Did You Win One of Our City Listening Door Prizes?

Thank you, thank you, to all of you who made this year's City Listening a success! We're still cleaning up, crunching numbers and uploading photos so we'll have a full report soon, including how to purchase one of those amazing laser-cut panels that graced the back of the City Listening stage. But one thing we're already certain of: We were absolutely floored by your attendance, love and support! Thank you!

In all our rush to thank our speakers, say goodbye to our guests and get our de LaB Groupies into the after party downstairs, we neglected to post the eight winning raffle ticket numbers for amazing door prizes from The LA Conservancy, Hammer Museum, KCRW, AIA Home Tours, MAK Center, The Hollyhock House, Balcony Press, The Gamble House and Sam Lubell.

We know that the chances you're still holding onto that red ticket are slim, but we decided we needed to try finding our eight lucky winners. So here are the winning tickets:

• 847656
• 847628
• 847650
• 847588
• 847637
• 847661
• 847620
• 847658

If you have any of these raffle tickets in your possession, please email us at hello AT designeastoflabrea DOT org so we can get your door prize to you!

If we don't hear from all eight people by Friday, we'll choose some de LaB Groupie ticketholders at random to round out the spots.

Again we're so sorry we screwed up and we promise it won't happen next time!

Go Home with Piece of City Listening

The creative minds behind the Crane from Coachella are back again with something equally experimental and just as evocative for de LaB City Listening II. Only this time, you can take a piece of it home with you.


Based on an iconic image of the Sixth Street Bridge taken from the LA River, the Crimson Collective is building a 40-foot one-of-a-kind modular art installation that is comprised of 2-d and 3-d laser etched cityscapes on dense expanded foam sheets. They literally let the city and the universe decide how their installation would take shape, blending science and art to divine the exact form of the 13 different clustered structures. The design took traffic patterns between La Brea and downtown and the actual geographic locations of all past de LaBs to draw a constellation of LA and applied I Ching, the ancient Chinese art of divination, to translate this data into actual shapes.

Designer Behn Samareh (the master of 3-d) engraves the surface of the panels with grooves that are filled with pigment while Ando Pndlian (the ace of 2-d) superimposes the panels with his laser-cut, precision-laid images. The result is a dense multi-dimensional urban frieze.



Besides being the backdrop for City Listening, this yet-to-be-named work of modular art is available for purchase. These panels are now being sold as 13 original artworks, your very own City Listening memento. Check out the panel descriptions and purchasing information to find out the name/number of the panel you'd like to buy, and remember, friends of de LaB get an additional 10% off!

What Would You "Ask Chris"?

We're big fans—as you should be, too—of writer, preservationist, historian and man-about-town Chris Nichols and his "Ask Chris" column in Los Angeles Magazine. Every month, Chris answers questions on LA ranging from "Are there any orange groves left in LA?" to "Silverlake or Silver Lake?" to "What's up with those abandoned streets west of LAX?"

At this weekend's event City Listening II (have you bought your tickets yet?), Chris will bring the column to life for one night only! But to do this, we need your questions!

What are your burning queries about LA's urban landscape, architecture, history? Send us an email or drop 'em in the comments—and no fair answering other people's questions! Come to City Listening II on Saturday, June 26 to see if your questions get picked!

Also! Be sure to check out Chris' picks for the best modern restaurants, midcentury diners and Googie eateries (complete with map!) over at Dwell.

One Week Until City Listening II!

Only one week left until our first-ever fundraiser, City Listening II!

We hope you'll join us for an evening of free expression and generous libation in celebration of LA's design culture at large.

Featuring stories about LA read by the city's leading writers on design and urbanism:

• KCRW's Frances Anderton on "Living with Gehry"
• A live "Ask Chris" session with Chris Nichols from Los Angeles Magazine
• John Chase with "No fun-size Twix bars EVER!"
  
• LA Creek Freak Joe Linton on the bridges we cross
• Ken Bernstein on hidden gems uncovered by Survey LA
• A parade of disturbing interiors from Marissa Gluck
• Nick Adams with a slightly angry, slightly tongue-in-cheek takedown of the LA subway "system"
• Architectural short fiction by Tom Marble
• Tibby Rothman's Not-for-Print Art World Story
  
• Poetic stylings of gelato urbanist Alissa Walker
• LA fiction by Curbed LA editor Adrian Glick Kudler
• Brooke Hodge reminisces about LA's first impressions
• Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne on LA's downtown
  
• Sam Lubell, California editor of The Architect's Newspaper, reads from the book of Genesis
  
• Rico Gagliano of The Dinner Party Download
  
• And letters to LA written by students from 826LA
• Hosted by de LaB's Haily Zaki, Alissa Walker and Marissa Gluck
  

Indulge in east-of-La Brea eats by Flying Pig courtesy of The Architect's Newspaper, ice cream sandwiches by Coolhaus, organic chocolate by Nicobella, cocktails by Pama and Hpnotiq, and wine courtesy of FORM

Marvel at interactive design installations by Crimson Collective, Barchitecture by Jason King of Somewhere Something sponsored by Woodbury University, seed bomb vending by Commonstudio/Project H, music by Xeriscape Records, pop-up espresso by Yeekai Lim and comfy modern seating by Modernica

Support the silent auction featuring de LaB community members:

• toHOLD
• Crimson Collective
• Knock Knock
• Ball-Nogues Studio
• Vegetable garden consultation by Heartbeet Gardening
• A private tour of KCRW's studios with Frances Anderton
  
• Damon Loble
• Cartoules Letterpress
• TOMS Shoes customized by Bendow
• Design consultation by Rachel Allen Architecture
  
• 826LA
• A walking tour of West Hollywood's urban design with John Chase
  
• Fifth Floor Gallery
• See Line Gallery and Eamon O'Kane
• Didier Hess & M&A
  

$25 Tickets includes drinks, food and admission to the show

$50 de LaB Groupie Tickets includes drinks, food, admission to the show and a guerrilla gardening kit from Green Aid, PLUS de LaB Groupie After Party at the Crocker Club sponsored by Los Angeles Magazine's LA Circles Club, AND special door prizes from the LA Conservancy, Hammer Museum, KCRW, AIA Home Tours, MAK Center, Hollyhock House, Balcony Press, Gamble House and Friends of the LA River

Anyone who arrives by walking, riding their bike or taking public transportation receives a very special walking-themed door prize!

It all happens next weekend!

Saturday June 26, 2010
7-10pm
Spring Arts Tower
453 S. Spring, Downtown LA

Buy your tickets today—only a limited amount will be available at the door! See you at City Listening II!

Special thanks to BustBright for our beautiful website, demonicaphoto for event photography, and our media partners Dwell on Design and Architizer

Also! We're still looking for a few more volunteers, so drop us a line if you can help!

Name our City Listening II Cocktails--Winners Announced!

Update: Winners announced!

Angelyne (pink), submitted by Ellen, via blog
Pama
Vodka
Pink grapefruit juice

Sweet Elysian (blue), submitted by Amy Martin, via Facebook
Hpnotiq
Vodka
Pineapple juice

Red Car (red), submitted by Ellen, via blog
Pama
Vodka
Cranberry juice

Ellen, we don't know how to contact you, so please email us so we can get you your two free tickets. Thank you to everyone who entered! Remember, Early Bird tickets are on sale until midnight tonight!

Thanks to our friends at Pama and Hpnotiq, we'll be shaking up three delightful cocktails at our City Listening II event on June 26. Help us name them and the winning name for each cocktail will get a free ticket to City Listening II, an evening of stories about LA read by the city's leading design writers!

Right now they're just named after the colors they'll be, but we want you to christen these cocktails with proper "design east of La Brea" names before we can serve them to you. How about naming them after your favorite building east of La Brea? Perhaps you can honor your favorite City Listening speaker? Or use the name to show some east of La Brea neighborhood pride? Maybe you should start drinking right now for some proper inspiration!

Pink
Pama
Vodka
Pink grapefruit juice

Blue
Hpnotiq
Vodka
Pineapple juice

Red
Pama
Vodka
Cranberry juice

Post your suggestions to Twitter and tag them #citylistening, add them in the Facebook comments here, or post them in the comments below. Be sure to reference which color cocktail you're naming. The winner for each cocktail will get a free ticket to City Listening II!

Hurry! Deadline is Wednesday night, June 9 at midnight. We'll announce the winners the next day here, on Twitter and on Facebook, so those who don't win will still have plenty of time to buy tickets at Early Bird pricing, which ends midnight, June 10! May the best drink names win!

Disclaimer: Must not be presently located east of La Brea in order to enter. We welcome submissions from those both east and west.

City Listening II > Saturday, June 26 > Spring Arts Tower

We're proud to announce our first-ever de LaB fundraiser, City Listening II! On Saturday, June 26, de LaB and a fantastic roster of collaborators and sponsors will present an evening of stories about Los Angeles read by your favorite design, architecture and art writers from both sides of La Brea!

The event will also feature a silent auction with art and design work from members of the de LaB community, fantastic food and drinks (of course), and plenty of surprises and special guests, so buy your tickets now! We're also still looking for silent auction donors, sponsors and volunteers, so drop us a line if you can help!

Early bird pricing ends June 10 so buy your tickets today! We'll see you at City Listening II!