I saw “Shaft” when it first came out, in New York, in the winter of ‘71. I didn’t know what it was, other than a private eye movie. In those days, so long as it was a Western or a private eye movie, I’d go see it.
Right from the opening credits, I was hooked. There it was, New York in the winter, just like right outside the door of the Times Square movie house I was slumped in.
And here he came up the subway steps: John Shaft, all cool and Bogie-esque, only now the trench coat was leather. He stalked the mean streets of Manhattan like he owned them.
And pulsing beneath, that ultra-cool, driving, dangerous, soaring, funky-hunky MUSIC.
This was no typical film noir. This was NOW.
Have a look and a listen… Now, truth be known, “Shaft” isn’t really a great film. Richard Roundtree was not - yet - enough of an actor to pull off “cool.” The coolest actors - Mitchum, McQueen, Poitier, Denzel, Sam Jackson - know that, in order to project “cool,” the character has to have an inner-story, something churning under the surface, that they just don’t share with the audience.
Roundtree didn’t know that yet, and while Gordon Parks was one of the greatest photographers who ever lived, that didn’t make him film director enough to get the performance needed from Roundtree.
So Roundtree tried to “act” cool, and cool can’t be acted.
But he was something else that Sidney Poitier hadn’t been during the 60s: Roundtree’s Shaft was angry. One angry black man, and that fitted the temper of the times.
There’s a scene in “Shaft” that nails it. Shaft’s just hoodwinked a couple Mafia thugs in a bar, and turned them over to the cops. One the goom-bahs spits in his face.
Poitier might have glared, or slapped him (see “In The Heat Of The Night”).
Roundtree doesn’t blink. He swings a whiskey bottle and shatters it over the thug’s head.
There was a new bad muthfucka in town, and his name was John Shaft. John Shaft kicked off and locked in an era of black action films that found an audience, white AND black, and in their wake came some fine dramas and film biographies (”Sounder” and “Lady Sings The Blues,” to name but two).
From that era came a flood of films and stars that have, right up to today, given us Sam Jackson and Denzel Washington, Halle Berry and Morgan Freeman, Spike Lee and John Singleton, Theresa Rusell and Wesley Snipes and Queen Latifa, among many many others.
And our world and our popular culture is a better place for it.
But I’m here to tell ya, without the music in “Shaft,” the movie might have sunk like a rock.
The music was all Isaac Hayes.
That theme from “Shaft” is nothing short of brilliant. It is THE damnedest combination of old Hollywood, late 60s early-70s funk, and “new” jazz (listen to Miles Davis’s 1969 classic “Bitches Brew,” and you’ll hear the same echoes Isaac adapted to “Shaft”).
Yeah, the lyrics are kinda dumb, but that was part of the fun back then - and still is.
Then came the Academy Awards. Isaac Hayes was nominated for “Best Song” for the theme from “Shaft.”
No way in hell, I thought. The song was a major hit, far too popular, I thought, for Oscar to give it a nod. And besides, the movie wasn’t much.
And dare we say it? Isaac was black.
Then, man, he came rolling out on the stage at the Oscars, behind that funky keyboard, shrouded in a fog of dry ice, with his bullet head, muscles draped in gold chains like Othello ready to rock, those fine lady back-up singers all slinky and set to throw down.
And Isaac Hayes tore the place up - and copped the Oscar.
Isaac Hayes never had a bigger hit than “Shaft.” Doesn’t matter. In an inspired explosion of creativity, with one piece of music, he changed our culture, and it changed our world.
We’ll be listening to his work for a long time.
It don’t get better than that. RIP, brother.
For more information in Cisco vsiit: http://www.myspace.com/ciscowrites
Dawson Cole Fine Art, Laguna Beach wanted to take this opportunity to personally invite you to Turning Heads: A Group Exhibition. The face, recorded through the eyes of the artist, truly lives forever. Portraiture has been central to the history of art for centuries and this unique exhibition examines how we view portraiture today. The showing will include works by leading contemporary artists:
Chuck Close - The remarkable career of artist Chuck Close extends beyond his completed works of art. More than just a painter, photographer, and printmaker, Close is a builder who, in his words, builds “painting experiences for the viewer.” Highly renowned as a painter, Close is also a master printmaker, who has, over the course of more than 30 years, pushed the boundaries of traditional printmaking in remarkable ways. Almost all of Close’s work is based on the use of a grid as an underlying basis for the representation of an image. This simple but surprisingly versatile structure provides the means for “a creative process that could be interrupted repeatedly without damaging the final product, in which the segmented structure was never intended to be disguised.” It is important to note that none of Close’s images are created digitally or photo-mechanically. While it is tempting to read his gridded details as digital integers, all his work is made the old-fashioned way - by hand. Close’s paintings are labor intensive and time consuming, and his prints are more so. While a painting can occupy Close for many months, it is not unusual for one print to take upward of two years to complete. Close has complete respect for, and trust in, the technical processes - and the collaboration with master printers - essential to the creation of his prints. The creative process is as important to Close as the finished product. “Process and collaboration” are two words that are essential to any conversation about Close’s prints.
Jian Wang - If Jian Wang is to claim a style, it lies in his approach to painting. Distinguished by his ability to reconfigure the elements of a composition to his own vision, he virtually sculpts the image using energetic brush strokes and thick, buttery oil paint. “My style involves tremendous physicality and emotion,” he says. “I have a simple palette of eight colors, which I combine right on the canvas. I’m careful with my gestures; I carry many colors in a single brush stroke.” His work, influenced significantly by realism with an impressionist inference, is influenced both by the landscape and by contemporary artists such as Fred Dalkey, Wayne Thiebaud and Oliver Jackson. “Every single painting is 90 percent experiment and 10 percent of what I’ve learned,” he says. “I cannot guarantee that every painting will turn out, because I don’t want to set up that much control. I have great admiration for historical painters who developed a style and yet, each piece remains individual.” Long before he came to the United States to pursue a Masters of Fine Arts at California State University, Jian Wang dreamed of a life of painting. A child of the Cultural Revolution in China, he experienced limited opportunities for painting and exhibition, which led him to pursue the field of engineering. And yet, he did not lack background or training in art. Upon arrival in America, his work already exhibited a serious investment in the western conventions of drawing and painting. What he lacked, was the venue this country could provide.
and Richard MacDonald - Richard MacDonald is world-renowned for artistry that reveals a profound understanding of the human experience and which celebrates the ascendancy of the human spirit. His fascination of the human form and with mankind’s broad emotional range has inspired him to create dynamic, sensitive works; each infused with a quality that withstands the passage of time, of taste, of trend. Born and raised in California during an unkind era for figurative art, MacDonald was tossed into artistic waters by his uncle, then a leading graphic designer. Primed by his childhood and formally trained in Professional Arts at the Art Center, College of Design, MacDonald forged an alchemy of experience to become an artist whose drawings, paintings and sculpture portray the passion inherent in the triumph of the human condition The inspiration behind MacDonald’s 1996 tour de force, “The Flair,” a 26-foot gymnast caught in the execution of the maneuver, actually emerged from a painting he created for the 1984 Olympics. And although he based his design on the studies he did of Kurt Thomas for the painting, The Flair’s essence lies more in the struggle, determination and hours of training, all brought to that instant when performance is everything. Therein lies the metaphor for his own artistic achievements. MacDonald went on to create, among other masterworks, “Momentum”, a 15-foot, 15-ton sculpture created in celebration of the 100th playing of the U.S. Open golf championship at Pebble Beach. When not creating art, he travels on behalf of it, extensively and internationally, forging relationships with other countries, other creators. His work is collected by such people as former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton, Linda and Stewart Resnick, William Payne, Dean Koontz, Richard Marx, Leanne Rimes, and opera legend Luciano Pavarotti. The absence of opportunity and training in figurative sculpture has created a void not only in the preservation of fine art, but in the persistence of life, which MacDonald, a natural teacher and devoted mentor, works relentlessly to fill. He works tirelessly to increase the appreciation and understanding of figurative art throughout the world. MacDonald also graciously gives of his art and his time to hundreds of charitable organizations; among those Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Make a Wish Foundation, and New York’s “Free Arts for Abused Children,” which was a charity event sponsored by Cirque du Soleil and Lincoln Automotive. His commitment to fostering the future of post-modern, neo-figurative art is realized not only in creating monuments to human triumph, but by imparting his knowledge and technique, his experience and his lessons to emerging international and national professional artists through intensive master classes on location at his own 25,000 square foot studio complex. As he passes the torch, he ensures his legacy. The artist’s international reach has now captivated Shanghai, China, which recently recognized his accomplishments with a prestigious award and invited him to install his life-sized sculpture “Three Graces” in Central Green Park, a 1,500-acre expanse that softens Shanghai’s new cosmopolitan financial center of Pudong. “China is important to the world in that they are a force and on the move,” MacDonald said. “Exposing them to figurative art opens up a potential for artistic expression far greater than anyone would ever have dreamed possible until today. It is this very spirit of the struggle and determination to triumph that inspires creative expression. This is the message, I think, that will endure through my work.”
Contact: http://dawsoncolefineart.com
Originally a short film written in 2006 by writer/Director Angelo Bell, “Broken Hearts Club” is now a feature film in post-production. A work-in-progress cut of the feature has been submitted to the Toronto Interntational Film Festival. The short film has just been submitted to USA IndieFest.
THE STORY: Genre: Comedy, romance, drama - In Treatment meets Love Actually. Logline: Terrence, an apathetic clinical psychiatrist must treat a group of melodramatic, broken-hearted patients to get the job of a lifetime and save his marriage. SYNOPSIS: What does a clinical psychiatrist do when his clinically insane patients are replaced with the clinically heart-broken?
Dr. Terrence N. Thiebold is a former All-American UCLA linebacker and now the leading clinical psychiatrist on the West Coast. He’s a stoic and regimented gentleman; apathetic to a fault but hugely successful in treating the criminally insane. However, Terrence’s very ordered and unemotional lifestyle is about to take a dramatic turn.
When Terrence’s flighty self-serving colleague, DR. KNOWLES, embarks on a journey, Terrence becomes the reluctant therapist for twelve melodramatic emotionally distraught individuals in the midst of tumultuous break-ups. Terrence handles his new responsibilities like any uptight, anal-retentive advanced degreed professional — he runs for the hills!
Terrence’s new career-obsessed, lonely and hopeless clients take through the gamut of emotional frustrations ultimately putting his marriage in jeopardy. Matters become even more complicated when Terrence is offered a job at a prestigious Beverly Hills mental health clinic contingent on his successful results with his new patients.
Will Terrence toss pragmatic bookish methodologies away in favor of learning to counsel from the heart? Or will he succumb to his own inner demons and the ugly truth behind his obsessive rebellion against the vulnerability of love and emotions?
For more details visit their site at: http://www.brokenheartsclubfilm.com and to help spread the word: Simply click on this link to send an email to: ptraffic@tiffg.ca - and add this message: “I was wondering if you were going to screen ‘Broken Hearts Club’ at this year’s festival. Please advise on the screening dates and times.
Thousands of Southern California business people will take control of their own economy, Thursday, July 24, 2008 from 5 to 9 p.m., as the 10th annual
L.A.’s Largest Mixer takes center stage at
The Shrine Auditorium Expo Center, 700 W. 32nd St., Los Angeles, CA 90007.
Now in its 10th successful year, the Mixer has grown to represent a powerful meeting of Los Angeles area chambers of commerce and local businesses representing hundreds of industries and companies in Southern California. Last year, over 2800 business people came together for this ultimate business networking event.
Show Highlights Include:
1. Over 3000 Attendees: Mix and mingle with hundreds and hundreds of business professionals from around Southern California.
2. Visit Over 250 Exhibitor Booths: From small to large companies and almost every industry in between, visit the exhibitors of the L.A. Mixer on both levels of The Shrine Auditorium Expo Center.
3. TalkRadio 790 KABC Live Broadcast: KABC Radio’s Al Rantel will broadcast live starting at 7 p.m.
4. Mix & Mingle in the Diamonds & Cream Lounge: Network in the “Official Networking Lounge of the L.A. Mixer” — sponsored by Diamonds & Cream Events. A jazz bar-type lounge, grab a cocktail while mixing and mingling with potential clients.
5. Learn About the Benefits of Being a Chamber Member: Visit the booths of the participating 30 chambers and business organizations located throughout the event to learn how becoming a member can increase business.
Attendee tickets are $20 per person and can be purchased online at
http://www.largestmixer.com/lamixer/tickets.php. For a complete list of exhibitors and sponsors, please visit
www.lamixer.com or call 323-230-5656 for further information.
L.A.’s Largest Mixer is produced by The Dave Linden Group, Inc.
Mary Decker Slaney, America’s greatest middle distance ever, will be the honorary spokesperson and starter of the 15th annual Keep LA Running Charity 5K Run / Walk, 10K Run, Kids Dash, Coastal Bike Ride, and
Mayor’s Mile, Sunday, July 13, at Dockweiler Beach in Playa del Rey. Mary will also run the 5K at the event.
The only athlete ever to hold every American record from 800 meters to 10,000 meters, Mary Decker Slaney continues to own the U.S. women’s records in the 1500 (3:57.12, set in 1983), mile (4:16.71 in 1985) and 3000 (8:25.83 in 1985.).
Mary’s greatest international achievement came at the 1983 inaugural World Championships in Helsinki, where she won the 1500 and 3000 meters — a feat that would become known as the “Decker Double” and that helped earn her the title of Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year for 1983. A year earlier, she set world records in the mile (4:18.08), 2000m (5:32.7), 3000m indoors (8:47.3), 5000m (15:08.26) and 10,000m (31:35.3, in her first race at that distance), and won the AAU Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the country.
“Little Mary Decker” surprised the world in her 1973 international debut, when she won the 800 meters at a US-Soviet Union meet in Minsk as a pigtailed, 89-pound (40 kg) fourteen-year-old girl. She became one of the most famous track and field competitors of her era, dominated by runners from Eastern European communist countries. Over her career, Decker Slaney set 36 national records and 17 official and unofficial world records at various distances.
Clearly one of the greatest female runners in track history, Mary also was one of the unluckiest. She suffered many injuries, had to go through more than 20 surgeries, and never won an Olympic medal. She was favored to win the gold in the 3000 meters at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, but collided with a young, inexperienced barefoot runner from South Africa, Zola Budd, who cut her off. Mary fell on the infield, injured her hip and could not resume the race, won by Romania’s Maricica Puica. (Mary was carried off the track by Richard Slaney, a British discus thrower who later became her husband. They live in Eugene and have one daughter, Ashley Lynn, 22.)
Mary came back with a vengeance in 1985. She started the season with a world best at the Sunkist Invitational indoor meet, then went 14-0 against Budd, Puica & Co. on the European circuit.
For track fans there will never be another one like her – a runner with Jim Ryun’s talent and Steve Prefontaine’s heart.
Decker Slaney joins other track luminaries who have served as spokespersons for Keep LA Running – Carl Lewis, Billy Mills, Frank Shorter, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Steve Scott, Johnny Gray, Louie Zamperini.
Keep LA. Running, which has grown into one of the most popular distance running events in Southern California, has raised over $800,000 for its beneficiary charities. Keep LA Running is a very special event, benefiting children with cancer, premature born babies and other worthy causes. The event was initiated in 1994 by then SEIU Local 660 L.A. County/Special Districts Employees Emergency Disaster Relief Fund to provide a safety net for L.A. County employees. The Emergency Relief Fund is a 501 (c) (3) not for profit organization (EIN 95-4842244). As the event has grown in profile, popularity and funds generated, it has added new charities - the Pediatric Oncology Service, Women’s and Children’s Hospital of LAC + USC Medical Center; the Harbor UCLA Medical Center Neonatal Ward, and the American Cancer Society.
Keep L.A. Running races are open to everyone, from the serious runner to the first-time participant. Runners, walkers and bike riders can register online at www.keeplarunning.com Competitors can also register by mail to: Keep L.A. Running, c/o Prime Time, PO Box 1009, Twin Peaks, CA 92391 by July 7. For registration information call race director Mike Ward at Village Runner, (310) 546-1888 or the race hotline at (626) 463-0483.
Major sponsors of Keep L.A. Running include co-title sponsors, PacifiCare, Colonial Supplemental Insurance, Kaiser Permanente and American Income Life. Other top supporters include Trustmark, The Law Offices of Fensten & Gelber, Union Bank of California, Trustmark, Delta Dental, Benefit Vision, United Way, Aflac, Gordon, Edelstein, Krepack, Grant, Felton of Goldstein, Allstate, and Lewis, Marenstein, Wicke and Sherwin. Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable are media partners of Keep L.A. Running.
Contact: Don Franken (310) 535-9230; (310) 962-3297; trackla@pacbell.net
My photographic journey began in earnest over a decade ago when I took a three week trip to Japan. Having been a traveler ever since I was a baby I had finally reached a point photographically as an adult where I was fed up with how my photographs of places like the Grand Canyon, Belize, Australia, Tahiti, Hawaii, Mexico, and every other place I’d ever traveled too were not as good as the photographs I was seeing in travel magazine. Even more so since I was photographing the same rocks I was seeing in the magazines. So before leaving Los Angeles for Japan I bought myself a professional 35mm Canon EOS3 with a Tamron 28-200mm lens. From that moment on I noticed a remarkable improvement in quality from the point and shoot 35mm camera’s I had been using.
Sometime in 2004, after spending a few years using my Canon EOS3 35mm and still not completely satisfied with my image results, a light bulb went off inside my head and I decided it was time for me to start learning more about photography. And luckily I didn’t have to go far.
My photography education began with a color photography class at an adult annex of Santa Monica College. After that one class I realized how much I not only love, but at times, am addicted to photography. From a single college annex class I enrolled into the photography program and progressed through all the evening photo classes available (BW, color printing, commercial, portrait, flash, and photoshop). And though my enrollment at SMC does not continue today my education within the photographic world does and I’m always seeking some new piece of information to aid me in becoming better and more creative.
Today I’m a freelance photographer with over 190 publishing credits. My subject matter is solely based upon my many interest and for this reason I do not concentrate or limit myself to any one area of photography. My subject matter includes music, landscapes, travel, people, sports, still movie productions, and nudes.
My clients include All Access Magazine, Music Connection, Strutter Magazine, San Gabriel Press, Pasadena Star News, Whittier Daily News, the state of Alaska’s official tourist website (www.travelalaska.com), Arizona Office of Tourism, Faith and Form Magazine, Sfarzo guitar strings, Peerless Guitars, Mills Acoustic, and the feature film “Sin-Jin Smyth”.
In addition to my growing client list my images have been exhibited in three Los Angeles gallery’s (”View of the Sound” - Kopeikin Gallery on Wilshire; “Fiddle” - LaFoto in Santa Monica; “What’s Her Name” - Santa Monica College photo gallery). And in 2007 two of my images (”Malibu Pier at Midnight” and “Great White Shark feeding”) achieved finalist awards and were published in the 2007 Photographer’s Forum Magazine Annual.
Today my camera medium is as varied as my subject matter as I often choose to use a particular camera based on how I want the final print to look. My primary camera is my digital Canon 20D. However I also use: 35mm - Canon EOS3 and Canon AE1; medium format (6×6) - Hasselblad 500 c/m; large format - Shin Hao large format; and Polaroid Land 330.
Current projects include: “Catholic symbols” - a photo project involving the 21 California missions; “Lines” - nature’s paintings; “Inspiration” - project encompassing both my landscape and catholic symbols photography; a currently unnamed artistic environmental nude project; and a currently unnamed long range Polaroid project.
And in addition to my photography I am also writing a book entitled “A Childless Man’s Adventures in Parenting”. Release date undetermined at this time. To Veiw and read more visit his website at: www.mikecavanaughphotography.smugmug.com be sure to see his exhibition at: Spring Arts Collective Gallery, Spring Arts Tower - Mezzanine, 453 South Spring Street, (btwn 4th & 5th), Los Angeles, CA - 90013 on July 10th!! 
