Monster Mash: LACMA in talks to oversee Watts Towers; Shakespeare troupe moves; a Jeff Koons BMW

-- New caretaker?: LACMA in talks to take over as curator and conservator of Watts Towers. (Los Angeles Times)

-- Not for sale: Ownership dispute forces Chicago auction house to delay sale of some items belonging to 20th century designers Charles and Ray Eames. (Chicago Tribune)

-- Whoops: Turns out ailing James Levine doesn't have a contract with Boston Symphony Orchestra. (Boston Globe)

-- New address: Independent Shakespeare Company moves from Barnsdall Art Park home to new site in Griffith Park. (Los Angeles Times)

-- Decisions, decisions: Where should Seattle put a $15-million Dale Chihuly glass museum? (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

-- New boss: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra names Stanley Romanstein as its new president. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

-- And the winner is...: Kennedy Center production of "Ragtime" wins big at Helen Hayes Awards in Washington, D.C. (Washington Post)

-- Should they stay or should they go?: Preservation debate heats up over two plain-Jane barracks in San Francisco’s Presidio (San Francisco Chronicle)

-- Appeal on the horizon: CNET founder Halsey Minor has something to say about $6.6-million judgment against him in favor of Sotheby’s. (CultureGrrl)

-- And it's fast, too: BMW unveils Jeff Koons’ design for its next BMW Art Car. (Wall Street Journal)

-- TiVo time: "Glee" cast on "Oprah" Wednesday (Show Tracker); “Addams Family’s” Nathan Lane on “The Marriage Ref” on Friday, (NBC); "Green Day Rocks Broadway" on MTV beginning April 16. (Playbill).

And in the Los Angeles Times: A man’s quest to recover a Camille Pissarro painting follows a long and twisted path; “Love Never Dies,” the sequel to “Phantom of the Opera,” delays its move to Broadway due to composer’s Andrew Lloyd Webber’s health issues; theater critic Charles McNulty remembers Corin Redgrave, who died Tuesday at age 70.

-- Lisa Fung

Follow me on Twitter @lfung

Photo: Watts Towers. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Donald Frazell]

Good, i have been writing both for over a year now, as well as other organizations. This should be a Music Museum of the Americas, with tours from both LACMA and MoLAA, as its parking is practically non-existent, but the Blue Line running right next to it, just get off at 103. Getty has the expertise, LACMA can broaden its base to south of Wilshire, which it has ignored, the real LA. Both are colorless, stagnant, silent mausoleums, they needs life to come in and make them a center of life in LA, instead of donor driven party houses, though certanly not as bad as MoCA. They are strictly fashion for the effette.

These places should be of the people, with scents, sounds, tastes, feelings, and textures of humanity. Not idea driven by academic careerists. This is a great opportunity, but must be dived into, not tiptoed, adn then put behind a cabinet somewhere. Stretch your reaeach out to the 12 million human beings outside of the Hills and Westside. There is far more out here than you realize. Get on board, and tie this city together, this is a start.
http://donaldfrazell.blogspot.com/

[Donald Frazell]

It's on now. Just spoke with the Rev. Chip Murray, the retired and famous leader of First AME. Now a senior fellow at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at USC. I have his backing, and he will speak to the Council, as well as the list of godly men of all faiths he is sending me. We need to form agroup to support the Towers, both as a community center, and expanding it into a destination for those who truly love art, based on the combination of god, nature and humanity so powerfully constructed by Mr Rodia.

Please contact me at
donald@dfimagery.com
to join, and keep abreast of coming action, and how you can help. This is a turning point in art and how we live life in America. The Age of Meism is over, it is time to join all those who wish a better world, not just talk about it through their own "greatness".

Times will be much harder from now on, and the government perpetually short on both funds and manpower. It up to Us. A grouping of non-profits, religous organizations, Foundations and businesses will have to take over many responsibilites we formerly expected of our government, while refusing to pay for it. And most importantly, indivduals who wish to contribute to the notion of Us, over the insatiable cravings and impotence of I.

Save the Watts Towers, Art for Life.

[N. Klein]

Am I the only one who ever wonders about LACMA's grand plans that disappear within a few months of their announcement by the directors and his staff of PR people? First they were going to close the film program then no they're keeping it going with a paltry $150,000 and Martin Scorcese comes and visits and evryone is thrilled and then nothing. It will not be mentioned again and we won't hear of it again until it's gone even though they vowed to keep it going. It'll just die off.

Now LACMA (A.D.D. Central apparently) is on to the Watts Towers - how long will this one last? Announcement, press releases - some high profile thing for the director to attend and then after a few months this too shall pass.

Then what's next? If we wait a few months the director and museum will have a new hobby.