Business Today » Arts & Culture

Chicago Rival Continues Its Run in New York

Cliff — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:33:54 +0000

Chicago is one of the current musical offerings on the New York Broadway stage. It is playing at the Ambassador Theatre on West 49th Street as it continues its incredible revival run that began in 1996. It is currently the sixth longest running Broadway show in history. It is by far one of the most commercially popular musicals and was adapted for film in 2002. The movie was directed by Rob Marshall and starred Katherine Zeta Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah and Renee Zellweger. The film version was also a commercial success and earned an Academy Award.

The stage musical, written by Kander and Ebb is one of the highest sought after productions on the Broadway stage. Many of the guests in some of New York’s finest hotels have reservations for the show before they even arrive in the city. You can find more information on great hotel deals and theater packages that are frequently available. A common package will include a nice dinner and show. In New York, it’s not only about see the show, but frequently it’s made into an entire evening out. A Broadway production is the focus of an eventful evening that frequently begins with a day in the spa, cocktails, dinner and then the show. Dessert and or an appearance in one of the city’s famous clubs is a common after show encounter.

The musical is set in Chicago, Illinois during the prohibition days of the early mid 20th century. The book for the musical was written by Bob Fosse, of Cabaret fame, and John Kander wrote the music and Fred Ebb wrote the lyrics. The story is a satire of the criminal justice process and corruption. It focuses on the idea of the celebrity criminal, which is a common social phenomenon. The musical is based on actual arrests and crime reports that were the source of a play written by Maurine Dallas Watkins. Watkins was a reporter and covered the these stories, which she adapted to a play in 1926. The production of Chicago that is currently running is actually a revival of the original production, which opened at the 46th Street Theater in 1975. The choreography for the original production was by Bob Fosse.

Chicago Rival Continues Its Run in New York is a post from: Business Today

Ghosting Jewelry in New York

Cliff — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:57:24 +0000

Last year, we came to New York for New Years, plus I wanted to see the ‘Ghost Busters’ fire station. By the time I found it, it was dark so none of my photos turned out well. So, the next morning, bright and early, I headed up Moore Street in order to get a nice daylight photo. It was perfect!

I next headed down to Wall Street, just so I could say I was there. I got out of the train stop and witnessed one of the most beautiful buildings of my life; Tiffany’s. I’ve been in the Tiffany’s in Palm Springs and bought a ring, but now I had the opportunity to buy a matching bracelet. I knew I needed to watch what I spent, but I dragged myself inside anyway. I was greeted by a beautiful sales woman and she was very personable and made me feel very welcomed. As I talked to her for a bit, she told me some great stories of all the places she’s lived, including Florida, which was the next stop on my trip! So, we had a lot to talk about, almost too much, really, but I found the bracelet that matched my ring; the style is known as the ‘love knot’ because it resembles a knot in the shape of a heart. She showed me 3 or 4 bracelets, each one with the ‘love knot’, but the width on them varied. I picked the bracelet that was the prettiest, but it didn’t quite match my ring.

But, my story of finding a ‘love-knot’ bracelet has a tragic ending. I lost them the next day. After I checked out of one of the better New York Casino hotels, I headed into Manhattan. I do remember having the ring and bracelet on the train, because the gal sitting next to me commented about how pretty they were, but when I got back to my hotel very late in the evening, I was no longer wearing them. That whole night was kind of a blur, due to clubbing it at as many clubs as I could afford. They must have slipped off while I was dancing the whole night away and I didn’t notice.

What a shame, really. I finally had exquisite jewelry, from Tiffany’s and only got to enjoy them for a brief moment. I can’t help but sing ‘Moon River’ in head and sigh.

Ghosting Jewelry in New York is a post from: Business Today

Nobody in Singapore

Cliff — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:34:49 +0000

There are places in the world where dance crazes still pop up. This is good news to people who love pop culture, because the idea of a dance craze is something that we all want to see in our lifetimes, but haven’t found anything worthy of a craze. It may just be a cultural moment, however, and it might take a place as sophisticated about being ironic as Singapore, to bring all the right ingredients together and at the exact temperature too. Singapore has a splendid way of quoting the world at large, and is enormously responsive when other countries make the right quotations in just the right way. This might be part of the remix phenomenon in general, where everything is already out and has been lying under the sun for a bit too long, so the ingenuity has to come through revision and repetition, to use Suzan-Lori Park’s notion of the term.

This idea of renovation is actually very useful in considering cuisine as well. In Singapore, there are multiple cultures living here in one small island city state, and restaurants in Singapore offer a stunning variety of food from all over the world. The best restaurants seem to have a flair for cooking up traditional tastes with contemporary touches and twists. This is good to consider when looking at the latest and greatest dance craze. The song Nobody, by the Wonder Girls, from Korea is responsible for a whole generation of girls in Singapore spending hours learning the dance moves from their infectious video.

It is dangerously infectious, too, and it’s very difficult to get the track out of your head. The song is a fairly straight-forward pop song, written to be a bubble gum hit, and the video is a quotation of girl bands from decades gone by. This kind of instant nostalgia is very interesting to see these days, because it’s never as light as it seems. There is a terrific complexity here that speaks to a kind of mistrust of nostalgia in general, while quoting it in an attempt to rewrite it correctly the first time. Add to this another layer, and local Singapore singer Jillian-Marie Thomas covers the song with brilliance and a melancholy that is completely unexpected. Her quotation of a quotation makes a new invention that is nothing less than a work of art.

Nobody in Singapore is a post from: Business Today

Turquoise

Cliff — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:56:25 +0000

Turquoise is a relatively soft stone in a variety of colors this was news to me as I listened to the shop keeper in my airport hotel. It is available in colors from light sky blues to deep rich blues to blue greens and green. The color of turquoise is determined by the amount of mineral present in the stone. If there is a greater amount of copper the stone will be more blue verses if there is more iron the stone will be green. Without these minerals the stone is white and known as howlite or Buffalo Turquoise. Turquoise is mined in many places throughout the world the southwest US, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Argentina, Brazil, Australia and Mexico to name just a few. Turquoise mining has taken place for centuries around the world. Ancient beads of turquoise are found in Africa, America, China and Tibet. The sky blue nature of the stone gave it great appeal to ancient man. Experience with the stone and familiarity with the colors can help in gaining confidence in identifying where the turquoise was mined. Around 80% of turquoise available today is mined in China and Tibet much of the rest of the turquoise in the market place is mined in the US. Turquoise can be a problematic stone due to the number and amount of dyed imitations, synthetics and treatments used on poor or low-grade turquoise stones to create a stone with a more valuable appearance. Additionally processes of grinding chalk turquoise and mixing it with dyes and resins to create reconstituted turquoise and out and out synthetic imitations made and molded in plastic and polymer clay. There is nothing wrong with any of the processes as long as the end product is sold with full disclosure. When dealing in finer turquoise I recommend using experience and your best judgment or that of someone trusted.

Stabilization of a softer turquoise stone that otherwise couldn’t be cut or polished is considered an acceptable practice, as long as the natural appearance of the stone is not altered. The majority of turquoise available today is stabilized.

Turquoise is a post from: Business Today

Stoned in Brisbane

Treasures of Amsterdam

Cliff — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:42:42 +0000

There are more than thirty seven museums in the city of Amsterdam, with a grand variety of diverse collections, permanent and temporary. Of the largest and most visited are the Stedelijk, the Heritage, the Van Gogh Museum and the Rembrandhuis. These are all filled with works of the great masters, and the famous painters throughout history, varying from traditional to representational to modern art.

There has also been an increase in the most recent times, in the surge in popularity of the multi-media installation exhibits as well as in photography. And any art lover will find it necessary to visit these famous works, of the all time greats, but if one has been before and does feel up to pushing through the crowds, the smaller museums are plentiful and well worth seeing out. Many are located in close proximity to each other and conveniently close to many of the five star Amsterdam hotels.

One of the interesting smaller treasures is located very close to the Central Station, just a short walk. Here in a building, hidden away in the attic is a church that was built in the seventeenth century. This was the secret worship site for the Catholics at the time, and is now called the Ons’ Lieve Heer. The Jewish Historical Museum is also close by and has on exhibit some artifacts and objects particular to the religion, the history and the culture of Jewish citizens in the Netherlands. There is one section set up specifically for kids, where they can learn about the the life, the diet and the culture of Jewish families, And with advent of the popularity of photography, the new museum, Foam has constant exhibits of some of the most inspiring and daring works of photographers living today. These shows alternate regularly and the gallery runs all year through. Many do not even bother to see what is hanging first, as it is well known throughout Amsterdam that the curators do their job and they do it well, and there will always be something on the walls that will surprise and amaze the viewers.

Treasures of Amsterdam is a post from: Business Today

Goa Bullfighting

Cliff — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:30:07 +0000

Savvy world travelers are always impressed by the quality and style in the five-star hotels in Goa. There is a splendid sense of otherworldliness and luxury here, featuring a rich and heady combination of new-world state of the art technology, and old world graciousness and class. Hospitality is a long tradition here, and visitors will understand why Goa has been such a popular global destination for generations. It truly is a world-class city, where local culture and tradition is preserved, and international influences make their way into the daily life here, and its eclectic nature is rather intoxicating.

Goa has long been a haven for the counter-culture, and has a fascinating, and very complex, history. There is an incredible mixture of ideas and perspectives here, and they make for some lively interactions. There are also some interesting cultural productions, too. One of the more fascinating spectacles from Goa’s history is the bullfight. Banned officially since 1998, there has long been talk of rejuvenating the tradition, and it seems that every few years there is a push both for legalization and against the practice.

Goa Bullfighting some argue, has its roots from the Portuguese occupation during the colonial days. In practice, it’s very different than in other parts of the world. Here, bullfighting is more along the lines of cockfighting, where two bulls are put into a ring. They are then coaxed and prodded to go after each other, and the most desirable fight is when the bulls run toward each other until they knock heads. The bull who can stay in the ring wins, and the one who limps away is the loser. As expected, this practice has a lot of animal rights activists on guard, and it also has a number of proponents claiming that it is a long tradition, and the ones who raise the animals keep them as beloved pets. Whatever argument makes more sense, it is still an interesting phenomenon, one that stems from a vivacious culture.

Goa Bullfighting is a post from: Business Today

Madrid’s Carmen Maura

Cliff — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:39:54 +0000

In that enviable rank of five-star, Madrid hotels have a natural advantage over the rest of the world. It is one of the most splendid cities on the planet, in one of the most fascinating countries in the world. The hotels here are, not surprisingly, a generous combination of grace and luxury, with some of the most cutting edge design and outstanding customer service that give Spain a reputation for hospitality. The hospitality here is as remarkable as the culture, with a vast array of museums and galleries, and performance spaces that offer the best in world theatre, music, and dance. Then there are the sumptuous restaurants, offering the best in world cuisine, where all of these things of high culture can be discussed.

One of the icon’s of culture in Madrid is the actress Carmen Maura. She was born in Madrid and began her film work in 1969, with the short, El Espiritu. Carmen Maura has been in a hundred films since then, and has worked with most of Spain’s most prominent directors, making her one of the most visible faces in contemporary Spanish cinema. She has won multiple awards, including the European Film Festival Best Actress Award twice. The second time was for her work in Ay, Carmela!, where she played an entertainer during the Spanish Civil War. This was directed by one of the most important names in world cinema, Carlos Saura.

Her most popular work, however, has been with the extremely influential Pedro Almódovar. Almódovar met Carmen Maura when they were working on a theatrical production of Sartre’s Dirty Hands, and they worked together on his first film, Pepi, Luci, Bom, in 1980. There have been multiple projects since then, and her most famous work, perhaps, was in his Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which brought them both international attention and acclaim. Her own position in the history of Spain, having turned 30 when Franco died, makes her a particularly apt actress for Almódovar’s films, because she lived through a time when the traditions of hospitality and chivalry were starting to show their seams. Identity and liberation were pushed to their limits under the old-world notions, and generations of young people around the world would look for possible escape routes where the individual could find possibilities rather than repression. It is this link that makes her work in his films so remarkable on a meta-cinematic level, and her expertise as an actress that makes them work in the purely artistic sphere. Her work is still going strong, and it will be fascinating to see what the next decades will bring for this magnificent artist.

Madrid’s Carmen Maura is a post from: Business Today

The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art

Cliff — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:33:25 +0000

For travelers who have been around the world a time or two, 5-star Barcelona hotels have the aura in memory as being more than just a cut above the rest. One of Spain’s largest cities, and located on the Mediterranean, it is one of the world’s most truly cosmopolitan cities. With a long history of trade, today it is strong in finance and culture, and the city is truly a glorious tribute to the history of human endeavor. The hotels reflect the cosmopolitan nature of the place, linking world-class design with all the amenities associated with hospitality. Hospitality comes naturally, too, as this city on the sea often resembles paradise.

Barcelona’s urban scene is as exciting as its hotels are relaxing. There is an incredible night life, with all kinds of entertainment, fantastic restaurants, and splendid sights. The days can be spent taking heady and fascinating tours, or just people watching. One place to do both is at the MACBA, Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art. The idea started in 1959, with the intention of inaugurating a space in Barcelona that could show the most modern of modern works of visual art. It developed over the years, under different guises and in different locations, until November 28, 1995, when its current incarnation opened to the public.

Its present space is considered to be one of the greatest collections of contemporary Spanish art in the world. It holds works by Miró, Picasso, and Tapies, among many others. They specialize in post-war work, and the philosophical concerns are to create a museum space that is autonomous, free from state control and formal prejudices. The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art is designed by none other than the world-famous architect Richard Meier, who also designed the Getty in Los Angeles, and the City Hall and Central Library at the Hague. It is truly a center with an international vision, to reflect the visionary nature of the city itself.

The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art is a post from: Business Today

DUCTAC in Dubai

Cliff — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:31:52 +0000

The Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre, known as DUCTAC, hosts a variety of programs and events aimed toward the continued development of the arts scene of Dubai. These events feature performers and audiences from various backgrounds and orientations and contribute to the multi-national community the center wishes to create. It is the first non-profit, modern, cross-community center in the gulf. It was developed by the local community of theatre enthusiasts and practitioners who recognized the need for a performance and educational center in the area. This and other cultural aspects attract many tourists to Dubai. Guests in a 5 star Dubai hotel have plenty of options to choose from when it comes to entertainment and cultural experiences, and DUCTAC is one of them.

DUCTAC is located on the second floor of the Mall of the Emirates and spans a space of 7,424 square meters. It houses many performance venues including a state of the art 543 seat theatre. It also has a studio theatre that seats up to 200 and is fully equipped. In addition there is a visual arts gallery and 3 dance/rehearsal spaces. There are 20 art studios and workshops and classrooms to round out the venues and offerings. Food and beverage facilities are also provided. Some of the workshops DUCTAC offers are centered on the theatre arts, music, dance and visual arts. There are also workshops in health, fitness and training.

Currently on display is an exhibit by two South African painters who reveal their perspective on local landscapes. The exhibit is titled Desert Gardens II and includes works in watercolors, oils and pastels. A current performance at DUCTAC is TERRACANIA, which is a celebration of various forms of dance. The show includes workshops and chances for participation. Some of the dance forms explored are Hip Hop , Salsa, Belly dancing, the Tango and African dance. The hit musical High School Musical 2 will open on the DUCTAC stage in July. This sequel to the smash hit original includes some of the favorite songs from the first version and adds new ones that are sure to become favorites.

DUCTAC in Dubai is a post from: Business Today

Beaches, Resorts and Royalty

Cliff — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:46:21 +0000

Among the many cultural and scenic aspects of the beautiful island of Mallorca, there is one extremely popular and attractive element, which circles the island. The numerous beaches that hug this largest of the Balearic Islands are diverse in offerings and scenic views, and all have something to offer any interested beach lover. Many of the towns have plenty of entertainment options, great dining opportunities and cultural landmarks, though most tourists and locals enjoy getting out of town and spending an afternoon in a sandy paradise. Camp de Mar and Cala Major are just two of the many beaches that entice tourists to leave the luxury accommodations of the five star hotels Mallorca and enjoy a day in the sun.

The Cala Major is one of the smaller beaches on the island and its sandy golden shores lead up to the Marivent Palace. This is the sometime summer home of the King of Spain and has also been visited by Charles and Diana. The Palace has served as the summer home for Spanish royalty for years, and they frequently visit it throughout the year. The beach can be difficult to find, which makes it more attractive to those seeking a secluded beach atmosphere. It is also the closest beach to the west end of Palma.

The beach at Camp de Mar has breathtaking views of the Mediterranean and is the perfect romantic vacation spot. This is also a somewhat secluded beach with rocky coves and plenty of near by conveniences. The Lido Palace hotel is one of the fine resort options located right on the beach. It has a modern design with spacious terraces to provide a perfect view. The beach is also conveniently close to the Andratx Harbor. There is also the Camp de Mar Golf Course, which is extremely popular with locals and highly sought out by enthusiastic tourists. Regardless of personal preferences, the many beaches of Mallorca offer something for all tastes and interests.

Beaches, Resorts and Royalty is a post from: Business Today