Just wanted to let you know about an awesome scavenger hunt game on the west side tomorrow afternoon, hosted by Wise Guys Events. It’s designed for teams of two and combines elements of a photo scavenger hunt and the spy game, Assassin. It’s super cheap for a few hours of fun and will be over in plenty of time for you to head to your evening plans.

Here’s some information I ripped from the event’s Facebook page:

Camera Assassins is the newest Wise Guys Events game! Play in teams of 2: that’s right, teams of 2! Get your future Amazing Race partner in on the action. It’s part photo scavenger hunt, part Assassin. You and your partner are racing to complete as many of the photo challenges as you can. The catch is, you can’t do them without the help of the other teams, and one of the other players is aiming to kill you. Unless your partner is.

Camera Assassins, the amazing game of double exposure! RSVP on their Facebook event page to play.

The cost is $20 per team, to be collected on game day.

Saturday, November 21, 2009
1:00p – 4:00p
Westwood Park – Meet at the Picnic Benches
1300 Veteran Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90024

I exited my dentist’s Miracle Mile office not long after 10 a.m. this morning confronted by the absolute beauty of the day — its comfortable crystal clarity prevented me from beelining it on my bike to work. So I took the long way to Westchester. Instead of heading south to Culver City, I cut through Beverly Hills got up onto Santa Monica Boulevard and rolled that thoroughfare all the way to its end where I paused to enjoy the breathtaking views from the palisades before cranking it south along a near-barren beach bikepath to Venice and its pier from which I observed sea lions and dolphins before snapping the above shot of the solitary surfer surveying his vast empire.

Glorious days like this are enough to bring a tear to my eye.

Photo by Annie Liebovitz

The inimitable Rachel Rosenthal has been an icon of performance art for decades, equal parts priestess, goddess, shaman and oracle. The gal’s been honored by the City of Los Angeles as “a Living Cultural Treasure of Los Angeles” and has recently been the subject of several monographs on her performance pieces and life. Not a whole lot of people are well-versed with the panopoly of major names in contemporary art–I myself am certainly not–but if you can add Rachel to your list of cocktail party conversation topics, everyone will know you’ve got your basics down.

In honor of the grand dame of experiential performance art’s 83rd birthday (83rd!), Track 16 Gallery at Bergamot Station will be hosting a birthday bash on Saturday night, with artworks contributed by luminaries of the art world: Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg, Eleanor Antin, Lita Albuquerque, Judy Baca, John Baldessari, Llyn Foulkes, George Herms, Mike Kelley, Martin Kersels, Ed Moses, Lee Mullican, Betye Saar, Masami Teraoka, Patssi Valdez, and June Wayne. The pieces are to be auctioned off to raise funds for Rosenthal’s dance company, the TOHUBOHU! Extreme Theatre Ensemble, funding student scholarships and visiting artist stipends. Nice.

I know I won’t be able to afford any of these pieces, but I want to go just to take in the assemblage of the 20th century’s great West Coast artists all in one place–a Broad Collection-esque justaposition, cherrypicking the biggest names of the past century. Thank you Rachel. (There’ll also be cake by Cake Divas and “Bitch”-brand wine & bubbly, so, there’s that too.)

Yesterday afternoon there was a shooting in Venice, followed up by another in Santa Monica last night. Both shootings left one victim dead and countless others terrified. The LA Times Blog has lots of details on the actual shootings but makes no mention that these were both gang related shootings, a fact the LAPD confirmed with Yo! Venice. Residents of the area heard shots and began questioning things right away. A source which asked not to be named told me that both the victim in the first shooting in Venice and the shooters who were apprehended in the second shooting in Santa Monica are members of the Venice Shoreline Crips. The LAPD hasn’t confirmed that publicly yet however. If you’ve been following this at all you’ll remember that last year a huge sting brought down 19 members and earlier this year I spotted some of their tags on a wall in the area. Clearly the busts didn’t eradicate the gang as was hoped by many, and clearly something is going down right now. Hopefully it gets under control before more people get shot.

UPDATE: Here’s an eye witness report from Bujinkan Santa Monica.

It’s not like Bill Watterson coming out of the woodwork, but it’s somewhat close:  first uncelebrated, now celebrated  Robert Crumb is making a rare public appearance at UCLA’s Royce Hall on October 29.  He’ll be here to discuss his life’s work, up to and including his latest endeavor, The Book of Genesis.  This foray into John Milton territory recently was hailed as an “honest, powerful violent rendering of the Bible’s first book” by the Los Angeles Times this past Sunday.  Francoise Mouly will lead the discussion.  (Francoise Mouly is the former cartoon editor and current art director at The New Yorker, introduced readers to an excerpt of The Book of Genesis earlier this summer in the magazine, and, incidentally, is married to Maus author Art Spiegelman) (I mention this only because you can now rest assured that this appearance won’t be one of those Charlie Rose type ordeals in which the moderator has no relevant background or knowledge about the interview subject’s expertise and so verbally flails about during the interview that he appears, at best, like a sycophant and, at worst like a fanboy).  Tickets are $18 for UCLA students; for us out-of-school-ers, the cultural tuition fee is hiked up to somewhere between $36 to $60, depending on how close you need to get to the chalkboard.

For those who miss the talk, you don’t have to miss the art:  UCLA will host a related exhibit in the Hammer Museum.  “The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis” will be on view from October 24 to February 7.  For future reference, Thursdays are free!

I have fond memories of the boxy Volvo’s I used to own.  And probably less fond ones of seeing the Playboy sticker outlines on truck mudflaps.  Somehow I wouldn’t have thought to combine the two.

I guess it’s the neighborhood.  I am not sure whether the driver ahead of me on La Cienega was heading to the vegan Real Food Daily restaurant, or perhaps to the Live Nude Girls Girls Girls strip club, since they are right across the street from each other.

I’m still not convinced there even IS a future for journalism, at least not as we’ve known it (and heck I have a degree in it). Further, I won’t exactly miss what it’s become. But that’s not the point -

Should you wish to witness a spirited and entertaining discourse on this very subject, however, why not head out to The Warehouse in Marina Del Rey on Saturday, and catch The Lowdown?

Here’s what your host Jeff Norman has to say about it:

The Lowdown is a bold cultural revival fueled by unique collaborations between world-class artists, authors, activists and other public-spirited leaders. Presenters and performers connect the dots between media, government, national security, sustainability, psychology and the arts. By confronting disinformation, promoting civic engagement and having fun in the process, we help people cope with life in America.

The Warehouse Restaurant
4499 Admiralty Way
Marina del Rey, CA 90292
Hosted by JEFF NORMAN and featuring performances and a discussion with

music by I SEE HAWKS IN L.A. (Full set at 5 PM)
Author PETER RICHARDSON
Journalist ROBERT SCHEER
LA Weekly founder JAY LEVIN
Comedian ED CRASNICK
Musician-satirist GARY GORDON
Drinks and appetizers available – no minimum required.
Happy hour discounts from 5 to 6!
FREE admission
Seating is first come, first served.
The evening will conclude with a book sale and signing by Peter Richardson, author of A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America, hosted by Book Soup.

(Ow, my linking hand!)

For some reason, publicity on this is skimpy, but The Argonaut, the Venice Surf and Skate Association, and City Council Member Bill Rosendahl’s website are reporting that Venice Beach’s long-awaited skate park will have its grand opening this Saturday, October 3.  The park was built by skate park masters Wormhoudt Inc.

Skater boyz and girlz have lobbied for and have reportedly been waiting for at least 10 years for this park, and it promises to be an exciting addition to the neighborhood.  Given that Venice and the nearby area is often considered the birthplace and mecca of skateboarding, it’s about time they got it.

This is a plate of camarones borrachos ($12) at Mariscos Chente in Mar Vista.  This is the proper way of cooking and presenting shrimp: head- and shell-on.

This is the proper way of eating shrimp:  head-on.  There are enough here to share.  Don’t be shell-fish.

(more…)

I try not to take for granted the vast number of cool events that happen in Los Angeles. I know that a screening of an almost 60 year-old Japanese movie doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that you can only find in L.A., but it is! The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences is presenting a stunning new restoration of Akira Kurosawa’s classic “Rashomon,” taken from a 35mm print created in 1962 from the original camera negative.

The truth of the matter is that because the heart of the film industry is here in Los Angeles, so is the heart of film restoration efforts. Film restoration is extremely tedious and costly, and many of our film treasures are being lost at a rapid rate. Because are we lucky enough to be in a city where much of the restoration is done, occasionally beautifully restored films are publicly screened here!

In this case, we’ll get to see the groundbreaking Kurosawa masterpiece Rashomon, starring Toshiro Mifune in the role that catapulted him to stardom. The film depicts the rape of a woman and the apparent murder of her husband through the widely differing accounts of four witnesses, including the rapist and the dead man (through a medium). The stories are mutually contradictory, leaving the viewer to determine which, if any, is the truth. Rashomon has become synonymous with the unknowability of truth, and spawned the term the “Rashomon Effect.” regarding the subjectivity of perception on recollection.

Regarding this particular restoration:

While the [35mm print from 1962] print itself was in good physical condition, the source material from which it was made was extremely battered. Due to the extensive printing and handling it had received over its lifetime, many shots were already starting to shrink and warp, and there were numerous scratches, dust, and dirt in the damaged negative. Scanned at 4k resolution, that 47-year-old print has been meticulously cleaned both digitally and by hand, complete with a new, seamless soundtrack. This essential restoration has been made possible by the Academy Film Archive, the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kadokawa Pictures, Inc., with funding provided by Kadokawa Cultural Promotion Foundation and Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation.

Rashomon opens Friday, October 2, 2009 at Landmark’s Nuart Theatre, showing through Thursday, October 8 for an exclusive one-week engagement. Showtimes: Fri-Sun at 12:00, 2:30, 5:00, 7:30 & 10:00; Mon-Thu at 5:00, 7:30 & 10:00. Landmark’s Nuart Theatre is at 11272 Santa Monica Boulevard, just west of the 405 Freeway, in West Los Angeles. Program information: 310-281-8223; www.landmarktheatres.com