favorite video

if i had one wish now for my echo parck life, it would be that my friend manny marquez could be HUGELY recognized for his directorial work on this AMAZING music video: ferraby lionheart's small planet. whether intentional or not, i see 'le petit prince' all over the intro, and i love it. plus, i love the modern touch of the beautiful heroine sporting a page-boy haircut (how sweet is the tree scene?). the last segments were shot on the grounds where i first met manny and his girlfriend, leigh; elysian park, last july 4th. like it as much as i do, won't you?

happy holidays: the original

(we actually had our first happy holidays session at marc jacobs in l.a. over thanksgiving) our original session finds me on a date with a toy soldier and jeanie hanging out with her angelic pal the sugar plum fairy. cut to the second shot and they are not as sweet as they appear, huh?
suddenly jeanie decides she wants to drive the swan boat and all holiday hell breaks loose.
i decide that pointing is my best option.
are we happy? are we scared? are we sexy? who knows (but that shirt sure makes me look like the toy soldier may have knocked me up).

this was so much fun! when we went to look for the images on the m.j. website they were lost. so when i returned nyc last week we had to go and try to recreate the magic. as you can see below the nyc marc jacobs peeps weren't as uninhibited as the l.a, ones. thankfully, today the l.a. photo people called me, tracked the lost images and sent them my way. merry christmas to me!!

if you insist on knowing my bliss

so, last sunday i'm driving past the hollywood bowl and i see that hall & oates are playing soon and i think "i would LOVE to see them!! who can i sucker into getting tickets with me?' well, the very next day, less than 24 hours later, i get a message from my young friend paul saying that he has one extra ticket to hall & oates and do i want it. you could have knocked me over with a feather! so i texted back HELLS YES! (to appeal to his 23-year-old sensibilities) and a very genuine THANK YOU!!

the show was last night and it was so much fun! i got to check off two major accomplishments at once: seeing hall & oates for the first time and going to the hollyowood bowl for the first time. they were playing so many hits i was getting confused over which one was my REAL favorite (it's a hard toss-up between 'i can't go for that.' 'maneater,' 'you make my dreams come true and 'say it isn't so'). there was a general hipster uproar at the end though because they didn't perform 'private eyes.' they didn't encore either and their finale was a cover of 'me and mrs. jones' which was all very suspect. regardless, it was an amazing night for me. hall & oates, i hope everything is ok with you two. was it because i ended up not buying the t-shirt that said 'maneater'?

hot rah

other than going to different labor day get-togethers, this is what the beasts and i have been doing all weekend...
we're on about what feels like our gajillionth day in the 100 degree temp mark. for the first time in years i don't have a.c. "you don't need it here." i was told when i bought this place. this week you need it here! i'm noticing that even the places that have a.c. are still very hot. my place looks like a war zone. it's too swealtering to do anything other than sit in front of a fan that blows warm air on you. i've been catching up on my reading, but even that makes me sweat. there is comfort at night when the sun goes down and it cools off to about 85.

last night when i was doing my nightly routine of putting all the shades down to ward off the following day's heat, i saw this guy hanging out outside of my office window. it's a possum right? he looks much cuter than the possums we had in virginia.

here is some trivia: on this date back in 1991, my friend cindy and i drove cross country from virginia beach, va to los angeles, ca. she's been here ever since. i stayed for a year and a half, then went back to richmond for two years and then on sept 5, 1995 (only two days away) moved to new york city for the next 11 years.

ok, now i'm off to cindy's to bask in her beautiful a.c.

sunday, sunday, sunday

i LOVE felt club and am volunteering for their xl summer craft fair this sunday (july 15) at the ukranian cultural center - 4315 MELROSE AVE, LA CA 90029. tons of amazing vendors will be selling their one-of-a-kind goods and there will be gift bags for the first 250 patrons - who doesn't love a free gift bag of cool shit?! plus, i will be handing out said gift bags from 11-3, so come see me (wait, do i even have l.a. readers?) and get inspired to make or buy some cool stuff! i'm hoping that by this time next year, i'm actually a vendor myself...

why i've been a bad blogger

his name is serge. bonjour serge!


her name is jenny. his name is daron. they're all pretty cute, huh?

jenny, daron and serge are three of my favorite people (yes dogs are people too) and i'm lucky that they have been in l.a. for the last two weeks renting an amazing house in the silver lake hills, minutes away from me! jenny is working on her kick ass novel and daron is sizing up the city to see if he should rent studio space for his business black iris, a company that composes music for commercials. i want them to stay so we can all be the happy friend-family we were back in brooklyn. i'm sure i will write more when they head back to n.y.c. on tuesday, but until then...

it's official: i'm a registered voter and licesenced driver in the state of california!

so get this laid back l.a. story: i went to the dmv today to get my california driver's license, a year too late, and everything is flowing smoothly. i pay $27, ask the guy how much time i have to study before i take the test, he says 45 minutes and so i go sit down to read over my california driving booklet.

as i 'm reading, people are departing the testing room and meeting up with their friends/significant others post exam (i forgot that people do that for you. how nice!!). one guy who met up with a girl sitting behind me burst out with 'it was hard! and, i mean, i've been driving since the 70's!' so i got SUPER paranoid that i was not going to pass (did i mention that back in 1992 i failed my ca drivers test and had to go back and take it again?) that only added to the current anxiety of the situation. plus the guy who said that had long blonde hair, which can only lead an anxious person to believe that he is a native californian- so if it was hard for him, it's gonna suck for me!

then... out of the blue... came this long, dark haired savior who asked 'do you want these?' and in her hand were two failed written tests with the correct answers. well, the goodie-goodie in me wanted them, but had to ask 'isn't this considered cheating?' the brunette (by the way, brunettes are the real angels here, since everyone here is fake blonde, including me, so she gets major BONUS points for just being a good egg) looks at the dmv person who is manning the testing room and asks if it's ok to give me her failed tests. miss dmv says 'you are only cheating if you bring them or the booklet into the testing room.' ok, can't really understand that and can't really argue with it either. so i peruse both tests, go into the testing area and, sure enough, i am handed one of the exact tests dark angel gave me. i think i was done in 5 minutes max and i got an A+ (aka 100%)!! i did not learn anything other than; maybe cheatin' ain't cheatin' here in california! thanks kind savior! hope i can pass on the same good karma soon...

p.s. my license will look NOTHING like this.

a beautiful day in the neighborhood

here is a picture from my birthday party at cha cha. in silver lake. clockwise from top: jeanie, me, paula and bettina. i love how all of the major haircolors are represented here (again clockwise from top): red, blonde, black, brown. jeanie is always very good at documenting her trips to visit me. she took many pictures of neighborhood things i have said i was going to photograph, and never have, such as...

this murial by the artist shepard fairey.

here is a murial of chickens in love!! down the street is another chicken murial too. i like them!

this is the park of echo park. i've started walking around it to get a little exercise and to see the ducks and the downtown skyline. one day, god as my witness, i promise i will paddle boat!

and finally this is my new home. sorry, i'm joking! i wish it was though. one day... i love walking past this place though. beside it is a blue victorian home that has been sanctioned into apartments similar to this. the two together remind me of san francisco. thanks for taking all these great pictures jeanie!!

april showers bring nyc flowers

so many great visitors from new york city for me!!!
this is a picture of me and my sweet friend jin, who was in town for a bunch of ascap events last week. jin has worked in their marketing department for the last four years and recently gave her notice so she could concentrate on a band she manages, dirty on purpose, and her business on the moon music. she also has a rocking blog, jinners, about all things music. i met her when she interned at ew.com YEARS ago and we have been friends and sisters ever since. on this night we drank a lot at the roosevelt hotel and ended up back in her hotel room listening to a techno song with barbara streisand cussing in it over and over and over and over again. good times!!!

right after she left, her boyfriend mike showed up!! he was in town for a couple of days before heading out to coachella to get the party started, seriously. he works for filter magazine and they had an opening night soiree that he and his buddies had to set up! i kept meeting up with everyone in dark places. we're in the derby here and he is holding a candle and his cell phone up to help me get this shot!! thanks mike!

this is just an old picture i love of jin from our brooklyn days when she lived next door and we would spend days on end together, eating, talking, watching back to back episodes of the chapelle show, drinking makers and stella, walking strange dogs and cat hugging!! here she is hugging prudie!! now she has her own cat ziggy who i'm sure she hugs a bunch! thanks for the visit friends!! miss you already!

brian's song

my good friend brian, seen here in my new place by my tulips, is visiting from new york city for a week and a half to do some research for a book he is writing on karaoke. brian is an amazingly smart and funny writer, having penned stories for such rags as ew, gq, spin and now as the head honcho over at idolator. he also has a blog about, you guessed it, karaoke. last night we met at a place called guy's bar in west hollywood for their tuesday night karaoke party (hosted by a nice girl named bowie, who we thought looked like kirsten dunst in 10 years with a 2 pack a day habit) and following are the blurry masterpieces of what we witnessed (you can click on each image for even bigger blurry goodness!):


this guys would do anything for love (but he won't do that).


these sassy pals got up and sang 'lady marmalade' and then joined this white rapper for a rendition of that song that goes 'i like BIG butts and i can not lie!'


these boys performed the who's 'teenage wasteland' ooops, i mean 'baba o'riley' (remember that great scene from 'freaks and geeks?'). they hammed it up for me when they were done, not realizing my camera-phone was capable of NOTHING detail-wise!! sorry boys, but thanks for the sexy posturing (speaking of sexy, i don't mean to be crude but when you click on this image and look at the boy to the left, do you see what i see?)!


this motley crew sang 'freedom' by george michael and included none other than former ew employee caroline kepnes who moved out to los angeles three years ago. what a surprise running into her! even though she said she wasn't going to sing anywhere but on the couch, by the time i took this picture she was on stage belting out her third pop hit.

the whole reason i was taking bad pictures was in anticipation of seeing brian in action and capturing it for this here blog, but brian was busy taking notes like a karaoke super-sleuth in probably the tiniest notebook ever. sadly he noted that he had lost his will to sing that night. but brian, karaoke is what you do best in your world of doing things very well!! please get your song back. PLEASE! i guess we'll see what happens this friday at 'the world famous' caffe brass monkey...


FOLLOW UP: brian did a kick ass version of flagpole sitta by harvey danger (why can't you buy this song on itunes?? grrr!) that brought the house down! it even brought him a piece of cake from the birthday party going on beside us! amazing! oh god... oh no... now i hazily remember another karaoke venue that night where i believe i sang 'heart of glass' by myself (pictures don't lie) and then forced brian to duet on 'scrubs' by tlc followed by anything hall and oates, so i could be hall (because i'm blonde and taller) and he could be oates (because he's brunette and a sliver shorter). oh yikes, so sorry brian, but i do remember you got sweet revenge by joking me for ordering a chardonnay at a koreatown karaoke venue and then we boldy 'karaoked and dashed' after 20 minutes because the venue wasn't up to par (i'm still afraid to look at my online checking balance in case they overcharged me for the offense!). wrapping up (i totally 'borrowed' this picture from his site), thanks for the visit buddy and for all of the karaoke exposure. according to b-raf i'm what is known in karaoke circles as a 'flipper' because i like to see what is available to sing even though i'm not planning on singing. can't wait to see you again in august at your wedding in vermont to the equally amazing jenny!

it's official: i'm a home-o!!

ok, i 'borrowed' that phrase from my very funny friend margaret...


my new home's kitchen (i may have mentioned it...)
so here is the new kitchen (blurrier than i'd like), or one side of it (note my forehead's reflection in the microwave). the opposite side contains the sink, the dishwasher and more cabinets. i think i've done about 8 loads of dishes since i moved in on saturday. it is so nice to be able to unpack dishes, load them in the dishwasher and have them squeaky clean and ready to put away. i think i've done 2 loads of laundry a day since i moved in too! don't worry, i'm using all of this water at night, like a responsible homeowner!


this doesn't do the cuteness justice.
when you wander up the walkway to my front door this white picket fence and amazing green and purple foliage is to your left. doesn't it look like a pathway to a french country farmhouse? i keep waiting for a chicken or a duck to run past me every day when i get home. that is my old school, classic, white mailbox right there. wait a minute, what is that gross black thing on it??? gotta fix that tomorrow...


first project: redo this crap
my closets i think contained the original shelves and garment rods from the 70's. both closets looked so warped and brittle that i was afraid to really hang anything substantial in them. so my first big project was to run to home depot for new closet interiors. the ones i bought seemed like they were top of the line (but still reasonable) and appeared easy to install (even the guy in the checkout line with me said so). but i was in way over my head!! you can put these together by yourself but you really shouldn't. one of the shelves buckled on me and almost ripped the nails out, i had to redo each of the rods twice and i sprained my index finger!! i did a lot of screaming and cussing (sorry kids playing next door who could probably hear me). i have officially become a pro with my power drill though and my new favorite tool/toy is my mallet!! works twice as hard and is 1,000 times quieter than a hammer.


new closet!!!
can you tell that the closet has a shelved middle with three separate garment rods extending from it? i couldn't take a picture of the whole unit because the sliding doors were in the way. these images exhibit my 'talented' photoshop inset skills, a photo feature i put to use on a regular basis at work but am premiering on the blog tonight!! i strategically placed the oval over a pair of shoes i'm embarrassed i own.


view from the driveway.
i leave you with my view of downtown. again, this image doesn't do it justice. mostly because all of those wires (lots of wires) and that ugly apartment building are in the way. at night you can't see them. just lights. pretty, pretty lights.

three little pictures

patio!!

so i went back over to the condo, which i now believe is actually a bungalow (because it is simply three cute spanish style/cottage living spaces side by side), to meet with a mold inspector (minimal mold, nothing toxic to worry about) and tried to take more pictures and this is the only one i even remotely liked. the kitchen is my favorite room, but for some reason all of the pictures came out blurry. maybe because i get so happy about having a sweet-ass newly remodeled kitchen with stainless steel appliances that i am jumping for joy when i take the shot and don't realize it...


credit: ©Joshua White

this is an image from the event i participated in for my friend bettina hubby, an amazing artist who refashions individual pieces of clothing under the label hubby. the girls in the picture with me are tomi and sarah (they were way less camera shy than i was if you can't tell). the event was on march 1 and we were instructed to wear all black with different colored shoes and then to wear assorted jackets and sweaters that bettina had hand crafted. well, you know me, i started drinking and then started playing dress-up like nobody's business. when i look at this picture all i see are my big silver-shoed feet. i don't know how i feel about those shoes anymore. they seemed like a good idea at the time but now i just feel like a clown called and, yes, she needs her shoes back...


yes, it's sara the cat again.

i'm going to leave you with this picture of sara with her head wedged up a lampshade. she really likes to do this these days and i don't know why. maybe she's cold? or she's threatening to catch her fur on fire if i don't pay attention to her?


i really wanted to post pics of my two dear friends margaret and cindy tonight. both have had stays in the hospital within the last week and more than anything i want them to get better. i don't have anything recent of either of them. when i get back from new york city next weekend i'm going to make sure i take thousands of pictures of the two.

you asked for it

my new living room.

here is the only picture i have of the home i am buying. i meant to take more but became overwhelmed with all of the information the inspector was giving me. the furniture isn't mine but the floors and walls and ceiling (that burst of light is coming from the sky light) are!! i do like the slate tiled floors, especially since there is no a.c. hopefully it will keep the place nice and cool in 90+ degree summer heat. i'm not sure how i feel about the wall color, as a matter of fact i know how i feel. first project - paint the walls! hopefully i will have more images to share with you soon.

p.s. in the spirit of cataloguing work stuff is a review i did on the sebadoh show at spaceland in l.a. last saturday. thanks gary for letting me muse on my love for the lo-fi 90's!

p.s.s. speaking of love, have you noticed that volvo is using the song let's go by the feelies for it's new campaign?? why won't itunes let me buy this as a single? grrrrrr. i love the lo-fi 80's too!