Norman Bel Geddes interior-design sketch for Palais Royal

Architecture & Design · Dance
Norman Bel Geddes (American, 1893-1958) Geddes’s design of a dancing couple for the Palais Royal Cabaret Theatre Ca. 1922 Watercolor on paper Courtesy Norman Bel Geddes online database, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin Jack Cole danced at the Palais Royal in December 1933. It was Cole’s first nightclub gig. The building, which ...

Savion Glover vs. Ford Amphitheatre soundwall

Architecture & Design
A sound-worthy evening awaits us Saturday as the beloved John Anson Ford Amphitheatre is poised and ready for its festive inaugural season-opening night, a re-opening after a major retrofit. A noisy tumult normally accompanies an event at the Ford, which is set in a natural hollow of the Cahuenga Pass, but faces off with a ...

Bravura triple opening at Hauser & Wirth July 1

Architecture & Design · Visual arts
In a theatrical, nearly madcap, gesture, international art gallery Hauser & Wirth is throwing a big art party to simultaneously launch three shows: Takesada Matsutani, Paul McCarthy: WS Spinoffs, Wood Statues, Brown Rothkos and Monika Sosnowska. The open-to-the-public event will take place on the holiday weekend, July 1, on the campus of the private gallery’s ...

Weird scenes inside the goldmine: L.A.’s 1967 rock venues 1

Architecture & Design · Fashion · Film · Ideas & Opinion · Music · Theater · Visual arts
by 
editor’s note: Harvey Kubernik’s new coffeetable tome, 1967: A Complete Rock Music History of the Summer of Love (Sterling), is a both a scholarly examination and a sensuous immersion into the pivotal year in 1960s youth culture through a mosaic of voices. Kirk Silsbee’s sidebars from his essay in the book, excerpted and condensed here, ...

Duckler dancers to scale tall ships of Port of Los Angeles

Architecture & Design · Dance
Full immersion is the typical call to action of a Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre site-specific happening. That’s what attracts her adventure-seeking audience. But next Saturday night, when we attend Beyond the Waterfront, Duckler’s latest site-specific work, we hope it does not require a plunge into the deep dark sea at the Port of Los Angeles ...

Southern Californialand, here we come!

Architecture & Design · Ideas & Opinion
Native Southern Californian Charles Phoenix has been called the “King of Retro.” Now the King of Retro will make a personal appearance at one of our most distinctive historic properties to have been spared the wrecking ball, the still vital, still operating vintage beauty, Union Station. Phoenix’s presentation at Union Station, sponsored by Metro Art. ...

‘Googie World Expo’ slated to blast off at Corky’s

Architecture & Design
If you think Obamacare is gonna ‘explode’ (or is it ‘implode’? … it keeps changing), watch out for the Googie World Expo. Wow! Heap-big explosion! The first of a two-day celebration of futuristic mid-century modern architecture and design is queued up for Sunday April 9. Its organizer is arts·meme‘s good friend Chris Nichols, the maven ...

Myron Hunt’s Wattles mansion to host interior design expo

Architecture & Design
Wattles Mansion, built in 1908, was the original home of Gurdon Wattles, a Nebraska banker who bankrolled much of early Hollywood. The classic Mission Revival masterpiece was designed by Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, who also designed the Huntington Library, the Rose Bowl and the  Ambassador Hotel, which sadly met its maker via the wrecking ...

Breathy new work by Lionel Popkin soon at Skirball

Architecture & Design · Dance
This looks like fun — and we’re big on fun. But in the hands of whimsical choreographer Lionel Popkin (he’s chair of the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and professor of choreography and performance at UCLA) this pumped-up pagaent portends much more. “Inflatable Trio,” choreographed by Popkin and built on human breath, will soon ...

Boss talk on Strip in ’60s by Priore

Architecture & Design · Music
Culture historian Domenic Priore, author of Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Last Stand in Hollywood, promises a “boss” time at his upcoming talk on the “Sixties on the Sunset Strip” on February 8. The illustrated lecture, free to the public, targets a specific moment between 1965 and 1966 when West Hollywood absorbed, then advanced, ...