Doing Good Things

Hung the Free to a Good Home show today, with the help of Tru, Keyla and Jeannette. All girl crews rule. This one went up smoothly. There are almost 70 pieces in the show, from over 30 artists, and all of them have dogs in them. This time around dogs are in the spotlight, and we are hosting an adoption event for West LA Animal Services. We're collecting donations for the shelter (and rewarding all donations with a 25% off coupon!), giving people a chance to meet shelter dogs, and also presenting an impressive collection of artwork celebrating canines. It all feels good to me.

Raising funds for LA Animal Services isn't a part of what we're doing with this show, but if you'd like to donate, you can do so on their website. The push here is to get these dogs adopted, at the very least, plant the seed! They'll be bringing dogs of different ages and sizes, but all with a great temperament. Maybe they'll bring the Spero they have for adoption there! MY Spero might be a little bummed to know that she's not the only one with the name, but she'd be happy if the fake Spero found a home, like she did.

Every animal I've ever shared my home with has come from a shelter, or was passed on to me by friends. I'm always a bit shocked when I find out people still get dogs from pet stores and breeders, but it happens. With the growth of so many breed specific rescue organizations, it's a shame it still does though. I've never been a breed specific person - maybe because I'm a mutt too, and although I've always dreamed of owning a Great Pyrenees, or a harlequin Great Dane, no dog to ever come out of any pooch's cooch will be better than Praxis, or even Spero in her dysfunctional way. The volunteers at the West LA shelter will be bringing some great dogs out tomorrow night (and one lone kitten!) that will all be available for adoption that day. If they need to be spayed or neutered, they won't be able to go home with people Saturday night, but they'll be available from the spay/neuter clinic right down Sawtelle, near Pico.

In regards to spay/neuter.... DO IT! I waited with Spero, heeding the advice of multiple vets and her neurologist, and then.... her lady time hit. I spend every minute outside with her protecting her virtue, and every minute inside with her cleaning up her DNA. It's terribly un-fun, and as I have no intentions of breeding her, I'm just counting down the days until I can take her to the vet and get her lady parts modified for safety and reproductive security. The last thing this world needs is more wobbly, head bobbing, needy puppies from her womb. I now believe this photo by Saelee was simply foreshadowing...



I feel lucky to work for a company that takes a sincere interest in doing shows like this. Just last month GRSF had the Tree Show, an always fantastic group show that benefits Friends of the Urban Forest. We do shows like this when the group and the theme seems right. I'm proud of pretty much every show that rolls out of the gate, but these shows make me the proudest. I'm always proud of the artists who step up to participate, the people who make time to come out for the receptions, and the organizations who take a chance on GR.

2009 seems to be the year for getting back in touch with my long hibernating activist spirit. I went to an orientation session for tutoring in Echo Park at 826 LA, am planning on going to an informational session at City Hall about how to get involved in local politics, and volunteered at Hollywood Hill event featuring the current economic challenges facing Rwanda.

The night about Rwanda moved me more than anything I've listened in on in a really long time. The speaker was Josh Ruxin, the director of Millenium Villages Project Rwanda. There was an amazing audience in attendance, including several people who had spent time in Rwanda and proposed challenging insights about the situation there.

I'm as guilty as the next person about living in a bubble, forgetting about the world outside of mine. I think years as an animal rights activist didn't help much either. It's only been in recent years that I've taken any interest at all in human issues. I'm getting softer in my old age.

The Millenium Villages Project Rwanda struck a chord with my values and feelings about cultural sensitivity, development from within, and the importance of building communities that become self-reliant and united in growth. During the course of the presentation, I wondered what someone like me could do - someone on the other end of the globe, without a lot of capital - but by its conclusion, I felt empowered by receiving the knowledge that Josh shared. His presentation was hopeful, and not some generic HOPE on a t-shirt hopeful, but truly optimistically inspirational. After learning that in a country with such a dark history - with so many cards stacked against it - there is so much promise for its people to forge a new path, I was forced to think about the opportunities I have to empower others... with or without a lot of capital.

Keep an eye out for Hollywood Hill's upcoming project, Armchair Revolutionary. These folks are committed to making a difference by turning the opportunities they've been given (and earned) into opportunities for others.

I can't imagine a better way to life your life.

Challenge of the Lady Ninja

About a year ago, Tivo suggested that I watch a show called Ninja Warrior on G4. My first thought was that it was going to be one of those terrible dubbed-over shows that show American audiences that Asians are irrational and wacky - life in Japan is all work work work and then bizarre play in giant sumo suits. Thankfully G4 didn't go that route. They found a program that was a showcase of sincere dedication and superhuman skills with a splash of comedy. Sasuke is a tribute to a Japanese love affair with fitness and competition, and G4 does a pretty good job of keeping their airing of the show true to form.

For the uninitiated, the show is a series of obstacle courses. It presents challenges that call for agility and strength. The people who tend to persevere are Olympic gymnasts, professional athletes, and then a handful of "normal" people who have devoted their lives to training for the course. These normal people quit their jobs, build courses in their own backyards and train endlessly to run them. I'm pretty hooked on those stories, part of my fascination for people with passion. I've never been that dedicated to anything, and sometimes that makes me feel inadequate, but in the end, always a bit relieved. I watch these people move through obstacles like the Warped Wall and the Quintuple Step and I want them to make it, and of course, I wonder how I would fare in their shoes.

A friend at G4 sent an email that said the network was going to be setting up a simulated course in Santa Monica on a Saturday morning, and encouraged fans of the show to come out and get a chance to run it themselves. The day I got that email, I started training. I knew that I needed to build up my endurance and stamina. I have not-too-shabby upper body strength for a girl who doesn't hit the gym, and my legs are strong from horseback riding, but the muscles work differently than they do for other activities. The problem is... nothing in the mid-section of my body was prepared for a physical challenge! I needed to turn it out in a hurry. I started running, stretching, doing isometric exercises, and learning how to engage my reluctant core. There were about 11 days total of training, some more effective than others, but it felt pretty great to get moving and knowing that my body was changing for the better. As Saturday approached I felt like I was in better shape to give the course a good effort, even if I wasn't prepared to run up the sides of buildings or jump across rooftops.

Saturday morning David, Graham and I headed for the ocean. Buff Monster was going to meet us there to take a shot at the course as well. As we found our way to the back of the line that was forming around the course, we passed by production trailers, Venom Energy drink hype-models, a friend from the barn, and numerous parkour/free running enthusiasts plotting out the course.
There was a host from G4 there emceeing the event, not someone I would recommend for your own interactive public event, but she looked good behind a microphone, and the G4 crowd didn't seem to take too much notice of the jokes at their expense. Hot chicks can get away with that kind of thing. The first 4 hours there were spent watching people who weren't standing in the line around the barrier, run the course. It was becoming clear that this event was set up to promote the new season of Ninja Warrior by letting fans of the show watch G4 employees run the course. The crowd was not pleased.

It was hot with nothing to drink but Venom, we were anxious, and I was feeling like my training had all been for a frozen pipe dream that I could taste, but never lick and get my tongue stuck to. The line had been scattered and separated by passers-by cutting in to get a sideline view of the course, and it seemed like there was no end to the waiting. There were no interns or PA's getting people lined up and registered to run the course, the breaks between course runners could last between 60 seconds and 16 minutes, and as the time on my parking meter ran out, I felt like my patience had too.

Having friends in high places is always nice, but there's always an awkward time when you aren't sure if what was offered was a promise, a suggestion, or just another dangling carrot. This was one of those moments. I tried to stay objective, but my disappointment kicked my objectivity's ass, hardcore. I got pouty, dejected, and started talking to my crew about just bailing and going home. There were melodramatic details I won't go into, but in the end, two out of the three of us were rushed into the middle of the line to run the course. David moved my car from the meter to the parking lot, and I worked on losing the blues and building up the excitement again!

Eventually, Buff and I were in line between two mega-fan parkour dudes, and a couple of super-fans (because there is a difference between super and mega) behind us who just seemed really determined to kick ass. Ahead of all of us in line were more G4 employees, and then a crop of guys who had flown to LA from Mississippi and other places in different time zones, camped out in line at 4 am, and were more distraught than I was at the thought of not being able to run the course before it was shut down at 4 pm. The whole crowd was super stoked when these kids finally made it to the black astro-turf of the course. Best of all, these guys did really well running it!

A bunch of the people that were at the front of the line (the gen pub) line were die-hards, and also regular posters on the G4 message boards. They do a much better job of documenting the day than I can on the Ninja Warrior threads, and these are people who trained a lot more than 11 days... In retrospect, I'd rather have given up my spot in the line to let more of those guys get a chance at getting in, but you know what? I'm still really happy I gave it a try!

My run was pretty sad though... I couldn't reach the blocks for the first challenge, had to climb the scaffolding to make it up to the pipe slider, then I got stuck and had to drop to move on, fell off the cliff hanger, faked the spider walk, and by the time I got to the warped wall, I was finished. Without my glasses on, the drop in to the warped wall seemed ankle break-y, and I just kinda jogged back and forth on it until people finally stopped telling me to keep going.



You can see my story (somewhat edited) in photos here by Graham. In review I now know that instinctively, my body does nothing to propel itself forward when asked, and locking your knee when you fall from 7 or 8 feet up is not a good idea when you're trying to land on your feet.

Buff did a tremendous job on the course. He ran after I did, and was given a special helmet cam to capture his run. He totally destroyed on every challenge, but when he got to the warped wall, he could touch the top of the wall, but couldn't get a hold of it to pull himself over. For a guy who had never trained for this course, or anything like it, I was totally blown away, and SO proud. I'm pretty sure that Buff was meant to run the course before me, but being the friend that he is, he let me go first since he knew how excited I was to run it. Now, maybe he just knew that he was going to kick ass on it, and didn't want me to feel like a total loser. *sniff* Truly though, I was so proud of him for trying it out and doing great. I was proud of myself too, but I would have been a lot prouder if I could have made it through at least ONE challenge. *sob. sniff*

There was much suffering on Saturday. I hyper-extended my knee, Buff twisted an ankle, and David got a terrible sunburn, but all in all it was a pretty great weekend for me. My knee is all healed up now, and I'm slowly getting back into the "training" program I was in before the run on the course.

Maybe by the time the footage from American Ninjafest 4 actually airs on June 21st, I'll be able to do two whole pull ups and run a 2 minute mile!