Macaron(i)

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Cosmos

As Emma and I watched the fireworks this past weekend in Big Bear with Chanel's family, we noticed that fireworks spectaculars, with their swirly gunpowder clouds and bursts of light, look a lot like the cosmos. So we stared up at the open, exploding sky and we couldn't help but ponder our existence in this strange but beautiful world. We are just small little specks in the grand scheme of things; yet we still keep plugging on, doing our thing, trying to create things and connect to people that matter, and I find that to be so noble, so brave. The science god/geek Carl Sagan felt this way too. He simultaneously acknowledged the importance yet insignificance of the wee human species...
(image found by Emma)

Mojo and Swagga

I do judge books (and people) by their cover:


It is in my opinion that Murakami, with his latest releases, has lost his mojo, his swagga, but I will always remember his seminal work The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle fondly. The opening lines describe the protagonist cooking spaghetti al dente...you know you're good when you can make something as prosaic as boiling noodles sound absolutely poetic. And of course a character that will troll high and low to find his beloved cat certainly speaks (meows) to me.

Mercury Rises and Explodes

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/06/justin-timberlake-on-richard-serra-and-banksy.html

My like-o-meter for JT is already blowin up the mercury but add the comparison to Sammy Davis Jr. and spate of recent art activities (ok, so he bought a Banksy, yawn, how cliche, but we'll give the novice collector a pass on this one) and my affection grows even more.


Seen at MOCA's Art in the Streets opening hawking street cred in a skull cap, via http://thearabparrot.com/

The Sun, the Moon, the Stars...

shimmy shimmy sequins and scream...yeeow! I want to see Prince in concert at the Forum so bad. (image via http://www.openingceremony.us/entry.asp?pid=3633)

07 - The Sun, The Moon And Stars by Feel The Prince

May

"Bright floating hearts in a fresh cut grass in May."

Bouffant: In a JGL Trance

Not since my JT-crazed days have I felt such ardor for an abstract entity.

Gangsta Love

(via http://www.baubauhaus.com/post/3295830417/nevver-love-is-real)
A day late and a dolla short but Snoop Dogg wishes all the lovers out there a Happy Valentine's Day.

I escaped the rain in Los Angeles for the sunshine in Seattle...

LA failed me this past week with all of its dripping, dreary raindrops. How ironic that sun and dry weather was to be found in Seattle.

Fresh baked goods and flowers at Pike Place Market.

It's a lovely city: full of art, design and epicureanism (the highfalutin trinity of human needs, up several levels from the basic food, water, shelter), with scenic views framed by amber maple leaves. I kept thinking, I could live here.

Extra

Catching up on back-issues of The New Yorker:

“The thing that strikes you first is how delicate he is. He is not trying to protect himself. He is almost like E.T., like they sent him from another planet—someone who is extra sensitive, almost skinless—to come and detect all these fragments about the human society that he lives in.”

-Artist Michal Rovner on Israeli writer David Grossman

Apple Green

My sister christened her new Le Creuset cookware by making sugar-glazed Granny Smith apple fritters this morning.

Encounter on Fountain/Fuller

It's easy to love dogs. They are indiscriminately loving and loyal. It takes a special kind of tolerance and patience to love cats. They scowl, scurry and hiss. But underneath this cold facade they are adorable balls of smushy fuzz that want to be loved and will put on the funniest antics to achieve that affection. Case in point, these beauties I encountered on Fountain/Fuller.

Art You can Eat, Touch and Take Home

Wayne Thiebaud-inspired layer cake.


Felix Gonzales-Torres, SFMOMA.

Deserted Island

photo by B

Santa Rosa, Channel Islands is so secluded and protected that even though it's just a short distance from LA (20 minutes by plane, a few hours by boat) our stay of 2 nights and 3 days felt like an epic getaway to some luscious, faraway locale.

The weekend included:
Tons of Cutie Pie Seals
1 Massive Blue Whale
0 Showers
Beauty to infinity.

Lacking

Too much activity in life, too little action on this blog.

Cat Landscape

The Club Life

These days the euphemism is "going dancing," but I remember when the proper terminology was "clubbing." That term is unbelievably cheesy, but then again so is the activity. I have a love-hate relationship with that whole scene. I lovelovelove dancing, and I'm quite fond of donning a short skirt with tall heels and seeing other girls in their respectively scandalous outfits. But, the hollow exclusivity and random mash-up of people in general really puts a damper on things. My slowly creeping disgust is perfectly timed though, as I am turning 29 in a couple of weeks...which is practically 30...and a 30-year old at a club is mildly inappropriate...

Under the dark cover of night.

It's a good thing I'm also quite fond of brunch. Brunch is a very appropriate activity for an almost 30 year-old.

Fish-wich

Some incongruous facts: It's January. It's winter. It's 77 degrees and sunny outside.

It's Los Angeles. Aah, it all makes sense now.

The amazing weather of late prompted us to head out to Malibu for a day, where we stopped by the Eames house, hiked in the hills, then cruised down to Neptune's Net for a much anticipated fish-wich.

weeeeeee-Eames!


Elephant ride by Eames.


Like a mini Spiral Jetty.

L.A.--you are so beautiful and I love you!

Funny Sister

My sister cracks me up sometimes. We love Law & Order, and it's our ritual to watch it together. Today I got a bright idea for a spin-off and emailed her about it (this will only be funny to you too if you actually watch L&O...):


From: Jennifer Li [mailto:JLi@getty.edu] Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 9:59 AMTo: Angela LiSubject: law and order
What do you think of...Law & Order: Los Angeles

????

I think they should make one!!!!

>>> "Angela Li" 1/8/2010 10:07 AM >>>
Hahaha.. what the heck? Yes.. it’s a good idea. Why are you going to make it happen somehow?

Angela Li
Manager, Development Services


From: Jennifer Li [mailto:JLi@getty.edu] Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 12:40 PMTo: Angela LiSubject: RE: law and order
Yes, I'm gonna email NBC. It would be so fun to recognize all the landmarks and establishments they go to. And then you know how sometimes they have to go upstate to the NY suburbs, well they could be like oh, the brother lives in Glendale, let's go question him.

haha!~


>>> "Angela Li" 1/8/2010 2:01 PM >>
*Dun Dun*

Residence of the Li Sisters
Glendale, California


Angela Li
Manager, Development Services

A Literary Warning

The cooler weather had me cozied up and reading under blankets yesterday.

This is a warning to all who were charmed by Julie & Julia, the movie: do not, absolutely do not venture to read the bore of a book by Julie Powell that it was based upon.

The memoir packs a potent dose of the obnoxious, pouting Powell (BARF! I had to stop reading because it was literally--or *literarily*--giving me a headache) with none of the Meryl Streep-sparkle.

If you want to read a memoir, and read something good, might I suggest The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, who, having grown up poor in Appalachia living in a deplorable shack, pooping in a growing trash pit in the backyard, and digging through refuse for her meals, still does not complain as much as middle-class, mediocre writer Julie Powell.