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(click pics to see more of Mr. Brainwash’s brainwashing)

Last Sunday I was able to check out Mr. Brainwash’s (a.k.a. MBW) solo show Life Is Beautiful at the old CBS studios in Hollywood. I had seen MBW’s work on the street for some time now but aside from the pastings and stencils of the bug-eyed man with a film camera, I wasn’t sure what else this documentarian turned “street artist” was responsible for. Before entering the massive compound on Sunset blvd., you’re greeted by an equally massive Elvis cutout holding a toy machine gun. And as soon as you step in, you see more hugeness lining the courtyard; there’s an enormous pile of books with a laptop straddled on top which reads “Life Is Beautiful”, an over-sized paper bag with a Chinese food receipt stapled to it, and a cutout of an old-timey rendition of the Star Wars family. Very promising from the outside looking in.

The inside walls were lined with images of pop icons ranging from Hendrix to Run DMC to the Dalai Lama to of course, Elvis. Lots and lots of Elvis. The styles of Warhol, Banksy, and Shepard Fairey run rampant through MBW’s work, as is the case with many pop artists working today, but in addition to his emulation he has created an entire installation space that lives, breathes, and breeds pop culture and shaped it into his own thing. Even though that “thing” is derivative of what others have done before him, it’s still something to behold. The sheer volume of work is impressive, especially in putting together a 2 story art show, my only gripe is that it looks all too familiar and a tad redundant. Apparently, I’m still not sure what else Mr. Brainwash has done.

Exhibit hours and location:

June 27th-29th

1pm to 9pm

The show will be open Friday through Sunday for the months of June and July.

Show reopens mid-September with new art and installations.

6121 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90028

(Another fine flyer design from Keith Scharwath)

This Sunday June 29th, kick down your old new shoes for a good cause. Nike, Undefeated, and the illustrious Gents of Desire are kicking off a benefit for the East LA Community Youth Center where every pair of unworn shoes donated will be generously matched by Nike. In addition to helping out your fellow peoples, Nike and Undefeated will be hosting a picnic for you filled with food, drink, music, and a “lady pants” competition in their back alley featuring the artwork of the Gents of Desire. Your ticket in is the pair of shoes you’ll be donating. Read on for more info:

Time and place:

June 29th

5pm-9pm

UNDFTD Los Angeles

112 1/2 South La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036

Last Tuesday June 17th, Beautiful Losers screened at the 10th annual CineVegas Film Festival. The burgeoning Las Vegas festival which “annually presents work by innovative, uninhibited, and renegade artists to an audience of local and national film lovers, journalists, and film industry representatives” was home to some of Hollywood’s biggest stars over the past week and a half. With honorees James Caan, Don Cheadle, Rosario Dawson and Viggo Mortensen, in town as well as fellow actors Dennis Hopper, Anjelica Huston, and Sam Rockwell in the mix, we were honored just to be a part of such a prestigious event.

We felt even more honored when we were asked back to accept one of the festival’s awards at a luncheon ceremony on Saturday. Not knowing what we were fortunate enough to win, Jon Barlow (the film’s producer) and I headed to the City of Sin with modest expectations for a brief 6 hour stay, just enough time to collect our wares and avoid any real Vegas trouble. We were hoping for an award like the Documentary Audience Award where the winner is chosen by votes the audience casts after screenings, but much to our surprise we were handed the Documentary Jury Award which is determined by a panel of fellow filmmakers! To be honored in this way is extremely special for us and has exceeded all our expectations.

This distinction, in addition to winning the Outstanding Achievement in Documentary at the Newport Beach Film Festival, has given our little Loser of a film a small taste of what it’s like to actually win.

The lovely Jo Jackson on the red carpet of the Beautiful Losers CineVegas premiere.

The Festival also screened The Cool School, a documentary similar to our film in that it follows the careers of artists who came together in a small LA gallery in the 50’s and 60’s. A panel discussion between the screenings of our films entitled Marginal: Art for its Own Sake featured a live conversation with a group of artists from both films, including Billy Al Bengston, Dave Hickey, Jo Jackson, Geoff McFetridge, Ed Moses, Stephen Powers (ESPO) and CineVegas chairman Dennis Hopper.

(photos courtesy of Jon Barlow)

If you’ve been in the Hollywood area, specifically around the now defunct CBS building on Sunset and Gower, you may have seen some new billboards up where the likes of Jim Hill and the rest of the channel 2 news team have been resting for years. Consisting of Warhol’s iconic Campbell Soup image but on a can of spray paint, an interwoven black and white Miles Davis, and Pacino’s Scarface holding a machine gun pointing down at the street, these are no ordinary billboards. These are strategically placed ads for France’s Mr. Brainwash and his first solo art show entitled Life is Beautiful. Mr. Brainwash’s pastings and stencil work have been seen on the streets of LA for a while now as he oftentimes gets up with the likes of Banksy and Shepard Fairey. Here’s more info on Brainwash and his show which already had it’s opening night on Wednesday but will be up through the rest of the weekend:

Exhibit hours and location:

June 19th-22nd

1pm-9pm

6121 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

I’ve never been a fanatic of crazy-ass Korean artist and LA native David Choe’s art as much as I’ve been a fan of his process.  The way he creates on the spot, throwing intoxicated caution to the wind and his fearless adventures across the globe (see: The Vice Guide to Travel-Congo), is what I’ve mostly been drawn to.  This weekend, the documentary on his exploits over the past 7 years titled Dirty Hands: The Art & Crimes of David Choe makes it’s premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival.  The film follows Choe on his on-going escapades in art making around the world, his rise in the art community, his descent in his own personal life,  and even his stint in solitary confinement in a Japanese jail on charges of vandalization (the guy was still able to create art in his tiny cell using soy sauce and at times his own urine).  More about the film and his bad-assery here:

“Los Angeles artist David Choe is not as crazy as his violent, phantasmagoric, and sexual work across several media would suggest, he is considerably more so, embodying William Blake’s adage that “you never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.”
Captivated by Choe’s mania for adventure and excess, close friend Harry Kim filmed the artist’s “life and crimes” from 2000 to 2007, a period coinciding with Choe’s rise to fame and fortune in the art world as he matured from a street artist bombing underpasses and illustrating porn magazines to a respected muralist, painter, and graphic novelist. The ride, however, was a bumpy one. From jail sentences and an addiction to shoplifting and graffiti to dinosaur hunting and wrestling pygmies in the heart of the Congo, Choe’s irrepressible spirit is as much a model of unrestrained living as it is a cautionary example of excess.”

Saturday, June 21st 9:45pm Majestic Crest Theatre
Sunday, June 22nd 4:00pm Mann Festival Theatre
Thursday, June 26th 4:30pm Mann Festival Theatre

(click image to see more photos of The Sads silent show)

Last Saturday June 14th, The Sads played a “silent show” at the Westwood Art Forum. I had heard their previous foray into the silent show business went exceedingly well when they recently performed in New York. This time they were bringing along artist/designer/director Mike Mills along with them. I was definitely intrigued.

Upon entering the upstairs venue, I was greeted with a bit of laughter coming from one of the 3 television sets facing the sitting audience who were positioned in a circle around the room. The 3 video installations, which were created specifically for this show by Mr. Mills, were loops of iconic film clips featuring laughter, crying, and people saying “I love you”. The televisions continued to play through the band’s performance thus evoking a variety of emotions depending on where you were sitting. The one I sat closest too was laughter:

Also positioned in front of the audience were 50 headphones connected to amplifiers which in turn were hooked up to the bands instruments. When the lights dimmed it was time for the audience to put on their headphones. I had seen the band play once before and was impressed with how far they had come, but it was even more impressive to see how much further they have jelled since then. What I was listening to in that dark little room while watching James Dean continually laugh at me was something I hadn’t heard from them yet. It was again, something different that I welcomed and thoroughly enjoyed. With Dan Monick leaving the band to pursue other pursuits, The Sads have brought in a new drummer with more of a beat driven style and the pairing seems to have taken them to a new place as well as a new pace.

The band went on to perform their 25 minute tour de force while the Mills videos continued to sway your feelings one way or the other all while the attentive audience sat peacefully quiet enjoying the sadness of The Sads. I had to leave in a hurry, but I left smiling knowing that the band was progressing and affecting people differently. Or maybe it was the repeated image of the straggly haired Gary Sinise from Forrest Gump snickering out of the side of his mouth that put a smile on my face? It was definitely both.

Check out what the band had to say prior to their Saturday performance on KCRW here: The Sads on Weekend America

If my memory serves me correctly, and it rarely does these days (what am I even paying you for you stupid brain?!), graduation ceremonies for the younglings are currently in progress across the country. Which makes me wonder how well our future leaders and followers are being educated for the real world. Which in turn leads me to this segue to an excellent video from the annual creative idea conference, TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design). In February of 2006, Sir Ken Robinson went on to explain how creativity is not necessarily nurtured in our educational systems but rather brushed aside in favor of conventional thinking. Needless to say, this strikes a chord with me as I’ve always been an ardent supporter of logic but in my old age I’ve come to realize that being overly analytical may deprive oneself of being freely creative. This English chappy “makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.” It’s a must see for all you creative types, as well as for anyone with a brain. Especially those new brains just graduating from high school. But not for me, my brain and I are still fighting.

Thanks to Denny “Cool Breeze” Devries for dropping the science.

Extra credit! Sir Ken’s definition of “creativity” so you don’t need to watch it over and over like I did:

Creativity-Process of having original ideas that have value, more often than not comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things.

Last month I took the time to chuckle at our lovable mums for Mother’s Day. This Sunday, the 15th is Father’s Day so I thought why not honor them in the same way? By laughing at them. Now I don’t intend this to come off as mean spirited or hurtful in any way, but more as an alternative to the greeting card/gift giving mentality most of us are accustomed to. So take a look at some funny pictures (see above) at a site called manbabies where fathers and sons heads are chopped off and affixed to the latters bodies and maybe you’ll be inspired to do the same for your pops. Sure it sounds a bit morbid but hey, it’s Friday the 13th after all!

Slowly, softly, stylistically, and now silently, The Sads have been working their way into the heart of L.A. with their off-kilter songs of loves lost and sentimental hopes. Since their last public outing at agnes b. (which is covered right here), the quartet of Aaron Rose, Aska Matsumiya, Dan Monick, and David Scott Stone have been preparing a silent show for the rest of us romantics. What’s a silent show you ask? Please allow Mr. Rose elaborate:

‘Please join us this Saturday night for a very special silent performance by The Sads. If your wondering what a silent performance consists of, the concept is this: essentially we play all electronic instruments and sing directly into a board which then feeds out to multiple sets of individual headphones for the audience. When the headphones are off, the room is quiet…when you put them on, they’re full of loud, wonderful live music. Hence, a “silent” show. We’re working on a brand new composition for the performance, so we hope you can come share this with us. We did it in New York last year and it was an amazing experience!! Also, this year, filmmaker Mike Mills has created a special video installation for the performance which will play on multiple monitors throughout the performance. It’s seriously worth coming just for that!’

Here’s the info:

ANP QUARTERLY and THE VISION and ART of SHINJO ITO present
A SILENT PERFORMANCE by THE SADS
Video Installation by MIKE MILLS

SATURDAY, JUNE 14th, 2008

Two Performances: 8:00 & 9:00 PM (doors open 7:30)
Due to limited headphones, please arrive early.

WESTWOOD ART FORUM
1028 WESTWOOD BLVD (just north of Hammer Museum)
LOS ANGELES, CA 90024

www.westwoodartforum.com
www.thesads.com

Invitation design: Mike Mills

And for those of you unfamiliar with the work of Mike Mills, he’s responsible for some of your Sonic Youth, Beastie Boys, and Air album artwork, and skateboard and t-shirt graphics. He’s also reminded us it’s ok to suck our thumbs by directing Thumbsucker as well as many other creative music videos, commercials, and graphic design endeavors.

Yesterday I ran a post on the upcoming global graffiti film Bomb It, so I thought a good follow up would be to point you in the direction towards more of the same. Specifically an interview with Barry McGee a.k.a. Twist, one of my favorite artists whose work started on the streets. Vice’s online broadcast network, VBS.TV, has a plethora of cool shows on many cultural topics one of which is Art Talk. Recently Aaron Rose did an interview, of sorts, with Barry for the show. My only problem with this genius little video is that I didn’t get to edit it.

(animations by the über talented new dad Max Erdenberger of Central Office and Viewers Like You.)

(You can check out part 2 of the interview by clicking right here.)

And if you want to see more unique videos, VBS also features shows ranging from the photographically sexy (Shot By Kern), to our polluted environment (Toxic-Garbage Island), to iconic skateboarders and their craft (Epicly Later’d), to even more garbage (Manila’s City of Garbage), to inside looks into places we’re not really allowed in (The Vice Guide To North Korea). Collect them all!