TRANQUIL QUADTYCH

Photo credits © Lydia Marcus 2009
Photographed September 27, 2009 in Van Nuys, CA
The Japanese Garden / Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant

I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I

My friends and I were OBSESSED with Pee Wee Herman when we were in high school. The mix of queer sensibility and kitsch just enthralled me. We quoted lines from "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" ALL THE TIME.

Some of my favorite Pee Wee isms:

"I don't make monkeys, I just train them."

"Why don't you take a picture, it lasts longer."

"Where's the basement?"

"Large Marge sent me."

"I know you are but what am I."

Whatever Paul Reubens did or didn't do to himself in the dark of a porno theater really should not have brought Pee Wee and Reubens pariah status. In today's world, the incident probably wouldn't make a lasting blip. After a nearly 20 year absence, it's great to have Pee Wee back!

Here's a very funny clip of him on the new Jay Leno Show.

LABS GONE WILD

Dodger Blue & Cali


Cali had her first puppy play date with Dodger Blue, a chocolate lab belonging to my Flickr friend Matthew aka RuggyBearLA). Dodger is almost a year old and weighs 90 pounds. Cali is six months old and 33 pounds. The two played for a couple hours and never wore each other out. When it comes to young labs, there is no "off" button.

Cali & Dodger Blue


Despite the almost 60 pound weight difference between them, Cali goes after Dodger with gusto!

Tastes Like Chicken!!!


Tug is Cali's favorite game. At first I was reticent to start playing tug with her because I didn't want to create a dog with dominance issues, but after studying up on it a bit, I realized that that tug would be an appropriate game for us. Instead of creating dominance, tug actually is a very even and balanced game for us. As soon as I let go of the rope, Cali immediately brings it back for more play. She wants to keep the tug going, not run off with the rope.

When it came to wrestling around, Dodger had a clear advantage because of his size. With tug, Cali took the lead. Except for a couple of times, Dodger couldn't seem to grab the rope away from her. Here she is basically trying to get him to engage in the game. She's egging him on saying, "You want a piece of this!"



Tug O' War!!!! Two labs having a very fun time.


Photo credits: © Lydia Marcus 2009
Photographed September 20, 2009 in Encino, CA

THE RACING STRIPES MAKE IT GO FASTER

1970's era Chevy Vega Wagon
Photo credit: © Lydia Marcus 2009
Photographed September 17, 2009 in Sherman Oaks, CA

FUN! FAIR! FOTOS!

For the first time, I submitted my photography to the L.A. County Fair Photography Competition
(aka Millard Sheets Center for the Arts at Fairplex Photography Competition)

I sent in the maximum photos allowed and to my amazement all three images placed and two even got special "Best" mention.

The theme and categories change every year and this year's theme is “Recycled: Fashion, Food, and Lifestyle in Advertising Photography."

In the past, photographers had to print and frame their own work for exhibition, but this year the Fair had all winning photographs professionally printed and mounted, and when the Fair ends in October, the prints will be mailed to the winners.

Here are my shots:

“Rochelle” Fashion Category (Polaroid 195 / Expired Polaroid ID-UV Film)


“Time Traveler” Lifestyle Category "Best Alternative Method in Category" (Polaroid 110B / Expired Film)


“50's Livin'” Lifestyle Category "Best Depiction of Lifestyle in Category" (Nikon S2 Coolpix)


Photo Credits: Lydia Marcus

2009 L.A. County Fair
1101 W. McKinley Ave.,
Pomona, CA 91768

The exhibit is in the Tapestry Building under the Grandstand from September 5 - October 4, 2009.

CALI GIRL

My fluffy puppy is almost six months old!

Photo credit: © Lydia Marcus 2009
Photographed September 2, 2009 in Encino, CA

THE NEXT SIGN OF ARMAGEDDON

A fiery moon courtesy of all the fires raging in SoCal.

Photo credit: © Lydia Marcus 2009
Photographed September 1, 2009 in Encino, CA

FROM THE VALLEY TO VESUVIUS

Tuesday afternoon I headed over the hill to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) with Jonathan to check out Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples. As a member of LACMA, I was able to get a free pair of tickets to the exhibition.

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.

SIMPLY DIVINE 2009

Saturday I photographed the 4th annual Simply diVine: A Summer Soirée for the Senses, a fundraiser for the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center at tony Two Rodeo in Beverly Hills. It was a challenging event to shoot - I was photographing everything from product details, people mingling, VIP's, rooftop shots of the entire scene below, a sponsor car (Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills), signage, celebs, musicians, and food galore. I mainly used off camera flash (carried by my trust assistant Sharp), but took a few shots using available light (like from the rooftop) when I could. I used my Nikon D80 with the Nikon 17-55 f/2.8 and an SB-800 flash mounted on a Bogen Manfrotto monopod with a Gary Fong lightsphere attachment.

Here are some of my favorite shots from the evening:





















LuAnn Boylan, Celebrity Chef Susan Feniger, Lorri L. Jean (CEO of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center)


Actor Wilson Cruz (right)


Susan Feniger (second from right)


Simply diVine photo credits: © Lydia Marcus 2009
Photographed August 22, 2009 in Beverly Hills, CA at Two Rodeo

PUPPY PLAY DATE

Went to the Coral Tree Cafe with my friend Sheryl and her two Doxie pups Tilda and Lulah for a doggie play date. It's the first time our pups have met each other. The doxies were a little overwhelmed by Cali since she's so much larger than them (and pretty rambunctious). Cali is 5 months old and the doxies are a few weeks younger. Cali is about 30 pounds now, not sure how much longer I'll be able to pick her up.

In the last week I've taught her "Leave It" and how to shake her paw. She picks up commands pretty quickly so I'm hoping to be able to teach her lots of stuff.

Right now this is what she can do:

Sit
Lie Down
Sit Stay (as long as I'm in view and not too far away)
Lie Stay (ditto)
Shake
Find It
Leave It
Give It (this only works with tennis balls for fetch)
Sit at the door when we're ready to go outside. Sit Stay once the door is open until I release her to go out.
Sit in front of her food bowl until I let her eat
Sit at corners when we go for walks. Responds to Heel command to continue walking.

What I REALLY need to work on - PULLING when walking on leash - getting worse. I need to get her in a harness every time, her normal flat collar is useless. Also, she's really good at responding to COME in the house but when she's outside in the front or back yard, she pretty much ignores me. Gotta up the ante with food rewards for this one.

I took her out to Montrose to visit with friends today and their seven year old daughter was able to get Cali to respond to Sit, Lie Down, Shake and Leave It. She's the first "trainer" besides me to give Cali commands so I was really impressed that Cali listened to her even in a very distracting outside environment with LOTS of doggie stimulation. Go Cali!

Photo credit: © Lydia Marcus 2009
Photographed August 19, 2009 in Encino, CA

POLAROID FUN FACTOR!

Hey, meet the swinger
Polaroid Swinger
meet the swinger
Polaroid Swinger

It's more than a camera
it's almost alive
it's only nineteen dollars
and ninety-five

Swing it up {yeah yeah}
it says yes {yeah yeah}
take the shot {yeah yeah}
count it down {yeah yeah}
zip it off



Stumbled across this vintage Polaroid commercial from the 60's. Ali MacGraw is the model, Polaroid Model 20 "Swinger" is the camera. Despite the commercial being over 40 years old, I think the sentiment it captures remains the same - Polaroid photography is always fun!!! The only thing that unsettles me a bit is the use of instant peel apart pack film at the beach. I have enough problems keeping my Polaroid prints clean shooting in a controlled indoor environment because the fresh, wet prints attract dust and other particles like CRAZY, so the idea of shooting in a sandy, windy environment just blows my mind.

You can no longer get film for the Swinger, but I sure would love to have one for display. It's black and white design looks sort of cutely Art Deco to me. A later camera, the Model 3000 "Big Swinger" does work with current 3.25" x 4.25" pack film like Fuji FP-100C but it's body is an ugly dull grey and lacks the charm of the Swinger.

- Lydia Marcus

From Wikipedia:
"The Polaroid Model 20 "Swinger" was a popular Land Camera produced by the Polaroid Corporation between 1965 and 1970. At $19.95 USD it was the first truly inexpensive instant camera, a fact that helped fuel its enormous popularity and made it one of the top-selling cameras of all time. The Swinger was especially successful in the youth market due to its low price, stylish appearance, and catchy "Meet the Swinger" jingle in a television advertisement featuring a young Ali MacGraw."

Polaroid Swinger photo credit Wikipedia

CALI POOLSIDE

I found out today that Cali makes a very willing and very still model when American cheese slices are involved.







Cali, 4 months old.
Photo by © Lydia Marcus 2009
Photographed July 31, 2009 in Encino, CA

A LOVELY SUMMER DAY AT THE GETTY WITH FRIENDS

I spent the afternoon yesterday at the Getty Center with Tiffany, an old college friend I only get to see every few years since she moved to the East Coast. Me, Tiffany, her foster son James, and her Mom all enjoyed the food, the views, the architecture, the gardens, and the art (especially the sexy Paul Outerbridge photography exhibit). The Getty supplies free umbrellas while you roam around - perfect for sun shade any time of year and even rain protection for the few drops we get annually. I have to say that walking around with the umbrella definitely made me feel cooler. And it brought out my hidden diva side I tend to forget about too. :-) Something about walking around with a parasol that just makes you walk a bit more regal and put a little bit more swoosh in your step.



Photo credit: © Lydia Marcus 2009 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed July 28, 2009 in Los Angeles, CA

CALI AFTER HER BATH

Who can resist the cuteness of a wet, scruffy puppy!!!

Cali video by Lydia Marcus
Shot with an iPhone.

CALI DAY 2

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!

Photos by © Lydia Marcus 2009
Photographed July 21, 2009 in Encino, CA

MEET CALI MY LAB RESCUE PUPPY!

My new puppy Cali - named for my home state. She's a four month old black lab (probably a mix), adopted from Southern California Labrador Retriever Rescue (SCLRR / www.sclrr.org) on 7-20-09. She was found a month ago roaming a parking lot. Her owners couldn't be found and she was taken in by SCLRR where she was fostered until I adopted her.

Some stats:
Approx Weight: 25 pounds. Vet figures she'll be double that when she's fully grown.
She's spayed, has all her vaccinations, and is microchipped.
Sits and lies down on command.
Crate trained and working on being totally housebroken.

My new doggie adventure begins...

Cali Al Fresco


Cali's First Snooze


Photos by © Lydia Marcus 2009
Photographed July 20, 2009 in Encino, CA

FRANKENSTEIN DODGE

Spotted this Dodge conversion parked in front of the defunct Wiener Factory in Sherman Oaks. It had a note taped inside one of the windows that said it was for sale for $6,995 and that it had $20,000 in customization. Is it a van, a truck, a semi, a camper? What the hell is it?

Adding to the customization, it has two doors on the passenger side and one door on the driver's side.

Frankenstein Dodge
Photo © Lydia Marcus 2009
Photographed July 12, 2009 in Sherman Oaks, CA

GREETINGS FROM MALIBU, CA

Photo credit: © Lydia Marcus 2009 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Sent From My iPhone

GET YOUR QUEER FILM ON!

Outfest_Orpheum, originally uploaded by fotonomous.

Opening Night of Outfest
Photo by © Lydia Marcus 2009
Photographed July 9, 2009 in Los Angeles, CA

BACKYARD BASH

Saturday I had my 2nd Annual 4th of July BBQ and Pool Party. Preparing for the party and having friends and family over kept me busy so I didn't have as much time to focus on missing Lucy. I bbq'd traditional burgers and hot dogs, and everyone snacked on fresh fruit, cheese, guacamole, homemade potato salad (thanks Ros!) and we had tons of desserts like homemade brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and lemon bars (thanks Jeff!), and Canter's cookies (yummy - thanks Paul and Zelde). The weather was perfect for hanging out all day in the pool and jacuzzi.

Here are some photos from the day. Most of these came from my trusty Sony Cyber-shot U DSC-U60, a long in the tooth (circa 2003) but still awesome 2 megapixel waterproof camera.

S & Me


Jon, Jeff, and Me


S' sister Sonya


Patti and Me


Tina & Val


"Libbit Ladies" - Donna, Liz, and Michelle


My Dad, Michelle, Val, Tina, Adam, & Donna


Tara, Tina, Val, & Patti


Jeff - baker extraordinaire. His lemon bars should be illegal!


Amy & S before and after Jeff cannon-balled them!!! :-) Pure hilarity in action!!!





My Dad taking a break from the sun


S & Sonya's Dad (and my adopted Dad) George regaling a jacuzzi full of girls with a funny ad from the 99 cents store that had a top 10 Best and Worst Father's Day gifts ad. The Best and Worst turned out to be the 99 cent condoms. We all had a good laugh, but George's storytelling and presentation made it truly funny.


S & Sonya's Mom (and my adopted Mom) Joyce cooled her feet off in the pool.


Masha ("MEOW!!") and Amy


Sonya, S & Joyce


Sonya & S battle it out underwater - racing from the shallow to deep end


Patti & Me comparing our painted toenails.


Patti, Sonya & Lucia


Amy, Lucia, Patti, Masha, S, Jeff & Jon


Some of the food!