John Cusack, ballet fan 1
It was not possible to miss actor John Cusack hanging out in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion lobby during intermission at the Joffrey Ballet last night. He’s quite tall, his broad face is totally open and familiar, and his coloring is vivid: jet black hair against pale white skin. He’s striking and artistic looking. I chatted ...
Good art-gab Saturday @ L.A. Art Show
The L.A. Art Show‘s featured exhibit, “Letters from L.A.,” addresses the unique use of text by the city’s visual artists, forms the centerpiece of the fair. And the fair is a huge, noisy and fun community celebration. The line-up at the Show this weekend got my attention; in particular a panel discussion that looks excellent. ...
Meredith Monk muses on “our intimate connection to nature”
Perusing program notes after enjoying Meredith Monk’s wonderful ensemble of songbirds at CAP-UCLA last night, I was moved by the veteran performance artist’s statement. After a bruising week of human destruction, with cataclysms in Algeria and Moscow, where the head of the Bolshoi Ballet was horribly attacked, the essay struck me as tonic. Writes Meredith ...
Saving the children … 1
Dec
16
2012
Allegorical text written by J.D. Salinger for his character, Holden Caulfield, in The Catcher in the Rye (1951): “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I’m standing ...
Fitz featured in “Gatz”
Here stands the great American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald in what strikes me as his penultimate Los Angeles portrait. Bleary-eyed but putting a good face on things — what we do so well in L.A. Noshing one night at Greenblatt’s Deli on Sunset Boulevard, I chatted with proprietor, the son of the original owner. He ...
“Hollywood Unknowns” stories revealed @ Larry Edmunds
We received this nice note from our good friends at Larry Edmunds Bookshop: Author Anthony Slide is no stranger to the Larry Edmunds Bookshop. His association goes back much farther than my 22 years, and the number of books this resident film historian for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has written is ...
Words matter …
… at “Letters from Los Angeles,” a new show opening at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts this weekend. Rutberg’s showcase LaBrea Avenue gallery will offer the exhibit, co-curated by Aldis Browne, which features more than 30 contemporary L.A.-based artists who incorporate elements of words and letters in their work. The artist roster includes: Lita Albuquerque, John ...
Not ladies who lunch, but women who write
Aug
15
2012
Two upcoming events celebrate the literary ladies. The first is a reading on Sunday at Alias Books East of a new ebook Anaïs Nin: The Last Days. The author, Barbara Kraft, knew both Anais Nin and Henry Miller in LA at the end of their lives, independently of one another. Anaïs Nin, noted for her ...
Hey, L.A. bohemians! Learn about L.A.’s original bohemians.
Beth Gates Warren, prominent historian and curator of photography, will discuss her book “Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather, and the Bohemians of Los Angeles” in that maelstrom of bohemianism — Glendale California! This biography reveals the previously untold love story of Edward Weston and Margrethe Mather. Both were photographic artists at the center of the ...
arts·meme a cunning urchin of four 4
May
23
2012
We’re movin’ on up … in the age bracket. The arts blog has reached the ripe old age of four. And life is good. Happy birthday, arts·meme, four years old. As ever, we are so grateful to our Word Press guru, Mark Levine of istarnet. Thanks as well to connection wizard Kent Bulza and logo ...