Lately, I’ve been thinking about two novels I recently enjoyed: “The Other Shulman†by Alan Zweibel (Villard, $23.95), and “Joy Comes in the Morning†by Jonathan Rosen (Picador, $14). The two novels are strikingly different: One deals with confronting a marriage of long standing; the other is about getting married. One is comic with serious […]
Read More… from A Read on Life (novels by Zweibel and Rosen)
According to reports in various newspapers last week, NBC-Universal is contemplating acquiring DreamWorks’ live-action feature-film division, or as it used to be called, their movie studio. Regardless of whether the acquisition is consummated, it reflects a sad truth: Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen’s dream of creating a modern major studio has failed. When […]
How does one create a literary community in Los Angeles? It is true that on any given night, there are readings, slams and events at bookstores, bars and auditoriums all over town. Yet rarely does this coalesce into a sense of community, a literary life in Los Angeles. Steve Wasserman, who is leaving the L.A. […]
Read More… from A Well Lit Place (Steve Wasserman and the LA Times Sunday Book Review)
After the intermission, the lights start to dim. A lone woman is on stage. She waits for the audience to settle in. She is well dressed, well groomed. She begins: “For the Palestinians, there is no other context. We see everything in the context of Palestine.†In the June 26 Los Angeles Times’ Art Notes, […]
Read More… from “History Happens” (David Hare’s “Stuff Happens”)
A few weeks ago, the Geffen Playhouse showcased a memorable special event: “Here’s to Life,†Kitty Carlisle Hart’s cabaret-style one-woman show, accompanied by her musical director, David Lewis. Hart, 94, performed for a little over an hour, reminiscing and singing songs from some of her late friends such as Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, […]
If, as the bard wrote, “All the world’s a stage,” then let me direct you to a current production that, though seeming of another time, and another era, and based on a film more than 40 years old, offers enduring truths that seem particularly relevant to current events. “Judgment At Nuremberg” Abby Mann’s courtroom drama […]
Read More… from “Old Lessons Never Die” (Abby Mann’s “Judgment” in Long Beach) 6-17-05
As I write this The Jewish Family Service (JFS) of Los Angeles’ annual gala to be held on June 1, 2005 is a few days away. The honorees are CAA agent Rick Kurtzman; his brother, Fox business affairs executive Howard Kurtzman; and their brother-in-law, William Morris Agent David Lonner (married to their sister Janet). JFS […]
Read More… from Agents of Charity (Jewish Family Service Gala honoring Kurtzman, Lonner, Kurtzman)
As I drove toward Malibu the other day, Santa Monica Bay was anything but uniform, a shifting collage of textures and hues of blue. As the sun glinted off the water, I wondered: How does one describe the special quality of Santa Monica light? How do you explain it? How do you quantify it? To […]
Read More… from Tommywood: “Light of Day” (Robert Weingarten at the Weisman Museum)
Phil Rosenthal, the creator of “Everybody Loves Raymond,†which will end its nine-year run on CBS on May 16, and I are fressing at Barney Greengrass in Beverly Hills high atop Barney’s Department Store. It’s not that eating sable is the way I mourn (how is it that a fish can be named after a […]
Read More… from Tommywood: “Raymond’s End” (or Phil Rosenthal: Deli Lama) 5-06-05
Nextbook www.nextbook.org […]
“The Bones” by Seth Greenland (Bloomsbury) Shop at Amazon.com! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home?site=amazon&tag=tommywood-20 “And The Word Was” by Bruce Bauman (Other Press) Shop at Amazon.com! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home?site=amazon&tag=tommywood-20 […]
When I go out of town, I often take a novel or two with me, knowing that a plane ride remains one of the few places to get serious reading done. Recently, I read two novels, Seth Greenland’s “The Bones†(Bloomsbury) and Bruce Bauman’s “And the Word Was†(Other Press), which made strong impressions about […]