Jack Jones: a lot of livin’ (and singin’) to do
Aug
31
2017
Frank Sinatra called Jack Jones, “one of the major singers of our time.” Mel Torme said he is “the greatest ‘pure’ singer in the world.” George Chakiris who himself recorded four memorable albums at Capitol Records recently said, “He has a wonderful voice and he never stopped working on it. The last time I saw ...
Willdabeast to NYT: ‘I’m a beast no matter what’ 1
Aug
27
2017
[excerpted] “People would tell me, you don’t look the way dancers need to look. You’re not tall enough, you’re darker skinned. It’s gonna be hard for you to get eye-candy jobs or Disney jobs.” His response: to bring together “the misfits of the industry,” he said, “and be the example — that I’m a beast ...
Ethel Martin water-dances in Billy Rose’s ‘Aquacade’ 1
From an interview with Jack Cole dancers George and Ethel Martin available on sound recording at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Ethel Martin shares memories of working in impresario Billy Rose‘s famed Aquacade revue at the 1939 World’s Fair. Martin found a way to double her income by performing both as ...
Parks & wrecks: Carlos Almaraz @ LACMA
The ‘Los Four’ exhibition at Los Angeles County Art Museum in 1974 put the local art establishment on notice that a thriving scene was taking place in East Los Angeles and elsewhere in the Southland. The Chicano art renaissance was represented by four artists — Carlos Almaraz, Beto de la Rocha, Frank Romero and Gilbert ...
Uneclipsed: George Balanchine’s ‘Serenade’ 1
Aug
21
2017
A celestial event today, a solar eclipse in which the moon passes between the sun and Earth and blocks all or part of the sun, mesmerizing the public for a good two to three hours. This cosmic happening spurred a memory by Gary Moore, a former dancer with the Harkness, San Francisco and Pennsylvania Ballets, ...
Miss Carmen regrets … 2
Aug
19
2017
“I am truly honored to receive the Kennedy Center Honors Award and look forward to attending the ceremony at the Kennedy Center. In light of the socially divisive and morally caustic narrative that our existing leadership is choosing to engage in, and in keeping with the principles that I and so many others have fought for, ...
Anniversary Classics: From ‘Cape Fear’ to ‘Sudden Fear’
Aug
19
2017
From the people who just brought you ‘Cape Fear,’ a doubling down on the same theme: a 65th anniversary screening of ‘Sudden Fear.’ Those would be the folks at Anniversary Classics (produced and hosted by film critic Stephen Farber for Laemmle Theatres). This screening will prove that anything Donald Trump or Kim Un Jong can ...
Graphic arts interplay between Los Angeles & Mexico City @ Mixografia
Aug
16
2017
From Mexico City to LA: A Visual History of Graphic Art traces the history of printmaking in Mexico throughout the twentieth century, and explores the conversation between Mexican printmaking and contemporary graphic art in Latin America and Southern California. The exhibition guides viewers through a lineage of artworks published by Taller de Gráfica Popular and ...
Rauschenberg dance contributions recognized in live MoMA performance
Who’s going to New York? Oh, you already live there? Then get thee to MoMA on Wednesday, September 6, for a curated performance of mid-century dance masterworks at the vaunted MoMA Sculpture Garden twice that day. The dance program accompanies Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends, the exhibit now on at the Museum through September 17. Rauschenberg ...
The friendship of cowboy singers
The arts “get to us” in so many different ways. There may be something about the turbulence of the past week, a time of saber-rattling, that has particularly touch our nation at the passing away of a gentle spirit named Glen Campbell. Here in Los Angeles, the Autry Museum of the American West issued a ...