Escape to Hollywood

I have migrated from the Valley to Los Feliz for the time being. Unfortunately the internet is not working in the place where I'm staying, so right now I'm posting from a Starbucks inside of a Vons right by the Children's Hospital. It's really strange to have a Starbucks inside of a grocery store, when there's plenty of room to build the cafe space separately. Now I have to sit by the entrance of the supermarket which is adjacent to the deli. The smell of the meat is really grossing me out and I think I'm def reaching my quota for how much time I can spend in a grocery store. So I'm going to make this quick.

First I want to thank Brett for the lovely previous post. Magnetic Fields = amazing and I think my love for Stephin Merritt would have biased my review of the show. Thanks so much Brett, can't wait for the next post.

Secondly, speaking of shows, last Sunday I saw Animal Collective's Deakin (Josh) perform at the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts. Who knew one existed? I saw the add in L.A. Weekly and I ditched a music video shoot I was working on early in order to meet up with Brett there. One Modelo tall-can and several Tecates (with lime none the less) later, we got to chat with Josh about his set and how it's like to play sans the rest of the Animal Collective zoo. He said he liked it alright. A second tall can and some more Tecate with lime later, someone started projecting Stan Brakhage's Wedlock House: An Intercourse in the background, and the set became exponentially better. It was just the right mix of spacey psychadelic electronic music with some upbeat tempos and crazy vocals. I totally dug it.

Cool people outside at the venue smoking.

   "I've never had Tecate with lime before either!"

Magic.

Aw, a total sweetheart.

I wasn't able to make Oddsac, the movie Animal Collective and danny Perez colaborated on, but I'm happy I got to go to a great show. Hopefully I'll see it some time soon, cuz I hear it was alright.

I don't have time right now to relate all of my thoughts about the last week and my temporary move of the valley, but there's a lot of things I want to say about living in a different side of the city. Here are some photos I've uploaded.

I took this photo at the location we filmed part of the music video I was working on last weekend. There's a few more interesting photos from that shoot, but those will come later.

These next photos are from a day I spent with Dylan, and his amazing dog Maverick, in the park located somewhere at the end of Balboa I believe. There's a lot of good hiking at that one, so I'm planning on going back as soon as I return to the Valley.

The grocery store music/store/noise is really getting to me, so I gotta get out of here. April will be full of surprises and adventures, so I'm excited for the next few posts. I'll be north of the boulevard again on Sunday for dinner with my fam, but I don't think I'll stick around very long. This part of the city is just so much better.

Yours truly.

Magnetic Fields Show

As an appointed guest writer on this blog, I hope to do maintain its illustrious reputation in my account of this event. So a couple weeks ago, Claudia, Jordan, Jesse and I went to the Magnetic Fields show at the Wilshire Ebell Theater. Let me start off by saying that his venue was surprisingly upscale being that it’s located in a, how shall I say, dodgier area of town. I certainly can’t remember the last time I was personally seated by an usher at an indie show.

I have to say that I was pretty stoked to see this band, and didn’t mind the considerable rift between our seats. Jesse and I were lucky enough to be sitting in front of a girl with a giant oversized “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” tattoo all over her left arm, which was lovely.

The opening act was a very stripped down two-man band with kind of a loungy, piano bar vibe to them. The singer had no idea he wasn’t Elvis Costello. Their songs, as mawkish as they were, were actually pretty charming and if not for the singer’s obnoxious, misanthropic comments throughout the set this band would have been pretty likeable.

And then it was time for Magnetic Fields to come on. It kind of struck me at first to see how staid and calm these guys were. They were all so dignified in the way they played. It kind of lulled me into a dreamlike trance the whole night. Also notable was the band’s cute ironic repartee in between songs.

As truly lovely as the set was, there was a sense of sameness that crept in about halfway through. The songs did start to bleed together in my head at some point. For a band that is so skilled and creating perfectly crafted pop gems, they had virtually no vigor on stage. I kept waiting for that moment where they’d kick up the tempo, break out that bouncy synth, and really go for it. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. But that aside, it was still a magical show fully of truly beautiful moments.

After the show we headed over to Hollywood to pay a visit to our favorite Thai place: Toi. As usual, good times were had by all.

It was rather a beautiful night.

Photo Dump

I finally realized that Costco has the best deal on 1 hour photo. $4 per roll. That's twice as cheap as CVS or the Dark Room. As soon as I discovered this on Wednesday, I rushed over with my 9 rolls of film but only got 8 back. I'm not sure if Costco lost one, or it's hiding somewhere in my car, but I'll figure out this mystery later. Most of my weekend has been dedicated to organizing all the photos I got developed and doing gardening projects with my mom amongst other things.

Here's the best of the bunch, and all I had patience to upload. More to come later. 

This dates back to Valentine's Day, when Kami, Jesse, Dylan and I took the metro to Brett's house for the first time.

Neat trick with the image splitting filter. Only downside is that I have no idea what the map looks like. 

And just like that my roll ended. Fortunately I had more film on hand because I ran into my friend Althea from South Africa, who was about to take the train from Union Station to Chicago. Small world!

Kami, Jesse and Althea probably trying to avoid eye contact with the subway performer mentioned in one of my previous posts. 

Western/Hollywood station. Neat tilling shot with green color filter. 

Brett's house, where we usually unleash mayhem in the form of Prince records, lots of booze, and really entertaining, but better if kept undisclosed, conversations. 

Nice plant Brett!

I can just hear Prince or The Cure in the background.

VDay dinner. These two are my favorite shots. 

I only have a few photos from the weekend we spent at the Durkin residence. The ones I do have are pretty telling. 

Jesse Durkin, and his "wtf is going on face". My finger in the top left edge of the photo indicates my ability to focus on what's in frame and what isn't. Inebriation leads to a lot of bad, bad photos. 

I'm usually really fuzzy and out of focus after I have a few beers.

 

And so are some of my photos. But damn this a lot of trophies, and the triple image does not even represent half of them. 

These are all the photos I could upload right now. Soon there will be a review of the Magnetic Fields show I went to with Jordan, Brett and Jesse. Meanwhile, don't worry, I'm holding down the fort over here in Northridge, but barely. What is going on with this crazy wind? It seems like a very early spring version of the Santa Anas, but about ten times more frigid. As soon as this bout of bad weather is over, the sunshine will bring more adventures and less clothing layers, both things which are crucial to my happiness. 

I'll leave you with some snapshots of the Valley and all of it's stucco glory. 

Intersection of Magnolia and Lankershim. Cool 70s colors with palm tree lined streets. What could be more Valley than that?

Also very Valley: Security guard trying to look tough down by the metro center on Lankershim. Who is this guy kidding? 

Driving in the rain. Almost as lethal as driving drunk for me. 

That's it for now! I can't wait for sunshine and all the fun things I have planned out for this month. 

Claudia 

extra, extra, read some about it.

Life has been moving at a faster pace than usual for me, and as always I've had little time to devote to the things I actually enjoy doing. CVS has failed to come through as usual, but I've made some progress by going to the Dark Room on Reseda Blvd. The place charges a bit much, and they're kinda sassy sometimes, but its a cool place, and very convenient. They also offer a variety of photo-related services, and reviews on local restaurants if you ask the clerk where to go for lunch.

Right now I am in the middle of a new project which will have me pretty busy, and in Inglewood - two of my least favorite things in the world. But at least I'm working and will continue to do so through March, and I should consider myself lucky to at least be able to do what I like.

Here's some photos with brief explanations of where they came from. In the works is a transition to wordpress, more blog posts from more people, and some awesome reviews of local places to eat.

In the meantime, here's what the Dark Room did for me that CVS simply couldn't do, even after calling my special extension several times this week. They should fire the hostage negotiator they have on the line and just HIRE A NEW PHOTO TECHNICIAN, but you know...I can't always get what I want.

From the flying pig installation. 

Views over the Chatsworth Reservoir. Didn't know it existed until I actually went, and then later looked it up on google maps. The crazy shadow in the foreground is from a storm moving in on the SFV. Killed my photo, but of course I tried again. 

more chatsworth reservoir 

Dylan, and the top of my head. Dylan: one word for you. FAIL. But good job at getting yourself in focus. Sweet photo though.

Triple the sun through Triple the clouds through my triple image splitting filter. Nina, one's in the mail for you my dear. 

Wilbur Av from the bridge right before Ventura Blvd.

405 = number of new grey hairs I get every time I'm late and stuck in traffic on this damned thing. 

The 405 usually takes me to my sister's house. Sometime ago in February she had a Mardi Gras party. A few photos from that event: 

Party non-sense. I spy Jo dancing to what I hope was Sly and the Family stone, brought to the party by yours truly. 

These are all the good photos from this roll. More to come as soon as I can make another trip to the Dark Room. I've decided (in the last 10 minutes) I'm going to let CVS be, and just use the reliable and local Dark Room to develop my photos. Gotta support local independent businesses you know.

When I got this roll developed, I also brought in a black and white roll I shot during my stay in Etna. Most of the photos are of clouds and tress, so I selected a few of the most interesting. 

I really dig clouds. 

And with those words, I've run out of things to say on this post. I'm too caught up in other shit right now, but I'm sure by next time the flood gates of my mind will open and my fingers will set the keyboard on fire with the friction of my typing. 

Good night, I'm off to my happy place. 

ah.