tamala poljak has participated whole-heartedly in underground punk, art, and queer communities for two decades in los angeles and the pacific northwest as a photographer/artist, musician, & performer. she has been working on conversations that never happened for the past two years. email
anna oxygen’s work deals with interactivity, movement and semiotics presented through performance, narrative and video. she has also curated many moments around social engagement and community art. she has toured extensively and released several albums of electronic music, most recently "this is an exercise" on kill rock stars. her solo work has been presented at ps1 moma, the seattle art museum, the buddy gallery(chicago), nyu, the armory center for the arts (pasadena), portland institute for contemporary art, and the rohsska museet in gothenburg, sweden. she is in the performance group cloud eye control. www.annaoxygen.com
paloma parfrey is a singer, poet, performer, & vegetarian cook from los angeles, most known for vegan tamales and her singing in punk bands, the grown-ups & the sharp ease, paloma has been an active part of the los angeles art and music community for the past 13 years. paloma will be creating the menu for our dinner theater night #1 on july 12 and our mystery picnic cafe on july 19 4-9pm.
katie byron is a production designer/art director for film and occasional installation artist. Her life is about loving and understanding emotional attachment to space, community and memory...and proving that there are no bounds to what we all can accomplish and build. she is playful, daring at the fantastic, the wildly seemingly impossible realm of intricate visions, in her attempt to build rich and interactive landscapes for an audience to remember. katie will be installling authentic eating environments at our dinner theater, july 12 & 13 and our mystery picnic cafe on july 19.
TELIC arts exchange located at 975 chung king road in chinatown, los angeles, provides a place for multiple publics to engage with contemporary forms of media, art and architecture. for four years the space has been a platform for exhibitions, performances, screenings, lectures and discussions. TELIC’s program emphasizes social exchange, interactivity and public participation to produce a critical engagement with new media and culture. www.telic.info
lisa marr likes to make movies, ride bikes and sing songs. she is a lazy gourmet. along with her sweetheart paolo davanzo, she helps run the echo park film center, a community media arts organization. lisa and paolo davanzo (see below) are curating films for the tv dinner night on July 9 @ 8pm.
www.lisamarr.org www.echoparkfilmcenter.org
paolo davanzo. italian born, california raised likes to create things of beauty. be it through film, music, activism or education he is eager to bring joy to the people he meets. with these ideals in mind he helps run the echo park film center, a community media arts organization; paolo and lisa marr (see above) are curating films for tv dinner night on July 9 @ 8pm.
www.polyesterprince.com www.echoparkfilmcenter.org
OPENING RECEPTION JUNE 28th, 6-9pm
david scott stone (sometimes referred to as sir dss) is a musician who has recorded and toured with the melvins, unwound, fantômas, the locust, jello biafra, keiji haino, mike patton, adam jones (tool), merzbow, masonna, big business, no age, joe lally and others. recently, (2007-2008) dss has released a record of all modular synthesizer music on "plays the modular synthesizer", toured italy with joe lally (fugazi) and the sads, is working on a record with anna oxygen, formed the project the sads in early 2007 with musicians aaron rose, dan monick and aska matsumiya. sir dss will be performing an extended set od soundscapes at the opening reception june 28th, 6-9pm. click
DINNER THEATER PERFORMERS ON JULY 12 & 13, 7pm
sarah paul ocampo is an artist and musician. she is the creator of advanced beginner, a rock cabaret act, the director of the all girl comb choir and a founding member of the literary performing arts group the typing explosion. sarah paul will be hosting the dinner theater on july 12 & 13. rumour has it she will don a new costume for every dish served.
mecca vazie andrews' film and stage credits include RENT, mtv movie awards, hysterica dance company, commonality dance company, grammy's with david la chapelle, sony industrials, vh1's showgirl bootcamp, american apparel. she recently completed work on the disney film, bedtime stories starring adam sandler. mecca can been seen in the february 2008 issue of dance spirit with hysterica dance company. her work is spoken very highly of in street scene and arthur magazine. mecca has been was interviewed by loudmouth magazine for her performance troupe the movement MOVEMENT. she choreographed singer/songwriter eleni mandell's video dis moi and completed a collaboration with ‘a family finds entertainment' director ryan trecartin for his most recent film 'i be area' in which she also performs. she premiered her piece, home of the noble at the john anson ford ampitheatre for hysterica dance companies, hysterica x. mecca is pleased to call this her second occasion working with LACDC. her first being modern myths and monsters this past spring in which she created a contemporary ballet, the wagon train Is divided. mecca vazie andrews teaches contemporary jazz at edge performing arts center, creative movement at gramercy park and jazz 3 at loyola marymount university. mecca will be performing at the dinner theater july 12 & 13.
steve gregoropoulos born new london, connecticut. studied with charles whittenberg, dick strawser and richard hoffmann, plays in lavender diamond & w.a.c.o., writes classical music for working people, makes pop records & produces records, arranges for various good people like devon williams & moon upstairs. believes composing and performing should be regular manual labor. steve gregoropoulos along with kim humphreys, elizabeth herndon & adam brisben will be performing at the dinner theater july 12 & 13.
the all girl comb choir sarah paul ocampo is the mastermind behind and features erin smith, jessica pregnolato, andromeda dunker, julie g, sara forrest and other girls from the neighborhood, playing popular rock music on the comb, fly swatter, magazine, bottles and buckets. inspired by the field recordings of alan lomax in 1959 and the desire to create art out of the everyday. the all girl comb choir has played at kreiling and dodd and the hyperion tavern and most recently performed the national anthem for the los angeles roller derby. they will be performing some songs at the dinner theater july 12 & 13.
lindsay beamish is an actress, dancer, artist, and writer living in los angeles. As an actress, she has worked with noted directors such as john cameron mitchell, miranda july, and crispin glover. she had a lead role in mitchell's film shortbus, which premiered at the 2006 cannes film festival, and garnered cast nominations in noted venues, including the gotham film festival. her dance company, the leg and pants dans theatre, for which she is the primary choreographer, recently completed a tour with the acclaimed band deerhoof, and has performed at such venues/events as the knitting factory (nyc and la), the bowery ballroom, ladyfest san francisco, and arthur ball los angeles. as an experimental filmmaker, her work has been shown at the south by southwest film festival, the new york underground film festival, and released on dvd by indie stalwart record label kill rock stars. as a writer, her work has appeared in a number of underground publishing contexts, and has recently been issued in a compilation by aaron cometbus. lindsay will be doing some mysterious performance at the dinner theater july 12 & 13.
amanda lovejoy street is an actor and writer living in los angeles. she has performed many plays including several as a member of the odyssey theatre's experimental company KOAN. her last project took her to NYC where she helped develop the process based piece "the seven woes of a libra prophet" which explored the art of royal robertson, a self proclaimed prophet/folk artist. In 2002, amanda worked through the stifling enmeshment dynamic present within her family; from 2003 to 2005 she dealt with father issues and rage. for the past few years, she has been processing her relationship to power and control especially in the areas of sex and love. for a more extensive bio, you will need to contact her therapist. amanda will be performing a short play of sorts at the dinner theater july 12 & 13.
cathy de la cruz is a filmmaker, animator, writer, zine-maker and dj currently living south of los angeles. cathy has summer plans to work on her animated MFA film, teach young women how to make movies, screen her films, dj some art openings, give some readings, help with some film festivals, teach a college class on science fiction films, travel a whole bunch and go to the beach a lot. cathy has been an assistant to filmmaker hal hartley and writer, eileen myles. every week, she co-hosts a feminist film review podcast, called show me your titles which can be found at www.showmeyourtitles.com cathy will be reading at the dinner theater july 12 &13.
tara tavi best known for her musical genius in auto da fe, amps for christ, soddamn inssein. she will perform classical chinese dulcimer pieces at the dinner theater july 12. www.taratavi.com
claire mckeown was born years ago in belfast, northern ireland. she emigrated to los angeles back in the reagan years and for some reason has remained here. she must like it or something. she has been studying and performing opera for the last 14 years, but recently, after what can only be described as a total mental breakdown (possibly just a nervous break down... she's been known to exaggerate), started to compose her own music. currently she is melding her two favorite musical worlds, opera and rock n roll, in two projects afternoons and dirt bird. claire will be performing “a few of the best songs in the entire world, ever” at the dinner theater july 12 & 13.
david p. earle is an artist and writer living in los angeles. he will be performing his piece “back story” at the dinner theater july 12-13. "back story" is either a play or a short story or a radio drama.
john p. hogan is a los angeles-based artist whose work takes shape primarily in drawing and performance. recently, hogan performed a one-man show entitled *friars and bacchae in conflict* at david patton los angeles. he is currently working on recording and mixing the soundtrack for *the Island of florida: a foundation myth*; a musical written with his art-rock band, ponce de leon. in the fall he plans to write and perform in a weekly live musical mini-series to at machine project in echo park. hogan´s work, be it performance, rock opera, or drawing, regularly deals with issues of imperialism, colonization, and sexual repression, usually from the point of view of those being imperialist and doing the colonizing and repressing. john will be performing "writing the memoir", the opening number from the island of florida: a foundation myth, a musical written with his band, ponce de leon at the dinner theater july 13.
MYSTERY PICNIC CAFE & CLOSING PERFORMANCES ON JULY19, 4-9pm
christina billotte. best known for her bands autoclave, slant 6 and quixotic. she will be performing with laura lazarus at mystery picnic cafe july 19.
jackson baugh has been contributing to los angeles' punk underground since he was a teenager. the guitarist for notorious bands like silver daggers and soddamn inssein, he has also found time for displaying his visual arts, reading his writing and, of course, the art of pissing on authority with his social activism, amongst other things. he will be reading one of his many stories that circumnavigate excess, imaginary friends and procrastination at the mystery picnic cafe july 19.
big swell is sound from the fourth dimension, channeled by two white octopuses. hail! performance by sam cooper, reel-to-reel, moog, 4-track at the mystery picnic cafe july 19. click
horse thieves live and breathe in los angeles. alex maslansky plays guitar and songs & brie turner o’banion plays the piano & sings. they will play songs for us at the mystery picnic cafe july 19. click
more coming soon...