Kickstarter Inc.

L.A. Skateboard Company Reinvents the Wheel. Literally.

Like most parking lots, the one outside downtown's Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator is flat and fairly vast — a skateboarder's dream of a canvas. David Patrick, 48, looks at ease as he glides along the smooth concrete, drifting his longboard in a gentle left and right zag. "I just love riding a ... More >>

The Wookiee Wins: Meet the Director of the Chewbacca Doc That Conquered Kickstarter

Fall TV Preview 2013

The L.A. Weekly's first-ever, network-agnostic, distribution-neutral preview of everything worth streaming

#LAWebAwards: Cinefamily Wins Best KickStarter Campaign in L.A.

The L.A. Weekly's 2013 Web Awards honor the best of what's online. Check out the complete list of winners. In the middle of Cinefamily's monthlong Kickstarter campaign last December, Robert Downey Jr. made the oddball movie theater an offer it couldn't refuse — and one that could have cost it ... More >>

The Best Concerts to See In L.A. This Week

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar Monday, August 19 Best Coast EL REY THEATRE Best Coast's songs are so giddy and sugary that it's easy to make fun of the increasingly popular local band. Bethany Cosentino doesn't just evoke the California lifestyle with her ... More >>

Three California Food-Related Kickstarters Worth Your Consideration

The internet is a strange thing -- a large part of it is actually set up for people who are looking for random ways to part with their money. I'd wager that a lot of internet shopping is not done by people looking for something specific, but rather folks aimlessly searching for a reason to throw awa ... More >>

Two Bit Circus, a Startup That's Bringing the Carnival Midway Game Into the 21st Century

How USC Grads Freddie Wong and Ryan Coogler Became the Future of Filmmaking, Via Two Very Different Paths

Fruitvale Station was a hit at Sundance, while Video Game High School has millions of teen fans

Los Angeles Ale Works Debuts Thai Tea Kolsh Craft Soda Mixology

No worries if you're like us and you missed the first tapping of Los Angeles Ale Works' second-ever released beer at City Tavern on Sunday night. Not only are kegs of the Thai-tea-infused Karma Kolsh already on tap at bars from Downtown to Santa Monica, but the rest of July is also full of L.A. Alew ... More >>

Help Kickstart The Museum of Food and Drink (Or Just Watch a Massive Cereal Gun in Action)

Kickstarter has changed the game. A touring musician disinclined to waste valuable songwriting time on a dreary day job can ask her friends for $20 apiece and end up subsidizing the next three months of her life. An artist with a big idea doesn't have to win a grant when he can snatch a few grand f ... More >>

The Largest Boba Tea Cup In The World

The organizers behind the 626 Night Market are embarking on a brand new feat: to create the largest boba cup in the world. They've already started a Kickstarter campaign for the cause. The goal: to raise the money needed for a plexiglass cup that is expected to hold 320 gallons of tea. The cup its ... More >>

The Best Concerts to See in Los Angeles This Week

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar Monday, June 17 Alice Smith TROUBADOUR Grammy-nominated songstress Alice Smith acquired massive buzz with her 2006 BBE release, For Lovers, Dreamers & Me. Smith soon inked a deal with Epic Records, where she became a victim ... More >>

Our Diary of the Getty's Architecture Project: 'Everything Loose Will Land,' the A D Gala and Machine Project

This is the third installment of our Pacific Standard Time Presents diary, tracking modern architecture happenings all over the city. Check out our previous entries: *The Getty's Big, New Exploration of L.A. Architecture *SCI-Arc's Gala and a Concert at Jackie Treehorn's House High temperatures mig ... More >>

Stephen Glassman Wants to Create Billboards Made of Trees

The helicopter hangs in the air over downtown L.A. for what seems like a very long time, its whirring blades adding the slight chill of potential alarm over the otherwise quiet Sunday night streets. The airship hovers at around a hundred fifty feet, it's powerful bluish spotlight illuminating the ro ... More >>

Milking Your Fans and Family? This Is a Bad Idea

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls' Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you ... More >>

It’s the Pictures That Got Small

The Nether, Jennifer Haley's New Play at Kirk Douglas Theatre, Takes Place in a Virtual Reality of Sexual Fantasies

Budweiser Allegedly Watered Down Beer 5 California Craft Alternatives

Anheuser-Busch InBev is being sued by consumers in Pennsylvania, California and New Jersey with companion suits coming from Ohio and Colorado, Bloomberg reports. The complaint filed in Philadelphia alleges that the alcohol content in a variety of Anheuser-Busch products is overstated, which would vi ... More >>

4 Los Angeles Brewery Kickstarter Campaigns: Invest in Your Beer Future

It's been a whirlwind start to 2013 for Los Angeles beer. The scene celebrated it's unofficial third birthday with the near-simultaneous anniversaries of Ladyface, Eagle Rock and Strand brewing companies and El Segundo Brewing Company released its first round of production bottles, which are now spr ... More >>

"Artisan" Instant Coffee? Just Add Panela

Sooner or later, a modern marriage of the current artisan and coffee crazes was inevitable. Still, when that box of Jiva coffee cubes landed on our desk, we found the idea of 'artisan' instant coffee highly entertaining (it was a long day). And, to be fair, our Folgers times have changed. Starbucks ... More >>

Local Promoters Raw Put Bands in Front of Audiences -- For a Fee

A Los Angeles-based company called Raw would like to give your band a show. And also, possibly, an award. In exchange, it would like a few dollars. Raw's clunky, full moniker is RAW: natural born artists -- it's not an acronym but rather references "unpolished" performers. It puts on parties in mo ... More >>

Top 6 Los Angeles Breweries to Watch In 2013

Los Angeles might have one of the younger beer communities on the West Coast, but it is certainly making up for lost time. The city that once lived in the shadow of beer powerhouses like San Diego and Portland is finally starting to come into its own with new breweries beginning to ship suds and man ... More >>

Top 10 Geek Heroes of 2012

In 2012, Stan Lee got his own comic book convention, Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo came to town, web sensations like the comic Homestuck and series Dick Figures had wild success on Kickstarter and Lloyd Kaufman put a whole ton of Troma films on YouTube. Sure, there's plenty more that happened in 2 ... More >>

Do Kickstarter Bands Have To Pay Taxes? Accountants Aren't So Sure

Boy band Allstar Weekend are Poway's answer to One Direction. The San Diego county-bred group got its start on the Disney Channel music competition Next Big Thing back in 2009. They took second place on that show, but the exposure helped the band ink a four-album deal with Hollywood Records, book a ... More >>

The Best End-of-the-World Parties In L.A. on Friday

According to the Mayan calendar, the I-Ching and a range of biblical and secular prophecies, the world is supposed to come to an end on Friday. It's probably not true but what if it is? You're going to feel pretty dumb if you didn't spend your last evening dancing, eating, drinking and being merry. ... More >>

We Attended Cinefamily's Entire 24-Hour Holiday Telethon. Here's the Mind-Blowing Stuff That Happened

It's somewhere on the wrong side of 4 a.m., John Hawkes is casually smoking cigarettes on an outdoor couch, the German actor Udo Kier just went back to the coffin he likely sleeps in, and Cinefamily's back patio looks like the early morning lull after a biker-gang Christmas party. There are beercans ... More >>

12 Best Gifts for People Who Love L.A.

See also: *Best L.A. Novel Ever: The Tournament *5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week *Our Best of L.A. issue and our Best of L.A. app What do you get someone who has everything: a beautiful home, great food and legal marijuana? From endless gift certificates to countless books and DVDs, there's ... More >>

Is Music Site Uncool Cool Enough to Get Funding?

Music writers David Greenwald and Daniel Siegal want to create a site for in-depth music reporting and criticism, and they want to pay writers a fair wage to do that work. Sort of like the L.A. Weekly's music section, but they want to do it minus the kind of pageview-driving clickbait -- listicles a ... More >>

How to Succeed on the Web: 4 Tips from This Week's Digital Hollywood Summit

Hashtags and Twitter handles were flying at this week's four-day Digital Hollywood conference. Executives and innovators in film, television, technology and new media came to speak at more than 50 panels held in the glitzy halls of the Ritz Carlton, Marina Del Rey. Attendees were split between youn ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 10/15 - 10/19

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "In a weak economy, is this the future of keeping businesses open? Move over Kickstarter." Eva Restaurant Rallies for Help to Solve Parking Debacle. "Roy Choi 'broke a lot of laws' when opening Kogi." 6 Things We Learned From ... More >>

Ask Fan Landers: Should I Publicly Humiliate My Bandmate for What He's Done?

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls' Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. Send your problems to he ... More >>

World's Best Father Photo Series (and Calendar): Dad Baby Food

A new father snaps baby thumbing knowingly through an applesauce-smeared copy of Ada or Ardor. Another day, he tucks a Budweiser into the crook of her soft little arm as she sleeps, drooling and burbling away, and, with a few iPhone heroics, updates his Instagram to the applause of family members a ... More >>

Smallknot: New Website Aims to Help Fund Locally Owned Restaurants

Kickstarter was so six months ago. Now the newest way to fund a creative project -- without taking a loan from a guy named "Vinny the Shark" -- is a website called Smallknot, a Brooklyn-based company that aims to provide a media platform for local businesses, restaurants mostly, to raise money for s ... More >>

We Gave Charlie Manson's New Record Half a Listen and It Sucks

Let's all try to be really open-minded for a hot second. Records Ad Nauseam, a niche record label run out of the Hollywood boutique Beauty is Pain, just put out a vinyl LP of never-before-released Charles Manson music. Recorded on tape in a room above the chapel at Vacaville Medical Facility in th ... More >>

No Hay Nada Mas

How Dick Figures Broke the Kickstarter Record for Funding of an Animation Project

See also: *Dick Figures, a Hit YouTube Series That References Memes, Video Games and Skrillex *L.A. Weekly's YouTube Issue It's been a whirlwind few months for Ed Skudder and Zack Keller, creators of the popular animated web series Dick Figures. When we first met, they were at Los Angeles Animation ... More >>

Amanda Palmer Brought Her Traveling Art Party to Her L.A. Kickstarter Backers

On Thursday night, Amanda Palmer brought her traveling art party to Los Angeles' Pop tART Gallery. One of only six such events Palmer was throwing in the U.S. and Europe, the party was exclusively for people who donated at least $300 to her wildly successful Kickstarter campaign. Holly Rushing was ... More >>

Drip.FM Is HBO for Music Nerds

[Editor's note: Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. Be sure to also check out the archives.] It's hard to pinpoint the date when the music industry stopped speaking like a shell-shocked trench poet, but the sky quietly quit falling. Last year, album sal ... More >>

Womanthology: Gender Is the Least Interesting Thing About This All-Female Comics Anthology

Last summer, Womanthology was big news across the comic book scene, back when the mega-anthology featuring an all female team of creators was only a concept, the brainchild of comic book artist Renae De Liz, inspired by a tweet from Jessica Hickman, who became one of the book's editors. The Kickstar ... More >>

Thank You For Coming Launches Restaurant Residency Program

Atwater Village's Kickstarter-funded "restaurant project" Thank You for Coming announced yesterday that it had finally received its approval from the L.A. County Health Department and plans to host its first open house on June 21, from noon to midnight. Thank You For Coming aims to become L.A.'s f ... More >>

Five Cheap Ways You Can Support Your Favorite Artists

Art shouldn't be intimidating, but when you walk into a gallery and note that even the low priced items are several hundreds of dollars, it can be. But fear not, art lovers. There are plenty of ways you can support the artists whose work you've reblogged on Tumblr or pinned to Pinterest even when ... More >>

The Roots, Hilary Hahn, The Urinals

Also, Barbara Lynn, Stalley, Active Child and others

Portlandia Spoofs Echo Park Singer IAMEVE's Kickstarter Campaign

See also: Portlandia Was Partly Inspired by Los Angeles Since Kickstarter launched less than four years ago, the "crowdfunding" site has become as ubiquitous as the hipster mustache. Who doesn't know a musician, aspiring filmmaker or underwater basket weaver who has concocted a clever video beseech ... More >>

Win A Date With The Singer! Kickstarter Bands That Actually Deserve Your Money

By Ed Carrasco Christmas may be over, but lots of local musicians are still hoping for a little seasonal generosity. They're seeking help footing the bill for production of their albums -- remember those? -- and have turned to Kickstarter. You may be feeling tapped out at this time of year, but, h ... More >>

Atwater Village Farm: Now Open How To Farm in a Gold Lamé Dress

Patrick O'DonnellPiper Goldstein and products​There's a new wave of urban farmers, but Piper Goldstein takes it to the next level. She likes to farm in a gold lamé dress and work boots. A native to Los Angeles, she actually has Woodland Hills tattooed across her stomach. But she's not your ... More >>

Q & A with Mary Jo Pehl, Author of Man Saved By Condiments!: The Relative Joy of Arby's Horsey Sauce, Butter Conduits Being Haunted by Ketchup

In 2003, a security guard from Kermit, West Virginia, named Robert Ward was driving to work when he lost control of his 1985 Ford, plunged 150 feet into a snowy gulch and broke his hip. For the next six and a half days, he kept himself alive by eating snow as well as by some clever car foraging; for ... More >>

Toilet Papering Documentary About L.A. Vandalism Crew Needs Your Cash

Kickstarter​A filmmaker wants to make a documentary about a high school toilet papering crew that has existed in L.A. since 1979. (It replaces members who graduate and move on). It could be the feel-good vandalism film of the year. The doc by Whit Scott is to be called "Rolled," and he's look ... More >>

Atwater Village Farm Market Preview Tonight

Rachael Narinsjam and toast​ Tonight, July 28th, the Atwater Village Farm Market will be open for a sneak preview as part of the very charming Atwater Village's Summer Nights on the Boulevard from 5 to 10 p.m. at 3224 Glendale Boulevard. If you haven't been to one of these exceptionally well-o ... More >>

Allison Anders and Kurt Voss Kickstart New Rock Film, 'Strutter" -- Details From The Directors.

Strutter-ers Dante Ailano White and Ericka Clevenger​Don't Knock The Rock film fest creator Allison Anders has been celebrating rock n' roll, punk, pop and folk in film with DKTR events since 2003, but music has always played a major role in her own films (Mi Vida Loca, Border Radio, Sugartown ... More >>

Listen: Members of Minutemen, Rare Grooves, Sufjan Stevens' Band and Philip Glass Ensemble Collaborate for New Album by Chris Schlarb (of I Heart Lung)

Chris Schlarb, composer, I Heart Lung, collaborators​Long Beach player-producer-composer (and indie label head) Chris Schlarb is releasing what looks to be a bit of a magnum opus on Asthmatic Kitty Records this month. Featuring nearly 30 musicians, including the inimitable DM Stith (a solo ar ... More >>