Your Social Life In Anniversary Mode And The Last One Before September

Hello, hello, dear beloved readers,

It has just occurred to me that FBC! was born about 3 years ago, after the first in a series of car accidents that screwed up my life and my body big time; hence the "I can't stand up, I can't hold my neck, my back is killing me, I cannot move my shoulder, I have a mofo of a migraine" litanies spread out from post to post.
Initially not mainly an art blog, FBC! of late has mostly morphed into a public service aimed at letting you know about exhibitions openings in LA. This has been largely due to a) months and months of physical therapy not letting me enough energy to write nor the physical ability to go out and write about what I've seen b) art world fatigue and c) there's no c.

All of this to let you know I'm taking a break from writing here until September, because I have a load of other writing to do and FBC! tends to get in the way, time-wise.
I'll probably post a few pics of shows I've seen recently to fill you in, but not much more, save for the John Cale Of The Week posts, because there's nothing more sublime, genius, awesome, troubling, ethically and intellectually right as John Cale, and if every artist, curator, writer, gallerist, collector in the art world started to act more like John Cale (the sober John Cale) and less like celebretards, life would become much more interesting and beautiful and maybe there would be, ah, I don't know, hope and change made visible. You know, good art being produced, of the challenging, life-changing, epoch-defining kind.

So, the last few things I wanted to mention here before the break: the mini-festival Perform Now! in Chinatown (and elsewhere), starting tonight and ending on Sunday, riding on the current popularity of performance art. It's the second edition and I remember perfectly well missing the first one last year because my car was still at the shop, and I wasn't fit to stand up for very long anyway. Which sucked big time because Simon Leung was performing.

This year I'll attend my friend Nancy Popp's performance on Sat. starting at 2 PM and lasting until 8 PM, "all over Chinatown", on various rooftops.  I also recommend the recently-married Skip Arnold (hi Skip!), and there's also Dorit Cypis, Warren Neidich, Matias Viegener, etc. Check the full program on the link above, or on the Facebook event page.
I'm not snubbing the rest out of conceit, but I really need to write, and there's way too much going out in LA in the Summer.

Like, on Sunday, the Fallen Fruit Public Jam event held in conjunction with their Eat LACMA series. I'm sure it will be fun, but I can't attend. Make sure to bring your own fruit. They don't say anything about bringing your own jars and teaching you how to sterilize them, as far as I can tell, nor do they recommend you to macerate your fruit in sugar overnight to bring out the flavors before you cook your jam. Hhhm. I guess it's one of these things where the process matters more than the result.

This being said, have a great weekend, and Happy Birthday FBC!

John Cale Song Of The Week - E Is Missing

In today's installment of the "John Cale Song Of The Week", E Is Missing. I chose this one because it is a somewhat recent (2003) song, in contrast to all the goodies oldies and oldies goodies I have posted so far. As you can see (and hear) Mr Cale is still at the top of his form, no matter what. How cool and sexy is that? Tremendously cool and sexy.
I also chose E Is Missing because it references Ezra Pound, so maybe the not-so-well-read among my readership (just kidding! I know you're super-educated, all 9 of you) will be tempted to check Ezra Pound's writings out. And read about him and decide for yourself if his, ahem, fascist proclivities before and during WWII have any bearings on your appreciation of his writings.

As all John Cale's songs posted here, I can only strongly encourage you to BUY his music. E Is Missing belongs to the 5 Tracks record that you can, how convenient of me to let you know this, buy here. And of course, don't forget to get yourself a ticket for his September 30 concert at Royce Hall.

Enjoy! 

Your Social Life

 And now back to our usual programming (can't wait to post the next John Cale Song Of The Week).

Your social life will be richly enhanced tonight if you swing by the Pacific Design Center, the new home of anotheryearinla, and get to see the show where FBC!'s über-fave, Stephen Kaltenbach is in.


Saturday, if you happen to be in Riverside, don't miss the reading by A.W. Hill at Riverside Arts Project at the Riverside Plaza (Central Avenue Riverside, CA

3545 Central Ave. between Chico’s and El Torito in conjunction with the Terminus Nodus exhibition by Multipoint), from 4 to 6 PM.

Still on Saturday, Scott Benzel whom you know without knowing him (he's behind the soundtrack of the Mike Kelley/Michael Smith "A Voyage of Growth and Discovery") is playing at Kings Road Park Pavilion.  Yes, he's the handsome man in the photo above. FBC! is alas too broke to attend, but you can buy tickets here. And, incidentally, have a look at what SASSAS does for sound art and experimental music in LA. I never get to talk about the Cindy Bernard-founded non profit and it's a shame. Support it, people!

Still in Los Angeles, but in Chinatown, the always delightful Charlie James has an opening at his gallery, Nery Gabriel Lemus.

 

In the already opened category, I warmly recommend spending a whole day at LACMA where, between John Baldessari, Cathy Opie, Tad Beck (within the Thomas Eakins exhibition) and Fallen Fruit (great wallpaper) plus the permanent collection, there are loads of great things to see.  

If you feel more comfortable in a smaller setting, don't miss the fantastic Amir Zaki show at LAXart (I'm not so wild about the Divola show at the same place) and the group show at Cottage Home as well as the one at Tom Solomon. Pics to follow soon. If you are not as broke-ass as FBC!, I think you should invest in the artist book Zaki has produced. It's gorgeous, and for an artist book really cheap.

Save The Warburg Library.

I'm interrupting the usual FBC! drivel to point you out to this article published by the Art Newspaper (incidentally, the best art publication in the English language).
I'm not going to repeat poorly what the excellent writer explained: from who Warburg was to the crucial role his library plays in the constitution of art history as a living discipline (and not a tool to advance  the power play between obtuse academics without any imagination beyond their personal career), and what danger lies thanks to the completely stupid administrators of London University.
You're going to tell me, its all very well and we get it, but what can we do? What you can do is use your old-fashioned paper and ink and write letters of support to the Warburg Institute and letters of disgust to the University of London. The current Chancellor is Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal (Princess Ann) and the Vice-Chancellor is Sir Graeme Davies. You could address them respectfully polite but scathing letters though this address.

Lastly, I suggest you abandon all that critical theory crap you've been spoon-fed in graduate school and have a look at Warburg's own writings, they have been translated in English through a GRI publication (own personal all-time favorite is the essay on International Astrology). I may add that a bit of Alois Riegl never hurts, ditto Julius von Schlosser, but that would require not being monolingual, dear US academics.
FBC! strongly suspects the University of London strategy is in fact designed to make the heirs of the Warburg family cough up some money, which, you know, is a dirty plot unworthy of a respectable institution devoted to Higher Learning. So disgraceful, there are no words. Please read the Art Newspaper article, and write in to support the Warburg Institute.

John Cale Song Of The Week - Dying On The Vine

FBC! continues with the "John Cale Song Of The Week" series, in anticipation of his September 30th concert at Royce Hall, where he will play the integral of the Paris 1919 record, and a medley of older and newer songs.
Today, Dying On The Vine, an interpretation he gave for a BBC TV program with Chrissie Hynde and Nick Cave. I particularly like this version, with the piano accompaniment going its merry, baroque way, accentuating the starkness of the lyrics. You can buy the song here, if you like it, and better yet, get yourself a ticket to Royce Hall (individual tickets on sale starting August 9)

Your Social Life

This week will be a happy one, my friends, let me tell you. First of all, Amir Zaki and John Divola both open at LAXart. Two immense smart photographs united in the same space, what's not to like? 6 to 9 PM on Saturday.


Same evening , at Regen Projects is the opening of the Walead Beshty-curated Summer Show, and it's chock-full of artists I really love, Pictures Industry (Goodbye to all that): anybody from Carol Bove, Troy Brauntuch, Tony Conrad, De Rijke & de Rooij, Wade Guyton, Imi Knoebel, Glenn Ligon, Michael Snow, etc.  From 6 to 8 on Saturday.

In Chinatown, China Art Objects and Tom Solomon unite forces for a Summer group show at Cottage Home where FBC!'s favorite emerging artist, Juan Capistran, is included, another good reason to go see it, not even mentioning Analia Saban is alo in it, as well as Alex Israel and Jonathan Pylypchuck. Also 6 to 9 on Saturday.


And, if you think you don't have enough "6 to 9 opening on Saturday, my freaking God why haven't they invented teleportation yet????", there's also Kory Newkirk, except it is 6 to 8 PM, almost guarantying yours truly will be unable to attend, but it is conveniently located smack in the middle of LA, at Country Club on 805 South Genesee. Country Club is a gallery that has, IMHO, an editorial problem, since they show fab artists such as Newkirk, as well as lame-duck crap such as Shepard Fairey, Harmony Korine, etc.
Seriously people, if you need to show commercial stuff, so be it, but it's detrimental to your image and to the other, good artists you are showing. A bit more intellectual rigor would be welcome. Unless you have a secret plan to join the Jeffrey Deitch team at MOCA, who knows.

Speaking of which, congratulations to OCMA for taking over the Philip Kaiser-curated Jack Goldstein retrospective from MOCA, a formerly respectable institution that lost its mojo since NYC sent us its own commercial rejects. THE exhibition everybody in Los Angeles has been waiting for a decade, and it's been scrapped for... James Franco? Dennis Hopper bland photographs and mediocre paintings? People, flock see the Arshile Gorky show at MOCA, because it is the very last good exhibition there for a long, long time.


After this rant, let's congratulate also LACMA with the opening next week of the Thomas Eakins, Catherine Opie and Tad Beck trifecta. Super intelligent exhibition. If LACMA folks are reading me, I also wanted to tel you: I love you, but your Twitter feed during "Cell Phone Stories"? Painful. I had to un-follow you a couple of times to clean up my feed. Please, don't do horrible things like this again.

John Cale Song Of The Week - Buffalo Ballet

I was talking recently with a friend (hi, Stephanie!) about how John Cale is the most awesome, terrific, fabulous genius in the entire musical universe, and that's discounting the faraway galaxies we know nothing about. And maybe even there, they wonder why, why he never really met with the planetary success that is his due? Listen to the song above, isn't that freaking beautiful?
After talking to Stephanie, I got curious, thinking I hadn't seen him on stage since the mid-1990s in Paris, and what was he up to these days?

That's where I'm marveling at the power of the interwebs, compared to the times that under-20 youngsters can't have known, when this type of search would have taken digging into the archives of several music magazines and fanzines. Today, in 5 seconds, shazam! I learned that:

1) he was now walking among us, lonesome God in a land of dwarfs, since he apparently lives here in Los Angeles! He left New York to live in the land of surgically-enhanced, vapid Industry types! Which is also the land where Arnold Schoenberg immigrated to during World War II and where the Beach Boys are originated from, so maybe Cale can be happy here, too. That's all the evil we at FBC! are wishing him, to be happy in La La Land.

2) not only that, but he's playing at Royce Hall on September 30! WHOO HOO!!!! Individual tickets available for us, the vulgare pecus who can't afford to become members/buy series, on August 9. You know, everybody in the art world. Seriously, I've told 6 or 7 artists friends since last week and everybody is super excited and wondering how the heck they'll find the money to buy a ticket.*

I only regret it is at Royce Hall, because seats tend to be a bit of a hindrance if you want to move around a bit, and more personally because after being hit in 3 car accidents, seating down in Royce Hall's uncomfortable seats for a while is painful. Quite a bit painful.

Nevertheless, I'm overjoyed to get to see John Cale in LA, that is after I sell my putative first-born in order to afford the ticket. To celebrate (the concert, not the sale of my hypothetical offspring), I propose to upload once a week the John Cale Song Of The Week, to let us patient a bit until September 30.
And, for my Frenchy brethren back home, rejoice! Cale plays at the Salle Pleyel on September 5.

So to kick off the series, let's start with Buffalo Ballet, from the album Fear. If you like what you hear, please go buy the song on iTunes or an old-fashioned CD, so John Cale gets at least 1 or 2 pennies in his pocket. He probably needs them more than, say, Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber.

* I guess that's a reason why Cale doesn't enjoy an interplanetary fame and success: his natural constituency is also chronically un-moneyed.

¡Que Viva España!

FBC!, despite having been born and brought up in France, is in fact half-Spanish, a welcome and practical identity when, you know, the French football teams confuses South Africa with the stage of a soap opera. So my Spanish half is very happy and proud of Spain's victory today in the World Cup, and a bit teary-eyed too because my proudly Spanish grandma passed away two months ago and didn't get to witness it.
So, in her memory and in honor of the Spanish Football Team and their historic World Cup win, I'm posting a kitsch but beloved Spanish song, Que Viva España, by Manolo Escobar.
Also, drinking Cava, something I can only encourage you to replicate at home, since you won't drive, and Trader Joe's sells a very decent version for $4.99.

Lastly, out of respect for Oberhausen Oktopus Paul, hereby re-christened Querido Pulpo Pablito, FBC! is officially banishing octopus from her diet until the end of the year, at least. And, publicly begging King Juan Carlos of Spain to make Querido Pulpo Pablito a Knight in the Order of Santiago.

Congrats Spain!!!!

Your Social Life

These two upcoming weekends will be all about Juan Capistran, FBC!'s favorite emerging artist who should become big, big, big, his work is so good. Juan is currently flying to Mexico for a show is in, so I'm not sure he will be back on time to attend the opening of Bubble and Squeak on Saturday at Happy Lion in Chinatown, 6 to 8 PM. He's going to be in 2 other group things between July 17 and 19, more about this next week.

Still in Chinatown, but tomorrow, Animal Style: The New Warrior, organized by Drew Heitzler, with such luminaries as Scott Benzel, Justin Beal, Jedediah Caesar, or Emily Halpern and many more, at Pepin Moore (beautiful website, in passing).

A Doug Harvey curated/organized/input event happening at Post tomorrow, Mannlicher Carcano. Linking to the FB page for the event here.

And, on Saturday, yet another opening at Steve Turner, RJ Messineo and Brian Kennon. Another opening too at Las Cienegas Projects, celebrating their first anniversary with Aaron Wrinkle and Guests.

And before I sign off, congrats to Amir Zaki whose work is featured on home decorating blog Apartment Therapy, but most importantly you will be able to see it in person at LAXart next week.


On Sunday, don't forget to cheer Spain in the World Cup Final. And, on Monday, you can attend the screening of the Michael Smith/Mike Kelley A Voyage Of Growth And Discovery at REDCAT, which will allow you to follow their narrative on a single screen.
and, that's all for the weekend. Have fun. Sounds positively exciting.

Your Social Life

Hello, beloved readers, and apologies for posting this installment of YSL kinda late, but AT&T let us down again today and we were unable to connect to the internet for several hours.

So, quickly, if you are downtown tonight and somehow get this, swing by POST for the kickoff of 31 Kamikaze shows in July. 7 to 9 tonight.
Tomorrow Friday, China Art Objects says goodbye to Chinatown to move to Culver City (I think in the former M+C space). FBC! was present at the birth of China Art Objects, when the late Giovanni Intra was among us, and I'm looking forward to see how the gallery fares in Culver City. Wishing you the best of luck! I think it's from 6 to 9 and probably later continued onto the night at the Mountain Bar.
Still on Friday evening, Cal Arts MFA Show happens in Chinatown and not in Valencia, sparing us the trek there, thanks to several galleries, with "Box Scheme". List of participating galleries and artists here.

Saturday you wouldn't believe they are some openings since it is a holiday weekend, but in fact there are a bunch of them. Los Angeles, we don't do things like anybody else. Except this time they look a little bit like Summer Shows, like at Blum & Poe.

Two exhibitions that have already opened but that I think you should go see: Signs of Life at Richard Telles. Smart show, very tight installation, some good works. It's the first exhibition curated by Gladys-Katherina Hernando, and she did a great job. Pics coming up later. The Andrea Bowers show at Vielmetter is pretty good too, but most particularly the video.

Have a great 4th of July weekend folks, but before this, remember today is Canada Day, so if you meet one, kiss a Canadian!