[contextly_auto_sidebar] WHEN I moved back to Los Angeles about a year ago, I was not surprised that the cultural life was rich and wide-ranging. But one spot surprised me: The Wallis Annenberg in Beverly Hills. I had covered some of the early planning for the LA Times, and had liked both architect Zoltan Pali, working to transform a WPA-era post office, and director Lou Moore, who like me is a … [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...]
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...]
August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey” at the Taper
[contextly_auto_sidebar] LAST night I caught "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" -- one of the historically earliest of August Wilson's cycle of plays about black life in the 20th century -- at the Mark Taper Forum. This production, directed by Phylicia Rashad (best known for her role on "The Cosby Show"), has been justly celebrated already, so I will just introduce it and add a few details. Despite … [Read more...]
BARACK OBAMA AND EZRA JACK KEATS
Amazing amount of excitement, anticipation, and i expect resentment and suppressed fear right now around the obama inauguration... i will try to avoid getting too deeply into politics in this blog despite my fascination with it -- i've learned the hard way over the years that there is actually some wisdom to the old warning about talking about politics and religion across the dinner table. but … [Read more...]