Arts & hritertainment

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The Oval Office (2005) by Tyree Guyton
on the site of the Heidelberg Project

Art In The 'Hood

"Street Sense: Celebrating 20 Years of the
Heidelberg Project in Detroit': a special
exhibition documenting and commemorat-
ing the 20-year history of the provocative
and internationally recognized neighbor-
hood art project created by Detroit African-
American artist Tyree Guyton, will be pre-
sented by Wayne State University's Elaine
L. Jacob Gallery Sept. 28-Dec. 14. Included
are Guyton's preliminary sketches for
Heidelberg installations, historical and con-
temporary photographs of the project (the
city razed parts of the project in 1990 and
1999), works of art by Guyton that reflect
the free-spirited energy of the project and
sculptural works from the project itself on
special temporary loan for this exhibition.
Guyton began the project, near Mt. Elliott
and Mack on Detroit's East Side, in 1986
in response to the deterioration and decay
of a once-vibrant city. Hoping to infuse the
neighborhood where he grew up with an

• am

atmosphere of hope
and possibility, he
created a colorful and
energetic environ-
mental art project
featuring brightly col-
ored sculptures (each
about a different
social issue) in vacant
lots and painted
abandoned houses adorned with discarded
objects from the inner city.
The project has about 275,000 visi-
tors each year, many from around the
world, including some from Israel, Guyton
explained to my family and me when we
toured the project last Thanksgiving week-
end.
An opening reception for "Street Sense"
takes place 5-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, at
the gallery, located at 480 W. Hancock in
Detroit. It is free and open to the public.
Prior to the opening, a new sculpture,
Invisible Doors, created by Guyton with
the assistance of WSU and Detroit Public
School students, will be dedicated at 4 p.m.
in the outdoor courtyard of the university's
Welcome Center at Woodward and Warren.
The public also is invited to a free sym-
posium about the Heidelberg Project and
its implications for understanding the
role of art in society, 2 - 4:30 p.m. Saturday,
Sept. 29 (with an opportunity to visit the
Heidelberg project via free shuttle bus) at
the Schaver Music Recital Hall.

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

Film Notes

A number of films with a Jewish con-
nection opened in Detroit on Yom
Kippur and are still playing. Here's a
41, brief rundown of a couple of movies
that opened on Sept. 21, followed by
three that will open Friday, Sept. 28.
Good Luck Chuck is a comedy
about a guy who is "cursed" by a
childhood acquaintance. The curse
is that every woman he dates will
go on marry the
"love of her life"
right after break-
ing up with Chuck
(Dane Cook). Chuck
becomes desperate
to break the curse
when he meets a
Dan Fogler
lovely woman he
really wants to
marry (Jessica Alba). Playing Chuck's
best friend (and a chauvinist plastic
surgeon) is Dan Fogler, who has
come out of nowhere in the last year
to challenge Jack Black for the title

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September 27 • 2007

For more information
on the exhibit, call the
gallery, (313) 993-7813.
For more information on
the Heidelberg Project,
go to www.heidelberg.
org.

Terry Talks

"Anyone who agrees to be interviewed must
decide where to draw the line between what
is public and what is private. But the line
can shift, depending on who is asking the
questions," observes Terry Gross, the execu-
tive producer and host of Fresh Air, the
popular interview program on NPR. "What
puts someone on guard isn't necessarily the
fear of being 'found out' It sometimes is
just the fear of being misunderstood."
Gross isn't afraid to ask tough questions,
but she does it in a way in which her guests
volunteer the answers rather than surren-
der them.
You can hear excerpts from more than
two decades of interviews — plus stories
drawn from them — when Gross appears
8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, at the Michigan
Theater in Ann Arbor. $20-$37. (248) 645-
6666.

Pair Of Docs + 1

Two members of the Detroit Jewish com-
munity, child psychiatrist Dr. Jeff London

of Hollywood's favorite roly-poly
actor with a gift for physical comedy.
Hollywood came calling after Fogler
won a Tony Award for his Broadway
debut in The 25th Annual Putnam
County Spelling Bee.
Fogler, 31, who was a bar mitzvah,
most recently co-starred in Balls of
Fury and has co-starring roles in sev-
eral soon-to-be released films.
The Hunting Party co-stars Jesse
Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale),
21, as a young reporter sent to cover
the fifth anniversary of the end
of the Bosnian civil war. He meets
up with a veteran
reporter (Richard
Gere) who has some
info on the where-
abouts of the war's
most-wanted war
criminal. They join
forces to try and find
the criminal.
Jesse
Once you catch up
Eisenberg
on the above films
now in theaters, look for the follow-
ing, opening on Friday.
Across the Universe, directed by

Julie Taymor, is a musical in which
the characters punctuate the action
by singing Beatles songs (some 30
old Fab Four tunes are used). The film
follows a young English dockworker
named Jude, played by Jim Sturgess,
who travels to America in the 1960s
and falls in love
with an American
teen named Lucy
(Evan Rachel Wood).
When her brother is
drafted to fight in
Vietnam, Lucy and
Jude become peace
Evan Rachel
activists and travel
Wood
across the country.
Wood, a highly
respected actress, has an unusual
Jewish background: Her mother con-
verted to Judaism before her mar-
riage to Wood's father, a non-Jewish
college professor. Wood, 20, has
referred to herself as "Jewish."
Taymor first made her reputa-
tion with her brilliant adaptation of
the hit animated film The Lion King
for the Broadway stage. She has
directed three films, including Frida,

and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Tom Ditkoff,
along with Mike Mullen, are members of
the Pairodocs Trio, a folk ensemble that
will perform 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, at
the JWH Center of the Arts, 774 N. Sheldon
Road, in Plymouth. Pairodocs joins other
folk performers — Alex and Maggie
Zakem, Jeff Karoub and Rise Again — in
concert in a fundraiser for the BaseLine
Folk Society, an organization that puts
on open-mike performances the third
Saturday of every month at the Art House
in Northville. Mullen is the founder of the
BaseLine Folk Society.
"Our group has been rehearsing some
excellent songs, many of which will be
familiar to folk aficionados, with our own
unique spin," says London. "We mostly sing
folk songs that others have written, but I
often rewrite some of the lyrics to hopefully
add some humor, and occasionally we sing
some of my original songs:'
Admission to the Sept. 29 fundraiser is
free; donations are appreciated. For more
information on the fundraiser and on the
open-mike evenings, call (248) 719-3464.

Classical Treats

Grab the opportunity to hear one of the
most prominent emerging chamber music
groups in America when the Manhattan
Piano Trio — pianist Milana Bahl, vio-
linist Dmitry Lakin and cellist Dmitry
Kousov — opens the 81st season of Pro

a biopic about Mexican artist Frida
Kahlo.
Kingdom is a thriller about an FBI
agent (Jamie Foxx) who puts togeth-
er an elite team (Jennifer Garner,
Chris Cooper and Jason Bateman) to
travel to Saudi Arabia to hunt down
a terrorist mastermind. The movie
is directed by Peter Berg, who also
directed Friday Night Lights and cre-
ated the TV series of the same name.
Feast of Love stars Greg Kinnear
as a nice guy whose wife – played by
Detroit-area native and former Hillel
Day School of Metropolitan Detroit
student Selma Blair – leaves him
for another woman. His best friend
(Morgan Freeman) encourages him to
date again. He meets a pretty blonde
(Randa Mitchell) but is afraid his
heart will be broken again.

New TV Comedies

The Big Bang Theory, which debuted
Sept. 24, on CBS and is executive
produced by Southfield native Bill
Prady, is about a beautiful but ditzy
woman who moves into an apart-
ment across the hall from two young,