[contextly_auto_sidebar] This week I offer our latest column from guest Lawrence Christon, a former Los Angeles Times staff writer on theater and comedy, and a longtime culture freelancer in Southern California. This one needs no further ado. A GIRL NAMED MARIA By Lawrence Christon I’m standing in the deserted home furnishings section of a department store late at night, shopping for … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2017
James Baldwin, Film and the Zeitgeist
[contextly_auto_sidebar] SINCE the summer or fall, it's struck me that a writer long considered the little brother -- perhaps even the gay little brother -- of black literature's Big Three had become the essential artist of our time. Here is my story on him, timed in part to the Oscar-nominated films Moonlight and I Am Not Your Negro, both of which are excellent. Update: Moonlight, of … [Read more...]
Music and Design: “Seeing Noise”
[contextly_auto_sidebar] WHY do we talk about "seeing" bands or orchestral groups? How did album jackets and photography of musicians -- whether Francis Wolff's shadowy shots of jazz musicians smoking in the shadows or Astrid Kirchherr's images of the Beatles in post-industrial cityscapes -- become important parts of music's aura? Is a rock video a betrayal of what music is really about? I … [Read more...]