REVIEW: A well-heeded call for community: DIAVOLO’s ‘Existencia’
We all knew why we were there. We were there to remember and commemorate — most of us having lived through it. We were there to ruminate, and then, to thank our lucky stars. For, in the ashes of the January 17, 1994 Northridge Earthquake, a 6.7-magnitude tumbler that overturned the campus of Cal State ...
Dance of death and renewal by Pina Bausch at The Music Center
Jan
22
2024
How would you dance, if you knew you were going to die? This is the central question the late choreographer Pina Bausch (1940-2009) asked of her dancers in 1975 when she created her seminal work The Rite of Spring. The work examines an unyielding ritual in which the sacrifice of a “chosen one” changes the ...
A sensory feast as ‘Queen’ 1981 rock concert gets IMAX revisit
A fleeting window into rock’s pantheon opens from January 18th to 21st, as IMAX presents Queen Rock Montreal, a visceral document of the band’s incandescent live energy and artistry. Queen’s deep respect and unwavering generosity toward their audience shines through every frame and every note of this documentary film that captures two nights of performances ...
‘Perfect Days’: Wenders’ cinematic diary of dappled light & shadow
Soon after the pandemic, acclaimed German filmmaker Wim Wenders was invited to witness Tokyo’s award-winning urban renewal project, The Tokyo Toilet, in which renowned designers reimagined the typical urban public restroom. Wenders, who is also a celebrated documentarian (Buena Vista Social Club, Pina, and the new Anselm), was expected to craft short films about each ...
Mad for Mads in Denmark’s ‘The Promised Land’
Jan
7
2024
On the face of it, perhaps a not-very-scintillating tale. A bunch of guys fighting over a piece of land.Mads Mikkelsen plays Ludvig Kahlen — a real historic figure — a beat-up, 18th century army captain who seeks to fulfill the King’s hoped-for habitation of an inclement swathe of dreary Danish terrain. With the love of ...
post sponsored by The Soraya
Jazz/pop superstars Herb Alpert, Lani Hall to open Soraya jazz festival 1
ed. note: This story by jazz writer, Kirk Silsbee, was commissioned by The Soraya in advance of “A Golden Anniversary,” in the upcoming Jazz at Naz Festival January 27. It is published with permission. Few trumpet voices in history generate the kind of instant recognition as that of Herb Alpert. His short, pungent phrasing and ...
Django-jazz at The Kabbaz(z) redux~! 2
The French guitar wizard and Django Reinhardt specialist, Stephane Wrembel (center), whose infectious playing and stage Gemütlichkeit leave audiences wanting more, is heading West. His upcoming California tour culminates in three nights at Theatre Raymond Kabbaz, where Wrembel brings the second edition of his signature “Django a Go Go” festival. The learning-and-jamming event, which he instituted ...
Big music by Sánchez/Alexa for big ‘Existencia’ choreography at The Soraya
Ed. note: This story by Debra Levine was commissioned the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts. The spasms of explosive percussion that jump off the screen of Birdman, the Oscar-winning Best Picture of 2014, are the work of a brilliant and innovative musician: the Mexican-born drummer Antonio Sánchez. In the decade since that ...
John Waters, son of P.T. Barnum
He was irrepressible. In 1959, filmmaker John Waters posted announcements on telephone poles of his Baltimore neighborhood. From the start, he was both a creator and a P.T. Barnum impresario. Culled from the costumes, props, handwritten scripts, correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, film clips, and more, included in “John Waters, Pope of Trash,” the major exhibition dedicated ...