Friday Night Links/P.J.'s Picks

Tatsuro Kiuchi

For those who don't remember, "P.J." stands for Philip Johnson. I picked him as my imaginary blogging buddy mostly because I've always enjoyed his trademark glasses and have respect for him as an architect. How can you not like a guy who hung out with Andy Warhol? As it so happens, I've been getting to know P.J. a little better thanks in part to my recent acquisition of The Philip Johnson Tapes. The book is a transcription of interviews with Johnson done in 1985 by Robert A.M. Stern. I have just started the book, but so far it's a very enlightening read. He really doesn't pull any punches when it comes to his opinions about anything. I anticipate a lively interview all the way through.

In other reading news, I just finished Nicholson Baker's, The Mezzanine. Though only 130 pages, it takes a while to go through in part because of Nicholson's extensive use of footnotes. I admit it got a little tiresome after a while, but his sustained concentration on minutiae is amazing. Most of the book revolved around the main character trying to figure out why both his shoelaces broke within a day of each other. He thinks about the different places of stress; at the knot, at the shoes' eye holes, along the toe, etc. in excruciating detail, but rarely do his thoughts become boring. He forces the reader to examine the everyday in a new light, often reexamining the mundane and finding something wondrous about it. How often do you read an author who cares deeply about paper towels vs. air dry hand dryers in public bathrooms? I enjoyed the book, but it is not for everyone. It takes a certain patience, one I admittedly didn't always have.

During breaks in my reading of Baker, I read a short story collection by Jim Shepard called, Like You'd Understand, Anyway. It is one of the most consistent short story collections I've read recently. Normally, a collection has a few gems, a lot of decent, but not great stories, and a couple that are just bad. Shepard held a tight grip on his material and never let it falter, even as he skipped around through history tackling such time periods as Chernobyl era Ukraine, Hadrian's Wall era Roman Empire, and the French Revolution. Shepard's stories, which largely revolve around father/son/brother relationships, always stay emotionally grounded. He never lets the historical period take control of the story. It doesn't matter what year the story takes place, relationships between men are always they same and, in Shepard's worlds, always failing. Definitely a book worth checking out, even if you aren't a big lit reader. It's very straightforward and lacks any kind of tricky post-modern elements. It's just a solid read. Period.


Last weekend Treasure Island, in the San Francisco Bay, held its second annual music festival. The island was originally built in 1939 for a World's Fair and fell into disuse shortly after World War II. There was been a lot of argument over the years about what to do with the man made island. Current plans call for a small sustainable city to be built. San Francisco always seems to be the most progressive West Coast city when it comes to social policy. Some message board posters have criticized the city for concentrating too much on environmental issue while ignoring larger concerns such as crime and safety. While I certainly don't want crime, I think that's something I'd rather put up with than cancer induced by chemical/pollutant exposure.

Forgot how I found the site, but The Projectivist is a great blog about art and graphic design.

Tatsuro Kiuchi is a Japanese illustrator of immense talent. In addition to his portfolio site, he also has a blog. Check it out, yo!

The Metro Library and Archive has an online database of Los Angeles maps, each detailing proposed public transit routes over the years. It gets depressing when you realize L.A. could have had its "Subway to the Sea" way back in the 1970's.

Syllabus for the Net Generation via McSweeney's.

San Francisco's plastic bag ban has worked and might be extended to include banning paper bags, some residents pissed.

Barnes & Noble is taking dead aim at Amazon's Kindle with their new e-reader device, Nook.

When was the last time you talked to your cousin, Frodo?

"Good Magazine" Associate Editor and all around swell guy Patrick James has a Twitter. Read it before it reads you.

Friday Night Links/P.J.'s Picks: Monday Edition

Los Angeles has been called a city without a center, a sprawling metropolis with no real core. There is nothing within downtown L.A. that draws people in. Other major cities around the country like New York, San Francisco, or Chicago have urban cores that are more than just high rises, but a vibrant part of the cities' social and cultural scene. There is a mix of business and residential districts that keep larger swaths of the city vibrant and open beyond the 9-5 business hours. Los Angeles' downtown largely lacks such dynamism. Bunker Hill, the new downtown, is all office buildings and offers little in the way of social activities. MOCA, located in the heart of Bunker Hill, offers evening programs and the Grand Avenue Redevelopment Project offers some hope, but those plans are a long way off especially during our economic crisis.
The latest project to bring some vitality to downtown is the L.A. Live complex just across from the Staples Center. The entertainment behemoth includes L.A. Live Nokia Theater, Club Nokia, Lucky Strike Lanes, Nokia Plaza, the Conga Room, and a move theater. And opening sometime in 2010 is the L.A. Live Ritz Carlton.



OPENING PARAGRAPH of L.A. LIVE MAIN PAGE

Imagine being "in the moment" - when nothing else matters but what is going on around you right then and right there. It is when you experience something so fully you do not think about it or analyze it, you just enjoy it. The moment is that magical place where you scream the loudest, laugh the hardest and live the fullest. This is the L.A. LIVE experience. As a one-of-a-kind entertainment campus, L.A. LIVE is a genuine world-class sports and entertainment destination where one can experience moments like this all the time.

Nokia Plaza. Photo courtesy L.A. Live gallery

The disturbing thing about this promotion is...well pretty much everything about it is disturbing. The whole selling point of the facility is its ability to overwhelm and dumbfound the visitor with so much spectacle that they don't have the time or energy to criticize it. L.A. Live is all spectacle. But what of substance? They have a bowling alley, a theater, two concert venues. It is, as their material says, "a world-class sports and entertainment destination..." Is that what Los Angeles needs? Is that what any city needs? A destination? A destination implies that one travels there, experiences the destination, then leaves. It is an insular experience because everything is located within the campus. While L.A. Live may be booming, what about neighboring businesses, what of the neighborhood around this entertainment campus?

Anyone who has taken a walk down Figueroa St. knows that the area around L.A. Live, Staples Center, and the L.A. Convention Centers isn't pedestrian friendly. It's filled with chain linked parking lots, granite lined office buildings, and buckled sidewalks. Everything is fine within these insular entertainment destinations, but the surrounding streets are left to fend for themselves. These new civic centers that are popping up all around Los Angeles only serve themselves rather than the community at large. They are too busy being destinations rather than integral parts of both the business and cultural structure. Just look at Universal City Walk, The Grove, Americana, The Block at Orange, and the Irvine Spectrum. All of these locations, two of which were designed my maverick developer Rick Caruso (The Grove and Americana), are mini cities unto themselves; a recreation of urban life within the confines of a highly monitored and regulated environment. It is inauthentic and separates it itself from surrounding businesses by way of massive parking lots and high walls. Even with the inclusion of apartments within these facilities, they are still destinations. They are still only places to visit and then leave.

One only has to look at areas like Old Town Pasadena or The Orange Circle, or Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade or any number of small town business districts to find prime examples of retail and restaurant expansion within a pre-existing infrastructure. The benefits of such a system allow for greater integration around the new businesses. The community itself is being upgraded, not just one development. Shops open up, people are out on the streets, crime goes down. The business district expands and more parts of the city get redeveloped and fixed up and become profitable for the region.

The current development trend in Los Angeles gives people few reasons to stay in the area beyond that initial "destination." There is no chance of roaming to other nearby attractions because there are none. There is nothing immediately outside of L.A. Live worth seeing save for a late night meal at The Pantry. City Walk is on a hill, The Grove and Americana all have restaurants within them and are protected from the city by parking lots and apartment buildings. Why recreate a downtowns when there is one already that already exists? One that can be made vibrant and exciting. Perhaps only a novelty plan, but there are talks of bringing a trolley system to run through sections of downtown. This system would allow the burgeoning downtown scene to be traveled more easily and frequented by more people. With Tom Gilmore's big push for lofts in downtown, the older bank and financial districts are becoming filled with residents. Bars are opening up, blogs are being made, and supermarkets are being opened; all signs that downtown, as it stands, is a viable option for future development without sinking millions into flashy and clandestine entertainment centers.

Sadly, most development strategies are based on the bottom line and not much else. It's understandable that investors would want their businesses to succeed, but at what cost is that success coming? What is the long term viability of such a plan if the neighborhood it is built in is going to seed? Westwood Village saw a sharp decline in business after a shooting in 1988. It has bounced back since then, but there is still a stigma attached to the area. How long before something happens to an L.A. Live concert goer walking to their car? What then will happen to these entertainment meccas? In a development plan that includes pre-existing businesses and buildings, everyone will have a vested interest in the area's success and safety. Everyone looks out for each other. City business councils will be created and the business owners will have a say in their future rather than being pushed around by multi-million dollar corporations.

Old Town Pasadena has gone through a remarkable transformation in just under ten years and is continuing to fight for causes it feels important, namely the preservation of small businesses rather than introduction of large chains. Pasadena has realized the stakes involved and has risen to the occasion. It seems L.A. has not yet realized what is at stake and has taken short term financial success of long term viability. It is more than just a question of finance, it is a question of quality and substance. Los Angeles has long battled with critics who claim the Hollywood aesthetic has tainted the culture and turned it into something flashy and cheap. Navel-gazing projects like L.A. Live only lend credence to that claim and proves the city has yet to really care about its heart and core, it has yet to really become anything more than just overwhelming spectacle.

P.J.'s PICKS

I have yet to find the article comparing Chicago to L.A., but basically it says both cities have very similar problems and Chicago is dealing with them in a much more productive manner. Millennium Park and the new Renzo Piano addition to the Institute of Art are proof enough. How did Chicago get so far ahead? One needs to look no further than the past for answers. Specifically, Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago. In honor of its 100th anniversary, Chicago hired Prtizker Award winning architect Zaha Hadid to design a temporary installation in Millenium Park.

Los Angeles was never graced with a master plan, nor was it limited by space like New York or San Francisco. Perhaps that's why it lacks a core. Be that as it may, there were several attempts at urban planning during the city's early days, none of which did much. Information on L.A.'s central plaza and Olvera Street can be found here.

To keep track of urban news in Los Angeles look no further than Every Block Los Angeles, which gives real time news updates based on zip code.

For eco-living tips and L.A. street news, check out Green Girl L.A. and L.A. Streets Blog.

Ever wonder why Wells Fargo has such high interest rates on their credit cards? How else do you expect their execs to party in Malibu?

A quick rundown of Disneyland's ticket prices. Who says money can't buy happiness? Certainly not Disney.

Do you ever listen to folk duos who were popular in the 1960's and wonder what the less popular member of the group likes to read? I know I do. For a full list of books Art Garfunkel has read between 1968 and 2007, please click here. For a list of his all time favorites, click here. For a blistering new track by Macho Man Randy Savage, click here.

Friday Night Links/P.J.'s Picks

There's a lot of talk among music critics about scenes. There was the grunge scene in Seattle, the hardcore scene in D.C., the punk scene in London, the new Pac Northwest scene that includes Death Cab for Cutie and the Decemberists. Every city seems to have had a "scene" at some point within music history. Omaha, of all places, has a scene thanks to Conor Oberst and Saddle Creek Records. Los Angeles never seems to make any of these scene lists, at least to my knowledge. The closest thing I can think of is the East Coast/West Coast rap battles of the 90's, which cooled down considerably after the murders of Biggie and Tupac as well as the incarceration of Suge Knight.


It's surprising to me that L.A. is void of a scene especially since it's described as being such a small town, socially speaking. This has a lot to do with Hollywood and the massive networking that goes within the entertainment industry. With all these people working together, how can some sort of scene or movement not exist in L.A? I think one does exist and has been around for a while. It's difficult for me to know whether this scene is currently emerging or I just think it is because I'm becoming cognizant of it.

Take, for example, Largo. (I think you will find that after a while, this article will be nothing more than a Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon like scenario which, incidentally, can be played here.) Largo is a sit down theater that is host to many actors, musicians and comedians. A quick look through their schedule shows performances by comedian Patton Oswalt and musician Jon Brion. Both work with director Paul Thomas Anderson whose movie "Magnolia" featured songs written by Aimee Mann who also performs at Largo along with Fiona Apple, who dated Paul Thomas Anderson.

If we expand the circle out a little wider, Zack Galafinakis also performs at Largo. He is friends with Patton Oswalt, who has done stand up for 826LA. 826LA is part of 826, a non-profit organization started by author Dave Eggers who wrote a movie, Away We Go, starring John Krazinski and Maya Rudolph. Maya Rudolph is going out with Paul Thomas Anderson. And this list could go on forever, circling outward into a vast orgy of Hollywood incest. All this is done to prove, however, that L.A. does a very credible arts scene that, at least according to my knowledge, has been developing since the 90's.

Much of the artistic movement of today has a lot to do with the so-called hipsters, particularly around the Echo Park and Silver Lake areas of Los Angeles. There has been a backlash against hipsterdom for a while now, primarily because of their alleged love of anything obscure, cerebral or pretentious. They're the new wave of art school prepsters pretending to barely get by on their boho chic lifestyle. Say what you will about their fashion, attitude, or gentrification of various cities, but at least they have a vested interest in the city's cultural life. I asked a friend how she liked living in Austin. She said there was a lot of plaid, so it was a pretty cool place. Plaid is shorthand for hipster fashion along with skinny jeans and funky colored sunglasses and there's plenty of that around L.A. I can only imagine what the crowd will look like at the FYF this weekend.

And what are the hipstesr listening to, what art are they promoting? They listen to, among other things, No Age, a stripped down indie outfit that often play at Family Bookstore on Fairfax. Family Bookstore, along with Stories in Echo Park and Origami Vinyl are all in the business of promoting local musicians, artists, and writers. Both Family and Stories are collaborating with 826LA on various events. For a mini documentary on Family Bookstore, check out the We Love You Blog all about Spike Jonze's new movie, Where the Wild Things Are. Oh, did I neglect to mention Spike is also a friend of 826LA? Small word, huh? No Age, in addition to playing Family Bookstore also play at a venue called The Smell. Need more like-minded, L.A. based non-profit organizations? Look no further than Machine Project, Ooga Booga, and the Silver Lake Conservatory of Music.

What makes all these people an organizations more than just businesses? The difference is that they are integrally related to the neighborhoods in which they stand. They don't just sell things to the community, but welcome the people in to be participants in conversation. Not just literal conversation, but to be a dynamic force both in the L.A. art world and the immediate neighborhood. There is a reciprocal relationship between the establishments and residents. And not only do the businesses provide workshops, classes, music, art, books, meeting spaces to their customers, but to other business as well. They work together for the betterment of everyone. As mentioned above, 826LA has worked with both Stories and Family Bookstores. It has worked with Maya Rudolph and Spike Jonze and Patton Oswalt and Largo. There are artists, musicians, and actors in Los Angeles who, without trying to, are part of a burgeoning group of people keeping the interest and promotion of art alive in Los Angeles. And that's more than can be said for LACMA who just recently had to cancel its weekend film series. And UCLA narrowly escaped having to close down its arts library. With major artistic institutions falling by the economic wayside, it's comforting to find people willing to make a scene. An L.A. scene at that.


Random Links:

L.A. FreeBee

Sartorialist

Look Book

NPR Story about the comedy scene in L.A. during the 1970's.

Two Martin Short interviews on Letterman that, although about 15 years apart, are eerily similar and equally hilarious.

Interview I
Interview II

Friday Night Links/P.J.'s Picks

Friday Night Links/ P.J.'s Picks:


I'm one essay away from finishing Consider the Lobster and I just picked up George Saunders' CivilWarLand in Bad Decline and Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation. Reading wise, things are going pretty well. And for those who don't read, well, you're probably not reading this either so nevermind...I've been pretty hungry this past week and have been relying heavily on cold cereal for sustenance. Never underestimate the power of shredded wheat. When not eating nine bowls a day I look to a couple L.A. food blogs for restaurant tips:

Eater L.A.

Eating L.A.

The sites are pretty similar in their content; restaurant reviews, events, and gossip, but I always find myself looking at both. They help fill in the gaps of the other. They both have a slight crackberry.com feel in that they both giddily slip out rumors and discuss the possibilities of soon to open restaurants. Gossip includes the hiring of new chefs, changes in menus, the addition/removal of valet service, and new desserts rumored to be in the works. Both sites also keep track of restaurants that have a BYOB policy, which is always an enjoyable find.

L.A. Weekly's Jonathan Gold recently released his 99 Essential L.A. Restaurants. Did your favorite hot spots make the list? There's only one way to find out.


If you're a lover of local newscasts like I am you'll be thrilled to know that long time Fox 11 news anchor John Beard, who has been off the air due to Fox's decision not to renew his contract, is alive and well and (like everyone else in the world) has a Twitter. If you're tired of getting news feeds from The Man and would prefer getting your news from a man, follow his Twitter. For those of you who don't know who John Beard is, I really shouldn't be talking to your because your ignorance saddens me. However, I will tell you he is semi-famous outside of the L.A. region due to several cameos on Arrested Development.


Pitchfork is known for giving practically every album a rating of four or lower. It's like they're not even aware that there are numbers higher than five. Sometimes they come off elitist and unabashed lovers of all things obscure/indie. Haven't heard of Florence and the Machine, Mungolian Jet Set, or Nisennenmondai? Too bad. Pitchfork has and they love them more than a new pair of skinny jeans.

Those who bash Pitchfork never seem to mention that it's more than just a site for album reviews. It's full name is Pitchfork Media. As such, they have lots of exclusive video footage, interviews and cultural essays. A few of the more enlightening articles include:
The Social History of the Mp3
The Decade in Pop
Twee as Fuck: The History of Indie Pop


For the burgeoning writers of L.A., I present to you UCLA's annual Writer's Faire. It takes place on August 30 from 11-3. The full schedule can be found here and a UCLA campus map here.


And, if you enjoy vintage diners but not the high cholesterol meals they serve, come on out to DRKRM Gallery, which is hosting a photo exhibit of lost L.A. diners. It's a Googie lovers dream come true with half the fat and none of the guilt!

Friday Night Links/P.J.'s Picks

I picked up yet another David Foster Wallace book. This time it's Consider the Lobster, his second collection of essays. I'm not done with it and am right in the middle of an essay on lexicography and English usage in America. The essays are crammed with facts and wit and make for easy and enjoyable reading. I find the book especially refreshing after trudging through the highly neurotic and cerebral stories of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. The essays in Consider the Lobster lack the excessive introspection and self-doubt and as a result are more accessible and easier to read.



It's not entirely fair to compare his short stories and essays because they each strive to do something entirely different. It's like the old cliche of comparing apples to oranges; you just can't do it. Be that as it may, I have compared the two and decided essays win out at the end. I'll be back with a more in depth look at the essays when I'm done with the book. In the mean time, here are my links:


A whole article dedicated to the history of Webster's Third Dictionary often touted as, "The Most Controversial Dictionary in the English Language."

My old buddy Logan Esdale has a brief but insightful primer on the work of Gertrude Stein.

The blog of New York based writer Molly Young. It's not often that I come across a writer's blog that actually has meaningful content.



In an effort to be topical, here are several links relating to our bum economic times.

"Atlantic" essay on health care

Having trouble finding cheap eats in L.A.? LAist's ongoing blog, Recession Obsession will help you find the goods (but not the droids) you're looking for.

Two part article on organic produce. It really helps demystify and clarify what all the labels mean and brings some balance to the whole organic vs. corporate farming debate.

Part I

Part II


Do you enjoy low cost Swedish furniture of dubious quality? Then check out Ikea Hacker, a blog dedicated to the tweaking and improving of the hard to pronounce, yet easy to love furniture of Ikea.

2+2=5

Sometimes this country's education system really boggles my mind. I know there's no easy fix and that, presumably, people are doing the best they can to make it work, but a lot of the policies seem counter-intuitive. Take my job for example. The students I tutor receive the help for free thanks to No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and increased Title I funding to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). In other words, the government is paying for the tutoring the children receive.
Under NCLB, each state sets their own academic standards and determines the level at which each child should perform. There is no national standard set. So far, so good. All this testing and goal setting is, of course, put in place to make the states and their districts more accountable for the help the kids get. The government wants to make sure their money gets put to good use and the students are improving at a rate that is satisfactory. Fine. That makes sense.

Where things start to break down is in the lack of leeway educators are given in choosing and creating curriculum for their students. Like everything else about the program, it is strictly regulated by LAUSD, the state government, and the federal government. It is my job, as a tutor, to assess the students' abilities against state standards, to do all I can to make sure they reach those standards and give the student a post-assessment to see if they reached their goal. The big problem here is that test assessment covers a wider range of subjects than the government sanctioned curriculum covers. It's like the government asking students to be proficient in 10 categories, but only giving them help is three and forbidding any outside assistance.

At one point my company had an account to an online service that allowed educators to access supplemental worksheets; extra lessons to be used in addition to the main curriculum. That account is no longer available because it does not fall under the category of acceptable education material set by the state. Now I have to look elsewhere and find material on my own that may or may not pertain to the sanctioned curriculum. It's not that I mind looking for the material, it's that the state is asking for higher scores in subjects they are unwilling to provide material for.

I have a student who needs help in spelling. The lesson plans in the district approved workbook I am supposed to use do not cover spelling. It is meant as a reader. I asked my boss if they had any spelling material and she said no. I can only use what's in the workbooks and maybe adapt some of the reading lessons into something for spelling. Well, my student does not need the type of help given in the workbook. He needs something far more specific.

I understand the need for quality control and assurance, but limiting the resources of the educator creates two problems: The student will receive limited help in their given subject of need and/or the educator will go out on their own and find their own material to teach, standards be damned. Either way, the students are the ones losing out. They are not getting the help they need and the post-assessment test will show that. The government will either throw more money at the problem and hope it helps or stop funding because they think the status quo is ineffective. If the government approved curriculum matched the subjects being tested a lot of the program's deficiencies would disappear. I know that's easy for me to say, I'm not the one writing and passing the legislation. But still, honestly people, it's a simple game of matching things up. Test four subjects. Give help in four subjects. It's so easy a first grader could do it.

Friday Night Links/P.J.'s Picks

After coming across a link in the blog of photographer Aaron Farley I've begun to renew my interest in photography. I've been taking photos since I was about three or four thanks to my dad, who bought me my first camera. I don't remember what kind it was, but I'm pretty sure it involved winding the film and choosing an aperture. My mom like to watch me eat Jell-O with my hands, my dad thought it was fun for a toddler to figure out how f-stops worked. Off I went, camera in hand. My photos were invariably aimed up and more than a little crooked, but sure enough, I was a four year old photographer. Over the years I continued to take photos, mostly on family vacations. Early subject matter included Coke machines and chewed gum.

At some point I was given an SLR camera and started taking photos with it. I think I was about 9 or 10. I didn't know I had an SLR or what an SLR even was, but I kept on taking photos, often imitating and trying to one better the shots my dad took, which were often of buildings. My dad, being the consummate site seer and tourist, lugged around a two ton camera with a zoom lens that doubled as a telescope. My mom always opted to wait for us in a gift shop somewhere and browse with great earnestness for a pair of earrings she thought my aunt might like.

My interest in photography began to wane when I was in high school, probably due to my intense desire to distance myself from anything remotely related to my parents. My photographs up that that point were of mostly buildings and cities, flora and fauna. People were largely absent except for the occasional tourist who wondered into my shot; fanny pack and floppy hat. The camera sat in my closet until college.

Leave it to laziness to reawaken my love of photography. The deal was, according to my school's requirements, that I either take a P.E. elective or photography. Sports is unbecoming to those of us in the geek community, so I opted for photography. It was the usual stuff; weekly photo assignments based on technique learned in lecture and the eventual printing of said assignments. My photos were middling at best. Part of the problem was my inability to load the negatives onto the reel for developing. Instead of opting for the dark room, I always chose to unload the film from my camera in one of those lightproof bags. My hands turned into sprinkler heads and I completely soaked the negative in flop sweat. Not that it hurt the negative, but it was kind of embarrassing to still be loading my film to be developed and watch classmates show off their third print of the day. Needless to say, making prints was not my thing.

Photography faded into the background again until the digital age came about and taking photos didn't involve the cost of film and making prints. I've gone the way of the maniac when it comes to digital photos; shooting indiscriminately and editing later. I've gained a lot of practice time that I wouldn't have had under the cost limitations of film. I've learned to be patient with the execution of taking photos. Tripods are now acceptable as is taking the time to frame and figure out the correct aperture. I have come to terms with photography being a process of trial and error.

Part of my initial reticence toward taking photos was the fear of making a mistake. I'd never know if I had taken a bad photo until I printed it, but the fear was still there as was the proof; that print with the blurred finger in the corner or a building out of focus. Now I can make as many mistakes as I want because it doesn't cost me anything. My photos are better now. Not great, but better. I even have a few that I think would be acceptable as a large print, 8x10 even. It's nice to know I can do decent work.

Why do I take photos, why have an interest in photography at all? A lot of photographers say they want to document their world; capture and remember events that might otherwise fade from memory if not for the photo to remind them. And while this is true, photos do capture moments, they also capture moments in other people's lives. And so the photographer is not just a documentarian, but co-opter. He is taking moments from others and using them to create/remember his own life experience.

Not all subjects want to be photographed and not all photographs are taken with permission. It requires bravery on the photographer's part to essentially steal moments away from people and make them his own. What right does a photographer have to document another person's life? What will be done with those photos? How will the people's lives be judged based on the use of the photos? A photographer has to have a certain brazenness to work against the resistance of his subjects and capture the moments he wants to; to co-opt their lives into his own.

It is a brazenness I lack and probably the reason so few of my photos include people. It seems impossible to me to make such claims, to demand such intimacy from my subjects. It is an invasion I don't feel right making. So I stand along the periphery and gaze at the world.

I look at photos by Diane Arbus and wonder how she got so many people to let her photograph them, how such relationships came into place, and how fortunate it was for both of them that such a relationship existed. Not just for the sake of the photo, but for each other, for the tremendous freedom and relaxation that I fantasize must exist between the subject and the photographer. It all comes down to intimacy and closeness and people letting their lives mingle together for just a moment and to share something together. They are creating a memento and a secret shared by only themselves.

As a spectator, I enjoy imagining that closeness, that feeling that each person (both photographer and subject) is a part of. As a photographer, it is a challenge for me, on a personal level, to break through my shyness and forge those relationships and catch something between me and my subject. The photo that results is largely, in my mind, a happy by-product of the relationship; it is secondary and merely a reminder of something far greater than what the photograph can show. Maybe such relationships don't exist, maybe I have romanticized delusions about how photography works, but I think I am allowed such delusions, as every photographer is. If nothing else, what is photography, but the framing of the world through one person's eyes. And through their photographs we are allowed to see their reality, however unreal it may seem.


FRIDAY NIGHT LINKS:

American Suburbs X: A collection of photos, movies, and essays by and about some of America's greatest contemporary photographers.

I Heart Photography: A photography blog that gets updated daily with photographs from around the world.

Gary Leonard: L.A. based photographer who has a gallery open downtown. The current exhibit shows photos of billboards around Los Angeles in the 1960's.

Robert Adams: A photographer whose career was largely focused on the American West particularly California, Colorado, and Oregon. One of his more famous photo collections, "The New West," came out in 1970.

William Eggleston: Another photographer greatly interested in the American suburban landscape who rose to prominence in the mid 1970's.

Bill Owens: Yet another chronicler of suburban lifestyle.

I'm greatly attracted to suburbia for a couple reasons. First of all, it's a fairly recent development that really came about during the Post-War boom years. The 50's were a time of economic prosperity for a lot of Americans, or at least it was important to project an image of prosperity. We were beginning the Cold War and domestic perfection had to be maintained at any cost. Although the above photographers took their photos in the late 1960's and 1970's, there's still a pervasive image of optimism mixed with the mundane( i.e. watering the lawn or feeding a baby). It's kind of like watching residents of OZ doing their laundry. It's the breakdown of the American ideal into its very real and often uninteresting parts. Life is no better in the 'burbs than it is anywhere else. It just happens to be shiny and new.

Also, I think suburban life is largely overlooked because it has been documented by every family and their point and shoot camera. It is a pedestrian photography subject that is of little interest to the art community. What these photographer have done is explore the dynamics of suburban life and bring to light the complexities and yes, trivialities, of that lifestyle. Suburbanites are people too and are fraught with the same dilemmas as everyone else.

The interest in suburban life has seen a resurgence as of late thanks to movies like "American Beauty" and "Revolutionary Road." Of course, not all of suburbia is as dysfunctional as those films portray. The above photographers, I feel, strike a delicate balance between showing the dysfunction and the everyday.

Jonathan Harris has a couple cool sites that track what is talked about on the Internet.

One is called, We Feel Fine. It searches through websites and blogs throughout the world and picks out sentences with the phrase, "I feel..." It then saves those sentences and records it based on emotion listed (i.e. love, lame, scared, grumpy, busy...) The sentence is then cross-referenced on the site according to emotion expressed, location, age, gender, and weather forecast at time of posting. It then turns all these emotions into colored dots floating across the screen for you to click on. It's actually a lot more fun an interactive than I am describing. Check it out.

The other site is called Universe and it tracks any subject and the articles/bits of information that mention or pertain to that subject. It is similar in scope to We Feel Fine. Again, it is something better experienced than described.

Some miscellaneous links:

Interactive map of farmers markets in L.A. and OC

Good Magazine's three-part series on conserving water.

A highly unauthenticated Wikipedia article about the California Water Wars. Think "Chinatown," but without the incest sub-plot and oddly amusing cameo by Polanski.

Friday Night Links

Friday Night Lights/P.J.'s Picks:

I swear to you I'm going to put up actual blog posts, but for now you'll have to suffer through another round of links. This week's theme is loosely based around architecture, as seems to be the case quite often around here. These links are slightly more focused in that they deal with architecture and urban design within the scope of environmentalism.

Detractors of environmentally friendly urban planning projects often say that all this environmentalism talk is all attempt to stop global warming which, in their minds, doesn't exist. That, and the government is regulating business and manufacturing in ways it has no right to do. The way I see it, environmentalism is not an ethos or way of life dependent upon a belief in global warming. To me, it's just about common sense. In essence, environmentalists want to keep the world as clean as possible. We have seen that dumping trash into the ocean is not a good idea. Toxins get spread through ocean tides and fish ingest mercury and we ingest the fish and then we ingest mercury. We've seen that if air pollution is not relegated to one place and that wind patterns can carry smog across countries and continents. Dirty one part of the world and, chances are, that dirt will spread elsewhere. What environmentalism tries to do is avoid the spills and messes of the world. It is trying to keep humanity from pissing in the well from which we drink. It's a simple concept and one that promotes a hearty sense of self-preservation. We want to keep the Earth as habitable for as long as possible. As kids, our parents always told us to clean our rooms, doesn't it makes sense that we also clean our planet?

In an effort to jump on this environmental bandwagon and increase long-term sustainability, the city of Los Angeles is embarking on a series of public transportation projects, many of which have been rumored and argued about for years. Plans include more light-rail train routes or extensions of pre-existing routes, trolley service in downtown, bike rentals, and the legendary subway to the sea. All these projects are in their planning stages and require lots of money from a city going broke. While these projects might not even get started into 2011 or 2012, at least there are city planners and leaders who are trying to do something about the traffic problems in L.A. The infrastructure definitely needs some work and I'm glad freeways are being pushed aside for more environmentally feasible options.

"The New York Times" has a two part article about what to do with the inflexible infrastructure of the suburbs and how some economically downtrodden communities are dealing with the closure of "big box" stories. There is also a look at sustainable design for the future including a new phase of pre-fab homes that are vaguely reminiscent of the Case Study Project.

Slightly related and a little more hip is the promotion of chalk and white board paint. What are these marvelous products you ask? Glad you did. They are wall paints that, once dried, double as either a chalk or white board surface. For once it's permissible and encouraged to write on the walls.

And just to keep my literary peeps happy, a link to a pretty comprehensive and fairly well-known site on literature that includes interviews and book reviews.

Lastly, an in-depth article about language and how, more than just a communication tool, it also dictates your perception of the world and overall cognitive processes.

Sketches of Neutra: A Review

About a month ago I made a post about a Neutra exhibit at the Los Angeles Public Library. I finally got a chance to go and it was worth it. The only downside to the experience was having to pay for parking. Yeah, I know, it's downtown, I should expect to pay for parking. But still, you'd think of all places, the main branch of the public library would have a free parking lot. Turns out they don't even own or rent a parking lot. Visitors have to park in a public lot on the street or in an underground lot off Flower St. I'm not sure what good it does to offer free books if it costs money just to get to them. I probably should have taken public transportation, but I didn't have the luxury of time to do so. Anyway, on to the actual exhibit...kind of.

Before I talk about the exhibit proper, I would like to give some major, nerdy ups to the library itself as a building and as a warehouse of information. It's just a fabulous place to get lost in and explore and just marvel at. Some people go to the mall, I go to libraries. Okay, enough with the prefaces...

The exhibit is arranged in chronological order and starts out with a lot of early landscape drawings that include sketches of his travels to South America. Some of his figure sketches were influenced by Gustav Klimt, while his basic drawing ability was largely taught to him by his sister, Josephine. I'm a sucker for sketches of any kind because of their roughness. They show mistakes and process and, as an onlooker, I can trace the stages of the drawing from simple form to finished product.

The sketches give way to more formal architectural drawings that really showcase Neutra's meticulous nature. As a curatorial note mentions, "Unlike most famous architects who developed large offices and eventually left drawing function to younger colleagues, Neutra was never willing to relinquish completely this aspect of his practice." The amount of detail and precision required of the drawings is immense. Everything is measured perfectly, the lines are of even thickness and darkness. It looks like the work of a machine rather than a man. To think that Neutra sat down and actually took the time to hand draw all his buildings is mind boggling.

Both the early sketches and later architectural drawings show a man who was constantly engaged with his surroundings and wanted to create buildings that were both aesthetically pleasing and functional. He, like Wright, Le Corbusier, and many other architects, designed whole dream cities, reimagining lifestyle through architecture. He used this city titled, Rush City Reformed, as a reservoir of ideas, constantly coming back to themes of harmony and utility.

Beyond the biographical knowledge presented, the exhibit also expresses and presents Neutra's philosophies concerning architecture, most notably that the buildings around us affect the way we live, that social betterment is possible through architectural planning. Today, it feels like cities aren't planned very well or are planned based on traffic patterns and population density. There is a sense that civic planning is down to its barest bones; just enough planning to make sure chaos doesn't break out. Neutra's vision was opposite of that and cared very much about details and making creative solutions for modern life. Architecture as solution.

The exhibit displays drawings that were amazingly detailed along with curatorial notes that help place them in their historical context, tracing Neutra's influences and his stylistic breakthroughs. Like the sketches, the exhibit allowed me to trace Neutra's life, his shifts in style, his growth as a designer. I was able to see a portrait of Neutra that was fully detailed and by no means sketchy.

Friday Night Links

In honor of Fridays and esteemed American architect Philip Johnson (pictured above), I've decided to start a weekly post dedicated purely to cool websites I've come across during the week. I'm going to make a vague effort to group the links thematically, but I'm not making any promises.

This Week's Links/ P.J.'s Picks:

Philip Johnson's Glass House
Good Magazine's Blog
Self-proclaimed "Directory of Wonderful Things:" Boing Boing
Style and design magazine/website: Daily Icon

Neutra

The main branch of the Los Angeles Public Library will showcase 140 sketches and drawings by famed Modern architect, Richard Neutra. Many of the sketches were part of a donation Neutra gave to UCLA nearly 50 years ago and have never been displayed. The exhibit entitled, "Richard Neutra, Architect: Sketches and Drawings" runs through Sept. 6.

Full details can be found on the L.A. Times site.