"Snazzy is as Snazzy Does!"
Gwen Joy is an artist who specializes in colorful folk art paintings.
Life experience is her subject matter which is translated in a lyrical/mythical fashion.
Follow Gwen's snazzy street reviews weekly here on
Motorcityblog Reach her directly at www.GwenJoy.com
This weekend a truly unique event took place at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Grammy award winning pop conductor Jeff Tyzik crafted a program with various musicians and numerous acrobats. Each song except for a few were accompanied with a spectacular visual act. My favorite piece was an intermezzo from La Boda de Luis Alonso by Jeronimo Gimenez. This was not accompanied by any acrobatics but it indeed was full bodied with its unusual percussion, bells, and delightful maracas. I also enjoyed the mix of the joyful xylophone and the strenuous and graceful acrobatics in the first selection. A glittery harlequin clown proved to be adept at providing humorous moments. He played tug of war with the conductor and was a master of hilarious twitchy movement. He particularly excelled at juggling during Aram Khachaturian's piece Sabre Dance. I highly recommend taking in the sights and sounds of this production next time its in town.
The Max. M Fisher Music Center will be hosting a series of cultural events this year targeted at young professionals and creative folk in the city and city proper. This is a fun way to sample food and drinks and meet interesting people. Drinks by B Nektar Meadery and sliders and fries were complimentary treats. A graphic novel called Black Velvet was shown on a large screen while the Fifth House Ensemble performed a score to accompany this tale about a black cat in London, England dealing with the Plague. Ezra Claytan Daniel's illustrations were lively and intricate and I particularly enjoyed the bassoon and flute parts of the score. Please visit fifth-house.com for more info on this ensemble and visit mix@themax for more info on this series.
Hamtown Races is a play concerning racial issues at The Planet Ant in Hamtramick, Michigan. Local writer Margaret Edwartowski's work is loaded with hilarious lines. The African American character Jimmy delivers a significant amount of these. Jokes about pop culture topics like the Lord of The Rings, dogs, local landmarks and businesses and internet references nicely fill in the atmosphere of this piece. As always at The Planet Ant the set design is top notch. The play is running next weekend. I recommend checking it out. It is insightful and quite humorous. Please visit www.planetant.com for more info.
