The Great Art Revival, with wonderful friends mixed in for good measure

 

(Photo stolen off the Artisan Venice website HERE)

Last Friday night rocked! Actually, all my weekends have been pretty great the last month. I love the warm, beautiful sunshine! I have spent a lot more time in my hometown too (I've only moved 5 miles away, but it's still a whole different world sometimes) and had a great time soaking up the art, sand and general insanity that is Venice California.

Friend's of friends had opened a great little art spot right on the fricking corner of Windward and Pacific (major foot traffic, huge have to pass through artery of Venice beach). It used to be a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Before that it was a pizza place, and WAYYYYYY before that it was a smoothie place and health food store. I had never heard of the magical properties of wheatgrass juice before that little health food store...anyway!

Artisan Venice is a wonderful little spot that I must return to when I have spendable money (sometime in about the year 2020). The owners/designers/runners/bosses of this gem are Darren Hall and Steve Avila. Boy have they got a great little shop on their hands! The featured artist of the night was Jules Muck, a graffiti artist who works in large canvases for gallery exhibits. Great work, some rather haunting, but, I still like the stuff she does on actual walls. Exceptionally well done wall art in this constantly over tagged world is a breath of fresh air. This was my favorite piece:

Other delicious tidbits on display and up for sale included this case of silver rings I kept coming back to and drooling over:

(the photos don't do it justice, and also the crappy cell phone pictures suck in general but it was the same day the truck took a crap all over the streets of Burbank and I forgot to get my camera). I really want the one with the peridot gem (second from the right on the bottom) , it's so...I don't know, words fail me, I just need it.

The ring would go so well with this blouse I also feel I need.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but it has heads of woman all over it. They all have these great hats on and are dressed in a 1940's style...it's lovely. And really, I need it cause I had one (a hand me down from my older sister? Or something my mother bought from a thrift store? I'm not sure...) almost like it when I was very young. It was blue, and the ladies were wearing red hats, but this reminds me of it.

There was an open space for bands to play.

After the band was finish people that play grabbed instruments just picked them up and played! Here is Artisan owner Darren playing guitar and singing:

Our friend Colin and The Man tried to play Led Zeppelin:

And of course if your in Venice and partying there is the obligatory group of homeless that drop by, some of them sing too!

Then we all hung out and drank wine!

My poor cell phone photos just don't leave the right impression. I had a crappy afternoon, and was swept up and taken to a place with art, music and friends in the place of my rearing. Life is blessed!

In short words, GO THERE! NOW! Well, no...they are probably closed...it's 9:30 at night now...GO TOMORROW!

Blessed over

Hello!
Happy Friday!

I have had quite a trying week, I can't wait to relax. Today is my little sister's 27th birthday, I am broke and have waited till the last minute to do everything (it's like me...I think I like pressure). But we are going to have a great night anyway, I promise. The cake is in the oven now, I gotta make the card, and figure out a gift....Yikes.

I gotta back up (Well first I should warn and apologize for the fact that I didn't have my camera, and  was too upset to remember to stop and get it. So, all the pictures in this post are cell phone ones that suck. I know, I'm lame. Get over it.) I gotta back up to this time last week when The Man and I journeyed out to Burbank on the bus, for what we thought would be the last time. We picked up our truck, dropped the pretty penny we couldn't afford and drove off into the sunset! Yee Haw! When we stopped 6 blocks away for gas, The Man took the coolant bottles out of the back and threw them out. No need to waste the space anymore, we had  whole new heads! We had new  head gaskets! We had new push rods!
The truck was never gonna overheat again!

Well, this is what happened about 3 miles later:

And this:

That is green coolant spilling all over the street. I was pissed. I was broke, tired, hungry and couldn't believe I had just dropped all the money I had for weeks into this damn thing. Sucks. I cried. True story. Ask the man, he felt like crap. Or my friends, cause I did it again in Richie's car on the way to an amazing gallery opening in Venice we all went to (I have to tell you about this tomorrow, it really deserves a better post than I can currently provide).

Venice. Ah Venice, how I love thee, how I loath thee. I had been there last Saturday for a bike ride with Mia, it rocked. The truck was in the shop and we couldn't get a bus down Venice Blvd. that had 2 open bike racks. So we rode. Then we met up with Mia and rode to the Santa Monica Pier.

We rode past Tom Kirschbaum's  failed boat. It was eerie. It's always weird to be in a place where someone has died but this was, weirder. They just sort of threw the boat up on the sand, and all the things inside were all over the place. But it was as if it had crashed right there. Tom was coming from Catalina Island to the Marina Del Rey and was lost at sea. It doesn't appear that his body has been recovered. 
Rest in Peace Mr. Kirschbaum.


Then we rode all the way south to the Baja Cantina and had a drink (or two, or three) and went back to the boardwalk to hang out with Lesley, lay in the grass, take in the parade of freaks. My right shoulder burned bad, and right along the line of my tank top, so it looks like someone else's arm was snapped on instead!
Here's another really horrible cell phone picture! You can kinda tell it's Mia!

So anyhow, I gotta run now and prepare for dear Les' birthday. I know I sound rushed. I am behind on talking about a lot of stuff I have been meaning to get to. The truck took over this week and I have been exhausted by it. Wow being a grown up takes practice. Blah.
Seacrest out!

Links later! (You might even get lucky and get a rambling drunk post! Yay!)

Iggy

Taken in the living room of the apartment I grew up in Venice Ca. (long before I got there) in about 1974. Iggy Pop lived in my parents garage during the early 1970s.

"I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive."
 - Henry Miller

Saturday Happy Song: Robert Plant- Heaven knows

I haven't posted a video in so long, and this one makes me happy. It's Robert Plant and as we all know, I love him. I am actually bordering on obsessed...but we won't talk about that right now. Let's just enjoy that it's Saturday, and Robert is singing, just for you.

Friday Favorites

Yay! It's Friday! How's it been? It's also after 5pm here on the west coast, so I'm sure many people are out enjoying happy hour and the start of a three day weekend, AND the unofficial start to SUMMER! Hooorrray!

So, what have I been looking, laughing and wondering at this week?

♥ I am not really a follower of Oprah, but once in a while her site provides insight. 5 Things Happy People Do is a very inspiring read, give your life a little thought.

♥ This Shirt!

♥ 25 Horribly Sexist Vintage Ads left me, laughing, speechless, and blown away all at the same time. Some of these are just...amazingly bad. How do you douche with Lysol and not die?! Well, this woman did it for years and lived to at least 89 to tell the tale! Wow!

♥  Sunday is the 10th Annual Masturbate-A-Thon, don't forget to love yourself a little, it's...therapeutic. ;)

♥ Have you ever thought about the random people you come in contact with every day? This amazing perspective, articulated by Sarah Wilson will give you pause if you haven't. I hadn't, in fact it amazed me how much I completely ignore all the people I come in contact with everyday. This really made me think!

♥ Stephan shared these amazing, creepy, beautiful dolls with me, now I shre with you. I love, love dolls. I used to makeover dolls myself but none so amazing as these!

♥ Think about your routines, all the things that make up your days, week, months. (I've been thinking a lot about my life lately, can you tell? Haha!)

♥ I'm a little late on this one, since we are at the end of May already. But, May was National Photography month. Punk Turns 30 had a great write up on it. She also has some wonderful photos of punk musicians during the 1970's and 1980's. I am working on my own photography more seriously these days, as well as going back and organizing my fathers photographs. It was going to be a book. That has become a bit too overwhelming for me...I have a lot of projects on my plate currently. So instead I am gonna blog it. So here for the first time ever I present to you...my father's Edgar Winter! :

There will be more as I get them cleaned and organized. It's been kinda...daunting. Lots of people have asked about them, and I gotta get some of it out there. So, Now I've started. Enjoy!
Till next time, have a great weekend!
-Syd

Maple Walnut Chocolate Cake and Marshmallow Creatures

This cake is gone, long, long gone. I meant to post the pictures and recipe that long, long ago...but, there are a lot of things that I mean to do, and some days life gets in the way. Anyhow, this cake rocked my world. Seriously.

This was a great chocolate cake for two recipe from eHow. It made a really moist, chocolaty 8X8" cake that lasted...2 days. To be honest, it wasn't as good the next day, I mean, it wasn't BAD. It had dried out a little, but I still thought it was better fresh. I topped it with a quick maple frosting and sprinkled it with toasted walnuts. YUM! It was sooooo good! (Recipe below)
I have baked a lot lately, aaaaaannnd it looks like none of it gets posted. Mostly because I bake late at night, due to munchies, and it all gets eaten up or given away too quick. I have followed food blogs and drooled over food photography for quite some time now, in fact all I have made sure to do since we moved into a bigger apartment back in September is make sure that I cook a lot. We have had two parties in which we made sure that all the food was homemade and delicious (although I have to make a lot more food a head of time or not drink so much cause I feel like food runs out mid-party) yet, none of it gets posted here! I am too busy eating all of this amazing food! So, once a week or so I'll force myself to stop inhaling whatever weird creation came out of my kitchen and take a damn picture. I have to warn you though, it may lead to strange stuff like this:

My dad brought me Peeps and non-Peep pink marshmallow bunnies two weeks ago! In crazy bright colors! And I made them do all kinds of odd crap in my kitchen, then I ate them. Yes,  I know,  sorry to The Man who pointed out that it was a month after easter and my dad gets all manner of odd stuff from some...strange individuals. So, don't eat them ok? Because you don't know where they came from. Oops. I only ate the Peeps. The bunnies are still in the kitchen cause they were not all hard dried out marshmellow like the peeps. Like what you would expect from month old easter candy. No then bunnies were still really soft pillow like. I was amazed. So mushy. AND they smelled very strongly of artificial vanilla flavoring. Overpoweringly strong.
I just went into the kitchen to feel the bunnies and they are just now approaching Peep firmness. Of a fresh peep, not a stale one. Yes, these were mushier than Peeps when I opened them, weird. They still smell like the artificial Vanilla, but not as much.
More crazy pictures, cause making marshmallow creatures do dirty stuff is fun!

Bunny Buttsex!

Bunny Daisy Chain!

Bunny 69! (this one was a little dark huh?...working on my food photography skills along with everything else...)

♥ Chocolate Maple Walnut Cake for Two ♥ :
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Assemble ingredients: 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup hot water, 1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 beaten egg, 1/4 cup melted butter. Stir until thoroughly mixed.
Combine all ingredients, mixing well after each addition. Do not beat, just stir until thoroughly mixed.
Pour into a greased square 8" baking pan. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until cake tests done with a toothpick inserted in the middle.
Cool completely on a wire rack. Put 1/2 cup or so of confectioner's sugar into a small wire strainer, and dust over the top of the cake,cut into squares and serve.
Frosting: 


1/2 Stick salted sweet cream butter
1/2 Box Powdered Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Teaspoon Pure Maple Sirup
1 Cup Toasted Walnuts


Beat all together till fluffy. Spread on cake, sprinkle with Toasted Walnuts. 


Cake: eHow Frosting: My own concoction.