CONTENTS
SoCal
December 2013
4 Agenda
8 11 17 22 27 30 36 2013 Gift Guide
Inspire Creativity
Olympic Preview
Ryan Bingham
Guitar Guide
Art Gallery
Road Trip Map
SoCal December 2013
Kathryn Salvi Editor-In-Cheif
SoCal Socal Magazine is more than just a magazine. It’s a lifestyle. Covering everything from art, music, and travel to design and the latest trends. A one of a kind magazine, for a one of a kind place.
socalmag.com
Kathryn Salvi Art Direction Kathryn Salvi Executive Editor Kathryn Salvi Editorial Director Kathryn Salvi Editor at Large Kathryn Salvi Managing Editor Kathryn Salvi Deputy Editor
Hello, Thank you for reading SoCal Magazine! Born and bred in Orange County, now a resident of Los Angeles, I thought what better to write about than my home. SoCal is a magazine dedicated to the Southern California lifestyle and features stories for the creative and adventorous souls throughout the world. I hope you enjoy our very fi1st issue, thank you again for supporting SoCal Magazine!
- Kathryn Salvi
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AGENDA epicuria p libation p fifth floor
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AGENDA p p epicuria libation fifth floor
Beer And Your Body The health benefits of the world’s second most popular beverage. By Kathryn Salvi
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The 5 Best Beers For You
Good JuJu
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Guiness Draught
Sam Adams Sierra Nevada Purple Haze Light Pale Ale
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Windows Into The Surreal epicuria libation fifth floor
FIDM’s 5th floor windows celebrate the surreal work of Elsa Schiaparelli By Hamish Brown
“Madder and more original than most of her contemporaries, Mme Schiaparelli is the one to whom the word ‘genius’ is applied most often,” Time magazine wrote of its cover subject in 1934. Coco Chanel once dismissed her rival as “that Italian artist who makes clothes.” (To Schiaparelli, Chanel was simply “that milliner.”) Indeed, Schiaparelli—“Schiap” to friends—stood out among her peers as a true nonconformist, using clothing as a medium to express her unique ideas. In the thirties, her peak creative period, her salon overflowed with the wild, the whimsical, and even the ridiculous. Many of her madcap designs could be pulled off only by a woman of great substance and style: Gold ruffles sprouted from the fingers of chameleon-green suede gloves; a pale-blue satin evening gown—modeled by Madame Crespi in Vogue—had a stiff overskirt of Rhodophane (a transparent, glasslike modern material); a smart black suit jacket had red lips for pockets. Handbags, in the form of music boxes, tinkled tunes like “Rose Marie, I Love You”; others fastened with padlocks. Monkey fur and zippers (newfangled in the thirties) were everywhere. love of trompe l’oeil can be traced to the faux-bow sweater that kick-started Schiaparelli’s career and brought her quirky style to the masses. “Dare to be different,” is the advice she offered to women. Pace-setters and rule-breakers waved that flag through the sixties, the seventies, and beyond.
Photocredit Portrait: Irving Penn Windows: Carlos Diaz
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The Ultimate Gift Guide For Him
qFor Her
Desperado Hat
Classic feel for a great price. $40.
Fender Starbursrt Guitar What better way to show your love? $850.
Fossil Backpack Traveling? We got your back. $75.
Gurkha Cigar Box Feel sophisticated. $75.
Frye Boots Stylish yet rugged. $175.
LEI Camera Vintage look, high quality. $150.
Jackie-O Raybans Classic and stylish. $135.
Aztec Sweater Add a pop of color this winter. $65.
Lucky Brand Satchel A classic leather and lace combo. $125.
Free Bird Boots Set yourself free. $145.
Iphone Case Durable and beautiful. $25.
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RYAN BINGHAM From the roads of San Antonio to winning Grammys’, Americana’s leading man spills his soul on everything from his days of bull riding to his new independent record ‘Tomorrowland’.
B Y
T I N A
E S S M A K E R
P H O T O
B Y
S A L L Y
P E T E R S O N
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e’ve been listening to Ryan’s music since we discovered his album, Mescalito, a few years back. Whether accompanied by a lone acoustic guitar or an electric guitar and full band, Ryan’s voice is unmistakably gritty and lived-in—it’s the voice of a man who clearly has a good story or two to tell. And he does. Ryan told us about growing up in Texas, traveling with the rodeo, personal challenges, and why playing music was a turning point for him. If you’ve ever doubted yourself or thought you weren’t good enough, this interview is for you. May Ryan’s words help you find the courage to pursue whatever is in your heart to do. Describe your path to becoming a musician. It’s been such a wild journey, I guess. Sometimes I don’t know where to start, but I kind of feel like I got into music by accident, more or less. My family was a ranching family from New Mexico and before I was born, they lost that ranch and went to work in the oil fields. I was born in Hobbs, New Mexico. After that, we moved around a bit, first to Bakersfield, California, and then back to the West Texas area, where I was raised. When I was 16, my mother bought me a guitar. I’d always been a fan of music, but never really thought that I had any kind of musical talent. I didn’t think I had the ability to play an instrument or sing or write, even. I wasn’t a very good English student (laughing) and didn’t read much. I also wasn’t that interested or encouraged in the arts. I guess I really got into playing music when I was going to rodeos. Because I came from a ranching family, I started going to junior rodeos as a kid and as I got older, I’d go on my own. I brought my guitar along, learned how to play, and made up songs with friends while we were on the road from town to town. The songs were mostly stories about places I had passed through and people I’d met along the way. It was more about having fun telling stories with my friends and it snowballed into getting gigs in bars and venues in the towns we visited. Before I knew it, I was in a band and traveling all the time. Did you have an “aha” moment when you knew that music was what you wanted to do? I did. My parents were both bad alcoholics and drug addicts and the whole thing went to shit when I was about 16. My family split up and after that, I was more or less out on my own or living with friends. I ended up in Laredo, Texas, and that’s when I really learned how to play the guitar. My mother had bought that guitar for me, but I had left it sitting in my closet for a year. There was a guy who was hanging around in this apartment complex I was living in and he could play all this old mariachi music. I used to hang out with him and just listen to him play until one day, I got my courage up, went and got my guitar, and asked him if he’d show me how to play a song. He taught me this old mariachi song called La Malaguena.
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Photo by Anna Axster
Right after that, I moved away to a town called Stephenville, which is near Fort Worth, Texas. For a year, the only song I knew how to play was that one mariachi song. I got so tired of playing it, but I didn’t have anyone to teach me, so I went out and got a book of guitar chords. I started learning different chords and making up songs for myself. At that point, it wasn’t really something I ever thought I could make a living doing, but it was such a relief for me—it was like therapy. I had so much stuff happen when I was younger and had nobody I could talk to about it. I was young, lost, and confused in the world; I didn’t really know where my place was. When I started writing and getting things off my chest by putting my emotions and feelings into songs, that was a turning point. Music became an escape and was something I held onto dearly. Meanwhile, I had been going to these rodeos and having a lot of fun, but I wasn’t good enough to make a living doing it. I always had to have some kind of day job during the week and usually, it was some shit job that only paid minimum wage. I remember the first time I played a gig at a little bar and made $50 just from tips; that was the same amount of money I’d earn spending all day digging holes for somebody. Music gave me an opportunity to sustain myself and although it wasn’t a lot of money, I didn’t need a lot to live on. I guess that was another turning point. I realized I could be my own boss and decided that even if I only made $50 playing for tips, I’d be happy.
“I was young, lost, and confused in the world; I didn’t really know where my place was. When I started writing… that was a turning point.” You mentioned rodeos. Did you actually ride bulls? Yeah, I did. My uncle was a bull rider. I got into it as a kid going to junior rodeos and I worked my way up. I started riding bulls and traveling around with the rodeo. Then I started working for an actual company that produced rodeos. But yeah, I was an old bull rider (laughing). Did you have any mentors along the way? Later down the road after I started playing a bunch, I ran into these guys from Lubbock, Texas, which is about two hours from my hometown. Their names are Terry Allen and Joe Ely and they took me under their wing and let me open up shows for them. Those two guys helped me along the way, were pretty important to me, and still are important to me today.
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Was there a point in your life when you decided you had to take a big risk to move forward? Oh, every day. When I started to sustain myself with music, I was homeless and living out of my truck. I was always on the run and going from town to town. I look back on it now and I don’t even know if it was about playing music; so much of it was about running from my past and my home situation. Playing music was just my excuse to be out there roaming around. People would say, “What are you doing?” Instead of saying I was homeless, I’d say, “Well, I’m a musician and I’m traveling around (laughing).” Do you feel a responsibility to contribute to something bigger than yourself? Sometimes I do. When I first started writing, the songs were—I don’t know if I’d call them selfish, but they were really personal and about me and the things I was going through. They were like my diary because when I first
think, “Man, I wish I would have worked on that one a little bit more.” That’s just something I’ve been learning as I get older—to work on the craft of it and take it more seriously. Now that I’m playing bigger shows and more people are coming out, I feel a responsibility to give it the best I can and not half-ass it (laughing). Is there anything that you’d like to try or explore in the next 5 to 10 years. I’m always into trying new stuff and not being locked into doing one thing. Over the past few years, I’ve started playing a lot more electric guitar and experimenting with different sounds and tones and instruments. Traveling to different countries and hearing music from different parts of the world is very eye-opening. I don’t ever want to limit myself or feel like I can’t try something because I’m afraid of someone not liking it. I guess I’ve always wanted to try it all.
“Always trust your gut feeling and go with that. Don’t worry about what people are going to think or say. Don’t worry that it has to sound a certain way. Follow your instincts and your heart.” started playing, I didn’t play for anyone; those songs weren’t intended for anybody to hear. As I grew, learned more as a musician, and travelled, I saw more of the world and how other people lived. I noticed this gradual process where I went from writing about the things I was going through personally to writing more about other people and places. When you get out there and you’re playing and singing those songs every night, you get to asking, “Why am I really doing this? Why am I out here playing these really personal songs for people?” More than anything, when I get feedback from people who relate to a song because they’ve experienced some of the same things, I feel like I’m doing something good. Helping somebody through a song I’ve written or helping them experience an emotion or feeling—that makes it bigger than me. Are you satisfied creatively? Yeah, I guess that in the moment I am, but it always changes. The older I get and the more I see, the more I feel like I can do better. I’ve always considered myself a bit of a lazy songwriter. My attention span is really short, so if I’m writing a song and it doesn’t all come at the same time, I can get bored with it, set it down, and move onto something else. Sometimes I’ll go back to a song and
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This might be a good spot for you to tell us about your newest album, Tomorrowland, and how that came to be? Sure. It was really along those lines of experimenting and was inspired by playing electric guitar. I took the chance of co-producing it with a friend and we went at it with the attitude of not having any rules or caring about what genre it was going to be. It was just about playing and recording the stuff in the moment. A lot of the songs were written on electric guitar and I had the guitar and vocals, but didn’t really know what the other instruments were going to be playing or what they were going to sound like. It was electric guitar and I had the guitar and vocals, but didn’t really know what the other instruments were going to be playing or what they were going to sound like. It was really just go in there, throw a bucket of paint on the wall, and see what it looks like. In a way, I wanted the songs to create themselves and not be forced or formulated. If you could give advice to a young musician starting out, what would you say? Oh man, I’d say this to you if you’re playing music and that’s where your heart is and it really means something
Photo by Anna Axster
to you: Always trust your gut feeling and go with that. Don’t worry about what people are going to think or say. Don’t worry that it has to sound a certain way. Follow your instincts and your heart. And don’t let the man get you down. Nice. You’re based in LA right now. How does living there impact your creativity? It does big time. When I was first starting, I was in the Austin area in the hill country and many of the songs I wrote were very regional. LA has been cool for me because it’s such a diverse city and I really appreciate that. Creatively, it’s a good spot for me because it keeps me more open-minded in what I write about, rather than just writing about a specific place and crowd. Anything goes here, which is really inspiring. Also, the more I travel, the more I start to take all these other places into consideration, too. That’s been really cool for me. What kind of legacy do you hope to leave? I don’t know if it’s that important to me or if I really worry that much about leaving a legacy. Maybe young kids growing up a hundred years from now will hear my music and say I didn’t make any compromises for anybody? That’s always been really important to me—to do what I feel. So many people try to formulate art to market or sell it, but I think it can be a whole lot more than that, especially for young kids who grow up in an environment where creativity isn’t supported. Hopefully those kids can find the courage to pursue it, even when people are telling ’em that maybe it’s not the best idea.
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“I don’t ever want to limit myself or feel like I can’t try something because I’m afraid of someone not liking it.”
Richard Avedon
A PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST
BY KELY SMITH
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hat do Jean Genet, Jimmy Durante, Brigitte Bardot, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacques Cousteau, Andy Warhol, and Lena Horne have in common? They were a few of the many personalities caught on film by photographer Richard Avedon. For more than fifty years, Richard Avedon’s portraits have filled the pages of the country’s finest magazines. His stark imagery and brilliant insight into his subjects’ characters has made him one of the premier American portrait photographers. Born in New York in 1923, Richard Avedon dropped out of high school and joined the Merchant Marine’s photographic section. Upon his return in 1944, he found a job as a photographer in a department store. Within two years he had been “found” by an art director at Harper’s Bazaar and was producing work for them as well as Vogue, Look, and a number of other magazines. During the early years, Avedon made his living primarily through work in advertising. His real passion, however, was the portrait and its ability to express the essence of its subject. As Avedon’s notoriety grew, so did the opportunities to meet and photograph celebrities from a broad range of disciplines. Avedon’s ability to present personal views of public figures, who were otherwise distant and inaccessible, was immediately recognized by the public and the celebrities themselves. Many sought out Avedon for their most public images. His artistic style brought a sense of sophistication and authority to the portraits. More than anything, it is Avedon’s ability to set his subjects at ease that helps him create true, intimate, and lasting photographs. Throughout his career Avedon has maintained a unique style all his own. Famous for their minimalism, Avedon portraits are often well lit and in front of white backdrops. When printed, the images regularly contain the dark outline of the film in which the image was framed. Within the minimalism of his empty studio, Avedon’s subjects move freely, and it is this movement which brings a sense of spontaneity to the images. Often containing only a portion
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of the person being photographed, the images seem intimate in their imperfection. While many photographers are interested in either catching a moment in time or preparing a formal image, Avedon has found a way to do both. Beyond his work in the magazine industry, Avedon has collaborated on a number of books of portraits. In 1959 he worked with Truman Capote on a book that documented some of the most famous and important people of the century. Observations included images of Buster Keaton, Gloria Vanderbilt, Pablo Picasso, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mae West. Around this same time he began a series of images of patients in mental hospitals. Replacing the controlled environment of the studio with that of the hospital he was able to recreate the genius of his other portraits with non-celebrities. The brutal reality of the lives of the insane was a bold contrast to his other work. Years later he would again drift from his celebrity portraits with a series of studio images of drifters, carnival workers, and working class Americans. Throughout the 1960s Avedon continued to work for Harper’s Bazaar and in 1974 he collaborated with James Baldwin on the book Nothing Personal. Having met in New York in 1943, Baldwin and Avedon were friends and collaborators for more than thirty years. For all of the 1970s and 1980s Avedon continued working for Vogue magazine, where he would take some of the most famous portraits of the decades. In 1992 he became the first staff photographer for The New Yorker, and two years later the Whitney Museum brought together fifty years of his work in the retrospective, “Richard Avedon: Evidence”. He was voted one of the ten greatest photographers in the world by Popular Photography magazine, and in 1989 received an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art in London. Today, his pictures continue to bring us a closer, more intimate view of the great and the famous. Avedon died on October 1st, 2004.
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“All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.”
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