Bizet's "Carmen" by LA Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Auditorium, Saturday

Colleen and I were guests of our friends Judith and Stanley at the L.A. Opera's production of Carmen.  The music was grand as were the singers, dancers, orchestra, costumes and set.  Carmen one again seduced Don Jose away from his childhood sweetheart, Micaela, but Carmen jilted Don Jose for Escamillo, the bull fighter.  With lots of singing and dancing the evening ended with lots of cheers from the audience.  There were 115 performers onstage, 103 crew and staff working backstage, and 60 musicians in the orchestra which was led on Saturday by Grant Gershon, chorus master and conductor.

Milena Kitic, from Belgrade, Serbia, was Carmen for the night, Brandon Janovich from Billings, Montana was Don Jose, Dwayne Croft from Cooperstown, New York was Escamillo, and Amanda Woodbury, from Crestwood, Kentucky was Micaelia.

P.S.:  Carmen died at the end...Don Jose stabbed her.

Carmen and Escamillo..the Toreador at the Inn

The dancers

The Children of Seville...sing, play and dance.

Don Jose

Friday Night with Dori Caymmi and Tom Schnobel

Colleen and I attended as special program by KCRW radio's Tom Schnabel where he interviewed Dori Caymmi, a 70 year old Brazilian singer, guitarist, songwriter, arranger and producer.  He grew up in Rio as the son of famous Brazilian musicians, Dorival Caymmi and Stella Maris. 

Tom Schnabel has produced a world music show for KCRW and was released in April.  He is now creating his "Rhythm Planet" with a blog and periodic performances.  He is also currently program director of World Music at the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Through the interview and performance, Dori talked about how he revered his father and would not sing with him present because he felt he couldn't measure up.  His father traveled most of the time while he was a child.  He played and sang from a new CD he was releasing as well as from his 2011 "Poesia Musicada" poetry

Tom Schnabel

Dori Caymmi

in music.  Dori talked a little about the politics in his home country.  He said for him, he is staying in Southern California.

We enjoyed the intimate event held at the New Roads school and left with our own "Poesia Musicada" and enjoyed all the way home.

"Parenthood" Premier Party for Five Acres

On Thursday night, Colleen and I went to a premier party of the NBC T.V. series, "Parenthood."  This is one of my favorite shows on T.V. and so was a delight to meet members of the cast as well as old friends at the Five Acres' party at the Bennett's beautiful home in San Marino.  I was able to tell some of the cast members that I thought they did an excellent job of portraying people with real life issues like breast cancer, children with Asbergers syndrome, and families adopting older children from the foster care system.

It was a delightful evening with colleagues and cast members of a show I have faithfully watched for four seasons.  We then sat on benches outside and watched the premier of the fifth season.  Congratulations Five Acres!

 

Wednesday Night at RAND about Drones

On Wednesday evening I attended a forum on Drones at RAND in Santa Monica.  RAND stands for research and development and has over 2000 employee s over the world with headquarters in Santa Monica. 

Ted Harshberger, V.P and director of RAND Project Air Force was the moderator.  Randall Steeb, a senior engineer at the RAND Corporation was on the panel as was Steve Gitlin, VP for marketing strategy and communication at AeroVironment, Inc. where he is responsible for the company's Drone business segments.  He said that the U.S. currently has about 10,000 deployed Drones with about 85% of them being the small variety, less than 3 feet long.

Steve Gitlin said that the small variety fly for about 40 minutes and are used for surveillance, sent by a single user in the field for defense, agricultural, policing uses.  Very small drones may be carried in a person's pocket.  The large drones require many people to launch and control.  For example one of the large drones is called Grey Eagle and requires 100 people to operate over a 24 hour period..

The scientists do not call them drones.  They call them U.A.S's for unmanned aircraft systems.  They see many more uses in the future and to focus on safety.  However, privacy issues are real even though today there are surveillance cameras everywhere.  This raises ethics issues even though the UAS's may save lives.  

Randy Steeb said that UAS's are the center piece of the counter-terrorism efforts.  Targeted killings usually result in less collateral damage.  Taking out terrorist leaders can result in a major blow to their efforts.  UASs can also be used in a swarm and working together can have a major impact.

Some of the challenges are that with many drones in the air of different sizes, it is difficult to shoot them down...it is hard to distinguish the good guys from the bad or from birds.  Another issue is the stress of operations.  Even when they are being operated in the Nevada desert, the operators experience post traumatic stress.  He said some of the 'bad guys' have them like the Mexican Mafia.  He said we need to give the same technology to the police. 

Even with the technology, war cannot just be conducted remotely.  Community policing is very important.  Also there are the issues of hacking...thus more challenges ahead.

Samuel Beckett on Tuesday Night with Lois

On Tuesday evening I met my friend Lois for dinner at the Panda Inn and to then attended a first reading of "The Endgame" by Samuel Beckett at A Noise Within Theatre in Pasadena.  This newly built space provides lots of space for creativity with a 275 seat theater plus smaller acting and rehearsal areas.  We were in an upstairs room with a large table in the center and the 30 of us or so setting around them.  At the table were the four cast members plus set and lighting designers.  The sketches of the costumes were posted on the wall and handed out.  Geoff Elliott is directing the play and staring as the character Hamm who is blind and in a wheel chair.  His servant is Clov who is afraid to leave his master as "there is no where else."  The other two characters are Hamm's mother Nell and mother Nel who are kept in trash bins in the room...sometimes covered with a sheet.  The play takes place in the one closed in room.  We are not sure that there is anyworld left outside.

The Endgame was written in 1957 at a time of Cold War fear ("duck and cover" raids in the schools).  Beckett was of the Beat Generation and wrote on the "essential components of the human condition."  The hopelessness of life is pervasive.  Yet there is humor in the tragedy.

Geoff Elliot is a powerful presence in the reading of the play.  It will open for performance later in October.

Portrait of Samuel Beckett



Geoff Elliott, Hamm



Jill Hill, Nell

Jeremy Rabb, Clov

Mitchell Edmonds, Nagg

Life's a Beach....sometimes...even on a Monday

I returned to my favorite beach hang out at the Annenberg Beach House for a walk on the beach, lunch and view of the art gallery.  I was joined by pelicans, a paddle boarder, a swimmer...burr... and mothers with their young children at play. 

The gallery has a small show called "Transmutations."  I viewed the works of tree L.A. based artist "working in decidedly disparate media...with a shared vision of capturing visceral aesthetics from observing life's ever-changing elements.

Luke Rothschild is a visual artist and composer.  He uses the process of decay in the natural world to create his own visual effects just as "rusty metal objects" which become subjects of his painting.  He is a part of a trio that includes his wife who founded String Theory - a performance ensemble combining multiple mediums such as site-specific sonic sculpture installations, choreography, dance, original music and projections.

Alexix Manya Spraic is an award-winning narrative and documentary filmmaker.  He work on display was a film of black ink floating on water that creates a "dance" that is "beautifully moving."

Ondy Sweetman is a photographer who has been working with 35mm film and shows studies of reflective surfaces.

Beautiful...isn't it.

That's not me.

Saturday at the Heritage Square Museum and "Sound of Music" sing-a-long, Hollywood Bowl

Colleen enjoyed a Windsor Square - Hancock Park Historical Society sponsored tout to the Heritage Square Museum.  This is a living history architecture museum located besides the Arroyo Seco Parkway in the Montecito Heights neighborhood of L.A.  We enjoyed the docent led tour through these historical homes and buildings.  The buildings were moved to this site because they risked demolition between 1969 and 2005.
 

The Palms Depot was build in 1875 and used until 1953.  It serves as the reception area for the museum. 

The Mt. Pleasant House was built in 1876 by lumber baron William Hayes Perry.  It was built in Boyle Heights.  It was  built in the Victorian Italianate style.

The Valley Knudsen Garden Residence - Shaw House was built in the Second Empire style with a French mansard roof.  It is now outfitted as a home and doctors office with all the 1880's furniture and equipment.

The Longfellow-Hastings Octagon House was built in 1893 by Gilbert Longfellow.  The rooms are angular with a center area that looks all the way up to the windows on the third floor.

Our very knowledgeable docent.



The John J. Ford House was built in 1887 as part of a large tract of simple middle-class homes in downtown L.A.  The wood carver owner decorated the mantle and other areas with his works.



The Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church was built in 1897 in Pasadena.  It was designed in the Carpenter Gothic and Queen Anne styles.

The Hale House was built in 1887 by George W. Morgan, a land speculator and developer at the foot of Mount Washington near the museum.  It is an outstanding example of the Queen Anne and Eastlake Styles.  It was moved to Figueroa Street and purchased by James G. Hale in 1906.  It remained in the family until it was acquire by the museum in 1970.  The exterior colors were reproduced from chips of the original colors.  The interior has been restored to represent the rooms as they have appeared in 1899.

The newest building was built in the style of a 1890's pharmacy.  It is filled with a museum like collection of a original items from that period including cosmetics, medicines and other items one would buy at a pharmacy...plus a soda fountain. 

In the evening the Friend Family gathered to celebrate brother Patrick's birthday at the Hollywood bowl for a picnic and a "Sound of Music" sing-a-long.  We sang, cheered, booed the Nazi's and hissed the Baroness and clapped when the climbed every mountain on their way to Switzerland. 

L.A. Louver

On Friday after an enjoyable lunch with my friends Chris and Bernie and their friends Cheryl and Larry, Chris encouraged Cheryl, Larry and me to check out the L.A. Louver gallery across the street from the James Beach Restaurant on North Venice Blvd. one half a block from the beach.  L.A. Louver is an art gallery focusing on American and European contemporary art.  It was founded in 1976 and represents notable artists including Dale Chihuly, David Hockney, Ed Kienholz, Ed Moses, Ken Price and many others. 

The beautiful building currently houses works by Alison Saar and Tom Wudl.  Alison Saar is a Southern California artist whose work explores themes of African cultural diaspora and spirituality.  She was born in L.A. on 2/4/1956 and received her art education at Otis College and Scripps College. Here are pictures of some of her works on display.

"Cotton Eater," 2013, wood cotton acrylic and tar.  In the back ground is "The Cotton Eater study" 2013, found sugar sacks, gesso, charcoal and graphite.

"Shorn," 2013, wood, wire, glass

"Via Lactea," 2013, wood cast bronze, mother of pearl and acrylic

"Cotton Eater (head)," 2013, ceramic, acrylic, graphite, and cotton balls.

"Milk Teeth," 2013, paper, glue, cast resin, tar, and found child's chair.

"Cat's Cradle," 2013, wood, tin acrylics, graphite and cotton cloth.

"Pearly," 2013, paper, foam, glue acrylic, graphite and polyester cloth.

"Spring," 2011, cast bronze

"Summer," 2011, cast bronze.

The upstairs gallery had several works by Tom Wudl.  These were paintings on linen and vellum.  Wudl is a Los Angeles-based artist.  He was born in 1948 in Cochabamba, Bolivia and immigrated to the U.S. in 1958.  He received his art education at the Chouinart Art School in L.A.

The gallery brochure states that "Wudl's new work is inspired by the Avatansaka Sutra (or Flower Ornament Sutra), the revered scripture of Huayan Buddhism.  The sutra describes an interdependency of all phenomena within a cosmos of infinite realms."  This exhibit is called "Reflections of the Flowerbank World."  Below are a couple of my favorite of his works.

"Light of Silent Sound," 2012, gouache, gold, silver leaf on archival inkjet print on Asuka and Tengucho rice papers and pencil on vellum on wood panel.

"Unattached, Unbound, Liberated, Kindness," 2013, pencil, gouache, 22 karat gold and gum arabic on rice paper.

Sandra Acton's Latest Creation

I received a photo of  "Buddha" 2013 a painting by Sandra Acton of Phoenix.  The still life shows a remarkable arrangement of plants including an amazing cactus with a Buddha statue in the center.  Thank you Sandra for your wonderful creations!

LACMA on Tuesday

I roamed around the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this afternoon and found some things new and revisited some old favorites.  Let me show you what I appreciated today.

"Painting and Music (Portrait of the Artist's Son," 1800 by Martin Drolling born in Oberhergheim, 1752 died in Paris in 1817.  The son, Michel Martin Drolling, 1789 to 1851 was also a successful painter.

"Sous-Bois," 1894 by Paul Cezanne, France 1839-1906
Cezanne's use of greens, blues and yellow/orange create a special mood that I appreciate.

"The Swineherd," 1888 by Paul Gauguin, France 1849-1903



"The Field of Derout-Lollichon," 1886 by Paul Gauguin




"The Red Cow," 1889 by Paul Gauguin
I like these three country scenes with deep colors.  They show some of  the life of a farmer in France



"The Earth," in 1884-99 by Auguste Rodin born 1840 - 1917
This is the second of 12 casts.  "The recumbent body that forms the 'skyline' seems to emerge from the primordial mud..."

'

"Fight On USC" at the Coliseum

Saturday was a warm afternoon at the L.A. Coliseum to watch U.S.C. recover and beat Boston College 35 to 7.  There were no calls to fire the U.S.C coach....for this week at least and the team showed it did have an offense.  Great time with friend Jim and traveled via the L.A. Subway!  A novel and easier/cheaper way to get to the stadium. 

Czech Mates at the Bowl

Thursday was the last L.A. Phil concert at the Bowl for the season.  The orchestra is on vacation for a week and then return for the season at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.  I enjoyed a morning rehearsal for volunteers and and evening concert with Colleen and sister Noreen (Half Czech) and neighbor John.  The conductor was Jakub Hrusa, age 33 who was born in the Czech Republic and Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Prague Philharmonia and Principal Guest Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

The program was the Smetana "Sarka from My Fatherland", Prokofiev "Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major" with Simon Trpceski on the piano.  After the intermission the orchestra played Dvorak's "Symphony No. 5 in D major."

It was beautiful night and a sad good to the L.A. Phil for the summer.  Now to look forward  to a season at the Disney.

Jakub Hrusa, Conductor

Simon Trpceski, Pianist

9/11 at the Dodgers

Wednesday night was a fun night at the Dodgers Baseball game with cousin Rob.  It was the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 one attack and tribute was held before the game.  The tribute featured First Responders on the field with bag pipes playing "Amazing Grace." 

The Dodgers lost to the Diamond Backs 4 to 1...the one being a home run by Puig.  Still a nice L.A. night.