Hats—what are they good for? Well, they offer protection from the elements. And they can be quite fashionable, of course. And, perhaps most importantly, they serve as fairly prominent symbols of socio-economic status (honestly, what doesn’t these days?). If you’ve ever been curious about these sorts of things as they pertain to hats, especially women’s [...]
If you’re like most people, you’ve spent a great deal of time wondering about the connections between the avant-garde visual and musical arts of the early 20th century—in particular, between the works of the Blue Four (Kandinsky, Klee, Feininger, Jawlensky) and the contemporaneous piano works of Stravinsky et al. Well, have we got a show [...]
Jazz pianist David Arnay is a longtime Pasadenan, USC Music Prof, music director of the Parkway Grill, and all-around good guy (did we mention he’s married to H-P co-author Jill Ganon?). He plays a regular Friday set at the Parkway, accompanied by a rotating cast of bassists. Next up is Edwin Livingston, who has a [...]
Brian Brophy and his merry band of Caltech thespians are at it again, this time with a fast-paced and fun adaptation of Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, a classic of adventure, male camaraderie, and swashbuckling (indeed, Wikipedia displays a picture of D’Artagnan and co. on its “swashbuckler” page. In case you were curious). Like all productions [...]
Once upon a time, my parents lived in Chestnut Hill, a neighborhood in Northwest Philly where trolley cars still run down the cobblestone main street. There was a cheese store. Since our westward migration, that cheese store has taken on mythic proportions in the family lore: their subterranean network of walk-in refrigerators was the largest [...]
Like many a young Angeleno, I was weaned on Charles Bukowski. At 15 or so, I bought Love Is a Dog from Hell—from Vroman’s. Despite being a collection of poems, it was in the fiction section, inches away from Burroughs. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but I ended up keeping it for [...]
Before choking to death on an eye-drop bottle cap (which he supposedly kept under his tongue while administering eye-drops), Tennessee Williams wrote a great many plays. None of them are as surprising, perhaps, as Camino Real, in which 40+ characters (including Don Quixote, Lord Byron, and Esmeralda) mingle in the plaza of a walled-in desert [...]
“Courtesan” is one of those words that’s due for a comeback. Stage one: feature it prominently in a cultural artifact likely to be widely disseminated. Dangerous Beauty, a new musical opening for previews this Tuesday, is poised to do just that. Adapted from the New Regency screenplay The Honest Courtesan (which itself is based on [...]
We’ve been hearing great things about Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, the debut novel of Helen Simonson. It follows the retired Major Ernest Pettigrew, living out his autumn years in the small English village of Edgecombe St. Mary (oh those English). When Ernie’s brother dies, the Major (for reasons not discussed in the jacket copy) finds [...]
One wonders how much longer The Food Trucks will draw a crowd. Is there a name yet for a gathering of them, their very own collective noun? Dolphins have pods, hyenas have cackles (despite what HuffPo says), rooks have parliaments—do food trucks have… wagons? Yes. Wagons. There will be a wagon (or maybe gaggle is [...]
