the onlookers surrounding the ring and see if you spot evil. 

George Bellows, Both Members of This Club, 1909, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Chester Dale Collection

Frankie, the Organ Boy (1907) makes a viewer wonder about his background and what became of him.  He seems bewildered and out of place in his formal suit in the dark as he clasps his hands: "What am I doing here?"

George Bellows, Frankie, The Organ Boy, 1907, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Purchase, acquired through the bequest of Ben and Clara Shlyen

The forlorn expression of the Little Girl in White (Queenie Burnett) (1907), Bellows's laundry girl, offers a glimpse of what her childhood was like.   

The Saw Dust Trail (1916) shows the power of the evangelist Billy Sunday.  The catalog quotes Bellows:  "I paint Billy Sunday... to show the world what I do think of him.  Do you know, I think Billy Sunday is the worst thing that ever happened to America?  He is death to imagination, to spirituality, to art."

George Bellows, The Saw Dust Trail, 1916, Milwaukee Art Museum, Layton Art Collection

And then there is Bellows's portrayal of horrible scenes, all based on reality.  Who will ever forget the powerful and wrenching The Barricade (1918) which shows Germans in World War I using naked Belgians as human shields, or The Law is Too Slow (1922-1923) based upon a 1903 newspaper story, dateline Wilmington, Delaware, about a black man who burns at the stake while a mob of perpetrators stand and watch. In an ironic twist, the captive seems to ascend in a geyser of flames in Bellows's rendering of crayon on paper which suggests a crucifixion. 

George Bellows, The Law is Too Slow, 1922-1923, Boston Public Library, Print Department, Albert H. Wiggin Collection

Last weekend the National Gallery and Bellows were packed.   I asked myself: What are all these folks doing in here on this gorgeous day? 

Allow about an hour to hear the tape, and more time, to see the entire show. 

What: George Bellows

When: Now through October 8, 2012, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Where: National Gallery of Art, West Building, Washington, D.C., between 3rd and 9th streets at Constitution Avenue, NW

How much: No charge

For more information: 202-737-4215 or www.nga.gov.

Metro stations: Judiciary Square, Navy Memorial-Archives, or the Smithsonian

 

patricialesliexam@gmail.com

Save the date: Oct. 3, free noon concert at St. John’s

The U.S. Army Chorus

The U.S. Army Chorus will perform at 12:10 p.m. October 3 at St. John's, Lafayette Square, and introduce the church's First Wednesday Concert Series for 2012-13.

The chorus is one of the few men’s professional choruses in the U.S., and has performed at the White House, the Vice-President’s home, the U.S. Capitol, the U.S. Supreme Court and the State Department.  The group was founded in 1956 as a vocal counterpart to the U.S. Army Band, “Pershing’s Own,” and has a repertoire which includes patriotic, Broadway, folk, and classical music.

St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square/Patricia Leslie

St. John's, known to many Washington residents as the yellow church at Lafayette Square, is called the “Church of the Presidents” since every president beginning with James Madison, who served from 1809 to 1817,  has either been a member of, or has attended services at St. John's, including President Barack Obama and his family.  A plaque at the rear of the church designates the Lincoln pew where President Abraham Lincoln sat when he often stopped by St. John's during the Civil War.

Other concert dates in the St. John's series are: 

Nov. 7:  Michael Lodico, associate choirmaster and organist, St. John's Church, performing Works for Musical Clock by Haydn and Mozart

Dec. 5:  Madrigal Singers from St. Albans and National Cathedral School, directed by Benjamin Hutto, performing "Music of the Season"

Jan. 9 (second Wednesday):  Marvin Mills, concert organist, performing Avec une touche Francaise, with works by Saint-Saens, Widor, Durufle, Litaize, and Dupre

Feb. 6:  Soloists from St. John's Choir

Mar. 6: Bianca Garcia, flute, assisted by Michael Lodico, organist, featuring the world premiere of a work by Stephen Cabell

Apr. 3:  Benjamin Hutto, director of music ministry and organist, St. John's, performing "Organ Treasure Old and New"  

May 1:  Alvy Powell, bass-baritone and Gershwin interpreter

June 5: Jeremy Filsell, Washington National Cathedral Artist-in-Residence, performing organ works by Bach, Dupre, and Rachmaninov


What: U.S. Army Chorus                           

When: 12:10 p.m., October 3, 2012

Where: St. John’s, Lafayette Square, 1525  H Street, NW, at the corner of 16^th, Washington, D.C. 20005

How much:  No charge

Duration:  About 35 minutes each

Wheelchair accessible

Metro stations:  McPherson Square or Farragut West

For more information:  202-347-8766

patricialesli@gmail.com

Washington architects can cans at the Building Museum

EYP designed this entry, All You Need Is LOVE, using 4,700 cans of tomato sauce, roasted chilies, and salsa to win the Jurors' Special Recognition Award/Patricia Leslie

Although this year's can competition staged by the Washington Architectural Foundation to raise money for the Capital Area Food Bank has ended at the National Building Museum, photos of the different can sculptures can leave viewers with deep appreciation for team members' smarts and know-how. 

This may look like a summer igloo made of stacks of quarters but it is actually cans of Le Seuer peas and tomato sauce canstructed by WDG and labeled To Bean or Not To Bean/Patricia Leslie

Architects from the 22 participating firms used about 75,000 cans to make "edible architecture," all contents in different sizes and colors and all donated to the food bank.

That three teams chose the Discovery space shuttle to feature for this year's theme of "Monumental" was monumental itself, but considering  Discovery did journey 149,000,000 miles over its 27- year working life and made its last trip when it came to Washington in April, circled the National Mall four times, and landed at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum, its final destination, maybe it's not so coincidental, after all.  Whew!

Hartman-Cox designed Monumental Flight:  Discovering An End to Hunger.  On the floor are bags of rice/Patricia Leslie

 

This (and below) are Hunger:  We Have a Problem by URS.  Wrote the design/build team:  "It's one small step with cans but it's one giant meal for mankind."/Patricia Leslie

 

URS's entry/Patricia Leslie

 

 

 

To CAN-finity and Beyond! by Leo A. Daly won the People's Choice Award.  The team used 3,500 cans of white beans, soups, chilies, tuna, and black coffee to depict Discovery, downtown buildings, and the U.S. Capitol with a honey bear bottle on top, representing the Statue of Freedom/Patricia Leslie

 The 2012 canstruction awards announced by the District Architecture Center:
 

• Jurors' Favorite: One Small Step for a Can, One Giant Leap to End Hunger by Wiencek + Associates, Architects + Planners
• Best Use of Labels: Grand CANyon by Barnes Vanze Architects, Inc.
• Structural Ingenuity: A Colorful Meal of Golden Proportions by Perkins + Will
• Best Meal: A Colorful Meal of Golden Proportions by Perkins + Will
• Honorable Mention: CAN You Hear Me Now? by Cannon Design
• Honorable Mention: Grand CANyon by Grimm & Parker Architects
• Jurors' Special Recognition: All You Need is LOVE by EYP
• People's Choice Award: To CAN-finity and Beyond! by Leo A Daly

Since 1992 when the competition was founded by the Society for Design Administrators, more than 20 million pounds of food have been collected for communities around the world, according to the District Architecture Center.

The 2012 canstruction competition and fundraiser for the Capitol Area Food Bank at the National Building Museum/Patricia Leslie

Nobody can can cans like Washington architects can can cans at the National Building Museum where they can can cans and can can-can (maybe).

The National Building Museum/Patricia Leslie

What: National Building Museum

When:  Open every day, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday

Where:  401 F Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20001

Admission:  $8, adults; $5, students, youth, seniors; $3 for Building Zone only, and reduced prices for the last hour of the day

For more information:  202-272-2448

Metro stations:  Judiciary Square and Gallery Place-Chinatown

 

patricialesli@gmail.com



 

Snakes at Tysons Corner

After he was thrown out of my peaceable kingdom and into the hallway.  What kind is it? Answer at bottom/Patricia Leslie

Last Sunday night I zipped around the corner in my wee abode to look up a word in my big fat American Heritage Dictionary, Third Edition which sits atop my favorite piece of furniture I bought with last year's income tax refund at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.  That piece of furniture is my Thomas Jefferson Dictionary Stand.

The Thomas Jefferson Dictionary Stand, sold in the Monticello gift shop.  Monticello may call it a Library Stand, but it doesn't hold a "library."  It holds a dictionary/Monticello

Out of the corner of my eye I saw laying on the carpet beside the can of Johnson’s Pledge and a dust mitt (reminders to dust my Thomas Jefferson Dictionary Stand which has all these holes and glass requiring removal of the books on the shelves underneath and is quite a complicated (i.e. time consuming) operation) what appeared to be the toy snake I had given my grandson in April for his birthday, but as my mind and eyes adjusted to reality and expanded to the approximate size of the American Heritage Dictionary, Third Edition, and I... blinked several times, being without my glasses, and.....and.....! ! !.... realized... it.....was not....could...not...be... my grandson’s toy....snake...... since..... since....my grandson....lives in Georgia ....... and....here......I was.... in....Virginia.... which meant…

which meant…

YOWEE, a real snake! 

AAUUGGGHHHH

I screamed bloody murder.

And no rescue was forthcoming.

The snake was approximately three feet long.

It was like a terrible dream which was not a dream at all.

Shaking, I found my phone and tried to dial my neighbor, however it took several seconds before I could quell the trembling in my fingers and remember the second letter of her name to look up in “My Contacts.”  At last, I was able to reach Margo who, thankfully, was at home.

In a whimper, I described the scene.

“I don’t know how to get a snake out of your place,” Margo said without emotion.

“What am I going to do?” I finally got out the words.  The snake remained motionless on the floor and played dead.

Margo suggested putting a trash can over the snake, but remembering the snake which appeared in my neighbor’s place across the hall last year which hid for a week undercover after Joe-Joe, another neighbor and faux rescuer, frightened it, I feared MY SNAKE would escape and hide, too.  (It just seems like we live in a zoo.)

Margo brought over a large red snow shovel and a broom. 

“Come here and look at it,” I said, and she refused.  “I don’t want to see it.”

What was a poor girl to do?  “I need a man,” I said to Margo who replied “you don’t need a man.”  

The snake had not budged and lay close to the Pledge can and the bright lime-green dust mitt.

“Call the police?  I’ll call the police!” I exclaimed.

“They won’t come,” Margo said matter-of-factly.  “They won’t even come for a bear.”  Neither of us knew the non-emergency police number.

What about Joe-Joe?  He’s a man, isn’t he, who could get it out of my place? He had flubbed the deal last year, but this was a new deal!

“No, Joe-Joe has a migraine,”  Margo said. “I talked with him earlier.” 

After she coaxed and encouraged and coaxed and encouraged me, I found lost gumption and smashed the basket trash can upside down on top of that snake, and before it could pry loose, I piled my American Heritage Dictionary, Third Edition on top of the trash can in case in case the snake slithered out onto….onto….MY FEET.

“I need a man,” I said.  And some shoes to cover my bare feet.

“No, you don’t need a man.   Just scoot the trash can out the door,” Margo said.  “I just washed Lushy (her dog) and have to go dry him off.” 

“You are leaving?” I asked incredulously.  “You are leaving me alone with this snake?”

She left me alone with that snake under the basket trash can with the dictionary piled on top.  I could hear the snake rustling inside the plastic trash can liner.

Gradually, I began to scoot the upside down basket trash can with the snake inside across the carpet to the front door, all the while listening to it rustle the plastic.  Enroute I stopped about every three inches to find my wits which had earlier departed. 

The door frame at the entrance was going to cause problems because it was not level with the floor, meaning I would have to heave the trash can up a few inches to throw the snake out.  How was I going to do that?  How was I going to physically throw the snake inside the trash can with the dictionary on top out the door so that the snake did not make a rapid return into my peaceable kingdom?

It didn't take long for me to reach the door frame with the snake inside the trash can with the dictionary on top. 

For several minutes I stood in the outdoor hallway with the snake in the trash can, still imprisoned in my entrance way.  We waited for a man to appear. This was a man’s job.

None came.

After a little while, Margo stuck her head out her door and hollered down the hall:  “What’s going on?”

“We are waiting for a man.  This is a man’s job.”

“No, you don’t need a man!” she exclaimed.  “Now just push it, and get it out.” 

While I hemmed and hawed, she made her way back down the hall.

At the doorway I took position, holding the shovel in my left hand as a barrier in case the snake decided to make its way back inside my place, and with my right hand, the trash can and dictionary, wondering how I was supposed to heave them across the door frame with one hand. This was not going to be easy.

Margo stood several feet away in case the snake took out after her.  You know how fast they can be.

She kept encouraging me to get with it and do it.  I was afraid.

Gathering what was left of my being, I heaved the trash can with dictionary across the door frame, screamed louder than before and slammed the door before the snake could race back in. 

Out in the hallway Margo yelled: “It’s out!  It’s out!  It’s slithering!”  I cracked open the door and could see the snake's back side as it rolled over and over trying to upright itself before it crawled to a nearby wall crevice.

Margo urged me to take a picture. Mr. Snake did not take to flash well.

“There, you see,”  Margo gloated, “you did not need a man.”  We both tried to find calm.

Fifteen minutes later I peeked out my doorway and walked to the top of the stairs which Mr. Snake had descended, and there he was, at the landing below, wrapped 90 degrees around the corner.  He turned to look up and me, and I swear, smiled.  Life!

My sister, the animal lover from Florida, called later that night, and after I described the events, she said:  “Don’t kill it.  In the grand scheme of things and what’s going on in Afghanistan and the Middle East, this is nothing.”  She was right, of course, but for a few minutes in my condo, it was something.

*Answer:  The votes are in for:  a checkered garter snake,  a copperhead, a brown snake, a brown rat snake, an eastern hognose. Susan Watson, a terrestrial wildlife biologist with the Virginia Bureau of Wildlife Resources, says: eastern garter snake.