Your Social Life In Los Angeles And Los Angeles In NYC

Hello dear beloved readers,

Sorry for being one day late to post YSL, our connection here at FBC! worldwide headquarters went down yesterday for a very, very long time.
So this weekend, I know you will need some cultural distraction after reeling from Celebs Holocaust. You can start and go pay a visit to Cosmopolitan Book Shop to load on print culture, then attend a few openings that are going to make you stretch quite a bit geographically.

First of all there is Michael Rashkow's opening at China Art Objects from 6 to 9. There's also the opening of the recent UCI grads at LAXart, and of course the opening of the shows at the Armory Art Center in Pasadena, where yours truly would have showed up, had I been in better shape physically. There's the exhibition curated by David Burns and featuring, among others, FBC! gal pal Julie Lequin, while Michael Markowski is also having a solo exhibition (where you will be able, or so I hear, to get his new book).

Meanwhile, if you happen to be in NYC, don't miss the opening at d'Amelio Terras of Tables and Chairs, an all-LA show curated by Jedediah Caesar and Shana Lutker with works by, among others, Vish Jugdeo and Rebecca Morris.

Have fun everybody.

Your Social Life In Anniversary Mode

No, not FBC! anniversary, but China Art Objects, the Chinatown gallery with which everything started (well, not exactly, let's call it the second or third LA art boom, OK?).
China Art Objects opened 10 years ago and will celebrate this Saturday with a show/bash at Cottage as well as in its original location, followed by an after party at the Mountain Bar. When you go see the show or if you end up at the Mountain Bar, please don't forget to have a thought, or better yet a drink in honor of the late Giovanni Intra, one of the co-founder of China Art Objects. The opening will last from 6 to 9 PM, with many, many artists, so many it's impossible to list them all.
Many are personal pals of FBC! so I'll pay a rare appearance at an opening, but on the early side as I'm recovering from yet another car accident!

[To the moron who plowed into my car at a red light and sent me flying into a SUV: Drop. Dead. Now. And next time you drive, that is if you don't drop dead now, do it with a valid driver's license and put your bloody cell phone away. My future lawyer is going to have a field day with you, b••ch!].

I'm fine, if a bit sore, and taking meds that make me very sleepy, hence the early appearance at the opening. Meanwhile Mam'zelle VaVaVoom is at the car doctor, waiting for her diagnosis, hopefully she's fixable. I have a nice replacement rental but nowhere as cool as Mam'zelle VaVaVoom.

Unfortunately, because of this I have to make a choice in my opening attendance, so I will miss Walead Beshty at LAXart, but you guys should be able to go, before or after China Art Objects.
There are lots of other openings on Saturday, such as the group show "The Ballad That Becomes An Anthem" at Acme, with among others, FBC! absolute fav' Mary Heilmann and also Rebecca Morris.
To make your life even more complicated, there's an interesting group show opening at the Armory in Pasadena, Under The Knife (I guess "under the box cutter" was not so appealing, and "running with scissors" was already taken) about artists cutting up paper and doing collages. It's from 7 to 9 PM so I guess if you start at ACME, go to LAXart, then China Art Objects/Cottage you may conceivably be able to reach the Armory at the tail end of the opening.
But wait! There's also an opening at Charlie James in Chinatown. And one at Marc Foxx, who also shows some work by the recently deceased Hanne Darboven.
All in all a pretty busy weekend for opening-goers in LA. Have fun, but above all drive responsively and shove that cell phone in your trunk, OK?

Your Social Life - The Hangover Edition

If you live in California, you're probably doubly hangover'ed: you drank to celebrate Obama's victory, and you drank to drown your sorrows at the infamous Proposition 8 being passed. FBC! doesn't drink because of too many migraines (I've just read today it lowered my chances of getting breast cancer by 30%, cool, but for the time being it can be really annoying), but I'm bummed about Prop. 8. Which ought to be repelled ASAP, along with the Defense of Marriage Act (at Federal level).

[For all the straight people out there who don't see why gay and lesbian people should have the right to marry, here's the 1-minute FBC! lowdown: because no one should be denied the right to visit their loved ones at the hospital, no one should be deprived of living with their loved one if (s)he happens to have a different nationality (how many gay couples do I know who cannot live in the same country as their partner, a right straight people get when they marry), and because they should have the same rights as straight people where children are concerned, and their children should have exactly the same rights as children of straight people. Discrimination isn't pretty, based on whatever bogus religious or moral reasons people choose to explain away their crass, bigoted attitude. So California people, American people, my friends and neighbors, do whatever you can to reinstate the right to marry for gay and lesbian people. There are a few lawsuits being launched, and if they fail there's the possibility to put a new proposition on the ballot in 2010. Thanks for reading this]

If you don't know what to do to help repel Prop. 8, you can go to a few openings this weekend where, no doubt, you will run into some non-straight friends as well as straight ones in the know, and get organized. Which openings could you go to, my gay and lesbian-friendly brethren?
There's the one where you will see me for an exceptional FBC! outing, Oranges and Sardines at the Hammer, curated by SF-bound Gary Garrels. Basically he paired a few contemporary artists (painters) with other ones whose work influenced or informed theirs, and it looks really, really interesting, not only because there's FBC! fave Mary Heilmann, but because the roster of influencers is mouth-watering, from Yayoi Kusama, Andre Cadere, Ad Reinhardt and Eva Hesse to Bruce Nauman, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Dieter Roth. And many mores! I have high hopes for this show, and I'd like to signal a 3PM talk on Sunday between Gary Garrels and some of the artists in the show. The show opens on Saturday, as well as an exhibition about the modern woodcut organized by the Grunwald Center in the same museum, curated by Allegra Pesenti who I do not know, but she curates really good prints and drawings shows.

Now the other event I would have gone to on Saturday, if it had been close by, is the Dave Muller Dance Party organized by Andrew Berardini at the Armory in Pasadena. It looks really, really cool but I don't have yet the magic faculty of ubiquity, unfortunately. Dave Muller is a fabulously good DJ, for those of you old enough to remember his Three Day Weekend events, and not only is the party free and open to the public, but there is free vodka as well! (drink responsibly and don't drive if you're tipsy). The party starts at 8 PM and will last until midnight, so it's conceivable to go from the Hammer to there, if you live on the East Side (unlike me). The Armory is located on 145 North Raymond, in Pasadena.

Aside from openings, if you happen to be in San Diego tomorrow night, FBC! gal pal Susan Silton is doing a performance at the MCASD (downtown, the Jacobs building) at 7 PM, tickets are $5-$7.

The pictures were totally "borrowed" from the Hammer and the Armory websites, please don't sue me!