Friday, January 1, 2010

Fashion patriarch fronts a model of success (Financial Times)

Posted by rsu at 4:05 PM

Fashion patriarch fronts a model of success (Financial Times)

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Fashion patriarch fronts a model of success (Financial Times)

Posted: 01 Jan 2010 11:48 AM PST

There is a ritual at the end of every Ralph Lauren fashion show. After the final model parade, Mr Lauren appears on the runway to take his bow, and his family – wife Ricky, sons David and Andrew, daughter Dylan, David's girlfriend Lauren Bush, who used to model for the brand – rise to their feet in a standing ovation, followed by hugs and kisses.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Fashionable Mendham Borough Library (Observer-Tribune)

Posted: 01 Jan 2010 05:21 AM PST



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The Week[end]: January 1-3, 2010 (Isthmus)

Posted: 01 Jan 2010 04:12 AM PST

Happy New Year! Start out the Twenty-teens out right this weekend with: a New Year's Day Fashion Show; the Nicola Lopez show at the Chazen; productions of Random Harvest and Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them; comedy by the Atlas Improv Company and Collin Moulton; live music by Rising Gael, Dead Man's Carnival, Pat McCurdy, Oak Street Ramblers, The Nod, Subatomic with Underculture, UW-Whitewater Music Faculty, Madison Skylights, and Fragile Utopia; and, a farewell to Holiday Fantasy in Lights.


Friday 1.1
NEW YEAR'S DAY
NOTEWORTHY: Global Y2K computer disaster fails to materialize, 2000.
BIRTHDAYS: Actor/prankster/Saturday Night Live alumnus Don Novello, 1943; filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, 1970.

Holiday Fantasy in Lights
Olin Park, through Jan. 3
Here's your last chance, this holidays at least, to see the big Olin Park show. It's a Madison tradition, and it's courtesy of the National Electrical Contractors Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 159. Thanks, union members.

Nicola Lopez: Urban Transformations
Chazen Museum of Art, through Jan. 3
Lopez makes drawings, prints and installations that are fascinating cityscapes -- the architectural elements twist and undulate to a degree verging on abstraction. The exhibit closes this weekend. While you're there, check out James Gill's striking photography collection "Back in the World: Portraits of Wisconsin Vietnam Veterans," which also is coming down.

Random Harvest
Bartell Theatre, 8 pm. Also Thursday & Saturday, Dec. 31 & Jan. 2, 8 pm
StageQ presents Richard Willett's redemptive play about a dramatist who, having been nominated for a major award, fears actually winning. The local cast has really made this play its own (see preview).

New Year's Day Fashion Show
High Noon Saloon, 10 pm
Local dub-'n'-reggae troupe Taki Allstars will get the dance party started as models show off the naughty, frilly frocks of Silversärk, tough and sultry duds from local rockabilly/burlesque outfitters Hoi Polloi and original designs by local Etsy superstar ClaireAnn (a.k.a. Gypsy Couture).


Saturday 1.2
NOTEWORTHY: Sago mine disaster kills 12 West Virginia coal miners, 2006.
BIRTHDAYS: Actress Diane Lane, 1965; Oscar-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr., 1968.

Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them
Overture Center's Playhouse, 8 pm. Also Sunday, Jan. 3, 2 & 6 pm
A hastily married woman thinks her husband might be a terrorist in Christopher Durang's acclaimed satire. It's the first multi-night production by the new troupe Forward Theater, and it features local theater superstars like American Players Theatre's Colleen Madden and Sarah Day. (See article.)

Atlas Improv Company
Electric Earth Cafe, 8 & 10 pm
At 8 pm, Madison's insanely witty improv troupe stages its TheatreSports show, in which teams face off in games and scenes. At 10 pm comes some free-form stuff. Improv can be not only funny but also quite moving, as the performers tap that mysterious improvisational force.

Collin Moulton
Comedy Club, 8 & 10:30 pm. Also Thursday, Dec. 31, 8 & 10:30 pm
The L.A.-based comic's material sometimes touches on gentle topics like domestic living, but he also works political in a way that ought to satisfy many Madison clubgoers (Ann Coulter: "neo-Nazi Skeletor chick"). With Thommy Thompson.

Rising Gael
Brink Lounge, 8 pm
This quartet, which blend traditional Celtic music with modern Irish folk-rock, have opened for big names such as Gaelic Storm. But they haven't forgotten their Madison roots. They're also at work on a new album, even though they released one just a year ago. Catch them before they hit the big time.

Dead Man's Carnival
High Noon Saloon, 9 pm
It's not just a concert; it's an old-time circus, complete with juggling, stunts, gymnastics, magic, sideshow attractions and costumes that will shock, awe and bewilder. The roster of performers includes Foxy Tann and Sweet LillyBee (burlesque babes) and Sir Pinkerton & the Magnificents (a retro blues and boogie band). Over-the-top costumes -- from pearls to peacock feathers -- are strongly encouraged. See Tour Stop.

Pat McCurdy
Club Tavern, 9 pm
The charismatic singer-guitarist offers a one-man music and comedy show. He plays originals like "Sex and Beer," revises pop songs from the '80s and '90s, and interacts with the crowd. He boasts a 900-song repertoire and a quick wit.

Oak Street Ramblers
Alchemy Cafe, 9 pm
To say that this collective of bluegrass pickers is a bunch of Americana enthusiasts is an understatement. They're fanatics, infusing old-time tunes with newfound passion and getting stool bums more excited about mountain music than their next round of suds.

The Nod
Come Back In, 9:30 pm
The band's less than two years old, and its debut EP (Shoddy Heart) has been around just six months, but this quartet of rockin' UW kids has made a splash big enough to share a bill last Freakfest with Cage the Elephant, Third Eye Blind, Locksley and Maritime.

Subatomic, Underculture
Frequency, 10 pm
Two local bands join forces to release two CDs. Subatomic's is built upon heavy, funky bass lines and lots of guitar riffs, while Underculture's smashes together punk, psychobilly and a bit of garage to rattle your bones and your eardrums. Also playing: Soul Shaker.


Sunday 1.3
> NOTEWORTHY: Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, 1987.
BIRTHDAYS: Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, 1946; actress Helena Bonham Carter, 1967.

UW-Whitewater Music Faculty
Chazen Museum of Art, 12:30 pm
Cellist Benjamin Whitcomb, flutist Robin Fellows and pianist Myung Hee Chung perform on Wisconsin Public Radio's weekly "Live From the Chazen" broadcast. On the docket: Samuel Barber's "Sonata for Violoncello and Piano," Otar Taktakishvili's "Sonata for Flute and Piano" and Sergei Prokofieff's "Sonata No. 8 in B-flat Major."

Madison Skylights
Frequency, 8 pm
The Auto-Tuned vocals on these Missourians' recordings may drive you nuts, but their infectious electropop melodies will make you crazy in a good way -- they're the kind that get you singing in the library and dancing on the city bus. With Counterfeit I.

Fragile Utopia
High Noon Saloon, 8:30 pm
This Madison foursome have channeled their appreciation of Tool and Sevendust into a growing catalogue of hard-hitting rockers and even a few ballads. Their new CD, which will be unveiled at the show, touches on both sides of the band's oeuvre and is bound to please at least a few fans of heavy grooves and headbanging. With Droids Attack and Lords of the Trident.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Dieci spa in Livingston hosts benefit event (The Progress)

Posted: 01 Jan 2010 04:58 AM PST



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Baring the ‘Hidden Charm’ (Thanh Nien Daily)

Posted: 01 Jan 2010 12:05 AM PST

Dancer Linh Nga in the foreground of a junk left alone in a lotus lake, evoked much
emotion from the audience in the 21st Charming Vietnam Gala.

Charming Vietnam is a top notch music concert. It is a glitzy fashion show. It is high-end entertainment and a major charity event.

But in the end it is more than the sum of all of these things.

As the curtains went up on the 15th anniversary of Charming Vietnam Gala on the last day of 2009, the Nguyen Thai Binh Scholarship for 8,787 underprivileged and outstanding students, raised more than VND 15 billion (US$811,820).

TRUE COLORS

Pham Quynh Anh considers the 21 st Charming Vietnam Gala as a great time to find out more about her homeland's contemporary art

Vietnamese-Belgian singer Pham Quynh Anh, who rose to fame with the smash-hit "Bonjour Vietnam" three years ago, and who opened the second part of the show with the same song, said just before the show: "I think this event will be a great time for me to find out more about Vietnamese music and artists. I will perform 'Bonjour Vietnam' and another song named 'I say gold.'"

Although the 22-year-old singer is of Vietnamese origin, she admitted that her grasp of the language was very weak. Singing Vietnamese songs, even her favorites, was "really challenging," she told Thanh Nien. But like the event, she stressed an identity that transcends borders.

Talking to Tuoi Tre newspaper about "I say gold," Anh said that the song was about herself and many other "yellow folks," not just Vietnamese but other yellow people in all corners of the world. Anh said it was not the skin that decided one's "true color."

SALIENT FACTS

The show is taking place at Hoa Binh Theater at 240-242 Ba Thang Hai Street, District 10 on four days: Dec 31, Jan 1, 2, 3.

Event director Dinh Anh Dung said pictures made of sand will be the main storytellers in the 21 st Vietnam Gala. On a sandy background, artist Tri Duc will draw images and change them, based on the leitmotif of each song.

Other Charming Vietnam trivia:

My Linh holds the record for the maximum performances by a female singer at the event, having taken the stage 15 times, while Quang Dung holds the record for male singers with 10. Beauty queen Ha Kieu Anh has joined the event 15 times. The late Huynh Phuc Dien directed the show eight times and danseuse Thao Dung has performed 18 times. Singer My Tam performed with the longest dress that stretched as far as 60 meters.

"Up to now, the happiest moment of my life was receiving the Nguyen Thai Binh scholarship. It is not only about how the money will help me prevail over a hard situation, but the invaluable meaning behind it that has encouraged me a lot. I realize that I was wrapped in many people's care," said Hong Thuong, one of the scholarship winners.

"I am really happy that the scholarship has fulfilled many young people's dreams to study," said Nguyen Cong Khe, head organizer of the event and chairman of Thanh Nien Media Corporation.

He noted that alongside the Nguyen Thai Binh Scholarship in 1991was the Vietnam Talent Fund (VTF) that was started in 2006. Whereas the former helped the underprivileged, the latter rewarded outstanding talents selected by several renowned Vietnamese scientists, academics and politicians. The organizers expect the winners to contribute their talents to the country.

Accolades galore

The 21st Charming Vietnam Gala will, as it has done in the past, develop and promote contemporary Vietnamese culture and entertainment while helping artists hone their abilities and boost their careers, Khe said.

"The show not only meets the local youth's demand for entertainment but also that of overseas Vietnamese and foreigners. Through its unique and delectable feasts, Charming Vietnam, has been complimented by the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as being eligible to represent Vietnam's captivating culture on the international stage," he added.

Looking back at the 15 years of organizing the shows, Khe said his most noteworthy memories were the appreciation of British, Singaporean and Australian heads of state, and the precious affection it has received from Vietnamese expats.

After the 20th Charming Vietnam gala held in London's Westminster Hall March 2008, a letter arrived from Buckingham Palace.

"Traditional values mix with the modern realities of a rapidly developing nation in a unique way. I believe that the Charming Vietnam event will become an excellent opportunity for us to find out more about Vietnam's fascinating culture.

As such, events such as Charming Vietnam are an excellent opportunity for us to broaden our understanding," wrote Prince Andrew, who paid his second visit to Vietnam last October.

In 2007, after the 18th show was a huge success in Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong confirmed that Charming Vietnam Gala had enhanced the level of bilateral cultural exchanges between the two countries.

"Moreover, it was moving to see many overseas compatriots, even from remote areas, try to come to the shows. It was not just the audience, but (overseas Vietnamese) artists who saw Charming Vietnam as a chance for them to gather and look back at their roots. We have received many invitations to stage the show overseas.

"I also hope to organize the show twice a year, one at home and one overseas. This could boost tourism in the host cities or provinces. Phu Yen Province, for instance, has offered to host the next gala," said Khe.

Reported by Kim

 

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