Even a cursory investigation into nearly any seminal cultural moment, institution, or movement in the latter half of the 20th century, reveals the presence of artist Larry Bell. Bell’s presence in the Arts is akin to the glass boxes that he is most known for, that, at once, reflect, reveal, and transform their environment. The works are mirrors, windows, lenses, yet are also self-contained and complete in and of themselves. From Disney animation, to Abstract Expressionism, to the West Coast Light and Space movement, to the famed Ferus Gallery, to Dennis Hopper’s legendary Taos scene, to the Venice Beach scene (he even has a bar named after him: “Larry’s”), to the iconic cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Bell was there, and none of it — and, in turn, the Arts today — would be the same without his presence. [Read more…]
Archives for July 2019
4.7
That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe
Christine putting on her makeup this morning. [Read more…]
Anthony Braxton’s Accessibly Antithetical Quartet (New Haven) 2014
on Firehouse 12 Records
Reviewed by John Payne
This monumental four-CD box set photographs the one-time meeting of an avant all-star and super-like-minded foursome: The infamously abstruse saxophonist and conceptualist Anthony Braxton partnered with Nels Cline (guitar), Greg Saunier (drums) and Taylor Ho Bynum (brass). It is music that, because of the heavily theoretical predilections of its “bandleader,” might suggest a sound that reeks of a dry formality. It doesn’t. It does present a number of issues and questions. [Read more…]
New Afro-Beat, Remix And Regular, From Rex Suru: “Na Control”
Na Control (Alex Phountzi Remix)
Na Control
out today on Bik Records
3.31
That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe
Frankie here has been living in Skid Row for three years. She’s originally from Tennessee and still has a thick Tennessee accent. She wouldn’t shake my hand because she said hers was too dirty. I make a point to shake everyone’s hands I meet, regardless of how dirty they appear. It’s a small gesture that quickly puts you on someone’s level and often their demeanor quickly opens up. Sometimes I see people down in Skid Row, often volunteers doing wonderful things to help people, but they wear gloves when dealing with the street people. I think that puts a certain kind of barrier between you and them. [Read more…]
“You’re So Fine” Is Fine Forty+ Years On. And Fresh As New!
(no, truly, this is brand new!!)
by Papa Bear & His Cubs
on Athens of the North
Existential Angst In The Haunting Expressions Of Sedrick Chisom and Dan Herschlein
Concurrent solo exhibitions at Matthew Brown Los Angeles
Reviewed by Eve Wood
Our world was forged in dissonance, and as a species we seek out discordance, adversity, pain and violence, and not only in the living world, but in fantasy as well. We relish the death of the villain at the hands of the hero. These are very old stories – tales, as the great Joseph Campbell once stated, where “the hero must give up the life he has planned in order to have the life that is waiting for him.” [Read more…]
The Art of Self-Defense Makes A Menacing Joke Of Toxic Masculinity
You probably think you can kick Jesse Eisenberg’s ass. Which makes him perfectly cast as the protagonist of The Art of Self-Defense, a dark comedy exploring the allure and dangers of toxic masculinity. Writer/director Riley Stearns applies a crisp and dark sense of humor to a low-key thriller about one man’s quest to become the thing that scares him most: a man’s man. [Read more…]
3.26
That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe
Some sketches from @scbrownbear One of many talented people living in Skid Row. [Read more…]
Nick Broomfield on Muses and Bohemian Memories in Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love
Nick Broomfield is now 71 years old, and while he has not lost the feisty, investigative energy of a born muckraker, he is now continuously traveling back into the past. In his memories, two figures have been manifesting themselves as of late: Leonard Cohen, poet, songwriter, almost mystical icon and Marianne Christine Ihlen, Cohen’s muse whom he first encountered on the Greek island of Hydra in the 1960s. Broomfield’s new documentary, Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love, chronicles not only Cohen’s development as an artist but his more intimate self as well, and the love affair that stayed with him until the very end. [Read more…]
3.19
That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe
I’ve been seeing Michelle around downtown quite a bit lately. Sometimes she remembers me and other times I have to introduce myself all over again, even after running into her the day before. Regardless if she remembers me or not, she is always soft spoken and sweet. I didn’t ask her how she got the black eye or cut on her face, but she was still kind enough to let me take some photos. [Read more…]
3.18
That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe
Doreen was using the reflection of a van window to brush her hair and ready herself for me to take a couple photos when I took this shot. Turns out it was the best one. I hadn’t seen Doreen in over a year when I came across her on Glady’s street, close to where she used to live and work out of her tent. She tells me she wasn’t getting along with her neighbors so it was time to move away from that street. Now she lives under a bridge beneath the 110 highway where it’s a little more peaceful. There are all kinds of characters and personalities among the street residents I’ve met in Skid Row, but Doreen is one of the more vibrant ones I’ve come across, yet. I’m happy to see she is still around. [Read more…]
Alfred Stieglitz: Taking Pictures, Making Painters
Alfred Stieglitz: Taking Pictures, Making Painters
by Phyllis Rose
Yale University Press, 272 pp, $26.00
We live in an age when shows of photography are a mainstay of many major museums, and a handful of artists who seriously pursue the medium have even achieved celebrity status (think Sherman, Arbus, Mapplethorpe). So it’s almost mind-boggling to realize that the struggle to get photography considered a “fine art” rather than simply a mechanical craft, at least in this country, is little more than a hundred years old, and that the medium’s meteoric launch into the public consciousness is largely thanks to the efforts of one man: Alfred Steiglitz. [Read more…]
3.17
That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe
Alfred, known on the streets as Evil, has been a long time affiliate of the Diamond Street Gang, but is no longer an active member. He once made large amounts of money, running drugs and guns for his gang, but eventually that all caught up to him. Things continued to get worse and he lost his wife in a divorce and the custody of his son. He tells me: “I hit a rough patch and lost my kids. I feel like a burden to everyone. I’m ashamed to be seen by my mother.” The wound on his stomach is from when he shot himself with a .45 last November. That was his first attempt at taking his own life. He tells me he’s made a lot of mistakes and with that has come a heavy price. Alfredo has exhausted the generosity of his friends and family and he has no one left to turn to. For the last two weeks he’s been living out of his car in Skid Row where he prefers to be out of sight from everyone. This past Saturday he tried to take his own life again. He got hold of a new gun, sat in his car, turned up the music and put the gun to his head. Luckily a man nearby happened to see this and quickly pounced upon him, wrestling Alfred’s gun out of his hands. The gun went off in the incident, but fortunately no one was shot. Whoever the man was talked to Alfred and calmed him down. He bought him food and alcohol and gave him a few dollars for his drugs (crack). The man told Alfred, he knows he can’t control him doing any of that, but please don’t do this, (referring to his gun), which he said he was going to give him back, but asked him please not to take his life. Alfred didn’t want the gun back. He told the man to keep it. But he told me this of his attempted suicides: “I lived, but I’m not happy to be alive.” [Read more…]
Captive State And The Sacrificial Maze Of Mutiny
Captive State was initially misunderstood. Released in March, it received mixed reviews, described by some critics as ‘murky,’ ‘lugubrious,’ and ‘unexciting.’ Despite star turns by brooding young upstart Ashton Sanders (Moonlight, Native Son), indie darling Jonathan Majors (The Last Black Man In San Francisco) and industry veteran John Goodman, it grossed only $8 million against a $25 million dollar budget, making it a box-office bomb. But this film has the density and complexity to develop a cult following of its own in the coming years. It’s depiction of a group of political anarchists attempting to overthrow an alien-controlled government is inventive, if not downright ingenious, and their foundational codes — the ideals for which these men and women live and die for — are as equally powerful and persuasive as they are heartening, yet no less disturbing. [Read more…]
3.15
That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe
Alan was formerly addicted to crack cocaine. He tells me he no longer smokes crack, but he has a heavy drinking problem, and he doesn’t see that changing anytime soon. [Read more…]