inter museum relations

The thing I love about my job, which is one among many, is that I get the opportunity to see some exhibits before a lot of other people can. I can attend gallery talks and be one of 25 people who get to listen to a curator or artist talk about their or their mentor's art work.

I did get the chance to see the new Dino Hall exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles the evening before it opened to the public. Some inter museum relations a la Dino Dance Party. I am not much of a dancer (the psychic even agreed) and luckily the rest of the museum was open, so while everyone was shaking their tail feather I got to wander around and see the exhibits almost completely alone. Which is my version of heaven.

I hadn't been to this museum before and probably wouldn't have searched it out since I like museums of a more art based kind. That is really too bad because I would have totally missed out on the fabulous dioramas of African and North American Mammals, which are very much like art pieces, but features real, but long since deceased animals of far off or not so far of lands. (The white tailed deer, black bear and otter made me homesick)

This was before PETA and in the early 1900's where people would think:

"I would really like that in my museum"

BANG BANG!!

"Now this animal is in my museum"

(Which I would like to mention is conjecture by me)

What I was most impressed by was the production value of each diorama. The shadows of the sands of the Sahara Desert, hoof prints in sand (I can imagine them dancing stiff animals around to do that), ice bergs that look 3 dimensional and floating, darkness, light, chimps picking bugs out of their loved ones hair. Watching a giraffe drink, hilarious.

Plus there is always the Honey Badger, I was looking at him and he doesn't scare, because you know he don't give a fuck.

If you want to see how they create each diorama they have a youtube channel you can access through their website, which I have already linked to above. It really is an amazing process and maybe some of them aren't as old as you think they are.

I thought this installation was a bit funny, which is called something like the animals of backyard LA. My camera couldn't capture all of it, but what is in this diorama is a coyote with a dead house cat in its mouth, a swimming pool, a house mouse, one of those wild parrots and the LA skyline. My picture is a bit blurry, but consider the blurriness to be a little bit o' smog

Admission is $12 for adults.

Bad touch

(or "I just got off of work")

For some reason strangers like to touch me. I don't know what it is about me that is so very inviting. (impatient person's Amma perhaps?)

In Minneapolis while in a very full cafe talking to a friend a very drunk man sat at my table and started sucking on my fingers. I was saved by a gutter punk named Simon. (Thank you wherever you are)

On the way to celebrate my 5 year anniversary of living here, I was stopped on the street by a man who came up to me and stroked my cheek and said "You are very pretty. What are you doing right now? I just got off of work." Then he pointed to his guitar case and sleeping bag resting against the wall of the new Trader Joe's on Vine near Sunset.

"I didn't say you could touch me." I replied to him.

I don't know that at that point he had realized what he had done, or if no one had ever responded to his drunken touch in that way. He stopped following me.

This last one that I am going to relate is a story I have been repeating a lot these days.

I was walking the last half a block home one day, listening to my ipod, lost in thought when suddenly I feel someone grab a giant handful of my ass. A stranger, he continued on route on his bicycle, never stopping, never having to adjust his center of gravity, just kept going like nothing had happened. I stood there aghast. I wasn't sure whether to be angry or impressed. That must have taken a lot of practice.

In the end I told him to Fuck off, but I don't think he could hear me.

Conversation overhead

El Rey bathroom @ Foster the People

Line starts to extend out the door

"sucks to be women" man says on the way to the men's

"but we are prettier." replies girl 1

"and we have better clothes" says girl 2

LA=Bliss

Solstice #2

There is a place with buzzing so deafening that there isn't room for the sound of your thoughts in your head.

A bird that sounds like radar coming closer, beep, beep, beep

The prospector's house isn' t actually all that haunted and the prospector wasn't a prospector after all, just a man with a dream.

Then there is that house with the

1,

2,

3,

4,

5,

fireplaces next to a waterfall

that ultimately burnt to the ground.

5 regulars agree

I made a friend laugh the other day by saying "I am so lonely that I have beer goggles on all the time"... "I see a man from far away and think, wow, he is attractive and he gets closer and he has a whispy mustache and a drooping eye. That or I realize he is 15 years old. Then I give myself the heebs."

While discussing life and love in LA, Miss Lala Land and I found ourselves being 2 of 3 females (one was the lovely and multi-talented bartender) on a mid-day drink cocktail quest at the Drawing Room in Los Feliz. Which is a fantastic dive bar with cheap and strong strong drinks) Need I remind you that Miss Lala land when we were last together we got our dim sum taken care of by a secret admirer.

We chatted with them for a while, drank 3/4ths vodka to juice, I was trying to get a regular to admit that he was on a television show that I really like. We got familiar with the locals. Then came the question that I hate getting because I think of it a little too much myself.

"What are two beautiful, intelligent women like yourselves doing alone?"

I replied "I ask myself the same question. And I wish I knew why"

"Do you want some advice?"

"Yes, because obviously what I am doing is not working."

"You are kind of intimidating."

I have heard this so many times and I just don't get it. It is starting to make me just a little bit angry.

"I have heard that a lot." I reply.

"It's the eyes."

"You do not know how many times I have heard that too, but am I suppose to pluck them out of my head?"

"And the other thing is that anyone can tell when you open your mouth that you are intelligent. That scares men away."

"That is silly." I reply. "Am I suppose to act dumb and that everything they say is a groundbreaking statement."

"Just don't talk."

I was flabbergasted. (or insert word here that means the same thing, but slightly less 50 cent wordy) It is sad to me that there are people out there who still want their women just a little bit stupid.

(on another note, I am going to let thisislalaland de-batman me. I have never posted a picture of me on my blog. You tell me, is it the eyes?)