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Larchmont Chronicle Neighborhood newspaper representing Hancock Park, Larchmont Village
Miracle Mile, Park La Brea Fremont Place in the Wilshire center area of Los Angeles. Local News and
stories about the local Los Angeles Scene. Historical informattion regarding the Larchmont Chronicle and
Hancock Park area. Founded in 1963 on Larchmont Bouelvard, Los Angeles, CA, California

March 5, 2004

Barry Smolin

Suzan Filipek

Something a student says, an image he sees in the halls at Hamilton High School, or a vivid dream are among the everyday occurrences that inspire Barry Smolin.

The N. Ridgewood Place teacher, musician and writer is rarely at a loss for ideas. “They’re in there screaming to get out,” he says pointing to his curly haired head.
Smolin’s most recent creative enterprise is his debut CD, “At Apogee,” released this month on Nomenclature Records.

“I’ve always very much felt a part of the human race... another part feels like an alien,” or, like the name of his CD, an apogee—the point furthest from the earth in the orbit of the moon.
He plays keyboards and sings lead vocals on the disc produced by Stew (of the band The Negro Problem), with an impressive array of vocalists and musicians playing horns, guitars and drums. His lyrics include “Let’s go where all the hepcats go ‘Cause we’re all cowboys in this show” on the peppy “Rodeo” and the life-affirming “It’s too strong See the earth keeps turning on.” “Casper” is an homage to the cartoon ghost of his youth.
His fans were expecting something more to the tune of Grateful Dead, the music he plays on his award-winning radio show, The Music Never Stops (Sundays from 8 to 10 p.m. on KPFK 90.7 FM).
Unsure of how to describe his musical style—his influences range from Stephen Foster and Bob Dylan to Stephen Sondheim—he likes “psychedelic cabaret music” as it was recently coined by “Village Voice.” Another reviewer wrote his “voice is a tad rough and dorky-sounding...but I love that, and the lyrics are geeky transcendental poetry...A marvelous, weird, brilliant album.”

He wrote the words and music for the 12-track CD after a dry spell. His first writing block was prompted by the events of 9-11, the worst day of a 17-year teaching career, he says. A series of subsequent dreams gave birth to the blackboard-and-school theme jacket covered CD.
Inspired by English teachers he had at Fairfax High in the 1970s, teaching was the only way he could think of to earn a living and not be miserable. He taught at Fairfax for the first 12 years of his academic career.
Profiled in a Time 1988 article as part of a new breed of “entertaining teachers,” Smolin continues to crack smiles as he performs the cast of characters in “Madame Bovary” and “Siddhartha.” He teaches 160, 9th and 12th graders in the Hamilton Humanities Magnet program.
“Students today are used to receiving their information visually,” he explains.
“Words on a page don’t come alive for them. My goal is to show them how to do that themselves.”
Ancient philosophies and the scriptures are also part of the English literature curriculum, apropos, since at 14 “students become fully aware of their own mortality,” he says.
“It’s so rewarding...” he adds of his day job. “I see the light go on...There are so many distractions and shallowness and superficial entertainment” when young people are ripe for intellectual thought.
But, music is his first love.

He studied classical piano from 5 until 14, when he taught himself rock-and-roll and jazz, eventually joining bands and performing.
He has no illusion of becoming a rock-and-roll star—his compositions are an “acquired taste”—but he hopes to record more of his latest prolific body of work.
The CD is on the heels of seven books of poetry, a play and an “avant-garde” novel. He also writes music reviews and is penning the foreword to an upcoming book about local resident and artist Gary Baseman.

Afternoons and evenings he spends with his wife Jill, a graphic artist and special effects whiz, and their three children. When most of his family is sound asleep, if he’s not grading papers, he writes.
He dedicates the CD to his family, “who call me to the things of this world.”
For more information visit www.mrsmolin.com.

Larchmont Chronicle
542½ North Larchmont Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Editor & Publisher: Jane Gilman
Associate Publisher: Irwin Gilman

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