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This Saturday January 31st from 3-5pm, master painter Mark Ryden makes his way to the MOCA to sign copies of his latest exhibition book, “The Tree Show”. This chronicling of Ryden’s latest works shows how he took his vacant-eyed cast of magical and melancholic characters and set them afoot in the woods and forests of his mind. Ironically, the beautiful 128 pages of the book are made of mutilated bits and pieces of the artist’s subject matter…TREES! More from Markryden.com:

“A showcase of pieces from Mark Ryden’s 2007 major solo exhibition at the Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, the Tree Show Book features over 130 color images including Mark’s paintings, drawings, studies, and sculptural works. This 128-page hard bound full-color edition also includes a wealth of Mark’s inspirational reference materials as well as an essay by Holly Meyers and artist’s statement.”

“The Tree Show” Book Signing
Saturday, January 31, 3–5 pm
MOCA Store, MOCA Grand Avenue
250 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Ph: 213-621-1710
[ mapquest directions ]

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When you’ve legally changed your name to John S. Rad, you’re the director/writer/editor/composer/producer/set decorator/production designer of a film which possibly took over a decade to make, cast a villanous albino named Black Pepper, and the tagline for your movie is “An unforgettable suspense, mystery drama” you know you’re entering the realm of movies that are so-bad-they’re-good. In fact, you may even be joining the pantheon of the worst movie of all time. And that’s exactly why Dangerous Men is playing tonight at midnight for The Cinefamily’s screening at the Silent Movie Theater (no they don’t just play silent movies, it’s just called that). Tickets for this 2005 release which looks like it was shot in 1985 are only $10 and can be bought here.

For more info on Dangerous Men, read Variety’s disgusted review from 2005 and a sympathetic interview with John S. Rad himself on Cinemad.

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“Rodney Dangerfield” - detail - enamel on powder coated steel - 61×61cm - 2008

Tonight the high-topped tight-tipped sultan of the subversive, Steve Powers (a.k.a. ESPO), brings his artistic stylings overseas to Belgium, Germany for his latest show “Semaphores of the Soul” at the Alice Gallery in Brussels. For years now ESPO has been bridging the gap from his roots in graf to fine art to installations, indoors and out, and those who know know ESPO runs the show. And yes, I know most everyone who reads this won’t be making it out to Deustchland for the opening or even during the shows run. But I just had to post this and support Steve as he’s one of my all-time favorite artists, dead or alive.

“Semaphores of the Soul” opening January 29th, 2009 from 6-10pm

Exhibition runs through March 7th, 2009

Also, here’s the trailer for Deitch Project’s legendary Street Market in 2000 featuring ESPO, TWIST (Barry McGee), and REAS (Todd James). Directed by Beautiful Loser’s director of special forces the one and only Joey G, Joey Garfield.

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Funny little advert for Durex condoms “released” earlier this month featuring balloon animals doing naughty, squeaky things. Wednesday is called hump day after all.

And for more condom comedy, here are the “outtakes” from director/designer collective Superfad’s “shoot”.

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It’s now been one full week with Barack H. Obama as the President of the United States, and yet for some (Fox News-what a surprise) the reality has yet to completely sink in. In the case that you’re still unaware of who our current President is or are just plain curious to see exactly how long President Obama has been our Commander in Chief, click the image below for our President’s current running time on IsObamaPresident.com.

And if you still can’t believe it, click here to relive the best moments from last week’s Inauguration Day. (My personal favorite was when civil rights leader Joseph Lowery reminded me that I’m somewhere between “stick around” and being “mella”.)

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Left to Right: Sage Vaughn, Mark Gonzalez, Shepard Fairey, Marcel Dzama, The Date Farmers

The coverage for N.A.S.A.’s highly anticipated debut album “Spirit of the Apollo” continues with the just released album cover art by 5 major artists. Every album will come packed with 5 versions of the cover contributed by Shepard Fairey, Marcel Dzama, Mark Gonzalez, The Date Farmers, and Sage Vaughn. And not only have these artistic heavies contributed with the album’s cover, but their work will be featured in music videos for songs off the album. The first video for “Money” with art by Shepard Fairey features Chuck D., David Byrne, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge and Z-Trip. Vote for your favorite on Blender.com’s online poll.

In related news, get to know half of the N.A.S.A. duo with this video of our friend Squeak E. Clean (a.k.a. Sam Speigel a.k.a. brother of Spike Jonze a.k.a. musical mathematician) giving you a tour of the creatively infamous Crack Alley Studios:

And finally to keep N.A.S.A.’s good times rolling, “Sprit of the Apollo” record release parties will be going down this week in Los Angeles (1/27) and New York (1/29). Click the flyers below for more info and to RSVP:

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Bars & Tones from André Chocron on Vimeo.

Although this piece by André Chocron has been online for about a month now, I couldn’t resist posting it after finding out that it was completely edited in Final Cut Pro. As an editor who mainly cuts on Avid, I find this bit of filmmaking to be extremely impressive despite my disdain for Apple’s innefficient editing system. Big props to this student filmmaker from Oslo who cleverly put his spin on one of the most annoying test patterns the world has ever seen and heard.

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With recent posts on N.A.S.A.’s upcoming mega collab album “Spirit of the Apollo” (the music video for their first single “Money”, as well as their latest released track “Wachadoin?”) I teased a trailer I edited for the album’s accompanying documentary film. Chronicling the N.A.S.A. crews’ exploits with world class musicians in studios across the globe in addition to showcasing some of the uniquely animated music videos created for each track, I hope this trailer does what it’s supposed to do and gets you hyped for one of the best audio/visual projects of the year. Although I highly doubt you’ll need any of my help once you’ve checked out the track list below:

N.A.S.A.’s debut album “The Spirit of Apollo” hits the shelves 2/17/09 on ANTI-.

01. Intro
02. The People Tree (feat. David Byrne, Chali 2na, Gift of Gab, & Z-Trip)
03. Money (feat. David Byrne, Chuck D, Ras Congo, Seu Jorge, & Z-Trip)
04. NASA Music (feat. Method Man, E-40, & DJ Swamp)
05. Way Down (feat. RZA, Barbie Hatch, & John Frusciante)
06. Hip Hop (feat. KRS-One, Fatlip, & Slim Kid Tre)
07. Four Rooms, Earth View
08. Strange Enough (feat. Karen O, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, & Fatlip)
09. Spacious Thoughts (feat. Tom Waits & Kool Keith)
10. Gifted (feat. Kanye West, Santogold, & Lykke Li)
11. A Volta (feat. Sizzla, Amanda Blank, & Lovefoxxx)
12. There’s a Party (feat. George Clinton & Chali 2na)
13. Whachadoin? (feat. Spank Rock, M.I.A., Santogold, & Nick Zinner)
14. O Pato (feat. Kool Kojak & DJ Babão)
15. Samba Soul (feat. Del Tha Funkee Homosapien & DJ Qbert)
16. The Mayor (feat. The Cool Kids, Ghostface Killah, DJ AM, & Scarface)
17. N.A.S.A. Anthem

For all your N.A.S.A. related needs, head to:

http://www.squeakecleanblog.com/nasa-music/
http://www.myspace.com/nasa
http://www.myspace.com/squeakeclean
http://www.myspace.com/djzegon

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This Saturday January 24th, New Image Art Gallery turns the tender age of 15 years old. To celebrate, this Los Angeles landmark of culture has invited back some of the most prolific painters, photographers, president makers, and vandals to have ever hung pictures on their walls. One look at the list of featured artists below and you’ll soon realize that New Image Art is the place to be Saturday night. And although Marsea has opened up the space next door, expect this proper party to be pretty packed so get there early! Musical performance by No Age too!

New Image Art 15 Year Anniversary Show
Art, Music, Video
Saturday Jan. 24th 7-11pm
7910 Santa Monica Boulevard

Also, if you’d like to lend a helping hand for the opening click here.

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Barack steady Mr. President, rock until the break of dawn!

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