LA WeeklyFriday, Feb. 13
By the time Kyle Abraham won a MacArthur “genius award” in 2013, no one should have been surprised. The Pittsburgh native had been turning heads on the hard-to-impress New York dance scene, first for his dancing, then for his choreography. Abraham's work draws on ballet, contemporary dance, capoeira and his own starting point in the street dance of Pittsburgh raves, a composite style he calls a postmodern gumbo. This week, his latest, When the Wolves Came In, exemplifies his ability to make the political personal. In this case his laser eye is on segregation, specifically our own Emancipation Proclamation, this year marking its 150th anniversary, and South African apartheid. The music is drawn from a 1960 Max Roach civil rights–infused jazz album, revisited by composer Robert Glasper. UCLA Royce Hall, 340 Royce Drive, Wstwd.; Fri., Feb. 13, 8 p.m.; $29-$69. (310) 825-2101, cap.ucla.edu. —Ann Haskins
Dapper Cadaver is a horror prop house with a brand-new collection dubbed Creatures & Cultures. The morbid boutique's recent expansion and thematic reorganization includes smaller rooms such as a cultural artifacts room, a butcher room and a coffins and tombstone hall. To celebrate, the store is throwing a Friday the 13th Cabinet of Curiosities Art Show — a ghoulish, Valentine's Day eve antidote to the saccharine sweetness of Feb. 14. Expect tasty food and libations, as well as tunes by Jack Strauss of MYTH Masque. Though not required, Victorian dress is a plus, and a photo booth will capture your own macabre moments, too. Dapper Cadaver, 7648 San Fernando Road, Sun Valley; Fri., Feb. 13, 8 p.m.-11 p.m.; free, RSVP encouraged. (818) 771-0818, bit.ly/laweeklydapper, dappercadaver.com. —Tanja M. Laden
Fans of the L.A. Municipal Art Gallery and sweeping city vistas atop Barnsdall Hill often gaze quixotically at the strange, early-modern structure on the park's southern edge. But few have ventured inside. The Frank Lloyd Wright confection known as the Hollyhock House (named for the botanical motif of its unique interior and exterior design) has, despite its popularity, undergone a series of troubled renovations over the decades. But the city swears this is it now. After three years in lockdown, the house is again ready for its close-up. Following a mayoral ribbon-cutting in the afternoon, architecture aficionados are invited to climb inside for 24 hours of self-guided tours and the temporary lifting of the strict photography ban. Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Hlywd.; Fri., Feb. 13, 4 p.m.-Sat., Feb. 14, 4 p.m.; free. (323) 644-6275, barnsdall.org. —Shana Nys Dambrot
Hollyhock House
Saturday, Feb. 14
Wicked desire is in the air as this year's Edwardian Ball, themed “My Gorey Valentines,” invites dressed-up denizens to dance and romance the night away in the elaborate, freaky finery that has become its signature. Steampunk suits, top hats and tails, belle-of-the-ball gowns, corsetry, funeral glamour, old-timey cirque looks, rouge-swathed fetish fashion and, yes, Edwardian chic all will be represented. The patrons are as much a part of the entertainment as the performers. But expect EB to provide whimsical and wonderfully weird amusements anyway, including the John Brothers Piano Company, Owl Tree Tarot, “Trapeze DJs” Delachaux & the Klown, the Gentlemen Callers of L.A. and a centerpiece spectacle featuring the Ball's creators, Rosin Coven and Vau de Vire Society, interpreting Edward Gorey's classic story “The Beastly Baby.” The Fonda Theatre, 6126 Hollywood Blvd., Hlywd.; Sat., Feb. 14, 8 p.m.; $50-$85. edwardianball.com. —Lina Lecaro
Cold sweets and DIY treats will be had at the Valentine's edition of the Silver Lake Flea Market, and you don't even have to leave your babe's bed too early, since the flea has new, later hours (noon to 5 p.m.). Handmade arts, crafts and vintage wares will be on hand, as always, but they're also curating it this week toward Valentine-y vendors and providing a sassy soundtrack to the shopping, with live music by the Love-Inns (teen-girl rockers from the neighborhood) at 2 p.m. And if all that doesn't make the day lust-worthy enough, free gourmet ice cream cones are promised, too. (Full disclosure: The author has DJed at the event in the past.) Micheltorena Elementary School playground, 1511 Micheltorena St., Silver Lake; Sat., Feb. 14, noon-5 p.m.; free. silverlakeshop.com. —Lina Lecaro
Sunday, Feb. 15
Los Angeles Filmforum is the longest-running experimental-film series in Los Angeles, and it's hosting the seventh annual Festival of (In)appropriation, a program of shorts made from popular films and public domain and archive footage. This year's selections include footage from a 1995 murder trial, a scene from Rear Window cut into 19 columns moving at different speeds, and every shot from Seinfeld in which nothing happens. The films show how found-footage filmmaking can be turned into video art in imaginative ways. Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hlywd.; Sun., Feb. 15, 7:30 p.m.; $10 general, $6 students and seniors, Filmforum members free. (323) 466-3456, festivalofinappropriation.org. —Tanja M. Laden
Surveillance Punishment and the Black Psyche is multimedia artist M. Lamar's latest meditation on race and power. A music-theater piece for piano and countertenor, it's inspired by the near-constant fetishization of the bodies of black males by everything from slavery to the NBA to the depressingly regular violent deaths of people of color. In the piece, a black man murders his male overseer/lover, and his story is told through a multitude of surveillance cameras as he awaits his fate in one prison or another. With additional text by Tucker Culbertson, music by Lamar and art design by Sabin Calvert, the piece has more layers than an onion and just as many tears. Human Resources, 410 Cottage Home St., Chinatown; Sun., Feb. 15, 7 p.m.; $10 advance, $15 at the door. (213) 290-4752, humanresourcesla.com. —David Cotner
If you can put your phone away for a day and not get the shakes, you'll discover that, even in an increasingly paperless world, putting your thoughts on paper is just as important as putting them on the screen. The fourth annual L.A. Zine Fest returns with workshops, discussions and 200 national zine makers and small-press publishers with names such as Awkward Ladies Club, Homeschoolers Like Us, Murder Can Be Fun and I Was a Teenage Filipino Skinhead selling their stories, comics and art. This year's featured speakers are co-authors Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, who'll be discussing their 1996 must-read, punk-rock tome, Please Kill Me, as well as their new book, Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose. Homenetmen Glendale “Ararat” Chapter, 3347 N. San Fernando Road, Glassell Park; Sun., Feb. 15, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; free. lazinefest.com. —Siran Babayan
Monday, Feb. 16
Denizens of San Francisco may be familiar with the street performer known as Space Lady, but her appearance at Cinefamily's Lost & Found Film Club marks a rare excursion into our fair city. The real-life Susan Dietrich Schneider is known for airy synth renditions of tunes such as “Major Tom,” which tonight will accompany a selection of celestial 16mm shorts, including the 25-minute Rescue Party. Cinefamily, 611 N Fairfax Ave., Fairfax; Mon., Feb. 16, 7:30 p.m.; $12, free for members. (323) 655-2510, cinefamily.org. —Michael Nordine
U.S. bobsled team; Credit: Wikipedia
Tuesday, Feb. 17
If the concept of skeleton or luge racing is just too frightening, come see the strides that are being made in modern bobsleighing in the lecture BMW U.S. Olympic Bobsled: Speeding Muscles. Michael V. Scully, director of creative consulting at BMW DesignworksUSA, appears at this latest installment of UCLA's Ideas Lectures on how advances in sleek, carbon-fiber designs helped the U.S. team win multiple medals last year at Sochi. At speeds of 90 mph, working up 5Gs of force on the corners, these new sleds are the perfect marriage of man and machine. UCLA Architecture & Urban Design, Hercules Campus, 5865 S. Campus Center Drive, Playa Vista; Tue., Feb. 17, 6:45 p.m. reception, 7:30 p.m. lecture; free. (310) 409-1604, aud.ucla.edu. —David Cotner
HM157 is going big for Mardi Gras, gathering artists including The Urban Renewal Project and Featherbeard for jazzy and funky jams, plus Hells Belles Burlesque. Brun's Creole Soul Kitchen Food Truck will provide the food, and proceeds benefit Our School at Blair Grocery, a nonprofit that offers youth employment opportunities and fresh food to families in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward. Wear a costume and grab some beads. VIP packs include masks, food and drinks. HM157, 3110 N. Broadway, Lincoln Heights; Tue., Feb. 17, 7 p.m.; $15 in advance, $20 at the door, $50-$250 VIP. hm157.com. —Liz Ohanesian
Wednesday, Feb. 18
The truth is in there — in The X-Files star David Duchovny's new satirical novel Holy Cow, that is. He'll sign his modern fable about courageous cow Elsie Bovary, liberated from her ignorance upon learning from TV about what really goes on in those industrial meat farms. Capitalizing on this soul-searing meta moment, the heroic heifer plots to break her friends — a pig who wants to go to Israel and a turkey who wants to go to Turkey — out of their barnyard borstal with her and escape to greener pastures. Barnes & Noble at the Grove, 189 The Grove Drive, Mid-Wilshire; Wed., Feb. 18, 7 p.m.; free (wristbanded event), book is $24. (323) 525-0270, store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/86299. —David Cotner
How's this for a timely story? In 1978, before becoming a dictator, Kim Jong-Il was an obsessive film buff who orchestrated the kidnapping of South Korean director Shin Sang-Ok and his movie star ex-wife Choi Eun-Hee, considered a power couple in Seoul. They were forced to remarry and make several propaganda films, including a Communist knockoff of Godzilla, meant to boost the image and morale of North Korea. The two eventually escaped to the U.S. Embassy in Vienna and even relocated to L.A. for a time. Paul Fischer, a Saudi Arabia–born independent film producer based in London, recounts these events in his new book, A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power, which, for anyone who was caught up in the controversy of The Interview, is likely to be a page-turner. Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., W. Hlywd.; Wed., Feb. 18, 7 p.m.; free. (310) 659-3110, booksoup.com. —Siran Babayan
Les 7 Doigts de la Main; Credit: Photo by Lionel Montagnier, courtesy CAMI
Thursday, Feb. 19
Seven become one as Canadian circus troupe Les 7 Doigts de la Main (the seven fingers of the hand) presents its popular show Séquence 8 at the Valley Performing Arts Center. This small group brings big-time circus skill (it was founded by Cirque du Soleil alumni) to a more intimate acrobatic experience. Watch top performers climb poles, jump through hoops, dance and contort to electro tunes against a background of empty frames. Choreographed by Shana Carroll and Sébastien Soldevila, Séquence 8 has toured worldwide since 2012, to rave reviews. Valley Performing Arts Center, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge; Thu., Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m.; $35-$65. (818) 677-8800, valley0x200Bperforming0x200Bartscenter.org. —Sascha Bos
Paul D. Miller is known to most as DJ Spooky, an innovative, tech-savvy music producer. He's also an author, pioneer of audio/visual remix artistry, app developer and voracious cultural historian. His mind, like his art, is intensely cross-platform and multimedia-obsessed, as he refines his unique system of incorporating found and original imagery, archival footage, live onstage mixing, cultural and political deconstruction, and even a little science fiction into his vision of Afrofuturism. ALOUD's presentation of Miller's The Hidden Code combines performance and interview elements in an evening of enlightening ideas and deep tracks. Or is that enlightening tracks and deep ideas? Los Angeles Central Library, 630 W. Fifth St., dwntwn.; Thu., Feb. 19, 7:15 p.m.; free. (213) 228-7000, lfla.org. —Shana Nys Dambrot
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