Your JUNE Radar Screen

At the start of each month, I feature highlights from the LA cultural landscape as filtered through my lens: museums, books and movies, adventures, and more. These posts are free for all subscribers.

A recent article recommended these three steps for cultivating joy (which we all need more of right now): Reach out to your people, embrace joyful movement, and live each day as if it were your first. Something that sparks joy for me at this time of year is the delicious alchemy of strawberry and rhubarb baked together. I have made this crisp twice in a week, and no - I don’t peel my rhubarb! Here is the recipe with a nice surprise ingredient. Happy June to you all.

TIMELY ADVENTURE PAIRINGS

• An extensive show of Diane Arbus photographs is on view at David Zwirner Gallery - it’s worth a drive across town. To go deeper, look at some of the excellent books in the gallery or read Patricia Bosworth’s biography of the photographer’s startling work. Here is a review of a more recent biography, “Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer,” by Arthur Lubow. Take a moment to have coffee or a salad at Cafe Telegrama nearby. Here’s my article on exploring this part of town.

• Watch Mountainhead (streaming on HBO Max from the creator of Succession) and read Evan Osnos’ The Haves and Have-Yachts. Osnos, who is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, will be speaking at the Wilshire Ebell on June 10 with Writers’ Bloc - tickets here.

• Starting June 10 you can see a previously unknown Artemisia Gentileschi painting which was destroyed in a Beruit bombing in 2020 and has been restored by the folks at Getty Conservation. Artemesia’s Strong Women: Rescuing a Masterpiece will run through September 14 at The Getty Center. Learn more about the famous woman painter by reading Susan Vreeland’s The Passion of Artemisia. The Getty Villa reopens June 27.

ART AND MUSIC AROUND TOWN

©Academy Museum Foundation, Photo by: Fredrik Nilsen

• Barbie to Anna Karenina: The Cinematic Worlds of Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer just opened at The Academy Museum, and the colorful show offers a chance to explore the work of an eight-time Academy Award-nominated production design team.

• The Jeffrey Deitch Gallery has The Abstract Future on view through August 2 in both galleries (925 N. Orange Drive & 7000 Santa Monica Boulevard). The galleries are located off Sycamore, which is a fun area to explore - grab a meal at Tartine (911 N Sycamore) and peek inside the haut shopping spot, Just One Eye (915 N Sycamore). Bode’s gorgeous flagship shop is a few blocks away (7007 Melrose).

• The Boston Ballet will visit The Music Center with performances of Swan Lake from June 26-29.

• The works of Luchita Hurtado will be on view at Hauser + Wirth’s Arts District location starting on June 29. Paintings by Christina Kimeze go on view in the gallery’s West Hollywood location on June 28.

BOOKS, SCREENS, and PODS

• I’ve read a dozen “What to Read this Summer” lists, and conclude that it’s to early to tell what is really going to pop with readers, but here’s what is on my nightstand: Spent by Alison Bechdel, Twist by Column McCann, The Antidote by Karen Russell, The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Joauad: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life, and the perfect Father’s Day gift, The Golf 100 by Michael Arkush (here’s a good article about how the book came about).

• If you are a Michael Connelly fan, the LA-centric author has just introduced a new character, a cop who has been relegated to Catalina, in a new book called Nightshade. Another book in the Lincoln lawyer series,The Proving Ground, drops in October of this year. Here is how to read books on Connelly’s various characters in order.

• Shannon Watts started Moms Demand Action out of pure outrage after Sandy Hook. She’s a steadfast spokesperson for political awareness and action and her new book, FIRED UP, is about unleashing potential at any age. Shannon is visiting LA on July 9 and 10; subscribe to her Substack here.

• I heard Lauren Greenfield and some of her documentary subjects from Social Studies speak together last week, and if you haven’t seen it, I recommend this important series from FX, which reveals the complexity of growing up with social media. Greenfield, who went to Crossroads and is also known as a photographer, shot the series in LA, largely with students from Pali High.

• PeeWee as Himself is a two-party documentary on HBO Max about the creative life of Paul Ruebens, and is on my watch list. Our Water Ways: Indigenous Documentary Films will feature three short films and take place at the Getty Center at 5pm on June 13.

• Summer movies are starting to roll in - The Materialists, arriving June 13, is a romance from Celine Song, who directed the wonderful Past Lives. And, F1 with Brad Pitt arrives June 26. Here’s the trailer.

• Justin Chang was the LA Times film critic until he went to The New Yorker - he’s terrific; here’s his article about this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Two other excellent film critics, David Denby and Kenneth Turan, discuss their new books with Writer’s Bloc on June 11 in Beverly Hills.

• Amanda Hesser (Founder of Food52) has started a new project called Homebound, chronicling her adventures building a home in Ojai, where she recently relocated with her family.

• If you’ve been wondering where your copy of The New Yorker is, I learned that Conde Nast suspended all their magazines to LA after the fires; you need to call and re-start your subscription.

8 THINGS THAT SPARK JOY

• The Margarita Bar at Cosetta on Ocean Park (see above!)

• Maira Kalman’s new book about Joy.

• A spa outing at Den Mother in Venice.

• Goodnight Moon stamps!

• Any wooden puzzle from Liberty Puzzles.

• Learning that becoming a healthy old person isn’t just about genes.

• Having jars of Inna Jam around for spreading on toast or giving as gifts; they’re going out of business, so stock up!

• A good TED talk - this one, “How to Design Your Life,” is great for kids just graduating or people looking to define their next project. It has solid advice about decision making and ways to instill creative confidence.