February 2011 Archives
Commentary:
Romance has long been missing in black movies, and that's a lowdown dirty shame
Arts & Culture:
New work by LA artists such as Jennifer Steinkamp, James Benning and Thom Andersen make this a great week for media art.
Arts & Culture:
Filmmaker Laura Kraning captures the Vineland Drive-In Movie Theater in her evocative portrait that's a tribute to the layering of realities that characterize Los Angeles as a whole.
Commentary:
Here's a problem with wilderness. We tend to think of it as unmanaged and, by definition, unmanageable--a place apart. There is the built environment, where we live; and the natural landscape, where we do not. A look into this via a park in Claremont.
Movie Miento:
The spirit of a Salvadoran mensch lives on at a small charter school near the Vermont Avenue off ramp of the Santa Monica Freeway.
Places:
From Tennessee Walkers to Andalusians, Mexican charros to corner horse races, Richland Farms in Compton is a horse community,
Commentary:
What happened a million years ago in the middle Pleistocene is still here, if you go down deep enough.
Commentary:
A judge in California recently dismissed a lawsuit claiming that the ballot description for a candidate for State Assembly was improper. The judge dismissed the case only because it was filed too late. The question is, can Jessica Levinson designate herself as "monkey," her Chinese zodaic sign, if she were to run for office?
Arts & Culture:
Wired contributing editor Frank Rose traces the emergence of transmedia storytelling in cinema, game design and advertising in an expansive new book that's essential reading for Hollywood creatives.
Arts & Culture:
Can we invent a reality as exciting and compelling as the best video games? Jane McGonigal, who will speak at the Petersen Museum February 9, thinks we can.
SoCal Focus is a daily blog about the people, places and issues in and around Southern California.
