MOXIE Rx dinner party in the treehouse

this entry is devoted with love to my dear friend Nancye in Portland.
I am in her debt for her help via telephone in making my little dinner party a success--
i baked a pine nut/chard & greens pie from her secret recipe (she used to be personal chef to John Mellancamp) and she taught me some little tricks for easy beautiful appetizers...

If you are in the Portland area, go and check out her darling little cafe MOXIE Rx on
Shaver & Mississippi, she & her husband, Sweet Willie have converted a vintage trailer into a cure-all heaven, get there early or she will sell out of the dreamy muffins & health treats she conjures with her magic oven.


i wish i lived closer to you, Dark Phoenix.

the undead beauty of Lorrainea'Malena

here is a sample from our photo shoot the other night-
these two ladies are going to be the musical guest @ this year's Balticon:
www.balticon.com May 26-29
so happy to be visiting my favorite hometown with L'aM...!
we are working madly on the merch for the show...
Malena is an amazing make-up artist as well,
look at miss Medium Cool's work: www.malenateves.com
her husband Miles is responsible for some of the finest in monster movie conceptual design, make-up, modeling, & mayhem. his site is: http://www.milesteves.com/
i love to go and browse there when i am feeling uninspired, he is so shockingly good.
i can't believe the fabulous Lorraine is playing a gig tonight straight off the plane, but that is the life of the undead...

guitar lessons & silver daggers

awhile back i won grand prize in the Johnny Cash sweepstakes, yes i am a winnah, baby.
the prize was a beautiful guitar, and now i am learning to play it. Mr Chris Hutchenson came over & gave me an hour lesson... i now have total respect for the guitarists of the world, as i now see learning will take much hard work & effort. i'm up for it though...
he asked me what songs i wanted to learn & i said, among many others, the classics "silver dagger" & "wildwood flower".
"I'll live yet to see him, regret this dark hour
When he won and neglected his frail wildwood flower"

haunted sopranos & dreamy photo shoot

had a slumber party with the Lorrainea'Malena girls last night & we stayed up late late late doing a big fun photo shoot. Malena did our make up, she had me close my eyes & i woke up all barbarella...When i get the all-clear i will put up some of the glam girls,
for now here is one of me, the tour manager...


i can't get that Moby cover they used on this week's Sopranos episode out of my head,
"where were you when i was lonesome
locked away in this freezing cold
i don't wanna swim the ocean,
i don't wanna fight the tide,
i don't wanna swim forever,
when it's cold i'd like to die. "

who did that cover?

pawn shop windows

i have always had a fascination with pawn shops,
only been in a few, but i Always look in the windows whenever i see one.
so many stories of history & woe in them.
but i ask you all, what is the symbol that is shown commonly in these
shops? the three balls at the end of an upside-down trident...
anyone know the story?

(took this one in Pasadena, but seriously doubt that Mimi ever had occasion to visit her local pawnery. !)

gen art, korn & full moon visitors to the treehouse

another banner four-star week here in hollywood w/ bonus adventures in long beach as well. Cheryl, a dear old tour buddy from new zealand came to help out at the korn/mudvayne show & we pulled another 20 our work day, ouch.
that's cheryl with her feet up on the coffin case at the night's end. the korn crew all had a touch of some evil nasty sickness which they shared handily. i have gone from never being sick, to twice this year. what?! the full moon eclipse probably added some extra zest as well.
we got to see lots of old friends, the crew out there is fantastic.

i can't say much about whoever covered the hockey ice with the floorboards & carpet, cause i fell down twice bringing the cooler out to front of house, was probably pretty funny to watch, like a cursed cartoon kitty. let it be known i didn't spill a single cube o' ice nor broke nary a bottle.

Friday night we went to see the big gen art show @ the Park Plaza hotel, where i used to go years ago to power tools to dance all night. cheryl's friend was one of the designers in the show, hajnalka mandula from vancouver. The sets were great, a bright yellow swing set for kit pistol, a giant pirate ship for unhee & mandula had a oversize cocoon egg that the models played in. parking was a nightmare but it was well worth it. really glad we went.

after the show ended, we came back to hollywood to go to the rainbow on sunset to get Jozie, in town on a break from motley crue. she was there with alecia and lemmy & yes, he was sweet as could be. after that, we came back to the treehouse & rested up. mark is out prepping bob dylan tour, so it was a real girl slumber party...

saturday we woke up and had a grand french breakfast in silverlake & then went for long walk around the neighborhood, showed off my new office/studio & went to see the group show @ la luz gallery. for dinner we had tapas @ cobras & matadors, marguerite came to meet us & we laughed all night.

this morning we got up @ 6 am to head over to LAX put jozie & alecia on a plane down to mexico city, and ran headlong into roadblocks set up for the LA marathon. oy. but we made it in time. sometimes you just need to be with your girls.

i just got home from a birthday dinner with the Nicoles & Alex, coconut shrimp, rice & black beans @ cha cha cha. mmmmmm. wish i could sleep in tomorrow, but duty calls. got to get my new car (yes, i am getting a convertible, from my dear Malena & Miles) get the studio sorted out, and start prepping my upcoming artshow. will be making the invites soon, loads of new work to show, really can't wait. life is truly so good...

sopranos, baby

it was a loooong wait, but finally, the show is back. I am not one for too much tv,
but i did get hooked on this show. the writing, the acting, the surprises,
won't go into details, don't want to spoil anything, but this was not a traditional
first-episode-of-the-season sleeper like the have done in the past. amazing work.

meanwhile am still feeling the affect of Mercury retrograde, just trying to not kick too
much. it just means that things take a bit longer to accomplish & communications
can be slow & may need repeating. so i am going to crawl in the cave with a library
book & wait it out. of course, Good things do happen during this time,
i was invited to be part of a BIG artshow on June 11th @ evidence gallery
in west hollywood, one i am very excited about doing.

thursday i work down in long beach on the korn/mudvayne show, while Mimi flies to
exotic overseas locales. trying not to be too sad about Mimi leaving, because
she will always only be an email away. right?

Just finished reading lauren bacall's biography, what a classy lady.
when i was very young, my mom would direct me to the best old movies on tv,
one we shared was the bogie/bacall classic "to have & have not". the lighting
in that film is enough to make any face gorgeous, bacall's 19-year old perfection
was ultra-high wattage.
her appearance on this last oscar telecast was difficult, i don't know who was
at fault there, did she not rehearse enough or were the prompters too far away--
but it was not an easy or comfortable moment.

rolling stones, the rock bar & storage spaces

sitting here on my red glitter chair, feel like i been hit by a bullet train...
yesterday was a 20 hour work day for me & the crew.
but what a great week so far.

got to see my friend Bjorn and his little family, he is back out on Motley now,
but before he left, we all met for lunch @ the farmer's market, they got brazilian, mimi had a crepe & me? sushi, of course.

the next night, i went to Marguerite's house, she had cooked us dinner. i was enchanted by the fire burning, we were told to bring champagne or firewood or dessert. (i made the world famous chocolate sushi) We were all roadie girls, so the stories were flying fast & furious. I left early to go & see Abby, in town with bon jovi tour, at her friend rhian's party. it was a celebration for tattoo artist kat von d's birthday @ the rock bar (spelled rokbar, but...?) they had dancers dressed up like kiss, and a dolly parton impersonator on hand. crazy packed, but it was so good to hang out even a while with Ab. it has been many a moon since i have gone into the heart of hollywood on a saturday night, and it was so busy... good to see a real revival in my adopted city.

Mimi is preparing a big move across the country to the Best city in the world (one guess where) & so she has been cleaning & packing and sorting. she invited me to her cute lil' soon-to-be former residence, where she gifted me heavily w/ all manner of items, from photographic paper to colored lanterns & a disco ball. We went to lunch & went to her storage space, yik-yakked the whole time. i am really going to miss her when she goes. watch out for this artist, she's going to take over nyc. beforehand, she is going to go to paris & while there will see my beloved cousin Maura. art meeting!

It being Oscar night, i raced home, car full of Mimi-gifts, and played on the floor with all the goodies while watching "crash" take best picture. so Wish i had bet on the odds, cause i didn't get one wrong. truly, though, it was a pretty obvious race this year. especially "it's hard out there for a pimp", oh man, was i thrilled by that win. what a hook, baby.

then yesterday i awoke @ 4 am to work the big rock show, in the pouring rain, and sadly, i didn't have time to take too many photos. after we completely set up the queens dressing room in the press loungey area, the venue people had us move everything one floor down across the stage, & over the hills to gramma's house to a very awful locker roomy hole...oop! the LA forum really should be dismantled, nothing was easy yesterday but working with dean, wesley & miss sarah was a fantastic way to spend the 20 hour day. wes shone the big lights down on mimi's disco ball & everything was awash in fairy lights. pretty funny, on the drive home, sarah rolled the window down on the car ali loaned her, and it wouldn't go up, we drove the 110 at 1 am freezing & exhausted, but feeling like a job well done. and by the time we reached the treehouse, the window slowly closed.

thrift shop find o'the week

i have been thrift shopping for many a moon, my Mom first took us when we were younger, and i never looked back. my sister & i LOVE to go together when i am home, we compare notes & our rule is, be honest, if you don't Really love it, put it back. so many of the stores in Baltimore are gone, or have moved, i have some of my favorite things from these haunted spots. A Danish modern chair,spent $11 bucks on (which seemed Very high priced at the time) that i have hauled back & forth across the country, a checkbook holder that i paid 99 cents for & have been using for 7 years, it is such beautiful old leather--so many things that you just can't find anymore, ebay & antiques roadshow certainly changed things.

the LA thrift shops are a different breed, loads of size 2 samples, great clothing, hardly worn things, tags still on. furniture, not so much, books can be good, not as many children's books here, which i do love to find, but it is no longer easy.
anyway, these miu miu/prada heels were a nice score, 3.99 @ the hollywood blvd goodwill.
what have you found lately, thrift shoppers?