Sat night at the Getty

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Woah, I am not feeling my writing vibe today:
nice sunset in the staff quarters (for quietness sake), cheese, bread and trimmings for dinner overlooking the west side of town, fog rolling in and the night sky looking somewhat like a Aorora Borealis, fine company and fine art...

Art Walk Pics

BUSTED!! (Nov 15)

Mid November in LA, it is 20 degrees above average and the fires are raging. As we are nearing downtown, we can see the thick cloud of smoke rising above Orange County.
Brentt and I are on the way to Linkoln Park’s largest thrift store to meet up with Michael and Amy who have been protesting the passing of a controversial proposition of the last presidential election.
After shouting things like: “Hey hey, ho ho, that bigotry has got to go” for the past two hours they are now ready for retail therapy. Michael needs shirts and I am glad to provide second hand guidance, he is a first timer and this is my territory.
Three hours, two thrift stores, three shirts and a pair of pants later we are back home for pasta dinner and a chill out before heading out into LA underground night life.

Downtown LA is littered with warehouses, perfect venues for noisy after hour parties. Tonight’s is an old time favorite with the trio, not so much for the music but for the people and the vibe they bring.
I say: “Music super cheesy but quirkyness levels of attendees unsurpassed. Entertainment value: excellent”.
Myke says: “Music awesome but pretentious “Burner” vibe puts downspin on fun”.
Just goes to show, flavors are a matter of taste.
The four of us get there just in time for the party to liven up. We find hiding spots for our coats, go to the bathroom, look at the two huge snakes in the terrarium under the bar and start dancing… blinded by the bright ceiling lights that just went on when the music went off and about 10 police officers start walking around telling everyone to clear out.
Ah well, if you charge a bunch of costumed hip(pies)ters to get into a warehouse without liquor license intending to serve such up to all illegal hours you gotta count on being busted as one possible outcome…
Not tired we head to my old hood for a night time walk with view of down town.
Back at home, we relax in the kitchen with some chai and good talking until finally, tiredness sets in...

Sunday serves a lovely scrambled egg breakfast, well Britta does, a lot of coffee and more sitting around, this time in the shaded beautiful yard.
Conversation topics range far and include world politics, depression, sickness and disease, the meaning of life
and
an actual interview for the position of mini Asian:
The interviewers Dr. Spiegelman, Prof. Newman and Ms Daudert are impressed by the ambition and determination of the interviewee, Ms Goodwin. She proves to have recent experience in racial portrayal, taking on the task of being Mexican for a summer. She also willing to look hungrily at passing dogs and train hard to start hating carrots and mushrooms.
The panel decided to offer a temporary internship to the candidate with a re-evaluation for a full-time position of Brit-Nerd, scheduled at the time of return of the real( and really irreplaceable) mini Asian.

Downtown Art Walk

This past Thursday we decided to go to the art walk downtown. We (Ayren, Eric, Cassanna, Lindha, Souri, Britta, Susanne, Amy [our English Lizette replacement] and I ) met at Susanne's place downtown, had wine and cheese and then set off to the art walk, which is just a short walk from Susanne's loft, with Brentt meeting us along the way. Amazingly enough, when we got there, the streets were PACKED, and with hipsters rather than homeless people. We meandered among the streets, darting into different galleries and cafes to check out the art, and being entertained by singing drag queens in one of the spaces (and they were pretty talented!).

The best thing we found was a table set with marshmellows, chocolate sauce, strawberries and bananas. You could eat the food with a camera trained on you that projected your mouth eating up on a big screen so everyone could watch. Britta and Amy volunteered me to do it, so I obliged. I'm sure it was incredibly SEXY!!!

After the art walk we wandered back to Susanne's and ate a tasty yet random dinner of Chinese food, Ayren's famous pasta salad, tasty German cookies and other delightful things, accompanied by more wine. We hung out for a bit more, then escorted Britta back to her car through a thicket of homeless men, and headed home.

A nothing weekend

A Speegly needed cheering up after an extremely rough week at work, a social hike and a dinner were canceled and a Britta supered her way out to the west side for some irratable jew handling on Saturday afternoon.
Finally, the Jew could retaliate and pay back with some prime moodiness and the German was ready to be at the receiving end for once after all those friends-to-the-rescue-when-Britta-in-mess moments of the last year.
So, the German and the Jew spend one of the most uneventful weekends together. In the words of the Spiegel:

"So as far as I can remember, here's what we did this weekend: ate an overly expensive dinner and breakfast, got mild food poisoning, drank wine, didn't get enough sleep and sat around watching television. And yet somehow I had a lot of fun. It's great that we can go out to party together and have a great time, but in a way it's even better that we can do absolutely nothing and STILL have a really good time. "
...
Sometimes doing nothing is doing all...

Dia de los muertos

It's Halloween weekend.
It's raining, raining buckets, finally.
Brentt, Myke, Bones and I are sitting in the car at the trail head trying to decide whether to wimp out or get soaked. We go for option two and start our hike up Bailey Canyon. It's gorgeous, with views onto downtown, century city and even the ocean when the sun decides to poke a weary ray through the thick carpet of clouds to reflect on the water for a second.

Thai noodles for dinner, quick snooze on the sofa for Myke and we are off to Hollywood to honor the dead in a Mexican fashion.



“… is a holiday celebrated mainly in Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage (and others) living in the United States and Canada The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and relatives who have died…”

The venue is the Hollywood forever cemetery,
“…the final resting place to more of Hollywood’s founders and stars than anywhere else on earth. Founded in 1899, the cemetery was an integral part of the growth of early Hollywood. Paramount Studios was built on the back half of the original Hollywood Cemetery, where the studio is still in operation today.”

Getting there is a bitch because it is Hollywood. Parking there is a bigger bitch because it is Hollywood. And if you happen to be vegetarian like Myke, the biggest bitch is walking Santa Monica Blvd towards the cemetery gate because it is a Mexican holiday. As such, naturally, it calls for Hispanic street vendors, tightly packed along the side walk, one after the next, desperately trying to sell their dried up Mexican hot dogs. And if it’s not smelly hot dogs, it’s glow sticks and even pacifiers. What are rave toys doing at a grave yard party??
Anyway, the line into the cemetery is moving fast and for $5 you get to see a whole load of private, mostly very intricately build and involved altars, a bunch of latin shows on various stages throughout the park, street parades with weirdly costumed dancers and, a regular at any public event: vending, a lot of it, too.
It’s always about shopping. Shopping and eating.
Well, there is the cemetery to look at. If you go, find Johnny Ramones grave.
It is so cheesy as to reverse back to cool…

Primordial Grooves 10-25

The magic …

…is the Mojave desert on a cloudless night followed by a cloudless day, separated by a spectacular sunrise. If you looked carefully, you could see any shade of color ever seen in a sunrise.

And, let’s not forget about the meteor shower and the beautiful and very yellow sickle moon rising at 4:24 am according to David (I just hope I got this time right)!

The magicians

I’ll cover my bases first (as if I had any): if I forget to mention anybody/thing mentionable, please forgive me (reminder: memory= flimsy). I will accept strongly worded letters starting tomorrow for a limited time only.

Andrew, Armando, Gabriel: “It was so good, even Britta liked it”. Thank you for the music, the line-up, even more, the line-up timing. You are awesome! I’ll always be your super-groupie unless you stop having fun. Which you never will.

Treavor, I heard about the mt times when the dj managed to drop just at the time when the first ray touches your face. Couldn’t have been a better time for me to see it!

I am gonna stop naming names here and just say to all others: thanks for awesome music, I danced my a… off.

Rob, as always, Mr.VJ-tastic. That was quite an impressive show!

I was thinking of a DJ booth in the car, I came to find Greensector’s decos, shade, tikis and even some

stallagtites disguised as penises!!

Next thing I’ll do is get some extra $$ out of the bank because these guys did not even break even.

The audience

Well behaved, well rounded, well everything! What more can I say other then:

You are amazing. Thank you all for taking me away, letting me let loose and finally get things in perspective again.

It’s not only the desert, it’s really mainly you all being out there being yourselves. The desert is dessert, you are the main course!

Wow, hold on, this is me being cheesy, scary?

But, …

… 10 minus point for not bringing a hatchet to crack the breakfast coconut!!!

What a crime. Pretty much ruined my weekend. Thanks for nothing duuudes J