Wounded Lion

Last night I went to Highland Park's Mr. T's Bowl to see a new band, Wounded Lion. First off, Mr. T's Bowl rocked. It's an old Bowling alley converted into a bar. Really nice space, I recommend drinking there, cheap, easy, and mellow. And Wounded Lion did not disappoint. The band's front man, Brad Eberhard, was charismatic and full of the rock. The band's drummer layed down some simple but appropriate beats, and the tag team bass brothers complimented the songs with alternating percussion and grooves. The lion's music is a bit Yo La Tengo, meets Arcade Fire, but mostly they just rocked.

Clockwork Wars

Looks like Lucas has done more digital changes to some of his original movies. I don't think Leia knows what she's in for.
And for something even slightly more disturbing, go to Leias Metal Bikini Site Apparently you can buy the costume and put your image wearing it on the site.

Flight of the Taikonauts

The spacecraft Shenzhou 6 landed safely on Earth on Oct. 16, completing China's second trip into space. Is it just me or is that a pretty cool name for a space craft? What will China do with their mighty space aspirations? Perhaps show the world it can do more than make Nike shoes. They are now the third country to fly space missions. And check this out... While men and women who fly in American spacecraft are known as astronauts, and those who fly in Russian spacecraft are cosmonauts, those who fly in Chinese spacecraft are known as yuhangyuans or sometimes taikonauts.

The word yuhangyuan is Chinese for space navigator. It is the name used by official media when reporting on the nation's astronauts. The word taikonaut is derived from taikong, the Chinese word for space. The Beijing Youth Daily newspaper reported in 2005 that China plans to recruit more men and women for future flights since all 14 of the nation's male military-pilot yuhangyuans are more than 30 years old. After the Shenzhou 6 flight, Tang Xianming, director of the China Space Engineering Office, said the nation wants to add female astronauts. He also said they want to move beyond merely developing spaceflight vehicles to spacewalks and rendezvous and docking with multiple spacecraft.

Too Hot For Teacher?

I can't believe it...but apparently Eddie and the boys are going to Prime Time to look for a new singer...Geez, that's a bad idea. Article here

Breaking News! Chinese Lawn Replacement

A worker operates a tractor to plow the soil in Tian'anmen Square in the center of Beijing in preparation for lawn replacement October 19, 2005. The 9,600-square-meter lawn will be replaced with cold-resistant grasses imported from the US and Canada, and the work is expected to be completed before the end of this month. [newsphoto]

My Potus

Gleib

If you have some free time, you should check out comedian Ben Gleib's site. It's chock full of the funny...I reccomend the American Idol auditions, Zoran Zoran, and the Great Gleibini. Good stuff.

Los Angeles' Loss Is New York's Gain

Edward Goldman's art talk this week is about how Los Angeles art collector, Edward Broida's collection of Philip Guston paintings aren't being donated to a Los Angeles art institution, but are instead going to the MOMA in NY. I think this is a real shame, as Guston is a very special artist and it would be great if the collection stayed in LA. Here is some info on Guston:

Philip Guston was a childhood friend of Jackson Pollock. Both became leading artists of the New York School of painters, along with Rothko, Kline, De Kooning, Newman and Motherwell. The most dramatic point in Guston's career was his 1970 exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery in New York where he was seen to betray the dominant genre of abstract painting, by moving into a courageously personal and highly charged figuration that acknowledged and paid homage to artists of the past: Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Goya and Cézanne. With knowledge of their work Guston produced searing images of American society, loaded with moral intensity and self-reflection. He presented 20th century life in its most hideous and extreme form.

The two works illustrate how radical of a shift Guston made. The one is entitled "Street II" from 1977 and the other is entitled "Gladiators" and is from the 1930's. Needless to say some in the art world were quite confused when his work shifted. I believe "Gladiators" is in the collection of Mr. Broida, or I mean the MOMA!

The artist leaves home...

Hickey emphasized that our obsessive mobility is a great thing. Artists leave home to find places where they fit in and places that embrace chaos and change, because art cannot survive in an environment where change and excitement are not privileged. Our country is clearly divided between those places that resist and hate change and those places that embrace it: the red states versus the blue states. This makes art an almost exclusively cosmopolitan practice and separates it from provincial art, which confirms the assumptions of mainstream culture. This, he said, is the main difference between good and bad art; bad art is invisible precisely because it fulfills the standards of the moment, like the lyrics of an N'Sync song. Click here for more of assistant art professor, Thomas McGovern's article on Dave's Lecture.

Woobot of the Week

For all you Robby Fans, check this link out....

Roboart!

I just discovered this guy's site, David K. Rose, apparently he loves to paint robots and mexican wrestlers. Pretty decent stuff, a bit illustrative, kind of like Gary Baseman meets robots. But his site's interface is really nice and there's some fun work there. Check it out here!

Five ill Fated Store Names

BY V. EINSTEIN

1. Thumbless Pete's Fireworks Barn

2. Big Al's Mullets and More Salon

3. The Flaming Hammer: Hardware for Sissies

4. Ye Olde Shoppe O' Shite

5. Porkers: A Place for Fat Women

Woospace Comic

The Staff of Ra

I've heard about this infamous fan film, that a bunch of teenagers spent ten years making every summer. Now Indiana Jones and the Staff of Ra can be downloaded and viewed or laughed at...I watched the trailers and thought, gee, this must be really bad. But would love to hear from someone who watches it. See it here!

Tastes Like Chicken

I know you like pop culture, art, comics, and crazy interviews...otherwise you wouldn't be here. So I have decided to fully endorse Tastes Like Chicken, a humor and art zine out of Wisconsin. And looking at the list of interviews these guys get, you'd think they live in LA. Impressive. Click here to see images of past interviewees having fun with the zine. and then go check out the current issue, FYI...Henry (Hank) Rollins will be in the Nov issue. Enjoy.

Art and Science

Check out this link for some incredible computer medical animations. They look like fantasy landscapes on an alien planet. It's a strange world, to be sure.

Beach of the Apes

I was in Malibu this weekend showing an out of town guest Point Dume. This is a really great beach, you can climb over some rocks and it reveals this gorgeous secluded strip of beach. While walking on it, a photographer from Entertaiment Weekly asked us for our persmission to shoot us. Apparently, this beach was used in the final shot of Planet of the Apes and he was doing a story on movie locations, a "where are they now" kind of thing. Damn dirty apes!

Woospace Art Reviews

That's right folks, fall is here which means one thing, the new art season is kicking in. Saturday night I hit the galleries in Culver City and Mid Wilshire district to bring you some images, reviews and recommendations on some of L.A.'s top galleries.

I started out at Blum and Poe where I took in "Black Black", a two person show with Nigel Cooke's (mostly black) paintings and George Condo's sculptures. Cooke's paintings were eerie and mysterious, black voids with traces of a eroded landscapes. I really enjoyed this young British artist's work and liked how well George Condo's sculptures complimented Cooke's paintings, especially because in Cooke's finely detailed landscapes, severed heads can be found.



Next up was "Cut" at Susanne Vielmeter The group show seemed to be based upon the idea of collage, and "remixing" images. I didn't care for the show too much but did enjoy Mark Bradford's "Soccer Balls" (which of course were already sold).


I finished up the Culver galleries with two continuing show's, Harve Levine Gallery's group show "Blame Canada" and Sixspace's Seonna Hong's "People in the City". I liked the installation and quirkiness of this mid-career show of Canadian artists, especially the "Total Pity Party" piece. And I also enjoyed the illustrative quality of Seonna Hong's paintings of Asian girls, simple and satisfying.

I then traveled over to Wilshire and went to Carl Berg Gallery and really enjoyed German artist, Sabine Dehnel's painting/photo fusions. The artist paints over posed models in photographs and then photographs the results, creating work that fuses both mediums. I thought these were really cool.


Finally at 6150, I really enjoyed the Robert and Tilton artist Delphine Courtillot. Her show, "October Lands" are a series of nicely rendered gouaches on paper. Her subjects evoke gothic histories and playful experiences.
Lastly, at 1301pe Pae White's solo show, Periwinkle, fused painting, sculpture and installation to create a show that the audience both views and interacts with. I have to say I didn't think this is Pae's best work, but even her so-so work is usually pretty good. Her carefully hung glass piece was really nice, reminiscent of her installation at the Hammer last year.

That's it. More art selections and images when I hit the next round of openings.