On arts·meme’s front page: ‘The Front Page’
So very excited to see the restored (by the Academy Film Archive ·and the Film Foundation) first film version of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1928 Broadway comedy, “The Front Page,” which kicks off To Save and Project at the Museum of Modern Art. According to MoMA adjunct curator Dave Kehr (he and curator Josh ...
Looks amazing: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s ‘Babel(words)’@ Lincoln Center 2
I’m interested — who isn’t? — in the changing ways in which society is communicating. And I wonder how dance can play an active role as, increasingly, words matter less and the visual (and visceral) matters more. (A very wise man recently told us, “It’s just words.”) So I’m looking forward to “Babel(words),” a new ...
Jack Cole’s nightclub act: a talk by Debra Levine Oct 25
A review headline screamed, “Cyclone Hits Slapsy Maxie’s.” The performance? Jack Cole and His Dancers at the Wilshire Boulevard supper club in 1948. In the house: Frank Sinatra, Robert Walker, Jimmy Durante, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Jimmy Dorsey, Max Baer. Also attending, according to the review, “Bullets Durgom still without a toupee.” Cole ...
Bolshoi means BIG
Travel back to the Roaring ’20s in Europe with “The Golden Age,” broadcast live from Moscow and danced by the Bolshoi Ballet to music by Dmitri Shostakovich and choreography by Yuri Grigorovich. A stunning cabaret dancer must choose between her love for a visiting fisherman and the leader of a gang, who is also her ...
It’s cool. You’re cool. So go. AfterParty @ The Wallis.
As everyone in Los Angeles knows, it’s not the event. It’s the after party. That’s why a cool new theater package offered by the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Arts stands a good chance of attracting a younger demographic into its cozy theater smack in the center of Beverly Hills. It’s AfterParty @ The Wallis, ...
Look at your neighbor, urges artist Alexey Steele in Carson exhibit
We just spoke to our good friend, Alexey Steele, the Russian born-and-trained neo-realist painter and the impresario of the hugely popular “Classical Underground,” music series which we attend and enjoy. Alexey has a new project opening this week in the city of Carson, California, the multicultural hotspot in Los Angeles where Alexey-and-family reside in a ...
Dark days. Can the arts address what ails our nation?
Saturday night’s attack on a benign throng of club dancers, all young people on a fun night out not hurting anyone, is only somewhat ameliorated by the memory of yet another gathering, in Los Angeles, at the beginning of the week. Last Monday evening, I arrived to the marquee of the Kirk Douglas Theatre for ...
arts·meme turns eight, expresses self 18
May
23
2016
arts·meme has been a good little girl. She writes timely blog-posts, publishes them with nice pictures, inserts proper hot-links. Now it’s her turn to show off. Do-mi-so-do-so-mi-do. Fa-la-la-la. To celebrate the blog’s eighth birthday (founded on May 24, 2008 by Debra Levine with Mark Levine as talented tech man), arts•meme would like to sing you ...
The new normal: the Stones play La Habana 2
A super-special expression of a new reality. As native Britons, the Rolling Stones have never been particularly hamstrung by America’s culture-throttling 50-year trade embargo on Cuba. But with so many ties to the U.S. market (indeed with band members in residence here), they’ve surely been circumspect. Spreading the wild winds of Western civilization at the ...
Architects discuss the art (and politics) of performing arts centers
Performing arts centers define our cities and serve as architectural landmarks. These landmarks can rapidly transform the cultural and economic fabric of a city, bringing renewed prosperity as well as design inspiration. What is the essence of an iconic performing arts center? Enjoy a lively discussion combined with a memorable concert, and light refreshments. Moderator Thomas Small, ...