“Estamos Unidos” by LADWP- Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (Pic: Liz O.)
“Viento,” the Caifanes song, plays as a mild, downtown wind blows the papel picado hanging above Dia de los Muertos altars at Gloria Molina Grand Park. There’s a sizable crowd milling about on Sunday afternoon, investigating the details of the large, often elaborately decorated altars, or ofrendas, that local artists and community groups have made for the exhibition, which runs through November 2.
There are a lot of Dia de los Muertos events happening in Los Angeles between now and next weekend (check L.A. Taco for a comprehensive list). I try to always check out the ones at Grand Park and Olvera Street, which are walking distance from each other.
Billy Kheel captures the Kiké Hernandez and Gavin Lux crotch bump in felt at Eastern Projects in Chinatown. (Pic: Liz O.)
It’s the first day of the World Series and while the Dodgers are in Toronto to face the Blue Jays, fans in L.A. can check out Dodger art just downhill from the stadium. Doubleplay, a joint show from L.A.-based artists Billy Kheel and Pat Riot, opened earlier this month at Eastern Projects in Chinatown and it’s on view at the gallery through November 22.
Halloween shopping? Maybe head down to the Piñata District (Pic: Liz O.)
Right now, if you head to the Piñata District, you might come face to face with oversized jack-o-lanterns, menacing scarecrows and grinning witches. The small strip of Olympic, roughly between the Fashion District and the produce markets, is decked out for Halloween with piñatas that range from creepy-cute to gruesome. There are characters you’ll recognize from bedtime stories, horror films and, maybe, some of your nightmares. There is also a bounty of Halloween decorations and candy. Lots of candy. And gum too. So much that I could feel myself turn into a hybrid of Augustus Gloop and Violet Beauregarde as I rummaged through rows of chocolates and lollipops and other sweet treats. This tends to happen anytime I’m in the Piñata District. It’s hands down my favorite place in L.A. to stock up on candy and, if you’re getting ready for Halloween, and are near downtown, I suggest hitting up the Piñata District.
Back in August, LAist reported that the Piñata District had been “pummeled” by the ICE raids that have dogged Los Angeles since the start of the summer, with one store reporting a 90% drop in sales and another noting that even price cuts weren’t bringing in customers. One of the reasons cited in the story is that people just aren’t having parties right now. But, with Halloween right around the corner, there’s a really good opportunity to support the Piñata District. You’ll be shopping in a way that’s budget-friendly for you while also helping out local businesses that have been impacted by the Trump administration’s cruel and absurd whims, rather than feeding more money into mega-corporations.
A balloon of Donald Trump as a scowling, oversized orange baby in a diaper floats over the crowd at No Kings events in downtown Los Angeles on 10/18/25 (Pic: Liz O.)
Right in front of Los Angeles City Hall, a massive inflatable Trump, scowling, raccoon-eyed and decked out in a diaper, hovered over the crowd. “Dump Trump” read the sign just below the inflatable, a caricature of the former reality TV star as an Oompa Loompa positioned like a turd hanging from the big orange baby’s bottom. Not too far from there was an old, worn couch tagged with “JD Vance was here.”
In the crowd, there was a zooful of people dressed in inflatable animal costumes, hippos, bears, chickens and, of course, frogs, amongst them. People hoisted signs loaded with dick jokes and memes. But, it wasn’t all comedy. “If there’s money for a parade? Then there’s money for Medicaid,” read a sign posted on a trashcan. Refuse Fascism set up an installation with photos of those who have been disappeared.
The original cover art of Tales of Paranoia by R. Crumb on view at David Zwirner in Los Angeles (Photo: Liz O.)
Next month, Fantagraphics will releaseTales of Paranoia, the first comic book from R. Crumb in 23 years. Right now, though, you can check out original art from the book, as well as other works from Crumb, at David Zwirner here in L.A. The gallery exhibition, which runs through December 20, is the first Crumb exhibition in the city since The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis ran at the Hammer in 2009/10.
Let There Be Gwar is open at Beyond the Streets in Los Angeles through November 2. (All photos: Liz O.)
I’m not one for nostalgia, but, damn, that longing for what was hit me hard as I walked through Let There Be Gwar at Beyond the Streets on Saturday morning. Inside the La Brea Avenue gallery is a treasure trove of costumes, props and ephemera from the rock band/art collective. A massive anthropomorphic toilet and plunger stands near the front entrance. Decapitated heads line a wall, a recipe for DIY bloodbags beside them. On the TV screens are flashbacks to Gwar’s time on the 1990s talk show circuit. Joan Rivers! Jerry Springer! Wally George!
Monday Nights: L.A.’s Scene of the Century opens at Leiminspace in Chinatown on August 2, 2025
I’ve been knee deep in work for Monday Nights: L.A.’s Scene of the Century, 2005-2016, the exhibition of photos and ephemera from Sean Carnage’s DIY show series that opens at Leiminspace in Chinatown on August 2. I’m one of the co-curators for the show and wrote an essay for the catalog, so my brain is half-stuck in the ‘00s and half-living in the present day, which is strange. I didn’t think the world could possibly be more grim than it was in the midst of the Bush era, but, here we are. Endless war, Fox News and the Great Recession seem quaint in comparison to the red cap crowd’s brand of reality show fascism.
What made the ‘00s bearable, at least here in Los Angeles, was underground culture. Monday Nights was a big part of that. I think the first one I went to was Halloween of 2005 and I continued to go often throughout the duration of the series. At Monday Nights, I saw so many wildly creative bands/artists play— some of whom I wrote about at the time for L.A. Weekly and other publications— but that was just part of what was happening in the city at that point in time. There were other club nights and venues, not to mention the parties in lofts, warehouses, backyards and living rooms. Once, I even went to a show in a storage unit in Chatsworth.
Heaven 17 “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang”
The right record will always find you at the right time. Take last Saturday afternoon as an example. I was in Little Tokyo, flipping through 45s at Salt Box and just happened to come across “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang,” the 1981 single from Heaven 17. Did I have this? Did it matter? Even if I did have a copy, I could use another one because this nearly 45-year-old song is the jam for right now. Or, rather, it should be the jam for right now.
I didn’t even have to listen to the song for the earworm to bury itself in my brain. “Have you heard it on the news?” it goes, “About this fascist groove thang.”
On Monday afternoon, a bit after 3 p.m., I went for a walk through Chinatown. It was the fourth day of the protests against ICE raids in the city and helicopters had been hanging over the neighborhood like gnats all day. The first thing I noticed while walking down Broadway was that I’m not the only person annoyed by the incessant buzz of the helicopters. An older man stopped in his tracks and looked towards one of them. I almost walked into him. Another neighborhood senior sat on a bench, tilted his head upwards and shook a cigarette-wielding fist in the air. I almost busted up laughing while thinking of the “Old Man Yells at Cloud” headline from The Simpsons.
It was business as usual in Chinatown. The Broadway shops remained open with racks of merchandise set up outside the storefronts. The local produce vendors tried to coerce me into buying more avocados and peaches than I could eat in a couple days.
Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra live at The Mayan in downtown Los Angeles for Exotikon 3 (Pic: Liz O.)
Our glasses weren’t 3D. We were watching a live performance inside downtown L.A.’s Mayan Theatre and, like the robot on stage told the crowd on Sunday afternoon, that’s already 3D. These were decoder glasses. Some in the audience had blue lenses. Others, like me, had red ones. The color of the lenses determined what you would see on the screen behind Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra, the human-and-robot duo from San Diego who were playing as part of Exotikon.
