Superlative studio musicians of ’70s rock revealed in ‘Immediate Family’ doc
Dec
14
2023
This is the portrait of an artist. Don’t recognize him? His name is Waddy Wachtel. Never heard of him? That’s intentional. Wachtel, whom Keith Richards calls a “natural maestro,” made a life decision — to become, and remain, a top-notch, back-of-house studio musician. Playing behind front-line artists like Carole King, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Keith ...
Glitches and snafus: arts-writing errata that drives us crazy
As the Internet has expanded opportunities for all kinds of people to be published (including riff-raff like artsmeme!) with bylines, so too has spread misinformation, glitches, and snafus, the kinds of mistakes that an editor used to safeguard from readers. I myself am in this situation; I self-publish without editorial oversight. I am always grateful ...
Susan Jaffe presents: casting for ABT ‘The Nutcracker’ two-week run opening at Segerstrom tonight
Dec
8
2023
Appointed to her post as artistic director of American Ballet Theatre over a year ago, Susan Jaffe is very much in the drivers’ seat. A transition ensued following the 30-year tenure of Kevin McKenzie with whom she danced in the course of her 22 years as among the company’s most sparkling principal dancers. Seguing into ...
Shaken but not deterred, Diavolo dancers to commemorate Northridge earthquake
Dec
5
2023
jacques heim, artistic director, diavolo dance Ed. note: This story by Debra Levine, commissioned the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is republished with permission. On January 17, 1994, slumberers across the city of Los Angeles were awakened by a heaving jolt. It was 4:31 a.m. (This writer was hurled from bed to ...
Middle Eastern cultures to convene in peace at Yuval Ron’s ‘Rumi’s Wedding’
banafsheh sayyad We’re in faraway Los Angeles. But here’s guessing peoples in every corner of our hurting world would love nothing more for our Middle East brethren to enjoy a resplendent Sunday evening of Arabic/Sufi/Israel culture at Rumi’s Wedding Night Celebration. The December 17 concert features acclaimed world music artist and peace activist Yuval Ron ...
post sponsored by The Soraya
Step into the holidays … with Trinity Irish Dance Company
Ed. note: This story by Mindy Aloff, commissioned and previously published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. During the 1960s and ‘70s, two young Irish step dancers growing up in Chicago proved to be outstanding champions in the rigorous world of dance competitions. Both studied at the ...
FILM NOTE: Finland’s delicate, deep and droll ‘Fallen Leaves’ up for Oscar
Dec
2
2023
A very affecting movie is Finland’s official entry for Best International Feature at the upcoming 96th Academy Awards, FALLEN LEAVES. In his seventeenth feature film, Director/Auteur Aki Kaurismäki, a master of distanced and deadpanned but ultimately humanistic storytelling, shines a light on working-class people struggling to live with dignity in a world set up to ...
FILM REVIEW: ‘Eileen,’ a movie to haunt you on a cold night
One of the rewards of watching Eileen, directed with a pitch-perfect noir sensibility by William Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth) and presented by Neon, is embracing the unknown. Are we watching a prison break film with an unlikely accomplice? A repressed lesbian love story set in the 1960s? Or is it a violent revenge fantasy fueled by ...
KONTRAPUNKTUS: sounds of English Baroque to start a new year
Nov
30
2023
KONTRAPUNKTUS, with artistic direction by Artistic Direction by Osheen Manukyan and Hannah White, returns this January with THE LONDONERS: An English Baroque Salute, which features the brilliant musical artistry of the late 17th/early 18th century London music scene during the Baroque era, including George Frideric Handel, William Boyce, Charles Avison, Carl Friedrich Abel, and Henry ...
An omelet with Juliette Binoche: ‘The Taste of Things’ 2
Nov
17
2023
Juliette Binoche is a film goddess. That we know from her 86-plus movie credits in which her luminous presence — think Garbo — is but a point of departure for a vast range of fascinating performances. But did you know she makes a mean omelet? You’ll learn that while watching La Binoche, as Eugénie, an ...