Tom Teicholz

During the pandemic, Lisa Edelstein, the actor best known for her roles as Abby McCarthy in Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the popular medical drama series House, and as Alan Arkin’s wayward adult daughter Phoebe on The Kominsky Method, took to painting. Seriously. Seriously and so well that her paintings are being exhibited at art consultant Lisa Schiff’s exhibition space, sfa Projects, at 45 White Street in New York’s Tribeca.
The paintings in the exhibition, Lisa Edelstei...

Arman Naféei would like to be the Anthony Bourdain of Music Exploration (minus the heroin addiction, depression and suicide) and when you spend time with him, you believe it will happen. His podcast, Are We On Air? has in its two-year existence already logged interviews with Patti Smith, Dua Lipa, David Byrne, and Khruangbin. Arman’s love of sharing music has opened the world to him, and led him to global artists who respect his taste, enjoy his engaging personality and who, in turn, share th...

Recently, I spent three nights in a row at Disney Hall in Downtown LA listening to The Tristan Project, a Gustavo Dudamel conducted LA Phil concert performance of Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, as directed by Peter Sellars with video accompaniment by artist Bill Viola, as well as participation by the LA Master Chorale. The Tristan Project was first performed at Disney Hall with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting in 2004, subsequent productions have taken place in New York at the Met and at th...

There is an Ocean wave gathering strength, filled with ominous portent, set to come crashing before us. It began with Ferguson, but it’s always been there, only now it’s gained the weight and heft of a Death Star, a collection of all the AR-15 bullets fired in a year of mass shootings. It is Albrecht Durer’s “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” come to life during the pandemic, with its resisters at the Women’s March, at Gun Control protests, at Black Lives Matter Rallies, and in the demonst...

This is the time of the year for “best of” lists, and if you care about adult contemporary music (i.e. adult alternative, singer-songwriter, world music), you will want to check out the end year best of list from KCRW’s DJs Novena Carmel and Anthony Valadez who co-host that station’s signature music program Morning Becomes Eclectic. KCRW will reveal their end of year lists on Wednesday Dec 14 with a reveal on Tuesday December 13 (This event is virtual, and free with RSVP).
Morning Becomes Ecl...

“I know it’s an unusual picture because there are not many made this way. I think it’s what we need today. New looking fresh pictures of a very beautiful world.” – David Hockney.
Late November-Early December has gotten cold, damp, and grey in most places, even in our paradise of Santa Monica, and Venice, California. Fear not! Along comes David Hockney to cheer us up with his new exhibition 20 Flowers and Some Bigger Pictures.
This collection of 20 iPad drawings of assorted flowers displayed i...

Several years ago, in 2017, I found myself at Tsinandali in the Republic of Georgia for the launch of their music festival. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta was performing. They were joined by Khatia Buniatishvili, a dark-haired Georgian pianist who interpreted Schumann with great finesse and other selections dramatically with great gusto. It was a memorable evening, and a memorable performance.

Buniatishvili who was born in Batumi in 1987 has been performing since s...

Louis Armstrong is an artist whose musical genius, expressed with his trumpet, his voice and his personality, rarely fails to bring a smile to whoever is listening. However, as Sacha Jenkins’ new documentary, Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues (available on Apple Tv+) makes clear, Armstrong’s persona at times was seen as cringe-worthy by younger Black artists and as conciliatory rather than outspoken on Civil Rights and Racism in the United States.
Louis Armstrong, a creature of the road and t...

Tonight in New York, Christie’s will hold their 20th Century Evening Sale at Rockefeller Center.
Among the works being offered for sale are two works on paper by Early 20th Century Austrian Expressionist artist Egon Schiele, from the collection of Viennese film and cabaret star Fitz Grünbaum. Grünbaum was not unlike Joel Grey in Cabaret, famous for his biting comments as a Master of Ceremonies.
And although this is not really for me to say, I hope the works sell for a tremendous fortune, many...

David may have played a secret chord that pleased the Lord, but when it comes to a sound that pleases me deep in my own soul it comes from sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell who perform as Larkin Poe (reportedly the name of one of their great-greats).
They have a new album Blood Harmony that is 11 songs and 42 minutes of pounding driving guitar and slide guitar virtuosity – a deep funk that conjures bands as disparate as The James Gang, ZZ Top, The Allman Brothers and CSN&Y-era Neil Young (well...

Chris Burch, the mega-successful investor, and brand guru was a poor student in school, as he would be the first to tell you. But he has been a great student of life and of people.
Burch has seeded, launched, and invested in many successful businesses including Guggenheim Partners, Upstack, Rappi, and BaubleBar; products such as Jawbone, Jambox; fashion brands such as Staud and Danielle Guizio and, most notably, Tory Burch which he launched with his now ex-wife. Burch has also been active in ...

“It’s hard to be a Jew” is a Yiddish expression popularized by writer Sholom Aleichem as the title of his comic play that premiered at New York’s Yiddish Art Theater on October 1, 1920.
It could also be an alternative title for Suzanne Levy’s one woman show, Dress British, Think Yiddish, directed by Stacie Chaiken, that is being performed next weekend for three performances only at the Santa Monica Playhouse (Saturday November 12, 2022, at 7:30 PM and Sunday November 13 at 2:00 PM and 6:30 PM...

Netflix recently started streaming a new German-made production of “All Quiet On the Western Front,” based on Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 Anti-War novel. This is the third filmed production, with a 1979 TV version adapted by Delbert Mann, and the original Academy Award winning 1930 version. It is worth recalling the impact of the original and the way in which it galvanized the humanitarian efforts of Carl Laemmle.
Laemmle, the German-born Jewish immigrant who was one of the founders of Univer...

In early October, I drove down to Costa Mesa, a drive of around an hour from Los Angeles (traffic dependent), for a preview of the newly opened Orange Country Museum of Art (OCMA).
OCMA is located on the campus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and is right off the 405 at Bristol Avenue. The striking 53,000 square foot building with 25,000 square feet of gallery space was designed by Thom Mayne and Brandon Welling of Morphosis, the Pritzker Prize winning architecture firm.
Morphosis is a...