Had the pleasure this weekend of interviewing one of my favorite artists, Bert Collins, and writing about her for the Star. Here's my lead (or "lede," to use the newspaper spelling): Admirers of pastel artist Alberta "Bert" Collins began lining up outside her Ojai studio at 5:30 on Saturday morning, eager to buy one of theContinue reading “Bert Collins: I paint every day”
Category Archives: art and humor
Stephen Colbert knows America on global warming
"Speaking of not knowing what to do — global warming!" Yours truly is not a big fan of the modern-day kings of irony, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, but this segment on global warming, despite the slightly confusing opening, is hilarious…and, actually, quite insightful about the American public's reaction to the threat of global warming.Continue reading “Stephen Colbert knows America on global warming”
Edward Abbey encounters Los Angeles
Sort of. In his classic Desert Solitaire, Abbey recounts going to Southern California with some friends from the University of New Mexico. On the way they stopped to roll an old tire into the Grand Canyon. While so engaged, Abbey happened to hear a ranger describe a little-known branch off the main canyon called Havasu.Continue reading “Edward Abbey encounters Los Angeles”
The Tennessee Williams play about Van Gogh
True story: Early in his career, after a first try at The Fugitive Kind, Tennessee Williams set out to write a play about Vincent Van Gogh. He didn't get far: He had a writing assignment at a theater lab, and his assignments kept him so busy, he said, he hardly had time for "independent work." Continue reading “The Tennessee Williams play about Van Gogh”
How to handle a hurricane: Katherine Hepburn
Back when stars were stars, and knew how to deal. From Roger Ebert's ever-surprising Journal and Twitter feed. [Note: pick taken after the l938 hurricane that devastated Long Island.]
Please Hear This: African song of the year
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to interview Lesley Clark, the artist and philanthropist known for her great work with nomadic tribes such as the Wodaabe and the Tuareg. She's having her annual "North African market" sale this Saturday at her gallery, with a presentation with the doctor who oversees the medical clinic sheContinue reading “Please Hear This: African song of the year”
How dogs came to be one of the family
Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker delves at length into the latest theories of how dogs came to be members of our human family. Dogs, we are now told, by a sequence of scientists and speculators—beginning with the biologists Raymond and Lorna Coppinger, in their 2001 masterwork, “Dogs”—domesticated themselves. They chose us. A marginally calmerContinue reading “How dogs came to be one of the family”
Studio exec: Forget story. It’s all about spectacle.
In Variety, a Disney studio exec makes brutally clear what has become increasingly obvious over the last few years. Big movie audiences no longer care much about character, dialogue, or even story — what they want is spectacle. "People say 'It's all about the story,'" [Andy] Hendrickson said. "When you're making tentpole films, bullshit." HendricksonContinue reading “Studio exec: Forget story. It’s all about spectacle.”
It’s not the heat, it’s…
From Rob Rogers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: In some cases of denial, it's stupidity. In some cases, it's insanity. But as Rogers said: The heat dome that has been gripping the nation has been unbearable. It is almost as unbearable as people who still refuse to believe in climate change. While one hot summer isContinue reading “It’s not the heat, it’s…”
The master of raw life: Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud, the greatest painter of our times, has passed on. In a profile of him in The Guardian a few years back, a writer compared him to the old masters, the likes of Titian or Velázquez, and noted: The sensuality of Freud is of chilly underheated studios, dirty rags, London. Exactly so. And thatContinue reading “The master of raw life: Lucian Freud”
Kit Stolz 