Wine, Cheese, Art & Music Friday!
What more could one ask for?
Arts
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
'Spotlight on the Arts' Is In Full Swing
The annual three-week festival began Friday and runs through May 6, showcasing all Fairfax City has to offer in the way of art and culture.
Spring is here! And in Fairfax City, that means it's time for the annual Spotlight on the Arts festival. Held each April, Spotlight on the Arts features three weeks of music, dance, theater, art, and choral concerts. Sponsored by the City in cooperation with George Mason University (GMU), Northern Virginia Community College, and the City of Fairfax Schools, Spotlight on the Arts events take place at venues throughout the city, university and college locations. The festival aims to enhance the community’s awareness of the many arts and cultural opportunities in Fairfax and encourage expansion of the arts through supporting fledging arts organizations in the community. In the past decade, Spotlight has also begun offering six different …
Sunday, April 21, 2013
'Celebrate Fairfax' Summer Concert Lineup Revealed
The annual festival attracts national bands.
April's warm temperatures in Northern Virginia might have you thinking of summer — us too. It's not too early to start mapping out some summer fun! Celebrate Fairfax, the area's annual three-day festival, will kick off the summer season June 7-9, hosting the B-52s, Spin Doctors and Summerland Tour 2013 on its main stage in Fairfax. Here is the lineup of the headlining concerts taking place on the Bud Light Main Stage on the three nights of the festival: All shows are free with a daily general admission ticket to the festival. At the Bud Light Main Stage, there are approximately 3,500 chairs for audience members and lots of standing room. The festival does not permit patrons to bring their own chairs or blankets. Do you want to see any of…
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Movie Reviews by Cinema Siren
Movie Review: 'Oblivion' a Stunning Yet Flawed Sci-Fi
PG-13 film starring Tom Cruise in theaters now.
In director Joseph Kosinski's Oblivion, you can see a love for and desire to expand on the great classics of science fiction on film. With the most impressive use of IMAX for a feature film to date, in that respect he has created something new and exciting, with what is essentially a 3-D movie where you don't need the glasses. Production esigner Darren Gilford (of TRON: Legacy) and cinematographer Claudio Miranda (Oscar winner for Life of Pi) make, to quote the movie, "an effective team." The visual landscapes of the film and the meticulousness taken in the action sequences are extraordinary. Here, the integration of CGI (computer-generated imagery) and live filming is another indication of the rapid advancements happening in …
Photo of the Day: Iguana in the Adam Lister Gallery in Old Town
Find out what this guy was doing there Tuesday.
Check out this incredible creature that spent some time in the Adam Lister Gallery in Old Town Fairfax earlier this week. Don't worry, it wasn't an escapee - it was all part of the Drawing Zoo workshop the gallery holds once a year for budding artists and students. The iguana wasn't the only exotic creature on hand for Tuesday's workshop - his friends the tarantula and the albino snake came along for the fun as well. The Drawing Zoo is a local company that brings animals into classrooms and art studios for unique workshops that combine both science and art. Students get live subjects to draw, and during breaks throughout the workshop, they get to hear all about the animal's physiology and characteristics as well. Most of the student's …
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Review: Paul VI Catholic School's Production of 'Once Upon a Mattress'
This high school reviewer says, 'it's hard to find fault' with this talented production.
By Talia Brenner of Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda Finding fault with Paul VI Catholic High School’s (PVI) production of Once Upon A Mattress would be more difficult than feeling a pea under 20 mattresses. A large cast of talented students told the real story behind a classic fairy tale with jaunty physical humor, successful character voices, and unmatched dedication. The musical comedy, which first opened on Broadway in 1959, is based upon Hans Christian Andersen’s "The Princess and the Pea." The show was adapted for a 1996 revival, but PVI performed the original 1959 version, with a few alterations to plot details as to be more suitable for a Catholic high school audience. Queen Aggravain (Kristen Washington) is the bossy, …
L Wiedemann
8:49 am on Wednesday, April 24, 2013
great article! I love this show and glad to see that PVI was able to do such a great job with it. more ›
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Appletree School Students Paint With Elephants
The young students were extended a special invitation by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus at the Patriot Center.
Young students from Appletree School in Fairfax got a real treat Thursday when the staff from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus invited them to the Patriot Center for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to paint with an elephant. Ringling Bros. partnered with Young Rembrandts to host the painting party, featuring Ringling’s star elephant, Kelly Ann. The students joined a cast of clowns on the arena floor for the party and, prior to painting, Kelly Ann showed off her athleticism by dunking a basketball, catching a football and kicking a soccer ball, in addition to playing the harmonica. The students then watched the artistic elephant produce her own masterpiece before painting their own circus-inspired works of art. Young …
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Elsa
8:57 pm on Monday, April 15, 2013
I'm so sick & tired of seeing free publicity for this cruelty-infused for-profit enterprise. "Journalistic" entities constantly "report" the arrival of the circus & paint it as a fun, happy, wholesome, benign endeavour. NEVER are any behind-the-scenes facts conveyed: that the use of animals in circuses is barbaric & enforced by utter cruelty & deprivation. Evidence of these documented FACTS are … more ›
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Movie Reviews by Cinema Siren
Movie Review: 'Trance' a Hypnotic Head Trip Worth Taking
Rated R for language, violence, nudity.
Director Danny Boyle, fresh off being dubbed a national hero for his triumph directing the Olympic ceremonies in London, took another big directorial risk with his new release Trance. It is a frenetic, haunting genre-bender that grabs hold of and keeps your attention from its first moments to its last with such force you'll feel like you're falling through Alice's rabbit hole after being hurled into it by two burly six-foot bunnies in kilts. This cinematic journey is one filled with confusion, illusions, violence and moral ambiguities, and not a head trip everyone will be willing to surrender to or appreciate. Much like the somewhat similarly convoluted Inception, it is a love it or hate it kind of flick. Whether it will be enjoyable …
Friday, April 12, 2013
Fairfax Author Releases Book About Changing Face of America's Diversity
Sharon Chang celebrated the release of 'Escaped Alone' with the Fairfax Art League at Old Town Hall recently.
Often the death of one thing, brings about the birth of another. As Fairfax resident Sharon Chang went through the deaths of both her parents, that realization was strong - and it made her want to revisit memories of the times she and her siblings were happy together, as a family. It also brought about the birth of an idea for her recently-released novel, "Escaped Alone: A Memoir of an Incomplete Southerner," just released by Tate Publishing on March 12. "The seeds for 'Escaped Alone: A Memoir of an Incomplete Southerner' were sown, in a way, after the deaths of my parents early in the last decade," Chang explained. "For the benefit of my three brothers and for their children and grandchildren, I began jotting down anecdotes, bits of …
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Sunday, April 7, 2013
Movie Review: Spielberg's Dinosaurs Born Again in 3D
The 3D enhancements make Jurassic Park worth seeing again on the big screen.
Once again we are at an old vs. new and purist vs. innovator crossroads. Why in the world would anyone go out to see Jurassic Park in the theatre for $12+ when they can snuggle at home and watch it on their own 40-inch HDTV? What could make this release worth the time of movie fans out there when my own Siren spouse couldn't be cajoled into seeing it with me at the multiplex? It all comes down to the experience. We haven't seen Jurassic Park in the movie theaters since its release in 1993. They could have re-released it without the new bells and whistles and I'd have been halfway there. With all the mediocre new 3D releases depending on the new technology to fill the gap of good story, I really wanted to see one of the favorites of …
James
1:52 am on Sunday, April 21, 2013
I'll see it when netflix sends me the dvd. Wake me up when Iron Man 3 is out though! more ›