Gung Hee Fat Choy!

It's the lunar New Year.

Some New York Chinese are saying

that the blizzard on this weekend of celebration was propitious.  i.e., somehow lots of snow equates with lots of money and luck!?  Hmmmmmmmm

  (What a happy, cute, little fan, no?)   Anyway, it is the year of the Snake.

Anybody out there like snakes?  Not me, much, either.

I do like old Chinese stuff, though.

An interesting Leonard Lopate/WNYC radio interview with Singapore-based scholar Kishore Mabubhani (here) has him saying that as the Asian world becomes more middle class and more educated over the next several years, it will revisit its own cultures and move them forward.  

In other words, he says to expect a cultural renaissance from both China and India.

I really look forward to that!  Especially if it means nouvelle Cantonese food trucks on the streets of Los Angeles.  Gourmet eggrolls, anyone?

All these pictures come from a year 2001 (also a year of the Snake) desk diary I've had hanging around the house.  It was designed by Reed Darmon and published by Chronicle Books, San Francisco.  (Available on Ebay here.)  It was a spinoff of Mr. Darmon's book also called, "Made in China" that is still available here.

Thanks Reed!  Wherever you are!  

Weekend Bouquet

I'm s-t-i-l-l looking for Spring in L.A.  Haven't quite found it, but I'm getting close.

Here's a little bouquet for you while you're waiting for yours!  Happy Weekend!

(And if you require yet a little more flower power in your life, check this out.)

A Funny Way of Seeing

(via UnAmourdePhoto tumblr - plus the next two pics)

Sorry for the quality of some of these images, I found them "Tumblr"-ing and some have been

borrowed too many times. 

I was going to say (maybe again) how odd I think it is that sometimes we just seem to gravitate

(via Seed Capsules this and all below)

repeatedly towards certain things.  I got these off of two sites but I seemed to have selected them for

their yellows and their blues.  I haven't cared that much about yellow since I was in highschool.

I've been trying to eliminate it from my house.  But just at the moment, the combination seems to be speaking to me.

(Lynda Barry via Seed Capsules)

Maybe since it's been so blue around here for quite a long time, it means I'm ready for some sunshine. I'm thinking you might be too.

And since there's so much playfulness about all of these pictures, I'm going to add a few quotes that I found on Steve McCurry's blog this week:

Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and in-dependent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play.- Henri Matisse

People tend to forget that play is serious - David Hockney

Play is the exultation of the possible - Martin Buber

In play a child always behaves beyond his average age, above his daily behavior. 
In play it is as though he were a head taller than himself.

 - Lev Vygotsky

Play is the highest form of research. 

- A. Einstein

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Hiromi Paper at Bergamot Station, Part Two

I've posted about it here before.

As you can see, it's not JUST paper.

And the paper that it sells does not come

from the usual place.  Tsharsho?  Edgeworthia?

Who cares if it's called strange things or made of stuff like.....walnut trees?

Rice.

Or bamboo?

Mr. Paradis WOULD care.   If Hiromi Papers moved into my neighborhood.  Cuz I could get into a whole lot of TROUBLE there!

Hope you've enjoyed this latest little series of L.A. posts.  Hope you all got a little sunshine this past weekend!

Take It Easy This Weekend

I'll be thinking of you.

Bergamot Station - Santa Monica

In an old tram yard.

bathed in seaside light.

A place for art.  Artists.

And arty moments.

I've posted about Hiromi Papers at Bergamot Station here.  Before.

And along those paper-y lines, an installation late last summer by Christina Kim.

Otherwise and perhaps best known as the designer/proprietress of Dosa.

An L.A. based clothing atelier with arty-south-Asian flavors.

The gift shop at this art center is small but very original.

And apparently since this is the West, there is a freewheeling assortment of exhibits

and sale rooms which encompass mid-20th century American kitsch, lots of photography,

some secret-ish actual art-making spaces, the usual galleries,

arty banks of mail boxes

to-die-for (private) arty staying spaces for optimal shmoozing and per-oo-zhing.

The funky serves as a palate cleanser.

And prelude to the fantastical and the luxe.

There is humour - more than you might see in comparable places in NYC where one takes oneself so seriously.  (Cuz if you don't who will?)

And yes did I say mid-century kitsch?  (Can't get away from it!)

Mellifluously mixed avec hmmmmm.....African funerary vessels (yes those animals)

and trenchant global satire?

Despots?  Anyone?

And Respites?  The good news is it's all always a bit of all-sorts.  A bit everywhere.

Bergamot Station will remind you.  Including the small-but-perfectly-formed Santa Monica Museum of Art.  You didn't know it existed, did you?   Check it out!

Other Houses, Other 'Hoods

Another weekend, another walk.  To:  Atwater Village

a tiny little community

whose most distinguishing features might be these houses,

the fact that the "little people" who played the Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz

lived, and have left a legacy here

and lately, Proof.  A delicious bakery that I posted about here.

 O.K., so how was the weekend?