THE other night, during the relentless stretch of rains that hit Los Angeles around Christmas, I was awoken just after 1 a.m. by pounding on my front door. Stumbling to the door in my bathrobe, I was greeted by two uniformed members of the local police department, one of whom shined his flashlight into my eyes. The reason for this unexpected visit? In large part this was caused by the … [Read more...]
Christopher Isherwood’s LA
LAST night the Hammer Museum held an event about Isherwood's years in LA that included his companion Don Bachardy and and journalist David Kipen. Connection problems keep me from filling this out further, but HERE is the piece I wrote on the British author's years in California, which included a visit to his old house in the Palisades. The story begins: He abandoned a … [Read more...]
Stew and The Negro Problem Return to LA
RECENTLY I had the pleasure to speak to two of the heroes of '90s indie LA, Stew and Heidi Rodewald. The duo -- then known as The Negro Problem -- have since moved to New York and become "show folk" with the musical Passing Strange. Spike Lee made it into a movie.HERE is my story on the past and future of Stew and The Negro Problem.Two LA shows -- Saturday at the Getty and Tuesday at the Echoplex … [Read more...]
Los Angeles Noir Comes to Glendale
LOCAL culture vultures know Denise Hamilton for her work as a journalist and mystery writer. She's also edited two anthologies of crime fiction, Los Angeles Noir and its sequel, for Akashic Press.The city of Glendale has just chosen the first book, made up mostly of new writing, as part of its One City/ One Book program. (The book includes pieces by Gary Phillips, Naomi Hirahawa, Michael Connelly, … [Read more...]
New Beer Shop in Echo Park
ONE of the Misread City's favorite LA hangouts in Colorado Wine Company in Eagle Rock: It opened shortly before we moved to the Eastside and has been a sort of neighborhood bar. Fans of the dedication to low prices and high quality -- as well as eccentric and small-batch wines -- this place serves up will be as excited as your humble blogger about the latest news.John and Jen Nugent, who own the … [Read more...]
Italian Rock Returns to LA
MUSIC from Italy is about more than just opera, "Volare'," and the songs of singing gondoliers. It's the goal of Hitweek LA to show Angelenos how wide the range is.Last year I wrote about the festival here, and spoke to the organizer and a few of the bands for an LA Times story."We have very successful artists, from rock to heavy metal to reggae to world music," Francesco del Maro told me. … [Read more...]
Green Shoots — Eagle Rock
Neighborhood are complicated organisms – like a marriage or a human body, they can get better and worse at the same time as some aspects wax, others wane. That seems to be the case with Eagle Rock, the Northeast LA hood I’ve written about a few times, most controversially with this 2009 New York Times piece about the impact of the recession.Overall, of course, the Los Angeles economy has remained … [Read more...]
Alex Ross on Music and Noise
FOR my money, there is no more important and provocative essay about classical music over the last 10 years than an Alex Ross that begins this way: "I hate 'classical music': not the thing but the name. It traps a tenaciously living art in a theme park of the past." And he goes on: "For at least a century, the music has been captive to a cult of mediocre elitism that tries to manufacture … [Read more...]
New TV Legal Drama
THE lawyer show has become almost as ubiquitous as the cop show, and there are several of each in the new fall TV season.I've reviewed a new legal drama, The Whole Truth, which goes up tonight at 10 on ABC. I'd say the show is decent, needs to fine tune some things, including an off-putting main character, but succeeds at drawing you into the law's chess game.Here is my Hollywood Reporter review, … [Read more...]
Grizzly Bear and Phoenix at the Hollywood Bowl
ON Saturday night I was lucky enough to catch these two bands at the Bowl. Both exceeded my expectations.Grizzly Bear, a Brooklyn group with a bearded-hipster following and a knack for Pet Sounds derived vocal harmonies, has long been an enigma to me: I got their debut LP before it came out, and it literally destroyed my wife's car stereo even before we could hear it. But some of my most dedicated … [Read more...]