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!!!

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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

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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.

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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.

This film is perfectly cast. As the orange thief, Andrea Calabrese carries in his saunter the arrogance of youth, but also the frustration of a man who has a dream that is constantly sidetracked by circumstance and poor choices. We watch as struggles through conventional jobs as a barber’s assistant, auto shop lackey – pointless efforts for someone who was born to work the land and dig his hands into the rich soil of the earth. Calabrese is also a beautiful singer and plays a mean guitar while a cigarette dangles out of his pouty lips. The film is generously peppered with Sicilian folk songs that made me want to buy the soundtrack (if only it had one).

Equal parts humor and adventure, “The Orange Thief” was a perfect way to begin my festival experience. I highly recommend that you catch its second screening on Thursday at 2:30pm. You will be charmed and delighted by its whimsical beauty.

After gorging myself at Maggiano’s for dinner, I headed back to the festival just in time to view “Vinicius”, a lyrical documentary on one of Brazil’s great poet-philosophers, Vinicius De Moraes. Filmed as a documentary framed by dramatization, it explores the highly-charged creative atmosphere that Moraes lived in and generated by the power of his own artistry and charisma.

More than being the co-composer of the bossa nova hit “The Girl from Ipanema” and playwright of the famed “Orfeo” (later to be shot as “Black Orpheus”), Moraes wrote numerous philosophical texts throughout his life and worked extensively with Antonio Carlos Jobim, one of the fathers of modern Brazilian music. An intense and romantic soul, Moraes was constantly chasing that feeling of emotional and creative euphoria that inspired his work and filled him with a sense of the infinite. Perhaps this is why he married nine times. As one of his former wives remarked in the documentary, he didn’t chase women for sex, but was looking for that singular connection that happens between a man and a woman and fills them with wonder.

One of the greatest attributes of the film are the interviews conducted with people from Moraes’ inner ciircle – wives, children, fellow artists, friends. His relationships seemed to be his greatest treasure. He highly valued friendship and worked hard to maintain close bonds with those he loved. He thrived on the company and creativity of his comrades and loved ones and they too fueled his work and sense of hope.

An added treat were the musical performances of Moraes’ songs by some of Brazil’s most respected and gifted singers. I’m a wild fan of Brazilian music and listening to the heady lyricism of these pieces just swept me away emotionally even as I sat in my creaky little theater seat. Sexy and smoldering, heartbreaking yet often playful, the songs do more than create an ambience or set a mood, they reach into the heart and caress it and make it FEEL.

If you watched one of the Newport Beach Film Festival movies for the first time and would like to submit YOUR review, e-mail it to contact@squeezeoc.com. Please include your full name and city where you live, or we will not consider your review for posting.

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

“The Tale of Mr. Fox” by Richard Mansfield

“Tyger” by Guilherme Marcondes

This series of “Handmade Puppet Dreams” is the third volume that Heather Henson has put together. It’s not screening again at the film festival. But the first two volumes of “Handmade Puppet Dreams” are showing on continuous loop for free through May 20 at Grand Central Art Center. My favorite short, “Harker,” is unfortunately not on YouTube.

The second puppet program I caught was “Dante’s Inferno” by Sandow Birk, Elyse Pignolet, Paul Zaloom and Sean Meredith, a re-imagining of Dante’s 700-year-old classic with a backdrop that looks remarkably like Los Angeles. Dermot Mulroney voices the main character. The movie defies categorization, and I mean that in a good way.

Dante’s original text was full of references to contemporary Italian politics. The puppet team used the opportunity to update the story with references Americans are more used to. E.g. JFK and Fatty Arbuckle are condemned an eternity of fornication for their lustful actions on earth; Marilyn Monroe’s soul is trapped in a tree because she abandoned her body in suicide; Dick Cheney is so evil he is in hell even before his body has died.

Not only is “Dante’s Inferno” a witty commentary on contemporary politics, it’s also a critique of Dante’s now-outmoded religious opinions. In the original text, homosexuals are in a deeper level of hell than thieves and many other criminals — a point that many gay people who had helped with the movie were uncomfortable with, Sandow said at a post-screening Q&A. But the primary filmmakers decided to not to deviate from the text. Sandow said they wanted the story to stay “Dante’s Inferno,” not become “Sandow’s Inferno,” or “Paul’s Inferno.”

By the way, the entire project began when Sandow (a kickass Long Beach artist who has received a National Endowment for the Arts scholarship, a Guggenheim Fellowship and other honors) picked up a used copy of “The Divine Comedy” in Long Beach’s Acres of Books and decided to illustrate the story in large paintings. He worked with a surfing friend, Marcus Sanders, to re-work the text to casual, surf-inflected English. Then came the puppet movie project. (Read my interview with Sandow published last year when his paintings were on view at Grand Central Art Center.)

“Dante’s Inferno” premiered in Slamdance in January and is touring film festivals around the world. As of Sunday, it had been screened 16 times in 16 weeks. Read more at dantefilm.com and see the trailer here.

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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

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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!

Larry Parricelli the theater manager shook my hand and welcomed us. (There was another visitor, a woman in her 50s-60s, very bubbly, superexcited the theater is re-opening because she used to live down the street, and no I didn’t get her name because she bounced in and out really fast.) Regency’s head honcho, President Lyndon Golin, came from Calabasas to give a look and he chatted with us, too.

Regency has updated the place quite a bit. The place smells much better. The biggest of the three theaters has brand new, high-backed chairs with cup holders, a vast improvement from the saggy chairs that used to be there. The two smaller theaters have used chairs, though. I told Larry the manager the last time I was at South Coast Village for one of the Flashback Features, the theater played a DVD of “Blue Velvet” and then halfway through the movie the screen went dark and we got refunds. Larry assured me the theater would never use DVDs, and moreover, they’re using new projection equipment. There are a couple of new armchairs in the lobby area, too. Even with the upgrades, the theater isn’t plush like The Block or Bella Terra, but it’s clean and charming in its modest way.

The theater considers its opening yesterday a “soft opening,” and will have a grand opening celebration next weekend, March 30-April 1. There will be free small popcorns then and sodas will cost just $1. There are four movies showing this week: “Into Great Silence” (in the big theater), “Colour Me Kubrick,” “An Unreasonable Man” and “The Dead Girl.” Admission is $9.50 adults, $6.50 students/seniors, and $7 matinees before 5:15 p.m. Popcorn usually costs $3.25 for small, $4 medium, $5.50 large with free refill. Kettle corn is $4.

I didn’t stay to catch the first screening, “Colour Me Kubrick,” but I’m planning to return to see “Into Great Silence,” a documentary about Carthusian monks. You can see the movie schedule at regencymovies.com

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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.

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What do you think of the floral arrangements?

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