Courtesy Honor Fraser, photo by Josh White/JWPictures

Alexis Smith's Strangelove (2004)

This week, music videos get higher-art treatment, quirky paintings hang in Koreatown and a straight-shooting L.A. artist has a debut show at her new gallery.

5. Finding artistry on MTV
"We believe music videos are the most universal, accessible and entertaining art form in the world," says the Los Angeles Music Video Festival's "about us" page. They've also been vehicles for the weirdest collaborations between visual artists, musicians and filmmakers -- think of Bjork's Mutual Core, a collaboration with digital artist and programmer John F. Simon, or David Lynch's images for Interpol. On Friday, LAMVF curators will show two hours' worth of music videos they deem new and edgy at the Armory Center for the Arts.145 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena; Fri., June 21, 8 p.m. (626) 792-5101, armoryarts.org.

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Flickr/littlekidsrock

R&B rocker Gary U.S. Bonds is set to present and discuss his memoir By U.S. Bonds, That's My Story at Book Soup this week.

See also:
*Our Calendar Section, Listing More Great Things to Do in L.A.
*5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week

Leave it to L.A. to make a history lesson sound like an amazing weekend. From a remembrance of Juneteenth to an exchange of war stories to a guide through the history of design, the City of Angels is full of opportunities to learn something new about the past this week.

5. Deep Valley Deco
In tandem with the Getty's ongoing Pacific Standard Time Presents architecture edition and the Dwell on Design convention, the Los Angeles Design Festival embraces the city's sprawling geography in a weeks-long program of architecture- and design-focused tours, parties, exhibitions and screenings. Some 40 events are slated, including a Big City Forum at the Standard Downtown on June 19, a Chinatown focus on June 29 and a citywide design shopping night on June 27. There's even an app for that. But perhaps the single most curious-minded of the engagements has to be June 15's Design Caravan -- a guided excursion to the deep Valley and beyond, starring Los Angeles magazine's design guru/hidden-gem maven Chris Nichols. Tour takers will be treated to stops at little-known locales including a public art installation, an innovative design studio, an abandoned art deco airport and a prop house specializing in historical objects -- not to mention the better-known but still gorgeous grounds of the world-famous Griffith Park Observatory, where the tour begins at 9 a.m. and ends at 1 p.m. with a picnic by Wolfgang Puck, which is included in the $20 ticket. The best part? All the driving is handled by a fleet of pink-mustachioed Lyft cars, leaving you free to snap, post and tag your Instagrams for a chance to win something awesome. Griffith Park Observatory, 2800 E. Observatory Road, Los Feliz; Sat., June 15, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.; $20. ladesignfestival.org. -- Shana Nys Dambrot

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Posters for The Art of Punk, Bryan Ray Turcotte's new documentary series for MOCAtv, include the well-known logos for major punk bands.

The logo is simple. Four heavy black bars sitting side by side — one up, one down, one up, one down — creating a wave effect: a black flag flying in the wind of discontent.

Few logos are as universally recognized and revered as the one Raymond Pettibon designed for L.A. punk legends Black Flag — although The Dead Kennedys' "DK" symbol certainly would be a runner-up, along with Crass' circular design, each evoking the band's volatile energy and bold simplicity.

Filmmaker Bryan Ray Turcotte has the Crass logo tattooed on his upper arm, and at the screening for his latest project, he's not alone. As audience members file out of the packed theater at downtown's Museum of Contemporary Art, all three band logos are visibly immortalized: on skin, on T-shirts, on jackets, patches and buttons.

Which is fitting, since tonight's screening is for The Art of Punk, Turcotte's series spotlighting the logos and fliers used to promote the three bands. Turcotte made the three 20-minute documentary films for the Museum of Contemporary Art's new MOCAtv channel on YouTube; all three screen at MOCA tonight, and they're being rolled out online this month, beginning with the one about Black Flag on June 11. The Dead Kennedys' doc will be posted June 18 and the one about Crass on June 25, all at YouTube.com/mocatv.

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Photo courtesy of Biophiliaeducational.org

Program director Curver Thoroddsen with kids during a Biophilia educational workshop in Oslo

See also:
*Björk Brings Her Crazy Nature Project to L.A.

On Big Family Sunday at the Museum of Contemporary Art, kids and family members got to take part in a number of art-related activities, most of which took place under canopies outside the museum. But inside something a very different program took place -- a short lesson as part of a curriculum housed within a collection of apps.

The Biophilia Education Program stems from the musician Bjork's instructive apps that accompany her "app album" Biophilia, which includes music, apps, installations and live shows. Program director Curver Thoroddsen says the program "takes the book out of teaching."

Bjork didn't show up herself, but over the course of the day, Thoroddsen and a few instructors led workshops based on her apps for the first time in Los Angeles. Kids and their families sat at tables listening to lessons that blended science with music in a very Bjork-like manner (think lots of bright colors, kooky songs and trippy visuals). This week, the team will head to Edison Middle School to teach the full program over the course of a few days.

The workshop at MOCA was only a small part of the overall program which uses apps on the iPad along with traditional (but more fun) lessons. For the workshop, slideshows were also used, along with demonstrations that called for volunteers. Edison Middle School teachers will work with the Biophilia team to create their lessons.

I sat in on a workshop amidst the excited moms and loud kids, and listened for what Bjork could teach me. Here are four lessons:

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Jenny Okun

Greg Fedderly and Maria Antunez appear in Dulce Rosa, currently showing on the Broad Stage.

See also:
*Our Calendar Section, Listing More Great Things to Do in L.A.
*5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week

If you need a laugh to start your weekend, or if you want to cool down from your week with some music, L.A. has you covered. This week, Angelenos can take in some jazz, enjoy some Real Housewives parody or attend the inaugural "L.A. Opera Off Grand" event. Attending these events will put a smile on your face or a song in your heart -- or both.

5. Watch What Happens Live
Much like last month's staged reading of the 1936 movie Reefer Madness, The Realest Real Housewives at Upright Citizens Brigade aims to seriously spoof the almost spoof-proof reality TV franchise. The cast, including Casey Wilson (Happy Endings), Melissa Rauch (The Big Bang Theory) and June Diane Raphael (web series Burning Love), as well as Danielle Schneider, Jessica St. Clair and Morgan Walsh, will represent series favorites from the Beverly Hills millionaires to the Georgia peaches to the New York socialites. The only rooster in this henhouse, Matt McConkey, will play Bravo network honcho Andy Cohen. We'd advise him to wear a sports cup, but the girls, all dressed in black, will be on their best behavior even as they read lines from the Housewives' most trash-talking, table-flipping and dress-twirling episodes. On a lighter note, the cast will sing their rendition of the single from Real Housewives of Atlanta's Kim Zolciak, "Don't Be Tardy for the Party," which, if they're really real, will sound just as awful as the original. Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, 5919 Franklin Ave., Hlywd.; Fri., May 31, 8 p.m.; $10. (323) 908-8702, ucbtheatre.com. -- Siran Babayan

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Photo by Fredrik Nilsen, Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery and Fredericks & Freiser

John Wesley's painting Untitled (Woman with Glasses) (2004)

This week, an artist turns two galleries and a storage unit into pseudo-sets for a remake of a Western, and 29 L.A. painters show in a former downtown bank.

5. Finally finished
"Little Ellie, what have I told you about self-expression? ... It goes nowhere," Stalin tells artist Eleanor Antin in Antin's new memoir, Conversations With Stalin. She has routine, imaginary encounters with the dictator throughout this book about growing up in New York, the child of Jewish communists. Antin began giving wry, colorful readings from the book a few years before she finished it. And why not? Refining and rehashing have been part of her art for decades (in the '70s, she aggressively dieted for 36 days to sculpt herself into an ideal figure, and in the '80s she periodically appeared in the guise of struggling African-American ballerina Eleanora Antinova). Now the book is finally done and she will read from it again at LACMA before signing copies. 5905 Wilshire Blvd.; Sun., June 2, 1 p.m.; free. (323) 857-6010, lacma.org.

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laphil.com/education/yola press photos

Gustavo Dudamel with the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles in October 2012

When her son Jacob was barely a year old, Teresa Esquivel noticed that music powerfully affected his demeanor. Certain tunes would even make him cry. In particular, if Pokémon was on, Jigglypuff's leitmotif would reduce him to wails, even if Jacob hadn't been previously focused on the TV.

Jacob's parents live in South Central L.A. — Teresa works at the DMV, husband Peter at a motorcycle shop. Now that the shop is more established, things are better, but when the family was just starting out, Peter Esquivel says private lessons for his music-obsessed son would have been out of reach.

Until, that is, the family discovered Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles. The organization provides free music instruction to kids in underserved areas of the city, with the motto "Social Change Through Music."

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Kevin Scanlon

Tyrese Gibson

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here.

Tyrese Gibson is checking out new office space for his expanding record label, Voltron Recordz, while talking to a reporter and fielding phone calls from underlings. "I like this space," he tells his real estate agent. "This is obviously a medical office. It looks like a few heartbeats have been checked in this room."

The 34-year-old had his heart checked recently, along with other vitals, as he admits to spreading himself too thin with movies (Fast & Furious 6 hits in May), music and behind-the-scenes moves. This spring he released A Black Rose That Grew Through Concrete, which includes a documentary, a double album and a book about his life. The latter will be the fourth title on Amazon bearing Gibson's name as an author.

Yeah, the kid from Watts who broke into America's consciousness as the star of John Singleton's Baby Boy in 2001 seems to balance more gigs than Bon Jovi, and sometimes it shows. Gibson says he never dreams; his whole life is a dream. "I dream with my eyes open."

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Kevin Scanlon

Jessie Andrews

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here.

Jessie Andrews was a 17-year-old American Apparel salesgirl in Miami Beach when company founder Dov Charney, impressed with her abilities, hired her to instruct the other area employees. She later began modeling for the company and then, at 18, was recruited by elite porn agent Mark Spiegler, who manages high-profile adult stars, including former client Sasha Grey.

By 2012 Andrews was so successful in that industry that the AVN Awards named her best actress for her title role in Portrait of a Call Girl, which finds her engaging in a six–person "blowbang," bondage, sadomasochism and all.

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Anna Jones

Camille and Kennerly Kitt, the Harp Twins, perform at ACE Gallery in Beverly Hills on Saturday

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

Martin Schoeller's new show "Identical: Portraits of Twins" at ACE gallery in Beverly Hills is interesting enough on its own, but the opening this past Saturday was an unusual and memorable experience that, quite literally, made this L.A. Weekly reporter do more than a few double takes.

The party featured a rare Los Angeles appearance by the sublimely beautiful and exceptionally talented duo known as the Harp Twins, Camille and Kennerly Kitt. Also in attendance were dozens of pairs of identical twins. Twins of all ages, ethnicities, and professions crowded the lofty space, mingling and sipping cocktails as the strains of such tunes as Metallica's "Enter Sandman" and Rihanna's "Disturbia" lilted from the two golden concert grand harps and collective 20 fingers of Camille and Kennerly, transformed from gritty rock and pop into something that sounds downright angelic.

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