You still have time for your bike movie...

The deadline for submissions for the Bicycle Film Festival has been extended, and you still have time to get a film in for 2008. I've talked to so many people about this, and so many people get excited, but now you have to get those films in, people!!

K,THANX. BAI!

In my lifetime I have come to know about some pretty special people on the planet. People we are lucky to share lifetimes with, people notable not just for their fame, but for their individuality. Crispin Hellion Glover is one of those people - unique in every way, driven by a fiercely independent creative muse, and devilishly handsome. Madonna is the most obvious. She's carved her own path to icon status, blazed a million trails for women everywhere with lace-clad fantasies, and she helps AIDS babies with her own money and not just her name.

Most recently notable on my Notable Peoples list is Bai Ling. Bai Ling has been in the scene for quite sometime. She pre-dates Lucy Liu in the "dragon lady" vein, has more balls now than Joan Chen did in the 80's, keeps it real for all the good looking celebrity shoplifters out there, and Bai Ling holds it down for dressing like a kook when Bjork gave up after that swan incident. The lady is no quitter.

Bai Ling is most *recently* notable because I was just introduced to her blog by my friend Franky. I want to share this gem with all of you.... Let me welcome you now to the world of Bai Ling.

Are you ready?

Are you sure?

Cause this is some mind expanding, world shifting, Oprah book club type shit.

Seriously, Bai Ling is tuned in to some crazy wavelengths that don't register with normal humans.

She's all visionary and stuff...

Are you prepared for this?

Okay.

Meet Bai Ling.....

This is now one of the blogs I read on a regular basis. It should become one of yours too. Bai Ling helps remind me that the world is a beautiful, exciting adventure everyday, even if I don't look as good in a bikini as she does. She reminds me that hair is an accessory to be modified, often as our bodies are impermanent. She reminds me that it's important to have friends like Angelina Jolie, who have selfless passions in life and inspire us to develop those passions in ourselves. Bai Ling reminds me that travel helps to simultaneously feed and center the soul. Bai Ling's childlike look at love reminds me that love should be easy and full of joy, even if in the now it feels like a laborious, uncalculated risk that brings nothing but heartbreak.

Enjoy Bai Ling. Share her with the rest of the world, and as Franky says, "be nice" to the little star dweller. (You never know, she could report back to her planet if we're jerks to her, and they could destroy all of planet Earth in a fiery blast that we never saw coming.)

Sunday Bloody Sunday

After an exhausting weekend of boy troubles, boy triumphs, visual overload and ponies, I started the week with a weakened immune system that allowed a nasty cold to come visit for a day and a half. I've beaten it into submission with the help of Airborne, bedrest, and tonight... a little bit of vodka.

What I meant to do earlier this week was share how blown away I was by U2 3D. My hero, Souris helped make this film come together and has been an amazing force in getting it recognized. I haven't been a fan of U2 since Jr. High. My best friend's boyfriend, Brandon, made me a cassette tape of War and Joshua Tree. It was back when a boy took time to make a mixtape... he drew on the cover, omitted songs that weren't tops, and delivered it by hand. I don't think I've given it a listen in more than 15 years, but it's still there in my collection of cassettes, never to be discarded.

Now, Souris' been pimping this film like there's no tomorrow, and yeah, we all know that everyone is supposed to come clean to loving to U2 at least once in their adolescence or young adulthood, but who, besides the schmucks that paid outrageous ticket prices for those concerts last year and paraded around those little white rubber bracelets, was ready to plunk down some green for a U2 cinematic experience? In the spirit of supporting a friend who I believe in, I agreed to go check it out for myself at the Arclight on Sunday. When the film premiered at Sundance, Robert Redford came out of his leather embossed, lambskin lined cave to attend the screening. My rule: if it's good enough for Robert Redford, it's good enough for me.

I had low expectations... Captain Eo in Tomorrow Land expectations, but this is NOT that kind of movie. The film jumps right into the concert experience and keeps you there. There are no cheesy 3-D gimmicks. There are big sweeping moments matched by intimate times on stage that lock you down for the whole film. The crowd is full of sexy, young, shirtless Argentinian boys (and girls - although, they mostly have their shirts on) and the enegry of this crowd is amazing. Even more amazing, is how it's captured.

You know how in Lord of the Rings, and all those other action films that followed, that have the giant scenes with mobs of people/soldiers/trolls/Occidentals that are surging a castle gate, or flooding across a giant expanse towards an enemy - you know how you're always like, whoa... that's soooo many people/soldiers/trolls/Occidentals... that looks really cool. Well, you get that in U2 3D, except the giant mob surging with energy isn't a bunch of digital heads bobbing around in an algorithm created by a team of 20 nerds. This mob is real. It's thousands of people moving without calculation, driven by the rythym and emotion of the performance on stage. The crowd undulates and explodes, and you feel that energy in your cushy theatre seat. There were times when I was tempted to take my 3D glasses off to see what it looked like without the technology, but I didn't ever want to miss out on what I was seeing. The woman who's been creating the visuals for their concerts is the director of the film, and you get the feeling that this film is the way she means for everyone to experience a live show.

Admittedly, I took a five minute nap-eroo between New Year's Day and Sunday Bloody Sunday... I'm still not U2's biggest fan (and my state of sleep deprivation, accented with a chugged cocktail on the Arclight patio didn't help), but I HIGHLY recommend checking out this film. The rest of the set after my nap was a knockout. I was rocking out in my seat for more than a song or two. If the idea of paying hundreds of dollars for a ticket to see U2 pisses you off, this is the way to go. You get lost in the magic of the film, you can have popcorn and an icee, you don't get bootlegged t-shirts shoved in your face, you don't have to smell anyone who's been standing around and sweating Coors light for the last two hours, and you get to experience the band in a way that you deserve to experience them.

Evan Hecox book signing at GR2 tomorrow. Should be good, and a mellow pre-cursor to his opening on Saturday (not at GR2). Anne Ishii in town this weekend. Cold on it's deathbed... the rest of this week could end up pretty sweet. Tomorrow Selma Blair is riding at the barn. I'm signed up for a ride in the early AM so I can stalk from afar. Life in LA....

The Sexual Politics of Meat

There's a new strip club in Portland, and for some unknown reason, it's "vegan"... There's video, but I'm new to blogger and I don't know how to add it, so you'll have to work a little harder to view it, but the answers are there.... I guess....

The opening of the strip club has been all over the news in Portland, and making its way around vegan sites, but very few people are talking about the bizzare paradox this place is. The owner of the strip club is vegan, he claims he's vegan for ethical reasons. He's totally down for not consuming animal flesh for pleasure, but he's all for allowing for the consumption of women's sexuality for profit.

I could go on about how this pisses off the feminist in me, the one that has read Carol J. Adams' book cover to cover multiple times, was inspired by it and has used it to topple many a debate with meat-eating "feminists".... but I won't. I'm not the same vegan I used to be. I can admit that.

This isn't the world of activism that it used to be, and that's been on my mind a lot lately. Is it the fault of all the activists who dropped out of the movement? Is it the Patriot Act? Is it places like Portland that allow activism to atrophy into a lifestyle of free trade coffee after a raw food dinner, hopping into your electric car to drive half a mile to your next destination - the vegan tittie bar, where you can get your rocks (clad in organic un-bleached cotton boxers) off as pale vegetarian girls in tacky outfits try desparately to fill the empty void in their cholesterol free hearts with the attention of men snacking on seitan hot wings?

I hope that the feminists of Portland can get it together to get a dialogue going about what this place represents, but they're probably too busy with important agendas like knitting vibrator cozies, and selling them on etsy to raise money for their roller derby team.

My Inheritance

In August I went back to Korea for the first time in years. I went to see my grandfather, other family there, and to tool around Seoul. I got to share my adventures at the Kimchi Museum with GR readers, checked out Kinki Robot, and ate a free lunch with won-pinching Buddhist housewives in one of my favorite urban temples. A lot of things about the trip I haven't really shared with anyone.

I was born in Seoul, and lived there with my mother, grandparents and their extended family. For a short time I lived only with my grandparents while my mom was setting up camp in Southern California with my Dad. When I was young, I was very close to them, but I grew farther apart from my grandmother when I stopped speaking Korean. My grandfather spoke eight languages (one of which was English) so I was always able to communicate with him. My grandmother died when I was in grade school, but my grandfather has lived on to 91. Long, healthy lives run in the family. He had an older sister that finally passed away in her late 90's, closer to 100. I met her once (that I can remember) and she was a total bad ass.

It had been way too long since I'd seen my grandfather, and he'd been through a lot. He wasn't the man I remembered. Age does that I guess... I never grew up with a lot of old people around me, and I've always felt pretty out of touch with the things that other people understand and expect to experience with the elderly. Several times during our first visit to his house he had to ask my mother who I was. I saw a side of him that frightened and saddened me. I could catch glimmers of the grandpa I remembered, but they didn't linger.

I started to become really afraid of losing more of him. When I looked around his house, I couldn't find all the pieces of him that were so much a part of how I always remembered him - his tennis trophies, his offical keys to multiple cities, his multiple diplomas, gifts from diplomats all over the world, his dozens of photo albums... Eventually, some of those things were found, most importantly, his albums. I confiscated them, afraid that they would be thrown out, or forgotten about.

My mom took half back home to Memphis for my dad to scan, and I took the other half to work on as well. My dad beat me to the finish, and for the last couple of days I've been uploading his half of the pictures on to Flickr, wrapping my head around what a troubling treasure they are.



The picture here is from the late 1920's or early 30's, when my grandfather was a teenager. He's a brilliant man, and his brilliance was recognized at an early age. There are a lot of blanks to fill in, but ultimately, my grandfather ended up as the Dean of the Law School at Korea University, became an important man in Korean politics and foreign policy, and raised my mom, who raised me.

I have hundreds of photos of him, documenting his travels, his accomplishments and ultimately a large part of my history, but I can only identify a handful of people in all these images. I can't read Korean or Japanese, so I can't be sure where a lot of the photos take place. The one person who can tell me, and teach me this history is slipping away. I'd like another trip to see him, and make some time to see what he can remember, but I'm not sure I'll have that chance.

Happy Birthday, Praxis!!

Tomorrow is Praxis' 14th birthday. I'm having a surprise party for him tomorrow night at Scoops (as seen in GR) his favorite place for vegan ice cream treats. Last year, for this 13th birthday, Tai made Praxis a special batch of vegan Peanut Butter & Coconut ice cream and we had a party at home with friends (canine and primate) and partied like rockstars.... sort of. Praxis was totally pooped by the end of it.

The party was one of the first I'd had in my new house. It was one of those things that made my house feel like home. Some of the best people I know came to help celebrate. They aren't just the best people I know because they understand how much I love my pup, but they just simply are... really great people. Praxis got lots of love that night. He was showered with prezzies, snacks, brain freezes from his special ice cream, and weird anxiety from the giant dog cake he wasn't sure what to do with.

Esther was with us then. I'm thinking of her a lot lately, especially when I think of how for a short time I was able to share a lot of love with her, but not enough sharing for me... I wish I had more time to give her more. Every dog deserves love, ice cream, birthday parties and friends. I'm happy I was able to give Esther a taste of all that, I just wish she was with us to have some more this year, and next, and the one after that...

So, yeah, if you're near the Bicycle District at around 8:30-9 pm ish, then join us for some of the best ice cream in LA, and wish my pup a happy birthday with me! It's a surpise party, so don't spill the beans to the birthday boy...

When I'm not at GR, and I'm not riding ponies, and I'm not hanging out on my porch with my dog, I'm playing bikes. A couple of years ago, I met the founder of the Bicycle Film Festival, and last summer I worked with him and a whole slew of LA bike folks to help pull off the 2007 Bicycle Film Festival. This year I'm one of the producers for the festival in LA, and working hard to help make the 8th annual BFF super fantastic!



Part of a great festival is, of course, great films in the program. We've been accepting submissions for 2008 for a while now, but the deadline is upon us, and we want the word spread far and wide so everyone can get a shot at being part of BFF. The festival travels to 17 cities around the world (reaching four continents) and brings together variety of bike culture through parties, art shows, film screenings and more.

If you have a project sitting on the shelf that's just waiting to be shared with the world, or something near completion that you could use a little encouragement with, drop us a line. Here's the official welcome from Brendt Barbur:


Hi All

EIGHTH ANNUAL BICYCLE FILM FESTIVAL: Call For Entries
Deadline: February 19th
http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com

We are looking for films with a strong theme or character of bicycles.
This includes all mediums and styles such as animation, experimental,
narrative, documentary and music videos.

The BFF is held in over 15 cities around the world including
Tokyo, New York City, Los Angeles, Milano and London.
In 2007 the BFF was attended by up to 100,000 people.

It is a celebration through film, art and music.
The BFF has been fortunate to have included the works of well known
artists including Jonas Mekas, Michel Gondry, Mike Mills and Jorgen Leth. We showcase the emerging artist as well.

The Bike Film Fest looks to be a lot of fun in 2008.
For more info and the entry form go to:
http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com

All cities have been selected and dates for NEW YORK
are May 28-June1. All dates will be set within the month.

PLEASE PASS THE WORD AROUND
Poster Pdf here:
http://bicyclefilmfestival.com/2008_site/materials/bff_submissions_poster_2008_US.jpg


Thanks
Brendt Barbur
Founding Director
Bicycle Film Festival

Getting Fingered

Since moving to Charlie O's, Ryan Heffington's dance party downtown seems like it has become something pretty big. The first time I got Fingered was last summer at Little Pedro's. It was a small, intimate crowd, and the dancers performed with WORK.

The performances are always pretty fantastic. Costuming, makeup, choreography, insanely good music.... there's pretty much nothing they leave to chance. Lastnight's performance ended with Kate Bush, and the dancers pulling people onto the floor to dance the last third of the song. Being a friend of a friend of the dancers, and having a choice spot on the edge of the dancefloor were the biggest perks of the evening, and made having to deal with the generic hipster melee, worth it.

I was at Charlie O's with Buff Monster, part two of an evening that began with helping Charlie Becker turn 40 at a surprise party downtown at the warehouse of Grn Apple Tree Clothing. Charlie's a nice guy, and a talented sculptor who has worked with some our generation's biggest art stars. He's a recent transplant to LA, but he seems to have settled in quite nicely. A ton of people came out to help him celebrate his birthday - a fun crowd stocked with creative and talented folks. Friends, Silvio and Kyle had artwork on display with samples of Charlie's work, and helped pull off the big surprise.

Some people inspire surprise parties and some people don't... what does that say about some people?

This was the scene at the LA Equestrian Center last weekend. The rain made the hills of Griffith Park gorgeous, dumped some snow on the mountains and kept my Chinese neighbors from having to hose off their driveways, but it kept me on the ground and out of the saddle. Why is it that in LA it's always all or nothing? Rain's gone, for now, and the ground is dry and we're back to riding in the outdoor dressage arena in the sun. My horse, Buddy, still needs to get body-clipped though.... and it's only going to get warmer. This is winter in Southern California after all.

Posted this picture on my Flickr and it's already received 110 views. Is there something sexual here that I'm not seeing? I always assume there is.... especially on Flickr, home to more web-pervs than Craigslist. If anyone can tell me what the deal is, I'll send them a prize.

This weekend, my friend Abi will be competing in the Cornerstone 2008 LA Winter Dressage Show. I'll be waking up at the crack of dawn to offer my support and watch her compete. She's uber talented and needs a good heckler in the bleachers to keep her on her toes.

Tonight is surprise birthday party for *******, which should be a nice bookend to lastnight at La Cita with Sam & Tury from Friends with You, Tim Biskup dj'ing, Thomas Han tearing up the dancefloor, Buff Monster on the sidelines, and Jamie from Japan LA and Nicole from Kid Robot rounding the night out. I went home sweaty and exhuasted... just the way I like it.

Sunday is inventory at GR2, our third and final installment of the all-night count-a-thon at Giant Robot. It's a good time when you have a good crew on board. So far we've been whiskey fueled and we've been making much better time than last year. If you're on Sawtelle sometime around midnight on Sunday, come knock on the door and have a shot with us.