Monday, January 28, 2008

LA LA LAnd


In a city of concrete, begging hands, and silicone breasts, a place to call your own is pricey and free. Public space is gasps between parking lots and parking garages.

Islands of LA revitalizes public space by transforming traffic islands into territories of art that can generate culture interchanges. Traffic islands are the just waiting with potential. This is like the the Elgaland-Vargaland, with its ownership in boarders and inhabitants of decested.
Who inhabits these islands? Is this the homeless nomad waiting to claim stake to some landscape? Is it the unresting hipster?

makers and shakers


Before I get to the gut of it, Ive been making some things happen around these parts. As some know, I am really good at instigating things and getting into trouble. Back in the burgh, Carrie Nardini and I started a nomadic market, I Made It! Market. The market has been continuing since I've left. The whole idea behind the market is to give people to opportunity to sell the things they make. "Do you make things? Do you want to sell the things you make? Sell it at I Made It!"
That's a common phrase from my mouth. "By you coming to the market, you've made it too!"
I saw it as an opportunity to create event in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is a city with many little neighborhoods and is not so foreign from LA as one would think. Pittsburgh is a bunch of broken puzzle pieces that fit but don't flow. As small and manageable as that city is, its not self aware.
With the I Made It! Market in Pittsburgh we are able to interlace through exposure and repetition. I see it as an example of urban acupuncture.
As I am now in Los Angeles, I have stumbled accross a gallery, a potential space. Inmo Yuon has decided to let me in on use planning of the space. So what do I do? Put an I Made It! Market! The exception fo the rule is that its not nomadic though the space is pretty ephemeral. I joined forces with Los Angeles Craft Mafia and we have about 15 vendors. Morgan from the craft mafia has stared a blog and has made this fantastic poster for it.


Please join us on FEB 9th at Billy's Coffee Shop at 5th and main street downtown Los Angeles.


Downtown is amazing. It's soo Pittsburgh. It's sooo raw with real Dirt. Real fear. Real urgency. I love it.

There are some new blogs on the side one in particluar, the Solstice Creative, by dearest Doug. He has also brought to my attention that the Library of Congress has just uploaded like 3000 photos on to flickr. THANKS LOC!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

motrins and martinis...


We are back in black and brown. Welcome to the continuation of the blog life. Second semester of MEDIAscapes and we are experiencing the cinematic enigmatic life of the city of LA(pronounced lah) One of the many goals is to make a documentary film. I will recap on events that have been up until now unrepresented on the blog.