Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series thru May 27 at OCMA

In his Boston Globe review of the current Diebenkorn show at Newport Beach's Orange County Museum of Art, art critic Sebastian Smee wrote the following:

"A great and stately unfolding occurs in the 'Ocean Park' paintings of Richard Diebenkorn, among which can be counted some of the most beautiful works of art created in America, or anywhere else, since the Second World War.
To stand before these austere but drenchingly beautiful canvases is as close as art gets to the feeling of taking refuge on a cold day under a warm shower. The larger paintings, in particular, impose a physical, almost drug-dragged restraint against removing oneself from their ambit."

You will never get another chance to see so many works from this series together.  It ends May 27!

Richard Diebenkorn Ocean Park #140

Here's the OCMA blurb:

Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series is the first major museum exhibition to explore the artist’s most celebrated series created from 1967 to 1988. Recognized as a leading West Coast Abstract Expressionist in the 1950s, Diebenkorn turned his attention to figurative painting in 1955 and achieved equal success in this alternate style. In 1967 he returned to abstraction, and during the next twenty years would forge one of the most compelling and masterful bodies of work of the 20th century: the Ocean Park series. Featuring approximately 80 works—including paintings, prints, drawings, and collages—this exhibition captures Diebenkorn’s practice of working simultaneously in diverse media and provides audiences with the first opportunity to explore the complexity of Diebenkorn’s artistic and aesthetic concerns in this seminal body of work.

Richard Diebenkorn Ocean Park # 96 at OCMA

HERE is a link to the museum's website.  It's in Newport Beach, near Fashion Island.  And the second Sunday of every month is FREE!

In Wonderland: Only Two Weekends Left

This excellent LACMA exhibit of work by Surrealist women artists (see my post from March 27) ends on May 6.

Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas, 1939

Don't miss it!  The website is HERE .

"Two of My Favorite Authors" by Prof. Carol Zitzer-Comfort

Our second Guest Recommender is Professor Carol Zitzer Comfort. 

The CSULB English Department website says that Dr. Zitzer-Comfort "received her BA from CSU Fullerton, her MA from Cal Poly Pomona and her PhD from Claremont Graduate University. Her areas of interest include: Reading and Composition, Cognitive Development, American Indian Literature, Disability Studies and English Education. She has published several articles and a book chapter on Williams syndrome, authored a textbook for basic writing courses, co-edited an anthology of American Indian Women’s writings and presented at several national and international conferences. Carol serves on the Advisory Board for the SALK Institute Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, on the Board of Directors of the Williams Syndrome Association and on several CSULB department, college and university committees. Before coming to CSULB in 2005, Dr. Zitzer-Comfort taught and directed a Student Support Services program at Cal Poly Pomona for ten years."

Here's what she has to say:

As an undergraduate English major, I was introduced to the fiction of Louise Erdrich. It was love at first read.

It all started with Love Medicine, which was assigned reading for an American Indian Literature course. If you have been in one of my classes, you know that I know way too much about Erdrich. I can never decide which of her novels I like best: Love Medicine or Tracks. I find her most recent novel Shadow Tag incredibly haunting and beautiful. I read it straight through and immediately began reading it again.  Her novels aren’t easy reading, but they are worth the effort.  In addition to being a prolific novelist, Erdrich is also an accomplished poet. For more information about her, one of her poems, a short story, and excerpts from interviews, click HERE .

Another favorite author of mine is Toni Morrison, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.

I’ve been reading and teaching Beloved since the 1990s. Each time I read it, I find a new way to read parts of it, which is what makes it so powerful. It is a novel that demands much from its readers. Other Morrison novels that I particularly enjoy are Song of Solomon, Sula, and The Bluest Eye.

50 Places to Eat for $5 or Less in Southern California

On April 9, the Los Angeles Times carried a feature with the above title.  HERE is a link.  The restaurants/trucks/dives are spread out over the basin, from the San Fernando Valley to the San Gabriel Valley to Downey to Westminster.  They only list one place in Long Beach.  Here it is:

It's Phnom Penh Noodle Restaurant at 1644 Cherry Ave.  Here's what Jason La at the Times had to say:

"On the outside, Phnom Penh looks like a house. On the inside, it looks like your Asian mom's kitchen. In short, this isn't a typical restaurant. The Spartan menu consists of noodle soups (beef and meatball, seafood, Phnom Penh and beef stew), rice porridge soups (chicken, pork and fish) and stir-fried noodles. If you want to sample soups, buy a child-size serving ($3.50). Their regular serving ($5) is enough for a meal."  And HERE is a link to their YELP page (4 stars!).

Open 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Closed Monday.

Please let the rest of us know if you have been to any of the places in the article, especially if you liked them.  Also, please feel free to recommend other low low cost places to eat nearby.  Here's a place I like:

I found out about El Taco Loco numero tres a few years ago when various food celebrities were asked to name their favorite taco places in the L.A. area.  Of course, most of the recommendations were in East L.A.  But one of the foodies was L.A. Times food editor Russ Parsons, who happens to live near me on Long Beach's westside.  He sang the praises of El Taco Loco's many tacos, such as my favorite Al Pastor, as well as more exotic fare (at least exotic to me) like Tripa, Lengua, Cabeza--even Sesos.  They also make fresh juices, and there's always a lady behind the counter making fresh tortillas.  I don't recommend going after dark (when it can be a little scary) or on Sunday, when the after-church crowds fill the place.  Just be sure to know your numeros en Espanol, so you'll know when your order is being called for pick-up.

It's at 1465 Magnolia Ave in Long Beach (between PCH and Anaheim).  HERE is a link to their YELP page (4 stars!).

"10 Favorite Poems" from Prof. George Hart

Our first Guest Recommender is Professor George Hart. 

According to CSULB's English Department website, Dr. Hart "received his BA from Kent State University and his PhD from Stanford University; he teaches 19th- and 20th-century American literature, with a specialization in 20th-century American poetry and poetics. His current research focuses on how poets write about nature from a sacramental or skeptical point of view. How, in other words, poets celebrate value in nature through language, or, conversely, how they see language as constructing, or disrupting, that value. The poets he writes about include Robinson Jeffers, William Carlos Williams, Kenneth Rexroth, William Everson, Lorine Niedecker, Larry Eigner, and Denise Levertov, among others. His other research interests include ecocriticism, postmodernist poetics, and the Beats. He is the editor of Jeffers Studies, which is sponsored by CSULB and the Robinson Jeffers Association, and a co-editor of Literature and the Environment."

10 Favorite Poems

"'Favorite' in that these are poems I return to for wisdom, pleasure, inspiration, and the right words in the right order."

Each highlighted title works as a link to that poem, either in print or in a recording.

John Keats, "To Autumn"

Walt Whitman, "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"

Robert Frost, "Directive"

Robinson Jeffers, "Night"

Allen Ginsberg, "Sunflower Sutra"

Emily Dickinson, "My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun"

William Wordsworth, "Ode" ("Intimations of Immortality")

Langston Hughes, "The Weary Blues"

Robert Duncan, "Often I am Permitted to Return to a Meadow"

William Carlos Williams, "To Elsie"

FREE L.A. Times Festival of Books at USC on April 21 & 22--Brewery

The annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books won't really involve a brewery, but I found that posts containing the words "FREE" and "Brewery" in the title get the most page views.

Their WEBSITE . Their FAQs:

What is the Festival of Books?

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books began in 1996 with a simple goal: to bring together the people who create books with the people who love to read them. The festival was an immediate success and has become the largest and most prestigious book festival in the country, attracting more than 140,000 book lovers each year.

Where is it?

On the USC campus.

Who attends the Festival?

People of all ages from across Southern California and even other parts of the country. The festival is a free public event, and includes exciting author events, storytelling, cooking demonstrations and poetry readings. The Festival of Books also includes nearly 300 exhibitor booths representing booksellers, publishers, literacy and cultural organizations.

Who exhibits?

Booksellers, publishers, literacy and cultural organizations sell and promote books and book-related merchandise and distribute related information. Many of the independent booksellers participating in the festival represent the diverse ethnic and cultural communities of Los Angeles and sell books of different languages and genres.

[Me again.  Even though the many panel discussions and interviews with writers are FREE, you really should get FREE tickets in advance through the website, so you won't be disappointed.  Here's what the website says:]

PANEL TICKETS

will be available to the general public at 9 am on April 15, with a $1.00 service fee applied to each panel ticket reserved.
A limited amount of tickets for each panel, while supplies last, are also distributed on site at the Festival of Books ticketing booth on the day of the panel – booth #463.

[My tip: Don't expect there to be tickets for many panels at their booth.  Two years ago, I couldn't get into anything.]

Hitchcock's Rear Window in Just Under Three Minutes

Jeff Desom, a young filmmaker originally from Luxembourg, has created a brilliant two minute and fifty eight second time lapse of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece Rear Window.  I think it's worth a look.  I just wish he'd used more Hitchcockian music.

A higher definition version is available on Desom's Vimeo page .  He also has some of his other films posted there.  I especially liked a moody music video called Morgenrot.

And HERE is an interview he gave, in which he explains the genesis of the project, as well as how he did it.

Now do YOU have a link to an interesting short film?

Ten New Movies on DVD

Eight movies of interest and two in my queue--all out (or nearly so) on DVD:

Beginners--A charming romance/comedy/drama with a sense of style.  Director Mike Mills (he made the Indie Thumbsucker) is also a graphic designer and has both a great WEBSITE about all his work and a BLOG about making and showing Beginners.  The film stars Ewan McGregor as Oliver, the beauteous Melanie Laurent (Shoshanna in Inglorious Basterds), and Christopher Plummer--who deserved his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his incarnation of Oliver's newly out-of-the-closet father.  All this and one of the best dogs in a movie.

Higher Ground--Actress Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air) makes her directorial debut and plays the lead role: a woman in a strict religious community who struggles with her faith.  It's refreshing to see women's lives portrayed by women artists.

Drive--Ryan Gosling in an ultra-violent (and 80's-style) sometimes-pretentious allegory that has moments of real moviemaking excitement.  I'd watch it again just for the opening ten minutes.  Though I might close my eyes a lot after that.

Martha Marcy May Marlene--A very non-mainstream Indie about a young woman living in a religious cult.  The breakout role for Olsen Twin sister Elizabeth Olsen, and another creepy rural guy role for John Hawkes--Teardrop in Winter's Bone.  Not for those who demand a standard Hollywood narrative.

Young Adult--Charlize Theron is great in this overlooked offering from the Juno team: director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody.  Funny and sad.

The Skin I Live In--Like many of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's movies, this one is not for the easily offended.  It's a garish and lurid melodrama about a mad scientist and the beautiful woman he holds captive.  Almodovar doesn't expect you to take it all seriously.  But it's pretty serious underneath the surface.  Notice I avoided skin-related puns.

Melancholia--A real European Art Film (notice the capital letters) from Dogme director Lars von Trier. Lots of lush and moody visuals, and a very convincing performance by Kirsten Dunst.  As the title suggests, the film seeks to capture an emotional state in which it can seem as though the world is ending.

The Descendants--I was rooting for this movie and for George Clooney on Oscar night.  I would gladly watch anything made by Alexander Payne (writer/director of Sideways, About Schmidt, Election, and the less-seen Citizen Ruth).  A movie with laughs that's deeply moving--and relatable to anyone who has experienced loss.

And two still to be seen:

A Dangerous Method--David Cronenberg's take on Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.  Cronenberg is best known for dark, psychological works, such as Videodrome, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Crash (1996), and A History of Violence--an imposing collection of work. 

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy--I'm looking forward to seeing Gary Oldman play George Smiley in this adaptation of John LeCarre's Cold War thriller.  It's directed by Tomas Alfredson who made the Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In.  Available from Netflix on April 17.

Some Recommendations from YOU

I've received a number of interesting recommendations from present and past students, so I thought I'd incorporate all of them into one post.  If you contact me with a recommendation, please let me know whether I should use your name or allow you to remain anonymous.

Leslie Garcia

"Suggestion: For those who enjoy a night of live jazz and good ambiance ... Blue Whale in Little Tokyo is a great night out! Check it out ...http://bluewhalemusic.com/  ... I've been to many of the shows, and it's mind blowing how great these young musicians play! (It may be 21 and over -- you may want to check ... they have a bar.) It's a well kept secret, but I am willing to share in the name of solidarity inspired by your blog."

[And I would add that there's lots of good food in Little Tokyo.  My favorite is Daikokuya for cheap and porky ramen.  Check out their YELP reviews.]

Manny Diaz

Manny sent me a link to his favorite poem: "From an Atlas of the Difficult World" by Adrienne Rich.  What Manny didn't know was that Adrienne Rich had passed away two days earlier and that, as I read her obituary, I knew I wanted to post one of her poems but didn't know which to choose.  Manny's suggestion arrived a couple hours later.

A number of sites have been forced to remove the poem for copyright reasons, so I will provide a link that has the poem, at least for now: http://www.best-poems.net/adrienne_rich/from_an_atlas_of_the_difficult_world.html

Alfredo Del Castillo

Alfredo sent a link to a series of "Light Drawings" done by Pablo Picasso in 1949.  They reminded me of the fascinating 1956 documentary The Mystery of Picasso, made by Henri-Georges Clouzot, director of the classic thrillers Diabolique (1955) and The Wages of Fear (1953).  Here's the trailer:

In the film, Picasso creates a series of drawings and paintings, revealing a process in which nothing is sacred.  He's never afraid to completely obliterate the earlier versions of his work as he revises. 

Cheryl Arellano

"I do have a suggestion that I think will be great for students to attend, if they can afford it and they'd get to meet a lot of amazing people in the business and the films showcased are old classic Hollywood films ... the event is the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival, it's held between April 12th - April 15th. To reiterate, it's pretty pricey, a festival pass for all 4 days ranges for $300 to $500 dollars but I would go for the individual ticket, which although considered standby, I've always been able to get into a screening. And although, it doesn't guarantee that you get to attend the reception after the screening or the panel before the film, you can still manage to meet in the screenings pretty influential and distinguished people. I've gone before and with an individual pass have been able to view the screenings of many films and meet and discuss with people like: Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Thelma Schoonmaker, and Jon Voight; I don't mean to name drop, I promise. The individual tickets run from about $20 to $30 and the filmmakers, writers, producers, etc. usually attend the screenings which is great. The screenings are held in numerous theaters such as Egyptian Theatre, Grauman Chinese Theatre, Aero Theatre,etc. "  Their website: http://www.tcm.com/festival/

Cecilia Lemus

Cecilia reminds us that there is "a cheap theater in Long Beach" that does "more than just Shakespeare": The Long Beach Shakespeare Company 

And finally, Jonas Peji,

who recommends that I use Tumblr instead of blogspot, which is "so 2011."