Kickstarter Inc.

Colin Dickey Will Help You Get Rid of Your Stuff...By Bringing It to the Arctic

See also: *D3, an Artist Collective That Will Destroy the '90s Mixtape Your Ex-Boyfriend Made You *Five Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week *Best L.A. Novel Ever: The Tournament When writer Colin Dickey goes to the Arctic this summer, he will be bringing two pairs of long underwear, insulated boots ... More >>

Celebrator's 25th Anniversary Beer Taps in L.A.

For 25 years, the Northern California-based Celebrator magazine has been the West Coast's premier source for beer news from locally, regionally and beyond. And starting tonight (with other tapping celebrations slated for the next week), Angelenos will get to try Celebrator's 25th Anniversary Double ... More >>

New Film Chronicles South L.A. High School Rugby Teams' Journey to New Zealand

South L.A. rugby program ICEF Rugby took its first international trip to compete in Hong Kong in 2006, and film and T.V. crews have been scouting its two high school teams ever since. First there was the Academy award-winning documentary filmmaker who shot a movie reel he intended to turn into a fea ... More >>

Mountain Dew Introduces Kickstart: A New Breakfast Drink

If you're the sort of person who wakes up not to a demitasse of espresso or a nice pot of tea, but instead prefers the neon glow of Mountain Dew in your morning cup, the marketing folks at PepsiCo have a new drink for you. A breakfast drink, to be specific, which the company is rolling out later thi ... More >>

Inside the World of L.A.'s Puppet Filmmakers

A movie must be completed before its screened, right? Not according to Graphation. Last night, in Downtown Los Angeles' Hive Gallery, the independent film group kickstarted their first installment of Works In Progress by presenting three unfinished films to an audience. The focus of the WIP seri ... More >>

Can Holy Fuck Become a Stand-Up Comedy Empire? It's Starting With a Punk-Inspired Album

On any given night in Los Angeles, you can find free comedy shows taking place in bookstores, restaurants, bars and art galleries around the city. In the case of comedian Dave Ross's show Holy Fuck, the venue happens to be a movie theater, specifically the Downtown Independent, which he's managed to ... More >>

Paul V. Talks About How His Dragstrip 66 Dance Party Defined L.A.'s Polysexual Nightlife Scene

Paul Vitagliano, better known as Paul V., is a self-proclaimed "promosexual" — a term he coined and has zero shame about owning. Thanks to social media, of course, self-promotion has become an essential component to party throwing, deejaying and writing/blogging — three things the 50-yea ... More >>

Cinefamily's Telethon Will Include Robert Downey, Jr. Digging Up a Time Capsule, and More

Cursed Pirate Girl: Jeremy Bastian's Gorgeous Comic Book Began Life on 26 Feet of Computer Paper

See also: *Archaia Brings 'Lost' Jim Henson Screenplay to Life with A Tale of Sand *More Comic Books coverage at L.A. Weekly It's easy to get lost inside the pages of Jeremy A. Bastian's comic book Cursed Pirate Girl. The Michigan-based artist works with ink and a very fine brush to create panels ... More >>

Get Your Initials on Esthero's Ass, For Only $150,000

Esthero, the local chanteuse with Toronto roots, emerged in the late 1990s and has collaborated with the likes of DJ Krush, Ian Pooley and Kanye West. Her solo oeuvre includes everything from trip-hop to country, all with pop sensibilities and a unique vocal register (not to be confused with Nelly F ... More >>

Here Are the Music Costumes You're Guaranteed To See on Halloween

Each Halloween you see scads of folks wearing the same costumes. Last year it was the damn black swan, and meanwhile Slash and the LMFAO guys seem to turn up annually. See also: *10 Best and Worst Music-Themed Costumes At KCRW's Masquerade and LACMA's Muse Ball *LMFAO 'Bikini Girl' Says She Was F ... More >>

Eva Restaurant Rallies for Help to Solve Parking Debacle

In an unique move, and in light of recent parking related issues, Mark Gold, chef/owner of Eva restaurant, made a plea via his newsletter and Facebook fan page, asking friends of the restaurant to help them raise money towards appealing to the city for a variance on their parking situation. The vari ... More >>

6 Great Food Museums: Food as Art, Or Not

Last week, the Carpigiani Gelato Museum opened in Anzola dell'Emilia, Italy, just outside Bologna; the first in the world, it says, to "delve into the history, culture, and technology of artisan gelato." Inside, you'll learn about the history of the frozen treat, from an 11th century recipe for pom ... More >>

Music Picks: Culture Collide, Nick Lowe, Screaming Females

Political Prankster Steve Lambert Brings His Interactive Signs to Charlie James Gallery

LA Weekly Web Awards 2012: Mark Horvath, Best Online Do-Gooder

Best Online Do-Gooder Mark Horvath invisiblepeople.tv By 1995, Mark Horvath's L.A. dream life as a successful TV executive had turned sour. He was broke and homeless, living on Hollywood Boulevard. With the help of the Hollywood Dream Center, Horvath managed to leave the streets, start a flourishing ... More >>

Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo 2012: Is It L.A.'s Comic-Con? Not Yet, But...

See also: *Elvira and Peaches Christ Celebrate Independent Horror Movies *Stan Lee Has His Own Convention Now: Stan Lee's Comikaze *Comikaze Expo 2011: First-Time Convention Brings Big Names, Big Crowd Over the weekend, Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo took over Los Angeles Convention Center's South Hall a ... More >>

Amanda Palmer's Dopey Topless Protest (NSFW)

See also: Exclusive: Amanda Palmer's New Track, "In My Mind" and Interview Here at West Coast Sound we love it when musicians would rather be naked than wear fur. (Particularly when it's Waka Flocka Flame.) Indeed our sympathies quite often lie with activists who are poorly-clothed. So even though ... More >>

Baron Von Luxxury on His Friends' Double-Suicide, Five Years Later

Blake Robin is a nu-disco producer and DJ who performs under the name Baron von Luxxury. In the summer of 2007, his close friends Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake, a glamorous couple who were fixtures in the New York art scene, both committed suicide. She died from an overdose of Tylenol PM combined ... More >>

PopCon L.A.: Steve Sievers Dresses Like a Turtle and Brings His Supa Pirate Booty Hunt Web Series to Denny's

If you go to a lot of fan conventions in Southern California, you've probably seen Steve Sievers. Usually, he's dressed as a turtle, Daniel the Turtle, to be specific. That's the character he created and voices for the web-based cartoon series, Supa Pirate Booty Hunt. Supa Pirate Booty Hunt is abo ... More >>

Issa Rae and Awkward Black Girl Fill a (Tiny) Niche

Check out our entire YouTube issue here. In front of the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at the Grove, someone is scraping lightweight plastic chairs across the pavement instead of picking them up, and the sound is akin to fingernails being dragged down a chalkboard. Issa Rae, the 27-year-old writer, direct ... More >>

New Project Hopes to Turn Building Façades Into Virtual Murals You Can See on Your iPhone

Los Angeles isn't known as a city with great public spaces. It's a city that traditionally has been beholden to private interests, back-room development deals and, of course, the car. Not coincidentally, it's also a city that has been hostile to street art, until it recently began conflating murals ... More >>

Slate Puts D.I.Y. Slaughter on the Chopping Block

In his take-down of urban butchery, "The Butcher Next Door," published June 6, Slate contributor and vegan animal rights activist James McWilliams tackles the so-called "hipsters" who think D.I.Y. slaughter is the next step in responsible animal husbandry. McWilliams worries that the cool kids -- t ... More >>

Nikos Syropoulos

RJ Mitte: The Good in Breaking Bad

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. When RJ Mitte first moved to Los Angeles at 13, he never imagined he'd be an actor. "Sometimes I think about where I'd be right now if I weren't doing this," he says. "I'd be o ... More >>

Allison Anders: The Edge of Altadena

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. You could forgive Allison Anders' neighbors on her tree-lined street in Altadena for thinking she is just like them. Her house is pleasantly messy; her garden, a work in progre ... More >>

Q & A with Ben Campbell: How (and Why) to Make a Mummy out of McDonald's Food

There's playing with your food, and there's Playing With Your Food. A kind of brilliant example of the latter is the artwork of Ben Campbell, a Texas artist who recently constructed a mummy entirely out of McDonald's food. Campbell, who describes himself as "some guy in West Texas who makes artwork ... More >>

Don Bugito: Nouveau Bug Cuisine

If your image of bugs as food remains comfortably plated in the novelty realm -- grub worm lollipops, chocolate-covered ants, Anthony Bourdain popping a few grasshopper snacks here and there -- you need to meet Monica Martinez of Don Bugito (get her fantastic video after the jump). Martinez is not ... More >>

Ashley Huizenga on Sex, Starvation, and Art

Our music feature this week focuses on Ashley Huizenga, an L.A. musician and performance artist known for her academic-minded -- and also quite flithy -- shows under the guise of her alter ego Actually Huizenga. Trained as a classical pianist, she creates epic '80s inspired dance scores that featur ... More >>

Compass Green: A Mobile Greenhouse Project Pit-Stops in L.A.

Nick Runkle and Justin Cutter doubtless get tired of the if-you-build-it Iowa jokes, but maybe reframe the statement in the opposite direction: if they build it, they'll come to you. What Runkle and Cutter, who are both from Fairfield, Iowa, did was to build a mobile greenhouse and take it on the ro ... More >>

DooD Food: A New Company That Helps Your Dog Go on a Diet

Startups is a new column about new companies, big ideas and bold discoveries happening in the L.A. area. Andrea Carrano was raised in Italy, which means he grew up with table-fed canines. That also was true of his brother-in-law, Ali Niroomand, who grew up in France. "Very few people were buying s ... More >>

Never-Before-Seen Photos of Tupac and Eazy-E From New Book West Coast Hip Hop: A History In Photos

See also: Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: The Complete List Michael Miller and Paul Stewart had capped a successful Kickstarter project and planned a digital imprint of their book, a collection of photographs from the golden era of West Coast hip hop, called West Coast Hip Hop: A Histo ... More >>

Punk Rock Museum Opens Today: Our Exclusive Preview

See all our pictures from the Punk Rock Museum Opening. L.A. scenester icon Taquila Mockingbird made a heartfelt promise three decades ago to keep "keep punk alive," and she's been doing it pretty much everyday of her life since. It fuels her very existence. But this weekend, the writer/singer/arti ... More >>

Long Beach Comic and Horror Convention: The Place to Go for Your Comic Book Education

Liz OhanesianClint and Dawn Wolf of Zombie Ranch​Two years ago, Clint and Dawn Wolf launched their comic, Zombie Ranch, at Long Beach Comic Con. The couple returned to the convention -- now called Long Beach Comic and Horror Con -- last weekend, where they sat on the "Tips and Tricks for Indy ... More >>

Fish Tale: The Never-Ending Story of Fishbone Gets Another Chapter with a New Documentary

Steve Appleford​The oracle came to Angelo Moore in 1989. It was during a tour with his band Fishbone, as they waited to cross the U.S.-Canadian border in the misty, early morning hours. Moore suddenly found himself face-to-face with the great bluesman B.B. King, who had a profound message for ... More >>

Yes, You Can Hear Music Based On the Punctuation in J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey Tonight

Hulton ArchiveJ.D. Salinger: This is giving me a headache. ​Haven't you always wanted to hear a color-coded piano duet based entirely on the punctuation in J.D. Salinger's short stories Franny and Zooey? Well, esoteric art fiends, tonight you finally can! Contrary to what you're thinking, "F ... More >>

L.A. Steampunks The League of S.T.E.A.M. Head to San Diego Comic-Con

Shannon CottrellThe League of S.T.E.A.M., when they aren't fighting Victorian ghosts and monsters​See more photos in Shannon Cottrell's gallery, "The League of S.T.E.A.M. Prepares for San Diego Comic-Con." In 2008, Robin Blackburn decided to make a ghost costume to wear to the annual masquera ... More >>

Food Truck Friday: Auntie's Frybread

Guzzle & NoshAuntie's Frybread truck (left), cinnamon sugar frybread (right).​Native American comfort food has finally hit L.A.'s food truck scene. Launched only a few months ago (thanks to a Kickstarter campaign) at local farmers markets, Auntie's Frybread (@auntiesfrybread) headed out on whe ... More >>

Kevin Smith: "I Am So, Like, Sick of Movies and Shit"

On the road with the cult filmmaker turned podcaster turned DIY warrior

NIGHTRANGER: Maulings and Mohawks at the Movies

Video: Teaser for Hecuba's Film 'Brass Knuckles'

More Manimalian--Manimalien?--news today: L.A. band Hecuba has been laying a little low since the release a memorable EP and a very sophisticated full-length since 2008. If you've never met them, allow John Payne to introduce you to producer/singer Jon Beasley and singer/daner Isabelle Albuquerque ... More >>

Rescuing a Legacy

Vice Cooler's Rwanda Benefit LP to Feature No Age, Dan Deacon, Xiu Xiu, Gossip and More

Vice Cooler collab's with No Age and Dan Deacon to help Rwandans.​He's a rapper. A screamer. A producer. A fashionisto. A photographer. And now, Vice Cooler, he of Hawnay Troof and XBXRX, is a do-gooder too. The recent L.A. transplant (he moved here from Oakland last fall), needs help raisin ... More >>