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Saturday, March 24, 2007
I AM BLOGGING AGAIN!
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Wednesday, September 20, 2006
MY LIL' SURFER GIRL.
Audrey came home tonight all groggy and sleepy eyed from our little adventure to Balboa Peninsula where we were obviously surrounded by boats, ducks, seagulls, the ocean breeze and yes... water.
Audrey, who was all curled up in my arms and just about to doze off for the night, whispers in a raspy sleepy voice:
"I am good mama"
"Why are you good Audrey?"
"I LOOOOOOVE the water"
And with that she fell asleep.
ZANE'S FAVORITE PLACE
Zane's school is participating in an art's program called Reflections where children are encouraged to enter their literature, musical composition, photography, visual arts, dance choreography and film/video production into the program to be judged and awarded.
Zane LOVES to take pictures and I thinks he's got a pretty good eye, so he decided that photography was the category for him.
The theme this year is "My Favorite Place"
When asked where his favorite place is, Zane immediately jumped in and said "Fun Zone" at Balboa Island!
So we headed to Newport Beach for a photo shoot where Balboa Island & Balboa peninsula reside.
He took all these photos on his own with absolutely no coaching from me. (I gotta tell ya it was really hard for me to hold my tongue and let Zane run with his own vision, but I am glad I did)
These are some of the photos Zane took tonight:
Sunday, September 17, 2006
OUR SUNDAY AFTERNOON STROLL THROUGH A DOWNTOWN WAREHOUSE
Scott the kids and I scrambled through downtown LA traffic and exited the freeway into an industrial sketchy part of town. We parked the car in an empty parking lot and then walked about a half a mile over dirt sidewalks, passing by abandoned warehouses decorated with beautiful intricate graffiti. We were not quite sure where we were going, but we decided to follow the few people walking in front of us in hopes they knew where to go. And sure enough, they did not let us down. We turned into another parking lot nestled between two warehouses and took our positions behind about 300 other people standing in line in the hot California sun.
We were there to see Banksy's art. It was his first show in LA.
You have got to check out his website. He is an amazing british street artist that is impacting culture internationally. He does stencils that are pretty profound. Banksy's images and the messages they deliver cause you to pause, cause you think and even cause you chuckle.
In addition to stencils, he takes antique oil paintings, you know the ones... nature scenes, portraits framed in gold that you'd find, say at a flea market or garage sale and then he paints additional images onto them. They too, are ironic, humorous and thought provoking.
He actually snuck one of these paintings into the Brooklyn Museum in New York and hung it among the masterpieces. It stayed there for about a week until the museum became aware of it and took it down.
We finally made it through the line of people and entered the warehouse that housed Banksy's art. We meandered through the crowd admiring the images on canvases, images on a truck, and yes even on an elephant. The kids were instantly drawn to the real life, living and breathing PINK elephant ( and why wouldn't they be) The elephant stood in the middle of a living room relaxing next to a sofa. 
After tearing the kids away from the elephant, we entered another room where we came across the picture below. This particular painting caused me to stop, pause and take in the injustice that was happening up there on the wall and I am sure around the world. Zane was baffled and confused as to why anyone would allow this to happen. As he stared into the image, tears welled up in his eyes. "Why won't they let them help her?" he demanded.
We weaved in an out of rooms viewing Banksy's work and vandalized paintings. These were some of our faves.
Zane's favorite painting was this one:
Audrey's favorite picture was this: (Ironically it made her happy)
Scott liked this one:
I thought this one was pretty amusing:
Scott actually saw this on a wall near the New Beverly Cinema about a year and a half ago. It's still there.
It seems Banksy will stop at nothing to communicate his messages. I came away from this exhibit inspired that I, as an average individual can affect, impact, even a change culture as we know it.
I got these photos from spertouchblog.com. There are many more great photos of the exhibit there too.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
RADIO GAGA
The kids and I were in the car on our way to the zoo after school today. I turned on the radio only to bust in on the tail end of a story on NPR's program "All Things Considered" about a man who has been married 45 years and is experiencing living with his wife for the first time... by themselves since their grown children have left the house. What we heard went something like this:
"He likes to watch t.v all day, stay up late chatting in a loud voice and hang out around the house in his underwear..."
Zane froze.
He looked at me in the rear view mirror.
His brown eyes widened in utter disbelief.
An embarrassed confused half grin seeped across his face.
"They're talking about me aren't they?"
