Copious Notes

Ronan Tynan has recorded a lot of classical and pop hits. He may want to consider adding the Pink Floyd song One Slip to his repertoire, because an offhanded anti-Semitic remark is costing him dearly.

Ronan Tynan. 2007 AP photo by Don Heupel.

The tenor, a mainstay at New York Yankee games who performed at the Singletary Center with the Lexington Philharmonic Oct. 10, was with a real estate agent showing an apartment building when the incident occurred. According to the New York Times, the real estate agent joked to Tynan that the prospective tennant, New York University physician Gabrielle Gold-Von Simson, was not a Boston Red Sox fan.

Tynan’s shocking reply: “I don’t care about that, as long as they are not Jewish.”

Gold-Von Simson contacted the Yankees, who in turn contacted Tynan. As soon as Tynan admitted the remark, Yankees spokesman Howard Rubenstein said Tynan was disinvited from singing at Friday night’s opening game of the American League Championship Series and will not perform again at Yankee Stadium this season. The Yankees are one of four teams remaining in the hunt for a World Series championship, this year.

Since games following the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania, it has been a tradition for Tynan to sing his distinctive rendition of God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch at post-season games and other special games at Yankee Stadium.

In Saturday’s Irish Times, Tynan said he was distraught, and that his offhanded comment about some other prospective tenants was misunderstood. He told the paper the roots of the comment were in a visit by other potential residents three weeks before:

“Two Jewish ladies were coming to view it and the agent said, ‘They are very particular’. And I said, ‘I don’t know how they will deal with having a singer beside them, practicing all the time. That could be scary.’ We laughed about it.”

According to the Irish paper, his snappy reply was, “At least they’re not the Jewish ladies.”

Tynan, a Kilkenny, Ireland native, told the paper he has never been anti-Semitic and that three members of his band are Jewish. According to the Yankees spokesman, Tynan did call the doctor and apologize to her satisfaction. He also made a contribution to a charity of her choice: KiDs of NYU, an organization that supports children’s health services at the university’s Langone Medical Center.

Tynan also apologized to Major League Baseball Saturday, telling the Associated Press, in part, “Several days ago I made a joke that was insensitive. My attempt at humor was inappropriate and hurtful to the person who heard it.”

Still, the comment has cost Tynan his treasured Yankees gig for this season. The Yankees say he may be invited back in future seasons.

Other impacts to Tynan’s career remain to be seen.

The arrest of ­Roman ­Polanski has revived ­memories of a really gross crime and the flogging of a favorite mid-American ­target: Hollywood liberals.

You know who they are. They’re the ones who are dragging America into the toilet with their filthy entertainment and socialist politics.

Just tuning in to a few ­minutes of talk radio this week brought an offhand comment about all the ­“Hollywood libs sticking up for Roman Polanski.”

Roman Polanski. Photo by Roberto Pfeil | AP.

The comment stems from petitions signed by some noteworthy filmmakers, including Martin ­Scorsese, demanding that the ­government of Switzerland release Polanski.

Polanski was arrested there last month and is fighting extradition to the United States, where he faces sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. Polanski was 43 at the time. He pleaded guilty but fled before sentencing in and has lived in France since then.

By any measure, what Polanski did was reprehensible. His victim, whom he plied with drugs and alcohol, was a girl — a seventh- or eighth-grader at best. Why anyone sticks up for him is hard for most of us to grasp.

But using the case and petitions to beat up ­Hollywood as a bunch of degenerates doesn’t square with reality, and neither does the idea that Hollywood is dragging the country into the gutter.

The thing is, facing ­reality makes the country face some uncomfortable truths about itself.

Read the rest of this entry »

Quest Community Church's new state-of-the-art 2,400-seat auditorium was built with private funds. Could Lexington arts supporters do something similar?

What do you think of Lexington’s inventory of theaters and other venues for live performances?

Currently, leaving aside our behemoth of Rupp Arena, our major arts and entertainment venues are the Singletary Center for the Arts, which seats about 1,500, and the Lexington Opera House, which accomodates just under 1,000. Then, in the seats-a-few-hundred category, you have the black box theater in the Downtown Arts Center, the Lyric Theatre, which is currently being rennovated, and the Kentucky Theatre. There are also venues such as Studio Players’ Carriage House Theatre and the Lexington Children’s Theatre that are almost exclusively used by the groups that occupy them, and University spaces such as the University of Kentucky’s Guignol Theatre and Transylvania University’s Haggin Auditorium that are primarily used by the institutions.

Am I leaving any Big Kahunas out?

So, is that a good inventory. What do we lack?

Some lament we never got the major performing arts center that was supposed to happen where the courthouses now stand at Main and Limestone. Others say Lexington isn’t ready for a venue of that caliber. Others look at smaller spaces such as the Woodford Theatre’s venue in Falling Springs Arts and Recreation Center and wonder why Lexington couldn’t have something like that for groups that may see the Opera House as too big for their needs.

Still others say creativity trumps venues, and point to places such as Charleston, S.C., that have built vibrant performing arts scenes without an ideal inventory of venues. Here, we have examples such as Balagula Theatre at Natasha’s Bistro and Bar and the chamber music festivals that bookend the summer taking place in  an old tobacco barn at Shaker Village and Fasig-Tipton’s horse sales pavilion showing a creative use of non-traditional spaces in town.

Here’s another fly I’ll throw in the ointment: I just attended a concert last week in a new, state of the art 2,400-seat Lexington venue that would have been the envy of many area arts groups: Quest Community Church’s new sanctuary. If there is a desire for a new theater or theaters in town, do you need to have public funds to build it, or can the arts community come together to make something happen like, oh, Quest or a little baseball park near Broadway and New Circle that was built with private funds.

That’s sort of a distillation of conversations and thoughts I’ve had over the last several years about Lexington’s theater space.

So, what do you think? Hit the comment button and let’s talk.

The installation of "Honoring America's Coal Miners" at Georgetown College's Cochenour Gallery. Photos by Thorney Lieberman.

Thorney Lieberman spent years in New York trying to shoot architectural images of the city that replicated the experience of being in the presence of the actual objects.

“I had this idea if you looked out a 50- by 60-inch window, you should be able to replicate that experience of seeing what you see out of that window,” Lieberman says.

Coy and Carrisa is one of the images in Lieberman's exhibit.

But it never quite worked. “I never quite conquered the scale of New York ­architecture,” Lieberman says.

But he has with coal ­miners, and that is the major point of his exhibit, Honoring America’s Coal Miners, which is at Georgetown College’s Cochenour Gallery through Oct. 7.

By creating life-size, ­detailed portraits of miners, Lieberman wants to put a human face on coal ­mining, which he thinks is often ­written off as a faceless industry.

Lieberman has come to ­regard the miners as ­“American heroes, engaged in dangerous work to supply us with energy,” he says in his artist’s statement.

The project began ­after ­Lieberman moved to ­Charleston, W.Va., where his wife, Anne, grew up. They were just settling into the Mountain State when the Sago Mine disaster of Jan. 2, 2006, took the lives of 12 miners.

The event garnered national media attention for days, and Lieberman became aware, “This was the reality of West Virginia, and this was my community.”

While living in Colorado, Lieberman had worked on a project creating life-size, sharply detailed portraits of Native Americans, and he ­decided he wanted to do something similar with ­miners. He went to the United Mine Workers office around the corner from his home to start looking for people ­willing to pose for him.

For Lieberman’s style of photography, posing is not a small request.
His life-size portraits are created from separate images shot on 8- by 10-inch film. For instance, Coy and Carrisa, a portrait of a miner and his daughter, is made up of 34 separate images.

Lieberman’s camera is mounted on a 10-foot-tall frame that he moves down and across the subject’s body to photograph each part in 1-to-1 scale. That requires the subject to stand relatively still for 15 ­minutes, hit repeatedly with a flash that is “brighter than the sun,” Lieberman says.

And we’re not talking models here. These were coal miners, right after work.

Read the rest of this entry »

Joseph-Beth Booksellers has announced that Joe Scarborough, a former Republican Congressman from Florida who now hosts the hit political chat show Morning Joe on MSNBC, will be at the Lexington Green store at 7 p.m. June 24.

Joe Scarborough.

Scarborough will be there to sign copies of his new book, The Last Best Hope. In the book, Scarborough, “tells Republican Party bosses what they don’t want to hear, explains why Democrats are making matters so much worse, and then shows leaders of both parties the way forward,” according to a Joseph-Beth press release. On Morning Joe, Scarborough has been critical of President Barack Obama and the Democratic-led congress, but also has harsh words for his own Republican Party and its leadership.

Line tickets are required for the signing and are available with a purchase of The Last Best Hope at Jospeh-Beth.

Dudley Webb gave a 15 minute prepared statement to the council then answered questions regarding the stalled Centrepointe development at a city council work session in Lexington, Ky., Tuesday, May 5, 2009. Thursday, three town criers will give their own take on Webb's statement. Photo by Pablo Alcala | Staff.

ELandF Gallery is back at it, announcing a line-up of three town criers who will read developer Dudley Webb’s letter to the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council on Thursday.

Webb’s letter attempted to explain the apparently stalled Centrepointe project. In the letter, Webb stated that the project was still viable and he expected it to commence in the the near future. He also complained of being maligned by columnists, editorial writers, bloggers and others. Clearly, the ELandF criers won’t make the developer feel any better.

The gallery selected three criers, based on essays they submitted:

• Brittny Congleton, a comedic performer wrote, “By confronting this ridiculous letter of irresponsibility, we bring to the public a rallying point and reminder of broken promises, as well as our responsibility as citizens to communicate.” She said she hopes to wear a, “spectacular yellow dress — like a techni-color Alice and Wonderland (or a female Dick Tracy) searching the streets of Lexington for a purpose and a playground.”
• Elaine Parker wrote, “I can embellish the reading with snorts, groans, and eye rolling . . . “
• Alex Johns wrote, “The Centerpointe project was a huge blow to our local music scene. While both music locales and most the stores have found new homes, there is a different atmosphere and a lack of interest from the community.”

Demolition for the Centrepointe project dislocated numerous entertainment establishments including The Dame (now at the Main Street Live complex next to Thoroughbred Park) and Buster’s (relocating to the Distillery District later this year).

The Town Criers will begin their reading at Third Street Stuff Coffee, 257 N. Limestone, and then separate and read at various locations including the Centrepointe site until 1 p.m., when they will converge on the Puiblic kiosk at the corner of E. Main and Quality streets where they will read and post the letter.

The reading is the latest protest of the Centrepointe project from the gallery, which also sponsored a public mourner of the demolished buildings and other demonstrations.

The Downtown Lexington Corporation’s Kentucky Star awards will be presented tonight to two well-known, active artists in Kentucky and a well-known entertainer from the early 20th Century.

The awards, which will be presented in a 6 p.m. ceremony at the Downtown Arts Center, will go to University of Kentucky Opera Theatre and American Spiritual Ensemble director Everett McCorvey; author, activist and playwright Silas House, and magician and hypnotist William Preston Slusher.

McCorvey, who lives in Lexington, has directed the opera program at UK since 1991. During his tenure, the opera program has risen to national prominence and UK Opera Theatre has become one of Lexington’s most popular performing arts groups. McCorvey is also a well-known tenor-soloist and founded the Spiritual Ensemble, which performs throughout the U.S. and Europe.

House, who lives in Lily, is a best-selling author of novels such as The Coal Tattoo and Clay’s Quilt. He has two forthcoming books: Something’s Rising: Appalachian’s Fighting Mountaintop Removal, due March 17, and Eli the Good, due in September. House is also a music journalist and anti-mountaintop removal activist. His second play, Long Time Traveling, produced by Actors Guild of Lexington, will open at the Downtown Arts Center April 23.

Slusher was born in Pineville in 1915 and became a self-taught magician, initially touring around Eastern Kentucky and eventually becoming known nationwide.  He also became known as a impressario, booking entertainers such as Bob Hope and Tex Ritter at Fort Meade, Maryland during World War II. He eventually helped launch some of the first summer outdoor musicals in Kentucky.

The stars will be honored with their names in stars on Main Street in front of the Downtown Arts Center.  The ceremony is free and open to the public.

Nick Nickl, board chair of the Lexington Singers, at a rehearsal of the group Dec. 8, 2008. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

It’s been a good season for Studio Players.

Martha Campbell as Mary Todd Lincoln in the Studio Players hit, "The Last of Mrs. Lincoln." Photo by Pablo Alcala | LexGo.

The first three shows at the Carriage House ­Theatre on Bell Court - Don’t Dress for Dinner, A Tuna ­Christmas and The Last of Mrs. Lincoln - were hits for the community ­theater troupe, selling out most performances. Bob Singleton, president of the company’s board of directors, says that if about 80 percent of the seats for a production are sold, the costs have been covered. And so far, Studio Players has not seen a decline in donations.

If only every arts group could tell that tale.

As the nation plunges deeper into a recession, good news in the arts has been hard to find. Just last week, word came of layoffs at the Philadelphia Orchestra and Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the latest in a steady stream of bad news for arts groups that also must deal with the economic downturn’s effect on ticket sales and fund-raising.

But community arts ­organizations generally don’t have the overhead costs of a staff or space to maintain, and sometimes are able to thrive in challenging times.

“This is a season ­everyone wants to write down in red letters in their diaries,” Lexington Singers board president, Nick Nickl, says.

Last fall’s the Singers’ 50th ­anniversary concert far ­exceeded box-office ­expectations, and the chorus had the ego boost of traveling to ­Washington to sing at the ­Kennedy Center for the ­Performing Arts in the production of Our Lincoln.

The only ­disappointment of the season, Nickl says, has been ­raising money for its annual Festival of Choirs.
“Usually people are eager to contribute to that,” Nickl says of the event, which brings the Singers together with choirs from ­traditionally black churches. “But we had to give it a little extra push this year.”

That said, “if you look at the list of organizations close to the edge, we’re not one of them,” Nickl says.
Neither is the Lexington ­Community ­Orchestra.

“We have been able to continue with a minimum of difficulty or ­challenge,” says violinist Pam ­Hammonds, ­president of the community orchestra board. Read the rest of this entry »

Bill Buchanan (James Morrison) and his security team work to secure President Taylor (Cherry Jones) to safety when the White House falls under attack on'24.' Photo by Mark Lipson | Fox.

After Barack Obama was elected president, we were treated to plenty of stories about presidential security.

The accounts included that the public couldn’t get within blocks of Obama’s Chicago home, that a date for Barack and Michelle Obama involved several dozen Secret Service agents, and that security measures caused hours of delays at the inauguration.

When I was in Washington for the performances of Our Lincoln, a week after the inauguration, we were advised that if the president had announced in advance that he was coming to the show, the Kennedy Center would have been locked down for three days.

Now, with all that real-world information, we watch 24 and have to suspend disbelief as much as if we were watching a show about space aliens.

Some of the first “wait a minute” moments involved First Dude Henry Taylor (Colm Feore), the husband of the new president on the seventh season of 24, Allison Taylor, played by Cherry Jones. Trying to uncover the truth about his son’s death, he was running around Washington, having meetings in wide-open parks while guarded by a total of one Secret Service agent. That agent turned out to be a rogue operative who tried to kill Taylor as part of a conspiracy.

Throughout these scenes, you had to be thinking, there’s a reason the first family has more than one bodyguard.

It was implausible.

But implausibility reached new heights with last Monday’s two-hour episode. Read the rest of this entry »

Allyson Smith as Ma and Zach Moseley as Tom Joad in the University of Kentucky and Bluegrass Community and Technical College theater programs' production of "The Grapes of Wrath." Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Friday morning, NPR’s Morning Edition featured a report about how migrant workers in the United States who had moved up from working in the fields to coveted construction jobs are now having to head back to agricultural work because the building boom has gone bust.

The report ended saying, “But for now, older so-called domestic farm workers and former construction workers will take the jobs — unless things get so bad that U.S. citizens are willing to move across the country for five months’ work in these lettuce fields at $350 a week.”

Friday night, I settled into a seat at the Guignol Theatre to watch a play about U.S. citizens willingly traveling across the country to work the fields for much, much less.

This week, the University of Kentucky and Bluegrass Community and Technical College theater programs opened a joint production of the Depression epic The Grapes of Wrath, which runs through March 1, and no one can accuse them of presenting escapist entertainment.

The Grapes of Wrath is tough to watch or read at any time. A big part of the story’s greatness is how John Steinbeck chronicled some of the worst elements of the Great Depression in aching detail: a family of 12 traveling cross country in an barely road-worthy truck, losing people along the way to death and despair. In the promised land of California, they find thousands more like themselves all at the mercy of bully farm owners and policemen.

You think, “There but for the grace . . . ” and then remember that for the past several months the unemployment rolls have grown in the high-hundreds of thousands monthly, the stock market keeps finding new lows and we keep hearing we’re in the worst economic crisis since — ugh — the Great Depression.

UK and BCTC of course did not plan to be this timely. They aimed to stage an ambitious production with a cast of more than two dozen, some impressive set pieces, and cool video elements. And they planned it when $4 gas was draining our wallets, but we were still months away from the banking collapses of the fall.

Now, Frank Galati’s stage adaptation of Grapes is almost too timely as a vivid portrait of a time we keep hearing about when we turn on the news.

Maybe we need to see this. But maybe what we need most are these words from Ma (played by Allyson Smith), late in the second act: “Don’t you go frettin’. A different time’s coming.”