3.30.2007

Vapors

Vapors and Kangol are putting on a private show at our gallery tomorrow night. Here are some pics of the installation going in as we speak...




Also checked out Bigfoot's show at Corey Helford across the street:




Chivas anyone?

mike
www.project.bz

3.29.2007

Redline!

As some of you know, besides the art gallery thing, from time to time I am involved in the production of events. One such event I was hired to help produce was for the new Fast and Furious style movie - Redline.

Totally unknown movie, that is, previous to the event. I am sure you all heard about Eddie Griffin totaling a $1.3 million Ferrari Enzo. That was this event.







There has been talk that this was staged for publicity. I can honestly tell you, No Fucking Way. He almost died. He jumped in the car, sans helmet, and plowed into a barrier that, if not there, would have killed about 10 reporters. But thanks to that barrier, some lucky camera-man caught this:



Take a look at that guy on the cell phone... doesn't even flinch!

One of the nice things about producing an event like this is getting to do things no one else gets to do. This is a video of us "cruising" around in a $600,000 Saleen S7, which is that orange car in the photo up top. 0-60 in under 3 secs.



And of course, the people you meet. On site was Mike Clarke, guitarist for Suicidal Tendencies. Back in High School, I wore out my CD player with "Lights, Camera, Revolution!" This guy is, for lack of a better term, fucking rad. Looks like anytime they play in LA, I get VIP treatment. You are all invited of course. He is the guy on the left.


All in all, it was a nutty event: watching several celebrities get high, staying clear of the Samoan mafia and total non-chalance about losing a million dollar car.

mike
www.project.bz

3.25.2007

Go Gadget Car Go

Last night my buddy Mike "Dirty" Sanchez had a gig with his band Gadget Car out near Downtown, playing with Go Betty Go and the Dolly Rots. You may remember Gadget Car, they played live at project: Club 27 back at our old location last June.


The venue, The Airliner, is pretty damn amazing. Near the Brewery, this place is HUGE. 3 stages (1 upstairs 1 downstairs and 1 outside), 2 bars and a smoking patio that overlooks the main outdoor stage - Its got it all. And one ticket buys you access to all of it. Its like how the Knitting Factory used to be before it became a shithole. In fact, if it was a tad bit closer, I'd rock out there all the time.

Anyway, go support Dirty and Gadget Car HERE

mike
www.project.bz

3.24.2007

BeardFest

After enjoying a 40 and watching Beerfest with fellow Broken Lizard fan KG, I began wondering, for some strange reason, if there was also a secret world championships for beards...


Well, my search today could not have been more fruitful. Turns out that not only is there one, but that, just like Beerfest, the dominant players are the dreaded Germans. As you can see, however, the American team themselves are no slouches.




Man, what I would give to be able to grow a beard like that. I am on my way, going for the classic 1880's news clerk look, and am just 15 or so years away from growing a beard classic enough to compete.


Anyway, support USA HERE as they head to England in Sept to take the Gold.

mike
www.project.bz

3.23.2007

Panni Malek

Panni Malek's show opens tonight at Black Market Boutique on Sawtelle, and wow is her stuff looking amazing. Here are some shots of her beautiful work and of the beautiful Panni herself (I don't think you can tell in the pics, but she is rockin' the Iron Maiden shirt):






And once again, thanks to Poor Al for buying me dinner last night... that's the great thing about Al, he spares no expense.


Come to the show tonight!!!

mike
www.project.bz

3.22.2007

My Dinner with Al

Last night, I had John Gill and The Love Movement meet up in Redondo... they both dig each others work, they both approach their art in the same way, and they both have some similarities in their style that just would make them a perfect match for a future collaboration.

But, unfortunately, everybody was pretty beat down from the week, so no Bull Pen, no Dive Bars, no causing havoc through the streets of the South Bay... just some beers and quiet art talk. Here, TLM shows Gill a piece for an upcoming show...

2008 there is talk of a possible project... but that is a ways off, but stay tuned.

Tonight, I met up with long-time Gill pal and old man art guy Poor Al. We are working on a June curation at our gallery that should really have people talking. Its been in the works for a while, and Poor Al has really worked his ass off the last year to line-up all the pieces. If things go according to plan, this show will be something no one has ever seen and should create a lot of buzz.

But more importantly then that, Poor Al is now sporting the 'stache. I didnt get a chance to take a picture of him with it, so instead, I rendered one myself from an old 2006 photo. The resemblance to 2007 Poor Al is striking.

2006 Poor Al


2007 Poor Al artist rendition


Now, hold on, that can't be right... maybe he had more of a handlebar moustache...


Wait, thats not right... that's not right at all. I think was all chopped out with his soul patch and crazy long Scott Ian style goatee...


No, No, No! That look is definitely not right. He had more of an 1880's old-timey feel:
No, that's not quite 1880's old-timey enough.


Ahhh, much better. Yes, there it is, that is how Poor Al now looks. Dead on. By the way, tomorrow I am applying for a job with the police dept as their new sketch artist. I only know how to draw facial hair though, its my one weakness.

If you have some renditions of your own, send em over, I'll post em...

mike
www.project.bz

3.20.2007

SF gets invaded by Love

Over the weekend, The Love Movement and The Love Bandits took their show LOVE CONQUERS ALL up to SF for a showing at the Space Gallery.

Photos are still coming in, but from what I was told, it was a blast and a huge success. Congrats you guys. Here is an interview TLM did up there in preparation:

http://www.sfist.com/archives/2007/03/15/sfist_interviews_the_love_movement.php#more

mike
www.project.bz

3.19.2007

John Gill and the CW


The CW Network contacted us about helping them with a marketing/advertising project. No need to bore you with all the inside, behind-the-scene dealings or the concept of the undertaking itself (its alot of corporate speak and marketing lingo) . So basically, we gladly accepted and after pouring over all the details about the project, went through the entire roster of artists we know and found the perfect match.

John Gill and I headed down to their offices in Burbank yesterday to get the party started. 10 hours and 15 bottles of water later, John had somehow managed to pull off a 9' by 23' mural.



Amazing work. John really worked hard on it and came through huge. CW nearly crapped their pants. They were ecstatic about it. But probably the best thing to come out of it was getting to reconnect with John Gill and Sophia Pottish, two artists that project: loves who we just have lost contact with the last year. Its good to have 'em back. Check out John and Sophia at Thinkspace next month, they are doing a window installation, and over at Alpha Cult the month after that, where they are putting on a huge show. Congrats you guys...


mike
www.project.bz

3.17.2007

mmmm....

Friday, I was able to reunite with artist John Gill at Bob's Big Boy in Burbank (mmmm...), whom I haven't seen in about a year... he has been in hiding over in the LBC. We are working on a big project together for the CW network... but more on that on Sunday.

Speaking of Bob's Big Boy, don't you remember eating there as a kid, plowing through your Big Boy Combo, because you just could not wait to get your greasy hands on that hot fudge sundae for dessert? yeah, those were the days... mmmm...

Later on Friday evening, through a freak coincidence, Beau ended up finding the wallet of our old intern Diane Chang, who is now onto bigger and better things at Conde Nast. We celebrated its miraculous return by getting some BBQ over at JR's (mmmm...). She has a fashion blog, check it out: http://eyeprinciple.blogspot.com/


After a few drinks (mmmm...) ...


...somehow I ended up eating this mess (mmmm...) at 3 in the morning.

The great thing about this stuff is that it looks the same going in as coming out.

And finally, a big thank you and an up yours to good friend and fellow gallery owner Jensen Karp for correcting me on my vast yet limited knowledge of Hip Hop. Also a congrats and condolences must go out to Jensen... A congrats for opening a new gallery in SF Here, and a condolence on the upcoming demise of Hot Karl, classically seen Here. We are gonna miss you HK.

mike
www.project.bz

3.16.2007

London Police

Ahhh, the London Police. For those of you not particularly familiar with them, once you see their easily identifiable iconic images, you'll slap your forehead and say, "Oh yeah... those guys."

They had an exhibition opening at XLarge last night in Silverlake. I headed over and took some pics, drank some Tiger beer and walked out with a free Tshirt courtesy of XLarge... thanks guys.

Although limited to just a few pieces, it was still great to see TLP back, even if it is down to just one guy. Here are a few shots.




So, Pinkberry is next door to Xlarge, and I am sure you've heard all the hullabaloo over it. Its some frozen yogurt place, but its taking the world by storm. Kinda reminds me of the Penguins craze in the late 80s, which, on a good day, you'd be hard pressed to find one of those bastards not bordered up these days.

I figured, what the hell, lets see what all the pandimonium is about. I told the guy at the counter to make me the best thing he has. $5 later, out came this creation:


Frozen yogurt with bananas, strawberries... and whats this? Captain Crunch??? Well, now you have me intrigued.

So I gulped it down. Not bad. But not great. Even the Captain Crunch couldn't save it from a mediocre effort.

I'm about to put my spoon down and head for the door when I get a tap on the shoulder. Its my counter guy, giving me the frozen yogurt I ordered.

"But, um... I just ate it." I say, looking at the brand new Yogurt in his hand. Turns out, I took someone elses. Whoops. Fuck it, he says, have this one too.

So although I give Pinkberry a satisfactory rating, their staff gets 4 out of 5 bananas. I would have given them the full banana, but come on, they chose to work at a yogurt stand, you gotta take points off for that...


mike
www.project.bz

3.15.2007

What is going on???

Not to be macabre, but isn’t there an awfully high number of celebrity suicides lately. Hey, can’t talk about art all the time…

Last week, Brad Delp, the lead singer for the band "Boston" killed himself at his home in New Hampshire.

Come on, you know their songs. They released "More then A Feeling", arguably one of the greatest songs. And yes, there is no qualifier, I said one of the greatest songs, and I mean ever. Go ahead, argue with me. I would have to put it up there right with Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’, Chicago’s Hard Habit to Break and Foreigner’s Juke Box Hero. Sure, it’s no Night Ranger (Sister Christian), but hell, I’ll even go so far to say as I like it better then Barry Manilow’s Mandy and Air Supply’s All Out of Love. And yes, I am being dead serious… no pun intended.



So then on Saturday, Richard Jeni, the comedian, shot and killed himself in West Hollywood. A little from the article:
"Police found the 49-year-old comedian inside a West Hollywood home
Saturday morning, after responding to an emergency call. The caller, a
woman whom officials did not identify, told the operator, "My boyfriend
shot himself in the face,'' said LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman. Eisenman said suicide had not been officially confirmed and the
investigation was continuing. “



Then, I was just informed by a friend that this kind of thing is an EPIDEMIC in Korea. They are just struggling with a string of celebrity suicides, the latest, a pop star. From that article:

"26-year-old Korean pop singer, Yuni, was found dead of an apparent suicide at her home in Incheon. Her grandmother discovered her body hanging from a bar in her closet with a waistband around her neck.Yuni’s parents told police that the singer had been depressed lately. She was about to release her third album after a two-year hiatus, and some believe the stress was too much.
Her parents blamed Korea’s vibrant Internet culture, where rumors and derogatory comments about celebrities are openly exchanged. Yuni entered show business as an actress and was quickly transformed into a dance pop singer complete with a sexy image.
Yuni’s is only the most recent of a number of high-profile suicides of show business celebrities in Korea."

Sorry for the tangent today. Yes, I am sick. I already know that. You should see my book and movie collection... no, no off-the-wall S&M stuff. Just books on serial killers and such. Need recommendations, let me know.

So to recap:

Madam Lash? No
Albert Fish? Yes
KISS FM? No
Supertramp? Yes

Ill post pics from the London Police show tomorrow, and who knows... maybe some other crazy crap.

mike
www.project.bz

3.14.2007

Graffiti

And so it has come to a head.

The heads of several departments within Culver City met today. We were there, along with other galleries and businesses in the area. The topic: what to do about art shows that bring destruction and vandalism to the city. Turns out, the city understood the situation, and is backing all the galleries rights. On the other hand, however, looks like they will not allow anymore special events that have anything to do with Graffiti artists. Still tough to tell what will happen in the future, but the Police seem to have some egg on their face from Saturday night and are ready to come down hard on permits.

Anyway, we sustained little damage, and it was pretty easy to fix, so no skin off our backs. The businesses and the city were quick, and got everything cleaned up early on Monday morning, before I had a chance to take any pics, but I did get one... here is the worst of the damage to our place, nothing really...



Anyone heading to Xlarge for the London Police opening?

mike
www.project.bz

3.12.2007

Another Fine Mess and more...

First off, thanks to everyone who came to the show on Saturday. Yes, with the graffiti show next door, the police had their hands full and were definitely coming down hard on us out of association, so thank you for putting up with the constant intrusions and such.

Man, did they destroy Culver City. I drove around yesterday, and over a dozen store fronts had their entire windows and doors completely tagged up. I'll try to grab some pics this week and post. You know how I feel about tagging and the difference between it and street art. Sad to see so much destruction caused with such ugliness promoted from nothing positive. If you are going to alter our streets - make it positive and beautiful and creative - make it art.

That being said, the show looked great! Dave Flores was happy, we were happy, everybody was happy. Some photos from the show:




Changing gears... gotta give it up to Vatch, who is finally getting some pop for his writing. Sure, normally he writes very intense screenplays, but hey, he was given an opportunity to come up with another MTV style reality show for the young kids. He and his buddy Marcus came up with "Cock Blockers", hopefully out by year's end. Sure, its lowbrow and satisfies only your basest social needs, but it puts food on the table for him, and well, it is damn funny. Since its still in pre-production, I can't give too much info about it, but lets just say that Cock Blocking is a pretty big part of this unscripted, Punk'd type reality show. They shot some footage at our gallery on Friday before the show... Richard sorry for scaring the hell out of you...


Anyone know of any good St. Patty's parties next week? I am anti-bar on that day, but that tirade is for next week.

mike
www.project.bz

3.08.2007

And We Are Back!

For those of you just joining me, I've had this secret temp blog up for about 3 months now. I haven't really posted much in that quarter year, but that will all change. Daily? Well, come on now, that's just being a bit too ambitious, don't you think?

And yes, even when our blogs get back up and running on the site, this one will still be functioning. The one on the site will be a little more, ahem, professional. And by professional, I mean it won't look like its being written by a 12 year old. But fear not, this one will remain as immature and grammatically incorrect as ever.

mike
www.project.bz

Flores getting ready...

Just a few pics of Flores getting ready for the show this weekend. Damn, does that guy get distracted! But after some nagging like an old wife, I got him to finish up before the sun came out.





And next door at the old Scion Space, they are having a charity Graffiti show for ALS that they are getting ready for. All the big name heads were there, including Danny Boy, the old DJ from House of Pain. Should be quite a show, some 140 artists. Our little block here in Culver City is going to be banging on Saturday night.

mike
www.project.bz