We went to Malibu to watch the Perseids last night. We planned a nice and refreshing picnic with sushi rolls, goat cheese, saucisson, red wine, melon. It was a wonderful evening on surfriders' beach. Didn't see many shooting stars though - but those we saw were spectacular.
There was a little earthquake tonight - a 4.5 apparently - nothing to write home about. But we felt it around 1 am. We were in the kitchen, finishing up our glasses of Ridge ATP Sullivan Zinfandel 2005. Things kind of shook for a brief moment. No tremors, just a bang! and it was gone. Probably a plate releasing some energy - it turned out the quake centered around Northridge (lots of pent-up seismic energy there...). So it wasn't as big as the last earthquake I experienced, some time ago in Baños, down in Ecuador.
One can search the unclaimed persons database at the LA County Coroner website. The search will return pictures - it seems like a good idea, but at the same time it is extremely disturbing.
Last night I went to the grand unveiling of the Velaslavasay Panorama. The invitation came to me by way of the Museum of Jurassic Technology, which is the inspiration behind Sara Velas' wonderful project.
Subject: THE EFFULGENCE OF THE NORTH
Grand Unveiling & Alpine Spectacular
July 21st, 2007, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
An Evening of Alpine Spectacle and a 360-degrees Arctic Panorama.
At The Velaslavasay Panorama
1122 West 24th Street
Los Angeles, California 90007
At Hoover & 24th Streets, Three Blocks North of Adams Boulevard.
Tickets: $12 general admission
$10 Panorama members and students
Available at the door or online .
It is with great excitement and only a little trepidation that the Velaslavasay Panorama announces the Grand Unveiling of The Effulgence of the North, an Arctic panorama taking the visitor to frozen heights to bear witness to the mysterious phenomena of the Aurora Borealis.
This evening of Alpine Spectacle will feature the yodeling talents of Tony Hartenstein and the melodic alpenhorn tones of Loren Marsteller. Professor Erkki Huhtamo will present an illustrated lecture on the most successful moving panorama of all time -- Albert Smith's Ascent of Mont Blanc, which was performed at London's Egyptian Hall no less than two thousand times throughout the 1850s. Outside in the Gardens will be an Alpine Photo Studio, Bavarian refreshments, and Janie Geiser's work of live projections entitled Stolen Archives of the Vanished Ice-World.
From July 27th and thereafter, Effulgence of the North will be on view weekly -- Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 12 noon until 6pm at The Velaslavasay Panorama.
Besides the Panorama itself, the event was absolutely spectacular! There was some serious yodeling going on, and a few wonderful performances in the gigantic garden behind the theater. An acquaintance of painter and lady of the house Sara Velas, explained to us that she had indeed built the gazebo from scratch. You can see her gazebo, and other wonders here. The Union Theater, where Sara Velas relocated the Panorama, served as headquarters for the Tile Workers Union back in the 60s (hence the name). As a result, wonderful abstract mosaic decorates the exterior of the building.
We had a group picture taken at the Alpine Photo Studio, shared a pretzel and a boiled München weisswürst dipped in Heinz grain mustard (straight from Costco, as the people behind the makeshift bar assured us), admired Janie Geiser's silent movie stylings artfully projected on a suspended white sheet besides a luscious banana tree.
It was billed as Stax' 50 years anniversary, but basically we came to see Isaac Hayes perform. Angie Stone was there and belted a few, that was cool. Booker T. walked us down memory lane with an infectious rendition of Green Onion. The lukewarm William Bell sang a few tunes, doing a competent impression of David Alan Grier's brother with no soul in Amazon Women on the Moon...
Then, after an intermission, the Black Moses himself walked onto the stage in a big shimmering black and gold boubou. He started his set with Walk On By, sort of tight - although the mix was horrible at first. Then he managed to assassinate I Say a Little Prayer with one of the backing singers, mashing it with By the Time I Get to Phoenix. Yes. He sort of mumbled through the Phoenix chorus while the white chick unwittingly deconstructed Prayer. There was another duet with another one of the singers, but by that time he had kind of lost me (I guess the wine and the wacky tabacchi helped too.) He finished that 20-25 minutes with - what else? - Shaft. But a lackluster, slurred and uninspired Shaft. He stood up and kind of conducted the house band in a very tentative way. Thank god theses guys are the pro-est of pros and could stay in time, in tune and deep in the groove forever.
Then the whole Stax crew reunited and sang Dock of the Bay and that was it. Lights out onstage. Kind of a sorry affair. One of my friends mentioned quite justly that Isaac Hayes had sang all but 5 minutes or so. Although it seems that live performance was never Isaac Hayes strong suit, we felt somewhat disrespected.
[The music, so precise, so produced, is definitely studio music. I was wondering what Isaac Hayes would sound like with just piano, congas and a few vocal overdubs (like, say, Marvin Gaye's I Want You vocal and rhythm outtake on the deluxe re-issued album...Probably, the most awesome performance by Marvin, even tops Anger on Hear, My Dear. 99c of incredible soul on iTunes...)]
The performance could have been a notch better but hey, it was another utopian night in the Hollywood hills. Wine, cheese and good company under the starry skies... This is why I moved to LA (as the song goes...)
ps: oh yeah and that absolute crétin Randy Jackson (of Idol infamy) mc'eed the whole proceedings like a cheery Ronco infomercial, as if trying to oversell the performance, and whip up the crowd - you set it and you fo'get it... This is great and wholesome when applied to all the hilarious implements that come out of Ron Popeil's fertile mind, but for Memphis soul...
Fuckin Genius.
The LA Times has a great (and funny) article about the guys who wave arrow shaped ad signs by the side of the streets in SoCal. These "human directionals" - as they are called in adspeak - are among the most bizarre things one can see while driving around. One might argue it's one of the newest and most sinister forms of the rampant commercialization of the public space, yet another post-modern form of exploitation invented in California, and/or the latest in corporate -sponsored, hypernarcissistic subcultural practice vying for eyeballs on Youtube.
The locals who started this company must wonder why their website gets so many hits from France and Québec...
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