Calling all you virtual movers and shakers! (And those of you hip to what the cool kids are doing online these days.) We want to hear from you, because right now we're gathering nominees for the 2013 L.A. Weekly Web Awards!

The Web Awards celebrate all that's awesome on the internet, as well as the local go-getters who are making things happen online. That's right, even though the internet knows no bounds, we want to honor the web-savvy self-starters who call L.A. home.

More »

Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge

See also:
*More L.A. Weekly Film Coverage

Friday, May 24

Paul McCartney and Wings went on their Wings Over the World tour from 1975-76, conquering three continents and marking McCartney's first concert appearance since the breakup of The Beatles. The concert film of the same name premiered in 1980 in an edited-down version, but now we can watch it in its full, 125-minute, digitally restored manifestation, which includes an interview with McCartney himself. Jump back in time for one of the biggest concert tours in the history of music at the Aero at 7:30 p.m. or at the Monica 4 (check laemmle.com for times).

More »

Photo by David Wing

Jef Raskin with building blocks he designed, on view at the MAK Center

This week, footage about a high-energy collaboration between artists, architects and Pepsi plays at the MAK Center, one artist leads people on a hunt for truth and other intangibles at the Getty and another turns cough syrup into something of a tribute.

5. Art, lies and hashtags
A green vinyl sign above the security desk at the Getty Center asks, "Is a museum for everyone?" Another sign affixed to the floor in the rotunda at the top of the main stairs asks, "Is a museum fun?" These and other questions are part of L.A. artist Sam Durant's #isamuseum project. The idea is that visitors will answer, either on Twitter on their phones, later on the website or by going up to the info desk. You see the question "Is a museum truthful?" while winding down the stairs from the painting galleries, and one visitor answered no because "Truth has nothing to do with art." 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood; through July. (310) 440-7300, gettycenter.org.

More »

Courtesy of Stephen O'Gara and Geocaching.com

Stephen O'Gara of Team Ventura Kids geocaching in South Hills Park, in Glendora

In La La Land, the home of movie magic, we're used to our surroundings being not quite what they seem. But did you know, at this very moment, you are surrounded by thousands of tiny containers of various shapes and sizes, camouflaged in bushes, hidden in fake electrical boxes, attached by magnet to the bottoms of bar stools and perched atop stop-signs? You might need an ultra-violet light to discover the final clue to find them or wait for low tide to wade out to a cave at the beach, but they're there. That creepy guy at the bus stop who keeps looking around suspiciously might be totally nuts...or he might be a geocacher.

Geocaching is a worldwide treasure hunt that began in May 2000 when the U.S. government gave up "selective availability" and allowed civilians to use GPS devices with almost perfect accuracy for the first time. Computer consultant David Ulmer was one of many GPS enthusiasts brainstorming how this newly available technology could be used. The day after "selective availability" was lifted, Ulmer decided to hide a bucket in the woods near his home in Beavercreek, Oregon filled with prizes and post the coordinates online for anyone to find. He called it "The Great American GPS Stash Hunt" and its one rule was, "Take some stuff; leave some stuff."

Within three days, two readers had found Ulmer's bucket using personal GPS devices, and more readers had begun to hide boxes and post coordinates online. By September 2000, there were 75 caches across the country. Now there are 2 million around the world. One hundred seventeen thousand of those are in California and over 300 are within a 5 mile radius of our own 90012.

Today, Geocaching.com is the hub of all things geocache and the place to find the coordinates of caches around the world. Geocachers can use the gps on their smart phones and download an app that identifies the caches closest to them at any given time. The app provides maps, comments from fellow finders and clues. Even though the coordinates lead you to the cache's location, the real trick is is finding the camoed pillbox hanging in a nearby tree or knowing which sprinkler head is actually a hidden geocache filled with booty.

Los Angeles has become a world hotspot for geocaching, partly because of our year-round mild climate, partially because of our tech savvy population and partially because of our varied and intriguing terrain. "Whatever geocaching experience you're looking for, you can find it in L.A.," claimed real estate broker and geocacher Andy Perkins in a phone interview. "On the same day, you can be digging for boxes at the beach, grab easy urban caches through the city, then head up to the mountains or out to the desert."

More »

Hanksy

Weird Gal Yankovic

See also:
*5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week
*10 Best L.A. Art Galleries For Partying

Banksy is so 2010. Hanksy, the similarly secretive street artist and love child of Banksy and Tom Hanks, is reaching his own level of notoriety thanks to his celeb-inspired murals, the subject of Gallery 1988's upcoming exhibit, "How the West Was Pun," which opens May 24.

A couple of years ago, the Brooklyn-via-Midwest, 20-something law school dropout started spray painting Hanks' mug on stenciled images of Banksy in New York, which led to a couple of gallery shows. He's put up similar work in Chicago. (Dude even made it to the White House).

Earlier this year, Hanksy began lurking in our midst, creating street art inspired by Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Ellen DeGeneres, James Franco, Bradley Cooper and Christopher Walken, and accompanied by funny tag lines, in Hollywood along Melrose, Downtown and Culver City. You may have come across "Cage Against the Machine," "The Walken Dead" and our personal favorite, "Weird Gal Yankovic."

More »

Four Days at Dragon*Con

See also: *Dragon*Con vs. San Diego Comic-Con: Which Convention Should You Attend?
*Stan Lee Has His Own Convention Now: Stan Lee's Comikaze

A good documentary can do more than entertain or educate the audience. These non-fiction films can be a wealth of inspiration too. They can lend insight into the creative process or impart some wisdom from famed creators. More often than not, they show that making awesome things happen is never easy.

Below are five nerdy and inspiration pop culture documentaries. From a behind-the-scenes look at one of the world's biggest film franchises to the story of a legendary comic book creator, these movies are filled with humor, drama and few good lessons too.

More »

Liz Ohanesian

HUSH presents "Unseen" at Corey Helford Gallery

There is no single process for HUSH. The U.K.-based artist mixes methods as he applies a combination of paint (acrylic and the spray can variety), screen print and ink techniques to his canvases. In the end, the results are exquisitely layered paintings that people sometimes confuse for collage work.

Saturday night, HUSH unveiled his latest show "Unseen" at Corey Helford Gallery. The effort involves 22 pieces, including large paintings and smaller studies. This was his first show with the Culver City gallery, which has come to prominence in the past few years for showcasing some of the brightest talents in the pop surrealism and street art world. HUSH himself falls into the latter camp, and he worked on a few street pieces while he in town.

HUSH's love of street art goes back to his youth. "I did a bit of graffiti," he says of his formative years. "I wasn't a big graffiti artist."

More »

Jessica Ritz

Grand Park

What began as a public-private partnership bidding process to find a food vendor for a beloved urban park launched a massively successful mid-market burger chain.

Granted, any business gets a leg up when an already successful restaurateur such as Danny Meyer is at the helm. Shake Shack now has locations throughout Manhattan, as well as other cities in the northeast, Florida, the UK, Turkey, and the Middle East.

And it all started in a public space, New York City's Madison Square Park, where hungry people were already gathering and bringing food to a picturesque, engaging environment, and firmly establishing demand. The Shake Shack structure itself is a sharp piece of contemporary design and compatible with its setting. A win-win situation. (Admittedly, it's hardly the healthiest food imaginable.)

Quality food can help reinvigorate public spaces, an area in which Los Angeles needs a lot of help. So why does it so rarely happen?

More »

Magnolia Pictures

Morton Downey, Jr.

Years before reality TV and today's conservative political pundits, we had Morton Downey, Jr., whose The Morton Downey, Jr. Show in the late '80s was Jerry Springer, Geraldo, The O'Reilly Factor and Jersey Shore all wrapped up into one, giant hoagie.

On May 21, Cinefamily screens a montage of the show's clips, as well as the L.A. premiere of Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie, a documentary by Jeremy Newberger, Daniel A. Miller and Seth Kramer that looks at the late talk show host's rise and fall, and how he gave folks like Gloria Allred, Ron Paul, Alan Dershowitz and Al Sharpton (and his feathered hair) their first national forum.

More »

Paramount Pictures

Erica Oyama and husband Ken Marino

Erica Oyama is the great comedic mind behind the scripted comedy web series Burning Love on Yahoo. The show parodies reality dating shows like The Bachelor, and recently released its third season while winning a Webby Award for Special Achievement of the Year.

The first season made the jump from tiny to small screen with it's television premiere on E! this past February. Oyama's husband Ken Marino starred in that season as the goofy fireman bachelor Mark Orlando, who is back in season three to compete with former contestants for a grand prize of $900. (They're currently writing the film adaptation of Go The F**k to Sleep together.)

Erica has been interviewed extensively by the media about the process of writing the show, so we thought we'd ask her some deeper, much more embarrassing questions.

More »