Tuesday, June 24, 2008

tough choices

What does it mean to choose a life of art when success is impossibly out of reach? What kind of person does that? Selfish? Delusional? Or someone who just knows? How can you tell the difference?

I was reading about a woman who gave up a successful law practice to write her first novel. Twelve years later her debut novel was released to Critical Success. So how long do I give myself? Ten years? Five? How about now? Can I have it now?

mothers, lock up your sons

Cousin Angel is in town, visiting from Chicago. He was in San Francisco for another cousin's wedding, then down here to lock down a venue and confirm details for bringing his hit play, Nunsense, to Los Angeles in September.

Much like me, Cousin Angel seems to have gotten a lot of his ya-yas out. But then again, he's full of surprises. I don't know if he's going to be seducing another one of my friends into playing for the other team, if we'll end up drunk in a gay karaoke bar on Lankershim, or if he's going to have sex on my roof again, but we'll be starting the festivities around 8pm tonight at Banquette.

Monday, June 16, 2008

a mime, a breakdancer and a trombone player walk into a bar...

My husband Jim and I were talking to our business partner/brother-in-law James Adams the other day about the July Downtown Art Walk and how we'd still like to participate despite our lack of dedicated gallery space (we'll be getting the space ready for our store's grand opening in August, and our two other exhibits at the PE Lofts come down on June 22nd and revert to other Phantom Gallery LA exhibits) .

I missed the past art walk where someone parked a truck, with art hanging inside, on the street during art walk where it functioned as a temporary gallery. Ideas like that were thrown around, but nothing appealed to us. Oh yeah, there was another problem - James (our jet-set curator) will be in Peru and Argentina during the entire month of July.

My solution? Performance art.

I don't mean Annie Sprinkle, more like Improv Everywhere.

We (Jim, James and I) don't let the each other live down forget that someone else ago, we were once a breakdancer, a trombone player, and a mime. You can guess what I once was, but I will neither confirm nor deny.

So the suggestion was made that the ex-breakdancer perform a set at the corner of 5th and Main during the July Art Walk. Then $100 was offered to the mime to perform the "walking into the wind" or the "can't get out of the box" bit between the hours of 6-9pm, right in front of Bert Green Fine Art or Pharmaka.

My husband, however, has other ideas. I don't think people realize just how funny Jim is.

Any suggestions?

Monday, June 09, 2008

playing catch-up

I realize I've cheated you. A lot has happened between January 10th and May 30th and we need to do some catching up:

  • Jim and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary in January. Couldn't be happier.

  • I got my hair cut. It's short. I liked it a lot, but now I think I'm bored with it and want to try something new again.

  • Wonton was fixed and was a grumpy conehead for a while. But then in April we celebrated his first birthday with a party at The LoftyDog's new space at the Barker Block. Good times. Most recently, he underwent eye surgery to kill off the hairs that were growing inside his eye and poking his eyeballs. Post-surgery he looked like he'd been punched in both eyes, but it was successful and he's recovering nicely.

  • I finished that screenplay that I had been working on since Jim and I were first engaged, and now I'm halfway through another. I've got a July 1st deadline on this one and then I start outlining the next screenplay, which is based in present-day downtown Los Angeles. Are you ready for your close-up, Historic Core?

  • I'm taking a film financing/producing class at UCLA Extension on Wednesday nights. My producer is teaching the class and he's amazing. Last semester his class was filled with entertainment attorneys (a partner from my attorney's firm took the class), this semester, not so much. But the case studies and his insights are incredibly helpful. I think I learn more when he veers off-topic.

  • Jim and I had both been volunteering a lot of our time to the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, but we've really stepped back from that. We both put in a lot of time, a lot of energy, and because of the leadership we didn't feel like it was a good use of our time to continue. You can read a little bit more in the comments section of this blogdowntown post. It's quite the kerfluffle. I'll continue to support worthwhile activities and volunteer for specific projects, but mostly I hope that the upcoming elections bring about a drastic change in the leadership so that we can remain involved and active in our community.
  • You've probably heard about Raw Materials and Winstead Adams Projects, our new venture with my brother-in-law James. That's been keeping me very busy, but I'm amazed at how much I'm digging the work. Maybe because I'm spending more time talking to artists than I thought I would. Have you come to see any of our shows? We'll be open for this month's Downtown Art Walk (we're a sponsor!), which is this Thursday. Stop by and say hi if you're in the neighborhood, and take a look at some amazing works of art.


  • I know I'm leaving out a lot of stuff, but I'll probably blog about stuff as I remember. And I promise I won't let that much time go between posts again.