The Festival of Arts of Laguna Beach has opened and welcomed locals and tourists alike to the opening week of the 2022 Festival of Arts Fine Art Show and the iconic Pageant of the Masters.

On Tuesday July 5th, 2022, the world-renowned Festival of Arts Fine Art Show opened its doors to celebrate its 90-year anniversary. Opening week attracted patrons from all over who browsed the galleries and purchased artwork from 120 of Orange County’s top fine artists. The juried art show features a wide variety of media including paintings, photography, printmaking, sculpture, jewelry, handcrafted wood and furniture, ceramics, glass and more. Many exhibiting artists had major sales in the first week of the art show to art collectors, interior designers and first-time art buyers.

Following the opening of the Fine Art Show was the debut of the 2022 Pageant of the Masters on July 7th. Receiving rave reviews from audiences, the one-of-a-kind production has already been featured on CBS Los Angeles, KABC, Spectrum News One, NBC LA’s Worth the Drive and in the OC Register and Los Angeles Times. Combining theater, performance art, and art history, the Pageant is one of the most unique productions in the world. This year’s show, Wonderful World, is a love letter to the joys of travel and the wondrous art to be found in every corner of the globe. Each night in the Irvine Bowl amphitheater, audiences will be transported around the world to 17 countries during the 90-minute performance. Now in its 89th season, the Pageant is filled with more surprises and special effects than ever before.

The production of “Wonderful World” includes recreations of artwork by Swedish painter Carl Larsson, Mexican artist Diego Rivera, French painter Jean Béraud, Edvard Eriksen from Denmark, Japanese woodblock artist Toyohara Chikanobu, and many more. Tickets start at $30 and are on sale now at PageantTickets.com or by calling (800) 487-3378.

“A world-renowned art destination, visitors may take a guided-tour of the exhibit, catch an art demonstration, create their own masterpiece, or simply sit back and enjoy the creative atmosphere,” says Marketing and Public Relations Director Sharbie Higuchi. “Patrons also have the opportunity to purchase directly from our exhibitors and take home stunning, original fine art to be enjoyed for a lifetime.”

The Festival’s special event calendar kicked off with a memorable concert with American Traditional Pop/Vocal Jazz group from Los Angeles, The Black Market Trust. The five world class musicians brought the Laguna Beach crowd to their feet for the first of the season. Upcoming not-to-be-missed concerts include performances by Gregg Karukas, Mindi Abair, Down to the Bone and Melissa Manchester. For details and to purchase reserved seating, visit www.foapom.com/summer-art-show/special-events/.

On Sunday, July 10, the Festival of Arts invited families for a fun-filled afternoon of art activities and a show by the award-winning all kids Orange County Aerial Arts. Nearly 200 children were able to participate in free art projects including hat-making, balloon art, spray tattoos, and printmaking. Also on Sunday, students and their families from Orange County attended a special opening reception of the 2022 Junior Art Exhibit (sponsored in part by California First National Bank, FOA Foundation, and Mark Porterfield of Laguna Beach). A jury made up of Steve Chadima, Mark Porterfield, Gayleen Beyers from California First Leasing Corporation and FOA Foundation board member Kirsten Whalen selected 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners from the more than 400 Orange County students’ work of art on display in the exhibit. An award ceremony is scheduled with the winners for Sunday, August 14.

In addition to the variety of artwork, the Festival of Arts offers a wide range of daily activities that the whole family can enjoy. The calendar includes nightly live music, guided art tours sponsored by PBS SoCal, art workshops and a variety of weekly series including That Girl Can Sing! Music Series featuring female singers every Tuesday; Laguna’s Finest Music Series on Wednesdays; and Art, Jazz, Wine, and Chocolate (sponsored by Charles Schwab and Cambria Estate Winery) each Thursday. Every Friday night will include Tremendous Tributes Music Series; while Concerts on the Green will return to select Saturdays, and each Sunday the Festival is putting the spotlight on the grand piano with Spotlight on the Grand Piano Music Series. Several special one-day events will return this year, including the very popular Festival Runway Fashion Show. On August 13th, the Festival of Arts will celebrate with a 90th Birthday Bash celebrating 90 years of art with a special performance by Stray Cat Lee Rocker, presented in partnership with the City of Laguna Beach.

For those inspired by the artwork and creative atmosphere, classes are available Friday thru Sunday at the Festival Art Center, presented by Bank of America. All ages and skill levels are welcome! Looking for a summer date night idea? Create a beautiful one-of-a-kind masterpiece and sip on complimentary wine or beverages at Wine and Painting Nights on Fridays and Pints, Pinots and Prints on select Saturdays.

The 90th Annual Festival of Arts Fine Art Show is open daily with nightly performances of the Pageant of the Masters now through September 2, 2022 . A Pageant ticket is also a season pass to the Fine Art Show. Weekday general admission tickets to the Festival’s Fine Art Show are $10 per person, and $15 per person the weekends. Senior and student discounts are available. Class registration and seating reservations vary by event, please see the website for details.

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The Mt. San Jacinto College (MSJC) Performing Arts and the Dance Department will proudly present “Evoke,” an engaging concert featuring both live performance and dance-for-the-camera videos, from May 6 to 8 in the San Jacinto Campus Theatre.

Dancers from both the Menifee Valley and San Jacinto campuses will perform a variety of genres and styles. The concert features work by faculty members Rachel Holdt, Kirsten Johansen, Natalia Morales, and co-Artistic Directors Julie Freeman and Paula Naggi, returning alumni LaToya Butler and Martin Carrillo, and special guest artist in Polynesian dance Elaine Talamaivao.

“Evoke” will be at 7:30 p.m. May 6 and 7, and at 2:30 p.m. May 8, in the San Jacinto Campus Theatre, 1499 N. State St., San Jacinto.

General admission is $10. Students, seniors, and vets are $5. Children under age 12 are free. Tickets may be purchased at the door, or online at MSJC.edu.

Those needing a disability-related accommodation can call (951) 487-3305 or email dspssjc@msjc.edu at least five days prior to the event.

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My husband Lloyd and I are in St. Petersburg, to start our ten-day escorted motor-coach tour around Florida. Twenty-eight of us are from England, two from Malta, two from Israel, one from Australia, and seven of us are from the United States. A favorite retirement area since the 1880s, the American Medical Association Journal declared St. Petersburg to be an exceptionally healthy place to live.

We went past the Don Cesar Beach Resort, built-in 1926 for one million dollars, with $1,000-a-night Penthouses. Next, we crossed Tampa Bay and continued to Sarasota, the hometown of the famous circus master, John Ringling.

Sarasota, an ideal resort since the early part of the 20th century on Florida’s west coast, has been on Sarasota Bay since the 1700s. Scottish settlers in the 1880s increased the population. It was interesting to learn that Sarasota is the “Birthplace of American Golf,” wheregolf was introduced to Florida from Scotland in 1885, and the first course was installed in 1886. The name of golf came from G.O.L.F., which originally stood for “Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden.”

We found the drive to Sarasota lovely, with wide boulevards, causeways sprinkled with attractive sailboats, and flowers all over. The offshore islands have 35 miles of beaches along the clear waters of theGulf of Mexico. Sun, sand and surf have branded Florida the same as the word vacation, and numerous companies find the Florida climate advantageous for business

Florida is the hometown of the renowned circus master, John Ringling. In 1912, while traveling along Florida’s west coast, he fell in love with Sarasota, which had installed electricity and a post office (the smallest post office in the world) the year earlier. Captivated by its beaches and sunny winter climate, Ringling felt the town had potential, and designated it as the permanent winter place for hisRingling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Lloyd and I visited the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art, recognized all over the world for its exceptional assemblage of 14th to 18th-century artworks, which was established in 1927by John Ringling for the inhabitants of Florida. The facility is an Italian-style villa that has marble, sculpture and decorative pieces, which are adorned with statues. The area is strewn with banyan trees and Cuban laurels, along with flower gardens, sitting areas, and a delightful view of Sarasota Bay. The museum was constructed in the Italian Renaissance style and had an inner garden courtyard that has reproductions of many world-famous sculptures and is dominated by a bronze cast ofMichelangelo’s “David.”

John Ringling made a fortune through real estate transactions, railroads, and the circus that he shared with his brothers. They accumulated an art collection of more than 1,000 paintings, including masterpieces from the 14th to 19th centuries, representing the Western European cultures, and highlighting the baroque period. From 1924 to 1931, Ringling and his wife gathered notable works by foremost artists who worked predominantly from 1500 to around 1750. The Old Master collection is the most significant area of the museum’s assets, and the Italian paintings are among the rarest and most eminent in the country.

The museum also has an assemblage of 17th-century Italian paintings, an extensive Peter Paul Rubens collection (Lloyd put his glasses on, to see them better), modern creations, objects from Cyprus, and temporary exhibits. We saw almost 3,000 decorative art objects, which Ringling regarded as a significant aspect of his collection. After his death in 1936, the museum has sustained its founder’s interest in the decorative arts, such as jewelry, glass, watches, silver, medals, furniture, textiles, ceramics, fans, and other ornamental objects of a primarily functional nature.

The art collections contain over 10,000 objects, sheltered in numerous buildings on the estate. There are close to 3,000 decorative art objects, decorative pieces imported from Italy, approximately 27tapestries, and abundant statues. The museum has been given 150 decorative fans, which are exceptionally noteworthy. In the centuries before technology, when we were more affluent in crafts, decorative hand-held fans conveyed relief to an overdressed, overheated civilization.

Shapes and fabrics were wide-ranging according to taste, obtainability, and the culture that fashioned them. In the 18th century, fans in the Western world were used indoors and outdoors, during the summer and the winter. They were used as memory assistance, for parlor games, for political propaganda, as masks, lorgnettes, cryptic communicators, and accessories in the oldest game, when dalliance was a significant preoccupation. Fans exhibited ambitions, standards, and beliefs of those who carried them, exposing temperaments, character and personalities.

In the Courtyard of Sculptures, Lloyd and I saw numerous reproductions of world-famous gods, goddesses, and other mythological characters. The sculptures extend from up-to-date reproductions of ancient Greek and Roman, to Renaissance, Baroque, and 19th-century sculpture, crafted from bronze, marble, or stone.

Among the oldest and most legendary stories are those based on Greek and Roman myths, established over 2,000 years ago. Molded from Roman marble, in the first century A.D., the horse and chariotstatue was used as a throne in the Church of San Marco, Rome. Ceres, goddess of grains, sprinkled seeds over the earth, while driving her chariot through the skies. We also saw a statue that was cast from Roman marble in the 2nd and 3rd century B.C.

We saw two river gods bordering the reflecting pool in the courtyard. The River Tiber was alleged to have been named after King Tiberius, who drowned in its waters. About 250 miles long, the River Tiber is essential to trade in central Italy, through which it flows, headed to the Mediterranean Sea.

(Mabel Ringling Museum of Art)

The bearded river god represents the fertility of the Nile Valley, where much of the world’s wheat was cultivated. Each baby signifies one cubit, which is an ancient form of measurement, about eighteen inches. Multiply the number of babies by eighteen inches to get the amount the Nile overflowed each year before planting time!

Shortly after setting up, to house his staff members and circus animals, Ringling started to build Ca’d’ Zan, a magnificent 30-room mansion, on 68 acres of Sarasota Bay property. He filled this residence, which was finished in1926 at nearly two-million dollars, with invaluable antiques that were accumulated on world tours. Amongst the last of the grand palaces, it was constructed by affluent North American entrepreneurs.

Lloyd and I visited his Ringling winter residence, the splendid Ca’d’ Zan, which is the Venetian dialect for “House of John.” We admired decorative features, from the Italian and French Renaissance, Baroque, Venetian Gothic, and modern architecture, beautifying this exquisite terra-cotta mansion, which reminded us of a Venetian palace. Marble, tapestries, and ornately carved and gilded furniture dominate the lovely interior. The dining room is paneled in walnut, in French Renaissance-style, with coffered ceiling and painted panels.

Completed around 1880, the eight-piece bedroom suite is in mahogany, and is in the French Empire style. Ca’d’ Zan continues as Ringling left it, with marble floors, hand-wrought ironwork, solid-gold plumbing fixtures, and Venetian glass windows.

The prosperity that John Ringling received from the “Greatest Show on Earth,” and real estate investments, was well spent on his art museum and early 1920’s estate. He donated the entire estate and his collection, to the populace of the State of Florida, when he died in 1936. Ringling chose the town for his Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, made it his home, and the circus is a fundamental segment of Sarasota’s past.

Lloyd and I went to the Museum of the Circus, where we saw displays of gilded parade wagons, calliopes, costumes, photographs, posters, and a massive collection of circus memorabilia, including programs, artwork, old films, and an exhibit depicting life in a typical circus camp. We viewed the fantastic miniature circus in the Circus Galleries. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my slides (of which I have over 85,000) on this Museum of the Circus, so I have no photos of the Circus Galleries to accompany this article.

Ringling wielded a main impact on the evolution and progress of the city. His “Greatest Show on Earth” attracted not only performers from all over the world, but artists, musicians, and others who just wanted to relax by the sea.

The Sarasota Jungle Gardens has trails that meander through a ten-acre tropical jungle of palms, flowering shrubs and extraordinary plants, along with the Flamingo Lagoon, jungle trails, reptile and bird shows. The Gardens of Christ present hand-carved dioramas, portraying the life of Jesus.

The Sarasota Classic Car Museum has antique and classic automobiles, along with some cars owned by John Ringling, and Stephen King’s “Christine.” On view also are band organs, calliopes, music boxes, and player pianos.

Sarasota, along with the offshore islands of Lido, Longboat, St. Armand, and Siesta Key, has become a fabulous resort area, and one of Florida’s prime cultural centers. Departing Sarasota, we continued our enjoyable escorted tour throughout Florida. On the Atlantic side, barrier beaches enclose the historic Intracoastal Waterway, which Lloyd and I once sailed on for two weeks, from Florida up to Rhode Island.

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For more than 40 years, Craig Yancey has been working as a professional musician and educator. Most recently, he has been selected as Arts Council Menifee’s Artist of the Month for June. Mr. Yancey studied music at Mesa Community College under the direction of Mr. Grant Wolf, received his bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His jazz and symphonic bands have consistently received superior ratings and awards throughout Mr. Yancey’s career. Using this experience, Mr. Yancey is very active as an adjudicator/clinician for jazz, concert band, solo and ensemble festivals, and featured guest artist throughout the Southwest and currently has many successful private students.

Craig Yancey will present “The History of  The Saxophone” at the Diamond Valley Arts Center for its Culture Series on Sunday, September 29th, 2019. 

He will take you from the inception of the saxophone, it’s many reiterations, the musicians and styles these saxophones were used in and their influence on music. The Saxophone has been a major influence in the development and the sound of music over the past century. It’s masters and musical geniuses can be found throughout the decades influencing the texture of modern music. This presentation will include performance and interaction.

This presentation is Sponsored in part by The Village, a Continuing Care Retirement Community.

Admission is $15 for Members and $20 for General Admission. Student tickets are $5 for Online Pre-Sale and $10 at the door. As always, DVAC members receive their price Online at checkout. You now have the option of a Reserved Seat as well. Doors open at 2:00pm with the concert starting at 2:30pm. As always, DVAC members receive their price at checkout when ordering online! Don’t forget your coupon code.

DVAC’s Culture Series is a community educational presentation and fundraiser for The DVAC and its programs. Doors open at 2:00 pm with the concert at 2:30pm. Please email dvacinfo@gmail.com for sponsorship opportunities.

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At Team Quest Athletic Center Corey Grant (owner and trainer) is a firm believer that you need to have a strong balance of the three and that’s why he constantly encourages his guys to learn all three disciplines. Corey Grant is a former fighter/champion in his own right, he also helps train/corner a number of current professional fighters who spend time training or teaching in his gym. Corey always tries his best to give his fighters the opportunity to compete outside of weekly training in the gym so that they can see how they are improving as fighters. That’s why Corey Grant is hosting a Kickboxing event at his gym on July 20th, 2019.

At this event, there will be around 20 fights varying between women’s matches, kids matches, and men’s matches. They are also planning on putting on a Heavyweight tournament and one fighter will be walking away with a championship belt. The fights are open to all levels and serve as a good way of seeing where your abilities and skills are amongst your peers.

The weigh-ins for the fights start at 8 am, and the gate opens at 11:00, tickets for spectators are only $15.00. The general admission ticket will allow you access to all 20 fights which will equal out to nearly a full days worth of entertainment. There are some strict rules at this event to ensure that all the fighters are safe and serious injuries are avoided. It is a Semi-Contact No Knockout event, that doesn’t mean that fighters will be in there without the intent to win, it just means they will be focusing more on scoring points instead of head hunting and swinging for the fences.

Mark it down in your calendars to attend this event on the 20th of July. It is a rare opportunity to watch live high-level kickboxing, get out of the heat for a while and spend $15.00 on all day entertainment. The fights take place at Team Quest Athletic Center (2821 W Esplanade, San Jacinto, CA, 92582) and tickets are on sale now.

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The sprawling outdoor presentation of an unwieldy story of the Huns invading Han-Dynasty China by breaching the “Great Wall” would have seemed daunting enough under ideal conditions, but when you add in the wind, a slightly problematic outdoor speaker, and most importantly, 100 children, ranging in ages from 5 to 17, the task makes Sisyphus look like somebody who was just playing marbles.
“A lot of these children have never been on the stage before,”  says Ramona Bowl Board President and “Mulan” producer Stacey West Bailey, adding, “but I’ve been doing this a lot of years, and you get a knack for knowing who will fit perfectly in each part.”  And for perfectly, they all did.

Director/Choreographer Janet Martin is not only a Ramona Bowl grad, having starred in their first summer production 17 years ago, she is also a UCLA-credentialed teacher, and it shows.  Martin was able to take newcomers, from seven-year-old Andy Ballard, who played the emperor of Japan, to Devon Young, who played Shan Yu and extract surprisingly deft performances. The cast was amazingly prepared, brilliantly inspired, and joyful, despite the heat and vibrant costumes.

Auditions were held in early May, and rehearsals-which sometimes had to be held at West Valley High School due to the heat-lasted almost a month.  The result was worth all the effort.
Dara Bailey, portraying Mushu and wearing a fiery orange-red costume, would have stood out had she dressed in black and stood behind a brick wall: she sang, she danced…she threw out one-liners like a seasoned pro…and just for good measure, she tossed in some acrobatics. And as if there were enough action and acrobatics, Priscilla Hernandez flitted across the stage doing somersaults and handstands that delighted the crowd.

Amidst all this action, and a wonderful score, soared two voices and talents: Starr Loza who portrayed Mulan, and Adon Nunez portraying Captain Shang. Loza has a thin, breathy voice that threatens to falter, but never does. Instead, Loza is capable of bending the finer notes, imparting feeling in every needed corner of a song, and when she weaved her way to the final notes of “Reflection”…the audience of almost 500 was moved to tears.

In a production that never lacks for action, Adon Nunez is a stand out: he fights, he dances, he wields a fine sword, he woos the young Mulan…and he whips his young charges into shape. Nunez has a talent that craves the spotlight, and, for a young performer, he is perfectly self-possessed.
If this production is any indication of what’s to come, next year’s presentation of “Frozen” is something the summer theater-going public doesn’t want to miss.

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Youth are provided with a collaborative network to encourage empowerment, foster positive relationships and identities and to develop leadership attributes. The summer program for those who are age 14-21, gives them a chance to try new things and learn about possible career paths.

Harold Arres is the Regional Prevention Manager for the TANF Prevention Resource Center located on the Soboba Reservation. A meet and greet luncheon there on June 20 gave participating workers an opportunity to meet with their soon-to-be supervisors and/or other representatives from the department they have been assigned to work at for 24 hours a week through July.

“They go through the hiring process just like any other Soboba Tribal employee,” said Arres, who has two daughters in this year’s program. “They all undergo a background check, drug screening, get identification badges and have a new employee orientation with HR; we make it as realistic as possible for them.”

All documentation goes through Human Resources and each applicant is also required to submit an essay to the TANF program. A three-person panel scores everything anonymously and then conducts a face-to-face interview. The highest scoring applicants are usually able to get their first-choice job site.

“We also contact all the departments and see if they are willing and able to take on some youth workers,” Arres said. “It’s a big undertaking to train someone on top of all their regular duties.”

Soboba was able to provide jobs within its cultural resource, environmental, public works and TANF departments as well as Noli Indian School and Soboba Tribal Preschool. Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians has provided worksites in its tribal administration for youth who live in the Mountain Center area.

Soboba Tribal Council Chairman Scott Cozart applauded the young men and women for taking the necessary steps to be included in the summer job training program. Tribal Administrator Michael Castello said it is a wonderful opportunity for them.

“Their biggest emphasis should be on showing up,” he said. “During the summertime, there are a lot of distractions and showing up is hard, but it is rewarding. I hope to see how proud they are of themselves at the end of the program, knowing how much they’ve accomplished and how much they’ve grown.”

TANF Program Specialist Olga Gomez said WE LEAD offers career skills that will be valuable to the youth throughout their lives.

“It’s a big deal to work with and for the Tribe,” she told them.

Victor Hurtado, 14, will be working at Noli Indian School where he is already spending time this summer in training for the football team he’ll be playing on as a freshman.

“He did everything he was supposed to do to get the job,” said his mom, Kelli Hurtado, who is also Soboba Tribal Council Treasurer. “I hope he enjoys it and learns a lot.”

At the age of 13, Hurtado said she worked with a similar program – CIMC (California Indian Manpower Consortium) – and was a receptionist at Soboba’s Old Tribal Hall. 

“It is good to learn how to interact with others and that’s what I’m hoping for all the kids who signed up for this program,” she said. 

Her son is looking forward to the experience and hopes to learn a lot from his supervisor, Andrea Helms, who works as a school resource officer for the reservation school’s campus. Victor will be the first youth to complete a work experience position there and will be setting an example for future summer employees at the worksite.

Even before the Department Orientation Checklist for New Employees was completed by Will Booth, he shared some insights to the mechanic’s job that 14-year-old Francisca Rivera requested.

“We’ll be doing fleet maintenance,” said Booth, an employee at Soboba Public Works for about five years. “She’s the first female to work in our department but it is becoming more and more common to see women in our industry.”

He said he enjoys teaching others about something he cares about, especially when they are as interested in learning as Francisca is. Booth said she will get more experience working in a variety of projects since his department uses the summer months to do major services on the fleet of Noli buses, Public Works and Public Safety equipment and machinery used by the Cultural Department’s Traditional Land Resource Management Crew.

Sisters Jasmine and Jayden Basquez are both new to the program and happy they have been placed at the Soboba Tribal Preschool. Jayden, 14, will work in the three-year-olds’ classroom alongside Melissa Arviso and Ana Garcia.

“We are excited to have them both at the preschool,” Arviso said. “It’s always good to have extra hands to assist with the little ones.”

Jasmine, 16, has been assigned to the kindergarten classroom to work Cindy Lee and Antonia Venegas.

“I like to help kids to experience new things and help them get to the next level,” Jasmine said. “It will be nice to work with the kids while I’m learning at the same time.”

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Such as John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Wells, Federico Fellini or Roman Polanski, Kubrick captured his deepest obsessions in his films. But he went further, much further, where the level of perfection in his art was almost unbearable for those around him. His famous phrase was: “Very well, now again.” Something that made his stars nervous. “How can someone make you love him in a moment, and then hate him the next minute,” said actress Nicole Kidman after filming “Eyes Wide Shut.”

Early years

At the young age of 23, Kubrick began with short films such as “Day of the Fight,” but it would be “Fear and Desire” the piece that would premiere him as a filmmaker. His second film, “The Kiss of Murder” was his second film where he tells with wit and passion the story of 2 men who fight for the same woman. After “Perfect Beating,” a 1956 thriller where we see a detailed robbery perpetrated by ordinary people, Kubrick finally gives us his first great work “Paths of Glory” and from here the spotlight began to point to him. 

Paths of Glory

In “Paths of Glory” we see reflected one of the techniques that would define most of Kubrick’s films: lateral tracking with traveling following characters. In this film we see soldiers leave the trenches around bullets and explosions and, later this would be honored by Steven Spielberg in his movie “War Horse.”

Lolita

After “Spartacus,” Kubrick understood something. He knew how he wanted to make films, but the big producers did not let him. It was from this point that he did not allow anyone to come back between his heart and his art; and so that is how “Lolita” came.

This film is a controversial adaptation of the novel of the same name written by Vladimir Nabokov that tells the story of a pedophile man in his fourth decade that relates in detail his passion for girls, and how he fell in love with his 14 year old step daughter Lolita.

In those days, these type of taboo topics were very difficult to handle, and the chances of being rejected by the audience were too high for the taste of the producers. Kubrick however knew how to make an original, clear, concise and correct plot, with a lot of argumentative details and subplots that led to the first scene of the film, which was a murder, but Hollywood again censored the filmmaker.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Despite having appeared almost always on the list of Oscar nominees, as with his satirical “Dr. Strangelove,” he was always ignored by the Hollywood academy. The only Oscar he achieved in his entire life was for “2001: A Space Odyssey” where we can appreciate how Kubrick summarizes in a split second, millions of years of evolution: the greatest time ellipsis ever seen in the history of cinema.

This was also one of the most expensive projects of the capricious filmmaker, who came to spend 10 million dollars (a great excess for the time) of an initial budget of 6 million. What could you expect from a madman who does not rest until he is surrounded by experts from NASA and build a huge rotating centrifuge to recreate the gravity environment of space?

At the end of the day the expense was worth it. Few blockbusters achieved what this Science Fiction movie did, raising $57 million dollars only in the United States, a great success considering that this film was so indigestible for the public; there is barely 40 minutes of dialogue in a footage of much more than two hours, full of philosophical questions and musical compositions such as “The Blue Danube” and “Thus spoke Zarathustra.” It is practically one of the first examples of video art that triumphed by surprise in the moments before the psychedelic era.

A Clockwork Orange

The artistic sense of this giant of the cinema flourished in  “A Clockwork Orange” where the colors, the contrast and the unusual shots with their powerful lenses stood out. The most lucid moments with a dry and cold photograph; and the most insane ones with harmonies of colors and a certain irony in the environment.

To make the shot where “Alex DeLarge” jumps from the window to end his misery, Kubrick threw a reflex camera to recreate the scene with a subjective shot; the lens was destroyed but Kubrick got what he wanted. Everyone around him knew that he always got what he wanted, such as when he bought the song rights “Singing in the Rain” for $10,000 after actor Malcolm McDowell decided to hum it casually at the scene of the violation in the writer’s house.

In this piece we can appreciate that point where beauty and violence come together exquisitely to create a satire of evil and violence related to the most beautiful classical melodies. One of the films with the most history of censorship in the industry.

Barry Lyndon

The riskiest movie of Kubrick was probably Barry Lyndon. There are critics who consider the riskiest one was his last film (Eyes Wide Shut), but for that premiere, we knew who Kubrick was and from where the blows were going to arrive.

Barry Lyndon is a film with an impressive script, which is not based on the dialogue or its characters, but on the place where it develops; quite uncommon for the time. The movie is slow and elegant. Baroque style, both in musical ambiance and in set design. The costumes and hairdressing are unbeatable. Sets were more than adequate, and the photography worthy from the filmmaker.

Kubrick’s obsession was so much to present a piece taken from the memories of the eighteenth century that ordered hundreds of candles for the final illumination of this film, something quite risky and difficult for the cameras of the ’70s.

He took production and shooting so seriously that it was scary. They repeated a scene 40 times in a pigeon house, with real pigeons. Of course, they did not give the Oscar to Kubrick and friends close to the director commented that was probably the main reason why he did not make another movie in a long time. 

The Shining

However, it was not forever. “The Shining,” an adaptation of Stephen King’s book and one of the most remembered horror films meant, the return of the monster from the nightmares of the actors. The psychological torture that the actress Shelley Duvall received from the director to perform realistically the famous scene of “Here is Johnny!” was very intense to make her look really horrified. “My eyes were so swollen from crying for several hours that there were times when I wanted to quit,” said Duvall. But that was not all; Duvall was forced to perform the exhausting baseball bat scene 127 times. Afterward, Duvall presented Kubrick with clumps of hair that had fallen due to the extreme stress of filming.

Full Metal Jacket

Then he adapted “Full Metal Jacket,” returning to the warlike genre but with much more agility and violence than in “Paths of Glory.” The budget of the film was an exaggeration. Many buildings and bridges flew. They even resorted to military-type explosives. However, the war scenes are impressive, probably much more than “Saving Private Ryan.” The realism was atrocious and shocking.

Eyes Wide Shut

At the end of the ’90s, Kubrick ends with his most criticized film “Eyes Wide Shut.” The film was not completely finished and the version we see is that of montage. The film suffered many censorship problems due to the ritual scene followed by a massive orgy, as well as several sex scenes. Everything is narrated ambiguously as if everything were a dream; as if we saw episodes lost of something that did not really happen. Everything is dreamlike, metaphorical, full of cinematographic language, slow, elegant but at the same time terrifying.

Napoleon

Kubrick worked hard during his career in the research and documentation of one of his favorite historical characters “Napoleon.” This is considered the great work never made by Stanley Kubrick. It was the great monster of his nightmares. Despite having rooms full of documents and information, the filmmaker was not satisfied. He felt that he needed more to be able to achieve this masterpiece of his life, a film that would never see the light.

Kubrick inherited all this information, plans and ideas to Steven Spielberg along with a project he was working on just before his death. “A.I. Artificial Intelligence. “Although Spielberg did produce and direct the last one mentioned, he has not dared to produce Napoleon, because he feels that the only filmmaker capable of realizing it with the greatness and wit it requires is gone.

Great writer, creator, and narrator, Stanley Kubrick is the only director who is not pigeonholed in one or two genres since he has in his portfolio several genres of film. However, despite the fact that each of his films are so different amongst each other, the signature of Kubrick can be clearly perceived; when you watch a Kubrick film, you’re seeing the inside of his mind.

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The new Friday night concerts are:

• Friday, July 12th – Tribute to Tim McGraw, featuring Vegas McGraw
• Friday August 23rd – Young Guns of Country (Tribute to the Superstars of
  Country Music), including Charlie Daniels Band, Rascal Flatts, Garth Brooks,
  George Strait, Florida Georgia Line and many more.
• Friday, September 20th – Tribute to Brooks & Dunn, featuring Neon Circus
• Friday, October 4th – Tribute to Roy Orbison, with Neil Marrow
• Friday, November 8th – Tribute to Reba McEntire – Corrie Sachs

MEANWHILE…

The Mighty Cash Cats made us remember Johnny Cash

The latest concert in the Friday Nite Live Series took the stage on Friday, June 14th. The Mighty Cash Cats performed their nostalgic Tribute to Johnny Cash. This was the group’s first time playing Hemet’s downtown art center, discovering for themselves what other bands have been saying for years… little old Hemet has the best concert venue in Southern California.

For this show, the crowd was small, but enthusiastic, clapping and cheering every classic hit. Many songs drew dancers to the foot of the stage, rocking to that iconic Johnny Cash beat. Michael J. Smith as Johnny Cash was impressive, but Leticia Blumette as June Carter Cash stole the show with a voice that gripped the room with emotion. Afterward, the audience proclaimed the show another hit performance and the band told the fans that Hemet is now their favorite place to play.

Later this month, Season Two of the Tribute Mania Concert Series continues with tributes to Santana (6/22), Led Zeppelin (7/6), Aerosmith (7/20), REO Speedwagon (8/3), and Tom Petty (8/17).

Tickets for Tribute Mania and Friday Nite Live shows are $22 presale / $25 day of show. Showtime is 7:00 pm, with doors open at 6:15 pm. Information on all theatre events is available at www.HistoricHemetTheatre.com or by calling the ticket office: (951) 658-5950.

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