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Issue 282 |
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Your cultural event guide
Here's a snapshot of our favorite things to do in Los Angeles this week. |
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Los Angeles
Jul 22-28, 2008
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Blame it on the full moon or the mid-summer heat, but it sure seems like folks got their wires crossed last week. From Elizabeth Hasselbeck's Whoopi-induced tears on The View (not to mention Jesse Jackson's word-choice incident that started it) to the Alabama patrolman who fined a trucker $500 for speaking poor English, the nation suffered quite a few cases of miscommunication. Locally, the Santa Monica PD missed the memo announcing that Glow was supposed to last until dawn and shut it down five hours early, disorienting throngs of tipsy picnickers. At least one thing's clear: this upcoming week's a doozy.
- Shana Nys Dambrot, Managing Editor
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SPECIAL FEATURE
Ben Watt
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Few artists lead lives with such eclectic headlines: rock star marries musical partner; disease survivor pens inspiring tale of survival; musician starts second life as a successful producer, DJ, and promoter. Everything But the Girl and Buzzin' Fly founder Ben Watt speaks with Earplug about his lifelong musical trip.
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Lara Schnitger
Dutch-born artist Lara Schnitger evokes the eroticism, violence, and vulnerability of bodily forms.
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Flavorpill Mobile
Access Flavorpill listings, rate events, and find friends on the go, all via your handheld device.
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FILM: Animation
Brent Green
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Tuesday July 22 (8pm)
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| where: |
Hammer Museum (10899 Wilshire Blvd, 310.443.7000)
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| price: |
FREE
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With a wobbly aesthetic and dry humor, Brent Green's homemade-looking short animations juxtapose real-life trials and tribulations with elements of fantasy and mythology, recalling the work of Bill Plympton and Mike Judge. But Green doesn't just show his movies — he performs them, along with a band of merry music-makers. Tonight at the Hammer, Green gets a little help from Brendan Canty of Fugazi, Jim Becker of Califone, Alan Scalpone of the Bitter Tears, and Rodney McLaughlin, a crew that creates a live soundtrack with fiddles, musical saws, accordions, and trumpets. Films include Susa's Red Ears, Paulina Hollers, and Hadacol Christmas, which shows Santa inventing his holiday while hopped up on cough syrup.
- Jessica Jardine
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Folk/Country
Jay Brannan
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Tuesday July 22 (8pm)
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| where: |
El Rey (5515 Wilshire Blvd, 323.936.6400)
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| price: |
$15
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The appeal of folkie Jay Brannan's brazen, over-the-top emoting is somewhat inexplicable, because despite the slick packaging, the singer's unapologetic embrace of inner turmoil is actually pretty punk. While Brannan — known for his role in John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus — is dangerously entrenched in basic acoustic-guitar structures, lisped crooning, and simple lyrics, his debut album, Goddamned, coalesces these elements into a perfect storm that balances earnestness with unshakable pop appeal. Though his themes are often obvious, their underlying sentiments go majestically for the gut.
- Andrew Phillips
[Info Source]
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MORE FLAVOR: Discussion
Hammer Conversations: Fritz Haeg and Chip Lord
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Wednesday July 23 (7pm)
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Hammer Museum (10899 Wilshire Blvd, 310.443.7000)
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FREE
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The artists Fritz Haeg and Chip Lord rarely work within the confines of one medium. Haeg is a trained architect whose environment-minded ventures promote sustainable living, especially his ecological initiatives like Edible and Animal Estates. For such projects, he helps reintroduce animals into the urban landscape and convert lawns into community gardens. Chip Lord, a media artist and onetime Ant Farm art-collective member, blends video and photography using experimental forms of media. Haeg and Lord's chat is part of Hammer Conversations, an ongoing series that brings thinkers from varying disciplines in the arts and sciences together.
- Jessica Jardine
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
The Sundowners w/ Evertheory
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Wednesday July 23 (8pm)
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14 Below (1348 14th St, Santa Monica, 310.451.5040)
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$7
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The Sundowners are unpolished, unsigned, and unpredictable, but the SoCal band's raw energy makes it a perfect fit for local venue 14 Below. The outfit mixes psychedelic grooves and drawn-out vocal lines to conjure the spacey atmospherics of Pink Floyd. "Caught Up in a Storm" hangs in the air like a Dark Side of the Moon outtake, while the churning spiritual blues of "Broken Down Soul" is reminiscent of the Doors' "Love Her Madly." In support, Baldwin Park quartet Evertheory play guitar-heavy power pop built around lead singer Jae's penetrating vocals.
- Phil Kropoth
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
Yaz w/ Psychedelic Furs
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Thursday July 24 (7pm)
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The Pacific Ampitheatre (100 Fair Dr)
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$59.50
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As a songwriter, Vince Clarke was the driving force behind Depeche Mode's early seminal singles and would later write ebullient camp anthems for Erasure — but his effortless melodies never found a more perfect foil than Alison Moyet. The pair, dubbed Yaz, is more human than the Human League and more consistent than Soft Cell, embodying everything great about '80s synth-pop. "Don't Go," and "Only You" earned spins from top-40 radio, new-wave clubs, and progressive DJs leaning toward disco's twilight. This, however, is most Americans' first chance to see the duo live. It was far too long a wait, but as those brain-burrowing synth lines ignite, it's worth it.
- Stephen Gossett
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Hip-Hop
Dizzee Rascal
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Thursday July 24 (8:30pm)
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Echoplex (1154 Glendale Blvd, 213.413.8200)
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| price: |
$22 / $20 advance
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Grime MC Dizzee Rascal's new single, "Dance Wiv Me," hit the top of the UK charts last month with a mix of grime and pop in many ways analogous to the rap/R&B hybrids burning it up stateside. The track follows on the heels of his latest release, Maths + English, a grime record that lifts old-school samples ("Pussyole") and features guest bars from Houstonians Bun B and the late, great Pimp C. So here's the question: when are Dizzee and Kanye gonna to get together? Probably not tonight, but, with yet another hit under his belt, Dizzee is certainly coming into his own.
- Joe Blankholm
[Info Source]
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PERFORMING ARTS: Dance
Culture Shock Los Angeles Dance Troupe: A Beautiful Struggle
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Friday July 25 (8:30pm)
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The Ford Theater (2580 E Cahuenga Blvd, 323.461.3673)
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| price: |
$20
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Culture Shock is an acrobatic crew that teaches students the foundations of urban dance and schools them on hip-hop's place in the artistic universe. For this Fahrenheit 451-inspired evening of movement, the company assembles to create a work borne out of the real-life experiences of locals. These people's relationship with art has helped them overcome physical disabilities, emotional trauma, and addiction. By harnessing the collective-minded vitality of hip-hop dance forms and steps like breakdancing, locking, and popping, A Beautiful Struggle shows how communal understanding can be achieved through cultural participation.
- Allen Moon
[Info Source]
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FILM: Festival
Old Pasadena Film Festival
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Friday July 25
More times»
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| where: |
One Colorado (24 E Union St, 626.564.1066)
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| price: |
FREE
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This year's Old Pasadena Film Festival makes great use of the city, with more than 20 screenings taking place in basements, on rooftops, and within stores, plazas, and theaters. Presented in partnership with American Cinematheque, the festival offers a pleasant mix of classics like Casablanca, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the 1953 version of War of the Worlds, which is shown on the roof of a school. Emerging filmmakers from the Armory Center for the Arts and the Art Center College of Design show their work. Plus, a series of vintage "hygiene" shorts from the '40s and '50s give girls instructions on how to properly brush their hair.
- Jessica Jardine
Note:
Early screenings at 7pm are held at the Armory Center for the Arts. Check the website for complete details.
[Info Source]
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ART
Truthiness: Photography as Sculpture and Absurd Recreation: Contemporary Art from China
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Saturday July 26 (6–9pm)
More times»
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California Museum of Photography, UC Riverside (3824 Main St, 951.827.4787)
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| price: |
$3
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Borrowing a recently coined neologism from Stephen Colbert's faux-conservative lexicon, Truthiness questions the reliability of the visual by featuring artists who transform photography (decidedly two-dimensional) into sculpture. Prints of architectural structures become three-dimensional versions of themselves. This intellectual and visual playfulness extends into Absurd Recreation, a multimedia group show next door at the Sweeney Art Gallery. This latter exhibition brings together contemporary Chinese artists who use game imagery to reinvigorate an identity, fractured long after the Cultural Revolution. The artists speculate that humor, rather than love, makes the world go 'round.
- Heather Silva
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Punk/Metal
Harvey Milk w/ Crematorium and Covenance
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Saturday July 26 (8pm)
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Relax Bar (5511 Hollywood Blvd)
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| price: |
$10
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Though Athens, Georgia, is best known for producing kooky college-rock bands (the B-52's, R.E.M., the Elephant 6 collective), Harvey Milk went against the grain, chasing after a sludgy sound that sits between Led Zeppelin and the Melvins. Long a cult favorite, Harvey Milk's original albums were out-of-print holy grails, until a recent reissue campaign by Relapse Records that coincided with a reunion tour. The band brought on drummer Joe Preston (Melvins, Earth, Thrones) for its most recent album, Life…the Best Game in Town, so audiences can expect an extra-pummeling performance when Milk play tonight alongside death-metal acts Crematorium and Covenance.
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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PERFORMING ARTS: Spoken Word
Tongue & Groove
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Sunday July 27 (6–7:30pm)
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The Hotel Café (1623 1/2 N Cahuenga Blvd, 323.461.2040)
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| price: |
$6
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Tongue & Groove arrives this month with literary offerings from some of the city's standout playwrights, novelists, poets, and screenwriters. Acclaimed novelist Mark Sarvas (Harry, Revised), screenwriter and novelist David Darmstaedter (scribe of El Cantante and the upcoming novel Jesus Feet), poet and playwright Susan Hayden (The Advantages of a Steep Roof), and poet Corrie Greathouse all take the stage this evening to keep the grand spoken-word tradition alive. They are the "tongue" portion of the night, accompanied by the "groove," NYC-based singer/songwriter Christiane Szabo, who plays rootsy, plaintive ballads that sound straight from the heartland.
- Jessica Jardine
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
Gnarls Barkley w/ Fallou Dieng and Deerhoof
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Sunday July 27 (7pm)
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Hollywood Bowl (2301 N Highland Ave, 323.850.2000)
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| price: |
$10 - 96
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Ever since New York beatsmith Danger Mouse and Atlanta's gospel-crooning Cee-Lo got together, futuristic soul duo Gnarls Barkley have been one of the hottest tickets around. Tonight, the unpredictable pair bring their Odd Couple-aesthetic to the World Music Fest at the Hollywood Bowl, delivering twisted anthems about drugs, death, and how good it is to feel funky. Psych-rock outfit Deerhoof chime in with melodic Japanese vocals and jarring noise riffs from their latest, Friend Opportunity, while Senegalese pop star Fallou Dieng invites dancing with sabar drums and lyrics rife with old-world values.
- Chloe Leichman
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
Mustache Mondays feat. Team Gina
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Monday July 28 (10pm)
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| where: |
Club 740 (740 S Broadway)
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| price: |
$5
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No matter which team you bat for, Mustache Mondays welcomes all with an arms-wide-open policy. Tonight, Team Gina, Seattle's First Ladies of lesbian hip-hop, make their Mustache debut, performing feminist funktronica from their newly-released second album, Products of the Eighties. Composed of former homecoming queen Gina Bling and ex-pageant winner Gina Genius, the fierce outfit pairs '80s muzak with radical and raunchy queer rhymes that would make Peaches proud. Listen to "Wife Swapping" for a teaser of tonight's downtown performance.
- Julian Hooper
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
HEALTH w/ Midwife
| when: |
Monday July 28 (9pm)
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The Smell (247 S Main St)
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| price: |
$5
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Avant-primitive faves HEALTH celebrate a homecoming tonight. By now, the veteran Smellies know their excellent debut front-to-back. Their art-punk conceptualism and tricky rhythms flatter your inner-critic, latching onto some preverbal, amphibian recess deep in the brain — all grinding noise and tribal drums, repetitive chants, and slurred vocals with few discernible words. Liars’ name usually gets an apt mention in comparison, but fans of the A Frames, GSL spazz, the Fall, no wave, or any other kind of left-field scree will be delighted. Plus, unlike many similar bands, HEALTH remembers that dancing is a primal urge, too.
- Stephen Gossett
[Info Source]
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ART
Splash
| when: |
Tuesday July 22 (11am–6pm)
More times»
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Cerasoli Gallery (8530-B Washington Blvd, 310.558.0911)
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| price: |
FREE
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While others seek refuge from this season's sweltering heat, Cerasoli Gallery director Freddi Cerasoli is inspired by it — hence Splash, a group exhibition that showcases more than 20 emerging and established artists whose works reflect the signs and signifiers of summer. Brooklyn artist Matt Hansel harnesses nature and uses the sun's powerful rays as an integral part of his edgy outdoor scenes. Berkeley's Lena Wolff, on the other hand, takes a more abstract approach, with collages that delicately balance organic forms and geometric patterns.
- Ashley Tibbits
[Info Source]
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ART
Roger Herman and Melissa Meyer
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Thursday July 24 (noon–5pm)
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Jancar Gallery (961 Chung King Rd, 213.625.2522)
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| price: |
FREE
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Roger Herman wields thickly applied oils to attack figures, landscapes, and architecture with equal verve and vigor. He trowels layer upon layer of gooey, vibrantly colored pigment to describe limbs that recall building beams, edifices adorned with pliant flesh, and vistas that suggest alien deserts. By way of contrast, Melissa Meyer's brightly hued and breezily rendered paintings are bundles of sweeping, gestural strokes that knot themselves into organic circuits and straddle the line between pattern and chaos.
- Shana Nys Dambrot
[Info Source]
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About Us |
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Cultural Partner
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Editors
MANAGING EDITOR
Shana Nys Dambrot
DEPUTY EDITOR
Jessica Jardine
PRODUCTION EDITOR
Nick Earhart
SENIOR EDITORS
Anna Balkrishna
Doug Levy
Jake Lancaster
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Allen Moon
Jorge Barriere
Julian Hooper
Steve Nalepa
Andrew Phillips
Lisa Rosman
Ashley Tibbits
Phil Kropoth
IMAGE EDITORS
Adda Birnir
Tom Starkweather
PUBLISHERS
Sascha Lewis
Mark Mangan
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Flavorpill Los Angeles
All events featured on Flavorpill LA are pure editorial — we never accept paid promotions or advertisements. If you know about an upcoming event that you think should be covered in Flavorpill LA, email us a press release at la_events at least two weeks prior to the event and we'll consider it.
To learn more about our staff and policies, see the credits and about us pages. If you'd like to respond to our editors about a listing published here, or have a general inquiry, please email la_feedback.
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