L.A. Opera’s recent Mod Night at the Opera event on June 5^th outside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was a valiant effort on the part of the marketing and PR departments to attract a wider audience to the opera. Although there were only five Vespas and two Lambretta’s on view on the plaza, the stunning motobikes and their knowledgeable owners provided a nice addition to the standard operatically informative talks that take place inside prior to the performance.

Continue Reading…

We think about music in a very specific way, as something that stands by itself. Vivek Maddala doesn’t think about music this way and it’s actually his job to think about music in a much more significant, multi-dimensional way: he’s a film composer. His task is to make music that ties a film together and that builds out the feel of a film through sound. He’s very untraditional with his approach that comes from a lot of self-teaching in relationship to the art form. We had a quick chat with the artist about his work on recently premiered Los Angeles Film Festival film American Revolutionary, which tells the story of 97 year old Chinese-American Grace Lee Boggs and how she incited change in the African American movement. Maddala is a very accomplished musician and his way of thinking about music and film is a truly unique one.

Continue Reading…

Last week we asked you guys to share what art piece deserves its own documentary. We got a lot of responses and tons of really varied ideas of art stories that need to be heard, which we hope some local filmmaker hears and gets a’moving on: all of the responses should be films! In any event, here are a few of our favorite responses–in addition to the winner of the Levitated Mass ticket giveaway.

Continue Reading…

There has been a pothole the size of a beach ball outside of our apartment for two months. It seems to have formed as a result of water runoff from the hill above it, speeding Hollywood Blvd commuters, and constantly turning Runyon Canyon visitors. We’ve learned to avoid it in our car but have seen many broken down cars camped out above it after injuring a wheel on it. How do you fix a problem like this? You can’t buy cement and patch the hole up yourself–but you can report it in via MyLA 311, a very helpful city maintenance (And more!) app every person in LA with a smart phone needs.

Continue Reading…

Over the weekend we spent some time at LACMA since we were there to see the excellent James Turrell Retrospective. We wandered into new galleries we hadn’t been to, got to check out the connection between Matisse and Los Angeles, and finally ventured into the fascinating Pavillon for Japanese Art. We also had some unfortunate coffee at C+M (Wah waaah.) and decided to go into the gift shop since we hadn’t poked by there in years. While the store carries a lot of the normal “art museum gift shop” fare, there were a handful of “I want that!” things that reflected someone at LACMA being a bit creative with their curation of the gift shop. Thus, we have eight items from the LACMA Store for you to buy for yourself or gift–and none will break the bank, either.

Continue Reading…