Daptone Records has been delivering the New Sound of Old Soul since the turn of this century and has established itself as a place where quality, heart and feeling are the staple of every on of their releases. The label is celebrating 10 Years of Daptone with a series of intimate shows in New York and Brooklyn — they have already completed four amazing sold out shows by Sharon Jones & The Dap-kings shows in Brooklyn and New York →

Lars Von Trier Latest Opus!
The Cinefamily – Los Angeles, CA
11/26 thru 11/19/11

Modern auteur, Lars Von Trier, releases Melancholia on Zentropa Films, rounding out his impressive oeuvre for the year.  In a sense, it seems that Trier allowed himself to be swept up with the zeitgeist of our generation and created one of many not-so-subtle reminders of the portentous Winter Solstice.  However among the various end-of-time films with their ear-splitting natural disasters or alien grotesquery coming to colonize our earth, Melancholia stands apart as a beautiful and lingering kiss goodbye to the world as we know it.   →

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Heavy D & The Boyz – “Is It Good To You” (mp3)

Each week (or so) I rip a song from vinyl and post it up here. This week’s song is “Is It Good To You” by Heavy D & The Boyz. RIP Heavy D.

Glenn Kaino Participates at Art Basel Miami Beach
Art Public & Art Salon – Miami Beach, FL
12/1 thru 12/4/11

Honor Fraser Gallery proudly presents Los Angeles-based artist Glenn Kaino as he gathers hundreds of volunteers to stage an unprecedented durational performance, Levitating The Fair, that takes place throughout the duration of Art Basel Miami Beach (at the Art Public Exhibit.)  Proposed to rekindle our belief in the value of art and artists, Kaino’s collective action project asks volunteers to help lift a 20 x 20 foot sculptural platform invoking the iconic attractions of the 1939 New York World’s Fair. →

A special edition of Dim Mak Sundays with Common
Drai’s Hollywood – LA, CA
11/20/11

Dim Mak, the purveyors of Hollywood nightlife, proudly presents another evening of music, beautiful people and swimming (yes, the pools are heated.) Tonight’s event will be tipped off with DJ sets by Theophilus London, DJ Mom Jeans and introducing special guest, Common (Two-time Grammy winner and member of Kanye West’s imprint G.O.O.D Music.). →

Michael Snow’s Transcendental Experimental Masterpiece
The Cinefamily - LA, CA
11/18/11

Elemental, uncompromising, physical and yet completely intangible — explaining Michael Snow’s 1967 Wavelength is like explaining light itself. This 45-minute tracking shot is one of the most influential experimental films of all time, elegantly cutting to and straight through the essence of the filmic experience. A long, slow zoom (meticulously pieced together from shorter segments) almost imperceptibly moves towards an object on the opposite wall of a room. Occasional flare-ups of light mark the passing of days, people stumble into the frame, and someone even dies, but the passing of time as humans experience it seems almost incidental. →

Artistic Experimentation is the Pulse of Los Angeles
REDCAT – Downtown LA,CA
11/18/11

California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and REDCAT have teamed up to present The Experimental Impulse. Part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time, The Experimental Impulse explores the pivotal role of experimentation in Los Angeles in the years immediately following the city’s emergence as a vital artistic center. The exhibition offers new insights into the understanding of developments in critical art practice after 1965 and bridges the gap between these histories and more recent approaches to artmaking. Consisting exclusively of reproductions and facsimiles of materials culled from publications, institutions, and personal archives, as well as a series of recent video and audio interviews conducted for the exhibition, The Experimental Impulse reflects on the networks of exchange and support structures that underlie the history of art in Los Angeles. →

A Dance Troupe That Intersects the Local with the International
LACE – Hollywood, CA
11/16/11

mecca vazie andrews and the members of performance/dance collective WIFE (Jasmine Albuquerque, Kristen Leahy & Nina McNeely) have been choreographing, performing and teaching dance and movement for years.  Collectively, their bold and unique performative work has been seen locally and internationally from the stages of the Grammy Awards, in myriad television commercials, music videos, and museums and galleries, to underground nightclubs, a Hollywood sushi bar and even a laundromat. →

The Artists, Dealers and Tastemakers Who Shook the World
Book Soup – Los Angeles, CA
11/17/11

Author Richard Polsky will be promoting his new book, THE ART PROPHETS: The Artists, Dealers, and Tastemakers Who Shook the World (Other Press; October 25, 2011; $24.95) with an event at Book Soup on Thursday, November 17^th at 7:00 pm. He and artist Shepard Fairey will discuss the influence of the original Fillmore artists (such as Stanley Mouse) on poster art and how their artistic breakthroughs paved the way for others, such as Shepard. →