Posts by Bondo Wyszpolski
A Reason to Believe
Photojouralist Annie Appel documented “Occupy Los Angeles” – but that just inspired her to keep going Right now, I’m thinking that the best friend an activist-for-change can have is a sympathetic photojournalist. Last October, Annie Appel grabbed her Rolleiflex camera, stuffed her pockets with black and white film, reached for her black journal, and headed…
Read MoreThis’ll Warm Us Up: Drinking Rum With Richard Foss
Richard Foss wanted to write a book about pickles. But the editor of The Edible Series, which is published by Reaktion Books in Britain, countered that proposal with one of his own: How about rum? Foss, who is known around these parts as a gourmet and a hale fellow whose previous incarnations included being the…
Read MoreNever Let Me Go!
Jill Smolinski’s latest novel is about “stuff” – what you keep, and what you let go “A lot of people assume this book is about hoarding and how someone is cured of her hoarding, and that’s not the point at all. The point,” says Jill Smolinski, “is more like deciding what is worth keeping, whether…
Read MoreBut I’m Thirsty for a Laugh! [THEATER PREVIEW]
“This is Woody Allen’s first play for Broadway. He was a sitcom writer at the time, so it’s written in that style; it’s very joke-joke-joke-joke, like rapid fire.” Gary Kresca pauses. “It’s just a shame the guy never had a career. Nobody knows who Allen is. So, really, MBCC is just trying to put him…
Read MoreHigh on the Band Wagon with Composer-Conductor David Benoit
Ludwig van Beethoven may have written it, but the honor of conducting the Ninth Symphony in the ultra-modern setting of the Walt Disney Concert Hall fell to David Benoit.
Read MoreA Window into the World: chatting it up with John Teague and Richard Stephens
It’s one week before the big opening at Cannery Row Studios. Artist John Teague and gallery owner Richard Stephens are done for the day. Oh, wait, now it’s time to face the nation – or at least the local media. “Places in the Mind: Paintings and Sculpture” will be on view beginning this Saturday (reception…
Read More“Waiting for Godot” [THEATER REVIEW]
No way around this: Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” at the Mark Taper Forum is a must-see. The starring roles are performed by Beckett veterans Alan Mandell and Barry McGovern. Mandell, who is a sprightly 84, plays Estragon (affectionately referred to throughout as Gogo), and McGovern, a mere 64, is Vladimir (or Didi). The cast…
Read MoreRecycled and Reshaped: 3 Artists, 3 Perspectives at the Palos Verdes Art Center
Paint and canvas are just the beginning in two peninsula exhibitions Something’s brewing on top of the hill. Last Friday evening the Palos Verdes Art Center held an opening reception for “3 Artists, 3 Perspectives,” curated by Scott Canty, and this coming Saturday, March 3, Zask Gallery premieres its newest show, “Lost but Profound.” Both…
Read More“American Idiot” [THEATER REVIEW]
Adapted by Green Day lyricist Billie Joe Armstrong and director Michael Mayer (“Spring Awakening,” etc.) from the 2004 Grammy-winning album of the same name, “American Idiot” – the musical – is packed with explosive angst and it rocks hard from start to finish. We follow three buddies, circa 2004, as they move from disaffected youths…
Read MoreOnce on This Island [THEATER REVIEW]
Nothing Hurts More Than a Broken Heart Ti Moune follows her dreams, and maybe we should too “Let me tell you about ‘Once on This Island,’” says caryn desai; “why people should want to see it.” Yes, why should they? her interviewer replies. “Love is probably the chief motivator in our actions in life,” desai…
Read MoreEntertainment Calendar: Wednesday, March 21
As you should see it Turner Classic Movies presents the 70th anniversary screening of “Casablanca” (with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman) in several theaters locally, specifically the AMC Theatres in the Rolling Hills Plaza and Del Amo, in Torrance, and in the Galleria in Redondo Beach. Showtime is 7 p.m. More if you go to…
Read More“Clybourne Park”: Pulitzer-winning play on race relations
A Pulitzer Prize-winner from a couple of seasons back, “Clybourne Park” by Bruce Norris, complements Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” its first act set in 1959 – the year of Hansberry’s play – and its second act 50 years later. Typically, things change and don’t change at the same time. Race relations is…
Read MoreSkeleton Crew: Death comes to Redondo Beach on Valentine’s Day
The dead have a message for us, and Paul Koudounaris knows it by heart: What we are, you will be; what you are, we once were.
The author of The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses, Koudounaris visited 70 sites in nearly 20 countries over a five-year span. He’ll talk about what he discovered and learned on Tuesday evening – Valentine’s Day, ladies and gentlemen! – at the Redondo Beach Public Library.
Read MoreAnthony Friedkin and his harvest of fine art photography
Cream of the Crop In 2003, Anthony Friedkin revisited a body of work that spanned over 30 years, picked out 64 images, and published them as Timekeeper. “The earliest photo goes back to 1967 or ’66,” he says, “and the latest photo was right on the cusp of 2003.” Images from the book are on…
Read MoreOVO – Cirque du Soleil returns to Santa Monica [REVIEW]
Not since Howard Shore’s “The Fly” at LA Opera have insects been the buzz in Los Angeles, and further adventures in artistic entomology await us under the blue-and-yellow grand chapiteau at the pier in Santa Monica, where yet another razzle-dazzle showstopper from Cirque du Soleil has set up camp. This is on the heels or…
Read MoreJourneys through Inner Space: artist Catherine Tirr shows in Manhattan Beach
Tricks of the mind in the art of Catherine Tirr “The way things come together in people’s memories or dreams is not necessarily relating to present reality,” says Catherine Tirr. “As fragments come together in our dreams, it might be a little of this and a little of that, and it’s all in a strange…
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