The latest from Leo the Lion
Oct
17
2011
I very much enjoyed seeing Jack Goldstein’s art film, “Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer” (1975) screened by LA Filmforum as part of “Industry Town: The Avant-Garde and Hollywood,” one of Pacific Standard Time’s offerings around L.A. This journey through eight short experimental films amply showed the shadow side of filmmaking in Los Angeles. Directors as disparate as Kenneth Anger, ...
Hans Burkhardt, master artist of Los Angeles @ Jack Rutberg Fine Arts
Oct
17
2011
The expansive and influential career of Hans Burkhardt (1904–1994), who constantly updated and reinvented as a painter in Los Angeles is the focus of a survey exhibition of paintings and drawings, “Hans Burkhardt: Within & Beyond the Mainstream.” In the video, gallerist Rutberg notes, with certain contained astonishment, that Burkhardt, who transferred to L.A. after ...
Alluring mix of mid-century jazz & photography comes to Northridge
October 23 is as good a day as any, no better, to trek to the deep San Fernando Valley. On that Sunday, the campus of Cal State University, Northridge, will be super alive in an extraordinary double-bill highlighting the best of African-American art. [slideshow id=38] Featured photographers: Roland Charles, Willie Middlebrook, Jack Davis, Calvin Hick ...
L.A. dance programmers add to U.S. trade deficit with tempting imports 1
May
13
2011
We’ve always imported major dance companies in Los Angeles. In the old days, that meant New York City Ballet romping at the Greek Theater in Griffith Park. But now we go global. And this is worsening the nation’s nettlesome trade deficit. We buy more of their stuff and they don’t buy enough of ours. Our ...
Charles Lloyd’s ecstatic melody on his 85th
On the cusp of Charles Lloyd’s 85th birthday—we’ll join the master in celebration at Saturday’s live performance at The Soraya—the acclaimed tenor saxophonist and flutist stands at the summit of jazz. A master improviser whose musical ethos was forged in the crucible of 1960s musical freedom, Lloyd has been a restless and unpredictable explorer on ...
Wyler’s ‘House Divided’ rises from the vaults @ MoMA
A House Divided — it’s one of those handy generic titles that has lent itself to half a dozen movies and a whole lotta TV episodes over the years. Back in 1931, it was an especially apt name for an early talkie starring Walter Huston, neatly encapsulating the drama’s dark oedipal stew. It’s a work ...
Bill Graham, Ziegfeld of Aquarius 1
We pay over a hundred dollars for a decent seat at a Staples Center rock show without thinking twice, but it wasn’t always so. There had been rock events here and there as early as the late 1950s—Elvis at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium and the Beatles at Dodger Stadium—but they were occasional. Bill Graham (1931-1991) made ...
Classical audacity at The Broad
There are three extraordinary opportunities to experience daring, innovative classical music at The Broad Stage this fall. First, the Isango Ensemble of South Africa re-imagines Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Then the local, stellar, Calder Quartet will perform twice, once with soprano Yulia Van Doran and then with film composer Bear Mcreary. The best Mozart operas ...