Posts by Culturalcocktailhour
Autumn in Los Angeles
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”– George Eliot, 1841 All photography ©2016 Leticia Marie Sanchez
Read MoreArt world crime: In the news: Joshua Bell impersonator robs hotel room of celebrity violinist
Throwback Tuesday to an Art Crime from 2012 Art World Crime: Joshua Bell Impersonator robs hotel room of world-famous Violinist by Leticia Marie Sanchez HELLO. MY NAME IS JOSHUA BELL. CAN SOMEONE GIVE ME A VIOLIN? OR A ROLEX? THANKS. So while Joshua Bell is performing the Brahms Concerto with the London Philharmonic in Zaragoza, Spain, a…
Read MoreThe Banksy Self-Destructing Art Mystery
The Banksy Self-Destructing Art Mystery by Leticia Marie Sanchez Last week in London, after being sold for 1.4 million dollars at auction, a Banksy painting self-destructed. Banksy’s “Girl with a Balloon” had just sold at Sotheby’s when a hidden shredder inside the painting began to slice and dice the work, to gasps from the auction crowd.…
Read MoreMaking the Fig and Other Artistic Insults
An Eye for an Eye, a Fig for a Fig by Leticia Marie Sanchez Even noble literary figures need to blow off steam. Shakespeare’s Capulets and Montagues deliver the shocking, duel-provoking insult of thumb-biting. Only a duel could avenge such a slur on one’s honor. Sampson: I will bite my thumb at them, which is…
Read MoreSan Francisco art heist: “The Preppy Sockless Picasso Thief”
Flashback to 2011 when a Picasso sketch was stolen by a man who preferred to go sockless.. Who: Preppy Sockless Picasso Thief What: Steals Picasso 1962 sketch ““Tête de femme,” valued at $275,000 before heading to party in Napa Where: San Francisco’s Weinstein Gallery at Geary and Powell Streets When: Tuesday the 5th of July, 2011 The man calmly removed the sketch from the wall of the gallery, wrapped…
Read MoreLife of an artist…Philip Glass..
Philip Glass, the creative and celebrated modern composer, courageously blazed a trail despite all the absurdities facing artists. According to Elizabeth Lundy, in Secret Lives of Great Composers, Mr. Glass took on sundry jobs to pay the bills during the 60′s and 70′s, even while his operas were being performed at the Met in Lincoln Center: Shortly…
Read MoreWise Woman: Sarah Bernhardt
“Life begets life.Energy creates energy.It is by spending oneselfThat one becomes rich.” Sarah Bernhardt
Read MoreTheater Review: Under Bacchae’s spell- a MUST SEE production at the Getty Villa
Under Bacchae’s Spell By Leticia Marie Sanchez The first few moments of Euripides’ Bacchae at the Getty Villa set the tone for the entire evening. Screaming Jay Hawkins’ raw, electrifying 1956 blues hit “I Put a Spell on You” plays in the outdoor theater, jolting the audience as the spartanly dressed Bacchanalian chorus emerges from classical columns. Their fearless leader Dionysus,…
Read MoreThe real reason Jane Austen’s ladies looked forward to courtly dances
“DANCING- The vertical expression of a horizontal desire legalized by music.” ~George Bernard Shaw
Read MoreHenri Matisse- Don’t touch the fruit!
by Leticia Marie Sanchez According to Kathleen Krull, in her book “Lives of the Artists,” Henri Matisse subsisted on a strict diet of rice-only when he first started out as a painter. Not Rice-A-Roni. Just plain boiled rice. Matisse refused to even allow himself to indulge in the luscious fruit that he bought for his…
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