Her beauty was matched

The Hammer is a strangely quiet place on a Thursday for it being free. I didn't even have to through my free card out, I tried but was greeted by a very joyful store clerk that said.

"You don't even have to show your _____ i.d., the Hammer is always free on Thursdays"

I smiled and was on my way to catch the Ed Ruscha -On the Road exhibit, that I have been meaning to see since the beginning of summer.

I was one of 4 people in the gallery and the only noise was a female security guard clicking her tongue on the roof of her mouth to catch the attention of a male security guard. It definitely echoed in the gallery. I would say for dramatic effect I put on "take 5" by brubeck to drown out their audible flirting, but my ipod was out of battery and I am not that pretentious.

I don't know what draws me so much to Ed Ruscha, maybe it is because text to me is as beautiful as the other art forms, maybe because I am daft and need to have things spelled out. THIS IS WHAT IS IMPORTANT. That isn't what Ruscha does, he finds beauty in shapes and loves the word [SO] and the work of Jack Kerouac, who was so influential during that time- a lumberjack kid from Mass. who helped to change writing so that writing had rhythm and sound. I can see why these two people work they both cross[ed] art forms so effortlessly.

If I would have known before what it was, I would have sat and read a book that changed my perspective when I was a teenager with a bunch of strangers that probably had the same thing happen to them. They were packed into Libro Schmibros passing On the Road around, and I just saw PACKED and went on my merry way.

Besides, I had other plans.

Exhibit ends this Sunday the 2nd of October.

Libro Schmibros closes on the 9th of October-I have to go back, their misson sounds fantastic.

Note: While there be sure to catch the 18 minute movie Octopus by Yoshua Okon.

carmagideon time

The ability to freak out over small things is something that really amazes me about Los Angeles. Every moment, especially a bad moment, is something that snowballs to something truly preposterous. I am talking about carmageddon, and had I had the internet, I would have written about it sooner.

It was national news this minor shut down of the 405, if I remember correctly Diane Sawyer warned about a traffic jam so great that it would be a stand still all the way to Mexico. People were freaked out and we even had a nickname for our impending doom CARMAGGEDON, although I prefered Carpocalypse, but no one asked me. For weeks people lamented their condition and I actually thought people thought that the world would in fact end.

It didn't end, it was quiet, it was nice and people stuck to their hoods and had bbqs and talked about how tame this whole thing was, and people danced on the 405, set up a dining room table and ate with friends. Turning something we all loathe into something kind of special.

It reminded me of this thing called National Night Out, that although is national is probably only celebrated in Minnesota and Texas. My friend Jira would put together DJs and bands shut down his street and we would all eat and talk and dance watch graffiti artists do their thing on a Tuesday night. His neighbors would come and we would all talk about minneapolis and how great summer was and I got to know people I probably would have never talked to. The magic of shutting down your block and getting to know your neighbors.

For this carmaggedon I just did what I do every weekend, headed up to echo park on a train, free this time, and was grill bitch, and cooked and laughed and ate with friends

See nothing to worry about LA. I hope it happens every year.

bus blog-huh?

"you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, here, I drew a cartoon of you"

303

I am working on not living out of boxes, in my tiny studio in Koreatown. I wonder when I will stop having the lines of the Neko Case's song "In California" stuck in my head.

"Now I am living in Koreatown, waking to the sound of car alarms"

(as I write this she is probably prepping for her show at the Hollywood Bowl tonight.)

I cannot believe that it has taken me this long to live alone. I sing a lot more and have a lot of solo punk rock dance parties. Which I feel were both missing from my life before.

I live in a 1920's old residence hotel and it is nice to think that maybe some aspiring someone lived in this room and at night would head over to the Ambassador's Coconut Grove to get discovered, like Norma Jean. This is Los Angeles old school. The Los Angeles, I would have rather lived in, but I will take this LA instead. Maybe all this nostalgia of what once was is my impetus for reading a biography of Greta Garbo.

People in this space are still aspiring, I hear people reading their sides at night and prepare auditions for the Voice, by the way I don't think she will make it.

So here I am navigating a new area of LA again and documenting it for all of you.