When I meet people that move around a lot, I always consider myself a really stationary being. I tend to set up camp in one place for a long time until something (or someone) convinces me it's time to pull up stakes and move along. I haven't ever regretted being in one place for "too long" because it's hard to know how long I was supposed to be there. How long do you give a place before you can fairly make the call that it was the right place to be? How many friends do you have to make, or lose, to know that you did right by those people and it's okay to move on?
I'm heading to Korea and Mongolia soon. It will be the longest I've been away from "home" in decades. It's a little scary, and it's reminding me of how much envy I've had in the past for people who can live like nomads all the time.
My trip is about exploring my roots (my family and cultural ties in Korea) and then switching gears to go off exploring my nagging desire to cut all roots off above the knee. I won't really be able to, but damn... on tough days I threaten the universe that when I get to Mongolia, I won't come back.
Sigh. I'm a total wuss... it's not gonna happen. The trip is, not the running away.
My friend Christian made a lovely little film about holding on. He and his wife, Adriana are nomads who've struggled with these questions more often than I. They're also role-models for what it takes to maintain the ties that matter.
I have so much to learn. I'm perpetually in the process of shedding layers of my life, trying to decide what and when to purge. I think this is one of those things they never tell you about when you're a kid.
Andrew Jeffrey Wright did his comedy thing way back when we partied down with Ray Fong. Peggy Honeywell also played a set at GR2 that night. Now you can enjoy his laugh fest at the click of a mouse button.
This is Edwin Ushiro's piece for the Year of the Tiger show. The show opens just in time for Lunar New Year next Saturday, the 13th. LA Animal Services will be at GR2 again with some critters looking for homes. Bring in any items that you'd like to donate to the shelter. We'll send out a list of items they need. Last year we were able to hook up some pups and kitties with new homes, and we got a nice haul of supplies that the West LA animal shelter was able to put to use!
Edwin's tiger piece reminds me of my cat Iliose who passed away. Iliose was named by a very good friend I had at the time when I rescued her, Rod Coronado. Rod was in a Federal prison, and we spent hours on phone calls overheard by the FBI. One of those was about what I should name my little orange tabby. He came up with Iliose, which he told me meant "little lion" in Yaqui. She could have been a little tiger too - she was brave little one. I miss her.
Anyhow, there are some other fantastic pieces for the show - you can check out some preview images on the GR Flickr page. You'll still have to come to GR2 to see all the good stuff. I've got a mountain of art that came in on Monday. Opening boxes of incoming art is like Christmas, Hannukah, and the best birthday ever all rolled into one. Well.... as long as whoever sent the art packed it well. So far, this show has arrived with zero casualties. I'm knocking some wood now, hoping I didn't just jinx the folks who still have art en route.
It's been a tumultuous month. Lots of shifting, and I'm working hard to get centered. Year of the Tiger indeed...
To gear up for 4708, I met up with Mr. Ushiro for lunch of a Sumatran nature at Simpang Asia. I knew this place was going to be good. Next time I go, I'm fasting for 3 days before I order my entree.
The smell of my food, when the banana leaf it came wrapped in, magically opened itself should be bottled up and sold as a perfume. I'd rub it on myself everyday - essence of garlic and coconut milk... I'd be irresistible.
Pals Graham Kolbeins and Mya Stark got together and made some magic happen in West Hollywood. Working with forward thinking folks at the Pacific Design Center, Graham and Mya have been given the opportunity to meld their creative powers and open the doors to a new home for artists in LA at their new gallery space Mastodon Mesa.
Their kickoff started today, with the opening of Mastodon Maze. I'll be there Saturday night for the reception. Please come so you can hold my hand in the maze and keep me from getting lost. I have a terrible sense of direction.
In their words:
Mastodon Mesa invites you to a magical, labyrinthine group show, entitled Mastodon Maze. It may or may not include:
ballroom dancers, gynecological blasphemy, paleolithic wool-spinning workshops, modular tetrahedrons, fabric portal party arteries, cup-string telecommunications, undead florae, trompe-l’oeil record collections, dream object development, anachronistic mermen, hair-dryer symphonies, and a prism parlor.
Curated by Mya Stark & Graham Kolbeins
Mastodon Maze will be open during the PDC's "Art Contemporary Los Angeles" fair, Friday 1/29 - Sunday 1/31. Since we are not associated with the fair, admission to the maze is FREE! We are located on the 5th floor in room B528.
OPENING EVENT: Saturday, January 30th, 5:00pm - 7:00pm
These are the artists:
Philip Cameron Ashley Crawford John T. Dempsey Andrew Extein Seán Gall Adrian Esparza Michael C. Hsiung Ashley Huizenga Daniel Ingroff Charles Irvin Lisa Katnic Donnie Luu Alison O’Daniel David Maupin Michael Metzger Reuben Perelman Paul Pescador Stephen Rowan Katie Ryan Heather Steere and Tyler Thacker
I can't imagine anything more frightening than what the people of Haiti went through last night, and what they're still suffering through. The loss of loved ones, homes and livelihoods is tremendous, and from a world away, all I can know of that loss is what I see in photos and hear in the stories of Haitians here, who are struggling with the inability to communicate with their family and friends back home.
The Daily Mail has this photo essay telling the story of the fallout:
I'm not sure what I can do to help these people. I can donate $10 through my cell phone bill, and hope that somehow it evolves into something tangible that will help someone survive the crush of cement block buildings that happened around them. These tragedies make me feel helpless. They make me wish that I had the courage to pick up my bags and go where the help is needed. I have the utmost respect for the people that do, and I envy them. Helping other people is sometimes about helping yourself, but it's not a bad way to be selfish in the grand scheme of things.
I get bummed out when I think about what goes to waste in the world.
What needs to happen to us (the collective us) to make us appreciate what we have? How bad do things have to get?
I like movies, I really do. I'll watch pretty much anything, but I'm hardest on the film with most hype, and right now, that movie is Avatar. You've probably already heard all the jokes about smurfs and Dances with Wolves that dog it a bit, but for every joke about how corny it is, I've also heard how it's groundbreaking, and how it has a pro-environment/anti-military message. I didn't see the movie that had any of that though. Maybe that was only in the IMAX version.
Let's just set aside the fact that all this movie succeeds at is being a vehicle for James Cameron's advances in digital effects. Oh, and the potential for really cool action figures and Happy Meal toys. After that, there's not much left but the gross racial politics, and the glorification of war. The Navi (Development Meeting: "Dudes... they're NATIVES, so we can just call them NAVI!") represent indigenous people through a dramatically watered down cultural filter only to be rivaled in recent films, by Jar-Jar Binks and a yellow-faced Queen Amidala. Round up all the tropes - these simple people are one with nature; these simple people don't need the trappings of modern life; these simple people are helpless; these simple people need our sympathy and protection; these simple people will be saved by a white everyman - and you end up with a story that aims to make the viewer feel better about their place in the world, by reminding them that there's always someone worse off that we can bail out.
For the rest of us, we get to sit through a series of imperialist renditions of a world in need of a civilized savior. We get 2.5 hours of the essential "native", replete with headdresses, spears to be chucked, unjust arranged marriages, leather thongs, and accents from the deepest darkest corners of the globe. You can paint those CGI faces blue, but it's pretty clear that they are a reddish-brownish-black underneath it all.
There's no redemption in this film. The bad guys aren't really bad - they're just trying to make a living. The good guys are so alien that they are unnaturally blue animal-people. We're supposed to be so enchanted by floating bits of ash coming alive for our 3D glasses, that we forget that even the most rudimentary action film should have suspense and tension. There aren't even any laughs. Well... if you count the guffaw inducing monologues bashing the "Sky People", or the subtitled Navi dialogue in Rainforest Cafe font.... those laughs don't count.
I want the world to crave another kind of fantasy in film, and to be able to recognize cheap, plastic junk when they see it. Do you want a movie with a pro-environment/save the forests message that is inventive and visually stunning? Watch Princess Mononoke! Do you want to see an anti-war movie? Watch Grave of the Fireflies! If Avatar is the new Star Wars, then we're all doomed. I knew that we were in trouble when the Spice Girls were the new feminists, but I never imagined how much worse it could get...
I'm going to stick to what I know and love:
Lars von Trier, making movies that take your imagination to the darkest, scariest places humanity can go, to remind you to keep a wide berth:
And documentaries like The Cove, that remind you that as good as you think things are, there's depravity out there, and if you're willing to put your liberty on the line you might be able to make a difference:
There are real atrocities that are committed against real people, real animals and real landscapes. Numbing the collective conscience against the real stuff is killing us all.
My diet has changed a lot over the years, but one thing has stayed the same.... I love starchy foods. I love carbohydrates. I like rice. I like pasta. I am not that different from most people in this. There's a guy in San Diego who loves carbs more than anyone else I've seen. He opened a restaurant devoted to one of the best ways to enjoy one starch - INSIDE OF ANOTHER!! It's a TORPASTA!!!
The Torpasta is the creation of Devine Pastabilities founder, Damien Devine. This man is a culinary genius. Just so you're clear, this is a hollowed out sandwich roll STUFFED with delicious pasta! The menu offers up pretty much every favorite pasta combo, and to be eco-friendly (and carb-obsessed) they even serve up the yanked out bread guts and make them into yummy, dippable garlic bread.
My favorite is Dayna's Vegan Special. The sauce is full of fresh spinach, and it has veggie meatballs that have a fantastic taste and texture - not quite as good as Margie & Nelson's tofu meatballs, but pretty damn good. The vegan bonus at this place is the shaker they'll bring to your table that is stocked with nutritional yeast. I don't know any good vegan who doesn't worship at the temple of nutritional yeast. If they don't.... they're dumb.... and they probably have a vitamin B deficiency.
The Giant Robot crew is in San Diego every year for Comic Con, friends, family and film festivals throughout the year. I think everyone is going to thank me when we start hitting this place up on a more regular basis. Since we don't have the resources to bring Nelson with us to make gr/eats favorites everyday, we cling on to great food spots in SD, and all the better when they have menu items that I can eat!
If you're down there, you need to try this for yourself. The best thing about this place is that it isn't just gimmicky food. I'd take trekking out to this place for a solid meal over schlepping all over LA for some lame food truck that has a Twitter account. In times like these, I'd like to see more people putting their hard-earned dollars towards businesses that play by the rules, and are aiming to be fixtures in their communities. Gimmick has never impressed me. Ingenuity and dedication always has.
