Afterzine No. 2 Launch Party – Friday, July 8 / Co-hosted by The Fox Is Black

In two weeks I’ll be co-hosting the launch of the second issue of Aftezine, and everyone is invited. It takes place at Skylight Books, hands down my favorite bookstore in Los Angeles, on July 8th from 7 to 9 PM. There will also be free goodies thanks to BabyCakesNYC.

The next issue centers around the theme of Los Angeles, and the list of contributors is pretty amazing:

Andrew Andrew, Ashley Avignone, Zooey Deschanel, Diane Birch, Kyle Fitzpatrick, Jody Godoy, Christina Gregory, EA Hanks, Christy Harrison, Laura Havlin, Emily Hopgood, Catherine Ireton, Ben Jones, Miranda July, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, Thessaly La Force, Peter Mendelsund, Mike Mills, Maud Newton, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Pamela Ribon, Hamish Robertson, Sophia Rossi, Mordechai Rubinstein, Bobby Solomon, Sadie Stein, Emma Straub, Natalia Stuyk, Andi Teran, Tamio Teshima, Phillip Toledano, Tina Tyrell and Wolfe von Lenkiewicz.

If you’re in Los Angeles on July 8 please come and hang out, it should be a great time.

Bobby

The Digest: Sang Yoon’s Lukshon

Photo by Betty Hallock

Photo by Lesley Balla

Photo by The Minty

One of the perks of living in Los Angeles – besides all the stereotypes like great weather, beautiful people and Californian beauty – is that variety is really garden-variety. More specifically, the city draws on so many cultures and influences that amalgamations of taste, style and culture are not a surefire way to be recognized or noticed. Variety is almost commonplace. Hardwork and talent rise to the top. People even work hard to be weird here. And in this hyper competitive culinary city, restauranteurs of all types will pull out any stop necessary, weird or otherwise.

Culver City, a section of West Los Angeles, has undergone a thirty year revitalization. The area surrounding the long-defunct Helms Bakery has been renovated into a hotbed of shopping and eating for the current batch of young professionals. Twenty Gauge, a vintage steel furniture store, is pressed next to the now iconic Fathers Office. The Fathers Office remains the paradigm of the American gastro-pub. Owner Sang Yoon made fresh, Californian-influenced versions of classic pub dishes and coupled them with the best local craft beers. It seems so obvious, but before this millenium… well, it wasn’t. Now in two locations, it is safe to call the Father’s Office a Los Angeles institution with a following in all corners of the city.

Continue reading The Digest: Sang Yoon’s Lukshon…

Culver City Artwalk 2011 – Gary Baseman

Gary Baseman recreated his wonderful Giggle and Pop! performance to kick-off the 2011 Culver City Artwalk. The characters danced up and down Washington Blvd making everyone from bikers to small children feel happy and warm. If you played with or hugged one of the pink Chou Chou’s, a girl in a bright dress would give you a Gary Baseman bandana and original piece of stencil artwork created by a Culver City high-school student under his supervision.

It was the absolute best way to start off the walk, because it got everyone to giggle away the pretensions that go along with viewing pricey paintings. The only thing was, we couldn’t get the infectious Chou Chou melody by Carina Round out of heads and found ourselves, grown men at that, singing it along the city streets.

Daniel

Ryan McGinness opening party for WOMEN: THE BLACKLIGHT PAINTINGS at The Standard, Hollywood

The Ryan McGinness opening at The Standard, Hollywood for WOMEN: THE BLACKLIGHT PAINTINGS was on a whole other level. His fluorescent pieces on the walls of the Purple Lounge were absolutely incredible and when you weren’t transfixed by their psychedelic glare, there were five glowing strippers pole-dancing. I mean, nothing beats a stripper at an art opening, especially one with giant day-glow lashes and a spade tramp-stamp. Even better than all of that was experiencing McGinness’ book Aesthetic Comfort in ultra-violet light because it made the pages look completely vibrant and almost animated. Like at all of the past five openings, guests were given a free poster designed specifically for the event.

The cast of characters at the party included curators, actors, actresses, writers, directors, and wonderfully creative designers and artists – but my favorite people were a couple who met on the set of an erotic science-fiction film. They told me that their first scene together involved multiple stab wounds to the vaj, so I guess it’s only uphill from there.

McGinness will be doing his final stunt in L.A. on June 11th at Subliminal Projects from 8pm-11pm, where he won’t be exhibiting artwork, but rather a representation of all his sponsors – the size of each logo based on the corporation’s contribution.

Check out the NSFW video of the fluorsecent strippers in action, below.

Daniel

Sneak Preview of the Tim Burton Exhibit at LACMA (74 Photos)

Yesterday Kyle and I had the opportunity to see a sneak peak of the upcoming Tim Burton exhibition at the LACMA’s new Resnick Pavilion, which opens to the public on Sunday, May 29. The exhibit is a retrospective of Burton’s career, starting with his early work as a kid growing up in Burbank and how he slowly became the creative genius we know today. The exhibit is filled with a mix of everything like paintings, sculptures, videos, short films, movie props and even a huge, black light installation.

My favorite part was seeing all of the old drawings and sketches he did when he was younger. You can totally tell that he was really bored when he was growing up, and channeled this boredom into art. But so many of these little drawings were the seeds of ideas, which would eventually translate into larger ideas, some even progressing into characters in his films.

There were also a ton of movie related sketches and items such as Jonny Depp’s costume from Edward Scissorhands, 3 Batman mantles and even the eyeballs used for Large Marge from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Another awesome part was The Nightmare Before Christmas section which contained about a dozen maquettes from the movie and about two dozen Jack Skellington heads. I’m a huge fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas so I was totally nerding out in this section.

I really liked the show overall, but Kyle mentioned that the exhibit could have been way more creative overall. Maybe they could have ran it during Halloween? Or maybe they could have made the experience more interactive and less… a standard exhibit. Especially after seeing Art In The Streets so recently, it’s hard not to make a comparison. Nonetheless, if you’re as big of a fan of Tim Burton’s work as I am you’ll still love this show.

Under the cut I’ve posted 71 more photos from the show, so if you don’t live in L.A. or don’t plan on visiting in the next 3 months, you’ll get a good taste of what the show was all about. I hope you guys enjoy it!

Continue reading Sneak Preview of the Tim Burton Exhibit at LACMA (74 Photos)…