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Archives for May 2019

Radiant Poetic Shadows And The Timeless Framings Of Roy DeCarava

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Roy DeCarava: The Work of Art, at The Underground Museum, Los Angeles (through June 30)
Reviewed by Henry Cherry

Despite a couple of career retrospectives and a small handful of books, the late photographer Roy DeCarava is one of the most overlooked photographers of his era. His photos are among the few photographic equivalents to sound. Somehow, in spite of this majesty, his obscurity persists. But this spring, across Los Angeles, his work is being well served. DeCarava is represented by 21 photographs in the Broad Museum’s Soul of a Nation show, where the late photographer is one of many voices. While several of his disciples are part of the Annenberg Space for Photography’s Contact High show dedicated to the documentation of hip hop, it is the Underground Museum’s Roy DeCarava: The Work of Art, on view until June 30th 2019, where DeCarava gets the best chance to imprint his genius upon the next generation. [Read more…]

In Fabric Is A Decadent Horror About A Dress That Kills

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Reviewed by Kristy Puchko

Glamorous. Daring. Sexy. A new dress can feel like a promise to yourself that you’ll become the woman fit to wear it. But in writer/director Peter Strickland’s twisted horror-comedy In Fabric, a dress becomes something sinister. With a knee length skirt with flowing long sleeves, the “Ambassadorial Function Dress” offers elegance with a streak of sex appeal. But danger lurks in the details. A “dagger neckline” and its “artery red” color warn that this dress is a slasher. Seriously, like Michael Myers, Chucky, or Jason Voorhees, the Ambassadorial Function Dress will stalk, torment, and kill any who dare wear it. And while this garment may be battered and brutalized, it will rise again, renewed and ready for more carnage. [Read more…]

Gan Bi’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night Floats Along The Back Rivers Of Memory

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Reviewed by Alci Rengifo

It is difficult to describe the experience of watching Long Day’s Journey Into Night without sounding as if you are remembering a dream. The new film by China’s Gan Bi is more about ambiance than plot, more about the hazy feeling of attempting to travel back in time through the eye of mind. It is the very texture of the film that weaves a strange spell. Bi is one of the emerging new voices of Chinese cinema, which is already renowned for visual inventiveness.  [Read more…]

The Un-Man Falleth

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by Barrett Martin

“The Un-Man Falleth” is from Martin’s forthcoming book,
The Way of the Zen Cowboy: Fireside Stories From A Globetrotting Rhythmatist
Out May 10 on Sunyata Books

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
—Abraham Lincoln

President Lincoln’s quote above is probably more true today than it was when he said it back in the mid-19th century, and this is evidenced in the rampant corruption that has seized Lincoln’s own party today, at every level of government, from the lowest municipal bureaucrat up to the White House. Over the last 50 years, and long before the presidential election of 2016, I’ve watched as the United States devolved into a wave of angry male misogyny, bigotry, and outright racism that has embarrassed our country to a degree that I didn’t think was possible—until it became a reality.  [Read more…]

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That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase JoeSuitcase Joe. "That Evening Sun," a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row, is at Riot Material Magazine.

He goes by the name “City.” He just served a year and a half in jail and upon his release came right back to the streets and started using heroin again. City has struggled with his addiction for the last 10 years. He told me: “I grew up in a normal suburban home with a good family. I just got into some crazy shit.” [Read more…]