The CalArts Film/Video Showcase kicks off at REDCAT, acclaimed writer David Sedaris entertains UCLA's Royce Hall, Two Boots Pizza celebrates its new location with free pizza, the Million Dollar Theater screens a Brian DePalma double feature and The Moth tells stories of education. more ›

More hate graffiti tainted the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) campus in Valencia over the weekend. When senior Daine Carter entered his campus apartment on Friday night after a Halloween party, he was greeted with red swastikas and demonic imagery on his walls. more ›

Novelist Mark Z. Danielewski is frighteningly good at what he does. His books have imparted an international cult following for their courageous and mind-bending subjects, experimental typography, and innovative approaches to story-telling. more ›

Jeff Liu, a dual animator/musician, created an animated short "for fun" using only his laptop trackpad. "The Trackpad Jam" showcases a year's worth of trackpad work that Lui fingered while tackling his CalArts film project. more ›

LAist continues coverage of the RADAR LA International Festival of Contemporary Theatre with four more shows: San Francisco's Pomo Afro Homos and Mexico's Teatro Linea de Sombra bring works that deal with crucial human emotions that are often forgotten amid politicized tension. Ireland's The Company and Rude Mechs from Texas offer process oriented experimental pieces. more ›

The RADAR LA International Festival of Contemporary Theatre is the fruit of the combined efforts of the Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC), the folks from Public Theatre's Under the Radar Festival, and the Roy & Edna Disney/ CalArts Theatre (REDCAT). This year's RADAR LA prominently showcases works that obscure the traditional parameters of theatre. Indulgences for both the eyes and ears include an illusionary multimedia work from Australian artist Fleur Elise Noble and a poetry-play hybrid from Sekou Andrews and Steve Connell. more ›

On Thursday night, CalArts presented its annual Character Animation Producers' Show, which showcased some of the best of the best from this year's students. Twenty-three cool, inventive and oftentimes funny shorts played to a packed audience at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood. more ›

For the centenary of Tennessee Williams’ birth year, the Theatre@Boston Court and CalArts School of Theater have collaborated on a production of his rarely produced 1953 work, Camino Real. The play is unique in Williams’ oeuvre in that it’s surreal and heavily symbolic without much in terms of traditional plot. It seems like Williams’ take on No Exit, albeit set in an unnamed Mexican or South American location. more ›

With CalArts, Otis, Art Center College of Design, FIDM and SCI-Arc dotting LA's education landscape, students need the tools to get their art school on and Los Angeles Magazine has named six shops the "best" for art supplies in LA. more ›

Last night, CalArts put on their annual Producers Show, showcasing some of the best work created by the school’s character animation students. CalArts has cultivated the premier program in animation and to watch this show is to glimpse the future of the field. Little wonder industry types and students alike packed the expansive Leonard H. Goldenson hall to catch the 24 shorts included on the bill. more ›

Fresh off rocking stages around the globe, Los Angeles' own The Airborne Toxic Event performed in front of some very familiar faces Wednesday night at Plaza de la Raza. more ›

Something extraordinary is happening in the basement of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It's hilarious, it's mindblowing... wait scratch that... it's a delirious and appetizing mind fuck. more ›

Earlier this month the Wende Musuem installed 8 segments of the Berlin Wall in front of LACMA on Wilshire Blvd. This marks the longest stretch of the wall currently standing outside of Berlin. On November 8th, the 20th anniversary of the wall's falling will be commemorated via an event put on by the Wall Project, and more panels will be added to fully block Wilshire Blvd. Following an evening of activities and entertainment, at midnight the wall will be toppled, marking the anniversary, which will be broadcast live on German television. more ›

Apartment 3 is putting on a "Fancy Yard Sale" where you'll find over 500 unique pieces of vintage all under $20. Shop among tons and tons of women's wear (vintage dresses, swimsuits,shirts, skirts, mini sweaters, and tops and men's wear, too...all for under $20 each. Groove to summer jams by Djs Rockwell, Tommy B & Bruce Leroy, and enjoy Hot Dogs by Frankenstand, free cocktails and delicious lemonade all day. 1-6 p.m. @Apartment 3 (4634 Hollywood Blvd 90027). more ›

Every spring, to support and raise funds for the Shakespeare Festival LA, a few famous names donate their time to participate in a staged reading of a Shakespearean comedy. Co-chaired by Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks, this year's performace is The Comedy of Errors and features Hanks, Wilson, Christina Applegate, Martin Short, Shirley Jones and Peter Graves. The show starts at 7:30 pm at the Geffen Playhouse. Tickets are available to the public. more ›

Tonight’s the opening night of John Gabriel Borkman, by Henrik Ibsen at CalArts in Valencia, directed by MFA directing candidate Maureen Huskey. The play’s story is still so familar: A turn-of-the-century family tries to forge a new path through the their past failures. “The clash between generations and the tenuous grip of family loyalty provide the backdrop for a beautifully grotesque dance between the forces of death and destruction and the life-giving impulse to move forward.” The play runs at 8 pm through March 14 (except for March 8) at the Walt Disney Modular Theatre at CalArts. Tickets are free, but reservations are required. more ›

Forking -- or its formal title Fork Off Down Your Own Forking Adventure Which You've Forked: FORKING! -- is a full-length play by SF native Daniel Heath that mixes theatre and reality TV. The audience votes on the ending like a “choose your own adventure” on stage: “This time around, the audience again actively participates by voting. Six 20-to-30-somethings who live together in Los Angeles are thrust into or out of the sack with other characters, depending on how the audience votes.” The plot focuses on wedding photographer Chastity with a bad knee and no health coverage and Joshua, a Canadian about to be deported. After a drinking binge they think that marriage might be the best course of action? Will the audience get them to the altar on time? The curtain rises at 8 pm at the Theatre Asylum and runs until March 14. Tickets are $20 at the door or $15 online. more ›

By Roger Park more ›

COMEDY more ›

more ›

We can't think of a better way to celebrate a new book than to invite musicians, poets, visual artists, performance arists and writers to respond to the new book. This is exactly what Maggie Nelson has done for her new book Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions and tonight is the night. more ›

Alex & Sam may be a duo in title, but their fairly large band, sometimes up to twelve-members on stage, is quite a force of music that just puts a smile on your face. You can't really corner them into a jazz-blues rock or straight rock category. All we can say is that on stage, they've got it going and they are making their way to becoming a household name in Los Angeles. more ›

Photo by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
more ›

MUSIC: CalTech isn’t just about nerdy rocket scientists. They have glee clubs, too! All kidding aside, tonight's concert will feature traditional holiday favorites as well as the Women's Club taking on Porpora’s Magnificat, written in the 1730s. 8 pm // Dabney Lounge at California Institute of Technology // 1200 East California Blvd., Pasadena // Free. DANCE: From CalTech, we’ll head over to CalArts in Valencia. The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance is holding its... more ›

Back in the heyday of CalArts, there are true stories of graduation ceremonies where the president of the institute would make his entrance by helicopter or where Lilian Disney (Walt's Sister) was writing a very large check to the school on stage only for a large inflated penis to be thrown from the roof of the building onto her. Once, when a students name was read, he repelled from the roof to the stage.... more ›

Alonzo King has a dance company called LINES Ballet in San Francisco. Last night he received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts (DFA) in the annual graduation tradition at CalArts. His speech is short and simple, but his message is so very true for artists entering into the "real world" for the beginning of the end of the beginning.... more ›

Walt Disney's art school, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), in the Valencia neighborhood of Santa Clarita has always brought an interesting mix up to the traditionally Republican and white-flight valley north of The Valley. Though, as time progresses, the face of the 4th largest city in LA County grows lefter and more diverse. And CalArts is still seen as some experimental freak show to many (or to those who know nothing, "a basket... 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 ›

late night thoughts... Today, Castaic is on fire. The one year I spent there was pretty much fireless. All I experienced were the 2005 rainstorms. I lived on a slanted street called Cascade. That rainy winter, it literally became that. DR Horton built the 10-year-old tract in the Hillcrest neighborhood. I would walk down the street and recognize my rented house in various forms: inverted, inverted retrograde, one shade brown lighter, etc. My house... more ›