Awakenings by GMCLA

The Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles and Vox Femina Los Angeles presented a joyful and moving concert Sunday night at the First Congregational Church.  This Gothic style church is inspiring and the music presented was beautiful.  I particularly liked "The Awakening" by Joseph M. Martin, "Danny Boy" with a section of the chorus in the rear choir loft, "We Rise Again" (Vox Femina), "When I Fall in Love," and "Homeland" with the combined chorus.  A high school group called Outside Voices sang two songs with an inspiring "The Songs of Purple Summer."

In the printed program, the artistic director/conductor, E. Jason Armstrong, wrote a perfect description of the magic of music:  "Music moves people in ways that nothing else can.  It possesses an ineffable power to affect emotions, moods and mental states, to stimulate ideas and, sometimes, to trigger memories of past events and past emotions."  Thank you choirs for the wonderful evening.

"The Great Animal Orchestra" by Bernie Krouse

The L.A. Central Library program for Tuesday night was Bernie Krouse talking about his recording of over 15,000 sounds of nature, especially creatures over the past 40 years.  Some of those creatures are now extinct.  He has written a new book entitled "The Great Animal Orchestra:  Finding the origins of Music in the World's Wild Places." 

Bernie is a very talented man who started a music career playing violin and at age 13 played with the Philadelphia orchestra.  He said that puberty kicked in and he switched to the guitar.  He replaced Pete Seeger as the guitarist for "The Weavers."

He began his recording in 1968 in the Muir Woods and was so blown away by the amazing sounds of nature that he decided to devote his life to recording it.  He went to the University of Michigan and then off to get his PhD in Bio-Acustication (or something like that) in 1981.  He records the sounds of the environment and analyzes how the sounds blend and how nature's orchestra plays beautiful music each taking turns like a Beethoven piece.

He talked about the effects of man on this harmonious environment and sometimes tragic effects.  He played the sound of a beautiful pond in Minnesota before and after the ranger blew up a dam built by a family of beavers that created the pond.  The amazing orchestra of sounds was replaced by the sound of the papa beaver who cried all night over the loss of his mate and offspring.  This recording and others demonstrates the empathy and feelings animals have for each other.

His web site is www.wildsanctuary.com.

Check out one of his recordings on ITunes called "Gorillas in the Mix."

Arc light artistry on Saturday.night

Jim and I went to a manly movie for a men's night that included "DJango Unchained" where all the bad guys got killed...a few good ones too. Seemed like The Good Bad and Ugly" revisited meets "Old Black Joe."

We also had an Art Encounter with paintings by Caren Ginsberg of some Hollywood favorites.

"The Gospel According to the Other Mary" Opera at LA Phil

The Los Angeles Philharmonic under the leadership of conductor Gustavo Dudamel mounted a production of John Adams and Peter Sellers opera with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, six soloists and three dancers.  This opera was introduce by the LA Phil last June.  Due to a high number of skip outs at intermission, the authors rewrote, re staged and the entire group will be on the road to Europe next week to present it there.  I would say there was about a 20% loss after the first act of 65 minutes.  The rest of us remained until the end even though we felt a bit  crucified ourselves.  It was amazing in many ways.  The narrators were countertenors - males singing in soprano voices.  They sang through most of the two hours.  Mary and Martha were also amazing as well as their brother Lazarus.  The production took place on platforms in front of the orchestra which played with dimmed light.  The Chorale were on a stage above and behind the orchestra...in street clothes with choreographed movements with their singing.

The Passion Play is moving, sad, and dreary.  The acting and singing was great.  The orchestra was wonderful with amazing percussion, piano, harp and others.  John and Peter were there and took a bow.  Let's see what the critics say.  Below are picture I took from my perch of the orchestra and singers receiving their welling earned applause.

Caravaggio and Caravaggisti

We are discussing Caravaggio and his influence on painting in the early 17 century in the class I am leading at the V.A.  He arrive in Rome from Milan in 1592 at the age of 21 and remained there until his flight from the law in 1606 (he killed someone in a fight).  He painted in Naples, then fled to Malta then Sicily where he painted and then died on a beach South of Rome in 1610, age 38, perhaps of Malaria and Lead Poisoning (from the paints).  This troubled man had a big influence on the Baroque Style of painting combining "radical naturalism, drama, and use of chiaroscuro" which is the shift from light to dark often with a sole source of light leaving only shadows in the background and a moody "cinematic" like style. He paint religious scenes for church alters using common street folk with all their imperfections.  Some of paintings were rejected such as the dieing Madona as he used a know prostitute as his model...with bloated stomach and dirty feet no less.

The recent L.A.C.M.A Caravaggio exhibit made an impression on me and I have enjoyed exploring and talking about his work and influence.  On Wednesday, I stopped into the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena to make sure I had capture a picture of all the Caravaggisti paintings....influence by him.  Below are some that I have found there as well as a few I could photograph at the LACMA exhibit.  I have not found any Caravaggio originals in L.A. except those that visited during the recent show.

"A Geographer" 17th Century by a Caravaggisti, follower of Caravaggio

"The Sense of Touch"  1615 by Geuseppe de Ribera (Spanish, 1691-1652)

"Christ Crowned with Thornes" 1633-1639, by Matthias Stome (Dutch 1600-after 1651) 

"St. Francis in Prayer" 1638 by Francisco de Zurbarian (Spanish, 1598-1664)



"The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame" 1636 by Georges de La Tour (France 1593-1652) a LACMA

"The Smoker" 1623 by Dirck van Baburen (Dutch 1595-1624)

Known as the sick Baccus a self portrait by Caravaggio

M.I.M. In Phoenix

I enjoyed roaming through the Musical Instruments Museum with my friend Tim. They have over 15,000 instruments from all over the world. The U.S. and Canada rooms have good displays on Native American music. All the displays have instruments with pictures and videos which I heard via the supplied ear phones which were automatically activated when I walked up an area.

I also watched videos on the making of Steinway pianos and Martin guitars. I loved the jazz videos of Ella, the Count, Louie, and the Duke. Then there was the young Elvis, John Denver, John Lennon and his up right piano. Here is a sample of what I saw:

Dodgers 5 - Indians 1

'twas a beautiful afternoon at the spring training game in Glendale, AZ with friend Tim. Dodger Dogs were good as we're the beverages and peanuts. Great to see Tommy Lasorta, Davey Lopes and other old Dodgers.

The young team looked good with Puig hitting a 3 run home run. Cruz had 2 hits and scored and Ellis the catcher had 3 hits and scored for the Dodgers who had 12 hits in all. The Indians had 4 hits.

After the game, it was fun to see all the kids run the infield.