An Urban Experience
Prism-Hollywood, CA
11/12

Located on Sunset Boulevard, Prism is housed in a three story architectural space on the western end of the Sunset Strip. The mission of the project space is to become a cornerstone of artistic experimentation, carving a new niche for the arts here in Southern California. The long-term exhibition program, featuring national and international artists, promises to be vibrant and thought-provoking as it works with creative minds to cultivate a challenging and diverse aesthetic experience for the public. →

Land Of Talk recently debuted a video for “It’s Okay,” a bluesy, soft rock number that sweeps with emotion seemingly meant for a reclusive day of rain-drenched lonesomeness. In the video, directors WeWereMonkeys use Elizabeth Powell’s somber vocals to illustrate a fantasy clouded by sadness and demise. This 3D animated footage features “Antiope, queen of the Amazon,”  who eerily rides a horse along waves of melancholy against black-lit skies, wandering stars, and snow forest dreams. →

The Bloggomist: The Local Boy
Film Opinion

When was the last time you saw something that really mattered? I mean, when was the last time you watched a film that was talking about something important, something that moved you so deeply you wished you could step inside the screen and effect your own change? 12 was that kind of movie for me, showing that after countless adaptations and allusions we are still not tired of Reginald Rose’s 12 Angry Men. →

The Bloggomist: My Celluloid Fix
Graveyard of Honor (1975)

Almost a decade ago, Kinji Fukasaku passed away. In his wake, the giant of yakuza cinema remolded the genre and left a wealth of intelligent violent films that riveted the imagination with political intrigue and complex storytelling as enjoyable as was guiltily pleasurable.

Although prolific in his career as a filmmaker, Fukasaku only caught the eye of mainstream America momentarily. Quentin Tarantino rambled neurotically about the outsider auteur who heavily inspired his violent narratives →

Here We Go Magic’s self-titled debut features fuzzy electronic layers, hypnotic loops and singer Luke Temple’s soulful voice, which all took root from the stream-of-consciousness recordings of the painter-turned-singer’s bedroom. In this video for “Fangela,” artist Snejina Latev makes use of Super 8 footage, charcoal drawings and stop-motion animation to capture Temple’s ghostly lyrics. The band is currently at work on their sophomore record for 2010. →

Tomoo Gokita: Heaven
Honor Fraser Gallery – Los Angeles, CA
11/7 to 12/19/09

In past works Tomoo Gokita has drawn and painted from budget pornography, selectively rendering and partially obscuring – with his signature abstractions – the awkward posture of staged pleasure. While there is nothing awkward or contrived about the paintings, what they do have in common with pornography of any kind is their ability to provoke an intense emotional reaction from the viewer. More often than not the reaction is an invigorating intellectual discomfort derived from the attempt to reconcile the figurative and nonrepresentational forms on the canvas. →

Go, Go Second Time Virgin + Running In Madness, Dying In Love
The Cinefamily – Los Angeles, CA
11/14/09

During the 1960s, censorship laws forbade Japanese filmmakers from showing full nudity and sex. The Japanese pinku eiga genre, approximately translated as “softcore pornography” in English, was born of the attempt to represent eroticism through alternative means. With a meticulous eye for mise en scène, directors used elaborate props such as lamps and bottles to obscure →

EM:  Occupation and Position.
Photographer

EM:  What neighborhood do you closely identify with?  What makes your community so unique?
I currently live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but I think the things that I love about it the most are the parts that remind me of Austin, Texas, and the neighborhood around South Austin specifically where I lived for 3 years after college. →

Freaky  Robot Jazz
Footies – LA, CA
11/11/09

Two of LA’s mad scientists step away from their insidious lab to share with all some favorite records and influences from their jazz collection.  Experience the experiments of Soul in the Park on Wednesday, November, 11th 209. Guest selectors: COMPUTER JAY →

Kings of Convenience
Virgin/EMI
(2009)

Since their 2001 debut Quiet Is the New Loud, Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe have had a fruitful musical partnership. Gentle harmonies, intricate guitar arrangements and eloquent songwriting have always been the duo’s strengths, and with their third studio release, they show no signs of stagnation. →