Thomas Hirschhorn, Andrew Lord, Lari Pittman @ Regen Projects

Regen Projects
633 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Tel. (310) 276-5424Fax. (310) 276-7430
http://www.regenprojects.com/

Thomas Hirschhorn
Andrew Lord
Lari Pittman
March 7 - April 16, 2009
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Regen Projects is pleased to announce a group exhibition of works by Thomas Hirschhorn, Andrew Lord, and Lari Pittman. This exhibition will feature collages from Thomas Hirschhorn's "Tattoo" series, sculptures from Andrew Lord's "Senses" series, and recent paintings by Lari Pittman.

Thomas Hirschhorn's "Tattoo" series explores the themes of violence, sex, consumerism, and global politics. Photos of airbrushed breasts, tattooed limbs, and blown-up body parts of Iraqi citizens are buried among printed matter cut-outs, cryptic messages, signage, and obsessive blue and red scribbling. Hirschhorn's work summons references to philosophy, popular culture, mass media, economics, and poetry. Layering information and imagery, Hirschhorn wants to express the complexity and contradiction of our fragmented world through work that voices his discontent with contemporary politics and public discourse.

Andrew Lord's "Senses" series utilizes the medium of clay to capture sensation as a physical form. The action of the senses (listening, tasting, smelling, and seeing) are transformed into tactile objects through repeated applications of the artist's ears, teeth, nose, and eyes. Lord has always played with scale, form, and surface to create hand made objects imbued with his own physical being. In bringing together the abstract and the visceral his work has opened up new realms in sculptural possibilities.

Lari Pittman's paintings draw upon personal references, politics, philosophy, and society to create intricate, multi-layered works that synthesize figurate and abstraction. In this recent body of work Pittman explores the tradition of vanitas painting, a still-life painting popular with Northern European painters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The notion of vanitas corresponds to the transience of life and the inevitable passage of time. The saturated and layered use of color alongside bold patterns and forms in these operatic works depict both a celebration of life's impermanence and its infinite possibilities.

For further information please contact Jennifer Loh, Stacy Bengtson, or Heather Harmon at 310-276-5424.

Also on view at Regen Projects II:
(9016 Santa Monica Blvd at North Almont Drive)

Elliott Hundley: Hekabe
March 7 - April 4, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 7, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Upcoming Exhibitions at Regen Projects II:

Manfred Pernice
April 11 - May 16, 2009

Scott McFarland
May 23 - July 3, 2009

REGEN PROJECTS
633 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
t: 310 276 5424
f: 310 276 7430

Music Film Art Culture Los Angeles The Zine Issue 1: Beautiful Americans

Well, I finally finished up the first issue of the Music Film Art Culture Los Angeles Zine which I will distribute anywhere and everywhere for free.

This issue is titled Beautiful Americans as I am feeling very optimistic these days despite growing financial pressures, wars, corruptions of just about everything. I had been going through my collection of books and decided that it would be a great time to create an assemblage of excerpts from a few of my favorites. The one theme that has always remained constant is birth/ creation through death/adversity. Too often, the best music, art, literature, cultural growth springs from the depths of human suffering; I think it would do us all a bit of good to remember that.

Here's a list of those movements and individuals who are included in this issue:

Allen Ginsberg

Aldo Leopold

Robert Thurman

Langston Hughes

American Blues

Arrica Rose

DJ Christine Renee

Gill Scott-Heron

Kenneth Anger

JJ Stratford

Harry Smith

Zora Neale-Hurston

Emma Goldman

Noam Chomsky

Winona LaDuke

Hip Hop

Mexican Americans

Punk Rock

ARP

Disco

If you happen to pick one of these zines up please feel free to leave a comment about it right here.

GOOP: Gwyneth Paltrow's Positively Practical Web Page

I was perusing The Huffington Post this evening where I spotted an article regarding Gwyneth Paltrow's defense of her Web Page GOOP:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/26/gwyneth-paltrow-defends-g_n_170241.html

So of course I had to check GOOP out as I was beginning to think that perhaps she had lost her marbles or something. I was expecting to see frontal nudity or worse!

The first question that came to mind after checking out some good tips on healthy cleansing options, which included easy to make recipes for meals and things like smoothies, was: Why is the media picking on a woman who is taking the time out of her busy schedule to kick down some very practical and positive advice to whomever might be interested? As I perused on I read about things to do internationally, current art exhibitions, good books, advice on clothes, tips on parenting, and my favorite, she asked a group of philosophers from varying religious/philosphical backgrounds this fantastic question:

I have a friend who sees the world in a pessimistic light. This person is highly suspicious of people and situations, and sees, as well as experiences negativity at most turns. Why is this and what does it mean? What can be done to help someone of this nature?

To which, the likes of Deepak Chopra, replied!

And if none of the above shocked the shit out of you...check this out:

You can sign up for the weekly newsletter http://goop.com/

Gwyneth Paltrow is an intelligent woman who seems to pull from various spiritual/philosophical belief systems most of which includes ideas of connectedness, kindness, sharing, being grateful for what one has, and realizing that there are many individuals who may not be as fortunate; she is sharing some of the information that she has amassed over the years and she is doing it with kindness and honesty. So haters need to step off!

Mike Stilkey

Fecal Face has a really great Mike Stilkey interview which includes a lot of photos of Mike's work and his new studio:

http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1428

For information on upcoming exhibitions:

http://www.mikestilkey.com/

Flux Screening Series @ UCLA Hammer Museum

The first Flux Screening Series event of the new year is filled with exciting new films including the World Premiere of the collaborative film project PSST! 3, never-before-seen NASA videos from Logan and Three Legged Legs and the just completed Become a Microscope - 90 Statements on Sister Corita. DJ Josh Marcy (Mophonics) will be rocking the Hammer courtyard.

Program highlights include: World Premiere: PSST! 3, a collaborative new film project featuring shorts by a worldwide network of designers, directors, animators, and composers. PSST! founder and curator Bran Dougherty-Johnson will be in attendance to present the films. PSST! 3 is a brand-new series of 17 original collaborative short films made over the last year by over 175 participants in cities worldwide, including: New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Nashville, London, Glasgow, Paris, Vilnius, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, and Copenhagen. World Premiere: NASA music video A Volta directed by Logan in collaboration with The Date Farmers. World Premiere: NASA music video Gifted featuring Kayne West, Santogold and Lykke Li, directed by Three Legged Legs. special screening of Become a Microscope - 90 Statements on Sister Corita: an innovative new short film from Beautiful Losers director Aaron Rose with music by Money Mark. The 22 minute film tells the story of Sister Mary Corita, the California nun who captured the national imagination in the turbulent 60s by making art that influenced a generation of Americans. Flux Screening Series Wednesday February 25th 7PM - Box Office opens and Pre-screening Reception. Hammer Cafe and Bar will be open. 8PM - Screening and Filmmaker Presentations 9:30PM-11PM - After-party with guest DJs. Hammer Cafe and Bar will be open. Free Admission, RSVP Suggested (flux.net/rsvp) Hammer Museum Billy Wilder Theater 10899 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90024 *Seating is first come, first served. RSVPs do not guarantee seating. Box office opens at 7PM. The new HAMMER CAFE will be selling food and drinks all night.

Memo to Obama Transition Team: Home-Run Policies for Small Business

Now that the street cleaners have finally swept up the signs, flags, confetti and other debris left by the millions who came for the inaugural last week, we can finally return to the critical issues of policy. I'm pleased to report that the Obama Transition Team asked us to join their teams working on sustainable business and socially responsible investment. What will become of our recommendations, I don't know, but the fact we were invited to share our view – and that key policymakers in the administration were listening – represented a huge sea-change.

Below is the memo we submitted, incorporating many of the points you've seen on this blog over the past six months. We welcome your input. Let us know what you think, and what else you would add to this wish list.

***
A credible "jolt" for the U.S. economy requires, first and foremost, boosting small businesses. Small businesses make up roughly half the private economy and create 60-80 percent of all new jobs.

Moreover, the locally owned character of nearly all small businesses makes them better contributors to community and economic development than most large businesses are. Because locally owned businesses spend substantially more money locally, they typically generate two to four times the economic multiplier benefit for their communities as do nonlocal businesses. A growing literature shows that local businesses are also more reliable promoters of tourism, social equality, entrepreneurship, carbon-dioxide reductions, political participation, and "creative economy" benefits.

Given this, we recommend that the Obama Administration appoint a blue ribbon commission charged with identifying public policy obstacles to the expansion of local and small business, and laying out new, low-cost opportunities for the federal government to expand local business. Here are some of the low-hanging-fruit possibilities we believe such a commission would highlight.

* Balance Federal Support for Small Business – We believe there is a need to overhaul a wide range of programs giving grants, loans, loan guarantees, tax breaks, and other special benefits to business, since nearly all these programs are tilted toward larger business, and thereby place small business at a competitive disadvantage. It should be a high priority of the Obama Administration to end federal subsidies that favor centralized electrical generation stations over micropower and efficiency, centralized fossil fuels over decentralized renewables, factory over family farms, large-scale manufacturing over microbusiness. The tilt of the current and proposed stimulus programs, including those labeled "Green," ought to be reset accordingly. For example, at least half of all funds given to troubled financial institutions should go to small community banks and credit unions.

* Revise Subsidy Procedures – For business subsidies that remain, uniform procedures should be developed to make these programs more accountable and ensure local businesses have a fair shot at competing for them. These rules should also include: a) uniform, web-based public disclosure requirements that indicate how much beneficiary companies received, how many jobs were produced for how many years, and b) clawback provisions for companies that fail to fulfill their promises. (A full elaboration of these ideas is at the Good Jobs First website.)

* Enact Securities Reform – While there is a clear need for greater regulatory oversight of large-scale financial institutions, there is actually a need for less oversight of smaller ones. For these smaller institutions, the existing regulatory regime has essentially wiped out small-business stock issues. We recommend the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) consider excluding from regulation all small securities (<$100) that link unaccredited investors with microbusinesses and all intrastate stock exchanges that trade such securities. This would enormously boost the availability of local capital to start and expand local businesses with the greatest economic development potential. It will also free up SEC resources to focus on bigger institutions like hedge funds that have been under regulated. Additional reforms should make it easier for cooperatives, mutual funds, and retirement funds to invest in microbusiness. To speed these reforms, one home-run policy to implement is a tax credit for any individual investment in microbusiness. Your campaign policy papers argued for a 20 percent credit for investments up to $50,000 in rural microbusinesses, and we encourage you to extend this credit to all microbusinesses, rural and urban...

http://www.small-mart.org/obama-policy-recommendations

Conservatives Have a Point: Michael Shuman Reacts to Economic Stimulus Bill

I'm afraid I agree with Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and nearly all the congressional Republicans that the pork in the approved "stimulus bill" is nauseating. It takes the worst ideas in economic development – massive payouts to government white elephant projects and gigantic incentives to attract, retain or otherwise bribe global corporations – and puts them on steroids. I'm not condemning every line in the package, but the careless and thoughtless way this bill was assembled, packaged, and shoved through Congress ought to give small-mart advocates pause about the priorities of the new administration.

I'm not against a stimulus, per se, and here I do part company with many conservatives. I agree with John Maynard Keynes, perhaps the greatest economist of the 20th century, that when private purchasing peters out, the public sector ought to step in, borrow, and spend. It's like a defibrillating shock to a heart that stopped beating – necessary emergency treatment.

But whatever stimulus this legislation induces will be accidental, not intentional. Ultimately, stimulus in any state or community requires a strong economic multiplier. Core to the local economy movement is an understanding that economic development works best when it maximizes the local circulation of spending. One reason we "Think Local First" is that locally owned businesses spend more of their money locally. Nonlocal businesses re-spend money willy-nilly across the planet, not targeted within a community, and therefore have weaker multipliers. And white elephant projects, like highways, are usually characterized by big contracts with nonlocal contractors, plus they are frequently tainted by the inefficiency and corruption.

Let me be clear: There are important and long-neglected priorities in the country that government spending should address. I would like to see, for example, more spending on repairing infrastructure and on energy efficiency. But the stimulus impact of such spending requires local entrepreneurs.

Where Are Local Businesses?
There is nothing in the stimulus package to assure that federal funds will be spent on small, locally owned businesses. The more likely prospect is that "green jobs" initiatives will be led by Monsanto, General Electric, and Bechtel. Indeed, the Chicago Tribune just editorialized that stimulus ought to include the spread of Wal-Mart stores throughout the city.

If the stimulus package is implemented like economic development usually is, the last beneficiaries will be local business. We're about to release the results of a two-year research project, funded by the Kellogg Foundation, on the local business priorities of the top three economic development programs in 15 rural states. In all, we studied 84 program-years. In only eight of those program-years – about ten percent – was a simple majority of funds spent on locally owned business. Ninety percent of the programs spent most of their funds on nonlocal business, in many cases well over ninety percent of the funds.

Economic development today invests in big businesses least likely to stimulate local economies. And it does this, despite the fact that local businesses account for roughly half of local economies, in terms of jobs and output (an even greater percentage of the rural economies that we studied).

More reasonable conservatives, who appreciate that government can sometimes play a positive role in fixing a broken economy, lobbied for the current package to have more tax cuts and less spending. They argued that cuts in personal taxes – like payroll taxes, placed primarily on working Americans – would put more money in the economy more quickly than the megaprojects put forward by the Democrats. Frankly, they have a point...

http://www.small-mart.org/stimulus-bill

Good Hair

When Chris Rock’s daughter, Lola, came up to him crying and asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” the bewildered comic committed himself to search the ends of the earth and the depths of black culture to find out who had put that question into his little girl's head! Director Jeff Stilson’s camera followed the funnyman, and the result is Good Hair, a wonderfully insightful and entertaining, yet remarkably serious, documentary about African American hair culture.An exposé of comic proportions that only Chris Rock could pull off, Good Hair visits hair salons and styling battles, scientific laboratories, and Indian temples to explore the way black hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of black people. Celebrities such as Ice-T, Kerry Washington, Nia Long, Paul Mooney, Raven Symoné, Maya Angelou, and Reverend Al Sharpton all candidly offer their stories and observations to Rock while he struggles with the task of figuring out how to respond to his daughter’s question. What he discovers is that black hair is a big business that doesn’t always benefit the black community and little Lola’s question might well be bigger than his ability to convince her that the stuff on top of her head is nowhere near as important as what is inside.

http://festival.sundance.org/2009/film_events/films/good_hair

Right America: Feeling Wronged

On the day Barack Obama was elected the 44th President, more than 58 million voters cast their ballots for John McCain. In the months leading up to this historic election, filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi (HBO's Emmy®-winning "Journeys with George") took a road trip to meet some of the conservative Americans who waited in line for hours to support the GOP ticket, and saw their hopes and dreams evaporate in the wake of that Democratic victory. These voters share their feelings about the changing America in which they live.

http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/rightamerica/index.html

The Bordello Bar: The Fold in Bordello

The Mirror Portrait

Whispertown

Lady Bordello

Orenda Fink via mirror reflection

The Lovely Stephanie Drootin leading Tin Kite

Stephanie Drootin of Tin Kite

Arrica Rose & The ...'s

I went to the Bordello Bar last night where I ran into an acquaintance who I hadn't seen in years...Arrica Rose is a song writer, musician, artist who is also co-founder and executive director of the Indie-Rock Outreach, I Heart, a non-profit organization that brings together musicians and artists for the purpose of:

I Heart is an incorporated 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our ultimate aim is to empower local artists and their communities by encouraging the artists to use the resources at their disposal (their creativity and their fanbase) to help raise money for local charitable organizations. In the process of raising awareness and much needed funds we also intend to expose the participating artists to new fans as well as fellow artists who are utilizing their creativity to inspire change locally and globally.

http://www.iheartinc.com/ourmission.cfm

To hear Arrica & the ...'s who happen to be playing tomorrow evening at Zoey's in Ventura 8.00PM

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=5251797

Invisible Tree House by Tham & Videgard Hansson

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/swedish-mirrored-treehouse.php

It is an old architectural trick used since the invention of mirrored glass: covering buildings with the reflective material and declaring that they blend in with the surroundings. Most architects use it to convince wary citizens that it is OK if their building is tall because it will reflect the sky and nature. The rendering always makes the building disappear, and the reality is always a big clunky mirrored box.

But a mirrored box can be elegant, too, such as this treehouse by Swedish firm Tham & Videgard Hansson Arkitekter. TreeHugger loves treehouses (see our roundup of them here) when they are designed to minimize impact on the surrounding landscape. And in this case, it looks like the architects have pulled it off successfully.

Orenda Fink & Stephanie Drootin @ The Fold in Bordello

ORENDA FINK & Stephanie Drootin

Orenda Fink also known as one half of Georgia\'s Azure Ray, Orenda emerges on her first solo release as a new musical treasure. She\'s inspired, bold, perceptive and real, and Invisible Ones soars with unassuming brilliance. Engineered by Andy LeMaster (Now It\'s Overhead) and co-produced by Andy LeMaster and Orenda Fink. Featuring appearances by Todd Fink (The Faint), Scott Amendola, Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio), Martin Perna (Antibalas), Dan McCarthy (Mayday and McCarthy Trenching), Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes, The Faint, Rilo Kiley), Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers), and Rozna Zila and Sandy M. Saint-Cyr (Troupe Macandal).

The Fold in Bordello (MAP)
901 E. 1st Street
Los Angeles, CA
US 90012

Wed February 11,2009
$10
Doors 8.00PM
Show 9.00PM

Titicut Follies

Time certainly changes the viewing experience of any film, but especially so in the case of Frederick Wiseman's first documentary, which editorially chronicles the facilities and the patients at a state-run treatment center. In the mid-1960s, MCI-Bridgewater held a wide range of detainees and patients, some deemed “criminally insane” and others “sexually dangerous”. Despite the sensitive treatment these inmates required, the center was nevertheless run – at the time – by the Department of Corrections, not the Department of Mental Health. (1)

The film's initial production in 1967 quickly brought controversy: consent procedures were called into question, as were the ethics of both the first-time filmmaker and his political cronies, and finally, legal definitions of terms like 'privacy' and 'obscenity' (the State tried to restrict the film's exhibition based partially on the grounds that the film showed male frontal nudity). Titicut Follies became at once a hot topic for newspapers, a useful document for rights activists (as well as for students of documentary), and a deeply sensitive issue for the families personally involved.

But now, in 2002, Wiseman has made over 30 films and is generally regarded to be one of the most unique and stylistically uncompromising documentary filmmakers. Unaffiliated with any school of filming (or indeed with any film school), Wiseman has steadfastly pursued a completely individualized style of production, ranking him with the great auteurs and filmic innovators in cinema history. Discussions of Titicut Follies used to be more about the patients – should their rights of privacy be protected, did Wiseman violate those rights, how the issue of consent is complicated when competency can't be established, and so on. Now, with the most pressing legal suits in the film's past, and with many of the patients pictured now deceased, the film becomes more our chance to see the seeds of Wiseman's style at their rawest roots.

Wiseman's camera is deceptively passive, deceptively silent. An understandable but inappropriate impression is that it merely sits back and watches. In Titicut Follies, patients are stripped and humiliated by boorish guards operating under questionable government policy, and Wiseman's camera keeps rolling. It enters a session between a doctor interviewing an inmate, who admits to molesting his own daughter. It takes us inside the morgue as Bridgewater's embalmer prepares a body for burial. To what degree is Wiseman's camera brave for recording and presenting events we'll otherwise never see? And to what degree is it cold, or voyeuristic? Which events does it passively record, and which does it catalyze?

For instance, a patient named Jim is taunted relentlessly by a guard abusing his authority. Naked and being led through the halls – followed by Wiseman's camera – Jim is put further in a position of inferiority when placed in a barber's chair, loomed over by multiple officers, shaved roughly (perhaps even being cut purposefully), and taunted all the way back to his empty cell, bleeding and covering his genitals. But when the guards finally give out, appearing to leave Jim alone, Wiseman keeps going. His camera stands in the doorway of Jim's cell, rolling on, watching, giving Jim no respite, effectively continuing his harassment while simultaneously exposing it. The viewer is put in an extremely uncomfortable position, forced to react multiply to varying stimuli – Jim's disgustingly inappropriate cell, off-camera guards restarting their psychological torment, Jim's tantrum in response. Wiseman's camera (by implication, the viewer), stands at the doorway and watches.

http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/01/19/titicut.html

LUST 4 LACE: MY BLOODY VALENTINE

LACE celebrates another Valentine's Day with its notorious annual fundraising event, Lust 4 LACE! Join us on Friday the 13th at 8PM for an appropriately ghoulish bash among friends and lovers in Lust 4 LACE: My Bloody Valentine.

Shoghig Halajian, Franco Castilla, and Robert Crouch of the LACE team have organized an evening to celebrate the grand tradition of years past. Let loose with a performance and participatory “Dance Class” by Sir Heffington, a video screening curated by Darin Klein, curator of the current exhibition Christopher Russell at the Hammer Museum, videos by Kelly Sears, Trulee Grace Hall, Nathan Budde, Cindy Rehm, Dino Dinco, Weston Currie, Cathy Begien, Zachary Drucker, Rhys Ernst, Adrian Cruz, Kanako Wynkoop, Anjali Prasertong, Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Mores McWreath, DJ sets by Alejandro Cohen (Dublab), Total Freedom (Wildness) and Maki (KXLU), a zine table, and more! Costumes are highly encouraged.

Schedule of Events
8pm- Video screening curated by Darin Klein
9pm- DJ set by Alejandro Cohen (of Dublab)
9:45pm- Performance and "Dance Class" by Sir Heffington.
10:30pm- DJ set by Total Freedom (of Wildness)
11:15pm - DJ set by Maki (of KXLU)
* KOGI BBQ will be parked out front and serving food all night.
Find out more about KOGI BBQ on LAWeekly and CBS.

Past years’ events have featured Jordan Biren, Dino Dinco, Zachary Drucker, Martin Durazo, Micol Hebron, Tyler Hubby, Bryan Jackson, Kadet Kuhne, Lauren Lavitt, Eva Posey, Dustin Robertson, Margie Schnibbe, Mark Cosmo Segurson, Vena Virago, Austin Young, Carlos Zamora, and more.

All proceeds benefit LACE programs.

$10

Friday Feb 13 (8pm)

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (6522 Hollywood Blvd)
323.957.1777

http://www.artleak.org/current.html#Lust4Lace

Hothouse Flowers: New works by Ian O'phelan

Ian O’Phelan (b. 1982, a Pisces) hails from Toledo, OH. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati, where he pursued a Frankenstein curriculum of fine art and graphic design classes. Mr. O’Phelan currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

“I think of my artwork as a meandering study and description of natural objects. My portfolio, an ever growing Wunderkammer, is a collection of the ironic and the sentimental. It provides a means of reconciling a bubbling unconscious spiritualism with the mundanities of daily life.”

Hothouse Flowers

This upcoming exhibition is a collection of drawings and collage which capture the outgrowth of the transcendental in a world of banalities. Stills from cartoons and commercials burst forth with bouquets of fresh cut flowers. Parking tickets and porn provide the rich compost for new growth. Featuring O'Phelan's unique linework this show revels in human mark making in an era of computer rendering. In eager anticipation for spring, Hothouse Flowers opens...

FREE

Opens Thursday Feb 12 (7pm–midnight)
Feb 12 – Mar 2
Mondays–Fridays (9am–6pm)
Saturdays–Sundays (1–6pm)

Ghettogloss (2380 Glendale Blvd)
323.912.0008

http://www.ghettogloss.com/events/

BMW Art Cars @ LACMA

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents an installation of BMW Art Cars designed by Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg from February 12-24, 2009. The cars will be on view in the BP Grand Entrance, an admission-free area of the museum's campus. LACMA is the first U.S. venue in a major worldwide tour of the cars; they next appear in New York City's historic Grand Central Terminal, March 25-April 7, before heading to a three-city museum tour in Mexico.

"We are pleased that the BMW Art Cars have returned to LACMA. The David Hockney car was on exhibition as part of David Hockney: A Drawing Retrospective in 1996 and we are eager to welcome this wider selection by some of the world's most celebrated artists to the museum," said Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director.

Never-before-seen footage of the four cars will also be on display, complementing the presentation. The videos reveal a young Warhol constructing his car, Frank Stella and Robert Rauschenberg discussing their inspirations and influences in creating their respective pieces, and various experts including Hervé Poulain, the race car driver and initiator of the Art Car Project, discussing the resulting impact of these works.

"Art, architecture, and design are very important to our daily business," said Chris Bangle, BMW Chief Designer. "We are proud that some of the most respected artists in the world have interpreted their thoughts and their points of view through our cars. It is an interesting and inspiring process and we always look forward to the moment an artist draws the curtain."

FREE
Feb 12–24
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (5905 Wilshire Blvd)
323.857.6000

The Garden Party @ Edgar Varela Fine Arts

Nice way to end LA's downtown art walk this Thursday. Music, Art, Fashion, Fun.

$5

Thursday Feb 12 (9:30pm–2am)

Edgar Varela Fine Arts (542 S Alameda St, 2nd Floor)
213.494.7608

http://www.edgarvarelafinearts.com/

HOMOtracker: I'm With Cupid

It's so lame, but I love Valentine's Day. I prefer not going all Hallmark, but it's fun to use the day as an excuse to show extra, extra love and appreciation! Oh yeah! I almost forgot about the amazing sex that you're supposed to have with your significant other or a complete stranger depending on your situation...

http://www.homotracker.org/

Sign It

Dear MoveOn member,

Last Friday, Sen. Claire McCaskill took to the Senate floor and said what I imagine a lot of us have been thinking about Wall Street lately:
"They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out $18 billion in bonuses...What planet are these people on?"1 Sen. McCaskill was reacting to the $18.4 billion in bonuses that Wall Street bankers took home in 2008. $18.4 billion going to the people who crippled our economy with their recklessness and greed and then took $700 billion of our money.2

Yesterday, President Obama took an important first step, limiting pay at companies taking bailouts going forward.3 But Congress is considering going even further, applying the limits retroactively and even taking back some of the most extravagant bonuses at firms that took taxpayer money.4

A huge public outcry will give them momentum and push them to real action. Can you sign this petition to Congress, urging them to act now to rein in Wall Street greed? Clicking here will add your name:
http://pol.moveon.org/bonus/o.pl?id=15503-8941608-7DJiRPx&t=3

The petition says: "Congress must place enforceable, common-sense limits on salaries at all the banks that have taken taxpayer dollars."

Wall Street's defenders make all kinds of excuses about why the bonuses were justified. They say that bonuses are an accepted part of compensation packages on Wall Street, that those receiving bonuses weren't the ones who lost their firms billions of dollars, and that they need to pay bonuses to retain top talent.5

Those arguments are outrageous.If automatic bonuses are a part of Wall Street culture, that culture has to change—a firm that's still afloat only because of huge taxpayer bailouts shouldn't be paying bonuses. And while tens of thousands of Wall Street employees are losing their jobs, it's hard to believe that those still employed will go looking for new positions because they didn't get a bonus.

Sen. McCaskill showed courage standing up to the status quo. We've got to show the rest of Congress that this is the kind of leadership we need to get us out of this crisis and make the economy work for all Americans. Limiting pay at companies taking bailouts won't fix our financial system—that will take a lot more hard work—but it's an important first step.
Can you tell Congress to rein in Wall Street's excesses now and then pass this petition on to your friends? Clicking here will add your name:
http://pol.moveon.org/bonus/o.pl?id=15503-8941608-7DJiRPx&t=4
Thanks for all you do.

Contact

"Remember Karma"

Karma is the law of moral causation. The theory of Karma is a fundamental doctrine in Buddhism. This belief was prevalent in India before the advent of the Buddha. Nevertheless, it was the Buddha who explained and formulated this doctrine in the complete form in which we have it today.

In this world nothing happens to a person that he does not for some reason or other deserve. Usually, men of ordinary intellect cannot comprehend the actual reason or reasons. The definite invisible cause or causes of the visible effect is not necessarily confined to the present life, they may be traced to a proximate or remote past birth.

According to Buddhism, this inequality is due not only to heredity, environment, "nature and nurture", but also to Karma. In other words, it is the result of our own past actions and our own present doings. We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness and misery. We create our own Heaven. We create our own Hell. We are the architects of our own fate.

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:GYDm7_LdvycJ:www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/karma.htm+karma&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

One Bad Cat

http://www.documentary.org/content/video/2031

Bruce Conner @ The Redcat (Film)

Bruce Conner's Explosive Cinema: A Tribute, Part 2

"Bruce Conner's ecstatic films... are a blast--witty, exuberant, despairing, engaged, apocalyptic." The New York Times

Influential maestro of found footage Bruce Conner (1933-2008) was often described as the father of MTV-style editing. His reply: "Don't blame me!" An artist of explosive intensity and enigmatic allure, Conner displayed a legendary mastery of assemblage, drawing, collage and film. At once voluptuous and razor-edged, Conner's compact, cinematic bombs are an inspired mix of heartfelt meditation and tragicomic political satire. Surveying the filmmaker's work over a 50-year span, the program includes A Movie (1958, 12 min.), Marilyn Times Five (1973, 14 min.), Permian Strata (1969, 4 min.), Mea Culpa (1981, 4 min.), Looking for Mushrooms (1967, 3 min.), Looking for Mushrooms (1996 version, 15 min.), Report (1967, 13 min.), Television Assassination (1995, 14 min.), Take the 5:10 to Dreamland (1977, 5 min.), Valse Triste (1977, 5 min.) and Easter Morning (2008, 10 min., DV).

In person: Dennis Hopper, longtime Conner friend and co-conspirator, and guest of honor Jean Conner

Mon 3.02.09 8:30 pm $9 $7 $5

http://redcat.org/season/0809/fv/conner.php

Klaus Schulze

http://www.klaus-schulze.com/welcome.htm

Pearl Fryar

Pearl Fryar began work on the 3 acre garden in 1984 in an effort to win "Yard of the Month" for his home on the outskirts of Bishopville, SC. The well-manicured, sculptural plant forms that comprise Fryar's living vision of peace, love and goodwill often times began as salvaged seedlings from a local nursery. Recognized by art and botanical enthusiasts, the visually whimsical garden is maintained year-round by Fryar for visitors from around the world. The Friends of Pearl Fryar's Topiary Garden has been organized to help care for and preserve the garden and assist Pearl as he educates and inspires others to achieve their creative potential.

Please click the links on the side to learn more about the artist - Pearl Fryar

http://www.fryarstopiaries.com/subtemp.asp?cat=1&id=1