Three ‘wows’ and ten years of arts leadership from Thor Steingraber 1

Architecture & Design · Dance · Ideas & Opinion · Music
ed. note: This story by arts journalist Debra Levine, commissioned by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is printed with permission. “Three wows” sold Thor Steingraber on The Soraya. Steingraber’s long interview process in the fall of 2013 and winter of 2014 to become top executive of Cal State Northridge’s newish theater ...

A closer look: “Worker and Machine” (1928) at The Huntington

Ideas & Opinion · Visual arts
Hugo Gellert, Worker and Machine, 1928, oil on board, 30 1/2 × 30 7/8 in. Collection of Sandra and Bram Dijkstra The anonymous working man in this painting, “Worker and Machine” (1928) by Hungarian-born artist Hugo Gellert, is one of nineteen striking canvases exhibited in “Art for the People,” a boutique collection of paintings, a ...

Choreographers are writers, said Bob Fosse

Dance · Ideas & Opinion · Theater

Glitches and snafus: arts-writing errata that drives us crazy

Dance · Film · Ideas & Opinion · Music
As the Internet has expanded opportunities for all kinds of people to be published (including riff-raff like artsmeme!) with bylines, so too has spread misinformation, glitches, and snafus, the kinds of mistakes that an editor used to safeguard from readers. I myself am in this situation; I self-publish without editorial oversight. I am always grateful ...

Blacklisted! America’s dalliance in pernicious censorship

Film · Ideas & Opinion
In anticipation of the major show, Blacklist: The Hollywood Red Scare which opens May 4 at The Skirball Cultural Center for the summer, comes a screening event, with guests, at the Hollywood Heritage Barn on Highland Avenue. It’s an “Afternoon at the Barn” screening of a one-hour-long film, Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist, directed by ...

Letter from Uvalde

Film · Ideas & Opinion
matthew mcconaughey “The true call to action now is for every American to take a longer and deeper look in the mirror, and ask ourselves: ‘What is it that we truly value? How do we repair the problem? What small sacrifices can we individually take today, to preserve a healthier and safer nation, state and ...

Writer revered! Leonard Maltin at roundtable prior to Robert Osborne Award

Film · Ideas & Opinion
It was a special occasion, April 23, 2022, and an honor, to be among the writers, all drawn to TCM Classic Film Festival 2022 by a shared interest in Hollywood history, and all in admiration of the modest gentleman at the end of a long table — he who wrote the film bible, Leonard Maltin’s ...

A festive fourteenth for arts•meme! Happy birthday, blog

Ideas & Opinion
Look at Judy Garland. She was different. Not one of the glamour girls. But, oh, that voice. And at fourteen years-old, she was already belting like a torch singer, crooning like a warbler, and cooing like a nightingale. She was even Stompin’ at the Savoy! The happiest of 14th birthdays to you, dear blog. Your ...

Smart women talkin’ dance-books 1

Dance · Ideas & Opinion
la nijinska cover and author lynn garafola A study of sibling rivalry? Or shared dance DNA? Lynn Garafola uncovers the astonishing life of the choreographer Bronislava Nijinska, long overshadowed by her brother, Vaslav Nijinsky, and yet long deserving of attention as one of the most notable choreographers of ballet modernism. Garafola constructs Nijinska’s world across ...

To Cucamonga, with Joan Didion 1

Ideas & Opinion
Ed. note: Writer Joan Didion’s recent death sparked a memory for an unexpected author on these pages. It is Kent Bulza, otherwise known as artsmeme’s tech and SEO specialist. Thank you, Kent! In my freshman literature class I was handed a standard-issue Borzoi College Reader filled with all sorts of names of authors I’d never ...