Results tagged “fredastaire”

By now, everyone's sick of hearing about how the economy's in the toilet. But hey, sometimes it nets you cheap dinner and a free movie. If you're unemployed, that is. Then you'll want to be heading over to the old Aero, for the uncanny Boris Karloff's spookiest performances, the highly flappable combination of Laurel & Hardy & Fields, and more Ginger than a Shirley Temple - all on their dime (simply present your ID & EDD). For more current freebies, you could always set aside some time to learn something - how about the plight of women in Iran at The Hammer? Or the plight of our descendants stalked by cannibalistic humanoids at The Skirball? Suddenly the recession's a tad easier to bear.

With just about a month left in the exhibit, artists Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, and Simone Legno will be gathering for a discussion about the work of Takashi Murakami at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. The event, called Pervasive Persuasion, is a panel-style talk moderated by Eric Nakamura, publisher and co-editor of Giant Robot, and will include thoughts on "how and why artists in Los Angeles are blurring the lines of media to spread their ideas beyond museum walls." The evening will end with the opportunity for the audience to participate in a collaborative painting with the artists and a enjoy unique performance art experience by Oguri.

Stage and screen choreographer Michael Kidd died this past Sunday in Los Angeles at the age of 92, according to the New York Times. From his beginnings in Brooklyn, Kidd moved over to Manhattan to dance and create dances for dance companies including Lincoln Kirstein's Ballet Caravan (1937), Eugene Loring's Dance Players (1941) and Ballet Theater, the predecessor to the American Ballet Theater (1942-47).

Every once and a while, a group of cinephile friends and I sit around and get into a heated discussion about all of the great artists we wish someone would make a movie about. Today that discussion centered on the fabulous Nicholas Brothers, maybe the two most dynamic tap dancers who ever lived. I was never a very starstruck person, even as a younger man, but Harold (d. 2000) and Fayard (d. 2006) Nicholas were...

Cyd Charisse danced with the best in movie musicals, including Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. In 1952 her legs were insured for $5 million. Today is her 85th birthday.

So Jon Stewart will host the Oscars this year. Hosting the Oscars solo is a little like climbing Everest: the idea of doing it is always there, taunting America's elite comedians and raconteurs. Some, like Bob Hope, can beat it — 12 times he hosted alone, and more times with helpers tagging along. Others end up like Beck Weathers and David Letterman, beaten and barely alive, knowing they'll never do it again. But the challenge to climb it remains, irresistable, until the opportunity is seized. Many who've tried have passed into that good night. Stewart, we love ya: please bring a sherpa.

Tuesday cover story by Susan Monahan profiles Vendome Liquors on Olympic in Beverly Hills. The literary tone of the article, which Monahan wrote in the second person, reminds us of Bright Lights, Big City.