Food

On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather on the third floor of the historic Clifton’s Cafeteria in Downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you’re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the shortbread.

Special program at the October 31 Salon: LAVA Visionaries will host curated conversations and presentations at tables around the room. More details will be posted closer to Salon-time.

Presentations include:

• A presentation of two recent publications from the ghoulish consortium The Ghost Hunters of Urban L.A. aka GHOULA (including LAVA Visionaries Richard Carradine and Lisa Mouse), Disneyland After Dark: A Haunted Guide to the Happiest Place on Earth and GHOULA Comix #1. Comic artists will be on hand to sign their work, and Lisa Mouse will be giving away free copies of her banned Death Duck drawing that was censored after the first printing of Disneyland After Dark.

• A table discussion hosted by Visionary Joe Oesterle, author of the just-released Weird Hollywood and the classic Weird California. The multi-talented Joe is a former Senior Editor of National Lampoon, a visual artist, musician and curator of the strange and marvelous. At the Sunday Salon, he’ll be sharing some stories that were too peculiar to include in Weird Hollywood, reflecting on the nature of eccentricity as a way of life, and signing copies of his new book.

• Mesmerelda, the Skid Row misfortune teller, will musically recount the lurid highlights of an unforgettable and—to some— unbelievable life. Tales of malevolent candy-givers and La Llorona’s terrorizing walk down Winston Street will be punctuated with glimpses into a foreboding future.  Mesmerelda will also tell us where that ghoulish guzzler goes after she plies for drinks at the King Edward Saloon!   Mesmie will be accompanied by renegade ex-members of Clowns and Fetuses, an L.A. improvisational ensemble, including Visionary Fortunato du Cressy. 

• And more Halloween goodness from GHOULA: Visionary Lisa Mouse and colleagues will present the group’s first science project, a collaboration with filmmaker Anthony Deptula inspired by famed magician Harry Houdini’s experiments in communication beyond the grave. With SEE YOU IN 100 YEARS, you can participate in an attempt to recreate the Houdini Experiment using an Internet Time Capsule. Is there an after life? Harry Houdini had the same question. He even had a secret pass code with his beloved wife. A message sent from beyond to say “I’m here.” In the spirit of Houdini, GHOULA will pay homage to this experiment in a grand scale by creating a modern time capsule, documenting participants, digitally recording their secret pass codes, and then archiving the time capsule for one hundred years. Detailed instructions will be left in the hands of a respected institution. At the end of the hundred years a non-affiliated caretaker of the project will be selected to devise a team of mediums, psychics, and scientists to reach out to the time capsule participants (that’s YOU!).

Clifton’s Cafeteria is at 648 South Broadway, near the corner of 7th Street. There are numerous paid parking lots nearby, and the closest Metro station is Pershing Square. Clifton’s is online at https://www.cliftonscafeteria.com

On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather on the third floor of the historic Clifton’s Cafeteria in Downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you’re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the shortbread.

Special program at the September 26 Salon: LAVA Visionaries will host curated conversations and presentations at tables around the room. More details will be posted closer to Salon-time.

Presentations include:

• A table discussion hosted by Visionary Madame Pamita on the subject of Tarot Reading, Euphonious Prognostication, Wax Cylinder Recording and Medicine Shows. Madame Pamita has been billed as Queen of the Carnival Sideshow Fortune Tellers and reads tarot, tea leaves and crystal ball at events all over the Los Angeles area.  Following her presentation, Madame Pamita will be offering private tarot consultations for a nominal fee.

• Visiting from Canada, multidisciplinary artist and entertainer Robert Dayton will be showing and discussing the results of his latest visual art series “For The Ladies” where he conducted a public survey asking anyone –  no matter their gender – who identifies as a lady: “What would you, as a lady, like to see depicted in my art (or, more simply, art in general)?”

• Visionary The Ukulady, as seen in The New York Times and heard singing The OGs’ theme song on NPR, will present an entertainment program of ukulele and toy accordian tunes, and will discuss the insidious and inspirational celebrity and pop-culture integral to the cute, but slightly distasteful, poncho-tankini-outfit of Los Angeles.

Stick around the neighborhood post-Salon, as Visionary Anthea Raymond hosts an open studio and conversation with Visionary photographer Gary Leonard, at his gallery just down Broadway.

Clifton’s Cafeteria is at 648 South Broadway, near the corner of 7th Street. There are numerous paid parking lots nearby, and the closest Metro station is Pershing Square. Clifton’s is online at https://www.cliftonscafeteria.com

On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather on the third floor of the historic Clifton’s Cafeteria in Downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you’re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the shortbread.

Special program at the August 29 Salon: LAVA Visionaries will host curated conversations and presentations at tables around the room.

Presentations include: 

• Visionary David Kipen, proprietor of Boyle Heights’ new bookshop and lending library Libros Schmibros, will be talking about his ambitious plans for the space and how he made the transition from director, National Reading Initiatives at the National Endowment for the Arts to shopkeeper in one of L.A.’s most multi-layered and intriguing neighborhoods. For a sneak peek, see the video from the Boyle Heights Book Summit featuring David, Councilman José Huizar, and 90-something blogging sensation Cutie of The OGs.

• Eva Batonne is the nom de plume of LAVA Visionary Eva Montealegre. At the Salon, she will be talking about the creative process behind her debut Joan Lambert mystery novel, Resurrection Diva (2009), how the real city of L.A. informs her characters and their experiences, and the influence of past L.A. mystery writers on her work. Set in seamy Hollywood and Venice milieus, and featuring New Orleans fortune tellers, S&M club scenes, a dead opera singer and a high-powered producer, Resurrection Diva is a police procedural with a metaphysical twist.  Signed copies will be available for purchase. For more info, visit www.evabatonne.com.

• Visionaries Holly Witham and Nicholas Hosking, co-founders of The Moveable Theatre Company, will discuss the Company’s mission and projects, including their latest show, the winning play from The Zane Grey Playwriting Contest, held in May at the Western author’s former home in Altadena, and their upcoming staged reading of Yasmina Reza’s Tony award winning
Art, at  LA Contemporary Exhibitions.

Stick around the neighborhood post-Salon, as Nick Matonak leads a free walking tour of historic Broadway theatre history (reservations required), and later this evening, Visionary David Caldwell presents a free War Child Show in his Arts District loft.

Clifton’s Cafeteria is at 648 South Broadway, near the corner of 7th Street. There are numerous paid parking lots nearby, and the closest Metro station is Pershing Square. Clifton’s is online at https://www.cliftonscafeteria.com

On the last Sunday of the month starting in March 2010, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather on the third floor of the historic Clifton’s Cafeteria in Downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you’re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the shortbread.

Special program at the May 30 Salon: LAVA Visionaries will host curated conversations at tables around the room.

12:30pm: Social historian Joan Renner presents Pandora’s Boxes: According to Greek mythology, when Pandora opened the box that Zeus had warned her never to open, all of the world’s evils escaped and only one thing remained inside – hope. This concept of hope is a fitting metaphor for cosmetics.  Each container of face powder or jar of cold cream represents the dreams and desires of a woman seeking a magic potion that would make her beautiful. The exquisite and fragile packages used to market these dreams became the Pandora’s boxes of the early 20th century. Joan Renner has been collecting vintage cosmetics ephemera for over fifteen years. She has an extensive collection of commercial face powder boxes, rouge tins, advertisements, hair net packages and bobby pin cards. Please join her for a discussion of topics ranging from the design of the packaging to the use of arsenic laden face powder by women in 17th Century Italy to “accidentally” poison their unwanted husbands. Once gracing women’s dressing tables, various unique and beautiful items from Joan’s collection will be also be on display. These include items featured in her blog Vintage Powder Room and some never before exhibited. For a sneak peak at Joan’s collection, click this link.

1pm: Charles Fort, the League of Western Fortean Intermediatists, and a little town called Los Angeles: Phenomenologist Charles Fort (1874-1932) spent 27 years of his life humorously shredding orthodox science by collating thousands of accounts of unexplained phenomena which it couldn’t—and still can’t—explain away. The world has only gotten more phenomenal since Fort’s time, and the League of Western Fortean Intermediatists (L.O.W.F.I.) ensures that his spirit lives on: neither cranks nor skeptics, Forteans are characterized by their objectivity, good humor and lust for supernormal adventure. Based in Los Angeles, L.O.W.F.I.’s focus is on the long, strange life of the American southwest, gathering to discuss its enigmas, peculiarities and unexplainable events. Gonzo journalist and L.O.W.F.I. founder Skylaire Alfvegren has spent a lifetime researching the weird, wacky and unexplainable history of her hometown of Los Angeles. Join her as she explains Fort’s importance and the objectives of L.O.W.F.I., while detailing some of her favorite local cases of unexplainable phenomena. For more information, visit: https://forteanswest.com/wordpress-mu/?p=348

Clifton’s Cafeteria is at 648 South Broadway, near the corner of 7th Street. There are numerous paid parking lots nearby, and the closest Metro station is Pershing Square. Clifton’s is online at https://www.cliftonscafeteria.com