Light in the Attic to Stream a Live Benefit Friday Featuring Devendra Banhart

Posted on April 2, 2020 by Bob Lee

Indie record label Light in the Attic (LITA) will be live streaming a free, live charity concert, “LITA & Friends at Home,” this Friday, April 3, 2020 at 4 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. 100% of the funds raised will be donated to Musicares, which is helping people in the music community who are affected by Coronavirus.

Known for reissuing archival recordings from artists like Betty Davis, Link Wray and the Sonics, the label will present live performances from artists whose music it has re-released over the past 20 years, along with other renowned musicians covering songs from the label’s extensive catalog.

We’re especially looking forward to hearing Pulp’s suave frontman Jarvis Cocker, soul burner Barbara Lynn, comedian and indie rocker Fred Armisen, freak-folk guru Davendra Banhart, British folksinger Michael Chapman, singer Sandy Dedrick of obscure 70s sunshine-pop wizards The Free Design, keyboardist Money Mark and Beach Boys associate Stephen Kalinich,

According to the press release, “… each musician will be doing what they do best, sharing the gift of song, maybe in their pajamas and maybe with their kids, and wherever feels comfy and cozy in the privacy of their home.”

Watch it here on Twitch or YouTube.

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Virtual Adventure: The Great Wall of China Toboggan Run

Posted on April 2, 2020 by Elise Thompson

I am disappointed that this toboggan wasn’t actually on the Great Wall of China, but I guess it would be a pretty slow ride, and historical preservation and all that. This ride POV manages to give you some thrills without making you nauseous. And it is strangely comforting that the ride worker went first; if he is willing to risk it, it must be OK.

 

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Movies Till Dawn: Comfort Cinema for Close Quarters

Posted on April 1, 2020 by Paul Gaita

“Sixteen Candles” (1984, Arrow Video) Her family’s failure to remember her 16th birthday is the first in a string of indignities endured by Molly Ringwald, who must also contend with her sister’s wedding, the attention of manic nerd Anthony Michael Hall, and her unrequited crush on stoic senior Michael Schoeffling. The best elements of John Hughes‘ directorial debut – Ringwald and Hall’s star-making performances, the brash, MTV-friendly aesthetic, the supporting cast led by Paul Dooley as Ringwald’s dad, as well as John Kapelos (Rudy the Bohunk), and briefly, John and Joan Cusack and Brian Doyle-Murray – all remain intact, thanks to the the underlying sweetness and tart, memorable dialogue of Hughes’ script (though so do thuds like Long Duk Dong and jokes about date rape). Arrow Films’s new Special Collector’s Edition Blu-ray is probably the most complete home video version, bundling the theatrical and extended (by two minutes) versions and the “home video” soundtrack (adds/removes Bowie, Altered Images, Kajagoogoo, etc.), numerous interviews (Hall, Dooley, composer Ira Newborn), the original shooting script and trailers and TV spots.

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watt’s picture of the week – tuesday, march 31, 2020

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Mike Watt

black-crowned night heron near timms’ landing this morning here in my pedro town…

photo by mike watt

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mike watt’s hoot page

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Homefree: Report from the Front Lines of Homelessness in L.A.: What it’s Like

Posted on March 30, 2020 by Guest Post

The author’s son at Union Rescue Mission. Photo by Tabetha Blesser

Tabetha Blesser 1/2020

I’m writing you from the parking lot of LA Safe Park; one of a couple lots (this one for a church) where you can go park if you’re living in your car, and they’ve a porta potty, sink, and security guard. I’ve been here for quite a while.

We’re on every street in the city, but no one sees us.

I’m clean and sober, something that I feel makes my circumstances far more abrasive. That and my fight for my son. There are so many of us, but, as people are wont, there’s so many different kind of homelessness. I myself am a ghost. I don’t associate with anyone, I never stay the same place twice (out side of a Safe Park), I am looking for work that I can do physically.

Homelessness hasn’t been easy on my already ailing self. And it’s been tricky keeping my PTSD under wraps when there are people (usually teen boys) that seek us out to torture us, zipping around on those scooters, whipping my car or throwing things at it. I’ve since found that to be common, and sadly, tame compared to some of the stories I’ve heard. I’ve been treated worse than I can ever remember, because I’m homeless. I don’t complain about it a lot, like my hobo friend calls it: “Homefree.”

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Local Chefs Partner with José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen to Feed our Healthcare Heroes.

Posted on March 30, 2020 by Elise Thompson

The Kaiser Team. Photo Courtesy of “Help Feed the Frontline LA”

Chef and restaurateur José Andrés is a global leader in getting food to the site of natural disasters, and has even been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize due to his heroic efforts. In partnership with his global nonprofit, “World Central Kitchen,” and local chefs, “Help Feed the Frontline LA” is helping to provide healthy and free meals to healthcare workers during the COVID-19 crisis.

The movement was started by a small group of parents of LAUSD students, and now chefs like L.A. Beat favorite, Brooke Williamson is on the front lines raising money to feed over 450 medical professionals two meals a day from local restaurants at six Los Angeles ICU and ER units and hopes to add more. Participating restaurants include Chef Brooke’s own Playa Provisions, Local Kitchen + Wine Bar, Pacifique, Bacari PDR, M Café, Marmalade Café and Thyme Café.

According to Chef Brooke Williamson, “The creation of Help Feed the Frontline LA helps keep our business up-and-running and our employees working, while allowing us to play a larger role in supporting the brave medical professionals who are making sacrifices each and every day, and the locals’ donations to this cause make that possible.”

Funds for the meals are being collected through Go Fund Me, and all donations to Help Feed the Frontline LA are tax deductible. Not to sound like those old Sally Struthers commercials, but a donation of only $25  covers the cost of lunch and dinner for one healthcare hero for the day. Last Friday, Los Angeles Lakers player Anthony Davis announced a partnership with Lineage Logistics to offer a $250,000 matching donation to support the launch of the Help Feed the Frontline LA.

For more information go to the website.

Donate through Go Fund Me.

 

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Interview: Alice Bag Discusses her Upcoming Album ‘Sister Dynamite’ and her Punk Roots

Posted on March 30, 2020 by Guest Post

Alice Bag. Photo by Cat Rose. Used with permission.

Written by Andy Nystrom; Photos, Cat Rose. This post originally appeared on the blog, There’s Something Hard in There.

Alice Bag and her band busted down the proverbial door from the get-go.

First song, the Bags classic punk rager, “Babylonian Gorgon,” lit the fuse of their set at The Queens of Noise Festival on March 7 at the Highline in Seattle.

From there, you know it’s gonna be a raucous next hour or so to get your blood boiling and brain on target with crucial messages that propel Alice’s solo tunes, along with the stirring “Gluttony” from “The Decline of Western Civilization” film. I joined my brother and some friends at a Hollywood theater in 1981 to witness the premiere of the movie and we were floored by the Alice Bag Band and others on the screen.

I spoke with Alice by phone a week before The Queens of Noise gig and fired off some questions that the Seattle-based promoters — which set up this interview — supplied, plus some of my own. (The Queens of Noise’s mission statement: “Supporting women by fostering an inclusive community. Providing a venue for female musicians to unite and raise awareness for women’s causes.”)

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Here’s What You Should be Hoarding: Steaks and Seafood!

Posted on March 29, 2020 by Elise Thompson

Photo courtesy of Jeff Bovon.

You might not recognize L.A. native Jeff Bovon’s name, but I bet your favorite chef does. Jeff has been supplying high quality meat and seafood to the best restaurants and sushi pads in L.A. for 18 years. Prior to becoming a meat purveyor, he ran a restaurant for 10 years in Venice, so he knows what people want.

Unfortunately, the restaurant community has taken a hard hit, and that means Jeff has some product to move. He is opening up his wholesale shop for retail business during this crisis. So you can score a quality of meat not usually found in the grocery stores along with sushi-grade seafood at wholesale prices. All of his steaks are USDA Choice and above. He offers wild fish and all-natural chicken and turkey with no antibiotics. You may not have realized that almost all of the fish at the sushi bar was frozen, and you can get the exact same hamachi, octopus, scallops, and albacore. Jeff can provide you with everything except the knife skills,

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Virtual Adventure: The Tooth Fairy Maze at Knott’s Scary Farm

Posted on March 28, 2020 by Elise Thompson

If there is one thing that terrifies me like nothing else, it’s the sound of the dentist’s drill. Take a walk through Knott’s Scary Farm’s tooth-themed maze with Sharp Productions. It is far worse than you would have thought, although following behind you don’t have to deal with the jump scares.

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Movies Till Dawn: The Saturday Morning Strange Stays Home

Posted on March 28, 2020 by Paul Gaita

“RoboCop” (1987, Arrow Video) In a future that bears alarming similarities to our present (though pandemic-free, it should be noted), a mega-corporation enlists a criminal gang to take over Detroit for re-development while also manufacturing a robotic super-cop – created from an officer (Peter Weller) murdered by the same gang – to give the illusion of hyper-vigilance. Savage lampoon of American excess by director Paul Verhoeven, who tricked audiences into believing it was just an ultra-violent, conservative-minded sci-fi movie (same goes with his follow-up, “Starship Troopers“). Over-the-top on every level and in the best possible way, from special make-up effects by Rob Bottin and stop-motion animation by Phil Tippett to scene-stealing turns by Miguel Ferrer, Kurtwood Smith and Paul McCrane; Arrow’s two-disc Limited Edition Blu-ray set includes both a 4K restoration of the theatrical version and the TV edit, commentary by and interviews Verhoeven (with co-writer Ed Neumeier, co-producer Jon Davison) and primary cast and crew, numerous new and vintage making-of docs, deleted and alternate scenes, and swell postcards and posters.

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