Opening Fridita’s closet
Aug
21
2013
I loved learning about the opening of the closet of Frida Kahlo at Casa Azul, the great Mexican painter’s home in Mexico City. Fridita died six months, to the day, before I was born! So I (like to) think, well, wish that a little of her transferred over to me. Like this? Read more: In ...
Koehler on Cinema: Elmore Leonard’s True West
The sad news of Elmore “Dutch” Leonard’s death this morning has prompted too many news headlines linking him almost equally with his novels and the movies adapted from them—despite the fact that he openly, caustically and hilarious demoted most of the adaptations. Leonard happens to have had several of his books translated to the big ...
Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” gets classical spin @ Levitt Pavilion
Aug
19
2013
Music writer Chris J. Walker contributes this story to arts·meme: In terms of power, influence and sales from a rock perspective, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon has only one rival—The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band. Both were concept records, with loosely connected songs delving into self-reflection, alienation and life’s meaning. Most ...
Mark Christian Miller by turns suave, touching at the Gardenia
“It’s really a downer!” admitted cabaret singer Mark Christian Miller, in genial patter during his tight set of jazz standards and high 1970s pop at Hollywood’s Gardenia Restaurant & Lounge Saturday night. “Is there anybody else here? It’s cold and I’m so lonely,” runs the plaintive lyric of Harry Nilsson’s “Life Line,” a jewel of ...
Koehler on Cinema: Love in Texas, Wandering in Vienna
Los Angeles—like all American cities—tends to get so few of the exceptional films from the international festival circuit that when two arrive in the same week, it’s worth paying attention. The fact that most moviegoers aren’t aware of the tiny slivers they’re getting from the huge festival pie is an issue by itself, another story ...
Catskills University, educating Jewish comics 2
Oh pure pleasure to watch these guys — and a few very brave women, Totie Fields and Joan Rivers — spiel, kvetch and kill in WHEN COMEDY WENT TO SCHOOL. A wonderful new documentary opening Friday at Laemmle theaters spools a nostalgic tour of a sweaty swathe of summertime civilization — the erstwhile Borsht Belt, a ...
Koehler on Cinema: The Act of Killing Original Movies 2
It’s a familar Los Angeles dilemma. Great movie opens in ultra-limited release to rave reviews. It runs a week (at best, two), then dies. If it hasn’t happened a dozen times, it’s happened a hundred, maybe a thousand. Major, groundbreaking work by our finest living filmmakers, from Apichatpong Weerasethakul to Lisandro Alonso to Kelly Reichardt ...
Oscar was a dancer 2
This amusing photo of Oscar-winning dancer George Chakiris (Best Actor in a Supporting Role, “West Side Story,” 1962) and dance critic Debra Levine taken by Dana Ross last Saturday night at “Oscars Outdoors” sparked an email from Hollywood dance expert Larry Billman. Writes Larry, “The “original Oscar” was a dancer named Emilio Ferandez who modeled ...
At “Oscars Outdoors,” gentlemen still prefer blondes 1
It was a super-special 60th anniversary screening, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science’s “Oscars Outdoors” summer series, of 20th Century-Fox’s comic classic from 1953, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” the movie that blasted off the career of Marilyn Monroe. And the flick’s funnier than ever. Lead actresses Monroe and Jane Russell zing out hilarious ...
George Chakiris to introduce GENTLEMEN at Academy; Debra Levine to discuss Jack Cole
Sixty years after appearing as a chorus dancer behind Marilyn Monroe in “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” George Chakiris will host the Academy’s “Oscars Outdoors” screening of GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES Saturday night, August 3, 2013. In the photo at right we see George, a young man with fake grey highlights spraypainted in his hair. ...