Marvin Hamlisch, 1944-2012

The man wrote some extraordinary music.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Marvin Hamlisch dies at 68: Sudden, brief illness halted busy life":

Marvin Hamlisch, the stage and film composer who created the memorable songs for "A Chorus Line," has died at 68. The composer died on Monday in Los Angeles after collapsing from a brief illness, his family said in a statement.

One of the most decorated composers in entertainment, Hamlisch had won a Tony Award, three Academy Awards, four Emmy Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Hamlisch was still active just weeks ago. In his role as lead conductor of the Pasadena Pops, he conducted a July 21 concert at the Los Angeles Arboretum with Michael Feinstein....

In Hollywood, Hamlisch wrote music for the movies "The Way We Were," "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Sophie's Choice." In recent years, he teamed with director Steven Soderbergh on "The Informant!" and the upcoming "Behind the Candelabra," a biopic of Liberace.

Gustav Klimt Google Doodle

I recognized the artwork immediately. The L.A. County Museum of Art held a Klimpt exhibit back in 2006. The museum hoped to make Klimpt a permanent exhibit but it was impossible, considering how much the works got at auction. I especially like the main portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. See: "Lauder Pays $135 Million, a Record, for a Klimt Portrait."

The doodle's discussed at the Guardian UK: "Gustav Klimt honoured with Google Doodle."

See also Deutsche Welle, "Klimt was sexy, but authentic."

IMAGE CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.

BONUS: There's even a book on this story, The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

'Levitated Mass'

I guess people like it, but personally, I was thinking that hauling that rock from the desert was a waste of resources. And you'd think the artsy-environmentalist types would have been the first to object. Maybe the idea of some lasting aesthetics was worth spewing tons of carbon "waste" into the atmosphere during the move.

I'm not one to complain, actually. But transporting that thing was one hella production.

In any case, see the Los Angeles Times, "What do museum-goers think of LACMA's 'Levitated Mass' sculpture?":

And see Christopher Knight, "Review: LACMA's new hunk 'Levitated Mass' has some substance."

Five-Year-Old Aelita Andre Holds Art Exhibit in New York

She's a prodigy.

See Telegraph UK, "Five-year-old girl unveils new art exhibition in New York."

Atlantic Boulevard Leads Shift Away from L.A.'s Car Culture

I'm up on Atlantic Boulevard in Long Beach pretty regularly. My buddy Greg lives in Bixby Knolls and we have lunch over there.

See the Los Angeles Times, "Atlantic Boulevard's New Stride Reflects Shifting L.A. Street Scene":

The 5600 block of Atlantic Avenue doesn't look like much at first glance, especially if you're zipping through at 45 mph. A dry cleaner, a pupuseria, a T-shirt shop and a medical marijuana dispensary line the low-rise street in the North Village Annex section of Long Beach. About a third of the storefronts are vacant.

But if you climb out of the car, you'll notice that this classic commercial strip — convenient for drivers, charmless and alienating for everybody else — is in the midst of a remarkable evolution.

A crosswalk cuts across the boulevard at mid-block, complete with a flashing signal for pedestrians. Orange and blue bike racks dot the sidewalks. Silk floss trees, lined up in a neat row along the median, frame a piece of tiled public art.

And the Brandon Bike Shop, which opened earlier this year behind a nondescript storefront at 5634 Atlantic, buzzes with activity. On a recent afternoon, Rodolfo Alcantara, a 19-year-old with a white stud in his lip, was working the counter while "Faded," by the rapper Tyga, thumped from speakers behind him.

He said the store caters to the growing number of teenagers and twentysomethings in the neighborhood, including him, who've become obsessed with riding and detailing their bikes.

"It's the new style," Alcantara said.

The changes along Atlantic are emblematic of the way urban planners, architects, shopkeepers and neighborhood activists are remaking the boulevards of Southern California, reversing decades of neglect.

The boulevard, in fact, is where the Los Angeles of the immediate future is taking shape. No longer a mere corridor to move cars, it is where L.A. is trying on a fully post-suburban identity for the first time, building denser residential neighborhoods and adding new amenities for cyclists and pedestrians.

In the process, the city is beginning to shed its reputation as a place where the automobile is king — or at least where its reign goes unchallenged. Cities across the U.S. followed L.A.'s car-crazy lead in the postwar era. This time around we might provide a more enlightened example: how to retrofit a massive region for a future that is less auto-centric.

Continue reading.

Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' Goes for $119.9 Million at Auction

Geez, you'd think we were in the middle of an economic boom.

See the New York Times, "‘The Scream’ Is Auctioned for a Record $119.9 Million":

It took 12 nail-biting minutes and five eager bidders for Edvard Munch’s famed 1895 pastel of “The Scream” to sell for $120 million, becoming the world’s most expensive work of art ever to sell at auction.

Bidders could be heard speaking Chinese and English (and, some said, Norwegian), but the mystery winner bid over the phone, through Charles Moffett, Sotheby’s executive vice president and vice chairman of its worldwide Impressionist, modern and contemporary art department. Gasps could be heard as the bidding climbed higher and higher, until there was a pause at $99 million, prompting Tobias Meyer, the evening’s auctioneer, to smile and say, “I have all the time in the world.” When $100 million was bid, the audience began to applaud.

The price eclipsed the previous record, made two years ago at Christie’s in New York when Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” brought $106.5 million.

Munch made four versions of “The Scream.” Three are now in Norwegian museums; the one that sold on Wednesday, a pastel on board from 1895, was the only one still in private hands. It was sold by Petter Olsen, a Norwegian businessman and shipping heir whose father was a friend, neighbor and patron of the artist.

The image has been reproduced endlessly in popular culture in recent decades, becoming a universal symbol of angst and existential dread and nearly as famous as the Mona Lisa.

See also The Financial Times, "So, what does ‘The Scream’ mean?":

“The Scream” is one of the most disturbing images to come out of the history of modern art. It depicts a moment of psychic calamity, of shattered nerves. Munch intended, when he first created the image in 1893, to record “the modern life of the soul”; and what a fraught, anxiety-ridden vision it was. For decades his distorted vision was regarded as an eccentric by-way of expressionism, laden with Nordic gloom and unnecessary cosmic pessimism.

Yet here we are, the world’s hyper-rich leading art collectors seemingly poised to make “The Scream” one of the most valuable artistic images ever created. A vision from the haunted dusk of the 19th century has found its moment more than 100 years later. Munch has hit the mainstream. We are finally strong enough to stomach his scream. Someone, somewhere in the world is busy planning to pop this icon of human disintegration above the fireplace, at enormous cost. We are, it seems, past the age of water lilies and sunflowers. The swirling chaos and vacant expression evident in Munch’s most famous work has become a touchstone for our troubled times.

Shepard Fairey Pleads Guilty Over Obama ‘Hope’ Image

A report at the New York Times.

Image via Jim Treacher (c/o Instapundit).

Cell Phone Stops New York Symphony

It's gonna happen, but the offender was right in the front row so there was no ignoring the disruption.

What a story.

At Toronto's Globe and Mail, "Conductor shames man after cellphone goes off at philharmonic."

And at London's Daily Mail, "Are you quite finished? New York Philharmonic conductor dramatically halts performance after cell phone interruption."

Also at New York Times, "Ringing Finally Ended, but There’s No Button to Stop Shame."

Steven Spielberg's 'War Horse' Premiere

I'm really excited about this film. And it comes during Christmas break so I'll have some down time to enjoy it with my family.

At New York Post, "‘War Horse’ Weepers."

This is What Mobocracy Looks Like: Street Artist 'Above' Hangs Banker in Effigy Along Florida's I-95

Taking things too far?

Hardly, this is where things are headed.

At Weasel Zippers, "Effigy of Wall Street Banker Hung From a Noose Over Miami Highway…"

And London's Daily Mail, "Is this taking the protests too far? Occupy Wall Street-inspired artist hangs dummy of banker from telephone wire."

'We are taking steps to permanently armor our major public spaces'

Says Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Hawthorne, who reviews architectural proposals for the National Mall, commissioned by the National Capital Planning Commission, "Critic's Notebook: A design that's bold, restrained and secure."

... it's tough not to feel ambivalent about what the design competition represents in a larger sense for American urbanism as we approach the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. In cities all around the country — not just in New York and Washington — the temporary jersey barriers and other makeshift or ad hoc responses to the threat of terrorism are being replaced by subtler and better-looking but fixed design solutions. The new realities of terror protection are working themselves into the fabric of the American cityscape ...

RTWT.

'The Beatles Illuminated: The Discovered Works of Mike Mitchell' — at Christie's

I saw this on ABC News last night, "Unseen Photos of The Beatles' First US Concert."

And at Christie's: "Sale Information."

And staff members at Christie's share their memories of The Beatles, from surprisingly profound (Kerry Keane) to embarrassingly lame (John Hays). And from Laura Paterson, insightful honesty:

I love the early albums and movies, Hard Day’s Night and Help! This was the Fab Four at their most carefree and surreal (Yellow Submarine notwithstanding). By the time I reached my teens, they simply weren’t cool (Granny liked them, after all), and I switched my allegiance to their rivals, the much edgier seeming Rolling Stones (Granny hated them). Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate their immense influence on popular music and culture. The Beatles define superstardom; from L.A. to Ulaanbaatar, everyone knows who they are.

Photo Essay: The Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, at Los Angeles Times

It's from Michael Hiltzik, who I rarely read any more for obvious reasons, but check it out for the photography especially, by James Stillings: "High and Mighty."

Rough Language, Gay Sex Restored to James Jones' From Here to Eternity in New E-Book Edition

No doubt Scott Eric Kaufman will be thrilled.

At Los Angeles Times, "Profanity and more to be found in uncensored 'From Here to Eternity' e-book":

When James Jones published "From Here to Eternity" in 1951, his editors had pulled back some of the frank language and description in his original draft. The resulting novel, which chronicled the drinking, brawling and illicit affairs of soldiers stationed in Hawaii in the months before Pearl Harbor -- was a titillating, critically acclaimed bestseller. The 1953 movie, which starred Frank Sinatra, Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr, got a similar reception, winning eight Oscars, including best picture.

Now, a new e-book edition of the novel will include the profanity and mentions of gay sex that were left out of the 1951 version. The uncensored "From Here to Eternity" is being published by Open Road Media and Jones' heirs, including daughter Kaylie Jones.

"It's been on my mind for quite a few years, and the right moment just hadn't come up yet," Kaylie Jones told the New York Times. “My father fought bitterly to hold on to every four-letter word in the manuscript. The publisher was concerned about getting through the censors."

More at the link. James Jones was one of the greatest American novelists, homosexual sex scenes or not.

Black Swan: Dark Side of Perfection

That's the thesis at this review, and at NYT, "On Point, on Top, in Pain."

Saw it earlier this evening. A great thriller, both sensuous and taut. Natalie Portman nails it:

Dancing

Theo loves this:

'Angle of Attack' — From the Steven Givler Collection

From my good friend, Maj. Steven Givler, "New Home for My Paintings."

Lots more fabulous paintings at the link.

And on this holiday weekend I take pride in reposting Steven's e-mail to me from April 4, 2009:

Sir,

Thank you for your blog. I’ve often wondered lately whether my more than 20 years of military service have been devoted to defending a constitution that is no longer recognized by the people who benefit from its protections.

Every once in a while something encourages me to believe that there are still Americans who understand what makes us different from other nations, and who are willing to preserve that difference. Your blog, which I found via RS McCain’s blog, is one of those things.Thanks for the encouragement.

All the best,

Steven

STEVEN A. GIVLER, Maj, USAF
Assistant Air Attache
US EMBASSY Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Steven is now working at a new assignment in Portugal.

Thank you, Steven, for your service.

Blog Headline of the Morning (Regarding Asshole Andres Serrano)

At Althouse, "Andres 'Piss Christ' Serrano as a guest judge on "Work of Art: The Next Great Artist." And click through to the original article. Some of the works include things like men performing sexual self-gratification. And you can see this stuff on TV? Seriously.

But it's Andres Serrano who's of interest to me (why is he considered a worthy judge for Bravo's program, for example?).

Check this interview with Anna Blume from 1993, regarding "Serrano’s recent photographs of [black] dead bodies":

AB Since color is an issue throughout the show, not just aesthetically, but also racially, and racial issues have shown up in your work before, was this in your mind when you edited for the show, thinking about which bodies to photograph?

AS In a manner of speaking. I photographed these people after the moment of death. I never knew them as human beings. I never knew what languages they spoke, what their religious or political beliefs were, how much money they had, or who they loved. All I know about them is the cause of death. And, as they say, you cannot judge a book by its cover. The woman you referred to as not knowing whether she was actually black, is a bleached blonde, brown-skinned woman. She’s a black woman. But she’s been in the morgue for over two months because she’s a Jane Doe, and as a result, she’s starting to decompose and if you look really closely, there are patches of white skin. I asked the doctor and he confirmed that there is white skin under black skin. A teacher of his once took a very thin slice of skin off a cadaver and showed it to his students and said, “This is the thickness of racism.”

And here's this, from an interview with Andres Serrano in 2002:

Being born, especially being born a person of color, is a political act in itself. Everything you do from that point on is political without having to be called political. My work has social implications, it functions in a social arena. In relation to the controversy over Piss Christ, I think the work was politicized by forces outside it, and as a result, some people expect to see something recognizably "political" in my work. I am still trying to do my work as I see fit, which I see as coming from a very personal point of view with broader implications.

Asshole.

UPDATE: Saberpoint provides some artwork, "Stogie Art: Piss Andres (Andres Serrano)."

Five Masterpieces Stolen From Paris Museum of Modern Art

At Washington Post, "In Paris, a $100 Million Heist":

In a brazen display of stealth, cunning and cool nerves, a thief using a sharp cutting tool opened a gated window and sneaked into the Paris Museum of Modern Art.

Three security guards were on duty at the time, but the thief -- or perhaps thieves -- detached five major cubist and post-impressionist paintings from their frames without being detected and slid back into the night with a rolled-up treasure worth well over $100 million.

The embarrassing heist -- of paintings by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger -- was discovered just before 7 a.m. Thursday, Paris officials said, probably long after the celebrated canvases had disappeared.

The operation was "a serious loss for the national patrimony" and one of the most damaging art thefts in recent years, said Christophe Girard, a city hall cultural attache.

"I am saddened and shocked by this theft, which is an intolerable attack on the universal cultural heritage of Paris," Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said in a statement. The museum was closed temporarily, he said, to allow police to investigate unhindered by art lovers.

Officers descended on the museum, in the tony 16th Arrondissement, just across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower, seeking to determine how anyone could have entered the museum without setting off an elaborate security system. Wearing rubber gloves and surgical masks, the officers powdered the gilded frames in an effort to gather fingerprints, and they examined the pried-open gate and the fractured glass window to see how it was isolated from the alarm system.

But the mystery remained, particularly concerning what the security guards were doing while the paintings were being stripped from their frames and hauled away. Responding to news reports, Delanoe said the alarm system had been malfunctioning since late March.

Smart theives with good taste --- now that's a thought!

Photos at the link.

SHOWN ABOVE: Pablo Picasso, The Pigeon with Green Peas (1911).

Jasper Johns 'Flag' Encaustic Goes for $28.6 Million at Auction

Well some lucky rich fellow's got taste.

At NYT, "Seminal Jasper Johns Painting Draws $28.6 Million Bid":

One of Jasper Johns’s seminal Flag paintings, from 1960-1966, that had belonged to Michael Crichton, the best-selling writer, became the star of Christie’s post-war and contemporary art auction on Tuesday night when it brought $28.6 million ....

The buyer was Richard Rossello, a dealer in American paintings based in Bryn Mawr, Pa., who could be seen with a cell phone glued to his ear during the bidding.

The Johns flag, in encaustic, an ancient technique in which pigment is suspended in wax, giving each brush stroke a distinct materiality, is a hot commodity in auction circles because few ever come for sale. And on Tuesday night five other bidders tried to buy the painting, which had been officially estimated to bring $10 million to $15 million.

RTWT.

Image Credit: Wikipedia, "Flag, Encaustic, oil and collage on fabric mounted on plywood,1954-55."