Blind mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin's new album, "Do You Dream in Color?" ... the music of "John Carter" ... a last Bookmobile ... the Flying Pigeon's bikes for the citizen cyclist ... What is Steam Punk? ...
Freelance photog Nick Stern calls out news orgs that use Hipstamatic and Instagram
UPDATE: I wrote the blog item below last week, in defense of Hipstamatic (which I have used for years) and Instagram. Nick immediately agreed to an in-depth interview, which you can hear here, and noted that the edit of his CNN column removed a lot of context, and made him seem a bit grumpier than he really was. (And c'mon, look at his dog, and the cool tattoo.) I also took a black and white film photo of Nick, which I'll post if it turned out. In the interview, Nick also gives us some good insight into the economic perils of war photography, and tells a story about Robert Capa's D-Day photos that many of you probably haven't heard. -- John
Nick Stern may be a great photographer, but today he wins the Old Man on the Front Porch Award for his column on Instagram and Hipstamatic images, in which he says, "Every time a news organization uses a Hipstamatic or Instagram-style picture in a news report, they are cheating us all."
It's not as easy as he makes it out to be to make moving, beautiful pictures with them. Stern implies the camera does all the work. Foo. Just look at the 1-billion awful Instagram and Hipstamatic photos posted on the web. Good photographers make good pictures. I know my settings and my setup and I work hard to make my pics come out the way I want them to. Most of them don't, and get deleted. I like this one:
(Credit: John Rabe)
The only "fakery" perpetrated is if someone posts a photo and pretends it's an old Polaroid or pinhole shot when it's not.
News organizations manipulate photos all the time, and thank God they do. Nick writes, "Any news photographer worth his or her salt will tell you that the best camera is one that lets you take the photo unencumbered by the technicalities of the process. A camera that lets you record the scene with the light and shadows as it lies before you, and to produce an image that brings the emotion of the scene to the viewer -- one that lets you take the photograph naked."
Nick, you mean you never change the depth of field or use a wide angle or telephoto lens, and never print anything but the full frame of the negative? You don't use Photoshop to adjust your colors or increase the contrast? All of those techniques clothe a naked photo in the garments you choose for it. I wouldn't expect you ignore these options in the name of purity any more than I'd insist you should use glass plates or tintype technology. There were plenty of .200 hitters in 1927, and plenty of old guys who smelled like hypo and were also lousy photographers. You go with the new tech and you make it work - as you do - and I trust you and your colleagues to manipulate the photo - before or after you take it - just enough to clarify what I need to see, without crossing the boundaries of journalistic integrity.
(The photo. AP/Nick Ut.)
And in case you're wondering ... I don't know if I respect any journalists more than photojournalists. It's damn hard work. I grew up amidst some of the best photographers in the world. Joe Clark and his son Junebug Clark, Snuffy McGill, Tony Spina, Joe Polomini, Roy Bash. I love Gary Leonard, the Watsons, Boris Yaro, Nick Ut, Ted Soqui, and Heidi Bradner. And my dad was a pro who lugged around a Mamiya double lens reflex, but bought a compact 35mm as soon as it came out and left the DLR at home. He'd have gone digital in a second if he'd have lived long enough, and would have loved the Hipstamatic app.
So, come on off the front porch and let me buy you a beer.
Bikes for the cycling citizen from Flying Pigeon
Flintridge Preparatory School teachers Tyke O'Brien and Patrick Ferry armed their students with microphones and recorders and told them to emulate Off-Ramp. We were honored. The students produced podcasts about the world around them, including this one from Crysti Wang, Jonathan Hagar, and Matthew Shintaku. The three visited the quirky Cypress Park bike shop called Flying Pigeon. It's Matthew's voice you hear on tape, with shop co-owner Josef Bray-Ali.
Why do people ask blind opera singer Laurie Rubin, "Do you dream in color?"
UPDATE: Mezzo soprano Laurie Rubin is back in town for a concert November 6th, and she has a new book called Do You Dream in Color? Insights from a Girl without Sight.
People are weird. Believe it or not, the thing people fixate on when they see Laurie Rubin is that she's blind ... even when they've heard her sing, even when they've seen her in "Sex and the City" evening wear.
Rubin is out with a new album, "Do You Dream in Color," and has two upcoming performances in Los Angeles. Once you hear her sing, you'll forget she's blind:
Rubin was born blind and raised in Los Angeles, but now lives near Honolulu with her partner Jenny. She's been singing since she was a little girl, and was inspired to sing opera after going to a performance of Phantom.
Rubin is a mezzo-soprano, what she describes as "the sopranos with the balls." Her voice has a little more bass than a regular soprano, and fewer roles in the repertoire. But, Rubin says, if mezzos get short-shrift where opera roles are concerned, they do get to sing gender-bending "pants" roles, of young characters who are often, as it happens, in love with the sopranos. Rubin has performed at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center, has duetted with Frederica Von Stade, and sung lead roles, including Cinderella in Rossini's "La Cenerentola" and Karen in Beeferman's "The Rat Land."
The heart of her new album is the title track, a new composition by Bruce Adolphe, with words by Rubin, who says "Do you dream in color?" is often one of the first things people ask her. The song tells of her encounters with various people: a curious little girl who tells her "red is the color of fire trucks," a condescending man who sees things only in black and white, a jewelry store owner honestly delighted by the way she picks out a necklace.
The album also includes pieces by Gabriel Faure, including a version of "Clair de Lune" you might not have heard, and Joaquin Rodrigo, who Rubin discovered was also blind after years of listening to his work.
Concerts: March 8th, part of USC's Visions and Voices series; and March 10th, at Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue in Encino. Check Web Resources below for tickets to either concert.
(A tip of the hat to Off-Ramp contributor Hank Rosenfeld for turning us on to Rubin.)
Composer Michael Giacchino scores Disney's 'John Carter' (photos)
Disney's newest film is a live action, interplanetary epic called "John Carter," which opens in most cities on March 9. The science fiction film is based on an 11-volume, 100-year-old book series, and is helmed by "WALL-E" and "Finding Nemo" director Andrew Stanton.
Also behind the scenes is well-known film composer Michael Giacchino, who won an Academy Award in 2010 for his score to the Pixar film, "Up." Giacchino got his start scoring video games like Call of Duty, transitioning into TV theme producing when J.J. Abrams hired him to score his hit series "Alias" and "Lost."
In 2004, Giacchino was noticed by director Brad Bird and was commissioned to supply the score for the Pixar film "The Incredibles," the first time Pixar had used a composer other than Randy or Thomas Newman. KPCC's Larry Mantle and Off-Ramp producer Kevin Ferguson visited Giacchino for a tour of the historic studio where the score was produced.
For "John Carter," Giacchino teamed up again with legendary percussionist Emil Richards to create a score rich with musical color and a variety of interesting and eclectic sounds (the pair had previously collaborated on Pixar's "Ratatouille").
"On 'John Carter' there are so many weird percussion instruments that we're using and it just fits in nicely as a color," he said. "There are five or six guys back here and they divide up the parts. They can do anything … they're all good at it, but some of them have their kind of specialties that they stick to."
From Giacchino's point of view, the percussion section is the "playground of the orchestra," and many of the professional percussionists hired to work on the "John Carter" score are not just musicians, but also collectors.
"As you look around here you can see all sorts of things, including a book on George Harrison here," said Giacchino. "Look at thee old drums ... These guys collect everything and anything. Emil Richards … has a warehouse, in which he has tons and tons and tons of items that he's collected over the years. "
Richards has performed on thousands of film scores, some of which were recorded in the same MGM scoring studio that he's currently working in for "John Carter."
"The biggest one I ever did in here is "Dr. Zhivago." Four harps, 25 snare drummers, a russian boy's choir. It was about two weeks. It was great."
"John Carter" opens nationwide on March 9.
As new LA County Library branch opens, bookmobile winds down
Earlier this year, yet another library in Los Angeles County opened in a state-of-the-art building in Topanga.
While new libraries are always a great thing for a neighborhood, as more branches open, there's less of a need for bookmobiles — the roving library branches designed to serve the outskirts of L.A. County. Friday, Feb. 24 marked the last run for the L.A. County Library's Las Virgenes bookmobile, which served areas like Topanga, Malibu and Hidden Hills. There are now just four left in the county.
“It’s a movable library,” said Malibu library assistant William Lippincott. “It’s a way for the public to get library materials that live in rural areas, that can’t travel, for whatever reason, to a brick and mortar library. We provide the service to them, as opposed to them coming to us.”
Lippincott said he’s sad the Las Virgenes bookmobile will be discontinued, but people no longer need its services with Topanga library close by. “A lot of people enjoy it. A lot of people, though, are happy that they have an actual brick-and-mortar library that they can go to with more hours,” he continued. “But there’s a connection and a bond with the public that we’ll miss.”
Many of the Seminole Springs residents who boarded the bookmobile on its final day have been longtime patrons. Wendy McCann browsed for her usual fare.
“I usually pick a book on tape, and one or two books, a cookbook and something else, and then I get several videos to last for the week,” she explained.
McCann said everyone in the mobile home park loves the movable library. “It’s an excuse to walk up, it gets you out, it makes sure that you get books. In a couple weeks, whatever I get today’s going to be due, and I’m sure I won’t go as often."
Twelve-year patron Iris Speed had no idea that the bookmobile would not be coming back. She was trying to arrange a weekly carpool to the bookmobile after she lost her license and her husband passed away.
“I’m not reading as much — I used to check out six and eight books at a time; virtually every week I was here. Since my husband died, I find there are a lot more things I have to do.”
Though Speed is only looking to check out one book and renew another, she seems sure that the bookmobile will return.
“I do hope that it won’t be a long time before they reinstate the bookmobile. They have done this many times before, closed it down, and later brought it back up.”
New Van Halen = Old Van Halen and that's good
Few rock bands epitomize ‘80s excess like Van Halen. The hard-partying band formed in Pasadena in 1974 — and it’s had ups and downs ever since.
This month, Van Halen released its first album ("A Different Kind of Truth") with original vocalist David Lee Roth in almost 30 years. Much of the music was written but never released when the band was playing in backyards, seedy clubs and even the bar at the Pasadena Hilton in 1975.
Van Halen, the name the band had just adopted about a year earlier, was forging its heavy rock reputation with original material at backyard beer bashes across the Pasadena area.
Doug Anderson spent a lot of time in those backyards drinking beer and playing in many of his own bands.
“What else do you do on a Friday or Saturday night? Well there’s [a] party, you go for the chicks and maybe get some beers,” remembers Anderson in the workshop of his amplifier and guitar repair shop in Altadena.
“And the band, sometimes they were too loud. That’s where [the nickname] ‘Van Headache’ came from.”
Anderson also runs the unofficial “Van Halen Museum” from the shop. It includes some of Eddie Van Halen’s old guitars, walls of concert flyers and snapshots — and piles of unreleased live and studio recordings from the mid-‘70s.
“They really played as much as they could anywhere and everywhere. In those days they really worked hard. It wasn’t an easy gig,” says Anderson. They started writing songs and getting really good at it.”
For its first album with vocalist Roth since the Reagan administration, Van Halen tapped into its reservoir of material accumulated in the years before its explosive 1978 breakthrough. Some songs get new arrangements and lyrics; others like “Bullethead” barely stray from their garage rock origins:
Tarzan of Tarzana: Swinging Through the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley historian Kevin Roderick (also of LAObserved) takes us to the ranch home of Edgar Rice Burroughs ... Tarzana.
Los Angeles gets Gorey: Off-Ramp waltzes through the Edwardian Ball
According to science fiction mastermind Jules Verne, "Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them." Fast forward almost 200 years and that statement could cause many a popped monocle and theatrical faint among his many (many) admirers strutting their stuff at the 12th Annual Edwardian Ball.
What began as a 100-person homage to illustrator and satirist Edward Gorey took a quick left-turn into the wider 19th century as a battalion of Edwardian-era enthusiasts cinched their corsets, waxed their handlebars, and turned the ball into "a steampunked vision" (according to Flavorpill).
The Ball was initially a solely San Franciscan affair but as the attendance reached record proportions its founders opened up a satellite chapter in Los Angeles.
So from 8 pm to 2 am last week, downtown's Belasco Theatre found itself trapped in a time warp, with acts that ranged from acrobatics to burlesque to dance to jug-band jams. KPCC's Paige Osburn dusted off her petticoats and visited the Ball for its third run in L.A. (and its first since the closing of its original venue, the Music Box).