By Charly SHELTON When one thinks of mammals, the characteristics that pop to mind are small, fuzzy, warm-blooded creatures that survived the K-T extinction that killed (most of) the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Mammals went on to become the dominant class on the planet, and these fuzzy little guys evolved to become fuzzy big […]
Attentive listeners had much to contemplate and enjoy at the Le Salon de Musiques concert on Sunday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The three composers represented on the program – Samuel Barber, Rebecca Clarke and Amy Beach – though disparate in life, shared an aesthetic realm. All three found the center of their careers’ gravity […]
By Susan JAMES One thing that has kept so many marvelous Marvel sagas spinning in the air is their makers’ recognition that behind all the explosions, superpowers and angst-ridden apocalyptic adventures, what is real is the way in which the characters relate to each other. Family and the definition of family have been major themes […]
By Susan JAMES “They don’t make them like they used to” is the lament of every film lover of Hollywood’s Golden Age. In a time before CGI and the glorification of endless comic book bacchanalias, when the censor ruled supreme and box office gold depended on sharp dialogue and charismatic actors, audiences could revel in […]
By Charly SHELTON The Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts is now open and delighting guests with beautifully redesigned rooms across three levels of the house – the chic yet comfortable bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs, the grand and elegant entrance and dining hall downstairs, and the sunken patio and swimming pool area, with landscape redesign […]
“Music soothes the savage beast,” so the old adage goes. But can music that thrashes about like a savage beast be soothed? The premiere of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” became a watershed moment in musical modernism, not least for the unprecedented complexity and ferocity of its rhythms, aspects highlighted by the composer’s brilliant and […]
By Steve ZALL and Sid FISH Here’s what’s happening this month on the Southern California theatre scene: OPENING “The Gary Plays” chronicles the odyssey of unemployed actor Gary Bean, Mednick’s everyman/anti-hero who has been hailed by KCRW as “a sort of L.A. Leopold Bloom.” Audiences can choose to follow Gary’s journey over the course […]
By Nestor CASTIGLIONE Local pianophiles will want to keep their this Sunday. The reason: Local pianist David Rubinstein will be performing a recital of music by Beethoven, Chopin, Albéniz, Ravel, as well as his own works that afternoon. The Bronx native, who was born into a musical family, studied with George Kochevitsky, a noted Russian […]
By Charly SHELTON When you go to Knott’s Berry Farm, the theme park built on food, there is Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant – the best place to have a chicken dinner. If anywhere does it best, it’s Knott’s. When you go to Disneyland, the theme park built on the childhood magic of Disney, its […]
This review was revised on April 27 It is human nature to wrest light and hope from tragedy, however painful and inexplicable. The enigmatic yet resigned line from Samuel Beckett’s “The Unnamable” –”You must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on” – tersely sums up the need to eke out even a meager […]