Los Angeles was chockablock with art openings all over town Saturday night and I had my mind set on attending at least two of them before the night was through. Thankfully I made it across town to both, dodging traffic on the 10 with the help of my human navigator and date, Tim as well as my electronic navigator Garmin, or “Lady Gar Gar” as Tim likes to call it.

My first time on a plane,
I look out the plexiglass
pane of the window, see
the grid of fields beneath.
The only sense I can make
of the latticed land: that here
are the United States, shaded
and flat as they are on a map.
Rosy brown, green, taupe
patches far below do resemble
cartoony illustrations of
countries, cities inserted
cleanly into regions
like toothpicks into bread.

In honor of the upcoming E3 Expo, on June 15th, The Hive hosted B3, a video game-themed show that featured their 26 resident artists, 70 group show artists, and 10 performances. Being a slight video game nerd myself, I was particularly intrigued with the prospect of an entire exhibition dedicated to gaming’s pop cultural influence. I wasn’t disappointed; The Hive turned into a happening, game-friendly place, where underground art lovers and gaming nerds could mingle, drink, and play Mortal Kombat.

That’s right. You can now purchase and read the book that put Hank on the map, with his very name on the cover and a brief bio on the back. And it’s not only a bona fide work of fiction, but a damn good one at that.

If over Memorial Day weekend you found yourself stuffed from too many hot dogs at the BBQ, or looking like a lobster from too many hours at the beach, then this past weekend was a perfect time to just take it easy and recover from the unofficial start of summer by enjoying some very fine art. And that’s just what I did on Saturday at The 5th Annual Art Walk in Culver City which lasted from Noon to 8 PM.