Tag Archives for ArthurFest

ARTHURFEST 2005

Notes: Poster artwork and design by Arik Roper. Devendra Banhart performed a set but could not be announced in promotion because he had an upcoming headlining show in the area. Pole, Dos (featuring Mike Watt and Kira), The Night Porter (featuring Carla Bozulich), Fatso Jetson, Young Jazz Giants, The Time Flys, Geronimo and poets Michael Brownstein and Charles Potts were special guests added to the program after the poster had been printed. Deejays included Brian Turner (WFMU) and Plastic Crimewave. “Film No. 5 (Smile)” by Yoko Ono starring John Lennon was screened on the main stage, as well as excerpts from Henry Jacobs’ “The Fine Art of Goofing Off.” Yoko Ono’s appearance included a performance of ONOCHORD. ArthurFest was filmed by Lance Bangs.

Arthur magazine is back, but ArthurFest?

Los Angeles Times: Buzz Bands: Kevin Bronson

L.A.’s counterculture core is smiling a little more this week with the news that Arthur magazine has come back from the dead. Whether that means the magazine will return to mounting its music and culture celebration, ArthurFest, remains to be seen.

Of course, the spirit of Arthur — champion of the freak folks, waver of the herbal flag and thorn in the side to all things bloated and consumptive — never went away, even after the magazine drowned in a pool of bad blood between co-founders Jay Babcock and Laris Kreslins in January.

Some of the material intended to run in the ill-fated issue No. 26 is being posted at the Arthur website. There’s still good reading from myriad contributors at the Magpie blog run by Babcock. And there is still fellowship to be found at the weekly Echo Park Social(ist) & Pleasure Club on Thursday nights at the Little Joy.

Babcock — now in hock after having bought out Kreslins’ share of the publication — also says an ArthurFest documentary is nearing completion; a “unique Arthur benefit performance” is in the works; and the mag’s compilation album “So Much Fire to Roast Human Flesh” (an anti-military recruiting benefit) is out.

And what about ArthurFest? “No comment,” Babcock says.