Believing that everyone deserves a beautiful future, the nation’s leading make-up educational institute, Make-Up Designory (MUD), created the MUD Cares Palette of Eye Colors to benefit NextAid and one of its partners in Africa, the Red Rhino Orphanage Project (RROP). 100% of the sales from the limited-edition four-color eye shadow palette are being generously donated to NextAid to help RROP build a foundation for a better tomorrow. Once the specially commissioned palettes sell out the funds will provide construction of orphans’ homes in a poverty-stricken town 25 miles southeast of Nairobi, Kenya. Lovely superstars Colette, DJ Rap, Eve Falcon, and Samantha James have come on board to help spread the word. Read the rest of this entry »

"Eyes Nose Mouth" - photo credit: Noemie Lafrance

Dance Camera West (DCW), recognized internationally for its month-long presentation and celebration of dance on screen, announces its Ninth Annual Dance Media Film Festival screening at venues throughout Southern California in June 2010. Dance on screen, or screendance, is a unique cinematic experience that focuses on the intersection of cinematography and choreography. The festival includes screendance as well as all forms of dance media. “The hybrid screendance medium is diverse, encompassing a broad range of cinematography styles, exhibition formats, and subject matter traversing global perspectives,” says Dance Camera West founder and director, Lynette Kessler… Read the rest of this entry »

Buddha Bark is the premiere wellness, pampering and gifting lounge for celebrities and their dogs to primp and prepare pre-awards shows, debuting in January 2010 during the 67th annual Golden Globe Awards. Created by canine wellness expert, Madison Svensson, her Buddha Bark event series is the first to bring together top experts and brands from both the celebrity lifestyle world and the canine wellness community. Showcasing cutting-edge organic treatments, services and products for people and their pets, Buddha Bark will take place on Friday, January 15th and Saturday, January 16, 2009 from 11:00am – 5:00pm. Find refuge in an exclusive Zen-inspired garden oasis located in the heart of the awards show action zone complete with bungalows, a dog park, salon, art gallery, fashion runway, performance art, walking gardens and more. Read the rest of this entry »

The Huron SubStation, a historic 1906 Los Angeles trolley power station, recently launched its first line of candles under the helm of Manifest Destiny. The line, unique in concept, aromatics and visuals, creates its own genre within the candle market. Created by SubStation owner, Meike Kopp, the line debuts with a series of luxurious candles, each memorializing a time in history with an antique image and a vintage scent. The line utilizes such striking images as lost photos found in the attic to civil war daguerreotypes, pairing them with hauntingly evocative scents such as cognac, burning birch, and pouch tobacco. Adding yet another dimension to the line, the antique images on each of the candles inspires the creation of a character that is immersed in a mysterious fable. Written by Kopp, a teaser of the fable accompanies each candle and the fable in its entirety can be found on Manifest Destiny’s site www.manifestdestinyline.com.

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Photo credit Aaron Gautchi

When Lucent Dossier Experience started their new artist residency in the heart of Hollywood last month, they were presented with an unusual challenge: the h.wood space they now inhabit on Wednesday nights is a series of small, den-like chambers without a large, conventional stage. While this could have been a liability, the inventive troupe rose to the occasion by reconfiguring their show, conceptually transforming h.wood’s labyrinth of rooms into a modern day cabinet of human curiosities. Wednesdays through December 23, 2009, Lucent Dossier Experience opens h.wood’s doors every week at 8:00 p.m. with the troupe’s tantalizing performances from 9:00 p.m. to midnight, and DJs/dancing continuing until 2:00 a.m. The residency runs through December, culminating with their Orphan’s Ball on December 23rd which benefits Cuddle The World, Lucent’s charity project for disadvantaged children. Read the rest of this entry »

Los Angeles-based humanitarian organization NextAid offers three “green” holiday giving options that benefit African children in need. All three philanthropic gifts are perfect for those who want their holiday giving to mean a bit more:
1.) Funk Aid for Africa, a critically acclaimed CD mix of funky goodness released by Dubspot
2.) MUD Cares Palette of Eye Colors – earthy eye shadows by Make-Up Designory (MUD)
3.) NextAid’s “Send a Child to School” program

Proceeds from all three gifts support NextAid’s work to create sustainable solutions for African children orphaned by AIDS. For more information on NextAid, please visit http://www.nextaid.org. Read the rest of this entry »

Pioneering interdisciplinary artist Rachel Rosenthal, 83, is set to release her long-awaited book, The DbD Experience: Chance Knows What It’s Doing! DbD, or “Doing by Doing” describes her signature method of teaching improvisational theater. In the 130-page book, the Obie winning performer explores improvisational theater and its relationship to life, offering a blow-by-blow account of what happens in her 34-hour DbD weekend intensive workshops (currently still happening on a bi-annual basis in Los Angeles). This mix of memoir, teaching manual, and manifesto was edited by Kate Noonan and is set for US release in December 2009 by Routledge. Read the rest of this entry »

Arts organization Create:Fixate will host Infinity, its eight-year anniversary show, on Saturday, December 5, 2009 from 7:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. The art exhibit (and beyond), featuring over forty top local artists, DJs, and musicians will fill the Premiere Events Center (PEC) in downtown LA with vibrant artwork and music.
In all, the night will offer work in a plethora of media including painting, photography, sculpture, multimedia, installation, fashion, jewelry, and video projection. Premiere Events Center is located at 613 Imperial Street, Los Angeles, CA 90021. Read the rest of this entry »

graphic design by Rafael Picco - http://rfpgraphics.com

Humanitarian organization NextAid presents its second annual World AIDS Day 2009 benefit event in Los Angeles on Tue. Dec. 1, 2009. The L.A. event is part of NextAid’s multi-date/multi-city fundraising campaign that kicks off in San Francisco on Wed. Nov. 25th and continues across the land until Dec. 31st. The swanky affair will take place at film director Chris Paine’s Marrakesh House located on a scenic hillside in Culver City. Entertainment for the big LA benefit will include Louie Vega, DJ Rap, Turntables on the Hudson with DJ Nickodemus and Nappy G with a Brazilian drum troupe plus Todd Simon on trumpet, Marques Wyatt, and Raul Campos along with comedians Ben Morrison, Ben Gleib, and Whitney Cummings. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Phil Holland

After a long summer on the road, the critically acclaimed Lucent Dossier Experience, an otherworldly circus-style spectacle, brings their mystical revelry back to Los Angeles for a brand new weekly artist residency at industrial vintage club space h.wood in the heart of Hollywood. Premiering Wednesday, November 11, 2009, Lucent Dossier Experience’s Gateway 11.11 opens its doors every week at 8:00 p.m. with the troupe’s tantalizing performances from 9:00 p.m. to midnight, and DJs/dancing continuing until 2:00 a.m. Having traveled the high seas and highways, making stops in Tokyo, Korea, Portugal, Central America, England, Ireland, and across the United States over the past two years, this carnival of curiosities returns home to Los Angeles to take up their new residency through the end of 2009, if not beyond. Admission is $15. h.wood (formerly the Stork Lounge) is located at 1738 N. Orange, Los Angeles, CA 90028. Read the rest of this entry »