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Oddity Freaks and Geeks Love The Museum of Jurassic Technology

October 5, 2009 - 12:32 pm

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Unlike most city galleries, with their towering pillars and marble girders, Los Angeles’ Museum of Jurassic Technology first appears to be what is almost literally a hole in the wall. And despite being wedged in what at first seems like unremarkable slabs of concrete on the corner of Venice and Bagley in Culver City, it’s not unusual to see it packed with visitors who have only heard through the grapevine of its extensive list of oddities and wonders. Behind those rather bland walls are endless rooms of exhibits–many of which lie somewhere between irreverent and incredible, and prove that the Museum is, in the true sense of the word, one of Los Angeles’ hidden gems.

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Featured Gallery Music Revolting Cocks Spew the Details

October 5, 2009 - 12:29 pm

It’s been a while since I heard about The Revolting Cocks (aka RevCo, as they’re more commonly referred to now). The last time was in high school, when my friends were passing around a copy of Linger Fickin’ Good like it was a vial of some weird strand of pot you’d never smoked. There was the cover art with Al Jourgensen and his fellow bandmates’ heads on roosters. And of course that name that made any parent unable to keep from snickering uncontrollably whenever they heard it. Like many other Jourgensen aficionados, however, I spent most of my listening time devoted to his main band, Ministry– as newly-discovered classics like Psalm 69 and the live version of “Thieves” off In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up…Live were spending untold hours on repeat in our respective CD players.

But as Linger and the then-legendary Beers, Steers, and Queers began making their rounds throughout high school halls everywhere, delinquents all over town had begun to follow Jourgensen’s latest in a wide-eyed, Jonestown-ish trance, turning to whatever magazines and websites they could for the latest excrement on the band. Devoted fans will be pleased to find that the Cocks’ latest, Sex-O Olympic-O, marks not only a return to familiar, oddly endearing form for the group, but also the manifestation of a new and more melodic vision of an entire band. I caught up with main songwriters Sin Quirin (guitars) and Joshua Bradford (vocals) to discuss their latest anarchic endeavors and clear up any (and every) possible misgiving about the band that I could. Luckily for me, the two were only too happy to oblige… sort of…

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Gallery Oddity Treasure Hunting at Gold Bug

October 2, 2009 - 2:22 pm

Gold Bug is a deco and curiosity shop tucked behind Old Town Pasadena’s main drag, just a block off of Colorado Boulevard. Brimming with entomological rarities, heart-stopping artisan jewelry, toys, knick-knacks, spider-adorned dishes and hilarious taxidermy, this place is a total treasure trove. Forget kid in a candy-store, when I walked in here I felt like Marie entering the magical kingdom in The Nutcracker [really]. It’s easy to get lost amidst gilded walnuts stacked in candy dishes beside brass jumbo teeth and towering old-school hourglasses, delicate golden keys hanging in bunches from porcelain display hands and stacks of tin crowns inviting customers to play dress-up. Though the prices can get a bit steep, the merchandise is precisely the kind you’d actually want to save up for. Perfect example: a huge oxidized silver ring with shimmering blue butterfly wings under glass. In the words of Garth: “One day, it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.”

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Fashion Skingraft, You’ve Done it Again!

October 2, 2009 - 2:18 pm

Skingraft

Jonny Cota, Cassidy Haley & Katie Kay didn’t set out to be fashion designers.  As world-class travelling circus performers, their desire to costume themselves in a way that was edgy & opulent eventually got the better of them.  They started making their first custom pieces for friends & colleagues in 2005, before deciding to embark on ready-to-wear in 2007.

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Music Revolting Cocks

October 2, 2009 - 2:15 pm

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Ministry is dead; long live Al Jourgensen!! Revolting Cocks brings back its own retarded, mutant brand of noise-rock to upturn noses further with its indeterminable-yet-offensive musical stench (a retarded description, though intended affectionately). Nostalgic high school memories of the band’s infamous Rod Stewart cover “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” have been officially replaced with the subtle affirmations of “I’m Not Gay” and the incestuous, Jesus Built My Hotrod- sounding “Cousins.” On their latest, Sex-O Olympic-O, Revolting Cocks re-establish themselves as pioneers of a genre all their own, while adapting, kind of, to that modern trend of re-hashing the sounds of industrial days past. Then again, much of that sound was developed by Jourgensen himself, so rest assured that the Cocks are back, bigger and badder than ever.

Words by Jeff Nau

Revolting Cocks – I’m Not Gay

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