Pasadena Pictures
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Zach Urbina
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narrative nonfiction
- Los Angeles I'm Yours
- The Awl
- Epic Magazine
- 944 Magazine
Lifeboat Foundation
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In like with you.
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Albert Tomlinson - Wait For Me
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Postcard from Roberto Bolaño to Enrique Lihn, 1983
I’m a big fan of Roberto Bolaño. This is so cool!
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“Then she hurried off, bum lolloping, to make sure all was in order.”—
Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
Today in words I want to say and say and...
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Star Wars Poster Design - by Josef Ortiz
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rhamier because yolo
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Marlene Dietrich
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Herbert Ponting
[View from inside a curved ice grotto. Taylor and Wright stand at the entrance looking up. The ship ‘Terra...
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Leonard Cohen - Anyhow
Dreamed about you baby
You were wearing half your dress
I know you have to hate me
But could you hate me less? -
Tag Results
12 posts tagged narrative nonfiction
Aimee Bender at Atwater Crossing, A Great and Saving Fiction |
“Aimee Bender’s reading at ATX helped remind me, an LA native who once fled to NYC, that in the proper aspect this city could uncover an extant literary soul. When Bender finally read The Fake Nazi, a charming story from Lemon Cake, the crowd hushed, the reverence gelled. It showed one writer how to take it easy on his hometown, to forgive its silly public persona and to seek out those moments of privileged brilliance.”
Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Skirball Cultural Center Wrapping Up Masters of Illusion |
Nestled in the Sepulveda Pass, somewhere between the new Getty and the Sherman Oaks Galleria, lies the Skirball Cultural Center. Peer further in and you’ll find a fantastic anthology of escapists and prestidigitators; practitioners of legerdemain, lock-picking, sleight of hand; gentlemen steeped in 19th century panache, replete with gallant pseudonyms and ubiquitous facial hair.
“Daring illusions, charismatic stage personae, spectacle and wit…” begs the bill as you enter Masters of Illusion: Jewish Magicians of the Golden Age. Not tricks–these exceptional men and women performed magic–and their collected relics are available to be seen for only a few more days. Through January 8th, 2012 the Skirball features this outstanding collection of historical heroes and the tools, trinkets, costumes, and posters that enchanted thousands in the days before film and television.
2011 has expired and it was indeed a good one..
Two epic trips to NYC, including a particularly memorable one for my 30th (see above).
Three speaking engagements at Space Up LA, X Ten Biennial, & Future Salon LA.
Countless events attended, including a handful of talks I was able to video:
- actor Ernest Borgnine
- astrophysicist Sean Carroll
- planetary scientist Oded Aharonson
- astronaut Buzz Aldrin
Fewer photos than usual, but I have been quite busy.
Finally, all my narrative nonfiction credits for the year, arranged in chronological order..
2011 Publication History
3 Jan | Epic Magazine - “You Know”
8 Feb | The Awl - “Q&A with Ted Hall: He Jumped the JFK Baggage Carousel for Love”
9 Feb | Lifeboat Foundation - “Mixed Messages: Tantrums of an Angry Sun”
1 Sept | “Real Name Policy” (self-published)
In November, I started contributing for a new blog
Los Angeles I’m Yours
- 11 Nov | “Secret Screenings at the New Beverly”
- 23 Nov | “Lift-off for the Los Angeles Space Salon”
- 6 Dec | “KCRW & DTLA Team Up to Prove Friends are *Indeed* Eclectic”
- 15 Dec | “Invention USA: Local Flavor and Actual Science on the History Channel”
- 21 Dec | “Runway Magazine Holiday Party Mashes Up Fashion and Technology”
As per usual, I managed to piss off a solid few people with my writing. For that, please accept my apologies. For those of you who I didn’t, you’ll get your turn next year. Here’s wishing you all an inspiring, productive, and prosperous 2012.
cheers,
Z
Invention USA: Local Flavor And Actual Science On The History Channel |
There’s an assured surrealist appeal in watching a reality television show premier at the same location where it was originally filmed, the 21st century species of the hall of mirrors. Invention USA aired on Friday night at 10PM on the History Channel, and there we all were, seated inside The Barn, co-host Reichart Von Wolfsheild’s workspace, forty or so friends, many of whom I’d seen around Reichart’s Sun Valley compound, affectionately known as The Ranch. These are good people —pierced, tatted, Burners, hackers, makers— whom I’ve gotten to know at events around Los Angeles like BIL, Mindshare LA, and Hike The Geek.
Invention USA follows Reichart, a software engineer and inventor, and his pal Garrett Lisi, a famous physicist known for his E8 equation (a simplified “theory of everything”), as they sort out the potential legitimacy of submitted inventions by more/less well-meaning inventors. Naturally, not every idea is a good idea.
In the first episode we meet a survivalist gentleman who lives in a cave, claiming that after an encounter with a possible bigfoot, was inspired to invent potassium-based incendiary munitions which, when fired from a paint-ball gun, repel that possible bigfoot by setting him on fire. Moments of skeptical side-eyes between the hosts, provided a nice layer of humor to the abject redneckery of the show’s first contestant/victim. continue reading | Zachary Urbina | Los Angeles I’m Yours
KCRW & DTLA Team Up To Prove Friends Are *Indeed* Eclectic |
Authenticity can’t be bought; you have to earn it. As KCRW’s Jason Bentley smiled down from an opera box at Downtown LA’s Orpheum Theater, the music lovers beneath him all knew that Saturday night’s Are Friends Eclectic? benefit show, was absolutely steeped in untainted authenticity.
Standout performances from Anna Calvi, Other Lives, White Denim, and Iron & Wine trailblazed a remarkable line-up that also included reggae legend Jimmy Cliff.
For followers of Internet culture, keeping up with the newest and edgiest Indie music remains relatively easy; however, for Los Angeles radio listeners it is cultural steward KCRW who brings those Indie gems to a wider audience. Are Friends Eclectic? provided a solid opportunity to sample these gems, as each band played three or four songs, before clearing the stage for the next act.
I caught up with Other Lives lead singer Jesse Tabish, who couldn’t stop praising KCRW for their support. “We’ve never been a band who’s gotten a lot of airplay,” confessed the Oklahoma native. “KCRW was literally the first national radio station to play our music.” If you’ve ever heard Other Lives’ Tamer Animals, you know full well the blatant criminality of this statement.
continue reading | Zachary Urbina | Los Angeles I’m Yours
[photos: Jeremiah Garcia]
Lift-off for the Los Angeles Space Salon |
Last Wednesday night marked the first gathering of the Los Angeles Space Salon, at the Brewery Arts Complex in Lincoln Heights. Organizers Scott Norman (SpaceX), Simone Syed (BIL co-founder), and Michael Clive (XCOR) lured out an extensive cross section of the aerospace community, traveling from San Diego to Mojave, to engage in a vibrant dialogue that featured an opening talk from Virgin Galactic’s Will Pomerantz.
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A notable highlight of the evening was a light verbal skirmish between John Spencer of the Space Tourism Society, who argued that the primary offering to the public should be “the space experience.” Molly McCormick, who splits her time between Raytheon and Orbital Outfitters countered that, “There are real, productive reasons to want to go to space that will benefit everyone. Space is more than an experience; it is a resource. There are things we can do and make in the microgravity of space that are extremely difficult or even impossible to do or make on Earth: exotic materials, precision components, satellites, medicines, etc.” continue reading | Los Angeles I’m Yours | Zachary Urbina
Secret Screenings At The New Beverly |
…The Reitman/Cody collaboration proved grimly entertaining. Young Adult follows a ghostwriter of young adult fiction (Theron) as she returns to her Minnesota hometown under false pretenses to win back her high school beau. Oswalt’s character provides equally dark yet heartfelt comic relief throughout. During the Q&A Cody discussed her fight to keep the usual bag of Hollywood ending tricks out of her script: “I didn’t want this to be one of those films where the character undergoes some dramatic lesson-learning turn in the third act.” Indeed, much like Juno, the film is bittersweet, and again, like Juno, bears the hoof prints of an Oscar contender. continue reading | Los Angeles I’m Yours | Zachary Urbina
