






Pudgy Girl at 10:40
Pudgy Girl at 13:32
Untitled, 2003 (detail) by Lari Pittman. Acrylic, oil, and aerosol lacquer on gessoed canvas over wood panel. Part of the Eden's Edge exhibit of 15 Los Angeles artists now showing at The Hammer Museum.Pudgy Girl at 13:32

Night Hawks is honored to bring to the party Laura Escude (Los Angeles) - A classically trained violinist who works with a variety of software, all controlled by MIDI devices such as the UC-33e and a MIDI glove. Found sounds, sampling, and the violin affected by different types of hardware all make up her body of work going back 20 years.
DSS Improv (Los Angeles) is a trio of improvisational electro-acoustic musicians. FM transmitters tie together their mixer feedback sessions, DIY circuitry, amplified viola and audience involvement all "to diffuse the notion of control amongst the group and audience". I can't picture a better setting for this experimentation than the high-caliber crowds Night Hawks draws in.
"Burlap I-IV" by Philip Stearns - Another Cal Arts alumni makes his mark on the circuit-bending community by continuing his installation. Burlap combines sculpture and circuitry where each piece produces tones, sequencers, and dynamically behaving oscillators. The natural element of the burlap material is a beautiful contradiction to the notion of circuitry as something cold and calculated.
Aaron Myers, a recent USC grad, has always been fascinated with video games, including information visualization, artificial life and generative image-making. TorrentRaiders was his MFA project - an arcade stylization of bit-torrent waves. You can also go play his live action video game Mobzombies before the arcade madness hits Monday. He'll be showing a new 2-D piece with light patterns that react and self-generate.
Volum (UK, Berlin, Detroit, Los Angeles) of the world renowned electro duo Volsoc brings his proclaimed "breakdance music for aliens". Playing the night's DJ will be Jean-Paul Bondy rocking robot beats and a slew of surprises. See jbondy.com - the man's also quite the accomplished animator.Labels: art, events, music, Nighthawks, performances
Pudgy Girl at 13:05
In the book tour tradition, a very special lady graces cities across the country telling anecdotes and promoting the acheivement of her new book. Miranda July is indeed one special lady. Long before she was grabbing up indie film awards for Me And You And Everyone We Know she was holding unique lectures as part of her personal credo project to create art everywhere all the time. She pretty much does everything that requires any creativity and does it with open arms for the world to share. Her stop at the Hammer this evening to share her collection of short stories should be sweet and special. If you can't make it early for a good seat just peruse her new website for the book No one belongs here more than you. You'll get a taste of her wacky exuberance and like me you'll begin to wonder, why haven't I used my refrigerator for a white board before?Pudgy Girl at 15:05

Pudgy Girl at 13:22
Enlightened Development + Crosswired - A & D Museum
Not For Tourists Party - Footsie's Bar
Dirty Found - Steve Allen TheaterPudgy Girl at 12:45
As of today these three paintings were seen by 16,000 people. 30 days after the art opening this Saturday this art will be viewed 7 million times.
"The Tower" by Dawn Von Flue
"Kim Has a Good Skip" by Kim Bagwill
Artist Bagwill in front of her billboard in progress.Labels: art, environmental, events
Pudgy Girl at 15:44

Pudgy Girl at 16:56
Picks of The Harvest Opening ReceptionPudgy Girl at 11:32
From 11am -5pm local artisans hawk their homemade wares in the Ghetto Gloss parking lot along with hot dogs and cocktails. There will even be a linoleum print blocking workshop for the crafty at 12noon. They're calling it a New York City style flea market. Being a patron of both coasts, I'm not sure how NYC flea markets differ greatly from LA ones. Is it the hot dogs? Is this an obtuse April fool's joke? Better go find out.Pudgy Girl at 12:10


Labels: art, events, music, Nighthawks
Pudgy Girl at 11:43

Labels: art
Pudgy Girl at 14:10
WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution
Saturday Mar. 3
Don't miss Andrea Zittel's installation Critical Space. Zittel is one of my favorite new artists, hands down creating some of the most environmental and thought-provoking installations. It is a dream of mine to one day visit her desert compound in 29 Palms, CA where she felts her own clothes and creates building material out of sun dried paper. She's saving us the drive and bringing her unique aesthetic to the city where she'll once again explore the concepts of personal domesticity in contemporary space.Labels: art, events, newsworthy
Pudgy Girl at 20:32
If you go to Betalevel's website for their next event you'll find a bunch of psycho-babble and obscure expressions in German. If you go to Betalevel's next event, Late Night Snack, you'll find an eclectic group of intellectuals and artists showing off in a basement in Chinatown. The good news is, you are encouraged to show off too. There will be new forms of performance art and discussion as well as snacks.Labels: art, events, performances
Pudgy Girl at 12:28
Pudgy Girl at 10:42
* I dig the short and sweet interview LA Weekly held with Great Northern. The Silver Lake darlings play Spaceland Monday night 10:00pm.
* Courtesy of my new favorite art site SourHarvest.com : their nicely layed-out schedule may be a little behind the week, but scroll down to find Saturday's listings which include a benefit art auction in Culver City. Everyone's favorite street artists turned industry debutantes will be selling their interpretations of vintage paint by numbers to benefit LA's own The Alliance for Children's Rights including: Paul Frank, Shepard Fairey, Gary Baseman, Camille Rose Garcia, Isabel Samaras, Shag, Gary Panter, Tim Biskup and more more more. @ Corey Helford Gallery, Culver City. Public viewing begins 10:00pm.Pudgy Girl at 10:38
Pudgy Girl at 15:10
Courtesy of apartmenttherapy.com LA, I sampled this new project in which photographer Patrick Ecclesine attempts to capture the many lives on the entire 25 mile strip of Sunset Boulevard. Faces of Sunset Blvd. is an online photo essay broken up by neighborhood. You can slickly travel the website from Downtown to the Palisades and meet a couple residents. The people Ecclesine captured are stereotypical on a grandiose scale. You kind of have to expect it from a project that set out to recreate a cinematic feel in a city built by the entertainment industry. Ecclesine calls Los Angeles "the city best known for the manufacturing and packaging of fiction" but what his highly photoshopped images document is everyday people in what he assumes is the everyman's dream - starring in the opening credit sequence of some action flick on Sunset Blvd.
The movies and effects on Ecclesine's site drive home this simple metaphor even more. Titles pop at you as if you're in the back room of a seedy trailer and effects house. Every neighborhood is given a soundtrack you can listen to as you glance the photos and read the individual's testimonials. Echo Park gets an urban groove (we know it's urban because there are cop car sirens in the background) while Palisades goes for a groovy surfer vibe. The only unique moments in this whole online experience come in a couple of quotes from the participants. Henry Winkler and his son Max are adorable. The doctors of Kaiser Permanente are a little disturbing. The only new information I took away from the experience is seeing the vast indiscrepancies of per capita income. Silverlake: $17 thousand versus Bel Air: $107,412.
Lately I've been walking into the LA vs. NY debate where every self-righteous Manhattanite is at a loss when they encounter someone who actually prefers Los Angeles over their precious island. While this photo essay could easily be another 9/11 memorial piece (there's that epic slice-of-life quality) it also enforces all the stereotypes an outsider sees - Hollywood is full of actors; people get shot downtown; old Asian men are amusing. But the photographer is Angeleno born and raised. Maybe he really is a product of his environment.Pudgy Girl at 12:35
The iconic design on the movie poster for Hitchcock's Vertigo is instantly recognizable. What's not so widely known, outside of certain circles, is the man behind the graphics was a talented filmmaker himself and responsible for the striking and iconic look of 1950s cinema. Saul Bass still influences the graphic designers of opening title sequences and one sheets everywhere. Bass started in advertising design concepts, moved on to animation, and soon entered every design aspect of the film industry and directing, encouraged by his contemporary Otto Preminger. With the partnership of his wife Elaine, the Basses made over 50 opening title sequences. The Skirball Cultural Center is proudly displaying Bass' original posters, as well as hosting film nights for more of his iconic works. Patrons will have the chance to see rare artifacts, like the story boards for Psycho's infamous shower scene (conceived by Bass and Hitchcock) as well as Bass' feature film Phase IV, where with the help of some clever special effects, giant ants declare war on a small town.Pudgy Girl at 09:00

Pudgy Girl at 15:51
LACMA museum Admission after 5pm on weekdays is free. Gallery stays open 'til 8:00 so there's time to take in the latest Magritte show. Don't neglect the costume gallery either in the permanent collection.Pudgy Girl at 13:15

Even more impressive and inspiring is Ralph Howell's pinhole kitchen, which contains 46 individual pinhole cameras made out of pretty much any common household item and food. Link to the video from EGG The Arts show, originally aired on PBS in 2000.
I love this thorough how-to guide from Fecal Face. And I love that he calls himself Capt. Awesome and decorates the camera with stickers.
Pudgy Girl at 14:40
Just as many craft bloggers inspire each other, I too have been inspired by Ann Wood, an artist out of Brooklyn. She did the paintings for one of my more favorite recent films, Junebug. She also makes a lot of beautiful little things like paper mache ships and vintage fabric birds. She also recently completed the task of creating 100 horses. Each day she sat down and made at at least one out of cardboard, buttons and scraps. She opened up some odd creative channels and even named each one. I experienced the same joy when making my Christmas cards this year, promising myself that like a snowflake, no two would be exactly alike. I've compiled a list of each of her horses' precious names.
The first 11 didn't have names.
49. LewisPudgy Girl at 16:00
Haunting and beautiful. Kitschy and wonderful. Snowglobes may be more associated with tourist gifts than actual snow but Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz bring the holidays back to us in a unique way. They've been showing their exquisitely detailed snowglobes around the world for the last few years. They even had a diorama gallery in the Hollywood/Highland subway terminal in 2005. Enjoy the scenes below. If you're in Miami over the holidays the snowglobes will be on display at PULSE.




Pudgy Girl at 15:10
This Saturday and Sunday marks the closing weekend of Takeshi Murata's strange and hypnotic video installation "Untitled (Silver)". Murata takes the 1960 Italian horror film, Mask of Satan and deconstructs it pixel by pixel with an original soundtrack by Robert Beatty and Ellen Mollé. Already a hit in San Francisco and New York the pixels swarm, morph and swirl before your very eyes with amazing affects. Art Forum described the experience as trippy and compared it to the Old Masters' melting paintings with the random computer connectedness of John Cage pieces.Pudgy Girl at 11:23


Once upon a time in the 1960s frogs hopped out of the LA river and invaded a small neighborhood. The 'hood in the Elysian Valley tucked between the I-5 and 2-North freeways has been nicknamed Frogtown ever since.
Tomorrow night the galleries, warehouses and shops off Riverside open their doors. Lovecraft Biofuels will hold a conversion demonstration at their new second headquarters. An entire loft building hosts original photography and art. Famed LA artists Sharon & Frank Romero open the Lil Frogtown Gallery. There's also a couple emerging architecture firms extending Frogtown hospitality.Pudgy Girl at 19:50
The gallery known as Junc throws an opening for two image designer/illustrators. Justin Wood throws linear and non-linear storytelling into his technology inspired illustrations and gets quite a bit of magazine work. Highly recognized Oksana Badrak's illustrations explore otherworldly elements and get a little naughty. You can buy her prints through Thumbtack Press, a great online art resource.
Pudgy Girl at 14:12
Pudgy Girl at 23:51
Labels: art, celeb sighting
Pudgy Girl at 18:40

Pudgy Girl at 15:06
LA Weekly, LA Bloggers, Daily Candy - what do they all have in common? - they're all privy to guerilla artist Banksy and his new warehouse installation this Saturday 9/16. And now, so are you. Check back here for details, as location and time will be announced the day of the show.
This Guantanamo prisoner lived at Disneyland for a full 90 minuntes before being discovered and confiscated. Photo courtesy of The Daily Mail.
Doctored Paris Hilton CDs. Photo courtesy of BBC News.Pudgy Girl at 13:56

Pudgy Girl at 16:58
Thank heavens for the cool summer breezes we've been having lately. With a heat wave back on its way Sunday, enjoy the cool nights while you can. This Friday evening two musuems host FREE parties -- A great excuse for art viewing while under the guise of drinking and flirting.Pudgy Girl at 11:14