LA Festival of Books!

First of all, who says LA isn’t cultured?The LA Festival of Books took place this weekend and was a glorious, dizzying event, and apparently, the largest book festival in the country. As Mr. P and I wove through the crowd, I kept thinking to myself that this is as close to an ideal society as one could get: lots of free stuff, many different kinds of people, different ideas, and most importantly, a world exalted by books of all kinds and levels. Lest I wax (too) rhapsodic on this issue, let’s get to the pictures.

Smokin’ hot Stephan Pastis! Usually I’m quite suspicious of men in goatees, but I have to say that Pastis was a charmer. Not in a direct way, but in a shy, clearly-was-awkward-when-younger, incredibly polite adorable way. I have always enjoyed Pearls Before Swine (wonderfully twisted), and he was gracious enough to draw a picture of Pig on my book.

That would be Wiley Miller of Non Sequitur and Bill Amend of Foxtrot. It was remarkable how much Amend resembled Jason. Like Pastis, he was clearly introverted, but very funny during the panel and friendly to his fans. I got a little sketch of Jason from him.

This picture doesn’t do justice to the size and busyness of the whole affair. I got 6 books (7 including a free copy of the Qur’an; I would’ve taken a free bible but those people wanted a home address. Pfft.), one of which was a signed copy of the Martian Chronicles. I was happy to hear that Ray Bradbury is still going strong (I saw him at the Festival last year). I didn’t get to see him this year, unfortunately. Other popular notables at the festival included Harry Turtledove, Julie Andrews (yes, Mary Poppins!), Mary Higgins Clark, Martin Yan and so on. I’m always amazed by the people they manage to pull in. There were plenty of academic presses there to keep things interesting for academics and boring for everyone else, and I got a good sense of what press publishes what. Filed away for post-dissertation times.

My only complaint is that the food prices were ridonkulous–Disneyland ridonkulous at $5 for lemonade, $7.25 for a measly Panda Bowl! Luckily Mau and I could just head back to my apartment for some grub.

It was nice to see UCLA populated by more than just a bunch of blasé college students. I’m already looking forward to next year’s fair.

New digital camera!

Introducing my new digital camera, the Canon A460. I love it. It’s so excitin’! Of course I don’t plan to abandon my faithful Nikon N80, which will be used from now on mainly for artsy black and white film photos. This Canon will be used for day-to-day snappage.

And what better way to demonstrate its capabilities than through FOOD? Here’s the tomato-egg soup I whipped up today.

What I love most about it is its super macro function, which lets me get absolutely gorgeous closeups:

More to come for SURE.

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art stray

Had a great discussion in class yesterday about art. That class has been feeding and tempting me all term artistically, and I’m sad to see it end.

It has amplified my dislike of abstract, high-concept art. If it only speaks to 2 or 3 people who understand the complex theory behind it, then what’s the point? The domination of the fine art world by this kind of approach has driven truly talented artists into the commercial world, which turns out creative & beautiful advertisements which further commodifies our culture. Which drives consumption and makes it even more irresistible. So while those high-concept artists complain about capitalism, they’re the ones who are partly responsible for its power. Their counterparts (who are actually talented) do commercial work because they have no place in the fine art world, often because their style is judged to be too “representational” and “panders” to what people want to see.

On the bright side of things the class has made me draw more. Also, I’m definitely signing up for a photography class through ucla rec. so I can have access to a darkroom again. Hey Xine, remember when we got trapped in the darkroom at Trinity? I thought I might have to pee in the sink.

On the bad side of things it makes me want to drop out of grad school–not out of hate, just apathy, perhaps–and open up a coffee shop/used bookstore. And line the walls with art. And have a cute little kid’s section with twinkle lights and potted plants!

Maybe in a few years. For now, I’ll just have to feed myself by sketching and ambushing people with my camera, predator-style.

portrait photos, pt. IV

lovely photo I took from a few years back, of miss kelkel.

Central California

black and white photography, pt. III

one of my best, I think. of beautiful xine.

black and white photography, pt. II

black and white photography

Need to get back into portraits. I took my camera to the Ragtime period ball at Powell library last night and–hopefully-got some good shots of dancing feet. But my favorite thing is still portraiture, and here’s one of my favorites, of the lovely Miss V. P.: