Mar 272014
 

Pavement- Shady Lane

Pavement, with lead singer Stephen Malkmus, released this video (directed by Spike Jonze) from the album Brighten the Corners, in 1997.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks are playing at the El Rey, 3/28, with Speedy Ortiz.

Mar 272014
 

The Belle Brigade- Where Not to Look For Freedom

Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (3/27-3/30)-

Thursday

The Belle Brigade at  Amoeba Records (free)- http://www.amoeba.com/live-shows/upcoming/detail-2903/

Gianni Arone  and Cecilia Romero show “Audible” opening at Stone Malone Gallery- https://www.facebook.com/events/640979502605088/?ref=22

Tiny Bandit Pop Up Sale and party at Palihouse- https://www.facebook.com/events/596356233790528/?ref=5

Collier Schorr speaks about her work at USC- http://roski.usc.edu/calendar/event/907293/graduate-lecture-series-collier-schorr-artist

Artist and sculptor Not Vital speaking at the Hammer- http://hammer.ucla.edu/calendar/detail/year/2014/month/3/day/25/type/program/id/2148

A Q&A with Tim Curry and screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show at Cinefamily- http://www.cinefamily.org/films/special-events-march-2014/#an-evening-with-tim-curry

Thursday-Saturday

Emily Mast performs The Least Important Things– a series of “theatrical vignettes” at LACMA- http://www.lacma.org/event/emily-mast

Friday

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks at El Rey- http://www.theelrey.com/events/detail/246778

Moving Units at The Roxy- http://www.theroxy.com/event/476109-moving-units-west-hollywod/

Teen Creeps Presents Kiss the Chef Zine Release Party and Dinner- teen artists and chefs at Thank You For Coming- http://www.thankyouforcoming.la/2014/02/teen-creeps-presents-kiss-the-chef-zine-release-dinner/

Friday and Saturday

Hollywood Horrorfest (free)- http://blog.hollywoodhorrorfest.com/

Saturday

Grand Park’s Downtown Bookfest (free)- http://grandparkla.org/ai1ec_event/grand-parks-downtown-bookfest/?instance_id=15160

Drinkollage- drinking and making collages at Thank You For Coming- http://www.thankyouforcoming.la/2014/03/drinkollage-party-collagedrinksmagazinesscissorsglue/

Sunday

1st Annual KXLU Fest w/ No Age, GRMLN, The Audacity, So Many Wizards at Loyola Marymount University (free)- https://www.facebook.com/events/680604971978330/

Leimart Park Art Walk- https://www.facebook.com/leimertparkartwalk

Downtown Modernism-vintage modern design sale- http://downtownmodernism.com/

Mar 222014
 

Radars to the Sky- You Take it To Heart

This video of Radars to the Sky is from the Knock and Rock project where bands go door to door trying to get strangers to let them play in their house.  In the video above, the band finds a house with a family of musicians and the result is really sweet.

http://knockandrock.com/

Radars to the Sky are playing El Cid on March 22-

http://www.elcidla.com/event/518371-radars-sky-californian-los-angeles/

Mar 222014
 
gilford_drucker1

Luke Gilford / Zackary Drucker

dianerosensteinsabrinadrucker

Flawless Sabrina in Zackary Drucker’s film

hawkinsondianerosenstein

Tim Hawkinson

therrienbearddianerosenstein

Robert Therrien

There are twenty eight artists in the group show Unsparing Quality, curated by Farrah Karapetian, currently at Diane Rosenstein Fine Art. The title is derived from André Breton’s First Manifesto of Surrealism- “Beloved imagination, what I like most in you is your unsparing quality.”

From the press release:

The exhibition poses the question: where do Surrealist impulses manifest in contemporary practice, and why are we seeing this now? The response involves three generations of artists who engage the legacy of Surrealist practice and offer work that investigates the subtle madness of the ordinary world.

The idea of self plays an important role in the collaborative portraits by Zackary Drucker and Luke Gilford titled, This Is What It Looks Like (To Go From One Thing To Everything) pictured above (image via Luke Gilford). In Zackary Drucker’s film with Flawless SabrinaAt least you know: you exist (2010-11) the older and younger artist interact to give a sense of continuation in the exploration of identity.

In Tim Hawkinson’s Samoa (2013), the artist made a bronze cast of his body for the sculpture with chains linking his hands to his tongue. The joints of the chain extending from his mouth are made from casts of the artist’s tongue and lips, while the ones originating from his hands are from casts of his thumb and index finger.  The sculpture poses questions about the nature of being an artist and its limitations with a surrealist approach.

Surrealism’s influence can also be seen in Robert Therrien’s beard sculptures. The larger size (pictured above) and a “beard cart” with varying sizes, some of which very small, offer a chance to question the idea of this prop and its potential uses.

The exhibition also includes work going as far back as the early 1920’s to demonstrate the ways in which artists have been exploring and continue to explore the “unsparing quality” of imagination.

On March 22 at 4pm, Zackary Drucker, Luke Gilford, Ray Barrett, Masood Kamandy, Mie Hørlyck Mogenson, Max Rain and Kim Schoen will be part of a panel discussion at the gallery.

You can watch an excerpt of Zackary Drucker’s film here- http://vimeo.com/39088646

Here is a link to Tim Hawkinson talking about his work for a show at Pace Gallery which included Samoa. He explains that the name for this sculpture came in part from the Girl Scout cookies his daughter was selling at the time.

http://blog.art21.org/2014/01/10/tim-hawkinson-keeps-art-in-the-family/#.Uy3LGF5fnU4

Mar 212014
 

Kraftwerk- Trans Europe Express

Kraftwerk is currently on tour performing “The Catalogue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8” at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. There are eight 3-D multimedia performances, each highlighting one of their albums. Last night I saw them for the album, Trans Europe Express, but the majority of the show consisted of their greatest hits, including “Autobahn”, “The Model”, “The Robots”, “Tour de France”, “Radioactivity”, “Computer Love” (sampled in Coldplay’s Talk) and “Musique Non-Stop”. Though the majority of their albums were released between 1970 and 1981, their influence on a wide range of electronic music, from the past continuing into today, was evident throughout their performance.

One of the most interesting aspects of the show was witnessing the group’s prescience as cultural observers, as well as musicians.  When the lyrics to “Computer World” began flashing across the screen behind the band describing the elements of a “computer world”, it was incredible to see the relevance to present day. Issues of government spying, as well as the computer’s role in “business, numbers, money, people” and “crime, travel, communication, entertainment” in a song written over thirty years ago, never felt so current.

Here’s a video taken by an audience member of “Numbers/Computer World” when Kraftwerk played at the Tate Modern (the visuals are a little off because of the 3-D) –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90_WoYsADyI

Mar 202014
 

The Orwells- Mallrats (La La La)

Things to do in (and around) Los Angeles this weekend (3/20-3/23)-

Thursday

The Orwells at the Observatory (Santa Ana)- http://www.observatoryoc.com/events/the-orwells

Live read of Groundhog Day with director Jason Reitman at LACMA- http://www.lacma.org/event/live-read-12

Yung Jake is at MOCA Grand Ave streaming his favorite selections from the internet and premiering his film for MOCAtv, Unfollow- (free)- http://sites.moca.org/thecurve/5998-2/

Friday

The Black Lips at El Rey- http://www.axs.com/events/247259/the-black-lips-tickets?skin=elrey

Sabrosonico is a free concert at the Hammer celebrating “the music and imagery of alternative Mexico”- http://hammer.ucla.edu/calendar/detail/year/2014/month/3/day/21/type/program/id/2144

Saturday-

Free screening of a film mentioned on this site previouslyFinding Vivian Maier at Cinefamily- http://www.cinefamily.org/films/special-events-march-2014/#members-only-screening-finding-vivian-maier

Saturday and Sunday

Burgerama two day music fest at the Observatory- bands include- FIDLAR, The Growlers, Death, The Black Lips, Allah Las, Bleached, Tijuana Panthers and many more- http://www.observatoryoc.com/events/burgerama-day-1

Cherry Blossom festival at Descanso Gardens- http://www.descansogardens.org/calendar/cherry-blossom-festival/

Selected Shorts 2014: Drama at Dinner at the Getty– (3pm and 7 on Saturday, 3pm on Sunday) Robert Sean Leonard hosts live performances based on short stories with a food theme – including Christopher Lloyd in “A Mad Tea Party” from Alice in Wonderland- $35 includes wine and small bites along with the show- http://www.getty.edu/museum/programs/performances/selected_shorts.html?utm_source=egetty149&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=egetty149

Parachute Market Design Fair- http://parachutemarket.com/

Sunday-

Dan Harmon and members of the Harmontown podcast are having a garage sale at Meltdown Comics to benefit 826LA- http://826la.org/WP/2014/03/06/harmontown-charity-garage-sale-benefits-826la-on-march-23-2/

All weekend (3/21-3/23)-

YoungArts Los Angeles (YoungArts is featured in the HBO documentary  Masterclass) will be having public exhibitions and performances of their work at the Los Angeles Theater Center- http://www.youngarts.org/youngarts-la

Reverend Horton Heat at the Roxy- http://www.theroxy.com/event/525869-reverend-horton-heat-west-hollywod/