Weekend - Survival Style

[itsallovernow]

My hearing is returning, slowly but surely. Yeah!! Saturday was spent at rehearsal, then at the laundromat, then on the couch as I crashed from too much effort after three weeks of immobility.

Yesterday, I took the subway to downtown Los Angeles with a friend so she could look at the lofts they're building in a multi-use space not far from Pershing Square. We saw those lofts, and I got angry at them (far too expensive, far too removed from the reality that is the housing and homelessness crisis in downtown Los Angeles, too cold and no one on the tour seemed to have any sense of the dichotomy. And it was just too much at the moment, because my friend is sort of the one who helped me become an activist, who opened up my eyes to these issues in a lot of ways and it was odd being there with her when she really is in a position to buy one of these things). We moved on to some other lofts in development over at the old El Dorado Hotel and those were much more... welcoming. The building is beautiful and destroyed and they're renovating it, putting in lofts that will suit a variety of ranges and housing options (although still not really for anyone who isn't well off, but that's true for all housing in LA).

We had lunch at Clifton's Cafeteria which is a trip and a half. An old LA institution, it's decorated like the a lodge inside, complete with ducks stapled to the tree mural wall, a moose and a chapel and a waterfall.

We walked through skid row, which was just another chink in the overstimulation chain-so many people with nothing, pouring onto the streets to watch the cop cars - and ended up in Little Tokyo. She took me to the Japanese American cultural center, and we took the elevator to the basement, walked outside and there's this beautiful little garden write in the heart of downtown. Then we went to the Japanese American museum across the street, walked through a permanent exhibit on the internment camps and just when I was feeling far too raw, far too bruised over humanity's existence and culpability and sheer stark fluttery purpose, we entered the Noguchi Exhibition and my whole world just lit up. Noguchi is a sculptor/artist/designer who built these fabulous set pieces, these sculptures and products and the exhibit is curated so that each room is like a stage, like this silent(well not so silent) set with the pieces serving as actors and it was just beautiful and warm and glorious and anyone who lives in LA should go see it before it's gone. I haven't been to an exhibition that filled me with such joy since we went to MOCA for the ultra creepy if fascinating Lucien Freud exhibit and stumbled on this wonderful, delicate whimsical artist with big canvases and tiny, happy pictures on them.

Days like that make me feel like this is my city, make me wonder why I even question leaving it when there's so much to discover, so much work to do for this place. There are so many stories here, so many moments that get ignored or pushed aside in favor of the plastic, glossy version and yet most of the people I know aren't living that slick lifestyle, are living in a place that's hard to navigate and hard to love and finding a way to do both.

Remix stories are up! Yeah. I've only read a few so far, but they've been really wonderful.

And to really and completely make my week, cofax7 is writing a Farscape/SGA crossover, featuring John Sheppherd and Aeryn Sun set in her Bellum Interuptum universe. It's an embarrassment of riches from Cofax, what with a new section of her FS/SG-1 crossover and now this, and really, very few things make me as happy as Cofax writing Aeryn again! Because I so, so have missed my girl in the hands of someone who knows her:) From the responses, it's also abundantly clear that I am not alone in missing Aeryn:)

To make things even better, to make me adore my flist even more, I can home on Thursday to discover that the utterly wonderful veritykindle had sent me Life on Mars. Katya, you know I adore you and you frelling made me cry with your generosity. Thank you dear.

Comments

[veritykindle.livejournal.com]

*hugs you* I'm glad you are feeling better, and that I was able to cheer you up a little. Let me know how you like it. :)

And that Noguchi Exhibition sounds amazing! I wish I could get a chance to see it! Maybe it'll come to Boston, sometime...

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I'm very excited to watch it!!

And the exhibition is amazing! I hope it tours so that other people can see it:)

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

thank you for this lovely and thoughtful post. that dichotomy feels more and more present in so many places. it leaves me rather speechless/typeless because i feel powerless on a large scale. although during my work day i try to chip away at it.

and yay for cofax7's story.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Hugs you dear.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

ah, thank you. *g* hugs are a good thing.

[haphazardmethod.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite L.A. memories is going to a mall in Little Tokyo to eat sushi. A several story mall so close to downtown and yet it was so clearly set up for the Japanese -- few signs in English, strange (to my eyes) advertising and the like. And of course, the delicious sushi.

I've been seeing signs for that exhibition. Hmm. ::plots to find babysitter::

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

It's really marvelous, and it's very short. You could bring the munchkins without too many destructive possibilities, except the sculpture is emminently touchable and I had to be told not to touch.