A Teacher's Secret Life Hillel Aron's look at the life and death of Harry Major, a Hollywood High teacher with a penchant for taking in ex-cons, had readers riveted last week ("The Pen Pal Murder," Oct. 17). Anon can't wait for the movie version, saying, "Great story and writing. Write...
After 40 — yes, 40 — years of cooing and obsessing over Sanrio’s adorable mascot, Hello Kitty is getting her own fan convention. The first Hello Kitty Con takes place Halloween weekend at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary. The festivities launch Thursday morning with a packed schedule of panels and demo sessions. Check out talks such as “Inspired by Her — Artist and Hello Kitty” and “Guys Love Hello Kitty Too!” There also will be classes on flower arranging, cookie decorating and scrapbooking. Given that this is a convention at an art museum, you can expect lots of art-filled activities. On Thursday, Vancouver-based artist Camilla d’Errico will teach and lecture throughout the day. Esther Kim, Dabs Myla and Martin Hsu will appear later in the convention, while five tattoo artists will be available for appointments throughout the weekend. If you’re looking for something less permanent, get a Hello Kitty manicure from nail artist Masako Kojima. Hello Kitty merchandise, including exclusives and limited items, will be on sale as well. Somehow not enough for you? K-town’s hipper-than-thou Line Hotel is offering Hello Kitty packages during the convention. The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N. Central Ave., dwntwn.; Thu., Oct. 30-Sun., Nov. 2, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; $20-$30 (most days sold out). sanrio.com/hellokittycon-eventinfo.More
Today’s generation might be familiar only with Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise’s 2005 adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, but on Halloween Eve 1938, back when radio was the lifeline of the home, Orson Welles’ retelling of the sci-fi novel became the most infamous radio broadcast in American history. Many of the nearly 1 million people who tuned in to the CBS program were convinced that a meteorite had landed in New Jersey, sending an army of Martian invaders to eat them. Though Welles and his Mercury Theater assured listeners the program was merely a play (their “version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of the bush and saying ‘boo’ ”), mass hysteria and even reports of suicide set in, to the delight of the press. Fake Radio re-creates that fateful night when aliens conquered the country, employing a cast of more than a dozen actors, period music and costumes. Since 1998, the local troupe has been re-enacting old radio scripts from the 1930s to the 1950s, including The Wizard of Oz, The Phantom of the Opera, It’s a Wonderful Life and All About Eve. Past guests have included George Wendt, John Larroquette, Fred Willard and Jeff Garlin. Trepany House at the Steve Allen Theater, 4773 Hollywood Blvd., Hlywd.; Thu., Oct. 30, 8 p.m.; $20. (323) 666-4268, trepanyhouse.org. More
Looking for the perfect place to show off your Black Widow costume? Stan Lee’s fourth annual Comikaze Expo launches on Halloween at the Los Angeles Convention Center. At this pop culture extravaganza, learn how to pose for cosplay photos or get a crash course in steampunk. Check out a screening of Return to Nuke ’Em High Volume 1 with Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman. Bring the kids: On Friday, the convention’s exhibit hall hosts a massive trick-or-treat adventure. Stick around throughout the weekend for a huge Tetris 30th-anniversary gathering or catch Spike and Mike’s new Halloween special on Saturday. Sunday is “Family Day,” with fun for all ages, including a panel with the stars of Power Rangers Megaforce and a Land of the Lost reunion. The whole weekend is filled with celebrity guests — from Adam West and Julie Newmar to Game of Thrones stars Gwendoline Christie and Alfie Allen. Look out for the convention’s founder, Stan Lee, as well as Cassandra Peterson (aka Elvira), who is a partner in the event. Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St., dwntwn.; Fri., Oct. 31, 1-7 p.m.; Sat., Nov. 1, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sun., Nov. 2, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; $30 day pass, $70 weekend pass, children under 12 free with paying adult. comikazeexpo.com. More
Though it’s the fleshiest gathering outside the Playboy Mansion, the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval is not clothing-optional. In fact, the 500,000 attention-getters expected tonight have been working on their amazing outfits almost since the day they shed last year’s Miley Cyrus’ wrecking-ball gear. The biggest people-watching event in town — and, as a parade, second only to the Tournament of Roses — includes 50-plus performers, live bands and DJs across six stages, a costume contest and the crowning of the honorary “Queen of the Carnaval” (last year, Queen Latifah held that title). So what will be the most popular costume idea this year? Maleficent? The three-breasted woman? Ebola? Put on a hospital mask or hazmat suit and find out. Santa Monica Boulevard between Doheny Drive & La Cienega Boulevard, W. Hlywd.; Fri., Oct. 31, 6-11 p.m.; free. (800) 368-6020, visitwesthollywood.com.More
When it comes to the life of Bruce Haack, separating truth from fiction is not easy. The groundbreaking electronic music composer and inventor is said to have taught himself to play piano by age 3. By 8, he apparently was escaping his abusive mother's wrath by sneaking off to Indian...
Visual allure often isn't a virtue we value when chasing obscure flavors in L.A.'s international neighborhoods. In fact, adventurous diners tend to appreciate the opposite: The grungier the location, the more accomplished we feel for having sought it out. Looks be damned — let the fireworks happen on the flavor...
The Los Angeles art world has been saying a collective "hallelujah" since the arrival in January of Philippe Vergne as MOCA's new director. Although some East Coast commentators condemned the appointment — citing in particular a budget crisis scandal in which Vergne resorted to selling off a number of works...
It's just math. With ever more overflowing arts districts and only so many Saturday nights a month, a bumper crop of shows opens tonight in Culver City — and several galleries are ringing in the new season by showing off their marquee rosters. Exact hours and show durations vary, so you'll want to check gallery sites for complete details. Promising and must-see highlights include Brooklyn-based artist KAWS at Honor Fraser, offering new work extrapolating from the Peanuts comics. The artist styles these images to the point of abstraction with his trademark bold color schemes, along with more gestural, black-and-white works (through Oct. 31). Also Kehinde Wiley's World Stage series at Roberts & Tilton (through Oct. 25) continues with an iteration based on Haiti's pageant culture, using the artist's iconic portraits of everyday folks rendered in his lavishly regal style. Zackary Drucker & Rhys Ernst's Post / Relationship / X at Luis de Jesus (through Nov. 1) surveys their years-long transgender love affair and artistic collaboration with recent photos that debuted at Paris Photo L.A., as well as a brand-new video piece. Sandow Birk at Koplin Del Rio (through Oct. 17) presents the third in his aesthetically and emotionally intense series transcribing the entire Koran and illuminating it with images of contemporary secular life in America. Rebecca Farr offers haunting mixed media paintings on canvas and the release of her new book at Klowden Mann through Oct. 18). The Miaz Brothers take on "The Masters" in a new series of ghostly, witty paintings at Fabien Castanier (through Oct. 11), in the Italian sibling-collaborators' first U.S. show. Tim Gratkowski at Walter Maciel (through Nov. 1) shows new two- and three-dimensional, retro-slick and expressively abstract mixed-media collages. Patricia Chidlaw at George Billis Gallery (through Nov. 1) installs a diverse suite of urban landscape paintings, which go beyond photorealism to show us our common world in an uncommon light. Honor Fraser Gallery, 2622 S. La Cienega Blvd., Culver City; thru Nov. 1; free. (310) 837-0191, honorfraser.com.More
“Adam Mars: Once Upon a Time, We Weren’t Stalkers” opens this week at Gusford Gallery, but at least one of its key text-based images (“I Loved You, Then I Googled You”) is already up on a billboard — which is kind of perfect, since the work is about how much we relentlessly chronicle every moment of our lives in public. The emotional highs and lows, triumphs, epic fails and misapprehensions that once were private affairs have become 140-character public confessions, one-way broadcasts in which we hurl our bullshit into the public sphere without filter. OK, so maybe social media–fueled narcissism isn’t a sign of the apocalypse, but the confluence of word, image, technology and bottomless need for attention is certainly a phenomenon worth addressing — and Mars’ visual art, which both celebrates and impugns the practice, is the perfect way to do it. By painting his texts on a tactile, expressive, brick-backed abstract patterning, he both evokes the “real world” in a literal brick-and-mortar sense, and addresses the outside voice represented by truncated, decontextualized online pronouncements. Also, they are hilarious. Please try to remain aware of the irony when you repost them on Instagram, OK? Gusford Gallery. 7016 Melrose Ave., W. Hlywd. Thu., Nov. 6, 6-9 p.m.; continues Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m., through Dec. 20; free. (323) 452-9563, gusfordgallery.com.More
Tuesdays-Saturdays, 6-9 p.m. and Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Continues through Dec. 20
Alexandre Aja's Horns is the rare YA-ish romance that doesn't make like a guidance counselor and force the characters to shake hands and forgive. It's a biblically tinged, eye-for-an-eye vengeance thriller about an emo boyfriend named Ig (Daniel Radcliffe) whose childhood sweetheart Merrin (Juno Temple) has been murdered underneath the...
Jake Gyllenhaal, not a particularly bulky guy to begin with, dropped 20 pounds or so to play a Los Angeles misfit who finds his calling as a freelance crime videographer in Dan Gilroy's nervy thriller Nightcrawler. Even when Robert De Niro does it, weight change isn't acting — it's the...
The best that can be said of The Pact 2 is that its existence might draw the attention of more viewers to The Pact, a superior indie creep-out from 2012 whose creator, the writer-director Nicholas McCarthy, fashioned it according to three inviolable principles.
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Before the job had a name, the king of a television show was usually unknown beyond his kingdom -- the gangs of tool-belt-wearing union workers, divisions of actor prettifiers, regiments of writers and editors.
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The autumn passage of the New Wavers continues apace with this, the final film by the late great postmodernist, whose movies were always fraught with our often self-destructive need for narrative.
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Two British privates named Peaceful fight side by side in the trenches of World War I, and both face the wrath of their superior officers in a court-martial.
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The documentary All You Need Is Love does a nice job of showing how, when it comes to children's lives, the ordinary is inescapable, even in extraordinary circumstances.
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Festival Supreme: Tenacious D's "Coachella of Comedy"
October 27, 2014
This weekend, Festival Supreme, the Tenacious D-curated "Coachella of Comedy" rocked — and cracked up — audiences at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall. All photos by L.J. Williamson.
This weekend, Festival Supreme, the Tenacious D-curated "Coachella of Comedy" rocked — and cracked up — audiences at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall. All photos by L.J. Williamson.
Seldom have the words hummus and handjobs been uttered in the same sentence, especially by a nice Jewish girl. But Jessie Kahnweiler is not your typical nice Jewish girl. In less than two years, the 29-year-old filmmaker has become an online favorite of the Girls generation, with a series of...
Oh, Los Angeles, we know you love to hate fracking. But like a lot of controversial science, it has its upsides. The L.A. City Council has already said not in my backyard to fracking, largely because environmentalists fear that the process of pushing pressurized liquid into rock formations to squeeze...
iHeartSilverlake EastSide Food Festival Silver Lake is getting its own food festival, with 25 vendors, chefs, DJs, musicians and more, hosted by Mack Sennett Studios, Castle Gourmet and Food Is the New Rock. Who's coming? Alimento, Auntie Em's Kitchen, Angel City Brewing, Black Hogg, Donut Friend, HomeState, Kitchen Mouse, Little Beast, Mexicali...
Several hours after they crossed the Arizona border, the nauseating flash of lights and sirens forced their rented car to the roadside. The Pillsbury-faced cop commanded the driver to step outside the vehicle. The charge: exceeding the speed limit by three miles an hour. “I repeatedly apologized and told him...
The just-out Home Everywhere (Captured Tracks) is veteran noise-pop combo Medicine’s followup to last year’s critically huzzah’d To the Happy Few, which was released after a near 20-year break for the band. The trio — made up of guitarist/producer Brad Laner (Electric Company, Savage Republic), singer/bassist Elizabeth Thompson and drummer...
Controversial cop Frank Lyga was terminated by Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck, the detective's attorney, Ira Salzman, told L.A. Weekly today. Lyga was sent home with pay in June after a recording of comments he made to an ongoing-training course for law enforcement was brought to the media's...
Be sure to check out our constantly updated concert calendar! Who doesn't love free stuff? Especially at this time of year, when you're saving up for all that holiday shopping (you sweet, generous soul). Well, here's our gift to you: the best free concerts in L.A. this November. You're welcome...
Reggae will always be relevant. For evidence, see the Bob Marley posters perennially tacked to the dorm room walls of stoned college students across the country. However, few move beyond the genre’s most popular practitioner. If you listen to Peter Tosh, you’re probably one spliff away from being your residence...
Yes, there's an election next month. So called mid-term elections (two years before or after presidential elections) are notorious for their low turnout. But if you don't vote, you can't complain about the clowns elected by the people who do. Jobs up for your approval in Los Angeles county include...
Let's face it – you don't need to go crazy this week (that's what Halloween weekend is for!). But that doesn't mean you have to sit on your couch crafting your costume and sneaking candy all week. Get out there! With so many great events happening this week, you don't...
Standing in front of a coffee shop in Huntington Beach, Shaile Socher is taking a photo of the potted succulents on the table. It looks like a typical centerpiece. “I won an award for this piece at the San Diego Cake Show,” she says. It’s made out of sugar and...
To the list of great things to eat at Grand Central Market, add yet one more: Belcampo Meat Co. just added a Fast Burger to its menu. And it's $5. The Fast Burger is essentially your ideal burger stand or drive-through burger: a three-ounce patty made with grass-fed beef, melted...