After spending most of the weekend driving up and down half the state of California, trekking through the Grapevine to wine country and up and down the curvy coast, I couldn’t help but think of the quote above from artist Anri Sala that I read in this article in Frieze Magazine a while back. Sala’s work deals with the crossovers between sound and space and time. He says, “What I call a place is where one remembers having been, which is not only made of space but also of time.” Read more about Anri Sala and his ideas HERE.

I feel so lucky to have met the talented and very sweet Angela Denny.  She is multi-faceted and has impressed me with her creative skills from the most endearing watercolors to sewing projects.  She works at shabby chic as a designer too! She has a blog – Bonne Chance – that features fortune cookie fortunes, projects and ideas.  Her heart is huge and we really adore Angie!

Tell us some of your current obsessions.  Recently I have re-acquainted myself with my sewing skills and have been sewing one project every weekend. I get obsessed with picking the right pattern and fabric to use. I love buying vintage patterns on ebay! I am always obsessed with vintage bicycles.

Tell us a story from your childhood. I lived in Virginia for a year when I was about 5 and I have very nice summer memories of catching butterflies in a field and fireflies by a lake, it was quite magical.

What are some of your daydreams? I daydream about sewing  mostly, what I am going to make next, what fabric I will use.  I love to daydream about traveling to far off places!

What is something you recently heard or saw that has stuck with you? I am a big Beastie Boys fan, and I am super sad that MCA , Adam Youch passed away. He was such a sensitive spirit and wrote some very beautiful songs.

What are some of your favorite LA spots? My boyfriend Will and I love to eat at Elf in Echo Park and go to the Cheese Store in Silverlake.  Cafe de Leche in Highland Park is a favorite for their horchata lattes!!  I enjoy fabric shopping dowtown in the garment district, near 9th st.

Thank you so much Angie!

Blog / Work / Listen to this!

I thought these words from Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur (which is a great read, by the way) were fitting for today since Stefani and I are heading to Big Sur this weekend to celebrate the wedding of two of our friends!

I wish you all weekends full of love and beautiful sights. See you next week!

Even though it is a wives tale that these bugs are searching out your inner ear for their next home, I can’t help but feeling a little ugh when I see one.  Plus those pincers!  The other day in the beautful early afternoon light, I took a good look through my macro lens at an earwig and found it to be quite fascinating. First, the sheen of it’s body is mesmerizing, with colors that remind me of industrial materials. Secondly, those pincers… they look like hand crafted jewelry.

One crazy fact about earwigs is that they can fly – right into your ear… just kidding! But while we’re on the subject, guess which insect is most commonly found in human’s ears?  The cockroach. Oof.

Khan’s Worm

(This post was “sponsored” by my husband - meaning he suggested the topic.)

The Planets is a 7 part orchestral piece by Gustav Holst written between 1914 – 1916. Holst interpreted each planet in the piece (except for Earth) astrologically instead of celestially. Each movement is intended to convey ideas and emotions that he associated with the influence of the planets on the psyche. He referred to this piece as ”a series of mood pictures.” and considered it to be a representation of the progression of life.

The 7 suites include:
- Mars, the Bringer of War
- Venus, the Bringer of Peace
- Mercury, the Winged Messenger
- Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
- Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
- Uranus, the Magician
- Neptune, the Mystic

End note:

Holst never wrote another piece like The Planets again. He hated its popularity. When people would ask for his autograph, he gave them a typed sheet of paper that stated that he didn’t give out autographs. The public seemed to demand of him more music like The Planets, and his later music seemed to disappoint them. In fact, after writing the piece, he swore off his belief in astrology, though until the end of his life he cast his friends horoscopes. (SOURCE)

Read more about the piece HERE. Listen to it HERE.

Major swoon at the Neutra VDL house over on Silver Lake Boulevard.  Oh man! I highly suggest taking the tour ($10.00) and spending some quality time checking out the space.  It has left a lasting impression and a strong desire to think more about and incorporate sun louvers, water roofs, “nature-near”, and physiologically motivated design into my life.  Two things that I want to show you are the dreamy sun streaming in the window onto the bed, and the tree in the backyard/middle space.

Mrs. Dione Neutra wrote her impressions after living in the new house in June 1970, shortly after Richard Neutra’s death:

“Only those, who have lived in a Neutra House, would ever understand how wonderful the daily satisfactions and delights are and how much this experience helps to augment the joy of living. This is especially the case in this house, which is built on three levels. With the many glass surfaces, mirrors, pools that reflect trees and flowers, every step from room to room, stairway up and down, is an aesthetic and artist experience, which I have the good fortune to enjoy, while I move about the house and watch the changing weather. I credit much of this satisfaction to the detailed efforts of my son, Dion, who spent the better part of two years in daily supervision and design of the rebuilt version of this house, which has so many enrichments in comparison to its predecessor of the early ‘30s. I have been asked whether I would not like to live out my last years in my hometown of Zurich. No, I don’t think I would, even if I could transplant this house; the climate is simply too bad in Europe in comparison with the one here, despite occasional smog. I have a marvelous music room here with the excellent grand piano on which my father played for 70 years…”

From the website:

The house is open to the public without appointment on Most Saturdays from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. See dates when we are closed below, otherwise we are open – there is no need to call. Last tour starts at 2:30pm. Tours are approximately 30 minutes, and are given by architecture students from Cal Poly Pomona.

I stumbled across Elizabeth Atterbury’s artwork through an internet rabbit hole recently and happily clicked away on the different projects on her website. I was particularly drawn to her photographs and her erased lithographs, more of which can be seen HERE. Here is Elizabeth telling us a bit about herself.

Hi Elizabeth! Name 3 things that are currently of interest to you. Mono-ha, paintings, tennis.

What are you currently working on? Studio compositions (2 and 3 dimensional arrangements made to be photographed) and photograms. Mostly black and white.

Tell us about something you treasure (person, place, thing, animal or idea)? Richmond Island. 226 acres of paradise off the coast of Cape Elizabeth in Maine. It’s privately owned but welcome to the public so long as you can yourself out there. My boyfriend first took me out four years ago. He built the caretaker’s cottage on the island and every summer we go out and camp for a number of days, usually on the beach. There are 10-foot tides in southern Maine, so at this particular beach we might go to sleep looking out at nothing but open ocean and the next morning, it’s totally different. Spits of land are uncovered, forming little coves. And there’s a flock of sheep that lives out there year round.  Also, the floors of the small evergreen forests on both ends of the island are covered in soft grass. Fields of taller grass make up the rest of the island. Summer is especially on my mind right now and when I think of summer, I think of Richmond Island. To me, it’s the sweetest place in the world.

What was the last place you visited? Tell us something that happened there. Los Angeles for a week in March. One day, we drove out to Joshua Tree with friends. We hiked to an oasis. That’s not a word I get to say often – oasis. It was totally surreal, kinda sci-fi. The red barrel cacti started to look like chubby little aliens.  The next day, we missed our flight back to Maine for no good reason.

Thank you, Elizabeth!

W E B S I T E

Last week on a rainy Los Angeles evening, I watched the film Marley with some friends over at Cinefamily.  There  are so many reasons why the evening was memorable:

1.  Los Angeles rain/earth smell

2. Friends

3. Couches at Cinefamily

4.  Bob Marley, oh Bobby

At first I thought that I might get anxious in during the 2 1/2 hours, but I was completely invested through the entire film – it was a story that took me through deep sadness and great uplifting feelings. (I keep hearing this song in my mind). I have to say that I have had a skip in my step since the film.

“Bob Marley’s universal appeal, impact on music history and role as a social and political prophet is both unique and unparalleled. “Marley” is the definitive life story of the musician, revolutionary, and legend, from his early days to his rise to international superstardom. Made with the support of the Marley family, the film features rare footage, incredible performances and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best.”

Check out this film at a theater near you! TRAILER

Check out the ground for amazing finds like the fallen dreadlock pictured above.

Though I had a lovely poem about wild swans by Edna St. Vincent Millay to share, I’m hijacking today’s ANIMAL post to bring to your attention some things that have happened this week and will happen this weekend that I think are quite exciting.

1. The flowers above don’t really have to do with this post but aren’t they lovely? They were a gift from our sweet friend Angela.

2. Don’t know if you saw the tweets, but Stefani and I were both featured on the awesome Los Angeles focused art, design, lifestyle, and culture website, Los Angeles, I’m Yours earlier this week: HERE & HERE.

3. Speaking of Los Angeles, I know I talk about it and my love for it a bit much on this here blog, but I read this quote by Eve Babitz earlier this week and my heart went thump thump:

“People nowadays get upset at the idea of being in love with a city, especially Los Angeles. People think you should be in love with other people or your work or love or justice. I’ve been in love with people and ideas in several cities and learned that the lovers I’ve loved and the ideas I’ve embraced depended on where I was, how cold it was, and what I had to do to be able to stand it all. It’s very easy to stand L.A., which is why it’s almost inevitable that all sorts of ideas get entertained, to say nothing of lovers.” -from Slow Days, Fast Company – The World, the Flesh and L.A.

4. There’s an exciting group show organized by Dave Muller and Andrew Berardini called She’s Not There that opens at Public Fiction this Friday night that Lauren Spencer King (who we’ve interviewed here before) is part of. Get the details HERE.

and lastly:

5. I stopped by the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock yesterday and saw their new exhibition space (which looks great). For those of you around this weekend, stop by for their inaugural exhibition, Mini Comic-Con, that’s co-curated by our dear friends Andrew Cox and Laura Marchetti!

ok, and now for really real lastly:

6. Watch out for the SUPERMOON! this weekend. It’s going to be the biggest full moon of the last 18 years (can you believe it?) and I get to be in the desert to bask in its glory (I promise to report back on its magnitude).

The other day there was a gorgeous blanket of white fluff all over the grass from a Thorny tree’s seed pods.  Have you guys seen a thorny tree (Ceiba speciosa)?  They are so rad! I think that the thorns would be beautiful dipped in gold – is that going overboard? I didn’t know that the thorns hold water in them for use during dry times.

The cottonesque filling inside the pods can be used as stuffing, to make paper, canoes, ropes or as wood pulp.  During World War II it was used to stuff Navy life jackets. You can even make vegetable oil out of it.  I suggest braiding it and putting it on top of an unsuspecting person’s head.

If you are into altered states, it is even added to some versions of the Ayahuasca drink.  I enjoyed this National Geographic article on the experiences of the writer Kira Salak during his shamanistic experience with Ayahuasca.