“On Thursday, officials will unveil what many consider L.A.’s best shot for a bold civic space — a 16-acre park that would flow east from the cultural institutions atop Bunker Hill, around a cluster of government buildings and ending dramatically at the steps of City Hall. The design” includes “an event lawn for rallies and concerts, a community terrace featuring a multicultural garden, a performance space with a stage, and a plaza whose centerpiece would be the historic Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain.”
Tag: 03.12.09
Civic Park Design At Once Overly Detailed, Underdeveloped
“The proposal as it stands now … reaches too far, and eagerly takes on too much aesthetic responsibility, to succeed as anything resembling a master plan. By filling in as many design details as it does, it seems to foreclose the possibility of operating as a crisp, reserved foundation for other designers, artists and architects to build upon. At the same time, it is too conceptually weak to stand on its own.”
Philanthropist Leonore Annenberg Dies At 91
“Leonore Annenberg, 91, U.S. chief of protocol under President Reagan, widow of former publisher and U.S. Ambassador to Britain Walter H. Annenberg, and steward of the couple’s massive philanthropy, died today at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif.”
Is This The Beat Movement’s Moment For A Comeback?
“Could today’s doomsday economics, cultural bankruptcy, and ‘why they hate us’ value system signal an end to this reality-show era and the beginning of a newfangled ‘beat movement?’ Sort of a Zen, hipster version of ‘Change You Can Believe In’?”
Shepard Fairey Is Up Against It In Boston
“This may be the only place in America where Shepard Fairey, the street artist whose omnipresent portrait of Barack Obama has become a touchstone, is not fully feeling the love. Mr. Fairey appeared in two municipal courts here this week to fight a cascade of vandalism charges…. While this is not his first encounter with the police — Mr. Fairey has been arrested more than a dozen times for posting his art on whatever surface catches his eye — it appears to be his biggest legal tangle to date.”
Are The Fabulous Philadelphians Losing Their Lustre?
It’s not enough that the Philadelphia Orchestra finds itself with staff layoffs and a big deficit and without a permanent music director, CEO or board chairman. Problems over the last few years include nasty contract negotiations in 2004, the messy departure last year of ex-music director Christoph Eschenbach (along with his recording contract), continuing questions about the acoustics at Verizon Hall, the scandalous-to-some absence of the Philadelphians from Gramophone‘s list of the world’s 20 best orchestras, and the sense within the industry of “a current of insularity and privilege among the players.”
John Waters Wants Pink Flamingos To Be An Opera
“‘It would be a good opera,’ he says. ‘It’s extremes of competition to see who can be the filthiest person in the world. It stars a fat lady. And, I’ve said it before, not only does she sing at the end, she does something else. If you think about it, it would work.'”