Hey LA designers, get out and get social with some these great creative industry events for the second half of March! Below is my round-up for the next two weeks, but it is by no means exhaustive. If anyone has more to add, post them in the comments so we can all join in. more ›

It’s the first night of Aaron Donovan’s beginning still-life painting class at Barnsdall Art Center, an eclectic community art center on the southeast edge of Barnsdall Art Park in East Hollywood. Adult students arrive with canvases and brushes at the ready. One woman brings persimmons from her garden for the class to paint. Donovan is carefully placing the fruit on bright-colored plates as a middle-aged gentleman with a cell phone on his hip arrives. Donovan asks him if he’s a painter. more ›

Cars into Bicycles sounds a little like an eco-oriented Transformers, but it's less Optimus Prime and more performance workshop. Head over to Bergamot Station on Saturday at Noon, and at 11 a.m. for the following three Saturdays after that, to watch as German artists Folke Koebberling and Martin Kaltwasser, with the help of students from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena dismantle an old car and turn it into two fully-operational bicycles. While the crew is at work, you can hear different guest speakers from Metro, and on Saturday, April 10th, even get the chance to ride the new bicycles during the final presentation. (Pop in to SMMoMA while you're there--they gave us the heads up on this cool event!) more ›

Jonathan Jarvis, a master's candidate at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, kept it more than a little bit real with "The Crisis of Credit Visualized." This 11-minute animation is just one part of Jarvis's thesis. May his grad school debt vanish with great haste. more ›

Oh, Cloris Leachman, you silly bawdy 82-year-old who has charmed your way through Dancing with the Stars this season. You've done it again. Today, you were named the grand marshal of the 2009 Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena! Big kudos. more ›

Art Center College of Design President Richard Koshalek, whose contract ending in 2009 was not renewed earlier this summer, left the high-profile art school today. The school will not comment on the situation beyond a statement with the usual he-was-great and we-wish-him-luck statements. It was in June when the board decided not renew is contract. Some speculate that it was over $50-million price tag for a Frank Gehry designed research complex that students were upset over ("what about our pricey tuitions?") and others point to the direction of the program and the lack of quality with the non-commerical work coming out of the school. more ›

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An interview with Souther Salazar about his upcoming show 'Make It Real', opening Saturday October 13th at GR2. more ›

Parking Lot Art Show at the Sunset Junction, in the parking lot behind Cafe' Stella, from 5-11pm. more ›

Now that the winds seem to have subsided, we're ready to dive into what promises to be a beautiful weekend, and we're pretty much ready for it to start now. Say it with us: T.G.I.F! Doesn't that feel good? We thought we'd tell you what we were up to this weekend, in case you needed a little inspiration, or in case you wanted to tell us something else you think we can't afford to... more ›

Daily News tells tales of earmarked federal funding to go to the wayside in the Valley due to Democrats going lean on the budget. Of course, it won't be just the Valley. Watch out basin/metropolitan LA. The California Report looks into the future of rest stops along California's highways. Coffee vendors, farmer's markets, solar power, wifi and more. (Download Audio Here) Closer to home, Art Center College of Design's downtown campus's roof is green.... more ›

New York City has won the honor for America’s Top Arts Destinations in AmericanStyle Magazine for the past three years. This year, let's change that. Vote Los Angeles because... 1. Musicals really aren't that great anyway. Small 20-seat theatres rock. 2. Barnsdall Art Park. 3. We don't destroy our murals. Wait, shit, that's us. 4. Festivals, festivals, festivals. 5. Green Umbrella Series. 6. Public Art everywhere. 7. Street Art. 8. Otis, Art Center, CalArts.... more ›

In the LA-based movie Collateral, Max (played by Jamie Foxx) had only one way of taking a vacation: vicariously, through a photo of a tropical island in his taxi cab sun visor. Now, in two weeks, Max will have another choice. From National Geographic's All Roads Film Project comes (bet you can't guess it) the All Roads Film Festival. Los Angeles is the first stop of this traveling Film Festival, which goes to various... more ›

In some ways, French artist Orlan resembles many LA women of a certain set. She’s vague about her age. She favors trim black suits. She’s not afraid to undergo a little nip ‘n tuck to improve her God-given form. more ›

We're just not able to get upset by another story of fat salaries and benefits for museum heads. The latest kerfluffle in the LA Times is about the housing expenditures for the new Getty Museum director, whose rental is $15,000 per month, which is $180,000/year. The Getty purchased a house for him that (oops) was mold-ridden so they're putting him up elsewhere. But if we want to have world-class museums we have to pay world-class salaries & bennies, just like they do in sports, right? The director of MOMA in NY made $617,000 in 2004 and had more than $100,000 in expenses. That same year, NY's Met spent almost $250,000 in expenses for its director, footnoting that most of that was for housing. So we're in the ballpark. What's the big deal? more ›

Ed Note: We postponed publication of Monday's LAist Interview until today in honor of the Independence Day holiday. more ›

Since it appears the solstice wiped away June gloom for the time being, this looks to be a great weekend for getting out and about. Fortunately, there's plenty going on: more ›

• Indie 103 presents The Wedding Present with Crystal Skulls at the Troubadour tonight. Doors open at 8 PM; tickets are $15 advance. more ›

The free shuttles will loop throughout the City of Roses during the course of the 4 hour event; park at any one venue and ride around to the rest. Include time to have dinner at the One Colorado restaurants like Gordon Biersch, Il Fornaio, or Akbar. If you're dining ahead of your gallery crawl, between 5 and 6:30 the mention of Art Night will get you a free dessert with the purchase of an entree. To Art Night we say: Sweet! more ›

150 bucks doesn’t get you much these days. Maybe a few tanks of gas, some nice new running shoes, or a romantic dinner for two. That’s usually about it. So imagine LAist’s surprise when we stumbled on the news that one lucky Angeleno will walk away with a gorgeous Palos Verdes home for the price of a pair of Diesel jeans. (If they’re on sale, that is) more ›

There is a beautiful, stately white mansion nestled in the hills above Glendale. Built in 1904 by Leslie C. Brand, El Miradero was the Brand family home for forty years. Noteworthy not only because of its stark whiteness against the rolling green of the hills, architect Nathaniel Dryden employed Saracenic architecture styles, incorporating the crenellated arches, bulbous domes and minars associated with Spanish, Moorish and Indian architecture to mimic the East Indian Pavilion from the 1893 Columbian World Exposition. Inside, the home is classically Victorian, outfitted with silk damask wall coverings, woodwork and Tiffany leaded glass windows. more ›

) is at LACMA through August 8. As described by the museum, this extensive exhibition "explores the complex process of mestizaje, or racial mixing, that has shaped life in the Americas." Works featured in the exhibition date back hundreds of years and yield fascinating insights about the construction of race. Quite relevant to current-day Los Angeles. more ›