Jena Ardell

Charles Phoenix takes us across America

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See more photos in "Collector Cars, Vintage Trailers and Charles Phoenix at Palm Springs Modernism Week."

While Angelenos were getting pummeled with rain on Friday, attendees of Palm Springs Modernism Week were enjoying sunshine and chrome at the Vintage Travel Trailer Show before heading to Charles Phoenix's Retro Vacation Slide Show Tour of the U.S.A.

Yes, it was the perfect day to mosey through Keith McCormicks's Collector Car Show or browse the Braniff Airline Exhibit, which featured vintage airline advertising and a collection of 14 vintage uniforms, most designed by Pucci and Halston.

The real fun, however, would come later in the evening, in the Riviera's swanky Grand Ballroom with Charles Phoenix's slideshow in full swing.

While ogling vintage Airstream trailers, I chatted with Phoenix about his Kodachrome collection and his loyal fans, who he describes as an "eclectic blend" of individuals between the ages of 35-55.

"When teenagers get it, that's the ultimate compliment," Phoenix said.

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Open for business. Unless you suck.

​It's been said that miserable circumstances are incited when you piss off your bartender, hairdresser or leader of your preferred religious denomination, in addition to a slew of people in other professions (your pizza delivery guy, your fitness instructor) who've had enough of you. Being that we thoroughly believe in transparency, and since these days even our moms have started smoking pot again, we're going to go right ahead and add one's drug dealer to the aforementioned list. Yes, I said it. Don't wag your finger at the monitor; I've probably got your number, too.

Of course your dealer knows the risks he or she faces from the police and federal authorities, but that isn't your dealer's main fear. Dealing can be akin to being a local celebrity, but without most of the perks that go along with stardom, and they've probably made peace or precautions with the Johnny Law scenario. Your dealer's main fear is wondering what kind of shit you're going to pull on a daily basis. (Emailing me with a request for drugs would be one of those moves, so file that under "don't even think about it" before we proceed.)

Having been a bud-slinger myself, I'm going to tell you about issues that arise when it comes to procuring drugs that make us contemplate -- gulp -- attaining a socially acceptable job with a real water cooler and all the fixings. I haven't been in the saddle for a while, but I'll never forget some of you, despite how much I wish I could. Your dealer will thank me for this.

8. Dealing often involves phone call, but it doesn't mean on-call.

A dealer might give you a break on a holiday that is either A) a lot of fun, or B) isn't really observed in their household. We have birthdays, families, court dates, and for those of us on the political spectrum, perhaps legalization rallies to attend. If it's my birthday, you certainly do not get a free birthday eighth, stop making my phone light up. Late at night is one thing, even understandable, but six o'clock in the morning is generally unacceptable.

"Dude, I know it's late..."

"Dude, so do I. I can read a clock just fine. Go to bed."

We get that we're on the fringe of it all, so we understand what a midnight call warrants. Hell, most of us expect business to pick up between 7:00 PM - Midnight, but after that, it's a case-by-case basis.Your dealer doesn't worry about rounds because we aren't doctors (even though we know how to make you feel better). We aren't like 7-Eleven. Exceptions to this rule do exist, usually for people we consider friends. This feeds into something terribly important...

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PHOTO COURTESY BANKSY

Banksy's murdered phone box, London

​Tomorrow's LA Weekly cover story focuses on mysterious street artist Banksy, who is the star and quasi-director of the new documentary, Exit at the Gift Shop, which opens in LA on April 16. Below the jump, you'll find a short trailer for that film, as well as a five minute preview.

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This Saturday, Apple will begin selling the much-hyped iPad and new users of the tablet device will begin wondering, how am I going to protect my new, expensive gadget. L.A. DJs Derek Michael and Lee Doerr think they have the answer and it's called iBallz.

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Consisting of four balls attached by elastic cord, iBallz keep tablets like Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle elevated and stable without covering the device. Michael and Doerr originally envisioned iBallz as a DJ tool, something to fit tablets over turntable set-ups at their gigs, but soon realized that it had multiple uses. The cords can be readjusted to give a tablet an ergonomic tilt and the lift provided by the balls can keep your lap from getting hot while working.

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"Los Angeles is where personal freedom is defined by the automobile. A city where store entrances are accessible through parking lots rather than sidewalks," observes artist Diane Meyer in her essay, "Car-less in Los Angeles." The remark found instant resonance with my life in the city. A year and a half here brought home this city's love affair with their own four wheels. Such is the obsession, that I get detailed parking instructions, every place I go, people safely assuming that I have a car. Public transport are often dirty words, used with much restraint, when giving directions.

"Most Angelenos assume that there isn't any alternative to car culture because they've never tried anything else," says Meyer, who has interviewed 100 other car-less individuals like me, for her upcoming exhibition, titled "Without A Car in the World." Funded by the California Council for the Humanities California Stories Fund, which supports creative work based on interviews collected from a community of California residents, Meyer's exhibit features images and interviews about car-less dwellers in L.A. and aims to address how "car culture has shaped psychological, spatial and geographic perceptions of the city."

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Drew Tewksbury

"Special Interests: Bushwack" Acrylic, spray paint, wood 48" x 84" 2000

Whereas evolution in the art world often moves at snail's pace, graffiti and street art transforms in dog years. By its very nature, graff art is ephemeral; scrawled on the wall, just to be painted over as new techniques cannibalize the old, recording graffiti's history in layers of paint like rings in a tree. For artist Man One, "Graffiti Spirits," his solo exhibition and retrospective at the Crewest Gallery reveals the multimedia evolution that shaped his street art-styled works from the last 22 years. He first started hitting the streets as a kid in East L.A., and eventually shifted to creating works for galleries in the early '90s. The many works shown in Saturday's opening at Crewest Gallery (which Man One co-owns) trace the breadth of his multifaceted artistic style: silkscreens, acrylics, and large-scale, spray painted images.

Drew Tewksbury

Man One

His spray can portraits of people of power -- ranging from presidents to rappers -- become documents of pop culture's constantly shifting focus, each a snapshot of a distinct time and place. His work "Special Interests: Bushwack" from 2000, pairs a technicolor George W. Bush with a serpentine creature whispering in his ear. Created in the pre-9/11 world -- before Iraq, Katrina, and the financial meltdown -- the piece adopts new meaning with each passing year, like a twisted portrait of Dorian Grey ever-changing as the world changes around it.

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In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, we headed down to Long Beach on Saturday for Pyrate Daze. Held aboard the Queen Mary, Pyrate Daze is a two-day event featuring music, masquerade, merchandise and even a cannon show. With the involvement of steampunk-themed band Abney Park and local performance group The League of S.T.E.A.M., though, this was more than a simple celebration of buccaneers. The pirates far outnumbered the steampunks, but the latter brought with them an element of Victorian-influenced fantasy. Both groups came armed with creativity and dressed in brilliantly detailed costumes, but we had to wonder, did one outdo the other? We came up with our own awards below.

Shannon Cottrell

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Pirates: Mic the Scallywag told us he is something between living and dead. "Does that mean you're a zombie?" I asked. "Aye, you could say that if you'd like," he answered. And so we will. With his blue-tinted skin and algae coated eyes, Mic is a fright, but one who kept us endlessly entertained.

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Disney rolled out its equivalent of San Diego's Comic-Con last weekend, the first time the company has attempted such a move. Tens of thousands of people converged on the D23 Expo in Anaheim to spend four days in mouse heaven and we caught them, on camera. View more photos in the D23 Expo slideshow. Here are some of our favorites:

Gendy Alimurung

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Christopher Victorio

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Wendy Gilmartin

South Bay style was on display last night when Wilmington's own media and arts collective, Slanguage, took curatorial control of MOCA's Thursday night Engagement Party series with its Psychicinema Multiplex. Founded in 2002 by Karla Diaz and Mario Ybarra Jr., and based in the harbor area of L.A. specifically to cultivate relationships between diverse audiences there, Slanguage has unleashed its experimental, street art approach on venues like the Tate Modern Museum and Serpentine Gallery in London, to LACMA, to Boston public schools -- and now MOCA, where Slanguage's visual assault included screenings and projections throughout the courtyard and galleries, with psychic dancers, DJs, palm readers and a prom-style portrait studio with Wilmington's hellish refineries as the backdrop.

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Aja Viafora

Body art is indeed as sexy as it sounds.

Legendary street artists gathered at Leon Lounge on Saturday night to paint live models' bodies in a competition sponsored by Girls Gone Graff. The group is an alliance of models and artists that entertain parties and put on gallery shows.

"The ultimate goal is to collaborate people, music, art [at these] events," said Patrick Wolf, a promoter for the event.

Inside the hopping venue, models posed seductively in itsy-bitsy bikinis around the room. Artists used paint and markers to detail models' legs, arms, stomachs and backs with everything from intricate paisley designs to skulls, portraits and graffiti lettering. They were competing for a first place prize of $500, which was later won by artist Orlando.

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