Art, Rum, More Art, Dance, and a Film Fest

Or Why I Am So Fracking Tired!

I failed to mention a cool art opening we went to last week. We barely got in to the super-crowded opening of the I Am 8-Bit exhibition at Gallery 1988. Eric went to last year's show, so we decided to see this year's as well. Apparently, everyone else in L.A. had the same idea! I think there are some other people who would enjoy seeing this video game inspired art. It runs until May 19th, so there's time to check it out.

Most of last Saturday consisted of me sleeping. I had allergy fatigue and a headache. When Eric returned from the Newport Beach Film Festival around 10pm, we decided to head over to The Cha Cha Lounge in Silverlake to celebrate a friend's birthday. It was a cool place with an anti-beautiful people vibe, so I felt comfortable there. They played good music for the most part, although Brad and I could not figure out why "The Passenger" kept coming on every other song or so! There was a photobooth and a funky vending machine with everything from marshmallows to weird Japanese snacks. Oh yeah, and there was rum. Lots of rum.

As I mentioned before, on Sunday we went to the Spring ArtWalk at the downtown art colony, The Brewery. We try to attend every Spring and Fall. We've become familiar with many of the artists, but enjoy seeing their work again, as well as their new projects. There are always new, creative things to see though. One of my favorite artists there is Ted Meyer. I'm still trying to find that perfect spot to hang the piece of his art that Eric gave me in December. I have posted some photos I took at The Brewery. Not many of them are of art, as a lot of the artists do not want their works photographed, which I completely understand.

After the art walk, I drove to Torrance Sunday evening for The Color of We, a hip hop dance program to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS, as well as raise money for a local healthcare center. I met up with a group of friends and we cheered on our buddies who were in the show. It was really well done and pretty powerful. I think everyone has been touched by HIV/AIDS, even if they don't know it. Most of us do know it though and have friends and/or family members who have died from complications or who are lucky enough to still be fighting. The show was really targeted toward young people, who I think have gotten blase, thinking it's no big deal anymore and if they get it, they'll just take a pill and be fine. Um, yeah...no.

Since gas prices are so high, it now seems I drive all over the place! Torrance on Sunday and then back to Newport Beach Monday after work for Eric's screening. His short film played in the "Sofa King Funny Shorts" block. I really didn't get the name at first, but I'm not known to be very clever. It's a nicer way of saying "So F**king Funny...," in other words, the comedy shorts. It was a good screening, with a large, receptive audience. An old friend of Eric's from Philadelphia turned up and we saw a filmmaker friend from Utah who had a film screen earlier that evening.

So, yeah, I've been busy. My house has been a bit neglected and I really need to get on top of things. I have a friend I haven't seen in 20 years coming to L.A. this weekend and even though she isn't staying with me, I may want to show her my home. Or not, depending on the state of it. In a couple of weeks, we have friends from San Francisco coming down and they will be staying in our guest room. Our guest room which has become a ginormous closet! You can barely walk in there.

Crap, we have a lot to do.