GO LA: Rum, Sodomy and John Waters’ Filthy World

Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Wstwd.; Mon., March 16, 8 p.m.; $50-$100; $125 VIP reception at 7 p.m. (818) 249 1428 or www.itsmyseat.com.  —L.M.

Occult Los Angeles: Esoteric Cinema in the Southland

No angel of the morning: Lizz Winstead

Related Content

• Hollywood's Famous Source Family Cult Returns, in a New Documentary
  May 9, 2013
• The Source Family Comes Home to Hollywood, On Its Own Terms
  May 13, 2013
• 5 Best Comedy Shows in L.A. This Week, Including SNL Vet Garrett Morris' Revamped Comedy Club
  November 7, 2012
• You Know You Want an iPhone Flask: 4 Awesome Booze Oddities You Can Buy Online
  May 6, 2013
• Here's a Review of the New Justin Timberlake Album, Using Only K-Pop GIFs
  March 13, 2013

More About

• Alice Johnson
• Tom Davis
• Martha Argerich
• The Pogues
• Dance

TUESDAY, MARCH 17

Film

F U CN RD THS U CN B S O TRK 2

Erik Davis, author and authority on Americana and arcana, discusses L.A.’s secret history of the occult, where “occult” means more than just yellow stars and green clovers — it means things that are occluded until unearthed by opened minds and weather eyes, in Occult Los Angeles: Esoteric Cinema in the Southland. He’ll be showing a triptych of footage rooted in esoterica and the greater metropolitan Los Angeles area: everything from the secret messages in psychedelia like Frankenheimer’s Seconds and Corman’s The Trip to Maya Deren, the avant-Angeleno filmmaker who became a very real Señora la Reina de los Ángeles with her experimental short Meshes of the Afternoon. Joining Davis for this cinematic magical mystery tour is Jodi Wille, long the doyenne of all things WTF in L.A. culture, and leader of the recent séance that resurrected the Source Family and YaHoWa for a wider audience.

Wille promises news and ephemera from the Universal World Church (not to be confused with the Universal Life Church, they of the instant-ordination plan), Pentecostals ensconced in Central Los Angeles with a flair for high theatrics and extra shininess throughout. One never knows what Wille has up her learned sleeve — more on rocket scientist and staunch Crowleyite Jack Parsons? Something, perhaps, on Louise Huebner, the Official Witch of Los Angeles County and, in fact, the only officially appointed witch in the world?

Other wizards with whom you will confer and hobnob: filmmaker Kenneth Anger’s associate Brian Butler, who vows to expose more about the witches of Los Angeles, Paul Nugent and the so-called “UFO religion” of the Aetherius Society, and Maja D’Aoust of the Philosophical Research Society, the “center for the study and teaching of the world’s wisdom traditions.” It’s an evening that harks back to an earlier era in the Southland — pioneer spirit applied to new horizons: otherworldly, full of promise and adventure.

Cinefamily at Silent Movie Theatre, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A.; Tues., March 17, 8 p.m.; $13. (323) 655-2510.  —David Cotner

Fake Band

O’LLIN — CAN YOU JIG IT?

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, or St. Paddy’s Day, if you are a close friend of the patron saint of Ireland. Do not shorten it to St. “Patty’s” Day, or you will get a ticket from the Weekly’s resident stretch-leprechaun, Patrick Range McDonald. In honor of the Emerald Isle and chasing snakes and all that, here’s an Irish joke: “How do you recognize a Kerryman on an oil rig? He’s the one throwing crusts of bread to the helicopters.” I don’t get it either. Anyway, today would be a great day to see Irish musical madmen the Pogues, but they’re in Washington, D.C. It’s too easy to speak of singer Shane MacGowan in the past tense — sure, his heart’s still pumping, but the guy should have been dead a long time ago. Stepping in with better livers and teeth are L.A.’s own Ollin, doing the Pogues doing Rum, Sodomy & the Lash in its entirety.

Says Ollin frontman Scott Rodart, “Ollin, since its inception nearly 15 years ago, has always been likened to the Pogues. We all were recovering East L.A. punk rockers who somehow found an affinity for Mexican folk music — the kind we used to make fun of! So we put down our beat-up electric guitars, turned off the Marshalls and headed out on that vagabond trail. I gotta say we love the poetry, the politics, the musical mastery. The Pogues themselves got a kick out of our Chicano interpretation of their landmark record, Rum, Sodomy & the Lash. Last year, St. Patrick’s Day, they invited us to open their sold-out show at the Roseland theater in NYC.” Ah, but this year they’re at Spaceland in L.A.

Spaceland, 1717 Silver Lake Blvd., Silver Lake; Tues., March 17, 9 p.m.; $10. www.clubspaceland.com.  —L.M.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18

COMEDY PICK

LIzz Winstead: Wake Up World

Michael Stipe, Rachel Maddow, Anne Meara and Roseanne have been guests on Wake Up World, the morning-show spoof that’s “America’s only six-hour morning show” from Lizz Winstead and her comedy ensemble, Shoot the Messenger. Though based in New York, Winstead and Co. bring their show to the land of vapid starlets and Dr. Phil for two special installments.  —Libby Molyneaux

L.A. WEEKLY: What inspired Wake Up World?  

WINSTEAD: There are 23 hours of these shows on every day. I kept seeing four-minute segments like “Jewelry that makes your butt look smaller” and  “Christian diet books.” Add to that actual teases like, “Coming up in this hour, breast-cancer survivors and Cajun cookin’!” I thought to myself, Oh, my God, these people are so-o-o-o stretching to fill three hours of airtime and will find a way to sexify and commoditize even the most important stories. Just last week, I was watching CNN’s morning show and they did an economic story that focused on how people cheating on their spouses are economizing by having sex in their cars and not in motel rooms. And now that The Today Show has given us Kathie Lee for a fourth hour? Morning shows seem ripe for satire.

What do you have planned for L.A. shows?