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3 Film Screenings in L.A.! Sunset Stories, Kiss Me and Wildness

Posted on 10 July 2012 | No responses

I’m thrilled to announce that three films I worked on in recent years are screening this month in Los Angeles! One is a fantastical narrative feature, another a gritty short film, and the other is a unique hybrid documentary. This is my favorite part of filmmaking magic — seeing the results of such an intense collaborative experience made with the blood, sweat and tears of dedicated casts and crew members finally projected onto the big screen, where you can get fully immersed in the actual story and emotionally invested in the characters. These bewitching moments inside a dark movie theater remind me that filmmaking is truly a labor of love. (No pun intended with my name.)

All three of these movies are very different and very cool in their own way. It’s definitely worth watching all of them. Here’s a couple of my production stills from each film, so you can get a feel for each one.

So if you’re in the L.A. area and love cinema as much as I do, please come and join me, and the cast & crews of these fine films at the Outfest screenings. It’ll be fun!

I’ll bring the box of Milk Duds and cherry Slurpees. You bring the nachos and bucket of popcorn.

Let’s DO this!

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SUNSET STORIES

SUNSET STORIES
Sat, July 14, 9:30PM [ BUY TIX ]
REDCAT – Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater

(Directed by Silas Howard, Ernesto Foronda USA, 2012, 87 mins)

May is transporting bone marrow across L.A. when a chance meeting with her hunky ex (Sung Kang, FAST & FURIOUS) causes her to lose her cargo. Together, they embark on a wacky all-night quest to locate it, encountering a ensemble of queer Angelenos played by Justin Vivian Bond, Nao Bustamante, Michelle Krusiec, and Zosia Mamet (“Girls”). Shot in Silver Lake and Hollywood, SUNSET STORIES is a quirky and stylish love letter to L.A.

AFTER-PARTY @ HUMAN RESOURCES – Featuring performances by Justin Vivian Bond, Nao Bustamante and Jacolby Satterwhite

[ SEE MORE production stills...>> ]

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KISS ME

KISS ME
“This is How We Do It” program
Sunday, July 15, 7:15 p.m. Harmony Gold [ BUY TIX ]
Saturday, July 21, 7:15 p.m. Directors Guild of America [ BUY TIX ]

(Directed by Jules Nurrish. Starring Raúl Castillo, Carolyn Zeller, Hansford Prince, Javier Lezama, Olin Tinatiuh, Shawn Frausto.)

Join the KISS ME cast and crew at our Los Angeles Premiere! Set in the often-clandestine world of Latino boxing in East Los Angeles, Kid Vargas is forced to face up to some devastating truths after he kills his opponent in the ring.

[ SEE MORE production stills...>> ]

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WILDNESS

WILDNESS
Saturday, July 21, 2012, 7:30pm [ BUY TIX ]
Directors Guild of America

(Directed By: Wu Tsang; SCR: Roya Rastegar; USA, 2011, 73 mins)

This exuberant documentary tells the story of Wildness, one of the most unique, electrifying and important queer parties in Los Angeles nightlife history. The film presents the creativity and conflict that arose when a group of queer avant-garde artists of color intersected with a community of transgender immigrant women at historic bar The Silver Platter in MacArthur Park. WILDNESS had its World Premiere at the Museum of Modern Art and was part of the 2012 Whitney Biennial.

POST-SCREENING RECEPTION: DGA ATRIUM featuring DJs NGUZUNGUZU and Total Freedom

[ SEE MORE production stills...>> ]

In Print: LA Weekly

Posted on 15 June 2012 | 1 response

I love taking pictures, simple as that. But I love it even more when those pictures wind up in print. Especially on newsprint, because the New Yorker in me still loves to stay in bed on a lazy morning to read the New York Times Sunday edition.

So now that I’m officially a Los Angeleno, I’m delighted that my photo of Jim Mahfood and Kat has been printed in this week’s LA WEEKLY, in glorious and gritty newsprint. Sweeeet! (I also love that the heading says, “GO >> LA” because those happen to be my initials, haha!)

Photo courtesy of HiJinx PR

This photo came from a shoot we did for BPM Magazine, so check my previous blog entry to see more pictures from this series. This is the shoot that initially sparked the collab book project and art crew called “Pervert Train” with me and the guys. Pure magic was made that day, and it continues to brew in the creative cauldron today…

Anyway, the LA WEEKLY article about Jim’s new Los Angeles Ink Stains book is pretty rad: “His single-page strips depicted the sun-drenched, debauched and sometimes dead-serious adventures of the artist and his crew — which includes some of the city’s most famous artists and DJs, plus loads of fabulous and gorgeous people you’ve never heard of.” That is the possibly the most eloquent and poetic description of ‘just hanging out’ I’ve ever read. I dig it. So… come hang out and cut a rug with me, Jimmy and the crew at the Ink Stains book release prom party tomorrow night! It’s LA WEEKLY‘s Pick of the Week! Nerd City calls it the “the art event of the summer”. It’s TRUE.

Well, I gotta run… I’m on Prom Committee, so I must go help hang some balloons before I get my hurrr did. (By the way, I don’t have a physical copy of this issue of LA Weekly yet, so if you see one on your travels, please pick one up for me.)

Again, if you’re in our neck of the woods, please join us at prom tmrw night and vote for your Prom King and Queen! Plus: Dance battles. Tacos. Booze. Art. Good music. Good people. Good times.

Oh, and to Jim — huge congratulations on the Ink Stains book release and prom party! I LOVE YOU, man!!! <3

The Prom Committee – Illustration by Jim Mahfood

Event: L.A. Ink Stains Prom & book release party!

Posted on 31 May 2012 | No responses

Hey. You. Let’s go to prom. I’m serious. F’reals.

What it is, you ask? Fast facts to get you up to speed:

• My homie Jim Mahfood is an awesome artist. You may have seen his work in comic books such as Clerks, Grrl Scouts, Spider-Man, Heavy Metal and the upcoming Tank Girl. (Yeah, THAT Tank Girl.)
• For the last couple of years, he’s been making a web comic called L.A. Ink Stains which is an honest autobiography of his crazy fun life
• I make a number of appearances in said comic, along with my friends, as we get swept up in wacky, hilarious adventures with Jim (see panels below)
• Image Comics has compiled all the issues into a sweet ass graphic novel book! DOPE.
• To celebrate the release of this rad book, Jim’s hosting an epic PROM party on June 16th, 2012 at the awesome Titmouse Animation Studio in Hollywood
• Everybody is welcome to come party! As long as you’re over 18. You just gotta cough up some dough for a ticket. Or.. volunteer to get in for free!
• Oh, and if you do come, you gotta wear black & white. That’s the theme. Because life is one big comic book panel after all.

I think this video probably explains it better than I have, and it has some classic dance sequences, so it’s worth the watch:

In order to further entice you to going to prom, I am posting my actual prom picture against my better judgement. You know, the little black dress is alright. But I honestly don’t know what’s worse — the Marge Simpson beehive hairdo, the Audrey Hepburn satin sleeved gloves, or the huge ass Mr. T gold chain. (I pity the fool who makes fun of my gold chain.) What was I thinking??

And now, here’s panels from Ink Stains Issue #45, where I make a cameo (word up!). In this scene, King Gum, Jim, me and Dezastro are at the amazing PRINCE concert. (I almost always have a camera around my neck in Jim’s comic, which amuses me to no end.)

Prince got us all pregnant that night with his baby-making music. TRUE STORY.

And here’s another one that talks about the collaboration project I’m working on with Jim:

Comic panels illustrated by Jim Mahfood

Anyway, Ink Stains is such a fun read even if you don’t know any of us, so do pick up the book. And seriously, come to prom if you can. I know it’s gonna be a night of epic fun, and we’ve got DJ Mahf and DJ Expo on the turntables. And of course, there will be Jim, Jane Dope, King Gum, Bad Andy, Steven Soria, Sandra, Miles, Kat, Dan Z and the whole cast of Ink Stains getting smashed and dancing our asses off to classic hip hop and funksplosion. Let’s party like it’s 2012, people!

You know, I wonder what kind of classic movie prom scene it’s gonna be like… Pretty in Pink? Footloose? Carrie? Dare I say it… Twilight? I personally hope it’s like the scene from She’s All That (or Not Another Teen Movie), cuz I’m a sucker for “impromptu” choreographed synchronized dancing.

Thanks to Jim, Jane Dope and the gang for putting this event together. I’m pretty excited about it, though to be honest, I have NO IDEA what I’m gonna wear to prom. With any luck, maybe I can find another Mr. T gold chain.

All I know is, this party is gonna be LEGENDARY! It’s one for the books. The comic books, that is! So come to prom with the Ink Stains Gang this June 16th, and the prom committee will sign your yearbook!

….SEE YA THIS SUMMER! K.I.T.!!!!!

<3

p.s. Need a prom date? Try this, I hear it’s effective way to ask someone out to prom. That is, if you wanna go to prom with your grandma.

KISS ME Movie Poster

Posted on 12 April 2012 | No responses

I shot this image for the KISS ME movie poster. The L.A. graphic design firm Coldopen designed it and they did an awesome job! Thanks for making me look reeeeaaaallll good, you guys. =D Check out the rest of their entertainment advertising work, very cool stuff! (Even though I got a little spoiled for Game of Thrones, Doh! Still worth the look.)

Thanks to actors Shawn Frausto and Raúl Castillo for being so deeply in character. Without them, I couldn’t have gotten this shot. And of course, thanks to Jules Nurrish for making this awesome film and assembling such a rad cast & crew! The movie is actually screening at UCLA tomorrow night, so I totally can’t wait to see it on the big screen!!! Check out this sweet trailer of KISS ME (…I love this song and the cinematography!):

I just love movies and movie posters, so it’s always a joy to work on them. One of my favorite movie posters of all time is still Hitchcock’s Vertigo by one of the great designers of the mid-20th century, Saul Bass. I also love the epic Clash of the Titans movie poster (the original film by Ray Harryhausen, not the crappy newer 3D one).

Here’s two other posters I shot, one for the documentary Hooters and the other for narrative film Cooler (which has now been renamed to Sunset Stories).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the KISS ME poster and that I see you at the movies sometime. Let’s all go to the lobby…

New Works: Elemental Birds, El Danito and Mazzy Star

Posted on 13 March 2012 | No responses

This is my piece for the Elementals Birds multi-media art installation curated by Inga and Andy Hamilton. A traveling installation, it’s already exhibited at the Richard F. Brush Gallery at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. This Thursday it is going to open in the R-Space at The Linen Rooms Lisburn in Northern Ireland!!!

p.s. I’m on Instagram now! My life is complete.

What’s really awesome about the Elementals Birds exhibit is that it’s a special experiment where the curators asked the participating artists to physically embody feelings of peace, harmony and goodwill into their work so that it would become the manifestations of thoughts and action.

I chose to work with a simple cow print because I am moving into a far more minimalist phase in my life — I’m purging the majority of my possessions and putting only the most meaningful things into a small storage pod to make myself more mobile. But I also chose that specific animal pattern because in the last year, even a stubborn bullheaded Taurus like myself (one that usually prefers to maintain the status quo) openly embraced the wicked winds of change, learned how to fly and gained freedom in the process.

I am so incredibly honored and grateful to have been invited to participate in this art installation. The project gave me a lot to really meditate on and it was refreshing to work on something that wasn’t about making something look cool, but about being totally honest and positive. So I send my deepest love and gratitude to Inga and Andy, and to all of the artists and galleries that have made this experiment a reality. For more info about the art installation, please check out the blog!

In other recent art, I drew a portrait of my friend and fellow filmmaker El Danito, who is an amazing creative soul, not to mention a Fulbright Fellow. I promised him long ago that I would draw his beautiful face someday, so I decided to surprise him on Valentine’s Day. (Dani, thanks for being a friend and an inspiration. Oaxaca calls to us both!)

Speaking of Valentine’s Day, I released this little homebrew video of me and my friend Natalya Oliver performing a cover of Mazzy Star‘s Into Dust on Feb 14th. I hope you guys enjoy! Much thanks to Natty for spending a silly afternoon with me to make a spur of the moment video without any real practice together — I know we’re gonna make more fun videos in the near future. And thanks to my guitar teacher Jared for all of his guidance with my plinka-plink-ing, which I love to do so much.

I’m feeling extra grateful for everything today for some reason, so I just want to thank you for checking out this blog post. Yay!

Now off I go to finish cleaning out my studio before I move out at the end of the month. Much thanks to Jen, Michael, Zarah, Derek, Valeria, David and everyone that bought and/or helped me get rid of all my stuff. You guys are awesome friends. It feels very liberating and I’m looking forward to being able to travel more now. Discardia = fun fun fun!

Flickr Pix: HI FASHION @ Los Globos

Posted on 28 November 2011 | No responses

So this happened last Saturday night. Even though it was a Mustache Mondays party. Now I’m confused about what day of the week it is.

It was another glorious performance by Hi Fashion! Everybody was dancing! Even I couldn’t help but dance, which is hard to do when you’re carrying a camera bag that feels like a sack of bricks. Their music is like rocket fuel for your feet!

If you ever get a chance, go see them live! I mean it! For all you New Yorkers, Hi Fashion has FOUR upcoming performances in NYC this December, including a double header with one of my favorite bands, Heloise & The Savoir Faire!!! (I LOVE this song!) I totally wish I could be in NYC so I could bear witness to THAT amazing show and have my eyeballs and eardrums melt into a gooey mess. Somebody, please take video footage!

Get more info about their music and upcoming performances on their website, Facebook and Twitter!

Here’s some of my pix from their show on Saturday. And you can see the whole Flickr set here:

[ ::: HI FASHION @ Los Globos - Nov 26, 2011 ::: ]

And if ya haven’t seen it yet, here’s the music video I shot for the band, directed by the amazing Rick Gradone and edited by the awesome Juli Vizza! They rule!

SO POMO Music Video Production Stills

Posted on 4 November 2011 | No responses

Here’s some production stills I shot for Metahuman‘s So Pomo music video, shot on campus at Pomona College in Claremont, California. Really great cast and crew, and super fun song! I had an awesome time on set. I mean, come on, how often do I get to work with rappers, a mouse mascot, a dancing vagina, hula-hoopers and cheerleaders on a football field? Good times, my friends!

You can see the whole Flickr set here:

[ ::: SO POMO Music Video Production Stills ::: ]

I’ll let you guys know when the music video is officially released online. But in the meantime, it’s screening tonight and tomorrow at the following locations:

LA Transgender Film Festival
Friday, November 4 · 8:00pm – 11:00pm
Echo Park Film Center
1200 North Alvarado Street
Los Angeles, CA

GET HAPPY (short films program, 80 mins)
Saturday, November 5 · 4:00pm – 9:00pm
The Renberg Theatre
1125 North McCadden Place
Los Angeles, CA

For more information, check out the Metahuman website!

Happy Halloween from my lil’ Turtle Doves!

Posted on 31 October 2011 | No responses

The best part of Halloween isn’t the slutty Black Swans nor the buckets of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and candy corn. Nay! The very BEST part of Halloween are all the dogs in costumes!! (Though if you ask me, every day is a good day to put costumes on dogs.)

Thankfully, my dog Peanut loves a good costume! Honey, not so much, but she’ll tolerate it for a tasty treat. I call this matching costume series, “TURTLE RECALL“.

You can see the whole series in the My lil’ Turtle Doves Flickr set. What can I say? …I LIKE TURTLES.

Last year, my Sweet Pea was dressed as a “GRAPE Disappointment” or a “GRAPE Joy“, depending on how you interpret his expression. (His name is Peanut though, so maybe he’s just a Grape Nut.)

And on that note, me and my pups bid you a very HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! \(◔◡◔)/

p.s. If you like dogs in costumes too, check out one of my favorite websites of all time: BeeDogs.com! It would beehove you to click this link, as it will keep you buzzzzzy for hours!

For Sale: My totally RAD childhood from the ’80s!

Posted on 12 October 2011 | 1 response

Hi guys! This is my friend, Zarah. She’s an eBay expert and she’s going to be selling my awesome collection which is mostly toys and memorabilia from the ’80s. She’s going to start this weekend by eBay-ing my Thundercats, Transformers and TOMY Robots. And every couple of days, she’ll be posting everything from Madballs to M.U.S.C.L.E. Men, G-Force to G.I. Joes, graphic novels, statues, lunch boxes, video games, and lots of strange rarities. (How often have you seen a mint-in-box Pegasus from Clash of the Titans? And did I mention that I’ll be selling the 8-foot long U.S.S. Flagg aircraft carrier? Yup! It’s the good stuff!)

By Jaga!! Why, you ask, would I sell so much awesomeness? Because I really want to go to Buenos Aires this year, no matter what it takes. So I’m ready to go full on discardia on my massive collection in hopes to raise enough dough to get me a plane ticket to Argentina (and a bite of dulce de leche while I’m there). By the power of Grayskull, I’m finally ready to let go of my past so I can run face-first into brand new experiences!

But don’t worry, Zarah’s photographing everything, so I still get to keep my memories. Besides, most of my actual collection was borrowed and photographed by my friends for the pop-culture book, Just Can’t Get Enough: Toys, Games and Other Stuff from the 80s that Rocked. So I already feel like my childhood playmates have been immortalized in publication.

And I’m just happy knowing that this stuff is going to go to people who will love and cherish these things as much as I do. (Like Duke and Lady Jaye said, “Knowing… is half the battle!” YO JOE!) With that in mind, I fondly say goodbye (or Hasta luego! — gotta start practicing Spanish) to Skeletor, Hulk Hogan, Jem and the Holograms, Panthro, Shipwreck, ALF, E.T., Pac-Man, Princess Allura, the cast of FAME, and of course, Lando Calrissian. Thanks for all the good times!

Here’s a sneak peek of some of the stuff that’s going on auction. Tough luck on plush Snarf though. Zarah’s already called dibs! =)

So if you like this kinda stuff (or know someone who does!) and wanna help me travel down Argentine way, please check out my LOVEBAZAAR eBay seller list page every few days to see what Zarah’s put up. She’ll also be selling my really rare vintage stuff from the ’30s and ’40s on Etsy. Follow my Twitter, if ya feel like, that’s where I’ll be posting her listing updates.

LINKS:

• eBay Seller: LoveBazaar
• ETSY Shop: loveablan
• Twitter: loveablan

My pix in the new book, Amazing Everything: The Art of Scott C

Posted on 11 October 2011 | 1 response

Hey friends! Some of my photos from COMRADE Magazine are published in the new hardcover art book, Amazing Everything: The Art of Scott C! It just hit the stores today!

Scott C is an AWESOME dude. And he makes AWESOME art. Everything he does actually IS amazing. He’s like an evil genius, only he’s a really good guy. So he’s like a good genius. Yeah, he’s pretty rad. Which is why I highly recommend picking up his new art book. I saw a sneak peek before it hit the presses, and it’s just pure and delightful. His wonderful art always brings a smile to my face and a deep chuckle in my belly. And, there’s a foreword by Jack Black. It’s sure to amuse, I’ll bet.

You can order it on Amazon, or pick it up at Gallery Nucleus and other fine book stores and art galleries. (Check out some preview pages!)

ROCK ON, Scott C!!! May we have another breakfast of champions at Swingers real soon!

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