I am proud of my governor for his fearless speech and actions. And he is right, the theatrical overreaction from the Empire of Darkness was for show, to intimidate, sow fear, and escalate the tension; the situation in L.A. was not dangerous. 98% of protests were peaceful. The L.A. Times published an article, here, refuting the idea that the city was on the verge of collapse and calling out the grotesque distortion of reality.
"California may be first but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next, democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we feared has arrived."
https://campaignfordemocracy.com/
https://www.gov.ca.gov/
Showing posts with label Los Angeles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Los Angeles. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
BEAUTY: Painting--Laurence Jones
Painter Laurence Jones has been obsessed, like many people, with the incredibly famous (and rightly so) Stahl House. The house --or Case House Study #22 as it was known--was built in 1959 by Pierre Koenig in the Hollywood Hills area for the Stahl family. It is a masterpiece of Mid-Century Modern Architecture, showing up in films (Tim Allen's character lived there in the comedy sci-fi film "Galaxy Quest"), television shows (even an animated version showed up on "The Simpsons"!), and countless advertisements for things like food, kitchen appliances, and furniture. Jones is clearly entranced with the clean angularity of the cantilevered house and the equally important view of Los Angeles.
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https://laurencejones.com/
https://stahlhouse.com/
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https://laurencejones.com/
https://stahlhouse.com/
Sunday, October 16, 2022
The Future Perfect House, Los Angeles
David Alhadeff, founder of design gallery The Future Perfect, and his husband Jason Duzansky, have moved into a new home in the heart of Hollywood. The gallery has shown its work by an impressive roster of artists in residential settings in New York, san Francisco, and Los Angeles. And now, Alhadeff and Duzansky's home is the latest venue for The Future Perfect.
https://www.thefutureperfect.com/locations/los-angeles/
The gallery site says:
"The Future Perfect’s Goldwyn House, located at the base of the Hollywood Hills, presents visitors with a residential concept gallery. The home was built in 1916 by architect Arthur S. Heineman and most notably occupied by the famed movie producer, Samuel Goldwyn. The experiential and exclusive environment of old Hollywood residence and gallery in one creates a unique space to view culturally important works in a novel way.
Collectors, design professionals and casual admirers are all welcome to explore a rigorously curated collection of hard-to-find, limited edition and one-of-a-kind contemporary art and design shown throughout this expansive home and its accompanying gardens.
Consistent with The Future Perfect’s history of boundary-breaking and participatory interior curation, the Goldwyn House is, first and foremost, an experiential space. We look forward to welcoming you."
I love the artisanal eclectic mix of objects juxtaposed with the more traditional elements of the house like the plaster molding. This blend creates a wonderful design tension that catches the eye. And no element is too splashy or attention-seeking. In fact, the entire house is rather understated and subtle on first viewing, but look closely at the objects and how they arranged, the wallpaper backgrounds, the rugs, and the carefully curated palette.
"The Future Perfect’s Goldwyn House, located at the base of the Hollywood Hills, presents visitors with a residential concept gallery. The home was built in 1916 by architect Arthur S. Heineman and most notably occupied by the famed movie producer, Samuel Goldwyn. The experiential and exclusive environment of old Hollywood residence and gallery in one creates a unique space to view culturally important works in a novel way.
Collectors, design professionals and casual admirers are all welcome to explore a rigorously curated collection of hard-to-find, limited edition and one-of-a-kind contemporary art and design shown throughout this expansive home and its accompanying gardens.
Consistent with The Future Perfect’s history of boundary-breaking and participatory interior curation, the Goldwyn House is, first and foremost, an experiential space. We look forward to welcoming you."
I love the artisanal eclectic mix of objects juxtaposed with the more traditional elements of the house like the plaster molding. This blend creates a wonderful design tension that catches the eye. And no element is too splashy or attention-seeking. In fact, the entire house is rather understated and subtle on first viewing, but look closely at the objects and how they arranged, the wallpaper backgrounds, the rugs, and the carefully curated palette.
Sunday, July 31, 2022
BEAUTY: Painting--Tony Peters
Southern California has a charm all its own and painter Tony Peters captures it in a beautifully simplified way that brings to mind the works of Edward Hopper. He paints iconic Los Angeles landmarks that show up in films and tv shows...
http://www.tonypetersart.com
Friday, November 5, 2021
"Obsidian" by Jónsi
Breathtaking new album by Jónsi called "Obsidian." It is majestic, visceral, ethereal, grinding, transcendent. Of course.
https://jonsi.com/
This release coincides with an exhibit of Jónsi's art work, also titled "Obsidian" and on view only through December 17, 2021 at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York City.
After lying dormant for nearly eight hundred years, the recent eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland serves as the inspiration for the exhibition. Unable to travel to his homeland and experience the rare phenomenon, Jónsi instead conjures the majestic life force within the gallery space through two new sound installations and a series of sculptural works, each presenting a sensorial proposition.
Interdisciplinary artist and musician Jónsi grounds his visual practice in material and metaphysical experimentations with sound, often through the engineering of immersive installations that reconfigure the act of listening by means of sight, smell, taste, and touch. Known for synthesizing compositions that are at once ethereal and electrifying, Jónsi employs a tonal palette ranging from ambient sounds, mechanically generated frequencies, samples from nature, as well as his own voice in boundlessly innovative sonic arrangements. Using a perfume organ to develop new and invigorating scents, Jónsi infuses his works with earthy, atmospheric fragrances that are subtle and frequently overlooked. In concert, these seemingly invisible forces redouble on their emotive strengths, leaving the viewer anchored through corporeal engagement while simultaneously transported via their cognitive imaginary.
On the ground floor, visitors enter a darkened room, dimly lit to reveal a central plinth encircled by over two hundred speakers. Inspired by performances of Icelandic choir groups, Jónsi writes his own choral hymn in four parts. Primal in nature and devoid of identifiable lyrics, his piercing voice strikes an array of emotional chords, echoing and reverberating throughout the multi-channel installation. Soundscapes of gritty rocks and searing lava are coupled with smoky, tar-like aromas of fossilized amber, the only essential oil in existence that is mined (as opposed to harvested). Enveloped within this perceptual framework, the audience finds themselves negotiating through an uncanny, bordering on spiritual experience inside the cavernous belly of a volcano.
In the upstairs galleries, sculptural works composed of resin and obsidian glass engage in dialogue at opposite ends of one room. Crackling sounds intermingle with the smell of burnt birch trees, signaling destructive volcanic forces that ultimately have generative ends. Crafted from hand-carved obsidian blades and a cross-sectioned tree, these sculptures embody healing energies that stimulate growth and regeneration.
Another sound installation ensues from a convex armature that is affixed with flower-shaped metallic discs. Equipped with LEDs, the structure pulsates with light in short bursts, blinking slowly at first before swelling into rapid-fire successions, eventually forcing the viewer to close their eyes. A nod to Brion Gysin’s 1960s Dream Machine, Jónsi’s flashing lights similarly produce trance-like, hallucinatory effects. Here, the artist infuses the space with the scent of ozone known to engage photoreceptors inside the brain, further activating the mind’s third eye.
In an environment where the visual has traditionally taken precedence, Jónsi’s propositions of alternative forms of seeing meditate on the body’s relationship with its immediate surroundings. While it is tempting to focus solely on the formal qualities of acoustic hardware, surface properties, or architectural scale, these elements merely access the true works at hand, namely an alchemical mix of imagery, sensations, and emotions borne within the mind-body of his viewers.
Jónsi initially gained international recognition as the lead vocalist for the Icelandic experimental rock band Sigur Rós, whose unique sounds have been equated with the sublime. Jónsi’s unequivocal vocal and instrumental approach have expanded the boundaries of musical genres, rendering him one of the leading musical artists of our time.
Launching in conjunction with the exhibition is Obsidian, Jónsi’s third solo musical album that likewise centers on the Icelandic natural wonder. Recorded and produced in tandem with the works on view, the parallel formats inform one another and interweave through their embodiment of volcanic energies. Over the course of ten tracks, each with evocative titles referencing sights, textures, and aromas of the ashen terrain, Jónsi takes his listeners through narrative arcs between erupting flares. Through an instinctual sensibility for layering vocals over orchestral passages, Jónsi masterfully collapses the boundaries between the senses. Velvety, musky notes of amber translate through deep, sustained progressions of the double bass. Similarly, sharp, tapered edges of obsidian glass register through piercing and frenetic digital bursts. And finally, in the manner of falling ashes, sounds of rushing winds and water cascade steadily over listeners, signaling a return to serenity, stillness, and recovery.
https://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/exhibitions/614-jonsi-obsidian-tanya-bonakdar-gallery-new-york/
https://jonsi.com/
This release coincides with an exhibit of Jónsi's art work, also titled "Obsidian" and on view only through December 17, 2021 at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York City.
After lying dormant for nearly eight hundred years, the recent eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland serves as the inspiration for the exhibition. Unable to travel to his homeland and experience the rare phenomenon, Jónsi instead conjures the majestic life force within the gallery space through two new sound installations and a series of sculptural works, each presenting a sensorial proposition.
Interdisciplinary artist and musician Jónsi grounds his visual practice in material and metaphysical experimentations with sound, often through the engineering of immersive installations that reconfigure the act of listening by means of sight, smell, taste, and touch. Known for synthesizing compositions that are at once ethereal and electrifying, Jónsi employs a tonal palette ranging from ambient sounds, mechanically generated frequencies, samples from nature, as well as his own voice in boundlessly innovative sonic arrangements. Using a perfume organ to develop new and invigorating scents, Jónsi infuses his works with earthy, atmospheric fragrances that are subtle and frequently overlooked. In concert, these seemingly invisible forces redouble on their emotive strengths, leaving the viewer anchored through corporeal engagement while simultaneously transported via their cognitive imaginary.
On the ground floor, visitors enter a darkened room, dimly lit to reveal a central plinth encircled by over two hundred speakers. Inspired by performances of Icelandic choir groups, Jónsi writes his own choral hymn in four parts. Primal in nature and devoid of identifiable lyrics, his piercing voice strikes an array of emotional chords, echoing and reverberating throughout the multi-channel installation. Soundscapes of gritty rocks and searing lava are coupled with smoky, tar-like aromas of fossilized amber, the only essential oil in existence that is mined (as opposed to harvested). Enveloped within this perceptual framework, the audience finds themselves negotiating through an uncanny, bordering on spiritual experience inside the cavernous belly of a volcano.
In the upstairs galleries, sculptural works composed of resin and obsidian glass engage in dialogue at opposite ends of one room. Crackling sounds intermingle with the smell of burnt birch trees, signaling destructive volcanic forces that ultimately have generative ends. Crafted from hand-carved obsidian blades and a cross-sectioned tree, these sculptures embody healing energies that stimulate growth and regeneration.
Another sound installation ensues from a convex armature that is affixed with flower-shaped metallic discs. Equipped with LEDs, the structure pulsates with light in short bursts, blinking slowly at first before swelling into rapid-fire successions, eventually forcing the viewer to close their eyes. A nod to Brion Gysin’s 1960s Dream Machine, Jónsi’s flashing lights similarly produce trance-like, hallucinatory effects. Here, the artist infuses the space with the scent of ozone known to engage photoreceptors inside the brain, further activating the mind’s third eye.
In an environment where the visual has traditionally taken precedence, Jónsi’s propositions of alternative forms of seeing meditate on the body’s relationship with its immediate surroundings. While it is tempting to focus solely on the formal qualities of acoustic hardware, surface properties, or architectural scale, these elements merely access the true works at hand, namely an alchemical mix of imagery, sensations, and emotions borne within the mind-body of his viewers.
Jónsi initially gained international recognition as the lead vocalist for the Icelandic experimental rock band Sigur Rós, whose unique sounds have been equated with the sublime. Jónsi’s unequivocal vocal and instrumental approach have expanded the boundaries of musical genres, rendering him one of the leading musical artists of our time.
Launching in conjunction with the exhibition is Obsidian, Jónsi’s third solo musical album that likewise centers on the Icelandic natural wonder. Recorded and produced in tandem with the works on view, the parallel formats inform one another and interweave through their embodiment of volcanic energies. Over the course of ten tracks, each with evocative titles referencing sights, textures, and aromas of the ashen terrain, Jónsi takes his listeners through narrative arcs between erupting flares. Through an instinctual sensibility for layering vocals over orchestral passages, Jónsi masterfully collapses the boundaries between the senses. Velvety, musky notes of amber translate through deep, sustained progressions of the double bass. Similarly, sharp, tapered edges of obsidian glass register through piercing and frenetic digital bursts. And finally, in the manner of falling ashes, sounds of rushing winds and water cascade steadily over listeners, signaling a return to serenity, stillness, and recovery.
 |
| OBSIDIAN, 2020 Obsidian, burned Brazilian walnut, resin, scent, steel 36 x 36 x38 inches |
Saturday, July 31, 2021
Saturday, July 10, 2021
BEAUTY: Interiors--The Home of Colman Domingo
Actor Colman Domingo furnished his Los Angeles mid-century ranch house in an exuberant, charming, and very personal way that looks like so much fun. I'd love to visit him and hang out in the living room on the Michel Ducaroy sofas or by the pool...
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/colman-domingo-southern-california-home-tour
I love that he loves and has kept intact so much of the mid-century elements of his home which was built in 1964 from a design by Jule Sulkan. And I also love his Eero Saarinen table and chairs, the tropical breakfast nook, the colorful master bathroom which utilizes leftover mosaic tiles from the 1964 LAX inter-terminal tunnel tile project designed by Charles D. Kratka (you can still see them if you use the LAX tunnels!), and the sweet, hidden pink reading nook in his office!
https://www.colmandomingo.com/
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/colman-domingo-southern-california-home-tour
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