Brando’s bead on jazz in “The Wild One” @ L.A. Jazz Institute festival
We so enjoyed the opening-night concert of “Jazz Themes from Hollywood: West Coast Jazz at the Movies,” a four-day festival sponsored by the LA Jazz Institute now going on in a big subterranean ballroom at the LAX Marriott hotel. The concert paid tribute to the film music of Shorty Rogers and Leith Stevens, alternately composers ...
Around the world with Enzo Avitabile
One of globalization’s least noted benefits has been the rise of world music, led by a motley crew of legends ranging from Peter Gabriel and Mickey Hart to Djivan Gasparyan and Enzo Avitabile. Drums and frets form the basis for the cross-cultural exchanges, even though an artist like the Naples-born Avitabile is a singer and ...
“The Counselor” is out of order
The death of Elmore Leonard in August (I wrote about his legacy here) and the arrival of the movie,“Salinger,” provided a useful contrast between two utterly opposed writing careers: J.D. Salinger, self-consciously “literary” and perfectionist; Leonard, happily disobedient to literary niceties, prolific and cool. “The Counselor,” the first original screenplay of Cormac McCarthy — regarded ...
Duckler’s ‘The Groundskeepers’ in historic Boyle Heights
The Groundskeepers, a multi-scene, walk-thru performance taking place at Linda Vista Hospital in East Los Angeles’s historic Boyle Heights neighborhood, reverses viewer expectations. Choreographer/director Heidi Duckler and her artistic collaborators identify unseen, intriguing spaces in the hospital, and transform them into artistic installations. The performance begins on an external fire escape (anticipate gymnastic dangling); then ...
Friday night tights 2
On a Friday night, one guy puts on his tights. Directed, written, produced, edited by: Joonki Park A winner in the Canadian Film Centre‘s “Shorts Nonstop” competition. Thank you, Ian Birnie, for the share.
Plethora of arts offerings @ Jack Rutberg Fine Arts
Tonight, concurrent to the new gallery exhibition of Spanish artist Jordi Alcaraz, a celebrated Israeli poet, Amir Or, will read from his poems. The evening event is sponsored by the USC Initiative for Israeli Arts & Humanities, Ruth Weisberg, Director. Born in Tel Aviv, Amir Or has published seven books of poetry and has been ...
Getting jiggy with the sarabande
Oct
18
2013
Courtesy of Catherine Turocy, the Baroque/Renaissance dance expert who heads up the New York Baroque Dance Co., comes this image of Barbara Campanin (La Barbarina). La Barabarina, in the image, demonstrates the épaulement — the torque of her shoulders against her torso and hips — in the sarabande, a jiggy popular dance of the day. ...
“Lost” keeps Redford afloat
This is the season for critics going all nutty, overrating what’s not so good (“12 Years a Slave”) as great, and what’s good—like writer-director J.C. Chandor’s second feature, “All is Lost”—into something amazing. Some critics, such as Mary Corliss, have suggested that “Lost,” given its near-absence of dialogue and focus on a single character, is ...
Strange body art of “12 Years a Slave” 2
Unlike his socially and racially acute art, Steve McQueen’s movies bring out something strange in him. His first film, “Hunger,” carried an overwhelming emotional wallop in its graphic depiction of imprisoned IRA fighter Bobby Sands’ 1982 hunger strike. It went too far, but in good ways—the ways strong art always goes too far. His next, ...
See you @ CU! Classical Underground opens its season
Oct
16
2013
We are fans of the Monday night classical music series, Classical Underground. The formula for the off-the-beaten-track performances goes like this: nosh, sip, chew, gab … and then refined listening. Hosts Olga Vlasova and Alexey Steele throw open the gate to their vault of an artist’s loft located in a weird wonderland — a faraway industrial ...