Forget Coachella. There in the desert, unleashed, raw imagination is at the core of an upcoming gathering lead by renown artists Karen Kimmel, Tanya Aguiñiga, Cathy Callahan of Cathy of California fame, bag designer Clare Vivier and teeming with underwater photography, skateboarding, sneaker customization and smores. […]
Posted in Art, Craft, Design, Food and Drink, Music, Photography, Sports, Style, Travel
Joline, Joline…Dolly Parton was entreating as adamant as ever on BBC Radio One, as we drove from Cumbria, where Andy’s father lives, to the outskirts of Edinburgh in Scotland, home of the crazy castle Andy chose to both celebrate his 50th and bring together his family from all parts, including Wales and Australia…
But back to Dolly Parton. […]
Posted in Music, Style, Travel
A rose needs 81 hours to grow and thrive. A factoid that I was not aware of regarding my namesake flower. But this bit of horticultural insight inspired the premise of the new short “81 Hours In One Suitcase” directed by pals Aaron Rose and produced Apple Via for the brand 81 hours. […]
Posted in Art, Beauty, Design, Fashion, Film, Music, Style, Travel
The brisket was delectable and the iced Tecate like gold dust at a jam-packed reception marking the six-week showcase of the mighty talents of Marfa at the Heath flagship in Los Angeles. […]
Posted in Art, Craft, Design, Food and Drink, Music, Style
Part of the pleasure of a road trip is the discovery of delicious places to fill our bellies. On our somewhat-spontaneous adventure to San Francisco this last week (to catch the final hours of the SFMoMa show on elderly design icon Dieter Rams, and, across town, the first days of the nascent star Miss Nora Woods) , we found such a place for lunch after our first night out, in wine country Paso Robles. […]
Posted in Art, Food and Drink, Music, Travel
By now, it should be no surprise, that if the inimitable Pink Martini is playing in Los Angeles or New York or even now Paris (more on that later), among the shifting ensemble of guest musicians and singers is one performer on the triangle who has become a near-regular: the equally inimitable Queen Bee of Pop (Counter) Culture and co-founder of Paper Magazine, Kim Hastreiter. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design, Food and Drink, Music, Style
Keep your carolers. The only songs I'm in the mood for right now are off the 1980 album "Los Angeles" by one of the greatest bands of all time, X.
Excene Cervenka, John Doe, DJ Bonebrake and Billy Zoom performed the album in its entirety tonight at a show I unfortunatley had to miss due to my book signing. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design, Film, Music, Style
In spite of a career as journalist-curator-retailer based on endlessly ferreting the Next Big Thing, I've had an equally consuming passion for the past. What people wore and surrounded themselves in served as a intuitive mnemonic system for me to recall my school history lessons, thanks in large part to growing up with a mother who frequented dusty antique shops and garage sales and filled our family suburban home with stuff a century-plus years old. […]
Posted in Art, Books, Current Affairs, Design, Food and Drink, Music, Style
Malcolm Maclaren could very well be turning in his grave. Then again, the grand poobah punk provocateur might find the sight of pint-sized schoolchildren clad in skinny tartan bondage pants hooked with pleated half skirts and multi-buckled boots courtesy of a mass retailer utterly subversive. […]
A great plug for my second book and upcoming party in this week's The Hollywood Reporter. "Where the Young Turks Go To Drink," is a two-page feature by Alexis Johnson and Degen Penner spotlighting the new wave of hangouts caterting to the entertainment industry's rising power players. […]
Posted in Art, Books, Current Affairs, Design, Food and Drink, Music, Style
Behind the wheel this summer, it hasn't been so much about a song but the man behind some of our favorite anthems of all time, Keith Richards. The audiobook to his 2.2-pound autobio Life has been ontap in the car since our impromptu road trip earlier last month to San Francisco. […]
Visual excess? Exploring the space between social promiscuity and solipsistic trance? Sounds like our kind of night. Architect Barbara Bestor considers social and communal experiences by staging a temporary disco at SCI-Arc. […]
This weekend marked the return of the Castillian Badass behind the turntables.
Yes, that would be me.
In celebration of the birthday of our pal, writer Deanna Kizis, her wonderful husband, filmmaker Julian Cautherly, came up with the clever idea of inviting friends to deejay for 30-minute sets. […]
Posted in Design, Music, Style
As David Bowie got a lip-smacking mouthful of Ann Magnuson in the opening scenes of "The Hunger," it was only right she obliged three decades later and take a bite of the eternal icon's style and sound in marking his turning 64. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Music, Style
I finally witnessed—live—the force of nature that is Gustavo Dudamel. Electrifying, charming, fun, the 29-year-old conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic lives up to the hype.
By intermission last Thursday night, following the opening "Slonimsky's Earbox" by John Adams and "Symphony No. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Music
Unless you've been under a rock today, you know it's the 30th anniversary of the day John Lennon was murdered.
He's automatically in my thoughts on this day every year, as he is on his birthday October 9, such a mad fan of the man and his music I've been since a very young age. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Design, Music, Style
Yes, Katy Perry is everywhere these days. And that includes this month's cover of Harper's Bazaar (actually two different covers), in a feature that I wrote for the magazine.
Katy managed to squeeze in the shoot and what turned out to be a leisurely interview at Figaro, a favorite Frenchie bistro of ours on Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Music, Style
Our most favorite chanteuse Morganne returns tonight to CabaretCabaret, the new weekly haunt by nightlife impressario Rich Royal, every Wednesday at Pallihouse.
In recent years, it's been near impossible to catch this rare bird in L.A., although she lives here. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Food and Drink, Music, Style
Legendary fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez in the iconic long-running campaign
Today's is World AIDS Day. Of course, every day in the world, HIV, AIDS and human rights are a top concern for the millions affected by the disease, whether they are infected or know someone who is. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Music, Science, Style
Thievery Corporation at the Gibson Amphiteater Sunday night
Sunday night we traded seats in front of the tube for those behind the soundboard at the Gibson Aphitheater for Massive Attack and Thievery Corporation. […]
Posted in Current Affairs, Music
New author Cherry Vanilla reads from her sensational biography, Lick Me.
Unplanned as the moment was it couldn't have been better scripted: As Cherry Vanilla recounted the late night when a Ziggy-era David Bowie dropped his glittering drawers for her, out of the opposite corner in the salon at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont came a howl, not so much in scorn as much as esprit de corps, from a silver sequin-sheathed Angie Bowie, who, after all, was still wed to the glam god when he popped Cherry's official role as his publicist. […]
Posted in Books, Current Affairs, Music
