Bringing his ax to the Hammer

By Colin Newton

There’s something to be said about playlists. You can do whatever you want with them, stuff them with any kind of music to match any kind of mood. Guitarist Ross Hammond’s career has been a bit like a personal playlist built over the years, and on Thursday, Aug. 6, he’s bringing that playlist to the Hammer Museum in West L.A. as part of the museum’s JazzPOP concert series.
“Being in Sacramento, I get down to Los Angeles some,” Hammond told Giive a (bleep). “But this will be my first really big gig there.
“I’m really looking forward to it.”
Hammond’s playlist utilizes jazz, Americana, world music and more.

Photo contest: Take one for The Arts!

by Colin Newton

Giive isn’t a museum, but we are on the lookout for great photographic works of art … about The Arts! We’re so on the lookout that we’re going to pay $75 to one talented shutterbug and use their winning photo on Giive’s website, Giive’s blog, Giive’s print publications and Giive’s social media. Your picture’s going to keep giving and giving.

There are no rules! Check that, there is one rule: The photo has to depict The Arts.

What does that mean? Well, the great thing about art is that it’s limitless, bound only by our ingenuity and imaginations. Michelangelo and Rembrandt were artists, but so are Ariana Grande and Ansel Elgort. Painting, sculpture and dance are arts, but so are comic books and Dubstep.

Cause Celeb: ‘Argo’ star to find himself at Vidiots

by Colin Newton

You gotta root for a hometown kid. And it doesn’t get more hometown than this: Actor-director Chris Messina (The Mindy Project, Argo) will present his soul-searching new drama Alex of Venice at Vidiots, Santa Monica’s venerable video rental shop, on Wednesday, July 8.

Alex of Venice tells the story of, well, Alex, played to perfection by Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Returned). Alex is an environmental lawyer who buries herself in saving local wetlands until one day, when she finds her seemingly well-balanced life a bit unbalanced: Her man-child of a husband (Messina) abandons her to “find himself” somewhere very far away, leaving the already overburdened Alex with even more responsibilities. Alex has some self-finding to do herself, even if she doesn’t know it yet.

Cause Celeb: Lisa Ann Walter helps ill feel pretty

By Colin Newton

Like the old song says, “I feel pretty, oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and bright.” But what do you do when you don’t feel “oh so pretty”?

Calm down, this isn’t an infomercial. We’re talking about when people who are chronically or terminally ill cannot get to the hairdresser, the barber or the beauty parlor. The Beauty Bus Foundation solves this by bringing the beauty parlor to them through live services and delivered beauty bags.

This year’s Beauty Drive, the foundation’s annual fundraiser, will be a star-studded event. Lisa Ann Walter, who created and judged the self-explanatory game show Dance Your Ass Off and has appeared in Bruce Almighty, War of the Worlds and the upcoming TV series Scream Queens, has been cast as the host.

“I’ll make people laugh, keep the show moving, and if anything goes wrong — and it always does, that’s part of the fun of a live event — share it,” Walter told Giive a (bleep). “And to keep our eyes on what’s important.”

Cause Celeb: A not-so-secret screening at Vidiots

By Colin Newton

Good morning. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to attend a movie.

Seriously, see the movie. It’s pretty funny.

Only the wild and whacked-out minds behind Airplane and The Naked Gun would think of combining World War II spy thrillers with Elvis rock ‘n’ roll comedies, as they did in the 1984 spoof flick Top Secret. (Did you think of that combination? Didn’t think so).

The writer-director-producer team of Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker will present the comedy classic next weekend at The Vidiots Foundation, Santa Monica’s favorite old school video rental spot.