Last year, assesses Allman Brothers Band she went allman brothers investigates to the YMCA's Camp Edwards, where she liked rock climbing, despite being afraid of rappelling. She didn't get to try archery, and that's one of her main goals for this year. Most important, though, Vanessa says she wants to make new friends. About 10,000 underprivileged children will go to camp this summer, thanks to $1. 6 million raised last year. The annual fundraising campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match the first $1. 1 million in contributions at 50 cents on the dollar. Donations are tax-deductible For more information, call (213) 237-5771. To make donations by credit card, go to latimes /summercamp. To send checks, use the attached coupon. Do not send cash. Unless requested otherwise, gifts of $50 or more will be acknowledged in The Times. . Robert Wyatt"Comicopera" (Domino)* * * 1/2Even in the context of the eccentrics-heavy '60s Canterbury scene (Syd Barrett, Gong), Robert Wyatt has remained a distinctive figure for nearly 40 years, his voice the sound of dried peat, his music drawing more on free jazz and Dada aesthetics than on anything traditionally "pop," his politics of a Marxist bent. And even in his catalog that includes such eccentric art-rock classics as the early Soft Machine albums and 1974's "Rock Bottom" -- a landmark of abstract, stream-of-consciousness images and textures completed after a fall from a window left him a paraplegic -- his new "Comicopera" is itself a distinctive turn. It is indeed a mini-opera in three short acts: "Lost in Noise" portraying a personal sense of love and loss, "The Here and Now" exploring what it means to be English, and "Away With the Fairies" expressing frustrations over what he views as the modern imperialism of the English-speaking world, the latter taking a peculiar form of protest. As he explains by phone from his home, "I get so exasperated that two-thirds of the way through I stop singing in English. " It's "petulance," he admits, but it sees him artistically playing with language and form, communicating via "Italian, Spanish, improvised music, romantic revolutionary stuff of the '60s, which paints me so accurately you can guess my birthday. "It's a portrait of an English radical at 62, but it's personal and emotional and neither strident nor stodgy.
Crafted with help from such friends as longtime collaborator Brian Eno and more recent acolyte Paul Weller, the music ranges from pastoral Impressionism to instrumental experiments to the salsa of the closing "Hasta Siempre Comandante" (by Cuban writer Carlos Puebla in honor of Che Guevara) allman brothers band soulshine . At times, it sounds like Miles Davis circa "In a Silent Way," as if produced by Eno. Don't be fooled by the seemingly structured presentation, though. "Concept is too grand a word for how I work," he says allman . "I accumulate stuff, bits and pieces of ideas, sketches of works and sounds. "Agenda, he adds, is also too strong a word duane allman Allman Brothers Band - allmanbrothersband . "Given a peaceful and civil world, I'd be sitting happily and playing my word games," he says alman brothers band . "But we are constantly swept up in hot winds of vicious conflict Basically I'm just a witness I have no illusion that I can make any difference. I'm not an activist. "But he has been quite active of late (singing, along with Elvis Costello and Sting, on the recording of Steve Nieve's "real" opera "Welcome to the Voice," as well as on an album by Brazilian vocalist Monica Vasconcelos, returning the favor for her guest appearance on "Comicopera"). "I've never been in my 60s before, so I better get on with stuff and not put things off till tomorrow," he says "I'm just trying to earn a living here. If enough people take an interest to allow me to do that, then I'm OK Allman Brothers Band - allmanbrothersband .
I said once I thought about retiring, to which [jazz composer-musician] Carla Bley said, 'You can't the allman brothers band . You're a musician, not a rock star. ' Which I think is a compliment. "--On the Record is an occasional feature combining artists' comments with critical assessments of noteworthy new works. allman brother tickets . The feathered boas were twirled around the mike stands, the balloons were affixed to the speaker stacks, the hot pink binder of song lyrics was open to the appropriate spot, but the New York Dolls were not onstage yet. Despite this significant last detail, the beefy boy and the batty, battered rocker chick toward the left of the crowd were still yelling out song requests to the invisible band. "Traaaaash!" "Jet Boooooy!"After the Tower Records rep took the stage to announce that the Dolls wouldn't be coming on for another 10 or 15 minutes, the pair started hollering for air conditioning. The couple hundred fans -- a mix of middle-age rock memorabilists lugging framed posters and tight-jeans teenage couples with their hair firmly poofed into place -- filled the floor at Tower's Sunset Strip store Friday night. Crowded in a space recently vacated by stacks of blues CDs and facing a temporary stage built in front of the magazine rack, they'd all bought copies of the Dolls' new album, "One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This," at the store that week allmon brothers band . The purchase earned them one pink wristband, guaranteeing entrance to this free, brief and moist performance. "One Day" is the Dolls' first studio album in 32 years. Before its initial incarnation flamed out with bad habits and a misguided pro-communism shtick, the group released two albums in the early '70s that didn't sell well initially but went on to influence countless punk bands in both sound and philosophy. Given modern music's debt to them, the Dolls are a peculiar type of reunion act -- one that can draw audiences much larger these days than they could the first time around. The band performing now is quite different from the quintet on the cover of the Dolls' 1973 self-titled debut allmen brothers band . In the classic photograph, they look like a group of hard-luck drag queens arranged in ascending order of which one you'd be most willing to spend the night with. The two dime pieces on the right -- guitarist Johnny Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan -- died in the early '90s, and the ever mannish bass player Arthur Kane on the far left passed away from leukemia shortly after the group reunited in 2004. That leaves lead singer David Johansen (still frighteningly skinny and snuggly crammed into his pants) and giddy guitarist Syl Sylvain as the only original members. . Dozens of high-kickers, huge leapers and hip-hopping homies shredded the stage of the El Portal Theatre on Friday night under the banner of the Praxis Project.
Founded in 1999 by Kacy and Craig Keys, the project ("praxis" is Latin for "practice"), brings the local dance community together each summer through workshops, master classes and performing opportunities. For the last two years, Praxis has partnered with Lula Washington Dance Theatre This year's result is "Affirmations . . allman brothers band jessica . of Mind and Place," 11 new works by nine choreographers, and though not all the dance-making was successful, most of the turbo-charged movers raged with talent. Frit and Frat Fuller scored a double whammy with "To James" and "A Man's World," the former featuring an octet of funksters getting down in Afro wigs and business suits, the entire bunch popping, arm-whipping and knee-knocking the allman brothers . The latter, an outrageous soul showcase for Melvin Clarke, Jeremiah Tatum, Maurice Watson and Kenji Yamaguchi, wowed: Think gorgeous gazelles bounding through the air before landing split-legged. Tamica Washington-Miller's joyous "Thanks and Praises" saw 16 dancers explode in floor slides, Lindy hopping and manic group spins, with Micah Moch and Norman Follosco shining in their tilt-a-whirl duet allman bros . Also rocking and rolling: Maya Guice, Adama Ideozu, Perris McClacken and Olivia Miles in Winifred R allman brothers live . Harris' "On Solid Ground," a romp bristling with arabesques, deep lunges and crazy cartwheels. Rogelio Lopez G. 's more lyrical "A Hint of a Prayer" offered fine unisons and strong partnering among five women in push-pull, love-hate dalliances. Another quintet, Christine Chrest's "Compression," featured Follosco slithering under, over and among four women, occasionally surfacing to assume an Atlas-type pose. Seda Aybay's "Detachee" had the choreographer and Robin Conley deftly executing a duet of mirror-imaging gambits; her "Sentimientos," unfortunately, proved a bloodless neo-tango with 10 grinning dancers flitting about aimlessly. Also contributing to random acts of blahness: Philein Wang's "Circling to Peace," a martial arts homage that highlighted a beautiful but fervorless Nicole La Cour leading 13 performers through vapid yoga-like paces, and Ronald E.
Brown's "Dark Blue Circumstance," a nonet that went nowhere. Happily, the Fullers' exuberant "Protozoa," a riff on blue-collar workers, capped off the evening with two dozen dancers swooshing, pirouetting and crawling until finally rising up as one glorious hoofer organism. allman brothers band melissa . DIRECTOR Tony Kaye says he was forever changed witnessing the second-trimester abortion allman brothers tour dates . Audiences who see Kaye's new documentary "Lake of Fire" may very well share the British filmmaker's reaction. Nearly two decades in the works, "Lake of Fire" is Kaye's epic look at one of the most personal -- and sometimes violently contentious -- issues of the day: reproductive rights allman joys . But rather than fill his 2 1/2 -hour film with nothing but activists, academics and politicians, Kaye goes into the American clinics where the divisive procedures are performed. No matter where people stand on the issue, the abortion Kaye presents just 20 minutes into the film will certainly become indelible to many: Concerned that he leave no fragments of an aborted fetus in his patient's uterus, a doctor reassembles the body parts -- tiny feet, arms, a head with a clearly discernible face -- into a nearly intact whole allman brothers tour . And the camera never blinks. Allman Brothers Band tickets What sounds like antiabortion agitprop is, in the context of Kaye's film, something very different. "Lake of Fire" is Kaye's attempt to challenge point-blank the lines of reasoning both for and against abortion rights. It is "a difficult film," the 55-year-old director says, "a brutally exhausting thing to watch. " But as he sees it, "Lake of Fire" had to be that tough: If he didn't show those minuscule body parts, he also couldn't show the photograph of a woman who killed herself trying to end a pregnancy with a coat hanger. Documentary film is in the midst of an artistic and box-office renaissance. But Kaye isn't like most documentary directors; his film has no obvious agenda and he's not using it to make a political statement.
ThinkFilm, which acquired Kaye's film after it premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, is releasing "Lake of Fire" very slowly, premiering it in New York last week and in Los Angeles on Friday. "I went into the project knowing full well that I wanted to make a piece about abortion that was not propagandist in any way," says Kaye, a prominent commercial and music video director whose last feature film was 1998's troubled drama "American History X," on which he famously clashed with New Line Cinema, the Directors Guild of America and star Edward Norton allman brothers band southbound . "I needed, in a journalistic sense, to enthusiastically explore all of the arguments. "That exploration, which Kaye personally financed at a cost of almost $7 million, ultimately consumed 16 years And Kaye says he still isn't done "To be honest, I'm still not finished duane allman biography . But I had to get on with other things. "The title is drawn from antiabortion activist John Burt's description of the hell awaiting the people he believes are on the wrong side of the issue gregg allman . "It must be like lava coming out of a volcano," Burt says, "except there's people in it, and they're burning and burning and burning. "Although Kaye interviews more dispassionate speakers -- including journalist Nat Hentoff arguing against abortion and linguist Noam Chomsky supporting a woman's right to choose -- he clearly is drawn to people on the fringes of the debate, chiefly religious activists who feel they are called by God to demonize and even kill abortion providers. Mark Urman, the head of U. S allman brothers band?woodstock . theatrical for ThinkFilm, says the inclusion of the fringe voices serves a complementary storytelling purpose. "The film is not nearly as much about the issue of abortion as it is about the way our society deals with issues," Urman says. "The film in a very symmetrical way deals with the extremes on both ends of the spectrum. "Because Kaye filmed for so many years, some of "Lake of Fire's" most dramatic developments unfolded as the documentary was being assembled.
For example, activist Paul Hill is shown protesting outside a Florida clinic, opining that even a foul-mouthed blasphemer should be executed "because that's what the Bible teaches. " Soon thereafter, we meet Dr . John Bayard Britton, an abortion doctor at the Pensacola Ladies Center who wears a homemade bulletproof vest the allman brothers band" "the fillmore concerts . "If I don't do it," he says of providing abortions, "it probably won't get done allman brothers tablature Allman Brothers Band . So I do it. "But just a few minutes later in the film, a picture of Britton's body fills the screen; he was shot to death by Hill, a former Presbyterian minister . (Hill was subsequently executed for the 1994 murder. )"It really does track like a narrative, a fictional piece," Kaye says from New York, having recently completed filming the crime drama "Black Water Transit" in New Orleans. "I shot the killer, I shot one of the people he killed, I filmed at the place where the killings took place. I still look at this stuff, and it's amazing how it played out. "Procedures detailedLittle in the black-and-white "Lake of Fire," though, is as compelling as the two abortion procedures Kaye records.