The Grammy Awards Nominations were announced yesterday and it seems like feelings are mixed on who should win, what.

Who should really win the coveted “Album of the Year” Grammy? Should Kanye finally get his shot? Is the troubled Miss Whinehouse even going to be able to stay out of jail long enough to pick up her award? Would it be too much to ask to give the award to a hard rockin’ band like the Foo Fighters?

Tell us what you think!!!

It was an artful evening at last night’s 8th Annual Orange County Arts Awards, an event that can be likened to the Emmys of OC art culture.

The awards dinner, held at The Balboa Bay Club & Resort, is hosted by Arts Orange County, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting local visual and performing arts.

Ed Arnold of KOCE-TV’s’ “Real Orange,” and community visionary Julia Argyros hosted.

Guests enjoyed a colorful performance by contemporary dance company, Backhausedance, a nominee for Outstanding Arts Organization. Also, a surprise performance by Tony Award-nominated performer, Matt Morrison, a graduate of Orange County High School of the Arts (OCHSA) in Santa Ana.

Three key figures in the art community were honored with a Cultural Legacy Award. Ralph Opacic, founder and president of OCHSA, was honored as Artistic Visionary. Ramya Harishankar, classical Indian dancer and artistic director of Arpana Dance Company, received the Artist award. And writer, philanthropist, and civic leader, Joan Irvine Smith, was applauded as Community Visionary.

If you didn’t attend last night’s event, you can still take part. Arts OC has this year set up an online auction that’s open to the public.

But hurry! Bidding closes today, Thursday, Sept. 27, at 5 p.m. To browse items and place your bid, visit ArtsocAuction.org

To view photos from the awards dinner, click here.

–CYNTHIA RUPE

Bowers Museum in Santa Ana will next year host the exhibit “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of the First Emperor,” an exhibit from China that includes 20 life-size soldier statues, part of a world famous exhibit on permanent display in Xian, China.

In anticipation of record crowds expected to flock to the museum for this exhibit, which opens May 18, 2008, the tickets go on sale Tuesday, June 5.

The 120 objects featured in the “Terra Cotta Warriors” exhibit are but a portion of the larger exhibit on permanent display near the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang (259-210 B.C.), the first emperor of China. Here you’ll see more than 8,000 life-size terracotta figures of warriors and horses arranged in battle formations, replicas of the Chinese imperial guard. The find was discovered in the ’70s and is considered one of the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th century.

TERRA COTTA WARRIORS: GUARDIANS OF THE FIRST EMPEROR

WHEN: May 18-Oct. 12, 2008
WHERE: Bowers Museum, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana.
TICKET PRICES: $20 weekdays, $22 weekends (general admission); $14 weekdays, $16 weekends (seniors/students); children under 6 are free.
ORDERING INFO: Ticketmaster, 877-250-8999, ticketmaster.com, or museumtix.com.

Guest reviewer Lisa Delao checked out two films in the Newport Beach Film Festival and offered her thoughts:

In a matter of hours on Sunday, I was transported from the rugged countryside of Sicily in “The Orange Thief” to the exquisite beaches of Ipanema in “Vinicius,” the first films I took in as a festival reviewer.

“The Orange Thief” presents a story told from the thoroughly unique perspective of its central character, a young Sicilian peasant (Andrea Calabrese) who dreams of owning land while he steals the much-cherished fruit grown by neighboring farmers. He’s not even that skilled a thief, given that during most attempts he gets caught and beat to a bloody pulp and left in a heap on the coveted terra firma. Eventually his exploits land him in jail, where his bunkmate is Torrido, the “Smooth Blade”. A physically terrifying hulk of man, Torrido has the heart of a lover. Imprisoned for life, his only dream is to hear his beautiful Rosalba sing once more. He makes a deal with the orange thief – bring him back a recording of Rosalba, and he’ll give him a piece of land to call his own. What ensues is a charming adventure that explores the power of dreams and how they can give someone the hope and willpower to keep striving in a life that is sometimes defeating.

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Funny Brian should mention puppet practice in his hiking blog entry. On Saturday I caught two programs at the Newport Beach Film Fest, both involving puppets. First was “Handmade Puppet Dreams,” 12 puppet shorts handpicked and promoted by Heather Henson, daughter of Jim Henson. I thought three was excellent, and the rest were good to boring. All were remarkably creative, and the sweet thing is, they’re all on YouTube.

Here are my faves:
“Manetti” by Scott Land.

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As I approached Edwards Big Newport last night, I had one question in mind for all the people crowding on the red carpet – Are you famous?

I mean, truly, are you? I’m bad at recognizing actors’ faces. Everyone looks like they’re sort of famous. Look at that dude in the hat – all decked out with rings, like Dave Navarro, but tall. And that guy with the dreadlocks standing in front of him. The guy with the “messy” hair on the far right told me he was a hairdresser from San Diego. Who knows if he was messing with me.

It’s not that I don’t want to talk to you if you’re not famous. It’s just that I feel stupid when I wake up in the morning and read in the paper that I missed everybody. Like today. Thora Birch, where were you?

Anyway, the opening movie was Chad Lowe’s directorial debut, “Beautiful Ohio.” It stars Rita Wilson, William Hurt and Michelle Trachtenburg. Wilson and newcomer Brett Davern turned in good performances in this family drama set in 1970s Ohio, but otherwise, I’m afraid to say I didn’t like the movie very much.

“Beautiful Ohio” is about a family, in which the older son is a moody math genius. The younger brother tries to figure out the mystery of his brother – how he solves his math problems, why he sometimes speaks in a made-up language, how he has attracted such a hot girlfriend (Michelle T, looming awkwardly). I felt frustrated watching the movie because I thought it had so much potential, but the scenes were not well paced and I never felt myself sucked into the drama. My mind drifted to Ang Lee’s “The Ice Storm,” and I started to think how much better “Beautiful Ohio” could have been with better teen actors like Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire and Elijah Wood.

Post-movie, the crowd shifted to the courtyard outside Bloomingdale’s in Fashion Island. About a dozen restaurants set up tents and gave out samples of their signature dishes. Thank you Fleming’s for those delicious mini-burgers!

Before his movie screened, Chad Lowe talked about how Newport Beach Film Festival is a “pure” festival in the sense that film lovers actually get to enjoy movies here. In bigger film festivals like Sundance, for example, the talk shifts often to $$$ — which movie sold for the most. I agree with that. Newport fest is just small enough to feel local, and big enough (and near enough to Hollywood) to get lots of good indie movies and visitor filmmakers.

The opening night party was listed as a “gala” with “black tie optional” dress. But of course, this being SoCal, lots of people showed up in jeans and casual dresses. Despite the fashion show, it didn’t feel like a super-glamorous affair. It seemed like it was just a bunch of eager filmmakers talking to each other. There were lots of regular joes who are employees of sponsoring companies. I think Kantina on a Saturday night is more intimidating.

Our photographer Dominique Riley got lots of great photos of the opening party. Check them out here.

— Jit Fong Chin

I hopped down to South Coast Village theater at 3:15 p.m. Friday to see if Regency Theatres was indeed re-opening the theater as claimed on its Web site.

As mentioned in previous blog entries, Edwards closed the theater two months ago, disappointing fans who’d relied on it for independent and foreign movies for 30 years. Not long after though, Regency took over the theater and pledged to re-open it.

When I got there, workers were still putting on the finishing touches. Hooray, the doors are open and there are employees inside!
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Flipped open the Register’s Life section today to good news: Regency Theatres will re-open the shuttered South Coast Village Cinemas to screen art-house movies.

From regencymovies.com:

SOUTH COAST VILLAGE OPENS MARCH 23!

Regency Theatres is pleased to announce the opening of our newest location, the South Coast Village Cinemas on March 23rd! Featuring new high-back love seats and all Dolby Digital sound, this is Orange County’s Premiere Art Cinemas!

The first three movies to be screened are “An Unreasonable Man,” a documentary about Ralph Nader; “Into Great Silence”, a documentary about ascetic Carthusian monks; and “Lonely Hearts,” a movie starring John Travolta, James Gandolfini, Salma Hayek, Jared Leto and Laura Dern.

Spotted recently at Orange County Museum of Art’s Chuck Close opening — white roses suspended in vases filled with water.

What do you think of the floral arrangements?

Just got home from watching “The Queen” at Regency’s Charter Centre Cinemas, a discount theater at Beach Boulevard and Warner in Huntington Beach that opened a few months ago. The movie was very good, and the theater was fantastic! The cineplex used to be an Edwards Theater. When Bella Terra’s new cineplex opened down Beach Boulevard, Edwards closed this theater and sold it to Regency. Regency put on new lights and now screens movies that are a few weeks late at a discount rate. Movies are $3 after 6 p.m., or $2 before 6 p.m.! Hot dogs are $1. Wednesday is “date night,” where you can get two tickets, two small popcorns and two sodas for a total of $10.
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