Exhibit At the UAM Showcases Old Artistc Footage

An exhibition of art pieces in the form of video clips, called Art/Tapes/22, is on display at Cal State Long Beach's University Art Museum until October 19th.
The exhibit is basically a gallery of video clips, made from 1973 to 1976. The pieces vary greatly in what they display. Some are silent, but a great number of them have headphones provided to listen to the audio on the tapes. The majority were filmed in black and white, though a few of the works are in color.
Among those works being displayed are "In Version", made in 1974, featuring nothing more than a man pressing his face up against a pane of transparent glass multiple times being played over and over on a loop, as are all the pieces.
Also displayed is "Theme Song", a tape of a man laying on the floor and looking into the camera, casually talking to it with music playing in the background, as if the camera were a lover. He attempts to seduce the viewer by looking directly at them and saying things like, "Whatever you wanna do baby, whatever is fine..." in a singsong voice.
Over 150 artists contributed to this exhibit, which began its life in Florence, Italy and has traveled all around the world. The medium of display ranges from old television sets, to projectors, to cameras that make the viewer part of the exhibit.

Saturday Art Walk Provides Venue For Local Artists

   Local artists, musicians, painters, and more are given a chance to showcase their talents to the general public, in the East Village Arts District of downtown Long Beach, on the second saturday of every month.  

   Its called the Second Saturday Art Walk, and since 1997 its been giving Long Beach residents a chance to let loose onstage, or just take their better half to a cheap night out on the town.  Admission is free as well as parking on public streets, if you can find it.  If not, parking is available in nearby structures for four dollars.  

  Ocean Avenue, Broadway, Elm, and Linden Avenue are cordoned off for this event, and people can grab a bite to eat at the restaurants along these streets.  Wine tasting is also an option.  The art on display ranges from sculpture to photography in addition to live music, dance, and performance artists who's acts include fire-hoop dancing and vaudvillian melodrama.  Car shows featuring vintage modified cars have also rounded out the event in the past.  

   The Second Saturday Art Walk benefits the community by providing extra revenue for downtown's small businesses through proximity to the event and press gained from it, and the strong presence of an artistic commnuity there has attracted more attention and more residents, according to an article in "Harbor Living" by Noel Barr.

*note: the video below was not taken by me, I found it on 2nd Saturday Artwalk's myspace page.

    

Garage Theater Provides Refreshing Alternative To Conventional Stage

We've all heard of garage bands, but to most of us the term garage theater is a new one. That is the name of the theater company formed by CSULB alumni and playwright Jamie Sweet in 1996. The first show was, you guessed it, in a garage. A garage in Costa Mesa, to be exact. His first official play, "Egg Man," became very popular for the short two nights it ran, and marked the beginning of Sweet's career as a playwright.
Sweet learned everything he knows about the theater and the stage during his academic career at Orange Coast College. The drama department there was student-run, and thus allowed him a hands-on approach to acting, directing, and writing.
Sweet met up with other, like minded people at Orange Coast College, and that group transfered from there to Cal State University, Long Beach.
The Garage Theater Company was born out of this group of playwrights who wanted to produce and perform "art that spoke to them, whether it sold tickets or not" according to an article in the Press-Telegram.
The Garage is now located at 7th street in Long Beach, and has been releasing roughly two original plays per season since 2005, many of them penned by Sweet and fellow playwright/actor Amy-Louise Sebellius.

Art Theatre Of Long Beach Newly Renovated

The Art Theatre Of Long Beach, deemed one of the top five independent, or "indie", movie theaters in Los Angeles, has recently recieved a much needed restoration from the inside out.

Originally unveiled under the name "The Carter Theatre" in 1924, it had everything you'd expect from a theater of the silent movie era, right down to the pipe organ and orchestra pit. At first it looked something like Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

After the '33 earthquake, the theater was remodeled in 1934 in the "art-deco" style popular at that time. It was again remodeled in 1947, with additions like a wider marquee, and given the new name, "The Art Theatre."

This year, it has been restored to the original "art-deco" specifications, with the addition of some modern amenities. The original blueprints were used as a guide, and new sound and visual equipment has been installed. The two storefronts that flanked the theater on either side have been converted into a wine and a coffee bar. The interior and exterior alike appear to have been painstakingly reconstructed with a minute attention to detail.