The Brothers Le Nain exhibit at the Kimbell Museum

THE BROTHERS LE NAIN:
PAINTERS OF SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE

The current exhibit at the Kimbell Art Museum, is titled "The Brothers Le Nain: Painters of Seventeenth-Century France".  The Travelling Toe and a Dear Friend decided to escape the North Texas heat index and take advantage of the cool air at the Kimbell Art Museum, while also enjoying the current exhibit on display.

The Kimbell's brochure describes the exhibit as follows:

The Brothers Le Nain: Painters of Seventeenth-Century France, is the first major exhibition to the United States devoted to the Le Nain brothers - Antoine, Louis and Mathieu- who were active in Paris during the 1630's and 1640's.  More than fifty of their best paintings highlight the brothers' full range of production, with altarpieces, private devotional paintings, portraits and those poignant images of peasants on which their celebrity rests. 

The Le Nain brothers have long been shrouded in mystery.  Little is known of their lives and the attribution of their paintings to the hands of the indicidual brothers has been hotly debated.  

We found the paintings to be very interesting.  They are somewhat dark in color but vibrant in so many other ways.  A shock of red or light beaming into the setting or the expression on the models faces brought the paintings to life.  

We both agreed that our favorites were the paintings done on copper plates used as a canvas.  The paintings looked liked as if they were done just the day before because they looked so fresh and vivid.  There are several of these types of paintings displayed in one of the gallery rooms.  

We did learn there is a 3-step process to paint on copper.   After the copper plate has been prepared, the scene is then sketched on the plate, then paint is layered, and finally finishing touches are added.

The Travelling Toe must admit that one favorite theme of the brothers Le Nain, was the inclusion of  little dogs, and sometimes cats, in the family scenes.  So, Dear Readers, animals were a part of everyday family life even in 17th Century France.  

We spent almost 2 hours walking around the exhibit, discussing the paintings and trying to choose a favorite.  It is astonishing that these paintings have survived for almost 400 years!

C.D Dickerson III, was the curator at the Kimbell who helped organize the exhibit is quoted as saying, "This is what I enjoy doing - looking at material that hasn't been under the microscope and bringing it to the public's attention and trying to present it in a captivating way". 

We think he certainly achieved that goal!  Sad to say that Mr. Dickerson is now at the Nation Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and not longer at the Kimbell.

Le Nain
"Children Dancing 1642"
from the Kimbell exhibition material

"Jason Bourne" (movie critique)

JASON BOURNE
movie poster

One week the Friday Movie Mavens, along with The Travelling Toe,  busted ghosts, then the next week we went into Outer Space and this week we toured the world chasing Jason Bourne.  

Yes, Jason Bourne is back.  It has been 10 years since he took it on the lam to hide from the CIA.  His friend Nicky Parsons who had helped him escape the clutches of the CIA, went her own way to hide-out.  But she recently surfaced at a hacker site in Iceland.  The CIA was tracking her and dispatched a hit team to take her out, but she escaped again.  She and Jason meet up in Athens, Greece while angry protests are taking place on the city streets. Running the operation from DC is CIA Agent Heather Lee.  The hit team trails them but one by one Jason deals with them.  Stealing a motorcycle, they try to make their escape when a sniper (known only as The Asset) takes out Nicky.  But before she died she ensured that Jason had the flash drive with all the information about Treadstone on it. The sniper is an old enemy of Jason's.  He was played by Vincent Cassel who always makes the best bad guy.  Also Tommy Lee Jones plays CAI Director Dewey who has something to hide from his past and from Jason.  Part of the plot also includes software developed by Aaron Kalloor that tracks users activity by utilizing various forms of social media.  But Kalloor begins to have second thoughts about being in cahoots with the CIA. But as we have learned, Dear Readers, once you are in with the CIA there is not getting out.

We found the movie very intense with lots of car chases, motorcycle chases, knife fights, fist fights, gun fights and dirty dealing.  But one great thing about the movie (OK, well, besides a beefed up Matt Damon) was travelling the world.  In the movie we were in Iceland, Greece, Washington DC, Berlin, London and Las Vegas.  And by the way, if you are going to Las Vegas anytime soon, there may not be much of it left after Jason and the bad guy ran havoc through the strip!  


CAST:

Matt Damon
Jason Bourne

Julia Stiles
Nicky Parsons

Alicia Vikander
CIA Agent Heather Lee

Tommy Lee Jones
CIA Director Robert Dewey

Vincent Cassel
The Asset

Riz Ahmed
Aaron Kalloor, CEO Deep Dream

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 1 big toe up with multiple passports to track Jason as he travels the world!

Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only!

"Jekyll & Hyde" presented by On Stage In Bedford

JEKYLL & HYDE
play program

On a very hot and humid Sunday afternoon, The Travelling Toe and a Dear Friend attended the matinee presentation of "Jekyll & Hyde".  The musical was presented by On Stage in Bedford.

Dear Readers, The Travelling Toe is most assured that you know the backstory of Jekyll & Hyde from various movies, many of them from the black & white days.  But this version is a celebrated musical.  The Travelling Toe has seen this musical numerous times at that city to the east (Dallas) and was also fortunate enough to see it at the Plymouth Theatre in NYC. It first premiered at the Alley Theatre in Houston in May, 1990. 

The story line is still the same. Jekyll is a doctor with radical ideas for being able to isolate the "mean" in people by using various drugs to eradicate bad behavior.  But as you know, what the experimental drug does is bring out the evil in Jekyll in the form of Edward Hyde.  And the fight begins between good and evil and Jekyll and Hyde.

The young actor (Keith J Warren) who played Jekyll/Hyde was astounding.  There is one pivotal scene where he argues with himself between the 2 identities.  His voice was excellent especially in the character's signature songs, such as "This Is The Moment".

Being residents of Bedford, our ticket was only $14.99 each.  Wow!  What a bargain for the quality of this entertainment.  The Travelling Toe must admit this was one of the best performances of this musical - ever!!!!.  There was a combo of 4 musicians that provided live musical back-up for the production and that just made it even more enjoyable.

CAST:

Keith J Warren                                                     Jekyll & Hyde

Taylor Quick                                                         Emma Carew

Rebecca Paige                                                     Lucy Harris

Nelson Wilson                                                      Sir Danvers Carew

John Wenzel                                                        Gabriel John Utterson

All the cast members excellent actors, singers and dancers.  The stage setting was very inventive as the stage area itself is rather small.  The costumes, make-up and wigs were all indicative of 1890's London.

stage backdrop
Alex Krus- Set Designer

Photos by James Jamison:

cast of "Jekyll & Hyde"

Jekyll with his friend Gabriel

Lucy and the Red Rat Girls

On Stage In Bedford

     

Frank Stella: A Retrospective at the Modern Museum of Fort Worth

The Travelling Toe is not usually a fan of contemporary or modern art, but a Dear Friend suggested that we go see this new exhibit at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.  So, The Travelling Toe is always up for a museum visit and off we went.  And we were so delighted that we did.  Mr.Stella's work is most impressive.  Most of his sculptures and even his paintings are on a large scale.  It was interesting to examine them and see how the sculptures were put together and then bolted into the wall and into the floor.


The Modern describes the exhibit as follows:

Frank Stella is one of the most important living American artists.  This retrospective exhibition is the most comprehensive presentation of Stella's work today, including 120 works in various media - paintings, relief, maquettes, sculptures and drawings.  

Co-organized by the Modern and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York this exhibition features Stella's best-known works alongside rarely seen examples drawn from collections around the world.  

Frank Stella

Photographs were allowed so here are a few photos that The Travelling Toe was able to capture.

Gur 1 1968

redjang 2009
(one of my personal favorites)

Loomings 1986

The Blanket 1988

The Whitness Of The Whale 1988
Fedallah 1988

this mammoth painting symbolizes an earthquake
that took place in Chile

The painting above is so massive, it will not even fit into a 18 wheeler tractor-trailer.  It has to be untacked from the frame and rolled up.  Then the frame is taken apart for transportation. It has to be re-assembled (carefully) at the next exhibit.

Mr. Stella's work is often rather large, taking up entire walls and very intricately made.  We spent 2 hours looking and examining and enjoying this unique exhibit.

Here is a link to a "You Tube" interview with Mr. Stella regarding the exhibit.

You Tube - Frank Stella Retrospective

And one last note, we attended the exhibit on a Wednesday and it was half-price day and we saw this amazing exhibit for only $2.00 each!!  You can't beat that with a stick!

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

":Star Trek Beyond" (movie critique)

STAR TREK BEYOND
movie poster

After busting ghosts the week before, the Friday Movie Mavens and The Travelling Toe decided to take a trip into space......very deep space.  We joined in on the adventures of the Start Trek team.

The Enterprise while on a 5 year mission docks at a massive starbase named Yorktown, which is a thriving metropolis way out in space.  The Enterprise is there to replenish supplies, equipment and for the crew to have some rest and relaxation.  

While the Enterprise crew is still at Yorktown, an escape pod makes it's way into the safety zone of the starbase.  The survivor in the escape pod is Kalara and she tells the group that her ship and crew are stranded on a planet that is past the nebula.  So the crew of the Enterprise is dispatched to determine the status of the mysterious planet and to locate the missing crew.

They make it through the nebula and as they search for the obscure planet, they are attacked by a massive swarm of fighter ships.  The Enterprise is overwhelmed and is heavily damaged.  The crew is ordered to abandon ship and as they leave in their escape pods they are captured by the swarm.  Somehow Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Bones, Chekov and Uhura find each other on the hostile planet.  And they also find another castaway, Jaylah, who knows the planet well and knows how to fight the hostile aliens as well as what they do with captured spaceship crews.  She tells the Enterprise group that the leader of the swarm is Krall.  He sucks all the life force out of the captured crew members in order to re-fuel his energy level.

So Dear Readers, can Kalara be trusted to help them?  Can Jaylah be trusted to help rescue the captured crew?  Will Krall be defeated?  Will the Enterprise crew make it back to the Yorktown starbase in time to save it?  

Well, The Travelling Toe will not provide the answers to these questions as you will just have to see this space adventure movie yourselves.  But a fourth movie for this franchise will be forthcoming so that answers some of your questions!

Side Notes:


Simon Pegg who plays Scotty helped write the script.  Idris Elba who plays the meanie Krall has the most delicious deep voice.


CAST:

Chris Pine
Captain Kirk

Zachery Quinton
Spock

Anton Yelchin
Chekov

Simon Pegg
Scotty

Zoe Saldana
Uhura

Karl Urban
Bones

John Cho
Sulu

Idris Elba
Krall

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 1 big toe up (well, she is a Trekkie from way back) with a transporter in order to escape the bad guys!

SAD NOTE:

Anton Yelchin who played Chekov was accidentally killed June 19th in a car related accident at his home






Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only.

"Ghostbusters" (movie critique)

GHOSTBUSTERS
movie poster

Who you gonna call?  Well, we did not want to get slimed so we went to see the new version of "Ghostbusters" at the local multiplex.  And we were glad we did! 

The 4 Ghostbusters this time around are all female who can kick ghost butt - so to speak!

Two of the crew, Erin and Abby co-wrote a book about the existence of ghosts when they were young science geeks.  However, the book did not sell well and Erin and Abby went their separate ways.  Erin began to take her career seriously and became a professor at Columbia.  She is up for tenure and learns that the book has now been republished and is generating a lot of buzz on the internet.  This  threatens her scientific reputation and her job. She decides to find Abby to seek her help in stopping the book from being circulated.  Erin finds Abby in the basement of a dubious scientific college still trying to prove the existence of the paranormal.. Abby has a engineering assistant, Jillian, who is rather out there on the radar scale. When their research comes to light at both collegiate institutions,they are both fired.  So they decide to continue their joint research into the paranormal bringing Julian along for the adventure. They eventually find office space above a Chinese restaurant.  Along the way, Patty, a transit worker who comes across a ghost in the subway tunnels, joins the crew too. She also provides transportation from her Uncle's funeral home - bet you can guess what that is! The crew also decides to hire an assistant to handle the office work.  Kevin applies for the job and is immediately hired but it soon becomes apparent that all those jokes about dumb female blondes also pertains to dumb blonde men too!

Well of course, the movie has to have ghosts and the team has to track them down.  So it becomes a funny romp to bust those ghosts.  And just as a side note you will see some familiar faces from the original 1984 flick in this new version.  It was a treat to spot them along the way.


1984 CAST:

Bill Murray

Dan Aykroyd

Sigourney Weave

Annie Potts

Harold Ramos
RIP

This movie was fun to watch and we all had a lot of laughs.  Melissa and Kristen usually play the outlandish funny characters but this time Kate and Leslie stepped up and provided a lot of outrageous humor.  And this is one movie that Melissa has made that is not "R"rated due to language.  


CAST:

• Melissa McCarthy as Dr. Abby Yates
• Kristen Wiig as Dr. Erin Gilbert
• Kate McKinnon as Dr. Jillian Holtzmann
• Leslie Jones as Patty Tolan
• Chris Hemsworth as Kevin Beckman

Melissa McCarthy

Kristen Wiig

Kate McKinnon

Leslie Jones

Chris Hemsworth

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 1 big toe up with a ride in the Ghostbusters limo to save those tired achy feet from running around NYC looking for Ghosts!

UPDATE: "Singin' The Rain" At The Granbury Opera House

In a previous post, The Travelling Toe highlighted the recent show we saw at the Granbury Opera House, "Singin In The Rain".  But 2 photos taken in the lobby were forgotten and not added to the first  post. So here they are just a tad late.

This is a photo of the entire cast of the show wearing their yellow rain slickers.

This was a tablescape on display in the lobby and was really cute.  A red rubber rain boot had an umbrella staked in the middle of it, then crystals attached to ribbons were hanging down from the umbrella like they were rain drops. It was surrounded with yellow rain slickers made out of paper. Now is that not a cute way to highlight the show? So creative!

Hope these pictures were worth visiting the site again to see!

Granbury Theatre Company

"42nd Street" presented by Broadway At The Bass

42ND STREET
play program
(Come and Meet Those Dancing Feet)

The Travelling Toe has been out and about lately even in this Texas heat, thanks to that wonderful invention, A/C! One of the fun things that a Dear Friend and The Travelling Toe attended was the touring road show of the icon musical "42nd Street".

Bradford Ropes wrote the novel of "42nd Street" in 1932 and it was then made into a film in 1933 - black and white of course. Then the movie venison was made into a theatrical experience in August,1980.  It premiered in New York City at the Winter Garden Theatre.  It won numerous awards it's premier year.

The plot is about a young girl, Peggy Sawyer,  who has dreams of making it big on Broadway.  She arrives at an audition just off the bus with suitcase in hand.  She barely makes a spot on the chorus line but her talents outshine all the others. Of course there is the young ladies man who is the star of the show, Billy Lawlor, and he is looking for his next conquest and sets his eyes on Peggy.  But she is enthralled with the director Julian Marsh. Then throw in the diva of the show, Dorothy Brock, and her sugar daddy who is backing the show and you have a plot full of fun, scheming and theater lore.  After all, this is the show where Julian tells Peggy, just before she makes her entrance on stage, "You're going out there a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!"  Pure theater....the things that dreams are made of!!!!!

This is just a fun musical show.  Lots of singing and marvelous tap dancing. They had a special dance floor on stage so that we could hear all those tap shoes going 90 miles an hour!

The show is full of one glorious song after another.  Here a just a few:

• Go Into Your Dance
• You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me
• I Only Have Eyes For You
• We're In The Money
• Lullaby Of Broadway
• About A Quarter To Nine
• Shuffle Off To Buffalo

And of course the exuberant:  

• 42nd Street

All the leads and even the supporting roles were all excellent actors, singers and especially tap dancers.This show made you want to go get some tap shoes and start dancing!

42 ND STREET
road show picture

Bass Hall