chumpchampion

As the most important election for our future fast approaches, some friends and I have put together the Barack On! Obamathon, a fundraiser for Barack Obama’s final push to the Presidency. The event will be held at Fresh Pressed on Hollywood Blvd. in Los Feliz (where Shepard Fairey recently put up an Obama/Hope rooftop wall mural) on the night of Friday, October 17th from 6-11pm.

We’ve teamed with local artists who’ve contributed pro-Obama designs for live screen-printing of shirts, garments, and posters. Artists include Max Erdenberger, Jimm Lasser, Jessica Louise, Megan McGinley, Lenny Mesina, Keith Scharwath, and more! PROCEEDS WILL GO STRAIGHT TO THE OBAMA/BIDEN CAMPAIGN TO CONTINUE RAISING AWARENESS IN THE REMAINING SWING STATES. Pricing for goods will go as follows (cash only please!):

• $20 shirt/garment

• $10 B.Y.O.T. (bring your own T or other printable garment)

• $10 poster on French paper

In addition to designs, drinks, and djs, the good folks who put on the Obama Bake Sale Fundraiser will also be in attendance to fill your appetites for change!

Thanks for your support and I hope you’ll join us in helping make a difference!

*If you’d like to bake some noise and participate in the bake sale or volunteer for the event please contact Nikki Braendlin at nikkibraendlin@gmail.com

*And if you’d like to contribute but can’t make it, please help us reach our fundraising goal by visiting our official webpage and making a donation here:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/BarackOnObamathon

It’s always nice to see an up and coming band you’ve been following come up. It’s even nicer when that band is a group of your friends. With two of their latest tracks featured in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and having just performed on Indie 103.1 over the weekend, Army Navy continue their sonic land and sea attack as they celebrate their latest record release at the Echo tonight at 8:30. Enlist now!

Los Angeles native son Sage Vaughn opens his latest show “Native Sons” this weekend, fittingly in LA. He also has recently contributed his artwork for an amazing music video collaboration for Squeak E. Clean’s upcoming N.A.S.A. project. The video features Sage’s trademark bluebirds and cardinals engaged in aerial combat over a blazing track featuring the RZA, Barbie Hatch, and John Frusciante. More to come on that front soon!

October 11 - 16, 2008
opening on Saturday, 11th of October
from 6 - 9 pm, with artist in attendance

1446 East Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90021
http://www.bertrand-gruner.com

The Sads DJ set at the Cha Cha tonight will make many people very happy. Especially since they’ll be taking their silent show across the pond for a European tour through October. Come listen to obscure records and wish them a bon voyage or just a good voyage!

Filmmaker. Painter. Fantasizer. Dodger fan. My girl Molly Schiot is many things. Artist with a show opening tonight is another. Go west and check it!

THANK YOU! Thanks to all of you East and West coasters who’ve come out to support Beautiful Losers and helped spread the films message to your friends and family! With good word of mouth continuing to extend from person to person, through the web, and in print, we’ll be bringing our little film up the coast to San Francisco for another homecoming of sorts. Here’s a brief rundown of where we’ve been theatrically in the U.S. so far:

Los Angeles: At each of the 4 Q&A sessions we did on opening weekend 4 different people from the audience stood up and paid us the highest compliment, they thanked us for making this film. Come see what’s moving people! Last show is TODAY, Thursday September 4th @ 5:00, 7:30, and 10:00.
Tickets available here: Landmark Nuart Theatre

New York: The attendance of the late night showings at the IFC Center have been so strong that they extended the run for an additional 2 weeks longer than we were supposed to be in the theater. Last shows are this FRIDAY and SATURDAY September 5th+6th @ 12:25 a.m.
Tickets and more info here: IFC Center

San Francisco: You’re next! San Francisco premiere this Friday, September 5th with Q&A’s following the 7:00 and 9:00 shows.
Tickets available here: Landmark Lumiere Theatre

If you have peoples up North, please pass along the info that we’ll be making our Bay Area premiere this weekend. Your help has been invaluable and very appreciated! Thank you all again for helping make Beautiful Losers such a success!

(Sneak peek of the Nike/UNDFTD billboard on La Brea and 1st St. Design by Keith Scharwath)

On Friday August 29th, Beautiful Losers makes it’s Los Angeles premiere at Landmark’s Nuart Theater. To date, the response to our little film has been overwhelmingly positive and audiences have eagerly embraced our message of inspiration and creativity with open arms. With no major film distribution company behind us, we’ve been fortunate enough to have gained the support and good will from audiences who have seen the film and have continued to spread the good word amongst friends, family, and something called the “internets”. Hopefully this grass roots approach can continue to bring our film to more and more cities as we have just added Boston to our tour which already includes San Francisco, Portland, and Chicago.

The 7:30 and 10pm shows on opening night will feature Q&A sessions with myself, Aaron Rose, and Money Mark. Tickets for the L.A. premiere and theatrical run are now on sale and can be purchased at Landmark’s website here (Make sure you’re purchasing tickets for the correct shows. Dates are listed in the pull down menu above the showtimes!)

Fresh from Tokyo, Japan after our official theatrical world premiere (much more on the Japan trip coming soon), Beautiful Losers makes it’s homecoming with the U.S. theatrical premiere on August 8th at the IFC Center in New York city. This release has been a long while coming as we’ve been on the festival road for over a year now, even capturing a documentary jury prize along the way. Select showings of this weekend’s special release will feature Q&A sessions with several artists from the film. The lineup goes as follows:

Friday, Aug.8th @ 8:20 - Aaron Rose, Steve Powers (ESPO), Chris Johanson, and Cheryl Dunn

Friday, Aug.8th @ 10:20 - Aaron Rose, Cheryl Dunn, and Lenny Mesina

Saturday, Aug.9th @ 8:20 - Aaron Rose, Tobin Yelland, and Lenny Mesina

Saturday, Aug.9th @ 10:20 - Aaron Rose, Cheryl Dunn, and Lenny Mesina

Tickets can be bought right here. (Make sure you’re purchasing tickets for the correct shows. Dates are listed in the pull down menu above the showtimes!)

The New York theatrical release at the IFC Center will run from August 8th through the 28th before shifting to the West Coast with runs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and finally end in Chicago (the film may have a longer run depending on the success of this initial roll out).

In addition to the the film’s U.S. launch, Nike Sportswear has partnered with us to give back to the people. “Make Something!!” is a series of D.I.Y. creative art-based workshops taught by some of today’s best creators aimed at inspiring and educating young people. The first set starts in New York and runs from August 8th through the 22nd and then moves to Los Angeles and goes from August 29th through September 8th. The workshops range from sign painting, photography, skateboard graphic design, toy design, filmmaking, tattoo art, footwear design and zine making. Classes will be taught by the likes of Aaron Rose, KAWS, Todd James, Tobin Yelland, Cheryl Dunn, Mike Mills, Ed Templeton, Money Mark, and yours truly to name a few. Come by my class August 30th where I’ll be teaching kids the dark arts of film editing! More on the workshops to come as they happen.

The paint is still drying and the time is almost upon us. The highly anticipated show will open tomorrow night at the Laforet Museum at 6pm! Like the sign says…

ESPO vs. Valentino? Find out what it’s about in a few days!

Steve Powers, a.k.a. ESPO, has long been one of my favorite artists for both his sarcastic signs and clean lines. Along with the rest of the artists putting together the show, the studio gangster is currently holed up in the exhibition space cooking up punchline after punchline. When he’s not perusing the aisles of Tokyo Hands of course. Here’s the hand made myth himself along with Jo Jackson, Aaron Rose, and Yours Truly.