What have I been up to: devouring books

I was so jealous of my sisters who had the chance to participate in BOOK IT! which was an incentive program to get kids reading by rewarding them with pizza. They got this cool button and put stars for each book they read and when they got 10 stars or something, they got a free Pizza Hut Pizza. I think maybe I was too old for BOOK IT! when it came out 25 years ago. (yikes)

I never had a problem being inspired to read. I loved it from the moment I opened up the accordion page in Eloise with her journey up and down the elevator. I guess though being addicted to reading isn't pizza worthy.

So, now I am on my own reading goal this year. 20 books. I have spent most of my free time reading this year. I have read a lot of great books-the Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, Super Sad True Love Story, Ines of My Soul. Some that made me think- Remainder, Super Sad. Some I didn't like so much-Black Hole and Never Let Me Go. I think now I also know a little too much about Finnish textiles.

I am coming to grips with being gifted a Nook. I haven't read anything on it because I feel like I am cheating on book stores. Maybe I'll just download some fashion magazines.

So far it is 12 books down and 8 to go. Now if only someone would give me a gluten free pizza at the end.

what have I been up to: Devouring art

There is so much amazing art going on in Los Angeles right now. It is really hard to know where to go on my days off.

What I have seen:
Cuba from Walker Evans to now: At the Getty Center. An amazing collection of photographs of Cuba dictator to dictator, revolution, poverty, landscapes. I was fortunate to be able to see Alex Harris , one of the photographers speak about the 3 series(es) he had featured in the exhibit and how he was able to get access to Cuba, take the photos he took, his inspiration and his work with Walker Evans.
(closes October 2nd)

Tim Burton: At LACMA. Tim Burton not only is a talented director and artist, but probably his own best archivist. I can't believe how much work of his has been saved over the years. It is a fantastic collection of sketches, models, photographs, costume and movie sets and a cute rejection letter. I had almost forgotten the breadth of his movie career Big Fish, a Batman movie, Pee-wee's big adventure (see an earlier post from this month), Mars Attacks (which I watched again on netflix instant) I have always been a fan of Tim Burton, and many of you commented how much I looked like Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice and a young sardonic teenager and still equally love as a sardonic adult.

Note: this is an extremely popular exhibit and a lot of the installations are pages from his sketch books, like 8 x 10, set up in clusters on the wall and it is hard to see w/ so many people around. The exhibit is timed entry and it is best if you go on a week day during the day.

In addition they are featuring his films on the weekends with Q & As with the director and other people who worked on his films.

(closes October 31st) ;)

Art in the Streets : at MOCA- Geffen center. This is one of the first comprehensive exhibitions of graffiti and street art in the US. It traces the history of graffiti/street art from it's inception in New York and how other cities, twisted it, changed it and made it theirs. It raises the questions what is art? is street art and graffiti -art? or is it vandalism? To me it is art and it is political, but I understand that maybe not everyone thinks that way.

What do you think?

This exhibit closes on August 8 and is free on Mondays courtesy of Banksy.

There is one last exhibit that I am dying to see. I hope to report back soon.

amendment

after I wrote this post I ended up seeing Glen Campbell in a blue flannel onsie sleeper. No, I did not just relay a strange dream I had.

stars they are everywhere

Jack Fisk and his wife Sissy Spacek- He is an art director and production designer and has worked on all of Terrence Malick's films and other films like Mulholland Drive, Water for Elephants and There Will Be Blood. He did a Q&A after "Days of Heaven". Okay I get it now ladies, Richard Gere was really hunky and Sam Sherpard wasn't too bad to look at either.

Ryan Gosling was researching a part in my building, but our paths never crossed

My book club ran into Quentin Tarantino

I saw Lucy Liu at the movies

and Vincent Gallo getting tips for his Mac at the Apple Store

Just normal people doing stuff

food-part 4

I surround myself with great cooks. I have always been inspired by people who know there way around a frying pan or paella pan in this case.

The photo on the left is a picture of my birthday blueberry pie that was made gluten free for me. It was so good. Many of my friends had never had blueberry pie before. For shame because it is so very good.

We spent a lot of our time cooking together and taking turns cooking for each other. I made Finnish pancake one morning and the next we experimented with grilling breakfast. Which was fantastic and a first for me. (Can you tell I have never been camping?) Next time you are debating on what to make, half a green pepper, crack an egg in it, cook it to your desired liking, top it with goat cheese and a fresh Avocado. You will thank me.

The main course for my birthday dinner was a paella and it was beautiful.

the house-part 3

I will never rent a hotel room again. It is silly when you can rent an entire house for less than one hotel room a night. In searching for my mid-century birthday dream house I turned to vrbo.com. The same place we went through to get the house in Vegas (awesome right ladies??) One night, because there were 7 of us we paid $36. I totally recommend it and they have properties everywhere.

Now that my shameless plug of vrbo (vacation rental by owner) is over I can continue on with my trip.

The house:
there are so many great mid-century houses in PS that it was hard to pick. I was this close to staying at the house once owned by Liberace, which would have been a lot of fun swimming around in a pool shaped like a grand piano. In the end we ended up staying at an author's house and a lot of his books about modern and retro living were placed around the house for our reading pleasure. And I did read them to get inspiration for an upcoming move I will be making, details to follow.

living room:





All of the big furniture pieces in all the rooms had little drawers to hide things and opened like puzzles.

master:


the pool:


3o minutes after arriving=bliss

The journey-part 2

I had never had the luxury of having a road trip where I had the time to stop and see all the kitchy things the U.S. have to offer. (ginormous balls of twine, corn mazes, graceland) We always had to be somewhere before it got dark or we didn't leave in time and had to be somewhere. Most of my long car ride stops involved peeing, eating, shopping. On the way to Palm Springs (hereto called PS for the remainder of this post) I knew that there was a stop I needed to make. The place where Pee-wee and Simone watch the sun go down in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Which happens to be inside the head of a dinsosaur.

Strangely the location of the Cabazon Dinosaurs is now a creationist museum. There are placards siting evidence of to co-existence of man and gigantic reptile. There is a 40 million years old man leg in a cowboy boot. (cro-magnon metrosexual nostrodamus?)




It was a short trip to Hadley's to try a date shake (date, the fruit)I saw a California Gold episode where the correspondent had a date shake and really liked it, but it was Huell Howser, I have never seen him be disagreeable. So I had to see if he was lying. I was scared, I don't really like dates all that much. They are really sugary and pasty.

dates=sugar paste

Somehow mixed with ice cream it kind of works. My friend T and I were pleasantly surprised, I can't say the same for the third person in our party.

The 60 is a beautiful stretch of land, recommend it.

3 to the 5-part 1

I debated almost a year on what I wanted to do for my birthday. 5s and 0s are always the big ones and it was big, at least to me. So I wanted to do something that felt equally big for this, my 35th. I took some times and thought about what to do and some of it I had to admit was pretty outlandish. Like traveling around Europe for a month.

I knew that I wanted to travel with friends who mean a lot to me. Friends who are my family here, the ones I spend most major holidays with, even though sometimes we make up those holidays. Some of us are still feeling the recession blues and I knew that it was more important for me to celebrate with people instead of wandering (wondering) around Montreal by myself.

I finally got inspiration from my surroundings Julius Shulman, Nuetra, Krissel, Southern California architecture. I knew that I wanted to go to Palm Springs and stay in one of those houses I see in photographs daily. I wanted to be one of those girls in the photos, pouring over books, having fake conversations in a-line dresses. Like case study 22. (I can't put the photo here, because I know way too much about rights and repro fees)

So that's what I did.