chumpchampion

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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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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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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