Amateur For Life

The Vortex

2009-01-26T22:57:00.000-08:00

Now that I am unemployed, all I do is surf that evil social networking site. Its consumed my life! Its a new era of responsibility and I'm pissing my life away on Facebook.
Its my birthday next week. I'm going to make some changes this year. My resolutions are as follows, 1. work on time management, 2. Do some face to face social networking with real humans, 3. Grow the time bank, 4. eat healthier, 5. gossip less, 6. meditate more, 7. end poverty.
I'll get going on all this after I update my status again.

You are by Chelan

2008-11-19T00:31:00.000-08:00

You Are by Chelan Justin Hosford and Jen Grady. Super 8 movie by Autumn Rooney
http://www.heavyshadows.com/chelan.html

Billboard Liberation Front Makes a Deposit

2008-11-10T08:02:00.000-08:00

Billboard Liberation Front

What goes up Must come down

2008-10-30T22:06:00.001-07:00

WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN from ABOVE on Vimeo.

Berlin Summer 2008

2008-10-19T15:07:00.000-07:00

Finally got some pictures up from my trip to Berlin this Summer. See them here on Flicker

Putin Rears his Head

2008-09-30T08:56:00.000-07:00

“As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska.” - Sarah Palin

Lisa Nova

2008-09-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

Help!

2008-09-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

Women Against Sarah Palin

Obama Ad

2008-09-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

The South Central Diet

2008-09-10T21:50:00.000-07:00

South L.A. is a "food desert," with few supermarkets and a lot of land in between them. This video chronicles the extraordinary efforts of Healthy Eating Active Communities (HEAC) student Lae Schmidt to obtain the quality and variety of fruits and vegetables she desires.

The Cool School

2008-09-05T09:29:00.000-07:00

Ferus Gallery

Amy Goodman arrested at the RNC!!!!!

2008-09-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this!!!!! Amy Goodman has been arrested. I can't live in this country anymore.

Yoko Ono's Wish Trees in Pasadena

2008-08-31T09:13:00.000-07:00

Imagine Peace

Yoko Ono's "Wish Trees for Pasadena" in the One Colorado courtyard now has 21 trees overflowing with knotted tags and scribbled wishes. There are now more than 10,000 wishes hung on the trees, and they're being added at a pace of about 1,250 a day, breaking all forecasts and sending the organizers scrambling to provide more tags. Pasadena's wishes will be added to the 700,000 that have already been collected at other Wish Tree installations. Eventually, the wishes will be removed and shipped to the Imagine Peace Tower, her memorial tribute to John Lennon, Ono said. "I'm amazed at how it's developing and growing and I am very thankful," Ono said.

Wish Trees for Pasadena

My Cousins in the News!

2008-08-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

My Cousins, Allison Collins and Justin Rooney, made thier front yard an edible estate. They are permaculture pioneers!

Read the print article here.

Sisterhood of the pantsuit

2008-08-26T23:05:00.000-07:00

We almost had it ladies.

Saving the world through hypnosis

2008-08-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

Edgar Cahn on Time Banking

2008-08-09T06:29:00.000-07:00

The Echo Park Time Bank in the L.A. Times

2008-07-29T02:16:00.000-07:00

Time bank takes root in Echo Park

Echo Park Time Bank is a new online community that trades time, services and expertise, like dog walking, housesitting or advice on how to start a small business.

By Emili Vesilind
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 27 2008

ANE CRABTREE, a costume designer and stylist, was on location in Bulgaria when a professional chef e-mailed to say she'd be happy to give Crabtree free private cooking lessons when she returned. Then a neighbor in Angelino Heights e-mailed and offered to water her plants -- gratis -- the next time she goes out of town.

The Read full article here

Talk about a revolution

2008-07-29T01:59:00.000-07:00

Fantastic Nobodies went to the Obama speech in Berlin. The police made us trun the boom box off right in the middle of We Are The World. I've been stopped by the cops a few times but never for something as innocent as that!
FN at Obama Berlin

Hands Free

2008-07-10T21:52:00.001-07:00

30 Cents, Two Transfers, Love

2008-07-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

Thinking hard about you
I got on the bus
and paid 30 cents car fare
and asked the driver for two transfers
before discovering
that I was
alone.

Richard Brautigan

-2

2008-07-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

Everybody wants to go to bed
with everybody else, they're
lined up for blocks, so I'll
go to bed with you. They won't
miss us.

Richard Brautigan

Walter Benjamin Angel of History

2008-07-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

Angelus Novus, by Paul Klee (1920). Benjamin saw in it the "Angel of History"

A Klee painting named ‘Angelus Novus’ shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.
Walter Benjamin

A.I.R. Gallery, founded in 1972, is the oldest all-women's art gallery in the U.S.

2008-06-28T09:30:00.001-07:00

Documentary by Meredith Drum

Taking Residence: A History of A.I.R. Gallery from Meredith Drum on Vimeo.

Billy's movie

2008-06-25T23:48:00.000-07:00

Billy played an old ghost in the the movie this weekend. I found this beautiful video he made.
Melancholia

Hollywood

2008-06-25T23:09:00.000-07:00

The landlady back-peddled. We have another year lease. Big relief!

This summer has started off like a roller coaster. The summer will be about cinema. I made my acting debut this weekend in Lauren's movie. I played the mayor's wife. I wore a corset and a wig. Very fun.
In addition to acting, I am also making movies. The one I'm working on now is about the desert and the ocean.
I think that three years in LA has made me Hollywood. I accept it.

A Movie About The South Central Farm

2008-06-15T22:25:00.000-07:00

The Garden, A Film by Scott Hamilton Kennedy

New Painting

2008-06-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

Eugene Debs, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Dolores Huerta

Mission to Berlin

2008-06-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

I have been evicted...again. The cycle of gentrification continues. What is the next neighborhood to revitalize? The rents are cheap in Watts. I'm getting too old to be an urban pioneer.

Although my finances are week at the moment, I am flying to Berlin in July. Camp Weird / Fantastic Nobodies is cooking up some sort of action at brot.undspiele
Can't miss that! I need some inspiration from Marc Grubstein. I'm working on a video about homeless people that would be fun to screen there. Are there homeless people in Berlin?
If anyone wants to buy a painting I'm having a big sale. Take advantage of my dire condition. I am Homeless.

2008-05-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

Hold on. I'm not done. How the hell does Google know what kind of Ads to put on my blog?!!! Is it a human or a machine that determines that I am a feminist or a drunk?

Sarah has been parousing 2nd life these days. We had a debate about it at the cabin this weekend. The girls were offended by Second Life. They thought it was pathetic and scary that people could live their lives through a virtual avatar in a fake world. I was outnumbered. I think it's fun. You have a choice to join the seedy underbelly of Second Life or First life. It's a choice. Don't go to the brothels if you don't want to. In second life you can't die and you can't get sick. Why would anyone want to live in reality. It makes sense to me.

I am conflicted though because I am a socially awkward geek who blogs and communicates better through machines and yet Google freaks me out with their customized ads. I can't even click on them. Cyber freedom is a beautiful thing if it doesn't get too big brother corporate. Hi Google! Where is my check?

Home brew!

2008-05-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

Holly Sh*t! I accidentally cracked open Jaime's home brew. I thought it was a Trader Joe's Fat Weasel. I've died and gone to heaven. I don't usually get this buzzed from one beer. There must be crack in it. Amazing. There is no label on it. I will give it a name. It willl be called "Autumn's Favorite Magical Brew". I'm light headed. Good night.

The Woman's Building

2008-05-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

My studio is in the Woman's Building downtown.
Last night I went to the Getty Center to see "Without Imagination There Is No Will: The Woman's Building Tapes" curated by Meg Cranston. The audience was full of all the pioneers of Feminism in Los Angeles, Suzanne Lacy, Jerri Allyn, Susan Mogul. It was exciting to be in the presence of the matriarch. I wanted to tell them that the Woman's building lives on and that their legacy endures, but I chickened out.

Most of the videos were from the Woman's building hay day approx 1973-79. There were great interviews with Arlene Raven and Judy Chicago, footage from lectures by Lucy Lippard and Mary Daly. There was some great footage of the women hanging dry wall and singing as they sanded the ceiling. It was the dawn of video art, the cameras were huge and the quality raw. All they had was TV and BETA. It's amazing how much has changed since then in terms of technology. Today ten year olds are making youtube videos on their Barbie laptops. The women could see that video had the potential to reach a broader audience. They made public service announcements and filmed their activist performances. It must have been such a liberating and exciting moment. There were no opportunities for women artists so they made their own.

The funding eventually dried up and Woman's building closed in 1991. There is a slide archive at Otis and The Getty Research Library has preserved most of the videos. The building on Spring Street is divided up into artist studios. I wish I could buy the building, tear down the walls and restore it to it's former glory, or at least make it into a museum. For now I will cherish my little over priced haven because everyone should have a room of one's own.

It's Gone too Far

2008-04-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

I've attended too many Allan Kaprow happenings. I have to slow down. They put a picture of Kate and I on the website.

I got a great audio book from the library yesterday, "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich. It's making me very upset about the minimum wage in this country. How can it be so low? Or maybe the question is how can the cost of living be so high? The author tries to survive as a waitress, a maid and a Wal-Mart sales person in three different states. She finds that she has to work two jobs just to keep the lowest rent apartment. How did we get to this point? Survival is getting harder and harder. I have to go pay rent now.

The Equal Rights Party

2008-04-28T23:30:00.000-07:00

Now that it is hot again I can open my french doors and enjoy the garden. Unfortunately this creates an opportunity for feral cats and bugs to enter my domain.

I painted Frederick Douglas last night. The bugs were landing on the canvas and getting their delicate legs and wings stuck on the wet paint. I had to redo Frederick's nose many times to disguise the bug parts. Now he looks funny. He was a handsome man but, thanks to the bugs, his likeness is less than perfect.

I learned an interesting fact about Frederick. He ran for vice president in 1872. His running mate was suffragist, and champion of free love, Victoria Woodhull. They were nominated by the equal rights party. A black man and a woman running for office is not new. Today they stand a better chance though. I wish Hillary and Obama would run together instead of fighting.

Fluids

2008-04-28T23:14:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from the Allan Kaprow happening "Fluids". It took place on Sunday, April 27th in MacArthur Park. Each ice block weighed 50 lbs. It was 100 degrees that day. Allan Kaprow's son Anton was there. I moved 4 blocks and then hit the coffee and donuts.

It takes time

2008-04-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

Freeway bike ride

2008-04-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

This is bold!

10 East - Cloverfield to Centinela

10 East - Bundy to 405N on ramp to Santa Monica Blvd

'If you were riding a bike,
you'd be home by now'

Poncho

2008-04-22T21:31:00.001-07:00

Flo made this incredible poncho for me! I am honored and impressed. The pom poms rock my world. I will wear it all summer.

Nipples

2008-04-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

The baby kittens bit the nipples off the bottles! I pity all the poor mom cats of the world. I really hope the babies are able to pass the rubber nipple tops. This is very disturbing.

Happening

2008-04-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

I found the best restaurant. It's called 15 on Echo Park Blvd. Across from Popeyes Chicken. It's so delicious! Go before 6:30 and get the tasting menu.

I went to see Allan Kaprow at MOCA yesterday. They are recreating his performances all over town until June. Now that I am unemployed I will participate in as many Happenings as I can. On Saturday "Routine" and "Time Pieces" will be performed at the Art Center wind tunnel. Trading pulses, phone calls, breaths, and glances.

Justice

2008-04-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was told that there are three rapists in Elysian Park. I sometimes take walks by myself, but now I can't. Sarah and I decided not to let it stop us. We set out for our walk with Jaime's switch blade. We fantasized about taking the bastards down and rescuing all the women of Echo Park from violence and crime.
On the way to the park we passed by Kindred's car. Someone had smashed a cheese burger on her windshield. Why do people have to violate things? It doesn't make sense to me.

Since I started the Time Bank I've been thinking about debits and credits. Everything is an exchange in life. The rapists and the cheese burger bandits will pay for their misdeeds. Justice does not forgive karmic debt. I would charge interest for that.

Someday

2008-04-16T22:29:00.000-07:00

House Carpenter

2008-04-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

kittens and unemployment

2008-04-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

I'm unemployed again.
If only time banking paid.
Sarah rescued some baby Kittens. We are feeding them with little bottles.

Request: Easy high paying job
Offer: baby kittens

Notes from NY

2008-04-06T23:52:00.000-07:00

Memorable moments and ideas from my trip to NY last week.

I. Memorable moments;
a. Grubstein playing dead at the Scope Fair.
b. Eric stashing my Russel Means portrait in the closet in Kay's booth.
c. Dave Brown's pizza hat and VIP status.
d. Enjoying the budding tulips in Ben & Claire's back yard.
e. Ana Rubinstein helping me find my color and buying me a MAC lipstick.
f. The little fangs on Donald & Sean's Shitzus.
g. Driving around Brooklyn in a rain storm with Camp Weird.
h. Irritating Ana Rubinstein with an evil 8 ball.
i. Pink Sock playing at 3rd Ward.
j. Meeting the Grand Dame of Time Banking, Mrs. Ana.
k. Meeting Lisa G's mom.

II. Ideas;
a. Get Ben to Run the length of the Armory Fair at it's most crowded moment. Have him break through a finish line tape at the exit. Splash Gatorade on his face as he jumps around like Rocky.
b. Money making Scheme. Charge all the sexy fashionistas at the art fairs $10.00 for 10 minute piggy back rides. I'm sure their feet hurt in those stilettos.
c. Grubstein wants to sandblast his car to dust but it will take 3 years.
d. Throw seeds on the Walter De Maria Earth Room.

2007-07-30T23:09:00.001-07:00

A Shark eating a beer??? What is this?