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A bit of loveliness for you before your Valentine’s weekend begins as the lovely and multi-talented Ariana Delawari presents intimate excerpts from her debut album, Lion of Panjshir. The following series of filmed vignettes was directed by David Lynch who is also distributing the album through his record label David Lynch MC. Recording since 2007, Ariana’s journey making Lion of Panjshir began in her homeland of Afghanistan where she recorded at her parents home in Kabul and where she continues to return to film and document her family’s life in Afghanistan.

Click here to find out more about Ariana and her story in an exclusive interview from David Lynch Foundation Television (DLF.TV).

From Mr. Lynch:

“ARIANA WRITES GREAT SONGS - THEY ARE FILLED WITH FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS FROM HER LIFE - HER LIFE IN HOLLYWOOD AND LIFE IN AFGHANISTAN WHERE HER ROOTS ARE - ANCIENT AND MODERN FLOW TOGETHER HERE - THIS MIXTURE OF CULTURESAND HER MELODIES AND LYRICS CONJURE A GREAT UNIQUE FEELING IN PEOPLE - PEOPLE ARE SURPRISED AND EMOTIONALLY MOVED BY THIS MUSIC — ARIANA’S GOT SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT AND SHE DOES IT REAL WELL - IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DEBUT ALBUM SHE’S MADE.”

(*Ariana is also one of the lovely ladies from the LA Ladies Choir who’s hauntingly beautiful music I edited into Aaron Rose’s film on Corita Kent, Become a Microscope-90 Statements on Sister Corita.)

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The 2nd weekend of the new year brings a plethora of group shows to Los Angeles along with a Hamburger weekender.

• Gallery 1988 on Melrose has been pumping out art shows depicting some of our most recognizable pop culture heroes and villains over the years (I AM 8-BIT, Crazy 4 Cult, Lost, etc.) so it comes as no surprise that our favorite childhood muscle bound bowl-cut hero from Eternia has over 100 artists making pieces of him and his pals for the show Under the Influence: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

(Click image for more info and full artist lineup)

• You Can Heal Your Life! at the Circus Gallery on Lexington that is at their group show which features the works of Sister Corita among others. Curated by Emma Gray, the “art works in this show seek to address issues of religion, spirituality and self-help through performance, sculpture, painting, video and printmaking.“

(Click image for more info and full artist lineup)

• For animal and art lovers alike, Thinkspace in Silver Lake is putting out A Cry For Help, a group show of over 100 artists with the goal of raising awareness about the plight of animals in our modern world. *20% of all proceeds will be donated to Born Free USA.

(Click image for more info and full artist lineup)

• New Image Art on La Brea is run by some amazing women (Marsea Goldberg, Amber Abramson) so it should come as no surprise that their current group show features some of today’s powerful women photographers with the group show Put Your Finger on the Button. Included in the show are two of my favorite photographers, regardless of sex, the awesome Cheryl Dunn and lovely Deanna Templeton (who you may have both seen in our film Beautiful Losers).

(Click image for more info and full artist lineup)

• Speaking of Deanna Templeton, her husband Ed Templeton will be featured in the show for the Japanese publication Megane Zine at the HVW8 Art + Design Gallery off of Melrose. In addition to a limited edition HVW8 x Megane t-shirt designed by Ed for sale, comic zine’s will be given free to the first 20 people on January 9th.

(Click image for more info and full artist lineup)

• And finally wrap up your weekend with family, laughter and Hamburger as the Cinefamily on Fairfax extends their Comedy Death Ray series with Neil Hamburger’s tribute to Frank Sinatra, Jr. I repeat Frank Sinatra, JUNIOR. In honor of Frank Jr.’s birthday, Hamburger has assembled this evening of rare, vintage Frank Jr. TV variety specials and film appearances!

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Wow, quite an overdose of art on both coasts awaits this weekend. Los Angeles and New York have got their hands full with some major (and minor) art openings and events going down featuring amazing things to see, hear, touch, create and even eat.

• The boldly inspirational artwork of pop artist, teacher and nun, Sister Mary Corita goes on display at the Zach Feuer Gallery in New York City. Some of her more prominent pieces from the work she created from 1960-1986 will be given an east coast home to inspire people who have yet to discover her art.

• The children of some of today’s most creative artists have been unleashed to form their own group show consisting of an exhibition of Halloween masks in the appropriately titled Chip Off the Old Block at Synchronicity Space on Melrose. Featuring the offspring of Tim Biskup and Seonna Hong, Cleon Peterson, Megan Whitmarsh, Christian Clayton and more.

• Giant Robot celebrates 15 unbelievable years of self publishing art and culture for the masses with the Giant Robot Biennale 2: 15 Years at the Japanese American National Museum in LA’s Little Tokyo. The fully loaded lineup of some of my favorite artists includes David Choe, Jeff Soto, James Jean, Luke Chueh, PCP, Albert Reyes and Deth P. Sun among the 50+ artist group show. Sure to be a massive opening so arrive early!

Check out curator and Giant Robot publisher Eric Nakamura’s blog to see some of the artists in action installing the show.

• Another highly anticipated anniversary celebration this weekend is the Hello Kitty Three Apples exhibition at the Royal/T Cafe in Culver City. The multi-dimensional day of Sanrio’s iconic Kitty includes a group art show of 80 collaborating artists including Ron English, Frank Kozik, Gary Baseman, Buff Monster, Friends With You, Luke Chueh and Natalia Fabia among others. Also in on all the celebrating are our friends at Flux who have curated the full day of Kitty activities.

• New York artist Marilyn Minter spits out new paintings, photographs, and her film Green Pink Caviar at Regen Projects on Santa Monica.

• A double dose of goodness at New York’s Jonathan Levine Gallery as Jim Houser opens his solo show Make Room For The Emptiness and Gary Baseman curates the group exhibition True Self featuring a who’s who of contemporary artists including the Clayton Brothers, Cleon Peterson, Dalek, James Jean, Korin Faught, Luke Chueh, Mark Ryden, Ron English, Ryan Heshka, Shag, Tim Biskup, Travis Lampe and a whole lot more.

• The awesome folk at Family have conjured up a diverse collection of new video art and animation for the group show Main Street at Hollywood’s Space 15 Twenty. The talented bunch of filmmakers include Andrew Jeffrey Wright, Jacob Ciocci, Miranda July, Peter Sutherland, Lucky Dragons, Paper Rad and more. Check Family’s blog for some fantastic looking film stills. Special shout out to my old editing peeps at Sunset Edit for supporting the show!

• And last, but definitely not least, is the premiere of my old pal Rich Newey’s short crime drama Breathe screening as part of the short film lineup for the Hollywood Film Festival screening at the Arclight. Read more on Rich’s cinematic short as well as his filmmaking process in this exclusive interview.

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Sister Corita was a highly influential and inspirational art teacher and nun who created controversial pop art in Los Angeles during the 60’s. Earlier this year I edited a short film directed by Aaron Rose with a score by Money Mark to commemorate what would have been Corita’s 90th birthday. Today the art of Sister Corita will be on display and for sale at Landis Gifts & Stationery in Hollywood’s Larchmont Village. A percentage of sales all day will benefit the Corita Art Center.

Here’s an excerpt of the “ABC” song from our short film Become a Microscope-90 Statements on Sister Corita (music by Money Mark and Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond. Title design by Keith Scharwath. Motion graphics by Max Erdenberger, Alex Dervin, and Miguel Bautista. Produced by Jon Barlow and Arlo Rosner):

ABC’s from Central Office on Vimeo.

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Find yourself watching unintentional comedy and painting words while writing images in Hollywood, and then eat, drink, and be merry on the Westside before the cops come to harsh your mellow.

• Stop watching the Youtubes because the Found Footage Festival is back and ready to celebrate “laughably bad videos rescued from garbage bins, garage sales, thrift stores, and warehouses across the country.”

• The always inspiring Corita Art Center opens it’s doors to the public for Saturday’s Smithsonian sponsored Museum Day and will host workshops based on Sister Corita’s use of “text as image” special guest artist John Carrera’s use of “image as text” as seen in his book Pictorial Webster’s. The day is free to all, however the workshop is limited to 15 participants and costs $20. Advance registration required.

• And for the beach lovers and Westsiders, Venice’s Abbot Kinney Festival ends the weekend with fun for everyone with an all day extravaganza of music, art, food, and the obligatory drum circles.

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Films about an inspirational pop art nun (including ours), a Karaoke dance party, Muppets and more Muppets, and of course art openings highlight this weekends highlights.

• Pocket wallet pioneers Poketo take over Royal/T’s this summer with their storefront pop-up shop. Tonight they transform the joint into a Karaoke Dance Party with our fun Fluxer friends Jonathan and Meg Wells on an esteemed panel of judges.

• The Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax has Muppets on the mind once again as they bring back last year’s sold out showings of Jim Henson’s mind-blowing collection of shorts, crazy commercials, and other rarities including the not-be-to-be-missed Oscar winning Time Piece. Bonus: midnight screening of Henson’s feature film The Dark Crystal!

• With the Lotus Festival on hiatus this year the Echo Park Community Fest has come in to save the day, or weekend rather. Fun for all with carnival attractions, International foods, and the music of the lovely LA Ladies Choir with the Chili Pepper’s Flea (responsible for some songs from our Sister Corita film-more on that below)

• Giant Robot offers up prints to take home when the group show of 50 plus artists titled Printed Matter opens at GR2 on Sawtelle Saturday night. Featuring Bigfoot, Buff Monster, La Merde, Saelee Oh, Deth P. Sun, Albert Reyes, Andrew Jeffrey Wright and many more. Preview here.

• Constantly bringing the goods with their carefully curated shows, the Constant Gallery opens Desert Sexy “a survey of artists originating from and inspired by California’s low desert scene. Along with work by Logan/The Date Farmers, Anthony Lepore, and Peter Sutherland, we’ll be having an opening night musical performance by stoner rock progenitors Yawning Man (pre-Kyuss).” Check the preview here.

• Girls go wild as the Honor Fraser Gallery opens Bitch is the New Black, an all women art show featuring “fourteen Los Angeles-based women who are all emerging or established artists from roughly the same generation and are bright lights on the local scene.”

• Another Muppety evet at the Silent Movie Theater Saturday this time screening a matinee of Muppet Music Moments which, as you may have guessed, is a collection of musical performances from The Muppet Show.

• And finally end your weekend inspired as our short film (Become a Microscope: 90 Statements on Sister Corita) about the life and art of Sister Corita Kent will be screening at the Silent Movie Theater Sunday night alongside two other films by Corita’s friends, Mary’s Day (1964) by Baylis Glascock, and Survival With Style (1966) by Cal Bernstein, Alex Singer and Haskell Wexler. Both of these rare films will be screened from their original 16mm prints, and Mary’s Day will feature a live score by special musical guests!

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One of the funnest parts about putting together these weekend event lists is coming up with an appropriate title using the words from said events. As seen above, this weekend’s happenings has churned out the perfect storm of words. From partying with porn stars to making art with nuns, Los Angeles has a lot going for it under our overcast skies, including our beloved Lakers winning it all in Orlando this Sunday!

• Get your porn on all weekend long as Erotica LA 2009 sexys up the LA Convention Center with pornstars galore and the 40,000 estimated attendees who masturbate to them.

• Be both Cute & Dangerous at the group show of the same name at the seven-degrees gallery down in Laguna Beach.

• The Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax continues June’s Comedy Death Ray (Upright Citizens Brigade) series with Bob Odenkirk (half of Mr. Show) presenting Albert Brooks’ 1979 directorial debut Real Life.

• The celebration of Sister Corita’s art and inspiring spirit just keeps on going as a modern day happening happens at the Corita Art Center in Hollywood. Complete with silk-screening, banner and flag making, music, food, a procession with pipes, the day’s festivities also include the release of the 2nd edition of Jan Steward’s Learning By Heart. Corita is definitely alive and well.

• Skaters (Tony Alva), artists (Shepard Fairey), and skateboarder artists (Mark Gonzalez) pay tribute to one of Dogtown’s legendary photographers, Wynn Miller, with the group show The Detournements of Wynn Miller at the Exhibit A Gallery on Fairfax.

• Attaboy presents A Touch of Evil with his latest drawings, paintings, sculptures, and Gooberries at the POVevolving Gallery in Chinatown.

• Childlike pop-art illustrations meet vector based computer art when J. Otto Seibold comes to Giant Robot’s GR2 on Sawtelle with his Jottobots.

• And finally, end the weekend laughing with a tribute to unorthodox cult comedian Mitch Hedberg at The Silent Movie Theater as the Cinefamily “commemorates the comic’s legacy with a screening of his TV appearances, live performances, and the pilot to his unreleased MTV reality show, The Mitch Hedberg Project. Also showing is his autobiographical 1999 feature, Los Enchiladas; directed by Hedberg, the film focuses on the humorist’s early days as a Mexican restaurant employee in the suburbs of St. Paul.”

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Sorry for the late post today, I was a bit busy rejoining the human race again. The last few days have just about been the hardest I’ve ever pushed myself finishing a film, and I’d def do it all over again. Working with the dedicated members of our Corita film crew in finishing the edit, finalizing the animations, listening to the sound mix, coloring the film, and conforming the entire thing to be ready for last night’s Flux screening tallied me a new personal work record: work-90 hours, sleep-6, from Sunday up until the show on Wednesday. But with a drive to finish fueled by the work of Sister Corita and with the payoff of how well our film was received, I have to say it was all so worth it. Big thanks to Jonathan and Meg Wells for organizing another fun Flux screening and to all who came out and checked out our film, Become a Microscope-90 Statements on Sister Corita! Many more screenings to come soon!

On top of our film showing alongside a multitude of amazing music videos and short films, the LA Ladies Choir headed by Becky Stark performed as well. The lovelies were captivating with their two songs in this their second performance.

The Ladies Choir pt. 1 from chumpchampion on Vimeo.

The Ladies Choir pt. 2 from chumpchampion on Vimeo.

And here’s another film that screened last night, a supremely crafted short directed by Ace Norton and his new ’stache that left me sonically blown away:

Soundscapes - by Ace Norton from IE HAGY on Vimeo.

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Whoa…another sleepless day/night/day as we put the finishing touches on our film, Become A Microscope-90 Statments on Sister Corita. Making it’s Los Angeles premiere at the Hammer Museum as part of Flux’s first show of the year, the day has finally come to let friend, family, and strangers take a look at just what has been keeping us all so busy and inspired (also special encore musical performance by Becky Stark and the Ladies Choir!)

So tonight, I hope you all…

and…

as our film will leave your eyes, ears, and brains…

with…

lenny

Become A Microscope - 90 Statements on Sister Corita

A film by Aaron Rose

Produced by Jon Barlow, Edited by Lenny Mesina, Original Score by Money Mark and Becky Stark.

Flux Screening Series
February 25, 2008
8:00 pm screening, 10:00 pm after-party

Hammer Museum
Billy Wilder Theater
10899 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
310.443.7000

And don’t forget to RSVP!

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Clear your schedule for this Wednesday cause the year’s first Flux Screening Series at the Hammer is coming and our Sister Corita film will be making it’s Los Angeles premiere! If you missed the CSUN screening and art opening (a must see!), this is your chance to check out what we’ve been giving our all to. Also part of 2009’s inaugral program will be two new music video from the N.A.S.A. crew, this time featuring Kanye West, Santogold, Lykee Li, Sizzla, Amanda Blank, with art by The Date Farmers, directed by Logan and Three Legged Legs. The short film project PSST! 3 and a new short by homey Ace Norton will also be included in the program.

Make sure to RSVP and arrive early as the two theaters are always over flowing and people are unfortunately turned away once filled. But if you can’t get in, there’s always the courtyard reception primed for drinks, djs, and drinks.

Become A Microscope
90 Statements on Sister Corita

A Film by Aaron Rose

Produced by Jon Barlow, Edited by Lenny Mesina, Original Score by Money Mark and Becky Stark.

Synopsis:

Sister Corita (1918-1986) was a teacher, political activist and possibly one of the most innovative and unusual pop artists of the 1960’s. She was also a Catholic nun. Become A Microscope is a 20-minute art/documentary film celebrating the life, work, and teachings of this incredible artist. The film was shot on location on the campus of Immaculate Heart in Los Angeles, the same place where most of the film’s story happened. It serves as a living, breathing document of the inspiration she spread to so many people throughout her life…and as the title suggests, the importance of looking at the world “small pieces at a time”. Through the use of interviews with those who knew her, we tell Corita’s story in an abstract way. Using archival images from the Corita archive along with visual effects created specifically for the project by some of the most talented animators working today, we have created a colorful visual montage. The film reveals itself as a living, moving, graphic and musical artwork.

Become A Microscope is produced by Blacklake Productions, in conjunction with The Directors Bureau, with special cooperation from The Corita Art Center and the Art/Film Departments of Cal State University Northridge.

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