Humming Bird Love

The beautiful Miriam Martinez humming bird print is now hanging in my living room, and it is glorious!

New Drawing

This is a drawing from a native american abuelita I saw at the Heard Museum. I want to add more color to her...

When You Care Enough to Hit Send

Take a moment to send a great ecard from someecards.com the choices are endless and hilarious!



http://www.someecards.com/

Sleepy boys

Our three day weekend was mostly spent sleeping and relaxing at home, some much needed down time. We bought a new mattress which is heaven, and I could barely climb off of today to come in to work. I am sleepy still....

Vertigo at Hollywood Forever

On Saturday evening, we made our way to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, for the Cinespia screening of Vertigo. If you are unfamiliar witht the cemetery screening events, tons of people treck to Hollywood laden with blankets, lawn chairs, full spreads of Trader Joe's picnick items, beer and wine to enjoy a movie projected on the side of one of the large mosoleums. This goes on every other weekend or so all summer long, and is a great time. However, this particular saturday, all we Angelinos overestimated the arrival of summer weather, and we like to froze to death, in the words of my Grandma Joy. The lawn turned damp as the sun went down, and although we still had tons of fun snacking on fried chicken, salame sandwiches, hummus, chips and alcoholic beverages, as the night became colder and colder, it got hard to stick out. Usually my tactic would be to get drunk, so as to warm myself and not mind how uncomrfortable the ground was becoming, but I was afraid that I would need to treck to the port-a-pottys and never find my way back in the crowd.




All in all, fun and fabulous, but next time I'll try to prepare better. I think maybe some lawn chairs would be in order. We were accomanied by David's sister, Diane + husband Jose, their daughter Ashley, niece to David-Michael, and best friends, David + Heather Greenwood, and the marvelous Kristen.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Ah! It's finally here! I'll see you all next week after some R&R. Here's some great drawings from Michael C. Hsiung, an American-born-Chinese artist, based in Koreatown, LA. They put me in the mood for some good times. Check out his site at:

http://www.michaelchsiung.com/

Devotchka!!

Last night David and I took the Metro from his work in Hollywood to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown LA. We scrambled over to Pitfire Pizza for dinner, and relaized there was no time to eat it, so we continued scrambling back to the hall with small pizza boxes, eating as we hurried along the blocks, stringing strands of gooey cheese bewteen us.



The hall is a gorgeous building designed by Frank Gehry, with shiny curving walls. The exterior is sleek and metal and protective like somekind of organic armor. Inside, the main concert room, everything is also curving, but made of wood. It's acoustically perfect. The inside room, once the show starts and fills with music and light and sound, it feels like your inside the heart of this musical beast, beating with life and warm sound. Devotchka was amazing. This was a part of the KCRW Shadow of Stalin events, a night of Russian Chanson. The music is a blend of Russian Gypsy sound and Mexican Mariachi. It's epic and sweeping and highly emotional. The girl plays a big tuba decorated with red christmas lights, and also the upright bass. The drummer also plays the trumpet, and the second guitarist rotates between guitar, accordian, piano and violin. Saul Williams recited an amazing political poem, and a few other musicians each performed songs in Russian. I am exhausted by all the fun I've had this week, and almost fell asleep after riding the metro home and trying to walk back to the car.

Watson Twins

Last night at Largo I joined Christine, James and Amanda S. for a night of comedy, music and fundraising at Largo. We enjoyed Patton Oswalt and Davy Rothbart, Founder of Found Magazine. The whole night was to benefit 826LA - a program to help kids learn to write stories with an after school tutoring program. Last was the Watson Twins, and they were sweet as pie. Charming, southern ladies from Kentucky singing beautiful songs, such harmonies. We were all enchanted.

LA Central Library

Yesterday, killing time before a vendor dinner at the Waterfront Grill downtown (where I enjoyed a lovely $50 lobster meal and Argentinian fine wines all on our kindly hosts), Agata and I visited the L.A. Central Public Library. It's a great old building with several levels and little galleries inside. I checked out a book too, Zara's Tales, from the History section. I can't wait to read it, it's a memoir the Peter Beard wrote for his 3 year old daughter Zara, of their adventures living in Africa while she was growing up. It's got lots of great photos of them with all sorts of wild animals.




I have to mention that this last photo is an illustration by Dali of Alice and wonderland, it was so beautiful.

Elwood's Native American Basket Hat

My Superfun with Moriah & the Bises

This last weekend was my trip to visit Moriah in Peroria, AZ, where she and husband Tim have made a lovely home. My plane arrived at 11:45ish PM, and they were waiting for me at my gate, and we were all very happy. Sadly, in the parking lot, Moriah's car battery had died. So, we tried to figure out to do in the 98 degree heat of the parking lot. Tim flagged some seemingly helpfull fellows, but we ended up with crossed jumper cables, and one not-so-helpful fellow with a burned hand. Some one should teach him to not grab a heavily smoking jumper cable handle with rubber melting off it.We were quickly assisted by a parking lot attendant who got us rolling again. At the Hilley Residence, we ate snacks and Moriah and I stayed up to 3:30 am talking of days present and past, and I was having the best best time. The little hostess that she is, she had laid out fresh towels on my bed, with chocolates. I did eat them. On Saturday we trecked to the Heard Museum, to experience Native American crafts from the 19th and 20th centuries. Sandra Day O'Conner has her very own gallery named after here there. One of my favorite exhibits was a little dunebuggy racer car in wich artist Steven Yazzie sits and draws urgent landscapes in motion as he hurtles over them - producing a very scrawled tumultouos line drawings.




Sunday, I rose early and helped him "hose down the deck" wich meant him tossing tennis balls to their big horse like black and tan labs so they might splash in the pool and run all around it, dripping and "hosing" the surrounding deck. This was a jolly time, and I laughed myself silly. The rest of the day was spend in the happy company of Moriah's family, Della, Mr. Paul, and sister Allison. We ate yummy BBQ, lounged in the swimming pool and enjoyed the warm sun. I was re-amazed at my own whiteness. We watched old videos from '97 that we'd made as teeangers in a small town, overcoming bordom, and I was crying I was laughing so hard. I have to say, that growing up this felt like my secornd family, and it was such a joy to visit with them, and feel just as comfortable and at home, 8 years or so later. I left with that same wish, that you could live in a closer vicinity with good friends that have spread out where life takes you.
Moriah and Tim took me back to the airport at 6:30 pm to catch my flight home. I had so much fun with you guys, I hope you come visit in LA soon, and I will definately come again to see you, and hopefully bring David. PS - Timmy's shoe has a bottle opener in it - double beans!!

LA - AZ

I'll be out of town this weekend, flying to Arizona to visit Moriah and see her place. It's 100 degrees there right now, I'm sure to fry like an egg in a hot hot pan. I am looking foward to the visit very much and will post photos on my return. Mr. David-Michael and Mr. Pudding plan to watch gold and nap on the couch in my absence. I have a feeling he'll pull a Lindsey and watch all the Netflix and return them while I'm out of town.... or maybe he'll have pity on me and wait :)

Cowboy Stories

Wowsers... this guy is AMAZING. Check out these awesome photograph/art assemblages of Joseph Bellows. I'll paste some info from the site below.



The Joseph Bellows Gallery is pleased to announce the first West Coast solo exhibition of Minnesota photographer Thomas Allen.
Allen's photographs are inspired by his childhood experiences with pop-up books and View-Masters. He begins his process by cutting figures and images out of illustrated pages of old books and vintage fiction novels. Allen then cleverly rearranges and juxtaposes the forms to create three-dimensional scenes. Next, he carefully lights his subjects and photographs the scenes.
When separated from their original stories, the figures take on fresh roles in entirely new situations. Yet they retain their intended purpose of storytelling. Characters and objects originally created as two-dimensional illustrations are raised from their pages and given new life in three-dimensional space. The figures return back to two-dimensional objects, this time in the form of a photograph.
The work combines the humor of children's pop-up books, the nostalgia of dime novels, and the drama of the stage. Allen's inventive and evocative photographs capture characters and events in mid-action. And the viewer is left to wonder what will happen next.

http://www.josephbellows.com/exhibitions/2006_3_thomas_allen/

Wanna Feel Crazy?

Come sit next to me. Check out the madness that is my desk right now. I'm going crazy, lost in the world of Back To School...

My new obsessive song to love

Parting Of The Sensory
-Modest Mouse

There's no work in walking in to fuel the talk
I would grab my shoes and then away I'd walk
Through all the stubborn beauty I start at the dawn
Until the sun had fully stopped
Never walking away from
Just a way to pull apart
Dehydrate back into minerals
A life long walk to the same exact spot

Carbon's anniversary
The parting of the sensory
Old old mystery
The parting of the sensory

Who the hell made you the boss?
We placed our chips in all the right spots
But still lost
Any shithead who had ever walked
Could take the ship and do a much finer job
This fit like clothes made out of wasps
Aw, fuck it I guess I lost

The parting of the sensory
Carbon's anniversary
Just part it again if you please
Carbon's anniversary

Who the hell made you the boss
If you say what to do I know what not to stop
If you were the ship then who would ever get on
The weather changed it for the worse
And came down on us like it had been rehearsed
And like we hope, but change will surely come
And be awful for most but really good for some
I took a trip to the exact same spot
We pulled the trigger, but we forgot to cock
And every single shot

Aw, fuck it I guess we lost

Some day you will die and
Somehow something's going to steal your carbon

Some day you will die and
Somehow something's going to steal your carbon

Well some day you will die somehow and
Something's going to steal your carbon

Some day you will die and
Someone's or something's will steal your carbon

Some day something will die and
Somehow you'll figure out how
Often you will die somehow and
Something going to steal your carbon

Well some day you will die somehow and
Something's going to steal your carbon

Bookshelf Wallpaper

I am head-over-heels IN LOVE with this bookshelf wallpaper by Deborah Bowness. It was posted on BoingBoing this morning, and I had to repost it here. I think maybe I could make my own? Ultimately, I dream of my own wall to wall celing to floor bookshelves in a house of our own. Maybe I could paper these on the walls as a promise of things to come. Then, the reall bookcases can go in front of them, and one day, after I'm dead and gone, when someone moves the bookcase they'll find this behind it and have a laugh!

http://www.deborahbowness.com/books.html

Helms Furniture Fun

Yesterday Warren and I went to the Helms Furniture District to oogle designer tables, chairs and bedframes. I am entertaining the one-day dream of a wooden bedframe, and we wend to look for ideas. Warren (if you don't know him) is moving to New York soon to open his own handcrafted furniture showroom and art shop, and maybe one day he can make my dream bedframe. I found this one I LOVE but you'd have to have a massive space to put it in. Warren found this chair with rediculously long armrests. I'm going to miss him tremendously when he's on the other side of the country.

Days Past

I found this picture from 2005 of Mr. David-Michael and myself at Rachel's bitchen 80's Prom theme party. Oh, days gone by what fun. It's been almost a year now that Rachel & Joe have been on the road traveling, and I miss them and such good parties. We made Hello Kitty waffles today with our Hello Kitty waffle maker with fresh cut strawberries from Marina Farms, and real Whipping Cream style whipped cream. It was a delicous sunday morning.

Elwood's misery

Elwood got to come home last night after a week of hospialization. His whole ear was Obliterated, and now he looks quite freakish. His ear is sewn up and shaved all around, and he is ver miserable with this gross cloth collar to keep him from scrating. Poor, poor baby. This is a particularily bad photo of him too, emphasising his misery. This morning, Mr. David-Michael announced it was time to "go to the nail shop" which turns out to be a corner of the dining room where he clipped down Mr. Pudding's toenails.

New Specs 'n stuff

So, here in my sleepy morningness I model for you my new Vera Wang spectacles. I look funny here, it makes me laugh. I will be getting a second pair soon, tinted for driving. Yes, it is 6:30 and I am up dressed ready to go start the day at 7:30 am at GUESS Inc. I am a young urban professional.
Oooooo, Sam, get ready for this mail art coming your way! Here it is, accomanied by the lovely Olivia of Bolivia doll, as pictured in my sketchbook posting from last night. I sent the Conjunto Mexican record album journal to Sam in New Mexico and she put great drawings in it. I've drawn over them and added some new bits, and will return it to her as an ongoing mail project. I would post some of the drawings inside, but don't want to ruin it for her. Maybe later, when some are done.
Look at this pretty lady. I cut her out of a record album cover, thinking to sew her onto another journal, but never did. Maybe she'd like to be collaged into some large scale painting?