KYLE FITZPATRICK

Stories by KYLE FITZPATRICK

Kyle Fitzpatrick is a homosexual former military brat who decided to settle in heaven (a.k.a, Los Angeles). With a love for horror films, champagne, short shorts, and CAPS LOCK, he works as a writer, comedian, and actor.

Top Five From LAIY: Week Of October 1

Our Featured Interview With Chris Johanson And Johanna Jackson
It was almost by extreme happenstance that we got to interview Chris Johanson and Johanna Jackson, who are two of the most interesting, coolest artist and people we’ve gotten to speak with. They work together to make art that is a fusion of art of life and their life in art. They’re next level people who are all about recycling to an extreme and repurposing what they find into beautiful, curious artworks. Thus, art is their life. (Also, we couldn’t fit both of them above so we put their little pup in.)

A Tour Of LAMA
Los Angeles Modern Auction (LAMA) is a few-times-a-year auction organization that gets super high end fine art pieces that regular, not-institution persons can bid on. Yes, they are all super expensive and pricey–but anyone can take a look at the goods! We toured their warehouse last week and were blown away: there were Andy Warhols, Ellsworth Kellys, Ed Ruschas, Murakamis, tons of Eameses, Chuck Closes, some Keith Haring, and lots and lots and lots more. It’s a modern art wonderland!! The actual auction is this Sunday with previews going through tomorrow. If you are in the area, you must stop by.

October 3, 2011
This seems like an almost impossible statement but LAIY turned one year old this past Wednesday. Can you believe that?! We took the day to reflect on our very humble start.

Ting
Eagle Rock Brewery is a leader in Los Angeles microbrewing. Did you know that one of their founders is a woman? Ting is her name and she is trailblazing women in the beer world. Wigs made a documentary about her and she is just the sweetest. You have to check it out and grab some Eagle Rock Brew if you are ever in Southern California.

Mid-City RETNA
Near the Beverly Center there is a super secret, metallic looking mural located at Orlando and 3rd. We were super surprised to happen upon it and had to take tons of photos. It’s really something. We have no idea how long the piece has been up but we hope it stays up for a long time.

OH! Breaking news: We are co-hosing a one-night-only pop-up shop with local comedy zinemakers, The Devastator. Check it out!

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KYLE FITZPATRICK

October 5, 2012 - See more posts by KYLE

Top 5 From Los Angeles, I’m Yours: Week Of Sept. 17

Our Featured Interview with Gai Gherardi of l.a.Eyeworks
l.a.Eyeworks is an iconic Los Angeles sunglasses maker and we had the absolute pleasure of speaking with one of it’s founders/designers, Gai Gherardi. She and BFF Barbara McReynolds started the brand in the late seventies and have been doing their own thing with eyewear since. A good example of that? They just released some totally rad videos with artist/filmmaker Molly Schiot.

The A & C Shop At HVW8
We’re really late on this but Art & Council curated a little shop at HVW8, an art and design space. One of the biggest features of the show are five extremely limited edition Modernica chairs that artist KRINK took to. They are drippy and trippy and really, really rad. They even made a process video that’s super great, too.

Comikaze
Move over Comic-Con, there’s a new kid in town: Comikaze. Last weekend was the second annual pop culture/comic book/horror/etc. festival that brought out tons of great artists and tons of great characters and tons of great oddities. There was a zombie apocalypse zone, Elvira had a whole museum, there were live Quidditch games, and–best of all–Stan Lee was there. What’s so cool about that? He’s actually in charge of the convention. Doesn’t get any more legit that that!

LA In NYFW
Last week was New York Fashion Week. What does that mean for us in LA? Our best and brightest designers were out there sharing their wears. We shared nine or so LA designers who were in New York and analyzed what they all did and how they connected to each other and Los Angeles. Bottom line? Jewel toned interpretations of sky and sea, which are very LA.

Zack Herrera’s Downtown Oz
Photographer Zack Herrera did something super clever: he noticed that Downtown Los Angeles at night looks like Oz, the fictional land from L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard Of Oz. He captures zones that look like Oz creatures would crawl out of and entry points that look like the entrance to that green land (but it’s actually the underside of a bridge). It’s really fascinating and incredibly clever. If you have ever been to Downtown LA, you’ll think it is amazing.

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KYLE FITZPATRICK

September 21, 2012 - See more posts by KYLE

The Hotel Daniel: Perhaps THE perfect hotel?

Hotel Daniel is a super amazing looking hotel in Vienna. It marries clean design with artful weirdness and is very aware of current cultural trends, too. They have everything from sleepable trailers to a rooftop honey bee farm to a garden for growing their own produce. It’s a very now take on housing people when they are away from home–and it looks great, too.

One of the most noticeable items is that there’s a boat on top of the hotel. It’s not just a boat but a curved, melting sailboat that teeters off the edge of the building. This is actually a sculpture by Erwin Wurm, the guy who made the bloated cars and various hyper-realistic yet distorted human sculptures. It’s a really funny piece that makes you think of a kooky vacation, something I’m sure Wurm is hinting at. (Side note: If I were to stay at the Daniel, I am 75% sure that I would be consumed with stress over whether or not the boat would fall off of the building. Then again, that’s the point.)

The hotel seems fairly affordable and within the mix of what is going on in Vienna. We’d totally stay there if we were in the area. It also should be noted how great their brand identity and website is. It’s minimalistic and clean but so, so, so fun, which is not what you associate with bare design. Take a poke around their website here.

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KYLE FITZPATRICK

September 20, 2012 - See more posts by KYLE

Top 5 From Los Angeles, I’m Yours: Week Of September 10

Our Featured Interview with Jean-Pierre Mastey of Baxter of California and Baxter Finley
If you work hard and really, really want something, you get that something. Jean-Pierre (JP) Mastey is a perfect example of this. JP wanted to put his mark on a brand and build something that he would want to use. With a history in mens buying and coming from a long line of barbers, he took over heritage grooming brand Baxter of California and turned it into the sleek, hip mens lifestyle brand that it is now. He has a really awesome story.

Levitated ____________
We finally got to check out Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass, a now iconic land art installation at LACMA. For those unfamiliar, the piece places a giant boulder to float over a concrete underpass. It’s a sublime, beautiful art piece but–you know–it’s just a giant rock. That got us thinking: what else could the artist have levitated? After a lengthy brainstorming session, we present our ideas of other objects that could be levitated. Levitated Steve Nash, anyone?

A Look Inside C+M
Also at LACMA is a really well designed coffee shop called C+M (Coffee and Milk). It’s an industrial, modern setting for sipping tea and having snacks while art viewing. It also features well designed objects like Case Study Fiberglass Eifel Chairs and Artek Alvar Aalto’s Three-Legged Stools. One of the most curious features is a digital display that shows what appears to be random numbers: its actually Jim Campbell’s Untitled (for the sun), “a solar powered clock that displays what percentage of the day (light) has passed.”

Rivera’s Hallucination Menu
This is a remarkable food happening: Downtown Los Angeles’ Rivera has a menu that is all about tequila. It’s a multi-course prix fixe meal that gives you several courses of a tequila drink and a food item prepared with tequila. Crazy, right? Chef John Sedlar and team get super crazy and creative with their menu program and–if you hallucinate too much–they even can provide a special rate at The Four Seasons not far from them.

Iko Iko Goes Commercial
Iko Iko is a cute art and design store on Fairfax that we’ve been dying to go to. They recently released a little commercial that celebrates their products in a very straightforward way. It’s an artsy, sophisticated, simple video that says, “Hey! We have cool things. Why don’t you stop by and see these cool things?” The video is a wonderful thirty second spot: we hope all commercials go in this direction.

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KYLE FITZPATRICK

September 14, 2012 - See more posts by KYLE

Current Reading – Port, Wilder Quarterly, Afterzine, Bon Appétit

Port / $16.95
Port is one of our favorite men’s magazines. It’s well made and well put together: it is always sharp. Their Summer 2012 issue is “The Food Issue.” It covers everything from the practice of food making to suggesting must have items for your own kitchen. The two biggest standouts in the issue is a Juergen Teller photographed story on Nigella Lawson and Giles Revell’s beautiful, painterly fish photography. Port’s usual mix of fashion editorials, lifestyle articles, and smart recommandations are still present in the issue but have a food slant to them.

Wilder Quarterly / $18.95
This is always a great read and is becoming one of those sexy publications that people brag about at dinner parties, qualifying statements with, “Oh, yes, I read it in Wilder.” It’s wonderful and very reflective of how active we are becoming with our food. The magazine always mixes beautiful photography with very interesting inside looks at farmers and food makers, making it very accessible for everyone. Marc Alt’s desert farming interview with Stephanie Smith of Joshua Tree’s Wanna Start A Commune? was particularly interesting as it seems impossible to grow anything beyond cactuses in the desert. Joanna McClure also adds some great photos to Addie Han’s Smell The Roses piece as well as Cari Vander Yacht’s illustrations for the Seasonal Beneficial (the White-Lined Sphinx Moth) and Seasonal Pest (the Woodchuck) articles.

Afterzine / $10
Hamish Robertson’s Afterzine is always a welcome read as it represents such a diverse world of writers, artists, and more speaking on one topic. This third issue is all about records. From Theodora Allen’s paintings of records to a Q&A with Levi’s historian Lynn Downey to actress Dianna Agron explaining how one of her bathrooms is covered in writing, the word and concept of recording is expounded upon in so many fascinating ways. The magazine is also so nice looking, too.

Bon Appétit / $4.99
There really is no reason why Bon Appetit–an internationally sold, grocery-store-check-out magazine–should be as good as it is. First things first: it looks so great. Led by art director Elizabeth Spiridakis, there are so many delightful details this issue that bring the entire issue together. Case in point? The simple recurring dots throughout The 10 Best New Restaurants In America article. Very well done. In the past few months, they’ve seemed to turn up their cool a lot and are catching food and drink trends faster than we can partake in them. Bon Appétit is always a great read and is proving to be one of the most visually interesting mainstream magazines, too.

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KYLE FITZPATRICK

August 29, 2012 - See more posts by KYLE