The Food Network recently announced their new series “Eat the Clock”, a reality show similar to “The Amazing Race”, where teams of contestants race from restaurant to restaurant, gathering clues and consuming meals at local LA hotspots. While the Food Network says their show doesn’t emphasize frantic face-stuffing, like Spike TV and ESPN’s competitive eating events, or G4’s show “Hurl”, it doesn’t have the same quality as their other shows. What happened to the shows featuring chefs who want to preserve the art and peace that can be found in cooking?

What this show does accomplish is accurately portraying how the “LA mentality” affects everything we do here. Even eating, something usually associated with a taking a break,  relaxation, nourishment, group time, bonding, laying down one’s arms, shared enjoyment, etc, can be turned into a hyper, deadline-obsessed, competitive, win-or-lose, crazed race to “be the first one to acquire whatever the current “desired item/ title/status symbol” is. So what title does the winner of the show get, I wonder? Well, while Food Network tries to decide on that, I have some ideas for the contestant’s tee shirt designs:

“And I didn’t have to regurgitate once!”

or, for the more accurate LA native,

“Skip chewing and it comes up easier!”

or,

“Who said dinner was supposed to be enjoyable?”

 “I majored in speed eating”

 “Who says a big mouth is bad?”

“Speed dating, minus the date”

“I will annihilate you at eating.”

“Make eating an Olympic sport”.

And we wonder why Americans are the heaviest nation on the world. There’s a reason you don’t see any French Reality shows featuring people trying to scarf down some bruchetta and cheese and guzzle a good Syrah before jumping up and dashing to the next Bistro.

I think a better idea for a show would be to document how much food the average restaurant patron wastes when they eat out. Maybe calculate how many children in Argentina one days’ worth of wasted food could have fed. Or maybe investigating why the dishwasher can’t get healthcare.

Just some ideas. But then we wouldn’t get to see people running around in some pretty awesome tee shirts.

Among a large choice of sculptors, our attention captured in our nets of curiosity, atypical animated post-historic animals “standbeests” evolving majestically as the Animaris Ondula on the beaches of Netherlands.

Made with electric tubes moving in the principle of the wheel, those gigantic animals have sensitive organs as a brain (that steps counts, changing the facto the pattern of zeros and ones when an obstacle appears) and a nose utilized as a tiller. Their mission so far is to learn how to survive in an hostile environment.

Like the father of creative engineering (Da Vinci) did with his Vitruvian Man by setting the Canon of proportions, by relating man to nature, Theo Jansen uses nature to relate his kinetic sculptures, juggling essentially with genetic algorithms.

As Da Vinci, Jansen in his experimental approach, studies, analyzes, doubts, succeeds and fails.

His main problem to challenge is how to move while being aware of the obstacles (and avoid them)! Consequently his futuristic dinosaurs dispose of artificial intelligence enabling them to “recognize” their limitations (the end of the dry sand arm and the beginning of the ocean) to automatically adapt themselves to the environmental and climatic configurations.

Very interesting…

“Frozen Grand Central” is a brilliant new mission by Improv Everywhere where 207 agents all froze in place at the exact same time for five minutes in the middle of Grand Central Station. Here’s the full mission report:

original source

Frenetic artist Johanna Went gave an impressive performance packing a full house for her last night performance at her retrospective at Track 16 in Santa Monica. I spotted some familiar faces including a couple of celebrities: Ben Stiller and “what’s her name”, + a couple of stars that I should have known their names if I actually cared about pop culture. <Eh hem> The 3 week retrospective ended each week with a full cast performance, ode to the beginnings. Wow, what a show. I was there, 2nd row back, completely enthralled. (Thanks Clam!)

If you aren’t familiar with her work, Johanna Went became known for her provocative and aggressive performances fusing LA’s punk rock scene with performance art in the late 70′s and 80′s. Went’s performances attracted a loyal following that forever changed the face of SoCal’s punk scene. Her shows were known for her blend of visually stunning aggression, sculptural costumes, (elements likely found at the local thrift store) unrehearsed noisescapes, synthesized vocals, slapping of raw meat and lots and lots of stage blood. Johanna’s career expanded to films and collaborations with other musicians over the years. The retrospective was an amazing testament to her body of work.

Steve Hochman, Special LA Times writer had this to say about his experience the week before:

“The show started like a Teletubbies nightmare. Then it got weird. The players paraded in, gyrated and uttered non-sequiturs, backed by a vibrant surf-psychedelic-tribal recorded score by longtime collaborator Mark Wheaton with contributions by percussionist Z’ev. It was a frenetic, myth-o-matic jumble of kabuki, English pantomime, mystery plays, Noh, the Ramayama, Día de los Muertos pageantry, Buñuel films, Dante, you name it — a Joseph Campbell Frappuccino.”

The entire review can be found here.

Personally, I enjoy all kinds of art, expression, creativity, movement, dance and performance art, which happens to be one of my favorites. Even though I never saw Johanna Went in her hay-day, I have been a fan of her work, as one of the major influences that helped shape the face of performance art Los Angeles. I rank her among the same playing field as Bob Flannigan and Lydia Lunch. It was a treat and honor for me to see Ms. Went, likely in her late-forties, doing what she does, being messy, provocative, uninhibited and totally committed to her art form. The essence of her authenticity and commitment are so inspirational to me, as a woman, as an artist, as a professional creative. (Especially as I put another candle on my birthday cake each year.) I look and look for the same level of authenticity in the professional world I now reside but frankly it isn’t as apparent. Hmmmmm…

One of the many interests of jungle 8‘s founder, Lainie Liberti is her passion for dance, performance and a Japanese art form combining the two called “Butoh”. She began practicing Butoh after answering an open call put forth by the founders of the performance collective Corpus Delecti. Corpus Delecti formed just over 5 years ago, in response to the pending US- Iraq invasion. Through the vehicle and practice of the Butoh art form, the group provided an outlet for Los Angeles area artists to participate as part of a collaborative, “performing” in protest of the on the streets of Los Angeles.

Over the past 5 years, Corpus Delecti performed well over 100 times in theaters (including Disney’s RedCat Theatre, Highways Performance Space, Hollywood Forever – Day of the Dead + many more) gallery spaces, public gatherings and protests featuring their ever-present ghostly “slow walk” on the streets of Los Angeles.

The latest adventure down the rabbit hole for Corpus Delecti will be their production “GLOBAL BUTOH”, two evenings May 25 & 26 at Highways in Santa Monica. This show features one of the first gen Butoh masters from Japan, Katsura Kan, Corpus Delecti, Black Stone Ensemble from San Francisco, plus an installation, two photo exhibits and videos and films documenting Corpus Delecti’s body of work.

Katsura Kan, a native of Kyoto, Japan, Kan is a Master Butoh artist from the ranks of the first generation of Butoh (he performed with the seminal Butoh troupe Byakkosha, 1979-1981). Now, Kan is a celebrated solo artist and collaborative performer, as well as choreographer.

So, if you’re anywhere near LA, we highly recommend you attend. For only $20, performances both Fri & Sat May 25 & 26 at 8:30pm. jungle 8 designed the invitations, programs and press kits for the event. We’re going to be there, you should to. And be sure to say hello to lainie liberti as she takes your ticket at the door.

For more information, here’s a handy-dandy link.