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Cirque du Soleil’s “Volta” in LA, Too Big for its Britches?

Cirque du Soleil’s “Volta” in LA, Too Big for its Britches?

The “fabulous” 2017 Cirque du Soleil spectacle called “Volta” – opened January 18, 2020 at Dodger Stadium, right here in my hood, Echo Park. Been there, done that… except as one of Cirque’s MANY touring shows, this is its first stop in insatiable-for-Cirque, LA. We neighbors were given free tix to the night-before dress rehearsal by the Dodgers PR department. Truly amazing for the formerly neighbor-averse, now neighbor nee-r-do-well, Dodgers! Many thanks to Patrica Sanders! I remember seeing the very first Cirque du Soleil show here in LA at the 1987 Los Angeles Festival on 1st Street and San Pedro….

What Happened to the “Woodstock Generation”?

What Happened to the “Woodstock Generation”?

This past August 15, 16, 17, and 18 was the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, officially named “An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace and Music,” created by the four-headed, at-cross-purposed, producing team of Michael Lang, Artie Kornfield, John P. Roberts, and Joel Rosenman.   But despite all its pre-production difficulties, its mounds of personality discord, and its fields of endless garbage that the iconic festival paid to have hauled away, “Woodstock” also earned its reputation as the era-defining event of the 1960s counter culture, the moment in time when music, culture, and history all came together to be…

The Big Day, 6th Grade Graduation

The Big Day, 6th Grade Graduation

The big day. Exsel graduates elementary school! He is in the last 6th grade class in Elysian Heights Elementary School’s 100 year history. (It will become a K-5 arts magnet next year) I remember the 1st day we got there, May 2015, the very end of the school year. I found out that I HAD to bring him to school, otherwise he would be “truant”! So we arrived just down the street from us on Baxter & Echo Park – to this sweet old school, elementary school. He would get to attend the last 2 weeks of 2nd grade –…

Sara Gazarek and Black Nile at Metro Arts’ “Jazz Tracks” in Union Station

Sara Gazarek and Black Nile at Metro Arts’ “Jazz Tracks” in Union Station

I love Union Station.  “The Last of the Great Train Stations,” I make sure to show it to all my out of town guests, along with the Hollywood sign, Santa Monica and Venice beaches, Pacific Coast Highway, Topanga Canyon, Chinatown, South Central, and Skid Row. (More on those choices in another post.)But Union Station, our West Coast gem of international “grand central” stations (you can tell I’m from New York), opened in 1939 and was designed by architects John and Donald B. Parkinson and built by Robert E. McKee Inc. The style is a gorgeous mishmash of Spanish mission, art…

“Man Overboard” at Poetry in Motion

“Man Overboard” at Poetry in Motion

  Poetry in Motion is one of LA’s oldest and most esteemed spoken word series, and this year it is celebrating its 31st anniversary in Los Angeles. As one of its featured poets/spoken word artists/story tellers over the years, I’ve been privileged to see, experience, and enjoy its longstanding evolution over three decades. The series was created in 1988 by Eve Brandstein, Michael Lally, and Michael Des Barres as a “poetry salon” at Helena’s private supper club on Temple and Rampart in East Hollywood. The invited readers were first called the “Temple Street Poets,” that is until Helena’s closed its doors to the public for…

Karma, Coincidence, and Clowns, or… a Perfect Circle of People

Karma, Coincidence, and Clowns, or… a Perfect Circle of People

Sometimes… on a certain night…. or on a certain day…. or in a certain moment, people come together in your life… in an inexplicable, maybe karmic, and if you believe in it, even in a magical way. There’s no logic for it. It’s just something like “life is stranger than fiction”.

Who are YOU: Scarecrow, Tin Man, or Cowardly Lion?

Who are YOU: Scarecrow, Tin Man, or Cowardly Lion?

Also in 10/31/18 Cultural Weekly: How many times have you watched the movie Wizard of Oz? Me? I don’t know exactly, but… probably at least eight years in a row, on TV, every year from ages six to fourteen. All in black and white. Not just the beginning of the movie, in Kansas, before the tornado. But the whole thing; naturally, on our black and white TV in New Yawk, the 1950s.   The first time I saw the film in color, I was shocked. I was sure it was some kind of mistake. The Yellow Brick Road was actually yellow?…

LA’s First “Indigenous People’s Day”

LA’s First “Indigenous People’s Day”

Re-printed from the Cultural Weekly 10/11/2018 September 8, 2018 was Los Angeles’ inaugural Indigenous Peoples Day. Bravo, Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who worked long and hard to create this celebratory new day in our City, which has finally and officially replaced our long-standing, but beleaguered national holiday, Columbus Day, with an indigenous one of its own. I went to the festivities in front of City Hall, and I could hardly believe it. Down with Christopher Columbus, the man who “discovered” America, and up with the historic Tongva-Gabrielino people who greeted the Spanish along the Los Angeles River. Down with Hernan Cortes…

“Be Here Now” – The Impermanence of Live Performance

“Be Here Now” – The Impermanence of Live Performance

I became an artist from a need deep inside—to find my voice, to express something I didn’t yet know, to explore, to explode, to rebel, to find my…self. I first became a modern dancer in the early 1970s, rejecting 15 years of schooling where all I was encouraged to develop was my…mind. In dance, I discovered my body, my instincts, improvisation, creativity, self expression, and what it meant to become an artist. My post-college, early adulthood was entirely filled with company dance classes, sweat, injury, healing, hard work, rehearsals, community, performing for the first time, and teaching dance to make…

“Justice League”: What the Hell Are We Feeding Our Kids?

“Justice League”: What the Hell Are We Feeding Our Kids?

I went to see JUSTICE LEAGUE a few months ago with my 10 year old son, Exsel, and his 10 year old girl friend (not “girlfriend”, no WAY!). I had to. It was one of the responsibilities of being a parent, no matter what yours, or your kid’s, age. Wake him up for school on time, dress him, feed him, do the homework, arrange for play dates, monitor screen time, play with him as much as possible, cherish his innocence, take him to the current blockbuster, and hopefully, don’t take away most of his beautiful natural instincts. But I felt with “Justice…

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