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Family, the friendly provider of keenly curated books, zines, contemporary arts and unique hand made items, hosts an opening party for their latest famously elaborate window displays. Created by William Lemon III and titled Parceval, the display’s unveiling will also be accompanied by a live in-store musical performance by Pharaohs.

Also…for a closer look at Family on Fairfax, check out Lance Bangs and VBS.tv’s mini documentary on the unique Los Angeles bookstore below.

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Mother’s Day comes early this year as Giant Robot’s continuing Film Matters series treats you to a free screening of Bong Joon-Ho’s (The Host, Tokyo) latest award-winning film, Mother (in select theaters March 12).

RSVP for the free screening here.

More from the Giant Robots:

“The South Korean filmmaker is known to most American moviegoers for his post-modern monster movie, The Host, but before that he directed the much darker works, Barking Dogs Never Bite and Memories of Murder. Since contributing the otaku-themed “Shaking Tokyo” segment of the Tokyo! omnibus (along with Michel Gondry and Leos Carrax), Bong has gone on to direct Mother, which competed at Cannes in 2009 and has gone on to win accolades for his unrelenting direction and lead actress Kim Hye-ja’s gritty performance.

Trust us: (1) The less you know about the plot about a single mother’s relentless efforts to defend her obtuse son from a murder charge, the better, and (2) you’ll want to see this harsh-but-human movie in a theater.”

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MANIFESTEQUALITY, one of the biggest and most important contemporary art shows to come to Los Angeles in recent memory, holds it’s closing night party tonight in Hollywood. The massive show, which features works from over 200 artists in the name of equal rights, held it’s opening night’s party on Wednesday (coverage to come) and is worth checking out and supporting. That is, of course, if you enjoy art and supporting other human beings.

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Good news sports, photography and sports photography lovers! The Annenberg Space for Photography has extended the Sport: Iooss & Leifer exhibit showcasing the amazing photos of two living legends, Walter Iooss and Neil Leifer. The first ever two-man show at the Annenberg features some of the most iconic sports imagery ever photographed displayed up close and on a larger than life scale.

Overview of the exhibit here, including details on the Annenberg’s digital feature and videos.

Also…click here to listen to KCRW’s intimate interview with Neil Leifer.

The following is a brief sampling of the genius eyes and timing of Iooss and Leifer. (text via The Annenberg Space for Photography)

• Neil Leifer

“Neil Leifer’s photography career has spanned almost 50 years. Specializing in sports photography, Leifer’s photos have regularly appeared in every major national magazine, including the Saturday Evening Post, Look, LIFE, Newsweek, People and, most often, Sports Illustrated. Leifer’s pictures have graced over 200 covers of Time Inc. publications — 170 at Sports Illustrated, and 40 at TIME Magazine. Leifer has published 15 books. The most recent two, Ballet in the Dirt: The Golden Age of Baseball (2007) and Guts and Glory: The Golden Age of American Football 1958-1978 (2008) both published by Taschen, are already considered classics. Leifer photographed his favorite subject, Muhammad Ali, on at least 70 separate occasions, including 35 fights.  Leifer is now a full-time filmmaker. He has produced and/or directed two features, five documentaries and eight short films.”

Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston II

Ali vs. Williams

Joe Namath

Reggie Jackson

Vince Lombardi

• Walter Iooss

“Walter Iooss is an award-winning legend in sports photography, best known for his nearly 300 Sports Illustrated covers, as well as his portraits of famous athletes like Michael Jordan, Ken Griffey, Jr., Brett Favre, Joe Montana and Wayne Gretzky. In his career, he has covered virtually every major sports event, including all 43 Super Bowls. In 1982, his project on athletes working their way to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles resulted in publication of the book, Shooting for the Gold. He has published a number of other books, including Baseball, Football and Sports People, and created a masterful photo essay with Michael Jordan, Rare Air, which topped The New York Times Best Sellers list. His latest work, Athlete, was released in May 2008, and marks his 14th book. In 2004, Iooss received the Lucie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sports Photography.”

Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan

John McEnroe

“The Catch”

Brooklyn Decker (what? Sports Illustrated swimsuit models count too!)

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United Front front man/super producer Michael Abbott invites you to get STRIPPED in Hollywood next Monday for the pre-premiere of David Palmer and avant-garde photographer Greg Friedler’s documentary on the Las Vegas sub-culture, STRIPPED.

Check the STRIPPED trailer in all it’s naked glory here.

From the Abott:

“Come experience STRIPPED before it premieres on Showtime on March 18th on Capitol City’s 14 foot by 8 foot Hi-Definition screen as well as on all 45 of their 60 and 65 inch plasma screens for this incredible indoor/outdoor one time only viewing experience in the heart of Hollywood.”

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No, not THE Continental with Christopher Walken, the Continental Gallery downtown which is hosting my fellow Academy of Art film alum Matthias Koenigswieser and five of his contemporaries in the group show, Focus Daily. Detailed info on the show here.

From the Continental:

“Focus Daily renders the works of six young contemporary artists – Lukas Gansterer, Matthias Koenigswieser, Ulrich Nausner, Thomas Rhube, Clemens Wolf from Austria and Joseph Kosir from Netherlands - whose prolific and joint collaboration lead to their first collective exhibition in Los Angeles. Diverse media (photography, video, installation and painting) merge to set conceptual images of an exposed contemporaneousness, engaging relations between individual and outer world, investigating and challenging dominant rules and social conventions, exploring new communicative visual imagery.”

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UPDATE: More from Ed’s Toy Machine blog:

“I went minimal for this show, a departure from my usual chaotic display. But there was a theme and concept for this show that I stuck to. All photos were shot from a moving car, and all hung in a straght line.”

Last week Ed opened his latest photo show The Seconds Pass at Culver City’s Roberts & Tilton to the usual large gathering of skaters, photographers and art appreciators alike. And what we all saw was a show that was slightly different for Ed, as in streamlined opposed to his signature clustering style, more “in the moment” snapshots and far less nude/explicit imagery than what viewers have grown accustomed to over the years. All in all, Ed’s The Second Pass is definitely worth a second pass.

Show runs at Roberts & Tilton through April 3, 2010.

Many thanks to my friend Yoshi Shimura of Megane Zine and Star Graphics fame for providing the following photos from the opening. Please click here to see Yoshi’s entire set.

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The good lads at Secret Headquarters in Silver Lake not only sell the finest comic books in all the land, they also do a fine job of bringing you art shows in the finest of environments. This weekends’ Covered group show, where a plethora of artists re-interpret comic book covers, is no exception and marks the shops largest show to date (I was fortunate enough to get a sneak peek and the art is bonkers. Make sure to look for Johnny Ryan’s contribution!)

Check a preview of the pieces on Flickr here.

More from the Secreters:

“Artists from North America and Europe re-imagine old comic covers in their own style. Based on the blog: www.coveredblog.blogspot.com and curated by blog editor, Robert Goodin.

Artists included are: Andrew Brandou, Jeffrey Brown, Albert Calleros, Coop, Ludovic Debeurme, Michael Deforge, Valerie Fletcher, Yoko Furusho, Robert Goodin, Lisa Hanawalt, Dustin Harbin, Sammy Harkham, Sam Henderson, Josh Holinaty, Patrick Kochakji, Joy Kolitsky, Joe Lambert, Bob London, Tom Neely, Ben Newman, Laura Park, Brian Ralph, Aaron Renier, M. Jason Robards, Johnny Ryan, Richard Sala, Genevieve Simms, Jeremy Tinder, Jon Vermilyea, Anthony Vukojevich, and Steven Weissman.

The show can also be experienced on The Covered blog with one new cover being posted per day beginning March 6th. Work can be purchased by following a link to the Secret Headquarters Flickr page or calling Secret Headquarters….“

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The ubiquitous Uglydolls and their creators, husband and wife team of David Horvath and Sun-min Kim, stop by Giant Robot’s GR2 on Sawtelle to sign limited edition brand new “2002 Giant Robot Ice-Bats”.

From the Giant Robots:

“The plush will come in an edition of 300 and will also be distributed to our San Francisco and New York locations. It will be available at 3:00 pm at our Los Angeles location and at noon for our San Francisco and New York locations.”

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For the east coasters who weren’t able to view Giant Robot’s Biennale 2: 15 Years at the Japanese American National Museum, you’ll soon be able to see what made Giant Robot’s anniversary show such a success as Prints and Pieces comes to GRNY this Saturday.

Among the artists featured will be Takashi Murakami, Chiho Aoshima, David Choe, Ai Yamaguchi, David Horvath, Dehara, and Le Merde.

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