Fashion & Beverage Horoscope

Aries (21 March-20 April)

Characteristics: Loves freedom, uncompromising, unwilling to follow, and aggressive.

Romantically:     You need someone intelligent as well as physically appealing.

New Years Eve Fashion Considerations: Something in red with “BLING” or a black suit and a power tie.

New Years Eve Cocktail Suggestions:       Anything on the rocks.
 

Taurus (21 April-21 May)

Characteristics:  Determined, peaceful, team player.

Romantically:     You are faithful to your mate.

New Years Eve Fashion Considerations:    Male or Female, wear pink. 

New Years Eve Cocktail Suggestion:         Vodka.

Gemini (22 May-22 June)

Characteristics:  Child-like, happy, energetic, passive aggressive, and indecisive.

Romantically:     You need a different lover for your changing moods.

New Years Eve Fashion Considerations:    Dark green and comfortable but leave the camouflage at home.

New Years Eve Cocktail Suggestion:         Flavored vodka with complimentary juice.

Cancer (23 June-23 July)

Characteristics:  Family oriented, dreamer, art lover, loyal friend. 

Romantically:     You fall in love easily. 

New Years Eve Fashion Considerations:  Anything silver with a black ensemble.

New Years Eve Cocktail Suggestions:       Cocktails with an umbrella.

Leo (24 July-23 August)

Characteristics:  You are the king, ambitious, strong personality, logical, and an extrovert.   Romantically:      You take your mate for granted.  You rather be chased. 

New Years Eve Fashion Considerations:    Bright elaborate colors.  Keep it simple.

New Years Eve Cocktail Suggestions:       Martini or Single Malt Scotch.

Virgo (24 August-23 September)

Characteristics:  Creative, intelligent, tidy, judgmental and rarely show emotions. 

Romantically:     You are charming and tend to have many loves. 

New Years Eve Fashion Considerations:    Brown is the new Black.  Don’t forget about velvet.

New Years Eve Cocktail suggestion:         Screwdriver or white Russians.

Libra (24 September-23 October)

Characteristics:  Charming, good looking, and kind. 

Romantically:     You are a big flirt.

New Years Eve   Fashion Considerations:  Leather and lace.

New Years Eve Cocktail Suggestion:         Anything that needs a cherry.

Scorpio (24 October-22 November)

Characteristics:  Intense, powerful, social and self-absorbed.  

Romantically:     You tend to come on strong and sometimes suffocating. 

New Years Eve   Fashion Considerations:  Black Suit with a soft touch.

Cocktail Suggestions: Liquor with coffee.

Sagittarius (23 November-22 December)

Characteristics:  Adventurous, optimistic, full of life, hate being tied down. 

Romantically:     You avoid commitments and tend to have long courtships.

New Years Eve   Fashion Considerations:  Dare with your underware.

New Years Eve Cocktail Suggestion:         Anything that needs nursing.

Capricorn (23 December-19 January)

Characteristics:  Independent, confident, serious, and extremely cautious. 

Romantically:     You are willing to commit but always wonder if something better is out there. 

New Years Eve Fashion Considerations:    Back in black.

New Years Eve Cocktail Suggestion:         Flavored gin.

Aquarius (20 January-19 February)

Characteristics:  Shy or outgoing.    Dry sense of humor, independent and don't like crowds.  Romantically:      You are a romantic and are devoted to your loved one. 

New Years Eve Fashion Considerations:    Gouchos for women, zipper sweater for men.

New Years Eve Cocktail Suggestion:          Manhattan or Shirley Temple.

Pisces (20 February-20 March)

Characteristics:  Kind, caring, generous, busy-body, and not a decision maker. 

Romantically:     You tend to have more than one lover.

New Years Eve   Fashion Considerations:  Fishnet stockings for the flirt, velvet sport coat for the men.

New Years Eve Cocktail Suggestion:         Chocolate Martini

Art Gallery Mark Valentine

Art

Your living space affects you. It affects your guests.
Awareness of that kind of internal and external impact combined with the amazing housing/redecorating boom in Kansas City has fed the growth of the nation’s hottest art market. At the turn of the last century, Kansas City was known as “The Paris of The Plains.” At the turn of this new century, KC has more professional artists than Paris or New York.

Downtown’s trendy Crossroads District has gotten national attention and the monthly First Friday Art Walk has become a phenomenon. If you travel a few minutes south of the Plaza to 74th & Broadway, you will find yourself in the quaint neighborhood known as Brookside. The Brooks Gallery is worth a visit.

The Gallery’s owner/artist Shannon Brooks has created a unique offering of affordable, original pieces. He often works with designers and individuals on custom pieces that have personal meaning to them. Brooks says, “It’s a step beyond selecting a framed print or poster you may see in numerous shops around the city. No ones likes to show up at a party wearing the same shirt as some one else. Why should art be different?”

The 700 square foot space has an urban appeal and an inviting New Orleans style courtyard just outside the rear entrance. The Gallery also shows other Kansas City artists’ work and is open Monday-Friday 10a-6p.

M. Valentine
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Americana Music

Americana Music is huge and growing in popularity.
They say the future of Americana Music looks
very good…but can anyone define it?
I can listen to it on my RoadRunner as a digital music
channel. It says “Americana” on channel 547. Somebody
defined it and they think all the music fits in that
slot. I heard what sounded a lot like country, bluegrass,
folk, blues and some forms of jazz. The word
“roots” comes up sometimes. Did that help?
There is a national organization. The Americana
Music Association says Americana Music can be
traced back to the Elvis Presley marriage of hillbilly
and R&B that birthed rock 'n' roll, Americana as a
radio format developed during the 1990s as a reaction
to the highly polished sound that defined the
mainstream music of that decade. The Association
has a big show coming up this month. The artists include
Ronee Blakley, Sam Bush, Rosanne Cash, Elvis
Costello, Rodney Crowell, Charlie Daniels, The
Dynamites featuring Charles "Wigg" Walker, Tim
Easton, Alejandro Escovedo, Vince Gill, James
Hunter, Kacey Jones, Kieran Kane, Kevin Welch and
Fats Kaplin, Delbert McClinton, James McMurtry, Tim
O'Brien, Barry Poss, Kim Richey, RobinElla, Marty
Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, Bryan Sutton,
Allen Toussaint, Uncle Earl, Kenny Vaughan…Did
that help?
By the way, there is no Grammy for Americana Music.
Ok, I know that didn’t help.
I like Johnny Cash. I like John Prine. I like Muddy
Waters. I like songs with stories. I like guitars, especially
acoustic ones. I like the sound of the word
“Americana.”
I’m just trying to help.
- Mark Valentine

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KC Artist On KC Art History

From “Benton and Pollock: The Rhythm Kings “
Two American painters have been profound to my continued interest in art
for nearly six decades: Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock Benton’s
interest in movement in his paintings, (or what’s sometimes referred to as
“rhythm”) had a significant influence on Pollock’s pioneering work in the new
genre of Abstract Expressionism. Critics often portrayed Benton as a hick
and Pollock as a genius. Benton himself probably added to the Benton-
Pollock disconnect when he commented that the only influence he had on
Jackson Pollock “was teaching him to drink a fifth a day.”
The emotionally disturbed Pollock moved from California to New York in
1930 specifically to study under Benton at the Art Student League. Teacher
and student became close friends. Together the painters shared many personality
traits; both were hard drinkers and exuded masculine bravado.
Similarly, both were brusque and had little time for the peripheral world of
art politics. Benton left New York in the midst of controversy (feuding with
artists of the Social Realism movement, among others) and moved to Kansas City in 1935 to teach at the Kansas City Art Institute but stayed in contact with Pollock. Through the 1940s in Kansas City, Benton stayed
grounded in his regionalist themes and successful style while Pollock’s
emotional problems began to play more of a role in all aspects of his life.
Intermittent rages fueled by intoxicants were offset with periods of sobriety.  It was during this time, that he produced his most renowned work, all paintings alive with rhythm.  Benton at the Nelson is a must-see. His contribution to forging a style of Regionalism is undisputed. A docent friend of mine at the Nelson suggests you have your children close one eye and follow the lines of Benton characters, follow their movement. It could be their first venture into the magnificent drama of the art of the rhythm kings, Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock

-Dave McQuitty

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Artist Paints the World
Joe Ray Kelly

The new Piropos restaurant located in the Briarcliff Village Center specializes in Argentinean cuisine . The owners commissioned a Kansas City artist to capture the feel of the La Boca District in Buenos Aires . This now famous tourist area in Argentina
is identified by assortment of brightly painted low houses made of wood and metal that line the streets, including the famed main street Caminito, in this poor but happy area full of artisans,
painters, street performers, cantinas and open-air tango shows. The Northland painter who caught Piropos’ eye was none other than Joe Ray Kelly.

Joe Ray Kelley paints the faces and places of the world. He is a native Kansas Citian whose works receive recognition internationally. He has achieved the Signature Artist status given by the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society, the International Acrylic Painters Society and the National Society of Artists.
He was invited to exhibit his work in the 2003 Biennale Internationalle Dell’Arte Contemporanea in Florence,
Italy and will show his work there again in 2007.

To view Joe’s work : www.joesfineart.com __________________________

DRINK WINE

Across the centuries, wine is the oil soothing social events. A person’s wine preference rests on personal
pleasures. Levels of sophisticated wine tasting vary, and appreciation of different varietals mirror
preferences as in art pieces. The holiday season arrived,
gatherings scheduled, meals prepared, but there is this
wine “thing”.

Were you aware that Champagne wine is a name given
to sparkling wine? Champagne wine is produced in a
northern region of France, which has four areas. Its distinct
taste is due to the high acidity of the grape. There
are many good quality sparkling wines produced in several
different parts of the world. The Champagne region
of France is only one. California and New York are states
having quality sparkling wines. Price reflects the quality of
a sparkling wine served. Pop the cork; pour the bubbly;
enjoy.

Have you encountered an intense argument between red
verses white wines? This is an easy dilemma to solve
about which wine to serve. Offer your guests both white and red. Reap the many benefits from your
wide-open choice. First, folks with different tastes are able to fit wine to preference. Those believing red
wine is best, discover they are right. Those knowing their white wine tastes best, win. Finally, you glean
the satisfaction of being a qualified wine steward, and you get to enjoy those wine leftovers.

You know that numerous varietals of red and white exist, but have you observed that whatever you serve, folks help themselves to your wine? The generic red is Merlot, and the universal white is Chardonnay.

Price per bottle and age per variety matters. “Vintage” shows the year grapes were harvested, but most wines are sold for drinking immediately.

Pricing matches your choice of variety, vineyard, and region/state/country.

Serving a good wine fits most social occasions. Liquor stores and wine merchants stock shelves of very good wines. Expensive, older varietals become more difficult to find, and books are available for exact food/wine pairing. World renowned wine experts’ tour and taste to rate what qualifies as vintage years?
Further, add fun year ‘round by including wine-tasting tours on your vacations. Virtually every state in the U.S. has wineries. The same is true with countries outside the U.S. Unique varietals come from the different local wineries. For example, there are more than 100 Champagne house in France, but only 40 are available in the U.S. Missouri has more than two dozen wineries. Kansas and Iowa have some too.

Southern Oregon produces a fine Malbec. Some wineries import grapes from other states to blend with local grapes. Going on a vacation? Explore nearby wineries seeking something not available on store shelves.

-Lee Valentine