Spoletoblog

Spoletotime Restaurants

Downtown at noon on Wednesday, usually the slowest day of the Spoleto Festival since it's not only the middle of the week but also only four days away from the end of the festival.

However, outside Jestine's restaurant on Meeting Street the crowds were way up the block.
"I'm here because I heard about the cornbread," said Jane Swazsy of near Colorado Springs who is here for three days to attend both the Piccolo and Spoleto festivals.

"We saw the '2 for Broadway' (at the Charleston Music Hall), and liked it even better than the Spoleto play ("Tristan and Yesult").

Tonight, she and her niece Tammy plan to see "TopDog-Underdog" at Pure Theatre "because a friend of ours saw it in New York."

However, on Tuesday, things were not really jumping at all at lunchtime at the Grill 225 in the Market Pavilion Hotel at East Bay and Market.

When Martha Teichner of CBS-TV's "Sunday Morning" and I arrived at 12:30 p.m., only one other table was occupied, and an hour later, only three were.

And there could be a reason.

When I made the lunch reservations, I was told I had to give a credit card number and that if the two of us didn't show up and didn't call at least one minute ahead of our scheduled reservation, that I would be charged $25.
  Later on Tuesday, I ran into some friends who had made a reservation for four people for last Sunday night and were told by the folks at Market Pavilion that the no-show charge was $25 PER PERSON, should they not be notified ahead of time.

Incredulous, because even at Sardi's and the Four Seasons in New York they don't ask for your credit card number or even have a no-show charge, I called the Market Pavilion and asked about the policy. I was told that if a table was reserved for four, that it would be $100 charged on the credit card as a no-show fee.

To add insult to injury, the hotel charges a $10 valet parking fee, not including a tip.

As somone who frequently visits friends in Los Angeles, I can say that valet parking for even heavy traffic spots such as Spago and and the Ivey  is free with about a $5 tip expected.

Maybe that's one reason the hotel dining was nearly empty on Tuesday. But we enjoyed our  lunch, which hit the spot, and enjoyed the first-class waiters, one of whom looks like a movie star.

Butobviously some don't mind the threat of exorbitant no-show credit card charges.

Man-about-town Charleston native Guy Yates, 29, whom I met when having lunch at Vickery's said the rooftop bar at the Market Pavilion has been packed during Spoleto, as has Venue Range's rooftop gathering spot.
Harbor views are definitely a draw.

A place that WAS packed for lunch last Friday was Magnolia's on East Bay near Queen where I ate with three friends from Washington, D.C. And talk about polite watiers.

When my friends were late, the waiter boxed my lunch for me to take back to the office, and when they suddenly showed up as I was leaving, he un-boxed my salmon sandwich and re-plated it so that I could eat it there. And he could not have been more gracious, as he also gave me a gingerale in a to-go cup 'because it's so hot outside."

Ticket-buying hell

I suppose you, like cranky me, have been stuck in Piccolo Spoleto's hellacious ticket-ordering phone-loop at Ticketmaster, 554-6060.

To attempt to find out if Upright Citizens Brigade Tour was sold out on Saturday night, I spent about 30 minutes and still did not get an answer from the friendly automated voice that repeated "Piccolo Spoleeeto Festival Two Thousand Six, June 3, Two Thousand Six" and then the times of each performance and the listing of performances with EVERY OPTION.Keep in mind there are some 700 performances at Piccolo Spoleto. Even if you've picked one day, the loop will go through 10-15 performances.

BUT, performances aren't named by title. Only time. "10 a.m., 10 a.m., 10 a.m." Or "2 p.m., 2 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4 p.m., 4 p.m., 4 p.m." You are supposed to guess which of those 10 a.m. or 4 p.m. performances is the one you're looking for and say "That one." If it's the wrong one, you start over! Few voice-mail systems have made me want the throw the *#^&*$!! phone against the wall more than this one. If you're patient enough (I'm not, obviously) to actually buy a ticket in this fully automated way, you'll have the privilege of paying a service charge (which can add up to a sizeable amount if you're buying tix to several things or tix for the whole family) for the 20-45 minutes you've spent on the phone with a computer.

There is no phone number for the Piccolo Spoleto box office at Gaillard. And don't bother calling the Big Festival's box office at Gaillard. They don't know, and they can't put you to the real live Piccolo ticket sellers that share the same floor with them. In fact, you can't talk to a real person selling tickets to Piccolo unless 1) You physically walk into Gaillard's first floor and go to the ticket windows. 2) You're lucky enough to go to a performance that has ticket-sellers at the door.

The Angel Oak

The Angel Oak, despite what tourists are told, is not 1,400 years old, romantic as that might be. "Live oaks don't live that long," city of Charleston urban forester Danny Burbage said to me after Saturday evening's performance of "The Rite of Spring" by Charleston Symphony Orchestra and Charleston Ballet Theater under the wonderful tree. At most, the live oak is about 500 years old, which is old enough.

(Quick review of the ballet: It's a great piece of music. No mosquitoes. Nice breeze. Cool under the tree. Late afternoon light coming through the tree. Almost naked wood nymphs rolling around in dirt and draping themselves on the branches. What's not to like? A bonus for the performance: Rain the night before had revived the Resurrection Ferns from brown and withered to lush green all over the branches of the tree).

Burbage gave a little talk before the ballet to let folks know that the Angel Oak isn't just a stunning set piece. While it stands there, it's soaking up tens of thousands of gallons of water from the earth, processing it up through its trunk and branches and into its leaves where the tree cools itself (and us) by dispersing the water in a fine, invisible mist. The Angel Oak is also soaking up carbon dioxide and ozone and storing them so they will not harm us.

When I was a kid climbing on the swooping branches of the oak that stretch down to the ground, several of the big branches had deep carvings of initials in them, wounds that threatened the life of those branches. The city put a stop to that juvenile practice and now the branches have put on enough layers to grow over the old graffiti.

Read The P&C's September, 2005 story about the Angel Oak getting Heritage Tree designation on next page.

'Boo' guy revealed

This blogger received an interesting phone call over the weekend.
When the phone rang, a voice said, "Hi, I'm David Holt and I'm the person who booed the Bill T. Jones dancers on Friday night, and I want to explain why I did that."

It seems that Holt, a lawyer from Washington, D.C.,now in private practice, worked on Capital Hill for 10 years for Democratic Congressman Jack Brooks of Texas, and also worked for the Justice Department. For the past four  years, he worked for the Department of State in the division of anti-terrorism.

"I'm a true fan of modern dance," said Holt. "I love the Alvin Ailey company and many other dance groups, and I go to the Kennedy Center and other places to see dance whenever I get the chance.
" The reason I booed the other night is because I had paid good money to see beautiful dancers perform beutiful dance. But the dance was overpowered by the political message that went on through electronic media and through Jones' speeches giving his point of view on politics and religion. And I was extremely disappointed."

However, Holt said he wanted to accept Bill T. Jones' challenge to face him about the booing, and so Holt went to a talk Jones gave at the Avery Research Center on Saturday afternoon.

"Before he and I talked, Mr. Jones first answered question from the audience there as to how he got the idea for the title of the dance "Blind Date," said Holt.
"He said he got the idea for the dance's title  because with a blind date you often get the opposite of what you expect. Mr. Jones said he expected in November, 2004 for a war hero to be elected president when a coward who refused to even fight in a war, but sent others, was re-elected."

Holt said, "Next, I stood up and identified myself and then Mr. Jones said he was glad I had come forward or 'into the light' to explain myself. I told him that I felt he had a right to express the angst he feels, but that people had come to see a dance, not hear his lecture. I also told him that he had taken advantage of the audience by keeping them there one hour and 40 minutes with no intermission, while he went on and on with his opinions. And that's why I booed."

Holt added that he wouldn't have objected if Jones had expressed his political opinion for 30 minutes of the evening.
"Overall, Mr. Jones was very gracious to me and I was glad we talked," said Holt, who added that he loved Spoleto and had been visiting a cousin and greatly enjoying sightseeing in Charleston, and plans definitely to come back next year.

Dancers and parties

After an incident between dancer choreographer Bill T. Jones and a concert-goer who booed as the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company took its final bow Thursday night, clusters of shocked dance goers gathered outside the Sottile Theatre following the performance.
Several concert-goers even went over to an ice-cream parlor across George Street to further discuss what some saw an an  insult.

However, Greg Pearce and his wife Johnnie were well prepared. The couple who live in Columbia are the godparents of leading Jones' dancer Charles Scott of Virginia.

"We are so excited about this," said Johnnie Pearce. "I couldn't be more excited if I were at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival in France!"

Greg Pearce said he had been briefed by Charles Scott's parents that some people might not be that happy about the political messages of the dance.

"We don't care," Greg Pearce said. "We are just happy to see Charles dance for the first time."

Although Charles Scott is in his first year with the Bill T. Jones' company, the young dancer was prominently featured and was bare-chested and wore jeans in the opening scene, and wore a red sweater and yellow pants in the closing scene in which he did a brief duet that Jones had just added at the last minute.
  The Pearces, needless to say, were thrilled.

However, everyone wasn't.

"People were really talking about  what was really meant by the religious references, and the way they sang the National Anthem in Spanish," said Sharon Walsh, a financial writer at a Lexington, Ky., newspaper who was attending Spoleto events this week with a friend Peg Simpson, a former Associated Press writer in Washington, D.C.

According to Spoleto producer Nunally Kersh, the fact that Jones demanded that the person who booed him should come down to the stage and explain himself was not a bad thing. (The booer in the balcony refused to come forward.)

"It creates buzz for the festival and that's one of our goals, to get people to think and talk about diverse ideas," she said.

Also, tonight, following a performance of Jones' full-length piece "Blind Date," at Sottile, a question and answer session will be held. Jones said the entire cast of the dance company will participate. The  dance lasts about  90 minutes, so you might want to drop by around 9:30 if you have a question about the dance you want discussed.

Also, on Saturday at 6:15 p.m. Jones will talk about dance and creative ideas at the Avery Research Center, 125 Bull St. The event is free and open to the public.

Spoleto-goer Simpson, who has lived in Washington, D.C. for many years, was thrilled to be invited on Friday to a Spoleto party at the Toucan Reef restaurant on the harbor front behind the Imax Theater, prior to the Jones' concert. The party was given by Isle of Palms writer Mary Alice Monroe who was celebrating the publication of her latest book "Sweetgrass."   Simpson got her to sign a copy. .Also being honored during the event was visiting Atlanta writer Patti Callahan.

"I love sweetgrass baskets and I can't wait to read this book about Charleston," Simpson said, stuffing the book in her straw purse. Enjoying a glass of wine, she added that she loved the view of the Ravenel Bridge and the music provided by the Franklin Ashley Quartet.
"It was a great Charleston party," said the Washingtonian who is famous for her own frequent parties in the nation's capital.

Because she had walked from the King Charles Inn, Simpson then had to find a ride to the Sottile Theate to catch the Bill T. Jones concert. And wouldn't you know, a local couple gave her a ride right to the front door.
Who says the Yankees have made us less friendly and accommodating?

On Friday, after a tour of historic homes near the Battery, Simpson and Walsh had lunch at Magnolia's where they declared the black-eyed peas,tomato, peppers, and corn gumbo to be "fantastic."

Although their travel agent had told the two women they could ride their bikes to Magnolia Gardens, 14 miles from town, a Charleston resident warned them in the nick of time about the dangers of crossing the Ashley River Bridge and the traffic on Highway 61 on a  bike.

"That travel agent must not have ever been to Charleston," said Walsh, who settled for riding on a tour bus.

Simpson said she wanted more information on Charleston's role in the Revolutionary War and had been advised to buy Robert Rosen's book "A Short History of Charleston," which she oromptly did.

"This is my third Spoleto Festival and I've had the best time ever," Simpson said. "Maybe next year I'll get some people together and rent a house here. For sure I'll better prepared regarding Charleston's history and so I will enjoy it even more."

Blind Date confrontation?

Ida Becker's The Scene: Spoleto offers today's most intriguing bit of festival talk when she quotes at length from an e-mail about an intriguing public confrontation that reportedly occurred after a performance of Blind Date, a politically charged dance piece with an anti-war message.

As the (tepid, on the part of many people) applause was dying down, we heard a rather loud BOO from the balcony. I believe that it was Mr. (Paul T.) Jones himself who rushed back onto the stage and demanded "Who is that booing? Who booed?" as he paced across the stage. The man identified himself (I think with the "aid" of someone else in the audience) and the shouting began.

"Come down here and tell me what you did not like!" 

"I am not coming down there!" 

And so it went for some time. Some audience members thought that it might have been part of the performance, but I feel fairly certain that it was not. After a while Mr. Boo finally said that what he did not like (here I paraphrase for the most part) was having to watch pretentious, repetitive, "third rate" shows that pretend to address serious issues.

ANYWAY, Mr. Jones finished by saying "I'll stay out of your politics if you stay out of my art!" It was telling that he focused on the political issue since, to my mind, that was NOT the issue for Mr. Boo. About half of the audience began to applaud after that comment, something else that I thought was telling.

Now there's an interesting topic. If you know any more about this alleged incident, please tell us about it (crossposted from Lowcountry Blogs)...

We like paintings, we like photography, we like crafts

Stop by the Visitors Center at Meeting and Ann streets and see Piccolo Spoleto's 22nd annual juried art exhibition. It's up through June 9, 9-5 every day. To me, the black and white photos and Jim Darlington's portrait stood out. But I was hungry and had to leave.

The visual art exhibits and demonstrations at Piccolo, at Marion Square, Wragg Square or in galleries, are free to see. Catherine Hagood has an excellent roundup of visual arts at Piccolo Spoleto in today's P&C Preview section. She points out that Piccolo fills the big gap left by the Big Festival in the visual arts.

See next page for more images...

                    (Charles Ailstock, "Looking Up", oil on wood, 2006)