Last week Re:Mix Labs took on Los Angeles at 401 S Main in Downtown. The City of Angels was the final stop for Re:Mix, which started at CMJ in NYC and made pit stops in Miami, Chicago and Las Vegas, of the Hyundai Veloster-sponsored multimedia event. Check out a recap of the week’s happenings below as well as earlier coverage during the event here.
Exhibiting at the LA Artwalk on Thursday was Robert Reynolds, whose gallery is located at 4th and Spring, one block away from the Re:mix festivities. His ship sculptures have a Nordic, medieval fantasy element to them, but are still unmistakably contemporary at the same time. There’s also much to love in his tactile and inviting mixed media piece that depicts a bonfire in the woods.
Friday’s Re:mix events kicked off with a Q&A session featuring English filmmaker Edgar Wright. He’s curator/guest programmer for the third year at The New Beverly Cinema at 7165 Beverly Blvd. LA; this year’s theme: movies Edgar has never seen! The humility of such an idea is commendable in a world where everyone’s too quick to boast their intellectual prowess. The screenwriter/director of Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs the World further retained his humility as he was showered with praise by several admirers. The most interesting part was a discussion re: the innate comedic value in a wide angle lens, popularized by the Coen brothers in early classics like Raising Arizona, and how film directors moved away from the style after it was copycatted by the funny commercials of the 90’s.
The second Q&A was with Jane McGonigal, TED fellow and author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make us Better and How they Can Change the World. She was interviewed by Shira Lazar, HuffPo contributor and founder of What’s Trending. Both proud supporters of the new ‘geek chic’, McGonical argued that the old stigmas attached to video games have dissipated, as the public has grown to accept that games make us resilient and bring us into contact with a host of positive emotions: joy, relief, love, surprise, pride, curiousity, excitement, awe/wonder, contentment and most importantly, creativity.
A set by chiptune indie band Anamanguchi, who also composed the Scott Pilgrim videogame soundtrack, was the perfect compliment to McGonigal’s discussion.
On Saturday, VIBE sponsored a 101 crash course for all the wish-to-be DJs in the house. The event was followed by creative innovators and close friends, Director Jason Reitman and turntablist Cut Chemist who discussed using music as a connecting point in their personal discussions, in an interview curated by KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic host Jason Bentley. The conversation was nice. Reitman was dropping “cool dude” bombs left and right (“Why won’t people stop asking me to direct Ghostbusters 3?”, “I do script readings at LACMA with Natalie Portman and Steve Carell.”) and the Chemist sharing insight on what it is to be a turntablist in the year 2011. Following the interview, the duo joined forces on the 1’s and 2’s, (Reitman: a capellas, Chemist: beats) mashing up everything from Playaz Circle and Dr. Dre to Soundgarden and Donna Summer.
UK’s The Boxer Rebellion took stage after an epic soundcheck (seriously, you should’ve seen it!). Having seen the four-piece several times in the last few years, their performance on Saturday easily ranks atop their best. The band opened strong with “Step Out of the Car” and didn’t look back. Despite some onstage technical difficulties, the band rolled forward with fan favorites like “If You Run“. TBR proclaimed it was the “first time we’ve played in a bank” in fact the downtown space centered in LAs old bank district was actually the first time I’d partied in a bank. So there was that and there was also the fact that the band’s guitarist looks like that dude from this season’s X Factor. He had that certain Krajcik-esqueness to him. The band’s set while brief, had the right rockus and stood a highlight to the week’s mix of events.
Re:Mix Labs 
(Event Info) (HyundaiVeloster)
Reviewed by b3
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