Of Photographers and Spies
PERFECT PICTURES: You’ve read about it before here, but now the Monterey Museum of Art is officially announcing what will almost certainly be its most popular show of the year. “Edward Weston: American Photographer," opening June 17 and running through Oct. 2, will feature iconic photographs by the modern master, ...
From Monterey Pop to the Mexican Revolution
SCENES ALONG THE ROAD: The great documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock, who died last week, was the camera operator, along with Albert (“Gimme Shelter’’) Maysles, of D.A. Pennebaker’s “Monterey Pop,’’ probably the greatest rock film ever made. Leacock helped develop the “cinema verite’’ style that brought immediacy and directness to movies, ...
Britney, Gaga and Carmel-by-the-Sea Revisited
BACH ROCKS: Gentlemen (and women), start your harpsichords. Tickets for the Carmel Bach Festival’s inaugural season under the aegis of new music director and conductor Paul Goodwin are on sale starting Monday, March 28. Highlights for the event, which runs July 16-30, include an opening night performance, “Joy Is In ...
Barry Bonds and Steroids, Babe Ruth and the “Hot Dog” Connection
OPENING DAZE: Baseball season is approaching, and all the tell-tale signs are in place. Giants closer Brian Wilson strained his “left oblique” muscle, so his status is doubtful for Opening Day, but the great one says he’s feeling better and may make it after all. Fear the Beard. And the ...
Tough navigation for Carmel-by-the-Sea, more rocky waters at Maritime History and Art Museum.
SUNSET CLAUSE: Well, it was all for an excellent cause—a fundraiser for the Monterey Bay Film Society, which will in turn benefit student filmmakers. And commercially, it was a huge success. The Sunset Center was jumping Saturday night, with a full and enthusiastic house gathered to see the long-awaited local ...
Pay walls, Arianna Huffington, “American Idol’’ and Marshall McCluhan
UNDERSTANDING MEDIA: There’s too much going on on this lonely planet these days for this poor mind to get around. Japan. Libya. The Middle East. The California budget crisis. Not to mention the burning question of whether Santa Cruz homie James Durbin will run the table on “American Idol." As ...
Swinging Southwesterners, Carmel Star Power and the Death of a Jazzman.
TEXAS TWOSTEPS: So Michael Nesmith’s VideoRanch3D cybercast from South by Southwest went off well, despite the inevitable technical glitches, personally tweaked by Nesmith to his Facebook homies, with some help from tech administrator Lorrie Dewar. Among the performers: Guitar “shredder" Brad Davis, who’s worked with the late, great Warren Zevon, ...
Disaster Movies, Real-Life Disasters and Virtual Rock and Roll
POWER STRUGGLES: As we watch the scenes of destruction, from Japan to Santa Cruz harbor, it serves as another reminder not only that life imitates art, but why those who don’t understand the past are doomed to repeat it. For the sheer replication of the terrors of the tsunami, it’s ...
Chaz Bono, "bad lesbians" and open-minded Republicans
There wasn’t a Bible-thumping picketer—or a commercial television camera—in sight, as Chaz Bono gave a talk about “Transition” about his journey as a transgender celebrity poster child before a full house at CSUMB’s Student Ballroom Wednesday night. The event, presented by CSUMB’s College of Arts, Humanities and Sciences and the ...
TED Talks in a F****d Up World
TED TALK: How can you miss it if it won’t go away? It’s a pity that the TED Conference is no longer in Monterey, but even coming from Long Beach, it was cool to hear JR, the quasi-anonymous French street artist who was recently named winner of this year’s top ...
Tech talk, Punk Poetry and the Portman-Huckabee Face-Off
BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: While Sacramento politicians are slicing and dicing the state and community college, and schoolteachers, inexplicably, have become the demons du jour deemed responsible for our Wall Street-induced financial crisis, there are some local folks who have some good news. Undeterred by the general miasma, Megan Heath, ...
The Charlie Sheen Saga and Second City at CSUMB
Hate Speech: The story du jour, of course, is the many ways in which Charlie Sheen is making (even more of) an imbecile of himself with a blitzkrieg (and I use the word advisedly) media blitz with his television enablers. The most notable of the enablers, unsurprisingly, is CNN’s Piers ...
Sweet Elena's Bakery and Cafe
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