Reader's Choice – The Most Reprehensible Political Scandal
As readers over the past four years gratefully acknowledge, both public concern and topicality are paramount to our mission here at Aisle Say. Thereby and therefore and without furthering adieus, we wish to give the readers a forum to express their opinions.
In the world of politics, the charming sobriquet of 'ladies man' has gone from player to predator.
On the spectrum that begins with lascivious, courses through disturbing and ultimately sees the light of day in a perp walk, why is it that powerful men think they can get away with this behavior? In their defense, friends would say, “so and so would never do such a thing. He's far too brilliant to do anything so disgusting and hypocritical.”
I googled the time worn but accurate phrase by Lord Acton in 1887 and discovered a concluding sentence not normally uttered in its use: “ Power tends to corrupt..and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Here's the kicker: “Great men are almost always bad men.”
The default excuses are 1) The guy takes risks. That's how he became successful. 2) They feel rules don't apply to them. 3) With power comes confidence and...aha!...opportunity.
It is well past the time to venerate wayward politicians with a wink and a 'boys will be boys' reprimand. Aisle Say takes our readers on a history lesson of the sleazeball.
This weeks survey asks: “Rate Your Most Outrageous, Scurrilous, Hypocritical, Unseemly and Ignominious Scandal.”
In no particular order. Place them in YOUR order, #1 being THE WORST!
Eliot Spitzer - NY Governor (Client 9) pays $80,000 for prostitutes
Arnold Schwarzenegger - “The Sperminator” - pumping more than iron
Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky – The pizza was not all she delivered
Mark Sanford - Governor of SC – Aren't we ALL looking for our 'soul mate'
John Edwards - Sympathy for wife's cancer and then “love child” appears
Clarence Thomas - Harassment allegations from Anita Hill did not prove fatal
Newt Gingrich - Leading Clinton's impeachment as affair with staffer goes on
John Kennedy - Not only Marilyn, but Exner, the gfriend of a mob boss
Larry Craig - Anti-gay rights MN Senator arrested in bathroom
Gary Hart - Presidential hopeful with Rice on boat “Monkey Business”
Thomas Jefferson - reportedly fathered 6 children with slave Sally Hemmings
John Ensign - Affair with his best friend's wife. Friend gets $90k from Dad
Send your choices in order (with comments)should you wish to firestone@delaware.net
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Reader's Choice – The Most Reprehensible Contemporary Political Scandal
As readers over the past four years gratefully acknowledge, topicality and public interest are paramount to our mission here at Aisle Say. Thereby and therefore and without furthering adieus, we wish to give the readers a forum to express their opinions.
This weeks survey asks: “Rate Your Most Outrageous, Scurrilous, Hypocritical, Unseemly and Ignominious Scandal.”
In no particular order. Place them in YOUR order, #1 being THE WORST!
Eliot Spitzer - NY Governor pays $80,000 for prostitutes and resignation
Arnold Schwarzenegger - “The Sperminator” - pumping more than iron
Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky – Girl, launder that blue dress!!!
Mark Sanford - Governor of SC – We are ALL looking for our 'soul mate'
John Edwards - Sympathy for wife's cancer and then “love child” appears
Send your choices in order (with comments) to firestone@delaware.net
The Grand's mantra in 2011-2012 season is to bring world-class entertainment to Wilmington while strengthening local arts and community partnerships.
The three performing arts group that share space at 818 Market St. gave a first ever collaborated preview of their respective seasons. Representatives from OperaDelaware, First State Ballet and DE Symphony orchestra sat with Mark Fields, Managing Director of The Grand to announce both their individual seasons and some collaborations..
It is nothing if not an eclectic program, a broad diversity of that should appeal to virtually every segment. The Grand’s programming lineup will appeal to a wide range of audiences, offering classic rockers, R&B singers, popular comedians, magicians, folk and bluegrass virtuosos, multicultural entertainment, and expanded classical options.
There is obvious crossover with World Cafe Live, 3 blocks down the street, and the two entities must be vigilant to avoid the perception of one grabbing a gig before the other has a chance. One would hope the two institutions work to make Market Street a nexus for entertainment.
The 1300 seat theatre is a tweener; i.e. too small to afford major names. With the deft hand of a surgeon Executive Director Steve Bailey must look at the overall demographics of the market, seek out acts playing Baltimore or Philly and catch fill a spot between those dates and negotiate, negotiate, negotiate.
There are major consequences of The Grand's selections. It's $10 million capital campaign appears is in a holding pattern. Over $4 million was pledged the opening night of the campaign several months ago and it is hovering at $5 million presently.
Hard rocker and harder drinker George Thorogood has a September date. George and Tony Award winner Johnny Gallagher are the two most celebrated attendees of Brandywine High School...and neither graduated.
First State Ballet will stage Don Quixote in October and return with The Nutcracker in December. (Son Grant was 1st State Ballet's first Fritz in the late '90's – the scalawag who breaks sister Clara's nutcracker.)
OperaDelaware is staging far and away its most popular opera, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in 2012, preceded by The Magic Flute in November.
TheGrandWilmington.org, OperaDE.org FirstStateBallet.com
1-800-37-GRAND ticketsatthegrand.org
As readers over the past four years gratefully acknowledge, topicality and public interest are paramount to our mission here at Aisle Say. Thereby and therefore and without furthering adieus, we wish to give the readers a forum to express their opinions.
This weeks survey asks: “Rate Your Most Outrageous, Scurrilous, Hypocritical, Unseemly and Ignominious Scandal.”
In no particular order. Place them in YOUR order, #1 being THE WORST!
Eliot Spitzer - NY Governor pays $80,000 for prostitutes and resignation
Arnold Schwarzenegger - “The Sperminator” - pumping more than iron
Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky – Girl, launder that blue dress!!!
Mark Sanford - Governor of SC – We are ALL looking for our 'soul mate'
John Edwards - Sympathy for wife's cancer and then “love child” appears
Send your choices in order (with comments) to firestone@delaware.net
The Grand's mantra in 2011-2012 season is to bring world-class entertainment to Wilmington while strengthening local arts and community partnerships.
The three performing arts group that share space at 818 Market St. gave a first ever collaborated preview of their respective seasons. Representatives from OperaDelaware, First State Ballet and DE Symphony orchestra sat with Mark Fields, Managing Director of The Grand to announce both their individual seasons and some collaborations..
It is nothing if not an eclectic program, a broad diversity of that should appeal to virtually every segment. The Grand’s programming lineup will appeal to a wide range of audiences, offering classic rockers, R&B singers, popular comedians, magicians, folk and bluegrass virtuosos, multicultural entertainment, and expanded classical options.
There is obvious crossover with World Cafe Live, 3 blocks down the street, and the two entities must be vigilant to avoid the perception of one grabbing a gig before the other has a chance. One would hope the two institutions work to make Market Street a nexus for entertainment.
The 1300 seat theatre is a tweener; i.e. too small to afford major names. With the deft hand of a surgeon Executive Director Steve Bailey must look at the overall demographics of the market, seek out acts playing Baltimore or Philly and catch fill a spot between those dates and negotiate, negotiate, negotiate.
There are major consequences of The Grand's selections. It's $10 million capital campaign appears is in a holding pattern. Over $4 million was pledged the opening night of the campaign several months ago and it is hovering at $5 million presently.
Hard rocker and harder drinker George Thorogood has a September date. George and Tony Award winner Johnny Gallagher are the two most celebrated attendees of Brandywine High School...and neither graduated.
First State Ballet will stage Don Quixote in October and return with The Nutcracker in December. (Son Grant was 1st State Ballet's first Fritz in the late '90's – the scalawag who breaks sister Clara's nutcracker.)
OperaDelaware is staging far and away its most popular opera, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in 2012, preceded by The Magic Flute in November.
TheGrandWilmington.org, OperaDE.org FirstStateBallet.com
1-800-37-GRAND ticketsatthegrand.org
"9" = 8 1/2
If there is a trophy for getting the max out of the most minimal of resources (drum roll, please), the award goes to City Theatre Co.
The stage is shoehorned in a tiny black box theater in Opera Delaware's riverfront studios, seating cannot be more than 100 and whatever budget there is for tech, costumes, makeup and hair is as lean as Mick Jagger.
But creativity has no boundaries. Producer/Director Michael Gray has kept his committed troupe together for nearing two decades. Their stated mission is to “rid the planet of complacency, redundancy, indifference and fear.” The world is full of all that presently. I am unsure how the group reaches out to the nattering nabobs of negativism across the universe, but as for Wilmington, with each season they have remained true to their anthem.
“Nine” premiered on Broadway in 1982. It was the stage version of Federico Fellini's wildly erotic film fantasy “8 1/2,” focusing on film director Guido's trepidation at his 40th birthday.
Guido (Michael Gray) is a libertine, a philanderer and a womanizer – in other words, my role model. And...he's married.
Would such a man wear a white shirt (as does Gray) or shimmering black silk? Should such a man wear a daring Italianate string tie rather than the broad-striped one chosen by Gray? Lose the tie, you Lothario, you!
IF YOU GO
WHAT "Nine"
WHERE City Theater Co., Opera Delaware Studios,
4 S. Poplar St., Wilmington
WHEN Select nights through May 21
COST $25/general admission; $40/VIP
INFO www.city-theater.org
These criticisms seem petty in relation to the exhilarating performance of Gray and his committed cast.
The scene opens with the gaggle of women singing of their unrequited love for our main man. “Guido's Song” follows, an admixture of soul-searching serenades similar to “Soliloquy” in “Carousel” or “I Am What I Am” from “Les Cage Aux Folles.” Gray's facile delivery makes for great storytelling in song.
Carla (Ashley Harris), Guido's primary non-wife squeeze, achieves greatness in keeping her towel at just the right position while creating lascivious images in the minds of the men in the audience.
Liliane LeFleur (Karen Murdock) lived and breathed the role of Guido’s film producer. Murdock continues to be one of the finest singer/actors in the region. The finest detail does not escape her, even to the exquisite choice of her very European hairstyle. Visually reminiscent of both Judy Garland and Edith Piaf, her accent was the best of the cast. Le Fleur led the major production number “Follies Bergeres” with great energy and engagement.
Saraghina (Eleonore Thomas) delivered such a barefooted performance so Italian earthy I could visualize her stomping grapes on the hillside. The on stage experience she gave the young Guido (Nolan Moss) he will never forget!
The eight-member orchestra must have been sitting on each other's shoulders in the cramped space allotted. Conductor Chris Tolemeo created a beautiful sound with instruments not normally considered in community theatre; cello, woodwinds and violin. The cellist, Ezgi Yargici, was especially evocative in “Simple.”
The closer of Act I, “The Bells of St. Sebastian” is a searing exposé of the hypocrisy of Catholic school education.
Choreographer Dawn Morningstar was creative with the large numbers of people and their varying degrees of dance experience.
----------
The stage is shoehorned in a tiny black box theater in Opera Delaware's riverfront studios, seating cannot be more than 100 and whatever budget there is for tech, costumes, makeup and hair is as lean as Mick Jagger.
But creativity has no boundaries. Producer/Director Michael Gray has kept his committed troupe together for nearing two decades. Their stated mission is to “rid the planet of complacency, redundancy, indifference and fear.” The world is full of all that presently. I am unsure how the group reaches out to the nattering nabobs of negativism across the universe, but as for Wilmington, with each season they have remained true to their anthem.
“Nine” premiered on Broadway in 1982. It was the stage version of Federico Fellini's wildly erotic film fantasy “8 1/2,” focusing on film director Guido's trepidation at his 40th birthday.
Guido (Michael Gray) is a libertine, a philanderer and a womanizer – in other words, my role model. And...he's married.
Would such a man wear a white shirt (as does Gray) or shimmering black silk? Should such a man wear a daring Italianate string tie rather than the broad-striped one chosen by Gray? Lose the tie, you Lothario, you!
IF YOU GO
WHAT "Nine"
WHERE City Theater Co., Opera Delaware Studios,
4 S. Poplar St., Wilmington
WHEN Select nights through May 21
COST $25/general admission; $40/VIP
INFO www.city-theater.org
These criticisms seem petty in relation to the exhilarating performance of Gray and his committed cast.
The scene opens with the gaggle of women singing of their unrequited love for our main man. “Guido's Song” follows, an admixture of soul-searching serenades similar to “Soliloquy” in “Carousel” or “I Am What I Am” from “Les Cage Aux Folles.” Gray's facile delivery makes for great storytelling in song.
Carla (Ashley Harris), Guido's primary non-wife squeeze, achieves greatness in keeping her towel at just the right position while creating lascivious images in the minds of the men in the audience.
Liliane LeFleur (Karen Murdock) lived and breathed the role of Guido’s film producer. Murdock continues to be one of the finest singer/actors in the region. The finest detail does not escape her, even to the exquisite choice of her very European hairstyle. Visually reminiscent of both Judy Garland and Edith Piaf, her accent was the best of the cast. Le Fleur led the major production number “Follies Bergeres” with great energy and engagement.
Saraghina (Eleonore Thomas) delivered such a barefooted performance so Italian earthy I could visualize her stomping grapes on the hillside. The on stage experience she gave the young Guido (Nolan Moss) he will never forget!
The eight-member orchestra must have been sitting on each other's shoulders in the cramped space allotted. Conductor Chris Tolemeo created a beautiful sound with instruments not normally considered in community theatre; cello, woodwinds and violin. The cellist, Ezgi Yargici, was especially evocative in “Simple.”
The closer of Act I, “The Bells of St. Sebastian” is a searing exposé of the hypocrisy of Catholic school education.
Choreographer Dawn Morningstar was creative with the large numbers of people and their varying degrees of dance experience.
----------
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