Join VOGUE + Sam Edelman + Yours Truly...

You have good taste. And you like hot shoes. Do you need any other reason to join me this Saturday at this VOGUE special event celebrating Sam Edelman's sick new Spring 2011 collection?

I'll be hosting. You'll be shopping. It will be a guaranteed amazing time.

Saturday, April 2
12 - 3 p

Nordstrom at The Grove
LA, CA

See you there!

xo * Jessie B. R.

Perez Hilton...children's author!?

The manchild who has made fun of every celeb on the this green Earth, has drawn cocaine smears on the mug shots of Hollywood's fast set, and made jabs at others' weights, lifestyles and levels of diminished talent, is now publishing a book. A children's book. A children's book that "celebrates individuality and self-acceptance, and is inspired by Hilton’s desire to promote equality in readers of all ages."

I have no words. Only this cover art. Please go ahead and design your own caption. Because I am completely and utterly speechless.

The town whose claim to fame was Split Pea Soup.

Santa Barbara is the kind of town--the kind resided in by rowdy University students and a tamer set of wealthy retirees--that one comes to either to relax or to engage in the most touristy of activities.

One such activity is wine drinking. But when traveling with my mother, an avid non-drinker, we were left to other, less fermented journeys.

In the town of Buellton, one will find Pea Soup Andersen's--an inn, a restaurant, and the claimant to Split Pea Soup innovation.

In next door Solvang, visitors can engage in all the delights of a Danish Village which hasn't changed since its founding in 1911 save the addition of perhaps 3 dozen more gift and candy shops. When I'd passed through Solvang in my first and last trip to Santa Barbara, I'd discovered that the restaurant responsible for the famed Danish dessert, Aebleskiver, closed at 3 pm.

I was resolved to make it in time this time. I didn't. But determined to try the Danish donut, we made a mad dash for the Red Viking Restaurant, the only other resto in town to fry up the doughy balls. While the dessert underwhelmed me, the victory of finally obtaining it did not.

Solvang is famed for nothing beside its donuts and pancakes. But while outsiders don't know it for anything else, Solvang-ites are apparently well aware of the delights of the outside world. The local memorabilia shop features a life size (aka pint size) cardboard cut out of the one, the only Justin Bieber, a child I'm fairly certain has never made it to the quaint village of Danish architecture and plentiful tourist traps.

Plastics are not your friend.

A couple of weeks ago in Long Beach came the culmination of several months worth of planning on a big event I'd produced, the Plastics Are Forever International Youth Summit. The name says it all in regard to the conference's environmental focus. Plastics, as it should no longer be a surprise to you, do not go away. The science of it all is far beyond my meager, layman brain. But the simple facts are pretty darned simple. People use and trash disposable plastics like they are going out of style. And the truth is that they've been way out of style ever since we learned about recycling some odd decades ago. What happens to your discarded Diet Coke bottles, straws, and shiny plexi things, you ask? Well, the ones you don't recycle end up in our oceans, in the fish, and on your dinner plate (not mine, of course as I'm a vegetarian, but I digress). But recycling is not alone the answer. Reduction in consumption is the real key to solving the plastic problem and it begins with YOU.

How can you help?

* Carry your own, reusable water bottle. I love my Nalgene that I picked up at Target.
* REFUSE to accept plastic bags when shopping. No, you do NOT want a bag for your gum at 7-Eleven. Keep a canvas tote in your car. Okay they're not all that cute. So buy yourself a fancy one. The FEED Bag will make you feel trendy while you shop in eco-style. Do whatever you need to.
* Support organizations like LA's own Plastic Pollution Coalition that are taking strides against the plastic problem. You can help PPC's efforts by donating, volunteering, or even buying some pretty incredible art by the likes of Raymond Pettibon (see image above), Pam Longobardi and the org's founder and artist Dianna Cohen.

Furniture fit for a grand seat (pun completely intended).

While I spend most of my day sitting on a plastic Ikea stool, this is born out of my studio apartment's tight space and its owner (um, I mean renter)'s limited budget. If I could, I would park my rear end on finer stuff. Stuff that was equal parts art to functioning furniture. Stuff that was pleasing to the eyes and other senses rather than just to the sitter's itsy bitsy pocketbook (what, you didn't think I was going to say itsy bitsy butt, did you? That would just be a lie). I would park my seat on the likes of the gorgeous furniture designed by Azadeh Shladovsky.

In her first limited-edition furniture collection, Living with Art, Schladovsky explores nature to create powerful expressions that are as beautiful as they are functional. See for yourself how her pieces are superior to your Ikea bean bags at her upcoming show at the Ruth Bachofner Gallery.

Opening Reception
Saturday, March 19
5-7 p

Ruth Bachofner Gallery
Bergamot Station Art Center
2525 Michigan Avenue # G2
Santa Monica, CA

MEAT! and McNuggetinis tonight at Meltdown.

In the name of great irony, I [the vegetarian] would like to extend to you an invite to MEAT!, an art show inspired by, you guessed it...

Tonight at Meltdown Comics on Sunset Blvd.

There will be art, yes. But serving up cocktails will be my gorgeous, funny and talented friends, Alie and Georgia. They'll be offering McNuggetinis, the boozy, foodie, ice creamy treat that made the headlines and pleased gluttons everywhere last year.

Wanna know more about the BBQ sauce spiked cocktail you'll be enjoying tonight? Let's all take a trip down YouTubey memory lane...



Opening Reception of MEAT!
Thursday, March 3rd 2011
7-10 p

Meltdown Comics
7522 W. Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046

Timothy Bloom: the music and the [nude] man.

Oh my god. This video would be insanely hot and steamy if the song wasn't so insanely beautiful. Proof that sometimes sweetness trumps sex.

I may have just cried a little watching. Enjoy.



Download the track from Said the Gramophone.

Catalog shoot. Take one. Ratatat brings it.

The official vid for 'Drugs' off Ratatat's 2010 album, Lp4. Makes me want to buy button down shirts from a mail order catalogue. Makes me want to order a scrip for anti-depressants. Makes me want to dance.



Video by Carl Burgess.

The Oscar.

Tonight marks the umpteenth Academy Awards to grace the film industry. Which means the umpteenth Awards to muddle with Hollywood traffic, fill up the style pages of all the gossip rags, and exhaust me.

In honor of that exhaustion, I offer no commentary on a single movie, nor solitary gown. I will not, from hereon out today, discuss the Awards, the celebrities, or the statuesque gold Oscar himself. Unless, like Banksy depicted earlier this month, an army of Star Wars troopers attacks the red carpet. Then maybe I would be interested in further discussion. But only maybe. And probably not.

Vanity Fair makes fancy venue schmancier.

Vanity Fair is bringing its cultural cache to West Hollywood hotspot Palihouse next week. What does this mean? Well, it all sounds very vague actually and I can't seem to find many details. Maybe it's just a big marketing ploy to book dining reservations during Oscar week. But maybe these 'iconic Vanity Fair photographs and select advertiser integration[s]' will really blow your mind.

Only one way to find out...

February 21-27, 2011

Book reservations with Palihouse.

Ride or Fry. A vegetarian-friendly food truck revolution.

Food trucks are to restaurants what the made for TV mini series are to film. An inferior substitution. That's in general.

But Dante Fried Chicken food truck isn't anything general. It's like a teenage mutant ninja truck. Awesome. And super powered. And, um, anthropomorphic?

I tried out DFC last week at the Adidas Blue Launch Party. What could possibly have led a vegetarian to step within several feet of a fried chicken truck, you ask?

How about we start with the fried soy chicken. Then let's move on to the weekly variety of Cheese 'Mac Up.'

Then let's discuss how DFC is more than a truck--it's a multimedia experience.

Dante is a real guy. And he hosts a real little web show where he cooks with emerging and not-so emerging artists. Like Santigold, Major Lazer, and other Mad Decent characters.

In an interview, Dante says that 'DFC’s mission is to be a catalyst of interdisciplinary art, dance, music, design, community culture and cuisine.' That is such a sexier mission statement than wanting to serve fusion Korean tacos with no overhead and less frequent health inspections.

Follow DFC on Twitter and get your grit on.

Clare Rojas at the Prism Gallery.

Sometimes I work on events that I have the distinct pleasure to be able to invite you to. And so it is with the opening of the incredible Clare Rojas exhibit at the Prism Gallery next week. Please join me there. It's going to be a rock rolling, radical, amaze-balls good time.

PRISM invites you to the opening reception for Inside Bleak, the gallery’s first solo presentation of painter and filmmaker Clare Rojas.

As part of Inside Bleak’s opening, Rojas – under her stage name of Peggy Honeywell – will debut several new songs written over the past two years.

February 26, 2011
7 - 10 p
Peggy Honeywell Performance - 9 p

Prism Gallery
8746 W. Sunset Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA

RSVP Essential: prism@nadinejohnson.com

Oh hey now LA. Shake your art thang at the Scion Installation.

When you think Scion, you think boxy cars for 20 somethings on the one hand, rad art on the other.

In continuing the latter tradition, the LA Scion Gallery is hosting the kickoff event for the brand's 2011 art tour. For this round, artists were tasked with creating non-narrative video installations. And in LA, those artists happen to include talented local yokels Franki Chan, David Choe, Matt Goldman and 7 others that will blow your aesthetic mind.

Opening Reception
Saturday, February 19, 2011
7-10 p

Scion Installation LA
3521 Helms Ave
Culver City, CA 90232

To RSVP, click here .

I still run this thing like a Dancehall Queen.

The irony of my loving this song by Robyn does not escape me. I am not a Dancehall Queen. I don't even like to go into dancehalls or discotheques or whatever you young, crazy club kids call them these days.

But I do still run this thing.

And I approve of the invention of the word 'shiwouw.'

Co-Directed by Diplo, Red Foxx & Pomp&Clout

The non-celebration of Valentine's Day, a day like any other.

It's Valentine's Day. And considering that LA has the highest quotient of pretty people per square foot than any other region in the United States (okay, I made that statistic up--it could be Maine, but who are we kidding), I find it surprising that more and more of my friends are single on this most romantic of made-up, commercial holidays.

For my single friends out there, I'd thought--why not put together a guide to fun happenings, events and distractions around the city for the un-coupled to enjoy. And, after another moment, decided that no, I wouldn't do that. I would not attempt to fit round pegs into square holes (I'm nearly certain that that is not how the saying goes but moving on...). Consider the following metaphor. Though I wished I could have a tree in my home every December growing up, we didn't start celebrating Christmas just because I liked the scent of pine and the look of tinsel. And so it is with Valentine's Day. Singletons may like the looks of chocolate hearts and a dozen red roses. But one doesn't just start celebrating Valentine's Day because she's craving sweets and every body else is doing it. So, to my single friends I say this--Happy Valentine's Day. But let's not get too wrapped up in this most Hallmark of holidays. Let's not feel we need to make up for lack of romance with an abundance of Hershey's kisses or expensive meals out with friends. Let's not be small and host anti-Valentine's parties (the Jews didn't protest Christmas just because it wasn't ours to celebrate, remember). Let's all recall our childhood days when we gave a Valentine's Day card to everyone just because they were our friends and even if they weren't and then we went home and ate chicken fingers for dinner just like every other night of the year.

As for my Valentine's Day plans, readers? Let's just say I'll be eating, drinking and being merry. But that's what I do every night.

And if you really need a guide for Valentine's Day activities, check out the LA Weekly's.

Sufjan and I say Good Morning.

This song by Sufjan Stevens is sick. It's even sicker when performed by Sufjan and his backup crew dancing some wacky moves in some crazy tribal day-glo shiznit.

Lover, will you look from me now
I'm already dead
But I've come to explain
Why I left such a mess on the floor
For when you went away I went crazy
I was wild with the breast of a dog
I ran through the night
With the knife in my chest
With the lust of your loveless life
I walked, because you walked...

Oh my stars. Susan Miller at the Beverly Center today!

Normally I wouldn't promote an event at the mall. That's so--ugh--pedestrian. And a meet and greet, no less. I mean, what am I--a teenage girl going to meet Bieber at the Wetzel's Pretzels?

Okay, maybe today I am.

Super on-it astrologer Susan Miller will be offering 10 minute sessions with customers at the Henri Bendel location inside the Beverly Center to celebrate the store's fragrance collection.

Am I going to get bamboozled into buying a scent I probably don't want? Maybe. Might I wait in line longer than is dignified for a woman my age and with the amount of work I have to do today? It's likely. Am I going to go? You're damn straight I am.

Fragrance Fortunes by Susan Miller

Get a one-on-one 10 minute reading at a Bendel’s near you.
First come, first served.

Monday, February 7
1pm-9pm

Beverly Center
Los Angeles, California

Make ya dance. Make ya smile.

Dancing in my seat and I want you to as well.

Like the song but the awesome low budg video? You can download the track for free at Said the Gramophone.

John Bock brings weirdness to Weho.

John Bock is a German born artist working in multimedia, film, and video. His stuff looks totally weird. And I'm totally sold.

The Regen Projects presents his work in an upcoming installation opening this Saturday.

John Bock
February 5 - March 5, 2011

Opening Reception
Saturday, February 5
6-8 pm

Regen Projects II
9016 Santa Monica Boulevard
(at Almont Drive)

Not convinced that this kid's cool? Here's a still from a 2007 film of his. Don't know about you, but that contraption screams Jessie B. R. It also screams John Waters/scrambled eggs/raging lunatic. But whatevs.

Dorian Wood. Voice like a big ole angel.

I am, on occasion, wrong. This is not something that happens frequently nor that we like to talk about for too long. So, in brief. Last week, I told y'all about the Slake LA reading which happened last night. But I neglected to include in my note that there would be musical interludes by a Dorian Wood. It seemed a trivial point to mention and a silly act to include in a reading--this was not cabaret night after all.

Please, please, please forgive me for negligence. At last night's reading (which was great, thanks talented Slake writers), Dorian Wood's performance was not only noteworthy, it was the highlight [for me, that is].

Wood's vocals are like Coco Rosie and maybe Etta James' gorgeous love child (let's not get too wrapped up in the impossibility of this metaphor, k). And they're met by his skillful piano stylings to create this awesome, riveting performance. It's not just music. It's live art.

If you missed Wood last night (sorry again), you can catch the LA based performer this coming month right here in Downtown LA.

February 21, 2011

Dorian Wood
Bordello
901 East 1st Street
Los Angeles, CA