You’re probably not like me and are able to cope with the scope of the massively collaborative and on-going Pacific Standard Time exhibitions that fall under the ambitious region-wide initiative’s banner. Me, not so much. With so many institutions involved, I suffer from something of a paralysis when trying to decide whether I should go to the Getty or the Hammer  or LACMA or wherever. Case in point: I literally became immobile when I just now went to the Pacific Standard Time website and a banner popped up that told me there are 42 events taking place right this moment of 10:28AM — and that may even include a Big Gulp Cup retrospective at my local 7-11.

A few weeks ago I did manage to brush my intimidation aside and pay a first-time visit to MOCA to see the cool exhibition of Weegee’s Hollywood period photographs, but — pardon the digression — then I wandered around the museum’s permanent exhibit and found this piece of crap stuck to the wall, which reinforced both my abject disdain for “contemporary art” and my urge to punish whoever curated it with an extended indian-burn session to the forearm of his or her choosing.

Detail from the 1938 Kirkman-Harriman map depicting Los Angeles County in 1860.

So instead of getting all wound up trying to eenie-meanie-miney-mo to which big box the next I’d go, instead I brought along my inner map geek and together we ventured yesterday to the first floor galleries of the Central Library downtown where I spent an extended segment of the afternoon marveling at the selection of kick-ass cartography displayed as part of  its “As The City Grew: Historical Maps of Los Angeles” exhibit.

The 34 maps arrayed go back to the mid-1800s and offer an awesome and up-close glimpse back into our city as it was and as it became. Unlike the aforementioned contemporary bullshit I encountered, some of the maps are true and intricate works of art, and I would highly recommend paying them a visit whether you just find yourself in the library’s vicinity or are in between far better-decided visits than mine to the myriad Pacific Standard Time venues.

WHERE: Los Angeles Public Library, Central Branch, 630 W. 5th St, 90071
WHEN: Through November 4, 2012
COST: Free

One of my favorite blogs to wander through is the Big Map Blog, which finds and shares truly exquisite historic cartography from all over the place — Los Angeles included, of course. Witness their most recent ridiculously detailed find from 1932: “Greater Los Angeles — The Wonder City Of America” from the Metropolitan Surveys company:

Click the above to enlargify it a bit, but if you wanna truly pore over aaaaall those details* in their high-resolution glory than boogie on over to its Big Map Blog page and download away!

* Such as a very interesting omission: the entire Los Angeles River.

In the area of Marina del Rey known as Grand Canal Lagoon stands a foot bridge that locals use to get from this sleepy part of the neighborhood to the relatively empty beach south of the Venice Pier. However, observant strollers will notice that, on the south wall of the bridge, a pensive Joe Strummer stares off into the distance, towards the beach.
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A lot will happen in the next five years.  You’ll be an astonishing half a decade older. We’ll have the same or a new president with whom no one will be completely satisfied unless all that hope for change actually translates to more real dollars and a lot more sense. For Cornerstone Theater Company, the next five years will be dedicated to hunger: nine plays, to be exact, that will address the topic from all sides, including nutrition, environment, access, and food equity.

To kick off the series, Cornerstone is hosting “Creative Seeds: An Exploration of Hunger,” a two-week event starting November 7 and stuffed full of panels, discussions, art events, workshops, and demonstrations with Farmers, chefs, artists, performers, and food writers.  On the 10th, for example, popular organic peach farmer David Mas Masumoto will be part of a “Who’s Your Farmer?” roundtable (if you haven’t read his Epitaph for a Peach, go and get it, now), and on the 15th, our homegrown Jonathan Gold will part of a “Food Critics” panel discussing what “different generations of food critics hunger for.”  And, because this is a theater company after all, there will be an evening of one-minute plays for those whose attention lasts as long as their (in)ability to compose an wildly interesting 140-character tweet

The panel discussions are free, and most of the other events request just a modest donation.  See the full schedule here, and reserve your tickets here. And, if you want to start your food drive contributions straight away, you can donate non-perishable food items at all Creative Seeds events.  This looks like a good one, guys.  Go on. Five years will be here and gone before you know it.

Philip Lumbang Mural, click to embiggen

Call it what you want.  Urban art, street art, its all good art in my book.  Rarely do the practitioners get a legit forum to practice and share their art.  Tom’s has commissioned 3 such works as part of the World Sight Day, which is dedicated to bringing recognition to blindness and vision impairment as a global public health issue.  One of these paintings will actually be done live at tonight’s Downtown LA Art Walk.  Your list of artists and locations of their work for this project:

• Philip Lumbang, 826LA EAST, 1714 W. Sunset Blvd.Echo Park, CA 90026 (213) 413-3388
• Septerhed, First Friday @ Abbot Kinney, 1118 Abbot Kinney Blvd. Venice, CA
• Aaron Axelrod, DTLA Artwalk, ArtWalk Lounge,634 S. Spring St, Los Angeles

Pic courtesy of and used with permission of Tom’s.

Rex Bruce’s exhibit “Moving Violations” opens for a 2 month run at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art on October 13.  The opening reception will be that day held in conjunction with the Downtown LA Art Walk.

Moving Violations is a capture of life in LA through the windows of a moving car.  It is really a commentary on the destruction of the city and its environment done by the cars that we pretty much live in getting from place to place.  The exhibit is still images and video aimed at a sensory overload with a political message.  The full artists bio and description of the show can be found HERE.  In the artists words:

The work is pretty self explanatory—toxic SoCal overkill and maximum carbon emission, but it is informed by a particular vision of my era that has coalesced in my mind.

Deets:October 13-December 3, Reception Thursday October 13, 7-9pm, 102 W 5th Street, Los Angeles CA 90013 MAP HERE.

Something captivating is happening in Hollywood about a half-block south of Santa Monica Boulevard on Orange Drive, almost midway back from the street along a nondescript business complex. It’s happening at the Art of Acting Studio, which until Saturday night had been unknown to me like so many of the scores upon scores of small theaters throughout greater Los Angeles that live so often under the radar hosting productions week in and week out.

Within the cozy theater on that sold-out night I was to see the Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company’s premiere staging of Clifford Odets’ landmark 1935 agit-prop drama “Waiting For Lefty,” directed by Don K. Williams. And what I saw was a brilliant embrace of a classic that was absolute magic.

Consisting of a series of vignettes threaded through the framework of meeting of cab drivers (with the title character being their absent and expected leader), Odets’ masterpiece is what launched the Group Theatre into the minds of the social conscience in the 1930s. “Waiting for Lefty” centers on union members meeting to discuss a possible strike while offering glimpses into their desperate lives as they search for a way out of poverty in a world where greed outweighs the value of human life and the only way to escape was to fight together.

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(click for maximum panoramification)

I, for on, think the above epically detailed and amazing celebration of Rod Serling and his “The Twilight Zone,” which I found today next to the vacant lot on the corner of Beverly Boulevard at Commonwealth (pinpoint map) in Historic Filipinotown is The Most Awesome Mural Ever — and not just because as a diehard “zoner” geek it’s my favorite television series of all time. Along with a portrait of Serling, you’ve got iconic characters such as Talking Tina from “Living Doll”, one of the aliens from “The Invaders,” the doc from “Eye of the Beholder” and the jet and wing-dancing gremlin from “Nightmare at 20,000 feet.”

The 2011 work is signed by “DOCBAMCKRH” but Google gave me nothing when searching for that as the keyword. Anyone know who did this?

In anticipation of their upcoming exhibit Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981, MOCA has this gem posted on their blog:

Ruscha’s Back of Hollywood will be part of the exhibit, which opens 1 October at MoCA’s Geffen Contemporary, along with 500-some other pieces “including documentary, staged, and conceptual photographs; abstract and representational paintings; freestanding sculptures, installations, and environments; performances and public demonstrations; narrative and documentary films and videos; zines and posters; ceramics and models; works on paper; decorative crafts and design objects; and ephemera.” Well okay then! I guess the last sensory overload at the Geffen, the street art exhibit, was so successful why not overstimulate us again, right?

If October 1 seems too long to wait, you can whet your appetite with the Ruscha exhibit at the Hammer. I haven’t been yet, but it’s on my short list. It a small show with just six large Ruscha canvases that all use text from Kerouac’s On the Road in front of snow capped mountains.

“This town is magic to me and it hasn’t grown old, and I love the colors and the layout and the mountains and the ocean and desert,” says Anthony Kiedis to Edward Ruscha as they drive down Sunset Boulevard.

Amen to that, say I.

When shaved-headed synthesized symphonist Moby released a book of photographs to accompany his album “destroyed“ last May, a number of the photos were sent on a worldwide yet very limited tour of art galleries. Moby’s photo tour hits Culver City’s Kopeikin Gallery this Saturday, September 10, through October 22.

Sayeth Moby’s website:

Destroyed introduces us to a side of touring that is often unexposed; secluded time spent in artificial spaces like hotel rooms and backstage waiting areas. The combined album and photo book provides an intimate look at Moby’s world and his creative process as an artist, both the music and photos were created in the same period and draw inspiration from the strange and sublime world of touring.

So … Linda McCartney meets Lost In Translation? Could be very interesting.

I love businesses that support the art. I even like them better when they give up space to showcase new and emerging artists.  That is exactly what South Bay Lexus in Torrance has done.  They have donated space on their lot for a bunch of pods to be set up as pop up gallery spaces.  There are over 50 pods, over 400 artists, curators, museums, galleries and fun, one-stop shopping for art.

More information on the art and artists can be found on Fine Art Trekkin’ Torrance and Fine Art Trekkin’ South Bay.

Deets: 9/3 & 9/4/11Saturday and Sunday Sept 3, 4 noon-6pm. South Bay Lexus.24777 Crenshaw Blvd. Torrance, California 90505

Photo courtesy of KCRW

If you draw a Venn diagram between donut lovers and pie lovers among blogging.la readers, I suspect that the overlap would be considerable. That’s why I’m excited that KCRW’s 3rd Annual Good Food Pie Contest will be held at LACMA on Sunday, September 18.

The Pie Contest will take place from 2-4 p.m. on the lawns behind the museum, and will be judged by notable Los Angeles area chefs and food writers, including LA Weekly‘s Jonathan Gold and Zoe Nathan, chef/owner of Huckleberry Cafe.  KCRW’s “Good Food” program host Evan Kleiman will emcee, which is appropriate since Kleiman’s blog about baking a pie a day was the inspiration for the contest. Additionally, LACMA’s Family Days in September will be dedicated to the theme of pie.

KCRW is also holding an essay contest in connection with the event: “Tell us the story of the pie that changed your life, in 500 words or less”. The winner gets to be a judge in the pie contest. But hurry, just two more days to submit your essay.

To enter a pie in the contest, click on the second link above. The entry cost is $10. For non-contestants, admission is free, including a taste once the judging is complete. And this year,  to tie in with LACMA’s Tim Burton exhibition, the contest will include a category for “Tim Burton-inspired pie”. Now that’s something a Donut Summiteer could love.

Found walking the dog this morning on Occidental Boulevard north of Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake. I’m titling it “Street Art.”

This is the last week to catch the Marco Brambilla exhibit at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Friends raved about the show, so I finally went to see it for myself this past weekend.

The Dark Lining is a collection of seven video installations created by the artist and filmmaker between 1999 and the present. The highlight of the exhibit is the final room of the gallery where two very large video collages are projected on opposite walls and in 3D.  Evolution (Megaplex) is a new work depicting the history of mankind and the 2008 Civilization (Megaplex) takes you on a trip through the afterlife. Both use images from hundreds of film clips and are a feast for the eyes. You might find yourself analyzing the symbolism, thinking about the history of the universe and discussing all things religious and apocalyptic. Whatever the case, I bet you’ll end up playing the same game my friends and I did, which is trying to name every last movie that provided the featured images.

The Dark Lining by Marco Brambilla runs through August 20, 2011 at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, which is located in Bergamot Station at 2525 Michigan Avenue in Santa Monica. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11am to 6pm. Suggested donation is $5, parking is free.

Fugue State by Zack Stadel, Untitled #02, printer's ink, acetate, masking tape, cardstock

Interesting concept.  Cull old acetates from vintage porn, rework with a little mat board, printers ink and such then voila a new piece of art.  This is the subject of an art exhibit and artists reception I’ve been invited to this weekend. Sounds titillating enough now if I can free up my calender…and be in the Glasell Park area.

Deets:Fugue State – Sat, Aug 6th, 7-10pm – swrve 3421 Verdugo Rd Los Angeles, CA 90065

Personal note explaining the art and inviting me to attend after the jump.

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