Fortune's Pawn

Further ruminations from the City of Angels.

Thursday 19 January, wandered into The Library Bar around 6:00 or so and found only one seat at the bar. Figured we’d, AofSD and I, manage by trading off on sitting. Shortly, young man, about 30, sitting next to us starts to chat. Nice enough guy, insurance underwriter with frighteningly large international conglomerate. We end up chatting with him for hours, downing martinis (moi) and margaritas (A). After 3 rounds, time for Pawn to drift back to relative safety of hotel.

AofSD stays on with young turk, who by this time has revealed himself to be on the cusp of his 32^nd B-day, and to share A’s interest in working out and gourmet cuisine. They muster the where-with-all to stumble over to Ilan‘s where three courses ensue, and further libations, and then to a tequilla bar for even more. AofSD stumbles in to room at 11:15 cursing the hangover he is sure will come.

The morning finds us both working, briefly, before checking out and heading off to BLD for brunch. Traditional eggs Benedict for A and a steak and burgandy Benedict for me. Good, but not as exciting as last night’s turk would have had us believe.

I had planned to try to take in Art Los Angeles Contemporary 2012, at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica. Turns out tickets were $18 each, plus $13 for parking, and we only had a couple of hours. Hardly seemed worth it, so we headed to the Getty instead. More of Pacific Standard Time, the Southern California joint effort wherein some 60+ galleries and museums reflect on the regional art scene from the mid 70s to the late 80s. While not impressed by the showing at Geffen Collection @ MoCA yesterday, we give it another shot.

The Getty is a spectacular institution, and worth a visit if only for the breath taking architecture and setting. The collection itself is large and comprehensive. We only had time for a few galleries, and largely enjoyed what we saw. The room reconstructions from 17^th and 18^th century France, etc., were fabulous.  Particularly enjoyed the Narrative Inventions In Photography exhibit

Finally, A needed to return to SD, and so dropped Pawn at the LAX Hilton for the Scale 10x conference. After checking in, wandered down to the exhibit hall to find my firm’s booth. Yikes! I’m very unhappy with the booth design — the banners and such. It’s an embarrassment, like a Monty Hall fever dream or something. The only way I can think of to salvage it is to just explain to people that while we have good tech, our marketing guy has never recovered from a bad acid trip in 1978.

Colleagues want to take an excursion to Venice Beach, so off we go. It was like walking through the Internet; everyone yelling for you to watch them fly their freak flag and applaud their appalling lack of talent, vision, style, ideas… as if blogs could speak.

The other day, Pawn’s friend AofSD asked, reflectively, what comes after jaded. I told him I didn’t know, but I figure that an entire generation of hipsters has ruined their lives by rushing to embrace jaded indifference a good twenty years before they were really due it. Now they don’t even have that to look forward to.

convert this post to pdf.

Okay, quick, when were you first in Los Angeles?

I said quick.

For me, moi, Pawn, it’s right now. Got here yesterday at noon PST and already feeling like it’s all just so much already done.

Business, that’s why. Came here for business, Scale 10x. That’s Southern California Linux Expo, 10^th year.

Excitement incarnate, right?

Okay, it’s more than that. Pawn loves art, LA has lots of art, and I haven’t seen it all. So, called my old neighbor A from SD and asked if he’d like to join me for a little pre-conference R&R in the belly of the beast. Sure thing, says AofSD and off we go. He picks me up at the airport, and it starts.

First stop is food, Cafe Midi. I awoke at 3:30 CST, arose at 5:30 after trying too hard to sleep some more, and by the time we roll up to the restaurant (148 S. La Brea) it’s almost 2:00 PST. I have Dover Sole and AofSD has a breakfast burrito. I am soon to learn that this is what most Californians have for at least one meal per day; a wad of food you can hold in one hand whilst completing a phone call with the other and pretending you’re carrying on a conversation with your old friend across the table. At least that’s how it feels.

Don’t tell me I’m petty. I’ll walk out on you.

So here I am sitting in a Westin Bonventura hotel room, 23^rd floor, with a view of the HOLLYWOOD sign (yes, really), watching Californication on in-room cable, and reflecting on two days of deep immersion. Let me tell you how it works.

1. Lots of art, so lots of eyeball time.LA has always harbored a real, deep, inferiority complex vis-a-vis the elite, East Coast, New York art scene. This triggered a volcanic uprising about 50 years ago, and no looking back since. Lots of money flows through the hands of the wealth centers here – Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Asian Trade, etc. – and they have made their mark. There is so much money layed down on art here it almost makes you forget that Dubai exists… but it still does.
2. Deep cultural diversity.New York may be the most cosmopolitan city in the US, but has nothing on LA when it comes to the actual diversity of the sitting population. In downtown LA one can walk a few blocks and cruise from one culture’s deepest, darkest, most embarrassing vices and most shameful fashion crimes, and right into another’s. Korea, Japan, China, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Vietnam… etc. You get the idea. There’s a few square mile area in the fashion district that is like the UN of bad attire.
3. In NY, people want you to love them, want you to appreciate how hard they work to live, to actually live, in their city, but they don’t think you’re really up to the task. In LA, they just assume you appreciate it, they are so glad you do, and they will only judge you for your lack of physical discipline, diet, tanning habits… I’ll take New York, if you get me.

Hank Moody is no hero, and as such is a perfect role model for a 21^st century LA.

Here’s what’s good and bad in LA. Consider this a capsule review which I have carefully crafted to save you the trouble of traveling here yourself.

• Vivian Maier at Merry Karnowsky Gallery (170 S. La Brea) is da bomb!Vivian Maier has been a favorite of Pawn since John Maloof first started photo-blogging about her. I won’t go into her whole story here, but enough to say that she was a French immigrant to New York, then Chicago, who took to street photography when not working her day job as a nanny. Maloof found her (mostly undeveloped) film in a storage locker liquidation sale while she was in her last year of life in a nursing home. She never showed or sold her work in life, but Maloof has made a minor empire out of the Art Horde she left behind.

• Naked Hollywood: Weegee In Los Angeles, at MoCA Grand Avenue is hype in its original, unadulterated form.

  Pawn has long known of and appreciated Weegee for his groundbreaking work in crime photography in New York, but knew little of his West Coast work in LA. Fear not, MoCA is here to help. Naked Hollywood is an unapologetic look at this most unabashed, self-promoting, cartoonish character. With hundreds of prints, dozens of original magazines, scores of other photographer’s shots of Weegee… well, it’s just a cornucopia of glamor-hype. Well worth the effort to see it all, and such a great counterpoint to Vivian Maier’s guileless work.

• Under The Big Black Sun (California Art 1974-1981), at Geffen Contemporary at MoCA is not at all my taste.I don’t know, color me clueless, but I just saw so much self indulgent work in this exhibit that it makes me hope very much that there is really a lot more that California has to offer us from this era than what I saw. There was the occasional bright spot, but so much of this was video-cum-performance-cum-found-cum-documentatary-cum-family-portrait… Jeeze, give me a break! There was more ego-feeding nonsense here than you can shake a very long stick at. Not worth the ten block walk from MoCA Grand Ave. Give it a pass!

Here’s some photos from today’s excursion. Hope you enjoy!

Filming a commercial at Pershing Plaza

Window display in Fashion District

Window display in Fashion District

Store front in Fashion District

Sign in Fashion District

Variations on a theme

Sleek and moderne...

So many shops, so little time...

...and one thing leads to another.

convert this post to pdf.

From CNN’s story about Lindsay Lohan’s interview with Jay Leno:

She blamed her youth on her bad choices.
Lohan to Leno: I’ll be back with an Oscar! – CNN.com

I’d blame her youth on her parent’s bad choices, but that’s just me.

convert this post to pdf.

John P. Avlon has it right today:

…”Not intended to be a factual statement” is an instant dark classic, a triumph of cynicism, capturing the essence of Michael Kinsley’s definition of a gaffe in Washington: when a politician accidentally tells the truth.
No wonder “people are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke,” as Will Rogers once said and Colbert increasingly embodies. But we can’t keep depending on comedians to be the voices of sanity.
And don’t be fooled. There are real costs to this careless courtship of the lowest common denominator. Without fact-based debates, politics can quickly give way to paranoia and hate. Our democracy gets degraded.
Americans deserve better, and we should demand better, especially from our elected representatives. Empowering ignorance for political gain is unacceptable.
Colbert vs. Kyl and spread of ‘misinformation’ | CNN

Hear ye to that! <emphasis mine>

convert this post to pdf.

This from the Latest News section of the Independent Online just now:

• Go for it, Nick Clegg tells pupils
• Teacher jailed for sex with pupils

Well Nick, what do you say to that?

convert this post to pdf.

“You’ve been posted!” read the subject of the email from friend J.  J is a contributing writer for the local Milwaukee Journal Sentinel arts blog, Art City, and her reference was to a recent interview she conducted with moi.  You can read it all here:

Art City Asks: Nic Bernstein – JSOnline

convert this post to pdf.

A coworker recently turned Pawn onto You Are Listening To…, a website which mashes up ambient music and police scanners.  Focusing on five cities, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Montreal, the site features a simple photograph of the city you chose, along with the aural pastiche appropriate to those climes.  Check it out, a shockingly soothing audio backdrop for the workplace.

You are listening to Los Angeles

As an interesting experiment,just go looking for some sounds you think might go well together.  I just loaded up the “Ambient” tag at Sound Cloud in one browser window, and the Kennedy Space Center live audio feed in another.

convert this post to pdf.

Interesting review in the Shepherd Express most recent issue.  Jeff Beutner reviews INdustri Café, which besides its twee spelling indulges in a surfeit of locally produced ingredients.  In this early paragraph Beutner describes some of the local favorites for the cannibals amongst us:

The menu at INdustri Café is interesting and thoughtful. In a nod to Milwaukee, there is a liverwurst sandwich and an appetizer of kabobs made with kielbasa and white cheddar cheese. The liverwurst and sausage are made from local artisans.
INdustri Café Highlights Local Ingredients

Pawn was fortunate enough to have visited INdustri on their opening night, along with buddy T, and thoroughly enjoyed the free appetizers.  One wonders how many artisans perished for that snack.

convert this post to pdf.

Pawn recently reached out to friend and ex-patriot T, now living in Mozambique, for her opinion on the current events in Egypt.  T is an international teacher, and has taught in Los Angeles and Thailand, before living and teaching in Cairo for some time.  This was her response:

Great to hear from you.  Yes, J and I are glued to the news everyday.  I think it is absolutely necessary for the people to fight against Mubarak.  He has been a tyrant and a merciless dictator for too long.  It is a shame that some people will get hurt, but I agree with the revolt and think that Hosni should resign.

I think it is amazing that social networking can possibly be the unifying factor for many people throughout Africa.  Here in Mozambique when we had the riots last fall, people were being organized by text messages, until the government cut off all cell phone service.  That was the only way to squelch it.

Many Africans in countries with corrupt governments have needed a way to organize and join together to fight and be heard, now facebook, text messages, have reached the common man, the economies have been increaing and the technology has become available to the masses.  Just last month there were protests in Tanzania for the first time in twenty years and it was all organized through texts.

Again I don’t want to see people get hurt and looting and destroying property is horrible but If you mistreat people for long periods of time, you can’t help but expect them to fight back violently.  I just hope that the international community puts enough pressure on Mubarak so that he will actually step down.  I’m worried about  my Egyptian friends of course, and concerned for their safety, but I know they are ready for the regime to be toppled.

convert this post to pdf.

This just in:

Controversial graffiti artist and Mobarak’s friend Banksy to act as mediator.”The embattled president of Egypt has confirmed through a Facebook entry and through the state-run Nile TV that he is willing to open his door to negotiations with the leaders of the rival parties under two conditions.

“First is for the immediate halt of the street protests in the city of Cairo and Alexandria and second is for President Mubarak’s friend and a popular graffiti artists, Banksy”… to mediate between the parties.

Egypt’s Mubarak Opens Door to Negotiations, Requests Banksy | Newsflavor

convert this post to pdf.