This week we have been regrouping, thinking about the future, about where we are going and what we are doing.
The response to our conflict with The Last Bookstore was huge and overwhelmingly positive. If nothing else, what we learned in the aftermath is that we’ve been really good to and for the community of artists and arts lovers around us over the years. They all came out, you all came out, and said WE GOT YOUR BACK! It’s been a beautiful and reassuring feeling, a communal strength that we know will propel us into the next chapter.

But man, it’s been exhausting. Physically, emotionally, mentally drained.
So we have gone back to what always gives us comfort—calling up some amazing artists, throwing them in a space, inviting some people over and putting on a mindblowing show.
We hadn’t done a Soul Together in a while and it seemed like a great time for it. Peter created a line-up headlined by Bad Luck and Pitch Like Masses. God damn.
The music was incredible. The vibe was great. It will be better once FKA is done putting the finishing touches on their ridiculously large and gorgeous 11th floor loft on the corner of 5th & Main in DTLA. Our plan is to do Soul Together once a month. Word will spread about this special show.
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We’re actually thinking of building in a bookstore into the space. FKA, a post-production company, wants us in there to do events and just bring in creative people. We’re thinking about it. I think it can be a cool experiment.
We’re thinking about a lot of things, actually, which is nothing new, but with a bigger sense of urgency. It feels like we’re coming up against that wall, where we feel like we’ve pushed ourselves to the limit of what we can do with the resources we have. Maybe it’s just the holidays.
Anyway, in the meantime, even as I say all this, we are already picking up the boxes that were so unceremoniously packed up for us by a bookstore that shall no longer be named and moving on to the next phase of DT•LAB. And let me tell you, it’s exciting.
Gatsby Books in Long Beach, The Pop-Hop in Highland Park, Seite Books in East LA and Vlad the Retailer in Echo Park have all reached out and showed interest in bringing the LAB into their stores.
It’s like some idiot dropped us. We broke into pieces. Then each piece is becoming a new whole.