West Hollywood ~ CA

JR’s latest in the Wrinkles of the City series debuted yesterday in West Hollywood. Photos courtesy of Sushi Roku.

Los Angeles ~ CA

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Angeleño Harold Meyerson, formerly executive editor of the LA Weekly and currently a columnist for the Washington Post, writes of his distate for carpetbaggers who come to LA and destroy our beloved public institutions with avarice and disregard for what matters to our city. An excerpt:

A curse has befallen Los Angeles. Two of its leading civic institutions — and for Angelinos of my generation, perhaps its two greatest institutions — were sold to men so venal, cynical, incompetent, and egomaniacal that they gutted them in just a couple of years. Now, higher authorities have stepped in to stop their further destruction, at least temporarily.

I refer, of course, to the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Times. The Dodgers were already a storied franchise when Walter O’Malley moved them from Brooklyn in 1958. The Times had been the city’s dominant paper since the early years of the 20th century, but only in 1960, when Otis Chandler became publisher, did it begin its rise to become one of the nation’s greatest newspapers.

Last week, Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, took over control of the Dodgers to keep its owner, Frank McCourt, from using team revenues to pay off his wife, the team’s co-owner, in a divorce settlement. Selig’s action came as Frank was about to sign a 20-year, $2.5 billion contract with Fox Sports to televise the team’s games. The divorce also brought to light that the McCourts, Boston-based parking-lot owners who moved to L.A. when they purchased the Dodgers, had been using team revenues to subsidize their multi-mansioned lifestyle and that Frank McCourt had had to take out a loan to make payroll earlier this month.

You can read the entire article at Prospect.org.

In case you missed it last night, here’s Kobe changing the game with a slam dunk on Okafor. The NBA’s official YouTube channel calls this “Kobe Serves Up the Facial”.

April 29th 7pm ~ Angel City Brewing ~ 216 S. Alameda (@traction)

Nearly 25 internationally known artists – many included in MOCA’s current “Art in the Streets” show – are showing new original works produced on 10×12 wood panels in “Street Brewed: An Exhibition of Contemporary Street Art,” the inaugural presentation of Angel City Brewing’s new Downtown Los Angeles art space. New York-based Ron English created “X-Ray Guernica” and Shepard Fairey installed a mural from his current series depicting sly visual commentary on the apotheosis of Ronald Reagan in American political mythmaking. Expected to rotate during the exhibition’s run, the current artist roster for “Street Brewed” includes ABCNT, Lady Aiko, Augor MSK, becca, Cern, Cryptik, Dabs Myla, D*Face, Easo, Ron English, Eye One, Shepard Fairey, James Haunt, Logan Hicks, How & Nosm, JR, Kid Zoom, Phil Lumbang, Mear One, Ernesto Yerena Montejano, Nomadé, Saber, Swoon, and Tanner.

“Street Brewed” is on view free of charge from April 29 to July 10 during Angel City Brewing’s operating hours of Thursday and Friday, 5 p.m. to closing; and Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. to closing. Pints of the brewery’s award-winning, locally handcrafted beer are only $5 during the exhibition’s run. The opening reception also includes live painting by becca, DJ music, and food trucks. Prints of selected artworks will be for sale.

The exhibition was produced by Angel City Brewing with support by the Los Angeles Downtown Arts District Space (LADADspace) and with coordination by Lahoda Fine Arts in partnership with a legendary, but anonymous member of the street art scene. To learn more, visit www.angelcitybrewing.com.

Sixteen seconds of beautiful, glittering nighttime bliss. Our city as a polished jewel glinting in the starlight. From photographer Tom Hawkins.

This video from 2010 is better then watching paint dry. A fun look into the process of a huge piece with multiple artists. A stop motion live painting by the Maclaim Graffiti Crew in Los Angeles, sponsored by Vox Humana – LA Art Machine, The Goethe Institut – Los Angeles, Federal Republic of German Foreign Affairs, Boombang, and Montana Cans. Special thanks to Bryson Strauss, Stefan Kloo, and Annette Rupp. Arists: [MA'CLAIM Crew] RUSK,AKUT, CASE. Also featuring Risk, Revok, Hera
Filmed by: Kohshin Finley and Roger L. Griffith
Produced by: Roger L. Griffith
Music by: Ac Slater- Back Up [Remix Of Deekline] and Skream – Oskillata

LA based filmmaker Aurora Guerrero is an HBO/NYILFF Award Winning director who has assisted in the production of Real Women Have Curves (2002) and La Mission (2009) and whose previous work includes Pura Lengua (2005) and Viernes Girl (2005). She’s now raising money on Kickstarter.com to bring her new project, Mosquita y Mari to life. Set in Huntington Park, one of the most vibrant immigrant Latino neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Mosquita y Mari is a coming of age story of two 15-year-old Latinas who discover their desire for one another.

Interested in helping out? Visit the Kickstarter Page.

April 29th 6-9pm ~ “CATS FOUND” ~ New Works By Cat Cult ~ 1528 W. Sunset Blvd.

Cat Cult is a collective of artists who are based in Los Angeles, California. Its participants create work both individually and under the singular identity of Cat Cult, displaying work in galleries as well as on the streets. Cat Cult embraces a variety of mediums, including printmaking, illustration, photography, painting, sewing, and graphic design. From trickster characters to divining spiritual guides, cats have been used throughout history to represent important figures within ancient fables and myths in cultures and societies across the globe. Cat Cult embraces these multidimensional identities that the cat embodies and plays upon these iconic ideas in playful and ironic ways throughout the urban environment. SPONSORED BY PABST BLUE RIBBON

Kid Zoom is killing it lately. Here’s some footage of his work in LA, NYC, and his recent gallery show in New York.

Friday, April 29th 6pm – 11pm ~ Casa De La Cultura Galleria ~ 1711 Mariachi Plaza (Corner of Boyle and First)