Smokey Robinson for Poet Laurate! Larry Davis, working on his second album at 74. Carlos Almaraz, influential Chicano artist, remembered at Vincent Price Art Gallery.
Los Four's Carlos Almaraz: clown, colorist, friend, lover, nag, artist, and gone too soon
At last, there's a major exhibit for a major artist who has been largely overlooked by the art establishment.
"Carlos Almaraz: A Life Recalled," at ELAC's Vincent Price Art Museum, is a chronological survey that includes small, big, and huge art, postcards, his ukulele, letters ... collected in one place to give you the groundwork for understanding Almaraz, the member of the famous Chicano collective Los Four, who died of AIDS in 1989.
At the exhibition opening party Saturday, I spoke with Dan Guerrero, his lifelong friend; Elsa Flores Almaraz, his widow — or as she prefers, "beloved;" fellow artist and friend Frank Romero; Ken Brecher, president of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles; and Karen Rapp, director of the VPAM, and co-organizer of the show.
Interview Highlights:
Elsa Flores Almaraz on her late husband's legacy:
"Carlos was my beloved for 10 years, we were friends for 17 ... He's got an amazing body of work that's never been seen. Thousands of pieces in private collections and he really needs to be exposed to the greater public. He was quite a mystic in sort of underlying ways, I would always call him an urban shaman, the work is imbued with so much energy."
Dan Guerrero on losing his lifelong friend:
"We were friends our whole lives until the day that he left in 1989, so I had all of this work from when we were in high school, from when we moved to New York in 1962 when he would say, 'You have a Diego Rivera poster up from a museum shop!?' Then he'd do a drawing so that I could have real art ... I saw him that very day, he died that night in December. I'm not mad at him, but I'm not happy about it. I have this thing it's a little denial or a defense mechanism, both my parents are gone, Carlos is gone, but to me they're not gone, I still think of them all the time. What they gave me what they taught me I'm still using, so to me they're not gone, they're still here. That's why I'm not mad at Carlos."
Frank Romero's memories of Almaraz:
"I miss him, of course I'm angry that we went and died on me. We met at Cal State LA in 1960, we were both 18. When we got back from New York in 1969, there was something new in the air and it was called the Chicano movement."
Karen Rapp on Almaraz's influence on other artists:
"I've met a lot of artists who were born in the '50s, they all cite Carlos and the biggest influence on their careers. He thought of himself as an artist in the context of having a voice, having a vision, he encouraged them, I think he also harassed them. He was very much a person who challenged people, a trouble maker, someone who said, 'Define your terms, what does it mean to be an artist in Los Angeles, what does it mean to be a Mexican-American artist?'"
Ken Brecher on Almaraz's love of Los Angeles:
"I think he was a profoundly interested citizen of Los Angeles. I think he loved Los Angeles. He knew how to make visual the great differences in our wonderful city from other cities. He captured the helicopters flying over at night and the lights of a movie opening in Hollywood and the loneliness and beauty of a small love boat on Echo Park lake. He helped me to see the colors of Los Angeles and he always reminded me that the greatness of Los Angeles was in the color."
Smokey Robinson recites his poetry, including Black American, & explains 'Cruisin''
Smokey Robinson has been writing poetry as long as he's been writing songs. (Yes, his songs are poetry. Pure poetry.) And he's been singing onstage for years. But in all that time, he's never done a whole stage show of his poetry. Until now.
On Friday and Saturday, September 21 and 22, in a show called "Words" at the El Portal Theater in North Hollywood, Smokey will recite long poems, like this one he excerpted on Def Poetry Jam, which includes swearwords and the N-word:
Smokey told me, "My people have done everything that somebody could do to to be a citizen of a nation, and so for me to have to revert now, after all these sacrifices and contributions to America, and revert to be called African-American, pisses me off." The poem "Black American" is long, eloquent, probably offensive to some, and very powerful. If all the poems in "Words" are as powerful, it'll be a good night.
Smokey, by the way, says he's not campaigning to be LA's first poet laureate, but he'd be a solid nominee.
And then there's "Cruisin,'" which for my money is one of the few perfect songs by any composer. Music, lyrics, performance, and production all combine to take you on a trip that's part slow drive in a convertible on a beautiful day, and part slow torrid lovemaking. Probably mostly the latter.
And while some songs came quickly to the composer -- "Shop Around," he says, took half an hour to write -- "Cruisin'" took much longer. First came the tune from Marv Tarplin, his late guitarist. Then came four or five years of looking for exactly the right words to match the sinuous, soaring, sensuous melody. Smokey says The Young Rascals' "Groovin'" provided the key, and a classic was born.
Cypress Park evangelist William Matelyan hit by car, killed
UPDATE: We recently learned that William Matelyan died in July after being hit by a car on North Figueroa Street in Cypress Park; he was 84. LA DOT was planning to improve pedestrian and bike safety on that stretch of road, before the project was stopped by LA City Councilman Gil Cedillo.
Matelyan tragically died at 12:30pm on July 22, 2014, after complications resulting from being hit by an automobile earlier that morning. Matelyan had just gotten off the phone with local pastor Jesse Rosas prior to his accident. ... Rosas estimated during his podium time speech at the (memorial) service that Matelyan had crossed Figueroa for his morning ritual of coffee at the Yum Yum Donuts near Avenue 26 when he was accidentally hit. -- LA1 News
Here's Jerry Gorin's piece on Matelyan from September, 2012:
There are always three cars parked at the intersection of Cypress Avenue and Figueroa, along with a companion RV parked at the Union 3 auto body shop on the corner. Each vehicle is covered bumper to bumper in bible verse and posters of lions and eagles. There are American and Israeli flags waving over the windows, and newspaper clippings from the Vatican. "Repent," appears over and over, "for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." This is the home and headquarters of William Matelyan, a spirited Korean War veteran who's on a crusade to save mankind.
Matelyan was born Jewish. His parents were Austrian immigrants who changed their names and fled Nazi Europe. They settled in Philadelphia, re-opened their old tailoring business, and tried to ignore their Jewish background.
"My parents told me, ‘Don't tell anyone you're a Jew’," says Matelyan. "And soon I said, ‘Why? I'm a man, and a Jew. What's the difference?’"
When asked if he considers himself Jewish now, Matelyan answers, "Yeah, in fact a completed Jew. A messianic Jew.
"I was (once) a wicked person. I went to Korea, to fight in the Korean War. I was drinking at that time. I had Canadian Club; I took about one third, and I hit the ground and started to vomit. I heard a voice say, ‘You're going to go to war’. I said, ‘I'm in one.’ And God says, ‘This is for the truth. You're going to work for me. You're going to take my word out there and get killed, the same as you do for America.' Matelyan then sings the Battle Hymn of the Republic as he relishes the memory.
After the war Matelyan started looking for work as a house painter, and he and his wife and children moved to LA, where there was painting work year-round. He would end up working for 35 years as the Painting Supervisor at East LA College, where he also gave informal music lessons to students. When he retired he could no longer afford his rent, so he moved out.
"I lived in Elysian Valley," he says, "and I finally moved out of a rented house into an RV. I was parking the RV on the street, and the city was going to penalize me, either by putting me in jail or a $1000 fine. They didn't carry the threat out, but I didn't let them. I went over and told Carlos, and he said he had a spot for me. So he let me come and park here."
About three years ago, Carlos Cruz, the owner of Union 3 auto body shop, let Matelyan move his RV onto his lot permanently, and that's where it stands today. Cruz and his workers makes a big racket everyday, just 20 feet from the RV, but Matelyan doesn’t let it bother him. He's made it as cozy as possible.
"We got Gardenias, Chile plants, tomatoes – an apricot tree from a seed. This is like the Garden of Eden. And the word of God is out here for everyone to see. It's free!"
On the other side of the RV, his messianic clunkers are parked right on Figueroa Street.
"I move them around, I keep them here. It's a moving, preaching, word of God. I park at IHOP and hand out gospel tracks, because that's the menu."
Matelyan tries to spread the word as much as he can, but lately he's been disappointed with his audience. He blames poor political leadership, and Americans' ongoing obsession with money.
Still, he believes that when the time comes and the pressure builds, most people will repent.
Steve Julian: Book of Mormon uses Mormonism to question all faiths
(The Book of Mormon is at The Pantages Theatre through November 25, 2012.)
Is it okay to kick Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and Moroni down the block?
The national tour of Book of Mormon opened this week in LA, after winning nine Tony Awards and a Grammy on Broadway. In the musical, two Mormon missionaries, Elders Price and Cunningham, are sent to Uganda where religious evangelism doesn't capture peoples' attention the same way poverty, war, and AIDS do.
Price and Cunningham have their issues: Kevin Price is an anal literalist and Arnold Cunningham is a sycophant who weaves Star Trek, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings references into his sketchy understanding of his own faith.
Thing is, Cunningham's ability to morph the real Book of Mormon into a guide that Ugandans can understand makes him a pious prophet -- just how some critics describe Joseph Smith, the man who founded the Mormon faith in the 19th century.
The show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the men behind South Park, say Book of Mormon is nothing more than satire. If the intent is to use wit as religious and social criticism, Book of Mormon works. It also takes on female circumcision and race.
To the dull-minded and un-inquisitive, Mormon stereotypes may be only reinforced. But the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is intent on people walking out of the theater with at least an inclination to read "the book." For the first time, the church bought an ad in Playbill, the program handed to each theatergoer. It invites the audience to read about Mormonism and come to understand its Christ-centered theology.
The church last year released a statement about the Broadway production, noting the Book of Mormon is a volume of scripture that will "change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ."
To me, Book of Mormon is not a knock on Mormonism. It questions all religions. Is it any less credible that the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County, Missouri - as Mormons believe - than that one can die and come back to life as a giraffe or kumquat tree ... or that a crucified man can be transfigured three days later?
The story being told now at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood is clear in this regard: when an African woman questions the use of a frog in curing AIDS, another makes the point: dummy, "that was a metaphor."
Larry Davis: tears in his beer led to singing career - at 74
1/6/2014: UPDATE: Larry Davis, profiled on Off-Ramp in 2012, is out with his second album, "Larry Davis Too," available on iTunes and CD Baby, and I'm delighted that Larry chose to use my photo of him for the CD cover.
First of all, Larry Davis always smells great. It's some sort of cedar cologne. And looking at him, you'd never guess he's almost 75.
As he takes a break from recording his second album at Miles Recording and Mix, near the Capitol Records building, he laughs and refers to the old, probably offensive, saying. "I'm just not going to show you the parts that cracked."
Larry captivated me from the first time I heard him sing at The Other Side, the late lamented gay piano bar in Silverlake. His voice is a little rough-edged, which grabs your attention, and he almost speaks many of the lyrics of his songs - whether it's "It Isn't Easy Being Green," "Lush Life," or one of the highly suggestive (dirty) songs the crowd always loved to hear.
Larry sings like he's been doing it all his life. But his is another of those stories that prove F. Scott Fitzgerald was drunk when he said, "There are no second acts in American lives." Larry is on his third act ... at least.
Larry was born in Modesto, and raised in Iowa. There was a stint in the Air Force where his desire (and undoubtedly talent) in the area of modern interpretive dance was not fully appreciated. To say the least. Instead, he sang with the combo that played the Officers Club and enjoyed it. But not enough to seek out gigs when he left the service and started work as a graphic artist for ABC-TV in LA.
He stayed at ABC for forty years, retiring at 69. A few years later, his partner broke his back in a freak accident, and Larry found himself crying in his beer at The Other Side. He asked the piano player to sing Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady." "I will," he said, "if you'll sing 'Lush Life.'"
"I was just drunk enough," Larry says, "and just sad enough, to do it." He was asked to come back and sing again and became a crowd favorite. Eventually, recording artist Annie Miles heard him and took up "the personal challenge of getting an authentic version of his live performance into an excellent recording."
"Close Your Eyes," now out on iTunes, features Larry swinging on the title track and a couple others, updating "The Coffee Song" in a way we can't explain on the radio, and breaking your heart with "It Isn't Easy Being Green," which Larry says has become kind of an anthem for his younger gay fans.
"My whole approach is to have a conversation with the listeners. The words have to mean something to me." His style has changed since he sang in the Air Force, when he used to imitate Johnny Mathis. Then, he says, "I was singing words, and not really knowing the words." At 74, he has lived, and then some, and he knows the words.
Mad Magazine celebrates 60th anniversary by continuing to question authority
Before there were comedy websites and the latest funny Twitter account, there was Mad Magazine. It made a name for itself by playing class clown, taking shots at popular culture every month. It's still kicking, celebrating its 60th year this year, and editor-in-chief John Ficarra is at the helm.
"It's created some things that just generation after generation of people know. Things like 'Spy vs. Spy,' 'Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,' Alfred E. Neuman — the face that is our Playboy rabbit. He's the symbol of Mad. We used the phrase 'cultural touchstone,'"' and I think, for so many generations, it is," Ficarra said.
Still, after 60 years, how do you stay relevant? "Certainly the tone has changed over the years, because we always reflect what's going on in society. As society's gotten coarser, Mad has gotten coarser, no question about it," Ficarra said.
But there's a message beneath the madness.
"I think there's an underlying message in Mad of don't believe everything you hear. Don't necessarily trust — question authority," Ficarra said. "Everybody has an agenda, whether it be a politician, a magazine, a teacher, your parents — your parents don't even know everything. And I think that rebellious streak has always spoken to Mad's readers."
They're also trying to reach out to audiences online, with an iPad app and daily blog posts that let them take shots at the news of the day without waiting for a publishing schedule.
"Until we had the blog, we were always very frustrated, because we're working on an issue that's coming out in two months. So, George Bush chokes on a pretzel, we can't do anything with that, whereas Letterman could do the top 10 reasons why he's choking that night. We can't do it. We're coming out in two months — people aren't going to care about it. The best we can do is, when we're doing an article about George Bush, and he's a schmuck, maybe one panel references the pretzel," Ficarra said.
Sometimes, though, they have targets that they think are worth doing a full published story on — even if it takes a while. When "The Avengers" came out, the next issue of the magazine was going to press that week, so they wouldn't be able to write and draw a parody until the next issue.
"So we said, all right, what can we do? We can take the extra time and write a really good spoof of it; extend it — let's make it seven pages instead of its typical five; let's get Tom Richman to draw it and add in a lot of background gags; and yeah, it's going to come out in August, but you know what? People still remember it, and it'll be your wonderful visual feast, and hopefully a funny feast for the Mad reader," Ficarra said.
Mad made its name with distinctive art from some of the legends of cartooning. "They have such unique styles that you can just see even just one panel and say, 'Oh, I know who that is.' Whether it be Don Martin, Antonio Prohías in 'Spy Vs. Spy,' Sergio [Aragones], Mort Drucker and his caricatures, Jack Davis and his caricatures. ... I feel so privileged to work with them."
Ficarra takes Mad's legacy seriously. "I grew up reading Mad, and now I'm at the helm of it, so I feel I have sort of an obligation to these people to carry on the great tradition that they started."
Mad has a new book out this fall, "Totally MAD: 60 Years of Humor, Satire, Stupidity and Stupidity," looking at the magazine's history and most memorable artwork, and they also have a show on Cartoon Network. They've gone from monthly to bimonthly in print, but they've still got a fighting spirit and share a belief in the product they're putting out.
"I think people who have been away from Mad and pick up an issue now are going to be surprised by it. It's in full color, the tone in the magazine has been revved up, it's punchier than it had been in a while — it's more getting back to Mad in its original 'humor in a jugular vein.'"
The (prat)fall of Cracked Magazine-- and the rise of Cracked.com
Mention Cracked to anyone over 30... and they think of this.
"In a 2007 article", Cracked.com describes its pre-internet self like this:
"Created as a knock-off of MAD magazine just under 50 years ago, we spent nearly half a decade with a fan base primarily comprised of people who got to the store after MAD sold out. Our latest incarnation of the magazine (a poor man's version of Maxim) only came about once the old Cracked offices were closed by the anthrax attacks of 2001 (the poor man's version of the fall 2001 terrorist attacks)."
...This is not entirely inaccurate.
Jack O'Brien, co-founder and current head editor of Cracked Magazine's web incarnation Cracked.com, and a former production assistant for ABC News, wrote a satirical news version of the show Primetime Live for the company. The segment -- which he now describes as the "worst piece of comedy to ever make it on television" -- was quickly canceled. But, it gave him enough comedic props to be contacted for Cracked Magazine's re-launch in 2005.
"A guy wanted to re-launch Cracked for an older audience," O'Brien explains. "The previous incarnation of the magazine was just cartoonists and people who liked booger jokes. So we were e-mailing people saying 'Hey, come write for us, we have this magazine! And, oh yeah, we also have this website.' But I mean, everybody had a website. No one really cared."
That all changed in 2007 when, after just three issues, the re-launched magazine folded.
Pop culture website Gawker.com at the time declared: "very little remains of the old Cracked, a Mad ripoff that had tread water in various incarnations for almost half a century." Others compared the magazine to modern-era "Men's Interest" magazines like Maxim or FHM.
"There was the idea that you had to put pretty, half-dressed women in the thing to get people to buy the magazine," O'Brien admits. "That was initially something we ran into re-launching the website too, this idea that comedy websites all appeal to this young male demographic and you have to write about sports and boobs and alcohol."
The remaining staff spent a few months circling the drain.
"I think everybody was kind of looking for jobs," says O'Brien. "We were just doing the website for fun."
And that's when things, in his words, "kind of exploded."
Turns out, while (most) guys definitely like boobs and boogers, they also like actual facts, like:
"The 7 Most Unexpectedly Awesome Historical Parties: Entry One -- Victory Day. Moscow's celebration of the surrender of Germany just might be the single largest spur-of-the-moment anything in history. Thousands of people immediately took to the streets to transform one of the largest cities on the planet into a sea of vodka, many of them still in their nightclothes."
Okay, that involves booze, but it also involves history. Cracked's Soren Bowie says he spends anywhere from a day to a week on a column, depending on the research involved. "It makes it more difficult," he says, "But I think that's the bread and butter of Cracked, its what makes Cracked Cracked. It's these really interesting little nuggets of information people should know, but they don't know it for whatever reason. That's what Cracked is. At its heart, it's information."
Oren Katzeff, Cracked.com's general manager and chief marketeer, says, "If I had to describe Cracked, it would be a little bit of Saturday Night Live meets Moneyball. We have a small team; we have a budget that's less than every other player in the space, yet we go out there, we put our players on the field and we beat them."
MAD magazine, amid company-wide cutbacks at past owners Time-Warner, finally landed at six issues per year in 2010. Its website is still in Beta, and mainly serves as a jump-off point to buy print issues.
Compare that to Cracked, Katzeff says. In 2007 they had a couple hundred thousand unique users per month and 3 or 4 million page views. "And we closed February at about 17-million uniques, and 300-million page views."
MAD is probably mad, but Cracked no longer seems so crazy.