May I remind you that one of the most intriguing museums in town is at the corner of Grand and Ninth? The current exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) Museum is the "Art of Motion Picture Costume Design." You can get a close-up look at costumes from a number of recent films, including all five of this year's nominees for the Academy Award for Costume Design.

And along with these current examples of the art, there are many treasures from years past: leather armor worn by Kirk Douglas in Spartacus, an impossibly tiny-waisted pair of shorts that somehow fit Jean Harlow, and (sigh) Fred Astaire's shoes. Not shown in my photo are his straw hat and top hat in the display case above the shoes. See them for yourself at the FIDM Museum (919 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles 90015).

The exhibition runs through April 28, ...

Coming soon to a theater near you: Mahler's 8th Symphony. Performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, and a chorus of more than 1,300 people (including 400 children), conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Here's Gustavo with LA Phil President Deborah Borda admiring the full-page ad in the New York Times promoting the theater broadcast. Tickets here. The concert will be preceeded by a 30-40 minute documentary about the LA Phil's trip to Caracas. The film crew has been furiously shooting and editing. Should be fun to watch!

Tonight (Wednesday) the LA Phil plays Mahler's 6th Symphony in Caracas. The fourth and final movement of the symphony has a feature unique to classical music--or at least unique to the symphony. There's a hammer. A big giant hammer. Here's Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic in concert. Look for the hammer at about 3:03.

The hammer that the LA Phil uses is quite a bit larger. Check the photo box on the right for pictures of what they'll be using tonight. (Perhaps you saw this hammer in action a couple weeks ago when the LA Phil performed Mahler 6 in Los Angeles. That performance, by the way, will be part of KUSC's series of concert broadcasts coming up in the spring. So if you missed Hammer Time live in concert, you can catch it on the radio in a couple of months.)

As a journalist, I am paid to be cynical. It's my job to voice skepticism and to demand truth in the face of spin. Having heard so much about the Venezuelan music education network known as El Sistema, it's tempting for me to be dismissive.  Surely the PR machine has carefully scripted the narrative for the rest of the world. I’ll admit I’ve had those thoughts.

Until today. Until I saw it with my own eyes.

I spent the morning at the Center for Social Action Through Music—a compact, but extensive complex in Caracas that is home to several Sistema orchestras, Gustavo Dudamel's Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela is one of them. The six-story campus has multiple concert halls, several floors of practice rooms, one of the largest organs in Latin America, and an amazing outdoor stage. (The back wall of the building folds into the building to form ...

Sunday, February 12^th. Today is an off day for the musicians of the LA Philharmonic. Following their triumphant Venezuelan debut last night, LA Phil officials smartly decided to avoid any concert or educational activities on this day and Venezuelans will be headed to the polls for the opposition party’s primaries. Elections here in Venezuela have a habit of turning confrontational and there are widespread reports of voter intimidation at polling places across the country. (As I write this, I can see and hear a political demonstration from my hotel room window.)

But more about that “triumphant Venezuelan debut.” Last night, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil took the stage of the Teatro Teresa Carreño. With seating for 2,400 people, it is the second-largest theater in South America and the former home of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra before they moved to the Inter-American Center for Social Action through Music ...

Greetings from Caracas, Venezuela! After a somewhat brutal travel day yesterday (I left my house at 7:15a and arrived at the hotel in Caracas after midnight), we’re all just sort of trying our best to relax a little bit before the buses arrive to take us to the concert hall this afternoon. The work begins right away for the LA Philharmonic, who will play their first concert ever in Venezuela tonight. Mahler’s epic 9^th Symphony.

As I walk through the hallways of our hotel I can hear various strains of that glorious symphony wafting from the rooms of many of the musicians. Brass players keeping their lips in shape after a day with virtually no time to practice. String players finding out how their delicate instruments have adjusted to the South American humidity—in some cases replacing strings at the last minute. Woodwind players finding that perfect reed.

To say ...

Hollywoodland rejoices for today’s birthday of composer/maestro John Williams. And for good reason! I’m reminded of a scene in Kenneth Branagh’s film Dead Again (with a score not by John, but bear with me) where at a party, Branagh’s Roman Strauss is asked if he’s ‘in the business.’ He replies “No. I’m a composer.” Which is given the flippant response of “in that case, you’re not anybody.”

Sadly, that is the response many have towards the true & hard work composers have ‘in the business,’ even here in Los Angeles. John Williams has, for decades, been the masthead of the deserved respect for oft-overlooked cinematic composers. With that in mind, here are just a few of my picks for John’s best work for the small & large screen. 

One More Thing: At 1pm on Sunday, February 26th, KUSC will air "American Journey: An 80th Birthday Tribute to John Williams," a...