Happiness Runs Early Elementary/Level 1 Piano Duet

• Published by Faber Piano Adventures 6 Pages
• Piano Level Early Elementary/Level 1
• Arranger: Nancy Faber

A coming-of-age tale, that finds a young man, Victor (Mark L. Young), growing up on a Utopian commune faced with the challenge to either submit to his community's ideals or to escape. Victor's mother (Andie MacDowell) funds the collective where guru Insley (Rutger Hauer) lectures a lifestyle of free love and out-of-body meditations. Spurred by the sudden reappearance of his childhood love Becky (Hanna Hall), Victor creates a desperate plot to save them both and escape the polygamous cult. One part WOODSTOCK, one part LORD OF THE FLIES, director Adam Sherman's semi-autobiographical film, HAPPINESS RUNS, is a cautionary tale about freeing yourself of social constrictions.

It’s 2008. Jim Axelrodâ€"once among the most watched correspondents on network news and the! first television reporter to broadcast from Saddam International Airport in 2003â€"is covering the final stages of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He’s forty-five years old and thirty pounds overweight. He’s drinking too much, sleeping too little, and scarcely seeing his family. He’s just figured out that the industry that pulled him up the corporate ladder is imploding as he’s reaching for its final rungs. Then, out of the blue, Jim discovers his late father’s decades-old New York Marathon finish times. At forty-six, Bob Axelrod ran a 3:29:58. With everything else going on in his life, Jim sets himself a defining challenge: “Can I beat him?”

 

So begins a deeply felt, often hilarious, quixotic effort to run the 2009 New York Marathon. Along the way, Jim confronts his listing marriage, a career upset by the seismic changes going on throughout the television news industry, excruciatingly painful shin splints, and the w! orst-timed kidney stone possible. Looming over it all is the s! hadow of a loving father, who repeatedly lost his way in life but still has a lesson to impart.

 

This is a book about a dead father’s challenge to a son at a crossroads, but, more than that, it is about the personal costs paid when ambition and talent are not enough to ensure success. Most fundamentally, though, it is a book about learning what it takes to be happy in your own skin.

It’s 2008. Jim Axelrodâ€"once among the most watched correspondents on network news and the first television reporter to broadcast from Saddam International Airport in 2003â€"is covering the final stages of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He’s forty-five years old and thirty pounds overweight. He’s drinking too much, sleeping too little, and scarcely seeing his family. He’s just figured out that the industry that pulled him up the corporate ladder is imploding as he’s reaching for its final rungs. Then, out of the blue! , Jim discovers his late father’s decades-old New York Marathon finish times. At forty-six, Bob Axelrod ran a 3:29:58. With everything else going on in his life, Jim sets himself a defining challenge: “Can I beat him?”

 

So begins a deeply felt, often hilarious, quixotic effort to run the 2009 New York Marathon. Along the way, Jim confronts his listing marriage, a career upset by the seismic changes going on throughout the television news industry, excruciatingly painful shin splints, and the worst-timed kidney stone possible. Looming over it all is the shadow of a loving father, who repeatedly lost his way in life but still has a lesson to impart.

 

This is a book about a dead father’s challenge to a son at a crossroads, but, more than that, it is about the personal costs paid when ambition and talent are not enough to ensure success. Most fundamentally, though, it is a book about learning what it takes to be happy in your ! own skin.

It’s 2008. Jim Axe! lrodâ€"o nce among the most watched correspondents on network news and the first television reporter to broadcast from Saddam International Airport in 2003â€"is covering the final stages of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He’s forty-five years old and thirty pounds overweight. He’s drinking too much, sleeping too little, and scarcely seeing his family. He’s just figured out that the industry that pulled him up the corporate ladder is imploding as he’s reaching for its final rungs. Then, out of the blue, Jim discovers his late father’s decades-old New York Marathon finish times. At forty-six, Bob Axelrod ran a 3:29:58. With everything else going on in his life, Jim sets himself a defining challenge: “Can I beat him?”

 

So begins a deeply felt, often hilarious, quixotic effort to run the 2009 New York Marathon. Along the way, Jim confronts his listing marriage, a career upset by the seismic changes going on throughout the televisi! on news industry, excruciatingly painful shin splints, and the worst-timed kidney stone possible. Looming over it all is the shadow of a loving father, who repeatedly lost his way in life but still has a lesson to impart.

 

This is a book about a dead father’s challenge to a son at a crossroads, but, more than that, it is about the personal costs paid when ambition and talent are not enough to ensure success. Most fundamentally, though, it is a book about learning what it takes to be happy in your own skin.

Students may just start singing this engaging melody and cheerful lyric. Legato and staccato touches are explored as both parts share melody and harmony.

Songs: Happiness Runs

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Blood & Chocolate

• Languages - English, French
• Subtitles - English, French, Spanish.
• Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
• Dolby Digital 5.1

As a young girl living in the remote mountains of Colorado, Vivian (Bruckner) watched helplessly as her family was murdered by a pack of angry men for the secret they carried in their blood. Vivian survived the attack by running into the woods and changing into a wolf. Ten years later, Vivian is living a relatively safe and normal life in Bucharest, Romania. Vivian spends her days working in a chocolate shop and nights trawling the city’s underground clubs, fending off the reckless antics of her cousin Rafe, and his gang of delinquents he refers to as "The Five."

Vivian’s life begins to unravel when she has a chance encounter with Aiden (Dancy), an artist researching Bucharest’ ancient art and relics for his next graphic novel. Aiden pursue! s Vivian until she relents and begins to see him, but she can’t bring herself to tell him the truth - and lives in fear of showing him who she really is. Even though Vivian has sworn never to kill, she is as much an animal as she is human, and her love for Aiden threatens to cast him to the very wolves who saved her life and who are waiting for their chance to hunt him as prey.

Stills from Blood & Chocolate (click for larger image)

Beyond Blood & Chocolate at Amazon.com

Gothic Horror on DVDs

More from Olivier Martinez

DVDs of "Things That Go Bump"

When graphic novelist Aiden (Hugh Dancy) travels to Bucharest to research the loup garou legend, he nearly gets devoured in the latest female werewolf film, Blood and Chocolate. In the tradition of Werewolf Woman and Ginger Snaps, Blood and Chocolate stars Vivian Gandillon (Agnes Bruckner), a girl who's forced to face her lupine tendencies in order to discover how capable of loving Aiden she really is. Based on a book by Annette Curtis Clause, the film chronicles the lives of the remaining loup garou who are an extended Romanian family waiting for their pack leader, Gabriel, to select his new mate. His desire for Vivian means trouble when her wish to be with Aiden results in her revea! ling too much about the clan's secretive lifestyle. In this fi! lm, were wolves look fully human until their eyes glow with colored contact lenses while they fly through the air to then land as full-fledged wolves. Gone are the days, apparently, of films showing the transformation in all its hairy, explosive detail. A lack of scenes describing the werewolf metamorphosis make this film more a love story than a monster tale, though two forest gatherings in which the loup garou hunt human sacrifices offer some grizzly satisfaction. Unlike the aforementioned femme werewolf films, Blood and Chocolate features a girl fighting her urge to kill in a bid to unite humans with her brethren, making this movie the most peaceful in its genre. With a tame wolf as protagonist, the potential nightmare is really just a pleasant dream to unite the two disparate worlds. The question is: Do we want that to happen? --Trinie Dalton

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Fried Green Tomatoes (Extended Collector's Edition)

• Wide Screen edition
• extended version

HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT - DVD MovieBased on the bestseller by Whitney Otto, this film seemed to miss all the poetry and the ephemeral charms of the wispy novel by trying to make a concrete movie out of it. Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse (who made a similar hash out of A Thousand Acres), the film centers on Winona Ryder, who is debating her impending marriage and decides to make up her mind while spending the summer with her grandmother (Ellen Burstyn). This leads to a variety of encounters with Grandma and her sewing circle (which includes Anne Bancroft, Kate Nelligan, and Maya Angelou, among others), who reminisce about men, love, and marriage. It's put together piecemeal, like a quilt, but the parts add up to a fragmented, unsatisfying whole, despite some solid acting. --Marshall FineBased on the bestseller by Whitney Otto, t! his film seemed to miss all the poetry and the ephemeral charms of the wispy novel by trying to make a concrete movie out of it. Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse (who made a similar hash out of A Thousand Acres), the film centers on Winona Ryder, who is debating her impending marriage and decides to make up her mind while spending the summer with her grandmother (Ellen Burstyn). This leads to a variety of encounters with Grandma and her sewing circle (which includes Anne Bancroft, Kate Nelligan, and Maya Angelou, among others), who reminisce about men, love, and marriage. It's put together piecemeal, like a quilt, but the parts add up to a fragmented, unsatisfying whole, despite some solid acting. --Marshall FineBased on the bestseller by Whitney Otto, this film seemed to miss all the poetry and the ephemeral charms of the wispy novel by trying to make a concrete movie out of it. Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse (who made a similar hash out of A Thousand Acres), the film centers on Winona Ryder, who is debating her imp! ending m arriage and decides to make up her mind while spending the summer with her grandmother (Ellen Burstyn). This leads to a variety of encounters with Grandma and her sewing circle (which includes Anne Bancroft, Kate Nelligan, and Maya Angelou, among others), who reminisce about men, love, and marriage. It's put together piecemeal, like a quilt, but the parts add up to a fragmented, unsatisfying whole, despite some solid acting. --Marshall Fine"Remarkable...An affirmation of the strength and power of individual lives, and the way they cannot help fitting together."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
An extraordinay and moving reading experience, HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT is an exploration of women of yesterday and today, who join together in a uniquely female experience. As they gather year after year, their stories, their wisdom, their lives, form the pattern from which all of us draw warmth and comfort for ourselves.
A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE COMING OUT FALL 1995-- with Maya Angelou, Winona Ryder, and Rip TornBased on the bestseller by Whitney Otto, this film seemed to miss all the poetry and the ephemeral charms of the wispy novel by trying to make a concrete movie out of it. Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse (who made a similar hash out of A Thousand Acres), the film centers on Winona Ryder, who is debating her impending marriage and decides to make up her mind while spending the summer with her grandmother (Ellen Burstyn). This leads to a variety of encounters with Grandma and her sewing circle (which includes Anne Bancroft, Kate Nelligan, and Maya Angelou, among others), who reminisce about men, love, and marriage. It's put together piecemeal, like a quilt, but the parts add up to a fragmented, unsatisfying whole, despite some solid acting. --Marshall FineFroed Green tomatoes movie, wide screen edition, extended version DVD.Kathy Bates stars as an unhappy wife trying to get her husband's attention in this amusing ! and moving 1991 screen adaptation of Fannie Flagg's novel F! ried Gre en Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. After befriending a lonely old woman (Jessica Tandy), Bates hears the story of a lifelong friendship between two other women (Mary Stuary Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker, seen in flashback) who once ran a cafe in town against many personal odds. The tale inspires Bates to take further command over her life, and there director Jon Avnet (Up Close and Personal), in his first feature, has fun with the film. Bates develops a real attitude toward her thickheaded spouse at home and some uppity girls in a parking lot, but dignity is generally the key to Avnet's approach with the story's crucial relationships. Tandy is a joy and clearly loves the element of mystery attached to her character, and Masterson and Parker are excellent in the historical sequences. --Tom KeoghKathy Bates stars as an unhappy wife trying to get her husband's attention in this amusing and moving 1991 screen adaptation of Fannie Flagg's novel Fried Gr! een Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. After befriending a lonely old woman (Jessica Tandy), Bates hears the story of a lifelong friendship between two other women (Mary Stuary Masterson and Mary-Louise Parker, seen in flashback) who once ran a cafe in town against many personal odds. The tale inspires Bates to take further command over her life, and there director Jon Avnet (Up Close and Personal), in his first feature, has fun with the film. Bates develops a real attitude toward her thickheaded spouse at home and some uppity girls in a parking lot, but dignity is generally the key to Avnet's approach with the story's crucial relationships. Tandy is a joy and clearly loves the element of mystery attached to her character, and Masterson and Parker are excellent in the historical sequences. --Tom Keogh

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Celtic Woman: Songs From The Heart

• DVD
• Celtic Woman
• Format DVD

GRACE OF MY HEART - DVD MovieThe traditions of old-fashioned melodrama are given a hip facelift in this homage to the Brill Building era (the late 1950s to the early 1970s) of pop-music glory, providing a perfect match between writer-director Allison Anders and her excellent cast. Illeana Douglas plays a singer-songwriter (loosely modeled after Brill recording artist Carole King) whose life runs emotionally parallel to popular music trends. John Turturro is a stand-in for "wall of sound" producer Phil Spector and Matt Dillon is a thinly disguised version of maverick Beach Boy Brian Wilson. It's a bit too schematic in the way the central character is always in the right place at the right time, but as a tale of fame and romantic highs and lows in the '50s and '60s the movie is funny, touching, and sincere. It's a lively and loving tribute to timeless! music and the colorful characters who created it. --Jeff Shannon A terrific sampler of greatest hits from the heyday of girl groups and the Brill Building--except that none of the songs are actually from that era. What we have here is an incredible simulation--from Allison Anders' unjustly overlooked 1996 movie about the tempestuous life and career of a Carole King- like singer-songwriter (the magnificent Illeana Douglas) who spends years writing for others before finding her own voice. But instead of just licensing the old Shirelles' recordings of Goffin-King hits, the filmmakers came up with the brilliant idea of doing original songs by combining the sensibilities of contemporary artists and their songwriting forebears. So, for example, Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach teamed up to write and perform the power- ballad "God Give Me Strength" (although I wish they'd also included Douglas's even more moving version from the picture); Leslie Gore te! ams with Larry Klein and David Baerwald for "My Secret Love" ! (perform ed by Miss Lily Banquette of Combustible Edison); Gerry and Louise Goffin team with Baerwald for "Between Two Worlds" (performed by Sean Colvin); J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. writes and sings some Brian Wilson/Beach Boys-type stuff ("Take a Run at the Sun," "Don't You Think It's Time"), and so on. Buy the record; see the movie. You won't be disappointed. --Jim EmersonThe traditions of old-fashioned melodrama are given a hip facelift in this homage to the Brill Building era (the late 1950s to the early 1970s) of pop-music glory, providing a perfect match between writer-director Allison Anders and her excellent cast. Illeana Douglas plays a singer-songwriter (loosely modeled after Brill recording artist Carole King) whose life runs emotionally parallel to popular music trends. John Turturro is a stand-in for "wall of sound" producer Phil Spector and Matt Dillon is a thinly disguised version of maverick Beach Boy Brian Wilson. It's a bit too schematic in the way the! central character is always in the right place at the right time, but as a tale of fame and romantic highs and lows in the '50s and '60s the movie is funny, touching, and sincere. It's a lively and loving tribute to timeless music and the colorful characters who created it. --Jeff Shannon Tracks: God Give Me the Strength-Burt Bacharach & Elvis Costello, Love Doesn't Ever Fail Us-Williams Brothers, Take a Run at the Sun-J Mascis, I Do-For Real, Between Two Worlds-Shawn Colvin, My Secret Love-Lily Banquette, Man From Mars-Kristen Vigard, Born to Love that Boy-For Real, Truth is You Lied-Jill Sobule, Unwanted Number-For Real, Groovin on You-Juneo, In Another World-Portrait, Don't You Think It's Time-J Mascis, Absence Makes the Heart-Tiffany Anders & Boyd Rice, A Boat on the Sea-Kristen VigardThe traditions of old-fashioned melodrama are given a hip facelift in this homage to the Brill Building era (the late 1950s to the early 1970s) of pop-music glory, providing a perf! ect match between writer-director Allison Anders and her excel! lent cas t. Illeana Douglas plays a singer-songwriter (loosely modeled after Brill recording artist Carole King) whose life runs emotionally parallel to popular music trends. John Turturro is a stand-in for "wall of sound" producer Phil Spector and Matt Dillon is a thinly disguised version of maverick Beach Boy Brian Wilson. It's a bit too schematic in the way the central character is always in the right place at the right time, but as a tale of fame and romantic highs and lows in the '50s and '60s the movie is funny, touching, and sincere. It's a lively and loving tribute to timeless music and the colorful characters who created it. --Jeff Shannon The 1996 film "Grace of My Heart" was directed by Allison Anders and starred Illeana Douglas, Sissy Boyd, and Christina Pickles. The story of its original motion picture soundtrack CD is rather tortured: Supposedly Joni Mitchell's version of the song "Man From Mars" was to be included in the film; Kristen Vigard's version was used i! nstead, but somehow the soundtrack includes Mitchell's version (even though it lists Vigard as the performer). Kind of complicated. This flubbed pressing, apparently recalled after one week, has a catalog number of MCAD 11510. Also included on the CD are songs by the following performers: Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello ("God Give Me Strength"), the Williams Brothers ("Love Doesn't Ever Fail Us"), J Mascis ("Take a Run at the Sun" and "Don't You Think It's Time"), For Real ("I Do"), Shawn Colvin ("Between Two Worlds"), Miss Lily Banquette of Combustible Edison ("My Secret Love"), For Real ("Born to Love That Boy" and "Unwanted Number"), Jill Sobule, who also appears in the film ("Truth Is You Lied"), Juned ("Groovin' On You"), Portrait ("In Another World"), Tiffany Anders and Boyd Rice ("Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder"), and Kristen Vigard ("A Boat on the Sea").Track Listing:
1. The Call
2. Fields of Gold
3. When You Believe
4. The Coast of Gal! içia
5. The New Ground - Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears 6. N on C’è Piú
7. True Colours
9. Galway Bay
10. Goodnight My Angel
11. O, America!
12. Níl Sé’n Lá
13. The Last Rose Fantasia
14. The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress
15. My Lagan Love
16. Amazing Grace
17. Pie Jesu
18. Slumber My Darling / The Mason’s Apron
19. Danny Boy
20. You Raise Me Up
21. Finale / Mo Ghile Mear

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I Can't Think Straight

• I CAN'T THINK STRAIGHT (DVD MOVIE)

Winner of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award, CIRCUMSTANCE is a provocative coming-of-age story that cracks open the hidden, underground world of Iranian youth culture filled with sex, drugs and defiance. From newcomer Maryam Keshavarz, this suspenseful tale of love and defiance unfolds as a wealthy family struggles to contain their teenage daughter’s growing sexual rebellion and her brother’s dangerous obsession.In another place and time, the young women of Circumstance might have a bright future ahead of them, but in Tehran, they must pretend to be something they're not. Sixteen-year-old orphan Shireen (Sarah Kazemy) lives with her strict uncle, while Atafeh's loving parents have provided a comfortable home. Nonetheless, Atafeh's brother, Mehran (Reza Sixo Safai), has traded his classical music career for a crack habit. After a stint! in rehab, though, Mehran rejects Western art, embraces Islam, helps out at a mosque--and spies on his family. While he struggles to stay clean and secure a wife, Shireen and Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri) sneak out to drink and dance to rock and hip-hop with a couple of like-minded male friends. It gradually emerges that the feelings between the girls go deeper than friendship, and the two even participate in a project to dub Gus Van Sant's Milk into Farsi in hopes that other Iranian youth will see the film and agitate for equal rights. After they get in trouble with the law, though, everything changes: Shireen's uncle pressures her to marry, and Atafeh finds her friend slipping away, so she comes up with a plan to solve all their problems at once. Filmed in Beirut, American-born writer-director Maryam Keshavarz's feature-film debut is pitched somewhere between My Son the Fanatic and No One Knows About Persian Cats. If less overtly political, she's equally s! ympathetic towards her protagonists and just as critical of th! e indivi duals and institutions that would stand in their way. --Kathleen C. FennessyJulia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas), an American journalist married to a Frenchman, is commissioned to write an article about the notorious Vel d’Hiv round up, which took place in Paris, in 1942. She stumbles upon a family secret which will link her forever to the destiny of a young Jewish girl, Sarah. Julia learns that the apartment she and her husband Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand’s family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers - especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive - the more she uncovers about Bertrand’s family, about France and, finally, herself.

Sarah’s Key is based on the book by Tatiana d! e Rosnay.An intrepid journalist brings the past to life in this gripping drama. An American based in Paris, Julia Jarmond (Tell No One's Kristin Scott Thomas) has been working on a piece about a French atrocity while planning to move into an apartment that belongs to her husband Bertrand's family. During the course of her research, she finds that 10-year-old Sarah Starzynski (Mélusine Mayance, a sparky presence) lived in the same Marais flat until 1942 when French authorities wrenched Jewish citizens from their homes during the notorious Vél d'Hiver Roundup (Julia's daughter is only a year older). Unbeknownst to anyone but her parents, Sarah locked up her 4-year-old brother in a hidden closet in hopes of returning to set him free him later, but the trio ends up in a transit camp en route to Auschwitz. Sarah will eventually escape, but the years to come will not be easy. In adapting Tatiana de Rosnay's novel, director Gilles Paquet-Brenner, the son of a deportee, mo! ves back and forth between Sarah and Julia, who finds out she'! s pregna nt in the midst of trips to Florence and New York, but Bertrand doesn't share her joy. A French farmer (A Prophet's Niels Arestrup) and a food writer (Aidan Quinn) also figure into Sarah's story, which merges with Julia's as she finds a way to carry on her legacy. Much as in Julie and Julia, the past proves more compelling than the present, though Scott Thomas holds the narrative together with the force of her talent. --Kathleen C. FennessyWhile preparing for her wedding, Tala meets Leyla, a shy Muslim. Although they come from different worlds, the attraction is immediate and Tala must decide whether to stay true to her culture or to her heart. Starring Lisa Ray, Sheetal Sheth and Nina Wadia.

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Funny Ha Ha

• FUNNY HA HA (DVD MOVIE)

Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 06/19/2007 Run time: 88 minutes Rating: Nr

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Fay Grim

• Fay Grim (Parker Posey) is afraid her son Ned (Liam Aiken) will turn out like his father, Henry, who has been a fugitive for seven years. Fay s brother, Simon, is serving a prison sentence for helping Henry escape the country. Adding to her trials, Fay is approached by a CIA agent (Jeff Goldblum) to help find Henry s missing notebooks in exchange for Simon s freedom. The mission escalates into a g

FAY GRIM - DVD MovieFay Grim is Hal Hartley's version of the espionage thriller. Consequently, it's more peculiar than pulse-pounding, but that's what makes his films appealing--to those who appreciate their off-kilter rhythms, that is. In Hartley's world, dialogue is often delivered with a straight face, no matter how funny the line or farcical the situation. In Fay Grim, he picks up seven years after Henry Fool left off, but this time the writer/director shifts focus from no! velist Henry (Thomas Jay Ryan) to his seemingly scattered wife, Fay (Parker Posey). Their son, Ned (Liam Aiken), is now in his teens, but Henry remains at large, and Fay's "garbage man poet" brother, Simon (James Urbaniak), remains in prison for aiding in his escape. Then two CIA operatives, Fulbright (Jeff Goldblum) and Fogg (Leo Fitzpatrick), inform her that Henry is dead, so Fay agrees to track down his complete set of diaries in exchange for Simon's freedom. Apparently, Henry's incoherent ramblings contain state secrets. Joining forces with stewardess Bebe (Elina Löwensohn), Fay travels from Queens to Paris to Istanbul to fulfill her mission. In the end, Fay Grim resembles Hartley's noir parody Amateur, which featured Löwensohn, more than Henry Fool. It has less to say about talent and celebrity and more about mystery and intrigue. For the filmmaker, it also represents an opportunity to reunite a strong ensemble and to recover, at least for the ti! me being, from a string of disappointments, like No Such Th! ing and The Girl From Monday. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Diaghilev's Ballets Russes

• ISBN13: 9780306808784
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

The Ballets Russes was a phenomenon of the early twentieth century, permeating daily life wherever the company traveled and leaving a lasting impact on dance, theater, and the visual arts. Sergei Diaghilev, impresario from 1909 until his death in 1929, fused the most avant-garde, groundbreaking movements in dance, choreography, art, design, and costume into unique and stunning productions. The work was exciting, and always new, and it stretched the limits of the possible in art. The color, form, and material in costume and set design astonished audiences, transforming every corner of Western culture in the twentieth century.

Fashion and decor designers and visual artists in particularâ€"inclu! ding Coco Chanel, Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Léon Bakst, and Pablo Picassoâ€"found inspiration in the Ballets Russes. Designers and artists moved past old boundaries and created costumes and set designs for these extravagant productions, bridging the gaps between tangible and abstract artistic genres.

The Ballets Russes and the Art of Design explores these revolutionary icons and ideas, illuminating Sergei Diaghilev's profound revitalization of the arts, which continues to influence us today. Ten essays by internationally recognized experts and 200 color and black-and-white illustrationsâ€"many from private collections and never-before-publishedâ€"discuss a broad range of topics, including set and costume designs, graphic design and poster art, photographs and postcards, Diaghilev's presence in the media, and private and museum collections of Ballets Russes treasures.

While the early 20th centu! ry was r ich with creative energy, no one brought theater and dance to the forefront of culture quite like Sergei Diaghilev did with his extraordinary Ballets Russes. From 1909 to 1929, the Ballets Russes attracted the involvement of major artists, composers, and designers. Now,  this major book, published to accompany a retrospective exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, examines the origins, development, and long-term influence of the Ballets Russes and celebrates the centenary of their first appearance in 1909. 
Diaghilev's extraordinary company revolutionized ballet for all time. The book shows Diaghilev's use of avant-garde composers such as Stravinsky, dancers such as Nijinsky and Massine, and designers such as Bakst, Goncharova, Picasso, Matisse, and Chanel, and even a very young George Balanchine, all of whom helped to create true collabrations never before seen in the performing arts. works This beautiful book showcases artistic collaboration at its fin! est.

PRAISE FOR DIAGHILEV AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE BALLETS RUSSES

"The best accompaniment for the exhibition is the sumptuous illustrated catalog, edited by Jane Pritchard, who co-curated the exhibit along with Geoffrey Marsh. In its close-up details of costume, its black and white images of ballet and its lucid and intelligent texts, the book covers subjects that are not discussed in the museum show. This fascinating book should be on every ballet lovers’ holiday gift list."--Suzy Menkes, The New York Times

"The most newsworthy dance item in Europe during the remainder of 2010 is not occurring onstage. It’s an exhibition: “Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes 1909-29” at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (through Jan. 9, 2011). " --Alaistair Macaulay,  Sunday New York Times 

BALLETS RUSSES - DVD MoviePart history, part love letter, Ballets Russes may be the most purely delightful! documentary in years. The movie follows the birth of the Ball! et Russe de Monte Carlo in the early 1930s, an event that eventually led--after years of exhilarating experiments, bitter artistic battles, and exhausting tours--to the establishment of modern ballet around the world. Ballet Russes combines astonishing film footage of fantastical ballets (featuring extravagant sets designed by Salvador Dali and costumes by Henri Matisse) and interviews with surviving dancers in their 70s, 80s, and 90s (ranging from Dame Alicia Markova, who was a prima ballerina with the original Ballet Russe under impresario Sergei Diaghilev, to Yvonne Craig, who went on to become Batgirl in the '60s tv show Batman); the result is a breathtaking range of scholarship and depth of feeling. The heart of the film is the dancers themselves, who are sly, thoughtful, gossipy, and amazingly youthful in spirit--even the most difficult times are discussed with humor and honesty. Ballet fans will find this an essential document, while anyone who's never even thou! ght of going to ballet will be completely caught up in these dancers' passion and wonder. A beautiful, entrancing movie. --Bret FetzerThe Ballets Russes has engaged people for 100 years, ever since Russian-born Sergei Diaghilev created this dynamic avant-garde company. Diaghilev brought together some of the most important visual artists of the 20th century--Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, AndrŽ Derain, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Georges Braque, Giorgio de Chirico, Natalia Gonchorova and Mikhail Larionov, and more--who worked as costume and stage designers with composers such as Igor Stravinky, choreographers such as Michel Fokine, and dancers such as Vaslav Nijinsky, infusing new life and creative energy into the performing arts of the time.

Premiering in Paris, the Ballets Russes, for the brief period of its existence (1909-1929), created exotic, extravagant, and charming theatrical spectacle but also critical discussion and technical innovation, as well as exuding! glamour--and often creating scandal--wherever it appeared.

! The cost umes featured in this book are drawn entirely from the National Gallery of Australia's world-renowned collection of Ballets Russes costumes and ephemera. Through the costumes, drawings, programs and posters, the visual spectacle of the Ballets Russes is brought back into view for a contemporary audience to appreciate the revolution it was and the ongoing influence it continues to have today.

This book is a must for anyone interested in the performing arts, the intersection of art and design, and costume and fashion.In May 1909, Sergei Diaghilev astonished the world of dance with his first ballet presentations in Paris that demonstrated an unprecedented combination of vitality and grace, originality, and technical sophistication. This catalogue of over three hundred artworks related to the Saisons Russes between 1909 and 1929 is the official companion to an exhibition in Monte Carlo. The legendary productions are brought to life through stage designs, costumes, paintings,! sculptures, photographs, and programs. The artwork comes from a wide variety of public and private collections, including the Fokine collection in the St. Petersburg Theatre Museum. Diaghilev’s scenic achievements are complemented by a number of contextual paintings, drawings, and other artifacts, which help to define Russia’s cultural renaissance of the first decades of the twentieth century. The documentary section of the catalog contains rich archival material, including letters, photographs, choreographic notes, and memoirs, many published here for the first time.The biography of a fascinating cultural hero, René Blum and the Ballets Russes uncovers the events in the life of the enigmatic and brilliant writer and producer who perished in the Holocaust. Brother of Léon Blum, the first socialist prime minister of France, René Blum was a passionate and prominent littérateur. He was the editor of the chic literary journal Gil Blas where he met su! ch celebrated figures as Claude Debussy, Pierre Bonnard, Edoua! rd Vuill ard, André Gide, and Paul Valéry. As author Judith Chazin-Bennahum's research illustrates, Blum actually arranged for the publication of Proust's Swann's Way. But Blum's accomplishments and legacy do not end there: after enlisting in World War I, he won the Croix de Guerre and became a national hero. And Blum resurrected the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo after Diaghilev's death. Tragically, he was arrested in 1941 during a roundup of Jewish intellectuals and ultimately sent to Auschwitz.
Based on a treasure trove of previously undiscovered letters and documents, this thoroughly researched narrative not only tells the poignant story of Blum's life but also illustrates Blum's central role in the development of dance in the United States. Indeed, Blum's efforts to save his ballet company eventually helped to bring many of the world's greatest dancers and choreographers--among them Fokine, Balanchine, and Nijinska--to American ballet stages, shaping the path o! f dance in the United States for years to come.

In the history of twentieth-century ballet, no company has had so profound and far-reaching an influence as the Ballets Russes. Under the direction of impresario extraordinaire Serge Diaghilev (1872â€"1929), the Ballets Russes radically transformed the nature of balletâ€"its subject matter, movement idiom, choreographic style, stage space, music, scenic design, costume, even the dancer's physical appearance. From 1909 to 1929, it nurtured some of the greatest choreographers in dance historyâ€"Fokine, Nijinsky, Massine, and Balanchineâ€"and created such classics as Les Sylphides, Firebird, Petrouchka, L'Après-midi d'un Faune, Les Noces, and Apollo. Diaghilev brought together some of the leading artists of his time, including composers Stravinsky, Debussy, and Prokofiev; artists Picasso, Braque, and Matisse, and poets Hoffmansthal and Cocteau. Diaghilev's Ballets Russes is the most authoritative history! of the company ever written and the first to examine it as a ! totality â€"its art, enterprise, and audience. Combining social and cultural history with illuminating discussions of dance, drama, music, art, economics, and public reception, Lynn Garafola paints an extraordinary portrait of the company that shaped ballet into what it is today.

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