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Articles by Robin Grearson
Where Is Kelley?
Kelley Brannon used to send these long, meandering email newsletters on occasion, to a list of who knows how many friends. I loved receiving them because the way she wrote them you could hear her voice—talking fast, an explosion of 16 thoughts at once, usually ending with a rant or a plea to support a cause or to become more aware of an issue.
Brooklyn Museum: 100 Million Reasons to Protest
I was included in some email threads last week that were helping to shape what became a petition to the Brooklyn Museum and its new director, Anne Pasternak. These conversations opened out to include several community groups who also oppose an upcoming real estate summit that has rented event space from the Museum. The effort has strong support from past and future Brooklyn Museum artists.
Theater in the Pandemic: Parson's Nose Radio Theater
By Hoyt Hilsman on February 24, 2021 inMain PostsTheatre When actors Lance Davis and Mary Chalon launched a theater company from their home in South Pasadena twenty years ago, they never dreamed they would end up doing Radio Theater.
Funny, What We Treasure
This pandemic rang a crushed-velvet curtain down on our local, pint-size theater house. The owner posted on the box office window, “Lease This Charming Space!” Nobody bit, and it may be another eight months before neighbors mount the next enthusiastic production and belt away to tinny orchestras.
The Impact of the Pandemic on Gambling Culture and Behavior
By Our Friends on February 16, 2021 inGamblingLifestyle The coronavirus pandemic has changed the world we live in. Businesses are having to close and adapt how they are offering products and services to customers. People are having to stay at home more and work from home. But what impact is the pandemic having on gambling culture and player’s behavior? Let’s take a closer look at the facts that have been gathered.
Between Aftershocks
By Robin Grearson on February 17, 2021 in Essay, Main Posts 1. An earthquake starts—at least if you live in the kind of apartments that I have almost always lived in—with a crack. When you hear the sound of a 2×4 giving way you know the crack is not a self-contained snap! but a clap calling you to attention for what follows, the commencement of waiting for thunder after lightning.
In Loving Memory of CPAL: An Obituary for COVID-19 Relief
By Olga Garcia Echeverria on February 3, 2021 in Main Posts, OUR WORLD DECEASED: CPAL TERMINATED December 31, 2020 BORN March 2020 RESIDED California State University (CSU) OBITUARY: CPAL (AKA Covid-19 Temporary Paid Administrative Leave) lived a very brief tumultuous life in the California State University system. Full of promise and unfulfilled potential, CPAL came into existence as an emergency relief program in the spring of 2020.
Homage to Los Angeles
By R. Daniel Foster on February 3, 2021 inArtFilmMain PostsStreet Art A few words about my latest art film — 1.5 minutes in length. The film is posted below. Nearly 15 years ago while driving to my Los Feliz apartment, I spied an old lamppost on Hollywood Blvd. with a bunch of plastic bags caught in it, blowing wildly. Back home, I grabbed my video camera and drove back, spending a few hours filming the scene. Later that evening, I returned to film the lamppost for a night perspective.
Inside the ICU: A Nurse’s View of Covid-19 in Los Angeles
The Pandemic By Robin Grearson on January 27, 2021 in Conversations, OUR WORLD Los Angeles has been experiencing a horrific surge of coronavirus cases: a patient is dying of Covid–19 every six minutes, on average. Crematoriums are so busy they are being excused from regional air-quality standards. I asked a friend who is an ICU nurse to sit with me for an interview. I asked her everything: What is the ICU like—what are the working conditions, is there still a PPE or ventilator shortage?
How to make your Facebook cover photo to the right size
By Our Friends on December 22, 2020 inLifestyle Your Facebook cover photo has an impact on the impression your fans have about you. So, it becomes important to know the right Facebook cover photo size. So, what is a Facebook cover photo? A Facebook cover photo is the image that you will see on the top right of your Facebook page when you view it on your desktop. The cover photo can be used to show off your daily activities by highlighting your services, products, the customers, or the supporters.
Hello, Impermanence: A Response to Rolling Stone’s New List
By John Amen on November 18, 2020 in Focus, Music Rolling Stone’s recently updated greatest-albums-of-all-time list is intriguing for the cultural, demographic, and stylistic changes it reflects, but more so for the way it illustrates the broader reality of impermanence — which includes and transcends culture, demography, and expressive modes — how all things, even the most admired aesthetic templates, over time lose their prominence, drifting toward obsolescence.
It’s baaaack! A proposed aerial tram to the Hollywood Sign - Cultural Weekly
By R. Daniel Foster on October 7, 2020 in Spotlight “How do I get to the Hollywood sign?” That’s the question I’m invariably asked when hiking in Griffith Park, the largest urban wilderness park in the United States. Los Angeles has long been vexed about how to best direct visitors to the landmark without clogging residential neighborhoods. So it’s not surprising that aerial tram proposals, replete with a sign-adjacent viewing platform, keep cropping up – like a bad rash.
Hollywood in Place: The Velocity of Discourse Where I Live, Part 2 (June 1, 2020)*
Covid-19 and Protests By Robin Grearson on June 7, 2020 in OUR WORLD, Spotlight Propaganda has escaped the internet, it’s running amok in my neighborhood (and yours!). Helicopters and sirens and camouflage, oh my! A popular local hiking spot near me was closed for Covid–19, then reopened, then closed—“because of the riots.” Covid testing was unavailable, and then it was free, and then it was shut down— “because of riots.” It felt like a weird punishment from Dad, taking away a privilege.
Hollywood in Place: The Velocity of Discourse Where I Live, Part 1 (April 1, 2020)*
By Robin Grearson on April 8, 2020 in Focus, OUR WORLD I went to my local pharmacy megachain to buy a thermometer last month and I saw Pete Buttigieg and his husband at the self-checkout. For a few days I was puzzled by my own puzzled feeling about seeing them. I recalled reading on Twitter that Pete was hosting Jimmy Kimmel, which films nearby, and I couldn’t remember and didn’t care whether he’d been on already and was just hanging around visiting the city or if the hosting was yet to happen.
The Aesthetics of Gentrification, and New York’s Top-Down Approach to Change
“It just feels like one of those places of, like, go there while you can.” Jeremiah Moss is describing Joe Junior, the diner at 16th Street and Third Avenue where we met to talk about gentrification. His book, Vanishing New York: How A Great City Lost Its Soul (HarperCollins, 2017), is loosely arranged by neighborhood, with Jeremiah Moss as a guide.
A Drunken Reading Series Fosters Community in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — On my way to Drunken Masters earlier this month in downtown Los Angeles, I imagined the reading series would be a sort of scaled-down American Idol: several writers present their work to a group of sauced professionals in the same genre who provide instant feedback and critique. The relevance and quality of feedback depends, however, as much on each master’s wisdom as their capacity to hold liquor.
Quiet Genius in Purple Rain
I saw Purple Rain last week, in a theater. We’ve reached the first anniversary of Prince’s death, so it’s playing in New York (and probably elsewhere) as a midnight movie. Seeing any footage of him is bittersweet. Prince’s love of privacy ensured that his life offstage was not widely accessible; this leaves fans “only” his talent, and our stories of witnessing this talent.
Bagels, Burgers, and the Branding of Bushwick
Yes, graffiti and hip-hop and bagels are authentic New York. And sure, McDonald’s is also a part of New York … though no more or less than it’s part of every other big city. If McDonald’s wants to sell bagels in the Netherlands as if McDonald’s bagels are a New York thing — uh, fine. America’s with you.
"We Are Experiencing Hyper-Gentrification": Gowanus Art Community Sizes Up Its Future
As Arts Gowanus organized a rally for artists displaced from 94 9th Street and adjacent, connected buildings earlier this month, some 350 artists and local businesses were preparing for Gowanus Open Studios (GOS).
Gowanus Rallies to Support Artists Losing Affordable Workspaces
Arts Gowanus gathered its community on the morning of Saturday, October 18, for a rally to support artists who are being pushed out of a block-long group of buildings on 9th Street in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood. About 90 minutes before artists around the neighborhood would open their doors for the annual Gowanus Open Studios, a small group of neighbors, activists, and artists held signs and chanted “Keep Gowanus Creative” in front of 94 9th Street.
In Defense of the Artist Statement
As a writer who works with visual artists, I was inspired to address Iris Jaffe’s recent post, “The Anti-artist-statement Statement.” “I hate artist statements,” Iris began. “As an artist, they are almost always awkward and painful to write, and as a viewer they are similarly painful and uninformative to read.” No! I disagree! Okay, I have never met an artist who likes writing artist statements.
Put It in a Box and Wait: The Millions Interviews Cheryl Strayed
Three books by Cheryl Strayed have been published in 2012. Wild, the bestselling memoir of a solo journey on the Pacific Crest Trail that inspired Oprah to restart her book club. Tiny Beautiful Things, a collection of pseudonymously-written Dear Sugar literary advice columns from The Rumpus. And most recently Torch, a new edition of a lyrical novel first published in 2006 about a family’s struggles with the loss of the wife and mother who was its emotional center.
Put It in a Box and Wait: The Millions Interviews Cheryl Strayed
Three books by Cheryl Strayed have been published in 2012. Wild, the bestselling memoir of a solo journey on the Pacific Crest Trail that inspired Oprah to restart her book club. Tiny Beautiful Things, a collection of pseudonymously-written Dear Sugar literary advice columns from The Rumpus. And most recently Torch, a new edition of a lyrical novel first published in 2006 about a family’s struggles with the loss of the wife and mother who was its emotional center.
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