Nik Frank-Lehrer

Vespa wants contest hopefuls to think outside the helmet

We art bloggers are always up for do-it-yourselfing, and in this spirit, I'd like to offer a simple, one-step method for keeping your car clean this summer: the urban scarecrow. Country birds might run...

Slum graffiti artist wins $100,000 TED prize

Unaware that he'd been nominated for a prize that previously went to former President Bill Clinton, anonymous graffiti artist JR was caught "kind of stunned" by the New York Times. He admitted he hadn'...

It's 113 degrees and you need a beer festival

Nineteen breweries serving cold beer on L.A.’s sweatiest weekend can’t be wrong. Escape the downtown heat on Saturday at BAM Fest, a beer, art, and music festival on the breezy west side. Fortunately, a fixed...

"Iron Man" isn't the only reason to call this the first weekend of summer

When I was a kid, Memorial Day weekend usually marked the first tent-pole movie opening of the summer. Now here we are a week into May, and IRON MAN 2 is already upon us. But that'...

Friday is DJ night at the Pasadena Museum of California Art

Remember the freshman back in high school who threw ragers at his parents' house, even after they put thousands of dollars into making it look like an art museum? Well, this party is a lot like that party... except...

New Getty exhibit gives metropolis the wide-angle treatment

People who love art are often as interesting as the art itself, which may explain my endless fascination with the Getty Museum. Beyond its acres of architecture and paintings, the Getty’s grad-school-like academic culture serves...

Saturday's Heart Songs for Haiti event aids in earthquake relief

National-scale opportunities to help those affected by the disaster in Haiti are all over the news, from donation-texts to celebrity telethons. But to aid in the local effort to help quake victims, USC grad and Education Pioneers...

Yarbrough opening in Gas Company Lofts for your after-work Wednesday

It's tough to weave together a more interesting biography than Randall Yarbrough's, whose press kit pegs him as a childhood armadillo racer, a bull rider in adolescence, and a gypsy in young adulthood. Those curious about his...

"Second Friday" concert series under the skyscrapers in downtown's Cal Plaza

If you've spent any time at all downtown L.A., you've probably wandered past the California Plaza on South Grand and wondered, "How much do I have to pay to hang out there?" This winter...

ArtNight Pasadena vs. late-night Getty this weekend

Two generic L.A. destinations I'll never tire of are the sleepy, American-mall suburb of Pasadena and the Getty, home of late-night summer concert series Saturdays off the 405. Both are consistent presences in this column...

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