THIS WEEK: The Hollywood Fringe Festival!

Hello Everbody!

This week I'm gonna check out some of the shows at the Hollywood Fringe Festival!

If you don't know what a Fringe Festival is.. It's essentially an organized 'showcase' for local and underground performance art, visual art, and film. Usually, the artists book their own venues, and lottery for a spot in the festival. Those who are chosen then become part of the festival and publicity therein. I love fringe film festivals, though I've never been to a theater based one. Check out the list below of things that caught my eye, but please peruse the website yourself and see what else there is. Waaaay too many interesting things for one blog! Festival runs 'till June 27th.

Here's what I've got my eye on...

June 22 - 9PM - Eenie Meanie - One Woman Show
June 22 - 10:30PM - The Wolf Girls - Theater
June 23 - 10PM - The Sketchy Dames - Sketch Comedy
June 24 - 6PM - Los Angelyne - One Woman Show
June 26 - 8PM - The Girl Who Would Be King - Theater
June 27 - 4PM - Betty - One Woman Show
June 27 -  7PM - Mommy With A Penis - One Man Show (We'll give him this one..)


Pissed I Missed:
Chicks Who Rock And Roll!

TODAY: Pat Benatar Book Signing!! OMG

Hello Ladies, Gents, and Other!

Do you hate us because we've been gone for a week? Don't worry, we're back, and ready to kick off our return to the City of Angels with a very ass kicking, hard rocking, mind blowing, lady-in-leather-pants event.

Get ready....

THE Pat Benatar will be signing copies of her new book "Between A Heart And A Rock Place" (best title ever) tonight at the Borders in Westwood.

Woah, woah, woah, woah, woooooaaahhh!

If you were born anytime before music got terrible, then you grew up idolizing Pat Benatar's skin tight leather pants and bad-ass 'tude. You followed along to every snap and strut, and draped yourself in your parents green and white curtains. And now, we get to shake the hand of the woman who warned us about sex-as-a-weapon.  I can't wait to read the book, and I'm planning on falling all over myself when I actually get to meet The Heartbreaker herself. She was the first woman that I ever heard say the phrase, "We are strong. No one can tell  us we're wrong!" .. and by God, she was right.

What will I say to her? What will I wear? I hope I'm not crying in the picture.

"One of the best-selling female rock stars of all time, the incomparable Pat Benatar writes about her life, rock ’n’ roll, and how her generation changed music forever in Between a Heart and a Rock Place. The first solo female rocker ever to appear on MTV, Benatar writes with the same edge and attitude that was a hallmark of her music—from “Heartbreaker” to “Hit Me with Your Best Shot.” The winner of four consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Female Rock performance, Pat Benatar tells a fascinating, no-holds-barred story of what it was really like to be a woman in the mostly male world of hard rock in the ’80s." - Publisher's Comments

Where:
1360 Westwood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024

When:
7PM

We can be INVINCIBLE!!!

TONIGHT: "Video Slut", By Sharon Oreck - Book Signing

Hi City,

So we're gonna head over to Book Soup and hear Sharon Oreck talk about her badass new book "Video Slut: How I Shoved Madonna Off an Olympic High Dive, Got Prince Into a Pair of Tiny Purple Woolen Underpants, Ran Away from Michael Jackson's Dad, and Got a Waterfall to Flow Backwards So I Could Bring Rock Videos to the Masses"

This book sounds amazing.

"Video Slut takes an irreverent look behind the scenes of the music-video industry during its eighties heyday. Oreck, one of the top (music video) producers of all time, bluffed her way into the business with no experience whatsoever and went on to produce more than six hundred video shoots with Madonna, Sting, Mick Jagger, Prince, and several members of the increasingly unstable Jackson family -- not to mention a cadre of delinquent caterers, deranged interns, self-absorbed record executives, and malfeasant animal trainers." - Publisher's Comments

Where:
Book Soup
8818 W. Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA
90069

When:
7pm

TODAY: Marie Jager - The Big Nowhere

Hi Everyone,

So, I love Los Angeles.  I love learning about Los Angeles. I despise driving my car. Hence, I'm excited for this exhibit.  The François Ghebaly Gallery near Pasadena is exhibiting a collection of Marie Jager's blueprints of Los Angeles.  The means by which she develops and alters each of her blueprints are meant to represent the various elements in L.A. living.  Sun, smog and Cars. I love it. Here's a little summary of what you'll see...

"In her Pollution Painting series, Marie Jager makes visible the invisible combustion and sediment that defines the city's landscape. Playing off LA's varied reputation for car culture, inevitable sunshine, and smog-induced sunsets, Jager placed canvases in the outdoors and retrieved them a month later as readymade landscape paintings.... In contrast to these durational portraits of the urban environment, the instant of ignition that defines everyday life in Los Angeles—turning over the engine in your car—is captured repeatedly in Jager's Starter paintings where the burnt oil discharged when the motor engages makes an instant oil-on-canvas landscape of the city's mobility and automobile reliant citizenry."

Where:
François Ghebaly Gallery   
510 Bernard St
Los Angeles, CA 90012     
323.221.2300

When:
12PM - 6PM

*REVIEW* Sex And The City 2 - Worst Movie Ever

Now, it's no secret that I'm a huge fan of the Pink Velvet SATC Box Set.  I spent my Twentysomethings in New York City watching the four Thirtysomethings bar/ bed hop around my neighborhood week after week. Religiously. With no shame. I wrote countless papers defending the show to some very tough audiences in my Women's Study classes at NYU. I wrote a monthly review in a zine that my roommates published out of our East Village apartment.  I LOVED the show. As a young (and rather clueless) woman, I was proud to be part of a generation who publicized our sexuality.  The camp, the cheese, the incredibly promiscuous behavior was all part of why we loved the show. It was over the top for sure, but as a young urban woman, I was too.

(I'll leave out my diatribe about how horrific it was to see Carrie end up with Mr. Big at the end of the series.)

Enter... The films...

The first movie was terrible, obviously. But still somehow passable. It was too long, too fragmented, and poorly written.  Plus, Jennifer Hudson was in it for some reason, and had to rent fancy handbags.  Nice, real subtle.  In the end, we (the fans) didn't mind it too much. The film concludes with the same crushing disappointment as the Series Finale - Carrie sells herself out to marry Mr. Dumps-A-Lot, but we'll even let that slide. There was something charming and delightfully horrifying about  seeing the "girls" on the big screen.  Fine. Whatever...

But why... WHY did they have to make a sequel? And why on God's Green Earth did they have to go to Abu Dhabi?  This film was clearly written by someone who has been living under a jewel encrusted rock for the last 10 years, and obviously has no time or intention for accurate research. Watching these four actors doing impressions of the characters we once stood so proudly behind is nauseating.  They tramp around the "Middle East" wearing the most god awful and unbelievably offensive get ups. The whole running joke is that women have no voice, and no image in certain cultures. That's the JOKE!? Are you kidding me? These are issues that women throughout the world face and fight every day, and you're gonna film a scene with Samantha waiving condoms around a spice market screaming "I Have Sex!".  I was truly horrified by every moment of this film. No wonder the world has such a negative view of American culture. Look at the way we are represented.

My entire opinion of the whole franchise has completely changed. I'm pissed that I stood up for the feminist values in this show for so long, only to have my devotion thrown in my face with this script. 

Shame on the jerks at HBO and New Line who released this abomination. Shame on anyone who had "creative" input (I'm looking at you MPK/SJP). Shame on the actors for agreeing to portray these women in such a way. And shame on me for falling for it. I beg of you, do NOT give this movie one dime of your money, or moment of your time.

Thank You,
L.A.F.

Ps. I have a Pink Velvet SATC Box Set available for $.50 if anyone wants it. Fuck those guys.