Mere mortals to evoke Verdon & Fosse, giants of American dance
Nicole Fosse (middle), artistic director of The Verdon Fosse Legacy and co-producer of a newly announced FX Networks mini-series now in development about her parents’ professional and romantic bond, poses with the talented actors, Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell, slated to play the leading roles of Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse. On the one hand, ...
Check out Cinecon 54’s early movie-musicals 2
Aug
23
2018
Cinecon 54, the dawn-till-midnight film festival of the arcane, the rare, the undiscovered-then-lovingly-embraced gems of early cinema, marks the end of summer, running, as always, through Labor Day weekend. Opening night, Thursday August 30, features a reception in the Egyptian Theatre courtyard followed by the screening of a new restoration of the 1924 silent film ...
Doors history: Jim Morrison’s boorish, then better, behavior (part 3)
ed. note: Harvey Kubernik’s book, The Doors: Summer’s Gone (Otherworld Cottage Industries, 2018) includes the following chapter by arts·meme contributor Kirk Silsbee. Serialized on arts·meme in three parts. Enjoy! London transplant Sally Stevens had never heard of The Lizard King when she took a waitress job at Thee Experience that summer. She had come to ...
Fran at the Ace: fresh, frank … fraught!
Of her many accolades and achievements, what we find most cool and enviable about essayist/raconteur Fran Lebowitz is Vanity Fair having named her as one of the most stylish women of the year. She obviously presents well, so she’ll fit right into Los Angeles at her upcoming “Fran Lebowitz in Conversation” event presented by the Center ...
Flourishing Los Angeles experimental dance scene of the ’80s recalled
Aug
16
2018
ed. note: We hear much about the current vigor of Los Angeles dance. A guest writer, the visual artist Steve DeGroodt adds his historic perspective in this essay contributed to the blog. There is a vibrancy and presence that has been missing in the world of dance in Los Angeles for some time. What once ...
Message from Shepard: “Thanks for caring about climate change”
Aug
15
2018
Obey Fire Sale. 18 x 24 inches. Screen print on cream Speckle Tone paper. Signed by Shepard Fairey. Numbered edition of 550. $55. Available Thursday, August 16, 10 am (PST) on ObeyGiant.com in Store under Prints. Limit 1 per person/household. Artist’s Statement My “Obey” print is a comment on the challenges any individual faces pushing ...
The valleys are alive with the sound of gibberish, courtesy of artist Paul McCarthy
Maria, pictured above and played by Julie Andrews in the syrupy Hollywood movie-musical, The Sound of Music (1965), delivers her iconic hilltop anthem, but in a bizarro version created by visual artist Paul McCarthy, her scale runs do ti la so fa mi re do. McCarthy created cisuM fo dnuoS ehT / The Sound of ...
post sponsored by Ford Theatres
Ford Theatre’s magical August dance-weekend adds intimacy
Unicorns and moonbeams! That magical stuff will spool at the Ford Amphitheatre when the beloved outdoor stage winds toward summer’s-end 2018. Lending unusual piquancy in a special dance-weekend are full-evening works by up-and-coming choreographers: Marjani Forté-Saunders (Aug 24, 25) and Stephanie Zaletel (Aug 26 only). To accommodate the intimate, experimental nature of these dance performances, ...
Makarova/Godunov triumph in molasses-tempoed Don Q pas de deux 1
Aug
6
2018
Both are Russian-born-and-trained sensations: she of the Kirov, he of the Bolshoi. Both were Soviet defectors. I never saw him dance in person, but he fascinates me. I saw her dance many times, with American Ballet Theatre. I worship her. Note his one-armed lift (of her) at 0:53. Note her turns — every one of ...
Bob Fosse, dancer, at UCLA Film & Television Archive
We’re all familiar with Bob Fosse, choreographer, and Bob Fosse, film director, right? And if we aren’t, UCLA Film & Television Archive is giving us a great opportunity to catch up as it celebrates a key influencer of modern cinema in “Fosse, Fosse, Fosse!” Fosse was a rarity … he advanced from dancer to choreographer ...