Short Takes

Walk on the Wild Side
Brittany Menjivar was so preoccupied with whether or not she could, she didn't stop to think if she should (luckily, she was right).
Jan 16
L.A.’s Uncool School
Damon Willick returns to an important moment in Los Angeles art history and finds it more diverse than some might remember.
Jan 15
Looking Back on “Art Inside”
Ginny Emiko Oshiro reflects on Annie Buckley’s Art Inside series and her work with the Prison Arts Collective.
Jan 14
Currant Jam, Customland, and the “Vagina Dream Cave”
A. J. Brown attends the latest alt-lit reading in Frogtown and is still picking stick-on face gems out of their hair.
Jan 13
Backseat Filming
Emma dePaulo Reid explores what it might mean to experience the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the backseat of a van.
Jan 11
Ama Codjoe on Robert Pruitt
1:1 invites writers to reflect on a single work of art with focus, care, and imagination to expand how we view, receive, and write about art.
Jan 10
Theme Park or Museum?
Jack Skelley tours Luna Luna, an art theme park recently resurrected by Drake, containing work by Basquiat, Haring, and others.
Jan 6
Reporting Live from Hell
Madeleine Connors shells out for fascism cosplay and finds that sometimes the games are best left on screen.
Jan 5
Revolutionary Blake-splaining
For Jack Skelley, William Blake has it all: from colonization and sex to post-structuralism and the superego.
Jan 4
Into the Red, White, and Blue Twilight
On the occasion of Tom Smothers's death, John Kaye reflects on words unsaid, questions unasked, avenues unpursued.
Jan 3
How the West Was Revised
Rebecca Giordano considers the transformation of the Western genre, both its limitations and its possibilities.
Dec 24, 2023
That’s a Wrap
David Diaz follows legendary LA punk band Graf Orlock to the ends of the earth (well, only to Anaheim—but still).
Dec 20, 2023
I Didn’t Play
Follow Gracie Hadland’s weekend peregrination through the avant-cultural world of greater Los Angeles, from Koreatown to Pasadena.
Dec 19, 2023
Kathy Acker Masturbated Here
For Jack Skelley, Kathy Acker was a writer who both masterfully baited and masturbated, occasionally at the same time.
Dec 16, 2023
Making Room at the Inn
Claire Lewandowski joined a hotel worker union action and learned how to disarm the opposition with some costumes and a whole lot of singing.
Dec 15, 2023
Under the Sign of Saturn
Whether on mushrooms or not, the only all-bouffon clown troupe in Los Angeles makes fools of us all—just in time for the holidays.
Dec 14, 2023