Mike Gatto's Parking Bill of Rights ... Piano Bar 101 teaches a lost art ... Ballpark groundskeepers of the world, unite! ... Brains On, the science podcast for kids ...
This year's LA Art Show passes 'Marilyn' test, critic says
Through Sunday, some 60,000 people — maybe more — will walk through the Los Angeles Convention Center for the 21st annual L.A. Art Show.
I got a review of the show from Mat Gleason of Coagula Curatorial. Mat is a local art critic, gallerist and curator with a booth at the show. He's also an art judge on the Game Show Network's upcoming series "Skin Wars: Fresh Paint."
Listen to the audio to hear what Mat has to say about Millie Brown, a performance artist and Instagram star who will be spending the show topless and fasting inside a cube, on view to the public.
And listen to hear some good news:
In promotional materials, the organizers promised, "The LA Art Show has refined its focus ... we are refining our curatorial vision ... a new direction affording the fair, our exhibitors, collectors, and tens of thousands or art enthusiasts a new quality experience."
Mat says he has what he calls the Marilyn Test, and this year, he reports he saw only one soppy artwork of Marilyn Monroe, which is good.
A short master class on music writing from New Yorker critic Alex Ross
Alex Ross, music writer for The New Yorker, joined me in the Off-Ramp studio to talk about the artcraft of music writing.
Ross is probably responsible for more of my iTunes purchases than any other writer. Invariably, when I read his pieces, I buy the album.
Ross has a way of getting to the emotional core of the music he's writing about:
To hear the entire corpus is to be buffeted by the restless energy of Bach’s imagination. Recently, I listened to around fifty of the cantatas during a thousand-mile drive in inland Australia, and, far from getting too much of a good thing, I found myself regularly hitting the repeat button. Once or twice, I stopped on the side of the road in tears.
— "The Book of Bach" by Alex Ross in The New Yorker
And Ross has a deft hand at explaining technical music terms so that the novice can see how music works:
We can all hum the trumpet line of the “Star Wars” main title, but the piece is more complicated than it seems. There’s a rhythmic quirk in the basic pattern of a triplet followed by two held notes: the first triplet falls on the fourth beat of the bar, while later ones fall on the first beat, with the second held note foreshortened. There are harmonic quirks, too. The opening fanfare is based on chains of fourths, adorning the initial B-flat-major triad with E-flats and A-flats. Those notes recur in the orchestral swirl around the trumpet theme. In the reprise, a bass line moves in contrary motion, further tweaking the chords above. All this interior activity creates dynamism. The march lunges forward with an irregular gait, rugged and ragged, like the Rebellion we see onscreen.
— "Listening to Star Wars" by Alex Ross in The New Yorker
Listen to the audio for the full interview, including music excerpts that illustrate what we're talking about.
Assemblyman Gatto proposes Parking Bill of Rights: 'The public owns the streets'
Language Advisory: The following story repeatedly uses what has become a dirty word — "parking" — and may not be appropriate for small children and sensitive persons.
"The public owns the streets," Assemblyman Mike Gatto says. "They don't belong to a valet company. They don't even belong to the city government. They belong to the public." So the Los Angeles Democrat has released a package of proposed reforms he calls the Parking Bill of Rights.
Among the reforms: he'd make permanent a law that sunsets at the end of this year that prohibits cities from giving tickets at broken meters, valets couldn't block the public from using meters or loading zones, and you wouldn't have to pay towing and storage fees if your car is stolen and dumped on a city street. You can read all the proposed new rules here.
I asked, how does he plan to replace the revenue parking fines provide cities across California, where it's become a major revenue stream. "I would question whether it should be such a revenue stream," he responds. "We definitely want to make sure cities can get paid a reasonable rate for providing a spot, but we don't want parking to transform into a hidden tax, designed to say gotcha."
Click on the audio above to hear the full interview.
5 Every Week: Paramount Ranch, pricy botanicas, camellias, secret bars!
Behold: Five great things you should do in Southern California this week, from art to food to music to an adventure we'll call "the Wild Card," from the makers of the 5 Every Day app. You can also get this as a new podcast in iTunes. If you want five hand-picked things to do in Los Angeles every day, download the free 5 Every Day from the App Store.
ART: Paramount Ranch
Saddle up, because it’s time to go to the ranch.
That’s right, l'il doggies, it’s time for the Paramount Ranch Art Fair. It’s a yearly half-happening, half-festival that transports approximately 30 galleries and artist spaces to an old cowboy movie set deep in the Santa Monica mountains.
Paramount Ranch, as in Paramount Studios, has taken a few star turns over the years. It stood in for 1860s Colorado in "Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman" and saw its fair share of action on John Wayne flicks.
These days it’s a national park attraction, but it excels in its late-career role as an off-grid art-world compound. Make the trek to see the Western facades transformed into ad-hoc galleries by a laundry list of hip international galleries.
Highlights this year include a pop-up shop from avant garde, post-gender fashion line Eckhaus Latta, and a Gem Fair hosted by Joshua Tree-based arts organization High Desert Test Sites.
But it’s the people-watching that we go for. The promise of high art in the mountains really — dare we say — rustles up a scene.
CITY: Camellia Festival
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAU3bFZny5O/
The Huntington Gardens get all the love. But Descanso Gardens, 160 acres of beautifully-kept botanical collections and seasonal displays on the edge of La Cañada , might be the best, most romantic green space in the city. It’s also cheaper than the Huntington — because not every day is Mother’s Day.
Right now it's Camellia season, a great time to visit Descanso if you've never been.
Camellia flowers bloom in the winter, and since it’s theoretically winter, the park is alive with their red and pink blooms.
The leaves of the camellia plant are used to make tea — not some special kind of herbal tea, but tea, the most popular beverage on the planet. So the festival is also a tea festival with a full tea service in the Descanso's Japanese tea-house and tastings hosted by experts from Chado Tea of Pasadena.
While you're there, take a stroll through the small forest of coast live oaks, some of which are hundreds of years old.
Oh, and ride the circuit around the grounds on Descanso’s “Enchanted Railroad,” an 1/8th-scale train you straddle like a pommel horse.
It’s not just for kids, keep telling yourself that.
FOOD: The Semi-Tropic
https://www.instagram.com/p/96nuw7p48i/
Zac: In spite of our commitment to deliver to you, dear reader, all the undusted jewels we can find in this fair city, with some places we hesitate.
You know, there are spots whose sparseness is kind of the point. Spots that, if blown up, might be blown altogether.
The Semi-Tropic is one of these spots.
It's a relatively new bar/cafe on Glendale in Echo Park, tucked discreetly behind that gnarly-looking combination KFC and Taco Bell under Sunset.
By day it's a spacious third wave coffee shop with exposed brick, ample booth seating and a solid food menu. Think avo-toasts, sandwiches and well-rounded salads. At nightfall, it segues into a reliable neighborhood bar.
Parking is... well, good luck. But for day-timers, the Semi-Tropic offers a precious commodity far too few Eastside coffee spots can promise: space.
For now, at least.
MUSIC: Lucky Dragons at Pehrspace
Pehrspace is kind of a miracle: a volunteer-run, not-for-profit, all-ages venue in a strip mall in Westlake, whose unlikely, decade-long existence is testament to its total necessity.
They host everything from punk shows to guided meditations and this Saturday, Lucky Dragons.
That’s L.A.-based media artists Sarah Rara and Luke Fischbeck. They’re the gentlest giants who share their lives in a number of ways, most prominently as the multifaceted and genuinely magical musical group Lucky Dragons.
They're prolific makers of things, collapsing technologies in ways that are cerebral, playful and unerringly humane.
Live, they're like a utopian social experiment that must be seen — or rather, felt — to be understood.
WILDCARD: Milion Dollar Botanica
https://www.instagram.com/p/i2n58Uy53g/
There are botánicas everywhere in Los Angeles, folk pharmacies hawking everything from religious candles to Bayer aspirin. They service a broad spectrum of spiritual and medical needs in the Roman Catholic tradition, with shades of candomblé, curanderismo, espiritismo, macumba and santería thrown in for good measure.
For the uninitiated, the Farmacia Y Botanica Million Dollar — right next to downtown’s Grand Central Market — is a solid one-stop shop for sundry spiritual goods.
It’s a great place to pick up very specific votive candles: To burn for success in business or hex an ex-lover. Great party favors, by the way.
There’s a whole aisle of spiritual aerosol cans. If you need to spray a room with the essence of a black cat, you’re set.
Plus minerals, rosaries and oils. Don't forget to pay homage at the altar to La Santísima Muerte before you check out.
At annual conference, MLB groundskeepers talk tools and trade
Today marks the last day of the 18th annual Groundskeeper Conference — a trade show and networking event — and the Dodgers are hosting it for the first time. The head groundskeepers from nearly every MLB team are on the field taking turns at a clinic for baseball diamond maintenance.
Five kinds of rakes are laid out in the infield, lined up side by side. Some are big, some small, some with giant wide teeth.
"This rake is just designed for scraping the very top little bit — the conditioner on top," says Bill Deacon, head groundskeeper for the New York Mets. "You can see the way the teeth are designed, it just pulls just enough so that you’re not getting into the dirt underneath."
In the audience at the clinic are high school coaches and groundskeepers from local parks departments, along with a few Dodgers employees taking cell phone photos.
Mike Boekholder, groundskeeper for the Philadelphia Phillies, pulls a nail board around third base. It's what it sounds like: basically a bed of nails.
"We pull them by hand, the advantage we think to that is it gives us a real nice feel for what our infield’s doing, literally every square foot of that field. And, it’s a good calf workout!" he says. "I’ll tell you, if you don’t want to go to the gym in the morning, pull a nail board every day, all season long. You’ll be in good shape."
In the background, milling around second, other head groundskeepers talk shop. It doesn’t take a lot of guesswork to figure out who’s who. Boekholder’s wearing a Phillies batting practice jacket, others are in team T-shirts, hats, hoodies. For most of them, this conference is the only time they meet — groundskeepers only work home games, after all.
Back to the lesson at hand - Boekholder asks Eric Hansen, head groundskeeper for the Dodgers, to take a spin on the nail dragger cart. It looks like a giant lawnmower carrying a giant grid behind it.
"Eric has a reputation of having one of the absolute best infields in all of Major League Baseball," Boekholder says, just before the cart takes off.
And what makes the best infield in baseball? Just two ingredients: dirt and water.
We have to wait — usually wait until the sun comes up just a little bit, because the previous night, we've watered pretty good," says Hansen. "By noon, we have all of our maintenance done on the field, it’s ready to go. And then we put more water on it. Because water is the key to controlling ball bounce."
As Angelenos, maybe you feel uneasy thinking about so much water getting used just on dirt, which is understandable.
Hansen says yeah, it’s true, but it's necessary.
"To get this field in the kind of condition we need to get for these players, and have it be safe, we have to use 'x' amount of water. We can't do our job unless we use water."
Hansen adds that his crew uses moisture sensors in the ground to avoid waste.
For groundskeepers, a drought is sort of mixed blessing. Dodger Stadium hasn’t had to lay out the tarp since the year 2000. You can’t say the same for a place like Detroit.
"It’s definitely stressful," says Heather Nabozny, head groundskeeper for the Tigers. "Especially out in the Midwest and, you know, the tarp, and games get delayed."
If the life of a major league groundskeeper is anything like like that of a player, the rainout is the clutch at-bat in a tie game. There’s no other time a grounds crew is more visible, and no other time they’re in more danger. Nabozny tore a tendon on the tarp in 2014.
"I had one foot on the tarp and mid-stride, the tarp blew up, I landed on my knee," she says. "I had to be taken off the field because I couldn’t... without your patellar tendon attached, you can’t walk."
Nabozny says you can suffocate underneath the tarp — she’s had to cut colleagues out to rescue them.
The rest of the time, groundskeepers sweat the small stuff: What sod to use, which synthetic dirt mixes work best, which lawnmower you bring on for which job.
Joi Grant came to hear just that. She’s with the L.A. Parks Department. She said yeah, it’s cool to walk the bases at Dodger Stadium and yeah, when Yasiel Puig started working out in left field that was neat, too. But this is her job.
"Coming out here, we get a better understanding of how to maintain the infield, the grass. How to repair when they’re kicking out on the pitcher's mound and everything," Grany says. "We don’t get that."
After the clinic wraps up there are a couple speeches — and applause when the Dodgers give $50,000 to Pasadena’s John Muir High School for a new baseball diamond. There’s a big group photo at second base, a box lunch behind the dugout, and then the groundskeepers head home, where the work for next season’s already begun.
Song of the week: "Suburban Girlfriend" by Adult Books
Adult Books is a three piece band from Orange County with a name inspired by the X song of the same name. Their newest single is "Suburban Girlfriend," tinged with Flamin' Groovies power pop and a little bit of Joey Ramone. Watch the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XVSSEX5sYg
"Suburban Girlfriend" is off their upcoming debut album, "Running from the Blows." The band kicks off a month long residency at The Echo on Monday, February 1.
In Piano Bar 101, professor Ann Louise teaches classes in a dying art
"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."
— Maya Angelou
Q: What’s gentler than a jazz venue, more informal and fun than a supper club, and is also where Jimmy Durante and Billy Joel got their starts?
A: The piano bar.
Piano bars first caught on at speakeasies in Greenwich Village in the 1920s as havens to have a drink and sing along in. I recall nights spent around the ivories at Bob Burn’s steak joint in Santa Monica. The Dresden on Vermont was credited with a revival of campy, raucous sing-alongs after it appeared in the movie “Swingers” in 1996. The last great gay piano bar, The Other Side, closed after 40 years of operation in Silver Lake in 2012.
“People love to sing,” says pianist Ann Louise Christensen, “but there aren’t a lot of places that have piano bars anymore.”
So she created Piano Bar 101, and holds classes at her recording studio in Glendale.
Students told me they were attracted by Ann Louise's encyclopedic knowledge of popular tunes, gained from years playing 5-star hotel piano bars from Scandinavia to Japan. (Locally, you can find her at the Parkway Grill in Pasadena and Larsen’s in Encino and Valencia.)
At Piano Bar 101, Christensen covers vocal technique, ear training, performance tips and repertoire, with group-singing giving way to passing the microphone around for spots of solo belting.
“I’ve gotten a lot more confident with microphones,” says Marsha Shumer from her stool around the Steinway. “I’m willing to try something new and not feel afraid.”
“I learned that I can make mistakes, and that those mistakes can make my singing better,” adds a colleague from College of the Canyons, Debbie Zednik. And Sally Snow, a designer from Sherman Oaks who sang in a band back in Canada, finds the Christensen class, “more organic” than singing in a bar.
“This is more fun,” she says.
The piano was the center of home entertainment and nightlife in America at the turn of the 20th century. Those days have given way to karaoke bars in Koreatown. But in an entertaining town like L.A., folks still sing the impromptu solo at house parties, perhaps with a cocktail or two in hand or down the hatch. Now there’s a class for piano bar fans — except there's no cover, no drinking, and no snifter-glass-for-tips.
So no need to moan how there aren’t many piano bars left. Crooning with friends is good fun and good for you, too. Researchers found that elders with dementia increased their memory capacity by singing show tunes three times a week, compared to those who just listened. So sing us a song, we’re all gonna be the piano men and women someday!