MESSAROUND DEFIES LAWS OF GOD AND MAN WITH THE RETURN OF SUNSET STRIP-PALOMINO LEGEND TROY WALKER, HOLLYWOOD UNDERGROUND SENSATIONS DICK & JANE, AND SUPREME COUNTRY HOOLIGANS GROOVY REDNECKS

Lightning Strikes Twice at the Unrivaled, No-Cover, Blow-Top Shindig The Messaround!

Sun., July 18, 5 – 9 p.m.
The Messaround
at Viva Cantina
900 West Riverside Drive
Burbank, CA 91506-3211
All Ages; No Cover.
FREE PARKING across the street at Pickwick Bowl (same owners)
www.vivacantina.com

Troy Walker

Messaround thrill wrangler Jonny Whiteside joyously welcomes back Troy Walker, the hyper-flamboyant, ultra-talented song stylist whose wicked humor, show-stopping presentation and gale-force lungpower first immolated Sunset Strip lounge lizards almost fifty years ago. Walker’s passion, involvement and flawless execution are as indisputably arresting as ever, still soaring to the out-of-this-world level that won him such fans as Elvis Presley, Louella Parsons, Ethel Merman, Mae West and Ronald Reagan. A historic, albeit inadvertent, pre-Stonewall symbol of Way Out queer equality, Walker’s take no prisoners candor drove him to include a smoldering version of “Happiness is a Thing Called Joe” on his prized Live at the Crescendo LP and later–against all odds– allowed him to become a beloved 1970’s fixture at redneck C&W shrine the Palomino. Walker’s phrasing, repertoire and gift as an arranger always set him apart and led to alliances with distinguished players like Country-rock godfather Leon Russell (who bestowed Joe Cocker with a major hit via Troy’s kicking arrangement of “Cry Me a River”) and an eight year collaboration with Hollywood studio guitar titan Jerry Cole. Making only his second appearance in more than a decade, expect nothing less than a high-voltage dose of cut-above country, soul and rock & roll kicks from this most boss, one of a kind entertainer.

The Dick and Jane Family Orchestra

Preceding Walker will be a set from Tinsel Town underworld artist-filmmaker-empress Jane Cantillon’s Dick & Jane, a deliciously pop-centric exercise in real-now, old school oddball that’s laid waste to audiences everywhere from the Cinegrill to NYC’s Limelight. Teamed with sweet strumming spouse Richard Ross, indefatigable rock head (and Dionysus Records prexy) Lee Joseph on bass and percussionist Michael Peffer (late of Biblical Proof of UFOs), Dick & Jane’s mixture of offbeat charm and expectation defying creativity perfectly fit the

Messaround’s radically high standard for all-the-way-down low life merrymaking. Ditto for the

The Groovy Rednecks

Groovy Rednecks, hard-charging honky-tonk hell-raisers whose near two decades of mayhem and wig flipping have earned them both the affection of a hardcore cult following and a tattered mantle of disprespect from squares throughout Southern California. While titles like “How Come I Only Love You When I’m Drunk?”, “Drinkin’ Band” and “Buzzed” speak to the group’s drastic capabilities, their songs are more painstakingly crafted country gems then painfully corny genre conjuring. That’s a hell of a balancing act, but even with all that beer in ’em, these mavericks always pull it off with eerie grace.

The proceedings will ignite with the Messaround Tabernacle Choir, featuring funkenized, rocky-tonk guitar hero Harry Orlove, soulful, sinuous bassist Paul Marshall (formerly with the Strawberry Alarm Clock and the only man in the business who has worked with Russ Meyer and Rose Maddox) and deadly accurate drummer David Raven, who will play their own opening set and accompany Walker (not to mention the inevitable drop-in guest stars).

Photograph by Patti Rhodes

Saturday, July 10, 2010
The Skip Heller Trio
with Mark Borinstein on drums and Lee Joseph on bass
Chris Lockett opens
at Cafe Amsterdam
8:00pm – 9:30pm
10905 Magnolia Blvd
North Hollywood, CA
Saturday, July 10, 2010

Amsterdam Cafe North Hollywood
www.skipheller.com
The Real Skip Heller Page on Facebook

Thursday, July 8, 2010
6-9 pm

La Luz de Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90232
323-666-7667
info@laluzdejesus.com
www.laluzdejesus.com

New Texture is a Los Angeles-based arts collective-turned-publisher; our first three books will debut at in-person events across Los Angeles in July, 2010.

New Texture Nights kick off in Los Angeles this July, with live readings and performances by Josh Alan Friedman (Black Cracker), Chris D. (A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die) and Wyatt Doyle (Stop Requested). At most venues, Josh Alan – Czar of Atomic Acoustic Guitar – will play. (Listen to Josh Alan’s music here.)

About the books:

Black Cracker, an autobiographical novel by Josh Alan Friedman
(Wyatt Doyle Books/New Texture, $19.95 paperback)

Josh Alan Friedman is the acclaimed author of Tell the Truth Until They Bleed and Tales of Times Square. But back in 1962, he was a first grader, at the start of a four-year odyssey as the only white boy in the last segregated school in New York. His autobiographical novel from Wyatt Doyle Books, Black Cracker, is a memoir of those years.

Challenging long-held preconceptions about race, class and character, Black Cracker boldly moves beyond mere “culture clash” into “multicultural steel-cage match.” A deeply personal, achingly funny book from a writer who has never shied from controversy, Black Cracker may be Josh Alan Friedman’s most provocative work yet.

With typically unflinching insight into the many shades of human nature, Josh Alan Friedman chronicles a childhood at the flashpoint of the Civil Rights era, spent with one foot in Long Island’s well-to-do suburbs and one in its now-forgotten poor Black shantytowns. As young Josh encounters an unforgettable cast of characters and befuddling situations ranging from bizarre to tragic to roaringly funny—and often all three—Friedman illuminates the myriad ways outside influences, both humane and insidious, color our judgment and attitudes, almost from the cradle. Black Cracker is the funniest book that will ever break your heart.

A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die: A Collection of Writing by Chris D.
(New Texture books, $24.95 paperback)

Admirers of Chris D.’s work as a musician (The Flesh Eaters, Divine Horsemen) may be unaware of his significant body of work as a poet, novelist and screenwriter. Encompassing 35 years of writing across a variety of genres and styles, A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die is a 500+ page career anthology from New Texture that corrects that oversight.

“Eclectic” can’t begin to define a compendium collecting all of his lyrics and poetry, surreal dream stories, and excerpts from several novels. Yet perhaps most revealing are the candidly autobiographical passages peppered throughout, providing personal and artistic context while nakedly detailing his struggles with personal obsessions. Sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll, sure; but also fevered poetry, religious damage, and rabid cinephilia.

A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die is an exhaustive collection of writing by one of the godfathers of Los Angeles punk rock. Deeply cathartic and intensely cinematic, writer Chris D.’s varied selections stake their claim squarely in the shadowlands between arthouse and grindhouse; 19th Century romanticism roughed up by James M. Cain, “cut up” by William S. Burroughs, and screened on a wall at a bordertown drive-in.

Stop Requested by Wyatt Doyle; illustrated by Stanley J. Zappa
(New Texture books, $14.95 paperback)

Public transportation is a great equalizer. No matter who you are or what circumstances put you there, you’re on the bus. And in Los Angeles—a city obsessed with status, image and the car you drive—when you’re on the bus, you’re really on the bus.

But just because it’s no place to meet movie stars doesn’t mean there’s any shortage of memorable characters among the lost, the delusional, the disenfranchised and the drunk. These aren’t merely people who ride the buses, they’re people you might never get to meet anywhere else.

Wyatt Doyle’s naked city stories of the other side of Tinseltown are shot through with comedy, tragedy, mystery, action, drama—even the occasional musical number. Profusely illustrated with surreal, biting images by Stanley J. Zappa, Stop Requested delivers street-level tales of bizarre encounters, faded dreams, mental illness and heavy traffic.

www.newtextureblog.blogspot.com

It’s a LOVE weekend at two L.A.book stores next Friday, July 9 and Saturday, July 10 in honor of the debut of John Einarson’s book “Forever Changes,” which features Arthur Lee’s autobiographical notes released for the first time!

Friday July 9 at 7 p.m., STORIES Books * Cafe * Goods (1716 Sunset Boulevard, Echo Park) will feature a LOVE DJ night featuring mid-’60s L.A. scene discs spun by people who are huge fans of LOVE, including Lee Joseph, Tita Ortega, Ian Marshall, Kara Wright, Steve Stanley & Cheryl, Domenic Priore, Becky Ebenkamp, Renee Hendrie, Erik Bluhm, Kari French and surprise drop-ins. Every few songs, you’ll hear one by LOVE.

Saturday’s event at BOOK SOUP (5 p.m., 8818 Sunset Strip) promises to be a legendary moment in the history of the band as LOVE guitarist Johny Echols and drummer Michael Stuart-Ware will be joined by ’60s Elektra Records president Jac Holzman and other close associates of Arthur Lee in an interview-question and answer session featuring “Forever Changes” author John Einarson, moderated by Domenic Priore (author of “Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Last Stand in Hollywood,” foreword by Arthur Lee). Live acoustic music will be provided by members of Baby Lemonade, who spent the last bunch of years touring with Arthur around the globe.

Friday, July 9: Stories, 1716 Sunset Boulevard, 7 p.m. (213) 413-3733
Saturday, July 10: Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Strip, 5 p.m. (310) 659-3110

Both events are FREE

Damian Fulton “Surfploytation“
Robert Palacios “The Game of Life“

July 2 – Aug 1, 2010
Reception for the artists, Friday July 2, 2010, 8pm – 11pm
La Luz de Jesus – Gallery I (Gallery II will be having a six-artist show- and there will be a free Independence Day BBQ in the back!)

4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90027
323-666-7667
info@laluzdejesus.com
www.laluzdejesus.com

Preview the entire shows here:

Damain Fulton

Robert Palacios

“Drop In”

Damian Fulton is fascinated by the dichotomy and duality of Los Angeles seaside culture. The proximity of one of the world’s most diverse and congested cities to the Pacific coast provides fertile material for Fulton’s dark take on the California dream. Perhaps it’s in the water.

Surfploytation continues Fulton’s twisted ride down Pacific Coast Highway where Surf City is way more gritty than groovy. Car chases, girls with guns, noir nostalgia, a visual narrative that reads like conceptual art for a fictional surfploytation movie. For this show, experimentation with new materials native to his environment, balsa wood and fiberglass, skate decks, and surfboard fins, have this new work amped up to 11.

Fulton’s imaginative blend of storytelling, scrambled pop imagery, and painterly technique belie a respect for traditions of the past. Inject in his love of the ocean and urban experience and you have a distinctly original vision.

Fulton grew up land-locked in Orange County, California and painted his way through college at Cal State Fullerton doing custom art for vans, spontaneous wall murals at parties in the OC and self publishing Thrust, the Magazine of Narrative Sequential Art.

Out of college, Ocean Pacific hired him to paint surf posters and in 1982 commissioned him to create the official poster for the Op Pro Surf Contest.  His counterculture comic strips like “The Shred Brothers” running in Surfer Publications’ Snowboarder and the original extreme sports classic “Radical Rick” which rode for 15 years in BMX Plus! Magazine. Fulton has had careers working for Oglivy and Mather Advertising, Marvel Comics and has directed television spots for Pepsi, Mattel and Universal Interactive.

In 2005 on the 50th birthday of Disneyland, Fulton was commission to paint several prints commemorating the event. Fulton currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. www.damianfulton.com

“Game of Chance“

Drawing inspiration for his paintings from his childhood impressions and memories, life experiences and an American/ Latino heritage, Robert Palacios’ work is whimsical, playful and childlike with thoughtfully crafted characters. “Before beginning a painting, I sketch out my ideas. When the story is fully realized, I take those sketches and put them on canvas. At that point it’s a cerebral process; I’m thinking, concept-color-composition. When that part of my brain is satisfied, that’s when the mood comes into play and settles over me. Each painting is a vivid story of a world that I’m bringing to life. The viewer is introduced to a cast of characters and subplots often put into humorous situations that characterize as visual narratives of daily life, with a comical twist; the object being, to invite an interaction with the paintings” states Palacios

One of Palacios’ abiding inspirations is been a board game called that he played often as a child called “La Loteria” (the Mexican lottery game) which is played similarly to bingo but with a deck of cards. “The cards have numbers on them as well as wonderful, mystical, magical symbols and drawings. I still bring out that deck and peruse them for inspiration” states the artist who was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. www.robertpalacios.com

drawing by Jane Cantillon

the
DICK AND JANE
Family Orchestra

with bassist extraordinaire LEE JOSEPH
and multi-talented percussionist MIKE PEFFER

THURSDAY, JULY 1 @ 10:30 PM
appearing with:
FORT KING
LEAH LYNNE
and
HELENE RENAUT

doors open at 9:00
music starts at 9:30

NO COVER

THE HYPERION TAVERN
1941 Hyperion Avenue, Silver Lake
(across from Casita del Campo —
look for the barber pole)

CUSF Grand Central Art Center
125 N. Broadway
Santa Ana, CA 92701
General Info: 714-567-7233
www.grandcentralartcenter.com

Media Contact:
Ashley Eckenweiler
949-285-9239
ashley@oshkinagency.com

Click for a preview of the show

(Santa Ana, Calif.) – Grand Central Arts Forum, the support group for Grand Central Art Center (GCAC) is revitalizing the hit exhibition, 100 Artists See Satan, a survey of contemporary artists and their interpretation of the supreme demon. Unlike the original exhibition, this iteration of the collection will be presented as a fundraiser, with works available for sale to the public. All proceeds will benefit future GCAC programs and exhibitions. An exclusive preview will be held Saturday, June 26 from 7-10pm with a public opening reception on July 3 from 7-10pm. The exhibition will remain on display through August 15, 2010.

100 Artists See Satan was originally organized by GCAC in response to another exhibition, 100 Artists See God, curated by John Baldessari and Meg Cranston for Independent Curators Inc. New York. The two shows exhibited simultaneously in 2004, Satan at GCAC and God at Laguna Art Museum, and gained notable attention from the public and media.

To further raise funds, Grammy Award winning graphic and packaging designer, Hugh Brown has been commissioned to create a 100 Artists See Satan credit card, limited edition of 666. This collector’s item is available only at the GCAC bookstore for $50. Cardholder’s benefits include a discount on select merchandise at the GCAC store and an invitation to the VIP preview event on June 26.

CAMILLE ROSE GARCIA  Subterranean Death Clash hand glittered limited edition gicleé on paper  |  edition of 80  |  24” x 35”  |  $1,400

Last Thursday a few people migrated to El Chavo on the Los Feliz / Silver Lake border after Lina Lecaro’s “Los Angeles’s Best Dive Bars” book signing at La Luz de Jesus Gallery. On the way back to my car, parked on Sunset near the gallery, I was waiting for the light at Hillhurst to turn green when I looked in the window of a vacuum cleaner store next to the Good Luck Bar – a sparkly gold vacuum cleaner in the window caught my eye and upon further examination I noticed the machine’s  “Privilege” logo (interesting name for a vacuum cleaner) looked really familiar. Have a look for yourself. The Royal company should give Dionysus Records a vacuum!

Dionysus Records logo by Dave Stuckey was originally designed for the Big Sandy “Don’t Desert Me” single released way back when. This logo design has, and continues to appear on almost every Dionysus release since.

This Saturday, June 19  – The Bullet featuring The Dolly Rocker Movement, an Australian psychedelic garage band now based in LA with a new lineup consisting of members of Hot Hot Heat! Also DJs Soulshaker, Lee Joseph, Jason Pandora, Jackie Hoodoo, DJ Ladybug and Dr Ray laying down top Mod, Soul and Garage vinyl sounds! FREE b4 10pm! – Hollywood Studio Bar and Grill – 6122 W Sunset – Los Angeles, CA – plenty of free parking!