June 19, 2008
By Ron Garmon
Thursday 19
No Exit for Gangstas
Join Tim Robbins’s puckish company The Actors’ Gang as they send up their nerve-wracking trade in a month-long revival of KLÜB. Described as “a reverse Chorus Line” and “existential comedy about 10 dysfunctional performers who must audition with their life stories to escape from a play in which they’re trapped,” this bitter Pirandellian farce is a comic meditation on the familiar, even ritual, frustrations of the Biz. The Actors’ Gang is located in the Ivy Substation at 9070 Venice Blvd. (near the intersection of Culver and Venice) in scenic Culver City. (310) 838-GANG.
Theactorsgang.com. --Ron Garmon
Friday 20
Last of the Hitchcockians
If you’re no longer upset at the French anymore, then be sure to catch the latest offering from French New Wave veteran and disciple of Hitchcock Claude Chabrol, screening at the Majestic Crest as part of this year’s L.A. Film Festival. Chabrol was known for his witty satire of class and wealth in France; his thriller A Girl Cut in Two tells the tale of an attractive dame caught between a young man of wealth and an aging, jaded writer. Sounds like any other day in Los Angeles. 9:45 p.m. $12. Majestic Crest Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd., Westwood. (866) 345-6337. Lafilmfest.com. --Carmen Tsu
Saturday 21
Expansive Shit
Along with recording dozens of albums during his lifetime, pioneering Nigerian musician Fela Kuti also produced a few children along the way. Sharing the stage with his father as early as 9 years of age, youngest son Seun Kuti continues his late father’s legacy of the groovy and political music Fela christened “Afrobeat.” Nigeria today isn’t very far removed from the political turmoil of his father’s time, so it’s only appropriate that Seun is accompanied by his father’s band Egypt 80. A celebrity in his own right in Lagos, tonight his star shines in the Southland. 8 p.m., $32.50. El Rey Theater, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. (323) 936-6400. Theelrey.com. --CT
Sunday 22
PRISONERS OF THE GAZE
As that eminent moral philosopher Stephen Stills reportedly mourned, “There are three things men can do with women: love them, suffer for them or turn them into literature.” He neglected to add staring at them with skinned eyeballs and slackened jaw; an attitude considered gauche most everywhere but the Eye Candy Expo at the L.A. Convention Center this weekend. Sunday is the last of a three-day, twice-yearly inquiry into the beauty, wonder and general pneumatic awesomeness of a bevy of Playboy Playmates and fashion models. The event is “dedicated to showcasing lingerie, bikini, fashion, commercial, import & tradeshow models, Lowrider girls, cover girls & cyber girls.” L.A. Convention Center – West Hall B, 1210 S. Figueroa St. downtown L.A. 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Eyecandyexpo.com. –RG
Monday 23
Dilated Dilapidation
The eminent freak dive (and onetime bowling alley) Mr. T’s Bowl offers ample acreage, top-shelf weirdness, karaoke, a solid, established local music scene and, tonight, an aural four-strip of Angeleno acidrock. Codpiece is the most lucid of the undercard, offering glitter-dusted post-punk with a healthy dose of distortion and feedback to smear the sobriety from their sound. If you wrung out the dregs of Hendrix’s headband into a carafe of absinthe, you’d have The French Semester, a tranquil throwback to the acid pop of the late ’60s. Bizzarist Shiloe’s dreamwoven scatterpsych taps the same vein, and Avi Buffalo offers trickling indie folk characterized by sunny electric guitars intertwined with standard acoustic fills and sweetly sibilant vocals. Mr. T’s Bowl, 5621 1/2 Figueroa St., Highland Park. (323) 256-7561. http://mrtsbowl.tripod.com. --Daniel Stainkamp
Tuesday 24
Prine Time
After a night of hallucinogenic hedonism at Mr. T’s, put on your Rosicrucian robe and pointy hat, break out the tarot deck, swipe your neighbor’s yapsack cocker spaniel, and head to New Beverly Cinema for a night of lysergic laughs, popcorn and pentagrams, and two classic flicks starring Andrew Prine: Simon, King of the Witches (7:30 p.m.), the psychedelic camp faux-horror lampoon, and Grizzly (10 p.m.), the ursine epic and thinly-veiled Jaws rip-off. $7 General Admission, $6 Students (w/ I.D.), $4 Geezers and Tykes (for the double feature). New Beverly Cinema, 7165 W. Beverly Blvd., L.A. 90036. (323) 938-4038. Newbevcinema.com. (The Simon, King of the Witches DVD is released today as well, for scare-starved shut-ins.) --DS
Wednesday 25
Fear & Loathing on the
Electron Trail
Is your muse mired in the muck of traditional, mundane, mollified artistic media? Do you find yourself traipsing helter-skelter through the syrupy, behemoth glut of dubious news and authentic porn on the web? The New Media Interchange is a collective aiming to amalgamate traditional arts and entertainment with new technological media fixtures and outlets. If you blog, podcast, twitter, animate with flash or are otherwise involved in e-media, or if you write, direct, act, produce, paint, sing, sculpt or perform art in any of the more traditional modes, attend the forum to network and collaborate with members of the field with which you are unfamiliar. 7 p.m. Free. Panera Bread, 12131 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. Newmediainterchange.pbwiki.com. --RG
Published: 06/18/2008
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