Elephant Art

My friend Dave and I met in college through a mutual friend and bonded, as many people do, over a 4-year period of copious beers and parties. We have kept in touch over the years, usually based on each others various trips to the coasts (LA and NYC). He is the executive director of a pretty cool non-profit called The Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project which sells art by elephants to help raise money for their well being. I was shocked to see the non-profit featured on one of everyone's favorite blogs, boingboing, this morning. Hope he sees a big spike in traffic and awareness of what he's doing.

I've been to his office in NYC and seen a number of paintings in person. They are really really striking and often beautiful. Surprisingly, they are fairly affordable. I've heard that Elephants will most likely not survive outside of captivity beyond this youngest generation. So you could say the art is a little slice of history. Check out the site.

Where in the World??

If anybody reads this I'm sorry for your time, because it will soon be gone once you play the game I played today. If you dare play, you will be immediately transported back to 4th grade when you were coloring maps and playing "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" (or however it's spelled). I loved that game and loved geography. Sadly not near enough of it stayed with me. What's up memory loss due to aging? nice to know ya.

In fact, as recently as college (well, recently when compared to 4th grade) I learned every country in Africa and could literally fill them in one by one on a map. Trust me, I had to pass the test.

Anyway, I got to level 8. Can anybody do better? I imagine my buddy Ryan could knock this out based on his massive amounts of world travels. I'd also like to see how Holmie aka 'Mr. Capital City' would do.

UPDATE: the code doesnt fit in the template, so if you want to play, go here. And don't say i didn't warn you (but i can give you a hint - speed is valuable).

desire to make skate movies

They have been out of site, out of mind for a while, this brought it screaming back. This is from the shoe company lakai.

Weekend gig

Was kept up really late last night playing music for a total stranger. It was my first paid gig since i started spinning with Shinichi during vintage soul fridays. remember how i was excited to play that show with him earlier? after the show i got a random text from someone who heard me and wanted me to play her bday party. It was last night, and eq and I were there until 4 am, playing all types of crazy stuff, from breaks to soul to 80s and hip hop - it takes all kinds when you are playing for 5 HOURS. Anyway, everbody there was cool, the bday girl Daryl sent me the flyer for the party, its cool.

Pic of the day

From a recent trip to SF. All original.

The hazards of quality kitchen knives

The garlic was totally worth it.

How much fun did I have on Friday?

A ton! For starters there was a 3 hour, 2 bottle dinner at terroni's ending with a 25 year old nebbiolo grappa. tastes like cognac with more body, flavor and depth. then off to hollywood for a random night of the local spots. one which just happened to be hosting the Chromeo concert afterparty (cinespace). they were charging $25 at the door so we skipped it. around the corner we discovered that they totally expanded the room, made a front entrance and doubled the interior. it was good to see the bouncer from the defunct star shoes (r.i.p.) manning the door. thankfully he remembered me and we got in no problem. then on to the burgundy room and back to cinespace for another try at sweet talking the uncompromising door lady to no avail. saw the guys from chromeo go in and suddenly found an opportunity, in typical fashion, to slip in with a group. Somehow i found myself in the VIP elevator with i dont know who, being handed a ticket. nice! by this time i was pretty buzzed, so i had to figure out a way to get my boy patty in. once he was in, we were partying it up with the biggest crowd i've ever seen in cinespace. Dave Macklovich was spinning good electro house, he dropped fancy footwork too, which was killer. danced til after 3 when they booted us and we walked home. hollywood delivers again on a no expectation night.

Killer Bees!

This is crazy! Giant Killer Bees (i guess they are technically hornets) from Japan. Everybody's wondering where the bees are going? I'd start by asking these guys.

Money, Money, Money and Wine

Ever since I worked at Riley's Wines of the World in college and was wined (not dined - keep in mind this was college) by different distributors, i have had an appreciation for wine - mainly red. Fast forward to this weekend when I was in Napa, drinking little glass after little glass of expensive wine (pics here). I think the most expensive bottle i sampled was right around $90. Anyway on the heels of my Napa trip, I saw this news story about humans susceptibility to marketing and prices of wine.

Basically researchers found that people experience more pleasant sensations when drinking wine that they pay a premium for, which makes sense. There's tangible excitement around drinking an expensive wine, listening to crazy speakers or wearing priceless jewelry. What is interesting about this study is that they found an objective, measurable physical reaction unrelated to the quality of the wine. Something very complicated involving the medial orbitofrontal cortex and levels of oxygen that vary based on the price you paid for the wine (and presumably other products) not the wine itself. But still, they measured it and like it or not, people experienced varying degrees of pleasure drinking the same bottle of wine solely depending on its price.

So, i spent $50 on a bottle of wine in Napa. Now when i drink it, I'm going to have to live with the fact that according to these guys from Stanford the pleasure of that experience is going to be somewhat related to the dollars I spent. That's a bit depressing to think about. sigh.

the 'wood

The NYT featured my enchanting neighborhood in their 36 hours feature this weekend. There are a few things on the list I haven't done and am looking forward to exploring a little more. I love that they call out its walkability because that's an underappreciated aspect of the 'wood and a reason why i like it so much. Also excited to confirm that the arclight is one of the best theaters in the country.

On a more somber note, the Honorary Mayor of Hollywood, Johnny Grant, passed last week. I worked with him on a couple of projects (a star unveil and starlight childrens foundation event) and was impressed by his exhuberance. You can find a nice story on Johnny in the LA Times here.