Happy Earth Day, everyone! If you're looking for something tree huggy to do around town today, then read this post. Otherwise, keep reading below for other things to do tonight that aren't quite as green. FILM Black Orpheus (1959) was the 1960 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film. It's an ancient love story set to a bossa-nova soundtrack by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luis Bonfá. "The film re-imagines the Greek myth of......

Parisian street artist Blek le Rat hit Subliminal Projects for his first U.S. art show this weekend and although it's been mentioned twice already on LAist, seeing Shepard Fairey's new space in action with the public inside really demonstrated Echo Park's newest arrival in a fascinating light. A line longer than the Short Stop formed outside the Gallery Saturday night as art patrons danced, drank wine and dished out conversation inside about art, Obama and......

Before Banksy and Shepard Fairey there was Blek le Rat. The French street artist is quite possibly the first person to use stencils for graffiti, a style he pioneered to veer away from the NY city tags he had witnessed. His first stencils of life sized rats invaded the streets of Paris in the early 80's. From there he moved to stencils of popular icons of culture and some self portraits. To say he is......

Earlier this year, Shepard Fairey's design agency, Studio Number One, his company Obey Giant Art Inc. and his gallery co-owned with his wife, Subliminal Projects, moved operations into Echo Park on Sunset Blvd. (see the photos of them putting up huge Obama posters here). This Saturday, the new space's first exhibition features Parisian stencil and street art pioneer, Blek le Rat, who is an influence on street art favorite -- Banksy. The show will be......

Shepard Fairey (left) with Dericc Swinfard of Monster Media Inc. Swinfard printed and delivered the super-sized image pro bono. After discovering a massive Shepard Fairey-designed Obama print off Sunset yesterday, we went hunting for the background story, which led straight to the artist himself. The giant billboard (at 1331 W. Sunset) in question marks the location of Fairey's new HQ: Studio Number One with the soon-to-open Subliminal Projects gallery on the first floor. Shepard......

To see how this giant poster got here, check poil11's flickr. Shepard Fairey's Obama print appeared on the side of this building in Elysian Park over the weekend. Perhaps the "hope" message will serve as much-needed inspiration for the Dodger Stadium tenants around the corner (except, of course, on the three June dates when Obama's beloved White Sox visit Chavez Ravine). Read LAist's latest campaign coverage here.......

Photo credit: sniderscion Torontoist spent its week uncovering who was behind mysterious ads for a drug called "Obay" that popped up across the country (Scientology? Frank Shepard Fairey?), first tracing them to an advocacy group called Colleges Ontario and then confirming their suspicions a few days later.Phillyist learned how to put on a puppet show – it's not as easy as you might think!Shanghaiist discovers that the average starting monthly pay for fresh graduates......

The last time, it was locally based artist Shepard Fairey. This time, it's the Coachella Valley natives Carlos Ramirez and Armando Lerma, known as The Date Farmers. Upper Playground, a San Francisco based online store and collective of artists, has asked the Date Farmers to create a campaign poster to be mass-distributed on offset posters throughout Texas prior to the primary on March 4th. "For too long we have been plagued by mediocrity and incompetence......

While the political establishment sought new and different ways to explain the gifts a Sen. Ted Kennedy endorsement brings to the Barack Obama's campaign, the Time Magazine's and the Salon's missed one key endorsement the winner of South Carolina's Democratic Primary received Monday: Shepard Fairey. Fairey, the acclaimed poster artist and illustrator whose Obey Giant posters have plastered billboards and electrical boxes from Santa Monica to Highland Park, focused on Obama's progressivism in his endorsement.......

This Saturday Dec. 22nd @ the Key Club there's going to be a Joe Strummer Tribute thing-thang honoring the late rock legend, by not only performing many of the songs he wrote but also putting all the money raised towards Strummerville (the charity set up in his name) The press release states the following:Joining Zander Schloss & The Wilderness Years, Three Bad Jacks, David J (Bauhaus), Hellride (featuring Mike Watt, Steven Perkins & Peter......

As soon as we arrived at the Obey sale on Saturday in Santa Ana I told my friend, "fuck this, I'm out." The line was longer than anything I'd seen outside Magic Mountain. All you could see were high school and college-aged kids in hoodies and tapered jeans messaging their friends and they were probably saying the same thing I was saying, "fuck this." But my friend was determined. She had Christmas shopping to......

Opening tonight, less than an hour from now, is Shepard Fairey's Imperfect Union show at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery. The show features probably near 100 new pieces of work from Shepard, showing how truly creative and artistic he still is. The work looks like his standard cut stencil style, but when you really get up close to his pieces, you start to see how truly great he is, actually. His pieces feature tons of......

Melrose Alley Street Art...

Black Friday has come and gone but there's one more killer sale that you shouldn't miss - the Obey Sale. For the last few years we have been lucky enough to learn about the sale, this year held in a warehouse The OC, and today we are very happy to share the dates with you. When: Friday, December 7th from 9a - 7p & Saturday, December 8th from 9a - 5p Where: 3500 West......

Sports Illustrated busted with a sweet and comprehensive look at current-day NHL goalies and their colorful helmets. Sadly our local boys did not fare very well in comparison with some of the monsters that emboss a few of the masks, like the one above of Marty Turco of the Dallas Stars. They weren't embarrassingly bad, like some, but they're pretty near the bottom of the barrel. The Kings' Jason LaBarbera seems to have Metallica......

We get a lot of announcements in our email box throughout the week. A lot of press releases, tips, and nudes from the ladies. Thank you. But the other day we got a very interesting one from Scion announcing an art exhibit curated by one of our favorite magazines, Swindle. Maybe you've seen the really well-done hardbound (and recently also in paperback), colorful books, basically, that Shepard Fairey puts out when you least expect......

Did you think $75 for Rock the Bells tickets was too steep? Fight the power, and head over to Hollywood and Highland to catch one of the headlining acts for free. Yeeeeah Boy! Public Enemy will be performing on Thursday night's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live and Chuck D is inviting everyone to bum rush the show. Check out his new blog at ChuckD.tv for details to find out how you can see one of......

From the tallest skyscraper in the City of Brotherly Love to Canadian tourism copywriting brilliance, here's what you should know from our -ist cities: This week, Phillyist took a gleeful listen to the White Stripes' exciting new release, watched in awe as their new tallest skyscraper was finally completed, found a cheaper way to get to Gothamist, invented a tasty new dessert, and brought back their Craigslist Round-Up feature with a bang. Bostonist watches......

Last Wednesday’s show at the Billy Shire Gallery in Culver City had all the elements needed for a typical Los Angeles VIP event – work by a world renowned artist (Tim Biskup), a celebrity host (JJ Abrams), sponsorship from two hip brands (Vanity Fair and Helio), and a roster of guests most people only read about in the usual arts & culture magazines (Matt Groening, Mark Ryden, Adele Mildred, and Shepard Fairey, among others). The......

Billy Corgan got the band back together, sorta, and the Smashing Pumpkins are really going to have a new record this summer. James Iha probably won't be on it, and our girlfriend D'arcy or our other girlfriend Melissa Auf der Maur will probably also be replaced, but Billy and Jimmy Chamberlin didn't do us wrong on Zwan, and that rhymes with bring it on. LA street art pioneer and Obey founder Shepard Fairey's official......

As you probably know, LAist is a huge fan of Mark The Cobra Snake. And ginormous fans of Shepard Fairey. But we're super freaky fans of public transportation, in fact LAist's editor's personal blog is called the busblog (busblog.com). So when we heard that The Secret Machines were going to play at Union Station, with guest DJ Shepard Fairey, with a special display featuring the work of The Cobra Snake we nearly kicked over......

This week we held a contest for three pairs of tickets to the upcoming LA Weekly street fest. Congratulations Richard, Aileen, and Marisa. They will be downtown on Saturday, October 7th on Main and 1st, rocking out to Beck, Queens of the Stone Age, and Basement Jaxx, with additional performances by Peeping Tom, Redd Kross, Blackalicious, Blonde Redhead, !!!, The Like, The Elected, OH NO! OH MY!, The Blood Arm, Everybody Else, The Howling......

Every week we've got something sweet to stoke you, the gentle LAist readers with. Last week we sent a lovely lady a pair of tickets for the Vegoose concert; today we're gonna bro someone with ducats to the First Annual LA Weekly Detour Fest. Saturday, October 7th on Main and 1st in Downtown LA, locals will rock out to Beck, Queens of the Stone Age, and Basement Jaxx, with additional performances by Peeping Tom,......

COOP doesn't play. If you tell him you're going to have a couple dozen questions emailed to him, and you shoot them to him, when you come back from your little party, there they are, answered, beautifully, honestly, no problems, no worries. The man is a pro. He takes his art just as seriously. Well, as seriously as you can take big-tittie devil girls and hot rods and demons and now Atari joysticks. He's your......

photo by Brian Kittlety Not that the citizens of LA need any more reason to go out on a Thursday night, but La Cita, the newest eastside bar soon to be inhabitated by hipsters sick of The Shortstop, is hosting Dance Right, a new Thursday night party. There's good parking, an outdoor patio for all you smokers, and best of all, cheap drinks and good dancing. Plus, Shepard Fairey of Obey Giant fame spins......

Rock hero Perry Farrell, creator of Lollapalooza, has decided to start interviewing some of his favorite people. One of his interviews is with LA street artist Shepard Fairey. Farrell has cut together several short bits, this one is part two of his interview with the OBEY visionary. In this one they talk about fellow artist Banksy. To see more of Perry's interviews, search them out on YouTube......

Ah, summer is here — summer, and the news that the earth's surface temperature is the highest it's been in 2,000 years. Tra la. Not relishing the idea of a monster utility bill, our thoughts turn to finding a public place where the AC is always set to Meat Locker — the movie theater. So, we trundle on down to the local MegaMechaMoviePlex to see what's playing. Click. The Lake House. Garfield 2. Feh.......

It's been a year since French artist Invader touched down in Los Angeles. Invader, of course, is the anonymous French artist whose cute-yet-ominous invader mosaics have been proliferating around Los Angeles since 1999. The occasion last April was a show at hyper-cool Subliminal Projects gallery, during which time he successfully tagged the last few letters of the Hollywood Sign with his artwork. Next Saturday, June 11, he returns to this planet for a show......

Interpol are coming. In fact, they have already infiltrated Los Angeles with our very own short-term Interpol Space. This gallery/merchandising space, one of only three in the world, opened (at least to LAist's eye) in conjunction with the impending release of the band's new album, Antics, out next week. "The rooms act as neither a museum of the band's career-to-date, nor merely a place for the selling of merchandise, but rather as a space......