fo-ton-o-mous [foh-ton-uh-muh s] noun photo + autonomous = fotonomous 1.Web identity of Lydia Marcus, an individualist, Piscean & native Los Angeleno (Encino/WEHO) raised in diametrically opposed communities shaped by culture, status, sexuality, and spirituality.This multifaceted upbringing informed her ability & desire to always seek to blend out instead of blend in. 2.Blog of Lydia Marcus, a writer, photographer (Nikon & Polaroid shooter), filmmaker & unapologetic Valley girl.
I spent yesterday evening in West Hollywood, celebrating victory that Prop 8 (which banned same sex marriage in the state of California) was declared unconstitutional. I saw this window display on the corner of San Vicente & Santa Monica Boulevard at the American Apparel store. I just love the slogan "Legalize Gay" - funny and powerful. American Apparel sells t-shirts and tank tops emblazoned with those two words and currently they're offering a buy 1 get 1 free on their website. Now's a great time to buy!
Griffin Technology is using this photo on their blog to promote their Throwback Thursday Promotion.
Griffin makes great accessories for iPods, iPhones and Macs in general. Right now I'm using the Griffin + Threadless "Funkalicious" case to protect my iPhone and make it look just a little bit cooler :-)
After seeing the exhibit I gotta say those Romans were a very sexy bunch. There's a lot of flesh on exhibit, albeit in marble and bronze. One very intriguing sculpture even includes a representation of a hermaphrodite! Very little is locked away behind glass, so you get a very up close look at most of the exquisite artifacts.
Jon and I have a LONG history of going to LACMA together since high school!!! So it's always really nice to return there together to check out art and stroll familiar grounds. But this time I was able to actually introduce Jon to the new BCAM side, including Urban Light which he's never seen.
Here are some shots from the day:
Me & Jon in front of a LACMA building decorated in conjunction with the exhibit "Your Bright Future: 12 Contemporary Artists from Korea" at BCAM. I thought the colorful ribbons looked like Thera-Bands gone wild and it really spruced up an otherwise drab building. Too bad it's just a temporary installation.
Me pole hugging Chris Burden's Urban Light sculptural installation featuring 202 restored cast iron antique street lamps dating from Los Angeles in the 1920's and 1930's.
Jon's always been a great model!
Jon enjoying HappyHappy HappyHappy is Korean artist Choi Jeong-Hwa’s installation created for Your Bright Future: 12 Contemporary Artists from Korea (June 28–September 20, 2009) at LACMA. It's made up of floor-to-ceiling strands of thousands of household containers bought from local 99¢ stores. Walking through this installation, I felt like a big kid romping in one of those inflatable bounce houses. It's a lot of fun, very tactile, very colorful, and the way the outside natural light plays against and through the plastic is visually dynamic.
Jon having fun in the sculpture garden
More of the "Thera-Bands"
Info about Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples from LACMA's website:
"Pompeii and the Roman Villa focuses on the breadth and richness of cultural and artistic life in this region. The exhibition, organized by the National Gallery, Washington, D.C., includes works of art from the imperial villa at Oplontis and from aristocratic villas such as the Villa San Marco at Stabiae and the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum, as well as works from the opulent houses of the urban elite in Pompeii, whose very name conjures up ancient Rome and other towns along the bay of Naples. The objects proposed for this exhibition are a carefully selected group of approximately one hundred-twenty works of sculpture, painting, mosaic, and luxury arts, some of them long-familiar works, others generally unknown to the public. Recent discoveries from around the Bay of Naples that have never before been exhibited in the United States will complement more familiar finds from earlier excavations. In particular, the exhibition focuses on the influence of Classical Greek culture around the Bay of Naples, where wealthy Romans displayed impressive art collections in sumptuous homes."
Incidentally, LACMA has a very nice blog called UNFRAMED.
Cali & Me - our official first portrait. My Dad is a horrible photographer but someone he managed this one!
Cali and I spent our first full day together keeping on a puppy schedule so she has consistency in her young doggie life. Cali is crate trained but since I don't have a crate for her yet (it was ordered from dog.com today), she slept on in a doggie bed on the floor next to my bed and didn't go to the bathroom until I let her out at 7am. Good Dog!!!
Here's a run down of the day:
Breakfast at 7am. A walk with my Dad after the meal.
Pee breaks every 2 hours.
Playing with her soft squeaky toys, chasing tennis balls and playing fetch, wrestling around, cuddling, and napping in between the pee breaks.
Lunch at noon. Another walk with Dad.
More play and nap time.
Dinner at 6pm.
Her first dog park visit around 6:30. Voracious play with ALL the dogs. She never looked back at me once - she was off and running and playing rough for about an hour. No shyness, no fear, she was like a bat outta hell at the dog park. If she's like this at only 25 pounds, I have no idea what terror she'll be full grown! Those big dogs better watch out!!! I attribute her outward behavior at the dog park to early socialization with other dogs at her wonderful foster home.
Here's video of her at play.
Cali with a guy at the dog park. If only she stayed this fun size forever!
Since the dog park, she's been pretty pooped out, but I don't know who's more tired - the puppy or this new doggie mommy!
I returned yesterday to Stoney Point with the goal of making it to the top. I made it just short of the crest - it was a challenging climb both up and down! I hiked with my friend Jon and he found the stick I'm holding for my descent back to terra firma - it really helped me down some steep and slippery parts. But even with the stick, I STILL slipped on some loose dirt and fell into some plants and branches and cut up both my hands pretty royally. One spot on my right palm looks like somebody put a cigarette out on it! I also got some scrapes on my arms and legs. But it could have been worse and nothing really hurts. Luckily, the plants kind of broke my fall - if it wasn't for the scraggly branches - I would have been fine. And p.s., it shocks me how much I look like my Mom in this picture - it's like someone cut her 1970's and early 80's era head on my body.
This is Jon and Me - we've known each other since we were 14 - we're like brother and sister (and born only 5 days apart)!
Self-Portrait
I got these little aliens at Area 66 in Yucca, AZ on my recent Route 66 trip. They have parachutes attached so I thought it would be fun to fling them off the the rocks at Stoney Point. Jon's chute didn't open and his just dropped like a rock. Mine sailed a little before getting stuck on a branch. We were able to retrieve them both so the aliens can fly another day!
A panoramic stitch of the Valley view I saw from near the top of Stoney Point. The photo doesn't do the view justice - it was really amazing to see all the homes and streets below. Despite the hubbub of the city, it was extremely quite at the top of Stoney Point - the only thing we would hear was the sound of the cars whizzing by on the nearby 118 freeway. I could even see Universal City in the distance and make out the tall white bank building attached to the Sherman Oaks galleria. If it had been a clear day, I think we would have been able to even see the ocean!
A yellow lab named Lucy I saw checking out the view at the very top of Stoney Point.
Lucy coming down from her hike. I have to bring my Lucy with me next time.
Jon jumped back quite a bit when he saw this bug on the rocks. I didn't understand why he made such a fuss until I saw it close up on my way down - it was HUGE!
My goal was to climb to the top of the rock where the graffiti "Bob" was but I stopped just short of it when I couldn't figure out a way that I could climb higher. Will have to try another route next time.
Wildflowers (or just wild mustard plants) at Stoney Point.
I left the nice stick that had helped me down - hopefully someone else will get great use out of it too.
I got a special birthday treat yesterday - my friend Cathy took me along as a guest to a promotional Marlboro Drift Racing event at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale, CA. We got to do two ride alongs with professional drift racers in Ford Mustangs on the race track. A super exciting and exhilaring event! And it happened to be on my birthday! The event was called Hot Laps.
Here's me in front of one of the racing Ford Mustangs.
In case you don't know what drifting looks like - here's a short video I shot with my Sony T100 point and shoot camera of a few of the Ford Mustangs squealing around the track.
To start the experience, there was a photo op where we got to put on professional racing suits and stand in front of a blue screen where later an image of the racing Ford Mustang would be superimposed. I'm not posting the shot we took because Cathy and I both look like Stay Puff Marshmallows women in the gear - not cute - but it was fun to do nonetheless.
I thought the racing suits and helmets looked pretty cool though.
Then we were given "gators" to go over our heads and were fitted with the right size helmets so when we got out to the track they would know what size to give us.
Here's Cathy and Me in our gators looking doofy.
Then we went out to an area where they had snacks and a real Indy 500 race car that we could sit in.
Here one of the guys from the event was explaining to me what all the buttons on the steering wheel do.
Then we were taken out to a tent just off the track to wait for our number to be called to get into one of the Ford Mustangs.
Then I walked up onto some bleachers to be able to get a better vantage point to watch the cars racing on the track.
Before we got into one of the cars, we were given hand sign instructions: thumbs up (okay, more thumbs up - go faster), thumbs down (slow down), and pointing to the left (LET ME OUT NOW!!!)
I thought people looked cool lining up waiting for their ride wearing the required helmets.
I wasn't allowed to take a camera into the car (they didn't want anything that could possibly fly around and distract or injure the driver or passenger), but I got this great shot of Me and Cathy after our second race while we still had our helmets on.
Riding along with the professional drift racers was thrilling and scary - kind of like being on an insane roller coaster ride only with more danger and less predictability. You hear the wheels squealing and you smell the tire rubber burning and it's all very loud and fast. I had my left hand gripped onto the edge of the seat and my right hand gripped onto the door and I didn't let go for a second of the ride. If you were drifting sideways in a regular car on a real road, mentally you would be preparing yourself for the worst scenario, but on a track with a pro driver you just have to let go and embrace the fun and uncertainty of the thrill ride. It mentally goes against everything you are used to doing in a car.
After the rides, we were taken to another tent to relax and enjoy a fancy buffet lunch. I'm not a smoker, but Marlboro put on one very nice and adventurous event.
To end my birthday festivities, I was joined later that evening by a few close friends for dinner. We had a great dinner at Anajak Thai on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. Their food and ambience is really nice. (Clockwise L-R: Tina, Sonya, Serena, Me, Sheryl)
So all in all, I had a really great 39th birthday! And a few of my friends and family are still taking me out on different days later in the week so I can stretch out my celebrating a little longer. :-)
I spent a lovely Saturday afternoon wandering around LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) to see Hearst The Collector and A Story of Photography: The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection. Didn't have any major photographic equipment with me - just my pocket camera, a Sony T100 Cybershot, to grab these snaps.
LACMA reflected into another building across Wilshire.
The woman in the Vanity Fair banner is screen legend Gloria Swanson.
This display was a nice surprise - three German cars paying homage to the Art Of Two Germanys / Cold War Cultures exhibit. I believe this is the first time I've ever seen a Trabant in person. L-R: 1972 Trabant, 1969 Volkswagen Beetle, 1956 BMW Isetta.
The red and white Isetta looked very nice against BCAM's red pillars.
This is Chris Burden's "Urban Light" installation of vintage street lights outside of the BCAM (Broad Contemporary Art Museum) wing of LACMA.
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