All Things But None

How is your weekend coming along? Southern Cal has gotten a bit of rain and I'm loving it. Wait, I think I just stole that from McD's. Yesterday we dropped by the Brewery Artwalk in downtown Los Angeles and it was quite a lovely visit. The place is more like a colony of artists living in their lofts, where once a year they open up their doors to invite people in to view their artwork and workspace and such. The place itself was interesting enough since a good few blocks of buildings were converted into lofts and artist's studios. It was a good turn-out indeed. Three hours in and we barely gotten to see half of everything there.

Was it inspiring? Most certainly. Half way through the walk I started somewhat pondering about my own existence, my own cause... Seeing these young artists reminded me of myself when I was younger, attending art school... Now here they wait for their dreams to happen, to be discovered as an artist, or something... To be Somebody that makes a difference or maybe just to make a living, both with something that they feel passionate about. Waiting...... But aren't we all waiting... waiting for something? As if waiting was some sort of a destination. Through the doorway. Some will get there. Some will not.

Hope you're having a fantastic Sunday!! xoxo

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Currently listening:
Tricky - Makes Me Wanna Die

Take the advice from my favorite blockhead! How can anyone turn down a face like Charlie Brown? :-) 'cept for Lucy of course.

Have an über day everyone!!

What do you wish for? Sometimes I wish the end all suffering, but what is this place without suffering? What is this life devoid of joyous moments? We are here, and so there will be. Thanks B for showing me the following. Have a great day everyone.

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Early in August, the artist Yoko Ono opened one of her signature projects in Pasadena. The installation, "Wish Trees," consists of 21 small crape myrtle trees arranged throughout the city's popular One Colorado mall in the revived Old Town section. Visitors are invited to write a wish and tie it to one of the trees, something Ono recalls doing at Japanese shrines when she was a little girl. Although Ono never reads the messages tied to her "Wish Trees" ― "I feel it is not right to read people's private wishes" ― she does keep the hundreds of thousands of white tags, eventually to be stored in the Imagine Peace Tower off the coast of Ireland. Nevertheless, many visitors to the trees have taken to reading the wishes as a form of entertainment or, perhaps, even therapy as the nation rides out one earth-shattering wave of bad news after another. Ono's trees have exploded into a Rorschach of national angst. Here are some I saw on several visits:

• I wish for my brother to get off drugs. He is such a good boy and I love him so much.
• I wish for all broken hearts to be mended.
• I wish I could fly in the sky.
• I wish that Old Town would bring back Hooters.
• I wish that all people would just slow down.
• I wish for nothing to happen to Obama because if it does my heart will break.
• I wish for the Dodgers to win the championship ― go blue!
• I wish we never had to grow up.
• I wish Chico would come back into my life that we would have a happy relationship.
• I wish I were a fireman.
• I wish my kitty will live until I go to college.
• I wish I had a hot body.
• I wish I had a yucca salad.
• I wish my happiness didn't always revolve around me.
• I wish I find a good husband and have a big family and a lot of money.
• I wish to have Carmen's hair.
• I wish my mother could forgive my father.
• I wish to be a good father and a better person than I am now.
• I wish that my parents would learn to be happy together instead of fighting all the time.
• I wish for more free porn on the Internet.
• I wish I had a clue.
• I wish my husband will stay away from us and get a job.
• It is too late for wishes.
• I wish for the mother ship to come.
• I wish I could have made out with the Beatles.
• I wish my boyfriend would start being on time.
• I wish for health - clean from cancer forever.
• I wish I could be smart in school.
• I wish to be the top of the PGA tour pro.
• I wish to never get fat again.
• I wish my mom would let me see Black Knight.
• I wish and hope that my dad is looking down from heaven and that he's proud of me.
• I wish for McCain to win and for Joe Biden to burn in hell!
• I wish I won't be shy anymore.
• I wish my parents weren't so homophobic I am so lonely.
• I wish I be pregnant soon.
• I wish for world peace and 18 million dollars.
• I wish someday I would see my dad again but not too soon.
• I wish to be forever God's instrument of love.
• I wish to get laid.
• I wish that this night could never end.
• I wish unicorns were real.
• I wish that my husband would stop smoking weed.
• I wish that my dear sweet Garrett does not progress in this disease.
• I wish for all wars to end and for some chocolate.
• I wish that I didn't have ugly curly hair.
• I wish that my X-Box never gets the red ring of death again.
• I wish that I could eat trans fats forever.
• I wish people would be able to see past my acne and not care about it.
• I wish I have an American Girl doll.
• I wish I could get better and change my life and have a meeting with Christina Aguilara and have a long conversation.
• I wish that there would be a cure for blindness.
• I wish for an amazing day.

Text by Greg Critser; Los Angeles Times; Sunday 11/02/2008

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Currently listening:
Roland Portinen - The Well-Tempered Clavier Prelude No 1 in C-major

These days, I feel less and less inclined to write. I'm not much of a writer to begin with. Lately, I'd rather post pictures. Slowly this blog may turn into a photoblog instead. I stopped uploading pictures to Flickr awhile ago, and back in July a good friend of mine bought me a Pro account for my birthday! That place inspires and intimidates! I still visit there for information and see my friends' creations, but for me, I'll just stick around here in my own little world.

These 2 pieces are actually part of an assignment from this Adobe InDesign class that I'm taking. I'm supposed to pull 2 song lines from a particular song. I picked one, but later on I couldn't find images that I thought was appropriate... and I might as well use my own images at this point. I pulled these lines from a version of Tao Te Ching. The course will be over next month. yay!

Earlier today I took a picture or two of the so-called 'self-portrait'. When I was tweaking them, I thought to myself: "I look so sad." But I thought to myself: That's okay cuz that's just me. I look how I look. Maybe that's just how I feel.

Anyway, I wish everyone a good night and take great care of yourself - and each other. xoxo

Happy on the inside? Sad on the outside? I guess. I very much dislike seeing pictures of myself, either I'm too animated or my eyes are usually half closed... but now that I'm forty something, I'm not as bad as before. One body, one mind... might as well get used to it. I like this particular picture, not so much on the effect but the expression... I think it says a lot about me.

Have a good weekend everybody. Enjoy yourself and each other!!

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Currently listening:
Lunz - Lunz

In between.
Is there really such a place?
Blink of an eye −
then where will we be?

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Currently listening:
Minimal Compact - When I Go

Filigree & Shadow has got to be my all time #1 favorite recording, and with that, This Mortal Coil being my one true favorite artist. No intro, no description. If you don't know who they are, I guess you don't need to know. But if you do, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

I still remember the day when I bought this imported, gorgeous double vinyl album. The photography, the design, the font, the printing and the music all wrapped up under the perfect packaging. I used to listen to this album in the dark, alone in my room... Listening to A Heart of Glass while contemplating my life in darkness, and dancing to Drugs at Helter Skelter―the only club in LA that would play such a song! The other day I burned myself a CD and while listening to it again in my car, tears started rolling down... Was it the music? The hidden messages? The memories? The forgotten years or the lost youth?

Their music in particular and a few other things had helped shaped me who I am today. 1986, and like time travel―it's amazing how it takes me back. Have a great weekend everyone!!

xo, r

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Currently listening:
This Mortal Coil - Morning Glory

Well, not my stars, but Jared Tarbell's stars at his Gallery of Computation. I have mentioned him a few times in my previous blog and he's one fantastic coder/artist/designer. His 'art' is beautifully organic and intricately rendered. Have you seen Processing*?

Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is an alternative to proprietary software tools in the same domain.

His stuff is like organic poetry... I wish I could write such code. Good grief, if plugging in the code into my blog isn't hard enough already! heh! AND the markup validates thru W3C with no errors! Woohoo!

One of my passion in life is seeing new work, art work, or simply looking at everyday mundane things with fresh eyes... It's prolly all in my head really. Our brain is where all the beauty starts I reckon. Things that I find inspiring... Maybe I could be an art curator or something, but I don't have the talk. I seem to only verbalize things internally. Maybe I have 2 right brains?!? Or just one right brain with mush on the other side. *shrug* At any rate, seeing this particular piece above along with listening to some 'appropriate' music bring tears to my eyes. Why? I don't know. It's all internal.

That's all for today. I wish everyone to have a very Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow with your families and friends. I'll see you all very soon!

*BTW, if you don't have the Jave Plug-in, you won't be able to see the above animation... and I don't think many peeps have it on their OS. Oh and I just found out my radio doesn't work with Flash Player 10. Egads!

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Currently listening:
The Hope Blister - Friday Afternoon

I guess you might call this Officescape. heh! My cube is near the middle on the left. You can't see it, but it's there, waiting for me every week day. The building is like the size of a football field, and this particular building has 2 floors. It's the land of low cubbies.

Last week a coworker suggested that we should bring our cameras in and head out to take pictures during lunchtime. So I did, but on the next day, nothing was mentioned. But early that morning, I snapped a couple of pictures, and that was enough.

What does your work place look like? Enjoy the rest of your weekend!! xo, r

I like my bumper sticker. I bought it from the Portland Art Museum when we were there last year. "Hi Lewis!!" So if you see a 2000 black Jeep Cherokee driving around with such sticker, please honk and wave. "Hello!!"