[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...]
Snapshots from the Culture Crash: 1
[contextly_auto_sidebar] LONGTIME music journalist Steve Mirkin has been, like a lot of us in the creative class, though a series ups and downs since the Internet remade journalism and the recession undercut the middle class. He appears briefly in my book Culture Crash. Here is an update, which begins around January 1. It was not going to be a happy new year for me. After more than two … [Read more...]
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
[contextly_auto_sidebar] ONE of my favorite writers in any genre is the USC humanities professor Leo Braudy, justly celebrated for his Frenzy of Renown, a history of fame going back to Alexander the Great. Braudy writes widely on literature, film, ancient civilizations. the question of America, the overlap of culture and politics, and all kinds of subjects that interest me. He's insightful, … [Read more...]
Jazz and “La La Land”
[contextly_auto_sidebar] FOR weeks now I've been meaning to write about the poorly named film La La Land, which has drawn acclaim but also divided audiences, and produced a decidedly split response within the jazz world. Hoping to get to that today. I really loved the movie, for what it's worth. A lot of people I trust disliked or hated it. But starting today it becomes very cool/ … [Read more...]
On Stage with the Marx Bros
[contextly_auto_sidebar]ONE of the glories of American culture is the cinematic ensemble known as the Marx Brothers. But before Chico, Zeppo, Harpo, and Groucho became anarchic movie stars in film like "A Day at the Races" and "Duck Soup," they were an anarchic vaudeville troupe that traveled the nation. And they performed and socialized with my grandfather, a Tin Pan Alley songwriter, and his … [Read more...]
Octavia Butler’s Los Angeles
[contextly_auto_sidebar] THE posthumous rise of the science-fiction writer Octavia Butler, who died in 2006 and spent most of her life in and around Pasadena, CA, has been fascinating to watch. I've been interested in Butler since I moved out here and began to hear of her work, in the late '90s, and love one of her story collections. But I don't know her life of output in great detail. So … [Read more...]
“Akhnaten” at Los Angeles Opera
[contextly_auto_sidebar] THE Philip Glass opera Akhnaten, the very abstracted story of the Egyptian pharaoh who lived 35 centuries ago, is now at Los Angeles Opera. Glass considers it a trilogy, alongside his epochal Einstein on the Beach and his Gandhi opera, Satyagraha. Akhnaten the man was a curious guy. Imagine being a fairly important figure -- he is credited with basically inventing … [Read more...]
The Powerful Influence of Leonard Cohen
[contextly_auto_sidebar] IT'S been a very tough year for music lovers, and the last week or so has been especially rough for other reasons. But the legacy left by the late poet/ songwriter is something to be grateful for. In my latest Salon story, I document the influence of Cohen from the earliest covers of his songs (Judy Collins' "Suzanne," Fairport Convention's "Bird on a Wire"), … [Read more...]
“Tears of St. Peter” and the Master Chorale
[contextly_auto_sidebar] HERE is a piece I had not even heard of: "Lagrime di San Pietro," a chorale work by the ambiguously Italian composer Orlando di Lasso (who is usually described as Flemish). The Los Angeles Master Chorale put on this Renaissance work, directed by classical wildman Peter Sellars, about a week ago at Disney Hall. Despite my lack of knowledge of most chorale music, I took … [Read more...]
Otis Redding at the Whisky — Revisited
[contextly_auto_sidebar] YOU can never really have too much Otis Redding. The great R&B singer and songwriter died in a plane crash in 1967, at just 26 years old, and just about everything he recorded (included his radio spot for "Stay in School") is worth hearing. So it's good news that a legendary set of concerts -- his April 1966 shows at the Whisky a Go Go, which have been available in … [Read more...]