Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys Thursday, August 27, 2009

Think the economic downturn is hitting you hard? Try being a porn star. Pay rates are going down (so to speak), and the number of barely 18's willing to blow strangers on camera is going way up — or so I'm told. While the sex worker lifestyle has always been a daily grind (ahem), the reality turns palpable in David Henry Sterry and R.J. Martin Jr.'s anthology Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys: Professionals Writing on Life, Love, Money, and Sex. Contributors to this uncensored collection of skin-trade memoirs, confessions, and rants include porn icon Nina Hartley, ex-call girl Xaviera Hollander and The Devil in Miss Jones's Georgina Spelvin. (Topless test shoot following the signing is optional.) Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood; Thurs., Sept. 3, 7 p.m.; free. (310) 659-3110. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, August 28, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 2:06 PM, ,

Night Flight Saturday, August 22, 2009

You kids with your '80s nostalgia may think the MTV of 25 years ago was all Day-Glo and Duran Duran, but the truth is the cool years were tragically brief. MTV did debut with a fairly exclusive new wave bent — mostly because no one but David Bowie and Devo even made music videos before 1981 — but the channel soon turned into a Quiet Riot/Madonna/Richard Marx blah-fest. Luckily, if you had cable, you also had USA Network. Back then, USA offered barely more than rerun recycling, and left its late-night weekend programming to a show called Night Flight. For four hours every Friday and Saturday, the kookiest short films, dub parodies, and alt-music videos ("Dog Police," anyone?) made their way into the '80s teenage consciousness. Tonight, Stuart Shapiro, the creator of Night Flight (which, in 1988, USA replaced with Gilbert Gottfried/Rhonda Shear B-movie meltdown Up All Night), appears for a Q&A, following a selection of the series' best moments. Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A.; Thurs., Aug. 27, 8 p.m.; $10. (323) 655-2510. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, August 21, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 12:27 AM, ,

Nudes Descending a Staircase Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Art and sex collide via film, TV and video in Nudes Descending a Staircase, the third and final chapter of the Hammer Museum's "Larry Johnson Film Series." On the menu: Video artist Joe Sola takes a roller coaster ride with gay porn stars in his 2002 short Riding With Adult Video Performers. Directors Richard Ballentine and Gordon Sheppard document swinging Playboy founder Hugh Hefner at his polyamorous peak in 1963's The Most. Nudity and grooviness come guaranteed in Nude Groovy Guy, courtesy pioneering gay filmmaker Pat Rocco. And, in an episode of his 1972 ABC sitcom, Hollywood square Paul Lynde protests the production of a nude musical called Oh, Bombay!, only to end up onstage as one of the "nudie looneys." Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Westwood; Tues., Aug. 25, 7 p.m.; free. (310) 443-7000. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, August 21, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 12:22 AM, ,

Handmade Nation Thursday, August 13, 2009

Run out of junk to sell on eBay? Maybe it's time to start making your own. Faythe Levine's 2006 film Handmade Nation documents hipsters who do just that. Among the craftastic profiled: papercut artist Nikki McClure, X-rated latch hooker Whitney Lee, feminist art collective the Dirt Palace, and yarn graffitists Knitta. Rumor has it you can even turn your creative compulsions into cold hard cash via marketplace sites like Etsy.com. So what are you waiting for? That macramé isn't going to knot itself! (Q&A with director Levine, plus a book signing and mini craft fair, follows the Saturday noon screening.) Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A.; Sat., Aug. 15, noon ($25) & 7 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 16, 3, 5, 7 & 9 p.m.; $12. (323) 655-2510. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, August 14, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 11:17 PM, ,

Vampire-Con Monday, August 10, 2009

Got blood? You'll need plenty to survive the ghastly goings-on at Vampire-Con 2009. This undead extravaganza begins with two days of film screenings at the New Beverly Cinema, continues with panel discussions at the Henry Fonda Music Box Theater, and climaxes with an 18-&-over "vampirerotica" danse macabre. Friday's films: 1970's L.A.-bloodsucker tale Count Yorga, Vampire; 1987 Corey classic The Lost Boys; and a sneak preview of indie horror flick Midnight Son screening at, yes, midnight. On Saturday, lady vampires swing in 1971's The Velvet Vampire and 1983's The Hunger. On Sunday, discussions include "Why We Love Vampires: A Brief History of the Undead," "Hot-Blooded: Vampires & Sexuality" and "Inked in Blood: 40 Years of Vampirella." Costumes are encouraged for Sunday night's Vampirella's Ball, with decadent spectacle provided by vaudeville cirque the Lucent Dossier Experience. Film screenings, $7 per day; panel discussions, $20 all-day; Vampirella's Ball, $35. Fri.-Sun., Aug. 14-16. Go to www.vampire-con.com for complete schedule. (Originially published in L.A. Weekly, August 14, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 2:10 PM, ,

B-Movies and Bad Science Wednesday, August 5, 2009

If you've never had the pleasure of seeing hot lava spew from the La Brea Tar Pits and ooze down Wilshire Boulevard on an path to take out the Beverly Center, then you probably haven't seen Volcano. The 1997 Tommy Lee Jones disaster flick may not be much of a critics' pick, but for Angelenos it's brilliant escapism (and particularly perverse if you ever lived at Park La Brea). So leave it to the eggheads at the Natural History Museum to take the fun out of everything with the latest in its Hollywood-debunking "B-Movies and Bad Science" series. Following a nighttime screening of Volcano outdoors at the Tar Pits, museum collections managers and resident geologists Lindsey Groves and George Davis lecture on how the earth-shattering events depicted in the film couldn't possibly happen at Sixth and Curson. Hey, wait a minute ... that's what they said in the movie! Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, 5801 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.; Sun., Aug. 9, 8 p.m.; $7, $4.50 students & seniors, $2 kids 5-12. (323) 934-PAGE or www.nhm.org/weekends/. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, August 7, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 8:50 PM, ,

Ad Nauseam Sunday, August 2, 2009

Carrie McLaren's "consumer culture" zine-turned-blog Stay Free! is now a book, and longtime co-conspirator/now co-author Jason Torchinsky reads from and signs said book, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. The collection of essays warns of the deceptive delights of advertising, of the sirenlike lure of expert marketing, often irresistible even to those who claim immunity (you know you want a ShamWow). The authors and their contributors lay bare the industry's subliminal secrets in essays titled "The Psychology of Advertising: We're All Apes," "I'm With the Brand: The Consumer as Fan," "Your Ad Here: As Advertisers Race to Cover Every Available Surface, Are They Making Us Insane?" and, my personal favorite, "Buyer Beware: How Do Supermarket Shoppers React When You Place Foreign Objects in Their Baskets?" Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood; Sat., Aug. 8, 5 p.m.; free. (310) 659-3110. (Originally published in L.A. Weekly, August 7, 2009.)

posted by Derek Thomas @ 8:33 PM, ,