chase the light

One of my favorites photographs is Ansel Adams “Rose and Driftwood” from 1932. It was shot with a 4×5 and the detail in the petals and wood is really amazing. You have to see an original print of it in person to really appreciate it but never-the-less it’s really stunning. I think I first saw it at The Ansel Adams Center for Photography in San Francisco. (now closed) I think it’s why I really like the rose bush by my front door. It blooms on and off all year long and sometimes I can smell them well before I get near the door. They remind me of that photograph. They’re light pink which is what I guess the color of the flower is in that shot. Also since the stems and branches on rose bushes are so stiff mine actually has the added bonus of being able to hold my screen door open when I have a bunch of stuff to carry. The other photo is just a flower in Canada I thought was cool. Little bells.

I finally pulled the trigger on this thing! Word Press! Woo Hoo! I’ve been playing with Word Press for the last year trying to get it to a point that I like it. So I’ve finally moved it to the head of the site! I love it! Not only do I finally have a search feature, but categories! Search for your name if you think I’ve written about you. The categories are sooo great and it archives until the end of time. The earliest Blogger would allow you to post is 1990! Come on I have journal stuff from way before that! I even have the wrist band I wore in the hospital after I was born. Crazy stuff. So, F’em. Also you can finally click the banner on top and come back to the home page if you get lost. I also wanted to make the site a little more utilitarian to try and cut down on the visual noise.

So, my goal is to start plugging in my whole life. I have so much shit in boxes that my parents have given me that I think filling up the journal with all of it will be an awesome record the events I can remember! There’s a few stretches of time that I don’t have pictures or videos from they can be filled in with mental memories. Go over to the categories and drag them down and click go to see what happens. Neko even gets her own category. So now I can post random stuff from the past such as this… [Changing the Marquee at Edwards Cinemas!].

There’s a few things that are still wonky but I’m not really done with it all and sometimes the links go to the old old site but it’ll always be a work in progress! What a relief to finally get it up.

Pssst… need some shoes? I’ll bet anything an old pair shoes I used to own is sitting out at the Rose Bowl parking lot. I lost my Rose Bowl Swap Meet virginity today and I can honestly say, like my first loss of virginity, it didn’t go too well. It’s all kinda hot and sweaty and I rushed through it with no sense of satisfaction. I got lost on my way there, and ended up with nothing worthwhile to talk about and went home sad. So really, the Rose Bowl Swap Meet is just like losing your virginity. Hopefully subsequent trips will yield better results. Just as subsequent trips of the other… oh never mind.

But damn, if you want shoes, they got ’em! Rollover to see the mad amount of Converse All-Stars.

Dear Mother Nature,
You hormonal bitch. Would you please go away and spoon Father Time or something? Do what you have to do but leave us alone already. The rainiest March ever!? Oh very funny of you. It’s “In like a lion out like a lamb” you cranky wench not “In like a lion out like a screaming banshee.” I demand my summer right now. We even pushed our clocks forward to try and spurn you yet look what you do. I hate you.

And the wind, really, come on, what’s with the wind?

Thanks, for the lovely Spring you better be providing,
Chris

P.S. I have about a month left on the Ghostrider project. Maybe I’ll actually get to do something some weekend. Last Friday night I went to the Billy Shire Gallery for a group show opening and then across town to Los Feliz for another group show opening at Bedlam Art. It’s actually Bedlam Art’s final show as they’re closing their doors. Ya know because L.A. needs another sushi restauarant. L.A. Art gallery icon Jim Fittipaldi was hosting as usual and I’m not sure what’s going to happen to Bedlam Warehouse in the downtown area. There was piece there by Michael Salerno that I liked but it was too spendy. Anyway, The Brewery Complex is having their open studios in a couple weeks and Michael Salerno’s studio is there so maybe he’ll have something in my range where a gallery doesn’t have to take a cut.

I sent out some emails this week about the bike in the loading dock but the mystery continues. No one knows nuttin’. Or they’re not speakin’. You’d think someone would have a story, it didn’t just drop out of the sky. It’s probably a rather boring explanation like most things. That, or someone’s screwing with me because they know I have a camera and I’m not afraid to use it.

1. Occumbo contemno / blood trees reign / dreams / the Sneetches graveyard.
2. Red / Venus rising / young lust / fishbreath.
3. City folk are / lacy pinafore / next appointment / in Kalamazoo.

The latest 3 of 12 Exquisite Corpses [LINK] that I’ve now worked on. I’m pretty disappointed in two of these as it looks as some artists just gave up on trying to work out a solution to a transition. I still regret handing off those kids to someone, but I left the strip pretty easy to work from. Just brown and white shapes.

I did the bottom of the first piece, the Super Mario/Scrabble/Tetris section in the second one and the top piece in the third that ended up getting kind of ignored. Oh well, the middle one makes up for the other two.

The middle one also has a bonus in that it includes a piece by internet friend and fellow travel bug Jake Drews [LINK]. Check out their travel web site as I use it to get ideas for my next travel destination! Randomly I came across it about 5 years ago and one day I noticed someone I knew in one of their photos! That, and they’re from Laguna Beach. I’ve spent more than a few years of my life down there having grown up in Laguna Hills.

I’m really tired right now. 6 day work weeks and then on Sundays I’m having to cram in all the little errands I can’t get to during the week. Bills, laundry, groceries, hygiene, smog tests, flat tires, dead car batteries. I haven’t seen friends, haven’t had time to write people, haven’t gotten home before 10 in awhile. Oh woe is me. I’m sad.

Corpses are fun though.

[L.A. MARATHON VIDEO LINK]

Since I’m basically trapped inside today because of the L.A. Marathon. I might as well just enjoy it. Besides, how many people have 25,000 runners going by their house at any given time. The added bonus this year was I actually knew someone in it. So I grabbed my beach chair, some cameras, a bottle of water, the left over pizza and I just chilled out on the curb. There were police all over, helicopters flying around, people on bikes, and no cars. Unless of course you were outside of the marathon route. Then it was gridlocked. It was a beautiful day and just hanging out sitting in the sun was nice. No worries.

Some wheelchair riders went by, then the women leaders, then the men leaders, and then the mass of humanity called the rest of them. Sean, a friend from work for years now made a commitment to do the run this year. His father ran the Boston marathon some 30 years ago and so to make the old pop proud he vowed to run the L.A. Marathon this year. His parents were out here to cheer him on. Sean came through my area about 10:55 and whooped it up and looked like he was in good spirits. It’s a long final stretch from my house. I sat and watched for another 1/2 an hour or so and then packed up but realized I couldn’t actually cross the street at this point because of the amount of people. So I just chilled some more in the sun and decided on which movie I wanted to see later.

I found a gap in the runners and headed home then hopped in the car and went to see “V for Vendetta”. I needed to see me some killin’. It was playing at the Vista in Los Feliz which is just the best damn theater in the whole world. Old time movie theater, $5, first run movies. Sweet. And Vendetta…? Meh.

It’s no secret that I love pizza. Every couple of years or so I break out the flour, water, polenta, cheeses, oregano, italian tomatoes, and whip up one of my own masterpieces. The smells of yeast, cheese and pepperonis are to die for. I love the thin sliced pepperoni because it gets all crispy with delicious goodness. Another secret is not using a tomato sauce, but rather italian plum tomatoes. You put the cheese down first as a layer and then the plum tomatoes. That way the dough doesn’t get all soggy. Pizza anyone? Roll over the picture… just sayin’. The idea completely ripped off from friend Aaron [LINK] who posts all sorts of alternate photos of his kid.

BRAIN DUMP: 50 things I remembered and wrote down this week.

1. In elementary school a kid won our school presidency by saying he’d get the drinking fountains to have soda rather than water. We all voted for him.
2. My Mom’s “I don’t have to time to prepare dinner” taco salad was made with Fritos.
3. I remember Doug Henning, the magician, use to have these yearly TV specials in the 70’s. I thought he was a weird guy, always ooooing and ahhhing. He tried treating his cancer with transcendental meditation. That was pretty stupid.
4. First song I learned on guitar: Baby, I Love Your Way
5. My velcro wallet use to smell funny because I’d take it to the beach and it would getwet from the salt water.
6. I never ditched a day of high school, but my attendance record showed all sorts of absences in everyone of my classes. That’s when I knew I could no longer trust The Man.
7. Our high school once had an assembly featuring a christian rock band. Except you didn’t really know they were until they sprung it on you if you went to the show later that night. They played Crazy Train and some AC/DC and then they started talking about fellowship. I felt ripped off and left. Reaffirmed my belief that you can’t trust The Man.
8. Blindly not knowing that the Indian Guides were a part of the YMCA. Again, The Man.
9. The Man is all in my head.
10. Didn’t understand at the time why was I so attracted to Melissa Sue Anderson from “James at 15”, Emmy Jo of “New Zoo Revue”, and Joy from “The Bugaloos”.
11.Those plaque pills that made your teeth all red so you knew you had to keep brushing.
12. Always thinking that wherever “Battle of the Network Stars” was shot, it was amazing. Only to find out years later it was just Pepperdine in Malibu.
13. The big-ass Sears Christmas catalogue that I’d cut out pictures and paste them onto paper to give to Santa.
14. I got a 4 foot long aircraft carrier for Christmas one year. It shot foam planes off the flight deck. It broke on Christmas day and I never played with it again.
15. I forgot that San Franciscans hiss at trailers and commercials in movie theaters. Nobody in Los Angeles does because the whole industry is here and trailers and commercials mean more jobs.
16. I once stole a Playboy from the bookstore at the mall. It was the Dorothy Stratton issue. Who knew at the time?
17. In elementary school poor Patty Etchevery was called Itch My Berries.
18. KMET used to do a little segment called “The Fish Report with a Beat” where they would supposedly call out the days catch.
19. The 45rpm single of version of “Spirit of Radio” by Rush cut out the little reggae section in the middle.
20. One time I won Ace Frehley and Paul Stanley posters at the fair by popping balloons with darts.
21. At age 11 me and John Boyles were at Aztec Bowl on Beach Blvd. waiting for my Mom to pick us up. We bought some french fries at the coffee shop and I still had a quarter left so I played “Bennie and the Jets” on the juke box.
22. The clown my parents hired for my birthday party showed up totally drunk.
23. Was told by my sister’s friend that “Afternoon Delight” meant the “in out in out” as he gestured with his fingers.
24. Of the cereal trifecta Boo Berry, Count Chocula, and Frankenberry, Boo Berry was my favorite.
25. The first 45rpm I bought was “Who are You”. My sister gave me money to buy her Anne Murray’s “You Needed Me” and enough to get something for myself. I rode my skateboard three miles to the Sears.
26. I stopped using a cell phone headset as soon as I saw bits of a Garth Brooks concert on PBS.
27. My grandmother showed me how to macram?ɬ© but I never really could do it without her there. And I didn’t like it.
28. One time the band I was in was supposed to open for A Flock of Seagulls but there was no room on stage for our keyboard player, so we left. The guy with the funny hair was kind of an ass to us anyway.
29. Whenever someone calls me by the wrong name, it’s almost always Scott. Last time it happened was a month ago.
30. At the high school winter formal at The Balboa Pavilion the band only played the slow part to Freebird. It was the last song of the night. They also did “Turning Japanese” by The Vapours. The guitar player played a blonde Les Paul.
31. Upon discovering a huge man-made turd in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, a friend of mine turned to me and said slowly, “There’s been humans here”. We ran and kinda dry heaved because it smelled so bad.
32. Aspen sodas tasted terrible.
33. My friends parents would drive us from Orange County to The Valley to go to Busch Gardens just so they could sample the free beer. We went there a lot. Then they’d drive us home drunk.
34. They also invited me to dinner once and then kicked me out of their house for not finishing everything on my plate. It was supposed to be “clean as a hounds tooth”.
35. For a poetry assignment in our high school english class, my friend recited his poem which he called “The Electric Eye”. It was really just the lyrics to “Electric Eye” by Judas Priest. He changed the name to disguise it and he got an A. Everyone in the class thought I was being rude by laughing out loud at his poem.
36. I was on a bus going through the Fillmore district when a huge fight with hundreds of people broke out. People were getting slammed against the bus and getting beaten up, but the driver kept the door shut.
37. My Kiss ticket, for the 1979 Dynasty tour at the Anaheim Convention Center, was 9 dollars.
38. My sister ran away from home once.
39. Was once scolded by a much wiser friend of mine that “Who Wants to Live Forever” by Queen is not a “cruisin’ down Sunset on a Saturday night” type of song. The Doors “Break on Through” was and she popped it in and blasted it as we turned right off of La Cienega.
40. Whenever I crossed Slauson Ave. I’d think of Johnny Carson. “Go to the Slauson cut off, and cut off your slauson”.
41. One of my college roommates had a girlfriend in San Francisco and one in San Diego. And they knew about each other.
42. This guy Nathaniel I knew in high school was always asking for Chizz. You got Chizz?? Know anybody that’s got Chizz? I found out much later he wanted matches so he could go smoke.
43. In the 70’s I used to love to shop at the TG&Y five and dime store.
44. I used to think Humble Pie and Uriah Heep were the same band.
45. Tony Alva was my hero. So I bought one of his skateboards and a set of his wheels. Little did I know he was only 9 years older than me. There is now an Alva retail store a few blocks away from me that I have yet to go to.
46. Once when I was a kid and goofing around I hit my best friend in the forehead with a golf club. A curtain of blood poured out of his head and down his eyes and face. I ran home.
47. The week after I learned how to whistle I swung from my neighbors lamp and fell face first into their marble coffee table. I slammed my mouth in and my upper lip puffed up and I couldn’t whistle anymore. I was sad. I still have a scar on my forehead.
48. Our neighborhood bully used to ride his bike and huff paint on the playground at my elementary school. Jerry Main. He has to be dead.
49. I got so drunk at a college party once that I stole a chair and a car antenna.
50. Every year when I get my taxes done, it’s at an office near where I grew up. As a treat afterwards, I always go to the Wienerschnitzel by my old house that my friends and I would ride our bikes to. I order the same thing to this day, 3 chili dogs, fries and a drink. Although 3 chili dogs used to be 99 cents with the coupon on the back of the grocery receipts from Food King.

[GOLDFRAPP – STRICT MACHINE VIDEO LINK]
Three weeks ago I was sitting at my desk and saw in the L.A. Weekly that Goldfrapp was going to be playing The Wiltern. I love me some Goldfrapp. So I blurted out “Shit! Goldfrapp’s coming to town!” Little did I know Peter, who sits across from me, also likes Goldfrapp so he was into going too. He had to talk his wife out of going because she’s pregnant. It’s his child, I had to check. So I bought a ticket online but he wanted to beat the Ticketmaster charges and decided to do the box office thing which went horribly wrong and he ended up buying it through Ticketmaster anyway. Stupid Ticketmaster. I really can’t think of a company that people hate more than them. A lot of companies you can just go to other brands or products. Nope, not with this evil cancerous business. I didn’t even get my ticket until the day of the show because they’re morons. Anyway, not what this is about.

To me, Goldfrapp is the premiere electronica band. So soooo good. And their videos kick ass too. The show was awesome and the only one of two shows that they’re doing in North America at this point. But, they’re going to be on the Tonight Show Monday night. (Update: It kinda sucked.)

Didn’t know they have a huge gay following. Sometimes you find this out just by the crowd that’s present. I suppose it makes sense. A female lead singer, electronica, sort of a dance kinda vibe, etc. I dunno, I don’t have any gaydar at all other than when it’s completely obvious. In fact I went to see the mullet sportin’ Melissa Etheridge in the early 90’s and was wondering why there was so many butch women at the show. Ooooooohhhh….

The dude sitting next to us was out of control! He was freaking out that he was getting to see Goldfrapp. He could barely sit still for a second and Peter finally had to ask him what he had taken when he went to the restroom. He denied anything. The guy was flyin’ whatever it was. Then when Goldfrapp came on I’ve never heard such a squeal come out of man before while he shut his eyes, clenched his fists and stomped his feet really fast. Wow, he was happy. Hardcore for sure, but I have to admit it was a bit distracting.

Anyway, they played every song that I would have wanted to hear except Twist. Setlist: Utopia – Lovely Head – Tiptoe – Train – Koko – Slide In – You Never Know – Fly Me Away – Satin Chic – Beautiful – Ride a White Horse.
First encore: Ooh La La – Black Cherry. Second Encore: Number 1 – Strict Machine/We Are Glitter/Paris Loaded.

One of my favorite videos is Strict Machine, it’s a work of art. I can watch that thing over and over, and believe me, I have.
[GOLDFRAPP – STRICT MACHINE VIDEO LINK] Good song to crank up.

On the occasional Friday Bau from the office next to me and I leave work at lunch to ride our bikes down to the beach. It’s 12.65 miles according to the little bike computer. Well, this Friday my back tire was way low and the wind was blowing hard down Ballona Creek so it was a real struggle. I thought it might be a good idea to get some air in the tires so we headed over to Helen’s Cycles and I went around back to the service area. Got the air and we took off for lunch and as we got a block away a loud hissing noise started coming out from the rear. My wheel blew out. I’d been riding on it with no air and the rim had been rubbing against the tire and tube and promply wore it out.

So back to Helen’s and I got a brand new tire and tube and also bought a new pump. They were really cool about it and did the work while we waited knowing that we were out on the road at that time. What a difference! It wasn’t even the same bike. So, I suggested for lunch we head over to Uncle Darrow’s cajun place. Damn goooooood. Catfish sandwiches, jambalaya, gumbo, beignets, etc. After we filled up we headed back to work and after all was said and done I was $65 dollars lighter in the pocketbook. Nothing like completely nullifying any benefits you get from a bike ride than with deep fried catfish and sugar covered pastries.

See, Neko Case said she loves me. Just look at that CD cover. Love Neko. It’s plain as day. What you really have to look at though is the the WAY she’s written it. See the “o” at the end? See how it kinda trails off downward? It’s like she’s writing Love Neko… dot dot dot. Ya know, like Love Neko… wink wink wink. So basically what’s she’s trying to say is “I love you Chris, I just don’t want anyone to know. Our little secret, ok?”. Yeah, I guess I’m cool with that Neko, but you really should write more often. I mean, I sit home while you’re out there on the road. I worry. I worry about where this is going. We’re not in a good place. I do hope your Tonight Show appearance goes well Thursday and I hope you like the flowers that I had sent to the Green Room. Love you honey.

Oh that Neko. She sure has a mysterious way.

Ok, really I just went to rock and roll girlfriend’s free show at Amoeba Records and had her sign my CD and then went straight back to work. It really wasn’t filled with all that much sexual tension. In fact there wasn’t really any. As a matter of fact there might have been negative sexual tension. This is the 8th time I’ve seen her live. I think 16 Horsepower is the only band I’ve seen more times.

Told you I’m Neko crazy.

Copyright 2006. This has been for entertainment purposes only. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be very afraid.

This weekend one of the guys I had worked with on Polar Express decided it was all too much. So he took his life. I worked with him a lot on the caribou sequence in Polar and man did I ever ask some dumb questions of him over a period of several months. From the simple… “Why do all of my caribou have white antlers?” to the complex “What’s for lunch?”

Above is one of my shots from Polar that he helped nurse through. Those thousands and thousands of caribou I had to light, render and comp all look beautiful thanks to him. He was quite busy fixing any little hiccup that came along to make them look good and make my life easier. It’s been a bit downbeat around here.

Ladies, check your boobs. Men, check your balls. Everybody, check your heads.

I have one of those mothers that has saved a ton of stuff from my childhood. A couple of years ago she dumped this huge box of stuff off to me that had everything from the wristband I wore when I was born on up to my college graduation. Why did she want to give the box to me now? Because they needed room in the closet… Oh, thanks!

There’s some amazing things in this box of wonders. I think at some point I could probably piece together my whole life with this stuff. One thing that cracked me up was my autographed photo of Miss Mary Ann from Romper Room. I used to watch that show like crazy.

From the 1950s through the 1990s, the Romper Room hostess ended each program by reciting the show’s signature magical chant:

“Romper, bomper, stomper, boo.
Tell me, tell me, tell me do.
Magic mirror, tell me today.
Did all my friends have fun at play?”

I love the idea that Miss Mary Ann and Romper Room were dabbling in the occult by using a magic mirror and chanting. With the chant spoken, Miss Mary Ann gazed through the empty mirror frame and recited the names of children whom she pretended to see watching the program. A different list everyday. “I see Tommy and Susan and Hannah and William and Mary and all you boys and girls out there.” Of course she couldn’t actually see the children, but we listened for our name to be mentioned. I’m sure she probably said Chris at some point and it probably freaked me the hell out. According to her you could either be a Do-Bee or a Don’t-Bee. Of course I was a Do-Bee. I didn’t want to upset the raven haired wicca woman who would chant just so she could see through her magic mirror. And that hair, it’s so tall? It’s like Rock Lobster tall.

TRIVIA NOTE: Via a news report. Former Romper Room hostess Mary Ann King (in Los Angeles from 1966-76) was mugged in the parking lot of a Hometown Buffet in the City of Industry on December 17, 2003. The encounter gave King, 70, a broken arm, rib and punctured lung. Besides her injuries, the thieves stole a black taffeta bag that contained the original Magic Mirror (white plastic mirror frame) used on the Romper Room program so many years. King began carrying the magic mirror around with her to satisfy the wishes of people who confronted her with the allegations “you never said my name.” In the case of the criminals who stole the item, King confessed “I’m sure those hoodlums who did this just looked at the mirror and said, ‘What in the world is this,’ and just discarded it.”

Oh my. Poor little fragile Miss Mary Ann.

BRAIN DUMP: I have not seen any of the movies up for best picture. They all seem kinda, eh. Of 54 films nominated for anything, I’ve seen nine. Six of those are nominated in just one category. Neko Case is doing an in-store at Amoeba Records. I want to go to Japan. Kyoto specifically, and to ride the bullet train there from Tokyo. hoops and yoyo [LINK] e-cards are pretty funny. My house is a mess. I bought Goldfrapp tickets for the Wiltern but haven’t received them. It’s been awhile. I called Rachel up and we went over to Burbank for some Penne al Pollo at Market City Caffe. At lunch tomorrow I’m going to ride my bike to my car insurance place and pick up some proof of insurance cards. I forgot to send them in with the registration. For a second I thought it would be funny if I got hit by car while riding my bike to Allstate to deal with my car insurance. Now that would REALLY be ironic, not this “10,000 spoons when all you need is knife” kind of ironic. Thank God the Olympics are over tonight. Even if the Mens 5000m Relay in Short Track Speed Skating was hell of exciting. Damn. This next episode of Lost better be freakin’ good. The Office is back too. A friend of mine sent me an email petition about putting prayer back in schools. Um, yeeeeeah. I was listening to Pandora [LINK] the other day and tried to get it to play “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me” by creating a Night Ranger station. It preceded to burn my ears with hours upon hours of the worst garbage of 80’s light hair metal. It never did play the song after 3 hours of suffering. Yep, Pandora’s Box on that one. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow. I’m still busy redesigning this website. It’ll have a search feature finally. I have a slot in my front door where the mail comes in. If I don’t pick it up everyday it starts to look like I leave trash just laying in the entry. I’ll never buy another Cinefex unless my name is in it. Qantas airlines never credits my miles to my frequent flier membership. They didn’t credit my flight home from, Fiji. I always have to bug them later. I have 50,000 miles right now. That’s a trip to Sydney, but I’d have to swim back. I wish Apple would release an updated version of the iSight. Mine broke months ago.

This is awesome [LINK].

[VIDEO LINK]

It was a grey day down at the docks as the Queen Mary 2 rode out of the port to continue on its maiden voyage around the world. It stopped in Long Beach on Wednesday to pull up to the original Queen Mary to exchange greetings and whistle blows. It’s now off to Hawaii, Singapore and wherever else. She’s the world’s largest cruise ship at the moment. I guess that means there’s another one being built that is bigger. Thought I’d go hang out and watch it disappear into the fog. Which it did. It’s a pretty damn big boat. So big it can’t turn around in the channel, so when they arrived they turned it around out by the lighthouse and then backed it into the berth. Watch for the kayaker in the video. He’s in the first shot and looks like a little ant in the two lighthouse shots. I wish kayaks actually went that fast. And yes we have a suspension bridge in Los Angeles. I call it the Golden Green Bridge. I made that up, clever huh?

So how does she stack up against the 100 year old Titanic? Longer at 1,132 feet vs. 838 feet for Titanic. Weighing in at 151,000 gross tons vs. 25 tons. Height of 236 feet vs. 175 feet. 157,000 horsepower vs 30,000hp. 3,873 passengers and crew vs. 3,547. In an odd little mention on the Queen Mary 2 website… “Extra thick steel hull for strength and stability for Atlantic crossings”. Ya know, just in case something, oh I don’t know, might happen.

About 6 months ago Culver City unveiled this lion statue in the downtown area. Most of the reactions to it were a bit puzzled, but I totally love the statue. I think it’s rather nice that the lion could care less what’s going on around him while he shuts his eyes and dances around in the water. A great moment of having no self awareness. The water fountains shoot up from below to about six feet. Nobody’s quite figured out who the lion’s supposed to be but a few theories have come up. One being that Culver City was the home of MGM studios for many years and whose logo was the growling lion. Secondly, there’s a lion and some wardrobe, but there really ain’t no witch. That’s a dumb one. Another is that The Wizard of Oz was shot at the studio in ’39 and it’s an homage to that. The hotel behind him housed the munchkins while they were shooting the film across the street. He doesn’t look anything like the cowardly lion though. So, personally I think it’s along the lines of the long long history MGM studios had in the city. MGM pretty much put Culver City on the map. Of course it could be just a lion, but I’m cool with that too.

Update… 12:20am. WELL, DUH! It just dawned on me! Yes of course it’s the MGM lion, but it’s the lion doing Gene Kelly from Singin’ in the Rain”! [GENE KELLY] I had to check, but yep it was an MGM film and shot at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios – 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA according to IMDB. Which is now Sony Pictures. Ahhhh jeez… it all seems so obvious now.

And yes I was still thinking about this 5 hours later. Come on my little brain, think harder, think faster…

With three days of art gallery shows there was no way I was going to make it out clean. Friday night started out with Rachel and a show called “Remixing the Magic” [LINK]. Rachel and I have developed a simple code word for going out to eat. We just leave a message on our answer machine with one word, “huuuuuuuuungry”. That’s it. So I got the “hungry” call and I was planning on eating and then going to the gallery. So she was game for the gallery too. We did a drive by of the gallery to suss it up and there were a few people milling about. No worries then. So we went to eat and stumbled across a place called Zeke’s Smokehouse [LINK]. La Brea and Santa Monica. We gave it a pretty big thumbs up. Then about 45 minutes later we drove back to the gallery and there was a line down the street. It was also raining out so we bailed on the show. No need to fight the crowd when it’s just down the street and we can catch it some other time.

Saturday night I went and picked up Alicia and we went to The Counter for dinner. Again. Again, it was great. Then we took off for downtown to see the show “Visual Amalgam” [LINK]. Basically a group show made up of visual effects artists. Saw some people I knew and drank some wine and saw some friends and milled about and saw some more friends… Anyway, after a couple hours I started getting bored and got the urge to leave which was confirmed when Alicia was also giving the “all clear to leave” signals. Then Eric [LINK] showed up and I got to catch up with him and talk about his giant photo panorama. Which consists of 300 individual shots stitched together from a motion control camera. It was pretty impressive really. So I couldn’t actually give him shit about the crappy thing he had hanging in the show. Then Alicia and I hit the road and made it an early night. Well, for a Saturday it was early.

Then Sunday I went to a benefit show for an artist named Alfredo de Batuc. Alfredo has been stricken with Guillain-Barr?ɬ© [LINK] syndrome. A disorder where the immune system attacks the nervous system. One of the problems with being an artist is trying to support yourself and also having medical insurance. A lot of artists can’t afford to have good coverage and occasionally you’ll see a benefit show come together to help the individual with expenses. A lot of friends of the artist donated works for the show and it also included works by Alfredo. Alfredo painted the quite well seen Dolores Del Rio mural at Hollywood Blvd. and Hudson Ave. I shot a pic of the mural on the way home. So, of course I walked into the gallery and one painting by David Flury screamed at me. If I’m going to buy a painting, I usually don’t have a hard time finding it within minutes. The mental decision is usually made within the first glance around. This is the one that I walked in and said, yep, that’s it. If something’s going to grab you, it’s going to do that immediately. Which is of course different for each person depending on their tastes. I even spent the next hour looking at everything much closer but I kept going back to this one. Plus, it was within my budget. Ha!

It’s titled “de Batuc”, after the stricken artist. The artist even painted in a version of the sun that looks like the ones found in a lot of Alfredo’s paintings. I really love the woman releasing the winged snake and that the bed Alfredo is lying in is surrounded by candles. The saguaru cactus and sun are really nice. One thing you can’t see are the dabs of gold paint used as highlights so that as you walk by the painting it kind of shimmers. It was also the most current painting and really addressed the current situation. After I got it home I noticed the painting had been dated as February 14th, 2006. Valentine’s Day, just 5 days ago. The day we all went to Lucha Va Voom. That’s amazing. How fast all this came together and I was happy to put some money into the pot for Alfredo. You also know you’ve got something special when different people at the show stopped and asked if I had just bought the painting. Looking slightly disappointed they didn’t get it yet knodding their approval. So, now I’ll go get it framed this week and enjoy it the rest of my life. I really need to find something upbeat for some balance. Dogs playing poker has always cracked me up.

There was also a really nice book there called Chicano Visions [LINK] by Cheech Marin. He’s been collecting Mexican-American artists for more than 20 years and some of the artists in the book were represented at the show. Not that I know a whole lot about the East L.A. art scene, but the area is so tightly linked to the hispanic community of Los Angeles and it’s nice to see that the art coming out of that area is so amazing. As the review read… “The Chicano school began evolving 30 years ago as artists sought to combine traditional Mexican imagery, themes, and styles with American pop, and it is now the source for some of America’s most evocative, animated, brilliantly hued, inventive, and gripping contemporary painting.”

So all that aside, fortunately most recover to some degree from the syndrome, but they can be incapacitated for various lengths of time ranging from months to years. Learned a lot today. So, here’s hoping Alfredo has a quick recovery. And there ya go. Go call your friends.

Oy, glad I got all that out. And I had to work all day Saturday and Monday. I’m crapped out.

[PHOTO GALLERY OF SEXO Y VIOLENCIA!]
She was definitely my favorite act of the night, Michelle Toots L’Amour. It was back to Lucha VaVoom for a Valentine’s Day show tonight. It’s soo fun. I corraled a group of people to go this time around and it was a blast! Everyone of them was a first timer so it was cool that everyone dug it so much.

I carpooled with Lisa at 7:00 and we stopped for a quick dinner then met up with the people I still had to give tickets to. Everybody was running late, including us, so it all worked out as we met up out front of the theater. We still got there in plenty of time. The rest, I dunno. I had already given them their tix so they were on their own. All three nights are sold out and I think ringside seats are in order for the next one in June. Yeah, there was wrestling, but it’s really about the burlesque girls for me.

The stripper dudes were funny too. Barebutt Mountain guy was funny as he stripped while pogo sticking on his little horse. And yes there’s a picture of pogo dudes’ butt in the gallery. Then Crying Game dude came out and freakin’ killed with these hula hoops. It was unbelievable. The guy was a stick yet was twisting, flipping and hurling these things all over the place. Pretty amazing, especially when you consider he’s doing this almost naked. I swear that bottom he was wearing was going to fly off any second.

Cassandro the wrestler got whacked with a chair and actually started bleeding from his head. I like when a little bit reality seeps in and they just go with it. It kind of blurs the line really. The Wau Wau sisters opened with their take on “Welcome to the Jungle” which was cool but no where near their “Sister Christian” act at the last Lucha. Man, that was scary good. Ended at 11:15, home by 11:40. Awesome. You should go. Really.

Zathura, out on DVD Tuesday. And the DVD poster is soooo much better than the theatrical poster. It only made 28 mil. at the box office. At about 9 bucks a ticket these days that was about 3 million people that went to see a movie about a house in outer space. Not so good. Now… judging by the posters above which movie would you have wanted to see? The one with the cool retro robot with a buzzsaw, an astronaut, some rocketships, a lizard creature, AND a cute girl? Or the one with the giant house flying around? I mean, come on, how do you market a house to kids? Oh well. The movie’s cool though, especially if it had come out somewhere between The Dark Crystal, Weird Science, Gremlins, The Rocketeer, Young Sherlock Holmes, E.T. or The Goonies. But no, it came out about 20 years later. It was fun to work on even as a dud in the box office but it will do well on DVD.