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Rivers of Music
Producer, songwriter and musician Larry Klein is having a good year. In a way, one could say his current success is the culmination of a process of recontextualizing his background, his experience, his talents and his interests. Two records he produced have just been released on Verve Records: "River: The Joni Letters" by jazz great Herbie Hancock, an exploration of the songs of Joni Mitchell (who is Klein's ex-wife); and "The New Bossa Nova" by Brazilian-born singer and composer Luciana… -
Let Us Travel To Iran
This fall, I am asking you to travel to Iran. Not the present-day, front-page, headline-grabbing, nuclear-developing, Holocaust-denying, Israel-hating Iran, but the Iran of just 20 or 30 years ago, as described in two newly published novels, Gina Nahai's "Caspian Rain" (MacAdam Cage) and Dalia Sofer's "The Septembers of Shiraz" (Ecco). Although Nahai's novel takes place over the decade leading up to the 1979 Iranian revolution and Sofer's in the years immediately following it, both are beautifully written, absorbing and moving… -
Summer and the start of school
In one of his most famous works, the French poet Francois Villon asked: "Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan? (But where are the snows of yesteryear?)." I might ask the same about where this summer went. It seems like just last week my daughter was getting out of class, and now she's about to start up again. This year, summer just slipped through my fingers. Americans are often chided for their inability to go on vacation -- a problem I've… -
Zsa Zsa Gabor: The Last of the Hungarian Mohicans
"I want a man with kindness and understanding. Is that too much to ask of a millionaire?" -- Zsa Zsa Gabor Lately, I have been thinking about Zsa Zsa, and it makes me sad. A few years ago, she crashed her car on Sunset, and she has been wheelchair-bound since. She had been a recluse for some time before that, depressed, not wanting to leave the house. She, who for so long relied on her looks, no longer wants to… -
Big Fun Under the Big Top
with additional reporting by Natasha Teicholz When I heard that the circus was coming to town, I couldn't wait to take my daughter. I'm talking about the Greatest Show on Earth, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, appearing in Orange County until Aug. 5. I know that Cirque du Soleil has its fans -- but I find it too frou-frou, self-consciously artistic and pretentious, which may seem strange given all my own pretensions and affectations, but I can never… -
GOOD AS (Jonathan) GOLD
"The plov is great." Jonathan Gold, the LA Weekly's restaurant critic and the 2007 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, e-mailed me the above about Uzbekistan (the restaurant on La Brea, not the country), where we were planning to meet. He assumed, of course, that I knew what plov is -- I didn't then, but I do now; it's a rice dish, like pilaf, usually made with lamb and cooked in a pot. It's common in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and… -
Conversations with David Mamet and Nathan Englander
Conversations with David Mamet and Nathan Englander: DAVID MAMET As part of the Nextbook Festival of ideas, held at UCLA on April 22nd, I interviewed Pulitzer prize winning playwright, screenwriter, novelist and essayist David Mamet. Nextbook had chosen the title of "Make Believe Jews" for our conversation and I took that to mean a conversation about Jews in Hollywood, on screen and off, as the topic related to Mamet's own formation and experiences as a writer, a movie lover, and… -
Conversation with Nathan Englander
NATHAN ENGLANDER About a month later, on May 21, 2007, I found myself on the stage of the Mark Taper auditorium at the Los Angeles Central Public Library, as part of the ALOUD series, in conversation with Nathan Englander whose new novel, "The Ministry of Special Cases" (Knopf) had recently been published. Englander is also the author of a collection of short stories "For The Relief of Unbearable Urges" published in 1999 to great acclaim. To watch, click on the… -
Bruce Teicholz, my father, always said he wasn't a hero.
To see the article as featured in the Jewish Journal, click on: For the cover: http://tommywood.com/cover.pdf For the article, with photos http://tommywood.com/JJcoverarticle.pdf He left his mark fighting in the Shoah, spearheading postwar relief efforts, aiding migration to Palestine - and on me My father always said he wasn't a hero. "All the heroes are dead," he used to say. He said he just did what he had to under the circumstances. My father was born in Rzeszow, Poland, as Benzion… -
The Salonistas of LA
Great ideas and great literature are being championed, promoted and supported in Los Angeles, in public and private forums, in private homes and public spaces, through the age-old medium of conversation. Several years ago, the Jewish Museum in New York mounted an exhibition called "The Power of Conversation: Jewish Women and Their Salons." Focusing on women such as Henriette Herz in 1780s Berlin, Genevieve Straus in 1890s Paris and Salka Viertel in 1930s Santa Monica, the exhibition demonstrated the critical… -
Mark Rydell's Passion
Summer movies provide thrills, chills and laughs and are more noted for their special effects and star actors than for the acting and the seriousness of their purpose. Which makes this a good time to visit with Mark Rydell, a man whose more than 50-year career as an actor, director and producer speaks of his integrity, his commitment to being an artist and his devotion to the craft of acting. Rydell's current offering as director is "Even Money" (now playing… -
Whose Nuremberg Laws Are They?
Sometimes we take for granted what is right in front of us. Consider that one of the most important documents of the 20th century is right here in Los Angeles, accessible and on view for all to visit. Few realize it; fewer still appreciate it. Although originals of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights can be found at the National Archives in Washington, and the Magna Carta and the Rosetta Stone are part of the…