To Pyotr, with love: A conversation with Tchaikovsky biographer Simon Morrison
simon morrison, princeton professor, author Ed. note: We’re honored at artsmeme to share a conversation between arts journalist Marina Harss with author Simon Morrison, whose recent biography, “Tchaikovsky’s Empire,” is receiving critical kudos. In Morrison’s book, writes Harss, he “takes a fresh, humanizing approach, debunking myths like the composer’s supposed suicide, and focusing on the ...
Going! Panorama’s Mexico City screening-series continues with ‘Tivoli’
Sep
15
2024
A legendary vaudeville and burlesque theatre in Mexico City is slated to be torn down by developers, so a troupe of dancers, novelty performers and operators promiscuously mobilize to save their beloved theatre from demolition. That’s the subject of this cool documentary which will be screening Saturday September 28 at the Velaslavasay Panorama in Los ...
Let’s watch YouTube reactions to Jack Cole’s ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’
Well, I’ve studied it, screened it, spooled it, summarized it, synopsized it. I’ve analyzed, advocated, argued and addressed it. Glowed and kvelled over it, enjoyed and celebrated it. So it’s fun, for a change, to let YouTube queen, “India Reacts” take the reins as she watches (her first time, ever) a video of “Diamonds Are ...
‘Slow down the clock’ … chants Timur in nightmarish ‘Black Lodge’ @ CAP-UCLA
For a few years after COVID, I had no patience — squirming in my theater seat and super judgy at things that did make immediate sense. Often walking out! But somehow, I anticipate that in the dark confines of the very cool United Theatre on Broadway, the 1,600-seat legacy movie palace which, for an extended ...
Be a Yankee Doodle Dandy with BalletX — and call it ‘Macaroni.’
Two distinct takes on Yankee Doodle’s ‘Macaroni’ We all sang it as kids, didn’t we, and we loved it — the borderline-bombastic patriotic song with oom-pah-pah rhythm and funny lyrics. The alliterative “doodle-dandy” pays no rent in our ears ad infinitum. The opening stanza is custom made for those who don’t question the deep meaning ...
Let’s roll with new book, ‘Bowlarama’!
Aug
26
2024
Did your mother belong to a bowling league? Mine did, in suburban Pittsburgh where I grew up. The co-authors of Bowlarama: The Architecture of Mid-Century Bowling—Chris Nichols of Los Angeles Magazine and founder of the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Modern Committee, with Adriene Biondo, a preservationist/activist, author of five books, and the reason Johnie’s Broiler still ...
Bernardo forever, aka George Chakiris at 92 1
I’ve spent a good deal of time watching the multiple Academy Award-winning West Side Story (1961), and have reached certain conclusions — you may have your own. First, if you haven’t seen West Side (as insiders shorten it) on a big screen, you haven’t seen it. This movie-musical is an operatic experience that needs total ...
Top this, Hollywood! The making of ‘Top Hat’ (1935) 2
artsmeme is lucky to have good friends who collect fabulous Hollywood dance photos like the one above, given to us by Bison Archive’s Marc Wanamaker. It’s a soundstage shot of the making of the superlative movie-musical from RKO, “Top Hat” (1935). In our photo, director Mark Sandrich, in his own swank chapeau, directs a brief ...
Film review: ‘Meanwhile on Earth,’ a celestial odyssey of grief & hope
French writer/director/animator Jérémy Clapin‘s first live-action film, Meanwhile on Earth, presented by Metrograph Pictures, is a cinematic gem that defies genre expectations. It’s actually a science-fiction movie for the science-fiction averse. The film blends realism with celestial wonder, crafting a haunting, familiar, and profound alien world. This intimate film, penned by Clapin, unfolds as a ...
Mexico City streetcars at heart of Buñuel film in Saturday screenings 1
Aug
20
2024
It’s a film by Luis Buñuel, minus the eye-slicing; it’s Illusion Travels by Streetcar (1954) by the Spanish cinema master of surrealist films, but this time, a beautifully made neo-realist black-and-white drama of peripatetic ur ban existence rolling the streets of Mexico City. A trio of friends who care for a streetcar soon to be ...