June 25, 2012

The Weekend Go Go: Soul Train, Labryinth of Jareth, and Charles Phoenix does Hot Rods and MONA

Posted by Kim Ohanneson under The Weekend Go Go | Tags: , , , , , |
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Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America!

Here’s the thing about fun.

Some weekends, there are obvious contenders.  Some weekends, there are wish-you-could-include-them runner ups.

And sometimes, making a second you is the only option for hitting up the best the weekend has to offer.

Let the Clones of Fun begin.

Release Yourself

You consider yourself a bit of a mover and a shaker…on the dance floor.

Your moonwalk?  A staple on the party circuit.

And Gaga?  The lady is an unabashed fan of your high kicks.

So natch, you’ve cleared your social calendar for  Dance Camera West’s 11th Annual Dance Media Film Festival.  In addition to last week’s Dirty Dancing Dance-A-Long (You went, you salsa’ed, people swooned), the fest has scintillating little shorts.

That’s film shorts that have scintillating dance in them, not shorts that have scintillating you in them.

Check out World Premieres of the sexy, funky Lombard Brothers’ Chant et Fugue,  Into Minds  by Azul Serra/Irineu Nogueira  (slam poetry meets dance and music in abandoned London factory), and The (818) Session by Jessica Koslow & Tshego Letsoalo (weekly krump dancing circle meets at midnight in NoHo).

All absolutely worthy of your time.

The Must. Not. Miss. event?  The FREE Friday night screening of Soul Train:The Hippest Trip In America, a tribute by J. Kevin Swain, followed by interviews with Soul Train dancers including Jody Watley, Damita Jo Freeman, Nieci Payne, and Lula Washington.

Yes, Ms. Go Go said Soul Train dancers.  Remain calm.

PLUS, there’s a live Soul Train party hosted by Film Independent Curator Elvis Mitchell.

Ok, don’t remain calm.  Ms. Go Go is boogalooing wildly as we speak.

DANCE CAMERA WEST 11th ANNUAL DANCE MEDIA FILM FESTIVAL — Thurs, June 28 – Sat, June 30th; FREE —  LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd, LA 90036 323.857.6010; http://www.lacma.org

For DCW info:  http://www.dancecamerawest.org

O come all ye Fey-thful….

Masque On

If you never tire of frolicsome fun and fantasy, you probably already know about the Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball.  Now in its 15th year, the celebration of the wild, the whimsical, the masque’d, and the headdress’d ensues this weekend with two nights of revelry,  entertainment, and elf ears at the historic Park Plaza.

Your centaur suit?  Already rented.

Good thing too because costumes — the more imaginative the better — are highly encouraged.  Ok, required.  At the very least, you’ll need formal black tie and a mask — think Venetian, not Value Mart — for entree into the Land of Enchantment…and Ms. Go Go isn’t talking New Mexico by a long shot.

You’re not worried.  Your centaur will be wearing a mask.

LABYRINTH OF JARETH MASQUERADE BALL — Fri, June 29/Sat, June 30 @ 8pm; $49-$110 —  Park Plaza, 607 So Park View St; LA;  http://www.labyrinthmasquerade.com/

All you need for fun at the Motorsports Museum!

Some Electric Evening….

You’ll have to drive a teensy bit for this one, Go Go’ers…but motoring is the theme of the evening anyway.

You’ve been wanting to test out those pigskin driving gloves.

The Museum of Neon Art is holding their annual Evening Electric Fundraiser, which helps the museum acquire their fab neon and facilitates their move to their new Glendale digs.

This year it’s all about the neon and the freon.

The engine revving — and cocktailing, eating, and museum touring — start at 7:00 on Saturday at the Wally Parks National Hot Rod Association Motorsports Museum in Pomona.  In addition to the aforementioned amenities, there will be music from the Neon Hunter Collective, a Silent Auction, and a “BIG Retro Slide Show” from the always wildly entertaining pop culture humorist Charles Phoenix.

People, start your engines

HOT RODS AND COOL TUBES — Sat, June 30, 7-10pm; $50 — Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum at the Fairplex in Pomona, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Building 3A, Pomona 91768; 909-622-2133, museumre@nhra.com

For tickets, click here  For directions, click here

Ready?  U Know U Want 2 Go Go….

 

December 14, 2011

Merry Twistmas to All

Posted by Kim Ohanneson under Go Go Here | Tags: , , , , , , , |
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Have weenie tree, will travel.

Just about now, you’re hoping it’s YOU who’ll  get run over by a reindeer what with the Muzak-mauled carols, the mall-maddened crowds, and the 7-11-icky eggnog.

De rigueur holiday gift: a cocktail guide stocking stuffer for the office party planner.

To put you out of your seasonal misery, Ms. Go Go advises cutting the sugar with a little spice – say,  juniper berries taken in the form of gin — and adding a theatrical chaser – or four — with the following So-Not-Taking-the-Season-Seriously shows. You’ll have to move fast; these theatrical events are late-breaking, ending soon, or sure to be sold out.

You’re obviously not the only Grinch in town. 

True Tales, Retro Slides, and Astro Weenie Trees

STOP!  Before reading on, clickety-clack those computer keys to grab tickets to kitsch historian Charles Phoenix’s just-added, sure-to-be-sold-out  Retro Holiday Slide Show this Sunday, December 18th at 3:00 p.m. Gape at the glory of a Kodachrome year in vintage slides that start with politically incorrect Rose Bowl Parade floats and end with a Christmas bondage party.

Sure, you can take notes for your next birthday bash.

LATE BREAKING NEWS!  Now that you’ve got Sunday scheduled, cancel your Hump Day lunch and head downtown for True Holiday Tales With Charles Phoenix and Friends, a FREE Grand Performances midday event today, Wednesday, December 14th from noon to 1:00 p.m.   Joining the Ambassador of Americana are tellers of true tales such as Ric Salinas (one-third of the comedy group Culture Clash) and Kristina Wong (who tours with her one-woman show Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest while feuding with James Franco).   You’d go mano  a mano with Franco any time.

And yes, Grand Performances dares you to bring an Astro Weenie Tree.

(TRUE HOLIDAY TALES with Charles Phoenix and Friends — Today! Wed, Dec 14th from noon-1pm/FREE — Grand Performances, California Plaza Watercourt, 350 South Grand, DTLA 213.687.2159, grandperformances.org)

(CHARLES PHOENIX RETRO HOLIDAY SLIDE SHOW – Sun, Dec 18 @ 3pm; $30 – REDCAT Theater, 631 West 2nd St, LA 90012; http://www.redcat.org/event/charles-phoenix-0)

Buk up!

Buk the Season

What better antidote to Xmas than the man who said, “I don’t like jail, they have the wrong kind of bars in there.”

Happy holidays!

Whether you already love the chronicler of L.A.’s low life or just wanna say Scrooge the season, don’t miss the final performance of  Christmas 4 Bukowski this Friday, December 16th at 8:30 p.m. at Zombie Joe’s Underground Theater.  Jessica Lynn Verdi serenades with carols as you enter the black box theatre but don’t get your pom-pom panties in a twist; director Josh T. Ryan cuts the cheer with a healthy dose of Bukowski’s cyanide-sharp prose and poetry.  By the time you leave the theater, all Xmas sentiment will have been scoured away so you can wade into the holiday fray once more. 

Bukowski would definitely approve your post-performance, wading-into-the-fray nightcap.

(CHRISTMAS 4 BUKOWSKI – FINAL PERFORMANCE!  Fri, Dec 16th @ 8:30 p.m./$10 – Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre, 4850 Lankershim Blvd, No Hollywood;  818.202.4120 zombiejoes.homestead.com)

'Cause he's your best friend.... (Courtesy of Santasia)

Merry Full Monty and the Little Penguin That Could

The bad boys of Santasia, all alumni of ImprovOlympics, Second City, and ComedySportz,  have been gleefully skewering holiday traditions for over a decade — that’s 40 reindeer years to you — with their R-rated mix of  original claymation (penguin), film shorts (penguin again), and laugh-’til-you-choke sketches such as an epic get-the-bully snowball brawl and the sleigh ride from hell.

Just in case you’ve been dreaming of a  James Cameron-does-White Christmas….

And if you’ve been dragged to one too many performances of The Nutcracker and The Snow Queen, you’ll appreciate the definitely-not-Kringle-approved choreography in musical parodies ranging from Chicago to Fame to The Full Monty. 

Nothing says holiday like a scantily clad man wearing a Menorah.

(SANTASIA – through Sat, Dec 24; various days/times; $23 on line/$35 at the door; Rated R — Whitefire Theater, 13500 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, 91423, for info and tix http://santasia.com/index.htm)

 

April 23, 2011

CHEESUS! Gooey cheese, retro-cheesy and sexy queso.

Posted by Kim Ohanneson under Daily Go Go | Tags: , , , , , |
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Sammies for the Masses!

Go Go’ers, it’s the big Cheesus weekend so contemplate, if you will, the many kinds of cheese. There’s Greek cheese, grated cheese, government cheese, and Cheez-Whiz.

  • And assuming you’ve already bought your Easter chapeau, your calendar is probably clear to attend the 2nd 8th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational.  The seven-hour, downtown sammie-ganza starts at 11:00 a.m. — perfect timing for your  Breakfast of Champions, your mid-afternoon munch, and your cocktail hour canapes.

Tix are $15 and include a bottle of water (That toasted bread can be murder on the roof of the mouth….) and coupons to trade in for free samples of Boulder Canyon Potato Chips, Izze Sparking Beverages, Kruegermann Pickles and more, including Grilled Cheese from sponsor Tillamook.  Don’t fill up on snacks, though; there are over 30,000 grilled cheese sandwiches to savor this year.

Go Go’ers, you might need another bottle of water.

And to answer the questions you dare not ask, there WILL be cheese calling, cheese poetry, and prizes for cheesy costumes. (You’ve always wanted to roll out your sartorial rendition of a plaque-hardened artery.)

New to the invitational this year: the “Love American Style” category, which the GCI describes as  ”White Bread, Orange Cheese and Butter – no other flavors or ingredients”.

 In other words: your first childhood love.

After slumming it in sneaks and shorts all day, glam up and take the Gold Line to Eastside LUV Wine Bar y Queso.   You can (usually) get queso with a bottle of wine but the real reason you’re at this El Serenata de Garibaldi-adjacent, el borracho-themed club is for midnight cheesecake…of the jiggly kind.

Shakes it like a Polaroid....

Get there early-ish to park your car on the street and your butt in the club with its upscale Chicano art and its homeboy-homage decor.   (NOTE: Gold Line service ends, inexplicably, before the 2:00 a.m. witching hour so if you Metro in, you’ll either have to T.A.C.O. (Take a Cab Out)…or leave the party early.)

Eastside LUV’s official line is that coats and ties on gents + dresses and heels on dames =  front of the line and in free but the space is tiny  so no guarantees, querida.

Tonight’s burlesque queen on the bar (yes, really…ON the bar) is Carolina Cerisola and if you haven’t seen this diva of the divine hips…let’s just say the girl delivers jaw-dropping bump ‘n grind.

Even though Ms. Go Go knows that really, you’re there for the queso.

Nobody celebrates cheesy like Charles Phoenix but don’t wait to buy tix to the King of Kitsch’s upcoming Retro Knott’s Berry Farm Slide Show celebrating the history of America’s first theme park with Knott’s Preserved  co-author Eric Lynxwiler.  The May 15, 5:00 p.m. show may seem ages away but the first show has already sold out so snap up your $65 ticket, which includes a day pass to the original Pan-for-Gold park and the opportunity to eat the kind of fried-chicken dinner that Cordelia Knott started serving in 1934, back when grease equaled love.

So many dance hall girls, so little time.

Can’t make Phoenix’s May festivities?  You can catch the heritage humorist in a stand-alone Big Retro Slide Show on Saturday, June 4th at the National Hot Rod Museum at Fairplex in Pomona.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

Ready?  U Know U Want 2 Go Go….

 

May 10, 2010

Charles Phoenix & the 3rd Dimension: the Viewmaster and you.

Posted by Kim Ohanneson under Daily Go Go, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , |
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Charles Phoenix 3-D Extravaganza on May 16!!!

 

3-D may have reached its contemporary zenith in AVATAR but Charles Phoenix, the  droll and infectious  guide to America’s wacky love affair with slides, happily explores its humble beginnings and often hilarious history in his live show Charles Phoenix and the 3rd Dimension!  

Phoenix, whose mile-wide grin and appreciation for retro culture and kitsch have made him a recurring correspondent for NPR and The Martha Stewart Show,  is branching out from diabolically difficult desserts, synchronized roller rink routines, and leopard-clad  tourists at  copper mines  to  his first ever program of 3-D slides.  

Phoenix’s history of 3-D ranges from Victorian Stereoscopes, to mid-century  Kodachrome Viewmaster and Stereo Realist formats, to early sci-fi T.V.,  with some wholesome cheesecake along the way.  (Think bosoms, not crusted desserts….)   The retro slide show is enlivened by the Kitschmeister’s eye for oddball detail; his consequently hilarious commentary will have you rolling in the aisles of the newly revamped Downtown Independent Theater (originally the Arrow Theater, c. 1924) and in danger of losing your free 3-D glasses!   As an extra, added bonus, the Moonlight Roller Rink’s Dominic Cangelosi brings his Hammond organ stylings to the 2-act 3-D extravaganza.  

As a nod to to the two-colored, 3-D lenses of old,  ” lipstick red and bright turquoise ensembles are encouraged but not expected!”  Go Go’ers, it’s the perfect opportunity to break out those scarlet pedal pushers and vintage turquoise ties.   And if the latter features a flamingo, all the better (even if it won’t be in 3-D.)  

Ready?  U Know U Want 2 Go Go….  

(more…)

 

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