The Do LaB has put its signature imaginative experience design stamp on festivals all over the world, including Coachella. This year’s festival will include:

Two Stages of Music featuring: Bassnectar, N.A.S.A., Stanton Warriors, Yard Dogs Road Show, Beats Antique, Ana Sia, Lazer Sword, Lynx & Janover and Patricio

Live performances by Lucent Dossier Experience, The Yard Dogs Roadshow, Suddenly Dapper, as well as numerous fire dancers, circus acts, and general mayhem instigators

We have pairs tickets to giveaway for this sure-to-be fun night.

*Please note the event is 18 and over.

Full appearing artist listing, as well as ticket and general info below.

Art Installations throughout the festival: A large scale live painting by The Mac and Retna and live digital painting by Andrew Jones of conceptart.org

Art Gallery curated by Mike Russek, and Deborah Vogt featuring Ekundayo, L Crosky, Liz Brizzi, Luis Sanchez, John Park, Hans Haveron, Kofie One, Shrine, Julio Sanchez, Man One, Walt Hall, Chris Berg, Gareth Stehr, Jocelyn Marsh, Danni Shinya Luo, Izumi Yokoyama, Stefano Novelli, David Haskell, Spectr, Glenn Campbell, Ryan Wegner, Chris Leavens, Michael Pukac, Shira Loa, Brion Topolski, Ando Pndlian, Myong Kurily, Adam Mostow and Motion One

Lightning in a Paintcan Project: Local artists will transform large mural panels set up throughout the event grounds, using 100% used and recycled paint, into art pieces to be auctioned off through a silent auction with the proceeds going to benefit Sonic Muze, a non-profit that provides underfunded schools with music instruments and art supplies.

Lucent L’Amour | Tickets & Info
Saturday, February 13, 2009
7 pm – 4 am / 18+ only

Lucent L’amour photos by Curious Josh (top) & Aaron Gautschi

As important as the real thing is, and as well intentioned as the filmmakers definitely are, judging from this new preview, the Prop 8 trial video reenactment looks like it could be a snore-fest.

I know we can’t tweak the script and bring in a writer to polish the dialogue, but these actors just aren’t bringing anything to their roles. Can we spice it up a bit? Maybe bring in a new D.P. or something? Mix in some dramatic music cues? Something. Anything.

I want to watch this thing. But I also want to say awake. I’ll give them chance to hit their stride. Maybe Day 1 is like the Pilot episode and hopefully they’ll get better as it goes on.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy @ Disney Concert Hall (7 pm show)
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (10 pm) @ Disney Concert Hall
Bootie LA New Years Eve Bootleg Ball @ Echoplex
Chromeo with Peanut Butter Wolf, VEGA and Gaslamp Killer @ Club Nokia
Club Underground & Hang The DJ’s presents Roarrrinn’ 2010 Year of the Tiger w/ The Growlers & My Pet Saddle @ The Echo
Dengue Fever & Pollyn @ The Mint
DJ Icy Ice and DJ Ivey @ Air Conditioned, Venice
Flogging Molly w/ Aggrolites & With a Bible and a Gun (Tribute to Johnny Cash) @ The Wiltern
Giant Hotel @ Westin Bonaventure Hotel Downtown (Above & Beyond, Christopher Lawrence, Cosmic Gate, Kristina Sky, Miguel Migs, Marques Wyatt, Boris M.D. and Ryan Sage)
Gridlock NYE @ Paramount Studio Lot (Adam Lambert & more, hosted by Pam Anderson)
HARD NYE w/ Boys Noize & Destructo @ The Palladium
Mika Miko @ The Smell
Sheila E. & The Family @ Conga Room
The Henry Clay People featuring Le Switch / The Monolators @ Spaceland
The Zeros @ Redwood Bar & Grill
DJs King Britt, Jason Bentley, Raul Campos and Jamie Strong @ Viceroy Hotel Thu 12/31
Darren Revell (Big Sonic Heaven) @ Cole’s French Dip Thu 12/31
Black & White Formal @ Dakota Lounge Thu 12/31
Black and White Fetish Masqerade @ Bar Sinister Thu 12/31
The Head Cat with Rhino Bucket / The Binges @ Viper Room Thu 12/31
Eric Kupper, Darwin Paul, Justin Michaels and The Three Amigos @ King King Thu 12/31
89.9 KCRW Presents Afro Funke’ NYE Bash w/ Garth Trindad, Jeremy Sole & more @ Zanzibar Thu 12/31
Grandmaster Flash, The Pharcyde & more @ Roosevelt Hotel Thu 12/31
The Fab Four @ Grove of Anaheim Thu 12/31
Reverend Horton Heat w/ Street Dogs @ House of Blues Anaheim Thu 12/31
2010: A Space Odyssey @ LA Center Studios (Shiny Toy Guns & more)

We know we probably left off some stuff. Feel free to add your tips and addresses to your personal parties in the comments.

The clip, which is apparently unauthorized and likely violating one or more copyright laws, has yet to be removed and remains viewable below as of press time.

Not discounting the probable fiddly-bits of improv theater, anything, and I mean anything, can come from a drunken crowd of grown-up REM fans. Once host and creative director Patrick Bristow welcomes us, it’s time to get things started on the most sensational inspirational celebrational Puppetupational Puppet Up. Eight of Henson Alternative’s (HA!) master manipulators hold the funny-looking little buggers above their heads and commence zig-zagging before a camera mounted at the headline. Simultaneously, the “Muppet Show Effect” projects onto four screens throughout the theater. My eyes roam between the magic and the magicians, preferring the magic.

So here’s the thinking. Mr. Bristow gives the audience a scenario to fill in like a Madlib. “I need a person doing something.” A dentist! A guy licking his balls! A genie sitting in a bathtub! “Okay, and now I need a place where this happens.” Kuwait! Denny’s! My dick! “So, are you ready to watch a lost episode of 21 Jump Street featuring a guy licking his balls that takes place on my dick?” Yeah! Wooo! “Okay, Puppet Up!” And so begins an advance, stage-left, upon a massive, rectangular armoire filled with beautiful creatures. Sometimes they go two at a time, sometimes all eight of them suit up, or “Puppet Up”, for their improv routine. Once the lights dim, the troupe puppet-trates.

Sometimes they really do puppet up. The first routine is funny and adult-oriented. An old grumpy Muppet Show critic looking dude and a weasel with unblinking bug eyes show slides of their vacation without foreknowledge of the images. “This is where we stayed.” Slide. It’s a toothbrush. The puppets stare at us. The weasle says, “That’s why I stopped blinking.” Okay, you had to be there. Coming back from the intermission, the troupe surprises us with a James Bond film opening sequence. The audience calls for “The Spy Inside Me” and I shout out “Dr. Spike” as a villain. Not only do they produce a spike to ensorcel with slow-mo and suggestive marionette élan, playing the perspective gags for everything they can, and riffing on the name “Dr. Spike” with obligatory muppet felacio, but somehow they manage to weave in the name of Dr. Spike: What’s not to like/when you’re dealing with Dr. Spike.

As for the hoopy poopy stuff, the first act derails with a skit about aliens running an orthodontist’s office, doing the ol’ Sesame Street bit where each says one word until they form a sentence. For no fucking reason, one puppeteer gets sick of that, switches from alien to human, starts talking in complete sentences, and ruins it. It was like a kind of torture to watch that! They may work without nets, or at least without strings, but that doesn’t mean they work without audience. If you abruptly jump from kooky alien talk to English, at least suffer from turrets and make liberal use of the F word.

But enough with the kooky talk. Host Patrick Bristow may not know this, but he isn’t very likable. His stage persona is this thinly-veiled schoolmarm of an emcee who hovers above the shouts and suggestions, telling the audience with a hint of deprecation that they’ve had enough with the cheese jokes, or they’ve done George Bush to death. If your open yourself up to the floor, and the fat guy with the mustache shouts out “Balls of Cheese!”, and you say, “No, we get a lot of cheese jokes and we’re sick to death of doing them,” what do you think just happened to your credibility? I quote from the flyer, “Open your mind, release your inhibitions, and feel free to shout out the first ridiculous thing that pops into your head”. The man just did that and now he wants “Balls of Cheese”. That’s why he paid his hard-earned money to see Puppet Up! Nobody wants to be told they’re ordinary or that you’re sick to death of their humor. Fuck Bristow. I ought to puppet my foot up his smarmy ass for acting like “Dr. Spike” was something he would not have deigned to touch, not even gloved.

Maybe the future hosts of Puppet Up should be celebrity guest stars, a homage to “The Muppet Show”. Now that’s the kooky talking!

Puppet Up! Uncensored
Next shows:
Sat, January 10, 2009
Sat, February 28, 2009

 
DECAMPMENT from ADULT. on Vimeo.

It’s hard to convey how amazing a movie can sound when scored live.  Kuperus and her bandmate/husband Adam Lee Miller are currently heavily influenced by the electronic sounds of seventies and eighties Italian horror, from Lucio Fulci to Dario Argento, and DECAMPMENT’s wordless plot flowed in a similarly severed vein.  From what I could make out, a coven of witches dressed like long-haired versions of the “Simply Irresistible” girls give a new girl a book with a witchy Prince-like symbol on it.  That night, she drops it on the floor, and blood comes out–maybe it’s Are You There God?  It’s Me, Margaret? 

Anyway, a lot of horrific stuff with knives and fires and tree-chopping ensues, including a refreshingly Kenneth Anger-esque scene where the witches spend a lot of time replacing their high heeled shoes with galoshes and tying on rubber aprons.  It sounds like I’m making fun, but I’m not–as a huge cinema geek, I appreciate Kuperus’s attention to detail, and the way the film creates tension by showing something ominous, then making us wait through long shots of beautiful sterility until the violent payoff. 

But more importantly, we got to see a visceral live performance without all the bullshit trappings of a rock show: no encore, no pauses to tune, no headbands or water bottles or running to the edge of the stage to grab some kid’s hand.  DECAMPMENT was a duo of talented big kids playing music, lovingly crafted, to captivating moving photographs that they had put together themselves for our enjoyment.  Not since Public Image Limited played the Ritz in ‘81 have I seen such a show involving a screen–and even then, I was only five years old, and only saw the show in my imagination.

In hindsight, however, the Monkees’ movie Head (the idea was that the next film’s ad could say “From the People Who Gave You Head!“) is a lot less goofy than it seemed at the time. Appearances by Dennis Hopper, Sonny Liston, Frank Zappa, and Toni Basil, shocking visual references to violence both real and cartoonish, and satires of the sappy pop cultural milieu of the time, themselves included, make this feel like a movie that’s saying something, even if nobody quite knows what that something is. And the band grooves its way through one unironically amazing rock song after another: Mike Nesmith’s balls-to-the-wall garage jam “Circle Sky,” the Goffin/King psyche opus “the Porpoise Song” (covered so well by Nobody decades later), and Davy Jones’s cover of Nilsson’s “Daddy’s Song” make this a great soundtrack as well as a surreal visual feast. Can you dig it?

You can dig it tonight at the Egyptian Theater–right across the street from where the film debuted forty years ago. Davy and Peter are going to be at this screening, plus a bunch of burned-out ex-hippies and studio execs who will doubtless wax nostalgic about free love and Donna Reed.

The feature begins at 7:30 PM . Tickets are $10 and are available online from www.fandango.com or at the Egyptian Theater box office.

6712 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 461-2020

Grand Central Market has been around since 1917. Across the street from the also historic, now out of commission Angel’s Flight, Angelenos would take a penny-ride to the open-air market which met the needs of newly immigrated families from all over the world. It’s been remodeled many times throughout the years, but it still has that old-world feel to it, which is a nice contrast to the high rise buildings and power-suited yuppies just a few blocks away in the Financial District.

During the past eight months, which I have spent as an office drone in the aforementioned yuppie-filled Financial District, Grand Central Market has become my weekly haven (biweekly, if I’m having a particularly shitty day). It’s a sweaty walk past Pershing Square from my office; down dirty sidewalks, past bored looking pedestrians – some waiting for a bus, some walking swiftly by, lost in their own thoughts. Once I reach the sanctuary of the Market, I’m relaxed, despite the busy bustle of the lunch crowd. On sawdust covered floors, I make my way past the always-crowded China Cafe, down the stairs and past a produce stand, a Japanese food stall, a “checks-cashed” store front whose neon sign is in dire need of repair, and work my way through the maze to my very favorite cheap lunch in all of Los Angeles.

I can’t remember how I stumbled upon Sarita’s Pupuseria (in fact, I didn’t even know what a pupusa was before I found Sarita’s) but I’m forever thankful that I did. The florescent bulbs keep all kinds of yummy (and a few gross) looking offerings warm. The stew always calls my name with its mix of meat and vegetables. The tamales look dry, but I can imagine they’re delicious with a generous pour of hot sauce. I’ve tried the plantains once, when I brought a friend here for lunch, but an order would be too much for myself, and I usually come here alone.

No, the thing that’s kept me a regular are the pupusas. For $2.60 (including tax!) a huge variety of combinations are available (beans and pork, squash and cheese, broccoli and cheese, etc.), but I go for the basic beans and cheese every time. Watch through the glass as a woman behind the counter, who’s probably made more pupusas than imaginable, grabs a fistful of thick corn tortilla dough and expertly stuffs it with whatever ingredients you chose. Flattened into a pancake shape, it’s then slapped onto the hot grill, and left to brown to a crispy goodness.

When my number is called, I like to grab my plate, two bags of the pickled cabbage traditionally topping the pupusa (called “curtido”), and a tub of the hot sauce that burns your tongue just a little, but tastes oh-so good with the cooling cabbage, and head back through the maze to outdoor patio on Hill St. There, I’ll read my book between bites, watch the colorful array of locals walk by, and almost fool myself into thinking that I don’t have to go back to work that day.

Stay tuned for more under $10 eats around town!

MAS PUPUSAS
» Profile: Pollo Master

But Chicago also had a scene that included some pioneers in punk, both in the form of arguably the first punk-only club, La Mere Vipere, as well as “the producer who made grunge,” Steve Albini, whose pivotal industrial punk band Big Black appears here in early archival footage in tomorrow night’s feature documentary, You Weren’t There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977-84.

Following the film will be a DJ set by Terry “Dadbag” Graham (Gun Club, The Bags), and then the second half of the night’s entertainment will be brought by DFW Punk, a film all about, you guessed it, punk rock in Dallas and Ft. Worth (title says it all, really).  There’ll be director Q & A stuff, and probably giveaways, and likely you’ll see Hadrian Belove floating around with drinks and keys and stuff.  For the obscurantist who wants to be able to brag about early scenes in every city, this is your night.

VOTE AGAIN

» Touch My Backstage Pass Again: Behind the Scenes of the Rock of Love 2 Reunion
» The Celebreality Interview – Daisy’s Fighting Words
» The Celebreality Interview – Heather’s Fighting Words

Some might dismiss the group as a novelty. Paradigm’s Steve Ferguson, the band’s agent, said anyone who’s quick to write The Pipettes off should think again.

“I don’t look at them as being a novelty act,” Ferguson told Pollstar. “I don’t look at them as being just the one-off, aren’t-they-cute, disposable pop that some other people might view them as. I look at them as a relevant musical act that could be around for a long, long time.” (Pollstar; Oct 2007)

Questions now hang heavy in the air: What do the two new Pipettes (Ani and Anna) look like? Will they look good in polka-dot? Good enough to sell tickets? Will they have just the perfect amount of cheekiness? Will the group’s music change dramatically? Will the focus change? The costumes? Newly freed from their indentured Pipettehood, what will RiotBecki and Rosay do with their lives? Do they still have… NO REGRETS!?!?!? And who the hell just rickrolled us? Alas, the home page announcement – quite possibly the work of one Monster Bobby – provides few answers, ample Astley.

Former Pipette RiotBecki @ SXSW 2007 by Jenn

» The Pipettes Change Lineup (Pollstar)
» The Pipettes on Facebook (Note: This is now an outdated photo)
» The Pipettes @ SXSW 2007
» More of the Pipettes @ SXSW 2007

The question is begged.

This not a full recap like our Season 3 finale piece, but just some collected moments from the episode, unedited and jotted down in real time. –Ed.

–Hurley has a vision of Charlie while in a police interrogation room. Without going into all the details, Charlie’s hand has written on it, “They Need You.” This is a particularly problematic vision as it contains imagery that Hurley did not personally witness and (I think) marks the first vision where the action is pure fantasy and physically impossible to stage. (As opposed to merely planting a horse on the island or the appearance of someone resembling a dead loved one.) More on this below.

–Jack is drinking, but, hey, who doesn’t start the day off with a screwdriver or two? On the plus side, he has upgraded from Dharma brand vodka though. He does not have the bushman beard of the Season 3 finale yet, so that suggests this flash-forward predates the season 3 flash-forward. So this flash-forward would in fact be a flash-back if we were in the previous flash-forward timeline. Got that?

–Apparently, six of the castaways will make it off the island, attain a certain amount of fame and become popularly known as the “Oceanic 6.” We’ve seen Jack, Kate, Hurley off the island in the flash-forward, and, assuming the person in the coffin in the Season 3 cliffhanger is a castaway, then there are only two unnamed castaways will make it off the island. I’m guessing it won’t be Rose and Bernard. Poor Rose and Bernard.

–Jack would have killed Locke when he fired Locke’s own (unloaded) gun at him. While the motivation to do so is ample, my take is that trigger pull marks a turning point in Jack.

–Lance Reddick of The Wire shows up at Hurley’s mental ward claiming to be an Oceanic representative to check on Hurley’s secret-keeping status. (Insert Lance Reddick into the lineup of any show and he only makes that show better. Seriously—I am considering a Cadillac based on his ad spots alone.)

–The deceased Charlie “visits” Hurley at his hospital. Charlie says, “I’m am dead, but I’m also here.” A loaded line if ever there was, in a show full of loaded lines. Ultimately, Hurley is able to make Charlie disappear when he convinces himself that he’s not there. (I fear the producers have painted themselves in a corner with these recurring visitations/imaginings of dead people and various animals and the ultimate explanation of this point is going to be deeply unsatisfying when the story is wrapped up. More on this problem later.)

–Jack visits Hurley in the hospital. They play a game of horse. Hurley smells a rat and knows Jack is there to make sure he is not going to crack and reveal their shared secret. This is a pointed contrast to the Jack of the Season 3 finale, wherein he sobs to Kate, “I’m sick of lying.” At this point, speculation is pointing to an agreement that brought the “Oceanic 6″ from the island, wherein they could not talk about the nature of (their time on) the island. The looming key reveal of course is that there was no plane crash, but that they have an agreement to act as if there was a crash publicly upon returning. A more subtle point here is that they can remember their time on the island as “real” upon returning, so that would seem to eliminate some of the more abstract, sci-fi rooted theories on the plot (alternate realities, mind control, vivid dreams, virtual purgatory [though that was ruled out by producers at the outset] etc.).

–Back in the island timeline, the mysterious “Jacob” figure in that darkened shack reappears and this time can be made out–just barely so–as… Jack’s father…?

Anyone (not) catch the multiple instances of Apple product placement on last night’s new episode of House M.D.? A new high–or low, depending on your take–was reached. But lest you think it gratuitous, the props in question–an iPhone, a MacBook Pro and a MacBook (Or were they older Powerbook and iBook models?–Help me out here, Engadget or Gizmodo)–were woven into the plot fairly deftly: House steals James’s iPhone (James being the obvious character choice for iPhone ownership) and wraps it as a gift to himself, which he opens in front of his team with an aim to get the to raise the stakes of their Secret Santa; the team breaks into the patient’s home and brings back her and daughter’s Macs to scour their hard drives for personal history and diagnostic clues.

Even with all the nicely-framed product shots and even putting the words “Steve Jobs” in House’s mouth, the subtext, though, is that House himself does not own any of the Apple product in the episode and that probably is in keeping with his character. Just doesn’t strike me as a Mac guy, that House.

Sorry, no Apple here, just an extra frame of the lovely Olivia Wilde, the thinking man’s Megan Fox.