From L.A. in August

Click on the L.A. in August link to see the rest.

I think the camera is having seizure-like tendencies in its reaction to the bass. Or maybe that’s part of my dance move.

That would be a good name for a band. Unfortunately it is only short for Girl Talk and Dan Deacon, two turntablist performers who master of ceremony’d a crowded, sweaty dance party at the Echoplex last weekend. Fun times. Dancing is awesome. Dancing with hundreds of sweaty Los Angelenos is also awesome.

Laura and Dennis dancin’ and sweatin’ it up.

I’m droppin’ ‘bows. (Dance lingo decoder not included in this post.)

P.S. If you ever read this — Thanks Dennis!

A lot of exciting things have happened since I last posted. I went to L.A. I returned to Omaha. I made a pillow. I watched 24. I took photos. I finished watching Season 1 of 30 Rock. I watched the premiere of The Office. I laughed. I saw Clark Duke from Clark and Michael. I almost finished Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. I read interesting articles on Leica cameras, a man with a rare and debilitating form of amnesia, and the woman who started Paper magazine. I tried on Clarks shoes and broke my other new shoes in.

I saw a lot of friends. I/we hung out. I/we danced. I/we listened to music. I/we ate a lot of good food. I/we had Pinkberry. I/we took walks with Rufus and went to the dog park. I hung out with Sylvia and Zelda. I could tell they missed me.

I am too exhausted, I think, to post many photos. However, I will leave you with a photo that gives off a feeling of L.A. as I feel it. You feel me?

I left a roll of film that I finished awhile back with LH in L.A. to get developed at Freestyle, thinking it would be harder to find a place that develops medium format film here in Omaha. I recently received the photos, so here are some of them.

From L to R: Rakiya, Tavis, Bersabell and Laura on my old street, Lyman Place.

Sunny C.A.

Hangin’ on Vermont St.

I’ve really been wanting to take more film photos lately as opposed to digital, and this only increases my motivation. Film has a quality that you really can’t replicate with digital, especially with the Holga and its imperfections. Half of the roll was shot because of a light leak. I’m going to take care of that and shoot some more. I also have another Holga with colored flashes that I have yet to put to great use. I tend to ration and save things I really love, so much so sometimes to the point of not using them.

I just wanted to give a shout out to the Los Feliz Fire Department. They’ve been working really hard on this fire and have saved the Observatory, the zoo animals, and the Greek Theatre. They have also been instrumental in putting out the fire and stopping it from torching the city.

In addition to their fireman skills, they are also really nice guys. Their fire station is right around the block and I often pass by, usually with Rufus, and they always smile and say, “Hi” and often “How are you?” and many times at least one of them pets Rufus, and not just a little pat on the head either. They also drive by in their shiny red engines on Lyman and always smile and/or wave. They spend a lot of time outside, and often can be seen washing their fire trucks. They are polite and congenial, and a bright spot in the neighborhood. Their uniforms, whether they are their casual cotton navy attire or bright, reflective yellow jumpsuits, are always clean and presentable.

The fire station is also my polling location and have visited there many a time to cast my ballot. Again, the firemen are always nice, talkative, welcoming. They are happy to lend their quasi-home for democracy.

They even allow and smile for photos…I know from experience.

These are guys that take their role in the community very seriously and live up to the idyllic expectation of firemen (i.e. helping a sweet-faced six year old get their cat out of the tree), so I would like to salute them and hope that you all will do the same.

It’s 12:16 am and the fire is still going. It’s pretty strange to hear the words Los Feliz, Vermont and Hillhurst being repeated on the live news over and over.

I can still see the pink billowing clouds above the hill. It’s pretty beautiful at night. Here are two photos I took about an hour ago on my street.

And two I took on Vermont Street, two streets away.

One on Rodney, a street away.

Here’s one of Rufus and Laura. You can tell how alarmed they are.

And another:

This last one below was taken by a professional photographer. But had I had my camera on me when I walked to Fred 62, I could’ve gotten a similar photo because it looked just like this. I wanted to include one of the beautiful Griffith Observatory, that luckily was unharmed (As of this posting, at least. My fingers are crossed).

If you want to see more, the L.A. Times has many, and there’s also a link on that page of other people’s photos that they took from around the city at different times of the day and posted. I saw a lot of people out with cameras and video cameras. And I’m sure the media will be all over this by tomorrow — or by now.

There is a fire in Griffith Park right now, close to where I live. This fire has not helped the high 90 degree heat, and vice versa. My apartment has been covered by floating clouds of thick, billowing smoke all afternoon. And there has been an orange glow to everything that would be kind of beautiful except for the ash particles that accompany the blanketing tint. These apocalyptic visuals have been accompanied by the constant whirr of helicopters and the wail of fire truck and ambulance sirens. The soundtrack of life in L.A….

Laura and I went to the L.A. Festival of Books today at UCLA…which, I must admit, was strikingly beautiful today. It may have space and hills and tree lined sidewalks and statuesque architecture and cleanliness and happy families with their golden retrievers…but does it double as Yale on the venerable Gilmore Girls? That it does not.

We went to two panels, both were great. The first was titled “Page & Screen” or something like that and featured these writers: Marisa Silver, Glasgow Phillips, Tara Ison and Elinor Lipman and was moderated by John Sacret Young. I have read Marisa Silver and some of Glasgow Phillips in McSweeneys and a recent L.A. Times calendar article on Phillips’ recent novel The Royal Nonesuch, but hadn’t heard of Ison or Lipman. They all had some interesting things to say.

Some of the writers had directed (Silver and Phillips), some had written screenplays, and some had their novels optioned by film studios. They talked about the craft of writing prose/fiction, screenplays and directing films, and how one can inform the other. They also talked about the interiority of writing prose and the structure-based writing of screenplays and of the importance of finding a secret inner space in your mind and the importance of separating your everyday life and activities from the time in which you need to be quiet and creative. It was interesting to hear from people who are doing the things I want to be doing: writing (short stories, novels and screenplays), directing, and even teaching.

The second panel was titled “Nonfiction: Humor and Attitude” whatever that means. The writers/talented people on this panel were (from left to right in the photo) moderator Meghan Daum, Samantha Dunn, Larry Miller, Neal Pollack and Jill Soloway. I’ve read stuff by Neal Pollack and Meghan Daum (who writes a column for the L.A. Times in the Op/Ed section, and who moved to Nebraska for a few years) and was a fan of Jill Soloway through her work as a Writer and Co-Executive Producer on Six Feet Under. Luckily, the panel lived up to the title and was quite often funny. Soloway, in particular, was really funny…or perhaps I just related to her the most. She was the only panelist to mention both Courtney Cox’s asshole and feminist revolution. We both bought her book and got them signed afterwards. In case you can’t read it, her inscription reads, “Dear Lindsay, From the voice of ‘Claire.’” From what I’ve read of it so far, which is minimal, it is really funny.

I love books and book lovers. Here, for example (in the background of this photo) is a father and his son, packing up the many books they bought in a roller suitcase.

This was not the only example of a rolling luggage/portable device used to cart around their many wares and purchases. All for the love of the word.

Besides Sprinkles, another cool place that I recently went to in L.A. (again with my mom and aunt) that I had never been before is this little place called Reform School in Silver Lake. It’s by Lovecraft Biofuels…I had never seen it before and I often drive past that strip of Sunset. Anyway, it’s a really cool place that has stuff made by independent artists, like pillows, tote bags, t-shirts and artwork. The store also offers a lot of interesting, design-oriented weekly planners (!!) and other journal/school/stationery/writing style products which are pretty much my favorite things in the world…as well as books and cool cards and such. They have stuff by Yoshitomo Nara, Mike Mills, and Nikki McClure just to name a few. A lot of the art is made with re-used and recycled materials as well.

It’s pretty small and nothing groundbreaking, but it was a nice surprise of a store. I like the clouds hanging from the ceiling…they are Science of Sleep-ish. They also have a converted machine where you can put $5 (in quarters) in and instead of getting cigarettes you get a little art book (you can choose the artist). I really wanted to get one, but didn’t. Next time.

Here is their website, which is pretty much just photos of the store right now, but you can get a sense of the place, and an online store is coming soon…