Vincent Price: actor, art collector, and gourmet! ... We talk with Angelenos on the 20th anniversary of the OJ verdict ... We meet a photographer who specializes in getting complete strangers to pose intimately ... A new kilt store. Yes, a kilt store. ... Brains On examines the fart.
Vincent Price's very Off-Rampy cookbook, 'A Treasury of Great Recipes,' is back!
UPDATE: Come hear Elina Shatkin interview Victoria Price about her folks' cookbook at Samuel Freeman Gallery on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at 7pm. As a bonus, see Martin Mull's newest paintings in an unsettling but beautiful show called "The Edge of Town." The gallery is at 2639 South La Cienega Blvd, LA CA 90034.
Mary and Vincent Price loved food, but they weren't snooty. Their "A Treasury of Great Recipes" turns 50 this year and has been lovingly re-released in all its calorific glory. Off-Ramp contributor Elina Shatkin gets the backstory with daughter Victoria Price.
"I don't think my parents really saw themselves as culinary experts. I think they really thought of themselves as cultural ambassadors. They knew that they had been allowed to have experiences that other people didn't have. So I think what they wanted to do was show people what was possible." — Victoria Price
In "Theatre of Blood," Vincent Price plays a deranged actor so enraged by a bad review that he murders the critic's poodles, bakes them into a pie and force feeds them to the critic until he dies. Worst. Dinner party. Ever.
In real life, Vincent Price was elegant and erudite. He was a traveler. He was an art collector who now has a university museum named for him. And he loved to eat.
"My dad, I think, was not only the original American foodie — he was kind of a metrosexual before there was even such a thing," says his daughter, Victoria Price.
In 1965, her parents published a cookbook. The 500-page "A Treasury of Great Recipes" was heavy and ornate. The bronze cover was etched with gold lettering. Everything about it screamed "keepsake." And it was. The book was a hit.
"I was kind of blown away when Saveur magazine named it one of the 100 most important culinary events of the 20th century," Victoria Price says. "It was more than just a cookbook that was about food. It was experiential."
Its recipes came from the Prices' favorite restaurants around the world. Tre Scalini in Rome, La Boule d'Or in Paris, the Ivy in London, Antoine's in New Orleans, the Pump Room in Chicago and dozens of others. But the Prices weren’t snobs.
The book includes this tribute to a classic American snack: "No hot dog ever tastes as good as the ones at the ballpark. It is a question of being just the right thing at the right time and place. So we have included Chavez Ravine, the Los Angeles Dodgers' magnificent new ballpark, among our favorite eating places in the world."
According to Victoria Price, "the philosophy of the cookbook was gourmet is where you find it and ambiance makes the occasion. And from growing up, I knew that what that meant was gourmet is not the province of the elite. It's not something you get when you go to a five-star restaurant."
That's partly why the book was so popular. It was all about making the world of haute cuisine accessible.
"My favorite memory of my childhood, foodwise for sure with my dad, was one day he woke up and he said: 'Today we're going to go find the best taquito in Los Angeles,'" Victoria Price recalls. "In those kind of pre-food truck days, the best taquitos were found at the little huts that were attached to car washes. We must have driven 200 miles that day. And it wasn't just about eating the taquitos, but you had to try the amazing sauces to dip the taquitos in, the salsas. So we tried all of them. And we had so much fun 'cause we talked about it. It was sharing what we loved about them. It was engaging, it wasn't just shoving something in your mouth."
But then, tastes changed. "I like to say that you could have a heart attack after three bites of some of those recipes," Price says. "Heavy cream and butter..." The book fell out of style and out of print. But it became a cult classic. Which is why, on its 50th anniversary, it has been reissued in a glossy new edition.
It's a time machine, with recipes from a handful of classic, long-shuttered L.A. restaurants. Here's the cold cucumber soup from Scandia on the Sunset Strip and the veal cutlets Cordon Bleu from Perino's.
And it's a world tour. If you couldn't jet off to Mexico City to eat at the Rivoli, you can make their chilies poblanos rellenos at home. Can't make it to Sardi's in New York? Here's their chicken tetrazzini, frogs' legs polonaise and asparagus milanese.
"I think what they wanted to do was show people what was possible," Victoria Price says.
As much as Vincent Price loved food and art and acting, he loved people more.
Thanks to Piotr Michael, who impersonated Vincent Price's voice for the radio story.
Patt Morrison on the OJ Simpson verdict, 20 years later
In 1995, OJ Simpson was acquitted in the murder trial of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman. Twenty years later, KPCC's Patt Morrison reflects on the national reaction to the verdict.
If you’re at least 40 years old, I can tell you exactly what you were doing at 10 a.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday, October 3, 1995. You — along with about one hundred million other people the world over — were watching twelve people, a Los Angeles jury, declare O.J. Simpson not guilty of murdering his ex-wife and her friend.
On the New York stock exchange, traders stopped to watch. In Congress, the honorable members canceled press conferences to watch. The Supreme Court justices, who probably wanted to watch, instead passed a note about the verdict from hand to hand as they sat listening to oral arguments.
In the 20 years since, other crimes and other outrages have eclipsed the Simpson case. The 9/11 attacks delivered some serious perspective.
But those 16 months, from the “plaintive wail” of a dog with bloody feet to the acquittal, had a singular hold on us. It was Subject A, every day, when the trial was on television and when it wasn’t. Even the popular topics like traffic and real estate were eclipsed in conversation; hi, good to see you, what do you think of O.J.?
Every obsession needs its totems and its trinkets. The last time a murder trial created a mania like this one was for the man accused of kidnaping and killing Charles Lindbergh’s son. Opportunists sold tasteless miniature ladders like the one used to carry off the little boy from the home of the most famous man in the world.
With O.J., the souvenirs leavened life and death with commerce and whimsy. Everyone connected with it was, at least momentarily, a celebrity. There were more buttons and bumper stickers than a presidential campaign: OJ innocent, OJ guilty, the defense ‘dream team,’ the prosecutors, the judge, Kato the house guest, Kato the dog. One hot souvenir was a wristwatch: one hand, a white Bronco being chased round and round by the other hand, a police car. Press photographers laminated fake press passes with fake DNA swatches: a patch of gauze with a drop of iodine. And oddest of all, the head of Judge Lance Ito, as a life-sized Jello mold, called, what else, Eat-an-Ito.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxsxUxBiJeM
The carnival mood eclipsed some of the deep issues the Simpson case brought forward: race, class, celebrity, domestic abuse and checkbook justice.
And, as with a really bad hangover, when it was all over, we were more than a little mortified about how overboard we’d gone. And we promised ourselves that we would never, ever, go that wild and crazy again. Because there would never be a case like this one, ever again. Until, of course, the next one.
Do you remember where you were for the OJ Simpson verdict?
Has the nation ever watched any one trial more than OJ Simpson's?
From the murder of two people in a Brentwood home spawned a media circus that made celebrities of nearly every person involved: the floundering comedian who stayed in the guest house, the charismatic trial lawyer, the judge, even the maid — about whom 1000+ word articles were written.
The trial's verdict was read on October 3, 1995 — 20 years ago. You can watch the video here and hear the gasps and cries of shock in the courtroom:
Do you remember where you were? We talked with several Angelenos who do:
Treacy Colbert — Healthcare writer, Long Beach, CA
I was in a hair salon in Long Beach. The television was on in the salon but I wasn't really paying particular attention to it. When the verdict was announced, I didn't feel anything necessarily emotionally. But I must have had a massive adrenaline surge. Because I was eight months pregnant at the time, and the baby did this huge backflip and handspring in my belly—it lurched around in a way that I had never felt before that, and didn't feel since.
It felt like the baby was jolted by what I was feeling.
Raghu Manavalan — Radio producer, Los Angeles, CA
I was in the third grade when I heard about the OJ Simpson verdict coming through. I was in class, actually, and our teacher decided to turn it on.
We were actually talking about the OJ Simpson trial a lot in class. Our teacher held an informal poll where we would have to write "innocent" or "guilty" on a piece 0f paper and fold it up and put it in a box in front of the classroom. I think she was trying to teach us about civics and jury duty, perhaps?
We were talking about it after the verdict came through: who picked innocent? Who picked guilty? I went to elementary school in Culver City. Demographic-wise, it's pretty diverse. There are a lot of black students and white people as well. I remember when we were talking about what we all chose, about 18 black kids all said they picked "innocent" and the two white kids picked "guilty."
Laurie Strong — Retired Los Angeles city employee, Las Vegas, NV
When I heard the OJ Simpson verdict, I was serving on jury duty in the South Bay area, waiting to be called for a jury. In the previous weeks before that, [the trial] was the only thing that appeared to be on television.
When the trial came to an end and the verdict was read, there were all sorts of emotions that surfaced within that jury room. There were tears from people who were happy. A lot of people were shocked. And on the far side of the jury room from me there were a couple of men that were not happy with it—they were on opposite sides.
It got kind of out of control, there was some yelling. The yelling progressed to some shoving. And after that it broke out into a brawl between the two men, which sent everybody scattering. It took a minute for the bailiff to come downstairs, where we were. And there were also police officers that came down. It was very chaotic, there was a lot going down at the time.
Bernard Parks — Retired Los Angeles Police Chief and City Councilman
I was assigned to what we call our "Bureau of Special Investigations" and so our role was not different than any other day. There was no expectation of a community response. There wasn't this ingrained feeling of the community being abused as it was with Rodney King. And so there were people that had their hard, hard feelings about this case. But it wasn't the type of feelings that would cause them to spill out onto the streets.
My judgement is that the credibility of the case was driven more by Johnnie Cochran's reputation than OJ Simpson's. I think people in the community clearly related to Johnnie Cochran. He had been a part of the community for decades.
And I think people clearly began to draw from their own conclusions—many of them on a racial basis. That OJ was innocent in many photos that were shown, and the aftermath, if you were black. Many people that were white viewed it as a complete abdication of justice.
I was very surprised [at the verdict]. In fact, Bernard Junior and I recently were interviewed by a guy from England who came over to talk to us about OJ Simpson. And he's telling us all this theory about how this guy is innocent. We're listening to him, saying "well that's not quite the evidence that we were aware of."
And then in the middle of the interview, he stops and says "you do think he's innocent, right?"
And we look at him and say "No! He's not innocent."
Linda Jay – Activist, Los Angeles, CA
I was in the courtroom, in the last row. I've always been fascinated with the justice system. Being an advocate and being an activist, I just like to see how the system works.
I felt that he wasn't going to be convicted, for a long time. And then, just in the last day or two I wasn't for sure.
If you see the video of me now, when they play that verdict back, and they show OJ and Johnnie Cochran and him kind of resting his head on his shoulder. Then they show the Goldmans, they show the Browns, and then if the tape keeps rolling, you're going to see me in the back row. And you're gonna see the look on my face. I was kind of acting silly. I didn't know how to take that verdict, one way or the other.
What do you remember about the verdict? Let us know in the comments!
Song of the Week: 'Put Your Number in My Phone' by Ariel Pink
This week's Off-Ramp song of the week is "Put your Number in my Phone" by songwriter Ariel Pink. This song comes off last year's "Pom Pom," the latest in prolific string of albums from the Los Angeles native songwriter.
Ariel Pink plays the Teragram Ballroom in Downtown, Los Angeles Monday, October 5th with the Black Lips.
The hook reminds of us that other 'talk to me' song by the Eurythmics.... and here's the relaxed video that goes with "Put Your Number in My Phone."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay3RO0MgwmM&feature=youtu.be
Got 'kilture'? Go inside SoCal’s first retail kilt store
The kilt. That pleated skirt of old may seem like a garment specific to bagpipe players and the Scottish.
But thousands of miles from Scotland there’s a community of daily kilt wearers — or kilters as they’re known — right here in California. After all, Kanye wore one, and H&M sold them for a while. And now, on East Colorado Blvd, there’s Off Kilter Kilts, SoCal’s first multi-brand retail kilt store.
Owner J.T. Centonze knows all about kilt culture.
“We like to refer to it as Kilture,” Centonze says.
There are a surprisingly large number of guys out there wearing kilts, according to Centonze.
“It was only really horseback riding and the industrial age that got us into long pants,” says Centonze. “Skirts, kilts, however you want to look at them, are generally easier to make and considerably more comfortable to wear, so we’re just trying to bring it back.”
Off Kilter Kilts is a one-stop shop. Centonze sells the traditional pouch called the sporran that’s worn like an ancient fanny pack, and he has kilts for toddlers, too. He even sells the music you should listen to while wearing a kilt.
“We carry a selection of Irish, Celtic and Faire music,” Centonze says. “We’re really the only place you can get them unless you’re at the faire or seeing the band in a show.”
But as a daily kilt wearer, Centonze wasn’t content with shopping for his bottom half at local Renaissance Faires or Highland Games. The modern kilts he carries in the shop are not costumes.
“We can put you in a kilt for construction work, we can put you in a kilt for office work, we can put you in a kilt for the golf course or basically anything in between,” says Centonze.
And that means Centonze is also a purveyor of what’s known as a utility kilt, a sort of mix of pleated skirt and cargo pant, some of which can carry almost a 12-pack of beer. “That’s their claim to fame,” Centonze says.
But, if you do want to go with a traditional kilt, you’ll have to pick out a tartan — that’s the criss-crossed pattern seen on Scottish kilts. Luckily, Off Kilter Kilts has Stefanie Harbeson, resident tartan maven.
Harbeson says Off Kilter carries the common Wallace Clan tartan and the Blackwatch tartan, which the Scottish army has been using for almost 200 years. They even have the official tartan for the State of California.
“It’s really pretty,” Harbeson says. “It’s got blue, which is representative of the Pacific Ocean and all the lakes and the rivers we have. The green is for our state parks and a lot of the iconic forests. And then we’ve got the red, yellow and blue stripes which are symbolic of the arts, science and industry that are very important to California’s culture.”
California's official tartan pattern.
Harbeson can also help you pick out a tartan that can be traced back to your Scottish roots. But what are you supposed to wear underneath a kilt?
“We get this question a lot actually,” Centonze says. “And the truth of the matter is you wear what you want. If you think about it, Scotland, generally cooler weather, nice green pastures and what not. Southern California, blazing hot, nice reflective concrete — you don’t want to get sunburned in places you don’t want to get sunburned in.”
Centonze admits he still has work to do when it comes to convincing men to ditch their pants. “Because, quite frankly, they’re still a little worried about it,” he says.
But tartan expert Harbeson offered one incentive.
A lot of women, myself included, think men in kilts are pretty sexy,” Harbeson says. “There’s just something about a guy in a kilt that screams confidence and he knows who he is and he’s not afraid of anything and there’s so many women who have come in and totally swoon when they see their guy in a kilt.”
A portrait of the Mayor of Instagram: Garcetti's exhibit offers glimpses of artistic truths
Commentator Mat Gleason is a local art critic, gallerist, and curator. He's also an art judge on the Game Show Network’s upcoming series “Skin Wars: Fresh Paint" and reviewed Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's “Mayor of Instagram” show at the Take My Picture gallery in Downtown Los Angeles.
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Instagram has almost 81,000 followers. But is it popular because he's mayor of the world's most important city, or because he is a uniquely gifted, phone-based, square-formatted photographer?
It's popular because Garcetti is the mayor, duh, but at the Take My Picture gallery in downtown L.A., you can be the judge.
Ninety-six of his Instagram shots are up in a show that benefits Homeless Health Care Los Angeles and the L.A. Public Library's photo archive.
Every artwork reveals something about its artist, and an art show amplifies many small truths into one grand portrait of the artist.
In politics, every true feeling is veiled in case the ultimate goal requires a change of heart, but in art one’s true sentiment is impossible to alter once the exhibition opens. So Garcetti is taking a big chance.
Many of Garcetti’s photos in the show are taken from the air. While he fights to put drivers on a “road diet,” Garcetti himself revels in the luxuries of air transportation.
We get a few cliché shots, but a also few gems: like the Santa Monica pier from above the Ocean looking inland, which gives us an almost abstract geometric assemblage instead of the typical shots of the Ferris wheel taken from down the beach.
And, in a shot looking from San Pedro toward downtown, the curvature of the 110 Freeway dominates the composition. It’s almost an upside-down question mark with the skyscrapers up the road as the dot on the punctuation. And it is a nice-looking city when viewed from these flying vestiges of power.
But this is also a 21st century mayor and this show embraces the diversity of his city. The brown and black faces that probably did not vote for him are celebrated in many shots that one can assume were taken from the tinted window of his black SUV.
The results are less class-conscious and more celebration of who we are as the Southland. Embracing “we the people” is Garcetti’s masterstroke amidst all the shots of architecture and landscape. His message is "people matter more than campaign donors."
Speaking of people, the mayor is a "people," and curiously, while his Instagram feed includes selfies — his most recent features a huge fake lizard and men dressed as a penguin and a squirrel — there aren't any in this show.
Garcetti has an eye for icons, be it the Eloy Torrez mural of Anthony Quinn downtown, the Hollywood sign, or the ubiquitous City Hall, it is obvious Garcetti knows his status as “Mayor of Instagram” calls for a subtle but consistent boosterism.
When he photographs the dome of old St. Vibiana’s Cathedral between two boring geometric buildings he lets the 19th century icon glow. The commentary is obvious but the delivery is subtle and successful.
It takes a sophisticated artist to realize that the medium one works with can be allowed to speak. Garcetti has earned my vote… for Mayor of Instagram, anyway.
Richard Renaldi's 'Touching Strangers' photos touch on human relationships
Three photos: a white Orthodox Jew linking arms with a young black man with dreads; an old bald white man sitting close to a Latina at a diner and holding hands; and a beautiful young black couple - he's looking into the camera, she's about to kiss his cheek.
For each photo, you wonder: what's the story here? Some of the couples look comfortable together, even amorous; other couples look a little uneasy ... but then why are they touching?
( Shalom and Jeff. New York, 2013. Richard Renaldi)
Here's the thing: they were all strangers before the photographer — Richard Renaldi — posed them for the photos in cities across America.
Renaldi's photos get at the relationships between photographers, their subjects, and you and me. And they're in an exhibit called "Touching Strangers" at Loyola Marymount University's Laband Art Gallery through November 22.
(Annalee and Rayqa. San Francisco. 2012 Richard Renaldi)
KPCC photographer Maya Sugarman and I caught up with Renaldi at Venice Beach a couple weeks ago as he was trying to teach LMU photography students the basics of approaching potential subjects on the street.
Listen to the audio (click the arrow in the player above) to hear Renaldi talk about and teach his craft.
NBC4's Joel Grover: How Boeing blocks cleanup of Simi Valley nuclear site
This week, KPCC's Take Two talked with Joel Grover of our media partner NBC4 about his year-long investigation into the near meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Lab in 1959 ... and its continuing aftereffects.
Now, whistleblowers interviewed on camera by NBC4 have recounted how during and after that accident they were ordered to release dangerous radioactive gases into the air above Los Angeles and Ventura counties, often under cover of night, and how their bosses swore them to secrecy. -- NBC4 "LA's Nuclear Secret"
(NBC4's Joel Grover points to the Santa Susana Field Lab from a lookout point at Sage Ranch Park in Simi Valley. Credit: John Rabe)
For Off-Ramp, I went to the Simi Valley with Grover to explore another important aspect of the story: how -- as NBC4 reports -- current owner Boeing has blocked efforts to clean up the site.
The site, which was once run by Rocketdyne, is now owned by Boeing, one of the state's largest employers and a big contributor to state and national politicians, including campaign donations of $29,500 to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, $17,500 to Gov. Jerry Brown, $11,300 to Sen. Barbara Boxer and $4,000 to California Sen. Kevin De Leon, the current Senate President Pro Tempore and the Chairman of the Committee that confirmed Barbara Lee as Director of the DTSC. Even though Boeing didn't own the site when most of the nuclear and rocket testing took place, as current owner — by law — they would be responsible for millions of dollars in cleanup costs with some help from NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy, which also used parts of the site. -- -- NBC4 "LA's Nuclear Secret"
Listen to our interview in the audio player above, and get Boeing's full response, as well as 15,000 pages of documents obtained by NBC4, on the website for LA's Nuclear Secret.
Brad Bird tells the backstory to 'The Iron Giant,' with a new version screening next week
16 years after its release, it remains one of the most beloved animated features of recent decades, although it flopped at the box office. But like the title character at the end of the film, "The Iron Giant" is coming back!
Director Brad Bird, who has since won Oscars for "The Incredibles" and "Ratatouille," and directed "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol," has created an expanded version of his first feature for Blu-ray release, and Warner Bros. has scheduled special screenings across the country on Wed. Sept. 30 and Sun. Oct. 4. Check out the audio of our interview with him and animation historian Charles Solomon.
Bird told us that back in the 1990s, Warner Bros. let him look over all the projects they had going. "The one that really struck me was Iron Giant," he said, but: "I have a very different direction I want to go with it. I said, 'What if a gun had a soul and didn't want to be a gun?' and Warner Brothers was taken by that and we were off to the races."
When it was released in 1999, "The Iron Giant" delighted critics, animators, parents, and kids with its powerful story, complex characters, and imaginative blending of drawn and computer animation. Joe Morgenstern called it “an instant classic;” Kenneth Turan praised its “refreshing spirit of bemused, non-aggressive hipness that is completely, and delightfully, its own.” Charles Solomon wrote, “Audiences haven’t had animated characters they could care this deeply about since Beauty and the Beast.”
"The Iron Giant" broke fans’ hearts when Warner Bros. botched the release, and the film failed to find the audience it deserved. Bird remembered, "When we test screened the film, and we were basically almost done by the time we finally got an opportunity to test screen it, it got the highest scores [Warner Bros.] had gotten in like 15 or 20 years. And they themselves said 'Jeez, we were not ready for this, and we have not laid the groundwork on it,'" meaning PR, merchandise deals, etc. "The math that was done at the time was that if we opened at $8m that was just enough that word of mouth would've carried us, but we opened to $5m, which was not enough," Bird said.
In retrospect, Bird says he was impatient to release the film, and pushed for a release date even though they weren't ready. But then again, who knows how long Warners would have let it languish on the shelf?
Had there been an Academy Award for Animated Feature then, "The Iron Giant" would have been the odds-on favorite — even against "Toy Story 2."
Find tickets here, and check out the new trailer:
Los Tigres del Norte frontman Jorge Hernandez on the band's almost 50-year career
Los Tigres del Norte, one of Mexico's biggest and longest running bands, will perform at the Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge on Thursday, Oct. 1. Formed in 1967, Los Tigres have released dozens of albums, sold millions of records and toured worldwide.
Off-Ramp host John Rabe talked with with Jorge Hernandez, the band's singer and accordionist, and his son, Jorge Jr about the band's history, their relationship with fans and the kind of songs they play: corridos.
On the corrido's history and significance in Mexico
Jorge Hernandez, Jr.: It's an early form of oral tradition. Initially, it was a way that the news or current events, or events from town to town were passed on. But now, what the band tries to do is create a movie in three-and-a-half minutes. It has a beginning, it has a climax and it has an end. And I think that's what allows them to connect with their fans and their community. Because they're taking real life events — you have the early immigrant that came and crossed the border in the '70s and '80s, with songs like "Vivan los Mojados."
As you transition, you have songs like "La Jaula de Oro," which talks about a father who feels like he's encaged. The song's called "The Golden Cage" [in English]. He feels like he can't do anything, even though he came here to look for an opportunity — and that standoff between him and his son in that particular song. He asks his son: Do you want to [go back to] Mexico? And his son responds [in English] "I don't want to go back to Mexico. No way, Dad."
On playing concerts on both sides of the border
Jorge Hernandez, Sr.: Yes. There's a lot of difference — even if we play for a lot of Mexican people here in the United States. Over there in Mexico they have more liberty to yell, to have fun. Here it's a little more restricted. The feeling is different. When you come out, the people are more quiet than Mexico. They have fun, but in a different way.
I think it's the way this country is — we have the discipline, I guess.
On Los Tigres' long history of performing all-request shows
Jorge Hernandez, Sr.: We play two or three songs at the beginning, and then after, we introduce ourselves. And then we start the requests — they send little papers, they put some signs — they put the name of the song they want. We just play what the people request. Not what I want.
On the iconic, unique suits Los Tigres del Norte perform in, designed by Manuel Couture in Nashville
Jorge Hernandez, Sr.: We have a lot of suits from him, that he made for us. Manuel has been with us for a long, long time. It's like a country-western suit.
I'm just gonna put it this way: When you go to the war, you take your rifle. If you're gonna fight and you don't take your rifle, you'll feel empty. When you're on the stage, and you got a nice outfit, and you know the people are going to look at you — it makes you feel very secure in what you're doing.
If it looks good, it doesn't matter how much it costs.
On the popularity of Los Tigres del Norte
Jorge Hernandez, Jr.: I think it comes back their connection with their people. I think them being first generation immigrants, and going through those life experiences of coming here, being here undocumented, establishing their lives... that created that foundation. Not only for them, but everybody who came along with them and listened to their music.
For us, going out to a family dinner, it's very common for us to have people come up to the table and want to say hi to my dad, to my uncles, and just say "thank you for being our voice."
They're almost at five decades. So they've truly had the career of the Rolling Stones. Their tour and work ethic is unparalleled. They tour 10 months a year, and it's been that way ever since I could remember. I think other families have seen Los Tigres as our voice. And that transcends generations.
Power, pathos, and a punch-drunk boxer: Meet the bronze people at The Getty Center
"They're usually shown in splendid isolation. But in antiquity, they were much more common, and they populated city squares, sanctuaries, they spoke to each other, people could interact with them. And our idea was, why don't we bring them together, and show them together? Many of these statues haven't seen each other since they left the workshop." -- Getty curator Ken Lapatin
Not too long before Bette Midler and her young pals discovered the place, I’d sweat off many an overindulgent lunch at New York’s famed Luxor steam baths. Most of the men there were bulging, sagging and ancient … but one stood out.
He was former welterweight contender named Irv. He had a perfect boxer physique, but he’d slowed to the point where getting up and sitting down were a bit problematic.
While other bathers dozed torpid under their sheets in the steam room, Irv held court on the Sweet Science of boxing to his audience of obese senior accountants and jewelry merchants. “Keep your fists up, keep moving, and don’t get hit.” ... Advice he hadn’t taken a couple of times, according to his broken nose and busted left cheek.
(Marc Haefele's Irv: “The Terme Boxer” (detail). Photo © Vanni Archive / Art Resource, NY)
Imagine my surprise when Irv turned up at the Getty Center the other day, complete with broken nose and busted cheek … and stark naked in a full beard. But this Irv was 2,000 years old, in blackened bronze instead of steam bath pink. And he was a statue. Still, I wanted to say, “Irv, how you been all these years?”
You want to ask that of most of the dozens of Bronze people inhabiting the Getty Center’s exhibition hall in "Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World," on display through October. They’re from what you might well call the Golden Age of Bronze.
Never again in human history would this metal sculpture be so superbly practiced over such a wide area, from present day Yemen to what is now Portugal. They’re all from the Hellenistic period—spanning from Alexander the Great in about 330 BC to the fall of Cleopatra in 31 BC. That’s the long period when Greece declined from being a military to a cultural power, a power of art and learning, exporting painting and poetry, literature, drama and, yes, sculpture all over the known and even the so-called unknown worlds — through India to what is now Pakistan.
How many bronze Irvs and Irmas there were then no one knows. Maybe hundreds of thousands, maybe millions. They lined the streets of Mediterranean cities and the ports of the Arabian Sea. The conquering Romans bought them by the shipload. They were the way in which ancient urban culture celebrated itself — representing its heroes, gods and goddesses, leaders and tradesmen, children and even animals, everywhere there was public and even private space. Most of these bronzes were melted down for coins and cooking pots, or otherwise destroyed, and now scarcely 200 are known to survive. Fully fifty of these are now at the Getty Center.
We tend to idealize the sculpture of Greece’s great era, from 500-350 BC. But these works were themselves idealizations, not based on reality. It was the Hellenistic Era that followed that invented portraiture: its images looked like actual people, with human expressions, peculiarities, even flaws. Like Irv the Boxer’s broken nose.
The statues that venerate leaders, heroes and gods — particularly the athletes called apoxymenos — the naked men with the perfect hair — have ordinary, if handsome, faces. But some of the other faces, especially those whose glass and jeweled simulated eyes survive, are so alive that they’re unnerving to look at. Because they stare back at you with expressions that range from the totally involved to the utterly deranged. Take that head of a man from Delos, for instance, who seems astonished just to see you.
(Portrait of a Man, 300-200 B.C., bronze, copper, glass, and stone. Image © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports/Archaeological Receipts Fund)
These statues at the Getty stir stories in the viewers’ mind. Who’s the naked boy riding the lion? That spoiled-looking teenager? Why does that armored Minerva seem to be smiling at some secret?
And how can you be sharing the emotions of someone gone from the earth for over 2,000 years? Ah, but you do.
The greatness of most of these pieces is their molding into forever the rages, delights, and puzzlements of a period so far gone from us. And yet as close as Irv the punch-drunk boxer.
Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World, is at the Getty Center through November 1, 2015. Listen to the bonus audio to hear John Rabe's interview with the Getty Museum curator Kenneth Lapatin, who curated the show with colleague Jens Daehner.