A b*stard by any other name: Robert Cenedella
The painter of the work above, Robert Cenedella, is the subject of a new documentary, ART BASTARD, soon to open in Los Angeles. Film is touted as the tale of a rebel at odds with today’s art world. Directed by Victor Kanefsky, “Bastard” is a portrait of New York artist, a contemporary of Andy Warhol who ...
Hip-hop hors d’ouevres, courtesy of Dance Camera West festival 1
We’re just about two weeks to blast-off for one of our favorite events of the annual calendar, the popular, fun and stimulating Dance Camera West film festival, an event that touches many in the dance community. The festival this year celebrates a biggie, its 15th anniversary, and a new association with the Center for the ...
Charles Lummis, Los Angeles city founder, sprung to life in dance & documentary
Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre will bring its site-specific brand of immersive performance, this weekend, to the historic Southwest Museum building. The performance, “143 Days,” is part of a commission by the Autry Museum of the American West and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Dance company will present a modern retelling of the pioneering American ...
‘Tooner’ trio tipped to tell ’bout time at Hanna-Barbera
A trio of ‘tooners’: Tony Benedict, Willie Ito and Jerry Eisenberg, talented, original animators from the Hanna-Barbera Studio in the sixties, will share memories of working at the legendary animation house — the home of Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, the Jetsons, and the Flintstones. The ‘kid fun for grown-ups’ program will address how Bill Hanna and ...
‘Pop’ goes the American Songbook, in Pasadena, under Feinstein baton 1
The Pasadena Symphony and POPS organization practiced what the Chinese call “double happiness” this week, announcing, in one fell swoop, the re-upping of conductor Michael Feinstein’s contract with the POPS (where he started in 2013) and the roll-out of a rich summer menu of American Songbook concerts at their bandshell digs in the Los Angeles ...
It’s criminal to not attend! Jacaranda’s ‘American Crime’ concert
A concert celebration of ABC’s AMERICAN CRIME, featuring the world premiere of American Crime Suite for chamber orchestra by Mark Isham with music that inspires the composer and his series creator/director John Ridley. Those works include Nagoya Marimbas by Steve Reich, Fratres and Darf Ich by Arvo Pärt, and November by Max Richter. Staged by ...
Review: Antiquity updated in SOLUNA Fest’s ‘Rules of the Game’
Vulnerable humans cower in the debris of a humongous classical bust crashed to earth. An unnatural occurrence … like an airplane felled. Symbols of ancient civilization — either Greek, Roman, or a modern approximation of both — tumble down, explode into shards. Not to worry; it’s all fake. It’s video art. This stunning and impactful ...
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 ...
We love Hollywood ballet
‘Normal’ ballet is so boring: Petipa, Balanchine, Tudor, Robbins, Ratmansky. Those guys never put girls in pointe shoes on pianos. We prefer fancy, Hollywood-style ballet, like this photo from KING OF JAZZ (1930) made at Universal Pictures and featuring dancing by Russell Markert dancers (Markert, who, not surprisingly, founded the Rockettes, is listed as the ...
The son rises again: Universal Pictures producer Carl Laemmle, Jr. canon @ MoMA
Our friends in the film department at The Museum of Modern Art are launching a truly groundbreaking and fascinating retrospective that highlights a decade of distinguished moviemaking at Universal Pictures, the Hollywood film factory often wrongly valued primarily as a purveyor of horror fodder. Writes Universal Pictures: Restorations and Rediscoveries, 1928–1937 film curator Dave Kehr: ...