chumpchampion

As I alluded to in a previous post, Secret Headquarters is one of if not the best spot for funny books in Los Angeles and also doubles as a great gallery space for affordable one of a kind artworks. This Saturday they will leave their doors open for you well into the evening to come enjoy an alcoholic beverage and check the latest works by San Francisco artist Scott Campbell, who recently made this print for the King of Kong DVD release.

From the good folk over at Secret Headquarters:

Opening Reception:
This Saturday, May 3rd
Join Scott for a drink from 8 - 11pm

Scott C. is Scott Campbell, art director for Psychonauts and Brütal Legend at Double Fine Productions. Scott has done numerous comics that have appeared in such anthologies as Hickee, Flight, Beasts!, and Project: Superior. His story, Igloo Head and Tree Head, was awarded the silver medal from the Society of Illustrators. He draws/writes a daily comic strip called Double Fine Action Comics at
doublefine.com.

Scott C. has painted many clever little paintings that have shown in such places as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Montreal, and Japan.

Scott thinks you should go to the internet and look at more of his stuff. You will get super happy. These are some places that you can go: scott-c.blogspot.com and pyramidcar.com

Secret Headquarters will feature Scott Campbell’s one-of-a kind original works of art through May 29th, 2008.

TotallyNerdCore.com

Secret Headquarters is located on 3817 W Sunset Blvd. LA 90026 and is open Monday through Friday from 11am-9pm and on Sundays 12pm-7pm.

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This coming Thursday, May 1st marks the return of Beautiful Losers to California after it’s initial run of film festivals including it’s world premiere at South By Southwest in Austin, TX. Since that special week in March, the film has made it’s way to New York for an AIGA screening (professional association for design), and to Toronto for it’s Canadian Premiere at the Hot Docs Film Festival.

The Newport Beach Film Festival is next in line as they have named Beautiful Losers the closing film as the centerpiece of their Closing Night Gala celebration. The movie screens this Thursday, May 1st in Newport Beach at 8pm. General admission tickets are still available for $15 with show and reception tickets priced at $65. I imagine this screening will be quite packed with Orange County being the home of Ed Templeton, Toy Machine, and the legions of skateboarding fans as well.

We’re not 100% certain yet when the film will be making it’s theatrical premieres across the country so this may be your last chance to see the film in Southern California for a while. Unfortunately I’ll still be out of the country but I hope you can make it as this is a homecoming of sorts and sure to be good times.

Other upcoming screenings of the film include:

Friday, May 2nd at 7 and 9:30pm at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN featuring discussions with Chris Johnason and his lovely wife Jo Jackson, along with the director of the film Aaron Rose.

Saturday, May 3rd at 5pm at the Maryland Film Festival.

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(click images to see more of the politically charged art on display at LA vs. WAR)

A couple of weeks ago I was able to check out the LA vs. WAR poster/graffiti/screenprinting art show which was held in downtown Los Angeles during the weekend of April 10th-13th. What I failed to do was follow up and mention how powerful the art actually was. On a beautifully calm Sunday evening which brought many people to the downtown Firehouse venue, I was fortunate enough to make a return trip and take some more photos as well. On display was the touring exhibition of anti-war posters and screenprints from the likes of Futura, Doze Green, Shepard Fairey, along with many other artists-both known and unknown. A timely, clever, and often comical look at our recent state of affairs as the world’s first nation of war, the art on display defiantly speaks for itself. And perhaps for many of us as well. Please check out the pieces for yourself by clicking the images or this link to be taken to my Flickr set.

You can also buy the book “Yo! What Happened to Peace?” which contains all the poster art featured in the show at www.yopeace.org.

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From what I’ve been told, California is going through some harsh weather these days. With fires torching the Sierra Madre Canyon near Pasadena and temperatures in L.A. reaching the high 90’s this past weekend, I’m sure all of Southern California would welcome a cool down. So for all you sweltering Angelinos seeking heat refuge, partied out Coachellans coming back from the dessert, and for anyone else who enjoys sweetly flavored ice cold treats, please indulge in some FREE ice cream this Tuesday the 29th at participating Ben & Jerry’s and this Wednesday the 30th from 5-11pm at participating Baskin-Robbins for a 31¢ scoop.

Click the above images to find your local Ben & Jerry’s and Baskin-Robbins.

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After making his first stop to our country as the incumbent Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI flew back to Rome on Sunday which was incidentally the day before I made my own journey to Italy. I couldn’t help but think about how random it was that as I’m making my first trip to the center of Western civilization, the Pope of all people was concluding his trip to the center of the downfall of Western civilization. With that in mind, I wanted to show you this Pope print I came across last week. The signed and numbered print (in a limited edition of 666!) is by artist Michael Ian Weinfeld who was commissioned by online New York culturists ANIMAL. This piece of pop cleverly brings together two of the latest crazes to engulf the masses of mainstream America: Pope-passion and Obama-mania. Now if you’re not familiar with what type of Obama madness I’m talking about, look no further than these following sentences to check out Shepard Fairey’s own creation and contribution to the craze.

Shepard, already a master at turning the unknown into the ubiquitous as seen with his “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” stickers amongst others, unleashed his screenprint onto the world during a time when Barack had a very comfortable lead over Hillary somethin’-somethin’ back in late January/early February 2008. With Shepard an art icon among young people and collectors alike and Obama a front runner as the next resident of the White House, what soon followed was unlike anything I had ever seen in terms of people going crazy for a piece of memorabilia. More popular than a Jose Canseco rookie card during his 40/40 year, scarcer than a “Tickle Me Elmo” doll during that one Christmas, the Fairey/Obama prints went on sale on the Obey website for a mere $25 a pop. Needless to say, the 350 signed and numbered “Progress” prints sold out immediately and were just as quickly being sold on ebay for upwards of $2000. And people were buying them. The same thing continued with Shepard’s subsequent release of the “Hope” edition, also limited to 350. And even the “pasters” (which were newsprint versions of the prints, not even signed, and specifically intended to be wheat pasted around cities by street teams) were going for hundreds of dollars on ebay even though they sold for only the $15 shipping cost.

I admit it, I was one of the thousands of art/collector crazed people who kept hitting “refresh” on my browser in the hopes of being one of the select few to buy a print when they went on sale. When that didn’t work out I turned to ebay where I was shocked to see the unreasonable prices but at the same time I was completely unfazed by all the hysteria. Of course this was going to happen. It was the perfect storm. Timely art hand in hand with timely politics was going to equal major commerce, unfortunately it was mainly for people cashing in on their new found poster fortunes. The proceeds from the prints sold on the Obey website went towards funding the broader campaign to spread the word on the streets through free poster and sticker give-aways as well as wheat pasting across the country.

Since the initial craze, the prices for both Obama prints have considerably gone down on ebay. And I mean very considerably, as in “buy it now” prices going for around “only” $400. The commodification of art is nothing new of course, but the way it went down with all the hype surrounding Obama and the flurry of sales raises some questions for me. Does this precedent make it okay for the hysteria to happen again or will artists like Shepard Fairey compromise their established signing and numbering procedures to prevent “art scalpers” from ripping off true fans in the future? And what happens to those prints if Obama is elected president? What happens if Obama is elected president and then is assassinated? Of course it will be the least of our worries, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see those prints on ebay again. Maybe then they’ll be going for $20,000.

To read what Shepard Fairey had to say about it, check his website here: Obey on Obama as well as an interview on Creativity with Shepard on his endorsement of Obama here: Shepard Fairey: Obey Obama

And for a recent article on art in politics in the New York Times check here: The Art of Politics

You can buy the “Pope” prints by Michael Ian Weinfeld on ANIMAL here: Pope print

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Ok, I know it’s only a week old and I’m already neglecting this kid, but at least I have good reason to. I’ve spent the last few days getting ready for trips to Toronto (where I’m typing this entry) and Italy (where I’ll be editing for a couple of weeks).

During my short 3 day stay in Toronto, I’ll be the lone representative from the Beautiful Losers crew at the Hot Docs documentary film festival where BL will be screening two times for our gracious Northern neighbors. The first screening was tonight, Saturday the 19th, at the Cumberland theater and the second will be on Monday the 21st at the same place. Tonights screening was sold out and the film was extremely well received. During the Q&A I was asked the question of the night: “Why did Mike Mills wear a suit for the film?” Answer: “He wanted to.” After the Q&A session I was brought to a blind man (dude, a BLIND MAN “saw” our film about art!) who had a question about how involved the artists were politically since Jo Jackson speaks about such things during a segment of the film. After telling him that all the artists are indeed politically active and all voice their sentiments in different ways, some more than others (Shepard Fairey Obama print post coming soon), he told me he really enjoyed the film. I shook the man’s hand and walked away amazed that someone without the sense of sight was moved by such a visual film. I suppose you really don’t even need to see the works of the artists in the film as long as you can hear the sincerity in their voices to understand where they’re coming from, which is a perspective that I hope other people are able to share.

More to come soon as I’ll continue to be chumpchampioning internationally.

p.s.-Toronto is a great city, it reminds me a lot of Canada.

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Secret Headquarters, known to some simply as a comic book store in Silver Lake, to others it’s one of the ten best bookstores in the world, but to me it’s the geek equivalent to the bar from TV’s “Cheers”. Now I may not go to my local joint everyday like those Boston lushes on the show, but I do take a leisurely stroll down Sunset Blvd. to pick me up some funny books every Wednesday where everybody (maybe?) knows my name. Not only do I get to enjoy some stimulating conversation with the comic book bartenders whilst I peruse their fine selection of comics, zines, graphic novels, and books by artists, on occasion I actually do get to enjoy a beer, or three, there as well. Those occasions being one of their art openings in their fantastic space that doubles as an art gallery. This Friday marks their latest opening featuring MATS!?

From the not-so-secret files of Secret Headquarters:

“MATS!? was born in France to itinerant Swedish parents. He commits his first artistic act in kindergarten in the form of a scatological graffiti on the blackboard. Rewarded as he was with corporal punishment, the artistic path was thus laid.

Mats!? past sporadic outputs of comic work, interspersed with commercial illustration work has given way to bouts of throwing paint on canvas as well as printing on glass. Through various mediums,the unifying factor in his work is his use of a visual vocabulary rooted in comics as means of expression.

Mats!? might be best known for his critically acclaimed book Asiaddict, an amazing cartoon travel log of his bizarre trip through Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. Mats!? has also created art for Last Gasp comix, Comix 2000, as well as the magazines Real Stuff (Fantagraphics) Buzzard (Cat-head comics), Hustler, Screw and BLAB!

The artist will attend the opening from 8pm to 10pm.

Secret Headquarters will feature Mats!? one-of-a kind original works of art through April 30th, 2008.”

Secret Headquarters is located on 3817 W Sunset Blvd. LA 90026 and is open Monday through Friday from 11am-9pm and on Sundays 12pm-7pm.

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Have you seen King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters yet? No? Well after you’re done slapping yourself in the face for sleeping on one of last year’s most entertaining films-documentary or otherwise, you may want to pinch yourself to make sure that what the good people at Machine Project have brought you isn’t just a dream. In conjunction with the Echo Park Film Center’s Thursday night screening of the King of Kong, the gallery folk next door will be satiating every retro gamers 8-bit fantasy: a 6 foot tall functioning Atari joystick. The joystick was recently part of Gallery 1988’s annual “I am 8-Bit” group art show and brought countless smiles to patrons faces as they played various retro games projected on the gallery wall.

From the maniacs at Machine Project:

“While the screening is going on next door, we’ll be giving you to the chance to start your own overblown gaming rivalry using a giant 6-foot-tall functional joystick! Come play Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and other classic-era video games projected on a wall-sized screen in the gallery.”

Although jumping over barrels while using your foot rather that your thumb is absolutely awesome, the real entertainment is at the King of Kong screening. The film follows two unlikely adversaries in Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe as they battle for the Donkey Kong world record scoring crown. Sounds pretty geeky, I know, but the film is more than just a video game showdown it’s the classic tale of good guy versus bad guy.  Only this time it’s set in loud arcades filled with crappy pizza and pimply faced teens. And pimply faced adults as well. Check the trailer here:

The King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters will be screening Thursday at 8pm, tickets are $5. Video Gaming shenanigans go from 8-11pm at Machine Project.

The Echo Park Film Center is located on 1200 N. Alvorado Street (at Sunset Blvd.) LA 90026. Machine Project is located right next door at 1200 D.

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If you’re a fan of laughter in the form of sketch comedy, live in Los Angeles, and are able to breath air, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t check out Emily Maya Mills new show Wall of Sound at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater tomorrow night. A veteran of stand-up, sketch and improv at many of the city’s top alternative comedy venues, Emily is not only performing in this show but shares writing duties as well. When Emily isn’t charming your socks off or making milk come out of your nose by making you laugh, she “imagines flying on the back of a friendly, long-necked dragon when she can’t sleep.” Wall of Sound premieres this Thursday at 8pm and if you’ve seen the lines outside the theater the nights of shows you know to arrive early. And If you don’t know about the lines outside the theater on nights of shows you should know to arrive early.

From the ultra talented Miss Emily Maya Mills herself:

“Dear Everybody Ever:

As a writer and performer, I’m really very proud of this show. Sketch may not be your cup of tea but I assure you, this is work worth seeing. My team WALL of SOUND debuts this Thursday at 8 pm at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. We are genius. I love you madly.

Teeny Tiny Kisses,
Emily Maya Mills

UCB’s MAUDE NIGHT! - “Sketch comedy from some of UCBTLA’s best sketch writers and performers!
Maude Night is your chance to see what the funniest, smartest people in Los Angeles are creating for the stage.”

The UCB Theater is located on 5919 Franklin Ave. Hollywood 90028 and features many of today’s top comedians and is responsible for Amy Poehler making millions of people laugh on Saturday Night Live. Or at least several thousand.

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The one year anniversary group art show for the Family bookstore on Fairfax comes to a close today. The walls of the store are completely covered by new and original works from dozens of well known artists and some not so well known ones as well. At the back of the store, beyond all the rows of must have books, you’ll find Mike Mills’ music video for Barr which utilizes every single news image from a past edition of the New York Times. You can also find Will Oldham’s exorbitantly priced photos of nothing in particular in gaudy frames (one suspects the asking price was more of an experiment more than anything) as well as this gem of a suitcase painted and relined by Aaron Rose. Check it out today if you can, you’ve got until 9pm!

Family is located on 436 N. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90036 and is open noon to 9pm daily.

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