Bill Cunningham, milliner, photographer
So enjoyed seeing Bill Cunningham New York, the 2011 documentary about the legendary New York Times fashion photog who tools around Manhattan on a Schwinn capturing the look of society, high and low — an inspiring film. Cunningham began his fashion career as a hat maker. A wonderful, colorful movie. Recommended. Thank you Camera Lucida ...
Vintage Hollywood photos of Bison Archives move to Academy 1
Since we launched arts·meme nearly four years ago, we have enjoyed the privilege of sharing with our readers several photos of early Hollywood from the collection of film historian, Marc Wanamaker. Marc has shared unstintingly from his Bison Archives collection, letting us eyeball wonderful images of: Anna Pavlova‘s first and only foray as a Universal ...
Review: Keith Jarrett travels over the rainbow @ Disney Hall 2
Jazz legend Keith Jarrett opened his solo concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall Tuesday night by plucking on his Steinway’s strings — avant-garde style. Fast forward to his evening closer, a love letter to Los Angeles: Somewhere Over the Rainbow, by composer Harold Arlen. A parade of music, not quite jazz, instead, unidentified art songs, ...
Jean-Paul Gaultier “Snow White’ costumes recycle Cher’s 1989 thong 3
And now for something completely not different. We were distracted, at ‘Dance at the Music Center,’ by an unflattering costume created for the lead dancer in Ballet Preljocaj’s “Snow White.” Baby-diaper by front, bird-tail by back, and bared flesh in between, it was fabricated by haute couturier Jean-Paul Gaultier. It sent the viewer’s eye ...
Julie Andrews granted “Gypsy” award by Professional Dancers Society 2
An amazing line up of talent on view at the Professional Dancers Society 25th anniversary gala luncheon honoring Julie Andrews on March 18, 2012. Previous PDS honorees Carl Reiner, Dick Van Dyke, Marge Champion, Mitzi Gaynor, Carol Burnett, Joni Berry (Chairman of PDS), Rita Moreno and Florence Henderson, join Julie Andrews on stage as she ...
Strom’s socialist singspiel soothes Sunday’s squally storms 1
Mar
26
2012
No better way to pass a rainy Sunday afternoon than a concert at the Workman’s Circle/Arbeter Ring of Los Angeles. There, the cultural anthropologist and klezmer guy, Yale Strom, his string bass player Mark Dresser, and the sultry songstress Elizabeth Schwartz presented a program of socialist-themed Yiddish music. Strom, a torrid fiddler, is deeply steeped ...
Faded Los Angeles beauty to get a facelift: Lasky-DeMille Barn 1
Mar
22
2012
In keeping with the celebration of its 100th anniversary, Paramount Pictures is putting some loving care into the bricks and morter where their company was born – the Lasky-DeMille barn. Col. Robert Northam built the Hollywood structure as horse stable, in 1901. The next owner, Jacob Stern was the owner when it became a film ...
The great Graham
Mar
20
2012
The highlight of a dance-filled week in New York was seeing the Martha Graham Dance Company perform all three sections of Graham’s powerful anti-war screed, “Chronicle,” made in 1936. Part II of “Chronicle,” the reconstituted group dance, “Steps in the Street,” has been in circulation for a few years. But it was my first look ...
A horse is a good clean animal, says Betty Grable 2
Check out Betty Grable in “Meet Me After the Show” (1951): Dancing in silhouette, on the platform: Jack Cole, who staged the number. Paired with Cole for a dance-y horse race is the choreographer’s muse and assistant Gwen Verdon. This we learn from the horse’s mouth … er… from Academy of Dance on Film founder ...
Claire Falkenstein book talk at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts
Mar
14
2012
Claire Falkenstein: An Expansive Universe, a major survey of the late California multimedia artist’s work now on at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles, coincides with the release of the newly published, comprehensive book on the artist’s work and life, Claire Falkenstein. The Falkenstein material is paired at Rutberg’s with work of another ...