Elgart’s aquatic adventure @ the Music Center 1
A marvelous event opened the annual Dance Camera West film festival Thursday evening. At dusk, we gathered ’round the Jacques Lipchitz “Peace on Earth” sculpture-fountain that anchors the plaza of the Los Angeles Music Center, one of our city’s rare pedestrian hobnobbing spots. Suddenly a tall tube of ruby fabric mysteriously appeared and began to ...
Review: Kenny Barron hits the hoops for Da Camera Society concert
It was a jazz concert in an unlikely locale. Pianist Kenny Barron, whose teammates have included Roy Haynes, Lee Morgan, James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, and Yusef Lateef, unleashed a magical solo piano recital in a boy’s gym. It was the refurbished indoor basketball court of the 28th Street YMCA Building — a glorious ...
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 ...
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: ...
Enjoy a Pall-Mall courtesy of commercial artist Mary Blair
Were we to select a brand of cigarettes, these concept sketches and the final advertisement (circa 1959) by the famed commercial and fine artist Mary Blair would surely influence our decision. Mary Blair Pall-Mall advertisement images, courtesy of the magic of mary blair
Jack Cole’s mid-century-modern dance design 1
A lost Jack Cole dance sequence from DOWN TO EARTH (Columbia, 1947). [click on the photo for detail.] Called the “New York number,” it used to be part of the larger “People Have More Fun Than Anyone,” number before it was cut from the film. It was absolutely common in Cole’s Hollywood career that his ...
Heidi’s healing happening in Elysian Park 2
In her most recent escapade, the skyscraper-topping “Cleopatra CEO,” Heidi Duckler ramped up her audience with an heady dance cocktail mixing corporate and sexual politics. This past weekend, the pied-piper choreographer, having transformed us into alpha men, led us to a forested glen in Elysian Park, one mile outside downtown Los Angeles. There on the ...
Daughter Judy … Jane, his wife! Meet the Jetsons, 50 years later. 1
Gotta admit I was blown away to learn that “The Jetsons,” the venerable prime-time cartoon show that lasted all of one television season, turns fifty years old tomorrow. The show, a huge American cultural event, first aired on September 23, 1962. Talkin’ ’bout my generation…. The insane hyped-up theme song, the lyrics for which got ...
California’s designing women unfurled
Aug
9
2012
There’s a wonderful show, “California’s Designing Women, 1896–1986,” just opening at the Autry National Center; a marvelous retrospective of the artistic women who contributed in design fields from the late-19th century through the end of the Twentieth.
Gwen Samuels’ skyscraper stitchery @ A & D Museum
Looking forward to seeing artist Gwen Samuel’s amazing architectural clothing installed at the Architecture and Design Museum on Wilshire Boulevard across from LACMA. Samuels considers that when we dress and go out into the world we turn ourselves into a moving canvas or a sculpture … or even a classic building. Whatever building I am, ...