Posts Tagged ‘Save and Misbehave’

I can’t say how 20-somethings in the rest of the country are fairing at the moment, but in LA it seems like “unemployment” is the buzzword of the year among most of my peers. What boggles and frustrates me is to look around and see many highly intelligent, capable, and industrious people who are either working as telemarketers, pizza delivery drivers, and volunteers–or, not at all. Lately it feels like it’s getting worse. How many unpaid internships does one have to work until something finally gives?

The good people over at the Getty must feel the tension in the air. They’re putting on a series of films this and next weekend that few can appreciate like the embittered and unemployed. The “Four Angry Young Men” Series begins this Saturday with Tony Richardson’s “Look Back in Anger” (1958) and Karel Reisz’s “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” (1960), and closes next weekend with Lindsay Anderson’s “This Sporting Life” (1963) and Richardson’s “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” (1962). All four are directed by the founders of Britain’s New Wave Cinema and its precursory “no film can be too personal” Free Cinema Movement, whose aims were to spotlight the mostly overlooked lives of the struggling working class, dealing with issues of class consciousness, sex, dissatisfaction, and disillusionment. Ah, disillusionment. The films feature the young actors Richard Burton, Albert Finney, Richard Harris, and Tom Courtenay respectively, with the stunning Rachel Roberts playing in both “This Sporting Life” and “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.”

Best of all, all four screenings are free! Comfort certainly for a broken wallet, and there’s something everyone – even the monied old bluebloods out there – can enjoy.

- By Helen Kearns

For more information about the screenings and to make ticket reservations, visit the Getty’s website.

(Image from “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”)

How many appointments have you made in the last week?  There’s the hair appointment, waxing, and obviously – therapy.  None of that, while necessary, sounds all too fun.  We think it’s time to make an appointment that not only brings you somewhere much more interesting, but that is also free.

Welcome to Marine, a private art salon that opened in July of this year.  Bringing us back to the days when an art salon was, rather than an anomaly, a chic and inviting way of viewing group shows and discovering new artists, Marine hosts bi-monthly events and it’s only open to be viewed by appointment.  Current artists represented in the salon include Drew Beckmeyer, Val Britton, Seth Kaufman, Matt Klos, and many others.  Their work can be seen through November 7.   The domestic space focuses on bringing attention to emerging, contemporary artists and is curated by Claressinka Anderson who has worked with galleries across the city including Pharmaka, Tarryn Teresa Gallery, and even Barker Hangar.

Remember, this is the kind of salon for which you place the emphasis on the first syllable – it’s not the kind of salon where you’ve got to choose a polish color.  We suggest putting their number in your phone with the name Marine – that way you can pretend she’s just a friend of yours with an enormous, amazing, rotating art collection.

Marine is a salon located in Santa Monica, CA.  For more information, please click here.

Have you ever wondered what music would look like? We don’t just mean the psychedelic patterns floating around to the beat on your iTunes.  Wouldn’t it be fascinating to know what the sounds of a harp look like, for example?  Well, whether or not this was their intention, Ball-Nogues Studio’s latest installation at MOCA has a clear link to the intricacies and floating currents of the harp.

On view (for free, of course) at MOCA at the PDC through November 15, Ball-Nogues Studio’s installation is unfortunately called Feathered Edge, as opposed to something about Carlos Salzedo. Like the harp, Feathered Edge is light, colorful, refreshing, and while ever present, it doesn’t over power the room.  It coexists with the space in the most harmonious sense of the word.

The installation is comprised of 3064 lengths of twine that total 21 miles, which have all been cut, dyed, and suspended from scrims in the walls and ceiling of the space.  Each string was specifically cut and dyed using hyper-modern technology created by Ball-Nogues Studio for this installation after which process they were strung in an overlapping pattern depending on weight and color.  The Studio’s goal was to “yield the effect of ghostly three dimensional objects.  Sometimes the objects are visible, at other times they blur to resemble a fluid-like vapor that floats and hovers in the gallery space.”

If, after you see the installation, there is still no link for you between the soft, effervescence of the harp and the sometimes-visible, sometimes-vaporous qualities of Feathered Edge, don’t tell us.  We’d prefer to live in the fantasy world where you can see just what the harp sounds like.

Ball-Nogues Studio’s Feathered Edge: A New Installation by Ball-Nogues Studio is on view at MOCA at the PDC through November 15.  For more information, please click here. No reservations or tickets are required.

Tucked away in Barnsdall Art Park, sitting close to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House and in view of his Ennis House and the Griffith Park Observatory, it is quite easy to feel as if you are in the midst of a contemporary Eden because of the gorgeous view, cool breeze, pine trees, and sunshine straining through the branches.  Just don’t look down… The whizzing by of cars on Hollywood and Vermont might bring you back to reality a little too quickly.

Besides housing Hollyhock, a palatial Maya revival-style building fit for an oil heiress, Barnsdall will be home to a brand new art fair featuring those smaller independent galleries that we are all getting to know and love.

Originally conceived as an art fair for those galleries of Los Angeles’ Eastside, the first inception of this event was called East of Eden.  Now it includes galleries from all over the city to form Beyond Eden, featuring Billy Shire Fine Arts, Black Maria Gallery, Copro Gallery, Crewest, DRKRM, Gallery 1988, Gallery Nucleus, La Luz de Jesus, and LeBasse Projects, among others.  Straying away from the high end and often higher priced works in its white box sistren, these galleries have felt their way around Los Angeles’ art scene, becoming an even larger force focusing on work with an alternative touch.  Call it a little bit of everything from lowbrow to pop surrealism to street art.  To think they will have plenty of artwork from emerging and established artists, what they call an artist village with live painters, installations, and an art performance, some might say there’s a temptation or two to be found this weekend.

Beyond Eden Art Fair is October 9 – 11 at the LA Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park.  Admission is free.  Please click here for more information.

Plato’s allegory of the cave started a long-standing trend.  When he suggested that perhaps what we see isn’t the real thing, but is instead a reflection of the real thing, he opened up a philosophical can of worms.  To this day, philosophers and the high school students that study them wonder aloud how we can be sure that we are seeing the truth in front of us everyday.

Errol Morris and Ricky Jay are the latest to take on this conundrum in a lecture (a free one) at the Getty Museum on Thursday evening at 7pm.  They’ll have an in depth conversation about perception, deception, and why we believe what we see.  Morris, a filmmaker most widely known for his work on The Fog of War, Standard Operating Procedure, and The Thin Blue Line, has seen the world through a wide array of eyes.  He also writes a blog for the New York Times that covers the world of arts and how we see it by looking deeper into truth, lies, and why people see what they see.  Accompanying him on Thursday, Ricky Jay is an author, scholar, and art collector who has consulted on and appeared in a number of film, television and Broadway appearances.  His new one-man show will actually make its way to the Geffen later this year.

Who better than theorizing filmmakers to lecture Los Angeles on what we see, whether or not it’s real, and how to tell the difference?  This is the kind of information that could give you a step up– to tell illusions from reality would give you a real edge in the heart of the illusionary city of angels.

Errol Morris and Ricky Jay will be speaking at the Getty Museum on Thursday, October 8 at 7pm. The event is free, but since reservations are required it has come to our attention that the event is sold out! Having said that, stand-by visitors are welcome and will be seated in an adjacent auditorium for a live broadcast of the lecture. Please click here for more information.

For some reason, people who hail from the East Coast are always a little too surprised to hear that we Angelenos actually read.  They’re of the belief that the only people who read in this city are the ones writing script coverage.  Au contraire, we say!  Prove each naysayer wrong this weekend at the West Hollywood Book Fair.

There will be pavilions for Mystery and Suspense, Fiction, Politics, Sci-Fi and more proving that not only do we read, but our tastes run the gamut.  You’ll find there’s much to learn from the various stages set up in at Book Fair, which can be found between Robertson and San Vicente Boulevards and between Santa Monica and Melrose.  Up on stage you will run into Niki Lee setting Dorothy Parker’s poetry to music, Norman Ollestad will be waiting for you in the Fact, Fiction, and Future Pavilion, while Edward Humes will be lecturing listeners about environmentalism, and Reza Aslan will have tons to say about art, politics, and the Arab-Muslim world.

With special guests, book signings, a children’s area, a “green room” with food from Pavilions and Urth Caffe, and all the lectures and performances you can imagine, the day will be fun-filled and quite exhausting.  All that reading really takes it out of you – we suggest a relaxing Sunday evening at the movies.

West Hollywood Book Fair is Sunday, October 4 from 10am – 6pm.  The borders are Santa Monica Blvd. (north), Robertson Blvd. (west), San Vicente Blvd. (east), and Melrose (south).  For more information, please click here.  AND for information on the free parking shuttle, please click here.  

 Note: This article was updated!  Originally, we printed the date as Saturday, Oct 3, but the Book Fair occurs Sunday, Oct 4.  Our apologies!

John Baldessari is like that teacher you had in college who had so much to say and was so knowledgeable that he could often argue with his own lessons without so much as a peep from the students in class.  From using text in his pieces to get the point across with gusto to actually giving the viewer not so subtle instruction on how to view and interpret his work, Baldessari may well be smarter than all of us. 

But whether you’re a fan or you’ve got a bone to pick with him, he’ll be speaking with LACMA CEO Michael Govan on Thursday evening, September 24, at 7:30pm at LACMA’s Bing Theatre.  Tickets are free, but reservations are required, so hustle up because this one will probably sell out.  Baldessari will be chatting with Govan about his collaborations with LACMA, the new LACMA logo he’s designed, and about his Magritte and Contemporary Art installation.  I’d do your research now and head to the Bing Theatre prepared.  We know Mr. Baldessari will be. 

John Baldessari will speak with CEO Michael Govan on Thursday, September 24 at 7:30pm at LACMA’s Bing Theatre.  For more information, please call (323) 857-6010 or click here. 

I have long yearned to have a really good reason to stop by the Pacific Design Center.  I’ve tried to pretend time and again that I’m in the middle of redecorating my house and that I simply must go through every showroom in the building, but my story quickly loses validity and soon the fun goes out the door.  Thursday evening, September 24, the PDC will launch Design Loves Art, a series of rotating contemporary art exhibits and discussions that will bring together different galleries, artists, curators, and even architects under one fabulous, blue roof. 

Many of the artists on display will be established up-and-comers from a wide variety of backgrounds, styles, themes, and media.  You’ll recognize a number of projects and galleries that indeed design does love; they include: Christopher Grimes Gallery, LA><ART, Diana Thater Projects, Sam Lee Gallery, and more.  Throughout October, you’ll find Comfortably Numb, an exhibit in the Center Lobby of the PDC featuring work by Lynn Aldrich and Krysten Cunningham, among others, as well as corresponding exhibits and talks in both New York and Florida at the Decoration and Design Building and Design Center of the Americas, respectively.  As their schedule fills up, so will yours.  From now on, no need to lie about the stresses of renovating a house, you can just say… I’m here to see what this whole Design Loves Art thing is about.  The next obstacle to overcome is getting to sit on that huge chair.  We’ll see what we can do. 

Design Loves Art will be launched this Thursday evening at the Pacific Design Center.  Comfortably Numb is an exhibit that will run through October in the Center Lobby.  For more information, please click here.  Please click here for a map of participating galleries.  

When I first heard about the anonymous, all-female art collective known as Guerrilla Girls, the memory of reading Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto sprang to mind.  Yes, there are some fundamental differences: Guerrilla Girls use art, literature, film, posters, and pop culture to uncover truths about sexism and racism in politics while the guerillas in Bel Canto, a fantastic novel set in an unknown South American country, use brute force, guns, and power to drive their point home.  Both Patchett’s novel (which really, if you haven’t read, you must) and the Guerrilla Girls’ projects end up bringing to light the humanity, or lack thereof, in one-sided political situations.  Where Patchett’s novel deals in hostages and terrorists (and the relationships that develop between them), the Guerrilla Girls deal in creative exposés that serve to ignite debate.   

Another provocative artist collaboration keen on exposing political issues ranging from violence to sexism is Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries, which produces heavily charged political texts.  Working together to form Heavy Industries are Young-hae Chang, who hails from South Korea, and American Marc Vogue.  Their long list of texts includes such titles as “Bust Down the Door Again!,” “Cunnilingus in North Korea,” and Traveling to Utopia: With a Brief History of the Technology.”  Their website offers each text in a myriad of languages from English and Portuguese to Korean, Japanese, and Russian. 

Monday night at LACMA, former curator Lynn Zelevansky will brave both groups (obviously not alongside Patchett’s terrorists) for a conversation about provocative posters, collaborating with other activist-artists, and hopefully something will come up about the Guerrilla Girls’ gorilla masks worn at public events to maintain anonymity.  If only Patchett’s fictional soprano Roxanne Cross could be there to perform…

Lynn Zelevansky’s conversation with Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries and Guerrilla Girls is a free event at LACMA on Monday, September 14 at 7pm.  Reservations are not required.  For more information, please click here.  

Mondays get a bad rap – they’re manic, you can get a “case of” them, and they’re the complete opposite of a relaxing Sunday brunch.  In case you’d like to give this Monday a second chance, we’ve got the word: Amoeba’s Movie Mondays!  There’s nobody that could walk out of Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music thinking about doldrums like progress reports and pie charts. 

Held in the courtyard of Space15Twenty in Hollywood, Amoeba’s Movie Mondays meet several criteria.  First and foremost, they’re free!  Secondly, the films on the lineup are not what you’re heading to see at your local AMC anyway.  And finally, they’re all about music and the people that make and love it.  Next week, September 14 at 8pm, you’ll find The Night James Brown Saved Boston followed by Message to Love.  On September 21, they’re screening Leonard Cohen: Live at the Isle of Wight Festival and then on September 28, don’t miss Anvil! The Story of Anvil. 

Once you start heading to these screenings, you’ll need to think of new ways to describe Mondays.  Some suggestions include: marvelous, magical, or musical.  From now on, you may actually want to get a case of the Mondays!

Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music screens at the Arclight Hollywood on September 7 at 7:30pm.  All other Amoeba’s Movie Mondays screenings are held at the courtyard of Space15Twenty.  For more information, please click here.