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...
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
Día de los Muertos, which technically runs from Oct. 31 through Nov. 2, is one of Mexico’s most celebrated holidays. The result of Spanish influence on a centuries-old Aztec festival honoring Mictecacihuatl, goddess of the afterlife, Día de los Muertos now is celebrated around the world — and especially in Los Angeles, where festivals from the traditional to the contemporary celebrate los muertos all over the city. Traditionally tonight is reserved for honoring children who have passed, but since it falls on a Saturday, it’s when the city’s best Día de los Muertos celebrations are happening. Hollywood Forever, which claims to be the only cemetery in the United States where Día de los Muertos is celebrated, hosts its 15th annual event with the fitting theme of Quinceañera. Expect a traditional procession among the tombstones, more than 100 altars, musical performances on three stages, and an art exhibit in the Cathedral Mausoleum curated by Luis Villanueva. Downtown, head to Grand Park for a huge, free celebration featuring 50 traditional and contemporary altars (on view through Nov. 2), dance performances by Danza Azteca Xocoyote, Oaxacan group Nueva Antequera and Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet Company, and live music from Very Be Careful and Palenke Soultribe. Plus: giant sugar skulls. If you’re near Long Beach, head to MoLAA, the only U.S. museum devoted to modern and contemporary Latin American art. Saturday night, catch La Muerte Vive! — Where Rock Opera Meets Cabaret, featuring musician Santos de Los Angeles, burlesque dancer Ruby Champagne and giant puppets (judas). Bring the family back the next morning for Target Free Sundays Festival de los Muertos — admission is free all day, so after you’ve decorated sugar skulls and checked out the community altar honoring author Gabriel García Márquez, head inside the galleries to check out some of the best of Latin American art (MoLAA altars on display through Nov. 9). Hollywood Forever Día de los Muertos, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Sat. Nov. 1, noon-mid.; $20; ladayofthedead.com.More
Día de los Muertos, which technically runs from Oct. 31 through Nov. 2, is one of Mexico’s most celebrated holidays. The result of Spanish influence on a centuries-old Aztec festival honoring Mictecacihuatl, goddess of the afterlife, Día de los Muertos now is celebrated around the world — and especially in Los Angeles, where festivals from the traditional to the contemporary celebrate los muertos all over the city. Traditionally tonight is reserved for honoring children who have passed, but since it falls on a Saturday, it’s when the city’s best Día de los Muertos celebrations are happening. Hollywood Forever, which claims to be the only cemetery in the United States where Día de los Muertos is celebrated, hosts its 15th annual event with the fitting theme of Quinceañera. Expect a traditional procession among the tombstones, more than 100 altars, musical performances on three stages, and an art exhibit in the Cathedral Mausoleum curated by Luis Villanueva. Downtown, head to Grand Park for a huge, free celebration featuring 50 traditional and contemporary altars (on view through Nov. 2), dance performances by Danza Azteca Xocoyote, Oaxacan group Nueva Antequera and Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet Company, and live music from Very Be Careful and Palenke Soultribe. Plus: giant sugar skulls. If you’re near Long Beach, head to MoLAA, the only U.S. museum devoted to modern and contemporary Latin American art. Saturday night, catch La Muerte Vive! — Where Rock Opera Meets Cabaret, featuring musician Santos de Los Angeles, burlesque dancer Ruby Champagne and giant puppets (judas). Bring the family back the next morning for Target Free Sundays Festival de los Muertos — admission is free all day, so after you’ve decorated sugar skulls and checked out the community altar honoring author Gabriel García Márquez, head inside the galleries to check out some of the best of Latin American art (MoLAA altars on display through Nov. 9). Grand Park’s Downtown Día de los Muertos Concert, Grand Park, 200 N. Grand Ave., dwntwn.; Sat., Nov. 1, 3-10 p.m.; free; grandparkla.org.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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A common habit by drama critics is to compare and contrast a new adaptation of an old work with or against that old work, which would seem a reasonable approach. But not in the case of poet-performer-playwright Luis Alfaro. Alfaro’s work, whether the solo autobiographical performance St. Jude, presented last year at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, or his 2005 adaptation of Elektra at the Mark Taper Forum (Electricidad) are singularly Alfaro creations rather than amalgams.
Alfaro’s words have a colloquial poeticism, so that you barely notice the poetry, until it seeps out ever so subtly. You barely notice how impassioned his world view is, until, amidst glib quips about LACMA, MOCA and former mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, you realize that you’ve haven’t moved, perhaps you haven’t even breathed, for the past minute, because a crescendo of pain mixed with anger and beauty has gripped you.
Hollywood Forever's 2013 Día de los Muertos celebration.
This Halloween weekend is all treats, no tricks – with a bunch of great (and cheap!) events from the flashy to the funny to the... Cat-y?
Hit up the city's best Halloween Parade on Friday, then celebrate Mexico's Día de los Muertos by choosing from one of four awesome parties around the city (three of which are free!). After honoring the dead, you're going to need some laughs. Which is where Triple Header, the coolest thing to hit L.A. standup in a while, comes in.
If you're looking for something even weirder, hit up Catopia, a one-night-only cat-centric variety show with music, lectures, and magic. On Thursday, an exhibit featuring everyone's favorite pastime – stalking each other on the internet – opens with a ping!
Rossen Ventzislavov with a puppet named Salad Bar, in the trailer for Purple Electric Play
On a Wednesday night two weeks ago, a human-sized head of happy-looking kale named Salad Bar and a similarly sized pink-and-white bag of popcorn named Donkey, both made of new-looking fabric, made appearances at Echo Park alt space Machine Project. Puppets animated by unidentified individuals whose legs were visible from about the knees down, they sat on the stage in the comically ornate theater that currently takes up Machine’s basement.
The theater’s ornateness is comical mostly because of how it contrasts with the workspace vibe of the main upstairs room, where Machine hosts most events and workshops. You get to it via a winding DIY ladder that leads you right onto the stage or via inauspicious backstairs. So maybe, like visitors on this particular night, who came for a vague preview of Asher Hartman’s new production, Purple Electric Play! (abbreviated PEP!), you’ve been sitting on a folding chair at ground-level listening to informal presentations and watching video teasers on a projector screen. Then you descend into a room where the chairs are well-preserved antiques, mauves and crimsons dominate, and certain fixtures resemble fixtures uncannily resemble those from the small theater Marie Antoinette built at Versailles circa 1780.
This week's dance shows include a dancers who practice Gaga, a last chance to see Los Angeles Ballet's Swan Lake and modern dance meets tap.
5. Before gaga was a lady
Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company once was known in the United States primarily because Martha Graham was a founder, along with the Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild. Today it’s known as the base camp for artistic director Ohad Naharin, who assumed the helm in 1990. Naharin is the choreographer responsible for the dance technique/style known as Gaga, an approach that emphasizes Butoh-esque, slow movement countered by explosive, percussive moments. Naharin’s approach, which includes banishing mirrors in class and rehearsal, will be on view as this most au courant company arrives to celebrating its golden-anniversary year with two performances of Naharin’s Sadeh21. Sadeh translates roughly as “field,” as in a field of study, while 21 refers to the number of segments illustrating the elements of Gaga, from a solo for a bendy dancer in No. 1 to the soundtrack of a screaming woman in No. 20. This anniversary visit extends beyond the performances with workshops and other activities including a dance installation with L.A.'s own Ate9 Dance Company led by Batsheva alum Danielle Agami. Details on all the events at www.cap.ucla.edu/calendar/details/537. At UCLA Royce Hall, 340 Royce Drive, Wstwd.; Sat., Nov. 1, 8 p.m.; Sun., Nov. 2, 4 p.m.; $29-$89. 310-825-2101, www.ticketmaster.com.
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 autobiographical web shorts on topics ranging from Judaism to dating hipsters to sexual abuse. She’s quick-witted, unfiltered and endlessly quotable, with the kind of humor that would’ve made Joan Rivers laugh tears while clutching her QVC jewelry. Can we tawk?
On a blazing hot morning in Atwater Village, Kahnweiler points out the bed marks on her face and apologizes for oversleeping in a voice she later describes as “dude from Jersey.” Her head is a riot of curls. She’s wearing a Western shirt, shorts and unbuckled sandals that flap around as she walks.
Geo-political and religious implications abound in Theresa Rebeck’s world premiere play Zealot. An American diplomat is locked in a fierce battle with a British diplomat over the fate of a Muslim woman accused of committing heresy during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
But while issues of faith, convoluted history, and diplomatic maneuvering in a powder keg region certainly factor into Rebeck’s taut, engrossing tale, she is more concerned with exploring the less explosive, but just as lethal, issue of female empowerment.
Lizzie Fitch/Ryan Trecartin's still from an untitled work in progress
This week, karaoke gets a close examination at USC, and an animated cat appears repeatedly in an immersive Hollywood installation.
5. Playing with food Robert Heinecken’s TV dinners, gritty, dimensional photographs of dinners from the frozen-food aisle, look as if they actually went through the microwave themselves. The dinners alone make a trip to Heinecken’s Hammer Museum survey worth it. 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Wstwd.; through Jan. 18. (310) 443-7000, hammer.ucla.edu.
If you're averse to traditional horror films but still want to spend Halloween at the movies, try Old Town Music Hall's 8:15 p.m. screening of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The legendary comedy duo encounter a trifecta of classic Universal monsters (Frankenstein, the Wolfman and Dracula) to produce a balance between laughs and screams that's a lot more family-friendly than the rest of your viewing options on this most spooky of holidays. More information is available at oldtownmusichall.org/films.html.
Last night's event "decolonizing the white box," before the chairs got put to the side
By ten minutes after eight o’ clock last night, there were already no chairs left at Human Resources. About 150 people had shown up for “decolonizing the white box,” a discussion of racial and ethnic diversity or the lack thereof in art institutions.
But the lack of chairs would become a non-issue pretty quickly, since Raquel Gutierrez, the moderator, would ask everyone to put their chairs up against the wall and move en masse into the room’s middle for a series of group activities in which the main goal seemed to be making sure everyone, not just the self-selected talkative few, participated.
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...
The way Watts locals remember it, the Watts Happening Coffee House was the place to be in the late ‘60s. “It was hip,” said Harold Hambrick, a longtime Watts resident and witness to the 1965 Watts Riots. “Anyone who had any kind of creative ideas could come there.” Musicians, poets,...
Friday, Oct. 31 If you're averse to traditional horror films but still want to spend Halloween at the movies, try Old Town Music Hall's 8:15 p.m. screening of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The legendary comedy duo encounter a trifecta of classic Universal monsters (Frankenstein, the Wolfman and Dracula) to produce...
On a Wednesday night two weeks ago, a human-sized head of happy-looking kale named Salad Bar and a similarly sized pink-and-white bag of popcorn named Donkey, both made of new-looking fabric, made appearances at Echo Park alt space Machine Project. Puppets animated by unidentified individuals whose legs were visible from...
This Halloween weekend is all treats, no tricks – with a bunch of great (and cheap!) events from the flashy to the funny to the... Cat-y? Hit up the city's best Halloween Parade on Friday, then celebrate Mexico's Día de los Muertos by choosing from one of four awesome parties around...
L.A. Opera’s current presentation of Dido & Aeneas and Bluebeard’s Castle, two separate, hourlong operas, makes for a night of distinct contrasts. Although each work involves a pair of tragic lovers and are both, as director Barrie Kosky says, “two operas about lost Eden,” they couldn’t be any more dissimilar...
A common habit by drama critics is to compare and contrast a new adaptation of an old work with or against that old work, which would seem a reasonable approach. But not in the case of poet-performer-playwright Luis Alfaro. Alfaro’s work, whether the solo autobiographical performance St. Jude, presented last...
This week, karaoke gets a close examination at USC, and an animated cat appears repeatedly in an immersive Hollywood installation. 5. Playing with foodRobert Heinecken’s TV dinners, gritty, dimensional photographs of dinners from the frozen-food aisle, look as if they actually went through the microwave themselves. The dinners alone make...
Geo-political and religious implications abound in Theresa Rebeck’s world premiere play Zealot. An American diplomat is locked in a fierce battle with a British diplomat over the fate of a Muslim woman accused of committing heresy during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia. But while issues of faith, convoluted history, and diplomatic maneuvering...
On this week's Voice Film Club podcast, we welcome Village Voice contributor and filmmaker Zachary Wigon, who tells us about his paranoid thriller The Heart Machine (iTunes).We also scoop out some time for John Wick, which helps restore our faith in violent movies, Horns, Nightcrawler (be sure to read our...
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...
Decades ago, Melrose Avenue was the spot that drew young people with unusual tastes to shop and congregate. Now they're heading to Little Tokyo. Stop by on weekends and you'll see large groups of high school and college-aged kids from across the city dressed up to browse shop racks, snack...
Jaymie Valentine isn't the type of person who gets scared at Queen Mary's Dark Harbor. She might jump back — "I'm a jumpy person," she says — but fear, the kind that produces the screams we hear over and over again inside the holiday fright park, is rare. Instead, she...
Pippin isn't just the name of one of the supporting hobbits in The Lord of the Rings. He was also Charlemagne's son, and the subject of Stephen Schwartz's 1972 musical of the same name. The show, which takes some liberties with the real-life story, frames Pippin as a bookish boy,...
In the weeks leading up to his appearance at Cowtoberfest in Fair Oaks, Indiana, Jon Neill started training. He ran daily, clocking in around five-and-a-half miles per workout. He dropped 20 pounds, which he says gave him the energy to take on the gig. Also, running got his arms moving...