Go Go’ers, the Twelve Days of Christmas isn’t just a song about conspicuous consumption and/or an obsessive stalker-ish boyfriend.
January 6th, the twelfth day of Christmas, is Three Kings Day when the Three Wise Guys – as Ms. Go Go’s li’l gangsta goddaughter used to call them — finally showed up with gold and other prezzies…
…thereby making them fashionably late instead of shockingly rude.
Ms. Go Go is SLIGHTLY better organized than those Wandering Wise Men (who obviously wouldn’t stop to ask for directions). Lucky you –here’s a 12th Night 2012 road map to the shiniest new events of the new year.
Word to the wise: leave the frankincense and myrrh at home.
Take Me to the River
Go Go’ers, it may be 83 degrees and dropping — brrr — but you’ll want to brave the elements for the FREE 2nd Annual Downtown Arts District WinterFest 2012 put on by the Los Angeles River Artists & Business Association (LARABA) and LADADspace.
Running January 5th through January 8th, the four-night event gets you cultured up from the January get-go with art from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. on Sunday), Padua Playwrights readings from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m., a Sunday poetry reading at 9:00 p.m., and music from 10:00 – midnight. Gourmet food trucks keep hunger and dehydration at bay.
The no-host bar keeps the joint jumping.
The more-talent-than-you-can-shake-a-stick-at Fest includes Southern chanteuse Tawny Ellis, Thirties jazz purist Eddie Reed’s Big Band, Wallace Shawn’s Obie-award-winning The Fever, and poet Danielle Adair who was “embedded media” with US Forces in Afghanistan. For Arts District eye candy, anticipate iconographic art by Richard Kessler, collaborative, on-site installations by street artists Street Artists Cryptik, Chor Boogie, Vyal One, and Slick & Defer, and Michael French’s interactive video installation, which scrambles up occult symbols, video game graphics, and pop culture elements into magical incantations.
You always like to start the New Year with magical incantations.
(ARTS DISTRICT WINTERFEST 2012 — Thurs, Jan 5th – Sat, Jan 7th; 5 pm – 12 am; Sun, 4 pm – 11:30 pm – Lot 613, 613 Imperial St, DTLA 90021; parking available on surrounding streets and nearby parking lots; http://www.artsdistrictwinterfest.com/Home_Page.html)
Kicking It off at McCabe’s
Film and T.V. composer Ernest Troost has danced at the Emmy party; he’s won one, been nominated for many. On Friday, January 6th, Troost inaugurates the 2012 season at McCabes with his newest album, the aptly titled Ernest Troost Live at McCabes: a celebration of the artist’s roots-centric songwriting, which mixes traditional country blues and ragtime with contemporary lyrics that evoke the past. Nicole Gordon, Mark “Pocket” Goldberg, and Debra Dobkin join Troost while virtuoso banjo and guitar picker Shaun Cromwell opens with songs that dazzle with wordplay.
On Three Kings Night 2012, this pair of aces is the hand to draw.
(ERNEST TROOST LIVE AT MCCABES – Fri, Jan 6th @ 8 pm; $15 – McCabes, 3101 Pico Blvd. Santa Monica 90405, For tix & info: http://www.mccabes.com/condata.html; parking info: http://www.mccabes.com/parking.html; 310.828.4497)
(Courtesy of American Cinematheque)
To The Moon, Alice!
Go Go’ers, it’s been said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. As a hedge against a life full of failed, get-rich-quick schemes, start the new year with some golden Gleason. The Honeymooners sketches, starring Jackie Gleason as blustering, bumbling, Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden and Art Carney as his sewer cleaning sidekick Ed Norton, first aired 60 years ago but the live episodes from 1951 to 1957 were subsequently lost.
You suspect Lucy and Ricky have some ‘splainin’ to do….
Luckily for your financial future, the American Cinematheque screens the “Lost Episodes” on Saturday, January 7th at 7:30 p.m. at the Egyptian Theater. Post screening, there will be a discussion with Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Frank Marth (The Honeymooners), Pamela Adlon (Louie), Peter Mehlman (Seinfeld), and T.V. and voice actor Chuck McCann so you can count on a whole lot of “Har har hardee har har”.
You couldn’t have put it better yourself.
(THE HONEYMOONERS – Sat, Jan 7th @ 7:30 pm; $7 – $11 – American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theater, 6712 Hollywood Blv, 90028, http://www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/the-honeymooners-lost-episodes-1951-1957)
Ready? U Know U Want 2 Go Go….
