Posts by Bondo Wyszpolski
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow – “Fame,” in El Segundo, explores the renowned and the forgotten in a new exhibition
As Goethe says in Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years, “the names of outstanding men survive some fifty years in the memory of the people – after that the names vanish or become legendary.” Time and memory are dancing partners, but they’re not always in step. “Museums are often about remembering,” says Justinian Jampol, “and remembering an…
Read MoreSouth Bay Arts Calendar: August 30 — September 4
Friday, August 30 Travel in style The Ninth Annual “Queen Mary Art Deco Festival” takes place now through Monday aboard the luxurious liner Queen Mary, moored at 1126 Queens Hwy, Long Beach. The aesthetic movement became popular around the 1930s, and this shipboard experience emphasizes all aspects, from furniture and fashion to architecture. Performances by…
Read MoreThe River that Runs Through My Heart – Travel photographs by Setsuko Owan on view in Malaga Cove
I won’t go so far as to quote myself, as some of us at this newspaper are known to do, but when first looking through the photographs of Setsuko Owan I immediately thought of a phrase made famous long ago by the Greek scholar Winckelmann, who spoke of the “noble simplicity and calm (or silent)…
Read MoreSouth Bay Arts Calendar August 23 to 30
Rita Hayworth (pictured) stars with Gene Kelly in “Cover Girl,” the 1944 film directed by Charles Vidor, screening at 8:15 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and also at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, in the Old Town Music Hall, 140 Richmond St., El Segundo. Tickets, $10 general and $8 seniors. (310) 322-2592 or go…
Read MoreToeing the Line: A poet and poetry publisher hobbles through life
“I was working in Sacred Grounds as a dishwasher, and on Monday nights I’d come out and dry my hands off on my apron and read a couple of poems and then I’d go back to wash dishes. And I sort of became known as the dishwashing poet of San Pedro.” – Raindog This little…
Read MoreSouth Bay arts calendar August 16 – 23
Friday, August 16 Smells like chocolate The Torrance Theatre Company presents “Willy Wonka” at 7:30 p.m. tonight (Friday) and tomorrow in the James Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Drive, Torrance. Tickets available by calling (310) 781-7171 or go to torrancetheatrecompany.com. “Xanadu,” the Broadway roller-skating musical comedy based on the film (and featuring ‘80s pop music),…
Read MoreSicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome
Perhaps one thinks of pizza and the Mafia when one thinks of Sicily (I think of Giuseppe di Lampedusa and The Leopard), but at one point many centuries ago Sicily was an active causeway between Greece, the Italian peninsula, and North Africa, which meant that over time it made a few cultural waves of its…
Read MoreSouth Bay arts calendar Aug. 1 – 7
Thursday, August 1 The world aglow “Nature Illuminated” features the work of Lynnie Sterba, and it’s a colorful celebration of Nature. It opens tonight with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. in the real estate office at 403 W. Sixth St., San Pedro. Through August 31. (310) 318-6858 or go to LynnieSterbaArt.com. Time’s…
Read MoreAn Open and Shut Case: Randall Barbera is pulling up his trunks
Randall Barbera is a designer, craftsman, and refurbisher of old trunks, the kind your great-grandparents might have had porters drag aboard for a trans-Atlantic crossing. In person, though, it’s the old rock ‘n’ roller that comes through. Barbera could be dropped into an old photo of The Who and he’d fit right in with Keith…
Read MoreSabina Sandoval and the Free To Be Me Drum Circle celebrate their 10th Anniversary
“Drumming is healing; it’s very sacred,” says Sabina Sandoval. “We heard our mother’s heartbeat for nine months: I think we yearn to hear it again through the drum. It is powerful and soothing, rhythmic. Imagine hearing that almost for a year… “Even children know when they hear rhythm. They can’t talk; they do this” –…
Read MoreSouth Bay Arts Calendar July 19 – 23
Thursday, July 18 I kneed somebody “Kelp!” is the new album from Andy and Renee, and they’re performing two CD release concerts at Live at the Lounge, tonight (Thursday) and next (July 25) Thursday at 8 p.m. The venue is located at 1018 Hermosa Ave., Hermosa Beach, right next door to the Comedy and Magic…
Read MoreDancer Daisy Jacobson leaves Manhattan Beach for Manhattan’s Julliard
Some of us know at an early age, and some of us never have a clue. “In the first grade,” says Daisy Jacobson, “we had to draw a picture of what we wanted to be when we grew up, and I remember drawing a stage with red curtains, and then a ballerina in the middle.”…
Read MoreA Place at the Table – Big servings of contemporary art at Zask Gallery
It’s the biggest show of the summer, literally. And maybe figuratively, too; although we won’t know about that until this Saturday, when “South Bay Contemporary” opens – with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. – at PS Zask Gallery in Rolling Hills Estates. The show was juried by Peggy Zask and her husband, Ben.…
Read MoreSouth Bay Arts Calendar – July 12 – 14
Friday, July 12 Out the back door “Escape to Paradise” is an island dance performance, transporting us to visions of grass skirts and warm sand, and it’s taking place at 7:30 tonight, plus 2 and 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, in the James Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Drive, Torrance. Tickets, $10.50. Call (310) 781-7171. Take a…
Read MoreGetty Museum’s “Gardens of the Renaissance” a pleasant excursion
This is a quiet little show, partnered with a slender book of the same name that invites us to linger among its pages as we would in an actual garden. As Getty director Timothy Potts notes in his foreword to our visually aromatic tour, “The volume gathers a wide range of objects from the Getty’s…
Read MoreSouth Bay arts calendar July 4 – 6
Thursday, July 4 Kaboom! The Seaside Lagoon will host its annual Redondo Fireworks Show from 2 to 10 p.m., located at 200 Portofino Way. (310) 318-0681 or go to redondofireworks.com. Waterworks The Aquarium of the Pacific is celebrating the Fourth with late hours, 5 to 10 p.m., and a barbecue, 6 to 8 p.m.,…
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