March 17, 2009 at 6:44 am (1)
Tags: Drafting, los angeles, stones, UCLA
How many people actually live in glass houses?
In my drafting class, we often use glass to substitute for more substantial architecture, because drawing glass is really much simpler than drawing almost anything else.
Simple to draw, even simpler to break.
People who live in glass houses…should not throw stones.
November 17, 2008 at 6:58 am (faith)
Tags: cathoLic, detroit, faith, los angeles, st. blase
Los Angeles and religion are like Madonna and her fake British accent. They don’t go together naturally…everyone knows its a forced bond.
Luckily for me, there are a lot of Mexicans in LA and hence, a lot of Catholic churches. And although the pews are barely half full, I still regularly attend Mass on Sundays.
Many people find it extremely weird that I found my faith during the years when most people shed all beliefs and convictions. In Atlanta, I was often praised for my spirituality; here I am greeted with shock and awe…even by people I’ve known for a couple of years.
Lauri: “You’re Catholic?”
Me: “Yes”
Lauri: “Like, actually Catholic? Like you go to church?”
Me: “Yes”
Lauri: “On Sundays?”
Me: “Yes”
Lauri: “Huh. I didn’t think people still did that”
Well, people do. In fact, a lot of people do, because there is actually a world outside of Los Angeles.
So today, I was sitting in church having a really hard time sitting still. This is a running theme in my life, but especially hard to control in church. Even more difficult…trying to calm my mind. I kept thinking about the Of Montreal concert next weekend and my job and my house and Thanksgiving….on and on…until I heard the one song that can bring me back into focus: Glory to God
Most people don’t care much for Glory to God. We sing it every week. You’d think it would get old, but not for me. Glory to God is the ONLY song I can remember from my childhood church-going days with Grandma. Her church, St. Blase, sang that song with so much joy and energy.
When I moved to LA, I could not find a church that sang the song with the correct arrangement. Every church sang Glory to God as a solemn, quick song to get through. Not a celebration. Certainly, not glorious.
Today, when I heard Glory to God sung in the jubilant way of St. Blase, I started to cry. On this particular Sunday when I found it so difficult to be centered, so hard to remember why I was sitting in a church, something moved in and grabbed me back…dare I say, it was God?
September 1, 2008 at 10:05 pm (art, dance, design, le cinema, money)
Tags: art, dance, los angeles, theater
LA is full of starving artists. Especially actors, although I think they count reasonably less than everyone else depending on their talent and goals. However, there are tons of visual artists, dancers, writers, playwrights, directors who are producing work even when it actually costs them money.
Most of my friends are artists in some way. I am an artist sometimes. I studied art, I used to produce “art”, I dance and I contribute to set design. I find it very important to patronize the arts.
Last weekend, Maritza and I both came to support Jesus, who loves dance more than life itself. He had a 2 minute solo in Sarah’s Zodiac piece (he was Libra). 2 minutes is a very long time to be on stage by yourself. He was brilliant! A very thoughtful and spiritual dancer. I am so lucky to be invited to watch him grow and perform.
At the same performance were 2 very young dance companies, in addition to Sarah’s. All 3 companies perform modern pieces based in culture and society. They extract their inspiration from literature, politics and social constructs.
A week or so ago, I bought 3 photographs. The interesting thing about me purchasing photography is that I always said I had no respect for it. The other interesting thing is that it is all over my apartment. A 5 x 4 picture of New York, a 11 x14 photograph of Hugh Hamilton’s dancer/butterfly given to me by Lisa and Hugh, and now 3 collage photographs of LA icons, the Capital Records building, the Arclight movie theater, and Hollywood Forever cemetery.
Not only are these photographs beautiful in the way they are designed, but they are beautiful in what they represent. A Hollywood era nearly coming to end. In addition, these 3 unique places are each a block from my office in different directions. I can see 2 of them from the window I sit at everyday.
It is vital to support independent artists. Particularly when you are an artist yourself. Often, I find people talking about how the arts are unfunded and how programs are being taken out of schools. But are these same people putting their money (and time) where their mouth is?
July 3, 2008 at 5:46 am (1)
Tags: johnny appleseed, los angeles, The Whole 9
“above the fold” was the last project i worked on at TheWhole9.
in trying to get more consistent traffic and build a stronger membership base, Lisa decided to launch a blog section. Lisa and I built a template from scratch, obviously referencing popular blogging sites. we talked in depth with our site designers. after weeks of meetings and throwing ideas around, we finally got one of the developers of wordpress to implement our design.
Lisa decided to only allow a few professionals in various fields to write blogs. there is Johnny Appleseed (a green living consultant), Mike The Wine Guy (a Disney employee who moonlights as a sommelier at a wine bar), Mannix (our resident chef) and several others…
Tonight I went to the launch party and met some of the other new “bloggers”. Word on the street is that the blogs are highly effective. Good news. Its always good to know that something you worked on had a lasting effect. Way different from working with product placement…
Check out above the fold (and my winning template…i even helped design some of the headers):
June 20, 2008 at 4:39 am (1)
Tags: Apartments, atlanta, Beverly Hills, los angeles, The Valley
One of my curtain rods fell down on Sunday signifying that they needed a change. Apparently, my curtains would rather be located on the floor. Unwillingly, I unscrewed the other side and detached it from the wall.
My wall is lopsided now.
I have been in LA for one year and 18 days. While I feels like I’ve lived here forever, I remember just yesterday having a parking space, a balcony and…fresh air. Trying to find an apartment in LA is like having a baby. You’re optimistic at first, but then quickly realize it will be long, painful and very expensive.
I started looking for apartments two months ago. I have to admit, I barely tried, because I have very little motivation. Its a huge effort to move and I don’t necessarily have to. However, writing my 1100 rent check every month is like giving away one of my limbs.
Every time I tell someone in LA that I’m from Atlanta, they inevitably have a cousin, sister, mother, friend, uncle, or neighbor who moved to Atlanta. This person has discovered low real estate prices, new job opportunities, good weather and less traffic (compared to LA…) For a moment, I remember my beautiful 4 bedroom house in Decatur when parking on the side of the house felt like such a hassle.
In my effort to increase my quality of life, I have been trying to move over to LA’s Westside, which is obviously closer to the beach. A few days ago, I realized I work in Hollywood and most of my friends live and work in the valley. I have no friends on the Westside, no job on the Westside and no chance of a future job on the Westside. So I informed my friends:
Me: I’m moving to Silverlake
Erin: Lex, Silverlake is not safe. You’re going to get shot.
Me: I’d rather get shot than live in Burbank.
(Erin lives in Burbank)
I also called my Dad:
Me: Dad, I’m moving to the Eastside
Dad: Oh honey, I want you to be safe.
Me: I feel very safe in LA
Dad: You do? Perhaps its because you live in Beverly Hills.
Me: Perhaps. I do live in the sketchy part of Beverly Hills though.
I went and looked at an apartment in West Hollywood today. Great neighborhood, ok building, sad apartment. Pitifully sad. One small room, a tiny closet, one cabinet, half a stove, a mini fridge and a sink in the living room. No parking. 900 a month.
In Atlanta, for 900 a month, you can get a brand new one bedroom apartment with new carpet, a balcony, pool and a parking space.
Maybe its time to move to the valley…
May 29, 2008 at 8:19 am (Posts)
Tags: elliott smith, film, los angeles, new york, yoga
Alameda street runs from downtown LA to Long Beach. I would never walk down it on purpose, as Elliott Smith says…but I did pass over it tonight. Downtown is completely vacant at night and I have no desire to be down there, but I was on my way home from a late yoga class and I spaced out on the 10. It was only when I saw the tall buildings of downtown that I realized I had gone too far.
LA can be a rather strange place sometimes. Its only when you pull back and look at the bigger picture that you can realize that. Yoga classes that run from 10:45pm-Midnight. Who’s ever heard of that?
Yesterday, I went over to the BP Gas Station on Robertson which is “green” friendly. Supposedly the gas emits less CO2 and is miraculously cheaper than other gas stations. All of their brochures can be planted in the ground to become flowers. The attendants wear old fashioned uniforms and are all bright, young kids. The place is immaculate with recycled rubbered flooring. I have loved this gas station ever since I moved and just when I thought they couldn’t go any farther, Arturo says “I’ve never seen live music at a gas station.” Turn. Look. One of the attendants is playing the guitar. Three people are sitting and watching her. And you thought LA didn’t have culture! Guess what she played? The theme song to Reading Rainbow. If that doesn’t warm your heart, I don’t know what does…
Today, I called my dad to see if he had any pictures of two dead girls I could use for the show. He acted like I was crazy and said I should shoot my own pictures of dead girls. He also said Hollywood isn’t called Hollyweird for nothing. “Its different out there in Hollywood”.
I thought, “Yea, you’re right”, but then again, everyone here says the same thing about New York.
April 29, 2008 at 4:36 am (le cinema)
Tags: film, hollywood, los angeles, min, Nova Express Cafe
I forgot to mention that after slitting our wrists over the closing of Nova Cafe, we went over to M Cafe on Melrose and saw Mr. Michael Cera being the George Michaeliest George Michael you ever did see. Hanging out at the counter all awkward and alone. Plus he was wearing royal blue skinny jeans. What a sweetheart. It almost made Arturo forget about dear old CBGB, I mean…Nova.
Tonight, Meagen and I went to a screening of Son of Rambow, courtesy of my friend Elizabeth who works for Paramount Vantage. We pull onto the Paramount lot and are greeted by 4 Paramount Vantage pals who check our names off their list. We park and go over to the theater. About 5 minutes after we sat down (about 7:10), the guy at the projector yells out something like “play movie” or “here we go” even though the screening was not supposed to start until 7:30. No one else was in the theater.
We kept thinking they were testing it, but no. For some reason, a film that has been hyped for months, that doesn’t even open until Friday, was screened for just me and Min at Paramount’s Theater.
April 28, 2008 at 5:25 am (1)
Tags: Arturo, Cosmic pizza, dots, los angeles, Nova Express Cafe
Park on Rosewood Ave at Fairfax. Walk one block South on Fairfax on the East side of the street. Go past the kitschy bookstore, but stop before the turntable store. Don’t walk too fast. Look for remnants of neon paint and a charred marquis. This sad looking facade used to be Nova Express Cafe.
Nova may or may not be the place where Arturo and I had our first date, but nevertheless, we decided to visit this crazy cafe tonight for dinner. As we double-checked the address, poor Arturito’s face fell. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, not Nova Express. We looked inside to find a completely vacant space.
This restaurant, full of bright purple and green, huge aliens and lava lamps, not to mention a menu of “intergalactic” food, had been completely destroyed.
Apparently Nova was well loved. Arturo and his friend George appreciated the…shall we say eclectic…crowd, the crazy atmosphere, and of course, IDM, the fancy word for music made with dots and loops. (yea, yea, I know, its intelligent:P)
Look at all the sad Angelenos who will miss Nova Express Cafe. Perhaps we will never know what happened to Nova. Perhaps I should check a secondary source aside from Yelp. I’ll tell you one thing. I could really go for a Spiral Galaxy pizza right now.
April 16, 2008 at 10:10 pm (1)
Tags: dirt, environment, grass, green, los angeles, raw, whole foods
April 8, 2008 at 3:18 am (art)
Tags: art, artist colony, artwalk, brewery, lofts, los angeles, things alexa is jealous of
Sunday, Gina and I went to the Brewery in downtown LA for the Artwalk. Most of the artists, galleries, fashion designers, etc open their studios (where they live and work) for people to see. Artwork is for sale everywhere at ridiculously cheap prices.
Each studio is completely different with MASSIVE picture windows, decks with gardens, and dramatically unique layouts. Every artist had truly altered their space exactly how they wanted, down to painting the floor and making their own address numbers.
This is easily the coolest place I have ever been in my entire life and one day I want to live here and starve and pay $6000 in rent.
http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-re-guide6nov06,0,1480155.story?page=1
