Mary A. Rappazzo - Open Artist Studio Tour 2006

Mary's work drew me into a space of color and clean lines that tell stories. There is so much vibrancy in her work.


This is a 7MB Windows Version

This is a 16.5MB QuickTime version

In this video, she explain her process and one work in particular that was inspired by a day in September. For more information on her work visit www.mar1eye.com

Jeryd Pojawa - Open Studio Tour Artist 2006

Jeryd is a very talented man who does a lot of things but artist is the word that kind of captures his spirit. In this video he is introducing me to one of his spirits that has taken solid form.



This is an 8MB Windows Media Version

This is a 20MB QuickTime Version

Reason #8 why I do this kind of stuff. In May 2006 there was a wanton and premeditated destruction of a mural painted by Kent Twitchell. It was the world famous building painting of artist Ed Ruscha. The perpetrators of the deed gave orders to paint over the mural during the Memorial Day weekend. The suspects? The YWCA of Los Angeles and/or the federal Department of Labor.

The Los Angeles Downtown News, other local print press and bloggers have covered the story and the non-action of various city, state, federal and non-profit officials.

To get up to speed visit:

• http://greggchadwick.blogspot.com/2006/07/twitchell-files-claim-against-labor.html
  
• http://art.blogging.la/archives/2006/07/what_used_to_be_1.phtml
• http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2006/06/downtowns_ruscha_mural_go.html
• http://blogs.walkerart.org/offcenter/?p=356
  

Nobody knows who did it. Nobody has the work order, the authorization for work, the original contract, the name of the contractor or the payment for services rendered.

Mural, what mural?

I share this with you because art is not an elitist activity. It is not just for people who have money to spend looking for a painting to place over the couch. Art is for the broke folk, the mother about to explode from frustration and tired bus riders looking for a way home.

Art feeds spirits. It can transform dull buildings into pockets of community. Or it can fill a heart with smiles. This is my way of supporting some of the artists that work and live in the Los Angeles area.

Kenny Pittenger - Open Studio Tour 2006

I feel like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! I'm going to BlogHer, I need to pack. I have to clear my desk at work. I fixed the problem with the videos and I have to upload them, I need a black dress and what am I going to do with my hair?



Yeah, I know. Calm down. Breathe. This is a quick view of the work of Kenny Pittenger. I didn't get a chance to meet him or get his website.

I think you will enjoy his humor and creativity.
Click to watch the Windows version.
Click To watch the QT version.

The Flying Other Brothers - A Music Sample

I've been fighting with three (3) videos for two weeks. Not anything I haven't done before but there is always the thing that you see in your head and the thing that you have on the screen. Let's just say there is a video block - similar to a writer's block but 100 times worse cuz I can see the problem but can't fix it.

I do not understand how Thomas Edison had the endurance to create 10,000 failures before creating a light bulb. I am not Edison. I have turn a corner and decided to leave those suckers alone. There is a point where you have to step away and let the work simmer. Wish I accepted this 8 days ago.



This is a 7.5MB Windows Version
This is a 12MB MP4/QuickTime version

A few years back a friend introduced me to some Grateful Dead music and I stared listening to the "The Music Never Stops" on KPFK where Barry Smolin plays a wide range of Dead, near Dead, Dead inspired and Dead friendly music. I'm not a Deadhead, but I have respect for music groups who spend upmteen hours on stage because they love it that much. This is a taste of the band and if you like the song or would like to hear more visit their web site at http://www.flyingotherbros.com

Assistant U.S. Attorney Going After Josh Wolf Again

Update 7/24/06
This is a link to the press conference Josh gave after meeting with the Feds. He is due back in court on August 1, 2006.

Click to view the QuickTime Video

On July 20, 2005 they are hosting Josh up on civil contemp charges for invoking his:

• 1st Amendment ...or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...
• 4th Amendment ...right of people to be secure in their persons, house, papers and effects, against unreasonable seraches and seizures
• 5th Amendment ...nor should any person be subject for the same offence
• 6th Amendment ...and to be informed of the nature and cause for the accusation
• and 14th Amendment ...without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

For the complete constitution in an accessible format visit Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute If you are in the San Francisco area and want to express your support for Josh visit his web site for more information http://joshwolf.net/grandjury

You can leave a comment of support on the same page. Better yet send the lad some cash money - the Feds are sucking him legal dry.

Technorati Tag: joshwolf

Invocations - Thomas and The Trees

I needed to write something more positive than my last post. In hindsight, maybe I should have waited before I uploaded that photo and text. Writing while angry is just as troublesome as dialing a phone while drunk. Can lead to all kinds of mischief.



Sometimes you just need the simple life. Uncomplicated without all the noise makers and thingamobobs. Redemption does not have to be a big task. This is how one man is trying to change a waste into a want.

7.4MB QuickTime Version

Windows version coming soon.

This Hurts on Many Levels...

This company just does not do good business, it is too big to care. I boycott Sony products whenever I can possibly do so. I do not buy Sony DV tapes, cassettes, or any item I suspect comes from that company.

Sony websites are very hard to use and obtain information. The customer service for computers is nothing short of being hostile. The CD Music Rootkit incident I thought was beyond stupid. Until now.

I was checking out a new blog (to me) called blac(k)ademic first thing I lay eyes on is this ad for PSP.

I couldn't believe it. Rattled my bones. My understanding there is/was a plan to have other photo billboards in the series. The second one I saw was the black person (gender unknown) attacking the white woman.

This campaign is being used to sell a game machine. I want to ask what the heck were they thinking and what with? I want to ask who told you it was okay to have this type of image in 2006? An image that plays on Master and Slave, Slave versus Master. Sex and Class (well this thing has no class but still...) Maybe I shouldn't type while angry.

What really got me was some of the comments from fellow humans.

• There are folks that see no problem with this ad, that I and others are being too touchy, too reactionary.


• Others say that was the point of the ad to generate conversation/attention. I and others are/were dumb enough to take the bait.


• And one blessed soul (Not!) said it was avant-garde and anything I saw was because of the stuff in my head not Sony's and I and others like me should not be so sensitive.

Here is my problem. For the past few months I have been working with all kinds of people. Positive, creative people. Even the non-positive creative people help to extend the dialog.

Then I view something like this and everything is put into pause. Why did a billion dollar multi-national company think this was okay? Why do you need to objectify women to sell a game machine to men? Is is about sex, power or white is right so get your white PSP right now?

I don't have any answers other than to go for a walk and hug a tree.

Invocations - Making Bricks on the 4th of July

There is a old James Brown song that has the lyric “...there was a time.” This time is moving so fast that we forget what it was like in the long ago, before cell phone, VCR's, Party line connection and rabbit ears that hook up to the UHF converter. Let alone what life was like 150 or 200 years ago.


This is the QuickTime Version
This is the Windows Video Version

So imaging trying to explain to young kids that once upon a time you had to not only build your own house but you had to make your own bricks. In this video a young lady is being introduced to the ways of many of our ancestors.

I think both the Living History person and her mom really wanted her to understand the connection. That she knows that everthing isn't connected to batteries or electricity. That there was another type of life in the early history of the Americas. In time she will understand but I could kinda see she was a little confused.

Visitors got a chance to experience pottery, blacksmithing, rope making and other necessary skills at the presentation. In the next series of videos I want to share some of the connections that the past has on our present time.