THE other night I was lucky enough to catch a short, hypnotic set by Spain, the Los Angeles "slowcore" band that's now back together and starting to appear in low-key shows around town. (The last time I saw them they played at tiny but wonderful Origami Vinyl in Echo Park.)In any case, the show itself was both completely gripping and without any surprising jolts: Mellow songs with a brooding … [Read more...]
Archives for 2011
Long Beach Opera on the Edge
WHEN you do what I do, you hear a lot of arts advocates and administrators talk about "reaching out," finding "new audiences," "making connections," and so on, and it gets tiresome. In part that's because it seems so calculated, in part because it usually means watering down programming to make it safer and more familiar.LBO's next opera: Philip Glass's "Akhnaten"But Andreas Mitisek, the Austrian … [Read more...]
Pianist Jeremy Denk Replaces Martha Argerich
Out: ArgerichTHE raven-haired Argentine pianist Martha Argerich is legendary both for her impassioned playing of Chopin, Brahms and Liszt as well as for her tendency to cancel appearances. Sad to say, she's done it again, canceling next weekend's Los Angeles Philharmonic appearances with Gustavio Dudamel conducting.The good news: She is being replaced by one of the world's most intriguing emerging … [Read more...]
Eric Puchner and the California Dream
HERE at The Misread City, we try to capture what makes Los Angeles and the West Coast distinct, and aim to look at the way the existing clichés – sun, vapidity, bottomless riches -- both inform and distort our lives here. I can’t think of a better example of this kind of thing than the new essay by Eric Puchner, an Angeleno short story writer and novelis. His new piece in the March GQ, “Schemes of … [Read more...]
Green Shoots: Highland Park
IN this dismal economy, with the state unemployment rate still around 12 and 1/2 percent, any opening is worth applauding. So it's high time for The Misread City to note the recent opening of Schodorf's Luncheonette, a small but proud sandwich place run by the couple behind Cafe de Leche. (I'm especially fond of their Italian: Reviews here.)The 'hood has sharpened up a bit from these daysIt's part … [Read more...]
New Arts Hall on Westside
BEVERLY Hills has long had a connection to the movies, as well as a reputation for shameless excess. The city is taking a step in a different direction with a new arts center: Ground will be broken in April, with plans to open the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in 2013.HERE is my LA Times piece about the center, which will, in the words of executive director Lou Moore, … [Read more...]
Philip K. Dick at the Movies
Tomorrow a new film based on a Philip K. Dick story, The Adjustment Bureau, opens. I’ve not yet seen the Matt Damon/Emily Blunt film yet, but the PKD fans I know are not impressed with it and don’t think it’s true to the author’s vision and thinks it's been skewed too much in a conventional-romantic direction. (Here is a mostly approving review by the NYT's Manohla Dargis.)The film is based on a … [Read more...]
Trouble in Portlandia
ONE of our favorite places, here at The Misread City, is Portland, Ore., and as much as we love the walkable neighborhoods, the groovy coffee shops, and the excellent local cuisine and Oregon Pinots, we find ourselves trapped helplessly in Powell’s bookstore every time we’re up there. (You may also have heard about the show Portlandia starring a member of one or favorite bands.)So the troubles at … [Read more...]
Steve Erickson Novel Coming
LONGTIME Los Angeles writer Steve Erickson will have a new novel next year, These Dreams of You, his publisher, Europa Editions, just announced. Erickson is the writer I point to first when I'm arguing about a difference in East Coast and West Coast literary sensibility. He grew up in a Granada Hills neighborhood wiped out for the freeway, and that sense of spatial dislocation and a disappearing … [Read more...]
Return of the Found Footage Festival
ALL I can say is, it's one of the funniest things I have ever seen. The Found Footage Festival, a collection of oddball training videos, celebrity promotions and home movies, rolls though Los Angeles every year or so, curated and presented by two Letterman-like dudes who scour thrift stores and garage sales.One of host Nick Prueher's favorite videos from this year's festival, on Tuesday (March 1) … [Read more...]