The Brief

Look, we don’t need the New York Times to tell us that L.A. has more to offer art-wise than any other city in the country right now, but you know we love to see it.

I think there’s a football game on Sunday — before and after the Bad Bunny concert. Don’t worry, there are some watch party options (and Super Bowl alternatives!) in today’s newsletter. If football isn’t your thing, there are plenty of other sports options available in the form of the Winter Olympics, which begin this weekend.

We’re all getting a free concert on Sunday, but Licorice Pizza has the rest of your music picks for the week, including hometown faves the Silversun Pickups album release party at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at Barnsdall Gallery Theater, Aimee Mann at Pacific Electric and Mandy Patinkin singing Sondheim and more at the Carpenter Center on Saturday.

Elsewhere on LAist, you can learn about Death Valley’s stargazing festival, the Bob Baker marionettes stage their first new show in 40 years and we visit Mel’s Diner at the end of Route 66.

Events

Twin Lunarcies ft. Joe Wong

Sunday, February 8, 7 p.m. (Mandarin) and 9:15 p.m. (English)
Hollywood Improv
8162 Melrose Ave., Hollywood 
COST: $44.79; MORE INFO

(

Michael S. Schwartz

/

Getty Images

)

Comedian Joe Wong has done what few comics can — build an audience in two languages — and he’s bringing his show, Twin Lunarcies, to the Improv in both Mandarin and English. Wong hosted a TV show in his native China for a decade before exploring and finding success in the U.S., where he’s roasted Joe Biden at the Radio & TV Correspondents Dinner and appeared on many late-night talk shows. Catch him before his Netflix is a Joke show in May.

Drink the Sea (members of REM, Screaming Trees, Them Crooked Vultures)

Saturday, February 7, 8 p.m. 
Lodge Room
104 N. Ave. 56, 2nd floor, Highland Park 
COST: $45.50; MORE INFO

(

Courtesy Lodge Room

)

The dream of the ‘90s is alive and well at the Lodge Room as a supergroup with members of R.E.M., Screaming Trees (remember when all the bands had gerunds in their names?) and Them Crooked Vultures join forces for a new band, Drink the Sea.

Fuego Burlesque: A Bad Bunny Tribute

Saturday, February 7, 10 p.m. 
Harvelle's Long Beach
201 E. Broadway, Long Beach 
COST: $22; MORE INFO

(

Courtesy Harvelle's Long Beach

)

We’re getting a little racy at Best Things To Do this week, but this one is too good not to include, because just 15 minutes of Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl is not sufficient. Get the party started early with this burlesque tribute to the Puerto Rican superstar from Dirty Little Secrets Burlesque. Obviously, this event is 21+.

Super Bowl Watch Parties

Sunday, February 8, kickoff at 3:30 p.m.
Various locations 
COST: VARIES

Atmosphere during CMT After Midnight After Party and Super Bowl Sunday

(

Rick Diamond

/

Getty Images

)

Speaking of the Super Bowl, there is no shortage of places to catch the big game around town, no matter who you’re rooting for. Here are a few suggestions: Precinct DTLA is hosting a watching party with no cover and $4 beers; Copper Door in Santa Ana has $1 beer and $3 margarita specials; Volo Sports is teaming up with Benny Boy Brewing for a party that includes local food, drink specials and a cornhole competition. Angel City Brewery in the Arts District, 1212 in Santa Monica and Harriet’s Rooftop in West Hollywood are also all good choices. For something on the fancy side, Casaléna will have chef-driven food stations and an open bar with game-day cocktails at $120 per person.

Puppy Bowl Watch Party

Sunday, February 8, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. 
Wallis Annenberg PetSpace
12005 Bluff Creek Drive, Playa Vista 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

(

Laura Roberts

/

Unsplash

)

Watch the Puppy Bowl while surrounded by actual puppies?! I think this one speaks for itself. Ruff!

Israel Film Festival

Through Thursday, February 19 
Saban, Fine Arts and Regal North Hollywood 
COST: VARIES; MORE INFO 

(

Courtesy Israel Film Festival

)

The 37th annual Israel Film Festival kicks off this week and will host four U.S. premieres, plus a 40th anniversary screening of Rico­chets, the 1986 film about the First Lebanon War starring Alon Aboutboul. Many new Israeli films will screen at three area venues — the Saban and the Fine Arts theaters in Beverly Hills, and the Regal in North Hollywood. The festival has a wide range of films, from comedies to features to docs, and many of the screenings include Q&As with talent afterward.

Home and Away: Matisse Makes Another Heaven

Sunday, February 8, 3 p.m.
Hammer Museum 
10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood 
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

(

Courtesy Hammer Museum

)

Aha! I found excellent art nerd Super Bowl alternative programming. Head to the Hammer and listen to independent art historian and former Getty Museum director John Walsh discuss Matisse’s painting of the female form between the wars. Walsh will explore the influence of Matisse’s time in Nice and emerging art eras like Cubism on his work. This is the third of four in a lecture series about Matisse with Walsh at the Hammer; the last one follows on Sunday, Feb. 22.

Wild Up: The Great Learning 

Saturday, February 7, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. 
The Broad 
221 S. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A.
COST: $25; MORE INFO

(

Courtesy The Broad

)

The Broad’s current exhibit, Robert Therrien’s This is a Story, plays with the idea that everyday objects and materials can become art and move between worlds. The Grammy-nominated orchestral collective Wild Up takes a similar approach to their music and will work with a group of 30 non-musicians when they take the stage at the Broad to perform The Great Learning, Paragraphs 2 and 7, written in the late 1960s by Cornelius Cardew. The public ensemble will learn the work “through repetitions and echoes, culminating in a performance where music becomes a shared space to embody collective creativity.”

After concerted pushback from faculty, students and alumni, Cal State Dominguez Hills has decided not to eliminate six academic programs that were on the chopping block for months.

Faced with ​a potential $375 million cut in state funding last winter, campus leaders across the CSU system had moved to lay off faculty, shutter athletics programs and end majors.

At Cal State Dominguez Hills, campus leaders considered eliminating art history, earth sciences, geography and philosophy, along with labor studies and “Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding,” which are rare at most campuses.

This week, interim provost Kim Costino informed LAist that the programs will not be eliminated.

“Instead,” Costino added via email: “over the next year, [Cal State Dominguez Hills] will engage in a broad, holistic redesign process that will result in a leaner academic program portfolio that aligns the university’s academic offerings with our strategic plan, the CSU strategic plan, our university mission, the needs of our students and the job market demands of the region.”

In a followup email, campus spokesperson Lilly McKibbin said, “No programs are currently being considered for potential discontinuation.”

“Throughout the process of reviewing our academic offerings,” she added, “faculty and university leaders will consider many options, which could include expanding or consolidating existing programs, launching new ones, developing more interdisciplinary programs, discontinuing some offerings or a combination of these possibilities.”

A community effort

For educators like labor studies professor Stephen McFarland, Cal State Dominguez Hills’ decision to change course for now comes as “a big relief.”

In December, the California Faculty Association rallied against the proposed cuts. If implemented, members said, they wouldn’t just be detrimental to their colleagues but also to students.

In an email, McKibbin had told LAist: “Like all universities, [ours] must continually assess academic programs and invest in those which meet student needs, fulfill job market demands, and advance our mission. The university’s current financial constraints limit our ability to invest in new or expanded programs that could meet those needs.”

Students and alumni also spoke out against the proposed cuts. Noting that more than 60% of students are eligible for federal Pell Grants and that most financial aid awards go to families with incomes below $20,000, critics expressed concern that students from working-class backgrounds would have less access to humanities and social sciences.

Cutting classic majors like art history and philosophy, they told LAist, would be unthinkable at elite universities.

For months, non-tenured faculty in the designated programs navigated the anxiety of losing their employment. (McKibbin said the campus did “not anticipate layoffs of tenured or tenure-track faculty as a result of program discontinuation.") Meanwhile, the campus promised that if the cuts were made, students enrolled in those programs would still be able to finish their degrees at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Labor studies professor McFarland, a CFA executive board member, credits the administration’s about-face to the “quick and rapid action” of faculty, students, alumni and other community supporters. They “really banded together” to make phone calls, send emails, show up to rallies and speak up at meetings, he said, all to convey the message that the programs are “core to any university that claims to be comprehensive.”

“We feel vindicated,” McFarland added. “And we're proud of the community effort that came together to protect these programs.”

To boost enrollment in the labor studies program, McFarland and his colleagues continue to advertise, in person and online.

(

Julia Barajas

/

LAist

)

The professor also believes the campus’ new leadership was central to the decision. Interim provost Costino and interim president Mary Ann Villareal “recognize the value of the humanities,” McFarland said because they come from humanities backgrounds.

But how the relationship between faculty in these departments and the administration pans out remains to be seen.

When it comes to his students, McFarland said, there is a belief that because most of them are the first in their families to go to college, they “ought to be steered into hard science: engineering, computer science, you know, [programs] with a clear career payoff.”

McFarland says he and his colleagues view the university “much differently.”

“We see it as a forum for students to study any subject they want,” he said, “to explore the worlds of creativity and human inquiry — and then decide which career path [to pursue].”

The vampire epic Sinners made history in more ways than one this year with its Oscar nominations.

The film’s 16 total nominations broke the previous record of 14 set by All About Eve and later matched by Titanic and La La Land. It also marked the first time that an Armenian American immigrant — Sev Ohanian — was nominated for best picture.

Ohanian produced Sinners, along with writer/director/producer Ryan Coogler and producer Zinzi Coogler.

LAist News host Julia Paskin spoke with Ohanian about Sinners and how making funny YouTube videos about his Armenian parents helped kick off a creative partnership with his fellow USC film school classmate Ryan Coogler.

Below are highlights from the conversation and an extended version of the interview is available here.

On Sinners as ‘the final exam of filmmaking’

Ohanian says he describes Sinners as like “the final exam of filmmaking,” with some more common challenges and others that were more unique.

That included casting: “Ryan knew from the very beginning [that] he wanted to find almost like a young unknown talent who would be great at acting, great at singing, could play guitar, [...] someone who had a youthful face, but a voice that was far beyond his years, which, how do we even find that? Is that something that people put on their resumes?”

With the help of casting director Francine Maisler (also nominated for an Oscar in the Academy’s first year bestowing a casting award), they found newcomer Miles Caton.

Then there were challenges unique to shooting in the swamps of Louisiana. Ohanian says there were “I think 6,042 mosquitoes at any given day. There was that one time an alligator literally showed up on set. Thankfully, it was all taken care of. Everyone was safe.”

How the Armenian American community in LA helped him launch his film career

Growing up, Ohanian says he loved the idea of making a career in filmmaking but was daunted.

“I had this idea that to be a filmmaker, you’ve gotta have connections and resources and knowledge, things that will be passed down. But as an Armenian American immigrant,” Ohanian says, “those are not things that were part of my community.”

He put the idea of filmmaking as a career to the side, but after making some YouTube videos about his Armenian parents for fun, “they blew up. Armenians all around the world were sharing them. They were going viral. And I ended up writing a movie called My Big Fat Armenian Family,” inspired by My Big Fat Greek Wedding. 

He screened the movie at Glendale High School, got the word out to the Armenian American community, and people showed up and paid to see it.

"That experience, beyond the success of it on the financial level,” Ohanian says, “the fact that my community responded to something that I thought of, that I shot with my friends, it kind of made me realize that those things that I thought were necessary — connections and resources and knowledge — I had those this whole time in my community. That's what got me into USC where I started doing it for real.”

Thousands of students from schools across Los Angeles walked out Wednesday in peaceful protest of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

The Los Angeles Unified School District estimated 4,400 students from about two dozen schools participated.

“ I think it's really empowering that we aren't being discouraged to [protest], but it's also really discouraging to have to live through this,” said Roybal Learning Center senior Melisa. 

“The reason I came out is 'cause we're so young and I feel like people always think that like young people don't have a voice and in reality we have one of the strongest voices,” said Jazlyn Garcia, a senior at  Alliance Gertz-Ressler High School. “I want people to go out and vote for midterms, pre-register to vote.”

Leonna, a senior at Downtown Magnets High School and daughter of immigrants from Cambodia, said she was thinking of her neighbors.  “We need to protect the people that make sure that the economy is running and make sure that our lives are the way that they are every day.”

Students said the Trump administration's immigration raids threaten their families, communities and education.

LAUSD estimated that several thousand students walked out.

(

Sabrina Sanchez

/

LAist

)

Students said they were concerned for family and neighbors.

(

Sabrina Sanchez

/

LAist

)

Alexis, a senior at Brío College Prep, said administrators locked down his campus after agents detained a nearby fruit vendor. “He was a part of our community,” Alexis said. “He would always be out there selling fruits to us after school.”

San Fernando Valley students at more than 40 schools plan to walk out Friday.

“Los Angeles Unified supports the rights of our students to advocate for causes important to them,” a district spokesperson wrote in a statement to LAist. “However, we are concerned for student safety at off-campus demonstrations as schools are the safest place for students.”

The district encouraged students to exercise their rights in on-campus discussions and demonstrations.