Posts By Nathan Walpow
Saturday, February 4, 2012 / 1:58 pm
The Artist’s New Clothes
Critics and awards voters get caught up in uniqueness, and we’re left wondering what they’ve been drinking.
by Nathan Walpow
Tags: movies | The Artist
I saw The Artist last night, and while it was an okay movie, I didn’t think it was the grand piece of cinematic splendor everyone’s making it out to be. It was clever, and the acting was good, and I laughed a few times, but … okay, put it this way. When I’m seeing a movie I’m really into, and I have to take a leak, I’ll hold it no matter how uncomfortable I get. With this, when I had to go, I went. I didn’t even run down the endless hall at the Arclight in Manhattan Beach to miss as little as possible.
Now, my tastes in popular culture are often out of touch with the multitudes’. For example, my list of dislikes includes U2, Tom Hanks, and Modern Family. (Okay, and The Office, 30 Rock, and Community too.) But I was with my wife and two other people, and while at least two of them enjoyed it more than I did, none of them thought it was great. Why then is it getting such critical praise and a bazillion award nominations?
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Monday, January 23, 2012 / 1:06 pm
FourStory President Tony Chavira Emerges as Radio Personality
He waxes eloquent about the city, its infrastructure, and why things are so screwed up.
by Nathan Walpow
Tags: Tony Chavira | electric power | infrastructure
FourStory associate editor Tony Chavira (who's also the president of Four Story, Inc., the nonprofit we grew out of), has joined the list of regulars on KTLK radio's LA360. He'll be the resident urban issues expert. The show's hosted by Klaudia Aresti and runs Saturdays at 10 a.m. at 1150 on your AM dial.
This past Saturday, Tony explained why a bunch of overloaded power poles came down in last November's mother of all windstorms. Listen here.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012 / 11:12 am
FourStory Presents: The Politics of Fiction
Send love! Send Molotov cocktails! We co-sponsor a panel on fiction and politics.
by Nathan Walpow
Tags: fiction | Gary Phillips
From Mark Twain to Zora Neale Hurston, Carlos Fuentes to Sara Paretsky and the late Václav Havel, writers have used fiction to skewer and satirize, make social commentary and offer wry observations about the socio-political scene, race relations, gender … the gamut of the human condition.
With that in mind, on Saturday, January 21, from 2-3:30 pm, several contributors to the recent incendiary anthology Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail! Stories of Crime, Love and Rebellion from PM Press will engage in a rollicking discussion about their stories, fiction and politics, and the politics of fiction, at the William Grant Still Art Center, 2520 S. West View Street, Los Angeles, CA 90016, near Adams and La Brea. There will be a book signing after the discussion.
