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.

Click for Attribution

It’s the 2nd Annual Health Awareness Benefit Concert
Featuring live performances by Snoop Dogg with Tank, New Boyz, Uneek Music All Stars and special guest DJ Greg Streets

Want Tickets?
Send an email to blacontests@gmail.com and winners will be picked at random. Email must contain your full, legal name as it appears on the ID you will show at the Will Call Booth when you win!

Hurry! I need winners by tonight!

http://www.goldenvoice.com/shows/details/?id=31813

With quite the semi-inappropriate, yet entirely on point moniker, the Portland based electronica band STRFKR upholds their end of the bargain with catchy tunes that ring true to their name. Here’s your chance to see them in concert touring with their newest album Reptilians. Besides who doesn’t love rocking out at the El Rey? I know I do.

Thanks to the always gracious and amazing folks at Goldenvoice, I have 2 pairs of tickets to give-a-way to some lucky Blogging.LA readers!

Leave a comment below & I’ll pick winners randomly by Wendesday August 10th @ 10AM PST for the STRFKR show at the El Rey on Thursday August 11th.

And in case you don’t win tickets, you can always buy them here:

http://www.goldenvoice.com/shows/details/?id=31813

Pic thanks to Geoff_B. Click for Attribution

Get tickets to see Big Audio Dynamite and The Chain Gang of 1974!
Wednesday, August 10th at Club Nokia!

I have a limited number to give away and I need to have winners by tomorrow morning, Tuesday Aug 9th!

Post in the comments below, AND CHECK YOUR EMAIL OFTEN TO FIND OUT IF YOU WON!

**IMPORTANT UPDATE!!**

I need an email to get you the tickets! Well, essentially, I need your full, legal name, as it appears on your picture ID, so you can show that ID at the will call booth at the show, but that seems more privacy-invading than asking for an email on a public site.

New comment system screwed up my game. Hurry! Time’s running out!

You would not believe your eyes, if ten million fireflies, lit up the world as I fell asleep…

Addictingly catchy, Owl City is a great band to see in concert & they’re on tour with their new CD “All Things Bright and Beautiful.” Adam Young tells us that…

The music and lyrics conspire to make listeners feel as if they were stepping into another world — a verdant musical dreamland where “reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn’t want to live there,” as [he] sings on the opening track “The Real World.” Images of abundance, like a backyard of butterflies (“Honey and the Bee”), blossoms filling a room (“Hospital Flowers”), and “sunsets that dazzle in the dusk” (“Dreams Don’t Turn To Dust”) unfold alongside starry-eyed imaginings of cherry bombs staining blackbirds red (“Kamikaze”) and dipping one’s toes in the galaxy (“Alligator Sky”).

They’re playing two shows!!
7/21 || Owl City with Mat Kearney, Breanne Duren @ Club Nokia
7/23 || Owl City with Unwed Sailor @ Fox Theater Pomona

Thanks to our friends at Goldenvoice, I have a bunch of tickets to give away to lucky Blogging.LA Readers! Please leave your comments below (and specify which concert you’d like to attend) and I will pick some lucky winners Tuesday July 19th @ 12PM PST. **Update** Winners picked.  Still have a pair for FOX Pomona, if anyone still wants!

You can also buy tickets here: http://www.goldenvoice.com/shows/details/?id=31090

I have no problem at all admitting that Fucked Up is one the few bands that have surfaced in the last few years that have really caught my attention. Beyond that, they’ve got a strangle hold on it. Seriously, just watch the video above for “Queen of Hearts” from their newest album and just try to tell me there isn’t something seriously awesome going on. When was the last time you saw a music video with actual actors?

I’ve been pretty obsessed by these guys for quite some time and after I saw them play a while back all of my suspicions of their greatness were confirmed 10x. And now they are coming back, and I have a pair of tickets to give away. They are playing at The El Rey on July 26th with Trash Talk and FIDLAR. If I were you I’d just say screw this risk and go buy tickets right away. But if you are feeling gambley and want to try and convince me why I should give you these tickets free then do it in the comments below. Sometime in the next day or two or three I’ll scream “THAT’S IT!” and people around me will think I’m nuts, but what it will mean is no more comments and then I’ll pick whoever makes the best case. Or makes me laugh. Go for it.
photo by Daniel Boud

4th of July 2007 by Jodi

We are giving away tickets to the Hollywood Bowl’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular!

This year’s extravaganza features America’s favorite blue-eyed soul duo, Daryl Hall & John Oates, performing with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, led by Principle Guest Conductor Thomas Wilkins (he’s wonderful!)

The evening will be capped off by the always impressive Hollywood Bowl fireworks. I’ve been to many, many fireworks shows at the Bowl and have been amazed and delighted every time. Every Angeleno should experience it at least once!

Leave a comment below and you might be the lucky reader chosen to win a pair of tickets to this year’s Hollywood Bowl 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular!

Congrats Edgar Ybarra! I hope you enjoy the show! It should be fantastic!

I have a bunch of Tickets to give away for The Dropkick Murphy show July 1st at the Fox theatre in Pomona!

Yeah, Pomona. Yeah, I know. But it’s Dropkick! With The Tossers, She’s A Kreeper and The Parkington Sisters!

Plus, and I don’t KNOW yet, but MAYBE, I might have some tickets to see them at The Hootenanny, with The Reverend Horton Heat and The Murder City Devils, July 2nd!! Now THAT is going to be an Awesome show!

Now here’s the thing: I really don’t know if I have the Hootenanny tickets to give away. If I do, you don’t get to choose, you might get one show, you might get the other, you may very well get both. Enter by leaving a comment on this post.

But understand this, and I’m serious here, anyone who posts that they are only interested in one show or the other is immediately disqualified. You makes your post, you takes yer chances. All entries must be in by Thursday, which happens to be my Birthday.

So, post in the comments to enter the contest and GOOD LUCK!

embiggen with a click

Sigh…one really can’t win at my kids ortho for parking in the tiny lot.  It doesn’t help when some douche in a giant SUV takes up two spaces.  What you can’t see as it is hid by the shadow is the demarcation line dividing the two spots ol’ lard ass hogged up.

Pic with my trusty cell phone…gets bigger with a click.

I Have One Pair of Tickets for a Lucky Someone to see John Prine and Loudon Wainwright III

Friday, June 10th
At the
Orpheum Theater
842 S Broadway
Los Angeles, California 90014

Let me know in the comments why this pair of tickets belong to you!

I MUST have all entries in By WEDNESDAY!

Good Luck!

June 8th is World Oceans Day, a day to “celebrate and honor the body of water which links us all, for what it provides humans and what it represents.” As a nod to World Oceans Day, the LA 3-D Club, in conjunction with San Diego-based PassmoreLab, is presenting the Los Angeles premiere of Ocean Voyagers 3D tomorrow night at the Downtown Independent. The 72-minute documentary features rare footage gathered by filmmakers with unprecedented access.

Narrated by Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning actress Meryl Streep, and filmed over a 5-year span in the waters of French Polynesia, Hawaii, Alaska and beyond, the film follows a mother humpback whale and her newborn calf in a “coming of age” journey for the neonate giant.

Blogging.la is giving a pair of tickets to the screening to one commenter. Leave us a note and one lucky winner will be selected around Noon tomorrow.  See below for more details about the event:

Ocean Voyagers 3D Screening + Q&A
Sunday, June 5, 2011 at 8pm

Downtown Independent Theater is located at 251 S. Main St., Los Angeles, 90012

$5 for current LA3DClub members; $10 for non-members (admission is waived with USC Student ID)
FREE if your comment is selected at random!

Not only is this MINI parked in the handicap spot closest to the entrance of B&B Hardware in Culver City with no visible handicap parking tag, it also has the license plate “FIT2FIT”. Irony alert, or just coincidence?

Photo by Burns! Image gets bigger with a click; the tiny guitar doesn't.

Bruce Cockburn is coming to the El Rey in Los Angeles next week in support of his 31st studio album, Small Source of Comfort. Thanks to our friends at Goldenvoice, Blogging.LA has your free tickets. Read on…

Cockburn is one of my favorite recording artists, but when I mention him friends are often unfamiliar. He has a pretty solid fan base here in the U.S., but north of the border, in his native Canada, Cockburn is a legend.  In a career spanning four decades he has received 13 Junos (Canadian Grammys,) seven honorary doctorates, he’s in the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame, and next month will be featured on a postage stamp issued by Canada Post.

Cockburn often tours solo, but this time out his deep, soulful lyrics and virtuoso guitar playing will be backed up by a full band. Opening the show will be violinist Jenny Scheinman, also featured on Small Source of Comfort. (Samples of the new album can be heard at that link, by the way.)

It seems Bruce Cockburn only passes through Los Angeles every few years, so don’t miss this rare opportunity to see a truly fantastic performance.

Want to join me at the El Rey next Tuesday night? I’ve got a few pairs of tickets for lucky B.LA readers. Just leave a note in the comments section below telling me why you want to see this show. Winners will be chosen at my whim and notified via email.

What: Bruce Cockburn live
Where: The El Rey Theater
When: Tuesday, 31 May 2011. 8:00pm.
Win: Leave a comment below

Don’t want to wait for tickets? There are still some available for purchase here.

Yelle w/ French Horn Rebellion from Goldenvoice

For those of you who couldn’t make the trek to Coachella last month, here’s your chance to check out one of the best bands from the weekend! Yelle :: a french pop singer who’s unique & fun music first came to prominence with her song “Short Dick Cuizi,” who’s album Safari Disco Club was a smashing success and who’s now touring with Katy Perry!

Thanks to our friends at Goldenvoice, I’ve got a pair of tickets for one lucky Blogging.LA reader to her upcoming concert Yelle w/ French Horn Rebellion at the Music Box on Saturday May 21st.

So leave a note in the comment section below and I’ll pick a reader at random to get a pair of tickets for Saturday’s show! The contest ends Thursday May 19th at noon PST.

Winner picked!

You can also buy tickets HERE at Goldenvoice!

** You guys are awesome!! I’m going to throw everyone into random.org to pick a winner.  Good luck!! **

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Suddenly I see this is where I want to be… right here in the front row of KT Tunstall’s ** The Solo Show ** with Charlie Mars & Miggs (**Update, Meiko has been added to the line-up!) at the El Rey on Monday May 9th.

Clearly the anthem for any working girl that’s dealt with her own Devil in Prada, I know I had her song in every single one of my playlists. Plus I’ve heard “black horse and the cherry tree” is something that can only truly be appreciated live. And now’s your chance to see her! Thanks to our friends at Goldenvoice, I’ve got a pair of tickets for some lucky Blogging.LA readers.

So leave a note in the comment section below with your favorite Devil Wears Prada moment and I’ll pick a reader at random to get a pair of tickets for Monday’s show! The contest ends Friday May 6th at noon PST. Tickets are gone!

You can also buy tickets HERE at Goldenvoice!

Read the rest of this entry →