Christopher Hitchens, who died of cancer in Houston on December 15, 2011, spoke at public events in Los Angeles many times. “What Marx said about religion, by the way, was that it was the heart of the heartless world, the sigh of the oppressed creature, the spirit of the spiritless situation, an opiate for the people …” said Hitchens at the Wiltern in March 2003.
“Residential school has impacted all of our lives, especially as the children of survivors. They were taken to those schools when they were very young. They were deprived of the basic necessities of life. They were deprived of the love that only a parent can give,” said Patrick Ethrington, Jr.
On Saturday March 26, 2006 the largest protest in the United States since the Vietnam war unfolded on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. People in LA were mobilized to hit the streets by Eddie “Piolín” Sotelotalk, the host of a popular Spanish-language morning radio talk show in Southern California.
Love Crime, The Devil’s Double and Lily Sometimes – all starring Ludivine Sagnier – screened in Los Angeles this spring and summer. I met up with Ludivine at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills to talk about the wounded souls she brings to life in her films and where she finds the freaky stuff to feed them.
Trampoline Hall arrived in Los Angeles as part of a promotional tour for The Chairs are Where the People Go, a miscellany of Misha Glouberman’s observations typed up by Sheila Heti. Topics include improv, bars, neighborhoods, gyms, relationships and domesticity. The book blurs the distinction between author and subject, with Heti serving as Glouberman’s amanuensis.
Overdressed souls formed two solitudes on either side of the forgotten swimming pool. The dark suits and heavy dresses seemed funereal in the white California sunlight. Norman Jewison’s baseball cap added a touch of mirth.
Autumn de Wilde is an American photographer who has worked with artists such as Beck, The White Stripes and Kate & Laura Mulleavy. She immerses herself in the lives of her subjects and has produced an innovative body of work that demands attention. Autumn has the uncanny ability to channel the history of photography in refreshing ways.
On Saturday February 5, 2011 dozens of Egyptian families living in Las Vegas traveled by bus to Los Angeles to attend a public demonstration and show their support for family and friends in Egypt.
Pablo Escobar, Columbia’s notorious drug lord, bankrolled his countries national soccer team at the height of his power, creating the conditions for coaches and players to transform the sport and the way the world perceived their country. The mix of drug money and athletic talent produced an explosive soccer team that seemed to appear out of nowhere on the world stage.
“I wrote Penitentiary when I was doing time in penitentiary,” said Dr Mongo. “Oscar Wilde was one of my favorite poets at the time. ‘The Ballad of Reading Jail’ had a great influence on me. I love the imagery.”
The Garrison Theatre in Claremont, California was filled with the sound of Leonard Cohen’s voice pronouncing a word rarely heard in the United States: “commonwealth.” The text, not listed in the program or printed in the libretto, was “Villanelle for Our Time” by F.R. Scott (1899 – 1985).
Jacques Mesrine was killed on the streets of Paris by French police in 1979. He has become a folk hero for many young urban people in France, especially those who live in the outer arrondissements. On a beautiful summer afternoon in August, I met with actor Vincent Cassel at the French Consulate in Beverly Hills to talk about the strange allure of this notorious French criminal.
“LA is famous for the palm tree and the beach and there is an amazing skyline downtown. I wanted to make a combination of all those elements. The road lined with palm trees is for me, coming from another country, the idea of the American Dream,” said Fashion’s Night Out graphic designer Marc Blaskovitz.
Over a period of 9 years from 1962 to 1970, the City of Halifax, Nova Scotia forced people of African and Jamaican descent out of Africville – a shoreline Canadian community over 200 years old – by systematically knocking down homes with bulldozers.
The Los Angeles Film Festival moved downtown this Spring after 15 years in Westwood. One of the films, a documentary entitled Waiting for Superman, presents the failure of the public school system in America as a national disgrace that contributes to the failure of the U.S economy and the rise of the prison industrial complex.
“The beauty of the Rolling Stones is that each of the five guys feels the beat in a different place,” said Don Was at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. “The music is loose, lowdown and funky.”
Igor Kenk ran a notorious bike shop on Queen St West in Toronto called the Bicycle Clinic. People hung around the shop to watch him work and hear him talk about the decline and fall of North America. He has been portrayed in the media as a charismatic street philosopher who played classical music in the shop. After arresting him a Toronto police officer said, “Honestly, he’s a very interesting guy.”
“Adults wage war on children,” said Miller. “How can a child defend himself against a dangerous or toxic parent? The child discovers that his only weapon or defence is imagination and it is through imagination that he protects himself.”
For many years the elevated Central Freeway cut Hayes Valley in two, creating a dark urban space that attracted men driving around looking for sex workers and people buying and selling drugs on the street. Hayes Valley social life, however, was transformed by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that destroyed parts of the freeway, including the ramps at Franklin and Gough.
“All the parts came together to make an egregious situation,” said cyclist Kenneth Lyons. “You have someone in a Porshe hitting someone on a bicycle and leaving the scene as the cyclist pleads for help. How could anyone do that?”
Learning to draw is a quest that involves abandoning old habits and exploring new ideas. A decent drawing is like an ash that falls when the moment is burning well.
Joe Sacco spoke to a standing room only crowd at Skylight Books in Los Angeles about “Footnotes in Gaza”, a journalistic report in comic book form that covers two under-reported atrocities committed by Israeli soldiers against Palestinian civilians on the Gaza Strip in 1956.
Live musical performances, especially classical and art music concerts, are often delayed, marred, ruined, and spoiled by audience members who cough, hiss, wheeze, and even yell during events. “I am of the very strong conviction that live performance is sure to ruin the musical experience for everyone,” said Jet Dee.
La Casita Mexicana has developed a reputation as the soul of Mexican cooking in Los Angeles. Located in the south LA suburb of Bell, the restaurant attracts people from all over the city.
The Americans by Robert Frank changed the history of photography when it was published in the United States in 1959. Popular Photography magazine characterized the book as “sick”. Jack Kerouac called it “holy”. This fall the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is honoring Robert Frank and his work with a 50th anniversary retrospective.
