soldiers @ the dallas/fort worth airport

while i was travelling to Chicago recently, i had a lay-over in Dallas. I was sharing the airport lounge with a sea of soldiers, all deploying to iraq. I spoke to many of them, asking them if they were returning there or first timers. What struck me most was their youth. Of course I am aware of what is happening overseas, but only as an outside observer--and only armed with what the media is filtering through to us. these kids made it even more real & sad & they even felt it was futile...
the death toll is approaching 2400 for our guys, and countless deaths for the Iraqi civilians.
when i say countless, i know there are some spotters saying in the tens of thousands.
anyway, no matter my take on the war, i was moved to tears to see all these scared young kids on their way to the unknown. There were many people there in the airport just saying goodbye & going up and down the line hugging strangers, i imagine they had lost children or family members. a very moving and sad scene, and i was there in the safety of the airport, only going to Chicago not Baghdad. what can we do?

roadie night @ the rainbow

we drove the lil' miata to the rainbow last night after a good work out at the gym, jozie is a one-woman linda hamilton. she is whipping me arse into shape with her tricky work-out tips & the gym rats were all coming over to watch her work her magic...
anyway, we went to the rainbow to meet up with some friends & ended up seeing all Kinds of old roadie buddies, it was a perfect night on the sunset strip.
today i have to get some more work done on printing for the big art show coming up.
i know it seems like there is much time in between now & june 11th, but truly, it is going to fly by. we went yesterday to look at the space & i dropped off the announcement for the show @ the printers...here is a copy:

live theater & table read, baby!

had such a great weekend, we did our first reading aloud of the new script,
and got so much done in way of rewriting. Makes such a difference to hear the words being spoken as opposed to reading them in your head...Malena was fantastic, i was so proud.
& Ethan, he has written a gem.
after we did some work @ my house, we went to see a play over on Melrose @ Fake Gallery, a small but darling art house theatre. The play is titled "She Always Told Me". I was so inspired by this work, a collection of 12 short skits, clever as hell. Go see it if you can, they run 'til the end of May. Prod. Rebecca Johnson & writer Annie Mebane, Jen Zaborowski & Anne Gregory, each has a stand-out piece in the work, & they reminded me that we are living in a city of real live actors, not just tv & movies.

after the play, we went to check out the American Electric tattoo shop "Bully" artshow, and it was packed to the gills, people spilling over out on to Sunset. Happy to say one of my pieces sold....lalalala.
working some shows back-to-back this week, and then go to Chicago for a real Greek wedding, can't wait to see everyone, my parents are coming out too--thankful i get to spend some time with them.
Now i am getting ready to meet Sherri & Farah for sushi on this rainy LA morning..

tour swag

was at dinner this week with a bunch of my roadie friends--NEK made an amazing table of food, & we proceeded to drink a little celebratory champagne...as it was Claire's birthday.
anyway, somehow the talk turned to tour swag. while remaining discreet, i will say some tours shower you with swag, to the point of too much, while some give you nothing but a boot in the ass on the way out the door. some give you autographed photos & some give you gorgeous embroidered shirts, some give out personalized gold records & some generously give their crew big appreciation parties. i never ask for/expect much, of course, but it is very nice to have a little memento from your time spent with a tour. the crew photo is always a wonderful thing to have later on down the road.
anyway, Nicole had one of the greatest pieces of swag i have seen, here she is w/a top of the line soccer ball, something i would really use!

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?

the treasure trove of santee alley!

well, i have done plenty of wholesale shopping in my life, most of it in NYC, for 9th Life, my old shop in baltimore..which is now in the capable hands of domino Ida...but i was still dizzy after an hour of navigating the downtown LA district.

Lauren, lil' Ava & I set out to find the mythical santee alley. Of course we forgot our maps, not that we needed them to find downtown, but we didn't really know where the alley was--i first heard about it from Ali & Sarah, my partners-in-crime that worked the depeche mode & eagles shows w/me.

of course we found the alley & went a little crazy, Ava was amazingly patient for a 2 year old & afterward we went to sushi in Little Toyko. we parked right by the Japanese 1.50 store and i think i spent more there than the wholesale district. another great day in downtown LA.

Lorraine & Malena, we are going to make a trip soon, ok?!

tonight a bunch of roadie girl buddies are going to Katsu-ya. mmmmmmmm

margaret cho vs. the supersuckers

this week was fairly non-stop, but great fun... met SHerri D for lunch at Home restuarant, where they seated us by the koi pond, these fish are gorgeous! I understand that they can live quite a long time, and for some reason, these fish here wanted to talk with us. ok, i guess they were just wanting some of my breakfast burrito...anyway, Sherri offered me a merch job on Unwritten Law, and i really couldn't go, fun as it would be, little punk rock tour, and i wish i could have, just to watch Sherri in action, herding a bunch of cats.

then went with Mimi to Largo to see the comedy night with Greg Proops, who does a hilarious talk show with different guests. Jon Brion, of kanye West/fiona apple fame played some music, and greg berendt from "sex & the city" was pretty perfect, his zingers about myspace. but you know i went to see miss Cho, & she delivered. her marriage seems to have mellowed her, and she is now sporting a trim figure, with a huge body-wrapping tattoo. she has gotten into bellydancing and is going to egypt for a big b-d convention...
plus, the fabulous Nicole C was serving drinks, that cocktail-hotty.

the next night the supersuckers were in town, playing the roxy so we met early over at that legendary rainbow for dinner, and yes lemmy was there, patiently enduring some drunk girl extolling the many virtues of "ace of spades". Dave was happy because he had just gotten a box of xxx dvds, and i said, "wha?! don't you get cable on the bus?" which cracked them up as they are touring by van...the show was great, rhino bucket opened up and i got to see brian forsythe, still the vision from kix days. i didn't realize what a big fan Eddie spaghetti was of kix, but they launched into "cool kids" and a long confessional of how they lifted riffs in tribute...

thursday Mimi and i went to the second half of the comic exhibit, this time @ the hammer in brentwood, first lunch @ sasabune, freshest sushi for big girl prices. i felt a little dizzy after that meal, and the artwork of milton caniff & winsor mcKay just seeped into me. truly, i Loved steve canyon, terry & the pirates was before my time, but man! what lines...
they ended the show with charles schultz, who is such a part of every kid's life by now, however i was able to look at his work differently, much less taken-for-granted. when we were little, my brother wrote to schultz and was so happy to receive a letter in return. a generous artist he was.

today, we conquer santee alley, the cheapy fashion district fiefdom, me, Lauren & baby Ava.

ps, i got a new LA cell phone, cause i really did drown mine at neil's, please send me your cell numbers, as i lost them all.

ipods, ebay & sir alfred hitchcock

i have been reading an amazing biography of the great filmmaker Hitchcock.
never knew much about his personal life, but what a doll.

he was deeply devoted to his wife & partner Alma, they were a real love match.
she would call him "Hitchie".
he played practical jokes on many of his actors. he also used the british cockney trick of rhyming words, using "dogs feet" to say "pause"..Hitchcock was a master technician, precise & economical on his film sets. he storyboarded his own films and really attempted to edit within the camera, to keep complete control over his visions. I learned so much from his life story, written by an old friend of his, charlotte chandler.
last night i went on ebay and bought a box set of 34 of his best films, and am downloading many of his tv show episodes on my ipod, i remember seeing some of them when i was very little, his voice was so distinctive.
He was famous for telling his actors "remember it's only a mooo-vie"
i wish i could have worked with him, but he teaches me from the beyond the grave.

comic books, psychic readings & driving in downtown

been lovely busy the last few days, had to organize my tax bits & pieces, went & met my new lady of the numbers, she is in north hollywood. She had all manner of entertainment tricky ins & outs, much relief for this perdiem queen--

Right after our meeting, I went to that most unusual & alien of landscapes, the middle school, to pick up Aneeka, Malena's daughter. She and i goofed around, she taught me how to skateboard & i checked her Egyptian homework. When Malena got home, we went straight into some concentrated girl time, and lit a little candle-on-cheesecake to celebrate Lorraine's b-day. Miles gave me the Frank Frazetta movie & Malena crocheted me a touk!then we consulted the cards and the tiger fairy of topanga canyon dropped by to grant our every wish. i DO love woodland hills.

today, Mimi Ko, photographer & future NYer, came by to meet prince Batman and take me to see the history of comics exhibit @ MOCA. Since we didn't leave the treehouse 'til about 4 pm, we took surface roads, (the secret weapon of LA) cutting through Koreatown.
Had such a good time, felt like we were in another city completely, LA's downtown is really a surprise every time. So many wedding gowns! Mimi showed me the Bradbury bldg, where BLADERUNNER was filmed, and we climbed "angel flight" up to the museum. The exhibit was breathtaking, Will Eisner was far and away my favorite work shown, with young Chris Ware coming in second. Seeing the work close up with the markings and editor notes, white-out and erasure marks was deeply inspiring and we came back to the treehouse, drank some of Mimi's gift tea & talked our heads off. I can't quite believe it has been 5 years since i was in art school...

what the...??!

ps speaking of hearts, the fellow hunter that our VP Cheney shot, had some buck-shot lodged in his heart & had a mild heart attack last night. they have also decided to leave alot of the buckshot in his face. just what the hell where those guys Doing out there?
in my opinion, this is Much worse than getting a blowjob from an intern..!!!?!

flying cats & oscar statues

my trip to Minneapolis/Wisconsin ended with me transporting one of the long-time family cats back to LA with me...there is a reason cats don't have wings. Zooey is a beautiful middle-aged matronly kitty who was not able to relax and enjoy her sedatives on the flight, instead she ripped at her soft-case transport vehicle until she tore a paw-size hole in the side, howling all the while....anyway, the pass-off to miss Olga went well, as Zo finally gave in, like we all do, once faced with that monster, LAX.

i have already said how oscar-silly i am, so when i found out that they are all on display at hollywood & highland, and you can hold one, well, i had to go. We went over on the motorcycle under the nearly full moon. goofed around & had some pretty good sushi @ the shabu-shabu over there, and as we were leaving, i saw mr. mark hawley, here to mix his wife tori's upcoming box set. quel surprise! of all places and all people. we hung out with him for a couple beers, caught up on life in cornwall and then headed on back to the treehouse.

Last night I went to see laura kightlinger's comedy show @ Largo...some of the featured comedians were great, but i was there to see her, i loved her on the tenacious d show (jack black was her boyfriend). however, as she put it, she thought she was going on earlier so she started drinking early & it showed. my favorite Nicoles were both there, so it was fun anyway.

tomorrow i go get my taxes in order with a new tax lady that mr. dan boland recommended. she wants my tour books so it sounds like she has a good roadie plan.

Lorraine & I did a quick little photo shoot on the sushi couch before i left. Tomorrow is her birthday, many more, Lolo!!!
meanwhile happy heart day, all you lovely people.

in which i start a second journal

i have been posting on myspace, and am going to attempt to do the switcheroo-
technology gods, please smile on me.
will transfer some things, but first of all, would like to get used to this format--
patience will see it through.