My film with Montreal artist Philippe Van Eetvelt hits the big screen! What an honor to participate in the Lake Champlain International Film Festival for the fourth year in a row. The film, from my "Spotlight" arts series, focused on the innovative artist who sometimes paints with doctors syringes and devised a machine to help him paint with a piano. The short film premiered at the festival this year, and I am excited to share it with a wider audience in 2018. Another highlight for "Spotlight": nursing students at Pace University in Manhattan this past semester were shown the interview I conducted with author Roger Noyes, who wrote the biography of his great-great aunt, the notable nurse Clara Noyes, who helped advance the career of nursing in the early 20th century.
I fulfilled a long-time dream of mine to see an opera at
the world famous Opera Garnier (home of the phantom) in Paris. La
Cenerentola by Rossini tells the story of Cinderella minus the magic,
but the evening was no less magical. Also in Paris, I had lunch at Le
Train Bleu, a restaurant I've longed to dine in since 1988. I amde some great friends in Paris (and thank you for the wonderful photos)! Italian opera, French dining and Britsh pop sensation Robbie Williams. Paris est parfait!
It's what you do in the
medieval city of Göttingen, you kiss the Goose Girl. I made a
pilgrimage side trip to see her, during my stay in Germany. The
fountain is based on a Grimm fairy tale, and local doctorates kiss her
when they graduate...tourists too. I also met the Pied Piper himself in
Hamelin.
In Portland, Oregon, The Kronos Quartet played the 1999 score to
Dracula (1931) with its composer Philip Glass, a show I'd seen a few
times before when the composition was new. I also enjoyed the classics The Graduate, Suspiria (restored print), The Warriors (in Paris), Psycho II and Saturday Night Fever, all looking fantastic on the big screen. New films I loved this year included La La Land and Disney's live action Beauty and the Beast. My favorite new movie of 2017: The Disaster Artist.
Sculptor Patrick
Dougherty creates large pieces the public may admire, touch and even
wander through, and a new cluster of them have grown at the Montreal
Botanical Garden.
I had the pleasure of exploring the sculptures myself, and of speaking with the artist about his choice of
material, the help he gets from volunteers, and the temporary nature of
grand art made entirely out of sticks. The three new works in Montreal
are among the more than two hundred-seventy-five pieces the North
Carolina artist has made all over the world, in places including Japan,
France and all over the United States.
This “Spotlight” segment
premiered on the program Mountain Lake Journal. “Spotlight” is made
possible, in part, by the Glenn and Carol Pearsall Adirondack Foundation,
dedicated to improving the quality of life for year-round residents of
the Adirondack Park. “Spotlight” is also supported by the chamber music
organization Hill and Hollow Music.
I am a television producer. I enjoy telling uplifting stories about people making a difference in the arts, technology, health care, education, diversity, and a variety of other disciplines.
