Arts & Culture

Memory No Longer In Service; No New Number

By Ed Fuentes — February 12, 2008

Dime

Curators Edgar Varela and Terry Elsworth invited local photographers who’ve documented the Arts District to exhibit archived work for a February 15th opening that debuts a new gallery space. Rather than showing photos, last month I asked Arts District resident and actor Jonathon Carter Schall if he wanted to collaborate and portray characters who may have passed...


DotDotDash: Pet Projects

By Ed Fuentes — February 07, 2008
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CALLING ALL K9 The empty acreage along SCI-Arc will become a dog park, if LAPD Officer Jack Richter has his way. “Hollywood Jack,” as he is known around the Arts District, reports he had some backup from design and development pundit Sam Hall Kaplan, and together they swayed property owner Richard Murello to let the land become public space–– that is until he...


A New Mural for Main Street

By Ed Fuentes — February 01, 2008
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Main Street Recovery

It's up. My digital mural named “Main Street Recovery” is now installed and hanging on the front of Main Street's Regent Theatre. The grassroots public art project is composed of photographs taken between September 2006 to September 2007, the 225th year of the City of Los Angeles. The time span saw a Downtown in transition and Main Street in recovery. Just...


Capturing the Heart of Los Angeles

By Ed Fuentes — January 28, 2008
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El Pueblo de Los Angeles

Leo Politi’s children's books foretold the deeper story of a city’s ethnicity as seen in neighborhoods connected by trolleys––without stepping away from religious and cultural traditions. His book "Pedro, the Angel of Olvera Street" gives historical Olvera Street an identity beyond the 1930s commercial recreation of a Mexican village, and showed how Los Angeles...


DotDotDash: Break in the Weather Edition

By Ed Fuentes — January 26, 2008

la river

RIVER WATCH: With another blast of cold rain expected over the weekend, we take the lull in the weather to look at the Los Angeles River’s powerful swell; one foot of rushing water that can knock you down and sweep you toward the Pacific if you are not careful. Not unlike DotDotDash, it’s dangerous, it’s swift, it's seen on occasion, and it’s down below. Enjoy...


'Follow the Sun'

By Ed Fuentes — January 22, 2008

Josh, the photographer

“Dude . . . you wouldn’t believe the day I just had.” 29 year old photographer Josh Spencer's face had the look of a skateboarder who had just found the perfect urban playground. He did. Spencer had just gotten off a double-decker bus that was following the Downtown sun with architectural photographer Julius Shulman, known for a decades long body of work defining...


DotDotDash: Don't Look Back Edition

By Ed Fuentes — January 21, 2008

The weekend isn't really done for some people, but we carry on. In case you were busy reading, DotDotDash hit some gallery openings, and someone has a special afternoon the week one photo exhibit closes. It's after the jump:


New Works from Youn Woo Chaa Weave into Gallery Row

By Ed Fuentes — January 17, 2008
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ChaaArt

Soulful faces have appeared in the windows at Red Dot, and at first glance the monochrome art appears to be detailed textured line drawings. On closer look, though, it becomes a different experience. The new work from Youn Woo Chaa is made of dyed rattan reeds, woven tightly together. The result is urban portraits that are weaved through indigenous forms...


New Comedy Walk Opens

By Ed Fuentes — January 11, 2008

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At last night’s Downtown Art Walk, 30 comedians invaded empty spaces around the Historic Core for the inaugural Downtown Comedy Walk. The idea, improvised by Brady Westwater, Cultural Affairs, and the Los Angeles Comedy Festival, almost passed the stress test of diverting too many art goers from the galleries. 5th and Main was still packed, but the south and...


Comedy Walk Highlights Slow Progress on Main

By Eric Richardson — January 11, 2008
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D'Sean Ross (pictured) used his setting to complement good material last night while performing as part of the first Comedy Walk. "I'm inside a garage," Ross quipped. "Where did my career go wrong?" In fact, the evening of performances represented the first use of a retail space built in 1986 as part of the L.A. Garage project at 6th and Main. It was only...