Today, concert promotion giant Goldenvoice announced a new festival, Arroyo Seco Weekend, set to take place in Pasadena, California on June 24th and 25th. The festival will boast three stages stacked with performances by talented rock, soul, jazz, funk and blues acts including Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, The Meters, Mumford & Sons, Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Presercation Hall Jazz Band, Fitz & the Tantrums, Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real, Galactic, The Revivalists, Lettuce, John Mayall, Alabama Shakes, The Shins, Weezer, and many more.Targeted toward older fans with families, Arroyo Seco Weekend will offer a kid-friendly area presented by Kidspace Children’s Museum, art installations and a roster of food and drink vendors that will include some of the city’s most respected chefs and craft breweries. The new event follows the trend the company began with Desert Trip last year, catering events to music fans with money to spend on more luxurious concert experiences.According to Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollett in the Los Angeles Times, “Grown-ups can go to festivals, and it turns out there’s a market for it. We’ve all as promoters had to step up the game because the older you get, the luxuries become necessities, but Desert Trip proved that there’s definitely support out there.” He added: “[Arroyo Seco Weekend] is more like, ‘You’re a dad and you want to bring your kids to this.’ It’s not really for the 13-year-old kids who are begging their parents to go. It’s the opposite. It’s like, ‘Dude, you’ve gotta come to this with me. This is going to be our first festival together.’”For tickets and further information, head to the festival’s website.[via Los Angeles Times] read more

Enduring Portrait of Marriage and Art More than three decades after its premiere, The Real Thing hasn’t dated in its portrayal of passion in many forms. “The play is detached from the social politics of today and its period,” Stoppard recently told Vanity Fair. Now 77 and newly married to his third wife, 59-year-old brewery heiress Sabrina Guinness, the playwright added, “Whatever else is going on in the world outside the theater, love and infidelity are always going on.” Or, as Annie tells Henry in Act Two: “I have to choose who I hurt and I choose you because I’m yours.” What does it mean to say that a romantic relationship is “the real thing”? Sir Tom Stoppard examined that age-old question in his most popular play, the 1982 comedy The Real Thing, now getting its third starry Broadway mounting thanks to Roundabout Theater Company. Of course, this being Stoppard, the title also refers to political convictions, the nature of great writing and plays vs. real life. Before checking out Ewan McGregor, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Cynthia Nixon and Josh Hamilton at the American Airlines Theatre, read up on this modern classic. Related Shows A Real Departure While praising Stoppard’s gift for wordplay, British critics found fault with the lack of emotional content in brainy comedies like Jumpers and Travesties. He responded with The Real Thing, the story of an intellectual playwright named Henry and the two actresses he marries, Charlotte and Annie—plus Henry and Charlotte’s daughter, Annie’s first husband and an imprisoned soldier Annie befriends. The play opened at London’s Strand Theatre in November 1982 and was an instant hit, earning comparisons to Pinter’s Betrayal and Coward’s Private Lives. Glenn & Jeremy’s Chemistry Lessons For the play’s 1983 Broadway debut, director Mike Nichols paired up-and-comers Jeremy Irons (The French Lieutenant’s Woman) and Glenn Close (The World According to Garp, Broadway’s Barnum) as Henry and Annie. Known for playing buttoned-up characters, the stars shared a sizzling onstage chemistry that sparked rumors of an offstage affair. “Total rubbish,” Irons sniffed to People, as Close gushed over her co-star’s “incredible eyes,” declaring, “There’s a wonderful sensuality about him.” They remained friends, and Close fondly told a 2014 Sundance Institute audience, “We had such incredible adventures.” From Daughter to Mother At 17, Cynthia Nixon earned a place in Broadway history when she played homeless teen Donna in Act One of David Rabe’s Hurlyburly (above, with William Hurt), then walked two blocks south to portray Debbie, the daughter of Charlotte and Henry, in Act Two of The Real Thing. (Both productions were directed by Mike Nichols.) “There’s very little in the play I got at 17 and 18,” Nixon admitted to Newsday. “It’s a whole different thing when you’re a middle-aged person with children, a separation… I now understand how hard it is to make relationships really work over time.” Show Closed This production ended its run on Jan. 4, 2015 Birth of a Playwright There’s a reason Tom Stoppard’s plays inspired their own adjective— “Stoppardian”—this celebrated writer has spent the past 50 years exploring linguistics, philosophy, politics and relationships in language uniquely his own. Born in Czechoslovakia in 1937, Tomas Straussler and his family escaped the Nazis in 1939, living in Singapore (where his father died), Australia and India before he arrived in England in 1946 with a new stepfather, Kenneth Stoppard. At 17, Tom began working as a journalist and quickly made the leap from drama critic to playwright, winning raves for his 1966 Hamlet offshoot Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. View Comments To Win a Tony, Get Real On Tony night 1984, The Real Thing reigned with five awards: Best Play, Best Actor and Actress for Irons and Close, Best Director for Nichols and Best Featured Actress for The Good Wife star Christine Baranski as Charlotte. A 2000 Broadway revival directed by David Leveaux won Tonys for Best Revival, Best Actor (Stephen Dillane) and Best Actress (Jennifer Ehle). Fun fact: Ehle was nominated alongside her mother, Waiting in the Wings star Rosemary Harris, who is currently headlining Roundabout’s off-Broadway revival of Stoppard’s Indian Ink. The Real Thing Affair of the Heart Beginning with the 1981 hit On the Razzle, petite British actress Felicity Kendal created some of Stoppard’s most enduring heroines, including Hannah Jarvis in Arcadia, Flora Crewe in Indian Ink, the title spy in Hapgood and love-torn actress Annie in The Real Thing opposite Tony winner Roger Rees as Henry. In a case of life imitating art, Stoppard and his muse embarked on an eight-year romance—but their affair began almost a decade after The Real Thing. Ewan & Maggie’s Broadway Affair For the play’s current Broadway mounting, Roundabout attracted a pair of movie stars making their Main Stem debuts: Ewan McGregor and Maggie Gyllenhaal, helmed by in-demand director Sam Gold. (Fun fact: McGregor and Gyllenhaal played siblings in the never-aired pilot for an HBO series based on Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections.) NYC stage vets Cynthia Nixon and Josh Hamilton round out the cast as Charlotte and Henry. “I’m most interested in things that present me with something I have to sort out in my own heart,” Gyllenhaal told USA Today. “This play is about how people communicate with each other, and as we work on it I’m still learning things about it—and, yeah, about my life.” read more

About 200 protesters gathered outside the Chicago Patrolmen’s Federal Credit Union on Saturday, their breath visible in the cold air as they chanted, their fists pounding with each cry.They were determined to shut down Saturday morning’s business for the credit union, across the street from the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, Chicago’s police union. For nearly two hours, Black Youth Project 100 Chicago Chapter members, dressed in black T-shirts with the words “Fund Black Futures” written across them, linked their arms together to form a barricade around the bank’s front desk, stopping workers from conducting business.“The FOP’s advocacy of CPD has helped perpetuate cycles of criminalization that especially plagues low-income black communities,” BYP 100 member Jennifer Pagán said. “These politicians, that these organizations and institutions, like the FOP, would rather police us, kill us, lock us up, than meet demands of better housing, mental health clinics, fully funded neighborhood public schools and jobs programs with fair wages for all of us.”Protesters succeeded in closing the credit union for regular business, but they had done so because they believed they were “shutting down a privately owned bank that the FOP is housed in,” Pagan said during the protest. The union, however, is housed in a building across the street. continue reading » 18SHARESShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr read more

Metro Sport ReporterThursday 10 Oct 2019 11:37 amShare this article via facebookShare this article via twitterShare this article via messengerShare this with Share this article via emailShare this article via flipboardCopy link Comment Unai Emery has ‘tremendous’ respect at Arsenal, says Ceballos (Getty Images)‘He has managed to compete and only just missed out on the Champions League, he almost won the Europa League.AdvertisementAdvertisement‘We’ve started well, just one defeat, third in the league and we are going up.’More: FootballRio Ferdinand urges Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to drop Manchester United starChelsea defender Fikayo Tomori reveals why he made U-turn over transfer deadline day moveMikel Arteta rates Thomas Partey’s chances of making his Arsenal debut vs Man CityCeballos also paid tribute to Arsenal’s fans for the song they have created for him.‘It’s strange, I arrived and in my first game they were already singing my name,’ he said.‘I asked Hector Bellerín and he told me that they also sang it to [Santi] Cazorla . I’ve felt proud from that first moment.’More: Arsenal FCArsenal flop Denis Suarez delivers verdict on Thomas Partey and Lucas Torreira movesThomas Partey debut? Ian Wright picks his Arsenal starting XI vs Manchester CityArsene Wenger explains why Mikel Arteta is ‘lucky’ to be managing Arsenal Advertisement Dani Ceballos has hailed Arsenal boss Unai Emery (Getty Images)Dani Ceballos has hit back at criticism of Unai Emery, claiming that the respect for the Arsenal manager is ‘tremendous’ inside the club.Emery has been criticised for his approach to certain games this season, with former Arsenal strikers Robin van Persie and Ian Wright questioning his tactics after the 1-1 draw against Manchester United last week.Emery has also been widely criticised by Arsenal supporters for his substitutions during matches.But Ceballos insists that Arsenal will continue to improve under Emery’s guidance.ADVERTISEMENT‘I arrived on the first day and the respect they have for him is tremendous, he has turned around the club’s situation in just one year,’ Ceballos told Radio Marca. Advertisement Dani Ceballos defends Unai Emery over criticism at Arsenal read more