This Friday, the Ukrainian folk group DakhaBrakha will pay a visit to LA. Their endlessly inventive and stirring sound will inevitably take on a different resonance in the wake of the violence being directed at their homeland. There have been circumstances in recent history that would have made this show impossible, I’d say we take advantage of this moment while we have it.
DakhaBrakha plays the Ford this Friday, August 4, at 8pm. Tickets at the Ford website.
Sonya McNack Atkins and Sheila Arroyo at Tiki Oasis, San Diego, California, August 6, 2022. Photo by Monique A. LeBleu.
This year, Tiki Oasis will once again celebrate with “The Enchanted Sea”, August 2 – 6, 2023, at San Diego’s newly-renovated and elegant mid-century modern hotel, the Town and Country, in Hotel Circle.
As “the original and largest Tiki event in the world”, Tiki Oasis welcomes you to enjoy five nights and four days of live music, pool-lounging, fashion shows, swanky suites (and suite parties), themed and special social meet-ups and photo ops, sunset dinners, disc jockeys, art exhibits, educational seminars, a bustling Tiki Marketplace, tropical cocktails curated by top mixologists, and so much more.
Set sail toward a bounty of entertainment including a Cruise Line Captains Dinner Show, the Infernal Order of the Black Flame, the Skip Heller and the Hollywood Film Noirchestra, Jason Hanna and The Swingin’ Bananas, Les Baxter Orchestra with Skip Heller, Tikitronic, Draculina, The Charades, the Tikiyaki Orchestra, I Belli Di Waikiki, L’Exotighost, Shorty’s Swingin Coconuts, SeaBase, Tom Kenny and the High Seas, Messer Chups, King Kukulele, Man or Astroman?, The Black Widows, Sir Bald Diddley, Mohama Saz, Disco Iskander, Amy Bellydance, the Black Widows, Ghouly Gal and her Theremin, Par Avion, Pearl Harbour Country, the ever-effervescent magnificent mermaid, Medusirena, and more. Continue reading
The 1953 science fiction film “Robot Monster” has earned an unshakable place in pop culture history as one of the worst movies ever made. The picture – which concerns the destruction of Earth and pursuit of a family of survivors by Ro-Man, a despotic alien played by George Barrows and depicted as a gorilla wearing a modified diving helmet with TV rabbit ears – is plagued by deficiencies at every level, from a nonsensical script by Wyatt Ordung (which hamstrings a professional cast led by capable players like George Nader and Selena Royle) to rudimentary direction by Phil Tucker (later an editor for film and TV). A paltry budget and four-day shooting schedule at locations in the Chavez Ravine neighborhood (as it underwent demolition to make way for Dodger Stadium) and Bronson Caves didn’t help matters, and the finished project – released in polarized 3D – was lambasted upon release and for decades afterwards, most notably in Harry and Michael Medved’s snarky “Golden Turkey Awards.”
stuff going up for the new harbor west development here at the waterfront in my pedro town… this area used to be known as ports o’call village but you know what mr poe quoted the raven as saying…
photo by mike watt
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mike watt’s hoot page
*indicates that this title is also available to view, rent, or purchase on various streaming platforms.
“Dark Nature” (2022, Epic Pictures*) Joy (Emily Hannah Anderson) hopes to put a relationship with an abusive ex in the past through through a trip with a women’s group through the Canadian Rockies; there, she begins to notice signs of a presence following the group, but is it her lingering shell-shocked state or something more tangible and monstrous? Canadian survival horror from first-time feature director/co-writer Berkley Brady (“Creepypasta”) is largely effective in addressing a complex premise – how women contend with trauma – through a creature feature filter; a capable cast and excellent location photography are beneficial, but the struggle at the root of “Dark Nature,” handled deftly by all involved, is its defining element. Epic Pictures’ Blu-ray includes commentary by Brady and crew members, a deleted scene and music video from composer Ghost Keeper, and a short, “Peanut Butter Pals in the Secret of Cave Mountain Cave,” which manages to address crummy ’80s live-action kids’ TV, issues of inclusion, corporate greed, and peanut butter (lots of peanut butter) in just 20+ very funny minutes.
Photo by Bob Lee for the Los Angeles Beat.
In the fifty-odd years that they have been a band, Sparks have never been more widely loved by the public than they are at this moment. They haven’t even had a recent hit exactly, just a popular documentary, a well-received new album and a filmed musical. But there’s a cumulative base-building effect when you stick around that long, continuously producing inspired, worthwhile new material against all odds. You spend a lot of years out of step with the times, but if you’re still operating when the times finally catch up to you, perhaps you can do something with that. They kicked off this tour for the album A Steady Drip Drip Drip at the Disney Hall and finished it last weekend at the Hollywood Bowl, their largest headlining show ever, having hit many festival stages in between. The increased spotlight seems to have only done them favors, this was a show aimed at the big room, even as it ignored a lot of obvious crowd pleasers from their history. Continue reading
The Bomboras. August 7, 2022. Photo by Monique A. LeBleu
The 14th Annual Surf Guitar 101 Festival will be at the beachfront Golden Sails Hotel in Long Beach for the first time, Friday, July 28 through Sunday, July 30, 2023.
The Surf Guitar 101 Convention is to feature “the very best in traditional, modern and cutting-edge international, national and local bands” who will perform and celebrate through a wide variety of their styles in surf music, and in a California setting that may yet rival other Pacific tropic locales.
The bands currently scheduled are Satan’s Pilgrims, The Tikiyaki Orchestra, Paul Johnson, The Bomboras, The Messer Chups, Pollo Del Mar, The Volcanos, The Hellbenders, The Charades, The Surf Kings, The Eliminators, The Irradiates, The Concussions, Deke Dickerson ( Link Wray stylings) Sir Bald Diddley a.k.a. Hip Bone Slim, The Reventlos, Draculina, Rocket Fish, Waves of Steele, and Tiki Creeps. Continue reading
I use to see places like this up in hollywood – now here’s one on pacific av in my pedro town… there’s another one like it on harbor bl too, hmm…
photo by mike watt
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mike watt’s hoot page
There is perhaps no live show you can go to that is more deeply joyful and soul-affirming than a funk show with a big crowd. When the band is on, connecting, you can look across the audience and see your whole community groove together. When they go into a hit, like a Prince show when they hit those first notes of “1999” or P-Funk doing the intro to “Flash Light”, the whole place bounces. And when Kool & The Gang hit those opening notes of “Hollywood Swingin'” at the Hollywood Bowl, what had been a fairly sedate, respectful concert audience for the ballad and mind-blowing instrumental portion of the show, got out of its chairs to dance. It had just occurred to me minutes earlier that this moment was coming, and it met my expectations. BOUNCE!
This is a band with a history that stretches back so long, they had to change their name from Kool & The Flames to avoid getting into any mess with James Brown, who had the Famous Flames at the time. Mid-sixties. Bassist Robert “Kool” Bell is the one who goes all the way back, and while it’s tempting to check Wikipedia for how many of the current members have been around how long, it doesn’t really matter. Some appear to be around my age and have probably been there a while, some maybe younger. The thing that struck me, much as when Toots & The Maytals played at the Bowl a while back, these bands are like apprenticeships, and the young ones are learning how to play it properly from someone who WAS there in the old days. So it doesn’t really matter which player has been in there two years, ten years or thirty, the show you’re seeing tonight is still masterful, true to the way it was played in the old days. Everyone up there is a badass, capable of soloing under the spotlight, and capable of disappearing into the groove when the spotlight is on the audience, and we are dancing. Continue reading
Hitchhiking Ghosts. Starting bid 80k. Van Eaton Galleries Disneyland auction. Photo by Elise Thompson.
Once again, Van Eaton Galleries is auctioning off a mind-boggling Disney collection. This time around it is the collection of Joel Magee. Located in the Burbank Mall, there is everything one could possibly want, from classic uniforms (Oh why did I give away that canoe guide shirt???) to a Doom Buggy to a mermaid from the submarine ride. I personally lust after the ride’s viper fish. There are mock-ups, cars, working models, and posters and maps galore.
It was nice to wander around the museum-quality displays of auction items and admire the artistry of the imagineers. I was lucky enough to meet the late imagineers, Joyce Carlson, who designed most of the It’s a Small World Dolls, and Rolly Crump, who designed almost everything else.
