AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

Come check out some local, theatrical, creative bands that put the show back into show business! Featuring the apocalyptic comedy lounge punk of The Fuxedos, the theatrical, choreographed glam rock of Sounds of Asteroth, and more!

WHEN: Wednesday, August 8. Doors at 7 pm; show starts at 9.

WHERE: Safari Sam’s, 5214 W. Sunset Blvd. (bet. Western & Normandie), LA 90027, 323-666-7267. http://safari-sams.com/

WHO: Renfield starts the show at 9 pm
http://www.myspace.com/theonetruerenfield

Followed by Quazar and the Bamboozled at 10
http://www.myspace.com/quazarandthebamboozled

Too many questions, not enough answers. Perfect dilemma as I can see my neurotic self going crazy right now. It starts off like this...I wish I was born during the late 40's so that I could've experiential knowledge of the 60's with somewhat of a conscious mind. This'll be real brief because I don't want to get insanely caught up in the web, while being stuck at work, so I'll do it more subjectively.

Kennedy wins the presidency. LBJ's private relationship with former FBI Director J.Edgar Hoover seems quite suspicious. Kennedy gets shot in Dallas, with such a low level of organization and security on the parts of the FBI, CIA, Secret Service...it was probably orchestrated by the FBI in some way and the Warren Commission gets buried for 75 or so years? MLK gets killed for his belief in how America should grow. Malcolm X gets killed, possibly by the someone from the Nation. My question is, American used to be very conscious, from a collective standpoint. As one nation together. Now in our day in society, we're all dumb and just take in whatever we get fed. How did we go from one extreme to the other? During the 60's, people embedding a higher level of conscious thinking were gunned down for it. Maybe subconsciously, we think there's some form of punishment when we get to that level so we like being little "sheeple" as they call it.

My mother always said I had the makings of a contortionist. After hours hunkered over a computer keyboard and then curled up in the seat of a cab until the wee hours, I find her words as pure prophecy.

When will I ever be able to straighten up? Am I devolving into some sort of Precambrian cork-screwed invertibrate? Is this the price to pay in order to be a writer and graphic artist? (Stephen King isn't a hunchback, is he?)

Well, I know in about two seconds I shall extricate myself from being wedged in this home-office chair and simply recline, while you all remain seated and check out the latest issue of my 'zine at www.ideagems.com where we have eye-catching artwork and mind-teasing articles. At least the 'zine is evolving into a superior project!

Jeff Spahr-Summers and Anna Maly wrote a poem together.
Anna explains how it happened:

" We were writing short notes to each other, talking about little things. One day Jeff wrote about his day, saying how tiresome it was, and how he needs some down time. "What comes to mind is "thinking, and watching"" - he wrote. Hmm, sounds poetic, I thought, wrote the first two lines, and sent it to him, inviting to continue. We were adding two, four or more lines back and forth for a couple of weeks till the poem seemed complete. Enjoy the result of this effortless and fun collaboration”.

> > Thinking of sky turn blue
> > Watching the thoughts go by
> > Thinking in one color
> > Watching words and I am
> >
> > Thinking of scattered birds
> > Watching the storm approach

http://www.newbevcinema.com

My favorite movie theater in the world has always been the New Beverly Cinema here in Los Angeles, where I've been going for over 15 years. It's the kind of place that's beat up really nicely, with crunchy seats and cheap candy. The kind of place where they put up an apology sign in the window when they have to raise the price. Sherman Torgan had been running it for nearly 30 years, and it was a wonderful place. He died Wednesday morning of a heart attack while riding his bike. I'm really sad, and I know a lot of other people are too.

Obituary:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-torgan21jul21,1,2652698.sto...

You can see one my sculptures on NBC Chanel 4 for just about 3 seconds

http://www.yourlatv.com/#/video=175

Farzad

Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.

From the San Francisco Chronicle - could you help to create something like this in your community?

***

MAKING MUSIC, ART, COMMUNITY
Computer parts, plastic bottles, old car hoods just part of recipe
at Panhandle band shell
Justin Berton, SAN FRANCISCO Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, July 9, 2007

On Friday afternoon, a guitarist sat inside the Panhandle's new band
shell that's made from old car hoods, plastic water bottles and
French doors. He sat center stage, restrung his acoustic instrument,
tuned it to perfection, and walked into the eucalyptus-scented park
without playing a song or singing a word.

Brave New Site

Elizabeth Sims

To enter the latest outdoor installation at Materials & Applications, one must trust one’s weight to a softly curving bamboo vortex which bows, creaks and gives as it spans a small terraced pool. This bridge glitters in dull greens and golds, shifting and resettling in constant response to its use and to its environment. Its construction is apparent and simple, involving what appear to be industrial-strength twist-ties. Sheltered and cooled by tall, live bamboo, the small pool is fed by a rooftop rain catchment, and is seeded with water plants. However, as the title of the work, Here there be Monsters, warns, unknowable things lurk in this emphatically comprehensible and calm space. These hi-tech enigmas, at first shy, become bolder throughout the development of the installation, expressing themselves as gestures of watery movement in direct response to certain actions of startled visitors. They evolve and mature like the settling bridge, the rustling live bamboo, and the creeping water plants, in response to the activity and conditions of the environment. However, the things alone remain invisible and obscure, endangering the more transparent elements of the piece, including even the visitors, with a sense of overexposure. These mysterious, elusive residents manifest an apprehension and anxiety within the otherwise accentuated comprehensiveness of the installation, undermining and problematizing its progressive thrust.

Lauren Bon’s Not a Cornfield
Elizabeth Sims

“This is real. You feel like you’re in something real in a city that is at least largely about the creation of an image.”
-Lauren Bon

Ironically, the sprawl of hegemonic globalization has produced a hankering for localism that seeks to reject a democracy diverse only in its consumer choices. Redefinitions, within the spatial-cultural discourse, of “community” and the “public,” continue to indicate a desire for the comprehensive intimacy of belonging. Contemporary site-specific art practices tend to evince an embattled conviction of the possibility of a more authentic life. However, for consumers indoctrinated by a massified media, this desire is liable to manifest as an objectification and appropriation of marginalized cultural traditions, rather than as an engagement with the ephemeral matrix of relations in a unique environment. Site specific art projects in particular, because of their dependence on institutional funding and promotion, are often caught straddling these two dynamics. Lauren Bon’s Not a Cornfield project attempts to extract locality from downtown Los Angeles the way its crop leaches the soil, drawing out the large and small histories, relationships and visions of its residents. Unfortunately, the primacy of its heavy symbolic content simulates, instead of stimulates, an empowered and grounded community.