January
17-23, 2008
By Alfred Lee
Shorts, Shirtless
The title of Orphean Circus’s latest production brings to mind the oversaturated musical subgenre of choice for many a gimmicky or misguided DJ (The Grey Album, anyone?). But director Ken Roht insists that “Media Mash-Up: Guy/Ken” is less an aesthetic conceit than a meditation on the work of filmmaker Guy Maddin – the Circus, originally a rock band, has always culled its inspiration from others, creating productions inspired by, say, Joni Mitchell or Roberta Flack.
“We’re always investigating other people’s work,” Roht says, “especially when we get bored with our own.”
By turning to Maddin, whose avant-garde films are part homage to the silent era and its surrealist masters – lo-fi sound, hurtling plotlines, intertitles, the lot of it – and part tongue-in-cheek postmodern reinvention, Roht’s performance ensemble adds yet another layer of meta to its recontextualization game.
Even though the two had previously been familiar with each other’s work, this summer marked the beginning of their collaboration. Roht asked Maddin if he could use his short film Sissy Boy Slap Party for a performance at the Bard Music Festival in New York; he also agreed to choreograph one of Maddin’s upcoming films. “That’s when I began thinking and asking myself the question, ‘How does my choreography go with his film?’ And I got excited by that.”
This week’s production is the answer to that question: To accompany Maddin’s short film FuseBoy – a series of frenetically edited images of men wearing only briefs or pants in a room with a fuse box – a group of shirtless men will perform a kind of go-go dance underneath the screen, to a prerecorded conversation of adolescent boys discussing whether they wear boxers or briefs.
“It’s an innocent conversation, but it slightly sexualizes this moment in a boy’s life,” Roht explains.
The other numbers of what he calls a “Brechtian dance concert” will rely on the interplay of other film clips from the classic era, as well as nods to the group’s own past work. “There will be references to past choreographic elements like in Echo’s Hammer and monologues from previous shows, and we’ll be piecing things together that fit with Guy’s tone,” Roht says.
–Emma Gallegos
Media Mash-Up: Guy/Ken. Tue.-Wed. at 8 p.m. $15. Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Blvd., L.A., (213) 389-3856. Bootlegtheater.com.
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THIS WEEK IN THE CITY
THURSDAY 17
FOR THE CITY
I’m not exactly sure how Cornelius represents “the elements that define a city, and how they are affected by, and reflected in, music” any more than the next Tokyo electronic psychedelic musician. But, even though Keigo Oyamada has been shoehorned into the L.A. Phil’s urban-experience-exploring “Concrete Frequency” series, it should be stimulating to see the accomplished audio-visual artist present his “Synchronized Sensuous Show” at Disney Hall tonight. British electronic duo Plaid also performs, rounding out the evening’s official title of “Man-Machine in the Digital City.” 9 p.m. $28-$37. 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A., (323) 850-2000. Laphil.com.
FRIDAY 18
MONKEYING AROUND
No working L.A. filmmaker’s oeuvre has been as alternately rewarding and maddening to parse and pore over as that of David Lynch. Fittingly, then, his work is being screened in the context of a museum series at LACMA this month. Also apropos, the documentary Lynch – which attempts an inside glimpse at the enigmatic figure on the set of Inland Empire – is scheduled alongside his own works, including tonight’s program of shorts and Saturday’s screening of experimental cult classic Eraserhead. (For more information, see Andy Klein’s feature, pg. 22.) 7:30 p.m. $9; $6 students. Leo S. Bing Theater, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., (877) 522-6225. Lacma.org.
SATURDAY 19
NOT DEAD
What is now Bomp! Records, which claims to be the oldest independent label in the U.S., started as a good ol’ fanzine from the golden era of garage rock and punk. In 1970, the late Greg Shaw and then-wife Suzy founded the now-defunct zine of the same name in Los Angeles, with original writings by the likes of heavyweights Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus. The new book Bomp!: Saving the World One Record at a Time features reproductions and more, and tonight gets a signing by Suzy Shaw and CityBeat columnist Mick Farren, the book’s editor, coupled with a live performance in celebration by Joe and Mike Nolte. 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Free. La Luz de Jesus, 4633 Hollywood Blvd., L.A., (323) 666-7667. Laluzdejesus.com.
SUNDAY 20
MISSING PERSONS
By all reports, China is shifting at a hard-to-fathom rate and scale in all sectors of its society; inevitably, most of these changes are going undocumented. Relating to this phenomenon on a humanistic level is artist Jo Sherwood, whose latest exhibit, The Disappearing Cultures of Rural China, is based on her experiences with the Miao people of southern China. Sherwood has traveled the world documenting cultures that are on the verge of extinction due to globalization, this time focusing her oils on the Middle Kingdom. Sat.-Sun., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free. Wilshire Ebell Fine Art Gallery, 743 S. Lucerne Blvd., L.A., (323) 936-1447.
MONDAY 21
STILL DREAMING
Thousands of people will be marching for almost as many reasons at today’s 20th annual Martin Luther King Kingdom Day Parade. Decades after the good doctor’s tragic death, the cause of civil rights – what it means, where it’s going, and how to get there – and the specifics of King’s legacy remain as contentious as ever. (Just ask Hillary “it took a president to get it done” Clinton.) For entertainment, the parade features floats, drill teams, bands, and dance groups. 11 a.m. Free. Starts at Martin Luther King and Crenshaw boulevards, South L.A. Info: (310) 537-4240. 8:30 p.m.
TUESDAY 22
PET SOUNDS
What songs do Oliver Wang and Ann Powers want you to reconsider? In “Listen Again,” area music critics each have five minutes to persuade their audience to rediscover a series of pop tracks. The concept springs from Seattle’s annual Experience Music Project Pop Conference – where critics and academics congregate to collectively geek out over everything from the Wu-Tang Clan to American Idol – and its publication of a book, also titled Listen Again. It might not be a bad idea to bring a heckling sign or two – when you have this many critics in a room, no one’s going to agree on everything. 8:30 p.m. $8; $4 students. REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., downtown L.A., (213) 237-2800. Redcat.org.
WEDNESDAY 23
ALL’S WELLES
It’s the cinema classic you famously weren’t meant to see. Despite being hacked down almost an hour from Orson Welles’s original version – and saddled with a happy ending – by meddling studio powers at RKO, The Magnificent Ambersons has retained a stellar reputation over the years. Theatrics aside, Welles was a born storyteller no matter the medium. Remind yourself how superficial those There Will Be Blood comparisons are when Citizen Kane screens with Ambersons for a whopper of a double feature at the New Bev, which reopens this week after having been closed for upgrading since late December. 7:30 p.m. & 9:50 p.m. $7; $6 students. New Beverly Cinema, 7165 Beverly Blvd., L.A., (323) 938-4038. Newbevcinema.com.
Published: 01/16/2008
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