The Best Cultural Events of September

Welcome to Culture Hound, InsideHook’s deep dive into the month’s most important pop cultural happenings.

© The Huntington

SEE: Lari Pittman Mood Books at the Huntington Library
Los Angeles-based Lari Pittman is an artist with a hallucinogenic bent. This month, the Huntington Library will present six of his giant, illustrated books. By giant, we mean four feet in width and packed with 65 paintings. (9/03)

WATCH: Atlanta
Less Community and more hip-hop Louie, star/creator Donald Glover explores the lives of two cousins in the music scene in a surreal new FX show he calls “Twin Peaks for rappers.” (9/6)

READ: Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders
In their new book, alternative travel guide Atlas Obscura shines a light on 700 of the strangest places, events and items on Earth. Think tree pubs, glowworm caves, leech-powered machines and something called a Baby Jumping Festival, where men in Spain dress as devils and leap over infants. (9/20)

WATCH: Barnsdall Outdoor Movie Night
The Barnsdall Art Park and Cinefamily Outdoor Movie Night starts this weekend with the Bowie Mixtape of Rarities, followed by a screening of D.A. Pennebaker’s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. The Stardust String Quartet will play classically-arranged Bowie. Bring your blanket, some vino and a picnic. (9/04)

SEE: Undercover Cars
Clint Woolside’s photography of cars that are partially covered takes place at These Days gallery in DTLA, featuring images the photographer has gathered over the past few years up and down the west coast. (9/10)

LISTEN: Los Angeles Podcast Festival
The Los Angeles Podcast Festival, now in its second year, is bringing 40 something live recordings to the Sofitel at the end of the month. The event includes panels on issues facing those in the business and a lab for anyone interested in starting their own podcast. (9/23-25)

ENJOY: “Nobody Speak”
The devolution of modern politics in three-plus glorious, horn-filled minutes. Here, producer DJ Shadow and the hip-hop duo Run the Jewels turn a UN-style meeting into a bizarro rap battle (“Picture this/I’m a bag of dicks”) and, soon, a war of fists. As Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike says, “It’s what I really wish Trump and Hillary would just do and get it over with. And even in that fight I think Hillary would win — and that’s not an endorsement.” (But do note the Trump diss about 1:10 in.)

GET DOWN: Abbot Kinney Festival
Food trucks. Dancing in the street. Plumes of ganja. The Abbot Kinney Festival is your average day in Venice on steroids. We’ll be munching on tacos and drinking House Beers with the boys at General Admission, who are hosting a block party on the beachy side of the street. (9/25)

LISTEN: Danny Brown
As Brown says on his new single, “You ain’t heard it like this before.” And on his new album Atrocity Exhibition, the oddball rapper moves to the electronic label Warp and cites Bjork, System of a Down, Quentin Tarantino and Curb Your Enthusiasm as inspirations (and nabs Kendrick Lamar for a cameo). The result? Cheerfully bizarro hip-hop completely at odds with pop radio. (9/30)

APPRECIATE: Polanski
The fifth issue of our favorite NSFW photo journal/zine is available for preorder. Lots of content, little clothing. It’s art, dammit.

WATCH: Masterminds
Based on one of the largest cash robberies of all-time, this promising new heist flick from director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) has an oddball Fargo/Baskets vibe and an A-plus comedy cast, including Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig and Jason Sudeikis. Not your thing? Watch for our fall movie guide next week for more options. (9/30)

STREAM: The best songs of September
Our hour-and-a-half Spotify playlist highlights the month’s best new tunes, including Against Me!, Warpaint, Phantogram, Empire of the Sun and SURVIVE, aka the co-composers of the Stranger Things soundtrack (fun aside: ask me what the year’s most overrated TV show was).

Also: Our friend Rob Lowe gets roasted on Comedy Central, but Ann Coulter gets the most heat (9/5) … Our favorite pinup queen in HD glory, thanks to the restored The Exotic Dances of Bettie Page on Blu-ray (9/13) … Comic book guru Alan Moore (Watchmen, From Hell) goes positively Joyce-ian in his 1280-page fantasy magnum opus Jerusalem (9/13) … Oh, look, a cookbook inspired by Brad Pitt’s insatiable desire to eat everything. It’s called Fat Brad (Available for preorder) … He reinvented the home invasion thriller with You’re Next, so we have high hopes for what Adam Wingard can do with his Blair Witch sequel (9/16) … The fall TV season looks iffy, but the live action/cartoon hybrid Son of Zorn comes from the guys behind 21 Jump Street and The Last Man on Earth, so hey, enjoy it while it lasts (9/25).