The rise to fame story’s moves so familiar that audiences can dance it blindfolded. Enter the undiscovered talent, raw but passionate. Their circumstances are grim. There may be poverty, family tragedy, and/or abuse. Still, they cling to the hope that music might save them. They find that one person in the room who believes in them. They rocket into the spotlight. But fame is not easy. Sex, drugs, and rock star decadence comes hard on the heels of glamorous makeover that turns them from ordinary to icon. Then–somewhere amid the glitz and grit–they trip through an important life lesson that gives the audience a cozy — even smug — sense of satisfaction. In his directorial debut Teen Spirit, actor turned writer/helmer Max Minghella plays off clichés, offering a drama that is as surprisingly intimate, beautiful, and bittersweet. [Read more…]
Archives for April 2019
2.7
Van Gogh and Britain
at Tate Britain, London (through 11 August)
Reviewed by Christopher P Jones
Judging from the crowds and the advanced ticket sales, the magnetism of Vincent Van Gogh shows no sign of diminishing. It’s hardly a surprise. We come to empathise with the optimism of a man whose dreams of an art colony in the south would come to nothing. We respond to him because he kept on painting, his canvases getting brighter and brighter as his days got darker. [Read more…]
12.11
That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe
For a couple of weeks I’d been seeing this group of guys hanging out in a particularly bad area of Skid Row. I assume the best from all people, but sometimes when you’re down on your luck you make bad decisions, and I never willingly walk into a bad situation or put myself in danger. Still, I was eager to meet them, and I knew they were gang affiliated, but the moment always has to be right for me. On the afternoon I took this photo, there was no time to wait for the right moment. I came around a corner with camera in hand and there they were. One of them immediately wanted to know if I was a cop, but luckily before I could answer, Boxer, the guy on the far left, told them I was cool. He’d been seeing me walking around Skid Row and taking pictures for a couple of years, and he told them not to sweat me. After I got a pass from Boxer, they were more than happy to let me photograph them. It was one of their suggestion’s to take off their shirts and let me get photograph their gang tattoos. I snapped a few photos and then they all dispersed pretty quickly. Having visible gang tattoos on the streets of LA is all the probable cause a cop needs to stop and search someone. None of these guys wanted to have a run in with the cops that day. [Read more…]
Technology Killed The City
“Technology Killed The City” is from Martin’s forthcoming book,
The Way of the Zen Cowboy: Fireside Stories From A Globetrotting Rhythmatist
on Sunyata Books
“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.“
—Bill Gates
I think I first noticed it back in about 2000. I was pretty slow getting into the whole technology thing, but I remember that my first cell phone had been one of those legendary Nokias. It was flat black, indestructible, and everyone was getting one, but the monthly bill was astronomical and I eventually gave it up because I really didn’t use it that much. Most of my calls came through my landline anyway, which of course was back when people still talked on the phone—now it’s just text messages and emoticons. Landlines were nice in that you could just sit in a chair and have a chat with a friend or business associate without worrying about the radiation of the cell phone going into your brain. [Read more…]
Stuck Together Repurposes And Becomes Richly Subversive
at Track 16 (through May 11)
Reviewed by Genie Davis
Stuck Together is a conjoining of images, all fascinating, most anthropomorphic. The visually rich exhibition re-purposes images through collage, assemblage, and a sometimes-surreal approach to turning the ordinary into extraordinary. There’s a touch of whimsy, however dark, in the work of all three LA-based artists exhibiting: Marsian De Lellis, Simone Gad, and Debra Broz. Each artist is reinventing the objects and images they present, bringing them new life, renewal, and a gloriously subversive yet redemptive turn. [Read more…]
11.25
That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe
Rosay here has a purpose in Skid Row, she tells me: “Dealing with the rats.” She goes around filling up their holes with cement. One recent rat hole she plugged, went down 19 feet, and took her 12 bags of concrete to finally fill up. She says the rats are a constant problem in Skid Row and her theory is that beneath the streets there’s one big tunnel where all their holes lead down to. Rosay could very well be right about that. Beneath Downtown Los Angeles there are 11 miles of old tunnels that were once part of the old subway system and also used for bootlegging. Eventually all the entrances were closed off. I’ve looked for a way into them myself, and the closest I’ve come was a peek into one of the tunnels from the basement of an old Skid Row bar that is historically known for having had a speakeasy during prohibition. [Read more…]
Forthcoming Sweetness From Big Thief: “Cattails”
From U.F.O.F
out May 3, on 4AD
Kim Dingle: I Will Be Your Server (The Lost Supper Paintings)
at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects (through May 4)
Reviewed by Lita Barrie
Priss has captivated the artworld with her mischievous antics since she first appeared in Kim Dingle’s artwork thirty years ago, dressed in her Sunday Best and ready for battle. Dingle’s imaginary character split and replicated, like a Tribble on Star Trek, into a bi-racial pair, Fatty and Fudge, and then into a wild pack, the “Priss Girls.” These ornery tots run amok: causing mayhem, having fights, raging temper tantrums, and destroying things. Priss and her gang of rambunctious pre-pubescent girls inhabit a world with no adults, no men, and no rules. [Read more…]
11.20
That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe
On the left: He’s known around the community as the Skid Row Barber and he’s been out here everyday, cutting hair and giving shaves, for the last twenty five years. With a passion for what he does, and a genuine love for the residents of Skid Row, he doesn’t charge for a cut or a shave. He likes that a fresh cut can uplift someone’s spirit. He tells me he wouldn’t want a barber shop. Barber shops charge too much, and he’d rather be out on the streets where the people are who need it the most. He’s been living in Skid Row for somewhere around forty years and he hopes someone picks up his craft and carries it on after him. Someone who cares about the neighborhood the way he does. [Read more…]
The Storm of History: Sergei Bundarchuk’s War and Peace
The movies now give us an “epic” nearly every week of the year. Digital technology, corporate budgets and the public’s own current thirst for shallow escapism have paved the way for visions both ludicrous and wondrous. Chiseled, tattooed ruffians bestrode kraken-like monsters in Aquaman, cyborgs levitate from futuristic cities buried in trash in Alita: Battle Angel. But what do these films have to say? As we wallow in popcorn excess, Janus Films restores and re-releases the grandest, deepest epic of all, Sergei Bondarchuk’s War and Peace. Made in 1967, it shames everything, and I mean absolutely everything, playing at the ArcLight today. Slated for a June release on DVD and Blu-Ray by the Criterion Collection, it is touring various arthouse spots and must be seen on a proper, wide canvas. Your humble correspondent was lucky enough to catch such a screening at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. It will grace the Egyptian in Hollywood on April 27. [Read more…]
The Wind Is A Savage And Insightful Horror-Western
Tales of the Wild West often focus on cowboys who conquer tough terrains and ruthless foes with their glistening guns and macho bravado. Bucking convention with The Wind, screenwriter Teresa Sutherland and director Emma Tammi dust off a forgotten and frightening real-life phenomenon that terrorized the pioneering women of the west. And the result is a horror-western as savage as it is insightful. [Read more…]
11.16
That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe
The sweetest guard dog in Skid Row. [Read more…]
Future Gaze And The Dystopically Rendered Face
at Coagular Curatorial, Los Angeles (through March 30)
Reviewed by Genie Davis
Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’ into the future…
House the people / Livin’ in the street / oh, oh there’s a solution…
–Steve Miller Band
What do you see when you look into the future’s face? That is the question posited and replied-to at Future Gaze, a two-person exhibition at Coagula Curatorial. [Read more…]
11.13
That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe
Yasmine is from Ohio, but she’s been living in Skid Row for the last five years. She started off in cheap motels, but now sleeps on the streets. I asked her if her family knew she was out here. She tells me they do know she’s out here, but they don’t know how bad it is. They even wire her money to help support her. Scribbled on her hand and arm are numbers for money transfers she has recently received. [Read more…]