It’s hard to avoid the lure of the familiar, don’t you think? Even in doing the research for our monthly list, I tend to rely on a lot of the same old places. And with good reason! What’s a rut if not an old groove? But yeah, it does require us to force the issue sometimes; or have the issue forced against us. And that is what I would like to talk about today: how the issue of the 2x MonsterTruck rally in Santa Maria was forced against me (by my brother, who happened to have a truck-loving 4-year-old and two extra tickets) and what I learned as a result.
First of all, I should say that I have not been avoiding monster truck rallies up to this point. They are just not something that I happened to come across very often. I remember seeing ads for them during baseball games in the 1980s, and they looked maniacal, in the “SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!” kind of way. The ads suggested that these were ruthless battles in which pyromaniacal big-wheels tried to murder each other and various other inanimate beings. And I knew from the announcers’ voices that it wasn’t actually scary, or wasn’t intended to be, but I wasn’t sure what it was supposed to be instead. Suffice it to say, it was not for me. But maybe I was wrong! Maybe I was the monster. Which brings me back to the point.
“Monster” doesn’t seem to quite capture what these trucks are all about. Or at least, our own particular set of monsters (“Jekyll and Hide,” “Brutality,” “Roarin’ Rex”, and “King Sling” by name) were not the kind that terrify you with acts of brutality; instead, they were the kind that do a lot of spins, flips, and whoop-arounds before dutifully returning to their designated parking spots. They did roar a lot, but otherwise seemed perfectly content to wait their turn while the extremely patriotic emcees chatted about the drivers, the weather, the young people, the old people, previous shows and injuries, and the dirt that kept being kicked up into the stands. The crowd was diverse and the commentary was inoffensive. In a word, it was wholesome.
Would I go back? No thank you. Would my kids? Depends on how many gatorades you promise them. But regardless, it was a good reminder that just because I wouldn’t normally do something doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t benefit from it (or from seeing two motocross guys fling themselves into deep space during the truck breaks).
In that same spirit, we tried to keep things fresh this month, but there are still some old favorites in there as well. (And if someone offers you Monster Truck tickets, be sure to take them up on it — and say hello to Brutal for me!)
Until March 29 - Last Call for Taix… (Taix Restaurant, Echo Park) One of the gifts of writing this newsletter month after month is how it sharpens your lens on the city; I am constantly seeing Los Angeles not just as it is, but how it’s morphed through the years. After all, the only constant is change, right? However, it’s hard to remain philosophical when that change comes for one of your favorite hangs on the block. Taix will have its last service on March 29th, one year shy of its 100th anniversary — and frankly it deserved another hundred. Au revoir, old friend. We’ve rolled around in your office recliners, drunk your martinis with abandon, ate more french fries than the number of days we’ll be alive, and some of us (I won’t name names!) have even dabbled in your paella. LA won’t be the same without you. But we’ll keep (monster) trucking on and be the ones who “remember when….”. (MR)
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Any Time - The Heritage Square Museum (Montecito Heights) Reader (and valued license plate correspondent!) Jamie Weiss Chilton reminded us of this incredible-sounding collection of homes and artifacts, which contextualizes and celebrates “Victorian Era Los Angeles.” (Somehow it never occurred to me that those four words could go together.) Sounds like a great thing to do with the family when your local park has lost its luster. (DH)
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Anytime - Destiny is a Rose: The Eileen Harris Norton Collection & Christina Quarles: The Grown Grows Black (Hauster & Wirth, DTLA) If you survived Frieze Art Week in Los Angeles, bravo! One of the highlights for me was Hauser & Wirth’s public opening celebrating their latest two shows. Since opening in 2016, the gallery-cum-museum has always opened its doors to the public in celebration of art, community, and civic revelry. I remember the sheer joy of that first opening party, and the energy last week was just as strong, and the fashion - dare I say - was even better than a decade ago. And the shows are spectacular. Highly recommend! (MR)
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March 1-20 - What A Wonderful World: An Audiovisual Poem (Variety Arts Theater, Downtown) On view right now is a sprawling moving image exhibit that winds through six floors of the Variety Art Theater — a former women’s club turned vaudeville hall that has fallen into disrepair. The show, put on by the Berlin-based Julia Stoschek foundation, brings together contemporary video art (think Arthur Jafa and Marina Abramović) with commercial work and early cinematic gems. Moving through it can feel like getting lost as “the show emphasizes emotion over structure and psychology over spectacle.” (ARTFORUM) (BK)
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March 3 - Open Screen Los Angeles (Lyric Hyperion, Silverlake) On the first Tuesday of every month the Lyric Hyperion hosts an “open screen” night in which attendees can screen their short films for the other guests. And who among us hasn’t been guilty of writing a short film, or at least of explaining our dreams to others (which comes to about the same thing in terms of narrative coherence). There are only two rules: films must be under 10 minutes, and the films cannot be intentionally mean to any group of people (with the exception of the other attendees, I’m assuming). Sharing art is fun as well as embarassing! (DH)
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March 7 - Burntsienna Artbook Review (Arcana: Books on the Arts, Culver City) I’ve never met someone who loves artbooks as much as my friend Jason E.C. Wright of Burntsienna Research Society, an institute dedicated to slow research design. A much needed antidote in these fast-paced times! In addition to hosting classes and workshops like his Articulation of Values course, which I had the pleasure of joining last year, he’ll sometimes host an artbook review. Here guests are invited to bring 2 of their favorite art books to the gorgeous Arcana bookstore at the Helms Design District (alone worth the visit!) and engage in dialogue with other artbook lovers. Dust off those coffee table books and enjoy a morning of slow, creative thinking - your arm (and brain!) muscles will thank you. (MR)
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March 13 - MMOONN album release celebration + Daniela Huerta (2220 Arts & Archives, Historic Filipinotown) I recently came across the work of Odeya Nini while researching a project I’m working on. I was particularly struck by this video in which she lets her voice wail and speaks to the grief we are experiencing as a collective whole in these times. I’m excited to feel the vibrations of her voice live at this album release for a project she worked on with composer and producer Nic Snyder, at which they’ll be playing the “cosmic, textural, terrestrial and alien tracks” from the record. Joining them in a visual collaboration is Berlin-based Daniela Huerta - a multimedia artist working at the intersection of sound and consciousness. Sign me up! (MR)
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March 20 - Sessa (Sid The Cat Auditorium, South Pasadena) Sid the Cat has been independently programming and promoting great shows at various venues in LA for the last decade. Late last year, they opened a venue in an old elementary school in an effort to put down roots and support our independent music scene. I’ve been dying to go check it out and I'm gonna take the leap for Sessa, a Brazilian artist who incorporates “elements of psych-soul and funk into minimal orchestrations” in “unhurried and unspooling songs” (The Fix). (BK)
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March 25-29 - Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (The Music Center, Downtown) I grew up playing soccer — scraped knees and shin guards were my costume every weekend. I don’t regret that choice, but the love and awe I have for dance in my adult life sure has made me wish I had spent more time in a dance studio too. Some losses you only feel later in life, but I soothe myself by going to see dance as much as I can, and getting to see the legendary Alvin Ailey’s dance company perform at the midcentury modern Music Center is a special treat. (BK)
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March 28 -My Neighbor Totoro (Academy Museum, Miracle Mile) One of the delights of having kids is being (re)introduced to beautiful and profound works of art that resonate with adults as well as children — and Hayao Miyazaki’s films are certainly in that category. The Academy Museum is kicking off a Miyazaki family matinee series with My Neighbor Totoro, tied to their current Studio Ghibli Ponyo exhibition exploring the dreamy, sea-salt world of his beloved 2008 film. This sounds like a very sweet way to spend a saturday and the film tickets are $5 a piece (shocking, I know!). (BK)
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March 28 - The Godfather/The Godfather Part II (Aero Theatre, Santa Monica) And if you’re in the mood for something less family-friendly and ~250 minutes longer than Totoro, head over to the Aero at 3 pm for a double-bill of American masterpiecees, offered in honor of Robert Duvall (aka Tom Hagen). Or, if you don’t have the time, consider just arriving at 9:30 pm to watch people stagger on out of the theatre after completing this cinematic marathon. (DH)
I’d never heard of this thing until it came up on a recent episode of the the New Beverly’s Pure Cinema Podcast, but yeah, this is a brief BBC documentary with David Lynch (fresh off of Blue Velvet), in which he candidly discusses his debts to various surrealist artists and filmmakers of the early 20th century. And as you will note, it takes place primarily in two places: in Cinema History, writ large, and at the Vista, writ on the marquee.
It could be any theatre, after Lynch grabs his popcorn and takes his seat. But it’s not any theatre; it’s a historic one. And it’s a reminder that theaters like the Vista are supporting an art form that is at once popular and deeply strange. In the course of The Vista’s past 100 years, a legible grammar of film has arisen, but that grammar was not immediately obvious -- and the early surrealist films that Lynch cites (and which remain so clearly influential, not just on his work but on film history more broadly) show how strange the process of shooting, editing, and scoring a film really is. This is not reality, and yet this medium is (/was) how we processed reality for much of the past century. That’s a weird fact. And David Lynch is extremely hip to it. And it’s hard to argue with his idea that film, at its best, strives to say something that words cannot. The Vista, in this context, is a fitting torch-bearer for that notion.
Hollywood serves up dreams for a global audience, and it draws talent from all over the world, but it’s not a global place; it’s a local one. And although the Vista does play its fair share of the hits on its single screen, it plays a lot of wildstufftoo. (Sometimes even the hits themselves remain pretty weird, as David Lynch well knew!) In conclusion: we are lucky to still have these temples to surreality (at best; unreality at worst), and although I don’t get out to the movies as often as I used to, this is a good reminder that, goddamit, $12 isn’t a bad price for a communal art experience. And it doesn’t even take a genius to show us how surreal the tools of this art form remain.
- Daniel Harmon
PS: It’s also very funny how much David Lynch appears to just despise Philadelphia (great city, IMHO).
