[contextly_auto_sidebar] I’M STILL LISTENING, MARLON By Lawrence Christon It doesn’t happen often because it can’t. The taste of the madeleine that unleashes a torrent of memories and associations, the thing that makes you stop what you’re doing and plunges you into unexpected reverie. With me, it was hearing Marlon Brando’s voice, that strange, half-vaulted, pureed-through-the-sinuses … [Read more...]
The Dangers of Classical Literature
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="oHcTuy4aEjunKWqhD4mC4hqre93rSFli"] Let me catch my breath a second and direct CultureCrash readers to my Salon piece on trigger warnings on university "trigger warnings," the poetry of Ovid, and my fears about Fox News. Of my recent Salon work, this seems like the one most relevant to ArtsJournal readers. Bottom line is, How do we regard the violence, rape, … [Read more...]
Guest Columnist: Has Our Inner Child Won?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="ZZ6HZnil37V095gDDTpaRNbulixzlHOn"] Here's the latest from our sometime guest columnist. This one will make some noise, I expect. With no further ado: WHAT PRICE SAFETY? By Lawrence Christon A mad, obsessive ship’s captain destroys everyone on board, save one, in his vengeful mission to kill a whale. An unhinged barber slits the throats of his patrons and … [Read more...]
The Future of the Arts
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="oNW8dK0FCdGFSKqGQqeHclNNxOzhoCM1"] OKAY, nobody really knows what's coming. But a pretty good stab comes in a new book by veteran arts manager Michael M. Kaiser (Alvin Ailey, Kennedy Center, etc) , who is both hopeful and brutally honest. His opening section on the building of an arts infrastructure (including an audience) in the postwar U.S. is as clear and succinct … [Read more...]
World Premiere: Donald Margulies’ “The Country House”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="RH5YHXCUmB0pge4N88BDwP9g0cBKqKe3"] IS there a wittier writer working today than Donald Margulies? Could be, but the New Haven-based, Pulitzer-winning playwright is so consistently on in his best work, and his brand-new play, The Country House, which I caught on opening night at the Geffen Playhouse, is often irresistibly funny. The play is set in a big, open house … [Read more...]
The Forgotten Fifties: Debut of a Guest Columnist
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="FSBn2DLrnWZBS8DufCMUcy7PwGEjKVRO"] DO we misread our cultural past, especially the 1950s? Today marks the debut of CultureCrash guest columnist Lawrence Christon, a veteran arts and entertainment journalist in LA, author of a book about South Coast Repertory, and a longtime friend. Larry will be weighing in on various topics about the past, present and future of … [Read more...]
Artist-Activist Daniel Beaty, and Dismantling Libraries
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="fWCZOlqlcOkp84opgNwzY9TpfVFLSu9B"] CAN an artist -- in this case an actor and playwright -- be a healer at the same time? Do the two roles reinforce each other, or do they pull in opposite directions? These were questions I got into in a new story on Daniel Beaty, a remarkable guy who is closing out the LA run of The Tallest Tree in the Forest, a play about the … [Read more...]
Looking Ahead With Astra Taylor, Tallest Tree; and Rushdie
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="kNYZhxkhTXTFf6ORXY8ykY6cNtaDGWj8"] THE other day I spoke to Astra Taylor, a documentary filmmaker who was involved in the Occupy movement, about her new book The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age. I'll be writing about her more fully shortly, but for now I'll just say this is one of the best books on the impact of digital technology … [Read more...]
Can Impulse Records Come Back? Plus, Shakespeare’s Acting
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="BkttmRWC0b2xNNu3idGGaZviRdyibZxn"] ONE of the most storied of all jazz labels, Impulse -- "The House Trane Built" -- may provide that rarest of things: Good news for the jazz world. In hibernation for a while, and decades from its leadership of the avant-garde in the '60s, Impulse is being revived and will begin releasing new music. Now part of Universal Music … [Read more...]
The Enigma of Acting, and Longing for Adelaide
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="32rmFQIcwhA54BeHtYSmHSIWsnR6KSaz"] WHAT drives actors to do what they do? Can they inflict real and lasting emotional pain while transforming themselves? And has science been able to document and quantify any of this? These questions are explored in a long, nuanced new story on the Atlantic’s Health channel. Sitting behind this story, of course, is the recent … [Read more...]