The Grammy Museum’s evening with Yoko Ono marked the opening of her newly curated Grammy Museum exhibit, “John Lennon, Songwriter.” Celebrating the 70th anniversary of her late husband’s birth (Oct. 9), the exhibit spans John’s entire career and displays such artifacts as handwritten song lyrics, guitars, a pair of his signature wire-rimmed glasses, a typewriter, and rare historic film footage covering John Lennon’s early influences, his time with the Quarry Men and the Beatles, and his transition to solo artist.

—Linda Rapka

The Grammy Museum faced a number of challenges when it opened to the public last December. Set in downtown’s L.A. Live complex, the institution was up and running in advance of many of the development’s restaurants, hotels and movie theaters. Foot traffic, at least from those not attending basketball or hockey games at Staples Center next door, would be at a minimum.

Then there was the recession. The museum, which carried a price tag of around $34 million, executive director Robert Santelli told the Times last year, was forced to make staff cuts soon after its grand opening. (AEG, developer of L.A. Live, has committed to financially support the museum for 10 years.) [Read More]

The Grammy Museum in downtown L.A. will extend the Michael Jackson: HIStyle exhibit, featuring world-famous Jackson fashion (one of which reportedly weighs about fifteen pounds!) and several videos of Jackson’s performances and appearances at various Grammy ceremonies. The Museum is located at Olympic and Figueroa and opens at 11:30 AM daily and 10 AM on Saturday. Admission ranges from $11.95 to $14.95. More information below:

In celebration of the life and work of Michael Jackson, The GRAMMY Museum is sharing a collection of Jackson’s most iconic wardrobe pieces (including the suit he wore on the cover of Thriller).

Starting today (Friday, June 26, 2009), these will be exhibited on the Museum’s third floor alongside video of some of Jackson’s most exciting GRAMMY performances. We hope this exhibit will serve as a fitting tribute to one of the most significant entertainers in music history. The Museum will open to the public on Friday at 11:30am.

For thousands of years, royalty has called attention to itself with extravagant clothing and other finery. Jewels, fine fabrics, and elaborate accessories can complete the transformation of a person into a brightly-shining star that holds its audience spellbound.

As the self-anointed “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson has fully embraced this royal tradition. And like his album HIStory, this exhibit gathers together some of his greatest hits — pieces that are uniquely and unmistakably his.

“The GRAMMY Museum is excited for this rare chance to share this material with our visitors,” said Chief Curator Ken Luftig Viste. “Michael Jackson is undeniably one of the most significant entertainers in pop music history, and the pieces’ starpower — and design — is striking. Few, if any, have ever before been made available to the public in this way.”

Including seven elaborately embellished jackets, two gloves, and more, highlights include jackets worn on the Victory tour, at Jackson’s 1984 American Music Awards appearance, and at the dedication of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. All are elaborately bejeweled, beaded, and detailed — with one piece weighing nearly fifteen pounds.

“As a 21st Century museum, we will update our exhibit content frequently,” said Executive Director Robert Santelli. “Though we’ve only been open a short time, Michael Jackson: HIStyle allows us to demonstrate our steadfast commitment to putting that goal into practice. Plus, it’s an amazing collection.”

Working with talented designers, Jackson’s crystals, sequins, beads, embroidery, and insignia have combined to catch the eyes of millions, transmitting his dance moves from the stage to the back row, and his starpower across the world.

Twang was out, sitar guitar blues were in, lyrics dangled the political next to the magical, and the storytelling collaborative performance was never without a sense of humor, affection and distinct talent. Raining Jane and Willy alike sang of second chances and loss, paper cuts and paper planes, pin balls, war and miracles. I had brief thoughts of Gillian Welch, Regina Spektor, Jethro Tull, Allison Kraus, The Triplets of Belleville, or a barbershop quartet, but nothing quite fit. It felt more like flowers tapping their petals on a tin wall, feminine feet splashing in an ice cube mountain spring, bees buzzing around fresh honey, a crisp trot through a bright meadow, a conversation in a nest on the moon, or a lover squeezing your head between their hands and sing-saying into your eyes, “You and me, this could be, miraculous.”

—Beth McNamara

Mandy Moore by Amalia Levari

The new cradle-like sound stage at the Grammy Museum is built so widely that all 200 seats feel like they’re about 10 feet away from the performer. From that vantage point, all eyes on Mandy Moore registered the same sentiment: “Daaaamn, girl is well-adjusted.” Those who prefer their singer-songwriters torchy or tragic would do well to stay away from Ms. Amanda Leigh, whose preternatural pleasantness colors everything she does, for better or for worse. Her latest offering, a collaboration with Mike Viola, posits Moore as a soft-rock spitfire, a role that’s disorienting to those who know her as the saccharine late-90s pop queen whose pillowy lips were featured so prominently in videos that made dads the world over uncomfortable.

Considering that she’d sold more than 10 million records in her previous incarnation, there’s no doubt that the twangy, dusty tracks she’s cutting now will cause more than a few fans to scratch their heads. And to be sure, it does seem strained in a way—it’s clear that she’s still adjusting to the dimmer, smokier limelight. But the shift she’s made isn’t really remarkable for its maturity. On the contrary, the subject matter, though it’s buried in some impressively intricate imagery, resides firmly in the realm of 15-year-old girldom. But while songs like 1999′s “Candy” placated Mean Girls and their minions, Moore’s new work has shifted in terms of the sort of teenage girl this music is meant to reassure. Songs like “Love to Love Me Back” and “I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week” speak to the jilted and awkward—girls who read Frank O’Hara poems, stare at people’s hickeys, and sing into vacuum cleaner attachments while their classmates are at prom.

Tonight’s selection of songs had an unfortunate James Taylor aftertaste that will likely land them airplay in the quagmire of adult contemporary podcasts hosted by chest-hairy men in tank tops and parachute pants. But in its strongest and truest moments, Moore’s work is sensitive and smart and sweetly sad, like a wise-cracking old lady on a parkbench with a sleeping cat in her lap. In a pre-performance Q & A, Moore’s frequent aw-shucks shoulder-shrugs accompanied gentle apologies for her earlier work, and admissions that she’s still something of an apprentice to Viola and other musical veterans and friends. When asked about influences, the mentions of Wings-era McCartney and Bette Midler somehow sounded perfectly sensible coming from her, but in retrospect, it’s impossible to imagine those two names in any similar context, other than the most exciting potential cage-match the world has ever known. And if anyone can coax them into it, it’s Mandy Leigh Moore. Daaaamn. Girl could charm the jaws off a shark.

—Amalia Levari

The Grammy Museum is the premier downtown destination for documentaries on the Wrecking Crew or question-and-answer sessions with Brian Wilson, and they have now extended their operating hours from 6 PM to 7:30 PM. According to the Museum—which assures us this is not an April Fool’s joke—the new hours will add up to 30,000 additional minutes available to potential museum visitors.

THE GRAMMY MUSEUM, 714 W. OLYMPIC BLVD., STE. 200. 11:30 AM-7:30 PM SUN.-FRI., 10 AM-7:30 PM SAT. / FREE-$14.95 / ALL AGES. GRAMMYMUSEUM.ORG.