He’s just Ken. But, Ryan Gosling and Mandy Moore, Jack Cole has a name too. 10
Jack Cole (1911-1974) creator of “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend”was so bad-assed you’d think people would show respect. Instead, one of American-dance’s most original creators was stolen from, even in his lifetime–and he knew it. Nineteen million people watched, on Sunday night, when, at the 96th Oscar Award ceremony, actor Ryan Gosling, looking hot ...
Three ‘wows’ and ten years of arts leadership from Thor Steingraber 1
“Three wows” sold Thor Steingraber on The Soraya. Steingraber’s long interview process in the fall of 2013 and winter of 2014 to become top executive of Cal State Northridge’s newish theater culminated in a site visit. As he marks ten years as The Soraya’s executive and artistic director, he remembers this moment as his first ...
Key ingredient in Ebony Rep’s STEW? Family!
Mar
12
2024
She’s equal parts Mildred Pierce, Julia Child, and Danai Gurira. She’s in her muu-muu with house slippers. Her hair is wrapped, and she’s cooking. She’s Greta Oblesby, playing “Mama,” in a marvelous, alive production of Zora Howard’s Pulitzer Prize-shortlisted play, STEW. Newly produced by Ebony Repertory Theater and directed by Jade King Carroll, it’s now ...
Spend National Women’s Month in the dunes
Mar
8
2024
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Oscar-nominated erotic drama, Woman in the Dunes, to be screened in multiple Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles. Actually, the film was nominated in two separate years. In 1964, when it won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, it was one of the ...
REVIEW: Chilly Nimoy night warmed by jazz duo Goldings & Koonse
photo credit: bob barry It’s a quiet Saturday night on Westwood Boulevard, and all that’s left of the latest rainstorm is a light mist. The Nimoy Theater marquee is the brightest thing on the street, and it draws some people inside. Organist Larry Goldings and guitarist Larry Koonse are playing jazz duets tonight, under the ...
From Fahey-Klein, Agnes Varda photography
Cuba, Men on Skates, January, 1963Silver Gelatin Photograph, Ed. 2/513 1/16 x 19 15/16 inchesSigned, stamped, titled, dated, numbered, Signed by Estate Executor, Estate stamped versoSigned by Agnes Varda La Terrasse du Corbusier, Marseille, France, 1956Silver Gelatin Photograph, Ed. of 10Signed by Agnès Varda, titled, dated, numbered, Signed by Estate Executor, Estate stamped verso11 3/4 ...
‘A Week of French Language Cinema’ is a good week!
Mar
4
2024
Some call it “Francophonie.” Others call it “la belle langue.” All we know is it just feels nice on the world-weary brain to allow the dulcet tone of francais into your ears — if only for a few hours. For the fifteenth year straight, in collaboration with the Consulates General of Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, France, ...
The many modes of Chita Rivera
Mar
1
2024
Let’s watch this great dancer/entertainer, Chita Rivera (1933-2024), do her thing in her 2005 show “The Dancer’s Life,” in which she pays homage to her choreographers, Jack Cole, Peter Gennaro, Bob Fosse, and Jerome Robbins. It is a brilliant montage impeccably performed. Rivera found this luminous path to continue to share her gifts well into ...
TCM: Turner Classic Mishpocha
Feb
19
2024
At the Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel a cocktail reception celebrating 30 years of Turner Classic Movies: TCM. A classy affair with a real family feeling. Mishpocha, in Yiddish, means “family.” One was struck, in attending Turner Classic Movies‘ 30th anniversary gathering, January 12, 2024, at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel, that, beyond the ...
Musica Angelica to honor Richard Colburn with mighty Bach St Matthew Passion performance
Feb
19
2024
Last month we visited the welcoming campus of the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles for a rousing and very spiritual rendition of Yuval Ron’s “Rumi’s Wedding,” an inspiring mashup of Jewish, Christian and Muslim music and dance. Now the esteemed church will host a performance of the life-affirming Baroque music-masterpiece, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, ...