The LA Beat

watt’s picture of the week – sunday, january 21, 2024

Posted on January 21, 2024 by Mike Watt

my pedro town just got a new mural at the sp slip (berth 73, building g), it reminds people we get sunrises cuz we’re pointed east – different than the other so cal water towns!

photo by mike watt

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Posted in Photo Essays | Tagged art, Berth 73, building g, los angeles harbor, Mike Watt, mural, POLA, port of l.a., port of los angeles, San Pedro, SP Slip, wall mural | Leave a comment

watt’s picture of the week – sunday, january 14, 2024

Posted on January 14, 2024 by Mike Watt

maybe saying anything about this is saying too much?

photo by mike watt

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Posted in Photo Essays | Tagged crow, Mike Watt, powerlines, razor wire, ruins, San Pedro, Tank Farm, Westway | Leave a comment

The Jim Irsay Collection Gives L.A. A Rock And Roll History Lesson…With Guitar

Posted on January 13, 2024 by Bob Lee

L-R Harmonica player Billy Branch, keyboardist Michael Ramos, lead singer Kevin Cronin, guitarists Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Mike Wanchic (hidden) at the Jim Irsay Collection. All photos by Bob Lee for the LA Beat.

Jim Irsay, to answer a question that has come up to a lot of LA classic rock fans recently based on a curious ad for this event appearing on their Facebook page, is the billionaire owner of the Indianapolis Colts. He’s a collector, philanthropist and also a singer and guitar player, who likes to play shows around the country with his famous friends and show off his collection to other fans. The shows are always free to the public and feature a mix of famous rockers, each of whose favorite charity has probably gotten a nice check recently. Irsay himself was unable to attend this show at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall, due to illness (as was promised guest Steven Stills) but with a band that included REM’s Mike Mills on bass, Kenny Aronoff on drums, guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd serving as bandleader and emcee, and special guests Buddy Guy, Ann Wilson, Kevin Cronin, Peter Wolf, and Billy Gibbons, the show managed to go on.

(Photo gallery and continued review after the jump).

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Posted in Attractions, Events, Music, Photo Essays | Tagged jim irsay collection | Leave a comment

Movies Till Dawn: Conflict Resolution 101

Posted on January 13, 2024 by Paul Gaita

* denotes that this title is also available for rent, purchase, or streaming from various online platforms. Please note that streaming options may differ from these home video presentations.

“Tokyo Pop” * (1988, Kino Lorber) Believing the industry hype that American musicians can find success in overseas markets, down-on-her-luck singer/songwriter Carrie Hamilton heads to Japan, where her fortunes do not so much improve as shift into a relationship with an equally disillusioned vocalist (singer Diamond Yukai) and a better understanding of her own value and talent. Charming indie comedy-romance from director/co-writer Fran Rubel Kuzui, who later directed the original feature version of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”; much of the heavy lifting is accomplished by her leads, whose abundant chemistry and knack for gentle comedy (Hamilton was Carol Burnett’s daughter) buoy the film when it occasionally drifts into well-worn showbiz tropes. With Tetsuro Tamba and (briefly) X Japan; Kino’s Blu-ray, which marks the first official digital release of “Tokyo Pop” (it’s been unavailable for decades), offers the recent 4K restoration (funded in part by Burnett and Dolly Parton) that toured theaters in 2023 but only bundles it with the re-release trailer.

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Posted in Movies, Offbeat LA | Tagged Arrow Video, Cranked Up Films, Kino Lorber, Milestone Films, VCI Entertainment | Leave a comment

watt’s picture of the week – thursday, january 11, 2024

Posted on January 11, 2024 by Mike Watt

splish splash, we’re taking a fuckin bath!

photo by mike watt

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mike watt’s hoot page

Posted in Photo Essays | Tagged bath, bathing, Birds, gaviota, Gulls, kamome, main channel, Mike Watt, ofuro, parajas, puddle, puddle gulls, San Pedro, Seagulls, tori | Leave a comment

Movies Till Dawn: New Year, Old Weird

Posted on January 7, 2024 by Paul Gaita

* indicates that the film is also available to rent, buy, or stream on various platforms. Please note that streaming versions may differ from these home video presentations.

“Junk Head” * (2021, Synergetic Distribution) In a dystopian future, humanity has achieved immortality but still faces extinction thanks to a virus and species-wide sterility. When a solution is found among the labor class that toils underground to provide energy for the topside civilization, a scientist is dispatched, but instead finds himself subjected to strange experiments and pursued by nightmarish creatures. Epic-scaled and wildly imaginative science fiction, rendered entirely in painstaking stop-motion by one-man production entity Takahide Hori, who worked on various iterations of the film for nearly a decade. The technical and production aspects of “Junk Head” are often astonishing, and approach the baroque biomechanical worlds of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and H.R. Giger (minus the fetishization), which helps to hold interest when the narrative becomes too dense to follow. Synergetic’s Blu-ray features English subtitles and a lengthy making-of featurette which details Hori’s painstaking work in various formats (stop-motion, digital, motion capture).

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Posted in Movies | Tagged Arrow Video, Kino Lorber, Mondo Macabro, Neon Eagle, Synergetic Distribution | Leave a comment

It’s Not You, it’s Capitalism. “Economics of Suffering: Part IV” by Linda Sibio

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Else Evil E Duff

It’s not often that you get a press release that so completely connects your main interests – wealth disparities and crafts – but I’ll be damned if that didn’t happen. Her name is Linda Sibio, her work is “Economics of Suffering: Part IV” and the place is the Craft Contemporary Museum on Wilshire. I don’t get up and going for almost anything on Sunday. Too many Sunday mornings wasted in service to the main systems of oppression: Region and Capitalism. But to see Linda Sibio speak, I was ready to hear her preach.

I stumbled into the exhibit a bit late, even if I did find perfect parking for my sweet Royal Enfield. I tried to just blend in, something that rarely lasts long.

Linda Sibio explores the psychological toll of rampant capitalism and diminishing resources on those most vulnerable – the mentally disabled, the elderly, people living in poverty, and other disenfranchised populations suffering from homelessness, hunger, racism, and violence. Totally my jam!

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