I'm opening this post on a sad note in reporting the death of AP Theatre Critic Mike Kuchwara. LAT Theatre Critic Charles McNulty remembers him HERE.From LA Times' Culture Monster blog a week or so ago: Exit another theater critic, enter a theater insider.
Those are the stage directions coming from KCRW-FM (89.9). The Santa Monica-based public radio outlet announced Friday that the curtain has closed on James C. Taylor's seven-year run of four-minute weekly reviews and commentaries in the Thursday afternoon "Theatre Talk" spot. Opening Tuesday at 4:44 p.m. is a new take on the stage, "Opening the Curtain on L.A. Theatre," with Anthony Byrnes.
The idea is to keep the focus strictly on the Los Angeles stage, rather than the wider view "Theatre Talk" would sometimes take, said Matt Holzman, a longtime KCRW staff member who recently became director of program development after Jennifer Ferro succeeded Ruth Seymour as general manager in February.
Full story HERE, and LA Observed has additional news about changes in KCRW's lineup HERE. Speaking of critics, I highly recommend reading Tim Mangan's hilarious COLUMN from over the weekend. LA Times' Patrick Goldstein makes some salient points about laying off long-time journalists and replacing them with lower-paid staff a his recent column about Variety's announcement... ...that it's promoted Justin Chang and Peter Debruge to the post of senior film critics.
Read it in full HERE. Got this a few weeks ago from Katherine Spiers:
Hi there,
... I've just joined a new wine blog as a contributor, so I'd love to be in the loop about wine events, new products, etc. THIS is the site
Reach her @gmail: katherinespiers The Los Angeles offices of 944 Magazine/944 Media have moved to:944 Media9100 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 700WBeverly Hills, CA 90212
ALAN RICH MEMORIAL SERVICE, TRIBUTE BOOKFrom Vanessa Butler:We have decided on the date for Alan's memorial, Tuesday, May 25th, 7:30pm, at Zipper Hall in downtown Los Angeles.
It will be open to the public and we are doing a tribute book where I am accepting stories or memories of Alan.
If anyone wants to send me stories, I would need to have them by Monday, May 17th.
Vanessa's contact info: Vanessa.Butler -- [at] sbcglobal dot net
RIP Alan Rich You've likely heard by now the news of Alan Rich's passing. He was, and I quote OC Register music critic Tim Mangan, "an institution of Southern California music criticism." Check out Tim's piece on Alan HERE.
I also liked John Payne's LA Weekly piece HERE.
Speaking of LA Weekly, Ben Calderwood joins Jonathan Gold as food critic. LA Observed has this from the staff memo… Ben Calderwood started this week as our second food critic, joining Jonathan Gold, Amy Scattergood and Amy's lineup of strong freelancers to produce the best food coverage in Los Angeles.
…and more HERE.
You can find Ben on Twitter @humOrbot.
This from a press release a few weeks back:
Fine Arts LA is excited to announce that after a year of working dutifully toward building the site to what it has become, Nicole Campoy-Leffler (Editor-in-Chief) and Danyel Madrid (Editor-at-Large) are appointing a new Editor-in-Chief to take over all editorial responsibilities from within the team: Josh Morrison.
Nicole Campoy-Leffler will continue writing for the website and will maintain a managerial role at Fine Arts LA... Danyel Madrid is set to continue working with Fine Arts LA as a regular contributor...
Email at @fineartsla.com is josh Got this auto reply from an email I'd sent to Mia McNeice at Variety: Mia McNiece is no longer with Variety. For V page consideration, please email (@variety.com) Bob.Hofler or vpage
Per THIS from Fishbowl NY, Fiona Murray replaces Janelle Carrigan as Wall Street Journal features editor. Thanks to Flo Selfman for passing these announcements along from Media Bistro's Revolving Door newsletter. Todd McCarthy has been named film and festival critic and columnist at Indiewire. He had been former chief film critic and columnist at Variety.
Tim Griffin has been named editor-at-large at Artforum. He had been editor-in-chief there.
Michelle Kuo has been named editor-in-chief at Artforum. She had been senior editor there.
Erica Cerulo has been named senior editor at Lucky. She had been associate editor at Details.
Lauren Benet Stephenson has been named accessories market editor, news, at Women's Wear Daily. She had been associate online editor there.
