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O bserver • D ecember 20, 1995
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ENTERTAINMENT
The Milton Hotel was the re-
| cent gathering place of friends and
business associates o f the First
Friday group. The hotel was dcco-
| rated with beautiful Christmas trees
with gold angels throughout the bal I -
I room. Sonja Stallings, Ann Pruitt,
Rolanda Gaines and M anfred
White, the group’s founding mem­
bers, are credited with starting the
marketing network which also
| serves as a base for recruiting new
members and potential candidates
for career opportunities.
The icy and blizzardly cold
weather did not alter or dampen the
| spirit of the partygoers as they had
the look of holiday wear, the color
of jewel tones and black dominated
I the fashion scene. The holiday
event’s buffet was awesome with a
I connoisseur’s touch of savory and
tasty appetizing food. Seen chatting
with Tony Hopson were Nike’s
I Cheryl Nickerson and Elizabeth
Waters, organizers and corporate
I sponsors o f the event. The First
Friday concept began simply as a
means to network with newcomers
on an economic and social level
building relationships
seen everywhere shar­
and sharing information
ing handshakes and
as being the primary fo­
hugsofcongratulations.
cus. On this night, many
Harris, a former man­
of the guests had relocat­
aging editor ofthe news­
ed from the Portland
paper, was accompa­
V ds» . S
O bserver’s 25th Anni­
nied by his friend Don
versary celebration par­
Williams.
ty as did Kirk G reen's
The First Friday
band. G reen roved
gathering drew about
through the audience
300 paying guests, with
By Cora Smith
singing with ease, teas­
proceeds to benefit The
ing and flirting with ev­
C h ild r e n ’s C h a rity
eryone dancing. Also seen were
Fund The designated recipient
Connie and Robert Romanbski.and
award will be Self Enhancement
Jimmy and Jean W alker to name a
Inc., A cto r/v o calist M ario
few. Richard A. Simeon, former
Depriest, “Mr. Public Relations,’
computer store owner turned artist,
was there, as well as Pam and
showcased abstract oils and sensu­
M aurice Lucas who had a great
ous sculptures. “Organic Realism” is
time. However, travellinghome was
the term Simeon used to describe his
a perilous experience, as the Lucas’
art. An outstanding piece featured
and others became stranded on the
his personal “Self Portrait." His pub­
black icy freeways for several hours.
licist, Janice Gillespie, was in net­
Others not braving the risky drive,
work city, looking stunning in a strap­
took shelter at the beautiful Hilton
less, short and multicolored dress.
Hotel. The First Friday group is to be
Leon H arris from Seattle, who ear­
commended for promoting business
lier that evening received an award
entrepreneurs and for advancing the
from the Portland Observer for busi-
diversity ofthe internet ofcommuni-
ness and community service, was
cations “Around About Town.”
0 0 7 ’s
Coo!
Is Back
G olden E ye: Fam ke J a n sse n
(right) is Xenia Onatopp a
m ysterious a n d dangerously
seductive past-Soviet
a ssa ssin in Untied Artists’
explosive action-adventure
“G oldenE ye."
“GoldenEye”, the latest install­
ment in the James Bond series, is
right on target in bringing back the
cool as Pierce Brosnan renews 007’s
license to kill.
This globetrotting, vodka mar­
tini-drinking super spy faces a high-
tech armageddon, internal betrayal
and a female nemesis who used her
thigh master a little to much.
In the past James Bond fought
the R ussian governm ent. In
‘GoldenEye” Bond battles with the
QUINCY
JONES
Musician, Composer,
Producer, Arranger,
Conductor
An impresario in the broadest
and most creative sense ofthe word,
Quincy Jones, in the course of his
career, has encompassed the roles
of composer, record producer, art­
ist, film producer, arranger, con­
ductor, instrumentalist, TV produc
er. record company executive, mag­
azine founder and multi-media en­
trepreneur. As a master inventor of
musical hybrids, he has shuffled
pop, soul, hip-hop, jazz, classical,
African and Brazilian music into
many dazzling fusions, traversing
virtually every medium, including
live performance, records, movies
and television. It’s a creative cor­
nucopia brilliantly brought togeth­
er on his new Qwest Records re­
lease, Q’s Jook Joint.
Russian Mafia who want to zap the
Digital Age back to the Stone Age.
Also, this Bond’s sexual appetite is
on a diet reflective of the safe sex
decade as he beds only one-Natalya
(Izabella Scorupco) a systems pro­
grammer who survives the first ex­
plosive demonstration of Gulden-
Eye’s power.
As the world gets sm aller I
was surprised that the cast and
characters were all IiIly-white and
the tone o f the film reminds me
Quincy Jones was bom on March
14, 1933, in Chicago and brought up
in Seattle. While in elementary
school, he began studying trumpet
and sang in a gospel quartet at age 12.
His musical studies continued at the
prestigious Berklee College of Mu­
sic in Boston, where he remained
until the opportunity arose to tour
with Lionel Hampton’s band as a
trumpeter, arranger and sometime-
pianist. He moved on to New York
and the musical “big leagues” in 1951,
where his reputation as an arranger
grew. By the mid-50’s, he was ar­
ranging and recording for such di­
verse artists as Sarah Vaughan, Ray
C harles, Count Basie. Duck
Ellington, Big Maybelle, Dinah
Washington, Cannonball Adderley
and LaVem Baker.
Quincy’s creative magic has
spanned over four decades, begin­
ning with the music ofthe post-swing
era and continuing through today’s
high-technology, international multi-
media hybrids. In the mid-50’s, he
was the first popular conductor-ar­
ranger to record with the Fender bass.
His theme from the hit TV series
o fa tim e w h e n the sun never set
on the British Empire. If you
are looking for Jam es Bond to
come back with a bang you will
find it in GoldenEye. However,
if you are looking for a James
Bond film which is reflective
o f today’s society, that James
Bond film has yet to be pro­
duced.
(Lanita Duke fa Owner/Pro-
ducer o f G rnssrooi News, a video
Ironside was the first synthesizer-
based pop theme song. As the first
black composer to be embraced by
the Hollywood establishment in the
60’s he helped refresh move music
and badly needed infusions o f jazz
and soul.
His landmark 1989 album.
Back On The Block-named “Al­
bum O f The Year” at the 1900
Grammy awards-created the first
fusion of the bebop and hip-hop
musical traditions And as produc­
er of the historic “We Are The
World” recording (the best-selling
single of all time) and Michael
Jackson’s multi-platinum solu al­
bums (Off The Wall, Bad and
Thriller the latter being the best
selling album of all time with over
40 million copies sold), Quincy
Jones stands as one of the most
successful and admired creative
artist/executives in the entertain­
ment world.
Q ’s Jook Joint is the latest
triumph in the career of an artist
and impresario whose ability to
touch people’s mind and spirit is
the stuff of legend.
Johnny Depp (left) tries to involve Charles Dutton in derailing an assassination plot in "Nick o f Time." In
the s u s p e n s e thriller which recently o p en e d in theaters. Depp is ordered to kill an innocent public figure
a t a political rally or his own daughter will die. The motion picture also stars Christopher Walken.
Author Rosa Guy: Poised And
Ready For Success
Rosa Guy is one of America’s
best kept literary secrets. However,
with the pending release of her new­
est novel from Dutton Press, The
Sun. The Sea, A Touch of the Wind,
this award winning author and co­
founderofthe Harlem Writer’sGuild,
is ready to assume her rightful place
as one of this country’s most impor­
tant African-American Writers.
In I he Sun, The Sea, A Touch of
the Sun, Guy writes ofa Black wom­
an struggling against her oppression
with the insight and uncompromis­
ing dignity that has become her hall­
mark. Her newest heroine, Jonnie
Dash, provides the right mix o f con­
tempt and strength of purpose as she
struggles for acceptance and pur­
pose in an environment she both de­
spises and loves. Set against the lush
tropical backdrop of Haiti, Guy paints
a multi-layered landscape of color­
ful, robust characters that pull the
reader into their web of deceit, love
and lustful urges. The layers are then
systematically removed to reveal
lives corrupted by self-indulgence
and trickery, only to be redeemed by
the innocence and purity o f youth
Rosa Guy’s novels have ex­
plored the stifling consequences of
poverty in settings as far away as the
Caribbean, or as near as New York’s
Harlem for over 30 years. Once it is
published, The Sun, The Sea, A
Touch of the Wind will join an im­
pressive body off literary material
authored by Ms. Guy that includes
Bird At My Window; A Measure of
Time; And Then She Heard A Bird
Sing; Edith Jackson; Ruby; Children
of the longing; and Music of Sum-
R o sa Guy
mer.
“I believe I write for everybody,”
says Guy. “Young people like my
work because I don’t talk down to
them." This attitude helps explain
the on-going popularityofher Imamu
Jones Mystery Series, a crossover
favorite among both Black and White
young readers. Many of them have
come of age reading the suspenseful
Mystery Series which focusses on
the trial and tribulations of a Brook­
lyn teen struggling to define his man­
hood.
Other readers have been en­
chanted by My Love, My Love or
The Peasant Girl, her lyrical tale of
lovers crippled by classism and pov­
erty. This novel was adapted into the
Tony-award winning Broadway play.
Once On this Island which recently
won London’s 1995 Olivier Award
for Best Muscat.
However, it is The Friends that
is her most popular work - since it
was first published in 1972, it has
never been out of print! The Friends
has been on the British syllabus for
the past fifteen years, making Guy
the first Black woman writer so hon­
ored. Now listed as a modem classic
in England, this sensitive, moving
story of two Black girls from differ­
ent economic backgrounds growing
up in Harlem, continues to find new
audiences around the world.
RosaGuy’s personal lifeodyessy
has been a major influence on the
scope and tone of her writing. Upon
arriving in the United States with her
parents in the early 1930’s and mov­
ing to Harlem at the age of eight,
Rosa became a prolific observer of
African-American culture and the
forces that shape its existence in
American society. As a result,
classism, poverty and the sins that
accompany its reality are the subject
of her novels.
“Poverty is a sin. It’s really not
necessary. There is no need for it
anywhere in the world. I’m opposed
to poverty, and I’m committed to
writing against it,” states Guy. With
these beliefs, it is only natural that
she would write of men, women and
children who struggle to define their
place in a society that often ignores
or maligns their presence. Yet,
through it all, her main characters
somehow emerge more victorious
and noble than when we first meet
them.
The Sun, The Sea, A Touch of
the Wind is sure to add to Rosa Guy’s
legacy. “I’m one of America’s best
kept secrets,’ she says, “and I think
my time has come!”
The Cast For The Upcoming “ Grease!
The official Broadway produc­
tion ofthe ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll sensation
continues its successful national tour
with a January 16-21 run in Port­
land’s Civic Auditorium.
It’ll be time to rock n’ roll --
‘50s style — when the brand-new
Tommy Tune production ofthe mu­
sical hit, Grease!, opens in the Civic
Auditorium January 16 for a one-
week, eight-performance run.
Grease! stars Debbie Gibson as
the tough but vulnerable Rizzo,
Adrian Zmed (R.J. Hooker) as the
super cool Danny Zuko, and Sally
Struthers as the ever lovin’ English
teacher, Miss Lynch.
Grease!, one o f Broadway’s
longest running musicals, takes a hi­
larious, tuneful and loving look at
what it was like growing up in the
super-cool‘50s with the funniest gang
of high school students you’ll ever
meet. Taking place in a time when
hot-rod-living boys in black-leather
jackets wore greasy coifs and boy
crazy girls wore beehive hairdos.
white bobby socks and skin-tight
pedal-pushers, Grease! is complete
with drive-in passion pits, sock hops,
pajama parties, hubcap stealing and
sneaking ciggie-butt at the senior
prom.
Grease! is the story o f Danny
Zuko,kingofthe Burger Palace Boys,
and Sandy Dumbrowski, the whole­
some, naive and pretty transfer stu­
dent whose life changes forever
thanks to the influence of the tough
yet vulnerable Rizzo, leader of the
Pink Ladies gang.
With an exciting recreation of
such popu lar ‘ 50s dances as the Strol I,
the Slop, the Hully-Gully and the
Hand-Ji ve, no wonder the New York
Daily News called Grease! “the
dancingest Broadway musical in
town "Grease! also has one of Broad­
way's most tuneful scores featuring
such hilarious ‘50s parodies as: “It's
Raining on Prom Night.” “Beauty
School Dropout,” “All Alone at the
Drive-In Movie,” plus a dozen oth­
ers.
The book, music and lyrics for
Grease! were written by Warren
Casey and Jim Jacobs. The original
Broadway production opened June
7, 1972 at the Broadhurst Theatre
and ran for eight years, becoming
Broadway’s longest running musical
at that time, and is currently the sixth-
longes running musical of all time.
This new production is directed
and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun.
Mr. Calhoun recently staged Tommy
I une Tonight! for Broadway as well
as serving as Associate Choreogra­
pher on the Tony Award winning
musical. The Will Rogers Follies.
The lavish sets are designed by John
Arnone; the costumes are by Willa
Kin; and lighting by Howell Binkley
Produced by Tony Award win­
ners, Barry and Fran Weissler,
Grease! is “a delightful potpourri of
memorabilia, funky 50s sounds,
exaggerated movement and cool and
tough dialogue, a fascinating
romp," so says 50s rock n’ roll guru
and TV personality Dick Clark