Mods & Rockers Film Festival Starts Another British Invasion

While Americans were celebrating the Fourth of July this summer, the English were celebrating another British Invasion. A British Invasion of Los Angeles, that is.

The English chose Independence Day 2006 to kick off the eighth annual “Mods & Rockers” summer film festival at Hollywood’s elaborate Egyptian Theatre. The date marked the 40th anniversary of the British Invasion of pop music upon American shores. The American Cinematheque, a film group dedicated to the preservation and screening of rare and classic movies, opened the festivities by showing a time capsule gem titled “Go-Go Mania!” Way, way before MTV, this music revue featured made-for-broadcast performances by British groups like The Animals, Herman’s Hermits, Peter and Gordon, Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas, The Fourmost and The Spencer Davis Group.

In lieu of American celebratory fireworks, the Brits spiced up the screening with a live concert in the theatre courtyard featuring Spencer Davis and Gordon Waller (of Peter and Gordon fame) backed up by The Ravers. The Spencer Davis Group was one of the British Invasion bands that grabbed hold of blues styles. They had international hits with “Gimme Some Lovin” (1966) and “I’m A Man” (1967). Peter and Gordon were often compared to the Everly Brothers and had great success with ballads written for them by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. They scored on the charts with “A World Without Love” in 1964.

Joining Davis and Waller on stage was American songwriter Stephen Bishop, best known for the ballad “On and On” and the theme song for the film “Tootsie.” Bishop ad libbed a wicked imitation of John Lennon trying to explain the colossally misunderstood Jesus Christ comment in his best Liverpudlian. A surprise guest for the evening was Rod Stewart’s bassist, Phil Chen, who has played with Donovan, Jeff Beck, Jackson Browne and Pete Townshend.

When all four of the rockers were waling away on their guitars deep into an improvised version of “I’m A Man,” they blew out the power on the courtyard stage. After a few jokes about Yankee sabotage, American ingenuity soon got the musicians plugged back in for more music.

The British also reveled in another 40th anniversary by celebrating the 1966 World Cup victory of the English football team. The achievement was honored with the screening of the award winning documentary titled “Goal! World Cup 1966.” Just imagine it. Swinging London was in full bloom. The British Invasion of music and fashion was at its zenith. England was hosting the World Cup games for the first time ever. To top it off, England beats Germany in a harrowing overtime championship game attended by Queen Elizabeth. Hail, Britannia.

The American Cinematheque continues the “Mods & Rockers” festival of rare, goofy and cult films from the 1960s in two theatres in the Los Angeles area throughout August.

The Art of Paul Klee

When I was about 15, I hung a reproduction of a Paul Klee painting of a head on the wall at the foot of my bed. Paul Klee shared my walls with Van Gogh and Marlin Brando but it was Klee that I saw the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. The painting seemed simple enough, even childlike, but it continued to fascinate me.

Paul Klee was born near Bern, Swizterland. His father, a German, was a musician and Klee was drawn to both art and music and, though he ultimately chose art, he played violin for a time in the Bern Symphony.
Klee attended an art academy in Munich and then traveled throughout Europe where he saw the latest in art and thus was exposed to all the current art movements.

Primitive art, surrealism, expressionism, cubism, and children’s art influence the work of Paul Klee but he does not belong to any one movement. He has blended all these influences into his own unique art and he is one of a kind.

In 1914, Klee traveled to Tunisia where he had an almost mystical experience with the light there. “Color has seized me. I no longer need to pursue it; it has seized me forever, I know. That is the revelation of this blessed moment. Color and I are one. I am a painter.”

At first glance Paul Klee’s work seems very simple and can provoke statement like, “I could do that,” or “a child could do that.” But this simplicity is deceptive. Colors are layered over each other, juxtaposed, and re-arranged by sissors. Mysterious symbols, ransacked from conventional symbol systems like pictographs, diagrams, graphs, and cartoons, are yanked from their original settings to land mysteriously in a Klee work. Klee has said, “Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.” Works have whimsical titles like “Twittering Machine,”“Fish Magic,” and ”Dance, Monster, to my Soft Song.”

Klee was extremely prolific, producing over 10,000 pieces, most of them small drawings, paintings, or prints. He created new methods, often painting water colors on oil or chalk grounds applied to fabric or cardboard. He painted within oil transfer drawings applied to paper, sprayed watercolors around stencils, and combined oil and watercolor.

In 1933 Klee was teaching in Munich. The Nazis came to power and his art was declared “degenerate” and he lost his position and any possibility of exhibiting his work. He left Germany for Switzerland.
Klee died in 1940 of scleroderma.
When I was about 15, I hung a reproduction of a Paul Klee painting of a head on the wall at the foot of my bed. Paul Klee shared my walls with Van Gogh and Marlin Brando but it was Klee that I saw the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. The painting seemed simple enough, even childlike, but it continued to fascinate me.

Paul Klee was born near Bern, Swizterland. His father, a German, was a musician and Klee was drawn to both art and music and, though he ultimately chose art, he played violin for a time in the Bern Symphony.
Klee attended an art academy in Munich and then traveled throughout Europe where he saw the latest in art and thus was exposed to all the current art movements.

Primitive art, surrealism, expressionism, cubism, and children’s art influence the work of Paul Klee but he does not belong to any one movement. He has blended all these influences into his own unique art and he is one of a kind.

In 1914, Klee traveled to Tunisia where he had an almost mystical experience with the light there. “Color has seized me. I no longer need to pursue it; it has seized me forever, I know. That is the revelation of this blessed moment. Color and I are one. I am a painter.”

At first glance Paul Klee’s work seems very simple and can provoke statement like, “I could do that,” or “a child could do that.” But this simplicity is deceptive. Colors are layered over each other, juxtaposed, and re-arranged by sissors. Mysterious symbols, ransacked from conventional symbol systems like pictographs, diagrams, graphs, and cartoons, are yanked from their original settings to land mysteriously in a Klee work. Klee has said, “Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.” Works have whimsical titles like “Twittering Machine,”“Fish Magic,” and ”Dance, Monster, to my Soft Song.”

Klee was extremely prolific, producing over 10,000 pieces, most of them small drawings, paintings, or prints. He created new methods, often painting water colors on oil or chalk grounds applied to fabric or cardboard. He painted within oil transfer drawings applied to paper, sprayed watercolors around stencils, and combined oil and watercolor.

In 1933 Klee was teaching in Munich. The Nazis came to power and his art was declared “degenerate” and he lost his position and any possibility of exhibiting his work. He left Germany for Switzerland.
Klee died in 1940 of scleroderma.

Camera Buffs: Why Are You Still Using Film? Go Digital With Rechargable Batteries

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If you're one of those people caught riding the fence between using your favorite standard camera and the new digital camera you have sitting around, it's time to climb down off your mount. Unless you're one of the rare people who makes a living snapping photos or you do almost exclusively very artsy types of photography, your standard film camera may not offer you anywhere near as many advantages as even a lower-end digital camera of today.

But, whether you realize it or not, the failure to move to almost exclusive use of your digital camera is costing you - and the environment around you - in far more ways than one. Actually, the list of differences between the two platforms can go on for pages, but let's tackle the ones apt to make the most positive difference to you.

1. The cost of film - and the limited number of pictures possible per roll - often limit the number of shots you take. Think about it: how many times have you missed a great scene just because you wanted to save room for more pictures later? The same holds true for film processing; we avoid taking all the pictures we could because we don't want to make the costs to develop our vacation pictures cost more than the trip itself.

2. Related to the first issue, many cameras let you take anywhere from 30 to 100 shots before you either have to transfer the images into your computer or change your Flash or other storage medium card. Also, it's usually much faster and easier to change the card than it is to insert a new roll of 35 mm film.

3. Film only lasts so long. While we often try to be prepared by keeping an extra roll or two in our bags, we may not realize that extremes of heat or cold - or other less than ideal situational factors - have made the film and the pictures we take with it sub-par. Plus we have no idea how long a roll of film has been sitting on a store shelf when we buy it. Sure, the film usually has a date on the package, but if we rarely check that date when buying food, what's the chance we'll double-check it before we use the film?

4. If your big excuse for not moving entirely to digital is that you know such a camera eats batteries faster than a chocoholic can consume her way through a Ghiradelli shop, think rechargeable. Good quality rechargeable batteries and a proper recharger are much less expensive than they were a few years ago and can save you a fortune (as much as a $100 per month per household).

5. It's much easier, as well as more cost efficient, to store a huge volume of digital images than it is to store developed photographs. Your recordable CD or DVD drive can become your best friend for archiving your photos or making a quick album you can share with friends and family.

6. Without having to worry about the cost of film, you can experiment with your photography to your heart's content. This will help you develop your talent far faster than being nickel and dimed having to process bad shots taken with a standard camera.

7. Software available for use with your camera - including third party commercial packages like Microsoft Digital Image - let you do some very interesting alterations to your photos. You can retouch, enhance, crop, rotate, and add special effects at the click of a mouse.

8. Even more inexpensive digital cameras offer corrective features like red eye reduction and auto focus that you normally have to become skilled to overcome with a standard camera. Many also automatically adjust for light levels better than standard cameras can.

9. Film-produced photos can age rapidly; colors fade and the image can crack. Even storage of negatives can be a problem. But a digital image you can all up and reprint again and again.

10. Not only is the cost of film development quite expensive, the chemicals used are toxic. All too frequently, these toxins end up in waterways or pollute the ground water. Use rechargeable batteries with a digital camera, however, and the environment will (practically) thank you.

And the final bonus? You can just delete your really bad shots. No one ever has to see them or gets the opportunity to tease you about them. That's a great plus all by itself.

Making Sure Mom Gets What She Needs at Her Baby Shower

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When throwing a baby shower one of the main concerns of the host is whether or not the mom to be will get what she needs. There are several different ways that you can ensure that she will get everything that she needs. This article will discuss those options. First you could purchase all of the gifts yourself, but that is really being unrealistic, since most people just do not have that type of money. The bet ways is to make sure that the mom to be registers for all of the items she wants or needs. 

There are really dozens of different registries that you can choose from. One of the most popular ones is Babies R Us. What makes there registry so good is that anyone can purchase something for you no matter where they live. Also their staff is very helpful, but in store and online. Once she registers you will want to make sure, that all of the guest know that she is registered and where she is registered at. You can do this by putting it on the invitations. Then once everyone calls to rsvp, you can really stress the fact that she would love to get the items she really needs off of her baby registry. 

Another option is to have everyone go in on a group gift. What you do is have all of the guests make a min contribution of about twenty dollars. This way they can still get their own gift, and they will be included in the group gift as well. This has worked very well for me in the past. We were actually able to get just about everything on the mom to be's list. In addition she will also get a lot of other nice items. You will see how much it really is appreciated when she is able to get just abut everything that she requested. Also make sure that in addition to what she put on her registry, you get something just for her. Most people will get spa kits for mom, or even a spa gift certificate. This way either before or after the baby comes she can get a day of rest and relaxation. What mom does not want and deserve that? 

When it comes to making sure that the mom to be gets everything she needs it really is up to you the hostess to make sure that this happens. It really is not as difficult as it sounds, although it will take a little more work on your part, it definitely is something that can be done.