Arts & Culture

Regent Theater Hosting Pop-Up Record Store by White Stripes' Jack White

By Eric Richardson — August 24, 2009 — 3 Comments

Third Man Records Eric Richardson

Main street's Regent Theater is sporting a distinctly different look this week, but it's only temporary.

The venue at 448 S. Main will act as a three-day pop-up store for Third Man Records, the label run by White Stripes frontman Jack White, and the building has received a paint job in preparation. — Continued Inside...


Last Days of 'Main Street Recovery'

By Ed Fuentes — August 20, 2009
9 Comments

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It was bound to happen sometime. My temporary mural "Main Street Recovery" will be taken down next week, according to Tom Gilmore. For the last 18 months, the piece has hung over Main Street's Regent Theater.


Pershing Square the Summer Guest of The Motels

By Ed Fuentes — August 19, 2009
2 Comments

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|Photo Gallery| Fans of Martha Davis and The Motels filled the lawn of Pershing Square Saturday night, and Davis instantly connected the evening as an embrace of Downtown, not just a 80s flashback.


Win Tickets to Music Documentaries This Week at the GRAMMY Museum

By Ed Fuentes — August 18, 2009

Bill Withers in his studio

The GRAMMY Museum at L.A. Live is the spot for musically-themed documentaries this week, as the venue hosts a film per night as part of the Downtown Film Festival. Tickets for the shows are on-sale now, but blogdowntown readers have an extra chance to attend with daily giveaways on twitter.


William Richter of Skanda Music

By Monk Turner — August 17, 2009

William Richter

|Photo Gallery| I hadn't expected to hear any Tuvan throat singing when I sat down to interview composer William Richter. But sure enough, halfway through our interview I found myself enjoying a private Tuvan throat singing concert in Skanda Studios. William swears he just learned how to do it while sitting in traffic one day. But I think the truth is that he's just pretty...


Nisei Week Opens With Streamers and a Grand Parade

By Ed Fuentes — August 17, 2009 — 1 Comment

Wind Ed Fuentes

|Photo Gallery| Classic and revised Japanese tradition mingled with contemporary Japanese-American pop culture for the opening weekend of the 69th annual Nisei Week Festival.

It began with a gentle opening ceremony of streamers and grew into a Saturday and Sunday sampling of culture, food, sumo wrestlers, car shows, anime and martial arts, before closing out with thousands watching the annual Grand Parade. — Continued Inside...


Around the August Art Walk

By Ed Fuentes — August 17, 2009
4 Comments

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|Photo Gallery| The August Downtown Art Walk had new angles of activity this time out. With the Rowan Lofts hosting a solid exhibitions of videos and short films via Downtown Film Festival and LACDA, Harlem Alley attracting pedestrian traffic and the Alexandria corner bar showing off open windows to the sidewalk, 5th and Spring started to claim its identity as the main corner...


Nisei Week: Festivals within Festivals

By Ed Fuentes — August 13, 2009

The Ondo 4 Ed Fuentes

The official opening ceremony for the 69th Nisei Week Japanese Festival is this Friday, August 14th, at 4:30pm. It begins with the Tanabata Festival, a new addition to Nisei Week, and will be held on the closed block of Central Ave fronting the Japanese American National Museum and Geffen Contemporary. The festival within a festival will be Saturday, August 15 to Monday, August 17.

The Nisei Week itself is nine days of Japanese-American culture being celebrated throughout Little Tokyo, and runs until Sunday, August 23rd. It actually had an early start with karaoke Contests being held at four Little Tokyo venues beginning August 10th and ending with a final saki and sing-off on August 14th. — Continued Inside...


Gamers Get Screen Time in "Second Skin"

By Ed Fuentes — August 12, 2009
3 Comments

Second Skin

Screenings at the Downtown Independent start Friday for "Second Skin," a documentary about virtual worlds and the lives of online gamers, particularly those addicted to MMORPGs -- massively multiplayer online role-playing games. The film, which took top documentary honors at the ACE Festival in New York, was directed by Juan Carlos Piñeiro Escoriaza, CEO of...


Art Walk Preview for August, 2009

By Ed Fuentes — August 11, 2009 — 12 Comments

IMGP2951 Ed Fuentes

|Photo Gallery| The August Downtown Art Walk is already here, and Thursdays weather is expected to be a high of 83 degrees, a low of 64, with a scattered shower of poets and performance art. Here's a peek at this months street experience known as Art Walk.

Gary Leonard's Take My Picture gallery (860 S. Broadway) has a cross night of Real Estate and Advertising poetry alongside "The Billboard Show: Selling the So-Cal Lifestyle. Photographic Landscapes of the 1950s and 1960s."

Joining Ed Rosenthal, the Poetbroker of Downtown Los Angeles, is Jack Skelley, Senior VP of Roddan Paolucci Roddan. Providing music are members of The French Semester, who just returned from Europe and a gig at Joel Bloom Square. — Continued Inside...