arts•meme’s formidable flock of female facebook friends

Dance · Film · Ideas & Opinion
Yes, arts•meme has a Facebook “fan” page. We now have 372 fans on Facebook. That’s fantastic. Lately, however, we attracted a very cool line-up of new “likes” — all wonderful women working in the arts. It is noteworthy. Rose Eichenbaum Dance photographer, author, lecturer Melissa Silverstein Publisher, “Women & Hollywood” blog Shea New Producer, “Dance ...

Doris Day shares career memories on TCM 1

Film
TCM does such a wonderful job … no one does it better. The best bits come when Day recounts memories of working with James Cagney, Ginger Rogers, and Jack Lemmon. [Apologies for commercial first.]

Bill Cunningham, milliner, photographer

Fashion · Film
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

Film · Visual arts
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

Music · Reviews
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

Dance · Fashion · Film
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

Dance · Film · Music
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

Music
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

Film
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

Dance
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 ...