Today, Sunday, is the last day of the 2012 LA Art Show. A visit pays off for the whole family! There is so much to see that not only kids are busy watching but also participating.
It’s an experience to watch so much different art of all kinds of styles at one place. There are also special events offered throughout the day. From printmaking to fine art lectures. Some showcasing galleries have some of their artists present and one can engage with the artists, talk about their art and find out more about them and their work first hand. Corzine Fine Art (Booth B140) had a special event: Artist Yuri Yuroz decorates white T-shirts (don’t forget to bring one with you!) with a painting.
On another side of the exhibition hall, James Peterson’s spectacular installation ‘Hypoxia’ is attracting admirers of all ages. Children are in heaven here since the artist actually encourages them to touch and experience his artwork. In fact interaction with his installation is necessary to bring the installation ‘to life’: Touch causes certain lights to turn on in parts of the installation while sudden blows of air create unexpected movement.
The LA Art Show is open today, Sunday, January 22, 2012, from 11am – 5pm
Metropolis II by Chris Burden has opened to the public Saturday, January 14, 2012. It’s an experience! Should you be in L.A. for the weekend, do pay LACMA a visit and check out this outstanding exhibition. An “elaborate system of 18 roadways including one 6-lane freeway and HO scale train tracks…” and 1200 custom manufactured die-cast cars make you feel like being in the midst of a mini New York or Los Angeles . An impressive structure of steel, aluminum, shielded copper wire, glass, plastics, wood and even legos take the viewer with amazement. One can spend quite some time discovering all kinds of different buildings and world landmarks like the Eiffel tower and Saint Basil’s Cathedral on the Red Square in Moscow.
This upcoming Monday is part of Target Free Holiday Mondays, which offers free entrance to all LACMA shows and a variety of children activities throughout the day. Not only will you get a look at this amazing architectural design gem, but your kids will have a moment of awe and can continue the day at LACMA with all kinds of other fun activities.
NEXGEN the LACMA Youth membership lets accompanying adults visit for free
By the way, should you have children at the ages of 3-18, get them a NEXGEN membership. It’s a free membership for children and allows one accompanying adult per child to visit LACMA for free.
My son and I just spent a great day at LACMA and actually could take a sneak preview on Metropolis II on Friday, when LACMA offered a special member preview day before the official opening of Metropolis II yesterday.
We continued our LACMA adventure with viewing the art collection at the Broad Contemporary Art Museum. Already the building with its contrasting red elements and the steep escalator, that my son named the ‘escalator to the sky’ is a delight for the eye. Inside, one can experience the fascinating paintings and sculptures of so many famous artists like Jeff Koons, Baldessari and more.
Should you love Expressionism, then walk over to the Ahmanson building. The Rifkind Gallery for German Expressionism offers quite a selection of Kirchner, Pechstein and Co. An entire small exhibit is dedicated to Ludwig Meidner: Ecstatic Expressionism, which will be on view until April 15th. Quite an impressive selection of other representatives of modern art can be found here on level 2 as well. From Picasso, Klee, Otto Dix to Motherwell, Rothko, Pollock, Sam Francis and Liechtenstein.
“Telling the story of the birth of the LA art scene” – PACIFIC STANDARD TIME at LACMA
German design bei Kem Weber - Desk & Chair
California Design, 1930–1965: “Living in a Modern Way” is another exhibition that should be on your agenda. As part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980 it gives a chronological overview through the many historical highlights that shaped California Design.
Reconnect to the magic of Christmas a different way and find peace and tranquility despite the hectic that surrounds this busiest time of the year.
Winter time is a perfect time to spend at the beach. Especially if the weather is as beautiful as it was for the last few Advent weekends. One can spend hours walking on the sand without the summer crowds and just enjoy the waves crashing at the feet and watching the pelicans sail over the ocean. It’s perfect for reconnecting with your mind, soul and the elements.
Some beaches have special attractions for the holiday season like ice skating while watching the sunset over the ocean. Ice skating by the beach has become a tradition at the Del Coronado Hotel in San Diego, the hotel where “Some Like It Hot” was filmed starring Marilyn Monroe.
Del Coronado’s beloved holiday tradition starts every year right after Thanksgiving. The hotel has an ice rink set up right in front of the hotel’s beach promenade, looking over the beautiful wide, white beaches - the sand here by the way seems much softer and whiter than anywhere else in SoCal, so I found. After the ice skating sessions one can relax with hot cocoa and other goodies at the coffee bar or the restaurant right at the promenade. It’s a great and fun time well spent with family and friends!
The “Performance in Which Hopefully Nothing Happens” at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts last weekend was a real treat for children and grown-ups alike. In times where the Wii and other video games have taken over our children’s leisure time, it is so important to have their minds and imagination stimulated with something more creative.
That’s exactly what Theatergroep MAX from the Netherlands did. Inventive, absurd and fantastic at times, “Performance in Which Hopefully Nothing Happens” was great modern theater that played with the audience’s minds, made it laugh over clever absurd funny scenes while playfully demonstrating what a performance actually consists of!
The actors brilliantly incorporated elements of Pantomime and Comedy and with a witty play of words kept the audience engaged. Their scene of having the various parts of a performance appear as different people, from the ‘previous moment’ person to the ‘next moment’ guy and the ‘dead moment’ was hilarious, with the interview of the ‘little detail’ being the absolute highlight. Comicly funny the ‘little detail’ was being interviewed with a microphone, but all the audience could really see was the actor Roger holding the microphone pointed towards a little round spot that was illuminated by his flashlight. That’s where the little detail supposedly was on stage and spoke, but it was just too small for the audience to see with bare eyes…The children were bursting in laughter. The audience loved it.
Playing with the audience’s mind and making illusion reality was at its best, when one actor suddenly seemed to play hide and seek with his alter ego, and in the end after desperately trying to find himself, suggested, that he must have lost himself.
By inviting Theatergroep MAX from the Netherlands, Segerstrom Center for the Arts has put on an excellent show making sure that theater goers of the next generation are trained to watch something more challenging than only mainstream theatre. Too bad that this award winnig show was available for the general public only for two days. I will for sure be on the look out for their next performance in the coming season.
“Performance in Which Hopefully Nothing Happens” -A real treat for eyes, ears and mind!
On Thursday , May 28, the Newport Beach Film Festival started; the festival that brings a bit of Hollywood glamour to Orange County. Aside of the eye-catching movies, the Filmfest offers several spotlights.
Last Friday before the the movie “Lucky” the Eco Spotlight featured the documentary ”This is Your Ocean: Sharks”. Since we were on a family outing we decided on the Eco Spotlight, that we expected should also be attractive to our 7-year old.
George C. Schellenger, Jim Abernethy, Shawn Heinrichs
In the perfect setting , at the Lido Theater, with ocean frescos on the walls, the world premier was introduced to a very welcoming audience. A bit skeptical about the movie when reading that director George C. Schellenger would take us “into the world of sharks through the eyes of Wyland, Guy Harvey and Jim Abernethy“, we witnessed some beautiful images, but I must say that our first skepticism proofed to be right. The movie oftentimes appeared to be more a promotional piece for the artists, especially Wyland, than a movie that would give the audience a deeper understanding of the world of sharks and on how they lived.
The movie did draw attention to the overfishing and therefore destruction of shark communities that are so important for the ocean’s eco system and many of us are not aware of. Unfortunately that seemed to have been the only deeper topic aside of the very touching subject of Jim Abernethy’s relationship to one very particular shark ”Emma”. These pictures indeed were quite unusual and impressive, since we usually picture sharks as not very affectionate animals. Shark Emma though “knows” Abernethy and feels when he is in the water and comes by to see him!
My family, especially my little shark expert, was expecting to see and learn of some groundbreaking new facts on sharks’ lives. But there were barely any scientific details in the movie. I guess, we expected some kind of Planet Earth experience and were somewhat disturbed to be taken out of the beautiful crystal clear waters of the Bahamas only to watch Wyland paint his majestic underwater worlds on big walls. I wouldn’t have minded to see more of shark expert Jim Abernethy’s beautiful underwater photography work, which complemented the movie much better.
All together the movie is a great attempt to draw attention solely on to sharks and their need for protection. Besides one can experience some fascinating images of underwater scenery, and … should you want to learn more about Wyland’s and Guy Harvey’s painting style and drive for painting underwater worlds, then this is definitely a must see.
If you would like to get involved in saving our oceans, a good start is joining the movement ”One World, One Ocean“.
Who doesn’t know the cute little orange Maus with its blue elephant friend that later on got joined by a little duck as well. I can’t imagine my childhood without them, but the Maus is also part of my children’s growing up.
In all these years we never found out what our friends’ real names were, but we never really cared in the first place. We just loved and still love to listen to the Maus’ somehow rigid walking over the TV screen in noisy click – clack sounds, the intelligent and witty solutions to solve problems and the unforgettable blinking of Maus’ big eyes . The Maus was and is still loved by anyone and not only the 5-8 year olds.
On March 7th, 1971 German kids could see the first show of “Lach- und Scahgeschichten” in the ARD and from then on Maus explained in the weekly shows any questions in the field of science and nature to the German children.
If you forgot why the Swiss cheese has holes or why water is see-through, treat yourself to some of these adorable Sendung mit der Maus episodes.
Animated short films are in the OSCAR spotlight. This year’s film nominees can be seen in theaters from Friday on in Los Angeles. “The Gruffalo,” is Germany’s Oscar-nominated animated short, produced by A Magic Light Pictures Production. The LA Times calls the film ‘a charming fable about outsmarting one’s fears.
With temperatures warm like in summer I have a hard time to get into the right mood for Christmas. As much as I enjoy the sun generally, my traditional clock works differently: Christmas needs to happen in real winter and winter needs to look white and feel cold.
Despite the warm temperatures in Southern California, there is after all some snow to find, even if it is man made… It just means a two to three hour drive to places such as Big Bear, Mountain High, Mt. Baldy or Snow Valley Ski Resort, which is supposedly famous for getting more natural snow than any other Southern California resort. The snowboarding and skiing season has definitely started! But even locations like Lake Arrowhead or Idyllwild have sported snow already this season and presented themselves already all in white. In fact we went to Idyllwild in November and had our first completely unprepared snow experience! Having left the beach cities at moderate temperatures , the weather changed within one day completely once at Idyllwild, and it began snowing through the night, without stopping until the next day. In disbelief we realized that we actually got snowed in!
Who said there can’t be a White Christmas in Southern California…? I guess I have to thoroughly revise my comment and plan to spend Christmas in the mountains. I am determined: this year we’ll relive my memories of a white Christmas!
November 11th marks one very anticipated day for children in Germany. Sankt Martins Tag is the unofficial start of the holiday season and with its festive celebration ringing in the magic times ahead and the most favorite holiday sesaon of the year: Christmas.
In Germany it’s custom to celebrate the generous roman soldier, who later got baptized, with a “Laternenumzug”. The celebration starts in the evening when the children gather with their self-made little lanterns for a procession singing St. Martin’s songs. Oftentimes the legend of St. Martin is acted out and brings to life one of the most famous legends about him: Saint Martin was a Roman soldier and a very kind man. Once during a snowstorm, he cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar to save him from dying of the cold.
Traditional is also to hand out “Weckmaenner” a baked ‘man’ reminiscent of a gingerbread man perhaps, but not made of sweet cookie dough but rather formed out of sweet yeast dough. For a recipe follow the link to an article on the German- Info website
Oddly enough November 11 is also the start of the Fasching/Carnival season in Germany. It’s the kick-off for the fool season and Faschings clubs make their plans for upcoming parties and parades.
Here in the US, Veterans Day is being observed on November 11th. It’s a public holiday honoring military veterans.
Driving through the neighborhoods one can see ghouls and ghosts and pumpkins everywhere: Halloween! Kids are eagerly watching the neighbors’ decorations and are bound to top them with scarier stuff on their own front porch. Young & old seem to love Halloween, the dress-up parties and whatever else comes with it.
When I moved to California Halloween was a custom I knew of, but never had observed, since there was no such festivity in Germany at that time. Times have changed and I am witnessing my family and friends over there today engaging in Halloween parties, getting the kids ready for their Halloween trick or treat night as if they lived right next door to me! “Hey, that’s not fair” my little one exclaims. “They have Fasching twice!”
Not really but in essence true. But where does the Halloween custom come from and is there some correlation to our German Fasching? Wikipedia gives an in depth explanation on Halloween mentioning that the word Halloween came up the first time in the 16th century and represented a Scottish version of All-Hallows-Even (Hallow meaning in old English, Saints) and therefore was the night before All Saints Day, a holiday observed by most of the Western Christian world. People had the superstitious belief that during that time the dead could return to earth and according to the ancient Celtic ‘Samhain’ celebration, which influenced Halloween as well, spirits both harmless and harmful could pass through to the world. To ward of these spirits ancient Celts disguised themselves as harmful spirits themselves so they would not be harmed.
The tradition of kids going from door to door apparently stems from the medieval times “ when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1) receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2)” (Wikipedia)
Halloween seems to also mark a turning point where fall for sure turns into winter. The months for various festivities have started and we are being reminded that the end of the year is near. Interesting also here the relation to the festival of Samhain that celebrates the end of the “lighter half” of the year and beginning of the “darker half”. It is in fact sometimes regarded as the “Celtic New Year” (Wikipedia). The Romans had a festival ‘Feralia’ where the spirits of the dead were honored. Feralia though was celebrated in February, which brings us back to the German Fasching being related to Halloween after all. One memorable Weiberfastnacht’s event near Garmisch Partenkirchen in fact brings back images of horrible witches and other scary figures streaming through the villages. Isn’t that similar to what we will experience tomorrow night?
By the way, the official start of our German Fasching is also in November. To be exact November 11, at 11:11 am!
Vom kleinen, unscheinbaren Vogel zum "König der Vögel": Eine Legende beschreibt, wie der Zaunkönig zu seinem Namen kam. Manchmal haben gerade die Unscheinbaren eine verborgene Schönheit.
them and their work first hand. Corzine Fine Art (Booth B140) had a special event: Artist Yuri Yuroz decorates white T-shirts (don’t forget to bring one with you!) with a painting.
encourages them to touch and experience his artwork. In fact interaction with his installation is necessary to bring the installation ‘to life’: Touch causes certain lights to turn on in parts of the installation while sudden blows of air create unexpected movement.
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