T LOunge for February 22nd, 2023

Chinesology Bar and Restaurant – Hong Kong

Darlings, some days, you get up and say to no one in particular “Today is a day for curved banquettes and dramatic wall treatments.” And lo, did Lo provide. Grab any of a number of gorgeous seating options and get down to the serious business of frivolous discussions and gossip. Happy WEDNESDAY.

Bette Midler on Wanting to Star in ‘The White Lotus,’ Why She Turned Down ‘Sister Act’ and Being Honored at the CDGAs
Bette Midler had her first professional wardrobe fitting when she made her Broadway debut in 1967 playing Tzeitel in “Fiddler on the Roof.”
“I remember the clothes had layers and layers so that they had weight and so they moved when you danced,” the two-time Oscar nominee recalls on this week’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “They would curl themselves around your feet. It was so beautiful.”
Since then, Midler has been transformed on stage and screen by countless costumes. “I’ve worn them all,” she says. “I have been an old lady, a young lady, a witch, a mermaid, a showgirl, a stripper, a bad lounge singer. I’ve run the gamut. And I have to say, it’s been a blast.”

Everything We Know About My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3
Nia Vardalos and John Corbett are returning for a third installment.
Attention My Big Fat Greek Wedding fans: The beloved cast is reuniting for a third film! Nia Vardalos, who wrote and starred in My Big Fat Greek Wedding and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, will also add directing duties to her plate for the franchise’s third chapter.
“The entire cast is invited back,” Vardalos revealed. Indeed, a recent production photo shows the star-turned-director alongside John Corbett, Maria Vacratsis, Elena Kampouris, Louis Mandylor, and Andrea Martin, as well as one newcomer: Elias Kacavas.

23 Black History Heroes You May Never Have Heard Of
These are life stories worth knowing.
During Black History Month, and every other month, we must take the time to honor the role and achievements of African-American heroes in United States history. We all know about groundbreaking activists like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman from our history books, but there are many more unsung heroes worth celebrating—particularly Black women. These icons, many of which were overlooked at the time and continue to be sidelined today, transformed our country. Here, we rounded up just some of the African-American women whose tireless efforts changed everything, and who never got the credit they deserve.

Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond Star in Parade, a Musical About the Past That Speaks to the Present
I’m generally an anxious person,” admits Ben Platt, who was just off the plane from Sundance when we spoke. “But I find I can channel that pretty well into the characters I play,” he adds. That’s an understatement for the actor whose jittery, star-making turn in the title role of Dear Evan Hansen helped jump-start a national debate on adolescent mental health, and who returns to Broadway this spring in a much-lauded revival of the 1998 musical Parade.
Set in the early-20th-century Jim Crow South, Parade is based upon the true story of Leo Frank, a Cornell-​educated Brooklyn Jew who moved to Atlanta, married Lucille Selig—a daughter of the city’s close-knit, well-off German Jewish community—and became superintendent of the National Pencil Company factory.

The Layered Intimacies of Nicole Eisenman’s Prints
In 2010, on the heels of an intense period of painting, the artist Nicole Eisenman wanted a change, something to shake up a practice that had become almost too familiar. She packed her paints into a trunk, washed the walls of her studio in a fresh coat of white, and got to the formidable work of starting from scratch—this time as a printmaker. Two decades into a fruitful art career, she was a beginner again. “It felt really freeing: suddenly a whole new set of problems and puzzles to play with,” Eisenman says. For months on end she dedicated herself to learning the craft. She didn’t paint for a year.

Holding Court: Jodie Comer Heads to Broadway in Prima Facie
Prima Facie is now headed from the West End to Broadway’s John Golden Theatre, where New York audiences will get to discover in Comer what Justin Martin, the show’s director (The Jungle), saw from the start. “Fundamentally, she’s a stage animal,” he says. “She has an incredible sense of humor and an emotional rawness. She’s very, very honest and absolutely fearless. And all of that bleeds into her performance and the choices that she makes onstage. It’s a natural home for her.”
For Miller’s part, she was so persuaded by what she’d seen in Killing Eve that she didn’t initially realize Comer was English. When her name first came up, “I said, ‘Why would we cast a Russian actor?’ ” the playwright remembers with a laugh. Discovering that Comer shared the working-class background Miller had written for Tessa—who has learned to take advantage of being underestimated—moved her to the top of the list.

One of New York’s Most Famous Pizza Spots Is Closing After 70 Years
“We want to thank everyone who has given us the opportunity to serve them.”
The Facebook page for Lenny’s Pizza, the Brooklyn pizzeria that’s been serving slices since 1953, describes it as “one of the LAST and BEST old pizza parlors in BROOKLYN.” No one would question the “best” part, but it’s no longer one of the borough’s last classic holdouts. After almost 70 years in business, Lenny’s has closed its doors.

Starbucks Debuts a New Line of Olive Oil–Infused Coffee
The Oleato line includes olive oil-infused coffee selections, and we got a first taste.
Starbucks has pioneered a number of coffee trends, including the infamous Pumpkin Spice Latte, and has engineered almost any type of Frappuccino imaginable. And now, the company is set to push the limits of coffee once again with its new Oleato coffee line, a coffee infused with cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil. And they let us get a first taste.
“Oleato represents the next revolution in coffee that brings together an alchemy of nature’s finest ingredients,” Howard Shultz, the coffee giant’s interim chief executive officer, shared in a statement provided to Food & Wine.

Rolling Stones Recording With Paul McCartney — and Ringo?
Almost 60 years since first meeting, it looks like the Rolling Stones and the two surviving Beatles may come together on a new Stones album. Variety hears from multiple sources that Paul McCartney has recorded bass parts for a forthcoming Rolling Stones project being helmed by 2021 Grammy producer of the year Andrew Watt. Ringo Starr is also slated to play on the yet-to-be-announced album.

The Most Successful Oscar-Winning Films Of All Time
From the blockbusters that swept the board to the ones that scooped the five most important prizes – plus the one that won the most while missing out on Best Picture – these are the most successful Oscar-winning films of all time.
Ben-Hur (1959)
Nominated in 12 out of 15 categories, the success of William Wyler’s sword and sandals epic quickly turned the ceremony into a suspense-free procession. Perhaps the voters were responding to the new challenges of TV in rewarding a movie that was so clearly cinematic. Perhaps they just loved Wyler: this was his third Best Director/Best Picture double after Mrs Miniver (1942) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). “I guess this is old hat to you,” said Heston, backstage. “Chuck, it never gets old,” Wyler responded.

Dansk and the Promise of a Simple Scandinavian Life
A new monograph documents how Scandinavian design charmed America.
To better understand Dansk’s cultural milieu, one has to turn to “Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890-1980,” the catalogue for an exhibition of the same name opening at the Milwaukee Art Museum on March 24th, after a run at lacma. (I have an essay on Scandinavian design for children in this catalogue.) “Goods were sold to American consumers by evoking a constructed ‘Scandinavian dream’ that paralleled the mythic ‘American dream,’ linking the ownership of such objects with comfortable, modern living,” writes Monica Obniski, curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the High Museum of Art, and co-curator of the exhibition with lacma’s Bobbye Tigerman.

How America’s Most Cherished Photographer Learned to See
For five decades, Stephen Shore has remade our vision of the country, largely by remaking his own.
Stephen Shore had never seen much of the United States when, at the age of twenty-four, in 1972, he began taking a 35-mm. S.L.R.—and then a four-by-five view camera, and then an eight-by-ten one—on continent-spanning road trips. These were voyages of discovery, not only personal but collective, exposing a country unfamiliar to natives who encountered it every day. His series that became the books “Uncommon Places” (1982) and “American Surfaces” (1999) were, and are, the finest visual apprehensions of national realities since Robert Frank’s “The Americans,” in 1958. Sharply different in manner, cool where Frank, a newcomer to the land, had been harsh, and in luxuriant color rather than grainy black-and-white, they nevertheless thrummed with an equal sense of subjects taken by surprise.

How to Load Your Dishwasher the Right Way
Loading your dishwasher correctly ensures everything is cleaned properly.
A dishwasher is a convenient appliance that can clean a week’s worth of dishes with the simple press of a button. But few things are more frustrating than when you go to unload your dishes and find that they are still covered in food residue. If this has happened to you, the main issue is likely the way you’re loading your dishwasher. When cups, plates, utensils, and other serveware are placed in the machine incorrectly, it prevents the jets from completing their job. Knowing how to load your dishwasher saves you time (and water) spent re-cleaning your dishes—and makes unloading a breeze.

The other long Covid
The pandemic took young people’s present. What will it do to their future?
A new survey from the Pew Research Center at the end of January found that the mental health of their children is now the top concern of parents, with four in 10 saying that they are extremely or very worried that their children might struggle with anxiety or depression.
This pandemic will end eventually, but its effects on young people will last far longer. Lost education doesn’t slow down children, but permanently sets many of them back — fewer will go to college, while more may have ended up dropping out before high school graduation. One study found that the average American student could lose the equivalent of $70,000 in lifetime earnings if nothing was done to stem the effects of learning loss.

America’s after-school afterthought
The hours between school dismissal and the end of the workday are a mess. They don’t have to be.
“Our choices are either after-care or my husband forfeits his job, which really isn’t tenable for us,” Baltaro said. “Finding backup nannies and child care is very difficult — that market has changed. Even if you can afford hiring someone, you can’t find someone easily; fewer people are working.”
The after-school crisis her family found themselves in is not limited to one city or state. For working parents, the hours between the end of the school day and the end of the traditional workday leave a gap millions struggle to fill. Thousands of school districts offer no after-school options at all, and some communities have just a single nonprofit or church program available.

For Perfectly Cooked Rice Every Time, Try Your Microwave
It may seem sacrilegious to stovetop loyalists, but when it comes to consistency, this household appliance is a weeknight meal’s best friend.
I cook my rice in the microwave. Not because the microwave makes it taste extra special — but because it is one of the most convenient ways to achieve consistently well-cooked rice.
The microwave can be essential for putting together meals on busy nights. Yet in many kitchens, it is merely a tool for reheating leftovers or making popcorn.
“There is a stigma to using your microwave” for cooking, said Ali Rosen, the author of the cookbooks “Bring It!” and “Modern Freezer Meals.” And that’s especially true of cooking rice. “Because rice is such a deeply ingrained part of so many cultures, it takes on this mythical quality — it is not the thing you should be using the shortcut for.”

Disneyland’s Newest Land Will Be a Tribute to San Francisco and Tokyo — What We Know so Far
Introducing San Fransokyo Square.
The latest expansion at Disneyland will be ready to welcome visitors this summer.
First announced at last year’s D23 Expo 2022, the California theme park’s San Fransokyo Square will open in Disney California Adventure park this summer, according to a Disney Parks Blog post shared on Monday.
San Fransokyo Square is set in the “not-too-distant future” and will be a “fictional mash-up of two iconic cities — San Francisco and Tokyo,” Disney shared. A reimagining of the existing Pacific Wharf, San Fransokyo Square will be inspired by Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Academy Award-winning “Big Hero 6.”

[Photo Credit: chinesology.com, nicholechoistudio.com]

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