This Week in LA Nightlife: Characters, Cannibals, and Horny German Impersonators

View more photos in Lina Lecaro's slideshow, "Nightranger: Heino, Pop tART, Club Alchemy and Cannibal Flower."

Lina Lecaro

Club Alchemy

Characters. Personalities. Genuises. This week, we couldn't help but think about the people in LA who always seem to stand out, even in the most audacious of crowds. It's not just how they dress or who they know or even what they do. It's a combination of these and something entirely more intangible. From the wicked wit of alabaster-skinned writer Clint Catalyst and his new Alchemy night, to the wacky -wigged- wonder of Silver Lake singer/impersonator Heino and his recent "Happy Hour" show, to the bodaciousness of crimson-haired curator Lenora Claire and her new PoptART Gallery (and all of fabulous, look-at-me figures who attended the opening), the week was bursting with bold, magnetic personae:

Whether we're talking about Dark Wave, EBM, and goth or more recent sub-genres such as "Witch house," sounds falling under the dark umbrella - especially the more rhythmic stuff- almost always cast a sensual spell in a club environment. At Alchemy, the salon-style soiree debuted last week by Catalyst and Rich Royal, this was definitely the case, and the candle-lit, couch-scattered comforts of Palihouse helped, not to mention literary interludes from two of LA's most beguiling female writers: Jillian Lauren (reading from her upcoming second book, Pretty) and Zoetica Ebb (about experiences at a local dungeon). DJs Zane Landreth (Killing Spree) and genre pioneer Disaro offered their dramatic aural pleasures, though there wasn't much traditional "dancing." That's not to say there wasn't movement and ritual going down, it was just of a more seductive, face-to-face nature. And let's just say Catalyst and Royal give good face... and fete.

Lina Lecaro

Austin Young with Perez Hilton

THE BIG FACES

There sure were some amazing faces at Pop tART 's grand opening bash Saturday. It's not unusual for patrons to garner as much attention as the art at some shows, especially when Claire is involved, but at this one, the crowd was quite literally the art. The space -also owned by club scene queen Phyllis Navidad- featured bare white walls save for taped off corners where the photographs of shutterbug Austin Young will be placed in his show, "Your Face Here," in about a month's time. Portrait purchasers got to choose their size and placement in the gallery (smallest going for $100 and the biggest/priciest going for $500) and the rest, including which shot from the shoot is ultimately used, is left up to Young. Subjects will see them for the first time at the opening on March 5 along with everyone else.

At the gallery opening event, Young had a mini-studio set up in the front of the space, complete with a glam squad of makeup artists and wild hair by Purple Circle. Since the gallery is all windows up front, the shoots took on a fishbowl-like quality, with the event's overflow of friends and fans viewing each poser from outside. Snapped Sat.: art peers (Plastic God and pin-up princess Olivia de Berardinis), rockers (Mynx's Ara Thorose, Kim Fowley, Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens and E! TV star wife Jody Stevens), self-promoters (Dennis Woodruff) and even bloggers (Perez Hilton), who said of Young, "He's great. He can make ugly people look pretty... even me."

The gallery was packed, so most partied outside in the patio area where Killsonic Orchestra performed and the gorgeous floral art of Tenley Erin Young (winner of LOGO TV's "The Arrangement" reality competition) embellished the surroundings. Still, it was the flamboyant crowd that was most eye-catching: queens in hot pink, vinyl-swathed goth posses, lace-covered pretty boys and of course, hot, cross-dressing divas (Young's specialty). We snatched up some nice real estate Sat. for our own 5x7 shot (we'll be posing at a later date, possibly the next shoot at Mr. Black at Bardot on Feb 8). Wanna be a PoptART too? Check the website for size and placement availability on remaining spaces before they sell out.