the best time zone

so there's this thing called pacific standard time going on. it's pretty dang amazing how the getty and arts institutions all over southern california have planned all these exhibits in conjunction to create basically a concurrent series of exhibits focusing on california art and design. the exhibits are all over and at different times. there are special weekends that focus on exhibits in a certain area, and they will even shuttle you between places within that area. i haven't been to as many as i want, but i really should step up my museum game while i have the time and a semi-legit student ID.

i really wanted to see two exhibits in particular that focus on the eameses. if you don't know anything about charles and ray eames, you should. an awesome, designing duo that worked across disciplines.

so i called up my museum buddies. thank God for museum buddies. i can go with school friends always, which is always a good time. but my museum buddies are always down to drink and eat good food during a museum trip, too, and have fresh, non-architecty insights. winnie provides photos to document the fun. elena reps the east coast well (even if she's orginally from the west). insom provides witty, intellectual, and unexpected commentary. weemo was out of town for this one. we missed her.

we parked at/near lacma.

while waiting, i had a lovely drink at stark bar.
with my friend, the empty jacobsen egg chair.
such good people watching from my perch.

then we walked over the a+d museum, which is just across the street (and has exhibited my work before...w00t!), for eames designs: the guest-host relationship.


looked at some tumbleweed.


test drove some eames chairs.

left our mark.

'twas an intimate exhibit with insight into the eameses' attitude toward design in an intimate space.

then we walked back across the street to lacma for california design 1930-1965: living in a modern way. if you didn't know already, california was a major hotbed for modern design. lots of avant garde european designers and architects fled europe during world war II, and ended up here. oh, and this exhibit was designed by one of my old studio prof's offices. yay!

um, i suck. i didn't take any photos. but the best part is how they've recreated the entire eames house living room, at full scale, within the exhibit. there were also design artifacts from barbies to a studebaker car to movie title sequences to furniture to fashion to textiles to graphics to...pretty much any object that can be designed.

we concluded the evening with some delicious flatbread and charcuterie at stark bar.
winter.
outside.
heat lamps.
swanky furniture.

my descriptions suck, and i barely took any photos, so go yourself to these exhibits and then some! learn about how rich california's art and design history is! i'll even be your museum buddy and personal docent for these two exhibits i've actually seen.

even ice cube approves. you can do it put your back into it!

oh, how do you get there, you ask?


"each freeway has its own personality. the 405: bougie traffic. the 110: that's gangsta traffic right there. there's a difference. you gotta know where you at."

---

omg! almost forgot this gem that insom introduced me to that day:

letter writing campaign

dear exchange students,

i am so amazed by your english skillz. especially you europeans. i'd never be able to hang in a grad school abroad, especially not with the ridiculous jargon. but you do it and do it well. this program is pretty damn hard already even when going through it in my first language. props.

xoxo,
studiomate

p.s. but please try to skype somewhere that is not your desk. i sit pretty far away from you, and i can still hear you. i take my phone out to the hall when taking calls. i know a laptop is a little more cumbersome, but please.

/////

dear neighbors,

shut. up. we have asked you multiple times in person. we have called the cops on you many times. we understand you're young, inconsiderate, and entitled. we understand you don't understand that many people need to get up early to get to jobs because their parents do not pay their rent or mortgage. i also understand your strange practice hours as i am working on my second creative-ish degree. during the process of getting each, i have kept very strange hours. however, i make use of the studio space the schools provided me so as not to disturb my neighbors with any noise, light, or other disturbance i might cause late at night. i advise you find a freaking soundproof practice room at your school...or somewhere not in a quiet, residential subdivision with otherwise quiet neighbors who all seem to go to work early.

and if you just said to yourself, "i can't believe the neighbors are so crotchety," i laugh. don't worry, you'll be just as crotchety in 10 years. i never thought i would be like this, either.

xoxo,
your tired neighbor & her even tired-er husband

/////

dear professional degree candidates,

it's probably not wise
to borrow over 100k
to go to school
to enter a profession
in which you may never make six figures.

you will probably have major anxiety
during your exit interview
that happens to occur during thesis
during which you're already suffering
from major anxiety.

xoxo,
mm

p.s. i speak not from direct but adjacent experience.

/////

dear los angeles,

i love you. a lot. there are few others places in this country i would rather live. but why do you plot against so many married couples i know (including us) by giving them jobs at opposite ends of southern california? finding affordable housing without having to figure out who should commute how much is already difficult for a couple here. and we'll be even more miz in july when your 405 will be shut down for days. godspeed to us all that week.

xoxo,
angeleno

/////

dear tea,

you're my favorite. that is all.

love,
tea-soaked tater

heavenly villian's lair

i seriously went on the most amazing [local] field trip ever yesterday. i'm actually not even in the class that scheduled the trip, but my fab friends that are invited me along. we took a tour of the sheats goldstein residence shortly before dusk and then spent sunset/dusk inside the james turrell skyspace called "above horizon." yeah, it's art, but yeah, it's also a space. the house was designed by john lautner, and you might recognize it from the big lebowski, charlie's angels: full throttle, fashion photography shoots, or various works of porn. the instructor of the class worked on this documentary, so he knows the current architect handling "renovations" (if a 10,000 square foot addition and never-ending improvements to the property can be described by that simple word) with whom he arranged our tour.

angelenos, this is a must see. i hear that if you contact the architect, he'll let you know if/when the next tours are scheduled, and you can go, too. there were two random women who joined our tour, and they definitely were not architecture students. they're free, but they just have to be scheduled around james goldstein's travel schedule.

[photo credit]

yes, that's right. that guy you see at every lakers game and nba playoff game lives here. who is he? a fan of fashion, architecture, and basketball, apparently, and also very wealthy. so wealthy he spends most of his time flying to all the fashion shows and nba games he possibly can. so wealthy he has season tickets on the floor for the lakers AND the clippers. so wealthy he buys couture and entire seasons' collections. so wealthy he's bought up all the property from his house at the top of a hill down to the street at the base of it below. so wealthy he planted it all tropical so that the property has a brazilian microclimate. so wealthy he's been continually remodeling this place since he bought it forever ago. so wealthy he's building a 10,000 square foot building with a tennis court on top and guest house, his office, and a full-service nightclub below. i know.

yeah, the whole experience is pretty hollywood, surreal, and almost...disney...on the one hand. on the other hand, i definitely would not mind living there. or vacationing there. or something. the architecture definitely embodies the tenets of organic architecture--create space that is reflective of and complementary to its surroundings and the individual [that occupies it]. the whole experience, especially with the skyspace included, is almost meditative. and just being up there with amazing views, a house that opens up to the outside, lush foliage, and numerous chillax spots all over the house and property makes just being there a vacation.

enough jibba jabba. photos!

lautner was a disciple of frank lloyd wright.
hence the super-compression at the entry.
(which flw, in turn, took from traditional japanese architecture.)


what you see right before you enter.
so serene.


the new building.
tennis courts on top.
guest quarters,
office,
nightclub
below.


model of the estate.
the little pod at the bottom right
is the james turrell piece.


me: "is that matt damon?"
attack: "ummm...i think that's snoop dogg."
me: "not that photo!"
[both die of laughter]
(see dorky, youngish matt damon in back right.)


amazing reflection that only really happens at this time of day.


the real view of the reflection.


these mini skylights are drinking glases.
really.


LOVE the reveal in the ceiling.
one of my fave architectural details here.


yes, those are windows IN the pool.
this house was originally built for a family with five children (the sheatses).
mrs. sheats worked in the space below and liked to watch her children
while they were in the pool.
kind of a sexy detail for a family with FIVE kids.


see? drinking glasses.


the view from the bed in the master bedroom.
swanky chaise/sexy time chair for two.
and the glass at that corner opens.


the view into the pool.
and lots of hats.


love this sink's drainage system.


i guess it just waters some of the jungle.


now it's a wood deck.


now it's a hot tub!


see? total voyeur/sexual detail.
perfect for mr. goldstein's bachelor lifestyle.
not so much for the family with 5 kids.


oh yeah, and there are no rails anywhere.
and lots of sharp, concrete corners.
very kid-unfriendly.
love how the stairs taper.
this is on the way to the skyspace.


the skyspace.


enter. time for captain eo.
i mean, skyspace.
notice how thick the walls are.


everyone loungin' on the grey leather-covered bed that's installed flush with the floor.
the hidden LEDs cycle through a bunch of colors, and a really random mix of music plays.
everything from sting to mozart.


and then...
the hatches open.


notice how thin those edges are.
yeah, it's all carbon fiber and fiberglass.
built with the help of some aerospace engineers.


so the whole point is that at sunrise and sunset,
the color of the sky changes as the color of the lights/walls change.
it totally messes with your perceptions.
first how FLAT the holes/portals appear.
then the color of the sky being SO different against
different-colored backgrounds.

except...the camera doesn't get tricked. the sky always looks the same
in all my photos below.
but really, in person, it's different.
tricky, tricky eyes.







and then, you stand up once the sun has set, and see this amazingness.





red on the left.
attack in the middle.
and the professional [photographer] on the right.


back in the master bedroom, they opened the corner window for us.


sexy.


sexy.
kind of.


GROSS GIANT SPIDER!
this guy was SUPER fat and white.
have never seen a spider like it.
thanks, brazilian microclimate.


bye bye, fishies.

find the rest of my photos here.

the professional's set of photos from our evenings are here. her photos better capture the changing color of the sky in relation to the color of the skyspace.

i kind of want a white russian, all of a sudden. gah-ross.

i love LA

so much so that i went on a walking tour of downtown for my urban planning class this rainy morning. well, plus attendance was mandatory. it was nice to walk around downtown, rather than driving, feel it at that scale, and directly see the consequences of certain urban planning movements while talking about it. our instructor knows his stuff, regarding both urbanism and los angeles, so it was a good walk/talk.

i took the dusty dSLR along for a few shots.


did you know this is downtown? me neither. once upon a time, the lights glowed, the ladybug pod things played music, and a laser shot out of the top of it. the lights/sound broke shortly after its installation in the 70s, and the FAA nixed the laser right away.


the seam.
i know the reason for the gap, but it still bugs.


the original grove. el pueblo/olvera street ain't that authentic. buildings were relocated to create a dense, central area to attract people to the area during the great depression. yet another constructed/fabricated/contrived los angeles attraction.





our itinerary:
union station
el pueblo de los angeles/olvera street/avila adobe
metro mall
city hall
angel's flight
the music center
disney concert hall
cal plaza
grand central market
the bradbury building

yay for doing something i've always wanted to do but never have. yay for schooling that lets me/makes me do these things i want to do.

back to the drawing board (er computer, er mouse/keyboard?)