[contextly_auto_sidebar] THE other day I hung out with Burbank resident and globe-trotter Cory Doctorow, who is a cult figure with a very large cult. We talked mostly about his new novel, Walkaway, which is intellectually fascinating and really moves. Will try to fill in this post a bit for now, but here is my LA Times profile. I will point out that obvious that I find him a bit … [Read more...]
All the Poets: Rhiannon Giddens
[contextly_auto_sidebar] The second installment of my Los Angeles Review of Books -- All the Poets, in which musicians discuss their literary influences -- went up the other day: Rhiannon Giddens, who earned her reputation with the string band The Carolina Chocolate Drops, talked to me about her childhood interest in science fiction, in the African roots of what we think of as Appalachian or … [Read more...]
Colm Toibin/ CultureCrash in Santa Monica
[contextly_auto_sidebar] FOLKS, I'll be interviewing the great Irish novelist -- known for The Master and Brooklyn -- onstage at Live TalksLA on Monday night. Be there or be square. Fancy tickets will get you a copy of his new Greek tragedy-inspired House of Names and an admission to the pre-show reception. Come over and say hi. Here's the announcement. UPDATE: Here's a video of our … [Read more...]
Brooklyn Rider and a New Cellist
[contextly_auto_sidebar] The celebrated New York-based string quartet Brooklyn Rider, which appears at the Wallis Annenberg Performing Arts Center on Saturday night, added a new cellist last year. Today Michael Nicolas, who replaced founder Eric Jacobsen, spoke to CultureCrash about the group, its repertoire, and his own role in the mix. The quartet will play music by Glass, Janacek, … [Read more...]
Songwriting’s Roots in Poetry and Prose
[contextly_auto_sidebar] GENERALLY, I'm skeptical of the glib and automatic denoting of any intelligent or articulate musician as "a poet." But the connection between popular song and literature go back, in the Anglo-American tradition, at least as long as The Beatles' interest in Lewis Carroll and Dylan's borrowing from Scottish Border ballads. Of course, at the beginning of the Western … [Read more...]
Jeff Parker and Jazz Guitar
[contextly_auto_sidebar] FOR months now, one of the most intriguing instrumentalists in Los Angeles has been unspooling his style for the price of a drink in a small bar in Highland Park. Jeff Parker, longtime guitarist for the Chicago "post-rock" band Tortoise, has lived in Los Angeles for a few years now, and alongside playing with members of Spain and in drummer Matt Mayhall's trio, Parker … [Read more...]
Schubert, Meet Beckett
[contextly_auto_sidebar] TONIGHT I am looking forward to going to Disney Hall to see an odd pairing: the songs of Franz Schubert interspersed with the short plays of Samuel Beckett. The recital, put on by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, features several singers and actors including Irish actor Barry McGovern and soprano Julia Bullock. The whole thing springs from the twisted genius Yuval Sharon, … [Read more...]
Arts Journalism and the Culture Crash
[contextly_auto_sidebar] SOME things have gotten a bit better since I published my book two years ago; some have unraveled more or less on schedule. One thing that does not seem to be improving is the state of cultural journalism: Arts critics (and reporters, like yours truly) continue to be laid off as publications scale back and decide -- just as school boards do in lean times -- that … [Read more...]
A Musicologist Muses on John Adams
[contextly_auto_sidebar] One of the most insightful and eclectic thinkers on music I know is UCLA musicologist Robert Fink, who has written a book on minimalism -- Repeating Ourselves -- and both teaches music history and run the school's music-business program. On the occasion of John Adams' 70th birthday, and a series of related events in Los Angeles, I corresponded with Fink about the … [Read more...]
Nixon in China in Los Angeles
[contextly_auto_sidebar] IF you live in LA long enough, you might come to think you've seen John Adams' iconic opera not once but several times. There are few more talked-about or written about works from the last four or five decades; maybe "Einstein on the Beach" or "Angels in America." Adams' music -- his violin concerto, "El Nino," "Naive and Sentimental Music" -- gets performed all the … [Read more...]