Last Wednesday the literary folk took over Hollywood. Fans and supporters of The Moth and KCRW gathered at the Avalon for The Moth’s Mainstage event, Carpe Diem: Stories of Our Most Vital Moments. Five storytellers hosted by comic Brian Finkelstein and accompanied by violinist Andrea Baker took the stage, bringing the audience from astonishment, to tears, laughter and back again.
It’s a scene familiar to anyone with experience in the restaurant industry: late afternoon, two sassy servers bantering about menu changes, comparing notes from the previous evening and preparing for the long shift ahead. Hilarious and all too real, playwright David J. Duman‘s Fishing brings the foodie culture to an intimate stage in Downtown Los Angeles. The cast of six, directed (and co-stared, on the night I attended) by David Marmor brings everything–from the self-important but emotionally clueless chef to the bickering between servers–to life. The performance is only enhanced by the intimate setting at the Archway Theater, where the front row is just a breath away from the restaurant’s table settings.
This past Friday night art and food lovers gathered at Culver City’s Royal/T for the opening of The Art of Cooking, an exhibition rooted in the celebration of food: gourmet food to fast food, homemade meals to TV dinners. The opening was a delicious affair sponsored by Jarlsberg cheese, POM Wonderful, Kirin Ichiban, and Haribo Gummi Bears. POMojitos and POMtinis flowed like water while guests admired work by Laura Owens and Yoshitomo Nara and munched on hamburger sliders, spring rolls, and Jarlsberg croquettes.
Emma Koenig is an actor/writer/creative-type-extraordinaire and mastermind behind the super popular blog FUCK! I’m In My Twenties. Emma was born and raised on the East Coast, and since graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2010 she has become an expert in the insecurities of twenty-somethings – but you’d never know it to talk to her. In addition managing her adorable and often too-close-to-home-but-in-a-good-way Tumblr, Emma acts, sings and makes videos. Recently, she has been in Los Angeles working on a book adaptation of her blog.
This weekend will be a very bright one for the art world in Downtown Los Angeles, with Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang in town for the opening of his first solo museum exhibition on the West Coast. The artist is known for his projects using explosions and gunpowder, and “Cai Guo-Qiang: Sky Ladder” at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA will not disappoint. The show features three gunpowder paintings commissioned for MOCA, a large hanging installation and, the main event this Saturday: Mystery Circle: Explosion Project for MOCA, Los Angeles, an explosion scheduled to take place along the exterior wall of the museum facing Temple and Alameda. We were lucky enough to check out the show installation this week – so here’s a preview of what’s to come.
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Coming May 26 and May 27 is the UCLA hosted JazzReggae Festival. You’ll get some pop and hip-hop and reggae and jazz and hear from artists like Santigold, Ziggy Marley, Common, and more. You can get tickets at Amoeba, too.
After our most recent pro-LA rant, we heard from reader Xárene Eskandar about an LA loving project she’s doing: she calls it Los Angeles County Weather Reports and they are Monday weather reports that represent her love for LA. Great concept!
Multi-talent John Hogan has a May 24 and May 25 show at Automata in Chung King. The piece is called Song Of Yourselves and it is being described as “part performance art, part song cycle, part slide show, part karaoke.” That’s a lot! Sounds interesting.
Check it: rad bag makers Altadena Works have reissued their Japanese Canvas bags. They’re pretty great looking and, like everything they make, we want it.
KCRW’s free Summer Nights concert series is back! There are tons of concerts at tons of locations around town. We have a breakdown of the events after the jump.
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