When we wrote about the local filmmaker nominated for an Oscar, for Best Documentary (see the trailer in the link- very powerful) we didn’t realize there were more!
Westchester Mag writes, “One of the nominees, God Is the Bigger Elvis, is directed by Rebecca Cammisa of Tarrytown, produced by Julie Anderson of Scarsdale, and centers around Bethlehem, Connecticut, native Dolores Hart. Hart was a successful actress, with a claim to fame that she received Elvis Presley’s first on-screen kiss in the movie Loving You. ”
“Incident in New Baghdad,” a short documentary film depicting the psychological toll of the Iraq War on American troops, is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Subject. The nominee is James Spione, Purchase College School of the Arts alum and resident of Katonah.
“Incident in New Baghdad” won the award for Best Documentary Short at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.
Purchase graduates are often honored at international film festivals. Most recently Conservatory of Music alum Dan Romer composed the score for the film “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” which took home the top prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
(warning: graphic war images)
“The high level of training acquired by our graduates, as well as their capacity to ‘think wide open,’ gives them an edge in the constantly shifting world of the performing arts, launching many of them to national acclaim,” says Kenneth Tabachnick, dean of the School of the Arts.
According to the College, Theater Arts alumna Melissa Leo won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in “The Fighter”; Purchase Conservatory of Music faculty member Peter Denenberg headed the sound restoration and music mixing for the Academy Award-winning film, “When We Were Kings”; School of Film and Media Studies alum and film director Chris Wedge, won an Academy Award win for “Bunny” and a nomination for “Ice Age”; School of Film and Media Studies professor Chuck Workman won an Academy Award for “Precious Images”; Purchase professor Alex Orlovsky co-produced the Academy Award-winning film “Blue Valentine” and Purchase alum William Sarokin,was nominated for an Oscar for the sound mixing of “Salt.”
If you’re sticking around, there’s plenty to do. Here are some suggestions from the Journal News to do with kids, and as always, watch our Coming Up column.
If you’re leaving for the break, listen up: In light of a marked increase in local break-ins, police say prep the house to make it look like you’re not away.
Speaking at a crime prevention workshop last week, Town of Mamaroneck police urged residents to create a “vacation plan” that includes steps like putting house lights on timers and stopping mail and newspapers. Alerting neighbors to your departure is another wise move, they said.
In addition, the Town also has a “dark house” program that under which residents can notify police that their house is going to be vacant so they can keep a closer eye on it. Residents in other municipalities can request police drive-bys as well.
Holidays, vacations times and summer breaks are burglars’ biggest opportunities, police said.
Cold turkey commute. Don’t even think about lighting up while waiting for your Metro-North train. Doing so could get you kicked off the platform, up to $50 in fines or a trip to jail.
The MTA‘s new ban on outdoor smoking starts today, following a months-long grace period the agency gave smokers to get used to the idea. The ban, which had a soft launch in November, prohibits smoking on Metro-North and Long Island Railroad outdoor platforms, as well as ticketing and boarding areas.
The ban does not apply to Metro-North stations in Connecticut.
Violators have gotten away with just warnings since November. But after several months of leafleting, signs, announcements and electronic alerts, the MTA now expects passengers to play by the rules.
An important American Art exhibit has begun a year-long national tour at the Neuberger.American Vanguardsshowcases work of Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Adolph Gottlieb and their circle.
Says the announcement, “On view will be the work of many of the most important American artists who played a critical role in developing and defining American modernism during this vital period between two world wars.”
Through April 29 at the Neuberger Museum at Purchase College, Purchase.
PLEASANTVILLE– The Jacob Burns Film Center tonight presents the work of film students at Purchase College, tonight (Thursday) at 7:30 pm:
See the work of up-and-coming young filmmakers from one of the country’s most esteemed programs, Purchase College’s School of Film and Media Studies. In this program of six shorts—we’re told it’s the best batch of films ever to come out of a senior class—we present an eerie thriller, a documentary, the animated story of a closet monster, and more.
Q&A student filmmakers from Purchase College’s School of Film and Media Studies and Associate Professor of Film Robert Siegel, an award-winning writer and director.
Shopping carts are rolling away. Cars are shaking. Hold onto your hats — and just about everything else. The strong winds that blew into Westchester this morning, prompting a National Weather Service Wind Advisory, are expected to stick around at least through midnight.
The gusts could reach up to 50 miles per hour, according to the Weather Service, meaning travel could be hazardous.
Flight delays at area airports were already growing long by early afternoon. Flights at La Guardia, for example, were running an hour and 40 minutes behind schedule at 1 p.m. The speed limit on area bridges, including the Tappan Zee, had reportedly been reduced.
Although the winds are expected to die down overnight, forecasters are calling for a weekend that feels like winter. The Weather Service forecast calls for sunny skies with a high of 37 on Saturday and just 29 on Sunday. Temperatures are expected to bounce back a bit on Monday, the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, to a high of 39.
An announcement from the Purchase Opera company of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College:
December 7-9:
Every theatrical performance has two stories: what happens on stage, and what happens behind the scenes — the artists’ experiences, creative vision, and triumphs.
Now, for the holiday season, Purchase College, SUNY gives audiences the chance to experience both stories in action. In four performances of the fairy tale opera Hansel and Gretel, the Purchase Opera company of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, SUNY, not only presents a heart-warming production of the Grimm fairy tale set to music, it also offers a glimpse beyond the footlights into the process of staging an opera.
Audiences will experience being “right in the action,” says Suzanne Farrin, director of the Conservatory of Music, as the Purchase College Recital Hall, where it will be performed, is an intimate space, without barriers between the stage and audience. “Audiences will be close enough to the singers and musicians to feel the sweat, sound, and energy of the performance, and at the end will actually meet the singers,” Farrin adds. “Our goal is to make this opera a popular draw for Westchester families every year.”
Following each performance, a question-and-answer session gives audience members the opportunity to ask their most burning questions of the performing artists, musicians, and the artistic director. The complex relationship between the parents and children in Hansel and Gretel, and the witch’s grisly defeat, are sure to provoke comments and questions. The performances will take place in the Conservatory of Music building on December 7, 8, and 9 at 10:30 am, and December 9th at 7:00 pm.
Purchase College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network of 64 universities and colleges, was founded in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. His aspirations for Purchase were to combine on one campus conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with programs in the liberal arts and sciences. Today, Purchase College, SUNY is a community of students, faculty, and friends where open-minded engagement with the creative process leads to a lifetime of intellectual growth and professional opportunity. For more information about the College, visit www.purchase.edu.
Saturday, November 12, 2011 at 8 pm and Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 3 pm audiences will have a rare opportunity to experience the exquisite technique and electrifying podium presence of 41-year-old Japanese maestra Tomomi Nishimoto. The Philharmonic also welcomes Ann Hobson Pilot, who recently concluded her 40-year tenure as the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s principal harpist, was the first African-American woman to win a principal chair with a major orchestra.
A celebrity figure in both Japan and Russia Tomomi Nishimoto is hailed as a “delicately sensitive conductor [who] fascinates even the orchestra.” From her captivating presence on the stage, to her celebrity appearances in car and motorcycle commercials, she has attracted attention around the world. Maestra Nishimoto will lead the orchestra though Liszt’s haunting symphonic poem, Les Preludes, Rimsky-Korsakov’s exultant Scheherezade and John Williams’ On Willows and Birches, commissioned to honor Ann Hobson Pilot.
After the 2009 Tanglewood concerts with the BSO, which marked Ann Hobson Pilot’s official retirement, she returned to the stage as soloist opening the BSO and Carnegie Hall seasons with the premiere of On Willows and Birches, composed for her by Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer John Williams. “The exciting thing for me about writing concertos is that you are writing for a person—someone. Ann is more than a great harpist, she really is a great woman—it has to do with the inner ear or the inner soul, but she has it all,” says Williams.
All events take place at The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College. A free open rehearsal is scheduled for Saturday, November 12 at 10 am in The Concert Hall.
Concert Tickets
All performances will take place in The Concert Hall at The Performing Arts Center Purchase College, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, New York. Four concert subscriptions are now available and range from $330-$94. Single tickets range from $90-$25. Student/child/group discounts are available.
To purchase tickets and for additional information call the Westchester Philharmonic Box Office at (914) 682-3707 ext. 10, or visit at www.westchesterphil.org.
It’s a bit Soviet Union-meets-Albany on the outside, but the Performing Arts Center (PAC) at Purchase College (completed 1978) is one of the pre-eminent performance spaces in the Tri-State area. It’s a four-theatre complex, the largest in the SUNY system, with each theatre specifically designed for the optimum presentation of a different type of performance…dance, music, theater, spoken word, etc.
Many future professional dancers and actors get their starts here, and the interior space was the setting for the recent movie Black Swan.
September 8, 1999. In the wake of Columbine, the death of Matthew Shepard and the Lewinsky scandal and on the heels of O.J., McVeigh and the Gulf War, six juniors at an elite performing arts college in Westchester County, New York struggle to survive in the face of a never-ending battle with sex, drugs, dating, loneliness and regret. The RAs is the story of a generation – one that predates Facebook, a generation of beepers and chat rooms, when life was simpler but no less complicated and September 11 was just another day.
That liberal arts college was SUNY Purchase, where previews of The RAs (Resident Advisors in dorms) were held last week. The show, in webisodes, to which you can subscribe in YouTube Studio, premieres September 8.
Because of the non-stop efforts of a Larchmont woman, the 2012 Miss New York and Miss New York Teen USA pageants will be held in January at Purchase College’s Performing Arts Center, returning to Westchester after a three-decade hiatus.
Dee van Eyck, the Executive Director of Miss Westchester & Miss Hudson Valley Pageants, and the “official recruiter” for Miss New York USA ® and Miss New York Teen USA® told us, “The NY USA pageants have been held in Albany for the past dozen years over Thanksgiving weekend, which was really inconvenient for anyone who’d rather be home with family for the holiday.”
“When the new directors were announced on February 1st, I campaigned non-stop to get them to relocate here. The last time the USA pageants were held in Westchester (Ossining) was in 1980.
“I pestered them incessantly until officials agreed to visit. Then I drove him around the county to visit the PAC at SUNY Purchase and a few hotels so he could see that Westchester had everything he could possibly need.”
Both pageants are under the Miss Universe organization owned by The Donald. Miss New York has a shot at being crowned Miss USA.
Hosting the two pageants will be a boon for the county, government leaders say. About 300 contestants are expected to compete, which could translate to as much as a $3 million infusion into the local economy.
Looking for something fun and enriching? Check out the new “Lifelong Learning” presentations at the Doral Arrowwood Resort in Rye Brook.
On a few Sunday mornings they bring a renown professor from a top school to discuss either Music Art, or Film with a class of 100 adults who want to be students again for a few hours.
The professors Doral brings in are the ones on various campuses that attract the most students.
On Aug 21st, Boston University music professor Jeremy Yudkin will teach What Makes Great Music Great? — Five Unforgettable Masterpieces.
September 4th Columbia University art professor Tina Rivers will teach The Five Paintings Every Art Lover Should See.
And on September 25th Yale film professor Marc Lapuula will teach Ten Films That Changed America.
The price for each is $89 but pay less than half price (just $44) by using coupon code “LOOP” when registering. But hurry, the June and July events at Doral completely sold out!
Mariano Rivera, the famous Yankees pitcher and also a noted New Rochelle business owner, will restore the historic North Avenue Presbyterian Church to house his own congregation.
Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Rivera pledged to back his church’s $3 million renovation of the North Avenue Church, a decrepit but historic structure dating to 1907.
The city currently owns the church and will sell it for $1. Rivera, along with New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson, reassured the community that the renovation will not cost taxpayers.
North Avenue Church
As we previously reported, Rivera’s church, Refugio de Esperanza of Purchase, which has been meeting in Rivera’s home, has been looking for a permanent home. Rivera said he envisions the church as a community hub that will offer a range of programs, especially those geared toward helping kids.
For years, the North Avenue Presbyterian Church housed the largest congregation in the community and served as a community anchor for a variety of services, such as marriages, funerals and even baptisms for much of the 20th Century.
Although, the church served New Rochelle for many generations, people have questioned what could be done with the deteriorated Gothic revival structure.
But Rivera, a strong believer in helping the community, said once he saw the church he “fell in love with it.” he is said to be holding church services in his Purchase home at the present time.
Construction on the North Avenue Church will begin in the next two weeks.
Mariano Rivera, Yankees Pitcher and New Rochelle booster, has found (another) religion (besides baseball), or at least, wants to preserve it.
North Avenue Church
The City of New Rochelle is recommending Rivera’s congregation, Refugio de Esperanza, of Purchase, be awarded the right to refurbish and potentially buy the crumbling North Avenue Church, which the city owns.
The Church is deteriorating and the agreement calls for Rivera’s church to renovate the structure and then upon satisfactory completion has option to purchase it for $1.
The Council will vote on the proposal next Tuesday.
Rivera
Rivera, who lives in Westchester, owns Mo’s New York Grill (recently renamed the Clubhouse Grill) in Downtown New Rochelle.
Art in Cameroon: Sculptural Dialogues at the Neuberger Museum at Purchase College offers sculpture with a storyline about the African nation of Cameroon.
Marie-Thérèse Brincard, the curator of the exhibition, has chosen to present a wide diversity of African culture; for example, iconic sculptures from the Bangwa Fontem Kingdom, Kedjom-Kitingu Kingdom (also known as the Babanki Tungo Kingdom) in the Cameroon Grassfields of Africa.
The Neuberger exhibition demonstrates how the sculpture interconnects. Works include small figurines, bowls and stools, masks, tusks, beaded calabashes, and pipes, clearly illustrating the interacting influences among the different regions in Cameroon.
What is popular in Cameroonian art is the representation of the “human icon”. Hats, calabashes, among others, are symbols of power and dignity in Cameroonian villages.
Portuguese explorers inhabited the country in the fifteenth century. These explorers named the river Rio dos Camaroes which means “River of Prawns” after finding a variety of crayfish. Cameroon is rich with cultural dissimilarities, along with religious, ethnic, and political disparity. The multifaceted country was a German colony until 1916; however, its strong roots and its assortment of cultures remain vibrant between its two present rulers- Britain and France. The grassfields area of Cameroon is alluring because of its diversity due to its multiple kingdoms and chiefdoms that range in population.
The sculptures actually come from Germany. These sculptures were brought to Germany when Cameroon was a German colony. When German rule came to an abrupt end after World War I, interest in Cameroonian culture deteriorated.
For those of us who can’t wait for Spring (uh…everyone…?), we’ve compiled a garden checklist to help combat winter blues, indoors and out.
Plan ahead Now’s a great time to assess your garden. Perhaps you want to add some plantings or move things around. Some people keep a notebook or take photos during the growing season. These are really helpful when staring out at your snowy white canvas.
Order seed starting kits, vegetable and flower seeds from catalogs, if you like starting from scratch.
Peruse magazines for gardens that you like, See how you can incorporate some of the ideas into your own property.
Heavy snow can break the branches of evergreens. Give plants a dusting off after a heavy snowfall.
Maintenance You may be tiring of the snow cover that’s been hanging around since Christmas, but the snow is actually a protective, frosty blanket, insulating the plants below. During winter’s home stretch, we may get days that swing between warm(ish) and arctic. That will be the time to check on your newer plantings, making sure the warming and re-freezing has not heaved them above the soil line. If you see that’s starting to happen, try to push them back in and cover root zone with extra mulch.
Prune away storm-damaged branches, which can tear the bark off shrubs and trees.
After a heavy snow, take a broom and brush off the shrubs and tree branches that are bent under the snow’s weight.
Take cuttings of forsythia, pussy willows, cherries for forcing indoors. Late February, early March is the time to prune most shrubs and trees, before they start to leaf out.
Indoors Sun-loving houseplants are probably looking a little sad right now. Shorter days=sadder plants (and people!). Make sure they are in a southern-facing window.
Houseplants grow more slowly during winter, so increase the time between waterings. The single biggest killer of houseplants is overwatering.
Clean the large, smooth-leaved houseplants with a damp, soft cloth. Or give them a shower. They are probably a bit dusty by now, which interferes with photosynthesis.
Inspect for insect pests. Browning leaves are a good indication you have spider mites. Look for fine spider webbing between the leaves or between the stem and leaves. The mites are easily killed by spraying them with a homemade soap solution. Simply add a teaspoon of dish liquid detergent to a 12 or 16 ounce spray bottle filled with water. Shake, then spray. The soap smothers their soft bodies. You may have to apply two or three times, whenever you see the webbing again.
It’s a good time to repot plants, especially if it’s been more than a few years since the last transplating. Plants do best in terra-cotta pots because the clay is porous, which allows for water and air exchange. If your old clay pots have a white, powdery mineral deposit on the outside, you can clean them by soaking the pots overnight in a solution of 1 gallon of water, 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup bleach. Or, remove as much as you can with a wire brush and then apply linseed oil. This will make the mineral deposits invisible.
Go over your gardening contracts carefully. Many companies apply pesticides and herbicides. They are required to supply you with a materials data safety sheet for each product they apply. One note from this organic gardener: data sheets only cover the labeled, “active” ingredients. Ninety percent of most products are “inert” ingredients. The composition of inert ingredients are considered “proprietary information” and do not have to be disclosed. Many of these “inerts” are more dangerous than the labeled ingredients. Of course, you can always hire a landscape company that practices organic controls. Keeping your property in a natural balance is the best way to ensure a healthy environment.
Catherine Wachs is a Larchmont-based landscape designer. Her company, The Lazy Gardener, creates low-maintenance, high-style designs for residential and commercial properties.
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