LAVA's 14th Sunday Salon April 24, 2011

Ukuleles invade LAVA's free Easter Sunday Salon, featuring Ian Whitcomb's California dream & The Ukulady's musical crafting session

WHAT: On Easter Sunday, April 24, LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) presents an afternoon of free cultural exploration in Downtown L.A. with the monthly Sunday Salon gathering upstairs at Clifton's Cafeteria at 648 South Broadway (noon-2pm)
SALON INFO: http://lavatransforms.org/salon411

LOS ANGELES- Launched last February by Richard Schave and Kim Cooper--the proprietors of Esotouric bus adventures and founding Director and Curator of the Downtown Art Walk non-profit--the creative consortium LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) is fast establishing itself as one of the city's most intriguing arts collectives, with a calendar packed with compelling, offbeat urban events and a growing list of notable Visionary contributors.

LAVA's Sunday Salon has become one of the hottest (free) tickets for urban explorers seeking intelligent conversation, connection and inspiration—not to mention Clifton's famous home cooking. The Sunday Salon returns to Clifton's Cafeteria on Easter Sunday, April 24 from noon-2pm, and all are welcome to dine together and socialize, or attend compelling presentations by LAVA Visionaries.

PRESENTERS AT THE APRIL 24 SALON (all appearing between 12-2pm, with exact times/schedules to be announced at the event)

1) In keeping with the Easter Sunday theme, LAVA Visionary THE UKULADY and her band the Evil Sandwiches will sing quirky songs on ukulele, banjo and omnichord "while Visionaries and honored guests craft Egg-centric & Bunnyriffic crafts, including magnets, pins, pipe-cleaner jewelry, egg dioramas and more!" The Ukulady is a Sunday Salon regular whose incredibly catchy tunes and big personality have made her much beloved by the LAVA community.

For video from The Ukulady's February Salon appearance with the Evil Sandwiches and more information about the Ukulady's adventurs, see the links below:
http://www.theukulady.com

2) In an autobiographical presentation mixed with song, newly inducted LAVA Visionary IAN WHITCOMB will lead us on a ramble through his checkered past: how, while still a student at Trinity College Dublin, he came to Los Angeles in 1965--as a Justin Beiber-style teen idol with his lubricious hit, "You Turn Me On." How he fell in love with the glamour--surf, girls, bodies in general, onion rings, and what not--and how, over the years, although the glamour has faded, he is even more entranced with L.A as a city of hidden treasures and odd folk, who are now his friends. He made a BBC film about the GB colony, he has been a radio host since the early 1980s ( KROQ, KCRW, KPCC) and now talks about his life here on his XM (Channel 152, Extreme Radio) and Luxuriamusic.com radio shows and also in his monthly "Letters From Lotusland" posted online. While online travel to YouTube and see Ian in his rock star splendor and go through the years with him as he transforms from rocker to ragtimer and finally to ukester--you can even watch the BBC documentary mentioned above--it's heavy with sex and nudity) He will illustrate his ramble with extracts from his latest book, "Letters From Lotusland--An Englishman In Exile" (especially from the episode where his dog Rollo is taken for a ride by a Hollywood scam audition outfit ), and, with his ukulele he will sing his song , "Come And Make Your Heaven In L.A." (as featured in the horrible slasher feature, "Bloody Movie" and on YouTube). Ian, by the way, was instrumental in the revival of the ukulele-- back in the 1960s and early 70s on Dick Clark's "Where The Action Is" and Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" and, of course, though his hit single "Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday On Saturday Night?"

For more info on this remarkable performer and musical historian, visit Ian Whitcomb's YouTube channel and website at the links below:
http://www.youtube.com/ianwhitcomb
http://www.picklehead.com/ian.html

ABOUT PREVIOUS LAVA SALONS: In March 2010, the new LAVA community came together in the first monthly Sunday Salon for the debut exhibition of Visionary GENE SCULATTI's outsider art scroll drawings of imaginary cities, a smash hit for the nearly 100 cultural explorers in attendance, and now under development as a documentary film. And in May 2010, vintage cosmetics packaging collector JOAN RENNER captivated the crowd with a discussion of the social and cultural context of 20th century cosmetics, illustrated with a display of exquisite Art Deco and Art Nouveau powder boxes from her collection. For Halloween 2010, the GHOST HUNTERS OF URBAN L.A. debuted their supernatural internet time capsule project, "Weird Hollywood" author JOE OESTERLE shared weird tales and Skid Row misfortune teller Mesmerelda (aka avant garde sonstress NORA KEYES) sang of downtown misery. In December 2010, THE UKULADY sang while supervising an interactive crafting workshop, HARVEY SID FISHER serenaded each astrological sign in attendance, and strange vintage board games were played. In March 2011, the Salon revealed the secret history of the Cacophony Society and spin-off performance troupe Art of Bleeding, via documentarian JON ALLOWAY and chief instigator REVEREND AL RIDENOUR. Each Salon is very different, but always free, unpretentious, and thought-provoking.

Photos and video from some recent Salons are here:
http://lavatransforms.org/salonvideo311
http://lavatransforms.org/hauntsandhorrors
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardschave/sets/72157623729484726/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardschave/sets/72157624174080520/

ABOUT LAVA: Through participation in LAVA, a select group of creative professionals come together to promote cultural programming that speaks to the urban experience while promoting positive public space. LAVA's creative partners share a love for L.A. and unique ideas for exploring it in their work. Formed by social historians RICHARD SCHAVE and KIM COOPER -- proprietors of Esotouric bus adventures and the 1947project time travel blog series (including On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land) -- LAVA brings together L.A.'s most visionary promoters, artists, writers and thinkers. The first crop of Visionaries in the growing curated community includes cultural chronicler ADRIENNE CREW, artist and Eastside historian AL GUERRERO, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, avant garde fashion maven A. LAURA BRODY, poet and publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, filmmaker and festival promoter ALLISON ANDERS, former Metropolitan Museum curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian and radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, pop culture historian BECKY EBENKAMP, ethnomusicologist BETO GONZALEZ, master puppeteer BOB BAKER, producer and promoter CHRISTIAN VOLTAIRE MEOLI, 826LA events manager CHRISTINA GALANTE, performance artist CRIMEBO THE CLOWN, the NEA's outgoing Director of Literature DAVID KIPEN, green sculptor DONALD GIALANELLA, forensic scientist and educator DONALD JOHNSON, author and educator DOROTHY RANDALL GRAY, visual artist ELENA MARY SIFF, documentarian and exploitation film historian ELIJAH DRENNER, conversation curator ERIC VOLLMER, social connector EVONNE HEYNING, musician and performance artist FEATHERBEARD, photographer GARY LEONARD, pop critic and outsider artist GENE SCULATTI, musician and artist GEORGE EARTH, songsmith HARVEY SID FISHER, theater director HOLLY WITHAM, no-longer-Teenage Glutster food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, urban explorer (Ranger) Jenny Price, horror film director JEREMY KASTEN, musician and composer of silent film scores JIMI CABEZA DE VACA, social historian JOAN RENNER, writer and artist JOE OESTERLE, journalist and author JOHN BUNTIN, filmmaker JON ALLOWAY, Musso & Frank co-owner JORDAN JONES, performance artist JULES ROCHIELLE, curator and activist JULIE RICO, "Kristin's List" cultural chronicler KRISTIN BEDFORD, songstress and prognosticator MADAME PAMITA, esoteric scholar and lecturer MAJA D'AOUST, author and broadcaster MANNY PACHECO, performer McCRISTOL HARRIS, journalist and internet radio pioneer MICHAEL LINDER, photographic archivist MICHAEL RISNER, President of the new LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes MIGUEL ANGEL CORZO, poet and dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, , theater director NICHOLAS HOSKING, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer and impresario NO'A WINTER LAZERUS, musician OCTAVIUS, peace activist PAUL NUGENT of the Aetherius Society, 3-D photography expert RAY 3D ZONE, historic ghost seeker RICHARD CARRADINE, filmmaker and preservationist ROSS LIPMAN, Boyle Heights ghost hunter SARAH TROOP, social networking mistress SHAWNA DAWSON, painter/gallerist SUSAN DOBAY, Warhol star and writer TERE TEREBA, metal artist TOM WALKER, musical entertainer THE UKULADY, and hat designer and multi-media artist YASMIN DIXON.

Applications from prospective LAVA members are being taken at http://lavatransforms.org/apply

To learn more about LAVA, please visit http://www.lavatransforms.org

Official Website: http://www.lavatransforms.org/salon411