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A wild weekend awaits with James Jean, Michael vs. Prince, Wild Things x 2, the antichrist in a cemetery, and Barry McGee somewhere in Pasadena.

• The super talented James Jean signs various items at Giant Robot’s GR2 on Sawtelle.

• Michael Jackson. Prince. DJ Spinna makes you dance your ass off time to their music at Soul Slam LA V at the Echoplex in Echo Park.

• Where the Wild Things Are monster suits created by Christian Joy and sold for charity at Space 15 Twenty along with an exclusive pop-up shop in Hollywood. The always rock ready Squeak E. Clean will be providing the music. Click here or below for more information and to see each unique monster suit.

• Where the Wild Things Are will also be in Alhambra for the Terrible Yellow Eyes group show at Gallery Nucleus.

• Cinespia’s last screening of the season is Roman Polanski’s classic 1968 horror film Rosemary’s Baby at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Needless to say, creepiness ensues.

• Barry Mcgee, Ed Ruscha and many more install installations outdoors and indoors for Installations Inside/Out: Armory 20th Anniversary Exhibition at the Armory Center for the Arts as well as various outdoor locations around Pasadena.

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So it seems that the end of Summer not only makes way for Fall, but also the beginning of the art season. If you live in the LA area, love art, like mingling with people who also love art, and enjoy drinking free alcohol while looking at said art then you’re in luck because this weekend is chock full of openings and all those things.

• The British artist collective known simply as The London Police respond to a call at the Carmichael Gallery on La Brea bringing with them Brothers in Arms, an exhibition of all new Hollywood-themed paintings, video and photography.

• Los Angeles photographer extraordinaire Doug Aitken migrates to Regen Projects on Santa Monica with a series of new text-based light boxes along with the west coast debut of the film Migration. *Also, the large-scale cinematic installation will be presented to the public on Santa Monica Boulevard projected onto the courtyard of Regen Projects II; visible only at night from sunset to sunrise. Check out some beautiful production stills from the film here.

• Cartoon master painter Kenny Scharf comes home to the Honor Fraser Gallery on La Cienega with Barberadise, a showcase of new paintings that integrate familiar icons from Scharf’s visual lexicon and implies a utopian world that is at once nostalgically comic and vibrantly cosmic.

• Camille Rose Garcia comes to the Merry Karnowsky Gallery on La Brea and brings with her The Hydra of Babylon, her latest paintings on wood and paper which explore the converging ecological and human catastrophes and the healing power of nature.

• And Then The Wind Changed so says Australian artist Anthony Lister as he brings his solo show to the venerable New Image Art Gallery on Santa Monica.

• Philip Lumbang brings his friendly faced bears and found mediums to a warehouse space in LA and transforms it all into a gallery space as he opens his show, Hug Life. Special musical guests DJ Diabetic (Shepard Fairey) and Intricate Machines will keep the show rocking all night long.

• The super successful Scion Installation 5 Tour comes to a close with Scion Art Tour: Self Portrait at the Scion Space in Culver City. Among the artists whose portraits will be auctioned off for the charity Creative Capitol include Blek Le Rat, David Choe, Ron English, Mark Mothersbaugh, Retna, Souther Salazar, Jeff Soto, Sage Vaughn and many more. Click here to take a look at the art for auction.

• Flock to the Flock Shop in Chinatown as they celebrate their 2 year anniversary with a show of Patrick Hruby’s new serigraph work in CMY Not?

• Cinespia’s second to last screening of the season brings Tim Burton’s 1985 classic comedy Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure to both the dead and undead at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

• And finally for all you music lovers and beat heads out there, spend your Sunday diggin the crates with fellow record collecting connoissieurs at the Beat Swap Meet at the Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown.

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Close out the summer this Labor Day weekend with art openings, saving our state parks by dancing your ass off and watching classic movies in unusual places around Los Angeles.

• Brooklyn based artist Jon Vermilyea brings an Attack From Space with art and a new silkscreen book to The Secret Headquarters in Silver Lake.

• Fresh friends at Fresh Pressed host Michael C. Hsiung and his cast of mythical creatures for an opening and live screenprinting of select works in Los Feliz.

• Picnicing, beer tasting and “beautiful baby” watching at the Barnsdall Art Park for an outdoor movie night featuring Jon Favreau’s Los Feliz inspired Swingers.

• Go to the Fuck Yeah Fest and help save our state parks while enjoying the musical stylings of the Black Lips, No Age, Tim and Eric and many more F-Yeahers at the Los Angeles State Historic Park.

• Buff Monster brings a Heavy Metal Ice Cream Smile to the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City just in time to cool off and close out the summer.

• Be there for Being There at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery as Cinespia presents the 1979 dramedy (and original Forrest Gump) directed by Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude) starring Peter Sellers.

• Enjoy your day off while watching the recently departed John Hughes’ 1986 classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Also at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

• Also on Saturday night, The Cinefamily on Fairfax and Paul F. Tompkins (Mr. Show) has an adventure for you should you choose to accept it: Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure directed by Tim Burton. Screening as part of the Upright Citizens Brigade’s Comedy Death Ray series.

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Got time for things to do on a Saturday in Los Angeles? Sure you do. Hopefully LA will stop burning by then.

• Tony Alva’s Exhibit A Gallery on Fairfax goes Bipolar with the group show featuring the likes of Tim Biskup, Bigfoot and Tiffany Liu among others.

• Hi-Fructose and Gallery Nucleus present Sweet Streets, a group exhibition inspired by the ever-changing and uniquely unexpected Japanese fashion sub-cultures. Featuring Tim Biskup and
  Tiffany Liu in another weekend show, Junko Mizuno, Kozyndan, Yumiko Kayukawa and many many more.

• The Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo opens for Mike Shinoda (yes, the Lincoln Park dj) as he follows his highly-successful 2008 show, Glorious Excess (Born) with Glorious Excess (Dies), the next chapter in his series exploring society’s obsession with celebrity culture, consumer addiction, and fascination with excess.

• And why not end your Saturday watching werewolves while in a cemetery? Cinespia and the Hollywood Forever Cemetery screen John Landis’ classic 1979 horror film, An American Werewolf in London.

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Los Angeles has it good this weekend with movies about the outdoors screened indoors, movies actually outdoors, outdoor BBQ’s x 2, and outdoor music under the bridge.

• Stay cool indoors Friday night as The Cinefamily goes Jacques Cousteau with not one, but two of his undersea adventure films: Le Monde Du Silence (The Silent World) and Le Monde Sans Soleil (The World Without Sun).

• LA’s first annual Korean BBQ Cook-Off. No explanation necessary other than this is going to be delicious.

• Cinespia screens the Steve McQueen classic car chase caper, Bullit, as it speeds through the Hollywood Forever Cemetery Saturday night.

• Go Under the Bridge in Echo Park with Aska Matsumiya and the Moonrats, Warpaint, and Elephant. Bonus music video premiere of the Moonrats latest, “Goodnight Blues”.

• Looking for more meats this weekend? Look no further than the Chili Cook Off Freedom Party this Sunday with music provided by my man DJ Bryan Davidson in Playa del Rey. Proceeds go to charity.

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Oh how I long to be one of the many thousands of lucky nerds in San Diego for Comic-Con (still can’t believe I’ve never been, I fear my dork credibility may be in jeopardy!) Fortunately there are many a happening around Los Angeles to take your mind off all the geeky goodness we’re missing out on.

• With that being said, allow me to start with a few events at Comic-Con for those who made the trek down the 405 freeway:

Artist signings by Mark Ryden, Joe Ledbetter, James Jean, The Pizz, Scott Musgrove, Ron English, and Travis Louie for Last Gasp Publishing.

James Jean (again), David Choe, and David Horvath for Giant Robot.

And a Tim and Eric sighting at their very own con of the awesome variety, appropriately called Awesome Con!

• Wayne White (one of my favorite typographists) and Exene Cervenka fly their way over to the Western Project Gallery in Culver City with their two person show, We Are Not the Jetset.

• Stick around Culver City for a three person show featuring some Heavy Petting with David Burke, Riddles In the Dark with Mia, and Keep It Down with guest artist Sarah Folkman at the Corey Helford Gallery.

• Don’t leave Culver City just yet cause the Scion Installation Space opens up it’s place for the 2009 Vice Magazine Photography Exhibition featuring Jamie Lee Curtis Taete, Maggie Lee, and former Vice photo editor, Tim Barber.

• Cinespia presents The Muppet Movie at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, need I say more?

• Recoup on Sunday and take an Urban Hike through Little Tokyo with the Architecture and Design Museum Los Angeles.

• Spread your wings and fly to the MOCA’s Pacific Design Center on Melrose for an art talk with Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues whose installation Feathered Edge: A New Installation by Ball-Nogues Studio is currently on view and features “over 21 miles of colored strings configured in catenary curves span the gallery space to form a dynamic environment.”

• And finally, end your weekend on a “high” note (yeah, that’s right I said it) with Cheech and Chong’s classic Up in Smoke at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

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If you’re in town this weekend and you love watching films in a cemetery you’re in luck as LA brings you two classics along with some cartoons from your childhood jumbled just for you.

• Silver Lake’s Secret Headquarters bring yet another talented artist into the fold as Jeremy Eaton unveils his latest series of his popular Cartoon Jumbles this Friday. More from the Secret Heads here.

• With this year’s crop of summer blockbusters completely sucking so far (aside from Star Trek of course, Terminator+Transformers=trash), it’s nice to see a true summer hit back on the screen when the daddy of them all comes to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery as Cinespia presents Speilberg’s 1975 classic, Jaws.

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Come one, come all! LA is once again hustlin’ and bustlin’ this weekend with art, film, food, and music galore.

• Arkitip gets down with the ubiquitous Shepard Fairey tonight in Hollywood for the release of issue no. 0051, art installations, and of course Shep and guest djs on the 1’s and 2’s. All courtesy of Alife.

• Celebrate at Chinatown’s Ooga Booga with good ol’ Cali and crew for the unveiling of Teenage Teardrop’s six latest drops: three new 12″s by Nick Dewitt, Lucky Dragons, and Infinite Body, two new t-shirts for the summer, and one new zine! Live performances by the aforementioned artists as well as a dj set by Eddie Ruscha.

• The Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax continue June’s Comedy Death Ray (Upright Citizens Brigade) series with Patton Oswalt presenting Larry Cohen’s 1976 thriller, God Told Me To. Says funny man Patton, “I picked God Told Me To because I’ve never seen it — and I’ve always wanted to see Andy Kaufman go on a shooting rampage.” I smell unintentional comedy brewing.

• Opening this Saturday at the Scion Space on La Cienega is This Must Be The Place, a collection of art and oddities by eight American artists (Gluekit, Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch, Damien Correll, Joel Speasmaker, Matt Curry, Skull Phone, Dan Funderburgh and Jemma Hostetler) who explore the notion of ‘home’ with the loose limitation of a two-toned color palette.

• After unleashing their brand of Asian pop culture to the world in magazine form way back in 1994, Giant Robot has expanded their operation quite significantly with stores in LA, NY, and SF. Celebrate their quinceañera with them as they launch their 15th anniversary group show at the bay area branch.

• Toy Swap! Toy Swap! Toy Swap! Sale! Sale! Sale! On Saturday dork out and trade your toys with other toy dorks at Los Feliz’s venerable Wacko/Soap Plant/La Luz De Jesus.

• Bike down and get your design and dim sum on deliciously with DeLab (design east of La Brea). Read details and more from Alissa (Gelatobaby) here. Don’t forget to RSVP to hello@designeastoflabrea.org!

*Also, it’s not too late to submit your tasty designs for Dwell’s Coolhaus ice cream contest also being judged by the cream loving Alissa.

Gelatobaby meets Coolhaus from Alissa Walker on Vimeo.
• With schools coming to a close for the summer all aross the land, Cinespia apporpriately screeens Mike Nichols’ 1967 classic, The Graduate starring Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

• Watch iconic music video classics when the LA Film Festival screens Where It Was At: A Propaganda and Satellite Films Tribute with clips from Spike Jonze, David Fincher, Mark Romanek, Stephane Sednaoui, and more.

• And finally, dance the weekend away Hollywood Bowl style Sunday night with Femi Kuti, Santigold, Raphael Saadiq, and host KCRW’s Garth Trinidad.

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Huge art openings, major and not so major motion pictures, as well as Trashy and Smelly events in LA. The end of May is a busy busy weekend and finds a lil’ somethin’ somethin’ for everyone, even peeps in Cinci!

• Tonight pop art legend Coop brings his trademark grinning devils, voluptuous vixens, and hell-bound hot rods to the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City as he opens his highly anticipated and hyped first solo show since 2006.

• While on my latest editing stint with the Motion Theory crew, we put together a couple of charming Nintendo spots for the upcoming video game The Legendary Starfy. What we didn’t know then was that the commercials were going to be featured in front of a small indie Pixar film coming out this weekend called Up. For the kids, yo!

• When you put the music of Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse together with the mind and eyes of David Lynch you get The Dark Night of the Soul, a series of photographs influenced by the original songs created by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse for the album of the same name. This uniquely unusual collabo marks Danger Mouse’s first-ever gallery installation as well as Lynch’s first exhibition at the Michael Kohn Gallery in nearly 15 years. The album will be playing in the gallery’s two rooms as it is now one of the only places you can legally hear it.*

*As a result of a dispute with EMI, the record — featuring vocal contributions from members of the Strokes, the Cardigans, the Flaming Lips, the Pixies, and Super Furry Animals — is no longer receiving an official release. A book containing Lynch’s artwork, originally slated to be packaged with the CD, will now only include a blank CD-R, of which the artists cagily advise, “Use it as you will.”

• Sydney based street artist Kill Pixie (a.k.a. Mark Whalen) brings his latest works stateside with I’ll Hit You Up Tomorrow at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery on La Brea. Also featured in the project room, The Future Spa–collaborative Installation with Autolux. All this hosted by actor Tim Roth.

• Eat vegetarian, dance right, do yoga, and help raise funds for inner city youth as local artists make recycled art at Trashy L.A. sponsored by Breathe Los Angeles campaign. Proceeds go to the Art of Living Foundation Youth Programs in Los Angeles.

• If you’re feeling sleepy on Saturday sleep with the eternal sleepers at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery as Cinespia presents Woody Allen’s futuristic sci-fi romantic comedy Sleeper.

• Ohioans out in the naughty ‘Nati get two openings for the free price of one as Evan Hecox and Christina Seely open their respective shows, Unnamed Places and Lux, at the Country Club of course.

• One more event for Saturday night: Family member and fellow November 13er, DJ Nate Harrington, will be spinning the records before/after the Black Dice perform at The Escarpment presented by the folks at the F Yeah Fest.

• And finally, end the weekend on a high note as one of Aska (The Sads, AsDSSka) Matsumiya’s many bands, The Moonrats, rock The Smell’s Sunday show along with The Curious Mystery, Audacity, Devon Williams.

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Go bi-coastal this weekend and catch a classic in a Los Angeles cemetery and two openings under one roof in New York:

• You know summer is right around the corner when Cinespia opens the hallowed gates of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery with their outdoor screenings of classic films. This year they start off on the right foot with the Paul Newman’s rebel with a cause, Cool Hand Luke on Saturday night.

• West Coast artists Souther Salazar and Andy Kehoe go East as they open a twin bill at New York’s Jonathan LeVine Gallery with their respective shows Last Year’s Man and Living in Twilight.

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