Changing Times: One of Three Remaining Howard Johnson’s Closes

Posted on April 2, 2015 by EngAGE

change life or world take another direction with changes for the“In the 1960s and ’70s, Howard Johnson’s restaurants were the biggest chain in the country, with more than 1,000 locations. Their iconic orange roofs were fixtures of the American highway, beckoning hungry motorists to come and dine at HoJo’s, as they were affectionately called. Now, almost all of the restaurants are gone. One of the three last surviving Howard Johnson’s eateries closed its doors [March 31st] in Lake Placid, N.Y.”

The Lake Placid HoJo’s had been open since April 1956. Two other locations still operate: one is attached to a hotel in Bangor, Maine, the other is in Lake George, a tourist destination 60 miles south of Lake Placid.

Read more and listen to the NPR story here.

 

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Taiwanese Film Director Hou Hsiao-hsien Retrospective

Posted on April 1, 2015 by EngAGE

FILM“Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien, who soon turns 68, is a key figure in Taiwan’s New Wave Cinema of the ’80s and an international filmmaker whose influence runs deep and wide. Informed by unforced compassion and precision, his elliptical narratives are the opposite of spoon-fed entertainment. Among the contemporary art-house directors who have expressed their debt to him are Jim Jarmusch and Olivier Assayas. He is the subject of a retrospective by the UCLA Film & Television Archive April 3-June 20.” Read more here and here.

 

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Beautiful Minds: Dwan Smith-Fortier

Posted on March 31, 2015 by EngAGE

Dwan Smith-FortierCongratulations to Burbank Senior Artists Colony resident Dwan Smith-Fortier for being featured by the National Center for Creative Aging in their “Beautiful Minds” series! Here’s their post:

Dwan Smith-Fortier, 70, has always felt the most comfortable being in front of an audience. Even as a small child, so small she had to stand on a box, she delivered Christmas recitations in church with a power and a voice beyond her years.

She began acting after transferring to California as an employee for IBM. While in California she auditioned for small plays and commercials landing many roles. After getting signed by major agents she starred in the movie Sparkle, General Hospital, and many other productions.

Dwan went on to act for over 30 more years before her life was changed in 2004 when her husband suffered a massive stroke. She became her husband’s caregiver while he recovered for the next six years.

In healing her husband, Dwan feared that she was losing her voice and sense of direction. Despite that fear, she remained optimistic crediting her art for helping her to see her husband’s path and to be honest with her emotions. She found her voice again while writing for her one woman show, Junk from my Trunk…a Caregiver Story, opening early this summer.

A Burbank Senior Artist Colony resident, an art inspired independent living community, Dwan had no idea she was a “senior”, as she says, “There is a difference between aging and getting old and I ain’t gon’ never get old!”

At the artist colony she is inspired by others with young spirits like hers. She is learning that “the age associated with your being has nothing to do with the clock in your spirit and mind”. There Dwan also directs local plays and is working on several scripts.

For others who are hoping to live a long and productive life, Dwan says, “Create a legacy by constantly creating something, leaving things better that they were before you. Release any bitterness or anxieties you may have. Treasure every minute.”

She also credits exercise and eating right for her youthful lifestyle. “I want to look good every time I walk out. I love being glamourous. I still wear my heels!”

[Learn more about the National Center for Creative Aging, an organization “dedicated to fostering an understanding of the vital relationship between creative expression and healthy aging, and to developing programs that build upon this understanding.”]

 

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Save the Date: EngAGE in Creativity on April 25th

Posted on March 30, 2015 by EngAGE

You’re invited to join us for our annual celebration of creativity! Living Legend of Jazz Clarence Johnston and his band will be performing, along with the 3B Blues Band. There will be face painting and crafts for the kids, and a caricature artist for everyone to enjoy. We’ll also have a wine bar and appetizers. Free parking, free admission! Save the date!

E-in-C 04.25.2015

 

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Changing Times: Oh, the Irony! Italian American Museum Wants to Evict 85-Year-Old Italian Renter

Posted on March 29, 2015 by EngAGE

change life or world take another direction with changes for theLittle Italy, NYC: Adele Sarno moved back into the family apartment in the ’60s and has lived there ever since. But the neighborhood she knew has changed. “The number of people of Italian ancestry who live in Little Italy is shrinking by the year, and may soon drop by one more: Ms. Sarno, 85, is being evicted from her apartment after losing a fight to keep her $820-a-month rent from skyrocketing. But what has gotten tenant advocates’ Home-Sweet-Homeattention is not just her age, but also the identity of the landlord: the Italian American Museum, which is in the building next door.” Read the full story here.

 

 

 

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Worth Repeating: Albert Contreras: Studio Visit

Posted on March 28, 2015 by EngAGE

WORTH-REPEATING“Worth Repeating” is a weekly feature on the EngAGE Blog that will bring you previous posts that we think are still timely, interesting, or just plain fun! From 3/24/14:

“Albert Contreras, who was born during Franklin Roosevelt’s first term as President, is a lean and cheerful man around eighty years old. He lives and works in a small apartment two blocks from the Pacific Ocean. At least once a day he walks down to the water to look at what’s going on – joggers, surfers, bicyclists, sunbathers and people walking their dogs. The rest of the time he seems to stay in his apartment, happily working.”

Contreras initially found success as a painter in Stockholm, Sweden, in the 1960s. His art then was focused on circles. “They were very serious,” he said. The circles he painted became smaller and smaller until the canvas became, in his words, “blank.” So he stopped painting in 1972 and moved back to LA. He was in his mid-60s when he took up painting again, in 1997, after a hiatus of twenty-five years during which time he worked for the city as a trash truck driver. Click here for a visit to his Santa Monica studio and a look at his latest art.

 

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Lena Dunham & Documentary about Hilary Knight, Illustrator of “Eloise”

Posted on March 27, 2015 by EngAGE

From the New York Times:

Vector abstract color pencils and paint brush in the caddyA few years ago, Hilary Knight, the illustrator best known for “Eloise,” was talking with a builder he knows in East Hampton. The guy had just read a profile in New York Magazine of Lena Dunham, which mentioned she had an Eloise tattoo. “I was unaware of Lena Dunham,” Mr. Knight, 88, said recently.

He called up the publicity department at Simon & Schuster and asked them to send Ms. Dunham some signed “Eloise” books. She wrote back, “You are the very fiber of my being.”

Thus launched the friendship between the two, which led to a 35-minute documentary, “It’s Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise,” which aired recently on HBO.

Read more here.

 

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