The Friends of the Historic Terrace Theatre is taking legal action to save the Terrace Theatre, the one-of-a-kind 1951 Space Age Movie Palace located just ten minutes outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Everyone deserves to experience the grandeur of the Terrace Theatre once again.

See PART 1 of the Terrace Theatre story.

Do you know of anyone who would be interested in our story of corporate bullying, unethical moves, unjust and bad faith treatment of a grassroots group by the city and by million/billion dollar corporations? Let us know!

This is a David an Goliath Battle. We need to get maximum word-of-mouth visibility for the cause. Please sign, share this change.org petition and you’ll get story updates in your email.
Please, if you can, please donate at Friends of the Historic Terrace Theatre.
http://www.terracefriends.org

Here’s an update from the change.org site from 082816.
A One-of-a-Kind Space Age Movie Palace is about to be demolished! Help us Negotiate a win-win solution.

A Private Citizen Who Wishes to Save the Historic Terrace Theatre

AUG 29, 2016 — Dear Friends,
http://www.terracefriends.org
Do you know of anyone who would be interested in our story — corporate bullying, unethical moves, unjust and bad faith treatment of a grassroots group by the city and by million/billion dollar corporations?

Not gonna mince words here. Please donate Bernie-style if you can. We really need to get broad visibility of this David and Goliath drama.
http://www.terracefriends.org

It’s been a very dramatic two weeks for our mid-century modern Terrace Theater, but the Space Age Movie Palace is still standing.

On Tuesday August 23nd, the City Council voted to demolish the theater a full month earlier than had ever been mentioned before, without even having an application request on file. We had just three days to take action.

Here are two articles that review the events of the last two weeks:
“Attorneys agree to pause in Terrace Theatre demolition, judge sets Sept. 13 hearing.”
http://post.mnsun.com/2016/08/25/terrace-theatre-demolition/
“Robbinsdale council approves Terrace Theatre teardown; lawsuit filed to halt demolition. Vote comes as lawsuit seeks restraining order against site’s razing.”
http://www.startribune.com/as-robbinsdale-city-council-debates-terrace-theatre-teardown-lawsuit-is-filed-to-halt-demolition/391110101/
In the past two weeks there have been a series of seemingly unethical moves which threw us into a legal panic.
If we had not had an attorney who was able to act in two days, it would have been a completely different story.

As of 4:30 Thursday, Aug 25, we have a Temporary Restraining Order until our next court date on Tuesday, Sept 13th.
As near as I can gather, here’s a dateline of the last two weeks of actions to a sudden acceleration to demolish:

– Aug 16th Tuesday
The grassroots group meets with their attorney for the first time.
He will bring the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act (MERA) suit that has saved other the mid-century modern Peavey Plaza in Minneapolis.
He tells us we have a solid case. It is in fact a very historical building in many ways.
We must also prove it is in reasonable condition for restoration and will need a court-recognized Structural Engineer’s assessment.

– Aug 18 Thursday
The grocer HyVee makes a surprise announcement that it has “pulled back” because of a boycott petition –
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2016/08/19/hy-vee-halts-robbinsdale-grocery-store-plans-due.html
We think this is a good sign. That is not at all the case.

– Aug 19th Friday
The very next day Brixmor (worth millions) / Blackstone (worth Billions) applied to the city for DEMOLITION –
A full month earlier than had been ever stated.
Luckily someone saw it posted on the city site otherwise the results might have been catastrophic.
We alert our attorney.

– Aug 23nd Tuesday evening
the City Council votes to demolish, even though they state they have no such application request on file.
– The grass root group’s new Temporary Restraining Order is prepared and may now be filed.
There is a well-qualified rumor that demolition will begin early morning before it can get to court the next day.
 Volunteers watch throughout the night to be sure no heavy machinery is staged at the site or at any adjoining properties.

– Aug 24th, Wednesday
At 8:31am we were notified, “the hearing for the Temporary Restraining Order is set at the Hennepin County Government Center Thursday at 12:30 in room C953.” The site is quiet. Volunteers keep watch throughout the day.

– Aug 25th, Thursday
At 10:00am, attorneys for the owners Brixmore/Blackstone, ask to delay the hearing. We asked, “Why delay? That means more time for them to prepare. Be wary. Brixmor does this all the time … they know the ways to win …”.
 Only then did we learn that a demolition permit had been applied for through the state pollution board on Friday Aug 19th for demolition by large contractor Fratallone for this coming Monday the 29th — way too close for comfort.

– Aug 26th, Friday, and through the weekend
We’ve been wary of utility trucks and workers marking the site. Otherwise, it’s been quiet.

– Aug 29th, Monday
Volunteers will be on hand to watch to be sure Frattalone, who has the contract for demolition, is not on site.

Our Attorney tells us we have  a solid case. It is not only beautiful, it is in fact a very historical building in many ways.
Along with an Architectural Historian we will need a Structural Engineer to describe the condition of the theater as we must also prove it is in reasonable condition for restoration, a solid business plan which seems to be in the works and fundraising, fundraising, fundraising. Please donate and share here:
http://www.terracefriends.org

If you know the Disney movie Fantasia you know the music. It’s the one with the scary dinosaurs. This music may well be imprinted into my lizard brain. As kids we’d dance to it in our little rented stucco home in Evanston, Illinios. For us it was a story of the chase—of calm and chaos.

If you like percussive, crazy and aggressive music you might want to give it a try. It was one of Frank Zappa’s favorites. Beware, it’s not a crooner. It’s the musical and dance performance that created a riot in Paris in 1913 on May 29.  And your kids may love it.

One year ago today I celebrated it’s 100th anniversary with a series on my Facebook page. The music sounds challenging 100 years later and I wondered, “How crazy would it have sounded in 1913? What was it like in Paris back then?” The city was growing into a metropolis, automobiles and aeroplanes were brand new, and movies were still silent. In one year Europe would be engaged in the most terrible war the world had ever seen.

Here’s what my Facebook looked like a year ago. Don’t miss the 1910 French post cards of the future. Sorry, some links may no longer be available as happens on the internets.

“There is nothing in this involved, compact, and concentrated film but explosive genius.”
Update: As of March 2015, the 1913 silent film Fantômas is streaming on Netfllix.
It’s a nice print and score, though so naive that few of us would find the plot surprising.

My Epilogue:
“I have paris live streaming on Arte right now!” I posted.
I had found as an exact a recreation as possible streaming live on ARTE, France, of the musical performance, the costumes and Nijinski’s choreography—at the exact same hour, on the exact same stage, exactly 100 years later (you can see a clip of it here)—Le Centenaire du Sacre du Printemps at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, performed by the Mariinsky Russian ballet, and conducted by Russian director Valery Gergiev.

Here are a couple of movies that recreate the event.
Riot at Rite 2005, by the BBC, now streaming free on youtube.
Igor Stravinsky and Coco Chanel 2010, with Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal) as Igor Stravinsky and Anna Mouglalis as Coco Chanel

Household furnishings, 1968 style.

On the TV: Cissy of “Family Affair” gets hip to 1968.

Could Spock be rejecting trippy space psychedelia?

Bewitching.

Pop culture artifacts, 1968.

“Arms Up” 1.0

“Arms Up” 2.0

Jane Fonda is “Barbarella”.

The exhibit was originally mounted by the Minnesota Historical Society, where my  sister-in-law, Wendy, is Head of Museum and Education Programs (if it were up to me, I’d just tell you Wendy invented 1968).

There’s plenty to see at the Oakland Museum, including the first retrospective of graphic novelist, Daniel Clowes, a 1960’s protest poster exhibit, and Oakland’s great permanent collections.

After August 19th, the exhibit heads off for dates in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and St. Louis, through 2014. Highly recommended.

Read more about this year’s history in Mark Kurlansky’s book, 1968: The Year That Rocked the World.

All photos by Jay F. Miller.

Dirty Frank’s Bar, 347 Pine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102,  215.732.5010

Clifford Clinton created his forest oasis during the Great Depression in 1935. Inspired by the family’s tradition of service, he created a world “… of imagination, dreams and whimsy—away from the troubles that we hope can be left at the door for just a short while.”

Ray Bradbury, Jack Kerouac, Robert A. Heinlein, Jerry Leiber and Walt Disney have all been loyal patrons. (This fantasy forest was completed twenty years before Disneyland.)

Check before you go—Clifton’s is under restoration. This year the Clinton family sold Clifton’s to luxury night club creator Andrew Meieran. His plans for preservation offer some hope—he transformed the old downtown powerhouse into the very nice
Edison nightclub.

Meieran will be adding a speakeasy, a cocktail bar and more, but also promises to restore Clifton’s original facade and old time charm, including re-creating the Water Wheel,
Old Tree Wishing Well, Limeade Springs, Sherbet Mine, and the long-employed greeter—a stuffed raccoon.   “All existing historic fabric will be thoughtfully and carefully retained—including the Chapel, the Waterfall and Brook, … the Redwood trees and Terraces—the elements that have made Clifton’s an institution for so many decades.”

Magically kitchy, Clifton’s Cafeteria is worth a special visit.
Clifton’s Cafeteria, 648 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014, telephone: 213.627.1673.

Check out the panarama the L.A. Times created for Clifton’s Cafeteria.

*****************************************************************

UPDATE:
#thejellostays
After a four year restoration, Clifton’s Cafeteria  will conduct it’s preview celebration on September 17, 2015 and reopens October 1st. Let’s cross our fingers. The Los Angeles Conservancy has already praised Andrew Meieran’s preservation of Clifton’s ground floor and mezzanine and there’s been a lot of good press in the LA area.
And the jello? Yes, #thejellostays.

Kurt Schwitters’ evocative collages are composed of the discarded stuff of life—arcane retail bags and paper, tickets, and newspaper classifieds combined into jewel-like miniatures not much bigger than your iphone, though some are more than double that size.

This exhibit is  gathered from a wide array of sources—some from the private collections of artists Ellsworth Kelly and Jasper Johns, and the Schwitters family itself.

Schwitters talked about his work in mostly formal terms—his collage materials were extensions of color and paint—but its’ strong recalled memories cannot be resisted. It’s as if you’re looking down to what’s beneath your feet, long discarded by those before you.

Along with famous artists Hanna Hoch, Hans Arp and El Lissitsky, Schwitters created the Dada-like revolutionary Merz Magazine.

Also on display is a recreation of one room of his Merzbau environment, a multi-room composition without boundaries—like walking through Arp sculpture punctuated with bits of Max Earnst imagery. You’ll leave wanting to wander through twenty times the wonder we’re allowed here.

Kurt Schwitters Color and Collage, at the Berkeley Museum of Art—BAM / PFA.
Ends Sunday November 27, 2011.

(No photographs of the exhibit are permitted, so here are some images of the cantilevered M. C. Esher, Labyrinth aesthetics of The Berkeley Museum of Art, BAM.)

On a recent trip to L.A., I took the exit off Interstate 5 to Bakersfield. For most folks it’s not exactly a destination, but for me it was a pilgrimage. I was going to Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace.

In the 1930s, Bakersfield was the land of the Dustbowl Okies. It was Woody Guthrie’s this-land-is-your-land America. The Okies descended on Bakersfield, desperate to find jobs in the oil and lettuce fields. With them they brought their tradition of old-timey country music.

This is where the twang of the hard-drinking Bakersfield Sound evolved. While Nashville was recording lush string arrangements with crooners like Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline, the Bakersfield Sound was cutting through the bar-din of local honky tonks with a plaintif steel guitar and the twang of the Telecaster.

Buck Owens moved from Texas in 1951 to play the Bakersfield honky tonk circuit. He soon landed a guitar gig at the hardscrabble Blackboard Cafe with Bill Woods, the father of the Bakersfield Sound.

Buck made a name for himself and stepped forward to form his own band, The Buckaroos, featuring Telecaster genius, Don Rich. The 1960s was Buck’s decade, with Ringo Starr covering Act Naturally and Ray Charles covering Cryin’ Time, and a concert at Carnegie Hall.

Buck bought the local radio station, KUZZ, produced records and hosted TV’s HeeHaw with Roy Clark. In 1996 he created his personal country music hall, The Crystal Palace.

Merle Haggard grew up in a trailer a mile away in Oildale, California. He was just one of the Okies’ kids of the 1940s who embraced the Bakersfield Sound. His first hit was Okie from Muskogee in 1969.

Today, Brad Paisley and Dwight Yokum carry the torch. Homer Joy’s The Streets of Bakersfield became a #1 Billboard smash hit for Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam in 1988 and Starr and Owens cut a new version of Act Naturally in 1989.

There were a few urban pioneers back then. One bright spot on South Street was a shop whose walls were covered inside and out with fanciful mirrored mosaics and drawings on ceramic. The Eyes Gallery imported South American molas, masks and ceramics, and its’ mosaics created a lively spirit amidst the urban decay.

Much to my delight 0n a rare walk down South Street this past winter, everywhere I looked I found those same fanciful mosaics I’d remembered. Big mosaics on alley walls, building fronts and door stoops. Not only had South Street become an urban shopping and entertainment destination, the mosaic magic had grown way beyond the old gallery storefront and into the whole neighborhood.

It was on this walk I discovered the ultimate expression of this great extravagance—a complete multi-level garden full of sculpture and imagination. While Isaiah Zagar, the mosaic artist and husband of the Eyes Gallery owner, was decorating surfaces throughout his neighborhood, he’d also spent fourteen years excavating and decorating tunnels and grottos on a three thousand square foot vacant lot next to his studio on South Street.

In 2004 the owner of the lot was ready to sell.  Fearful of losing their treasure, the neighborhood bought the property and created the nonprofit Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, and dedicated themselves to preserving Isaiah’s garden and his other prolific mosaics on South Street. And now Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens is open to amaze every day of the year with tours, workshops and events.

John Ehn’s cement and paint pioneers are politically incorrect, sometimes violent, always full of wit and more than a little creepy.

Like S.P. Dinsmoor’s Garden Of Eden in Lucas, Kansas (I might get to those photos soon), John Ehn populated his story-filled setting with lively and foreboding pioneer spirits—complete with their own ominous Boot Hill epitaphs.

Three years after the self-taught artist’s death in 1981, they’d been designated a state cultural landmark, but that was no assurance that they would be protected from city development.  An airport expansion soon threatened them and they were miraculously moved out of harm’s way to a grotto 26 minutes away behind the stables at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, just a half hour west of Hollywood on Highway 101 and where they can be seen today.

There are easily more than 50 pieces, and some of the cement inhabitants are on fully decorated and very heavy bases. No one seems to know who undertook the arduous task of moving these heavy characters, or even who maintains them to this day.