| MIX LA Summer Picnic |
Inspired by 20 years of the highly reputable MIX NYC festival, Rudy Bleu, Kent Martin and Irinia Contreras have taken it upon themselves to establish MIX LA, a festival of queer experimental short film. The festival itself will be taking place next spring, but the group is throwing a warm-up event next Saturday: the MIX LA Summer Picnic!
Come on out and have a picnic with your video art-loving pals– it’s free! And there’s an epic dance performance, and a sex toy fashion show. What more could you ask for?
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Imagine an expertly animated film about outer space (or a subterranean lair, or the inside of a human body) where live performers come out, interact in choreographed precision with the projected image, sing opera, and then do a disco dance on the moon with their own clones. And then suddenly the screen opens up and the performers disappear into another world, where projected light is liberated from a standard rectangular screen and matches up perfectly with an array of glowing crystals. That’s pretty much what Cloud Eye Control is, but it’s a million times radder than I can possibly describe. A trio of Los Angeles-based artists comprised of former physics student/director-animator Miwa Matreyek, master projectionist/digital media artist Chi-wang Yang, and actress-musician Anna Oxygen (who also happened to curate Conversations That Never Happened), Cloud Eye Control explain themselves thusly:
Thanks to my friend Patrick, I happened to catch their performance at the REDCAT last night and was completely blown away. The manner in which they meld performance and video art is so complex, fascinating, and most of all entertaining, I’m pretty sure my mouth was locked in a permanent smile for the duration of their display. I really hope they perform again soon, because I can’t wait watch it all again– but if you’re not busy tonight, I implore you to make a trip to the REDCAT at 8:30 for their final performance at the NOW Festival. Just make sure you’re prepared to lose your shit.
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There’s a photo of my boyfriend chucking a handful of cumquat toward the camera hanging on an art gallery wall in Chinatown, but you only have one day left to see it in person before it disappears! I know– it’s kinda short notice– but we only just got around to checking out the show ourselves earlier today, hence the untimeliness of this posting. It’s part of a photo project called Conversations That Never Happened, from the genius mind of punk legend Tamala Poljak (co-curated by the amazing Anna Oxygen). 200 portraits of Tamala’s friends and close relations make up the show, and they’re each pictured in the act of eating various foods against the uniform backdrop of Tamala’s navy blue kitchen wall. Shot over a span of two years, the images were unveiled for the first time at the Telic Arts Exchange on June 28th, arranged in a giant grid, like the biggest “MySpace Top Friends” ever. After a series of amazing-sounding dinner theater events that took place over the past three weeks, tomorrow night (July 19th) will mark the closing reception of the show, in the form of a “secret picnic café.”
Make sure to check it out before it disappears! Take a peek at a few shots of the show after the jump. |
In Echo Park, there’s a store that simply sells supplies for the everyday time traveler. From medieval weaponry to robot milk (for nursing baby robots, perhaps?) and dinosaur eggs for your Jurassic jaunts, the Echo Park Time Travel Mart has got you covered– whenever you’re going. But wait, that’s not all! It also doubles as a free youth tutoring center run by 826LA, the So-Cal branch of McSweeney’s editor/literary superstar Dave Eggers‘ national network of non-profit programs dedicated to teaching students creative writing skills. I’ve been meaning to check out the Time Travel Mart since it opened this spring, so I finally got around to stopping by last night for the opening reception of a new installation in the storefront window. Los Angeles-based artist Amy Martin created a series of five posters that use a vintage travel agency aesthetic to advertise fabulous destinations throughout history and into the future.
The posters look fantastic up close– they remind me of something Scott Hansen would post on his highly refined design blog, ISO50. Currently on sale for just $20 at 826LA’s online store or at the center itself (1714 W. Sunset Blvd), all profits go towards “helping students 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write,” says Christina Galante, the store’s retail and events manager. After the jump, check out the stuff on sale at the Time Travel Mart, and take a closer look at Amy Martin’s (time) travel posters. continue reading |
“Mail Order Monsters” is a totally sick action-packed, laser-blasting, tentacle-wrangling battle game for the Commodore 64. Likewise, “Male Odor Monsters” is a highly titillating, testosterone-impregnated (rationale here) new group show at Echo Park’s Hope Gallery. Teeming with the lo-fi crayon-colored psychedelia/neon childhood-nostalgic nightmare vibe that has come to dominate the experimental comics scene– and maybe avant-garde art in general– “Male Odor Monsters” features the work of Lightning Bolt drummer (and co-founder of Rhode Island’s legendary Fort Thunder) Brian Chippendale, Matthew Thurber, C.F. (a.k.a. Kites in the music world), and Kramer’s Ergot contributor Carlos Gonzales. I was initially lured in to the show by Chippendale, whose zines I’ve become familiar with at stores like Family, Ooga Booga, and Giant Robot– but after checking out all the work, I’ve totally fallen in love with Matthew Thurber’s adorable intensity (e.g. the endearingly terrified horse in the picture above, entitled A Degree in Time Travel). I ended up slapping down a crisp Lincoln on the first issue of his new comic book, 1-800-Mice, which reads kinda like a Sally Cruikshank cartoon watched in the midst of a Vietnam acid flashback. Check out my photos from the show after the jump, and make sure to stop by the Hope Gallery at 1547 Echo Park Ave before August 5th to experience the odor intimately. |
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“Forget about the aesthetic,” says Becky Stark, the lead singer of Lavender Diamond. “Recent scientific studies have shown that men have a greater tendency to interpret things visually than women.” Stark and her cartoonist/drummer boyfriend, Ron Rege Jr., are the sole members of a new side project called Mystical Unionists. They played a low-key yet sublime show at the aptly titled Hope Gallery in Echo Park this weekend, where Rege’s artwork is currently on display. “This is entirely about the aural,” says Stark, hoping to effect a sea change, one small drop at a time, from the hegemony of the male perspective towards something much less aggressive. If she can get this small, devoted audience to even slightly alter the way they process things, perhaps it can affect a widespread shift towards the global acceptance of “love” and “peace” she’s always touting in her music, with utmost sincerity. “Close your eyes and let go of the visual,” she advises before launching into a subdued melody. “Well, except for Ron’s art,” she qualifies. “You should look at that.” Armed only with a microphone masking-taped to a wooden stick and a pair of carefully decorated floor toms, Mystical Unionists sounds something like a campfire lament at the end of the world and a hopeful appeal to America’s frozen heart. Ron and Becky are a dynamic duo whose artwork couldn’t be more aligned. In her lyrics and his cartoons, in her stage banter and his illustrations, the couple is devoted to building a Utopian world that shares the optimistic ideals of the 60’s, minus the questionable hippie trends of the day (is anyone really longing for a revival of door beads and lava lamps?). “I had a dream the other night,” Becky tells me when I approach her after the show, “where everything I had ever thrown out was turning into cups of tea that I was forced to drink. Every piece of Scotch Tape– everything.” A regime change or a liberal political upheaval is good, Becky says, but we can’t rely on politics to change the world for us. “Each one of us is accountable for everything we do.” Somehow, when Becky says it, it sounds less like a lecture and more like a fun challenge, full of dancing and color and song. Becky Stark is our generation’s Yoko Ono. Check out 21 pictures I took at the show, after the jump! |
I went downtown to Sci-Arc on Friday for the opening of theoretical architect Greg Lynn’s new Blobwall exhibition. What’s a blobwall? According to MoCo Loco, it’s, well, a blob. Made of interlocking modular trilobal “blob units” constructed robotically out of a “low-density, recyclable, impact-resistant polymer,” the Blobwall provides an unusual alternative to a traditional building material: the brick. It sounds fancy and complicated– but it’s really just a big, weird, candy-colored sculpture that looks cool. The Blobwall is surrounded by a series of plastic orbs sticking out of the gallery walls, encasing Lynn’s personal collection of robot-themed toys. Check out my pictures from the show after the jump! Update: Apparently, the Blobwall completely collapsed just hours after these photos were taken. Damn unreliable construction robots! |
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Here’s a query. What does a “Daft Punk-esque” British rock star wear on stage? If your answer was, “A shabby teal suit jacket, a fat aqua necktie, and a dress shirt with rainbow-striped sleeves that extend past his fingertips,” you’d be absolutely correct! At least according to the wardrobe ladies on the European cell phone commercial I shot last weekend. You see, somebody thought I made a convincing-enough British tehcno-rock star (due mainly to the goofy David Silver spin I pulled out during the audition– thanks Brian Austin Green!) and cast me in a European cell phone commercial. So I spent last Saturday night pretending to DJ on a giant boat-shaped stage parked in the middle of a fake street on the Paramount backlot in front of 350 extras who were doing The Wave with expertly-choreographed precision. I’ve got another query for you: what does the aforementioned British rock star’s hair look like? |
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If you have any free time in the next four months, check out the Takashi Murakami retrospective at MOCA in Little Tokyo. Most well-known in the U.S. for lending his creative energy to posers like Kanye West and Marc Jacobs (not that I mind– I’ll take it however he wants to give it to me!), Murakami is also the mind behind the idea of “Superflat“, a concept that most immediately helps one understand the contemporary Japanese aesthetic, but also serves as a fascinating way of thinking about late capitalist culture at large. At whatever level of depth you approach Murakami’s work, it’s innately pleasing. Make sure to check out the adorable Miyazaki-esque Kaikai and Kiki short film, and gawk in righteous indignation at the crazy rich people buying shit in the fully-stocked Louis Vuitton shop that’s been plopped down in the middle of the gallery. Or just buy a cute little Shacho (as seen above, in my back yard) of your own to hold and hug and burp on your shoulder like a baby.  |
