THIS ended up being one of the toughest stories I've written in a long time, emotionally or otherwise. The assignment to track down friends and associates of Mike Kelley, the longtime Los AngelesaArtist who -- it's thought -- killed himself at his South Pasadena home a few weeks ago -- almost broke me. People close to someone who's died are always tender; after a suspected suicide, it's even more … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2012
Playwright Donald Margulies in the Southland
RECENTLY, I had the good fortune to spent part of the day strolling through the Orange County Museum of Art's Richard Diebenkorn exhibit. This enchanting show of the California painter's Ocean Park paintings was even better because I took it in with a trained painter who could point out what I might have overlooked. That this former artist was the New York/New Haven playwright Donald Margulies … [Read more...]
Elizabeth Taylor, Accidental Feminist
OVER here at The Misread City, we've been fans of writer M.G. Lord since her book Forever Barbie. An insightful critic of gender, pop culture and the culture of science -- check out her slim, sharp volume Astro Turf: The Private Life of Rocket Science, set in and around JPL -- Lord has recently turned her hand to actress Elizabeth Taylor. Lord's cover essay in an issue of The Hollywood Reporter … [Read more...]
The Roots of Savion Glover
THE latest subject for my Influences column is dance god Savion Glover, who no less than Gregory Hines said may've been the finest tap dancer in history.Glover came to Broadway as a kid, and broke big with "Noise/Funk" in the mid '90s. He's been an exemplar of removing the Hollywood polish from tap dancing and reconnecting it to a specifically black and African lineage of rhythm.In my story … [Read more...]
Imagining Mars
WHATEVER the faults of John Carter, the new film based on the early work of Edgar Rice Burroughs, we're happy to have the chance to head back to Mars. Given the way NASA funding is going, this may be our only chance.As a species, we've been fascinated with the Red Planet for a long time -- the film is only the latest of a long line. Why does it draw us to it, and how has our thinking about Mars … [Read more...]
The Roots of Stew
Talented as he is, he's become one of Los Angeles's least likely success stories: A hipster cult figure, the toast of Silverlake and Highland Park, who moves to New York and suddenly hits, with a Broadway show and a Spike Lee film. But Stew has always been unpredictable.In today's paper, I spoke to Stew about the figures who've inspired him from outside the familiar pop and rock worlds. He came up … [Read more...]