Mambo!
I enjoyed interviewing Kelly Todd, the choreographer of the vivacious production of West Side Story on now at the Chance Theater in Orange County. Read my piece in the Los Angeles Times. While you are reading … listen up! Like this? Read more … Movie musical talk with George Chakiris Line up the geniuses: West ...
Southwest Chamber Music’s plein air concert at The Huntington
A terrific, even heady, evening of chamber music at the Huntington Gallery in San Marino last night — a neatly tailored program of French composers for a Sunday’s eve by Southwest Chamber Music. After picnicking on the manicured lawn, we repaired to the gallery’s high-ceilinged, red-tiled patio-loggia decorated with doric columns and marble busts. There ...
Southwest Chamber Music’s French Chef-inspired performances @ The Huntington
Jul
25
2012
I’m attending a beautiful chamber music concert in San Marino, just south of Pasadena, this weekend. It’s the Southwest Chamber Music Summer Festival at The Huntington. It’s part of a beautiful themed food & music summer festival celebrating the centenary of the French Chef, Julia Child. Child was born in Pasadena. Her years in post-WWII ...
Jazz & junkies in Shirley Clarke’s “The Connection” @ New Beverly Cinema
This recco comes from arts·meme friend Ross Lipman, who was the chief restorationist for the film … Just wanted to let you know that Milestone Films is nationally releasing UCLA’s restoration of THE CONNECTION, and it will be running for a full week at the New Beverly, opening this Friday. Shirley Clarke‘s 1961 portrayal of ...
Gary Lucas’s “scary magical Jews” terrify in “Der Golem” @ Cinefamily 1
Grammy-nominated Gary Lucas, whom Rolling Stone calls “one of the best and most original guitarists in America,” performed his well-traveled and exceedingly harrowing score to “Der Golem,” the brilliant 1920 silent horror exemplar of German expressionism. The sold-out performance took place earlier this evening at The Cinefamily on Fairfax Avenue — speaking of ghostly Jewish ...
Good to be a Raelette — @ Hollywood Bowl Ray Charles tribute 1
Jun
30
2012
A stellar line-up heading our way at the Hollywood Bowl July 11. It’s the Ray Charles tribute concert co-produced by Phil Ramone and Gregg Field in association with the LA Philharmonic. At the core of a packed program (I hope it’s coherent; there so much talent crammed in) — four amazing “girl” singers replicating the ...
A note from Ojai on the 2012 Music Festival…
The rural town of Ojai is a little more than an hour and a little more than a lifetime outside of Los Angeles. In my mind’s eye Ojai is dreamlike and fantastical, like the Hundred-Acre Wood of Winnie the Pooh (in reality Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, a little more than an hour outside of ...
The opera Pusherman
Jun
22
2012
Curtis Mayfield was a genius and “Pusherman” perhaps his greatest composition. Someone should develop it into an opera.
Awake in a dream
I am very sorry this lovely video clip starts with a terrible commercial. I hope it is worth the wait for you.
Jacaranda’s garden party on fire 1
Jun
15
2012
Remember the old-fashioned garden party? Where proper ladies and gentlemen sipped, nibbled, noshed, chewed, grazed, and gabbed? Well, forget about that. Welcome to Jacaranda‘s annual garden-party fundraiser event. That’s where the smart Los Angeles contemporary music society will introduce its new season in plein-air. And don’t forget your sun hat. Because you may need to ...