Because one Angeleno did a lot of stuff, and she documented it with this cool video:

2011 from hey_rabbit on Vimeo.

Via PetaPixel.

UniqueLA

Fretting over finding that last minute, yet oh so perfect gift for your mother?  Or perhaps you’re tired of going to the standard Mom-osa filled brunch & want to try something new…  Well you’re in luck, this weekend the wonderful Sonja Rasula is putting in another installment of the coolest independent design & shopping show in the country, Unique LA.

With over 300 designers & artists showcasing their wares over the course of two-days of fun filled shopping this is truly an event not to be missed.  I know I always come home with armfuls of amazing finds, from jewelry, to purses, to ironic t-shirts for my boyfriend & one-of-a-kind “omg where did you FIND that” outfits for me.  It’s also a great way to meet a ton of local designers, many of whom are right here in Los Angeles!  Plus there are a ton of workshops & food vendors peddling all sorts of yummy treats camped out at the event.  You can even check out a preview of some of the awesome clothes in their new catalog!

Your $10 admission includes…

• Free drinks & a hosted bar (IZZE, Honest Tea, Bear Flag wine, Hendrick’s cocktails, and Numi Tea)
• Unlimited re-entry for both days
• Your very own collectible tote bag, exclusive to each show!
• Free DIY workshops and handmade Mother’s Day cards all weekend
• Plush lounge seating area hosted by H.D. Buttercup
• Access to giveaways and door prizes all weekend long
• Souvenir copy of the Vendor Directory + Mini Magazine

Unique LA
May 7th & 8th (11am – 6pm)

California Market Center’s Penthouse
110 E 9th St # A727
Los Angeles, CA 90079-1727
http://uniquela.com/

Buy tickets HERE.

Years ago we bought a corner hutch that has to go for a variety of reasons.  Primary is its ugly and doesn’t fit with our current style.  We’ve looked all over for a suitable cabinet, bookshelf or table to put there and have had no luck.  Putting in plant material doesn’ interest us for that corner.  We’ve been all over in furniture stores in the SGV and even went out as far as Ontario looking and found NOTHING.

I am looking for a furniture/cabinet maker that can make a simple 4 legged round table about 4 feet tall to put into the corner.  It would need to have the feel of  something like the 40′s modern look-clean lines no ornamentation.  We’d want it in a dark wood color.  It would not be big as the corner is 2 foot by 2 foot.  Does anyone have anyone they can recommend for such a job? If so leave me a note and I’ll get back to you for their contact info or have them contact me direct at frazgo at mail dot com.  Thanks in advance for your help.

Epoxy and fiberglass time for Rick's Art Bear.

My little corner of LA had “Samson the Hot Tub Bear” visiting us for a few years back in the mid-90′s.  Even the national news picked up on this bear.  Most saw him as an endearing critter and rather than kill him for being a pest he was captured and set off to a zoo to live off his remaining years.

To celebrate the legacy of Samson and the coming 125th Birthday of Monrovia (which some of us affectionately refer to as the Art City) there will be Art Bears.  There will be about a dozen of these bears in various styles produced by Monrovia artists.  These bears are sponsored by the locals as well.  These bears will be placed about Old Town Monrovia after the big birthday celebration parade in May.

This particular bear is being done by local artist Rick Kess who also happens to work for Disney in their visual arts department.  This bear so far is just getting some additional decoration on him prior to painting.  The next step is to sand him and down and prep for painting over next weekend. Read the rest of this entry →

Honest to goodness celebrities: Kevin O'Connor and Norm Abram

When you hear Reality Show you might first think of Survivor or American Idol, Top Chef or Project Runway. If you are a fan of PBS you probably think of the first and finest reality show of them all: This Old House. And after nearly 30 years on the air, TOH has come to Los Angeles for its first ever LA remodel. (Watch the video sneak peak here.)

You might find it hard to believe that there is actually anything “old” in LA to renovate, right? Since we are famous for our facelifts and all. This sweet Spanish Revival house in Silver Lake is getting more of a “gentle spa treatment” than an “ass-fat injection to the cheekbones” operation. The original two bedroom, one bath floorplan was fine for the married couple when they moved in 12 years ago, but now with two small kids, it was time for more space and more bathrooms.

This Old House is about education and part of every house redo series includes stories of the local craftspeople who work on various details of the house. Look for visits to the tile company that recreates 30′s style tile for the bathrooms and kitchen, the iron workers making new wrought iron and the roofers who reuse the old roof tiles and tell you the history of how these 70 year old tiles were originally made. TOH will also visit Frank Lloyd Wright houses and Richard Neutra sites so we can all see that LA actually has some awesome architectural street cred.

The homeowners Kurt and Mary were not looking for the limelight (far from it), but were very pleased to have their general contractor approach them to be part of the show. What better record of your home remodel than a full documentation on This Old House? Plus you get to meet master carpenter Norm Abram!! (Seriously that guy rocks the woodwork.)

This Old House: The Los Angeles Project begins airing on KOCE this Thursday (1/27) at 7:00pm. (Check your local listings as different cable/dish providers may have a different schedule.)

Kevin, Norm, Mary and Kurt (Homeowners), Steve Pallrand (General Contractor)

(All Photos by Image Group LA and used with permission by This Old House.)

(Full disclosure: I am friends with the homeowners, but sadly I have not met Norm.)

Allow you me this story. Apparently I don’t search hard or well enough. When my 12-year-old favorite pair of sunglasses broke at the frame just above the nose piece in 2000 I did what I thought was my best to seek out a place to get them fixed. I failed. Every place from Lenscrafters to the jewelry repair guy my mom swore by said “nope,” in part because they were just a pair of off-the-shelf frames I’d purchased during a mostly senseless spree at Needless Markup back in the summer of Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Eight. The so-called experts would look at the glasses, look at me, and tell me either it wasn’t possible or occasionally they’d say how much they’d need to overcharge me to maybe make it possible.

Facing an amount that was more than the shades cost new, at one point I even bought a soldering gun and sat there with the thing in one hand and the spool of metal in the other trying to convince myself I could somehow immediately acquire the skills required for such pinpoint detail work. Wisely I put down the gun and stepped away from that fiasco-in-waiting before I could entirely fubar them. Instead, I put them away where they lived with a sliver of hope in a series of drawers.

Why? Well the broken glasses became somewhat representative. I won’t bore you any more than I already have with the details of their symbolism other than to say they cracked at a time when a lot of other things broke — most of them intangible stuff like relationships and dreams, but all of them pretty much beyond repair. Suffice it that Y2K may not have fucked up my personal computer but it wreaked havoc on my personal  life, and out of that annus horribillus these beloved glasses became one of the few things I could fix — or so I’d hoped. And hoped. And hoped.

And hoped. Fast-forward to this summer when it had been literally four or five years since I’d given the glasses a thought and Los Angeles magazine’s “Best of LA” issue arrived. Flipping through it I found a write-up extolling the miracle work done by a humble gent who goes by the name Paul Gross in his humble hole-in-the-wall on Wilson Avenue in the Jewel City and I thought my long-dormant prayers had been answered — except when I went hunting for the shades they weren’t a-n-y-w-h-e-r-e to be found and I became dejectedly sure it was because at some point a few years back I’d extinguished that flicker of hope kept burning for so long and pitched them in the trash.

Read the rest of this entry →

Appropriately-named "Spaghetti Western"

Santa Monica Art Studios, housed in a former airplane hangar at the Santa Monica Airport, opened its doors this past weekend for the 6th Annual Open Studios event.  I have been to several of the six yearly events, ostensibly to support one of the artists in residence, my old friend Rachel Grynberg.  But each year I really enjoy the variety of works on display, and the ability to meet the artists and their representatives.  This year’s event did not disappoint.

Artist Rachel Grynberg in her studio

The hangar, including a front space (the “Arena 1 Gallery“), a couple of hallways, and over 30 studios, was lined with artwork that ranged from a giant Clint Eastwood-clad Barilla spaghetti box to paintings, prints, photos, and much more.  The Arena 1 space was occupied with a show entitled F-Utility (with a dot, not a dash), curated by artist Oona Gardner and displaying a number of pieces and images from a variety of artists, including Julie Schustack, Mark Moskovitz, and Matt Monroe.  Moskovitz’ You Are Here series of digital prints was a result of something that would be right at home on blogging.la: the Cleveland-area artist took an east-west run from the Highland Park area to the Santa Monica Pier and back — over 30 miles — and took snapshots of what he saw along the way.

Julie Schustack's "Piano Vise" -- a working music player

Monroe’s Frontier also picked up the travel theme, but in a different way.  His piece — the most noticeable of the entire event — was a full-size covered wagon made from plastic IKEA items, including shower curtains, baseball bats, ice trays, and toy guns.  Imagine how America would have been different if the pioneers had been able to stock up at IKEA before their trek westward, and neatly store their items in large plastic tubs.

"Frontier" by Matt Monroe

I also had an interesting conversation with Andrea Lithgow, artist and proprietor of the Dandy Jewelry mini-shop arranged on a couple of tables at the back of the hangar.  Andrea makes and sells beautiful glazed ceramic jewelry, including bracelets, necklaces, and more. Her pieces are hand-made yet “mass produced”: even though many pieces were similar looking, no two were identical.

Andrea Lithgow of Dandy Jewelry

Whether you want to contemplate art vs. commerce, are in the mood to buy some fascinating pieces (reasonably priced, compared to what I have seen at other art events), or just gaze at the glaze, Santa Monica Art Studios should be on your list.  The Arena 1 F-Utility show in particular will continue at the Studios through November 20.

Summer may have ended a couple of days ago, but we never really got one, and it looks like our real summer may be ahead of us.   If you are heading to the beaches west of Los Angeles this weekend, you’re in luck.  First, you should check out the Summer of Color public art project.  Billed as the largest public art project in the U.S., Summer of Color involves thousands of children and adults from local schools, hospitals, and social services programs, many of whom have physical and other challenges, who painted the lifeguard towers along the beach from Zuma to San Pedro.  Each tower is different, but many of the designs incorporated flowers and geometric shapes for symbolic reasons (see the above link for more info).  These towers were painted some time ago, but if you’re like me, you may not have checked them out up close.  I did so recently in Marina del Rey, and was rewarded with the glorious sights pictured above (at Mother’s Beach in the Marina Harbor) and below.

N. Channel tower near Marina boat channel

This Saturday night, from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., the beach adjacent to the Santa Monica Pier will light up, as  GLOW returns after a two-year hiatus.  According to its website,

Glow is the only all-night art event in the United States that emphasizes the commissioning of original artwork. Glow projects invite active audience engagement and exploration and constantly surprise in their unexpected placement in spaces and times not normally reserved for fine art.

I covered the first Glow event in 2008, and found some first-time shortcomings.  This year, however, a friend of mine is working there, and I’m looking forward to seeing the new and hopefully improved version.

On Sunday, a few blocks from the beach, the 26th annual Abbott Kinney Festival will take place along Abbott Kinney Blvd. in Venice, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  The festival features live music, gourmet food trucks, handcrafted items for sale, beer gardens, valet stations for those arriving by bicycle, and much more.  The festival is lots of fun, provided you do not mind very tightly packed crowds.

I’m looking forward to having a really fun summer this fall!

I went to my first Brewery Artwalk yesterday, and was truly inspired.  Seeing the tremendous variety of artwork, and interacting with the artists where they live and work, was mind-blowing.

And what an environment it is.  Billed as the world’s largest art colony, the Brewery arts complex (former home of the Eastside and later Pabst breweries and the Edison Power Plant) felt like it could have been in Oregon, or upstate New York, anywhere but within the city of Los Angeles.  Pics and more, after the jump

Formerly every Saturday at Micheltorena Elementary School, the “Silver Lake Art, Craft & Vintage” flea market will now take place the last weekend of every month, both Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm.

While I don’t know the specific reasons for the change, I have visited this flea market on several occasions and always found it lacking in vendors. The space is large enough and the vendors that are there have a decent selection, but to draw a crowd, I think they simply need more. Perhaps moving the fair from every Saturday to just one weekend a month will encourage more vendors to participate. I also think it would be more appealing if they offered a broader selection of “arts” and “crafts” vendors, as it is mostly just vintage clothing. I love shopping for vintage clothing, but if you’re going to bill something as “Art, Craft & Vintage,” you might want to strive to carry an equal selection of those things.

For more information on the fair, visit their web site at silverlakeartcraftvintage.com.

Inside Home Ec.'s Beautifully Organized Space (Photo courtesy of Jenny Ryan. Some rights reserved).

This post is a bit tardy, but I’ve been in detention like all year.

One of my favorite local DIY mavens recently opened Home Ec., an adorable retail space located in the heart of Sunset Junction in Silver Lake.

Just standing on the sidewalk, peering into Home Ec.’s warm, holiday decorated window, my fingers start to twitch as I spy a studious row of sewing machines, colorful bolts of fabric, neatly organized cubbies filled with yarns and spacious work tables inside. Home Ec. is not just a sewing and craft workshop, it’s a dream workshop that I hope to replicate in my own home some day.

The store offers fabrics and yarns, sewing patterns, books, craft kits and even some exclusive products that you will only find in the store. They also host classes ranging from sewing and fiber arts to paper crafting and glasswork.

Home Ec. owner Jenny Ryan is the creator of the hugely popular Felt Club. She’s also an occasional blogger for CRAFT and Apartment Therapy LA, and the author of Sew Darn Cute: 30 Sweet & Simple Projects to Sew & Embellish. Read the rest of this entry →

A fair amount of cool things have come across my desk for this weekend…

Friday: DineLA Restaurant Week
Be warned: Restaurant Week’s low prices do NOT apply on the weekends. So Thursday & Friday’s your last chance to nab reservations to some of LA’s hottest joints like Chaya, Mr. Chow, Akasha, Arroyo Chop House, BLT Steak, even Royal/T (pretty much every place you wanna eat is participating…check here). Prices for these special price-fixe lunches & dinners top out at $44 per person at even the most snooty of steakhouses, so dash on over & make reservations asap!

Saturday: 26th Annual Hollywood Forever Cemetery Tour
The Art Deco Society presents its yearly tour of that star of the cinema scene, Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  It’s a one-day-only event, but tours depart every 20 minutes or so from 10am to noon. It’s a walkthru not only of Hollywood history–many of the stars of the Golden Era of cinema are interred here–but architectural styles as well, with gorgeous mausoleums & monuments.

Friday thru Sunday: The Bead Show
Attention, crafty people and my mom! Time to geek out on beads at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. If you’re like me, you’ll go, ooh and ahh over amazing beads, buy them, and then never do anything with them. But if you’re not like me, I can’t wait to see what you create!

Sunday: LA Luxury Chocolate Salon
Thousands of opportunities to sample chocolate, plus an art-meets-chocolate smackdown as top students from the California School of Culinary Arts attempt to create masterworks of fine art with chocolate. There will be a cocktail bar as well, with chocolate-based apéritifs.

Sunday: Part Time Punks Festival at The Echo
From 2pm to 2am these savants of all things musical and underground will be parading a veritable smorgasbord of awesome across the stage at the Echo.  Check out a DJ set from Gang Of Four, and music from Savage Republic, Abe Vigoda, Viv Albertine of The Slits, Rainbow/\Arabia, Brendan Mullen of The Masque, and gobs more.

Monday: Wumpskate at World on Wheels
It’s that time again:  The spookiest month of the year and goth roller skating collide for Wumpskate’s annual Halloween-themed skate night.  Costumes are, of course, mandatory insomuch as you will be totally scorned if you show up without one.  These goths don’t take themselves too seriously, though (who can, when they’re on a pair of tan-and-orange quad skates from 1982?), so prepare to have some serious fun.

Crafters and craft enthusiasts, this is your moment!

This weekend is the Los Angeles premiere of Handmade Nation, presented to you by the good folks at Cinefamily.

In addition to screening the film, they’re having a mini-craft fair at the premiere and a Q+A with the director, plus  live silkscreening demos.

Saturday, August 15th
12:00 premiere $25 (includes swag bag)
7:00 $12

Sunday, August 16th, all screenings $12
3:00, 5:00, 7:00 & 9:00

Read the rest of this entry →

The Renegade Craft Fair, which started in Chicago in 2003, is holding its first ever event in Los Angeles this weekend, July 11th and 12th in downtown Los Angeles. Over 200 artists will be selling their handmade wares from the 13th penthouse floor of the California Market Center, surrounded by a 360-degree city view.

Local community crafts organizations will representing at the show. Silver Lake’s Reform School will be giving linoleum block printing workshops on both days and Santa Monica-based The Urban Craft Center will offer zine-making and needle-felting classes on Saturday. Swap-O-Rama-Rama will also participate on Saturday. Bring clothes you no longer want and transform them, or others’ discarded threads, into a recycled outfit.

A good majority of the vendors are also L.A.-based, so this is a great opportunity to support, and be inspired by, your neighbors. One I’d highly recommend checking out is my good friend’s shop justJENN Designs, for an assortment of customized stationary and notepads, as well as greeting cards, buttons, and other fun items. Her products are unique, affordable and make great gifts.

The Renegade Craft Fair runs from 11am-7pm on both Saturday and Sunday and is FREE to enter. The California Market Center is located at 110 E. Ninth St. Click here for directions and parking information.

I’m excited about the vast number of cool, cheap options for entertainment in Los Angeles this weekend, May 2nd and 3rd. A couple have been covered in more detail here on L.A. Metblogs already, but here is a quick guide, in case you can’t find anything fun and economical to do over the next couple of days.

• JPL Open House, Sat/Sun, 9am-5pm, FREE-Here’s your chance to see what the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory rocket scientists are currently up to.

• Unique L.A., Sat 11am-7pm, Sun 11am-5pm, $5-Click on the link to read Travis‘ post on this more-than-a-craft-fair event.

• BarCampLA 7, Sat 11am-10pm, Sun 10am-5pm, FREE-An un-conference where tech enthusiasts come together to share, teach, learn, and play.

• Santa Fe Art Colony Open Studios, Sat/Sun 12pm-7pm, FREE-Over 40 artists will open up their private studios and allow you to peek inside their worlds of creativity.

• L.A. Metblogs Classic Eats #5, Sat 5pm-?, you name the price, which will depend on how much you indulge in cocktails or if you stick with water. It’s more about the atmosphere and company anyway, right?

• Circuit Bending Lecture & Demo @ Machine Project, Sun 1pm, FREE-Yeah, I don’t really understand it either, but Machine events are usually pretty awesome, even if they go over your head.

• Learn to Build Your Own Arcade Game @ Machine Project, Sun 8pm, FREE-Learn how to turn your “e-waste to e-fun” and construct your very own stand-up video game machine!

Personally, I’m overwhelmed by all of the amazing possibilities combined with weekend responsibilities. Isn’t it fantastic to have all of these options though? Aside from the above list, I’m sure there are many, many other music, film, etc. events at your disposal if you want to spend some money.

Feel free to leave any info on other happenings in the comments.