Art & Culture

• ARTS & CULTURE •

Eddie Van Halen in his recording studio, 5150 Studios, located in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1991.

Author compares Eddie Van Halen to Les Paul

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Pasadena Weekly Executive Editor

Journalists Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill knew Eddie Van Halen, having interviewed the late Van Halen guitarist over the course of the musician’s career.

Now, the two share their conversations with the legendary guitar player in “Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen.”

“This is the first chance I had to step back and look at the entire story,” Tolinski said. “So much of it made so much more sense to me now. However, I curse the fact that I didn’t do this while he was still alive. I would have loved to have had the chance to talk to him about bigger observations.”

In “Eruption,” Tolinski and Gill offer an oral history of Van Halen, who died of cancer on Oct. 6, 2020. Since the band Van Halen released its self-titled album in 1978, the axman was hailed as an icon.

“Eruption” is based on more than 50 hours of unreleased interviews Tolinski and Gill recorded with Van Halen over the years, most of them conducted at the legendary 5150 Studios at his home in Los Angeles.

“Eruption” is drawn from those talks as well as conversations with family, friends and colleagues, including other major guitarists like Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Steve Vai and Steve Lukather (Toto, Michael Jackson, Ringo Starr, Elton John).

“I was thrilled to have the opportunity to write this,” Tolinski said.

“I’ve known Ed more professionally than personally. I did know both sides of him. I saw him pretty regularly a few times every year. I had this personal/professional relationship with him. Chris Gill and I thought we were qualified to tell his story in a more definitive way.”

“Eruption” chronicles the highs and lows of the rock legend. In addition to discussing his greatest triumphs as a groundbreaking musician — including a dive into Van Halen’s masterpiece “1984” and the story behind playing on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” — the book looks at his early struggles as a young Dutch immigrant unable to speak English. That resulted in lifelong issues with social anxiety and later problems with alcohol and cocaine.

Van Halen and his older brother Al and their parents moved to Pasadena in 1962 when Eddie was 7 years old, with less than $50, suitcases and a piano. During the nine-day boat ride over, Eddie and Al played piano for spare change.

The boys attended a segregated school in Pasadena and were ostracized because they knew little English.

“Eruption” shares his penchant for expressing himself through piano, maintaining a rigorous practice schedule under the watchful eye of his mother. At the age of 12, he applied the same diligence to learning the electric guitar, spending countless hours locked in his bedroom developing the technique.

The authors are guitar players, so, Tolinski said, they understood Van Halen’s passion. Tolinski was the editor-in-chief of Guitar World magazine for 25 years. Meanwhile, Gill served as editor-in-chief of Guitar Aficionado.

A suburban Detroit native, Tolinski moved from Manhattan to a friend’s summer place in Cape Cod during the pandemic. He spent the time writing “Eruption,” calling it a “traditional old-school writer’s retreat.”

Tolinski said “Eruption” is different from other Van Halen books.

“A lot of these super gossipy books about Ed and about Van Halen have come out, about all the arguments and struggles within the band,” he said. “Most of the things I read sort of missed the point to some degree. He was arguably the most innovative guitarist since Jimi Hendrix and one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century.”

To skip that point and only cover the turbulence within the band, he added, is pointless.

“It was really when I came to Guitar World that I paid a lot of attention to what Ed was doing,” he said. “It turned into a personal relationship. The one thing he liked about Chris and I was, while we certainly respected him as a guitar player, we didn’t worship him as a god. He saw us as a contemporary. We spoke to him as a musician, as a human being. I think he enjoyed that.”

Like many, Tolinski sees Van Halen as one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. Above and beyond that, he added, “he was important as an inventor. His Frankenstein guitar was made part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian for its innovation.

“He’s been this figure, this smiling guy and all-American kid in these videos. But there’s a lot of depth to what Edward brought to this world. He was the Les Paul of the modern era.”

“Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen” By Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill hachettebooks.com

Award-winning artist Jorge Gutierrez unveils his new art collection, “Luchapolis.”

Gutierrez’s ‘Luchapolis’ showcases the thrills of lucha libre

By Luke Netzley Pasadena Weekly Deputy Editor

South Pasadena’s Republic of Lucha has unveiled its seventh and final gallery show of 2021, “Luchapolis,” which pays homage to the art of lucha libre.

“There’s been a relationship with masks throughout history in Mexico, going ing the lucha libre world, Gutierrez explained that one of his favorite pieces from the collection is the depiction of a skull with two wrestler masks within the eyes. The work is titled “Lucho,” which translates to “he fought.” all the way back to the Mayans,” said Jorge Gutierrez, the animator, director and artist behind the “Luchapolis” exhibit.

“I think the idea that anybody can put on a mask and become a hero or a villain is very universal but also very Mexican.”

Born in Mexico City, Gutierrez has admired the world of lucha libre since he was a child. After graduating from CalArts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in experiential animation, he wrote and directed the nine-episode animated miniseries “Maya and the Three” for Netflix, the Emmy- and Annie-award-winning “El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera” for Nickelodeon, and a host of other praised bodies of work.

“I always say, especially in animation, that 99% of children draw, and the artists are the ones who didn’t stop. As a kid, I just never stopped,” he said.

Gutierrez has often sought inspiration for his art from the cultural and historical influences and icons who have mesmerized him throughout his life, and the “Luchapolis” show is no different.

“One of the things I love about the gallery is that you are getting a glimpse into this very intense, crazy world of Mexican wrestling,” he explained. “Lucha means fight, and libre is free. It’s basically the free fight, but what it really means is fighting to be free.

“The Aztecs had a belief that it mattered what you did in your life, but it also mattered how you died. In the tradition of Mexican wrestling, a lot of wrestlers have died in the ring. They’re like these tragic gladiators, and so I love this idea that if you died in the ring, you will be remembered forever and get to live forever in stories.”

While the exhibition presents a diverse myriad colorful representations showcas“Even after their death, their mask lives on and their ideals live on,” he said. While the concept of death is ever-present in lucha libre, so too is life, as seen in one of Gutierrez’s other favorite pieces that celebrate the vibrant energy that surrounds wrestling entertainment. The work is titled “El Barto” and depicts a tattooed rendition of Bart Simpson as if he were in a raucous crowd of fans. “A lot of people think about Mexican wrestling thinking it might be violent, but at the end of the day wrestling is theater for the masses,” he said. “It’s really fun, you know, and it’s very weird, but fighting brings the world together.” On opening night, fans perused the collection, an ode to the mythology and heroism of the luchadores. “My favorite thing about Mexican wrestling is this idea that these wrestlers are real,” he said. “They’re real people. So, while you can see Spider-Man and Batman in a movie, you can see these guys in movies and they’re real people, too. I was told, ‘Hey, be careful because your teacher might be a lucho or the bus driver might be a lucho or the taxi driver… you don’t know.’ Secret identities are everywhere, so I grew up thinking, ‘Oh, my God, I live in a city full of heroes and villains that walk amongst us.’ And I think that’s very unique.”

“Luchapolis” WHEN: Through Jan. 6 WHERE: 1020 Mission Street, Suite H, South Pasadena COST: Free admission INFO: republicoflucha.com

Today, the Club 41 location is the shuttered White Horse Lounge.

George (Steve Martin) drives home in his Austin-Healey.

Photo by Jared Cowan

The Pasadena house from “Father of the Bride.”

Revisiting the Pasadena filming of ‘Father of the Bride’

By Jared Cowan Pasadena Weekly Contributing Writer

“Father of the Bride” was released on Dec. 20, 1991, and was a smash at the box office, raking in nearly $90 million on an estimated $20 million budget. For some, it was a story all to familiar; for others it was a cautionary tale of the overwhelming familial stresses that might be on the horizon.

While the headlining cast of Steve Martin, Diane Keaton and Martin Short was undoubtedly a driving force behind the film’s success, the unexpected breakout star of “Father of the Bride” was the Pasadena location used as the home of George Banks (Steve Martin) and his family. Arguably, it’s been among the top five most visited movie houses in Los Angeles over the last 30 years.

“Father of the Bride” director Charles Shyer said that none of his other films feature a location that made an impact like the Banks house.

“That location is a character in the movie. The house meant so much to (George), and that translates to an audience, and they felt it was the fulcrum of his life, basically,” Shyer said. “We always felt that George Banks’ dream was to be buried in the backyard.”

The warm and idyllic feeling of the home that Shyer shared with his writing and producing partner, and then-wife, filmmaker Nancy Meyers, was a jumping off point for the emotional touchstones they wanted the Banks house to embody.

“We didn’t want anything to be of the moment. Even the eccentric way that Franck (Martin Short) dresses, we wanted it to transcend, that it could last. We just wanted ‘classic,’” Shyer said.

The film’s location manager, Rick Dallago, recalled there wasn’t a lot of discussion about the specific aesthetic of the house, but there was one directive: It should a home in which everyone would want to live.

The house from the original “Father of the Bride” (1950), starring Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor, was also a source of inspiration. In that version, the Banks family lives in a white, clapboard-style house.

Dallago said, “I dug through the MGM archives and got the address of the actual house that they used in the first movie in 1950.” The house was still beautiful, but it was in Beverly Hills, which was a hassle for filming. He set out to find an all-American home based on the one from the original film. Dallago said, frankly, “I copied that house.”

When “Father of the Bride” was made, location services were in their infancy, Dallago said. The few that existed mostly represented large mansions. So, for about a month, Dallago drove all over LA, zigzagging between streets, and leaving notes at locations that seemed promising. He photographed about 100 houses.

Dallago felt an enormous amount of pressure to find the Banks house.

“I’m calling into the office for messages and they’re like, ‘Charles wants to know