street art in the streets

I was going to say something very clever about the street art show, but I think I will just let the art speak for itself. As much as these photos can from my phone camera. This is a sneak peek to whet your appetite because you have to go and see it for yourself. Remember Mondays are free courtesy of Banksy and the exhibition closes on 08.08.11 at the MOCA that is in Little Tokyo. It is only $10 all other times.

Art by I should have paid more attention, Banksy, Swoon, Henry Chalfant. If you have the time, around the museum has become a gallery itself. Take the walk to the 3rd and Traction area as well. I am hoping those pieces have not been erased by the landlords. Like that great Banksy piece on the Urban Outfitters in Westwood. (F&*%-face landlord)

It too can be yours

If you have lived here even for a minute you have seen the House of David's. You know exactly what I am talking about, the house on 3rd, Youngwood Court, etc. Well I hear it is up for sale and it too can be yours for 2.4 million dollars. You could own a piece of LA kitsch history.

Here is a music video rebuttal they made as a response to their neighborhood nay-sayers. Enjoy!

Falsas Promesas/broken promises

I am just slightly too late to talk about a film you should see called Blank City. If I wouldn't have been so lost in thought I would have told you to run to the NuArt and see it, but I saw it on its last day in LA and could have only told the passers by on the street to see the 7 o'clock and unfortunately I have a habit of not being crazy in public.

It is 1970's New York, when it looked more like a war torn country and not something here. When we let New York die. And the art that came from it, the Blank Generation and the NO wave. Super 8 cameras, bombing trains, stealing electricity and Nick Zedd, Blondie, Fab 5 Freddy, Lee, Richard Kern, Samo and Lydia Lunch.

Blank City is a movie about an art movement that came from a decaying landscape, people being creative with what they had, coming up with some sort of response to the people who let a great city die. Or just making films and art because there wasn't really anyone to stop them. (permits! permits! permits!)

Lydia Lunch, I remember hearing her for the first time when I was 16 living in the big city having left my sheltered small town life where I had no idea that anyone did anything bad to anyone, other than light teen bullying. In a writing class a girl brought in a record that Miss Lunch did. A particular story about incest that ends something like:

"That is what having children feels like"

I had never heard anything that had ever made me feel beaten up after, so emotionally wrecked. I can honestly say hearing this changed the way I thought about life... for better... for worse. If only my parents knew what kind of school they sent me to.

If you are interested in any of the films that came out of the blank generation or music from the no wave the will be showing some films at the Anthology Film Archives in New York in Septemberish. (I don't know why the schedule isn't updated. Maybe I will have to make an amendment once I locate the mailing) Or if you want to see the hip-hop side read Yes Yes Y'all.

(no photos due to copyright and the closed down businesses along Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills would never hold the same weight)

easier for your apparat

(... is it me you're looking for?)

I have re-formatted my blog so that you can read this better on your personal handheld communication with the world machine, your iphone, your android, your apparat. The only problem is that it doesn't record visits when you look at it with your ______. So now I can't reverse stalk you like I like to do.

So maybe you can email me and tell me why WALK SIGN GREEN is so popular, or you can say hello or talk about all of the super sad true love story references. I have an email, use it. I am sad about all of the emails I get about bookstores closing and it would be a nice change to hear from you.

last one.....I heard this song and fell in love with apparat....(coincidental and not intended to be found at the same time by two different sources, but that is how the world works doesn't it)

Inspiration

(this is Banksy)

The past few weeks I have been on a steady diet of art. I have so much that I want to say about it but I am in a food coma or whatever similar metaphor suggests that I am catatonic with thought. I love art that makes me feel and when i am done with it leaves me with no other choice than to create. I will comment on these exhibits, a movie that makes me feel so much that I was born at the wrong time, these moments, this time, but I can't...i don't have the words yet.


but until then read what a talented musician and awesome friend has to say he will be playing a show this Wednesday at Molly Malone's and if I were you this Wednesday I would go.

$8
8:PM

not quite 500 days

I love that sometimes your surroundings will suddenly become movie sets. On any given day you can wake up to a blue notice of a filming with no warning, no protest, just a maybe you shouldn't be around here during such and such hours or maybe you shouldn't park here because we are going to be filming and there isn't a whole lot you can do about it. I write this post and use these pictures for a purpose. The riddle and punch line follows.

Because sometimes you find the greatest things about Los Angeles when you take the time to look up.



Because this is where the fight began, that instance when you just know.




Because you can simply stop loving someone because they are their own worst enemy.



because in less than 2 months I will be living in an exterior shot from one of my favorite films.

la i <3 you.

milkshakeophobia

I met a girl who has an unnatural fear of oil rigs. Watching her pass by the pumps between Stocker and La Cienega you can tell how uncomfortable that stretch of street is for her. If only she knew that these things are hidden all over the city.

interview @ the Empress

I have always wanted to do a blogger vs. blogger interview. I tried doing this once w/ a blogger I really admired, Hookers on Stilts, but I sat across from her at the Uptown Bar and chickened out. I guess here I don't feel so chickeny.

I sat down with the blogger behind thisislalaland a couple weeks ago to ask her some questions as a newcomer to LA over dim sum at Empress Pavilion. (Now when I go, the words of Margret Cho echo around in my brain about how this is the place that white people go.) I love it because you can get food within a couple minutes of sitting down and I really like to eat.

The loud clinking of dishes on carts and a woman periodically asking us if we wanted boba tea will serve as the background soundtrack to the following questions.

kitty: What did you do today?
lala: I went to an audition for a fantasy themed sitcom pilot. I had no idea what they were referencing because I had never played the game before.

I admit to her that I had once because I dated a guy who played, but that was the first and only time. (I SWEAR!!)

kitty: How long have you been here?
lala: 6 months.

kitty: Why did you come?
lala: Acting. I was in Portland where there wasn't a lot of film, instead of praying for the one female role to come around I decided to go where there is more opportunity.

kitty: What are your favorite places here?
lala: I like Griffith Park because it is free and close to my house (see her Friday feature about what the Bear is wearing), but I would like to find more free things to do in L.A. Do you have any suggestions?

As I start to tell her, and this is not for dramatic effect or some literary coincidence that I am falsifying for my story telling purposes...we look for the bill and it isn't where it once was. Then a guy comes up and introduces himself and his friend and says the following: (names changed)

"Hi, I am Mike and this is my friend Adam. I wanted to let you know that we bought your lunch today. You totally made our day because of how beautiful you both are. It was great sitting next to two very attractive women for an hour of our day"

We thanked Mike, shook his and Adam's hands and exchanged some pleasantries. I was probably blushing the entire time. After they left we laughed about the free coincidence.



We continued:

kitty: Why did you decide to blog?
lala: I like to tell stories and take pictures and the challenge of writing for an audience. After looking at your blog I liked your interesting take on LA as someone not from LA.

Flattery gets you everywhere.

kitty:How did you find me?
Lala: from a friend's blog called Lightheartedsoul

A mutual friend who is a Reiki master/practitioner and then I digressed and talked about how awesome Reiki is.

kitty: I really like your photography in the blog, what type of camera do you have?
lala: a crappy cannon elph and I use a lot of photoshop.

I was surprised.

THE AFTERMATH!!!

Thanks for taking the time to sit and have lunch. I will post a rundown of LA on the cheap sometime soon.

xo-kitty

bus blog-tonight i'm going to party like it's 1899

She gets on the 20 hair long, white, crimped and matted like a poodle. A little ziggy stardust. She wears a brocade jacket and pirate shirt a la Prince during his revolution days. In fact that is what she looks like "the Piratetess of the MTA"

She is carrying a box that says Med-Ex. The bus driver mumbles something after her and she doesn't turn but holds up her hand to dismiss him.

"I don't have it." She barks.

I can only assume that she means the fare, but I realize later that it could be her shoes ... or maybe her right eye which looks hollow and crudely covered up by small butterfly bandages. Maybe she lost her patch somewhere.

She stands next to the seat one bare foot up, next to the box of MedEx. I am not sure, but what I can see from my seat is that she proceeds to rub lotion onto her feet until I get off the bus.

be careful where you sit.

PS weekend

I am off to sit around a pool in my high heels and bikini, pour beer on myself because it's my birthday y'all.

Have a great weekend.