@ MOCA Saturday Night 10.30.10 - The Opening of The Artist's Museum

All MOCA members are welcome to attend the advance viewing of The Artist's Museum, a showcase of works by artists who have shaped the Los Angeles artistic dialogue during MOCA's 30-year history.

Come and celebrate The Artist's Museum at an exclusive, artists and members-only opening party at both The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and MOCA Grand Avenue. Complimentary shuttle service will be provided for transportation between venues. Cash bar and DJ set by artist Dave Muller at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.

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Sarah Silverman and Friends @ LARGO Thursday night 10.28.

An embarrassment of comic riches awaits at this week's Sarah Silverman and Friends show on Thursday night. Each month Sarah brings her special brand of stand up comedy to the intimate Largo stage, and with her, some of the best in the business. This month will see special guest musical comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates, and comic sweetheart Tig Notaro join the evening's fun. Plus, two comics are scheduled to appear that are so super special and exciting that we are not allowed to use their names. In the past, Sarah has surprised us with super duper guests such as Louis CK, Aziz Ansari, Gary Shandling etc., so you can trust us that you will not be disappointed.

Showtime is 8:30p


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Tonight 8.27. - Hammer Readings - Slake: L.A. Iconoclasts

Slake: L.A. Iconoclasts

Edited by former LA Weekly editors Laurie Ochoa and Joe Donnelly, Slake: Los Angeles is a new LA-centric quarterly that examines all things curious, fictional, poetic, political and philosophical, comprising work by local writers and artists. The evening will celebrate Slake’s second issue with Q&As, readings, and performances by Slake contributors, including screenwriter and novelist Jerry Stahl, House of Leaves author Mark Z. Danielewski, comic actress and writer Lauren Weedman (The Daily Show, Date Night, Hung), cult film queen Mary Woronov, plus jazz ensemble the Max Wrightson Trio.

About tonight's readers -

Mark Z. Danielewski's piece The Promise of Meaning appears in Slake No. 1. He recently announced that he’s begun work on a 27-volume series of novels titled The Familiar, about a 12-year-old girl who finds a kitten (among, we’d expect, other things). The LA-based writer has gained a cult following with his experimental novels House of Leaves and Only Revolutions. A few days after the Hammer event, Danielewski will give a theatrical presentation of his ghost story The Fifty Year Sword at REDCAT on Halloween.

Jerry Stahl, who contributed the short story Sammy Talks Frank - wherein Sammy Davis Jr. unloads about Frank Sinatra - moved to Los Angeles when his employer at the time, Hustler magazine, did as well in the 1970s. He went on to write the critically acclaimed memoir Permanent Midnight and the novel I, Fatty among other works of fiction and several works for film and television.

Mary Woronov is a painter and artist who made her film debut in 1966 in Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests alongside Salvador Dali, Edie Sedgwick, and Warhol’s regular group of players. Once a dancer with the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, Woronov has gone on to appear in more than 70 films. She also has five books to her credit, including Swimming Underground, an account of her time with Warhol.

Lauren Weedman was a “correspondent” for The Daily Show starting in 2001, and is a regular on Hung and Reno 911. She is just as well known in Los Angeles for her funny, revealing, piercing stage performances such as BUST and Wreckage. She’s currently performing in her newest show, No … You Shut Up.

ALL HAMMER PUBLIC PROGRAMS ARE FREE. Seating is 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 6p.

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TONIGHT! Thu, Oct 21, @ UCLA Live's Royce Hall - Laurie Anderson - Delusion

Conceived as a series of short mystery plays, Delusion jump cuts between the everyday and the mythic. Combining violin, electronic puppetry, music and visuals, the work speaks the colorful, poetic and imagistic language that has become Laurie Anderson’s trademark. Inspired by the breadth of Balzac, Ozu and Laurence Sterne and employing a series of altered voices and imaginary guests Anderson tells a complex story about longing, memory and identity. At the heart of Delusion is the pleasure of language and a terror that the world is made entirely of words.

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SUPERCHUNK - @ The Henry Fonda Music Box Tuesday October, 19, 2010

Perhaps no band was more emblematic of the true spirit of American indie rock during the 1990s than Superchunk, the pride of Chapel Hill, NC. Following the D.I.Y. ethic to the letter, the group operated solely by their own rules, ignoring all passing trends by sticking to their trademark sound -- typified by the buzzing guitars and high, impassioned vocals of front man (and founder/owner of MERGE Records) Mac McCaughan -- and rejecting all major-label advances in favor of the unlimited freedom afforded by owning their own company. Since releasing their first 7-inch in 1989, Superchunk has run the gamut of milestone albums: early punk rock stompers, polished mid-career masterpieces, and lush, adventurous curveballs. Conventional wisdom holds that a band two decades into its career can only rehash or reinvent, but with Majesty Shredding, Superchunk has done something entirely different. Neither a return nor a departure, Majesty Shredding telescopes two decades into 41 indelible, action-packed minutes. It is the sound of youthful exuberance fine-tuned with grown-up confidence. And it may very well be Superchunk's best record yet.

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LCD Soundsystem Friday, October 15, @ The HOLLYWOOD BOWL.

If James Murphy is indeed retiring LCD Soundsystem after the NYC groove troupe’s latest tour, at least he and his crew will be going out in style. The group, which has been racking up gushing praise all year for its galvanizing live sets(you shouldn’t have missed the June 5 bash at the Palladium) in support of its third album, This Is Happening, has now announced its first headlining turn at the Hollywood Bowl, tomorrow night on Oct. 15. It marks LCD’s second appearance at the landmark venue, following a September 2007 set that blew the estimable Arcade Fire off the stage.

Also, both English electro outfit Hot Chip (whose bassist Al Doyle will sit in with LCD) and Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells will open. - OCR

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Tonight @ SKYLIGHT BOOKS - Graphic novelist Vanessa Davis will sign and discuss her new book 'Make me a Woman'

It’s easy to understand why Vanessa Davis has taken the comics industry by storm and is poised to do the same with the world at large—her comics are pure chutzpah, gorgeously illustrated in watercolors. No story is too painful to tell—like how much she enjoyed fat camp. Nor too off-limits—like her critique of R. Crumb. Nor too personal—like her stories of growing up Jewish in Florida. Using her sweet but biting wit, Davis effortlessly carves out a wholly original and refreshing niche in two well-worn territories: autobio comics and the Jewish identity.

Davis draws strips from her daily diary, centering on her youth, mother, relationships with men, and eventually her longtime boyfriend. Her intimacy, self-deprecation, and candor have deservedly earned her many accolades and awards. Her deft comedic touch, lush color, and immediacy will set Davis apart not only as one of the premier cartoonists, but as one of the leading humorists for her generation, too.

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Paul McCarthy ‘Three Sculptures’ @ L & M Arts in VENICE - now through November 6, 2010.

Three Sculptures by Paul McCarthy, is the artist’s first exhibition in his hometown in a decade. L&M Gallery will be featuring new large-scale sculptures, both indoor and outdoor, of all different mediums; these represent the culmination of several major themes that have run throughout McCarthy’s work for many years.

Train, Mechanical (2003-2010) is a fully automated tour-de-force that features a George Bush/pirate hybrid mounting a pig from behind, while another pig humps the same pig’s skull, finding aural penetration. This scenario then repeats itself in a figurative “train.” The work finds visual precedent in earlier sculptures with the same cast of characters and related configurations, such as Train, Mechanical, Pig Island (2007), Mountain (2009) and Static (2004-2009).

All of these works stem from Pig Island; this perpetual work in progress, inspired by the Disney ride Pirates of the Caribbean, emphasizes process as sculpture. Many sculptures were spawned from this fertile environment full of political satire, cultural commentary, and playful experimentation with various modes of art production.

In Train, Mechanical, McCarthy has also found inspiration from an ongoing fascination with carnival rides and mechanized mannequins, first seen in his seminal work The Garden (1991-1992). Train, Mechanical takes this early interest to new heights. Here, one experiences fully articulated body parts, right down to the male figure’s pursed lips and the pigs heaving chest – all in the service of a mesmerizing tableau that redefines sculptural form.

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@ MOCA Tonight ... AND NOW WE ALL DANCE! - HEFFINGTON MOVES MOCA

@ The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

...AND NOW WE ALL DANCE!
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 7–10p

For their first Engagement Party event, HEFFINGTON MOVES MOCA will present …AND NOW WE ALL DANCE!, an all-encompassing dance environment that will offer open classes as well as feature performances and video collaborations. The work will literally move the audience, who will be invited to participate in freestyle dancing as well as choreographed routines. The convergence of music, art, and dance at MOCA will be electrifying! The event will include dance classes taught by Ryan Heffington; performances by the Sweaty Sunday Dancers and the Fingered Dancers; and video collaborations by Heffington, Jessica Hundley, Kristen Leahy, Nicole McDonald, Nina McNeely, Steven Synstelien, and Andrew Tonkery. Costumes will be designed by Ryan Heffington, KK Karnaky, and Zoey Nissman. Music by DJ Trident.

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@ SKYLIGHT BOOKS tonight - SARA MARCUS discusses and signs her book "GIRLS TO THE FRONT"

Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution (Harper/Perennial)

Sara Marcus will discuss and sign Girls to the Front, her new book on the fascinating history of Riot Grrrl. Music acts Dunes and Anna Oxygen will play! The last great underground cultural movement of the pre-Internet age, Riot Grrrl revolutionized girlhood itself. In the early 1990s, young women were realizing that the equality they’d been promised was still elusive, and a newly resurgent right wing was turning feminism into the ultimate dirty word.

Riot Grrrl roared into the spotlight in 1991: an uncompromising movement of pissed-off girls with no patience for sexism and no intention of keeping quiet. They published zines, founded local groups, and organized national conventions, while fiercely prophetic punk bands such as Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, Huggy Bear, and Bikini Kill helped spread the word across the US and to Canada, Europe, and beyond.

Sara Marcus is a writer and musician living in New York. She has written for TimeOut New York, The Advocate, The Philadelphia Inquirer, UtneReader, and Heeb, where she was the politics editor from 2002-2007. Marcus received her MFA from Columbia University.

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Sunday (10.3.) @ MOCA Grand

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1–3:30p

MOCA GRAND AVENUE
250 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, 90012

Explore works from MOCA’s permanent collection and discover how artists have been inspired by Los Angeles. Meet and work with guest artist Vincent Valdez to create your own Los Angeles artwork with family and friends.

FREE!

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Tonight (10.2.) @REDCAT - Henry Grimes and Friends

Co-presented with Angel City Jazz Festival

In the 1950s and 1960s, bassist Henry Grimes toured and recorded with such jazz greats as Albert Ayler, Miles Davis, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, Cecil Taylor, and many more. After a 33-year disappearance during which he was presumed dead, Grimes emerged from oblivion in a storied “rediscovery” in Los Angeles before he moved to New York in 2003 to resume his top-flight music career. In his first appearance in Los Angeles since 2004, Grimes performs a set with percussionist Alex Cline, pianist Ben Rosenbloom, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, local reedman Vinny Golia, and vocalist Dwight Trible. To open the show, Trible, who has worked with Billy Childs, Charles Lloyd, Pharoah Sanders, and Horace Tapscott, joins pianist John Beasley to explore the outer reaches of vocal and instrumental technique.

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