Back to the 80s in Rock of Ages
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If your memories of the ‘80s are as hazy as the Aqua Net cloud that always surrounded you back then, you’re in luck. Rock of Ages, the big-screen adaptation of the big-hair Broadway musical, recalls the decade in all its head-banging, hilarious glory.
As the opening credits fade, we meet Sherrie (Julianne Hough of Footloose fame), a pretty singer who’s hopped a Greyhound to Hollywood but gets robbed right after she steps off the bus. Fortunately, a young man named Drew leaps (literally: this is a musical) to her aid, finagling her a job at his workplace. Soon Sherrie’s waitressing at the city’s hottest rock venue, The Bourbon Room, and cooking up a romance with Drew.
We spend the next two hours watching the couple chase fame while falling in and out of love. They’re not the only ones struggling on the Strip, though. The Bourbon’s owner (a whisky-soaked Alec Baldwin) is facing bankruptcy. His sole hope lies in Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise), an addled superstar who may or may not play the club, depending on his mood and sleazy manager (Paul Giamatti). But even if the concert comes off, the show might not go on: L.A.’s mayor and his priggish wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) want to stamp out heavy metal and hard partying.
These humorous subplots, set to a backbeat of ‘80s ballads, move the film steadily forward. You’re likely no foreigner to Foreigner, but you’ll never take their maudlin lyrics seriously again after you hear Drew belt them out in front of a urinal. Sherrie’s descent into pole dancing puts Pat Benatar’s “Shadows of the Night”, ironically, in a whole new light.
The true marvel, though, is Tom Cruise as Stacee. You might think that at 49, he’s too old for the role, but his writhing torso says otherwise. (Incidentally, Cruise does his own singing. No word on how much he was auto-tuned, though.) His considerable acting chops are on full display too, as he blithely trashes rooms and whispers inscrutable musings with a spot-on, steely intensity.
In fact, nearly all the characters nail their roles, making the exceptions especially lamentable. Zeta-Jones, for one, is far too campy, as though lockjaw and clenched fists are a prerequisite for conservatism. Clad in a red pantsuit and American-flag brooch, she’s also anachronistic, a Sarah Palin send-up instead of a take on Tipper Gore. (Her character is a write-in—the producers claim they wanted to explore the censorship of the era. But given the way the film glosses over other 80s issues, like drugs and AIDS, it’s a weak excuse.)
Even more disappointing is newcomer Diego Boneta as Sherrie’s boyfriend. Put bluntly, his horse-face wouldn’t make make girls throw panties, or even neon leg-warmers. Delivering his lines with banality and a dopey look in his eyes, he reminds one less of Johnny Depp than a 21 Jump Street walk-on…after the show flipped to syndication.
Fortunately, there’s other eye (and ear) candy, and some unexpected romantic twists. Will Drew and Sherrie persevere? I won’t spoil it. But yes, of course the movie ends with everyone singing “Don’t Stop Believin’.” And yes, you knew we were all headed there from the moment the movie began. What can you say? In a flick like this, it’s not about the destination. It’s about the Journey.
Note: Lewd and lascivious moments galore make this movie, in my opinion, unsuitable for kids under 13. If you take yours, be warned — he’ll see more tongue (albeit sandwiched with wry humor) than at your local kosher deli counter.
Scarsdale resident Deborah Skolnik is a mother of two and a senior editor at Parenting magazine.
Edgewood Fifth Graders Unveil Their Capstone Projects to Rave Reviews
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Last week, Edgewood fifth graders presented their ambitious capstone projects to teachers, fellow students, parents, and friends. “Capstone” is a multi-step research endeavor for all Scarsdale fifth graders based on a student’s interests and curiosity. Traditionally, capstone projects are reserved for high school seniors, but the project was put in place for fifth graders by Superintendent of Schools Michael McGill in 2006.
The students identify a topic they want to study and complete an intensive, fully integrated study of the subject. They identify, select and evaluate appropriate resources that include books, Websites (no Wikipedia), images, documents, and at least one interview and site visit. One child traveled to the Museum of Natural History to see gemstones up close, another tried to make ice cream at home while yet another visited a chocolate factory. In the final stages of the project, children synthesize information and create a comprehensive project highlighting all they have learned. The capstone experience requires students to ask meaningful questions, take ownership
of their learning, demonstrate independence and employ time management skills to meet deadlines. Avery Rubin, whose topic was “How is the human eye capable of seeing so many different shades and hues?” had this to say about her project. “The eye is amazing. It can do many things. It can see more than 1,000 colors. Whenever you see something, the process of what you see happens in less than a zillionth of a second. The information I learned from my research was really useful and I’m going to remember everything I learned.” For her project, Avery, who will be Popham next year, visited an eye doctor’s office and took pictures of all the equipment.
Teachers organized the event so that every child had at least two visitors and every visitor saw at least two displays, thus ensuring that children whose parents could not attend had an audience. 
This year’s presentations at Edgewood included such diverse topics as: how is chocolate made, the Great Wall of China, gemstones, the Eiffel Tower, why did the Titanic sink, what inspired Walt Disney, nanotechnology, who was Steve Jobs, and what is coral (with the presenter sporting a nice coral necklace).
Students did everything from putting together slide shows on computers (with technology teacher Mr. Tomizawa pitching in when computers would not cooperate) to building the Great Wall of China out of recycled materials to crafting an eyeball out of clay. Along the way some children hit roadblocks with their presentations (one student learned you cannot glue sugar cubes together even with tacky glue to make a wall because they disintegrate), but in the end, everyone succeeded and the students’ efforts should be applauded. Here are some photos of the presentations. Note all the smiling faces.
Kindergarten: A Year in Photographs by Steven Schnur
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Fifty-two years ago, on a September morning in 1960 I had the good fortune to enter Heathcote Elementary School for the first time, arriving with some trepidation, the new kid in class, a third grader, unfamiliar with the town or the school or the children in it. But the moment I stepped into the school’s glass-sheathed world I knew I had entered an altogether remarkable realm filled with light and warmth and welcome, and for the next three years I thrived there, regretting only that we hadn’t moved to Scarsdale sooner.
Over the years I have returned often to participate in Heathcote’s annual ReadAloud program, re-experiencing 
that sense of openness and possibility every time I entered the building. One year I was assigned to a kindergarten class and felt as though I’d walked into a room full of enchantments: corners crammed with books and blocks and toys, shelves stocked with puzzles and games, with brightly colored folders and workbooks, with crayons and pencils, scissors and glue, with reams of colored paper, the walls draped with alphabet and number posters, with images of plants and animals, with poetry and song lyrics, with familiar words and book covers, and with children’s art. Here was the perfect environment for learning and fostering the imagination, filled with the tools needed to express language and artistic impulse, to gently begin the process of transforming nineteen largely illiterate children into readers and writers and thinkers, a room that welcomed curiosity and encouraged creativity, ever sensitive to the distinct differences of each child, fostering their intellects while attempting to inculcate a sense of self-control and of mastery over their environment.
How does this happen, how does a single teacher (or, in this fortunate community, a cadre of professionals) convert family-centric kindergartners into social beings possessing the necessary tools to acquire all the skills adult life will demand of them? What really goes on in these captivating spaces? What would it be like to observe the process at first hand, charting the gradual blossoming of aptitude, marking the moments of sudden insight or the slow emergence of understanding, the building of self-confidence, the ripening of judgment?
Responding to my request, Maria Stile, Heathcote principal, and Sharon De Lorenzo, Heathcote kindergarten teacher, invited me to document the life of a single kindergarten class during the course of one year. Thus began a ten-month-long photographic journey in search of awakening. So much is fleeting: a smile, a burst of laughter, a look of wide-eyed wonder, the clasp of hands, newfound physical mastery, sudden understanding. With nineteen children in constant motion, nineteen simultaneous narratives unfolding at the speed of light, could a single pair of eyes take in all the drama and capture it? It was this challenge that made each day in the classroom so rich in possibility. It was the beauty and boundless energy of the children that made it an alloyed delight.
The results of that exploration will be presented to the community on Tuesday, June 5, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Heathcote school. The exhibit’s 650 photographs are drawn from a total of more than 20,000 chronicling milestones large and small, a journey through the worlds of art and music, library and computer lab, dance and physical education, not to mention the special delights of snack time and lunch, recess and creative play, as well as encounters with guests and holidays—all contributing to the miraculous intellectual and emotional growth that characterizes life at the age of five.
The ideal observer would have been ever present; unfortunately this observer was able to spend only a few hours each week in the classroom; so of necessity the record is incomplete. Still, I hope it provides a deeper understanding of what transpires in these sacred spaces we call classrooms, reminding us of the boundless energy and irrepressible joy that life confers on each of us at this early age, a gift our schools nurture and nourish. I entered the classroom last fall in search of the processes that fuel creativity and analytical thinking during a time of life when the world seems overflowing with wonder and self-esteem lies untrammeled. I came away understanding why so many children in this community achieve so much. From their first moments in public school they are not only taught to believe in their capacity to achieve but are given the necessary tools to realize their dreams.
Kindergarten: A Year in Photographs, will open to the public at Heathcote School, 26 Palmer Road, on Tuesday, June 5, from 7 to 9 p.m. and remain on public view Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, June 6 to 8, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and by appointment from Monday, June 11 to Thursday, June 14 from 10 to 2. All visitors are requested to enter the school through door #1 and to obtain a Visitor’s Pass at the Main Office.
Scarsdale Artist's Work On Display at the Whitney Biennial
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You never know who you’ll meet at the Greenacres Carnival. Last weekend I was taking photos of cotton candy, budding stars and the jumping castle when I ran into Scarsdale Village Trustee Kaye Eisenman with her daughter Nicole and two grandchildren, George and Freddy. I knew that artist Nicole Eisenman’s work was on display at the Whitney Biennial, but here she was with her two kids in tow, right here in town. After a brief chat and a photo opp I was intrigued and determined to learn more about Nicole, a 1987 graduate of SHS and rising figure in the art world.
I went to the Whitney and perused the 45 portraits that covered two massive walls of the 3rd floor gallery. Bold and colorful, the work appears to be a commentary on gender identity, politics, technology, fitness and other contemporary obsessions. Some were easy to read while others were far more ambiguous. Displayed together they were serious, humorous, disturbing and arresting and each demanded a look.
I chatted with Eisenman about her work, her experiences in Scarsdale, and her life as an artist and as a parent. Growing up, her family was very supportive of her artwork and she took classes from sixth grade through college with “standout teacher” Joan Busing. Busing is a painter and printmaker who teaches art classes in Hartsdale. Eisenman says Busing was “hugely influential” and introduced herto "a world of art, music and ideas."
At Scarsdale High School Eisenman painted two murals on the school walls that stayed up for almost 20 years and were only recently removed.
Speaking of her personal feelings about Scarsdale she says, “I spent my formative years there and got a wonderful education.” However, she notes that growing up here posed some challenges. She says, “Being a queer person in the 1970’s and 1980’s I tried to figure it out on my own. It was important but not easy and being in a hetero-normative culture gave me something to react against later in life.”
The monotypes seem to express feelings about alienation, human interaction and gender and I asked Eisenman about the mobile devices that I noticed in several of them. She explained, “Technology is another way in which we negotiate relationships – it becomes an extension of us and has restructured how we meet, communicate and carry on relationships.” I also asked her how being a parent has impacted your work and she said, “My imagery reflects what’s going on in my life,” and added, “there are pieces that include them (the kids).”
Inclusion in the Whitney Biennial has garnered a lot of attention for her work and she is scheduled for shows through the fall of 2013. In fact, a solo show is opening at the Leo Koenig Gallery on 23rd Street in Chelsea this week. On display will be works on paper ranging in price from $1,000 -$6,000. I asked if the 45 monotypes in the Biennial are on the market and it turns out that these, plus 50 more, have already been purchased by one collector.
What are her plans for the future? Eisenman intends to go 3-D and will be translating her images into large plaster sculptures. She says she has not sculpted since college and is excited about embarking on this new work, which will be shown in London in 2013.
See Nicole Eisenman’s work at the Whitney Museum through May 27 or view her solo show at Leo Koenig in Chelsea from May 24 – June 30th.
Twelve Apostles and Friends, 2012 Etching Paper size: 22 5/8 x 16 1/8 in (57.5 x 41 cm)
Image size: 18 x 12 1/8 in (45.7 x 30.8 cm)
Plate size: 18 x 12 1/8 in (45.7 x 30.8 cm)
Courtesy of Leo Koenig Inc., New York, Published by Harlan & Weaver, Inc., New York
Leo Koenig, Inc
545 West 23rd Street
New York, N.Y.
May 24- June 30, 2012
Gallery Hours, Tuesday – Saturday 10 am – 6 pm
Disney's High School Musical On Stage at SHS This Weekend
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The Scarsdale High School Senior Class Play is this weekend! The play, a rendition of Disney’s High School Musical, will be performed at 7:30pm on Friday, 7:30pm on Saturday, and at 2pm on Sunday. Tickets are $10 for students and $15 dollars for adults online before the show at http://shsseniorclassplay.eventbrite.com/ . They will be $15 dollars for students and $20 for adults at the door.
An annual tradition, this years play is being directed by Justine Gelfman and Clint Frehill, with music run by William Heffner and Jessica Li, and choreography by Melissa Tucker and Julia Rutkovsky. Sara Pattiz is running costumes and makeup with props being taken care of by Nicole Steiner. Faculty member Steve Bogardus heads the crew, made up of mostly underclassmen. And, as always, the Senior Class faculty advisers, Lauren Meyer and Eric Rauschenbach, were ready to help make the show a success. “My two class advisors, Mrs. Meyer and Mr. Rauschenbauch as well as my artistic advisor, Steve Bogardus 
were true rockstars. They never ceased to amaze me with their ability to find solutions to the most difficult problems. In addition, the production team for the Senior Class Play was instrumental in constructing a visual landscape for our actors to live in,” stated Gelfman.
The cast, made up of seniors, many of whom had never been in a play before, has been working hard for over a month putting the show together. Balancing both busy Senior Options schedules and long play rehearsals, the cast has worked hard to produce a good show. “Everything seems to be coming together at just the right time,” noted cast member Graham Winston. “Hard work and effort really pays dividends.”
Matt Tussing and Michelle Ostroff are playing the lead roles of Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez, while Ben Newman and Haley Polkes take other major roles of Ryan and Sharpay Evans and Chad Danforth and Taylor McKessie are portrayed by Brandon Berman and Avery Novitch. All of the leads have worked very hard to make the show a success. “They really shine with the help of their faithful and hardworking accompaniment by the rest of the cast,” mentioned fellow cast member Will Hunersen.
In order to publicize the show, the production crew organized a series of quasi-“flash mobs” at elementary schools and the middle school. Members of the cast went to the different locations and performed one of the show’s dances and handed out fliers to the excited students. Clearly, the senior class is attempting to market the show to a younger audience.
As always, Friday and Sunday will feature shows more true to the script, while Saturday is termed as joke night, where cast members will improvise and crack a joke or two. However, any showing will produce lots of laughs. “I think the final product will be fantastic. It was pure joy to work with our cast. They are enthusiastic and creative individuals who are willing to try something new. While theater is not what many of them want to pursue, I admired how so many cast members stepped out of their comfort zones,” exclaimed Gelfman.
Photos by Marnie Gelfman
