January 14, 2008 | 2:19 pm

After the choir

Posted by Danielle Berrin

As a follow up to Friday’s plug to “get a lil gospel,”  it must be said that it was as expected, sensational. Not just because it drew in the energy of 1400 or so people who came to hear the COR choir raise the roof (though they did), nor was it the Rev. Mark Whitlock’s polemical address emphatically declaring that Moses deserves an altar equal to that of Jesus’ (though he did), and it wasn’t the usual delight of singing your way into Sabbath surrounded by tradition (though the occasion was marked by emblems of the past, remembered). The magic happened somewhere in between—the amalgam of ingredients adding up to a delicacy.

For me the moment arrived somewhere in the middle of the excitement when I realized the power and magnitude of what was happening: Jews cheering for a pastor like they were fans; a predominantly black choir crooning “Hinei Matov” like a pop song; a gracious rabbi loaning his bimah to a new and different voice. Among all those elements, it became clear that two communities who worship differently really want the same things, and standing side by side in support of one another brings them closer to those dreams.

In a polarizing world where we’re always cajoled into choosing sides - right or wrong, black or white, Democrat or Republican, Jew or Muslim, East or West, there is a great spiritual strength in feeling unity, in being as one.

(art by Monica Stewart)

January 11, 2008 | 1:36 pm

Get a lil’ gospel on Shabbat

Posted by Danielle Berrin

Maybe you’ve been to Friday Night Live. Well come again tonight because it’s going to be a soul-inspiring spirited celebration that will rock religion right into your soft spots. There will be gospel. There will be belting. And praising. And dancing (and drinking for 20s and 30s), so put on your pants or your jeans and stuff down your challah in the car because tonight is not to be missed!

After the service in the “What’s Your Story?” salon, I’ll interview Reverend Mark Whitlock of Christ our Redeemer First AME Church about the current state of race relations, the potential of electing the nation’s first African American President and what he believes is the gravest crisis facing minority communities today…

7:30 p.m. Free. Sinai Temple, 10400 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood (corner of Wilshire and Beverly Glen).

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January 9, 2008 | 5:24 pm

Getty Nude

Posted by Danielle Berrin

Underneath our clothes, we’re all naked. We’ve seen ourselves naked maybe thousands of times - some of us pose and stare, some cringe and cower, others barely notice their own flesh. The point is we’ve seen ourselves nude—what’s familiar is rarely scintillating. But how many other people do we get to see fleshy and exposed? I mean really see: ogle, stare, study. (Family doesn’t count.) When can we comfortably glare at the angular lineaments of a woman’s back, or the elegant arrangement of muscles surrounding a man’s pelvis (yes I know, besides Brad Pitt in “Fight Club”)? Objectification and fetishization aside, when do we get to see ordinary people doing ordinary things, like sitting on couches or jumping into a lake distinguished only by being in the raw, unveiled and threadbare?

From ancient Greece to the pages of Playboy, images of the bare-skinned form are timelessly in vogue, and painters, photographers and filmmakers have been capturing that bodily essence for our viewing pleasure. Since early October, the Getty has displayed a small collection of nude photographs representing 29 photographers and spanning 160 years as part of their “In Focus” photography program, which highlights works in their permanent collection.

Man Ray, Ed Weston and Thomas Eakins seduce with their distinctive styles while Alfred Stieglitz exposes the petals of Georgia O’Keefe. Some of the works are elaborately staged and set, and others are simple portraits. A few photos challenge the body politic and distort common perceptions about nakedness. Unimpressed with a photo of a woman’s behind, my friend sought to prove his own artistic skill with a bit of mimicry and snapped a close-up of his thumb pressed against his pointer finger. It only incurred the dismay of the curator who scolded him for using the flash.

Though not reason enough to venture to the castle on the hill (as if we need an excuse), it does make for an intriguing half-hour or so among the museum’s more traditional fare. From the painterly to the natural,  the real to the ideal, and even the grotesque, the photos offer a glimpse into the permutations of fantasy and form that reveal the body and captivate the mind.

(Clockwise from top: Man Ray, “Le Violon d’Ingres,” 1924; Edmund Teske, “Nude, Davenport, Iowa, Composite with Leaves,” negatives 1941 and 1946, printed 1960s; Chuck Close and Jerry Spagnoli, “Untitled Torso,” 2001. All images courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.)

“The Nude” is on display through February 24, 2008. The Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles. 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. (Tues-Thurs and Sun), 10 a.m.-9 p.m. (Fri and Sat). Free. $8 parking.

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January 8, 2008 | 2:54 pm

Eli Broad baffles LACMA

Posted by Danielle Berrin

While everybody in New Hampshire marches to the polls in a circus deluge of presidential campaigning, LACMA is embroiled in a potential dispute with Eli Broad over his 2,000 piece contemporary art collection. Apparently, despite LACMA’s new and pricey “Broad Contemporary Art Museum,” the billionaire has chosen to loan his collection instead of donating it. Valued between $100-$200 million, Mr. Broad does not want to see his precious paintings gathering dust in storage, and LACMA won’t promise to keep the artwork permanently displayed.

Edward Wyatt writes in The New York Times:

The decision is a striking reversal by Mr. Broad, who as recently as a year ago said that he planned to give most of his holdings to one or several museums.

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The decision also has far-reaching implications for the way museums interact with big donors. In recent years a dizzying rise in art prices and an abiding institutional thirst for acquisitions have given well-heeled donors more influence over what a museum buys and puts on its walls.

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In an interview in his foundation’s office here, Mr. Broad (whose name rhymes with road) said he did not view his decision as a vote of no confidence in the museum. Rather, he said, it represents no less than a new paradigm for the way museums in general collect art and interact with one another.

“I think it’s a new model that makes sense for other collections,” he said. “If it was up to me, I believe that museums ought to own works jointly.” Mr. Broad encouraged that practice last year with his purchase of a work by the artist Chris Burden, which he then gave jointly to the county museum and another Los Angeles institution, the Museum of Contemporary Art, where he was a founding trustee.

His decision not to donate his holdings evolved over the last year, Mr. Broad said, as his collection grew, and it became clear that no museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art included, would commit to placing a large percentage of the works on permanent exhibit.

The collection has roughly doubled in size in the last five years and includes personal holdings and those of the Broad Art Foundation. Among the best-known works are some by contemporary artists including Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons,  Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari, as well as earlier art-world titans like Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg.

“We don’t want it to end up in storage, in either our basement or somebody else’s basement,” Mr. Broad said. “So I, as the collector, am saying, ‘If you’re not willing to commit to show it, why don’t we just make it available to you when you want it, as opposed to giving it to you, and then our being unhappy that it’s only up 10 percent or 20 percent of the time or not being shown at all?’”

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Mr. Broad took pains to make clear that the county museum would be “the favored institution” when it came to loans from the Broad Art Foundation. “If it weren’t going to be favored, I wouldn’t have given it $50 million to build the building,” he said.

 

(photo courtesy forbes.com)

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January 7, 2008 | 5:19 pm

Arab-Israeli penetrates mainstream media

Posted by Danielle Berrin

Sayed Kashua is shining new light on Arab life in Israel, but whether it’s the content of his writing or his own unique experience that is most revealing is up for debate.

Born in an Arab town in central Israel, Sayed Kashua was raised in a moderate Muslim family and educated in Hebrew at a Jerusalem boarding school. His unusual journey became artistic fodder for his successful career as an author, journalist and recently, television show creator. His new series “Avoda Aravit,” which airs on an Israeli commercial station is considered hip and clever by its predominantly Jewish audience, and insulting by many Arab and Palestinian critics.

Isabel Kershner writes in The New York Times:

“I wanted to bring likable Arabs into the average Israeli living room,” Mr. Kashua said.

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In a refreshing departure, “Avoda Aravit” focuses on a young professional Arab couple, Amjad and Bushra, and their way-too-smart, eye-rolling, preschool-age daughter, who live in an Arab village on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Amjad is a journalist working for a Hebrew newspaper. His best friend, Meir, is a Jewish photographer there.

Mr. Kashua resorts to some unflattering stereotypes on both sides for the sake of comedy, but he is also a master of subtle nuance in dealing with both Arab and Jewish society, and is self-deprecating enough for the borscht belt.

Mr. Kashua’s alter ego, Amjad, sometimes goes to ridiculous lengths to fit in with what he views as Israel’s Ashkenazi elite. He sends his daughter to a Reform synagogue kindergarten after lampooning the local religious Islamic Movement one.

For Passover, Amjad and his family are invited to participate in a Seder, when Jewish families traditionally gather to read the story of the Children of Israel’s exodus from ancient Egypt. Amjad joins in with gusto, having memorized the classical Hebrew text, and gobbles down his gefilte fish, after which Bushra refuses to go near him.

By an accident of fortune, Amjad’s father has been given the annual Passover responsibility of buying the Jewish state’s leftover chametz, or leavened bread, from the chief rabbinate for the duration of the holiday, when Jews are meant to clear their homes of it, for the symbolic price of one shekel. He promptly sells it on eBay.

 

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January 2, 2008 | 2:53 pm

Idan Raichel gets candid on camera

Posted by Danielle Berrin

During a recent tour stop at UCLA’s Royce Hall, I spent an evening backstage with Idan Raichel, creator of The Idan Raichel Project, a multicultural music fusion of ethnic artists from around the world. “The Project,” as they call themselves,  includes 70 artists from the Sudan to South America (though only a select few travel on tour), and they collaborate musically in Israel. Before The Project performed to a wildly enthusiastic L.A. audience, Idan shared his thoughts on Israel, put national politics in their place, and revealed the things that inspire his music.

Note: The video was shot with top-notch camera equipment and a fancy lens, but with wide-angle images and a longer-than-youtube-usual running time, the image quality got significantly compromised during the transfer. I’m hoping to improve it soon.

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December 28, 2007 | 2:40 pm

One Jew’s Christmas Eve

Posted by Dikla Kadosh

Guest blogger Jay Firestone:

For the second Christmas Eve in a row, I’ve had the privilege of attending the famous San Francisco Jewish singles dance, known only as The Latke Ball.  Hosted by Young Adults Division of The Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, this year’s dance saw over 1200 in attendance.  And when you’re a young guy, with a full head of hair and a waistline line that doesn’t reflect decades of devouring chocolate babka, it is truly an amazing (and highly rewarding) experience.

Contrary to a Bar Mitzvah party, where you’d see your aunts and second cousins drinking and dancing to the Macarena, The Latke Ball was home to cute younger women with dance moves not quite ‘shul appropriate,’ though sure to inspire a few blessings in disguise.

I met a few girls, chatted with them, exchanged numbers and soon after dismissing myself from the painfully boring conversation, deleted those numbers.

But I forced myself out on the dance floor and enjoyed the rest of the night.  I was on a mission - to find a mate…for the evening.

I can’t go into further detail, nor will I reveal any possibly incriminating stories.

All I will say is that later on in the evening, I ran into an old fraternity brother of mine that I hadn’t seen in a few years.  I introduced him to a group of girls.  Minutes later, he was locked in a passionate make-out session with one of the lucky ladies.

A vicarious success.

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December 27, 2007 | 3:17 pm

IDF soldiers struggle in “Beaufort”

Posted by Danielle Berrin

I was on my way out of ICM’s lush private theater after a screening of Israeli film “Beaufort” when someone asked me if I liked the film.

“It’s a hard film to say you like,” I answered, “but it’s a very well made film.”

Its technical merits are many, but its content—challenging.

Leaving politics at the doorstep, “Beaufort” is an oppressive film to watch. On view are deeply gashed and bleeding limbs, dead bodies and vomiting soldiers. Missile attacks from Hezbollah explode to an ominous score that fills the audience with unease, anxiety and tension.

The film tells the story of the last Israeli outpost stationed in southern Lebanon in 2000. A group of (unlucky) soldiers have the task of guarding a hilltop near Beaufort Castle and endure persistent violence at the hands of Hezbollah. By day, the soldiers debate the efficacy of the Israeli politicians and the IDF; at night, they alternate manning the lookout post, the most vulnerable spot on site and a frequent target.

Filmmaker Joseph Cedar crafted a provocative meditation on war that suggests the soldiers were sitting ducks while the Knesset, stalled by bureaucracy, failed to protect them from Hezbollah. Cedar exposes the breadth of the Israeli political spectrum through the soldiers’ frustrated voices. As the bulwark of Israel’s security, they struggle with polarizing, moral dilemmas. Ultimately the protagonist unit leader must decide: follow orders or preserve human life?

The film is contentiously vying for a foreign language Oscar nomination along with “The Band’s Visit,” and will soon makes its way to a theater near you.

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