Weird scenes inside the goldmine: L.A.’s 1967 rock venues 1
Jun
21
2017
by kirk silsbee
editor’s note: Harvey Kubernik’s new coffeetable tome, 1967: A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love (Sterling), is a both a scholarly examination and a sensuous immersion into the pivotal year in 1960s youth culture through a mosaic of voices. Kirk Silsbee’s sidebars from his essay in the book, excerpted and condensed here, ...
‘Summer of Love’ in pop-up film-fest
As a nod to recurring “Summer of Love” fever, the American Cinematheque presents a pop-up 1960s mini film fest. Martin Lewis curated the fondly-recalled “Mods ‘n Rockers” series at the Egyptian Theatre, and he’s chosen a handful of titles to be screened at Santa Monica’s Aero Theatre this weekend. “Mods ‘n Rockers” was great fun ...
Nijinsky influenced by Parisian dance hall? Soon explored at unusual Seattle workshop
Jun
20
2017
How does “Exploring an Unrealized Ballet and its Cultural Context: Paris 1909 to 1915” strike you as an interesting way to pass four days in Seattle? That is exactly what I shall be doing June 29 – July 2 at the University of Washington in Seattle, courtesy of Catherine Turocy, Artistic Director of the New ...
Must the show really go on? 2
In a world in which ‘norms’ seem at best untethered and at worst unhinged, everything is under revision, everything feels up for grabs! And thus we question that most sacredly-held tenet … that the show must go on. In this purposefully ‘bad’ dance number from Cover Girl (1944) courtesy of B-movie factory Columbia Pictures, the ...
Duckler dancers to scale tall ships of Port of Los Angeles
Full immersion is the typical call to action of a Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre site-specific happening. That’s what attracts her adventure-seeking audience. But next Saturday night, when we attend Beyond the Waterfront, Duckler’s latest site-specific work, we hope it does not require a plunge into the deep dark sea at the Port of Los Angeles ...
Despondence emerges in choreographic language
The culture is in upheaval; most everyone admits and discusses it. Artists, of course, feel it acutely — as do we all. It’s a conversation that best takes place in communities. One place is with an audience, at a theater. But how to translate these profound feelings, which seem so contingent on verbiage, into a ...
Herb Alpert to be honored with prestigious UCLA Medal
Jun
13
2017
National Medal of Arts recipient and nine-time Grammy winner Herb Alpert will be awarded the UCLA Medal, the campus’s highest honor, on June 16 at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s inaugural commencement ceremony. This is recognition for one of our community’s foremost artists, arts producers, arts philanthropist. If anyone embodies the super-cool nature ...
Populist Eifman Ballet en route to Southern California
Choreographer Boris Eifman is the Donald Trump of the ballet world. His fans love him for his provocative, populist appeal while his critics find him unsophisticated and far from coherent. And then there’s the Russia thing. Eifman is Russian and his narrative ballets, while modernist in story line, have the old-school Bolshoi tendency to go ...
A voyage through French cinema hosted by Bertrand Tavernier
Jun
7
2017
Described by director Bertrand Tavernier as “an expression of gratitude to all those filmmakers, screenwriters, actors and musicians who have erupted into my life,” the documentary, A VOYAGE THROUGH FRENCH CINEMA, is manna from heaven to fans of French film. Spanning nearly half a century of the country’s cinematic history, the clips and reminiscences here ...
Bob Dylan’s latest dream: Nobel Laureate speech
excerpted: Achilles tells Odysseus, it was all a mistake. I just died, that’s all. There was no honor, no immortality and if he could he would choose to go back and go back and be a lowly a slave to tenant farmer on earth rather than be what he is, a king in the land ...