Through the eyes of Milton Glaser 2
If you lived in America in the last half of the 20th Century, you saw the country, in part, through the eyes of illustrator and graphic designer Milton Glaser (1929-2020). So prolific and widespread was his visual sense that, for a while, almost all good design looked like his. He co-founded Push Pin Studios, the ...
Memorial Day 2020: Los Angeles theaters we miss 1
coveted during covid quarantine – the egyptian theatrethis spectacular photo of the egyptian’s balcony by morgan glier for the ucla daily bruin It all feels surreal — but my essential problem during the theater shutdown of the Covid-19 pandemic is that for me, art happens at night. Rarely during the day, sometimes at matinees, and ...
From ‘Pike’s’ to ‘Hawaiian’: Mojave Desert motel dreams
Jan
12
2020
Ed. note: Guest writer Jeff Burbank shares words & photos from an intriguing, if spooky, desert discovery. The ghost of Norman Bates would seem to be alive and well at a certain abandoned motel in forlorn Baker, California. This Mojave Desert hamlet still considers itself the Gateway to Death Valley, but, in reality, Baker serves ...
Thank you, Robert Evans, for ‘Serpico’ scene at Lewisohn Stadium
In this snippet from Serpico (1973), fellow cops Tony Roberts and Al Pacino haggle in the eerie ghost town of a grand structure where so much New York art and culture — famously, summer concerts by the New York Philharmonic — met an avid audience. It’s the 8,000-seat-capacity Lewisohn Stadium on the campus of City ...
Thank you, Cesar Pelli, for your Orange County beacon
Aug
23
2019
In my many years of trawling the San Diego Freeway southward seeking ballet at the Segerstrom Center, a literal beacon of my destination-arrival has long been a happy sight: architect Cesar Pelli’s masterful Plaza Tower. The master architect passed away July 19, 2019. Located on Anton Blvd. south of South Coast Plaza it stands in ...
Central-Cali cloister to catapult country-creatives
Bring dancing boots. Beer mugs provided — with beer inside. Top young-gen country music stars to perform. That is the gist of the invitation to attend the touring country-music show Boots & Brews Country Music Festival as it nestles at the Madonna Inn, a cloister of high-kitsch in California’s Central Coast town of San Luis ...
One man’s LACMA: a farewell 1
Ed. note: It is a sad time as LACMA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, by dribs and drabs, closes down galleries — beloved spaces like the one that housed the museum’s fabled German Expressionist collection and also that for Pop Art. The art goes into storage and the walls and ceilings will meet ...
Mehraban windows connect classic & contemporary design talent
May
21
2019
A happy highlight of this year’s La Cienega Design Quarter (LCDQ) three-day design festival showed its face to the public on a busy, design-rich Los Angeles boulevard. Two chic and fascinating windows, designed by Gary Hutton and Chad Dorsey, lent special life at Mehraban, a three-generation purveyor of contemporary and artisinal rugs. Mehraban hosted the ...
Silent Movie Theatre before/after #metoo accusation
The disbanding of The Cinefamily at the end of December 2017 began with accusations of sexual predator behavior. It led to the unraveling of The Cinefamily’s clearly vulnerable organization which, despite miscreant behavior, managed to project movies onto the screen of the former Silent Movie Theater. The frothy group of followers, both guys and gals, ...
Jerry’s beach house … 1
This lovely Bridgehampton cottage, a creative, restorative retreat for its former owner, Jerome Robbins, can now be yours. It is for sale by the Jerome Robbins Foundation. According to Forbes.com, His two-bed, 2 ½ bath wooden-shingle cottage on an acre along the Hamptons oceanfront was the perfect spot, with a wraparound deck and views of ...