#4: Keith Haring: Art Is For Everybody
Showing posts with label Los Angeles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Los Angeles. Show all posts
Friday, July 21, 2023
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
City of Lights
"This isn't about the sunset," I told Thom as we shopped for picnic food at the Whole Foods in West Hollywood, where the men are as ripe and luscious as the overpriced produce. "It's about watching the lights come on in the valley, something I've always wanted to see."
But the sunset was pretty spectacular. We arrived at the Mulholland Drive scenic outlook just in time to find a parking space and open our remaining bottle of cabernet from Trader Joe's.
The best things in life really are free. And I enjoyed the drive down Benedict Canyon with Chiffon's 2023 dance tunes blaring.
If only we'd had Delia!
More Los Angeles:
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
Walt Meets Frank
Frank Gehry designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It opened in 2003, just a couple of years after my last visit to Los Angeles. Subtle branding doesn't get much better than this.
A small park behind the hall is great place for DTLA workers or tourists to hang in the shade.
There's an unusual fountain, too.
Thom couldn't understand my obsession with taking pictures of the building from every angle but its size, reflective surfaces and shadows make photography challenging, especially on a sunny day.
Gehry wasn't the obvious "starchitect" choice but his design, considerably facilitated by computer technology, charmed Walt's widow. The Disney family and company ended up paying 60% of its $274 million cost. Private donations covered the rest.
We couldn't get tickets for a concert while we were there, but we did catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a children's orchestra rehearsal. Critics have good things to say about the acoustics. No-longer wunderkind Gustavo Duhamel, who has been conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic at its home since 2009, will soon find out if the prestige of leading the New York Philharmonic can compensate for the iffy acoustics of David Geffen Hall.
Duhamel will be around in October to celebrate the building's 20th anniversary in October with Gehry, who is 94. The program also includes Esa-Pekka Salomen, the LA Phil's Conductor Laureate (check out their superb recording of Bernard Hermann's film scores) , Herbie Hancock and H.E.R. Book now!
I think it's safe to safe that Disney Hall anchored DTLA's redevelopment.
Gehry designed the Grand, too, where Disney Hall looms above the pool deck on the tan roof. But millionaire renters beware: only ghosts populate the 'hood after the worker bees go home. It's funny how a "family" exhibit of Jean-Michel Basquiat's work is practically across the street from the curated Keith Haring retrospective at the Broad. West Coast proximity, even in death, and a far cry from the scuzzy East Village where both artists lived, loved and died more than 30 years ago.
As much as I admire the Gehry's work--we to Bilbao just to see the satellite he designed for the Guggenheim Museum in Spain--neither building made as big an impression as the Sydney Opera House, an obvious influence on both. That may have as much to do with its spectacular harbor setting as Jørn Utzon's breathtaking design, with no help from a computer.
Of course sailboats are much more graceful than cars, although LA traffic does add some welcome color to the setting. Would you believe the parking garage ate up nearly half the budget?
Afterward, we had cocktails on the roof of the United Artists Theater that Steve, our Art Deco guide, had recommended. It's now an Ace hotel. Sunglasses definitely required, even if you're not a hipster.
That's my merch bag from the Broad, where I bought a Keith Haring t-shirt, next to a watermelon margarita which looks better than it tasted.
We had an hour to kill before Thom treated me to a dinner at Bavel, a packed restaurant in the Arts District, which borders Skid Row! His Terani Couture colleagues had taken him to eat there his first night in LA.
The small-plate food was so delicious that I forgot to photograph our shared entree, Wagyu oxtail tagine.
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| Yellowtail Crudo |
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| Hawaii Cauliflower + Dipping Sauce |
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| Salted Cashew & Chocolate Stracciatella Ice Cream Bomb |
Travel days don't get much better than this one. Thanks, Thom, for dinner and the excuse to fly to LA!
Runyon Canyon Walk
If you see people hiking in a movie or TV show that takes place in contemporary Los Angeles, chances are pretty good it was shot in Runyon Canyon Park at the eastern edge of the Santa Monica Mountains. Thom recognized it from "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills."
The main hiking path is actually a winding, paved fire road that takes half an hour to ascend from the south entrance at Fuller Gate. The Hollywood sign, beautiful homes, turquoise pools and downtown LA can be seen in the distance, along with a lot of unemployed actors and actresses staying in shape with their pooches. Yep, it's a scene.
We found a jacaranda tree outside an antique travel trailer near the top. You can rent it for $3000 a month. I can assure you the views are as spectacular as the grocery shopping is remote.
To reach one of two summits, you have to hit the dirt and avoid the wildlife.
I shot wraparound video at two elevations before making the mistake of taking a short cut I later learned was called the "Hero's Trail" back down from the other summit. Loose gravel on steep surfaces nearly caused me to fall several times while Thom waited patiently in the shade at the bottom.
Monday, July 17, 2023
Hello Gorgeous!
I've watched the Oscars religiously since 1965 and remember Barbra's indelible phrase well. That's why the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures topped my sightseeing list in LA.
It's a shame that I was misinformed about the "Oscars Experience," which shoots video of visitors holding an actual statuette, as if they've just won. I thought I'd finally have the chance to deliver the acceptance speech I've been rehearsing since childhood.
As excited as I am to be honored by the Academy this evening, it can't compare to the first time I watched the Oscars and had to get up at least five times to pee during the broadcast . . .
Sadly, the experience, which takes place in a simulated Dolby theater with an applauding audience, doesn't include audio. I was bummed, although luckily I found out before paying the extra fee. It didn't help that John Waters: Pope of Trash, the latest special exhibit, wouldn't open until September. Bad timing.
We started our visit with "The Path To Cinema," which documents the visual entertainment technology that preceded the silver screen, including the magic lantern.
Think of a less sophisticated version of a travel slideshow on your computer.
France's Lumiere brothers upped the ante with silent, flickering images shot around the world. Once marveled for their innovation, they now capture a charming but familiar antiquity.
Another gallery explored animation from Walt Disney's Peter Pan in 1953 to Tim Burton's Corpse Bride fifty years later.
Meet dozens of characters from Flee, the first movie to be nominated for Best International, Best Documentary and Best Animated Features. It's the true story of a gay man forced to flee persecution in his native Afghanistan for safe harbor in Denmark. He meets a LOT of people along the way, each realistically rendered.
My father used to take me to dinosaur movies at the Pershing Theater in El Paso when I was a kid. Willis O'Brien pioneered the stop motion technology that made the early ones possible if more than a little jerky. But that was part of the fun!
Another large, darkened gallery focuses on "encounters" in many of the last century's most iconic films, including H.R. Giger's incredibly scary monster in Alien ("in space no one can hear you scream"). Even more thrilling for me was getting to meet Sigourney Weaver in person not long before the movie made her a star. Her boyfriend and eventual husband worked with David at the Public Theater. The four of us rode the subway home together one night after a show. She and a former Paramount Pictures producer who picked me up one night when I worked at Bloomingdales, make me only one degree of separation from Oscar.
Before he became governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger was once the Terminator, a fact that now seems quaint.
We crossed the Barbra Streisand Bridge to the roof of the David Geffen Theater, seen from outside in this photo.
Look closely at the mountains on the right and you can catch a faint glimpse of the Hollywood sign.
When I was a kid, I used the World Almanac (remember those?) to memorize the winners of the Best Picture and acting awards for the past 50 years. Today, I can barely remember who won most recently but my favorite part of the museum was the room devoted to the history of the Academy. Gregory Peck (To Kill A Mockingbird, 1962) and Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, 1953) are among those winners whose Oscars ended up in this curving shrine. The plaque given to Hattie McDaniel's (best supporting actors weren't given actual statuettes until 1943) disappeared without a trace from Howard University.
This photo says everything you need to know about Joan Crawford.
Alfred Hitchcock was at his heaviest when legendary producer David O. Selznick hired the British master of suspense to direct Rebecca, his first American picture. Although Selznick won an Oscar for it, the two never worked together again. Hitchcock didn't take "notes."
This Olympia typed out the screenplay for Psycho, the first movie to kill its star early.
Hitchcock never shot a frame of film that he hadn't already visualized using story boards like these for one of the most ominous scenes in The Birds, maybe even motion picture history. Poor Tippi already has suffered an attack by the time it takes place.
Did you know that Doris Day supposedly turned down the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate? If so, it must have been before Lyn Stalmaster sent this memo to director Mike Nichols. The role went to Anne Bancroft, who was just six years older than Dustin Hoffman. No matter. Their chemistry--hard to discern from a list of typed names--knocked the seduction scene out of the park. I can't think of any I've enjoyed more.
Casting agents apparently hang on to the Polaroids submitted by auditioning actors. What you see is what we got with Christopher Meloni, whom I once stalked in Virgin Records on Union Square.
That's something we can't say with either Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Lopez. Two decades of stardom has done wonders for their looks.
Several galleries are devoted to the production of The Godfather. I guess Marlon didn't want anyone borrowing his prosthetic.
Theodora van Runkle designed the costumes.
This baroque poster promoted the film in Castro's Cuba. Go figure!
Another area focused on costumes, hair and make-up throughout the history of the Academy. David Bowie wore this outfit in Labyrinth, a movie I've never seen. Is he wearing a codpiece?
I can't imagine Barbra is happy with this costume sketch for Hello Dolly!
How many people even know who Kim Novak or Clark Gable were any more?
Although they probably do instantly recognize this guy.
I left the museum feeling more than a little wistful in this age of streaming and superheroes, at the dawn of artificial intelligence. The Oscars, with their ever diminishing ratings, seem so 20th century. Like me! The museum, which opened only two years ago, seems a little . . . late. The golden age of Hollywood is long gone.
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| 1953 Premiere |
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