kiss, These days in Hollywood, bang it’s lights, camera . . . romaction!
ABCDE Arts&Style AX FN FS LF PW DC BD PG AA FD HO MN MS SM sunday, june 6, 2010
MUSEUMS Rock solid
Museum of African Art director Johnnetta Betsch Cole has her eye on bold pieces. E4
BLOGS AND CHATS
washingtonpost.com/style Music review Christina Aguilera is far from a “Bionic” woman on her latest album. E5 OnLove A chance encounter — and the District legalizing gay marriage — led to this union. E10
Ask Amy, 12 Celebrations, 11 Cul de Sac, 12 Lively Arts Guide, 5
ROBIN GIVHAN
Clean sweep Fashion houses have been ushering in change over the past week. E2
E
bang, by Ann Hornaday I
n “Killers,” which opened on Friday, Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher play newlyweds on the run from hired assassins, their wed- ded bliss punctuated by car chases, stunts with trucks and sundry shootouts. Which sounds an awful lot like “The Bounty Hunter,” in which Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston played ex-spouses dodging bullets and Tasers and bickering their way back to true love. Which calls to mind “Date Night,” featuring Tina Fey and Steve Carell as a couple caroming through Manhattan on a super-charged car chase while avoiding a couple of armed hooligans. ¶ And coming soon: “Knight and Day,” starring Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise, a Ducati motorcycle, several cars and even more guns. ¶ When did romantic comedies go ballistic? ¶ Or was it the action movies that went soft? ¶ As the 2010 movie calendar approaches the midyear mark, Hollywood’s latest case of you-got-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter has become explosively, and already monoto-
action continued on E3 ILLUSTRATION BY ASAF HANUKA
EXHIBIT REVIEW
Immersion into whiteness
New shows at the Phillips display two artists’ different uses of the one-color scheme
by Blake Gopnik
In February, the National Gallery un- veiled a suite of black-on-black paintings by Mark Rothko. In May, it was the all- blue pictures of Yves Klein at the Hirsh- horn. Now it’s June, and we’re being given a feast of white in two new shows at the Phillips Collection. “Pousette-Dart: Predominantly White
Paintings” looks at one 1950s moment in the career of a lesser-known abstract ex- pressionist. “Robert Ryman: Variations and Improvisations” is, incredibly, this town’s first look at an artist famous for ringing the changes on pallor. We’re clearly at a monochrome mo- ment on Washington’s museum scene. It looks as though a tendency in modern art that once seemed scary and obscure has entered the mainstream. The pieces in these exhibitions reveal
COURTESY OF ROBERT RYMAN/PHILLIPS COLLECTION WHITE SQUARES: Robert Ryman’s “Untitled” from 1964.
something else about the monochrome: The reason one-color pictures work is that they can be used to mean such different things. Rothko’s blacks are big and looming. They invite deep immersion and pro-
found explanation. Klein’s pure blues seem to be about
a single, astonishing gesture of reduc- tion.
art continued on E11
PUBLIC RADIO
NPR’s new-music push: All (indie) songs considered
by Paul Farhi
When the indie folk-rock group the Decemberists debuted its new album last year, the first place to hear it wasn’t on iTunes or MySpace or any of the oth- er big commercial music sites. Instead, the Portland, Ore., outfit played the al- bum live in a webcast carried exclusive- ly on National Public Radio’s music Web site (
npr.org/music). Cue that up again. National Public
Radio? The Washington-based home of “All Things Considered,” “Car Talk” and other earnest news and talk programs? Yes, indeed. Although the typical NPR news listener probably wouldn’t know the Decemberists from a December cal- endar, the group knew something about NPR Music — namely, that music fans are paying attention to it. The Web site, officially in business only since late 2007, has become some- thing of a tastemaking force in the frac- tured and fragmented music business. Through its blogs, news articles, lists, podcasts, videos and album and con-
cert streams (including a number from Washington venues), the site has at- tracted a steadily growing following, averaging about 1.6 million visitors a month. The site’s nine-member staff also feeds some of its audio features to NPR’s news shows; recent segments of “All Things Considered” have featured NPR Music’s ongoing “50 Great Voices” series and a report on the 25th anniver- sary of Katrina and the Waves’ megahit “Walking on Sunshine.” In turn, NPR Music has attracted the
attention of the music industry. In its relatively short existence, it has scored some notable coups, thanks to industry cooperation. Radiohead and Tom Waits played exclusive concerts. Bruce Springsteen made his album “Working on a Dream” available for streaming be- fore its release. When Bob Dylan’s “Tell Tale Signs” album went up on the site before its release in late 2008, visitors streamed it 300,000 times in under a week. “They’ve made a really aggressive push to be a go-to place for music,” says
npr continued on E6
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