The Grand Canyon

My friend Heather's birthday was a couple weeks ago, so we up & went to the Grand Canyon. I've never been before so seeing it for the first time was really exciting! We only stayed two days, so we didn't have time to do a lot. We walked around, drove around & saw different parts of the canyon. My friend Katie & I went on a hike on the Bright Angel Trail. We figured we hiked about 2.5 miles. I would love to go again with more time to go down farther to get to the river & waterfalls. We saw a lot of animals & were really excited to see so many woods around the area. We went to the South Rim - a 7,000 ft elevation. There was still some snow on the ground. We caught the moon the night before the Supermoon. It was incredibly bright. We were back in L.A. for the Supermoon and it was so overcast & cloudy that I didn't see it at all. I'm pretty bummed, especially after seeing people's pictures of it on Flickr. In another 18 years I guess.

My first view of the Grand Canyon:

My friend & I:

It's gorgeous here:

The Crow:

We are just tiny things:

Day Two:

When it rains...

I've managed to be quite the busy girl this week. The magazine thing fell through... they said they're going with another piece & it was not an issue with the price. Oh well. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It would have been really nice to be published though.

I'm hopefully getting some new note cards up this week, but for now, some self promotion. I keep re-listing my note cards on Etsy. The link is available off to the side of my blog or by clicking the pretty picture below:

Last weekend my friends & I went to see Point Break Live! It's a really low budget play / reenactment of the movie Point Break, but it's pretty hilarious. They bring a person up from the audience to play Keanu Reeves' part - Johnny Utah. They have a "PA" follow him around with cue cards & she's probably one of the funniest parts of the play. "Oh but your knee!" never failed to get old & was hilarious every time. It's been around for years, but I just finally went. It's fun & it definitely helps to know the movie beforehand. Make sure you get there early & get the survival kit, fully equipped with a poncho & money for bank robbers.

http://www.pointbreaklivela.com

I also worked on a fantastic web series last weekend, Awkward Embraces. If you haven't seen it, you must. It's about a geeky woman & her two friends, their quest for love and all the awkward moments that happen trying to get there. It's brilliant & they're currently on season two.

http://awkwardembraces.com/

I finally got my camera cleaned. Looks good so far. I went through all my Leo Carrillo pictures today & got rid of the dust specs. What an awful way to spend my Sunday. At least I got to relax inside while it's been raining constantly today.

Tick tock Tick tock

Naturally because I'm starting work in a couple weeks, the amount of things piling up to do is getting bigger & bigger. There are art projects & a movie to finish. My car still needs to be repaired & pass the smog check. I somehow have still not bought my new set of pots & pans, which are supposed to be my Christmas present from my parents... but that could be a good thing since my brother has been living with me again(!!!).

It's amazing how busy I have been this year. I don't even know where the time goes. It's certainly not spent working, although I have been fortunate enough to have some good jobs this year. More likely, I've been sleeping too much.

I've been working on my movie for the last two days. I keep feeling so bad for my actors who have waited for it to be finished, but since I don't have my own editing system I am at the mercy of my friend's schedule. Which means, I haven't worked on it since January... but I think I'm close to done. I really ran out of steam today b/c I spent so much time on it yesterday. The issue of music has been brought up & although it'd be nice to have some, I'm not sure who I can find to do that for me. I feel so close to being done with this that the thought of putting the effort into music is exhausting.

I spent Wednesday helping at my friends' house. It's the never-ending construction battle. We did a lot of work & I honestly can't wait to see another room completed. I just hope there are no more set backs for them so we can get the main room finished soon. Crossing my fingers!

I also spent a day this week at the beach. My main reason for going was to try to take a picture for a friend as part of an art project I'm doing. I don't think I got any pictures I'd want to use, but it was awesome to spend some time at the beach. We headed up to Leo Carrillo & caught the end of the low tide. I was disappointed by the lack of starfish, considering last time we went there were tons.

I'm getting close to being finished with these art projects too. I did this chain letter type of thing on Facebook where my friend offered to make something for 5 people, as long as they in turn made something for 5 people. So I'm all wrapped up in this and hoping that the 5 people I am making art projects for actually make something for 5 other people. There's no restrictions on what you have to make and it just needs to be done this year... so I hope that will encourage them to do something, anything. I have 2 drawings and 1 book finished. I need to buy a few old picture frames. I am still working on getting a photo to use for one project, and a friend of mine is going to photograph some other drawings I made so I can make a note card set for the last project.

Speaking of photographs, I think the magazine photo issue has been resolved. It looks like it's happening and that's pretty exciting. The down side is they are looking for stock photographs & I'm not getting a lot out of the deal. Compromises I guess.

Hopefully lots of photos to post soon. I've been too tired to go through my beach photos & I'm like a frame away from bringing in 5 rolls of film to Lomography to get developed. I'm super excited to see those!

Autolux

Even though I liked Autolux's music when their album was released a few years ago, I somehow managed to live in my bubble where I didn't know about or get to see them at any of there apparently many concerts. Okay, I probably knew about a few of them, but still. I didn't pass up this opportunity though & I'm glad I didn't. I really like them as a band, and I do have to admit I am just a bit jealous that the drummer, Carla did get to perform on the last PJ Harvey / John Parish album. That's pretty fucking awesome.

The Soft Moon opened and as they started I remember thinking to myself this could go really well or really wrong. I liked the video projection behind them. I liked the music at first but then it just didn't go anywhere. The vocals really let me down. It felt lazy. When there were vocals, and there weren't many it felt like, it was all reverb and monotone. There was nothing interesting about it. I got bored of it fast. It reminded me a little of a band I had seen before except not as good. Not nearly as good. So, I guess I'm not a fan of The Soft Moon. It was a disappointment. If they put any effort into their vocals I think they could be amazing. As it is now, I opted to stop paying attention to them for a drink & a seat not facing the stage.

Autolux, however, was fun and I was in a super good mood that night. I love how all 3 of them take turns singing songs. That's pretty awesome. They're really good live. Their music is really chill, hanging out in your living room type music, so it's interesting seeing them in concert. No complaints here.

http://www.autolux.net/
www.myspace.com/thesoftmoon

Rocky & Matt

I haven't been in much a writing mood lately but I do have to say a big wow & thank you to all the Keanu fans out there for checking out my blog. My blog counter went crazy after I wrote about the book signing.

I went out to see Rocky Votolato & Matt Pond last weekend. Great show although I felt like Rocky was rushing through his songs. My friend noticed it as well & we figured since he didn't go on until 10 o'clock, he wanted to fit as much into that hour as possible. I felt he was actually playing his songs faster too and ad-libbing a bit to his lyrics. They felt a little rushed & that really took away some of the beauty of them for me. I can't deny they're still good songs & he's a great musician. He also performed some new songs & is currently writing a new record. Matt Pond & Rocky Votolato are currently on tour through April 1st.

http://www.rockyvotolato.com/
http://www.mattpondpa.com/

Life is getting busy again. I've had some work, finished my taxes, been spending a lot of time helping a friend move and trying to get back into doing some art projects. Autolux concert and book club to come this weekend. There is a possibility of one of my photos being on a magazine cover which is really exciting. Getting back to editing my film next week & of course, my car needs to be repaired. Oh the joys of life!

In The Trees

On Saturday night I popped by the reception for the Twin Peaks 20th Anniversary art show at Clifton's Brookdale Cafeteria. I've been to Clifton's a couple times and I wasn't terribly impressed with their food (I have been known to be a picky eater), but the atmosphere of the place is great. Much like being up at the Great Northern, it really does set the tone for a Twin Peaks event. I didn't get names of all the artists, but here are some items I found really interesting.

A photo of the floor & the curtain I took, seemed like an interesting composition.

Above by Grace Zabriskie

Above by Margaret Meyer "The Owls Are Not What They Seem"

Above by David Lynch

Above by David Lynch

Above by Ryan Heshka "Wow Bob Wow / Coffee Coffee"

http://inthetreesartpreview.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/DAVID_LYNCH

Art & Keanu Reeves

Yes, it's true. I went with my Keanu Reeves loving friends to go to his book signing at LACMA. That was the first thing that popped in my head when I was told about the event. A book signing? Turns out, Keanu Reeves has released an art book with artist Alexandra Grant called Ode to Happiness. We weren't sure what it'd be like, but we of course had to go. Buying the book wasn't required to sit in on the Q&A session but I did end up buying one. Even for the arts, I think the book is way overpriced, especially for content. It's a cool book, don't get me wrong & I love the way it was put together, but it seriously cost some money. We all got our books signed so that's pretty cool, and hearing the back story to how the book was made really helped me like the book more.

Image: © Alexandra Grant

So apparently it all started out when Keanu Reeves was at a friend's party. As he's noticing that his friends are listening to sad music, he begins to jokingly doodle on a napkin, writing a poem that starts, I draw a hot sorrow bath in my despair room. The friend ends up emailing the poem to an artist friend, Alexandra Grant, who then creates some images to go along with his poem. The two make a book for Keanu (on green paper), and gift it to him to make him laugh. After many requests and interest for the book, they decide to publish it. The publisher, Gerhard Steidl was also at the book signing & as he spoke about the process you can tell he is a man very passionate about art. Overall the book reads as an adult's children's book, but even with the sad context, you get that feeling that it's all very tongue in cheek, funny and sweet.

My friends and I enjoyed the museum for a bit as well, although Katie was hilariously sticking to the room where Keanu was signing books until he left. Fortunately for her and Heather, we got to see him again as we happen to be walking up the street and out he comes from the side entrance of the museum with everyone. On a side note, Alexandra Grant was a very happy, glowing & beautiful woman.

Above, some of Jeff Koons' work. I find a lot of his stuff ridiculous but who knows what pop art is really. I do however, love these pieces. I saw his exhibit when I went to Versailles. That was a really strange thing. The giant dog makes me happy every time though.

We of course spent some time hanging out around the lamp posts. I am not that happy with the photos I got, but I'm not really sure what I was expecting.

http://www.alexandragrant.com/
http://www.lacma.org/