The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is a lovely place to see a film. Wednesday night’s screening of Albert Alcalay: Self Portraits brought out a rich mix of die-hard film fans, Fort Worth Modern devotees, KERA members and even a Harvard alumnus who had taken classes with Alcalay in her college days. After the credits rolled, a fascinating discussion between filmmaker Rob Tranchin and the audience covered such topics as the current whereabouts of Alcalay’s wife (too camera shy to be on screen), his vibrant use of color (he champions form first) and his teaching style (paper strips and spray paint).
KERA Channel 13 re-airs Albert Alcalay: Self Portraits on Monday, Nov. 24, at 8 p.m.
Albert Alcalay: Self-Portraits plays at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worthat 7 p.m. tonight. This man lived quite the life while painting abstract jazz landscapes that look like how it feels to be in New York City when you’re at an emotional extreme.
For more information, call me at 214.740.9220. No crank calls, I’m feeling Zen today. Parking is free.
We won. Or tied. In any event, we weren’t even here eight months ago, so the outcome is still remarkable.
Saturday night, the Press Club of Dallas resuscitated the Katie Awards, which honor quality journalism in Texas media. It seems that in 2004-2006, the Press Club’s previous president, Elizabeth Albanese, didn’t send the submissions out for judging but pretty much kidnapped them and kept them in the trunk of her car — when she wasn’t handing out some of the prizes to herself.
As one might expect after such a near-death experience, the victim was frightfully thin. Actually, it was impressive that the Press Club volunteers put on such an evening at all and drew a decent crowd. Any category that didn’t get a sufficient number of submissions to produce a real competition was scrupulously eliminated. So there were no awards, for example, in any category involving radio or television. All of those previous divisions for specialty publications, newsletters, press relations and whatnot: Gone.
But when it came to the best website, award presenter and SMU journalism professor Tony Pederson reported that it was a tough race, compounded by what the judges termed “the vast discrepancy in the amount of resources behind each entry. On top of that, these websites set out to do different things.”
In other words, someone will have to figure out a way to distinguish among websites, just as newspapers are relegated to large, medium or small markets. But for this year’s round, “we award two additional Katies here because of standout designations for innovative work.”
Translation: Art & Seek was in a three-way tie for first place with both the Dallas Morning News (”arguably the most comprehensive website serving Texas”) and Pegasus News (”great engineering behind this site and the content is delivered in a neat, tidy package”). Art & Seek, we blush to report, has “a beautiful and clean design and great functionality (it works every way you slice it).”
I’m going to use that line on my wife: “Honey, you have a beautiful and clean design. And hey, great functionality.”
Considering the other winners, you see what they mean about the “vast discrepancy” of resources among the competitors. In this light, the three-way was preferable even to an outright win: It shows we were judged alongside “the most comprehensive website serving Texas” and held our own.
Albert Alcalay survived a concentration camp during the Holocaust, then became a jazz-influenced abstract painter and ultimately a Harvard professor. Three of his former students, including KERA’s Rob Tranchin (director of the recent South Dallas Pop), collaborated in the creation of Albert Alcalay: Self Portraits, a documentary on Alcalay’s life and art. Completed before the artist’s death last spring, the film explores the impact of intense, diverse experience on Alcalay’s expressionistic paintings.
The special screening is on Wednesday, Nov. 19, and is free for KERA members and a guest. Seating is limited; to reserve your seat, call 214.740.9220 or email blewis@kera.org.
KERA listeners are no doubt familiar with the This I Believe series of personal essays that airs on the station (90.1 FM — but you knew that, right?). Now’s your chance to meet the man who brings those essays to you.
Jay Allison, host of This I Believe, will make an appearance at Legacy Books this Sunday at 2 p.m. to promote This I Believe II: More Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women. The book is a collection of some of the best essays from the show and includes writings from regular folks like a nun, an Iraq War veteran and a waitress and more high-profile writers, like Austin singer-songwriter Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
Coming on the heels of fellow NPR contributor and StoryCorps founder Dave Isay’s recent appearance in Plano, North Texas ought to be good and inspired this month.
I e-mailed DVF Artistic Director Bart Weiss yesterday to see how it all went, and this is what he had to say:
One of the new innovations for the festival this year was the decision to run everything off of iTunes. Did that work the way you hope it would?
Weiss: It worked flawlessly. I was impressed how good it looked. We had one problem, but that was because the maker gave us the file too late to check it and the file had problems. But it is definitely the way to go, and I assume in the near future it will become common.
What film or program do you think the audience responded to the most?
Weiss: Probably The Wrecking Crew or Moral Kombat. Also, Guts ‘N Glory was a highpoint.
The festival underwent a pretty big format change this year. Do you think you will keep the same format going forward?
Weiss: I think we will stay at the Angelika and tweak the new format in ways I just have not thought of yet. But stay tuned — it will be cool.
A shout out to the Pop Kids: I’m in the process of producing a little ‘Home For The Holidaze’-type music show for Christmas and am wondering if there are any DFW bands out there who have any holiday tunes that would fit a triple-A format? These songs can be covers of traditional holiday tunes, or originals – free of the f-bomb or any of the six other naughty words on George Carlin’s list, natch – but songs that reflect the range of emotions and many moods that come with the onslaught of the holiday season, and maybe with a bit of a North Texas twang. And while we’re at it, what are your favorites? Here’s a sampling of some of what you might hear:
MATT POND, PA – “Holiday Road”
LOUIS XIV – “This Christmas”
THE FALL – “(We Wish You) A Protein Christmas”
ASOBI SEKU – “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Wanna Fight Tonight)”
THE RAMONES – “Danny Says”
THE RAMONAS – “Santa’s Got A GTO”
THE VENTURES – “Snowflake”
AIMEE MANN – “Calling On Mary”
LEMMY, DAVE GROHL & BILLY GIBBONS – “Run, Rudolph, Run”
THE RAVEONETTES – “The Christmas Song”
RIDE – “Like A Snowflake”
THE DECEMBERISTS – “Please, Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas)”
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS – “Feast of Lights”
THE KINKS – “Father Christmas”
Suggestions for any other fave-rave holiday tracks are welcomed and appreciated. Thank you, thank you, thank you…
Did we mention Dave Isay of StoryCorps is coming to town Monday? Ok, we did. But I’m going to do it again. Because it gives me a chance to share one of my favorite StoryCorps pieces, in which Betty Jenkins, 94, recalls creating a bit of an international incident when she crossed continents in an unpressurized plane while wearing a blow-up bra. Go on, just listen.
Like all StoryCorps segments, this one just wouldn’t be the same if Ms. Jenkins hadn’t recounted the adventure herself. And it leaves me with many, many unanswered questions - what was this then-young woman doing flying to Argentina in the ’30s or ’40s? And how can I meet her today? And what if we’d had Homeland Security back then?
If you have a favorite StoryCorps piece, let us know. And hope to see you Monday in Plano.
I’m a highly anecdotal person. If a story I’m telling gets big laughs from the listeners, I will tell it again with each new person who walks into the room. This means some people hear the story over and over and it stops being funny or even interesting. Sometimes the captives are busy working at their desks, so they can’t just get up and walk away. I note their irritation, yet on I talk. I acknowledge it’s a personality flaw, but cannot bring myself to correct it.
Dave Isay likes stories too, but he lets other people do the talking, and the result can be heard every Friday morning on NPR through KERA (90.1 FM). His project, StoryCorps, records people all over the United States talking about a specific moment in their lives, the moment that changed everything for them. I wake up Fridays either crying or laughing or both, and I always feel just a little more in love with the human race.
Some kind soul with an undoubtedly large collection of VHS tapes recently posted to YouTube a segment from a late-1980s KERA program called “Art’s Eye”.
In the clip below, host Judy Kelly profiles Dallas’ Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, just as they were reaching stardom thanks to radio hit “What I Am”. It’s great to see a very young Edie, Kenny Withrow (late of Undermain Theater’s Greendale) and the other band members talk about their inspirations and motivations, long before they had been run through the major-label wringer. It’s also interesting to see Club Dada and other Deep Ellum spots in their original heyday. Enjoy:
