Los Angeles Art Blog

It is indeed Armageddon days: venerable prankster-gift website Archie McPhee has run out of inflatable turkeys. Is the economy so bad this year that people are serving their Thanksgiving guests hot air instead of real juicy meat? Sad, sad.

Note on the Archie website says: "We've run out of Inflatable Turkeys for the season! This item will be back in stock in January 2010. Please check back then." The turkeys cost $11.95. Or would have, anyway.

Inflata-fowl!

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Better pick up your inflatable fruitcake before the holiday season is truly upon us.

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THEATER NEW REVIEWS
STAGE FEATURE on producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh

NEW REVIEW T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T.
​Photo by Stefan Okolowicz

This riveting production from Poland's TR Warszawa theater troupe, presented as part of the UCLA Live Eighth International Theater Festival, is adapted from Pier Paulo Pasolini's 1968 movie Teorema. A typical suburban upper-class family's pleasant, if complacent daily lives are interrupted by an unexpected telegram warning that someone is "arriving shortly."  Before long, a mysterious stranger (Sebastian Pawlak) inexplicably moves in.  We don't know who the darkly handsome fellow is, but he's probably not close family, as he almost instantly seduces and sexes up everyone in the household, from the tightly wound maid (Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieslak), to the mother of the house (Danuta Stenka), the stern father (Jan Englert), and the virginal, innocent son (Jan Dravnel).  After having his way with everyone in the area but the cat, the man simply leaves - and it's after his departure when things really take a weird turn.  The mother becomes a nymphomaniac, the father gives up his fortune, and the son becomes an artist.  Adaptor-director Grzegorz Jarzyna's engrossing production is essentially a balletic ghost story:  Although there is some dialogue, which is translated via projected supertitles, the majority of the story is conveyed by delicate gesture and nuanced expression, which nevertheless communicate the characters' passion and ultimate emotional fragmentation.  The play posits the provocative suggestion that sexual and religious ecstasy are not too apart - and that sex's subversive nature is capable of undermining all relationships and beliefs.  Suffused with sinister undercurrents and an atmosphere of angsty malaise that's amplified by Magdalena Maclejewska's crisp, but cold set, the play's haunting depiction of a family's decomposition is stunning.  Ralph Freud Theater, 245 Charles E. Young Drive East, Westwood; Closed. TR Warszawa and UCLA Live Festival Production.  (Paul Birchall)

For a schedule of productions to be reviewed this weekend, press the Continue Reading tab directly below

THEATER NEW REVIEWS
STAGE FEATURE on producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh

IMPACTED WEDNESDAY

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Equivocation: Photo by Michael Lamont

Three big openings on Wednesday: The  U.S. premiere of TR Warszawa's T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T. (Polish director Grzegorz Jarzyna's staging of Pasolini's 1968 film, Teorema) plays as part of  UCLA's international theater festival at the Ralph Freud Playhouse; meanwhile at REDCAT downtown, there's the West Coast premiere of Arias with a Twist (drag queen Joey Arias and Basil Smith's puppets) in a drag queen fantasia that knocked some of socks off in NYC; and in Westwood, the Geffen Playhouse presents Bill Cain's Equivocation, that knocked some socks off at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It's about Shakespeare in a struggle to write a new play that pleases the king while trying to sustain truth and integrity.

For COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS, press the Continue Reading tab directly below.

Nicole Campos

Rod Roddenberry, posing with a key piece of Trek legacy, Captain Kirk's original uniform.

​It's one thing to wait for a big DVD release, run out, grab the disc, run home and watch it on your killer entertainment system; it's quite another to watch it on the bridge of the Enterprise. Truth be told, the sound and picture are probably better on your home system, but for dyed-in-the-wool Trekkies, Trekkers, and everyone in between, yesterday's release of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek is enough cause to celebrate that the folks behind the current "Star Trek: The Exhibition" at Hollywood & Highland figured the fans might want to come down and grok the film in a most appropriate setting.

​No More Mr. Brown Eye, also known as Rear Gear, is a cover for your dog's or cat's (or whatever's) anus. Yes, you read that right. Make your pet's humiliation complete. As its creator says:

Is your pet feeling left in the dirt because of his/her unsightly rear? I've got them covered... Rear Gear is handmade in Portland, OR and offers a cheerful solution to be-rid your favorite pet's un-manicured back side.

Douglas Little's gothy, elegant, neo-Victorian D.L.&Co. line of candles and curiosities is one of my favorite home decor design lines of all time. This Bust of Dierdre Candle is a perfect example of why. Based on a neo-classical statue, the bust weeps tears of hot wax when lit. Though I can't imagine anyone actually lighting the thing, as the candle is priced at a tear-inducing $450. It's more a work of art than a candle. Beautiful.

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THEATER NEW REVIEWS
STAGE FEATURE on Charles Duncombe's The Trojan Women and Julie Hebert's Tree

NEW REVIEW GO MARY POPPINS 
​Photo by Joan Marcus

The riveting theatricality of Bob Crowley's production design, climaxing in chimney sweep Bert (Gavin Lee) soft-shoeing straight up, then upside-down across the proscenium arch, and culminating in a show-stopping umbrella flight over the audience by the famous titular nanny, produces an excitement that far outshines the limited value intrinsic in much of the musical's written material.  Likewise the sublime showmanship of choreographer Matthew Bourne and stage director Richard Eyre hide the flaws in Julian Fellowes' disjointed script and new music by George Stiles and Anthony Drew. Unlike most of Disney's Broadway smashes that producer Thomas Schumacher has magically transformed from animated film to stage, this is a hybrid between Disney's 1964 movie masterpiece, whose fun and fanciful score by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman still holds up, and the operetta gleaned from the original novel (and its stage-rights holder, the Cameron Mackintosh team). The two styles battle one-another for dominance and neither wins. Most of the film's story-lines are banished in favor of closer adaptation of the P. L. Travers books with the familiar songs wedged into the scenes, while the new songs more closely fit the story, but lack spark. Nevertheless the production is an audience pleaser, with demonstrable talent on and off the stage. Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A.; Tues.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 1 & 6:30 p.m.; thru Feb. 7. (213) 628-2772.  Presented by Center Theatre Group, Disney Theatricals and Cameron Mackintosh. (Tom Provenzano)

For other NEW REVIEWS seen over the weekend, press the Continue Reading tab directly below.

View more photos in the "25 Years of Vivid Entertainment Cover Art" slideshow.

Gary Busey's Angelo Pappas said it best in Point Break: "22 years. Man, L.A. has changed a lot during that time. The air got dirty and the sex got clean."

When it comes to porn, the cineskin business has also changed a lot since the '80s. The plot lines got kinkier and the hair styles got a helluva lot less cheesy. From Club Ginger to Milfwood USA to Interview with a Vibrator, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Vivid Entertainment's 1984 launch with a timeline of sexy and hilarious cover art throughout the years.

Ginger, 1984

Vivid Entertainment

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Martin Grondin, a 25-year-old software installation support engineer living in Dracut, MA, thought it would be a nice idea to translate the entire holy Bible into cat language. So a few years ago, he created the online LOLCat Bible Translation Project. The Bible is now due out in book form courtesy of Ulysses Press. After first exclaiming "Oh, hai!" Grondin talked with me about catspeak, cat god, and how not to wind up in cat hell.

Are there cat apostles? Like in the real bible?



The cat apostles were there when the apostles of the Bible were there,
 writing their version of things. It's a mystery of where they truly 
ended up, so they emulate very strongly with the Bible's apostles.



Is there an LOL cat devil? What is LOL cat hell like?



There is Basement Cat. The road to the Basement is full of catnip and lose. Basement Cat hates all things good and does not like Ceiling 
Cat, even though they used to be best buds way back in the day before Ceiling Cat pwned Basement Cat.

 The Basement is everything cats hate. It's dirty, it's wet, and it's
 ull of things that go bump and squirt bottles. Can you imagine a cat
 trying to go through eternity of getting squirt by a squirt bottle? 
All the more reason to follow Ceiling Cat faithfully!



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It's been a busy year for Liz McGrath. In addition to working as a successful artist, her band, Miss Derringer, has released an album, toured and spent last weekend working on a video. Despite the buzz that the band has earned this year, this weekend, the focus will be on McGrath's whimsical sculptures when her exhibit "American Animals and the Golden Cave" opens at Billy Shire Fine Arts.

Liz Ohanesian

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When I stopped by McGrath's downtown studio earlier this week, she was in the midst of finishing a few pieces for the opening. She tells me that she's been averaging three hours of sleep a night and has taken to drinking coffee as she reaches the finish line for this show.