February 2012 Archives

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

Laura Collins-Hughes reviews Geoff Dyer's "Zona" (The Boston Globe)
Michael Feingold reviews Athol Fugard's "Blood Knot" at Signature (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews Gabe McKinley's "CQ/CX" (The Village Voice)
Sasha Frere-Jones on the "Drive" score's Oscar ineligibility (The New Yorker)
Matthew Gurewitsch salutes forgotten balladeer Carl Loewe (The New York Times)
John Horn on marketing "Act of Valor" (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday reviews "Rampart" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday detects reason for hope in the Oscars race (The Washington Post)
Julia M. Klein reviews "In the Garden of Beasts" (The Pennsylvania Gazette)
Glenn Lovell reviews the satanic crime thriller "Kill List" (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews Amanda Seyfried in "Gone" (CinemaDope.com)
Claude Peck reviews Christopher Bram's "Eminent Outlaws" (Star Tribune, Minneapolis)
Ann Powers on why Rihanna's "Birthday Cake" is worth a listen (NPR)
Ann Powers on female trouble on "American Idol" (NPR)
Kenneth Turan reviews "Act of Valor" (Los Angeles Times)
Kenneth Turan on why "The Artist" should win best picture (Los Angeles Times)
Calvin Wilson on the photo show "Northern Haiti" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Calvin Wilson on photography at the St. Louis Art Museum (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer reviews "Galileo" at Classic Stage Company (Newsday)
Linda Winer on the stage roots of Oscar nominees (Newsday)

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

Martin Bernheimer reviews "This Enchanted Island" at the Met (Opera)
Laura Bleiberg reviews Heidi Duckler's "Cleopatra, CEO" (Los Angeles Times)
Laura Bleiberg reviews Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo's "Cinderella" (Los Angeles Times)
Larry Blumenfeld on pianist Fabian Almazan (The Wall Street Journal)
Robert Campbell on picturing structures with digital tools (The Boston Globe)
Robert Christgau on Etta James (Barnes & Noble Review)
Michael Feingold reviews Adam Guettel's "Myths and Hymns" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews Kate Fodor's "Rx" at Primary Stages (The Village Voice)
Patti Hartigan on supernatural stage serial "Blood Rose Rising" (The Boston Globe)
Ann Hornaday reviews "Coriolanus" (The Washington Post)
Ann Hornaday reviews "This Means War" (The Washington Post)
Lawrence B. Johnson on a novel "Midsummer Night's Dream" (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Lawrence B. Johnson reviews Lyric Opera's "Show Boat" (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Julia M. Klein on the New-York Historical Society (Columbia Magazine)
Julia M. Klein reviews "The Buddha in the Attic" (Columbia Magazine)
Dennis Lim on director Nina Menkes (The New York Times)
Dennis Lim on the Berlin International Film Festival (The New York Times)
Renee Montagne interviews Chieftains founder Paddy Moloney (NPR)
Tom Moon on Dr. Dog's "Be the Void" (NPR)
Laurie Muchnick reviews William Landay's "Defending Jacob" (Bloomberg News)
Ann Powers on social media and the 2012 Grammys (NPR)
Ann Powers on Hollywood Week on "American Idol" (NPR)
Kenneth Turan reviews "The Secret World of Arrietty" (Los Angeles Times)
Calvin Wilson on artist John Stezaker (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer reviews "How I Learned to Drive" at Second Stage (Newsday)

Quick note to California and New York City colleagues:

Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra are on tour to San Francisco, Costa Mesa, Palm Desert and San Diego Feb. 14-19 and they will be in residence during opening week of the 2012-13 season at Carnegie Hall. Most of the draw is likely to be for Muti himself, and for the traditional works on his programs, which include "Carmina Burana," Schubert's ("Great") Symphony in C Major and the Franck Symphony in D minor.

But Muti is also aggressively promoting the orchestra's two young composers-in-residence -- Mason Bates, 35, also known as DJMasonic, and London-born Anna Clyne, 31. They have invigorated Muti while attracting their own followers. When was the last time you actually saw an auditorium thin out before the big romantic work on the program? It happened here in Chicago earlier this month. Here's a profile of the two composers.

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

Martin Bernheimer on Verdi's "Ernani" at the Metropolitan Opera (Financial Times)
Martin Bernheimer on Gluck's "Armide" at Juilliard (Financial Times)
Robert Campbell on the Boston Society of Architects' new HQ (The Boston Globe)
Michael Feingold reviews Roundabout's "Look Back in Anger" (The Village Voice)
Gayle Feldman on David vs. Goliath at Digital Book World (The Bookseller)
Matthew Gurewitsch profiles the Wagnerian Tomasz Konieczny (Opera News)
Matthew Gurewitsch on a monster production of "Andrea Chénier" (Opera News)
John Horn on director Daniel Espinosa and "Safe House" (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday reviews Madonna's "W.E." (The Washington Post)
Lawrence B. Johnson on "Time Stands Still" at Steppenwolf (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Lawrence B. Johnson reviews Ayad Akhtar's "Disgraced" (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Michael Kimmelman on how to fix Penn Station (The New York Times)
Michael Kimmelman on Mitch Epstein's photos of N.Y. trees (The New York Times)
Nancy Malitz interviews Jay Hunter Morris (ChicagoOntheAisle.com)
Karen Michel on a chefs' competition en route to the Bocuse d'Or (NPR)
Ann Powers on the death of Whitney Houston (NPR)
Ann Powers on the Grammys and pop music (NPR)
David Streitfeld on fallout from a star librarian's Amazon deal (The New York Times)
Laura Sydell on Amazon expanding its streaming inventory with Viacom (NPR)
Kenneth Turan reviews "Safe House" (Los Angeles Times)
Calvin Wilson on pianist Chucho Valdés (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer on revising "Carrie," the infamous Broadway flop (Newsday)
Linda Winer reviews "Merrily We Roll Along" at Encores! (Newsday)

And in print:

MJ Andersen on the Gardner Museum's new wing and the MFA's contemporary art wing (The Providence Journal)

This week's links to NAJP members' work:

Robert Christgau on Ani DiFranco's "Which Side Are You On?" (NPR)
Laura Collins-Hughes interviews Daniel Radcliffe (The Boston Globe)
Laura Collins-Hughes reviews Lysley Tenorio's "Monstress" (The Boston Globe)
Michael Feingold reviews Pearl Theatre's "The Philanderer" (The Village Voice)
Michael Feingold reviews MTC's revival of "Wit" (The Village Voice)
John Horn does a directors roundtable with Payne, Daldry et al (Los Angeles Times)
John Horn on Martin Scorsese and "Hugo" (Los Angeles Times)
Ann Hornaday on abysmal audience behavior (The Washington Post)
Glenn Lovell reviews Josh Trank's "Chronicle" (CinemaDope.com)
Glenn Lovell reviews Daniel Radcliffe in "The Woman in Black" (CinemaDope.com)
Renee Montagne talks to Lawrence Weschler about poet Wislawa Szymborska (NPR)
Laurie Muchnick reviews Robert Harris' "The Fear Index" (Bloomberg News)
Ann Powers on "American Idol" and older pop stars (NPR)
Kenneth Turan reviews Frederick Wiseman's "Crazy Horse" (Los Angeles Times)
Calvin Wilson interviews Wim Wenders about "Pina" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Linda Winer on appending authors' names to titles of plays and musicals (Newsday)
Linda Winer reviews "Look Back in Anger" at Roundabout (Newsday)

When I was in art school in Los Angeles in the 1990s, my mentor, artist Mitchell Syrop, occasionally told stories about Mike Kelley. He and Mike had been roommates when they were attending graduate school at CalArts in the late 1970s. Mike and a handful of other CalArts students became famous in the late 1980s and early 1990s, putting L.A. contemporary art on the map, at least as much as and possibly more than a previous generation of L.A. artists--including Ed Ruscha and Robert Irwin--had done in the 1960s. Kelley's work was high and low at the same time. It was funny, in-your-face, accessible, and also cerebral. Growing up working-class in Detroit, Kelley never talked down to his audience, despite the work's sophistication. Years ago, I remember seeing a series of sculptures that he made out of wood, which looked like strange riffs on high school shop-class projects. How could conceptual art be so folksy and yet so smart? I'm still not sure. Mitchell liked to say that while one of his most famous CalArts classmates turned out to be an asshole, Mike was and always would be a gentleman.

On November 19, I met Kelley for the first and last time. The occasion was an opening in L.A. of a show based around the former Detroit band, Destroy All Monsters, whose members first included Kelley and another L.A. artist, Jim Shaw. Kelley was standing against a wall wearing a black trench coat and black work boots. I went over, introduced myself, and told him how Mitchell used to call him a gentleman. Mike seemed touched, said that he hadn't seen Mitchell in years and asked that I send him his regards.

Then he got a bit gloomy. He said that he wasn't always nice to people, and that, in fact, he was often an asshole. He said that he constantly had to remind himself not to be an asshole. "See?" he said, holding up the back of his hand two inches in front of my eyes. I could see that he had written his first name in thick black ink across his knuckles. Below his name was smaller writing. But I was not wearing my glasses and could not read it. He said, "This is to remind me not to be an ass. Young people who are assholes can get away with it. But old men who are assholes are just pathetic grouches."

In the hours since Mike Kelley died, much has already been written about him and been digitally disseminated around the world. He obviously touched thousands of people through his remarkable work. Who knows what he had left to say? I'm sure Mitchell would agree that there won't be many more like him coming along anytime soon.