Los Angeles jazz history evoked in Kenny Barron concert
I’m super excited to attend a concert by a jazz giant, pianist Kenny Barron, at the historic Dunbar Hotel on Central Avenue in L.A. The event is being staged by the Da Camera Society’s “Music in Historic Places” run by the Society since 1980 – a series of concerts matching world-class ensembles with historically and ...
Fox to release “The I Don’t Care Girl” (1953) on DVD 1
We just learned, courtesy of our good friends at Polly O Entertainment, personal managers to Mitzi Gaynor, the wonderful news that Twentieth Century-Fox will release arts·meme favorite, “The I Don’t Care Girl” on DVD April 8, 2013. The biopic, a relatively turgid mid-century look back at vaudeville hottie Eva Tanguay (pictured above with Mitzi who ...
Insanely great movies to sear Egyptian screen @ NOIR CITY
Apr
2
2013
Yes, it’s that time of year again. Film festival overload, otherwise known as April. The American Cinematheque and the Film Noir Foundation join forces for the 15th annual Festival of Film Noir. Shady dames and murderous mobsters converge for dark tales of jaded gumshoes, femmes fatale and menacing heavies in gloriously gritty black and white. ...
Review: Quirky master-photog Bert Stern captured in doc 1
It doesn’t matter that “Bert Stern: Original Madman” falls short in depicting the hectic life and work of the go-go photographer of the sixties. The documentary, a first major effort by Shannah Laumeister, is unevenly told, biased toward the actress-turned-director’s own personal relationship with Stern, and values cheap story elements over artful ones. Yet the ...
Trisha Brown’s “Roof Piece” (1971) to be staged @ Getty
Trisha Brown’s “Roof Piece,” an historic dance work, the mother of all site-specific dances, to be restaged in Los Angeles on April 6, 2013, at the Getty Museum. The rich roster of events and performances has been organized by the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA. CHOREOGRAPHY: Trisha Brownmusic: Ambientset design: Trisha Browncostume: ...
Word up … at Rutberg’s
Mar
29
2013
Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles has a beautiful, locally driven, museum-quality show on at its LaBrea Avenue gallery, an expansive exhibition titled “Letters from Los Angeles: Part II – Identity & Self Identity Through Text in Art.” The rich exhibit curated by Rutberg includes more than 70 works by 40 contemporary L.A.-based artists ...
Koplowitz driven underground with “Red Line Time” 1
Mar
27
2013
We received an intriguing note from our friend Stephan Koplowitz, the Bessie-bearing, Guggenheim-garnering, Alpert-awarded choreographer, who is also Dean of Dance of the Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at CalArts. Despite all of Steve’s awards and accolades he’s apparently being driven underground. And he seems to like it! Writes Steve: I’m proud to say ...
Book review: ‘Hermes Pan, The Man Who Danced with Fred Astaire’ 3
A book review first published by Dance Magazine [December 2012] Growing up in Memphis as the son of Greek immigrants, Hermes Pan (1909–1990) copped dance steps from the family’s African-American household help. Fast-forward to the Depression, when the self-taught Hollywood choreographer’s black-and-white dance fantasies for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers offered Americans escape. The versatile ...
Kyle Abraham sings Brel’s “Ne Me Quitte Pas” with body
Mar
24
2013
A wonderful solo performed by one of the great dancers of our day. Like this? Read more: Kyle works his stuff on BodyTraffic Kyle Abraham, BESSIE awardee Kyle makes it or breaks it at Jacob’s Pillow Kyle Abraham’s The Radio Show at REDCAT (Los Angeles Times)