A surprising Hannukah TV special; a deeper look at "Batman Returns;" Angela Lansbury, Queen of all Medias - and Mediums; our All-Star Night Before Christmas
Taylor Orci can't be the only person in LA afraid of waves
It's sunset and I'm standing on a deserted beach. I look out onto the flat placid ocean, which begins to curl up rapidly, then build and then shoot up into a wall of water above me. Something like dread punches me in the stomach as it reaches its highest point and I think, "This is it."
I have a fear of waves. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I was never properly introduced to the ocean. Maybe I thought having a big fear like that would make me more interesting and then one day I started to believe it.
I do know that I have nightmares of 80-foot tidal waves smashing onto my head, and it's probably because I've had terrible luck in the ocean. Every time I try, a wave wipes me out and I feel like I'm drowning. More than one person has told me, "But that's the FUN part!"
A woman once told me there was a spiritual reason for why this is the fun part for everyone but me. She said I'm afraid of waves because in a past life I drowned. She also said this was why she was afraid of explosions. Because in a past life, she had exploded.
One time I went into the ocean in Mexico and a wave came and the current swept me under and I tumbled backwards in the ocean like I was in a washing machine. When I got up, my bikini top was 10 feet away from me. Ten feet away from my bikini top was a group of teen boys playing fútbol. The teen boys and I had very different reactions. Years later my ex sent me a tragic New Yorker article about how a man lost his fiancée on that very beach. So, my luck is not that bad, but it's still not great.
But every now and then, I try to screw up enough courage to try to beat it. Every now and then, I say "Yes" instead of "No" and go into the water up to my calves when my boyfriend wants to go to the beach to, quote, "Relax." One time I got really ballsy and rode my bike into the ocean for a comedy bit.
It was terrifying, but that dumb stunt helped me get a little braver, and recently I did something I thought would build up my courage even more. I went sea kayaking. Up until now whenever I thought about "sea kayaking," I, like most people, immediately imagined a herpes commercial — after they got treated and every day was filled with sea kayaks. And that's the way I liked it. But now I thought I'd actually like to try it out for myself.
It was 30 minutes into the trip when I realized the whole time I'd been clenching my teeth. Until then, I had the mindset that I was paddling for survival. I unclenched my teeth and told myself, "This is fun. You are having fun." And I chilled out and actually had fun. I mean, we saw seals. Happy seals sunning themselves on rocks like wet puppies with fins. I also picked up this really cool piece of algae. It was purple, and we went into a bona fide sea cave! My stomach was still queasy and I still had a headache, but I thought to myself, "This might actually be okay."
Then it came time to go back. And on the way riding the waves back, our kayak tipped over and a wave sent the full force of my boyfriend into the back of my helmet — he'd been in the back of the kayak, which up until this moment had been of great assurance to me.
"Done! I'm done!" I thought. I thanked my boyfriend’s parents who were very kind to pay for all of us to do something fun together, and then went home and took a shower to get the sand out of my teeth. I blamed myself. I mean, I'm the one who attracted the bad ocean luck. I can't even have fun like someone with herpes on a regular day.
Then, somehow I remembered a nugget of wisdom from an inspiration poster about how the winning is in the trying even if you fail. I almost drowned, but that's okay, because I tried.
Yeah, whatever.
Want to see Taylor Orci in person? She'll be on stage Jan. 28, at 8pm, at Comedy Central Stages. She'll be performing "Maybe I’m The A-----e," paired with Carmen Angelica’s "Who Am I, and What The Hell Am I Doing?!" Tickets are free, but you need to RSVP (323-960-5519). The Comedy Central Stage is at 6539 Santa Monica Blvd, LA CA 90038.
On LA's Skid Row, boutique gifts help lift some women out of harm's way
It's holiday crunch time, and in a out-of-the-way workshop a merry helpers are hard at work stitching journals and stamping the covers of holiday cards for the busiest season on record.
This isn't the North Pole; it's Skid Row — South San Pedro Street, at the Downtown Women Center's eastern outpost. Here, homeless and formerly homeless women are taking part in one of the dozens of craft workshops that produce their "MADE" line of gift goods.
The small arts room is segmented into stations for paper cutting and hole-puncturing, block-printing and glue-spraying. At least one or two women occupy each area, quietly at work.
Marina Rodriguez, 52, is hunched over a translucent ruler, demonstrating how to trim a greeting card. She carefully lines up the notches with the card stock to keep her cut even, then slowly traces an edge with an Xacto Knife.
"It has to be perfect," she says, adding with a smile, "People really like these."
The attention to detail has paid off. Though the gifts are made year-round, the holidays tend to be the busy season. And this year — with more orders arriving from outlets like Bloomingdales in Century City and Hudson News at LAX, as well as sales booming at the center's cafe retail store — sales are set to eclipse past years.
"We are kind of at the peak or crunch time, and it's about to pass," says Product and Merchandise Sr. Manager Dena Younkin. "We definitely increased from last year and the year before."
Younkin estimates that by the end of the season, sales will have doubled.
The Downtown Women Center's program director, Amy Turk, is a little more conservative. She says sales have increased about 10 percent each year, "which we think is great for a business, for a start-up business in particular," she says. "We're very pleased with ourselves this year."
But even that growth pales in comparison to the gains the program has made in the lives of many of the women who take part.
A community, An outlet, a way back to work
The MADE program was launched four years ago, when the DWC moved into a new building — one that had a storefront. Some on the center's staff saw an opportunity to expand their job training efforts.
"We heard loud and clear that people wanted to work, but didn't feel like there were work opportunities in the community," says Turk. "And then we said 'Well, what kind of work would you want to do?'"
The result: A work training program that operated as a kind of drop-in skill-share. Women can sign up for classes and learn crafts like machine sewing and block-printing. More importantly, those enrolled in the workshops can earn a little extra pocket money and have a place to go during the day.
"As you can imagine, sitting around and doing these activities together, making these products, allows for time to get to know people and to start to support people in a different way and to build up the social skills that might be needed," Turk says.
The center holds several free craft workshops throughout the week. They range from soap and candle creation, to journal-making, stitching and block-printing. Each is taught by a volunteer and is open to women who live at the center, as well as to those who just drop in for the day. About 150 women take part in the DWC's craft programs, says Turk.
"Once one of the women has demonstrated that they can make a saleable product, which usually doesn't take long at all," she says, "they're paid per item that they make." The amount depends on the item, she says, but it's roughly commensurate to the minimum wage.
Some, like longtime MADE participant Gloria McKinney have gone through the whole lot. She says her interest in books lead her to the program.
"I love books, and I wanted to learn how to refurbish them — to keep from just tossing them when they get old or damaged or whatever," she says. "That's what started me."
Soon after, she found herself hand-sewing Christmas tree ornaments, then bags, earrings, jewelry, knitting, coffee cozys, soaps. "I've gone through all the programs," McKinney says.
"For some people, they look at it as a job. For me it's a hobby," she says, adding pointedly. "I have gotten a job through DWC, though — going through their work training program."
McKinney says she was living at the Union Rescue Mission down the street when she first started attending the workshops. Now, four years later, she's living in an apartment not far away. She says she got help with her resume, received some job training and a new set of donated work clothes, and went on an interview that she heard about through the center.
"I had on a great outfit. A perfect resume. And I'm thinking, 'I got this,'" she said.
She got the gig.
The craft workshops offer a kind of stepping-stone, Turk says, to other programs the DWC offers, and to getting back into the workforce. Those programs include resume and interview workshops, as well as hands-on barista training at the center's cafe, and cashier and retail training at their store on South Los Angeles Street.
In all, Turk says 42 women went from the DWC's programs back into the workforce in 2014.
For others, the workshops are more an opportunity to work off a little creative steam, and to meet with friends.
"I really love the women here. They help me a lot," says Rodriguez. "This also helps me to have something to do, so where I'm not just stagnant at home. [It] helps me be creative with my art."
Magdalena Tran, who says she suffers from bouts of anxiety, says the crafts help her keep calm. She now lives at the center, in the housing above the art room.
"Every single time I have the opportunity to come down, I come," she says.
Managing demand while Building a brand
MADE's success has provided an opportunity to teach more advanced business skills, says Younkin, such as the concept of brand identity.
"We've gotten to a point where it's really important that our consumer knows what they're getting," Younkin says. She uses the example of the tree ornaments. "The cat is always smiling. We don't sell frowning cats," she says. "Sometimes the artist may decide that they want to make a frowny cat for whatever reason..."
Those cases she says, offer teachable moments. "And that's part of our skill-building. It's part of our training," she says.
With business booming, Younkin says the program's next challenge is in balancing the MADE brand's growth with the center's mission.
"Our number one priority is to meet the needs of the women we're serving," she says. "It's great when we have giant orders, but if we can't fulfill that demand, we won't."
Program director Amy Turk suggests it might be time to move from handmade to machine made goods, if orders continue to soar.
"Every situation's different," Younkin says. "Just like the ladies here all have a different story, I think every circumstance that comes to us is different, and we have to weigh that every time."
You can find MADE goods at various outlets around L.A., including the Downtown Women Center's cafe and retail store. They're also available online at Etsy and Ravel and Lilly.
Looking for a good Hanukkah TV special? Try 'Santa Claus is Comin' to Town'
I used to feel sorry for my Jewish friends at Christmastime, and not just during the slightly sad Christmas dinners we sometimes shared down in Chinatown.
What got to me more was the sense of encirclement I was sure they felt, as White Christmas, Silent Night, Adeste Fidelis and all the usual suspects erupted from every speaker in America, while Rudolph, Charlie Brown, and the Grinch invaded every TV screen. I was raised a Catholic, and sometimes all that makes me feel encircled too.
On TV, there was virtually nothing Hanukkah-related to compare to the annual Christmas hits. And when I thought about Jewish families, and especially their kids, this seemed like a serious lack. Because TV? It's still our communal hearth this time of year, and the essence of community is inclusion.
Well, despair not, children of Abraham, because I'm here to share an epiphany I had maybe 15 years ago, when I watched the big holiday specials with similar thoughts in mind. It turns out Hanukkah has its own annual TV celebration. A richly beloved program that's a cultural institution, and easily the coolest holiday show of all -- because it's gently subversive, and it hides in plain sight.
Ladies and (merry) gentlemen, I give you: Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass' 1970 masterwork Santa Claus is Comin' to Town: an origin myth for Santa, and almost as Jewish thematically as the annual Chabad telethon.
To begin with--the villains. They're Nazis, okay? They wear Kaiser Wilhelm Pickelhaube helmets, and their leader is called Burgermesiter Meisterburger, and the accent it straight out of Stalag 17.
The scariest moments in the special are when the Burgermeister's minions gather up Santa's first toys just after they're delivered and then burn them in front of the children they were meant for, the way the Nazis burned books at Wartburg.
By this point in the film, here's what we know about Santa: he's a foundling, who was delivered to his destiny on a winter wind the way Moses was carried by the Nile in the bulrushes. The elves who adopted him are ruled by a matriarch: Tante Kringle -- the Yiddish word for "aunt."
So Santa? He's a Jew.
And he's increasingly a freedom fighter, bringing toys to the children despite the Burgermeister's anti-toy decrees.
Important to note: the Burgermeister is one of the few villains ever created by teleplay writer Romeo Mueller who isn't redeemed in some way. Mueller wrote the script for the Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer special too, and you probably remember what a softie the abominable snowman turned out to be. But even cartoon Nazis couldn't be forgiven so easily. So it's only when time marches on and history rounds a few more bends that the Burgermeister is forgotten.
And Santa and his ragged band? Why, they leave the land of their sorrows and trials, and make what can only be called an Exodus, across trackless wastes, to found their own Promised Land at the North Pole.
Call it Santa's Village, or call it Israel. What I call it is an ingenious exploration of one religious community's core foundation myths, using the syntax of another's.
It makes Santa Claus is Comin' to Town a rich, cross-cultural experience if you know where to look.
Just like a good Christmas dinner.
In Chinatown.
(RH Greene is a writer and filmmaker. His latest film is Vampira and Me.)
Batman Returns — Is there anti-semitism in this kind-of Christmas movie?
There are classic Christmas movies like "It's a Wonderful Life," or "The Muppet Christmas Carol." Then there are weirder, darker movies that involve Christmas tangentially — "Die Hard" being one classic example.
Then there's "Batman Returns" — a Christmas movie, sort of. Wreaths, Christmas trees and gifts appear throughout the film. But in its lead villain, there's a strange and potentially anti-semitic allegory.
Released in 1992, Tim Burton's "Batman Returns" was a sequel to the 1989 "Batman." It is not a great Batman movie, but fans of Tim Burton can at least take comfort in knowing he does everything he can to remind you you're watching a Tim Burton movie. Everyone — even the extras — wears funhouse-goth costumes while the camera glides quickly over cityscapes, parks and cemeteries with Danny Elfman's score in the background.
Michael Keaton reprises his role as Batman and faces Danny DeVito as the Penguin. The Penguin is the classic villain from the comics and TV show, but now he's more grotesque — he's introduced to the film as a deformed and vile mutant baby. His crib cage sits in front of a giant flocked Christmas tree in the first scene.
He's soon abandoned by his wealthy parents — who send him in a basket down a narrow river in a Gotham zoo like Moses down the Nile. This won't be the only time "Batman Returns" refers to Moses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkoi4z_dQso
Flash forward a few decades and the Penguin has grown into an evil, sewer-bred freak with an unsettling resemblance to the caricatures of Jewish businessmen you'd see in Nazi propaganda. He's short and fat. He has a giant hooked nose and wears a top hat and fur coat. For the good people of Gotham he has nothing but contempt.
His first act of mayhem is at a Christmas tree lighting in downtown Gotham. This is the first of two tree-lightings the Penguin ruins. Literally, he has declared a war on Christmas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLnPWTQ8lSs
The Penguin finds an ally in Max Shreck, the scheming businessman played by Christopher Walken and the Aaron to the Penguin's warped Moses. Together, the two conspire to take over Gotham with a charm offensive: the Penguin runs for mayor, engineers publicity stunts with Shreck, gives emotional press conferences, challenges the sitting mayor and even rescues a baby.
But the plan backfires. Batman releases a tape where the Penguin shows his true colors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGmxgyNLwAg
In a rage — and this might be the weirdest part — the Penguin retreats back to the sewers and orders his army to kidnap and murder the first born son of every Gothamite. Why? It's a little hard to understand:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSxCT1Faw6k
This didn't go unnoticed back in 1992. Two Columbia University seniors wrote an op-ed for the New York Times calling the movie out. They didn't pull any punches. They wrote:
Batman's new adversary, the Penguin, played by Danny DeVito in "Batman Returns," is not just a deformed man, half human, half-Arctic-beast. He is a Jew, down to his hooked nose, pale face, and lust for herring.
The charges piled up: Danny Elfman composed a score with transparent homages to Richard Wager, the anti-semitic German composer; the name of Christopher Walken's villainous businessman character — Max Shreck — sounded Jewish. The article is no longer on the New York Times website, but appears here in an archived version from the Gainesville Sun.
So is "Batman Returns" anti-semitic? Abraham Foxman and Melvin Salberg — both prominent members of the Anti-Defamation League — wrote a letter objecting to the op-ed, arguing:
We must not squander the precious currency of concern, as well as our limited resources, on nonsense like the authors' convoluted misperceptions of biblical imagery or Wagnerian chords in the film score.
The Times also published a response from Wesley Strick. It was Strick — the only Jewish person among the film's directors, producers and writers — who added the Penguin's campaign against Gotham's first born.
"I remember, I went to Ralphs to pick up some groceries," Strick said. "And while in the Ralphs parking lot, I actually, I was walking my cart to the car and I thought of Exodus. Just 'cause of, it was already, it seemed to me, kind of hidden in the script, or suggested. In that first image of the baby Penguin floating down the river."
Strick also said he was mortified when that column came out — what would his family think?
"My father was one of those people who read the New York Times from cover to cover every morning," he said. "So I knew he would read this op-ed. I worried that he would believe these charges. So I was afraid that he would put two and two together that I had fallen into this trap of leaving my Jewish roots behind and writing anti-semitic pop movies. So I really felt like I had to defend myself in print, and preferably in the New York Times."
He argued the authors read too much into the movie. He added that if you pronounce "Batman" right, the Dark Knight's name sounds just as Jewish as "Shreck."
It's very likely all the symbols and allegory in "Batman Returns," and the resulting dust-up came together in a perfect storm of bad coincidences. The film did not get made easily — both Keaton and Burton were reluctant to return to the subject and the script underwent several rewrites. Characters were added in, taken out.
Strick agreed, adding he hadn't seen what DeVito's Penguin would look like until after the script was finalized.
"Batman Returns" would be Burton's last time directing Bruce Wayne and company. The franchise lingered for two more films until Christopher Nolan's reboot of the series in 2005. The Joker returned, Catwoman returned, but the Penguin was never resurrected.
Getty Villa shows off a treasure trove of Roman silver a French farmer almost destroyed
Off-Ramp commentator Marc Haefele reviews "Ancient Luxury and the Roman Silver Treasure from Berthouville," at the Getty Villa through August 17, 2015.
A French farmer in the days of "Les Miserables" does with his new field just what any farmer anywhere would do with a new field. He digs it up to see what it’s like. The farmer’s name was Prosper Taurin and he struck buried treasure in a story straight out of an old fairy tale. Fifty pounds of precious classic silver dishes and statuary up to 1,600 years old, much of it embossed with deep reliefs of gods and goddesses at play, with cupids and centaurs and even some winsome, buxom centauresses.
It was all too much for the rustic, pious Monsieur Taurin. Such pagan sensuality had to be diabolical. He didn’t even dare to touch it. Instead, he used his pickax to rake the priceless pieces into a large sack, causing some irreparable damage. Taurin didn’t care. Melted down, the treasure would be worth some $8,000 — perhaps enough to buy the biggest field in all of Normandy.
Luckily for us, someone convinced him the treasure might be worth even more as antiquities. Which is why the so-called Berthouville Treasure can now be beheld in its total, restored splendor at the Getty Villa.
(Mercury, Roman, A.D. 175-225; silver and gold. Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Its 60 pieces belonged to a temple dedicated to Mercury, god of messengers and thieves. Why his priests decided to bury the treasure, sometime after 200 AD, we know almost nothing. Scholar Isabelle Fauduet suggests that German tribal raids disrupted this region that had been peaceful and prosperous for centuries. Most of the objects were from worshipers, seeking divine favors or giving thanks for good fortune. Many have names of the donors scratched on them. The biggest donor was named Quintus Domitius Tutus. But we know nothing about him but his name.
Then the priests went away, and left the fruits of devotion below the rich soil. There is a silver statue of Mercury, about a third life size, the largest classical silver statue known. There is a smaller, less complete version of the same. There are great silver cups, each weighing nearly two pounds, envined with beautiful little characters enacting scenes from Homer and the Greek myths. The Getty’s curators suggest these originally were literally conversation pieces — that the dinner guest handed any particular cup or gilt ewer was expected to tell the story it illustrated, with suitable embellishment.
(Beaker with Imagery Related to Isthmia and Corinth, Roman, A.D. 1-100; silver and gold. Poseidon (Neptune) and Demeter (Ceres). Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Knowing those stories was a basic indication of classical literacy, even in the faraway Imperial north of what was to become France.
Let’s imagine that holiday meals then were as strained as they are today. But instead of just clenching your teeth while grandpa talked about how much better things were under the reign of old Emperor Nero, you could pick up your drinking cup and stop all conversation by saying, “Did you ever hear the story about how Hercules got Queen Omphale’s housekeeper pregnant back when he was disguised as a woman in her court? See, it’s all right here on my cup. Let me tell you.” For the Berthouville treasure is more than tableware … it’s a reservoir of tradition.
As though this trove were not enough, the exhibit at the Getty Villa also includes later serving plates from all over the disintegrating Roman Empire. They suggest that, continuing for nearly 300 years after Christianity became Rome’s official religion, classical mythology still had a grip on domestic tradition. The Roman People may have worshiped Jesus on Sunday, but as late as 600AD, some were still serving dinner on plates that showed Hercules strangling the Nemean lion.
(Plate with Hercules Wrestling the Nemean Lion (detail), Roman, A.D. 500-600; silver. Bibliothèque nationale de France)
And, you assume, sharing stories of Herk’s mighty deeds.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the age of the silver items. KPCC regrets the error.
'The Devil Is a Part-Timer': Japanese anime with a kinder, gentler Satan
The Japanese anime "The Devil Is a Part-Timer" offers the kind of take-no-prisoners humor American animation seems to have abandoned. And the premise is so outrageous, it may give fundamentalists heart attacks.
Here’s the story: After a titanic battle in an alternate reality, Satan, the Lord of Demons, is hurled through an inter-dimensional portal with his general Alciel and his archenemy, the Heroine Emilia. The portal dumps them in contemporary Tokyo, without their accustomed supernatural powers — or any means of support. After a run-in with the police, Satan and Alciel take the names Mao and Shiro, and rent a minuscule apartment in a run-down old building.
Mao gets a job at the fast-food outlet MgRonalds, where he’s praised as a model employee. He’s delighted when he’s promoted to assistant manager. One of his co-workers falls for him. Inevitably, other characters — both friends and foes — cross the barrier to Earth, complicating life there. Mao astonishes everyone by being so nice. As his powers return, he protects his friends, aids innocent bystanders and repairs the damage the battles with his foes inflict on the city. Voice actor Josh Grelle makes Mao so likable, this improbable behavior feels believable.
Eventually Mao has to confront the cruel angel Sariel in a climactic battle. But the filmmakers once again juxtapose the fantastic and the mundane with hilarious results. His powers restored, a muscular, winged version of Mao begins the fight taking off his MgRonalds uniform and carefully folding it. Any damage to that uniform would be deducted from his salary! Clad in his boxers, he literally beats the hell out of Sariel, makes sure his friends are safe and repairs the nearby buildings. Then he puts his uniform back on so can start his shift at MgRonalds.
The moment is hilarious, perfectly in character and impossible to imagine in an American animated series. Despite the often-outrageous antics of "The Simpsons" and "South Park," American audiences don’t expect this kind of blending of the mundane and the absurd from human characters, let alone the Lord of Demons.
"The Devil Is a Part-Timer" is based on a series of 11 light novels by Satoshi Wagahara; the novels and the manga adaptation are slated to be published in America in 2015. The animated version’s first season ends with the quarrelsome cast ready for a new adventure. Viewers on both sides of the Pacific are hoping a second season will follow.
A Christmas Carol Redux
A Christmas Carol Redux offers something for everyone. For traditionalists, there's the full broadast of the classic Lionel Barrymore edition. For those who prefer a thoughtful - and challenging - version, we bring you "A Christmas Golem," which points out Dickens' anti-Semitism. For fun, Sue Scott performs a short piece about a competitive Christmas Carol.
A Christmas Carol redux includes this version of the story, starring Lionel Barrymore. According to sheeplaughs.com, "MGM released this album in 1954, of the Hallmark Hall of Fame production in which Barrymore reprised his role as Scrooge, with the story narrated by Richard Hale, and original score by Samuel "Sammy" Timberg (who worked on many animated cartoons with the Fleischer Studios, such as Popeye, Betty Boop, and Superman). This record is the source of most people's recollection of hearing Barrymore in the Scrooge story, since it was bought and played in many homes for years after the Campbell Playhouse broadcast was no longer aired." Sheeplaughs sells a CD with both the 1939 Welles/Barrymore broadcast and the 1954 edition described above.
Don Bachardy's 'Hollywood': Celebrity portraits and time machines
As it should, the cover of "Hollywood," artist Don Bachardy's huge new collection of portraits of the industry's famous and not-so-famous, tells the whole story:
The book includes 50 years of Bachardy's unflinching "psychological portraits" of people we're used to seeing in airbrushed headshots. There's Bachardy, looking like what he is: an 80-year-old man — not the talented twink who captured writer Christopher Isherwood's heart in 1953. It's Bachardy's self-portrait of "the artist as an old man," if you will.
"If I came out looking 21 and lovely, they'd say 'Hey! That's not fair!' Age is fascinating, but at the same time I hate turning into a gorgon in my own mirror."
(Don Bachardy and Christopher Isherwood, soon after they met.)
So there's Jack Lemmon in 1992, looking a lot older than his 67 actual years, a man who's seen a lot:
(Jack Lemmon, 1992, by Don Bachardy. Glitterati Incorporated)
Bachardy paints a lot of nudes, but very few show up in "Hollywood." Teri Garr is one of the few, but since we don't want to break the Internet, here's a standard portrait:
(Teri Garr, 1979, by Don Bachardy. Glitterati Incorporated)
And it looks like success might have spoiled Tab Hunter.
(Tab Hunter, 2006, by Don Bachardy. Glitterati Incorporated)
In a long interview at his home in Santa Monica, Bachardy said he began drawing faces when he was a boy — mostly of movie stars. Seeing them on the screen helped them to come alive for him, he said.
At 18, when he started his 33-year relationship with novelist and screenwriter Christopher Isherwood, Bachardy suddenly had access to many of the people he'd been drawing. "And to have them sitting in front of me in the flesh!?" It was "scary, but the best kind of scary: exciting scary."
Bachardy began doing his portraits in pencil or ink, then switched to acrylic and color as he gained confidence. Color lets him express much more of the emotion he picks up on in sittings that can last 3 or 4 hours. (Some sitters couldn't take it, like Gov. Jerry Brown.)
Among the 300 images are a number of repeat sitters. Their portraits offer a different sort of time machine. Screenwriter and director Mary Agnes Donoghue, for instance, ages before our eyes in 1971, 1989, and 1998 portraits. These are people he might see socially over the years, but after doing the portraits, "I'm sometimes quite stunned! Oh my gosh! He or she has changed so much since the last time we worked together. But I can't do anything about that. I must record what I see while I'm looking at it. So, sometimes my sitters are quite shocked when they see what I've done."
A friend who's sat for Bachardy says there's a rule. You hate your portrait, but your friends all say it captures you perfectly.
Make sure to listen to our interview above to hear much more from Don Bachardy, including what happened when Angelina Jolie came in for her first sitting.
Rachel Bloom joins Mantle, Carolla, Poggioli and more in our All Star Night Before Christmas
Rachel Bloom of "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" was in the The Frame studio today, and after she was done, I asked if she'd lend her voice to our annual audio holiday card to listeners, the All Star Night Before Christmas.
"I'd love to!" she said. "Our family reads this every year at Christmas!"
And thirty seconds later, she'd nailed:
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
And now Rachel joins the ranks of celebs and KPCC hosts who hammed it up for us, including A Martinez, Alex Cohen, Larry Mantle, John Horn, Adam Carolla, Salman Rushdie, Kathleen Turner, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli, Ted ("Isaac" on the Love Boat) Lange, and John ("Q" on Star Trek) de Lancie. Patt Morrison specifically asked to read the reindeer names, so she say Donder, not Donner. (I'm sure she's right.)
The late great Steve Julian corralled many of the voices a few years ago in his local theater work, so of course I couldn't take his velvety voice out of there. And neither could I switch out Huell Howser, who closes out the poem in signature Huell fashion.
But there's no need. After all, it's at Christmas that we remember old and new friends, those with us in the flesh, and those with us in our hearts.
9 versions of Jose Feliciano's 'Feliz Navidad' you never knew existed
KPCC news editor Oscar Garza says by simply playing Jose Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad," we risk implanting one of the most insidious ear worms in the history of recorded music. But did you know there are several covers of the song? Don’t say you weren’t warned.
I love Jose Feliciano’s music, but ‘tis the season when the incessant strains of this song can drive you mad. It’s apparently three minutes long, but I wouldn’t know: I only listen for as long as it takes to reach for the dial.
And I get plenty of chances: Every year, “Feliz Navidad” makes Billboard magazine’s top 10 list of most-played holiday songs. And that’s been going on since 1970. That simple, repetitive melody is the key to its success — and also what turns me into a Grinch.
You wouldn't know it, but dozens of other artists have also recorded the song. I’m surprised there isn’t a satellite radio station devoted to the song. The songwriting royalties alone have likely made Feliciano a very, very rich man. I bet everything he owns is lined in fur. Anyway, here’s our Christmas present to you—a listener’s guide to “Feliz Navidad.”
1. Los Straitjackets: This luchador mask-wearing band goes instrumental, with twangy guitars instead of a vocal. This is what Surfin’ Santa listens to.
2. Jon Secada: Somehow, singer Secada has managed to suck the “feliz” out of the song.
3. Celine Dion: Canada, we know we haven’t always been neighborly, but what did we ever do to deserve this?
4. Michael Buble: Yet another Canadian takes a stab. Buble does a duet here with the Mexican singer Thalia. Ack! Attacks on both our borders!
5. The Wiggles: This goes for this Australian children's band, but my advice also goes for versions by the Cheetah Girls, Dora the Explorer and the Rugrats: Parents, even if your kids have been more naughty than nice, don’t subject them to this.
6. It Dies Today: I’d never heard of the metal band It Dies Today, but its name says exactly what should happen to this rendition.
7. Glee: At the other end of the spectrum, the cast from “Glee.” Of course, it’s peppy. Annoyingly peppy.
8. Reggae: Whoa! A reggae version from Freddie McGregor. Nice. But I don’t think that’s mistletoe he’s smoking, mon.
9. Los Huracanes del Norte: Norteño legends Los Huracanes del Norte turn the song into a fine cumbia. This is easily the best of the bunch. The problem is, you won’t hear this, or any other passable version in stores, on the radio, or in elevators. Blame it on lazy programmers or on automated playlists.
Whatever the reason, you’ll only hear Feliciano’s original … Good luck getting it out of your head. And with that, to you and yours, have a feliz — er — a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.