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Post-Zionism in a diaspora world
•What does it mean to be a Jew in a Post-Zionist world? For centuries, for Jews, the notion of living free in Zion was a dream. In Theodor Herzl's famous essay, "The Jewish State," the journalist and playwright transformed the dream of living in a Jewish state into a goal.… -
William Shatner gets a place at the Seder
• •William Shatner is God. And Pharaoh. And Moses, too. Just in time for Passover, the Jewish Music Group (a division of Shout Factory) has released "Exodus: An Oratorio in Three Parts," performed by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. It is conducted by David Itkin, who created and composed the Oratorio, sung… -
Where the booklovers are
•Dutton's Brentwood Books, among the best-known and best-loved of Los Angeles' independent bookstores, will close on April 30. It is hard not to take this as a sign of the times. Over the past few years many local independent bookstores have gone the way of the local movie theater, the… -
Gang of actors reaches a new stage
• •The Actors' Gang, now in residence at the historic Ivy Substation in Culver City, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The substation, constructed in 1907 by the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad, looks more like a Spanish mission than an electric power facility, strangely appropriate for The Actors' Gang, which is both… -
Elvis at the crossroads
• •Elvis is back in the building. On March 14 at the Cinerama Dome, Elvis will return, one more time, in a special 40th anniversary screening of the “Singer Presents Elvis†special from 1968, or “The Comeback Special†as it is more popularly known, as the kickoff event of the Paley… -
The Great Wall of Bernstein
• •Over the course of a year, I collect books I should read and books I want to read, but -- should have/would have/could have -- many I never get around to reading. Over the last few months, as last year came to a close and this new one began, and… -
The Genesis of Early Dylan
• •When it comes to Bob Dylan, I think it's fair to say that I'm a fan of long standing -- my wife still teases me about the time, shortly after we'd moved to Los Angeles, when in her car, radio on, she was surprised to hear me as a call-in… -
KCRW gives us 'The Business'
• •In an underground office on the campus of Santa Monica College, Claude Brodesser-Akner is working with his producer, Matt Holzman, and associate producer, Darby Maloney, to describe the current status of the Oscar broadcast -- and work in a pun. Finally, Brodesser-Akner says, with some satisfaction, "The Oscars are mired."… -
LACMA gets Contemporary
•In February, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will unveil the first phase of its renovation and expansion, including the opening of a new building devoted to contemporary art -- the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (that's Broad as in Eli and Edythe Broad, our local Medicis) or, as the… -
Dreaming of a blue future (Roger Director)
•Let me state, for the record, that I know nothing about sports. I don't watch them; I don't follow them. My parents didn't. I never did as a kid. I don't now with my family. Occasionally in the finals of a season, a few names flutter into my consciousness and… -
Picturing LA (Julius Shulman)
•Julius Shulman, the still much-in-demand architectural photographer, famous for his photos of Modernist homes, turned 97 a few weeks ago, and the partying has been pretty much nonstop -- which is the way Shulman likes it. The Getty Research Institute, which houses Shulman's photographic archive of more than 260,000 negatives,… -
Michael Chabon's Amazing (Jewish) Adventures
•On the occasion of the first annual "Celebration of Jewish Books" at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, the Jewish Journal asked me to engage Michael Chabon in a (brief) conversation about the Jewish flavor of his work. Herewith the results: Novelist Michael Chabon has an agent, Steven Barclay,…