Maxwell is performing a club set tonight at The Act in the Shangri-La hotel Dubai. The Grammy-award winning crooner will take the stage late this evening to perform some of his luscious neo-soul hits. With his last collection BLACKsummers’night released in 2009, it has been rumoured the 40-year-old may use tonight’s opportunity to test out a new song or two. For details, email reservations@theactdubai.com or call 052 811 9900.
Story of Pakistani activist to make opera debut in NY
The Pakistani women’s rights activist Mukhtar Mai is the subject of a new contemporary opera debuting in New York tomorrow. The Thumbprint of Mukhtar Mai, written by the Indo-American composer Kamala Sankaram, follows the story of Mai’s 2002 quest to bring her rapists to justice. Mai was gang-raped in June that year as a form of honour revenge. Thumbprint will be unveiled for a short season until next Tuesday at the Baruch Performing Arts Center as part of the Prototype: Opera/Theatre/Now festival, an annual event featuring opera and music works by pioneering composers and writers. — The National staff
Scorsese scores 11th Directors Guild nod
The filmmakers Martin Scorsese, Steve McQueen, David O Russell, Alfonso Cuarón and Paul Greengrass were nominated for Directors Guild of America (DGA) film awards on Tuesday, an honour that often foreshadows Oscar success. Scorsese, 71, received his 11th nomination for the real-life tale of financial greed The Wolf of Wall Street, out in the UAE today. The British director McQueen, 44, scored his first Directors Guild film award nomination for the historical slavery drama 12 Years a Slave, as did his fellow Briton Greengrass, 58, for the Somali piracy thriller Captain Phillips. The Mexican director Cuarón, 52, earned his first DGA nomination for the space drama Gravity. Russell, 55, earned his second nomination for the 1970s corruption caper American Hustle. — Reuters
Transformers director stalks off the stage at Samsung event
Autobot warriors in Transformers films stand firm in the face of pressure, but the director of the blockbuster action films bolted when a teleprompter failed him at a Samsung press event in Las Vegas. Michael Bay joined a Samsung executive on stage on Monday to extol the wonders of a new curved 105-inch ultra high-definition television at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show. He got as far as saying that he got to dream for a living and that his job was to “take people on an emotional ride”, before being forced to go off script. Samsung’s executive vice president, Joe Stinziano, prompted Bay, but the director said he was sorry and then stormed off in an apparent huff, prompting one of the hundreds of journalists in the audience to say: “It must have been a Decepticon sensor.” – AFP
