KCRW is hosting FREE music on Thursday evenings in July at the Hammer Museum in Westwood. Every Thursday there is a band I want to see. The line-up is in the link above, but I'm especially looking forward to hearing Saint Motel, The Happy Hollows, Fitz and the Tantrums, and Voxhaul Broadcast (these are the headliners for each Thursday). The first one is tomorrow, AND the Hammer gallery has extended hours til 9pm, which is when the headlining band rocks out. So anyone out there want to join me?! I'll be trying to go every week.
And since I can't go without posting some pictures, I have been loving my pups lately. Here are some mobile uploads:
I got to work with a very talented model (and good friend), Anna Contessa, this weekend. It was for an album cover for Kyle and Tom's project, We Spies. They are two very talented musicians (and good friends) who created an experimental ambient album together. I have enjoyed listening to it while working on the photos. It was probably the most rewarding shoot I've done so far. I was instantly happy with the photos and the planning, and also very pleased that Anna and Kyle were both happy with the photos as well. There haven't been any decisions made about the album cover yet, but here are a few of my favorites from the shoot: I think you may need a facebook account to see this link, but HERE are some of the other photos from the shoot.
My husband is an incredible drummer. He's so talented and one of my favorite things to do is watch him play drums. I've watched him play hundreds of times and am always mesmerized. Out of those hundreds of times, I've gotten maybe 3 or 4 good photos. It's always hard to photograph the drummer. So I was pretty excited about this week's photo. (This is also my 100th "photography" entry (in the label section over there ---->)).
This weekend I'm doing a photo shoot with Anna Contessa! It's my first time photographing a model and I'm really excited about it. I'm also watching the world cup (GO USA!!) and working on the house, always something to be done.
We have been talking about trying to find one of those retro lamp poles with the 3 lights. I remembered my grandparents used to have one and went searching my parents garage the last visit to see if they had kept it. Sure enough, it was there! It looks very nice in our living room:
He's 3.5 months old right now. The first night was really difficult, with the usual puppy whining, but he's been good in his kennel the last few nights. And he's already mostly potty-trained. We're just trying to socialize him well and get him past the whiny stage. He's really cute, a bit clumsy, and wags his whole butt along with his tail. Such a soft little lovebug, and him and Rita get along great! ...unless a bone is involved. ;)
I had the pleasure of seeing some amazing artists at an Activision E3 event this week, albeit a large waste of money considering the recent layoffs, and really lame that they didn't allow us to bring guests. Still, it was a neat to see some bands that I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. The picture above is Usher. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved his performance. He's a great dancer and has some catchy songs.
There were so many good photos this week, it was hard to choose my favorite. This was it though. It seems quite epic. This is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) building on La Cienega. I've always loved this building when driving by, and wanted to photograph it. This past Saturday, Sam and I came here because of an exhibit, which happened to be at their other location (8949 Wilshire, Beverly Hills). At least the misunderstanding of the location allowed me to take some sweet photos.
The exhibit was amazing! It's 2 exhibits at the same location and it's FREE. Two amazing revolutionaries: One is the Chuck Jones exhibit, who is the creator of all WB animation from the 60's (yes, wiley coyote, elmer fudd, bugs bunny, pepe le peu, tweety, the whole gang!). So if you've ever watched these cartoons growing up, you'd appreciate seeing some of the original artwork. He also created the Grinch, Tom & Jerry, Horton hears a Who, and others. The second exhibit is Ray Harryhausen, who is the creator of stop-motion animation, or as it was called then, "dynamation". Such movies from the 60's as Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad, Clash of the Titans, Gulliver, even Elf in 2003. His contribution to motion picture and animation is extraordinary. It is going on now through August 22nd, and I would definitely recommend checking it out. It's amazing that this is free to the public. Take advantage of what Los Angeles has to offer! http://www.oscars.org/events-exhibitions/exhibitions/index.html
The Idyllists are playing tonight at 10pm at the Hotel Cafe. Come join in on the fun. Here's a video from their road trip to sxsw:
And a little hello from Rita, on a lazy Sunday afternoon:
So I discovered this hike in my L.A. hiking book: This is a fantastic book and I definitely recommend it for people who want to get more into hiking and see the incredible beauty of Los Angeles. I also use the website localhikes.com which has hikes for all US states. In the description, the hike was labeled one of the best waterfall hikes in the San Gabriel valley, but a "butt-kicker." Here's the deal though: the entrance to the hike is inside a quarry, and just recently (I think within the last couple of years), they opened it up to have a free shuttle ride to the trail head (every Saturday for the first half of the year). So it bypasses some of the "butt-kicker" part of the hike. The hike was about 5-6 miles. If you want to try this hike, the shuttle is available the last two Saturdays in June and the 2nd Saturday in July. If you don't take the shuttle, there is a small lot 1.2 miles up Encanto Pkwy. And then you can try the butt-kicker part of the hike, which goes around the quarry, which makes it about 9-10 miles total. (Otherwise, directions are 210E to Mt Olive Dr., R on Huntington, L on Encanto Pkwy to the quarry parking lot, 1.7(?) mi). Enough explanation... this hike was amazing, not too difficult, and the best waterfall hike I've been to in LA. There were lots of people there (we went between 8:45 and 11:45), so I would suggest going a bit earlier. Shuttle starts at 7am. So many great pictures, but here are a few:
This weekend we woke up at 5am to do a photo shoot for Telegram. It turned out really neat. Here are a few sneak peak shots from the shoot, that I edited while listening to the experimental Boards of Canada. Very fitting. (Let me know if you have a favorite!)
