Hail Cinema Jams at the World Cafe

Hallowed Cain
Photo: David Norbut Photography

The World Cafe Live at The Queen is the kind of venue Delawareans used to have to drive to Philly or DC (or any bigger city, really) to experience. If you haven't checked it out yet, think The Trocadero meets the TLA, only a bit more intimate -- a size that's completely appropriate for our small city. The downstairs stage, which hosted The Battle of the Bands: Cinema Jams on Saturday, April 30, is a beautiful restored relic of a movie theater, highlighted by its original organ pipes and ornate stonework, the delicate decorative paint faded by time. Quite literally, you're watching a show in 20th Century ruin of sorts - one that's spotlessly clean, well-lit and lined with a 21st Century bar.

The World Cafe boasts some big names coming through, and it's primarily a venue for touring artists. On this night, though, the stage belonged to local acts The Hold Up, Stallions, Hallowed Cain, Rubber Skunk and My Friends, for a battle royale unlike anything I've seen. The concept of Cinema Jams was a Film Brothers brainchild: each band does a set of their own songs, in the theme of a movie. So, costumes, interludes and video all played a part, and the audience -- I don't know if it was sold out, but it was certainly packed -- voted for the  top band of the night.

The evening started with one of my local favorites, The Hold Up, in full "Fight Club" ensemble, doing their old school rock 'n roll flavored tracks like "On Hallowed Ground" and "Zombies Ate My Neighbors." The Stallions set their classic modern rock sound with "No Country for Old Men." Funk fusion Rubber Skunk officially did "An Inconvenient Truth," with a humorous "powerpoint" show, and wound up featuring others such as Charlie Sheen, Shaft, Nosferatu, Indiana Jones and "Snakes on a Plane." My Friends were fully decked out for their "Aladdin" theme, complete with a trumpet-playing red parrot and a genie on percussion. It was Hallowed Cain, though, who stole the show, and won the night, with their fully integrated "Clockwork Orange" theme, including video, costumes and props, which worked perfectly with their heavy, intense music.

A great night all the way through. We hope to see more shows like it in the future!

More: World Cafe Live at The Queen

Check out David Norbut's amazing photos of the show here!

OperaDelaware’s Widow will make YOU merry

Maestro Steven Mosteller has the ability to conduct with authority yet still allow his soloists to milk the lovely Franz Lehar melodies for all they are worth. Eliezer Gutman’s fluid and gypsy-like lilting phrases were perfect for the schmaltzy songs of Lehar’s Merry Widow.

Laura Pedersen (as the Merry Widow) is svelte and lithe and wore delicious dresses designed by Lorraine Anderson, each one with a short train, which Pedersen gracefully lifted to the crook of her elbow to be whirled around the floor by Daniel Neer (Count Danilo). Their flawless dancing and strong singing give them that electricity that makes the audience believe in their love “spark”.

The operetta which premiered in Vienna in 1905 is a fluffy and hilarious story based on a comedy by Henri Meilhac. The story pits the Paris embassy staff of an impoverished country against French roués who would love to marry the country’s most wealthy widow. Paris and France are outrageously mocked to great comic effect -- it seemed Maurice Chevalier would come on stage any moment to defend his honor or at least to greet Dodo, Clo-Clo, Lolo, Frou Frou, Margot or Jou Jou.

The set, designed by Cynthia Du Pont Tobias, is a fantasy of Viennese Secession but drawn in more of an Art Nouveau style – with a brick-walled garden turned miraculously into a Parisian café and stage for the can-can girls by Robert Parker and his stagewrights.

The opera has creative choreography by Barbara Winchester who mixes the artists of the First State Ballet Theatre into the ballroom dancing of the rest of the cast with great success.

You can’t help but be uplifted by this production, beautifully coordinated by OperaDelaware Executive Director Leland Kimball! Performances May 1, 6 and 7, 2011.

See www.operade.org.

State Poet Laureate at Newark Free Library

She breezes in, greets everyone by a nod, apologizes for being late and engages us right away by explaining that she has just been working on a new poem and would like to read it to us.

JoAnn Balingit exudes warmth as she reads her latest poem about Herring Point –one of many poems inspired by her walks around Delaware. ‘I rename it for my life because we all fall down’ is a line that keeps ringing through my head.

She reads eleven of her poems and she notices her works are lighting sparks in her listeners. She calmly lets them interrupt with questions. She is focused on her listeners.

One of her poems was written for Delaware’s 50^th Governor’s Prayer Breakfast in April 2010. The Gulf oil spill had just occurred and Ms. Balingit scrapped her other drafts to write Prayer for the Gulf, a very moving verse tribute.

Her poem Circus, which recounts a dream about her late mother, reassures anyone who has to admit that the late loved one is no longer present.

After her reading, she invites people to read their own poems. Many have fairly polished works and afterwards we all chat like old friends.

When she was first appointed as Delaware’s 16^th poet laureate in May 2008 she said, “I want to convince as many people as possible to give poetry a chance – to see if they’re willing to be wooed or not.” Many are willing.

Keep checking your library schedule as Ms. Balingit will start regular poetry readings in the New Castle County Public Libraries.

See www.joannbalingit.org.