SOMETIMES even when you know something's coming, it knocks the wind out of you when it arrives. That's the way I felt this morning when I opened the paper and saw that Hitchens had succumbed to cancer that virtually every reader knew he had. (Here is the New York Times obit.)I've spent the last few mornings reading an essay or two in his latest collection, Arguably. I don't always, or even often, … [Read more...]
Author Chuck Palahniuk
ODDLY, it was a very pleasant evening the night I met with Chuck Palahniuk in Portland a few years back to discuss his then-new novel, Snuff, over dinner. (The book is not as appetizing.)The Fight Club author has a new novel, Damned. And HERE is my conversation with him.Here's part of my profile:Palahniuk's method is to sniff out such subjects, then pounce. "Things that last in the culture tend to … [Read more...]
The Classical Violin and Heavy Metal
RACHEL Barton Pine walks both sides of the fence -- a classical violinist who plays a 1740s instrument but also rocks out to Black Sabbath and Guns N Roses. I get into her wide range of musical passions in the latest of my Influences column in the Los Angeles Times.The violinist, by the way, plays this Sunday at one of the most amazing places I've ever seen chamber music -- UCLA's Clark Library in … [Read more...]
The Making of The Artist
SOMETIMES it takes the French to appreciate the best aspects of American culture. Whether it's jazz, detective novels or the films of Howard Hawks, the Gauls have often seen something in our own art that we've overlooked.The silent, black and white movie The Artist is the latest example. It's an homage to American cinema of the '20s and early '30s. I wrote an extensive feature HERE for the … [Read more...]
The Roots of Preservation Hall
THE latest installment for my Influences column is Ben Jaffe, son of the founders of Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the New Orleans institution's current leader. (My story is here.)Jaffe, who marched in carnival parades as a 9-year-old and later attended Oberlin College, described classic Crescent City figures -- Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong -- as well as some lesser known musicians and a … [Read more...]
Kenny Burrell and The Future of Jazz
LAST week I wrote a story about the jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell, who celebrates his 80th birthday with a concert at Royce Hall on Saturday. In the course of it, I corresponded with music historian Ted Gioia about Burrell and some related issues concerning the past and future of the art form.I've included here our exchange. Gioia's The History of Jazz, on Oxford University Press, was recently … [Read more...]
Remembering Spalding Gray
THERE'S a new collection of journals by the great actor and storyteller Spalding Gray, with a tribute event tonight at the Laemmle Sunset 5. (More detail here.)Soon after Gray's 2004 disappearance -- it was eventually deemed a suicide -- I spoke to several theater and performance figures who walk in Gray's footsteps. I wrote:With his mix of despair, humor, preppy shirts and New England dryness, he … [Read more...]
Kenny Burrell and the Jazz Guitar
RECENTLY I had the pleasure to walk down memory lane with one of my musical heroes, who marked his 80th birthday over the summer and is still going strong.Here is my story on jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell, who will mark that milestone with a concert on Saturday Nov. 12. Burrell's playing is a very elegant and disciplined take on the blues.Burrell told me a lot of interesting stuff -- including that … [Read more...]
Wild Flag at the Troubadour
THERE was so much buzz about Wild Flag – the indie super group made up of members of Sleater-Kinney, Helium, Quasi and the Minders – that the question going into Thursday night’s show at the Troubadour, the second of two packed Los Angeles shows, was whether this would be a good night of indie rock, or something transcendent.The answer turned out to be, a little of both.The Portland/DC four piece … [Read more...]
Philip Glass With the New York Philharmonic
COMPOSER Philip Glass is making his debut this week at the New York Philharmonic. Yes, you heard that right. Let's move on -- it's awkward for everyone involved. But he's glad to be there now.Glass's appearance is with his own ensemble and the orchestra itself, playing behind Godfrey Reggio's film Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, the score for which may be the composer's best-known work. (I … [Read more...]