Friday, January 18, 2013

LA Substantial

We're back in Los Angeles, which the current issue of the Qantas inflight magazine The Australian Way quotes Werner Herzog as declaring the most culturally substantial city in the United States.

One of those evening views of LA that I love - it reminds me of the cover of an edition of James Ellroy's LA Confidential

Many will baulk at Herzog's claim but he goes further to say that "This is a place where, if you look beyond the glitz and glamour of Hollywood you find all the writers, photographers, musicians, mathematicians." Well, think of all the musicians and writers and playwrights who've lived here - Schoenberg, Heifitz, Isherwood; the Los Angeles Times recently published an interactive map of "John Cage's Los Angeles", Brecht premiered the second 'American' version of Life of Galileo here, at the Coronet Theater 366 North La Cienega Boulevard [Charles Laughton was in the title role and had worked with Brecht on it], Stravinsky composed half of his neo-classical and most of his late works around Hollywood... The question is whether the presence of these people and their activities added up to a Los Angeles cultural identity. But they continued to influence the world from here.

I caught a glimpse of Catalina Island coming in, but grabbed the camera too late and only saw the top of it as it disappeared under the wing.


I remember that Catalina was my first glimpse of the US in 1996 and Dvořák’s New World Symphony happened to be on the headset at that moment. It was a nice coincidence.


If you liked this blog, others of mine on Los Angeles are:

A daily reminder, 1 April 2011
When you take a closer look, 21 April 2011
The frame (thoughts on the Getty Center), 24 April 2011
A light on the hill (the Reagan Library), 30 April 2011
A couple of snapshots (Malibu and the Valley), 1 May 2011
More to love about LA, 6 Jan 2012
Walking with stars, 10 Apr 2012
En plein air and a little elan, 16 Nov 2012

City of Angels, 20 Jan 2013
City of Nets? City of Dreams, 31 Jan 2013
The combination of effects, 1 Feb 2013
Rounding off - LA vignettes 1, 2 Feb 2013


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