[contextly_auto_sidebar] ONE of the things I'm most interested is how non-corporate, non-mainstream culture can survive after the 2008 crash. My conversations with J.C. Gabel -- the intense, passionate publisher of a small LA press called Hat & Beard -- give us all a glimpse of both the challenges to independent culture merchants as well as the possibilities. Hat & Beard is about to … [Read more...]
Max Richter and Classical Minimalism
[contextly_auto_sidebar] When it comes to a classical concert, how long is too long? What do you do when you get restless? And what state -- one of heightened curiosity? a sharpened intellectual edge? greater empathy? physical relaxation? -- should a piece of art music put its audience members? In what way is art meant to be transformative? These are all questions addressed, implicitly, at … [Read more...]
Ayn Rand and Libertarianism
[contextly_auto_sidebar] FOR most of my life -- I was a kid during the Reagan Revolution -- I've been puzzled by otherwise smart people falling for Libertarianism and Ayn Rand's brand of freedom snake oil. Everybody likes the idea of freedom, but for the Fountainhead crowd, the notion acquires cartoonish dimensions, and their definition of the term seems to tilt toward rich businessmen and … [Read more...]
The Dark Magic of Ottessa Moshfegh
[contextly_auto_sidebar] IT's not often that I pick up a book and get a new favorite writer. But that's pretty close to what happened when a story collection called Homesick For Another World, by a young author I'd not heard of, arrived in the mail one day. I read a few dark, alienated short stories, some of which were set in a dreary, bleached-out, dingbat-lined Los Angeles. I found a noirish … [Read more...]
The Sacred Art of John August Swanson
[contextly_auto_sidebar] EVEN as a lifetime religious skeptic, I've long been fascinated by artists, writers and other culture-makers who bring religion, spirituality, and related matters into their work. Most likely, the art impulse and the urge to worship and praise originated in tandem; what we now call religion and culture were almost seamlessly joined for many centuries. (The agnostic or … [Read more...]
The Bookers: Performing Arts in Los Angeles
[contextly_auto_sidebar] It was on returning back to town in 2016, after a year away, that I was startled to see how much the performing arts scene had changed since I originally landed here in the late ‘90s. Some things about L.A. were worse, but this was more, better, more wide-ranging. Instead of a simple cultural geography that mostly involved downtown L.A., the city had de-centered: Now … [Read more...]
The Return of the Posies (Guest Columnist)
[contextly_auto_sidebar] FRIDAY night, the Seattle-area band the Posies stopped through the Bootleg Theater, which has gradually become one of my favorite places to see a show in Los Angeles. Out with me was a music writer whose work I've admired for 20 years (okay, she's now my wife), who was an ardent fan of the band back when they and a handful of other indie rockers were reviving power pop … [Read more...]
Angelique Kidjo Plays Remain in Light
[contextly_auto_sidebar] THE other night I caught a stunningly good show by the West African musician Angelique Kidjo -- a reimagining of Talking Heads' classic 1980 album Remain in Light, itself inspired by West African rhythms and themes. I was having so much fun I failed to take notes, but sometimes guest columnist Steven Mirkin, a longtime music journalist, was paying more attention. … [Read more...]
“West Side Story,” and Leonard Bernstein at 100
[contextly_auto_sidebar] IT'S hard to think of a figure in American cultural history more complex and protean than Leonard Bernstein. For my generation, he was already in eclipse when we came of age in the '70s and '80s. But he was such a titan that many of us -- and those older and younger -- are looking forward to the performances of his work and the upcoming exhibit at the Skirball Cultural … [Read more...]
Julian Lage at the Bootleg Theater
[contextly_auto_sidebar] LAST night's show by the young Santa Rosa native was one of the greatest jazz gigs your humber blogger has ever seen. Even knowing a few of his records and having seen him play a delicate, restrained, kind of perfect show with pianist Fred Hersch a few years back, I was knocked out by how fleet his playing was, and how well-matched to a more assertive style. Lage, a … [Read more...]