Out & About NYC Magazine was founded to offer the arts and lifestyle enthusiast a fresh new look at New York City. We will showcase the established and the emerging, the traditional and the trendy. And we will do it with élan, and panache with a dash of fun.

9/16/14 O&A Inspirational Tuesday: Tony Robbins- Focus

Inspirational-Tuesday

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Where focus goes, energy flows. And where energy flows, whatever you’re focusing on grows. In other words, your life is controlled by what you focus on. That’s why you need to focus on where you want to go, not on what you fear. When you next find yourself in a state of uncertainty, resist your fear. Shift your focus toward where you want to go and your actions will take you in that direction. Continue reading

9/15/14 Reflections on Katherine Dunham and Lavinia Williams (part one)

By Noel Nantambu Hall

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 Katherine Dunham laid some sturdy foundations in arts and education that would not only benefit her era, but mushroom through the years and inspire new foundations and further growth. Education and the self-reaffirming power it wielded on an individual, group or society had clearly evidenced itself on her development and growing consciousness in the mid-nineteen thirties, and at the forefront were dance and anthropology. Continue reading

9/15/14 O&A Hollywood Monday: The Band Wagon: Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse

Hollywood Mondays

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The Band Wagon is a 1953 musical comedy film that many critics rank, along with Singin’ in the Rain, as the finest of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals despite only a modest box-office success. The film tells the story of an aging musical star who hopes a Broadway play will restart his career. The play’s director wants to make it a pretentious retelling of Faust, and brings in a prima ballerina who clashes with the star.

The songs were written by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz, and some were created for the original 1931 Broadway musical also called The Band Wagon. The Broadway production featured a book by George S. Kaufman and starred Fred Astaire and his sister Adele. The movie’s dances and musical numbers were staged by Michael Kidd.

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9/14/14 O&A Gospel Sunday: Smokie Norful- I Need You Now

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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Reverend W.R. “Smokie” Norful, Jr. is an internationally renowned musician, music composer, and recording artist. His debut compact discs entitled I Need You Now and Smokie Norful Limited Edition have garnered favorable accolades and awards across the world, including the 2005 Grammy Award for Contemporary Soul Gospel Album of the Year for his release entitled, Nothing Without You; three Stellar awards; four Dove awards; three Gospel Music Excellence Awards; an NAACP image Award nomination; a Soul Train award nomination; two nominations for the BET award for gospel music; two RIAA certified Gold selling compact discs; and countless others. Continue reading

9/12/14 O&A Its Saturday: Morning, Noon and Night with Nigel Sylvester

It is Saturday

Photo by: Karl Ferguson (www.rageonemedia.com)
Check out street cyclist Nigel Sylvester’s entire day in the order that it all went down, from morning to the afternoon, and finally into the night. Nigel starts his day cruising the streets, only to have a chance encounter with Teyana Taylor. His afternoon fades to night, as he rides through the streets of NYC with friends, ending up at the club.

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And a O&A repost of Nigel’s 2014 ESPN Body Issue photo session video

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9/12/14 O&A Shall We Dance Friday: Jerome Robbins- Fancy Free

Shall We Dance

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Fancy Free is a ballet choreographed by Jerome for Ballet Theatre, the predecessor of American Ballet Theatre. The work is set to a score by Leonard Bernstein, with scenery by Oliver Smith, costumes by Kermit Love and lighting by Ronald Bates. The premiere took place on Tuesday, April 18th, 1944, at the original Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The sailors were played by Jerome Robbins, Michael Kidd, and John Kriza. 

The inspiration for Fancy Free came from Paul Cadmus’ 1934 painting The Fleet’s In!, which is part of the Sailor Trilogy. The character driven dance takes place  in New York City, during the second world war. Three Sailors on liberty boisterously arrive at a bar, have a drink, and head outside looking for female companionship.  Continue reading

9/11/14 O&A DIVA ALERT!: Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston- When You Believe

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When You Believe is a song from the 1998 DreamWorks musical animated feature film The Prince of Egypt. The song was written and composed by Stephen Schwartz. A pop single version with additional music and lyrics by writer-producer Babyface was also recorded for the film. The song was performed by pop divas Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston for the film’s end credits and the soundtrack album.

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9/11/14 O&A Throwback Thursday: Mariah Carey

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Mariah Carey was born and raised on Long Island, New York, she came to prominence after releasing her self-titled debut studio album Mariah Carey in 1990. The album went multiplatinum and spawned four consecutive number one singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Referred to as the songbird supreme by the Guinness World Records, she is famed for her five-octave vocal range, power, melismatic style and signature use of the whistle register.

Throughout her career, Carey has sold more than 200 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. In 2012, Carey was ranked second on VH1’s list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music. Aside from her commercial accomplishments, Carey has won five Grammy Awards, nineteen World Music Awards, eleven American Music Awards, and thirty-one Billboard Music Awards. Continue reading

9/10/14 O&A Wildin Out Wednesday: Eddie Murphy – Raw

wildin out wednesday

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Before films such as Tower Heist, Meet Dave, Holy Man and Daddy Day Care comedian turned actor Eddie Murphy use to be funny. A native of the Bushwick section of Brooklyn Murphy’s early comedy was characterized by profanity laced punch lines, and sketches lampooning a diverse group of people. At age 19 he became the youngest member of the Saturday Night Live cast. From 1980 through 1984 Eddie helped resurrect the show with characters including Gumby, Buckwheat and Mr. Robinson (a spoof on Fred Rogers).

Murphy released Raw in 1987. It followed the success of Delirious, the 1983 film of his stand-up comedy routine. Filmed in the Felt Forum, Madison Square Garden in New York, the film contained the word fuck 223 times, setting the record for the highest fuck count ever in a feature-length film. Raw surprisingly surpassed the 1983 Scarface with itself profanity and held this record until 1990. Continue reading