Saturday, November 29, 2008

New Article

Click here to read my article on philanthropy in J. Weekly.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

My Yma Sumac Obsession, or Once in Love with Amy


The recent passing of Yma Sumac seems like a good time to finally write the tribute to her that I've been thinking about for years. Less a tribute, I suppose, than my memories of this singular singer.
Like with so many things in my life, my knowledge of Yma began with a call from Lloyd Stensrud and Richard Moss in the late '80s, asking if I wanted to catch a performance by Yma Sumac. I had never heard of her, but they assured me that I would enjoy the concert. They told me about her story: a Peruvian singer with a five-octave range, she released a series of popular albums in the '50s, did a couple of movies, and was now making a comeback.
She was performing in a small theater in San Francisco and as the lights dimmed and the band finished the overture, she emerged from the shadows. An exotic creature, he looks had faded somewhat from her heyday, but she was still striking. She proceeded to give a whirlwind concert, plucking favorites from her repertoire, abusing her band (a trend, I would learn later), and teasing the audience who wanted to hear nothing more than one of the songs from her popular Mambo album. She would make that number her encore and "faked" her way through it. I was smitten, and over the next few weeks I bought every recording of hers I could get my hands on. (My obsession isn't as bad as Richard's. He has to not only have every recording, but every packaging of those recordings, from CDs to 78-rpm records and everything in between.)
Moving from the Bay Area to Southern California in 1988, I found that Yma started performing regularly at the Hollywood Roosevelt's Cinegrill. My ex and I caught every performance there, and they were pretty much the same set, more of her abusing her band (I think she loathed most musicians), the audience wanting more from Mambo and her obliging grudgingly, and her holding court afterwards for autographs. By 1991, she would do one more concert at The Strand in Redondo Beach (often interrupted by the sound of the dishwasher) and would again retire.
The crowd at those concerts were an odd combination of original fans now in their 60s and 70s, gays, and younger hipsters, the latter in the minority. That would change with her final concert at the Hollywood House of Blues in either 2000 or 2001 (I'm not sure). By then, the Space Age bachelor pad music fad was booming, and the room was filled with hipsters and hipster wannabes.
Overall, it was the same set she'd been doing all along, but there was one somewhat disturbing surprise. Yma was outfitted in a very low cut, green sequin dress, and at one point in the concert, it literally fell off. There she was, bare-breasted on the stage-embarrassing to say the least. That, unfortunately, would be the last time I'd see Yma.
My two favorite Yma stories are ones where I didn't see her, one fact and one fiction. The factual one involves my taking pictures for the cover of IN Los Angeles magazine, where I was working as an editor. We were doing a cover story on the Sunset Junction Festival, and needed a shot of the street where it is held as a background for the cover model. I wanted to get a shot from up high, looking down on the street, so the festival director and I climbed the stairs of the building where their offices were located. I couldn't get the shot I wanted from any of the windows by the stairs, and by chance, we spotted someone coming out of their apartment. We asked if we could shoot some pictures out his window. After I finished getting my pictures, I turned to leave and noticed stacks of pictures of Yma on a table and memorabilia everywhere. I asked him why he had all the Yma stuff, and he told me he was her personal assistant. Yeah, right, I thought, so I started quizzing him. He had enough obscure knowledge about Yma that I decided he was telling the truth, so I asked him if there was any possibility of getting autographed pictures of her for Richard and I. Two weeks later, the pics arrived, and the autograph was authentic, I had some items she autographed after a concert to compare it to. That picture is up in my living room, draped in black once I heard of her passing.
My other Yma story is complete fiction: that she was a villainess on the TV show Batman. Her character was the Siren, and she was paired with the Joker. They would rob jewelry stores together: Yma would enter and hit one of her high notes, which would stun everyone and break the glass on the display cases. The Joker would then snatch up all of the loot and they would make their escape. Completely false, but utterly believable.
I shed a few tears when I heard of her passing Yma was one of a kind, and there will never be another voice like hers: notes as high as a bird, and as low as a dog's growl. Rest in peace Yma, mi amor.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Jewish Museum Article

Click here to read my article on the Jewish Heritage Museum in J. Weekly.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Harvey Milk Article

Click here to read my article Harvey Milk and Me in the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Monday, November 3, 2008

RIP Yma Sumac



I have just received word of the passing of Yma Sumac. I will post my personal memories of her at a later time.

http://www.yma-sumac.com/

Sunday, November 2, 2008

John Cleese Brillance


John Cleese came up with one of my favorite moments from Campaign 2008. Appearing on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann on Oct. 31, he said:

"If Carl Rove had been working for the Democrats, he would have run something about John McCain saying, 'This man—so-called hero—spent five and a half years, the most formative years of his life, in a Communist country, speaking only to Communists. He never had to pick up the tab, all his accommodations were free. Do we want someone as president who has been palling around with Communists?"