January 31-
February 6, 2008
By Alfred Lee
Canvassing Tats
Tattoo artists featured at a hair salon? Ah, the joys of Long Beach: Starting February 2, the folks at Long Beach’s Underground Salon will host artwork by nearly 20 tattoo artists and piercers from nearby Outer Limits, which also has studios in Anaheim, Costa Mesa, and Orange.
“It’s gonna be interesting to see all the different types of work,” says Tomas Viska, owner of Underground. “Some of it looks like tattoos, but some of it is actually just straight-up portraits.”
The idea to feature artwork at the salon stems from Viska’s desire to promote local artists, offering his clients more than just a haircut, but also a visual experience. This latest art exhibit, titled Underground, is the result of a decades-long friendship with Kari Barba, owner of Outer Limits Tattoo and Body Piercing.
“She’s just been doing my tattoos for the last 22 years,” says Viska, who happens to be Barba’s hairdresser as well. “She’s just amazing. I think her artwork is amazing.”
At the event’s opening reception, Barba will be auctioning off one of her paintings, “Misery’s Seduction,” which depicts a woman who, despite appearing to be in pleasure, has a slit wrist. Four of her other paintings will also be featured at the salon.
A tattoo artist for 29 years, Barba still remembers what first attracted her to the practice.
“The collaboration of artistic ideas and the permanence of it was amazing,” says Barba, who will celebrate Outer Limits’ 25th anniversary in April. Though she has featured her art in shows before, Barba is excited to see the work by Outer Limits artists in one place.
“It’s nice to see all the different styles, because everybody’s such a unique artist,” she says.
Underground ranges from paintings and photography to sculptures and drawings. Enhancing the community feel, 10 percent of the proceeds at the event’s auction will go to Justin Rudd’s local nonprofit Community Action Team, and thus be used to help produce events benefiting children, animals, and Long Beach at large. Viska’s salon will display the artwork for three months.
“They’re all just so talented,” Viska says. “From skin to canvas.”
–Daryl Paranada
Underground opening reception. Sat. 7 p.m.-10 p.m. Free. Underground Salon, 2172 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, (562) 594-4035. Myspace.com/undergroundsalon.
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THIS WEEK IN THE CITY
THURSDAY 31
WHAT’S BRUINUCLA promises to be a hub of activity today, Norm Chow and the basketball team notwithstanding. For most of the day, the campus serves as one of two local hosts (the other being Santa Monica College) of Focus the Nation, a nationwide teach-in on global-warming solutions. Participants will include Chancellor Gene Block and TreePeople founder Andy Lipkis (10 a.m.-9 p.m.; free; Ackerman Grand Ballroom, UCLA, Westwood; Focusthenation.org). At the same time that Focus screens enviro-conscious doc The 11th Hour across campus, everyone’s favorite early-decade alt-country wonderboy, Ryan Adams, will be performing at Royce Hall (7 p.m.; $34.50 and up; Ticketmaster.com).
FRIDAY 1
TO BE YOUNGAt the Aero, Japan’s most beloved animator is getting a big-screen tribute. Legions of fans have long connected with Hayao Miyazaki’s visual inventiveness and Disney-like subscription to the innocence of childhood. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, screening tonight, is an admirable early effort, and tomorrow night’s Oscar-winning Spirited Away ain’t shabby, either, if a little empty. But it’s the unpretentious and iconically idyllic My Neighbor Totoro, sandwiched into a Saturday matinee, that stands as Miyazaki’s realization of greatness. Fri. at 7:30 p.m.; Sat. at 4 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. $10; $8 students. Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica. Info: (323) 466-3456 or Americancinematheque.com.
SATURDAY 2
WHALE OF A TALE
By age 17, Lynne Cox had already swum the Catalina Channel and the English Channel, twice. That same year (1974), Cox was going through a long-distance training routine off the California coast when she encountered a baby gray whale. The subsequent ordeal – during which she attempted to help find the whale’s mother, and was forced to keep swimming so it wouldn’t follow her to shore – had a profound impact on her life and became the basis for her book, Grayson. Cox, now in her 60s and having since swum both the Bering Strait and more than a mile in the freezing waters of Antarctica, presents and signs Grayson this evening at Book Soup. 5 p.m. Free. 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 659-3110. Booksoup.com.
SUNDAY 3
COMMIES AND CURATORSIt’s back to Westwood for more cultural edification. The ongoing Korean cinema series at the Hammer starts to wrap up, with only one more weekend after tonight’s screenings of If You Were Me 2 and Our School, a documentary about students at a North Korean school in Hokkaido, Japan (7 p.m.; $9, $8 students; Billy Wilder Theater, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood; Info: 310-206-3456 or Cinema.ucla.edu). At the Fowler Museum, Inscribing Meaning co-curator Elizabeth Harney leads discussion panel “The Word in L.A.” with local artists Robbie Conal, Alexandra Grant, and Lezley Saar about the use of text and language in their works (2 p.m.-4 p.m.; free; Fowler Museum, UCLA, Westwood, 310-825-4361; Fowler.ucla.edu).
MONDAY 4
BOYS FROM SCHOOL
The hipsters will be out in packs tonight. Those of the if-you-can’t-beat-’em-join-’em mindset might do better to skip the irritatingly overhyped Vampire Weekend’s free Amoeba show for the harmless pleasures of Hot Chip’s electro-pop at the El Rey (8 p.m.; $24; 5515 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., 323-936-6400; Theelrey.com). Speaking of culture clashes, Rickie Lee Jones performs her first show in a most atypical Eastside residency tonight at the Echoplex, which is even carting out a baby grand for the old-school singer-songwriter (8 p.m.; $25 seated, $20 standing; Echoplex, 1154 Glendale Blvd., Echo Park, 213-413-8200; Attheecho.com).
TUESDAY 5
LETTERS OF RECIn December, the National Book Critics Circle launched a curious experiment. The “Best Recommended” project asked hundreds of NBCC members, as well as former finalists and winners of its book prize, to recommend just one book published in 2007 for each category, and tallied up the results. It then promised to provide such a Best Recommended List every month. The first monthly list of 2008 will be announced today, and a panel consisting of poet Amy Gerstler, NPR book critic Veronique de Turenne, and novelists Katherine Taylor, Darcy Cosper, and Mark Sarvas will discuss away at Skylight. 7:30 p.m. Free. Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Feliz, (323) 660-1175. Skylightbooks.com.
WEDNESDAY 6
BAD NEWS
File this under “everyone loses”: In his across-the-board struggles with the budget deficit, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to cut $11 million from state HIV/AIDS programs. In response, HIV Commissioner Kathy Watt hosts a discussion today about the proposed budget and how it affects Los Angeles – the cut would significantly alter what’s available to those with HIV/AIDS, and the hope is to at least get the word out or perhaps even lobby for some kind of compromise. Other presenters at the emergency community meeting are promised but not announced. 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Precious Blood Church, 435 S. Occidental Blvd., L.A. Info: (323) 461-3161 ext. 14.
2008-01-31
Published: 01/30/2008
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