Just a few of the best photos from Gary and I:

Photo by Madmojo

Photo by Optionthis

Photo by Madmojo

Photo by Madmojo

Photo by Optionthis

Photo by Madmojo

See Gary’s photos from the ‘Con
See Sherrie’s photos from the ‘Con

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The FIRST FRIDAYs series at the Natural History Museum is a must-go, must-see kind of event. You get to drink, eat, carouse, then stumble into the rest of the museums to see such things as the Hall of Birds (which is way funnier if you’ve had a few beers!) topped off by a double-header of bands like Autolux & Deerhoof. Frankly, Autolux was a little disappointing, taking a long time to get going and then proceeded to launch into a slightly dispirited set of solemn tunes. Deerhoof was their usual high-energy selves, playing lots of songs off their last excellent toe-tapping album, Friend Opportunity. But in what truly was THE moment of the night, Busdriver joined Satomi and friends on stage and proceeded to add a fast-paced rap onto one of their songs. First Fridays at the Natural History Museum are FOR YES.

(Also spotted: Karen O **AGAIN** – that’s two nights in a row! and Vincent ‘BJ’ Gallo, who was nicer than expected when confronted for a movienerd handshake)

Busdriver on Myspace
Deerhoof on Myspace
Autolux on Myspace

Photo courtesy of Madmojo. See more masters/slaves and other sights from a thriving subculture at his Flickr account.

Us robotters, ApolloSputnik and I, bumped into one Albert Brooks at his wife’s gallery opening on Friday night. I forgot to demand he quote Mr. Hank Scorpio from The Simpsons. Instead we weirded him out by bringing up his first feature, Real Life, which is an excellent little flick about an American family whose every day lives are over-documented by a a narcisstic filmmaker. Anyhow, if you’re not impressed by the guy who wrote and directed Modern Romance (Jesus, what is WRONG with you), then go check out Kimberly Brooks’ beautiful and nostalgic paintings that bring to life a woman’s milieu in the 60s/70s.

See Kimberly Brooks @ Taylor De Cordoba
Do the next Culver City Art Walk, Saturday June 2nd (all their materials have misprints on them, it’s NOT on June 3rd)

Note: Next year we are going to show up earlier and get on the west side of Broadway, because this is the best view you can get from the side of the street closest to the Gold Line Metro stop, where a giant crowd of sheep-people became quickly bottlenecked. Note the four rows of people in front of us who couldn’t see either. Anyhow, I am pretty sure there were dragons.

Starting tomorrow, on International Buy Your Loved One a Piece of Crap Day, The American Cinematheque will start running both Drawing Restraint 9 AND the documentary on the making of DR9, Matthew Barney: No Restraint until February the 18th. For those of you not snooty enough, Matthew Barney is considered one of America’s premier video artists. And he is shacked up with Bjork, who co-stars with him in DR9 and penned the soundtrack for this untraditional film set on a Japanese whaling boat. His films are beautiful, violent, intensely strange and not for the light-hearted. They are non-narrative works dripping with heavy symbolism, and his concerns with contemporary sculpture often raise their head, as big gooey vats of wax and vaseline figure prominently in his work.

Barney has said repeatedly that DR9 will not be on DVD, so this is might be your only chance to see it without following him around in some sort of circus-like way, which is behavior you should reserve for your favorite jam band, not your favorite video artist.

And if you have never heard the word CREMASTER before, I urge you to back away from this post and go watch a Disney movie.

See DR9 / Matthew Barney: No Restraint at the American Cinematheque

Spotted by Apollo Sputnik at the 99 Cent Store in Sunset Junction

See more photos: 1 | 2

Have you skinny hipsters or skinny aging hipsters noticed the store FAMILY on Fairfax, other side o’ the street from Canter’s, in what seems to be the new “Super Expensive Skater & DJ Accessories” row? It is a welcome addition to the area that has become a total hodge-podge of high-end new stores, old school Judaica establishments, tea emporiums, and produce stands. Family carries a very eclectic set of zines and books from all your edgy standbys, such as Bukowski (bought this title here) or good old Iceberg Slim.

Do yourself a favor, go get a turkey pastrami at Canter’s, tip your waiter/waitress well, get a slice of apple strudel, go across the street to buy a great comic (say Ivan Brunetti’s oversized Schizo #4, I bought it here), then go home and proceed to sticky-up all the beautiful pages. I command you to do this.

I’m only bringing this up because everybody expects me to bring this up. So I am bringing it up. To pleaseth you. Keywords for reading comprehension: Hot, overrated, married to cyborg.