Holiday picks: Joffrey ‘Nutcracker’ & Lula Washington ‘Kwanzaa’
Nov
29
2011
Dance critics — that bad bunch of bah-hambugg’ers — roll their eyes at the words, “The Nutcracker.” But when the houselights dim, and the Tchaikovsky pours forth, just catch a glimpse of their faces. You know — when the Sugar Plum Whatzz’its dance before their eyes? They love it. You’d have to be a Certified ...
Experimental films by Topanga Canyon creatives @ Los Angeles Filmforum
An upcoming program at Los Angeles Filmforum — screening experimental and avant-garde film and video art, documentaries, and experimental animation — captures my interest. It’s the ninth installment of Filmforum director Adam Hyman’s extensive and rigorous 24-program exhibition of experimental films made in L.A. between 1945 and 1980. This survey fits neatly into the time ...
Quiz: Who got the best gig @ MOCA gala, dancer or bartender? 3
Rehearsals 15 hours none Performance four hours four hours Competition 800 applicants me & my buddy Training MFA in performance from UCLA California bartender license Interactivity Stare like a zombie while guests gnaw on foie gras Chit-chat & flirt all night Drinks Bottle of water after four hours Free drinks all night long ...
The courage of Sara Wookey 4
The subject is the so-called performance art featuring nude dancers on display as dinner-party decorations at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s fundraising gala in mid-November. Some poked heads thru tables as patrons dined; others lay inert with skeletons draped on their bodies. All women decorating tabletops, mind you. No men. It’s a tired idea that ...
WeeGee shoots “Newark with palm trees” — Los Angeles
Nov
26
2011
arts·meme visual arts correspondent, Liz Goldner, contributes this review. “Naked Hollywood: Weegee in Los Angeles,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art (part of the Pacific Standard Time initiative), brings out of near oblivion 200 photographic artworks and a few films, from the late 1940s through the 60s, by and of tabloid photographer, “Weegee” (real name, ...
Go south, PST people — to Long Beach and Orange County
Pacific Standard Time got you overwhelmed? Me too, guys! But here’s a way to break it up, geographically speaking. The weekend of 3-4 December you can lose the L.A.-centricity and check out what’s going on Down Under, you know … Behind the Orange Curtain, er… I mean, you can visit our dear neighbors to the ...
The Greatest at his best, courtesy of photographer Michael Brennan
Nov
21
2011
We enjoyed seeing art photos of the sweaty Muhammad Ali muss up the otherwise pristine Design Within Reach’s furniture-exhibition halls. The sports-and-boxing theme was an odd fit for the tony Beverly Boulevard retailer, but a good crowd milling ’round the rooms made it all work. Even a glimpse of Ali gives everyone a little more ...
‘Tecnologia Filosofica,’ Italian contemp dancers at Theatre Raymond Kabbaz
Nov
20
2011
I’ll be bobbing around the Caribbean, on TCM Classic Cruise, watching great movies with TCM’s Robert Osborne and Ben Mankiewicz. But you may want to attend a cool dance performance in Los Angeles while I’m gone. It’s the U.S. premiere performance of one of Italy’s leading contemporary dance troupes, Tecnologia Filosofica. Described as an entertaining and ...
Pierre Étaix’s “Heureux Anniversaire” (1962) screened @ the Academy 1
Nov
18
2011
An exquisite evening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences on Wednesday night, when two beautifully refurbished films by the comic French filmmaker, Pierre Étaix, 82, got rare American screenings. Étaix, who started as young man in circus and remained faithful to clowns, casting them in cameo roles in his films, was present ...
Michael Jackson visited Martha Graham studio 2
“And then he’d have to go back to whatever he’d go back to. And it just went wrong. Who knows what happened?” Michael Jackson lived the life he lived. He navigated a tangle of destiny and choice, as do we all. Jackson was born into a certain family, a certain fate, and he was a ...