May 102018
 

ScHoolboy Q- John Muir

Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (5/10-5/13/18)-

Thursday

Hammer Museum has a free screening of the short film Eve, by Susan Bay Nimoy, with a discussion to follow

American Pleasure Club (fka Teen Suicide) are playing at The Hi Hat with Special Explosion and Wreck and Reference opening

Khalid is playing at the Greek Theatre with PrettyMuch opening

CalArts Writers Showcase is hosting a free reading series featuring its graduating Creative Writing MFAs at REDCAT

Doja Cat is playing at The Echo with StarBoi3 and L8loomer opening

Erika Wennerstrom (of Heartless Bastards) is playing at the Bootleg Theater

Friday

There are still some seats left for The Championship Tour at The Forum featuring Kendrick Lamar, SZA, ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, SiR, and Lance SkiiiWalker (also Thursday)

There’s a screening of the Hitchcock classic Rear Window at Vista Theatre

Or you can check out Hitchcock’s Psycho as well as the non-Hitchcock sequels Psycho II and Psycho III for the triple feature at the Aero Theatre

RuPaul’s DragCon begins today and runs until Sunday

Born Ruffians are playing at the Teragram Ballroom with Little Junior opening

Liam Gallagher is playing with Richard Ashcroft at the Greek Theatre

Saturday

Photographer John Divola will be in conversation with Getty Museum Department of Photographs curator Amanda Maddox at Arcana Books followed by a book signing

Artist Charles Gaines and curator Connie Butler are giving a free walk-through of the Mark Bradford exhibition at Hauser & Wirth

BoldPas: An Art Takeover is a free one day art event in Pasadena with 13 large scale installations in the historic alleyways, live painters, art activities, and more

EatSeeHear’s outdoor movie at LA State Historic Park this week is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Hit Bargain are playing at Rec Center with Media Jeweler, Moira Scar, and Fucked Forever

Hovvdy are playing at The Hi Hat with Lomelda and Diners opening

Sunday

Curator Connie Butler is leading a walk-through of the exhibition of video art Unspeakable: Atlas, Kruger, Walker at Hammer Museum

Celebrate Mother’s Day 2018 with the double feature of Grey Gardens and Mommy Dearest at the Egyptian Theatre

The Telescopes, LSD & The Search For God, No Sun, and Snowball II are playing Part Time Punks 13th Anniversary show at the Echoplex

Pllush are opening for Editors at The Belasco

Emmy Award winner Debbie Allen is giving free dance outdoor lessons at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

Mar 242018
 

Gordon Parks, “Untitled”, Alabama (1956)

Gordon Parks was an incredible photographer whose influence continues to be felt in photography today. He had a long creative career that also expanded beyond photography to include writing several books, composing music, and directing films- the most famous being Shaft.

The Gordon Parks Foundation recently hosted the exhibition ELEMENT, which focused on several of the photographs that inspired Kendrick Lamar’s video from his album DAMN, seen below. The photo pictured above can be seen as part of the exhibition of Gordon Parks’ work I Am You Part 2 at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York. It is from his series Segregation Story for Life magazine which focused on the daily lives of three black families in Alabama in 1956.

The photo below is a still from Kendrick Lamar’s Element. The video was directed by Jonas Lindstroem and The Little Homies (Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free).

 

To see more of Parks’ work and the work he has influenced, The Gordon Parks Foundation’s website is a good resource for upcoming exhibitions around the world.

Sep 072017
 

Freedom Fry- Shaky Ground

Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (9/7-9/10/17)-

Thursday

The Regrettes and The Paranoyds are playing a free show at the Dr. Martins Store in  Studio City- RSVP here

Musician and writer Tim Kasher is screening his debut feature film at the Bootleg Theater with a concert and Q & A to follow

LACMA has a free screening of an episode of One Mississippi and includes a conversation with Tig Notaro, executive producer Kate Robin, and some of the cast

For the third installment of Paul McCarthy’s free outdoor film series at Hauser & Wirth, the films are Heidi and Waterworld

Chance The Rapper’s brother Taylor Bennett is also a rapper and he’s performing at the Echoplex tonight with Melo Makes Music

New Mystics are playing at The Echo with HOTT MT, The Red Pears and Yeses opening

Irish punk band Stiff Little Fingers are playing at the El Rey Theatre with Death By Unga Bunga opening

Fruit Bats are playing a solo set with Jed Maheu opening at Resident

Friday

The Ohana Music Fest starts today at Doheny State Beach with Social Distortion, Pixies, TV On The Radio, The Orwells and more- it’s not cheap though- each night is $100+ (continues Saturday with Eddie Vedder headlining  and Sunday with Jack Johnson headlining)

To celebrate the life of Jeanne Moreau, the Aero Theatre is showing a double feature- La Notte and Diary of a Chambermaid (Saturday they are showing Jules and Jim and Bay of Angels)

The Wiltern is showing Easy Rider with a live band providing the soundtrack

Corbin & Shlohmo are playing at The Novo

Kolars are playing at The Echo with Livingmore and Moded opening

 

Saturday

Sunstock Solar Arts & Music Festival returns for its second year with bands Freedom Fry, Robert DeLong, Ra Ra Riot, Fuzzy Crystals, and more

ICA LA (Institute of Contemporary Art) is having it’s Grand Opening Weekend with exhibition tours, talks, performances, workshops and more (free, also on Sunday)

It’s the second day of the Day N Night Fest in Anaheim and tonight Chance The Rapper, SZA, Vic Mensa, Earl Sweatshirt, Lil Uzi Vert, and Playboi Carti are just some of the many performers (Travis Scott headlines Friday)

Pamela M. Lee, Osgood Hooker Professorship in Fine Arts, Stanford University, will be at LACMA to discuss the art scenes in New York and Los Angeles at the time Virginia Dwan operated her galleries in the two cities. The free lecture is in conjunction with LACMAs current exhibition Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959–1971

For the opening of their exhibition at Gavlak Gallery, Los Super Elegantes will be performing a medley of their greatest performances

Lemaitre are playing at the El Rey Theatre with Blackbird Blackbird and STANAJ opening

Sunday

As part of the second day of events for ICA LA’s Grand Opening Weekend, leading scholars of Latin American art and culture Josh Kun, Rubén Gallo, and James Oles will join conservator Harriet Stratis to discuss the life and work of Martín Ramírez (free, register here)

It’s the last night to see The Muppets Take The Bowl and catch the fireworks at The Hollywood Bowl

It’s the last day (and night) of the Day N Night Fest– Kendrick Lamar is performing with a huge list of performers that includes YG, 21 Savage and Princess Nokia

Grand Park is hosting the Beat Swap Meet- a chance to score some vinyl and check out some b-boy and b-girl moves (free)

Nov 052015
 

Kendrick Lamar- Alright

Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (11/5-11/8/15)-

Thursday

Artist Glenn Ligon is speaking for free at MOCA Grand Ave about work in their permanent collection, including his own recently acquired Untitled (America, America)

LACMA is screening the feature film Station to Station, about Doug Aitken’s 24 day project of the same name. For this project a train traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific making stops along the way where a “constantly changing group of artists, musicians, and performers took part in a series of unique happenings”. The screening is followed by a conversation between the film’s director, Doug Aitken, and Film Independent curator, Elvis Mitchell with an opening performance by Sun Araw. $25 general admission tickets available here

For CraftNight: Handmade & Foraged, L.A. Papermaking at the Craft & Folk Art Museum you can sample edible creations using foraged ingredients from “food revolutionaries” Josey Baker, Mia Wasilevich, and Pascal Baudar.  Afterwards dye pulp with local plants and materials under the guidance of Hiromi Paper International to create handmade paper samples- $8 includes food, drink and supplies. RSVP here

Eleanor Friedberger (of The Fiery Furnaces) is playing El Cid with Fay

Reptar are playing Club Bahia with Holiday Mountain, Breathers and Green Gerry

Thursday-Sunday

Only in Hollywood Music + Arts Festival has a HUGE list of events going on throughout the weekend, most of them free. One of the opening night parties is at Festival Hub Space 15 Twenty and there are multiple art gallery pop-ups, live music and comedy as well.   Also make sure to get a button for $1 that gets you great discounts including 2 for 1 drinks at Aventine, $3 off any purchase over $5 at Amoeba Records, free truffle fries with your burger at Umami, percentages off purchases at many local businesses, and more.

Friday

Sleepless: The Music Center After Hours has an impressive amount of late night activities (beginning at 11:30pm and running until 3am), including Daniel Lanois performing a “breakthrough ambient/electro visual experience” on the penthouse floor,  DJ sets on the 2nd and 3rd floors, a dance party, a music and scent experience curated by The Institute of Art and Olfaction, on site screen printing and lots more- try your luck on standby line to get in for free or pay $20 to skip the regular line and get a pillowcase to screenprint

So Many Wizards are playing a free show at Taix

Beat Connection are at The Echo with Psychic Twin

Beach Party are playing a free show downtown at One Santa Fe

Friday and Saturday

The Hammer Museum is having ENGAGE MORE NOW!, a free international conference on the subject of public
engagement. “The symposium will convene a group of experts to consider ongoing practices initiated by artists and museum professionals—both within and outside of institutions—that are designed to engage the public in discursive projects that may take the form of social practice, performance, or artistic intervention.”

Saturday

Top Acid in Santa Ana is throwing the free Way Too Fun Fest with 4 music stages and bands including The Lovely Bad Things, So Many Wizards, Gap Dream and more

Saturday and Sunday

To start your Christmas shopping early there’s The Jackalope Art & Craft Fair, which returns to Old Pasadena with over 200 local artisans who were hand selected by jury members. Free with free art workshops as well.

Sunday

Kendrick Lamar is part of 92.3′s The Real Show at The Forum along with Future, Rae Sremmurd, Jeremih, Rich Homie Quan, Ty Dolla $ign and Jidenna. Tickets are only resale but there are plenty of those as of this writing ( $76+)

At LACMA author Nina Ansary and artist Shirin Neshat discuss women in Iran in general, as well as Neshat and her work followed by a booksigning for Ansary’s book Jewels of Allah (free)

Wax Idols are playing at Complex LA in Glendale

Lee Ranaldo (of Sonic Youth) is playing a solo acoustic show at The Echo

Feb 192015
 

Kendrick Lamar- i

Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (2/19-2/22)-

Thursday

British painter John Currin’s first Los Angeles show in over ten years opens tonight at the Gagosian gallery- http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/john-currin–february-19-2015

If you missed checking out John Craig Freeman’s interactive work in progress at LACMA last week, you have another chance- http://www.lacma.org/event/augmented-reality-viewing-0  and later Dru Donovan (former student and studio manager of Larry Sultan) is doing a gallery walk-through of Sultan’s exhibit- http://www.lacma.org/event/gallery-walk-through

Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky will be performing and giving a talk at the Central Library- http://www.lfla.org/event-detail/1087/Afrofuturism-The-Hidden-Code

Friday

The Egyptian Theater has several Oscar Themed events including a screening of the nominated documentary shorts, live action shorts, and animated shorts. There are also two free events- one a conversation with the Oscar nominated film editors, the other a panel discussion with nominated production designers and set decorators- http://www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/egyptian_theatre_events

Saturday

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year! The Annual Golden Dragon Parade takes place in Chinatown to celebrate the year of the sheep/ram- http://lagoldendragonparade.com/

Situation Room is a new gallery space in Eagle Rock. For their opening they will be screening over 50 from video artworks- https://www.facebook.com/events/1527722457495287/?notif_t=plan_user_invited

Artist talk: David Schafer is in conversation with Lauren Mackler at Diane Rosenstein Gallery discussing his current exhibition of sound sculptures- http://www.dianerosenstein.com/news/2015/2/10/artists-talk-david-schafer-in-conversation-with-lauren-mackler/

Saturday and Sunday

Kendrick Lamar is headlining the Air+Style music and sports festival at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Other acts include Steve Aoki, Cults, Phantogram, Tennis System, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros and more. Sports will include snowboarding and skiing competitions   – http://www.air-style.com/en/events/air-style-los-angeles/tickets

Sunday

The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in Barnsdall Park has a new show opening today- Robert Williams in SLANG Aesthetics! in conjunction with 20 Years Under the Influence of Juxtapoz. Today there is also a free screening of Mr. Bitchin with Williams there in person- http://www.barnsdall.org/2015/01/02/robert-williams-slang-aesthetics-20-years-influence-juxtapoz/

Poetic Research Bureau in Chinatown is screening  Amiri Baraka’s recently rediscovered documentary The New Arkhttps://www.facebook.com/events/1391622701149155/?ref=2&ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming