New Angeles Monthly by Diana James

M O N T H L Y

º9 FEB. 08 ★

INSIDE: GRACIELA ITURBIDE : UPSILON ACRUX :WATUSI RADIO...AND NIGHTCLUB PEOPLE IN LINE...

~ FISTING: KELLY KABOOM

:JAMMIN’ WITH THE L.A. DERBY DOLLS

by Johnny Angel

NEW ANGELES ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ 2

"For Over 40 Years" "Mi Casa Es Tu Casa"

Outstanding Traditional Mexican Cuisine

Offering over 300 Tequilas plus Antonio's own personal tequilas

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reservations: (323) Open: Tues-Sun, 11am-11pm; Closed Monday

NEW ANGELES ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ 4

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CONTENTS

Features: 22: THE EYES OF

GRACIELA ITURBIDE NA’s reporter visited with the powerful photographer in Mexico and discovered how the death of a child re-cast the woman’s way of working

24: DEEP INSIDE THE CLUB LISTINGS Upsilon Acrux refuses to truckle to indie neurosis or catchpenny pop ... whatever that means

26: SLIP ’EM ON, RUN HER DOWN Do you recall the expression “a bitch on wheels”? We do, but don’t know if it has anything to do with Hollywood’s newest incarnation of roller derby

Columns: 6: PUT IT IN WRITING Who started the Bicycle Kitchen?

8: SNAPSHOTS Scenes from behind the velvet rope

12: FOODSTUFF Beyond Bunny Bits at Tiara Café

14: WARES Again: The clothes? They are from where?

18: INNERVIEW Watusi Rodeo’s Chris Morris rocks, seriously

30: CALENDAR

Kelly Kaboom is the subject of Maura Lanahan’s cover portrait. Ms. Kaboom is just another fetching/threatening member of the L.A. Derby Dolls, a minor league that’s bringing local roller derby back. Props to Johnny Angel, a.k.a. Johnny Wendell for helping to chronicle this scene. The music industry has fragmented in such a way that once you’ve heard of a band, it’s probably past its prime. So forget you ever read the name Upsilon Acrux, documented here by Oscar Zagal ... Ron Garmon deserves kudos for stylishly giving us a context for appreciating this unique group.

Selected events for February

EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER CHARLES N. GERENCSER ★ EDITOR DONNELL ALEXANDER Art Director Matt Ansoorian ★ Advertising Director Joe Cloninger Advertising Art Director Sandy Wachs ★ Production Manager Meghan Quinn Contributing Editors Perry Crowe, Neille Ilel, Pamela Miller-Macias ★ Calendar Editor Julie Rasmussen ★ Copy Editor Joshua Sindell ★ Contributing Writers Johnny Angel, Greg Burk, Kamren Curiel, Ron Garmon, Millicent Jefferson, Joshua Lurie, Bobbi Murray, Kate Petre, Gary Phillips, Abel Salas, Mike Sonksen, Jervey Tervalon, Marco Villalobos ★ Photographers Jack Gould, Maura Lanahan, Gary Leonard, Noé Montes, ★ Account Executives John Bogris, Jon Bookatz, Michael DéFillipo Sarah Fink, Leslie Lamm, Todd Nagelvoort, Dina Takouris, Susan Uhrlass ★ Accounting Christie Lee ★ Circulation Manager Andrew Jackson SOUTHLAND PUBLISHING, INC. Group Publisher David Comden ★ Vice President, Sales Charles N. Gerencser Controller Michael Nagami ★ Human Resources Manager Andrea Baker Accounting Manager ★ Angela Wang CONTACT US Advertising: charlesg@newangelesmonthly.com • Editorial: editor@newangelesmonthly.com P: 323-938-1700 F: 323-938-1771 • 5209 Wilshire Boulevard ★ Los Angeles , CA 90036 www.NewAngelesMonthly.com ©Copyright 2008, Southland Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

5 ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ NEW ANGELES

PUT IT IN WRITING

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Who Started the Bicycle Kitchen? >> Out of great accomplishments, petty complaints can grow. If anything in the brief history of this magazine shows this, it’s the imbroglio over last month’s installment of Joshua Lurie’s The Hot Corner. The HC is our slimmest column, yet it’s the space that tends to generate most buzz. This is understandable, because in our corner of the planet everybody wants to be hot. So, we positioned ourselves to apologize when disputes over credit for innovation popped up in the wake of our Heliotrope and Melrose coverage. The problem popped up when Ben Guzman sent a message to editor@NewAngelesMonthly.com. “It would be appreciated if your

of having malice toward people I actually care very much for,” wrote over-credited Pure Luck co-re-designer Alex Amerri. “And now I don’t know how to make amends for something that I have not done … .”) Zounds! The commerce and such over at that intersection is as angst-ridden as it is progressive. Anyway, we had this correction ready to rock when, per Mr. Guzman’s suggestion, we opted to do our reporting correctly. We called up Jimmy Lizama. He wrote: “Out of courtesy to the community and to the efforts of the volunteers in the early days, I agreed in a meeting to say on paper that the Kitchen was co-founded. In reality,

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‘Within the next two years, word spread and the Bicycle Kitchen became a community center, building bicycle culture as word spread around. The kitchen was a popular hangout for bicycle enthusiasts for all walks of life.’

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reporters would do their research correctly,” Mr. Guzman said. Gotta admit: I was shocked. Doing incorrect research just didn’t sound like the young lad Lurie. “In 2002, Jimmy Lizama, a local bicycle messenger took over an unused kitchen in the Los Angeles Eco-Village, and began amassing a comprehensive cache of tools so that he could work on bicycles and hang out,” said Mr. Guzman. “Jimmy met Aaron Salinger and Ben Guzman who started coming around regularly, more people started showing up so Ben and Jimmy officially created what is known today as the Bicycle Kitchen.” I reached out to Josh and he prepared to write a correction. As it was, he had already written another neighborhood innovator – Pure Luck Café “co-re-designer” Kristen Erickson – out of the Heliotrope and Melrose renaissance. (“I’m concerned about this because I have been now placed in blame for this printing, and accused

I was the person who got the Kitchen going, from the ground up. I’m not one to posture, but that’s simply how Kitchen got going. Aaron came in a few months into the Kitchen and he introduced Ben to me, who showed a ton of enthusiasm and direction.” Those qualities are great, but they ain’t founding. So, our official position is, as penned by Li’l Lurie: In the January 2008 edition of The Hot Corner, Joshua Lurie wrote that Bicycle Kitchen was founded by Jimmy Lizama in 2005. Turns out the nonprofit bike-repair shop started in 2002, and moved to Heliotrope and Melrose in 2005. As for the Pure Luck redesign, Alex Amerri did not act alone. He worked with Kristen Erickson. So, there you have it. Keep those letters and e-mails coming and, if you keep the drama to a minimum, I won’t even make fun of you after I let you speak your piece. dEA

2/29/08

7 ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ NEW ANGELES

SNAPSHOTS

Lovely Dina Matusouskaya handles the list for The Reunion at Cinespace.The line was full of dudes, who said they were here for the ladies. We just hope they were inside and they looked like Dina.

Doc, the doorman at Basque isn't putting up with your drunk ass.

I.D.s Out! ★

Promoter Devin Leung, who rocks a tie and a mohawk better than anyone this side of 1985, explains the bottle policy at Cabana Club Fridays, which draws a sexy young Asian crowd.

NEW ANGELES ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ 8

★

If you’ve only recently cocooned, you still recognize staples of Hollywood’s long line outside the door. The shrimpy guy talking into his cellie, fronting like it’s his agent when probably it’s Mom; the diva in waiting who demands no pictures be taken; and of course the burly black dude who is to bouncing what Jews are to accounting and Koreans are to pedicures. (It’s our thing.) The scene’s pretty niche-y these days. Just like you remember.

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J.D. Power and Associates ranked WaMu Highest in Customer Satisfaction, which is a really fancy way of saying we make people smile. WaMu was recently ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Retail Banking in the West/Pacific Region” by J.D. Power and Associates. It’s an award given based on customer feedback, which means you must really like us and our WaMu Free Checking™ account features like free checks for life and free ATM cash withdrawals. Which means you must be doing a lot of smiling. For further customer satisfaction, stop by a WaMu near you, call 1-866-700-0054 or visit wamu.com.

Account information applies to WaMu Free Checking accounts opened since 3/11/06. We offer one style of check for free; otherwise, standard check charges apply. Non-refundable fees may be charged by ATM operator. Deposits at Washington Mutual are FDIC Insured. Washington Mutual received the highest numerical score among retail banks in the West (CA, OR, WA) in the proprietary J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Retail Banking Satisfaction StudySM. Study based on 21,026 total responses, measuring 7 providers in the West and measures opinions of consumers with their primary banking provider. Proprietary study results are based on experiences and perceptions of consumers surveyed in January-February 2007. Your experiences may vary. Visit jdpower.com.

11 ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ NEW ANGELES

FOODSTUFF PHOTOS BY NOÉ MONTES

DAINTY, BUT DELICIOUS Bunny Bits, Tongues of Fire and other wonders at Tiara Café

>> It takes some cheek to open an organic café with a full vegetarian menu, and also offer “Bunny Bits” – a small plate of deepfried rabbit. It also takes cheek to offer “small plates for sharing,” with dishes reaching $29 a pop. Indeed, all of owner and chef Fred Eric’s cheek (Vida, Airstream Diner, Fred 62) is on display with his new dinner menu at Downtown L.A.’s Tiara Café: Pan-seared “Tongues of Fire” bean cake; BYNEILLE Alaskan king crab “Freshwich”; a white “Pizzette,” www.neille.com with or without chorizo. The menu revels in unusual and esoteric tastes, up to and including the aforementioned rabbit, served with fried green tomatoes. Nestled on street level in the beautiful New Mart building on 9th Street, Tiara Café has been a hub for fashionistas of all stripes,

ILEL

NEW ANGELES ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ 12

since opening for lunch in 2006. Dinner is a new venture, with a completely different menu than the salads and sandwiches offered for lunch. In the two January opening weekends that I visited, manager Fernando Saraleguie greeted each guest personally, breathlessly describing the menu. Each week, offerings would change, not just as meat and produce options shifted at the markets, but also because this restaurant is chef Eric’s culinary canvas. And on it each week, he’d paint a new creation. Tiara’s dinner is something to linger over and discuss. Every dish I tried, with the exception of the Alaskan king crab Freshwich (a lunch specialty), was exceptional. But so was the bill at the end of the evening, only because some of the plates were too small to really share with more than two people (or share at all in some cases). And, with Tiara’s casual after-work vibe, the presentation of a Dome-sized check with a less-than-full belly is, frankly, a downer.

The small plates hearty enough to share include bubble bread: a light, warm, flatbread with sweet vegetables and gooey, fresh mozzarella. There’s also the white Pizzette, which is hearty and lovely, with light, crispy bread, fresh mozzarella and organic chorizo. I also wish the cheese plate, with a wonderful blue and cheddar, was on the main menu instead of with the desserts. The roasted winter root vegetable salad is delicate, tasty, and again, a little small to share. My absolute favorite is the Tongues of Fire bean cake. The title irked me at first, but it turns out that Tongues of Fire is actually the name of a bean, and not a spicy one, either. Cooked in the pan with lentils and herbs, topped with a dollop of Greek yogurt, the dish made me consider turning vegetarian. Seriously. (Alas, Tofurkey is not like this.) It’s also worth knowing that this is a bean cake, not bean cakes, so you can share one, but you really won’t want to. And I’d hate myself I didn’t let you know

that the fried green tomatoes accompanying the Bunny Bits are actually one slice of green tomato, cut in half and then fried. The main courses are delicious. The lamb chop with cavolo nero, an Italian kale, was excellent, and the greens provided a nice counterpoint to the sweet sauce of the lamb. Served without the bone, the lamb was tender, rich, and not at all greasy. I wasn’t crazy about the wild striped bass, but the vegetable broth, enriched with potatoes, corn, and bell pepper, on which it rested, was rich and savory enough to be served as a soup on its own. It was hard to believe there were no animal products or oil in it. The wine list is extensive, but we couldn’t stay away from the organic and “biodynamic” red blend named RN13. Incidentally, there were scientists at the table who pointed out that all wine is biodynamic, changing its molecular structure in the bottle. But does all wine bring to mind

The 4Hot Corner

arin Cuisine Authentic Minand the Hear t of Chinatown

cho Park has been a creative hub ever since Charlie Chaplin filmed his silent movies there. Thanks to a new influx of innovators and restored pride in the community, the historic neighborhood is resurgent, and Sunset &Blvd. Lemoyne is the Colorado epicenter. &Since Caspar Ave. 2004, Masa of Echo Park has become a favorite neighborhood restaurant due to an eclectic menu, home-style vintage For years, the hospitality local media dubbed decor and warm fromhave its two sets ofEagle owners/couples: Rhonda and Rob and Rock the Next BigReynolds Thing. Well, theRowe, waiting Keeney andWith Julia young Jackson. Locals converge Tom game is over. musicians, artists on and Masa fomorning pastries, panini, chorizo-studded families supplanting old-timers, energized busimeatloaf, Chicago-style pizzaarrived and croissant ness owners have finally in thisbread patch of pudding. A long-time Echo Park Northeast L.A. to meet hipper needs. resident, Reynolds calls her home a ìsmall city within a point:with Casa Bianca has Case bigger cityî thatinswells a ìsense of history.î the neighborhood monopolized The intersection’s future is aboutpizza bulge,scene too. Phil longer. In October, Eagle since 1955. plans No to open Hartman Rock Gunther Donoso the firstnatives non-New York outpost of hisand Twowife Boots pizza chain, nextopened to edgy nightclub The Echo. ìI was never Bertha Brownstone Pizzeria down interested in doing a branch in Los Angeles,î Hartman the street. Unlike their competitor, Brownstone said, ìuntilNew I wasYork-style introducedpies to Echo Park.slice It seems by the and like offers abans great canned mix of theproduce. old East Village and Corona, The Donosos also don’t Queens; really tight-knit and interesting.î As these two have Casa Bianca’s egregious waits – so far. boots represent Italy and Louisiana, expect Cajun topShowing charge no corkage pings such assolidarity, tasso ham,they andouille sausage, crawfish for wine purchased and BBQ shrimp. at neighboring Colorado WineSpaceland’s Company.venerable Mitchell There’ s more progress. Frank has turned The Echo into aJohn live music destination its December opening. Beck, irasciandsince Jennifer Nugent2001 opened Colorado Wine ble Mississippiinbluesman Company February 2005, focusing on T-Model andand the late Elliott Smith have all boutiqueFord, wines a relaxed atmosphere. played club. Below it, TheFriday Echoplex is aand cavTheirthe modern bar hosts night ernous annex that has drawn such indie giants as Sunday afternoon tastings. John compares M.I.A. and Of Montreal. the experience in your room ìI know there’stoa“drinking lot of change goingliving on,î said with friends.” Like many Hartman, who also serves as neighborhood President of the busiEcho nesses, the Nugents displayìAnd paintings Park Chamber of Commerce. I hope it’from s going John Rocktheprides itself tofriends. be change thatboasts, doesn’t“Eagle compromise uniqueness. Hopefully ten years, Echo Park is just as on beinginafive littleto quirky.” quaint.îEarly adapters Camilo and Amelia –Joshua Lurie Gonzalez ran a Highland Park catering com-

the morning-after pill? Never mind. At lunch, the Tiara Café fashion district is 127 E. Ninth St., Downtown • (213) 623.3663 packed with the www.tiara-cafe.com well-heeled industry workers. By dinnertime, however, the streets and avenues in that part of Downtown resemble Gotham, with their deserted high-rises and empty lanes. Finding refuge in the warm lighting and soaring ceilings of Tiara is a blessing, but also worrisome. Will Tiara be able to draw the crowds it deserves? It’s a risky proposition, but I can’t think of a better way to miss the evening commute than over bean cakes and Bunny Bits. The trick is getting the boss to pay. Tiara Café opened its doors for dinner in January on weekends only, Fridays through Sundays, 5:30 to 10:00 p.m., and expects to serve dinner five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday, after Valentine’s Day. NA

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pany that sprouted a surprisingly popular breakfast and lunch spot. When the landlord tripled the rent, they relocated to Eagle Rock in 2000. Camilo’s California Bistro has gained a reputation for high-quality, reasonably priced food, including omelets at breakfast and chicken stuffed with spinach and ricotta. Walls host guitars and violins that Jan Bush crafted from scrap metal, all unique and playable. After working at restaurants in New England and Maui, Dave Evans opened Dave’s Chillin-n-Grillin in April 2005. He says, “For the first few months, I was living in my buddy’s garage in West Covina.” Success has brought local digs. Dave aims for a chemical-free shop, with no pressed meats or cheeses and bread baked fresh every morning. “I don’t see any reason to have monosodium glutamates in my diet.” He’s earned a following for his French dip sandwich, pulled pork with Bourbon barbecue sauce on Wednesdays, and weekend-only clam chowder. –Joshua Lurie Brownstone Pizzeria 2108 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 257-4992 Camilo’s California Bistro 2128 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 478-2644 more listings online at www.newangelesmonthly.com

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13 ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ NEW ANGELES

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LOCATION: OUTSIDE LA CITA, 4TH & HILL PHOTOGRAPHER: NOÉ MONTES JOURNALIST: KAMREN CURIEL

Where are you from? (Putting down 20 plastic shopping bags.) I live in Paso Robles, but I’m from Jalisco, Mexico. What are you doing all the way down here? Out for a stroll. Shopping. Do you work? Ai, no, I’m retired. Before that? I worked in the fields.

Where did you get your outfit? My cowboy hat and jacket are from the Vaquero General Store on Main Street. I bought my necklace here on Broadway. How much did everything cost? Oh, about $100. It’ll last me forever, though. Where do you like to shop? Mostly vaquero [cowboy] stores. Sometimes JCPenney. Where do you fall on the scale of Shopperdom? No entiendo.

Vaquero General Store 711 N. Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 (213) 687-8342 Hours: TBD

NEW ANGELES ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ 14

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LOCATION: FIDM PHOTOGRAPHER: NOÉ MONTES JOURNALIST: KAMREN CURIEL

Where are you from? Jalisco, Mexico. I live here, now, in Downtown L.A., and go to FIDM for fashion design. Where did you get your tunic? I made this. I got the fabric from Michael Levine. It’s a fabric store Downtown. It was about $25 a yard, and I bought like two yards because I love the silk fabric. And your bolero? This is from H&M. It was like $60 or $80. What about your leggings? I got them at Mango. I think it’s a European store here in L.A. My boots are from Aldo, and what else? Oh, my purse is Mui Mui. It was $700.

Do you work? No. I just go to school. What do you like about L.A.? I feel like I have more opportunity here than in my country for this kind of business. I like the people. I don’t like the racism, though. I don’t feel I get it myself, but I can see it. There are so many cultures, you know?

And your jewelry? This necklace is from a small store on Melrose.

Michael Levine, Inc. 920 Maple Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90015 (213) 622-6259 www.mlfabric.com

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INNERVIEW

CHRISMORRIS I N T E R V I E W I

>> Except for James Brown, who made being American cooler simply by showing up for the gig, by definition, Americana hardly ever seems cool. But Indie 103.1’s Watusi Rodeo, a two-hour celebration of musical Americana, is a cool-ass show. To understand the degree of bona fides held by its host, Chris Morris, all you need to know is that he prefers the original version of Hairspray to last year’s update – not because John Waters is an old friend and a superior filmmaker – but because the original flick shows off Toussaint McCall’s version of “Nothing Takes the Place of You.” Nice. Morris’s Sunday morning show plays like an Important Event in the lives of serious radio listeners. You never know what he’s going to play next. It could be an old favorite that simply needed to be played. (Like, “Oh! No he didn’t … .”) Or the upcoming song might be a countrified chestnut that intrigues and sends you scurrying to Google armed only with a scrap of lyric, simply because waiting for the deejay to break and update feels nothing like an option. (For what it’s worth, Morris places weekly playlists on his highly popular MySpace page.) A 58-year-old Chicago native who moved to L.A. from Madison, Wisconsin in 1977, he plays only music that’s part of his estimable record collection. This reporter cranks Watusi Rodeo for his young children so that they’ll have a foundational understanding of popular music that might transcend the DJ Khaled and Lupe Fiasco videos that are aired around the apartment so frequently they feel like televised loops. How do you put your sets together? I just try to make them logical. There’s got to be some sort of interior logic, either historical or thematic or the sound. It’s gotta make sense. And, hopefully, the listener is going

NEW ANGELES ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ 18

B Y T

to like it. But I don’t like just pulling in tunes on the air, because I’ve been given a creative responsibility. I have enough freedom to do something that’s not just segues of songs that are on the playlist. I live just blocks from the studio, and it's pleasant to stroll through the Miracle Mile to work. But I don't like to go on the air with one eye open, so I've got to hunker down with a cup of coffee at Black Dog as soon as the doors

D O N N E L L N

A L E X A N D E R T

open at 8 on Sunday. I'm usually sitting in the studio by 8:15, 45 minutes before air time, pulling it together. Radio may be of the moment, but I still figure I've got to be on top of my game when I open the mic the first time. Can you tell who your audience is, from the feedback? I decided I wanted to do this show because for several years I had been writing about the more coun

try-rock stuff, and there’s a very large community of exceptionally good musicians in this town. I know a lot of them listen to this show. We’re the only commercial show in this town that plays them. Other than that, I know I have a lot of regular Indie listeners, people from punk-rock backgrounds that relate to the quality of the music that I play. It’s a pretty broad demographic, because there are kids who come up to me at shows and say they like it. And there are people who are older and listen to KCRW. It’s a real broad mix. I know you listen to a lot of live music. What’s the best thing you heard recently? I love Sharon Jones, and her thing was the best thing I saw last year. I saw her at the El Rey, and she was just astounding. It was, like, a two-and-a-half hour show. I love Bettye LaVette’s last record. But there are a lot of local people that I just adore. Mike Stinson, David Serby, and Dave Gleason, who just moved down from San Francisco. I’ve been to your MySpace page. How does the new technology affect your relationship with listeners? I know that people read the set list on my page. I get a lot of friend requests … I’ve seen. You’ve got, like, fourteen hundred. Yeah, and I get a little feedback. I’m also glad that I track the stuff up there. I’m not nearly as ambitious as [Henry] Rollins. Henry writes a fucking book about every show. Are you more inclined to regard your shows as ephemera or document? Radio isn't for the ages, in my view — it's entertainment, it's here and gone in a second, and it tends to shoot through the listener's head. That said, I religiously post my playlists online, so that if anyone is interested in taking a deeper listen to what I played, they have the opportunity to dig around a bit. NA

19 ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ NEW ANGELES

NEW ANGELES ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ 20

21 ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ NEW ANGELES

GRACIELA ITURBIDE’S DESOLATE & TREMENDOUS WORLD “One day, I saw a man in the street, and I followed him to the cemetery,” recalls Graciela Iturbide. “There, in the middle of the cemetery road, was a skeleton of a man that was half-dressed. I took its picture because it was there.”

PETRE

NEW ANGELES ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ 22

its dressing gown to reveal the scarred body beneath. A transvestite in a summer dress and a close-cropped haircut flirts with the camera through a hand-held face mirror. A full body shot that isolates him in the frame, the image emphasizes the arresting dichotomy of the man who dresses as a woman in a matriarchal society. Again, in terms of the artist’s involvement, less is more. Iturbide mediates as little as possible, and in an offhand fashion. “He said to me, ‘Why don’t you take my picture?’” Iturbide explains. “So I took it.” A virtuoso in coordinating both camera and light, she is also spontaneous. “In the photos, I like life to give me things that surprise me,” she told me while we sat in the candlelit dullness of her living room. Once she snapped a picture of a girl walking along a wall dressed as an angel. “It was a lovely photo and I didn’t know it – an angel that didn’t have a head.” She called the image Caido del Cielo, (Fallen From the Sky). “The photographer, in a way, finds what he sees and, in a way, unconsciously looks for it. I look for poetry in life. I like it when things are symbolic, but all this is unconscious.” Born in Mexico City in 1942, Iturbide grew up in comfort and was married with three children by the age of 28. She began studying cinematography at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and there fell under the tutelage of famed photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo. Her marriage has since ended, but her love of the camera continues. (“Thanks to Bravo and a camera,” she says, “I was able to get to know the culture of my country.”) She has often been said to produce work steeped in magical realism, a LatinAmerican concept of the world being shrouded in an uncanny mist. However, José Antonio Rodríguez, the editor of Mexican photography magazine Alquimia, disputes her originality. He says that it is the American and European fascination with the exotic, represented in Iturbide’s photos, that gives her art its recognition. “She works with a lot of force but what she

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE GETTY MUSEUM

>> On a rainy Saturday in January, she sat comfortably smoking a cigarette in the salon of her house in the hip Coyoacán neighborhood of Mexico City, surrounded by books and collected artworks and a space heater. Like a Mexican Edith Piaf, her smoky voice and small frame exuded a self-confidence that has grown from years of pushing herself and her art, even though she doesn’t call it “art.” Mr. Death, taken 20 years ago in Dolores Hidalgo, Mexico, is a black and white photo of a man’s form in pants and shoes, splayed across a shaded path, his bald skull and eye sockets BYKATE cocked up uncomfortably katepetre@hotmail.com toward the camera. At the time, Iturbide had been traveling around for seven years, mourning the loss of her young daughter by taking pictures of death. “At that moment I felt like death told me, ‘You know what, Graciela? Enough.’” Iturbide, 64, doesn’t separate her life from her photography. Never bound to a studio, her workplace is anywhere that the lens of her camera comes across a beautiful offering. “The discipline that I have, photography, has a lot to do with what I’m living,” she explains. Iturbide insists that she opens herself up to opportunities, allowing subjects to come to her so that the images she produces are offered, rather than taken. In 1979, the artist was invited to stay in Juchitán, Oaxaca, an indigenous village in the south of Mexico. Here is where she perhaps her most noted collection of photos, in Juchitán de las Mujeres – or Juchitán of the Women – one can see Iturbide penetrating an intensely traditional, matriarchal society through her ephemeral offers of unassuming friendship. This is one of her most useful techniques, by casually, yet thoughtfully, hanging out with her subjects, be they actual people or abstractions, until the line between photographer and subject is nearly imperceptible. Her patience produces an intimate effect, as if the world has finally opened up

has done is made a documentary of the indigenous cultures of Mexico.” To Rodríguez, Iturbide is mainstream. Despite this tag, or perhaps because of it, Iturbide still holds one of the primary titles of current Mexican photography. Through April 13th, the Getty Center is presenting The Goat’s Dance, an exhibition of Iturbide’s photos that includes work from Juchitán and the north of Mexico, as well as selected images from her brief experience living with cholos in East L.A. in the ’80s. The cholos, to her, represented an interesting piece of Mexico in the United States. She lived with a small group of four women and one man, most of whom were mute from being born during a smallpox epidemic. With them, she photographed typical images of self-conscious gang signflashing and the Pachuco-esque fronts which are so familiar to East L.A. culture. But through her intimate relationship she was also able to reveal the vulnerability that lies behind closed doors: the image of baby and mother on a mattress pushed up against a wall hung with a large crucifix. Iturbide’s work is a mixture of her own vision of the world and a desire to produce unique work. When asked to shoot a collection of Frida Kahlo’s huipiles (traditional Mexican smocks), she refused based on her lack of experience in a studio. Instead she offered to take pictures of Kahlo’s bathroom: a reservoir of various medical treatments the Mexican artist had suffered through at the end of her life. She chose to capture the room just as it was. “When they opened [the bathroom], the smell was amazing because it had been closed for 50 years. There were prosthetics … the pain of Frida. I was the only one who photographed this bathroom. “When I’m taking pictures I’m also learning,” she says. “I like to walk around the world. I like that my camera is a pretext for me getting to know different cultures.” This woman’s constant surprise at life has opened her up to discover the links between the cultures she’s documented. Iturbide makes a point of reading up on the local literature and legends, and talking to old people in the community to enrich

her perception of the places she visits. Although much of her work has been in Mexico, Iturbide is increasingly working abroad, consciously universalizing her material. Presently the artist photographs in Sardinia, tilting her work away from people and more toward the abstract shapes and forms that the landscapes of the Italian boot-kicked Mediterranean island show her. When she was there in December, she spent most of her time driving around until something struck her: a desolate road, an old house, the curve of the rocks on an ancient wall. She plans to go back for more. With a couple of book projects in the pipe, including one that is both “for children and adults,” Iturbide is trying to break out of the mold of “Mexican artist.” But while reaching for the universal, she still keeps a firm hold on her own subjectivity so that her work becomes a way for her to process the life she sees. “We live in a world that is so desolate and tremendous, that I think, to save myself, I always look for the poetic part.” NA

23 ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ NEW ANGELES

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Beyond the museums of the mighty Sunset (and its tributaries) lurks Upsilon Acrux and the theoretical possibilities of rock 'without all the bullshit repetition' >>If you play the percentages and surf the weekly listings, you can still have a perfectly reasonable time as a rocker in Los Angeles. Your father’s Scene has many mansions still, most of them but a cymbal fling from Sunset Boulevard and tributaries, a length winding past big-box mainstream rock, indie boutiques and a gilt-edged boneyard of pay-to-play dreams. Any personable beard, nose-ring or knucklehead can romp this blest, oft-hymned strand and many do, capering in an Altman-sized milieu as fan, musician, hypester, or mutant compound of all three. The process is as inexorable as turning an underweight steer into Gaines-burgers, but a great deal more labor intensive. Then again, if you’re the kind of romantic who still seeks terminal wisdom in front of an amplifier, all this will begin to bore, and quickly. There will come a Monday when you’ve seen this month’s Spaceland residents a half-dozen times before their magic showcase opened; a state of jadedness typically setting in soon after buy-back guys at Amoeba start hailing you on the street as sworn kin. The odd names and dubious addresses in small print many inches down the Events column begin to take on hieroglyphic significance. Before long, you’re standing in a warehouse space with a crowd of sexy, unfamiliar freaks cheering on the fifteenth minute of an extended pedal effects experiment, as one sinBYRON gle, epically-distorted editor@newangelesmonthly.com note throbs with the rattletrap abandon that birthed psychedelic rock out of trackless suburbia and Yardbirds-stamped vinyl. Others of your newly-minted ilk stand in attitudes of prayer, even rapture, and soon you’re smiling at strangers, your hipster cred zeroed out. In theory, this tribal huddle around a barrel of burning feedback can be staged almost anywhere. As a practical matter, the requisite wide-open urban spaces and absentee neighbors push such gatherings into the downtown artist ghetto. The Il Corral clung to its ivy-covered hideaway near Normandie and Melrose for two years, staging noize mediations and art hijinks for a latenight crowd of puckish kids; the scene hilariously captured in the documentary 44 Bands in 88 Minutes. Their last show

GARMON

was in December, but the venue has since reopened in the warehouse maze near USC under the name Zero Point. Far less lucky and even further off the publicity grid was Zamikibo!, which nestled behind a blank storefront near Staples Center for a few months in 2005-6. A scrappy clientèle of mid-city punks, low-end gangstas and random crusted lunatics joined the braver elements in the under-21 party crowd for irregularly-scheduled no-wave performance art tarted up with the occasional onstage brawl. Patrons wobbled in and out of the draped side door, chugging 40s and cheerily slamming into each other, while couples necked and petted in the street outside. Approached from Pico down a long and lightless block, the place always looked to me more like a cavern of black Benzedrine bats than a nightclub, but I was made grandly welcome as the only rock journalist any there had ever seen. I knew it was too good to last and wasn’t surprised when a notice on the venue’s MySpace page announced the end. Located under a modest purple neon sign along a dim alleyway between Second and Third streets, this sedate allages hangout has lasted ten years on herbal tea and volunteerism. Avant-rock specialists like Deerhoof have played this converted auto barn, along with Carla Bozulich and the Black Heart Procession, with maudits like Polar Goldie Cats, Vomit Bomb and the estimable Hello Astronaut, Goodbye Television doing surreal turns before crowds of blissed-out youngsters. If there’s a prototypical Smell band, however, it’s Upsilon Acrux, “brute prog” artisans who fuse the junk parts and crazed imaginations of the venue’s artnoize aesthetic into tight precisioninstrumental rock like Booker T. and the MGs let loose in King Crimson’s back catalog. Formed in San Diego at about the same time the Smell opened, UA had already moved to L.A. when their incendiary Volucris Avis Dirae-Arum was released to little notice in 2002. Tracks like “It Takes a Nation of Unicorns (To Hold Us Back)” and “When Satan Ruled the Ocean Jesus Made My Fish Tank Boil” were built around the clockwork smash of two drummers, with short Uzibursts of guitar and Moog lines coruscating around the stop-and-start din. The follow-up, Galapagos Momentum, came four years later after a drastic >> 36

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25 ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ NEW ANGELES

THE DOLL FACTORY ON TEMPLE

IS A LARGE

NONDESCRIPT

EDIFICE THAT ONCE HOUSED AN

ICE CREAM FACTORY.

THAT WAS BEFORE. Inside its expansive and airy confines these days is an activity anything but arctic â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Factory is home to the Los Angeles Derby Dolls, a home-grown league of roller derby revivalists that has brought a once-moribund sport back to life.

On this winter Tuesday night, the LADD hosts jangellamf@aol.com a quasi-practice for a few members of the three teams currently comprising their league. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the Tough Cookies, the Sirens, and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fight Crew â&#x20AC;&#x201C; led by the feisty Miss Fighty. Last but not least, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fresh Meat, the women that have not yet made the grade in the fine arts of jamming, blocking and just plain staying vertical, or sideways,

BYJOHNNY

ANGEL

NEW ANGELES â&#x2DC;&#x2026; FEBRUARY 2008 â&#x2DC;&#x2026; 26

really, on the creaking wooden track. Where churns and rotors whirrs once filled the air, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s now the screech of wheels, crash of female bodies, groans of the fallen, and the ever-present whistle of Tough Cookies coach and co-captain Iron Maiven. She supervises Fresh Meat Night. Inside the oval track there are the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Barbiesâ&#x20AC;?; women who have not yet mastered â&#x20AC;&#x201C; mistressed? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the art of skating forward or making crossover moves. They learn to jump in unison, remount

the track and take hip checks. Once they do, they can try out for the squads themselves. The bleachers, VIP section and S.R.O. holding pens that have been jammed to capacity â&#x20AC;&#x201C; about 1,100 people â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in the last few games are empty and, as such, the view of the action is unencumbered and dizzying. The Dolls and their would-be true warrior sistren circle the track. There is fresh-meat blocker Stiv Skator: a striking, black-haired woman in cut-off denim shorts that would have 28

Krissy Krash Portrait by Maura Lanahan

27 ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ NEW ANGELES

Myna Threat Portrait by Maura Lanahan Side photos by Rinkrat

“WE HAD ONE GIRL GO RIGHT UNDER THE RAILING, CLIMBED BACK IN, GAVE EVERYONE THE FINGER, AND STARTED SKATING AGAIN.” made her late namesake from the Dead Boys and Lords of the New Church proud. A blocker’s job is to prevent the fleet-footed jammers from lapping the pack – the means of scoring in roller derby – and by January’s end, Stiv Skator will, according to fellow fresh-meater and this reporter’s Doll Factory tour guide, Racy DC, know her place in the LADD universe. Racy may be fresh meat, but she’s as knowledgeable on the sport as anyone can be. A tiny student of Chinese medicine by day, Racy describes the derby

and the Dolls themselves as the embodiment of “empowerment, physicality, and femininity,” all bound by the sisterhood of the skate with an unusual common ground. “All of us seem to be bully-haters,” she assures me. Other than that, it is perhaps the widest swath of L.A. femalehood imaginable, as the Dolls’ sisterhood includes artists, nurses, actresses and moms. Despite her petite frame, Racy demonstrates on me a nasty hip check, and shows what is a penalty – arms and elbows up past a

NEW ANGELES ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ 28

certain angle – and where to find the penalty box. Fighting can bring ejection, although being checked clear off the track isn’t. “We had one girl go right under the railing recently,” Racy says. “Climbed back in, gave everyone the finger and started skating again.” As a girls’ night out, it is way cooler than a CFNM party, or the kaffe-klatch card and cigarette fests of our suburban youths, and it is a serious workout for the Dolls, Fresh Meat and Barbies – Racy calculates it as a 500-1,000 calorie workout. Best of all, the

spectators get to see bands play in the next room (drag queen extraordinaire Alexis Arquette headlines upcoming games), buy very sweet swag (like the LADD hoodie), and see local stars like Mila Minute and Kung Pao (“the Michael Jordan of LADD,” says Racy) in person. And, in “historic Filipinotown,” to boot. With the Lakers stuck in neutral, the Dodgers at .500 and the Clippers and Kings in a suckfest spiral, that means these are our local heroines. Who better to support? Get down and get with it! NA

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29 ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ NEW ANGELES

CALENDAR

FEBRUARY [08] ★

Listings Compiled by Julie Rasmussen Send listings to

calendar@newangelesmonthly.com

INTERVENTION From February 14 through April 1, Pharmaka Art will display a collection of neo-pop works created by David Buckingham, Timothy Buckwalter and Greg Miller. Unlike the candy-colored paintings of Warhol or the shiny-new manufactured sculptures of Jeff Koons, this newer generation of artists has created bodies of work which reflect a bleaker vision of contemporary popular culture. The found-metal sculptures of Buckingham and Buckwalter’s and Miller’s paintings all convey a sense of intelligence and humor as part of their glimpses into the darker side of Americana.

An opening reception for this exhibition will take place on Feb. 16, 6-9 p.m. Pharmaka Art, 101 West 5th St., Downtown L.A. 213-689-7799 or www.pharmaka-art.org

ART FEB. 1-27: ‘ARE THEY ALIVE?’ An exhibition of “Dynamic Portraits” created with holograms and other materials by Treiops Treyfid. Opening reception Feb. 2, 7-10 p.m. Chango Coffee House and Gallery, 1559 Echo Park Ave., Echo Park. 213-977-9161 or www.myspace.com/changocoffeehouse FEB. 1-MARCH 2: MARCO ALMERA, BRYAN CUNNINGHAM AND KRYSTOPHER SAPP A display of acrylics on canvas, mixed media work and assemblage work by the three artists. Opening reception Feb. 1, 8-11 p.m. La Luz De Jesus Gallery, 4633 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. 323-666-7667 or www.laluzdejesus.com FEB. 2: ‘ONE NIGHT ONLY’ A monthly event that invites six artists for a one-nightonly exhibition. February’s lineup includes Steven Janssen, Jerry Clovis, Wendy Hall, Marc Remus, John Edward Marin, and Scott Miller. 6:30-10 p.m. Gallery016, The Brewery, 2020 N. Main St. #016, Downtown L.A. 323-224-8116 or www.gallery016.com FEB. 2-MARCH 8: ‘GENESIS’ New sculptures and works on paper by David Brady. Opening reception Feb. 2, 7-9 p.m. High Energy Constructs, 990 N. Hill St. #180, Chinatown. 323-227-7920 or www.highenergyconstruct.com FEB. 2-MARCH 30: ‘DREAM WITH YOUR EYES OPEN’ Etchings by Rafael Buñuel and paintings by Peggy Reavey. Opening reception Feb. 2, 6-10 p.m. Red Dot Gallery and Bistro, 500 S. Spring St., Downtown L.A. 213817-6002 or www.weeneez.com FEB. 8-28: ‘TRANSMO-GRIFICATIONS’ Drawings, paintings, 3-D design, animation and NEW ANGELES ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ 30

sculptural work by Stephen Tompkins. Found Gallery, 1903 Hyperion Ave., Silver Lake. 323-669-1247 or www.foundla.com

i-5 Gallery, The Brewery, 2100 N. Main St. #A9, Downtown L.A. 323-223-6089 or www. breweryartwalk.com

FEB. 8-MARCH. 7: ‘THE TRINITY’ Mixed media on wood, canvas, paper and found objects created by New York-based artists Tony Philippou, Zach Johnsen and Marion Bolognesi. Opening reception Feb. 8, 7-11 p.m. Thinkspace, 4210 Santa Monica Blvd., Silver Lake. 323-913-3375 orwww.thinkspacegallery.com

FEB. 9-MARCH 8: ‘I AND YOU’ Watercolor and pencil drawings by Sydney Pink, along with digital and hand-drawn lines by Britt Sanders. Opening reception Feb. 9, 6-11 p.m. Abacot Gallery, 970 N. Broadway, Suite 201, Downtown L.A. 626-213-1599 or www.abacotgallery.com

FEB. 8-MARCH. 14: ‘I-5 JURIED SHOW’ An exhibition of works by 35 national and international artists. Opening reception Feb. 9, 7-10 p.m.

FEB. 9-MARCH 8: MIGUEL OSUNA AND SAM SEAWRIGHT Two concurrent solo shows that include mixed media work by

Miguel Osuna and paintings by Sam Seawright. Opening reception Feb. 9, 6-10 p.m. Lawrence Asher Gallery, 5820 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 100, Miracle Mile. 323-935-9100 or www.lawrenceasher.com FEB. 9-MARCH 8: BRAD BENEDICT’S SIDESHOW 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 6,000 square feet of gallery space filled with 30 diverse artists, including Todd Schorr, Robert Williams and the Pizz. Opening reception Feb. 9, 8-11 p.m. Merry Karnowsky Gallery, 170 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles. 323-933-4408 or www.mkgallery.com

Mian Situ, San Francisco, April 18, 1906, oil on canvas, 46 x 76 in.

Masters

of the American West

Fine Art Exhibition and Sale February 2 through March 2 Over the past ten years, the Autry National Center’s annual Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale has developed into one of the country’s most important art shows. Attend the special programs, exhibition viewing, cocktail reception, and sale on Saturday, February 2. For more information, please contact Special Events at 323.667.2000, ext. 317, or MastersoftheAmericanWest.org.

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31 ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ NEW ANGELES

FEB. 16-MARCH 12: PAINTINGS Artist Mark Jones draws on his skills as a photographer and painter while blending the two media resulting in large scale, ethereal oil-painted landscapes. Opening reception Feb. 16, 7-10 p.m. Little Bird Gallery, 3195 Glendale Blvd., Atwater Village. 323-662-1092 or www.littlebirdgallery.com FEB. 16-APR. 15: ‘CLOAK AND CANDLE’ Mixed media sculptural work by Mark Golamco. Cirrus Gallery, 542 S. Alameda St., Downtown L.A. 213-680-3473 or www.cirrusgallery.com FEB. 23-MARCH 22: ‘IGLOO TORNADO’ Work by Tom Neely, Gin Stevens, Scot Nobles and Levon Jihanian. Opening reception Feb. 23, 7-10:30 p.m. Black Maria Gallery, 3137 Glendale Blvd., Atwater Village. 323-660-9393 or www.blackmaria gallery.com

BOOKS/SPOKEN WORD/LECTURES FEB. 8: ‘FUTUREFASHION: WHERE GREEN IS GORGEOUS’ A talk on fashion by Leslie Hoffman, executive director of Earth Pledge and pioneer in the field of sustainable design. Free, noon. California Market Center, 110 E. Ninth Street, Suite C998, Downtown L.A. 310665-6875 or www.otis.edu

HIGHLIGHT

DJ SHADOW/ CUT CHEMIST

★ More than deejays, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist are cultural pioneers at the forefront of a modern musical revolution. Each is a hyper-talented and respected presence in their field, so it goes without saying that when they combine forces, the result is extraordinary. As a duo, Shadow and Cut have created a series of mixes that fuse hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz and even a bit of rock. The duo’s performance this month in Los Angeles will also include a set with Canadian superstar Kid Koala. DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist perform Friday, Feb. 15, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35.50-$40. The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 213-388-1400 or www.livenation.com

FEB. 10: ARTIST LECTURE WITH JENNIFER FALCK LINSSEN Presentation from the artist who utilizes the ancient Japanese paper art of katagami to create elegant, handcarved vessels and baskets. Lecture coincides with Linssen’s first solo exhibition, on display Feb. 10-April 27. Free with museum admission, 3 p.m. Craft and Folk Art Museum, 5814 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile. 323-937-4230 or www.cafam.org FEB. 15: A CONVERSATION WITH BOB SIPCHEN Join the current Sierra Club executive and former Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist (ex-Los Angeles Times) for a conversation. Free, noon. Farmlab, 1745 N. Spring St. #4, Downtown L.A. 323226-1158 or wwe.farmlab.org FEB. 29: CHARLES BURNS A discussion led by the creator of the graphic novel, Black Hole. The chat will cover his art, works and more. Free, 7:30 p.m. Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Feliz. 323-660-1175 or www.skylightbooks.com

FILM FEB. 8-9: 24/7 DIY VIDEO SUMMIT Event showcases the most innovative contemporary experiments in viral, amateur and peer-topeer video, from creators, activists, policymakers, Internet companies,

media-industry professionals, students and educators. Free, screenings take place on the USC campus. Location info and schedule/showtimes can be viewed at www.video24-7.org. FEB. 17: ‘HELL ON WHEELS’ Documentary film of a group of Texas women who band together to resurrect roller derby for the 21st Century. Directed by Bob Ray, discussion with director follows the screening. $10, 7:30 p.m. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. 323-466-3456 or www.americancinematheque.com FEB. 21-22: ‘CARBUNCLE’ A film directed by T. Arthur Cottam telling the story of a mentally-challenged woman in a mobile home park who is manipulated by her alcoholic social worker. Starring Shawn Lockie and Jim Eshom. Cast and crew in attendance both evenings. $5, 8 p.m. Echo Park Film Center, 1200 N. Alvarado St., Echo Park. 213-484-8846 or www.echo parkfilmcenter.org FEB. 22-29: SIX FILMS BY SERGEI PARADJANOV The films of Armenian painter and poet Sergei Paradjanov are joyous, colorful and musical expressions of visionary experience that revel in parable, myth and allegory. The films are inspired by the folk traditions of the Ukraine and the Caucasus. The titles that will be screened are Shadows

of Forgotten Ancestors, Feb. 22, 7:30 p.m.; Andriesh, Feb. 22, 9:20 p.m.; Ashik Kerib, Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m.; The First Lad, Feb. 23, 9 p.m.; The Color of Pomegranates, Feb. 29, 7:30 p.m.; The Legend of Suram Fortress, Feb. 29, 9:20 p.m. $9 and $6 for LACMA members, seniors and students. LAMCA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile. 323-857-6010 or www.lacma.org

MUSIC/CONCERTS FEB. 1: FIRST FRIDAYS: THE ELEPHANT’S SECRET SENSE This monthly event includes dinner, discussion, live music and more. Explore the museum while taking in an array of music provided by Dublab DJs Frosty and Take. Take in a discussion with Dr. Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell, who will reveal her latest research on African elephants’ mysterious communication methods. Then conclude the evening with performances by hiphop artists Kid Sister and A-Trak. $2$9, 5-9 p.m. Natural History Museum, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles. 213-763-3466 or www.nhm.org FEB. 2: MANDY PATINKIN Singer Patinkin, accompanied by Paul Ford on piano, brings his critically acclaimed theatre concert to Los Angeles for one performance only. $65, 8 p.m. Kodak Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.

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213-480-3232 or www.kodaktheatre.com FEB. 6-27: THE GASLAMP KILLER, DADDY KEV, D-STYLES, DJ NOBODY Every Wednesday, the Low End Theory provides a variety of hip-hop, dubstep and funk mixed by its resident DJs. $10, 10 p.m. - 2 a.m. The Airliner, 2419 N. Broadway, Lincoln Heights. www.lowendtheoryclub.com FEB. 14: BARRY MANILOW A night of music by the “Number One Adult Contemporary Artist of All Time.” $29-$250, 8 p.m. Staples Center, 1111 S. Figueroa, Downtown. 213-7427100 or www.staplescenter.com FEB. 15: CAPRA As part of the Indie 103.1 Anti Valentine’s Day show, rock band Capra, along with Frank Turner and the Small Hours, will perform a free

show for those 21 and up. Concertgoers under 21 are $3, 7 p.m. Safari Sam’s, 5214 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. 323-666-7267 or www.safari-sams.com FEB. 22-23: MARILYN MANSON Two nights of gritty, grindy, industrial shock-rock that will shake your inner core. With special guest Ours. $49.50, 8 p.m. The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 213-388-1400 or www.livenation.com FEB. 23: DUBFIRE Diverse and unexpected deep grooves performed by Ali “Dubfire” Shirazinia, who just happens to be one-half of the Grammy-winning group Deep Dish. $20, 9:30pm, 21+. Vanguard, 6021 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood 323-464-7373 or www.giantclub.com

THEATRE/LIVE PERFORMANCE FEB. 7-MARCH 9: ‘VOICES FROM OKINAWA’ Kama Hutchins, an American graduate student of onequarter Okinawan descent, teaches English in Okinawa, and receives an unexpected education in OkinawaAmerican relations. Written by Jon Shirota, directed by Tim Dang. $30$35, Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Downtown L.A. 213-625-7000 or www.eastwestplayers.org FEB. 7 THROUGH MAR. 9: ‘VICTORY’ A powerful and moving new play about the search for hope in the new South Africa. Two young African-Americans looking for cash break into the house of an elderly

white man. When the old man discovers them ransacking his home, an explosive, savage confrontation reveals the twisted emotional ties that bind them all. $25, Thur.-Sat., 8 p.m; Sun., 2 p.m. The Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood. 323-663-1525 or www.fountaintheatre.com FEB. 12: ‘AN EVENING WITH RHYS DARBY’ Combining storytelling with physical comedy, Rhys Darby (a.k.a. “Murray” from Flight of the Conchords) morphs in and out of a variety of interesting characters and objects all while providing the sound effects to go with the show. $12, 7 p.m. El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile. 323936-6400 or www.theelrey.com FEB. 21: ‘RUBY, TRAGICALLY ROTUND’ Ruby Salazar is a full-fig-

ured Filipina-American whose battle with weight and self-image intensifies when her mother takes a refund on Ruby’s tuition to fund her sister’s blossoming beauty pageant career. Written by Ruby Salazar, directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera. Free with museum admission, 7:30 p.m. Japanese American National Museum, 369 E. First St., Downtown L.A. 213-625-0414 or www.janm.org FEB. 22: ‘UCB GETS YOU LAID!’ Two audience members will be chosen to go on a dinner date during the show, while comedians watch and comment on video coverage of the date live onstage. Hosted by Paul Rust (Semi-Pro) and Neil Campbell (Adult Swim). Featuring Paul F. Tompkins, Nick Kroll, and others. $8, 8 p.m. Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, 5919 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. 323908-8702 or www.ucbtheatre.com NA

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and Japan. sumi's has become a destination spot for jewelry and according to Oprah Magazine, they've earned “local favorite status" because of their diverse selection and price range. Jewelry prices start at about $25 and go up to $650. Whatever your budget, know that every piece in the store(regardless of price) has been carefully considered.

FRITZIE'S 2630 Hyperion Ave. @ Griffith Park Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027, Phone: (323) 664-7979 www.fritziespastagrill.com Fritzie's Pasta & Grill, located in the heart of Silver Lake, invites you to relax and have a great meal. The bistro menu features top quality daily specials, exceptional homemade pastas, succulent

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overhaul that left guitarist Paul Lai the only original member. Released on Cuneiform Records (home to such noteworthy imponderables as Birdsongs of the Mesozoic), the album is a masterpiece of proggy density and Stax-Volt compression. Losing a drummer made the rhythms less busy, while the guitar lines are sharper and more aggressive, recalling Vini Reilly’s ethereal breaks on the 1979 post-punk milestone The Return of the Durutti Column. Just don’t call it “avant” or “experimental.” “We’re now a more straightforward type of rock band,” says Paul Lai, “It’s like metal and rubber – we’ve just enough melody to give a grip.” I’m sitting in UA’s rehearsal space on E. Seventh Street with Lai and drummer Chris Mezler, as the guitarist unpacks what sounds like an old complaint “You saw us recently and it’s probably more rock in our presentation than we’ve ever been. We’re what rock would theoretically sound like without all the bullshit repetition.” That Acrux can make do with all that wiggy ya-ya was evident during the Smell’s weeklong anniversary festivities last month. The hour was late and the crowd much attenuated by a massive rainstorm, but a few score patrons stood sopping and enchanted by the band’s aloof professionalism and headlong attack. UA is looser and bluesier than NEW ANGELES ★ FEBRUARY 2008 ★ 36

before, but the refusal to truckle to indie neurosis or catchpenny pop lends their live act a ferocity that shreds the easy critical equation of skill with subtlety. “This band is about no compromise,” Paul is emphatic, “nobody outside this band has any say in what music we play. I don’t know why music has fallen behind other art forms in this. Whatever the vanguard is ... ” Paul lets his voice trail and shrugs, “It’s definitely not bringing in a paycheck. I’m not even bitching, it’s just a fact. This is my fuckin’ life and I see it on a daily basis.” If Upsilon Acrux is simply one of an imposing number of local bands that make up the Smell’s tonal universe, Paul nevertheless sees his band as part of an elite. “This is a place where me and my friends’ bands play,” he says matter-offactly. “If there’s a place I’d call our home, it would be the Smell. I think we’ve played there every year of the last ten. If you’re an L.A. band that’s never played the Smell, I don’t take you seriously and don’t think you’re a real band.” Indeed. If the Smell is to be remembered as the CBGBs of Generation Dubya (likely), Paul’s lofty dismissal of the local rock power elite is an essential (and essentially snotty) assertion of scene identity. It’ll look good as a pullquote in the liner notes of next decade’s Smell boxed set. NA

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f you haven’t been to Olympia Medical Center lately, come take a closer look at your community hospital. You already know us for our 24-hour emergency services, acute medical treatment, quality care and convenient access. But step inside our newly renovated facility and you’ll find one of LA’s best-kept secrets: a 2007 HealthGrades five-star rated hospital with renowned physicians, highly specialized programs and groundbreaking research. We offer services you’d find at much larger facilities, but delivered with the attention and care you only get at a community hospital.

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Upsilon Acrux Upsilo » THE MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURE OF IRREGULAR ROCK «

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