THE Santa Monica-based chamber series Jacaranda puts on some of the consistently most intriguing programs I know. Along with UCLA's Royce Hall and the Hammer Museum, it's one of the things that makes me wish I lived on the Westside.Composer Olivier MessiaenThe weekend's program included a piece by Olivier Messiaen, a hero to some in the group; West Coasters Terry Riley and Lou Harrison works will … [Read more...]
Archives for 2012
The Creative Class: Idle Dreamers
THE latest of my series for Salon on the damage the recession, digital technology and the Internet have exerted on the creative class runs today. I'm consumed with the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this weekend but will try to post on it more extensively later.This piece looked at the crisis and said, Why aren't we hearing about it? Why has it not entered the cultural conversation? And why … [Read more...]
Brooklyn Composer Gabriel Kahane
I'VE been hearing about the rock songwriter and chamber music composer Gabriel Kahane for a few years now, and was glad to have the chance to speak to the hipster hero about his new piece, based on Hart Crane's The Bridge, which makes its West Coast debut this weekend.I also spoke to the esteemed Jeffrey Kahane and got a sense of how Gabe's eclecticism grew out of family tradition. HERE's my … [Read more...]
The Return of the Shins
WHEN I sat down with all four members of the Shins around the time their Chutes Too Narrow album came out, I was already a big fan of the band's gentle, indirect songs and slightly obscure production that made their music sound like it had been recovered from a '60s bootleg.I was also struck, that afternoon at the Authentic Cafe near Fairfax and Beverly, how strong and natural the camaraderie … [Read more...]
The Roots of Leila Josefowicz
I EXPECT I'm not the only one looking forward to the concert at Disney Hall tonight, which continues over the weekend: the new Philip Glass symphony, in its West Coast premiere, with John Adams' Violin Concerto, both conducted by Adams himself. And the violin part in the Adams piece -- some days, my favorite piece by the bearded Bay Area composer -- will be played by the lovely and talented Leila … [Read more...]
The Wreck of the Titanic
THE hype around James Cameron's film, which came out while I was working as a film editor, was so deafening that a lot of us closed our ears when it came to this infamous ship and its demise. I know I did. There didn't seem to be much more to say about the whole mess.But here we are, approaching the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's demise, and there are a ton of new television projects coming, … [Read more...]
Remembering Artist Mike Kelley
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...]
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...]