I’ve always fantasized about the women who came West and settled this amazing part of the United States.  How did they do it?  Traveling across the country on a wagon train, having babies, trying to stay alive and keep their families healthy in the face of cold winters and scant food.  Then you add in the Native American women who were here to start with and you have an amazingly rich history of tough females who created this frontier.

Well, starting Friday, at the Gene Autry Museum, you can examine the rich history these women created.  The exhibit, “Home Lands:  How the Women Made the West” runs from April 16th-August 22nd and features an amazing array of artwork, oral and written stories and photographs of these pioneers.  It’s a treasure trove of the past and the contributions women made to settling here and other regions of the West.  From Annie Oakley to Native American Princesses, it’s all here right adjacent to Griffith Park.

In car-crazy, image-conscious L.A., some drivers will go to great lengths to drive a dope ride, or at least to appear to have one.  This driver seems to have an unusual-looking Mercedes with a V8 engine. Or does he?

Saturday April 24 is Classic Eats #10 and the polls are still open.

Downtown Delights-Replay and Westside Counter Intelligence are neck and neck!

Click here to vote for Classic Eats #10!

The options are:

1) Classic Eats #2 REPLAY – Downtown Delights: Traxx at Union Station and Phillipe’s.

2) Hot Dogs and Hamburgers: Papoo’s Hot Dog Show and Bob’s Big Boy.

3) Westside Counter Intelligence (with a respectful nod to Jonathan Gold for that title): Johnnie’s Pastrami and The Apple Pan.

Click past the jump for more info on all of our choices.

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Here’s the thing about Volcano: It’s not really a good movie. It is by no stretch of the imagination a film that offers anything more than an hour and 44 minutes of mildly entertaining diversion. So don’t go thinking I’m writing about it because I think it’s secretly a groundbreaking epic film on par with classics like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. This is not a film for the ages. This is a film that you watch to avoid writing a term paper.

But it’s important to note that Volcano attempts two things: It attempts to cinematically destroy Los Angeles in a meaningful and entertaining way, and it attempts to explore the racial landscape of the second largest (and most diverse) city in the United States in a meaningful and entertaining way. In the intervening years, other movies have tried these things as well, most notably 2012 (2009) and Crash (2005) While both of these films more or less stink like John McCain’s anal musk glands, what makes them truly stand out as losers is the fact that a movie like Volcano so soundly thrashes them at their narrative goals.

Volcano features Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche (hey, remember Anne Heche?) battling an underground volcanic eruption that flows through the Metro red line, killing transit workers and eventually invading Wilshire Boulevard via the La Brea Tar Pits.  In the process it destroys a succession of important LA landmarks, such as MacArthur Park, Museum Row, and veteran character actor John Carroll Lynch.

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When I saw Magnolia the first time, the sum total of what I knew about the movie, going in to the theater, could fit on an index card: This was a movie by the guys who did Boogie Nights but it was about the 90s not the 70s. That’s it; that was what I knew. I rarely go into a film totally blind, but I’d loved Boogie Nights so Paul Thomas Anderson was enough of a recommendation for me.

To be honest, Magnolia emotionally knee-capped me. I cried, and not just in that oops got something in my eye; damn that guy with too much cologne kind of way. We’re talking full blown weeping complete with nose blowing. And so I am loathe to talk too much about the specifics of the movie in case there are some of you who have not seen it.

What I’ll say is this: the “magnolia” in the title is Magnolia Boulevard that runs most of the length of the east valley. The film follows the intersecting stories of a number of different Valley characters, all of whom are damaged and fundamentally isolated.

Twice in the movie, we hear the line, “And the book says, ‘We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.’” And so it seems for our characters who are all, in their way, wounded by their history. Much of the drama in the movie comes from the effort to outrun or deny the past, the personal equivalent of L.A.’s propensity to raze and rebuild, raze and rebuild. After all, California is where people go to reinvent themselves, no? Read the rest of this entry →

Butch Walker’s infectiously melodic tunes graft classic Americana onto Elvis Costello-style songcraft. H’e also an accomplished songwriter, with an impressive roster of famous folks who’ve covered his songs, often to the tune of high record sales. But it’s his own work that’s worth the price of admission.

Photo by Scott Penner on flickr used under a Creative Commons License.

You won’t have to pay any price, though, if you win these tickets. To win, tell me a song of Walker’s that you like, and tell me why you’re so fond of it. We’ll pick a few lucky winners to see the show Monday night (yes, that would be tonight, since most of you won’t see this tonight as I’m typing it).

Info on the show is here. Please check your email often to see if you’ve won.

I love this video not only cause the song’s great and the narrative of the video is just precious, but he’s driving past all sorts of places I used to when I’d take my random desert road trips back in ’06 and ’07.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: When it comes to Los Angeles’ true literary legacy, Ray Bradbury, Charles Bukowski and Raymond Chandler have nothing over Twilight Zone veteran writer Richard Matheson.

Matheson single-handledly kick-started the zombie/vampire/supervirus/apocalypse genre with his 1954 novel I Am Legend. The genre is more popular today than ever (see Seth Grahame-Smith’s ridiculous literary mashup Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) and Matheson’s novel has proven just as influential, if not more so, in the cinematic realm.

The novel has been adapted for the screen three times so far: As The Last Man on Earth (1964), starring Vincent Price; as The Omega Man (1971), starring Charlton Heston; and as I Am Legend (2007), starring Will Smith.

Of the three iterations, The Last Man on Earth is probably my favorite. But if I were stuck on a desert island? I’d choose The Omega Man.

Why? Well, for starters, it’s the only version that, like Matheson’s novel, is set in Los Angeles.

Which isn’t exactly a trivial point.
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I walk around Venice every day and there are some fabulous homes in the area. On Sunday, April 11th, 11AM – 4PM you can the tour homes designed by up and coming architects such as Barbara Bestor, Trevor Abramson, Douglas Teiger, Patrick Tighe, and Glen Irani.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is selling tickets for $85 at the first house on the tour:

Gelner Residence
3672 Inglewood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA

The Architects/Designers and Docents and will be at each house to answer your questions.

For more information on this tour and others in Los Angeles, head over to the AIA website.

Here is why Speed could not have been filmed anywhere other than Los Angeles: You need enough city space for a bus to go 50 mph for a whole movie without running out of city and 2 of the big action plot points count on a) a major freeway being under construction and b) a subway being under construction. Where else but Los Angeles in 1994?

You all remember the plot: Crazy Bomber (Dennis Hopper) is pissed off at LAPD hot shot Jack Treven (Keanu) for fouling up a previous hostage crisis and is taking revenge by putting a bomb on a bus that activates when the bus hits 50 mph and will explode if the bus slows below 50 mph. There is also plucky heroine, Annie (Oscar™ winner Sandra Bullock) and Jack’s LAPD partner Harry (Jeff Daniels).

After a lot of cars being smashed up on surface streets, they get the bus onto the 105 — it’s under construction with no traffic, there will be plenty of room to solve the bomb problem. Everyone relaxes for a moment until they find out part of the freeway isn’t finished and they’ll have to jump the gap, physics be damned. Later in the subway from Pershing Square to Hollywood/Highland, Jack and Crazy Bomber fight it out, (spoiler alert) Jack wins, but Annie is still handcuffed to a pole, the subway driver is dead, the controls shot to hell and the tracks end in a construction zone around a bend up ahead. What do you do? What DO you DO?

Obviously, you speed up the train (though why you could speed it up but not slow it down seems confusing…), make it jump the tracks and hope for the best. “The best” being the train flying up a ramp right onto Hollywood Blvd in front of the Chinese Theater. I love LA Mass Transit!

Click past the jump for some images and tangential info. Find the rest of the LA Plays Itself Series here.

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Mildred Pierce (released in 1945) opens with gunshots and a the shadowy figure of a woman running away in the dead of night, set against a backdrop of crashing, Pacific ocean waves, as a beachouse somewhere on the coast is transformed from an idyllic retreat to the scene of a crime, committed in cold blood.

Mildred Pierce teases us with this image of a dark, mysterious, dangerous Los Angeles, and then sends us back in time, to years before this moment of high anxiety, to an unlikely origin point for murder: an unassuming house in a Southern California suburb, with Mission-style arched doorways and plam trees in the front yard. It’s here that Mildred, played by Joan Crawford in a career-defining role, slaves away as a housewife, baking pies in her spare time to keep her uppity, unappreciative eldest daughter Veda in piano lessons and fancy dresses. Mildred and her husband divorce because of Veda’s increasingly high-maintenance lifestyle, and Mildred and Veda spin into a mother-daughter tete-a-tete that lasts for years.

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Glee Geeks! This Saturday, April 10th at 7:00pm The Grove is doing an outdoor screening of the Spring Premiere of Glee! OMGWTFBBQ!!1!

I didn’t know anything about cherry blossom festivals or superhero-themed burlesque performances, so big ups to Queequeg for writing those up, below. Looks like we were writing up our to-do lists at the same time. So, here’s mine…it’s a busy weekend!

Friday:
Adam 12, Skeet Skeet and Han Cholo DJ at PYT: Danceydance time with the dude from She Wants Revenge, the dude from Shwayze and Boys Like Girls, and the dude who makes the bitchin’ jewelry. Oh yeah, they also put on a great party.

The Knux at Spaceland: These Nawlins guys break it down with powerful rhymes and a garage-hop style of hip hop. Quality.

Owl City with Lights at Club Nokia: Get there early for the performance from Lights, last year’s Juno winner and unfuckingbelieavably adorable–with a great voice.

Mutaytor & Cannibal Flower at Club 740: Mutaytor bring their retrofuturistic drumsplosion carneypunk–and their super hot ladies who fly through the air–to the equally lovely, equally genuine Club 740 downtown, along with Cannibal Flower, curators of some of LA’s best underground art.

Amanda Visell’s “Primeval Love” at the Natural History Museum: If the recent artwork by Shag got it on with a diorama of bighorn sheep at the Natural History Museum, you’d end up with Visell’s engaging and charming imagery.

Saturday:
“Showdown LA”: Jerkin’ competition: I’m not much of a hip-hop lifestyle gal, but this sounds freaking awesome. Jerkin’ is a dance style that’s grown up in, yes, LA. What rock have you been under?

Hitchcock! with organists Christoph Bull and Stephen Tharp: UCLA Live presents the organ scores from “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “Vertigo” and “Psycho”, plus a live improvised score to the early Hitchcock silent film, “The Lodger.”

CityRace Urban Adventure Hunt at Olvera Street: I’d recommend margaritas mid-race at La Golondrina, but that’s just how I do races.

Sunday:
Artillery Art Debates at the Standard Downtown: LA-based artculture mag Artillery presents scads of people talking about art & culture: Juxtapoz founder Robert Williams, Flavorpill’s Shana Nys Dambrot, Coagula’s Mat Gleason, gallerist Robert Berman & more.

Monday:
Helen Stellar at Spaceland: It’s great to see Helen Stellar back with April’s Monday night residency at Spaceland. They deserve it.

“School Nite” at Bardot: The softlaunch for KCRW’s Chris Douridas’  Monday night throwdown mixes up DJs (many with KCRW pedigrees) and local bands.

For those of you who didn’t make it out to see the Star Warz Burlesque show last month at the Henry Fonda (womp womp), here’s your chance to repent: at the Bordello Bar downtown Saturday night, Courtney Cruz’s burlesque troupe, Devil’s Playground, will don their (very) tights and capes and go from Clark Kent to Superman to nearly nude in A Kick-Ass Evening of Burlesque and Cabaret.  This neatly coincides with the April 16th opening of Kick-Ass, which apparently is a movie about superheroes without superpowers, like firefighters, Cesar Milan, and, yeah, burlesque dancers.

Unless Devil’s Playground takes its act to Sanrio, you’ll have to be content with seeing a tame Hello Kitty at social functions like Royal/T events and festivals like the Cherry Blossom festival in Little Tokyo this weekend.  While there actually are not any cherry blossom trees in Little Tokyo (they’re scattered throughout the greater LA area), the annual celebration of Japanese art and culture will have all sorts of festivities for you, the kiddies, the (hello) kitties, and even the doggies – on Sunday, the public voting in the Most Photogenic Dog contest will be held and a winner will be crowned.  Not the prettiest dog, mind you, or the cutest one, just the one that poses for the best picture.  I’m rooting for the shiba inu, and it’s totally because I have one.  And, I might add, so does the Imperial family.  The festival runs all weekend long; check out the homepage for the full schedule.

Most have probably heard already how last year’s (500) Days of Summer was some sort of love letter to Downtown Los Angeles (and IKEA), and, of course, it is. It’s full of glamor shots of old downtown building exteriors and landmarks like the Bradbury building, a lesson in LA’s skyline history from our protagonist, a downtown park in a supporting role, and even a random, awesome musical number featuring the UCLA Marching Band.

But this film does more than just take place in Los Angeles – it tells the story of many who have come here to live. Not because, as so many think, it’s designed for and starring a bunch of hipsters (I don’t actually think it is. Not everybody who listens to the Smiths is a hipster. And, sure, Zooey Deschanel is Queen of the Hipsters – literally, she’s married to the singer from Death Cab for Cutie. But, if all the hipster boys dressed like Joseph Gordon-Levitt does in this movie, well… I’d date a lot more hipster boys). It’s all about the high hopes one has when they get here, and what happens once they come crashing down.

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Is there a more leg-crossingly horrifying story out there right now than the one about the Murrieta infant who lost his testicles in an attack by two dogs? Well, thanks to some ad server’s keyword metric, this amazing juxtaposition of ad and editorial got paired when I landed on the CBS2.com page to read the story. Behold the screengrab: