Good God, Universal! Save Stage 28.
Does anyone have extra space in their basement or attic? Universal Pictures has something it needs to store … It’s the ornate set replicating the interior of the Paris Opera House (Palais Garnier) which now sits like a big immovable rock in Universal’s Sound Stage 28. The set, constructed in 1924 for filming silent-movie classic ...
Los Angeles (architecture) in the looking glass
Jul
21
2014
An interesting architecture talk on tap this week at LACMA concerns seventies-era reflecting glass architecture as it developed in Los Angeles, and then became a corporate vernacular through the 1980s. In the 1960s and ’70s, Los Angeles was home to an era of experimentation and new advances in art and technology. The Light and Space ...
Italian choreographer Dewey Dell’s “Marzo” smartly advances dance
At long last, something new, thank God. It took a cluster of young Italians to inject pop and sizzle into dance’s tired traditional proscenium-arch format, creating a “screen” within the frame, replicating the tiny rectangles into which most audience members gaze much of their day. And I think “Marzo” (Italian for “March”), a super flamboyant work ...
Phoenix arisen: visiting Venice’s historic La Fenice opera house
So thrilling to tour Teatro La Fenice, the historic opera house that sits at the center of the Italian arts city … and then to attend a wonderful, rocking Baroque music concert by the Festival Baroque Orchestra, performing under vigorous direction by violin virtuoso, Stefano Montanari, in one of the theater’s lovely music salons. Group ...
Steve Paxton lionized in Venice 3
In an incredibly generous and appropriate act of recognition, the International Dance Festival of the Venice Biennale last week honored American modern dancer Steve Paxton with one of the art world’s greatest accolades: the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance. The Biennale dance division, under the directorship of Virgilio Sieni, offered the following in praise ...
Biennale Dance Festival finds new humanity for art form
Venice’s enchanting waterways have given rise, lately, to political discord, when on June 4, Mayor Giorgio Orsoni and 30 fellow government officials were charged with corruption related to flood-control project Mose. But the converging Po and Piave Rivers will soon revert to a more customary role – acting as a fluid crossroads for a vanguard of ...
Dance Camera West’s “Restructure” festival to kick off with stylish sculptural dance 3
Wow, Dance Camera West! If this image does not capture the coolest vision of dance-of-the-future, then we must not be in the midst of the go-go dance explosion happening right now in Los Angeles. We sure are excited to see performances by BODYTRAFFIC on the crazy “structure” artist Gustavo Godoy has created on a commission ...
Historic Raleigh Studios to host “Photo Independent”
Photo Independent, the artist-only fair for photographic artists, collectors and art professionals, rolls out this weekend at an unusual venue: Hollywood’s Raleigh Studios. An amazing and charming movie complex that dates to the ‘teens and comprises fourteen sound stages, Raleigh occupies a distinct niche of Hollywood dream-factory history. Paired with Paramount Studios, which sits to ...
Let’s go bowling with Chris Nichols
Apr
16
2014
These evocative photos speak reams to arts·meme friend Chris Nichols, a mid-century-modern architecture/culture expert and founder of the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Modern Committee, the infamous “Modcom.” So much so that Chris has organized an entire museum exhibit to celebrate the design universe of bowling alleys … the show just opened at the A + D ...
Once upon a time, in Los Angeles …
Mar
18
2014
Fairytale houses dot the Southern California landscape, including neighborhoods of Burbank, Hancock Park, Los Feliz to name just a few. But where did this delightful architecture inspired by medieval Europe come from? For “Storybook Style: Whimsy in L.A.” Douglas Keister, a photographer-writer who has authored 25 books on architecture from Victorian homes to bungalows, cemetery ...