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A solid first weekend of November with friends in art shows, friends being crafty, and Pac Man going up against Kitty. I got my money on Manny.

• Fifteen years strong, Marsea Goldberg’s venerable New Image Art Gallery keeps banging out the hits with the help of special human being Amber Abramson (who herself is often busy-being) as they present the group show 14 Artists. And these aren’t just any artists, they’re heavy hitters Judith Supine, Cleon Peterson, Skullphone, The Date Farmers, Richard Colman, and Erik Foss among others. Party starts at the gallery and continues on to the after-party at the Cha Cha in Silver Lake.

• Get your craft on at the Contemporary Crafts Market in Santa Monica as my dear old friend Tianna Osborne will be displaying (and selling) her art through her uniquely beautiful purses through the weekend. Flyer below is good for free admission for two!

• Want more Manny? Of course you do! So I suggest you start waiting in line now at Hollywood’s Montálban Theater as Nike Sportswear presents Under the Hood with Manny Pacquiao, a send off celebration and Q&A with the man himself and his team of Freddie Roach, Buboy Fernandez and Alex Ariza. RSVP is mandatory and capacity will surely be reached, but if you can’t make it in person the event will be streaming live on Niksportswear.com, Complex.com, and Facebook.

• The HVW8 Art+Design Gallery on Melrose reunites three old designer friends with the show Michael, Kevin & Geoff. Those three amigos would be: Geoff McFetridge who was of course in Beautiful Losers and whose work you’ve most recently seen in the title design of Where the Wild Things Are; graphic designer Michael Leon whose work with Nike is well documented; and Kevin Lyons who’s well, Kevin Lyons.

• Ever wanted to know how to blow yourself up? If your answer is yes (or if you just want to see some good art) then you’re in luck as WK Interact teaches you how to do so at Echo Park’s Subliminal Projects with his solo show aptly titled How to Blow Yourself Up.

• Speaking of blowing stuff up, the Three Apples Exhibition Celebrating 35 years of Hello Kitty continues at the Royal/T Cafe in Culver City with limited edition print releases, live painting, and meet and greets with some of the participating artists of this never ending event. Along with my Hit+Run homeboys silk-screening gear, Buff Monster and Plasticgod will be among the artists on hand from 4-9pm. Presented by Juxtapoz and Japan LA.

• And finally, another celebratory show as the clothing line Blood is the New Black celebrates their five years of existence with a group show and party at Silver Lake’s JÜNC Gallery. And what would an art party be without my talented friends, the lovely Jesse Spears and the sometimes bearded Dan Monick, among the many participating artists.

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Time for girls to dress like slutty something-somethings, guys to make minor adjustment to last year’s costumes and for me to edit my ass off on another uncelebrated Halloween (that makes 3 out of the last 5). And since I’ll be working on Saturday I’ll be dressed as an editor. BOO!

• Start your Halloween with some brain…cancer research fundraising. The Zombiethon-A Run For Brains is costumed walk/run fundraiser benefiting brain cancer research to be held at the Silver Lake reservoir.

• Find out what lurks In the Garden of the Mystic as Andrew Brandou unveils new paintings and rare silk-screened wood blocks at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City. *Also free Halloween poster print for first 400 attendees at the opening!
  

• The evening gets weirder at The Cinefamily and Dublabs joint Bollyween party, a Bollywood-style Halloween party featuring drinks and dosas (provided by The Dosa Truck), ghoulish giveaways, costume prizes, DJ sets from the dublab “Bloodsucking” Sound System and Dr. Who Witchcraft Coven, more live performances and of course Bollyweird: The Movie — “their very own feature-length video mashup celebrating the most horrifying, fantastic, costume-crazed and outlandish moments of vintage Indian musical madness ever.”

• And of course what Halloween wouldn’t be complete without, uh, Halloween? John Carpenter’s 1978 scarefest gets even scarier as Cinespia screens Halloween at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

• And after all your Halloween night debauchery, how bout some wholesome goodness on Sunday with Hello Kitty’s Birthday Party. Curated by the fine folks of Flux, the continuing Hello Kitty Three Apples celebration takes place at the Royal/T Cafe in Culver City. The day’s events include workshops with artists Gary Baseman and Buff Monster and a live performance by the LA Ladies Choir complete with birthday cake!

From Flux:

You are invited to Hello Kitty’s Birthday Party. Come explore the Three Apples art exhibition and join some of the fun birthday activities planned throughout the day. Hello Kitty’s Birthday Party is hosted by Flux.

10am-12pm - Birthday Breakfast with Hello Kitty and DJ Lady Sinclair

11am-12pm - Figure Drawing Workshop with Three Apples artist Gary Baseman (Limited Capacity, sold out)

12pm-1pm - Toy Workshop with Three Apples artist Buff Monster (Limited Capacity, sold out)

2pm-3pm - Sushi & Bento Workshop with acclaimed chef Sushi Girl (Limited Capacity, sold out)

4pm-5pm - Live singing performance by LA Ladies Choir and Birthday Cake with Hello Kitty

Plus Hello Kitty Birthday Photo Booth

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Royal-T
8910 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232-2326
(310) 559-6300
Three Apples Exhibition: A Celebration of All Things Hello Kitty

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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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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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Don’t forget! KAWS will be making his Los Angeles solo show debut this Saturday at the Honor Fraser Gallery, but first he’ll be guest curating a group show at Culver City’s Royal/T gallery. For detailed info on KAWS’ “The Long Way Home”, click here or on any of the show’s exclusive preview pics below via Jamie O’Shea’s super site Supertouch:

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