Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: This Friday at Book Soup

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!

BOOK SOUP In-Store Event:
with Seth Grahame-Smith
April 3rd at 7:00pm

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action.

As our story opens a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy.

What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead.

Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice) this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen's classic novel to new legions of fans.

Last Remaining Seats in the Broadway Historic Theatre District

Are you ready for another summer of classic films and live entertainment in L.A.'s historic theatres? The 23rd annual Last Remaining Seats runs each Wednesday night from May 27 through July 1 in the spectacular movie palaces of downtown's Broadway Historic Theatre District. All programs include special guests and live performances.

Tickets available to members on April 1, and to the general public on April 15th.

Films include The Sting with Robert Redford and Paul Newman, the comedy duo Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Buck Privates, director Bob Fosse's 1930s-set Cabaret starring Liza Minnelli, and A Streetcar Named Desire with Hollywood legends Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh.

THE FOREST at MACHINE PROJECT

One of the best places in the world, Machine Project, hosted an opening party Friday night for Chirsty McCaffrey and Sara Newey's latest project - a forest constructed inside the gallery. The crowds swelled off the sidewalk and into the traffic on Alvarado as the gallery started to hand out numbers to control the Eastside lumberjacks, nymphs, birdies, and bears waiting to get inside to feel the soul altering experience. Lush and beautiful, the space transformed throughout the night from a stroll in the woods to a lovers stargazing to a party at the moon-tower. Passing the threshold from The Forest back to the crowded sidewalk I was rewarded with some highlights of city living: a delicious beer and savory Chinese food courtesy of Kwong Dynasty's Noodle Fantasy!

The Forest is at Machine Project until April 24, 2009.
1200 D North Alvarado Los Angeles, CA 90026 213-483-8761
(photo of Mark Allen of Machine Project in The Forest by Jonathan Miertschin)

The World We Live In: Todd Schorr at Merry Karnowsky

Todd Schorr, "An Ape Allegory (Study)" 2008

Opening Reception: March 28 from 8 to 11pm
Hosted by David Arquette

A portion of the evening's sales will go to Feeding America

Merry Karnowsky Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition of new works by renowned American artist Todd Schorr. One of the most prominent pop surrealist painters working today, Schorr uses the exacting techniques of the old masters to paint colorful cartoon characters, corporate mascots and other pop culture icons in a unique style he calls "cartoon realism."

Schorr's work is highly influenced by the popular culture of his childhood: post-war 1950's America. His formative years were spent watching countless horror, sci-fi, war, cartoon, cowboy, and puppet shows on a black-and-white TV set, building styrene plastic models, reading comic books, and leafing through his parents' National Geographic magazines.

Like any artist of worth, it took many long years of struggle and investigative thought along with trial and error as well as constant honing of technique to reach the point where I felt I had created a language which, when spoken well, would command some semblance of purpose. I work in what is best described as a surreal style but filtered through the mind and eyes of what is, for better or worse, uniquely American. -Todd Schorr

Merry Karnowsky Gallery
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12-6pm

Neutra Party at VDL House in Silverlake

Tuesday | March 31: 7 to 9pm

Neutra VDL and Studio Residences / 2300 Silverlake Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90039

The Conservancy is proud to co-sponsor a fundraiser for the Neutra VDL House in Silver Lake, an icon of Los Angeles modernism that needs significant funding for repair and maintenance.

The cocktail party features special guest Richard Longstreth, one of the country's leading architectural historians.

Tickets are $50. All proceeds will go directly toward the VDL restoration campaign.

Legendary architect Richard Neutra built the radical VDL "glass house" in 1932 as a research site and personal office. It was rebuilt in 1963 after a devastating fire. Neutra's wife Dione donated the house and compound to the Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design in 1990.

To attend: RSVP to Ms. Sam Friend, Cal Poly Pomona, at (909) 869-4629 or dsfriend@csupomona.edu

NEUTRA VDL

The Society for Linian Studies Presents The Cognomi Theory of the Arctic Interior

Another possibly absurdist or perhaps extremely profound event at The Velaslavasay Panorama.

Spiritual geometry meets modern metaphysics? Drawings of men in beards observed by real men in beards? Possible abuse of antiquated thesaurus? Move over Atlantis, here comes the Linians. See for yourself:

The Velaslavasay Panorama proudly welcomes an extraordinary exhibition and presentation from The Society for Linian Studies:

The Cognomi Theory of the Antarctic Interior
Opens Saturday: April 11, 2009

More than 300 years ago, a man thought lost at sea re-appeared in Italy with accounts of a civilization inhabiting the interior sea of an undiscovered southern continent. Giuseppe Cognomi composed numerous volumes on this advanced and isolated culture which he called The Linians and the singular environment they inhabited at the bottom of the world. Though widely disregarded by the scientific community, the tradition of Linian scholarship has been kept alive through the years by a devoted few.

Saturday, April 11, 2009 marks the opening of an exhibit examining the fascinating but largely forgotten origins and history of Linian scholarship through a series of enlightening dioramas based on Cognomi's original drawings along with information on other notable Linian Scholars.

The festive evening debut features a reception and lecture from Lyman Emery, the world's leading Linian Scholar and director of The Society for Linian Studies.

In fitting polarity to the 360-degree arctic panorama Effulgence of the North currently on view at The Velaslavasay Panorama and in this, the International Polar Year, The Cognomi Theory of the Antarctic Interior adds a southern dimension to an elucid investigation of polar climes.

The Cognomi Theory of the Antarctic Interior is the premiere exhibit to be held in the recently refurbished ancillary salon of The Velaslavasay Panorama and will remain on view through August 16th, 2009.

The Velasalvasay Panorama
1122 W 24th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90007

Open to the public weekly Friday, Saturday and Sunday 12-6pm.

Within Heaven's Earshot: Religious Album Covers at Synchronicity Space

March 13 to April 12, Easter Sunday

WITHIN HEAVEN'S EARSHOT: Religious Album Covers

Featuring over 300 Religious Album Covers and original artwork also on display by Basil Wolverton, Steven Escandon, and owleyes.

Saturday, March 28: Film Screening 7:30pm - "God's Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack T. Chick"

Friday, April 3: Book Signing 7-9pm - Monte Wolverton will be signing The Wolverton Bible, a comprehensive collection of Basil Wolverton's religious artwork.

Saturday, April 4: Film Screening 7:30pm - Jack Chick's "The Light of the World" plus a special bonus screening!

Friday, April 10: Religious Collectibles Auction 7:30pm

*For more info about contributing items to the auction, please email info@syncspacela.com

Saturday, April 11: Film Screening and Live Music 7:30pm- A.A. Allen's exorcism documentary "Crying Demons Crying Demons Crying Demons" and live music from Fancy Space People!

SYNCHRONICITY SPACE
4306 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90029
www.syncspacela.com

At Cinefamily - Joe Sedelmaier: Commercial Genius

TONIGHT!! @ 8p

Joe Sedelmaier: Commercial Genius As one of his generation's quintessential Mad Men, television commercial director Joe Sedelmaier's work was iconic, dynamic and instantly recognizable--some twenty to thirty years later, people are still wondering "Where's the beef?". He turned the advertising world on its brain-damaged head by casting offbeat non-actors in still-unforgettable spots, and his brilliant, frequently hysterical commercials for Wendy's, Alaska Airlines, Federal Express and others were snappy slices of cultural quirk that tapped into the Cold War-fearing, corporate workaholic zeitgeist of the '70s and '80s with a humor that cracked billions of smiles, sold billions of burgers, and sped up the default rhythm of time-based media.

Tonight Sedelmaier will join the Cinefamily in person, and will be screening Point of View, a comprehensive retrospective of three decades of his work, followed by Open Minds, a short film by Sedelmaier described as "a celebration of persistence, denial, and indifference, all the makings of yet another American success story.

"Peter you did a bang up job I'm putting you in charge of Pittsburgh, Peter. I know it's perfect Peter that's why I picked Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete" Dick what's the deal with the deal? Are we dealing? We're dealing. Dave it's a deal with Don, Dork and Dick, Dork it's a deal with Don, Dave and Dick...gotta go, disconnecting..."

for tickets go here

Reserve Now for Kehinde Wiley at The Getty

Date: Thursday, April 2, 2009
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Getty Center, Harold M. Williams Auditorium
Admission: Free; reservations required. Call (310) 440-7300 or use the "Make Reservation" button below.



Painter Kehinde Wiley, one of the foremost young artists on the world stage, reveals the artistic traditions that inform his work and discusses his current project creating monumental portraits of young black men in world cities from Mumbai to Rio de Janeiro.

About Kehinde Wiley
Kehinde Wiley hot-wires the studied attitudes and dramatic backdrops of Old Master portraits with a Day-Glo palette and a hip-hop sensibility, creating a radical artistic mash-up that has been praised as hip, provocative, and technically brilliant. By asking his subjects to assume poses found in historical paintings and sculpture, he transforms ordinary urban men into saints, kings, even Christ. Wiley blurs the boundaries between traditional and contemporary, self-consciously celebrating and subverting the propaganda of self-aggrandisement in European art.

See Kehinde Wiley's Paintings
A show of Kehinde Wiley's recent work is on view April 4–May 30, 2009, at the Roberts and Tilton Gallery in Culver City.

Tonight: Gondry / Carax / Joon-Ho's TOKYO! at the Nuart

TOKYO!

A Film by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-Ho

One Week Only!
STARTS Tonight! March 20, 2009 @ Nuart

Actress Ayako Fujitani the lead actress in the Michel Gondry segment Interior Design will appear in person at the Nuart for the 7:15 PM show on March 20th. http://www.tokyothemovie.com
Daily Shows March 20 - 26, 20091:45 PM 4:30 PM 7:15 PM 9:50 PM

Sunday: Old Skool Cali Party at Heritage Square

The Conservancy is proud to participate in this exciting event that will bring together more than 65 SoCal heritage groups. You'll have plenty to see, do, and learn, and it's all FREE with this downloadable flier!

Join us at Heritage Square Museum in northeast L.A. for free tours of historic buildings, a scavenger hunt and other activities for kids of all ages, panel discussions, and much more.

March 22 : 11am to 4pm @ Heritage Square Museum

Download flier
More information
List of participating organizations (on L.A. Heritage Alliance blog)

Stage Review - From TV to Film to Stage: FROST/NIXON in Mixed Media Messages

When I was a teenager I came home one night a little wasted and with my father watched David Frost interview Truman Capote. It seemed to me Frost was a little buzzed as well, and Capote was fucked up and charming and hilarious and entertaining in his particularly self promoting confessional way. It was a pop culture confession. And that is something we are now so familiar with. There's no end of celebrity's who use television to apologize to as many as they can in the shortest possible time.

In FROST/NIXON, there's a moment after Frost get's Nixon to accept some measure of culpability, when they freeze the screen, hovering above the stage, that has been broadcasting the interview simultaneously to it's being played out live on stage. One of the peripheral characters steps out and tells us that this closeup- this image- was and is the defining moment of our collective perspective on Nixon.

Yeah, I don't know. At that moment in American history- maybe. I don't remember. And my head is too filled with the second third and fourth acts of important people being caught with their pants down to trust a video image. I was talking to a criminal defense attorney the other night and he said the things prosecutors can do now with digital video confessions are phenomenal and render the whole process suspect.

Alright, I just figured out my point. Go to the live theatre. Trust what you see and what you here in the room you are in and even then be careful. My kids ask me when we watch tv if "those people are real"; cartoons, sports, the news it doesn't matter, same question.

I explain, but they haven't quite got it yet. Maybe I still don't get it.

- J.Kamal

A. Koford In-Store @ Meltdown: LOL Cats Sell-Out

March 21st - 3pm

A. Koford Signs The Laugh Out Loud Cats Sell-Out

Adam Koford's The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats Sell Out is a hilarious and charming mash-up of LOLcats (those ubiquitous online photos of cats, captioned humorously and ungrammatically) with the stylings of early 20th-century American comics, such as Walt Kelly's Pogo and George Herriman's Krazy Kat.

These single-panel comic strips, drawn on "vintage" off-white paper and purportedly created around 1912 by Koford's great-grandfather, Aloysius "Gorilla" Koford, allow familiar jokes, plus references to Proust, Star Wars, Lovecraft, classical mythology, and everything in between, to transcend their origins in a fresh, inventive way.

The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats Sell Out presents the very best of Koford's online archives, alongside 30 new comics produced exclusively for this collection. An introduction by bestselling author and Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, whose "700 Hoboes" project inspired Koford to create The Laugh-Out- Loud Cats, frames the strips for both the longtime fan and the LOLinitiate.

Adam Koford is an improbably prolific cartoonist who has been involved in several projects, including "700 Hoboes" and "Conan vs. Bear." He has been featured on Boing Boing TV and is a regular contributor to Drawn.ca. He resides in Utah. John Hodgman is the author of The Areas of My Expertise and More Information Than You Require, and a regular contributor to The Daily Show and the New York Times Magazine. He lives in New York City.

www.adamkoford.com
www.meltcomics.com

At REDCAT Sunday & Monday

March 22-23. Studio Winter 2009

The latest installment of REDCAT's quarterly series of new work and works-in-progress features dance, theater, multi-media and music performances by Los Angeles area artists. The Winter 2009 edition of Studio was curated by Anna B. Scott and Leslie Tamaribuchi, and includes the following six original works:

ANTICS PERFORMANCE: GONE WILD
Using breaking, popping and house dance, choreographer Amy "Catfox" Campion and her company of b-boys and b-girls give voice to the power of dance and draw connections between the seemingly distant worlds of urban dance and the wilderness.

ORI BAREL: IN A TUBE
By stripping YouTube videos of their imagery, Ori Barel assembles a lo-fi archive of soundscapes from recent wars and crafts them into a new electro-acoustic composition that weaves live violin played by Andrew Tholl with audio samples of events captured by individuals throughout the world.

BLANK-THE-DOG PRODUCTIONS: CAROLYN BRYANT PROJECT
Layers of historical transcripts, video imagery and re-imagined encounters attempt to construct an elusive exchange between Carolyn Bryant and Emmitt Till, whose ensuing murder turned Bryant into the unwilling surrogate mother of the civil rights movement.

KEITH GLASSMAN: SONNET (STROKE)
In Keith Glassman's clear-eyed duet, dancers Alan Grant and Christina Gray explore Grant's newly redefined range of motion following his paralyzing stroke, and the subsequent adaptations and negotiations that further their relationship and marriage.

ELIZABETH HOEFNER: MOTH-ASOMATI
Featuring an original score by Yorgos Adamis, this solo choreographed and performed by Elizabeth Hoefner flickers with physical and emotional fragility, while her darkly elegantly and erratic movements chart an unstable world of desire and disintegration.

KATHERINE SALTZBERG: LOS ANGELYNE
In Katherine Saltzberg's new autobiographical theater performance the "personal" becomes very, very public as she recounts how her life and home were invaded by L.A. icon Angelyne-the attention hungry queen of billboard self-promotion-and the pallor it cast on her own quest for success. Studio is supported by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.
more here

Tonight at AERO: Hal Ashby's BOUND FOR GLORY

Wednesday, March 18 – 7:30 PM
BOUND FOR GLORY, 1976, MGM Repertory, 147 min.

David Carradine plays folk singer Woody Guthrie in this superlative bio-pic, which follows Guthrie as he travels across America fighting for the working man. Director Hal Ashby and cinematographer Haskell Wexler (who won an Academy Award for his work) vividly evoke the late 1930's era in which the film takes place, and Carradine gives one of his best performances as a hero to underdogs everywhere. Co-starring Ronny Cox.

Film critic Kevin Thomas will introduce the screening.

Tickets and info here.

At The Steve Allen Theater Tonight!

Wake Up World!
Half The Content, twice the time!

Final Show March 18th, 8p
Tickets: $10

"The best thing I've seen in a million years!" --Rachel Maddow
"A great show!" --Ed Begley, Jr
"Brilliant!" --Ann Meara

Wake Up World is the latest project from the Comedy Ensemble Shoot The Messenger, the brainchild of “The Daily Show” co-creator, Lizz Winstead. It is a satire of the ever expanding bloated morning talk shows. In Fact, Wake Up World boasts is, “America’s only six-hour morning show.” A show so revolutionary, it redefines the boundaries of "morning."

Wake Up World responds to current topical news but its true goal is to capture and satirize all the conventions of morning shows. From the vapid newsbreak girl to the banality of the host prattle, to the health and beauty segments, Wake Up World catches every nuance of just how inane and hilarious these show are.

The members of the Shoot the Messenger ensemble come from The Daily Show, Air America Radio, National Lampoon, Upright Citizens Brigade, Second City and Huffington Post. These political comics, writers, actors, filmmakers and producers scour the media and attempt to present news and current events even more brainlessly than the mainstream media already does. ...They do not always rise to that challenge.

Tickets: $10

Straight Outta Boyle Heights - Ollin @ Spaceland on St. Patty's Day -Pics

Ollin performed the Pogues notorious album Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash last night (St. Patricks Day ) to a sold out crowd @ Spaceland . Richard Montoya form Culture Clash took the mic for a few songs along but all eyes were on the gorgeous green haired fiddle player...

At The HAMMER Thursday - Kenneth Anger

3.19
HAMMER LECTURES
Do What Thou Wilt:
Kenneth Anger on Aleister Crowley and the Occult

Join Kenneth Anger, avant-garde filmmaker and author of the infamous Hollywood Babylon series, as he discusses “The Wickedest Man in the World,” Aleister Crowley. A British occultist, hedonist, and author, Crowley inspired a fanatical following in the 20th century through his occult writings. 7p

ALL HAMMER PUBLIC PROGRAMS ARE FREE. Tickets are required, and are available at the Billy Wilder Theater Box Office one hour prior to start time. Limit one ticket per person on a first come, first served basis. Hammer members receive priority seating, subject to availability. Reservations not accepted, RSVPs not required.
Parking is available under the museum for $3 after 6:00

more here

Tonight at CINEFAMILY: Esoteric Cinema In The Southland

Rock Hudson in John Frankenheimer's Seconds (1966)

Co-presented by Process Books and L.A. Conservancy/ModCom Author Erik Davis ("The Visionary State: A Journey Through California's Spiritual Landscape") returns for another night of talks and films devoted to Southern California's alternative spiritual culture.

Angelino occultism has many sources, but one of the most important is the cinematic imagination, whose mystic and psychedelic developments Davis will trace through a collection of clips and short films drawn from experimental (Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon), B-movie (The Trip), and mainstream Hollywood fare (Seconds, Head).

The evening's second half will be hosted by Process Books publisher Jodi Wille, who will present unusual footage of LA's wild and wooly spiritual fringe, including rare clips from the Universal World Church and the Source Family.

Other guest presenters include Maja D'Aoust (Philosophical Research Society), Paul Nugent (the Aetherius Society), and Kenneth Anger collaborator Brian Butler, who will show some ultra-rare footage of the notorious Angelino witch Cameron.

Tickets here.

OLLIN - TEQUILA, SODOMY, AND THE LASH

Ollin has been the best punk rock pachuco band for over a decade and there is no one more fitting to cover The Pogues most amazing record groove for groove. One St.Patrick's Day many years ago I got to experience this party first hand at a beer and tamale cafe in East L.A. and it was the swinging, dancing, drunken sing-a-long you would expect. Love, leprechauns, and revolution will be in the air again this Tuesday as Ollin carries on the tradition at Spaceland. At least there's someplace in this dirty old town to have a green tequila.

Ollin plays The Pogues' Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
Tuesday, March 17 at 8:30 p.m.
Spaceland, 1717 Silver Lake Blvd. (Bike or take a cab - parking snorks.)
$10(?)

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre

JUDITH JAMISON 1976 Photograph © Jack Mitchell

March 18-22 @ Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

Join Dance at the Music Center as they celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Alvin Ailey® American Dance Theater. Featuring the Southern California premiere of “Go In Grace”, a collaboration by company member Hope Boykin and the female A-Capella group Sweet Honey In The Rock who will perform live on opening night. All performances include the inspirational “Revelations” and a short film commemorating the rich history of this internationally beloved company.

more here

Midnight Tonight @ Cinefamily

Vanishing Point

SERIES: Hot Wheels and Speed Demons -

Combining the muscular thrill of machines with the philosophical dread of social conformity, Vanishing Point has influenced deep-thinking motorheads for decades--it's Existentialism and the Art of Car Racing. Kowalski (Barry Newman) is an near-otherwordly enigma in driving gloves who calmly bets his drug dealer the cost of his drugs that he can finish delivering a 1970 Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco in an punishingly short time. Kowalski's motives are mysterious; he just speeds, while on speed, to win a bet to pay for his speed. With near-psychic encouragement from a blind radio DJ (Cleavon Little), we all unite with Kowalski in the pole position, blasting ahead into his destiny. Originally abandoned to the drive-in circuit ghetto, Vanishing Point made a big splash in Europe, and now enjoys cult classic status, thanks to its abstractionist view of American highways, its panoply of nutso fringe dwellers--and of course, its endless collection of white-hot carplay.
Dir. Richard Sarafian, 1971, 35mm, 106 min.

Tickets - $10

This Weekend at Royce Hall

UCLA Live Presents:

Dan Zanes

Get ready to sing and dance with wild abandon when the all-ages folk hero Dan Zanes returns to UCLA Live in a very special concert celebrating the sounds and colors of Los Angeles. A 2007 Grammy Award winner for “Best Musical Album for Children,” Zanes, his Brooklyn-based band, and his eclectic special guests create a rollicking “Woodstock for Kids,” where sea shanties, American traditional songs, West Indian folk music, and fiddle tunes collide with soulful originals in a spirit of rock and roll. Traversing the myriad cultures of this diverse and vibrant city – from East L.A. and Malibu to Koreatown and South Central— the concert will celebrate the “indigenous” music of L.A. in its many forms and variations, from hip-hop to classic Disney tunes. The audience is invited to “sing along with gusto” before things heat up and ultimately dissolve into a rollicking dance party.

more here

Tomorrow's Nothing: Clark Goolsby Opening at POVevolving Gallery in Chinatown

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 14th from 7 to 11pm

POVevolving Gallery
939 Chung King Road
Los Angeles, CA 90012

www.povevolving.com
www.clarkgoolsby.com

Argerich plays Ravel at the WDCH

Saturday: March 14th at 2:00pm

Featuring Martha Argerich and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin.

Walt Disney Concert Hall (Map/Directions)
111 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
323.850.2000

Tickets and info here.

Year of the OX at Giant Robot

Group show at GR2

March 14 - April 15, 2009
Reception: Saturday, March 14, 6:30 - 10:00

GR2
2062 Sawtelle Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
gr2.net
(310) 445-9276

Giant Robot is proud to host Year of the Ox, a group art show celebrating year 4707 on the lunar calendar. Pieces will include illustration, oils, pencils, prints, watercolor, sculpture, and other media-all dedicated to the hardest-working animal of the Chinese zodiac cycle.

Info here.

Automata Benefit at The Metabolic Studio

Automata 2009 Benefit
Silent auction of special art objects, miniature spectacles of all varieties, live music, dancing and more...

Saturday, March 21
7:30-11:00 PM

The Metabolic Studio
1745 N. Spring Street #4
Los Angeles, 90012

Longtime friends and collaborators Automata present a celebration of five years of film screenings, experimental puppet theatre, and other definition-defying events.

The Benefit will feature performances by Paul Zaloom and Laura Heit, Eli Presser, and other guests, along with a silent auction of works by Pat O'Neill, Lynn Jeffries, Ken Jacobs, Cathy Ackers, Jessica Hutchins, Perry Hoberman, and more.

This benefit will support Automata's effort to secure a permanent space for their future exhibitions, performances, and a community woodshop.

For more information on tickets and other details, please visit: http://automata2009benefit.blogspot.com/

Beautiful Losers - At CSUN Art Galleries

Directed by Aaron Rose, Beautiful Losers “celebrates the spirit behind one of the most influential cultural moments of a generation.” The film tells the story of a group of artists–Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey, Mark Gonzales, Margaret Kilgallen and Harmony Korine–who found common ground in a small NYC storefront gallery in the 1990s -
more here

At Cinefamily -SERIES: POST PUNK /JUNK

March 12 @ 8p

Cinefamily Presents -

Two Films about The Fall Truly standing out amongst hordes of contemporaries, The Fall is the most unique and prolific of all British post-punk bands. Starting in 1976 and still continuing on today, The Fall has released 27 albums, survived more lineup changes than Spinal Tap, and has remained the brainchild of its caustically witty, one-in-a-trillion vocalist Mark E. Smith. The 2005 documentary The Fall: The Wonderful And Frightening World Of Mark E. Smith gives an in-depth look at the band's shifts in styles, legendary BBC DJ John Peel's love of the band, and Smith's tumultuous relationship with pretty much every single one of the 50-some-odd ex-members of the band. The night's Fall energy continues with Hail The New Puritan, the outrageous mid-'80s docudrama about Michael Clark, the enfant terrible of the British dance world whose anatomically revealing costumes, sexually explicit choreography and collaborations with The Fall (and others such as Bruce Gilbert of the band Wire, and Glenn Branca) brought a previously unheard-of decadence to the stuffy ballet stage. Tickets - $10

Thursday, March 12 - JOHN HASKELL at SKYLIGHT BOOKS

John Haskell, the author of American Purgatorio and I am Not Jackson Pollock, has written a brilliant and weird new novel - Out of My Skin. A writer moves to Los Angeles and finds himself impersonating Steve Martin in order to better navigate his life and surroundings. Actually, he is impersonating an impersonator of Steve Martin. And the book is full of photos of real places (like Skylight Books, Burrito King) impersonating locations. Are you kidding me? Amazing. Haskell places this search for identity and happiness in "Los Angeles... the City of Dreams; also the City of Angels; Jim Morrison called it the City of Lights", a tough place to find something real, yet this book does a beautiful job of creating a strange and moving portrait.
(Photo: Jorge Colombo)
John Haskell will be reading at Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA
Thursday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m.
FREE.

Wednesday March 11 - Jerry Stahl @ Diesel Books in Santa Monica

Jerry Stahl discusses and signs Pain Killers @ Diesel Books in Santa Monica

From the acclaimed and controversial author of Permanent Midnight comes one of the most vividly subversive, savagely funny, and explosive novels yet unleashed in our tender century. Pain Killers is a violent and mind-wrenching masterpiece in the gonzo noir style that has earned Jerry Stahl his legion of avid fans.

Down-and-out ex-cop and not-quite-reformed addict Manny Rupert accepts a job going undercover to find out if an old man locked up in a California prison is who he claims to be: the despicable—and allegedly dead—Josef Mengele, aka the Angel of Death. What if, instead of drowning thirty years ago, the sadistic legend whose Auschwitz crimes still horrify faked his own death and is now locked up in San Quentin, ranting and bitter about being denied the adulation he craves for his contribution to keeping the Master Race pure—if no longer masterful?

More on this here

FROST NIXON at The Ahmanson Theatre

Limited Engagement @ the AHMANSON THEATRE

March 11 thru the 29th ONLY -

Frost/Nixon tackles the question: How did David Frost, a famous British talk show host with a playboy reputation, elicit the apology that the rest of the world was waiting to hear from former President Richard Nixon?

Award-winning stage and screen actor Stacy Keach stars as Richard Nixon. He leads a cast of 10 in this fast-paced Tony Award®-nominated new play which shows the determination, conviction and cunning of two famous men as they square off in one of the most monumental television interviews of all time.

Frost/Nixon is written by Peter Morgan, screenwriter of The Other Boleyn Girl, The Queen, The Last King of Scotland, and HBO's Longford, and directed by Olivier Award-winner Michael Grandage.

Watch Stacy's brilliant work in Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer as he tries to decipher the difference between and hard drive and a floppy disc.

Physical Nostalgia @ Meltdown thru March 22

The Melt Gallery at Meltdown is proud to present PHYSICAL NOSTALGIA, A group art showing that will serve as an examination of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s graphic novel WATCHMEN and how the themes and images contained therein have permeated pop art culture.

PHYSICAL NOSTALGIA will exhibit a wild variety of art styles and media to present facets of this seminal work that will be lost as WATCHMEN transitions from the page to the silver screen. Now is the last moment for the knot-tops and grizzled vigilantes of art to stand up and show us what WATCHMEN means to them as the last five minutes of the doomsday clock tick away.

Exhibiting artists include Eldon Asp, Steven Daily, Howard Hallis, Mack Hill, Jim Mahfood aka FOOD ONE, Kiyoshi Nakazawa, Jeret Ochi, Osgood Perkins, Raymond Persi, Renfield, Fill Marc Sagadraca, Christopher Stangl, Elan Trinidad with items from the private collections of John Cogan and David Mandel.

@ MELT GALLERY / MELTDOWN COMICS
7522 Sunset Blvd, L.A., CA, 90046
323.851.7223

Docudrama Double Feature: Herzog at the Hammer

Double Feature: Grizzly Man and Incident at Loch Ness
Nine Lives Exhibition Related Screenings
Selected by Victoria Reynolds

Grizzly Man
Please don’t feed the bears! Werner Herzog’s gripping docudrama centers on amateur carnivore expert Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, whose passion for and dedication to grizzly bears is demonstrated in the Alaska wilderness. (2005, 103 min., Dir. Werner Herzog)

Incident at Loch Ness
Director Werner Herzog sets out to the Scottish Highlands to make a documentary exploring the myth of the Loch Ness Monster. Meanwhile, another documentary film crew is making a film about Herzog. Shooting on a rented boat, tensions begin to rise as Herzog and his producer, Zak Penn, find themselves at cross-purposes on the black surface of Loch Ness. Things get edgier and more absurd as mysterious shapes begin to rise from the murky water. (2004, 94 min., Dir. Zak Penn)

ALL HAMMER PUBLIC PROGRAMS ARE FREE. Tickets are required, and are available at the Billy Wilder Theater Box Office one hour prior to start time. Limit one ticket per person on a first come, first served basis. Hammer members receive priority seating, subject to availability. Reservations not accepted, RSVPs not required.

Parking is available under the museum for $3 after 6:00

Sunday at The HAMMER: Songwriting with Kate Micucci of Garfunkel and Oates

Singer/songwriter/actress Kate Micucci is half of the comedy band Garfunkel and Oates. She can be found around town building sand castles and playing her ukelele: she has a monthly show at the Steve Allen Theater, and her original songs can be heard on the TV series Scrubs. With Kate, students will write songs as quirky and charming as themselves.

The Hammer's collaborative writing workshop, presented with 826LA, is designed for groups of up to 20 students, ages 8-13. Reservations are encouraged and can be made by emailing workshops@826la.org or calling 310-305-8418. Walk-ins welcome.

Admission is FREE. Parking is available under the museum for $3 for 3 hours.