Tuesday, December 13, 2011

tuesday

Hello, blog. How are you today? I'm doing fairly well, thank you. Just wondering where our second day of rain is. The weather man told us we would get two days of rain, which is a big deal for us parched Angelenos. Yesterday was perfect. I sat next to my big window and drew all day with the rain falling outside; it was magical.
I'm pretty happy that I get to draw my favorite things for this current project I'm working on. That would be Maps!

I had an "emergency" trip to NYC last week and started this incredible book on the plane - The Fourth Part of the World, by Toby Lester. All those pieces of Medieval history that seem so vague and were never really delved into in school (Marco Polo, Amerigo Vespucci, the Black Plague, Genghis Khan, etc), this book weaves them all together through the story of maps.

Lester started the investigation and book when a map from 1507 sold for more than the US Declaration of Independence at an auction. What was the map? The Waldseemuller Map, the first map of the entire world including the continents of North and South America, and the first map to name America (sorry Columbus, snooze you lose).

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

ross capicchioni.. got to watch this





I've watched this so many times I've lost count; it's just enthralling. Not only is this kid's story amazing, he's a born raconteur! I love his impersonation of all the character: his so called "friend," the parole officer, the paramedic, the nurse.

It is such an interesting insight into the process of dying too, the pain going away and the desire to sleep. Then there is the out of body experience... well just watch it.

Friday, November 4, 2011

London Shows

I'm back from England and Sweden! So here's a little bit of the shows. It's been two weeks, but feels like a month or two. Right now I want to relax and... not drink any more tea. haha. I usually say relax with a mug of tea, but I can't hold any more tea. I've consumed my quota between the British and my British amiga in Sweden. I'm still buzzing with Earl Grey. Anyway, tea aside. The shows came off great. I'm always relieved when stuff doesn't go flying.

Elizaveta: costumes, hair, make-up styling by Missy W. and Ali Friend on Bass

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

New York

Since we are heading to London in two days, I thought I'd better put up some New York pictures before they are irrelevant. I have special attachment to the Big Apple, but returning I always get a flashback of how difficult it was to live there.
From the airport straight to Harlem  The cab ride turned in to a really long ride with traffic. 
I put on some Kings of Convenience to revel in the nostalgia. 
NYC certainly has Los Angeles nailed as far as architecture goes.
Rehearsal space at a nice brownstone in Harlem. 
We all sat in the kitchen downstairs talking about music while the violins were sorting things out above us. The owner of the brownstone is a drummer; he has a band that released an album called "Salt of the Earth." That pretty much sums it up.

Lipstick transfusion stat! Someone lost vital fluids on this coffee mug.
In the presence of greatness. Viva Supergrass.
Entering Williamsburg. Home of the mustache. 
I personally think that we are over saturated with the current mustache trend. 
But then I think one of the least attractive traits in a guy is trendiness. Is this a double standard?
En route to the Bronx
Switchboard at WFUV
Excellent rusty carpet
Rita Houston interviewed Elizaveta and listened to a set from the upcoming album. 
Rita's voice was so soothing, I lapsed into a magical dream state. 

I took off later that night to meet up with Caitlin AKA Geek the Sheik. 
We spent the evening at an idyllic hang out trying to hatch travel plans.


Cait and her friend Marcar (I'm a fan of that name)
* I've later learned that his name was nowhere near Marcar,
apparently I completely made that up, ha!
 The stage at Dominion has a spiral staircase up to the artist lounge.
Dominion show, which I treated as a college reunion. Most of my good friends from school came out. It was   fantastic and frantic seeing them all. So whirlwind that I didn't even get any pictures. Terrible! But my friend Kelly came all of the way from Philadelphia to spend 2 hours together before taking a train back to work in the morning. She's crazy and an irreplaceable friend.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

drawings and photos from yosemite

I got these flowers for my birthday and I didn't want to leave them at home, so I brought them along in a take-out cup. They smelled up the car nicely, but didn't like the cold much. I felt bad for toting them along after that.

We camped in the valley with all of the climbers. I was envious, except of their pre-dawn wake up call. J made fast friends with a nice Hungarian guy who was telling us about a guy at one of the national parks in California who left honey in his (yellow) car. Kind of like wearing a meat suit in shark invested waters. Obviously a bear broke into his car to feast. It was such a jackpot that bears were breaking into every yellow cars in the area for a while after that. Such smart animals.

It rained and made everything muddy and grey. We were determined to mountain bike no matter what, so the poncho did what it could. By the end of it, we were completely filthy and wet. So much fun.

Yosemite really is one of the most magical places on the planet.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

sketchbook from lollapalooza

There were lots of fun pictures from Lollapalooza last month on the iphone, so we printed them out and I added them to my sketchbook pages. Hope you enjoy!





 * more on Elizaveta's website debuting soon

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

I love the Channel Islands

So you know in my mind I said, well I'll put up one picture for Merky. I was looking for a good pictures and this is what I ended up with.

The Channel Islands are so beautiful. We had a fantastic time. I recommend it for every outdoors person in Southern CA. You can just boat in for a day and do some cave kayaking, which was by far the highlight of the trip. Or.. maybe it was the view from the top of the cliff. Unbelievable really. Having great company with you surely helps too.

Part 1: Cliffs

We were making fun of Ravi. Here we all were backpacking water weighing a ton on our backs, sleeping bags and tents strapped to every limb. Then there he is with a roller suitcase the size of shoe.
No trip is complete without my token cliffhanger shot. 

Part II: Kayaking

The caves were AMAZING!

This is a bad photo, but I had to include it because this cave was unbelievable. To enter during mid-tide in the morning, we had to lay flat in our kayaks and squeeze through a small area, which opened up into a huge cavern. On the outer edge below the surface were holes in the rock which let in light from outside. The light under water made everything glow. It was magical! The holes also let in the ocean current so it was pretty turbulent inside. I wanted to go back, but the tide had lowered later in the day, so we couldnt get over the rocks.

Part III: Life Aquatic