Tonight at the Troubadour I recommend an insect-themed multi-media performance by Mirah and the Spectratone International, featuring stop-motion animation by Britta Johnson.

Friday, September 12, 2008
Doors open 8:00 pm
$13 adv/$15 day off

If you dislike visited url’s popping up as a list in Firefox’s web address bar, you’ll learn how to disable this ’smart’ location bar function here.

Hungry Girl Dinner from aufdemweb on Vimeo.

Shot and cut in one tremendous Sunday while my star actress, dear friend and talented chef Diep Tran prepared 26 Hungry Girl plates for a Good Girl Supper that evening, this video and the process represent what I love most about my and Diep’s friendship. After supper we hosted a surprise screening in a cozy bungalow living room to a delightful, tummies contented crowd.

Thank you so much to Xana Kudrjavcev-DeMilner for helping me with set decoration & snapping digi pics for ‘THE BOX’. Thank you to Diep for her patience, sweet & savory inspiration, and that impressive knack for finding perfectly cute old-fashioned props.

To learn more about Diep’s new dinette, visit her blog.

Are You Me? (05 In Space) from aufdemweb on Vimeo.

Saturday, July 19, 5pm (YES THE AFTERNOON)
Outfest: The Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival
The Platinum Shorts Program / Platinum Section of OUTFEST
Program Running Time is 77 min
$12

Fairfax: Regency Fairfax Theatre
7907 Beverly Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90048
Major Cross Street: Fairfax

For ticket/program info click here.
Definitely buy the tix soon because the program is almost sold out!

Are You Me? is a videogram exchange between me and Berlin-based artist Xana Kudrjavcev-DeMilner exploring the mysterious haze that separates all folk. I also like to call them video poems. I make the odd videos; she makes the even. Two of the odds premiere at OUTFEST this Saturday as part of an experimental video program curated by Better Luck Tomorrow screenwriter Ernesto Foronda. The 5th videogram Are You Me? (In Space) is inspired by Korean female astronaut Yi So Yeon’s April space voyage. The 7th videogram Are You Me? (Mrs. Lee) is inspired by girl-bonding & proto-queers.

“With Korean female astronauts gulping water in space, a messy but fun baking orgy and a celebratory shedding of one’s self loathing and clothes, this cutting edge program of shorts prove that size doesn’t matter. And what may be lacking in length is more than made up for in creativity, audacity, style, grace and fearlessness. With a handful of world premieres and local artists, this show is a sure crowd-pleaser.” - Ernesto Foronda

Work by:
Erica Cho
Jessica Lawless
Matt Johnstone
Nao Bustamante
Emily North
Jules Nurrish
Lisa Alvarez
Kevin Lee Burton
Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung
Leslie Satterfield
Michael V. Smith
Von Edwards

Are You Me? (003 Hangul) from aufdemweb on Vimeo.

Hello, the genre of this film should be no mystery. It’s so Korean, I just don’t know how much more Korean it can get. The expression on woman on left’s face is like… family. I don’t aim to belittle the tragedy depicted in this photo. Cos trust that if you come to a free screening of Over The Border at LA’s Korean Cultural Center this Thursday, the screen characters won’t be the only ones wailing. 크리넥스 주세요~!

국경의 남쪽 Over The Border (aka South of the Border)
2006 / 110 minutes
Directed by 안판석 Ahn Pan Seok

Thursday, June 3 at 3:00 pm
Korean Cultural Center
5505 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036

“Kim Sun-ho is a horn player in an orchestra in North Korea. As he belongs to a comparatively high class in his country, Sun-ho enjoys his life and has plans to marry his girlfriend Yon-hwa. One day, Sun-ho’s family receives a letter from his grandfather in Seoul, whom they had thought was dead. They begin to exchange letters, but this puts their family in great danger so they decide to defect to the South. Sun-ho is devastated because he can’t take Yon-hwa with him but he promises to take her to Seoul as soon as possible after arriving in the South.”

And for all my friends who secretly want to learn Korean, or for those who’d like to flex their 우리말, in addition to a free film series the Korean Cultural Center offers language classes for $50 from beginning to advanced levels, taught by Korean language instructors from local colleges. The next 10-week session begins Tuesday, July 15. There’s also an art gallery and a library of books and dvds!

How did I miss this!? Hundreds of classic 35-millimeter film prints lost in a Universal Studios fire earlier this month, affecting summer screenings at Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the American Cinematheque. I’ve provided links to these two institutions on my blog’s sidebar in a “10-year anniversary of living in LA” effort to share my favorite video rental spaces and arthousey cinema destinations. Sadly, this process has revealed two more losses: the excellent cult resource for jailhouse turnout, juvenile delinquent, or Vincent Price video rentals Mondo Video-a-Go-Go, formally on Vermont Ave. in Los Feliz until the early 00’s when it moved to the Los Angeles City College area, and the Hyperion Ave, Los Feliz stripmall’s Jerry’s Video, a place where you could find Dario Argento horror films. Both disappeared in late 2007. Sigh… That’s it! As I move from caffeinated coffee to half-n-half (1/2 decaf), I’m demoting my NetFlix subscription from 2 to 1-at-a-time. Tonight’s destination: a maiden voyage to South Pasadena’s Videotheque in search of Battlestar Galactica… cos, you know, TV is a great cope to loss…