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Williams spent decades sewing the seeds of art revolution among the groups that the high-brow world ignored. Hot rod enthusiasts, skaters, suffers, bikers, hippies and punks have long bean his people. By the time Williams co-founded Juxtapoz in the mid-1990s, all these influences had come together to impact a large and healthy community of artists who similarly found their voices in representational art with strong narrative elements. "The art talks to you and it talks to you in a voice that has been inadvertently silenced for almost 70 years," says Williams inside his home library.
Inside Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park, Williams' solo show "Slang Aesthetics!" takes up the larges spaces at the center of the venue. An expansive collection of works, the show includes paintings, drawings, prints and two mammoth statues. Framing the exhibition is the concurrent show, "20 Years Under the Influence of Juxtapoz," a collection of artists affiliated with the styles that the magazine has long championed. Featuring works by Shag, Natalia Fabia, Elizabeth McGrath and many others, it's a who's-who of the movement often referenced as pop surrealism.
In the early 1960s, when Williams was an art student and new to Los Angeles, this gallery hosted a show from the surrealist Salvador Dalí. He saw the show multiple times. At that time, art like Dalí's had fallen out of fashion. Abstract expressionism was the rage. In the school setting, Williams' own work was at odds with what was being taught. "I was just told that drawing was for people that were not sophisticated," he says, 'that representational art was for people that didn't have the sophistication or the inclination to understand that two-dimensional art is far-superior." After moving to Los Angeles from New Mexico, Williams attended Los Angeles City College, where he landed a gig as the cartoonist for the school newspaper. Later, he attended Chouinard, which became CalArts, but didn't graduate.
Academics may not have appreciated Williams' style, but he was still able to thrive in California's art climate. "California has this interesting situation where it's orthodox, proper art world seeks sophistication, like every other art community in the United States, and looks toward New York," says Williams, "but, by the time that cultural arm reaches to the West Coast, the sophistications got mutated and twisted."
That delayed reaction that happened when East Coast trends traveled West was, in a way, helpful for Williams. "You have an accidental freedom on the West Coast," he says.
Indeed, Williams taps into that freedom in his art. Take "Swap Meet Sally," from his current show. The titular character reclines under an umbrella, t-shirt hiked above her navel, long legs exposed below the hem of her short-shorts. Surrounding her are a variety of odds and ends-- a guitar, a pair of cowboy booths, some hats, a scuba helmet that looks as though it came out of an H.G. Wells story. Above her, a green, naked woman is sprawled out on some psychedelic, cash-colored cloud.
"The wonderful thing about swap meets is that you can develop a taste for something that the general public hasn't decided to light on to," says Williams inside his home library. He mentions antiques that haven't quite made an impact on the secondary market, but might do so in a few years time-- "It's a prospector and a treasure hunter's dream." It's a scene that seemingly belongs to Southern California, where swap meets have long been part of the sprawl.
Then there's "Hollywood After Midnight," with images of Satan popping out from a nighttime view of the neighborhood. Williams' description posted next to the painting weaves a sordid tale of the devil as someone looking for a big break in an industry that's by and large situated outside of Hollywood's boundaries.
As a child, Williams was heavily influenced by EC Comics, the publisher of titles like "Tales from the Crypt" that angered adults nationwide, triggering the Senate Subcommittee Hearing into Juvenile Delinquency and the founding of the Comics Code Authority. "It was just like catnip to me," he says. "And, they were right, it did poison the youth, because I'm a testimony to it."
Williams has always stood out as defiant. "My stuff, if you look at it, and you look at it psychologically, it's contrary to our social mores," he says. "It's outlaw art, maybe tamed down a little bit." Zap Comix was notorious in its day; Williams notes the booksellers who were arrested for carrying the works. Long after that, Williams continued to ruffle feathers. In 1992, MOCA hosted the exhibition "Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s" and Williams was part of that show. He pulls out a monograph to show a painting that appeared in that exhibition. In it, Mata Hari stands above the Crown Prince of Prussia and the French Minister of War, both of whom have their respective country's flags waving from their behinds as they lick her feet. In another corner, Williams depicts the carnage of World War I, right under an Eiffel Tower let up by messages that Mata Hari was passing along to the Germans. Up at the top of the painting, Mata Hari sits naked on a white horse, a reference to an anecdote from Gertrude Stein.]]>
"It's a lurid painting and it upset a lot of people at the Helter Skelter show, but I'm proud of it," he says.
Williams' work is particular to the era in which he came up as an artist. "This thing started out as an extreme underground art movement and, as more people involve themselves in it, the more it will dilute out into acceptability," he says. "It started out almost on the edge of sedition; there was a lot of pornography and questionable material. I just assumed it stay that way, but that's passed. The underground is long, long dead. Those are the days of Zap Comix."
Yet, there are some things that remain. "What has survived is a zeitgeist and an intensity of interests that young people have picked up on," he says. That has, and will continue, to change the art world.
"The world I function in is a world of all these bastardized forms of art that are eventually going to assimilate into one or two forms of formal art," he says. "That's just going to happen. The bottom always comes to the top in art. Always."
Williams adds, "The question is, am I going to live long enough to bear the fruits of this? The genie is out of the box."
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Top Image: "Pathos in Papier-mâché" by Robert Williams]]>
Bastida translates the title of her latest album-- "La Edad de Violencia"-- to "the age of violence." She wrote the songs while reading up on disturbing recent events. She was affected by stories about school shootings in the United States and news from Mexico. "I just couldn't find another title for the album that fit better than that," says Bastida, who was pregnant at the time she made the work. "I realized that most of the songs that I was writing talked about violence in different ways, whether it was violence against women or violence against students or kids or drug-related. It just kind of happened. It just seemed like the perfect title."
Bastida says that while her debut was quite polished, she wanted the follow-up was, intentionally, more raw. "There are a lot of times that I am off-key a little bit and I'm okay with it," she says.
"I feel like mistakes can make everything more interesting," she says, "because you see a lot of singers that sing perfectly, technically perfectly, but you can't really connect with them, sometimes, because it just sounds like any other perfect singer."
Politics have played a major role in Bastida's solo music, which takes roots in the band she first joined when she was just a teenager: Tijuana No!. Bastida remarks that politics played a role in shaping the band. Because they lived by the Mexico/U.S. border, Bastida says that they struggled with identity. "People would say that people from Tijuana want to be Americans," she explains. "I was kind of rejecting this idea that we were American and also rejecting certain things that we weren't, that we didn't like about our country and about our city and about the world around us."
She was only 15 when she was recruited a group of older kids in her Tijuana neighborhood to join her first band. Bastida agreed and spent a summer playing her small Casio with a group of pals. The line-up changed a little and the new group, Tijuana No!, started getting gigs. "There was never talk about making an album or touring," Bastida says. "Before we knew it, we were already signing with a label and we won a rock contest so it was fun because it was so organic."
Tijuana No! became a popular, and influential, band in the 1990s. The members drew inspiration from punk, reggae, ska, hard rock and indigenous music, folk and Trova. Their proximity to the United States allowed the members to travel easily; they were influenced by bands that they saw play in the U.S. They were also influenced by the politics of the mid-1990s. "I think it was an interesting time because everybody was wanting to change Mexico, sort of like what is happening right now, I think," she says. "But, people were very inspired and people were feeling like a community. People wanted to support each other and support these communities, so it was a great time."
Later in the decade, Bastida left the band. "I wasn't feeling 100 percent comfortable with what we were doing musically or lyrically," she says. Moreover, Bastida was quite young when she joined the band and wanted to explore other possibilities. She decided to continue her education in Tijuana and, ultimately, landed work teaching history, Spanish and English at a junior high school. Then another former Tijuana No! member, Julieta Venegas, asked her play keyboard for a few shows in the United States. "All of a sudden, I reconnected with music, which I hadn't done in a few years," she says.
Playing with Venegas was a good experience for Bastida, but, ultimately, she wanted to do her own thing. Bastida, who was living in Mexico City at the time, decided to head to Los Angeles. The move allowed her to connect with L.A. musicians. Meanwhile, she wasn't that far away from her family in Tijuana. Bastida released her first full-length solo album, "Veo la Marea," in 2010.
Despite her recent album's title, and some of the subject matter, Bastida says that she didn't set out to make a "dark" album. "I also like music that moves me and makes me want to dance," she says. "I think those things can be together. They don't necessarily have to be separate."]]>
"Just the power and the energy of that stuff seemed a lot more pure and visceral than punk rock or gangster rap or whatever little kids are listening to try to shock their parents," he says.
The music that dominated radio in the late 1990s and early 2000s didn't make as much of an impact on young Waterhouse as older styles did. "I was really interested in figuring out what was visceral, what things made me feel kind of funny," he says. British Invasion groups and blues artists did that.
Around this time, Waterhouse picked up guitar and the influence remains a part of his work to this day. The Santa Ana-born, Huntington Beach-raised musician crafts songs that sound slightly out of time. His husky-voiced rock is rooted in the 1960s definition of the genre.]]>
While some might think of Waterhouse as a throwback, or an imitation of artists whose heyday came long before he was born, the musician himself doesn't look at it that way. "The problem is music, and the way that people think about music nowadays, is totally different than most other art forms," he says. "It is like, by nature, everyone presumes imitation as derivative, whereas, in architecture or literature or film, everybody goes through form by looking at other people." However, Waterhouse's influences have helped him cultivate an audience. His music resonated with fans of northern soul, rare 1960s records that later gained a following in the U.K. He also gained a following amongst Tumblr users after some press spread wide through the social network.
Waterhouse was based in San Francisco when he made his debut album, "Time's All Gone," but the full-length was actually recorded in Costa Mesa. He says that the album represents his feelings at the time that there was "no divide" between the northern and southern regions of California. "It was no big deal for me to move between those two cities," he says. He crafted the songs in San Francisco, but headed south when he needed to record. The album was recorded over three quick sessions. He self-financed what he could, but signed a label deal when the cash ran low.
About a year later, his situation changed. After taking off time to play shows, he lost his job. He went through a break up and San Francisco itself was changing. The tech scene dominated the town, prices were going up and a lot of his local hangouts were closing. Waterhouse moved to Los Angeles.
Now, Waterhouse sees "Time's All Gone" as his "San Francisco record," reflective of his life in that city. By the time he settled into the follow-up album, "Holly," he was in L.A. He says that his second album has less to do with his own life and more about what he saw in his new city. "I wanted to talk about a certain kind of person that I was encountering around Echo Park and Highland Park," he says.
He adds, "I found the more I was assembling the record, the more sense it was starting to make in that it was turning into a Los Angeles record."
On the title track, Waterhouse touches on issues of gentrification. "I was spending time around 'gentrifiers,' for lack of better terms," he says. He noticed how his on generation approached various newly-hip neighborhoods in the city-- "How people almost like the danger of it," he says. "It's fun for them or it gives them credibility or it's exciting." The song, he adds might touch on "disconnect and lack of responsibility."
The song itself is a mishmash of influences-- piano pop melodies, rock vocals, Latin funk rhythm and horns, big soul backing vocals. The lyrics point to observers who witness the pitfalls of city life-- like drunk drivers and shootings-- while acting as those this doesn't affect them. "I don't know why I liked that notion so much," Waterhouse says, "but it just made sense to me."
"I had an idea for the album and it was almost done and then I scrapped it and worked on a whole new thing," says Bei Ru (real name: Baruir Panossian) over coffee in Hollywood. Ultimately, it took a couple different tries to create the right album. Bei Ru estimates that he had about 100 songs that could potentially land on an album, but he didn't have a concept. "I did want it to be concept-driven and tell sort of a story and take the listener somewhere," he says. "As a fan of music, that's what, my favorite types of albums are like that."
In the end, Bei Ru found his concept. "Saturday Night at the Magic Lamp" is inspired by a record from an Armenian bandleader that included banter bits that welcomed guests to "the Magic Lamp." On Bei Ru's album, the Magic Lamp became a venue whose place is hard to pinpoint. "You don't know if it's from the future or the past," he says. "It really made sense to me because the music itself seemed like it was otherworldly, from some other dimension, like there were futuristic influences and vintage influences and it seemed like it would be a really cool way to present it as a night at some club from somewhere that doesn't exist."
Once Bei Ru had the concept, the record came together without much difficulty. "The reason that the album was taking so long in the first place was because it wasn't making sense to me," he says. "Once I found this concept and started working on it, it was moving. It revealed itself to me after a while."
With "Saturday Night at the Magic Lamp" pointing to a time and location for the album's action, Bei Ru could work through that pile of tracks he had built. "I approached all the songs with this concept," he says. "I would move things around and rearrange them to fit in and it worked perfectly." Bei Ru knew which songs to use. He brought in musicians -- a guitarist, bassist, multiple keyboardists and an oud player -- to flesh out the pieces. The electric oud, played by L.A.-based musician Antranig Kzirian, became crucial to the sound of certain tracks. "I feel like the oud is a really underrated instrument, especially electric oud," says Bei Ru of the stringed instrument. "It just has this really cool, unique sound to it." It also gives a distinctively Middle Eastern vibe to some of the electronic tracks on the album.
The song titles give an idea of what goes down inside the Magic Lamp. "Dance of the Drunken Thieves," "Sweet Temptress" and "Electric Belly Dance Trance" are just the start. The mix of Middle Eastern, particularly Armenian, sounds with modern disco and hip-hop beats lends itself to a party atmosphere.
When Bei Ru started work on the album, he thought about making a darker collection, one that would tap into the unease that came with recession and other major societal problems. However, he got some good advice to the contrary from a friend, artist Vahe Berberian. "The music doesn't have to be dark and dreary for people to connect to it," says Bei Ru. "Something more lively can open up some kind of revolution so to speak. "
Now that album is done, Bei Ru is taking the Magic Lamp on the road. Recently, he took the outdoor stage at influential Lincoln Heights party Low End Theory. It was a small-scale gig, just Bei Ru and a limited assortment of gear, that got packed crowd dancing. After that, he headed to Kuwait to take part in a Red Bull Academy music event, with dates in Lebanon and Jordan to follow.
Bei Ru plans to book more gigs with his full band in February and March. Saturday Night at the Magic Lamp is out now as a CD and digital release. A vinyl release is planned for later this summer. Also, listen for Bei Ru's music in the film, "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night."
Related Reading from Artbound:
Place of Disco: The Republic of Discostan
The Discostan collective, hosted at Footsie's Bar in Los Angeles, is a celebration of musical traditions and cross-cultural sounds from Beirut to Bangkok via Bombay.
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Top Image: Bei Ru live at Low End Theory | Photo: Avo Kambourian]]>
"We definitely flipped it," says Lewis in her recent visit to Studio A of the scenarios set in her video, "but that was something in the back of my mind." In addition to the pantsuits, the women occasionally appear in drag, sporting mustaches and tracksuits as they emphasize the title, and much of the content, of the song. "I wanted them clothed, I wanted them in suits," Lewis explains. "I wanted them barefoot and grounded." She adds, "I wanted to give everyone the freedom to present their female character and their male character."
"Just One of the Guys" delves into the experiences and expectations of women in male-dominated groups, or maybe just of women in general. Lewis sings, "No matter how hard I try/To be just one of the guys/There's a little something inside that won't let me." By the song's bridge, Lewis drops the bombshell, "There's only one difference between you and me/When I look at myself, all I can see/I'm just another lady without a baby."]]>
It's a quick commentary on a society where a woman's accomplishments are often superseded by her mom-status. "I think it's something that you think about when you're a women, period," says Lewis. "It's something that I wanted to discuss," she adds. "I don't know if it had ever been talked about in that way in a song before."
Lewis stresses that the sentiments in the song are presented in a casual way too. "It's just an acknowledgement of how it is." Still, her attitude, and the mere fact that she brought this up in song, is positive and encouraging women to live their lives the way see fit. "I don't have children and that's cool for now and, maybe I will, and that will be fine too," says Lewis. "It's okay to make that choice for yourself."
The former Rilo Kiley frontwoman contemplates the particular challenges that female musicians face, including press interviews. "I think we wouldn't be having this conversation if I were a man," she says and she has a point. Lewis, who is in her late 30s and has been an indie rock star since the turn of the 21st century, still has a lot of music to make. "I feel like I am just getting started," she says, "but I think people write me off because I am knocking on 40, but, it's ridiculous. It's totally absurd that dudes don't have to answer these same questions."
Lewis grew up in Van Nuys and says that has been a "reference point" for her songwriting. "That's where I watched the L.A. riots on television when I was a teenager," she says. "That's where I bought my first hip-hop record at the music shop down the street. That's where I had my first kiss." While she was in between records and going through "personal struggles," Lewis headed back to her old neighborhood for drives and a chance to reflect upon her life. "It sort of helped me remember where I came from and how far I have come since then," she says.
One of Lewis' earliest influences was hip-hop. She was 10 years old when her friend, the late actor Corey Haim, gave her a tape. "This was my introduction to hip-hop, which began my love and obsession with words and poetry," she says, who was 13 when she started writing her own songs. "I took what I could from those records. I got an acoustic guitar and wrote a bunch of raps over the chords to Desperado, which were the first chords that I learned."
Lewis connected to the albums. "I was a suburban kid from the Valley, some of the things within the NWA records I was listening to, I couldn't exactly relate," she says, "but it was my music." Unlike the records in her mom's collection, these were the ones the records of her own generation. "It sparked something in me," she says. "It made me realize I had something to say." She mentions that she tried to freestyle once at a Hollywood club where Biz Markie was. "I thought this is the beginning and the end of my hip-hop career and I stuck to the acoustic guitar," she says.
For Lewis, indie rock became the place where she could develop her voice as a singer, songwriter and musician. "It was low-key enough where I could start a band with my friend and write songs and play in basements," she says. "It seemed very accessible, that kind of music. Anyone can play indie rock. It's for anyone."
For The Voyager, Lewis mashes together the autobiographical with the fictional. "I have always written about myself, but I have always enjoyed created characters as well," she says. "Oftentimes, people think those characters are ripped from the pages of my diary which I don't have."
She continues, "Certainly the feelings come from me but some of the characters are completely made up. That gives me a little freedom as a writer to explore that I would not necessarily relate back to my own life."
There are, at times, heartbreaking narratives on "The Voyager," but it's not all melancholy, particularly on the title track, which closes the album. "The song sort of ends up out in the cosmos in a way," she says. "Despite the struggles in the song, it is very positive and almost mystical at the end of the record, but, throughout, I am a voyager. I am on a path and I am able to write about it when I can."
Panels, signings and performances will take place throughout the whole weekend, leaving no shortage of things to do. Amongst the exhibitors, monographs will certainly be available. However, we suggest looking for the zines too. These small-run publications pack a punk rock punch of art and ideas for, typically, a small price. Below are a few locals who will have a selection of zines on hand at their booths.
Maricón Collective
Chicano/Latino group Maricón Collective uses music and art to make a social impact and have fun while they're doing it. At the core of the group's work are parties-- member Rudy Bleu is a longtime L.A. DJ-- and pop culture-centric projects. The group will have the current issue of their zine on hand at this weekend's event. Created by collective member Manuel Paul, it includes party pics and photos from their recent video shoot for the band The SHHH. Maricón Collective is also reissuing "Homeboy Beautiful," a rare, late 1970s zine created by Joey Terrill. "So many people have never scene this other than certain scanned images or in glass cases at museums or galleries," says Bleu. "It's important to see this work that was being done in Los Angeles by queer Chicanos that is rarely seen or talked about. It was ahead is it's time and pushing boundaries, making a statement while having fun with it."
Edie Fake
Edie Fake has been making zines for "a couple of decades" now. The L.A.-based artist has a whimsical and intricate style of drawing that can relate political, feminist topics with humor and sincerity. He will have a variety of publications on hand at L.A. Art Book Fair, including "Memory Places," a "large format zine" that pays tribute to "queer and feminist spaces" in Chicago and "Gaylord Phoenix," a collection of mini-comics. "I think it's just a really powerful format," says Fake of zines. "I feel like I've gained so much from trading zines with people." Fake is also contributing this year's "ticket edition" print.
Chinatown radio station KCHUNG is setting up shop with DJ tapes, art and zines. Evan Walsh, who is an artist and photographer as well as a KCHUNG DJ, is releasing "Publicity." This zine is a collection of Instagram pics taken to help promote the show. There are only 15 copies of Publicity, which were printed at KCHUNG. Swan and Julie Moon, of the monthly show "Divided Daughters," are bringing copies of their annual film-centric zine. "It's like our top films that we've watched for the year, but they could have been made at anytime," Swan explains. This year's zine includes a few flicks that Swan caught at the New Beverly and the overall selection emphasizes "art, underground or classic films."
L.A.-based small press house Fathersons concentrates on art zines. The works are released monthly, each one 20 pages and in an edition of 20. Amongst their offerings is the Art Book Fair exclusive "Psychic Windows" from photographer Dan Monick. Fathersons also announced that acclaimed artist Sage Vaughn will be doing his first zine with the publisher and copies will be available at the event. They also have a few copies of artist Zoe Zag's recent zine "Chain/Smoke."
Giant Robot
Giant Robot started out as a zine in the 1990s heyday of the medium. Today, the business focuses on exposing folks to artists through their West L.A. store and art gallery GR2. At L.A. Art Book Fair this year, the emphasis is on books; they'll have signed tomes from James Jean, Terada Katsuya and Edwin Ushiro on hand. However, on Saturday, Montana-based artist Theo Ellsworth, whose new show opens at GR2 that night, will appear with zines. Ellsworth's intricate art has graced the cover of Flying Lotus' "Pattern + Grid World" and he has published a number of comics.
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Top Image: Reissues of "Homeboy Beautiful" will be available at LA Art Book Fair. | Image Courtesy of Maricón Collective]]>
"I came out to California and thought I landed in post-modernism," says Sandhaus. She recalls one of the first exhibitions she caught while exploring the west, a showcase of graphics used to tabs of LSD. "I was completely blown away," Sandhaus recalls. "This was so different from anything that I had encountered before."
Meanwhile, Sandhaus saw that the graphic designers in California were doing interesting things and she wanted to be a part of it. "There was a kind of bravado that had taken such a different turn from what I understood graphic design to be, which was modern graphic design," she says. "I recognized this characteristic of being a renegade and I knew that going to Yale at that point would have been the wrong choice for me." Sandhaus stayed in Los Angeles and studied at California Institute of the Arts. After a brief stint studying in Europe, she returned and has been teaching at CalArts since 1996.
Sandhaus has spent years researching, compiling and contextualizing some of the highlights of Golden State graphic design. The fruits of those efforts are now on bookshelves in "Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots: California and Graphic Design 1936-1986." Sandhaus notes that this isn't a history of graphic design. "It's really looking at these particular lenses and trying to point out and identify some examples of what might be really flavorful California graphic design," she says.
The book, which also features essays from Wild, Denise Gonzales Crisp and Michael Worthington, is divided into four sections. There is "Sunbaked Modernism," an exploration of modernism's impact on California designers. "Industry and the Indies" looks at the intersection between graphic design and entertainment, particularly in the evolution of motion graphics. "Sixties alt Sixties" shows off countercultural influences, while "California Girls" spotlights the contribution of female designers. California graphic design innovation touched everything from books to ads to cartoons to college promotional material.
Shortly before the turn of the century, Sandhaus worked with LACMA for the "Made in California" exhibition. Around the same time, the Hammer Museum had their Los Angeles-centric exhibition "Sunshine & Noir." Recalling the conservations about art at that time. "There was a psychological break from letting others define [art]," she says. That energy helped spark Sandhaus' explorations into the region's design history. She poured through vintage magazines, dug into the various facets of California design.
In that mountain of early research, Sandhaus came across the work of Merle Armitage, a champion of the arts in Los Angeles whose personal collection is at LACMA. Specifically, she found a book about Igor Stravinsky designed by Armitage. With text flowing from the cover and several portraits of the composer inside, the book goes against convention. "It was just so odd," she says. "It almost becomes celebrity portrait, hyperbole self-consciousness.
The Armitage-designed book about Stravinsky appears early in "Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots," setting the pace for what will follow. It is, overall, a collection of stories told through design. It's about creatives from the East Coast and Europe who came to California and experimented. It's about locals who infused their own California experiences into visually arresting work. Styles change with the times and technological advances are explored here too. Innovative commercials from the 1970s and work for early video games and computer programs are part of the collection.
There are certain themes, like the "rainbow roll"; one example goes back to a 1908 dinner party invitation. Today, those multi-colored posters are the sort bright notices that turn up on street corners across Los Angeles. That rainbow effect is also reflected on the book's cover in shades of yellow, orange, red and pink.
"I knew I had to design the book," says Sandhaus, whose own studio is called LSD (Louise Sandhaus Design). She also knew that she would need multiple people to write the accompanying text. "It couldn't have a single voice," says Sandhaus. "Those voices needed to be different perceptions of California. How California was seen. How it represented itself."
The difficulty came in finding a publisher. "What was tricky was getting a publisher to understand what was a really unconventional approach," says Sandhaus. Her pitch swelled to 112 pages when she met with someone from Metropolis Books who understood the nature of the project.
With years of research involved and lots of material that didn't make the final cut, "Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots" is the sort of book that is set up for a second volume. For Sandhaus, though, that will be taking another form. She's currently working with current and former students to build a "wiki web" style hub called Making History. The project will include tutorials on how to conduct interviews and research graphic design. Ultimately, it's the sort of tool that will help others contribute to telling the story of the discipline and the artists who have pushed design forward.
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Top Image: Poster by John Van Hamersveld and Ed Thrasher (1971) from "Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots: California & Graphic Design 1936-1986"]]>
A fascinating collection of "old stuff" is displayed throughout Worth's Pacoima home. Vintage marionettes are displayed on a mantel across from the living room sofa where he is seated. Gnomes are arranged in a corner. Out in the hallway is a hefty collection of records cased in sleeves that show the wear of decades. Worth's great passion, though, is animation. He has worked in the field since the early 1980s. By day, Worth is a production coordinator for the popular web series "Bravest Warriors" and "Bee and Puppycat." After hours, he's the archivist behind Animation Resources.
On a recent Sunday, Worth sits in the living room with a few of his Animation Resources teammates. There is JoJo Baptista, who works on "Bravest Warriors" and got much of his animation training through materials found in this collection. David "Pez" Hofman studies the classics of animation when he's not working on an updated Bugs Bunny show, "Wabbit," for Warner Bros. Alex Vassilev is the tech whiz helping them get this archive online. Together, they're working to build a massive, digital archive of animation art, ephemera and other related materials that will be available by subscription to students and professionals across the globe.
Part of the story goes back to that caricature found in a Film Roman trash can. It's a self-portrait of Ub Iwerks, the man who created Mickey Mouse. Sometime later, Worth showed off the picture to a room full of animation professionals. No one recognized Iwerks. "If it were film directors and I held up a photograph of Alfred Hitchcock or Fellini, they would have recognized it," says Worth. Animation, however, is different. In this semi-anonymous community within the entertainment industry, artists move from project to project, often from studio to studio, with little fanfare. There are a lot of different types of animation artists, from character designers to animators, who collaborate to make a piece that is so cohesive that it looks as though it is the work of an individual. In the history of the cartoon world, relatively few names will stand out -- Chuck Jones, Jay Ward, Walter Lantz and even Iwerks among them. Their faces, though, are obscured by the images of the characters they created.
Animation artists typically don't become celebrities. Yet, their contributions to art are immense. The characters they create and artistic styles they champion can, and often do, influence the folks who paint on streets or create works that turn up in gallery shows and museums.
"Animation is kind of taken for granted because it has been relegated to a kiddie ghetto," says Worth, "but the actual artistic merit of it and the artistic difficulty of it is up there with the most advanced sorts of art forms there are."
The Animation Resources database is still being built and only available via a local server, although some works have turned up on the group's website. It's a "stepping stone," says Vassilev. Ultimately, Animation Resources will include production art along with completed clips that haven't aired for decades. There will be biographical information on the artists, as well as old correspondence courses and other educational materials. It will all be organized in a way that is easy for users to search.
Although far from complete, the behemoth collection already takes up 64 terabytes of hard drive space. Volunteers have diligently scanned and saved high resolution images from the collections of artists like Ralph Bakshi and "Ren and Stimpy" creator John Kricfalusi. The families of late Golden Age animators have brought in their treasures to be digitized. The plan is to open up membership opportunities in early 2015, with proceeds going towards more cloud space and equipment maintenance so that the 501( c) (3) non-profit can continue adding to the archives.
The seed for this project was planted decades ago, when Worth was a UCLA student volunteering at ASIFA-Hollywood, the group behind the industry's Annie Awards. Worth met Bill Scott, then ASIFA's president (and best known to the masses as the voice of Bullwinkle). Scott shared a dream project with Worth. He wanted to build an "animatech," where animation artists could study and work with the aid of a fantastic archive. It was a worthwhile project, but one that was too expensive to put into action at the time. Later, though, Worth saw how this is possible. The answer was in computers. A virtual library could make the materials accessible to artists outside of Los Angeles. It also has a benefit for the collectors of animation art. "People who have extremely valuable family heirlooms are willing to donate a digital version of that to our collection," says Hofman. Worth started the project at ASIFA's offices and eventually moved it into his own home, where he self-funds Animation Resources.
The digital world and the tangible one collide at Animation Resources HQ. Amid the hard drives and aging computers are some of the artifacts that are part of the collection. Worth pulls out a scrapbook of "Snow White" press clippings and memorabilia compiled by the wife of one of the film's animators. He points to a drawing of Mickey Mouse's hands hanging on his wall. Animation art fills the house, from a large print out of Mary Blair's art for "Three Caballeros" to maquettes of characters like Betty Boop. There's even more art on the in digital files. Worth flips through parts of the database. In addition to the cartoons, there are comic books and newspaper strips and book illustrations.
One of the standout pieces of the digital collection is the first edition of Preston Blair's Advanced Animation, featuring MGM characters that were taken out of later editions of the how-to text. JoJo Baptista was a college student when he studied the book. "I had always wanted to work in animation and I always drew as a kid, but I didn't have the skills that were necessary to work at an animation studio," he says. "Thanks to the archive, I was really able to hone my skills."]]> Worth used eBay -- "the greatest archive in the world," he says -- to source much of the material in the archives. "The greatest collections of animation art exist outside the studios," he explains. During animation's Golden Age, roughly from the 1930s through 1960s, studios produced an unfathomable amount of drawings. While some of those pieces of art were given to visitors or mailed off to friends and family, much of it was considered trash. While animation artists were sometimes able to salvage production art, much of it was carted off like garbage. "There are dumps that are massive art galleries," he says. For example, he notes, some say that the cels for Fantasia are buried somewhere in Placerita Canyon.
While Animation Resources can't save what has already been lost, they can bring together the remnants of animation's history and present it in a useful way. In a statement relayed through Worth, famed artist Ralph Bakshi calls Animation Resources "a masters degree in creativity at your fingertips." He's right.
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Top Image: "Pinocchio" art by Milt Kahl | Courtesy of Animation Resources]]>
"We started playing music just because we've listened to a lot of music growing up," Anaiah tells "Studio A." Raised in Glendale, the brothers were schooled in everything from reggae to classic rock to alternative to hardcore thanks to their dad. David Bowie, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Black Flag and Minor Threat were all a part of their rock 'n' roll diet. "The best of the best," says Anaiah.
Mikaiah agrees, and expands on the statement. "I guess that inspired us to want to make music and, where we are now making music." He adds, "We're doing exactly what we set out to do and it's amazing that we are able to come out here."]]> Encouraged by their parents, Mikaiah picked up the bass. Anaiah learned guitar. As they continued to jam out songs, Anaiah moved on to drums and Mikaiah started working with other instruments, guitar amongst them. In high school, they played with friends as they continued to hone their talents. "It takes a lot of time," says Mikaiah, "a lot of money." Altogether, they've spent seven years practicing daily.
Anaiah was still in elementary school when they started playing together. Mikaiah was a high school freshman. At the time, the elder brother had formed a band with some friends and they needed a drummer. Young Anaiah stepped in to help. "It just seemed like the logical thing to do," says Mikaiah of getting his kid brother to play drums. "I am not gonna pick somebody else to drum in the band."
Anaiah adds, "They were freshman in high school and they probably didn't know anybody."
It's true. Mikaiah agrees that they didn't know anyone else who could drum, but clarifies that this was a good decision.
That first incarnation of The Bots, a five-piece, didn't last. However, the core of the group formed by the Lei siblings did. "It boiled down to us two," says Mikaiah, who suggested that they continue on together. "We could have gave up pretty easy after everyone left," says Anaiah. Fortunately, they didn't.
"I've always imagined myself doing music and kind of imagined us doing music," says Mikaiah, "so it's really nice that we continued on and it's been successful in our own right, or whatever, from this band."
When the brothers stepped out as a two-piece, there was still a lot to learn. Mikaiah had mostly played acoustic guitar, so he had to learn about pedals. He also had to learn how to play while moving around on the stage. "I would stand in one place or have to sit down and barely could do anything," he says. "We've come a long way."
The White Stripes were an early influence. "As minimalist as it seems, there is so much room for creativity within that because you can build songs with loops," says Mikaiah.
He points out that making music as a two-piece would have been more difficult in previous decades. Technology has its benefits. "Everybody can buy a Macbook and it comes with Garageband," Mikaiah says. "A couple of years ago, this wouldn't be possible." Thanks to technology, they can fill out ones with loops or bring in a baseline later.
"People often ask why don't we have another member," says Mikaiah. "I think it would further complicate things if we try to make a band with any more people in it." He adds, "We love jamming with other people, but, as far as being The Bots with more members, it would be different."
Anaiah says that, in order to understand their songwriting process, you have to understand his "sleep process." Everything starts with dreams. "It's like when you go into your dream and you hear a song," Mikaiah says that he dreams while awake and that leads to writing new tunes.
The songwriting process changes from song to song. Sometimes Anaiah will come up with a guitar riff that will become a part of what Mikaiah plays. Other times, Mikaiah has a drum beat that he'll give to Anaiah to perfect. Mikaiah frequently writes with an acoustic guitar. Sometimes he'll write on the keyboard or the bass. Other times, it's a lyrics-first process. "It's always ever-changing, just to keep things interesting and fresh," he says.
Mikaiah says that the move from working DIY to working with a label was a progression that happened slowly over time. "We've been doing this for a minute by ourselves," he explains. "Obviously, I think the next logical step was working with a producer and taking it to a more professional level."
But, as professional as the Lei brothers are now, there is still a ways to go. Says Mikaiah, "Every single day we are playing, we are bettering ourselves."]]>
"This was a complete and total game-changer," says Abby Saunders of the Alice books.
Saunders is the curator for the G. Edward Cassady, M.D. and Margaret Elizabeth Cassady, R.N. Lewis Carroll Collection in the Special Collections department of USC Libraries. She pours through Carroll's work -- the stories, the poems, the puzzles -- as well as the works and letters written under his real name, Charles Dodgson. She manages a collection that has grown immense since it was first bestowed upon the library in 2000 by USC alum Dr. George Cassady and his wife, Linda. She also builds it, sometimes in connection with the Cassadys, other times with help from colleagues, students and other connections.
Right now, Saunders is interested in translations and adaptations. There are versions of "Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland" written in languages like German, French, Hebrew and Japanese. Other translations, like Appalachian English and shorthand, are a little unexpected. Of particular interest are works from East Asia and that goes beyond translated books. In Japan, the Alice books are extremely popular and have influenced both art, entertainment and fashion. The collection features manga (Japanese comics) and video games inspired by the stories. There is a beautiful "visual interpretation" by artist Hiroko Hanna. It's a fold-out picture book that can extend to 32-feet with illustrations based on Carroll's photos of Alice Liddell, for whom the author's most famous character was named. Recently, Saunders was able to get her hands on an Alice-inspired dress, choker and stockings from Japanese brand Putumayo. The label is well known amongst Lolitas, a Japanese street fashion movement based around pretty, girlish dresses that evoke images of storybook characters like Alice.
Carroll's impact on youth subcultures cannot be underestimated. From the psychedelic '60s to the raver '90s, his cast of unusual characters became part of the lexicon of various movements. Students sometimes ask Saunders if the books are about drug use. Based on the research that exists, it wasn't. However, she points out that Carroll did experience migraines and some experts have drawn a connection between migraine symptoms and the imagery in his stories. In fact, there's an affliction called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome that can accompany a migraine. Along with the intense headache, someone's vision might distort to the point where something appears much smaller (or larger) than it actually is.
Indeed, Carroll leaned towards the conservative. He was an Oxford professor and a friend of the royal family. After the success of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," he presented a "nursery" version of the story to Queen Victoria's young daughter, Princess Alice. Saunders mentions a letter he wrote to an editor of Vanity Fair, where his puzzles were published. His complaint was the placement of his doublet. "He is upset when he sees [the puzzle] because the article next to it is about bastard children," says Saunders. "He thinks that is not a topic for young women of virtue to be reading about."]]> Despite his conservatism, Carroll's work in children's literature bucked the trends of the time. Saunders notes that, in the Victorian age, books for kids were often "heavy-handed, morally-driven stories." They were frequently written for a specific gender and often geared towards teaching young people what befalls on naughty children. Saunders points out that Carroll's intent was for his audience to enjoy the books. There are lessons, she says, but they are different. As an example, she points to Through the Looking Glass, which can teach people about chess. "He really wants people to learn while enjoying and enjoy while learning," says Saunders.
The success of his books didn't always sit well with the author. Saunders points to a letter he sent to an actress and friend, Anne Symonds. In it, he laments the fame that struck after "Alice." He didn't seem to like the fact that fans of his literature work now knew his real name, the one he used for academic pursuits. He didn't appreciate the letters sent in search of his valuable autograph. "Sometimes, I almost wish that I had never written any books at all," he writes.
Carroll was an avid letter-writer and kept diligent records of his correspondences. He built a "letter register" -- Saunders likens it to an early version of a relational database -- and noted 98,000 letters, more than half of those were the ones he wrote. He also invented his own alphabet written with a card filled with square cut-outs. It came in handy while he tried to write in the dark. Saunders describes him as a polymath, someone who excels in multiple fields. He wrote "The Game of Logic," which was an early exploration of symbolic logic. He was also a photographer and a lover of language who invented words that are now commonplace, like "chortle."
Maybe it's Carroll's own diverse interests that made the Alice stories influential in fields from medicine to art. At USC, the Wonderland Award is an example of this. For the past eleven years, students from all corners of the university have competed for a $2,500 prize by creating works inspired by Carroll. These can be anything from creative to academic projects. Earlier this year, USC celebrated the tenth anniversary of the competition with Wonderland Unbound, an interactive event that combined costumes, animation, games and music in a way that's more like an electronic music party than an academic event.
"It's always on my mind, what would Dodgson think of this?" says Saunders. "Would he approve?" She doesn't have the answer, researching someone who lived more than 100 years ago can only go so far. And, in a way, it doesn't matter. "It kind of doesn't belong to him anymore," she says. One hundred and forty-nine years later, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" are everyone's adventures.
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Top Image: Hiroko Hanna's picture book based on "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" | Photo: Liz Ohanesian]]>
By Liz Ohanesian
The Ford E250 parked near an entrance to USC's campus looks markedly different from the plain white work vans that criss-cross freeways and boulevards throughout Los Angeles. This one is painted in bright shades of orange and pink, green and blue. Various scenes unfold across the sides of the vehicle. On the back are a few jokes written in Urdu. On one side the U.S. stars and stripes greets Pakistan's crescent and star with a bouquet of flowers between the two. Students on skateboards and bicycles whizz past the bus in the late afternoon rush. Every now and again, though, a passer-by stops to ask questions.
Haider Ali is a master at painting very large vehicles. This van is a scaled down demonstration of what he and his team can do. In Ali's native Pakistan, he works on massive trucks and buses. Sometimes, the projects are so grand that they will require over one hundred workers whose specialties range from body work to upholstery. A job like that can take months to complete. This van, though, took about ten days to finish. Ali completed earlier in the day by painting an eagle on the hood. He would have finished earlier, but wanted to save a little for the onlookers at USC.
Late on a Monday afternoon, Ali has his easel set up next to the van. He's painting a gift for USC's Pacific Asia Museum, the organization that facilitated his visit. The flowers that border the canvas match those he has painted on the van. The script on the bottom is a play on words with romantic overtones that is also a joke about the distance between cars on the road. There are similar sayings painted on the van.
The "jingle trucks" of Pakistan have caught many a global eye. "When visitors go to Pakistan, the first thing that strikes them is the sight of these massive trucks or buses," says Hina Abidi, president of the Pakistan Arts Council of USC's Pacific Asia Museum. She adds that, while some say the tradition goes back to the days of ancient caravans, truck art grew popular in the mid-20th century. Companies started investing in elaborate paint jobs to advertise. For others, the messages on their trucks become more personal, with paintings that reflected their hometowns.
The Pakistan Arts Council has been in existence since the early 1990s. The group is comprised of volunteers, some of whom are from Pakistan. Others trace their familial roots to the country. Their goal is to bring the eclectic array of arts from Pakistan to Los Angeles. "Every small town, every village has a unique craft that is very special to that area," says Abidi. Truck art, though, is a nation-wide phenomenon commonly spotted on routes like the Grand Trunk Road.
Ali, who is from Karachi, was seven when his father first taught him the art of truck painting. At 16, he took on his first job, but was unsure of his skills. Ali spent nights practicing the paintings that he would apply to trucks during the day. It wasn't until he painted trucks at the Smithsonian that Ali realized that he was good at his job. Now, twenty-seven years after his education began, Ali teaches the next generation of truck painters. He is also part of Phool Patti, an organization that promotes truck artists from Pakistan across the world.
Throughout the bulk of October, Ali has been an artist-in-residence at the Pacific Asia Museum. He has spent many days painting in the parking lot in front of the Pasadena arts institution. The Saturday before he turned up on USC's campus, there was a reception in his honor, with tablescapes that matched the bold colors and intricately painted scenes depicted on the van. That day, Ali said through an interpreter, that he was creating "a message of peace and love" in his van art. Symbols of the United States, California in particular, meet with symbols of Pakistan.
While Ali's art is quite different from even the more elaborately customized cars in the city, conceptually, his van is at home in Southern California. The Pacific Asia Museum's event was called "From the Grand Trunk Road to Route 66," immediately linking together the culture of travel in two different countries. When truck art became a form of advertising in Pakistan, Southern California business owners embraced Googie architecture, a way to make sure your restaurant or motel was recognizable from the road. Despite the physical distance between Pakistan and Southern California, both places experienced similar art explosions in the mid-20th century.
At the end of his residency, Ali has met L.A. artists who work on cars and streets. He has visited L.A. neighborhoods that overflow with art. And he has won some new fans as well. Out on the edge of the campus at USC, people ask what they can do to help bring his work to more people. They thank him for coming out to the school to paint. In 10 days, Ali created a masterpiece that is as much about Southern California as it is about Pakistan.
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Top Image: Truck Artist Haider Ali at International Street Fair & Diversity Festival | Courtesy Los Angeles / Islam Arts Initiative
"I wake up every morning with new sound ideas in my head and we try to put them together in the laboratory," says producer Daniel Lanois." Lanois has lent his attention to sonic details to albums like Peter Gabriel's mid-1980s hit-wielder "So" and Bob Dylan's 1997 Grammy winner "Time Out of Mind." He has worked extensively with U2, collaborated with Brian Eno and released a number of critically-acclaimed solo albums. On his latest effort, "Flesh and Machine," Lanois experiments in his "laboratory," merging the organic and electronic. "More and more, I am seeing my studio as an instrument," he says.
For "Opera," Lanois multi-tracked a sample of his voice with the pitched adjusted seven different ways. "I played the console as if it was a keyboard and I brought the melodies in as I needed them," he says. "So, it is a way of creating an operatic and melodic sound, but that comes from my own voice via the technology."
Lanois is drawn to sounds that can be made without computers, like the voice, the strum of a guitar, the tickle of piano keys. He records those elements, but goes on to transform them. "I mute them, so you don't get to hear them in the mix," says Lanois, "but I draw upon them and sample them, dub them out." As his work in the studio progresses, the origin of those sounds becomes less obvious, but the presence of the instruments is still felt. "I am very close to my laboratory, but the laboratory would be nothing without the hand-played instruments," he says.]]>
Lanois was nine when he learned to play steel guitar. Someone had knocked on the door of his home and asked Lanois' mother if there was a child who wanted to learn an instrument. He picked slide guitar. "I loved it," he recalls. "I walked to my lesson once a week and it was something that really belonged to me. It opened up a whole new arena of dreams and possibilities for me because I didn't play sports and I was not so connected with the other kids."
Steel guitar is present on "Aquatic," a piece so-named for the images that it conjured. "I had this image in my head of being submerged and swimming on the Saint Lawrence River to the mouth of the river, to the Atlantic, and meeting characters along the way," he says. Those characters, he says, drifted in the water. Lanois would greet them, maybe make some small talk, and then continue floating. "The river kept getting wider and wider and wider until I get to the expanse of it and I saw the icebergs and the whales," he continues. "This piece of music, 'Aquatic,' represents that journey of going to a deep place, if not specifically a deep ocean, hopefully, a deep place spiritually to know what the next dimension might be."
Lanois, who is French-Canadian, has a strong connection to the Saint Lawrence river. "The Saint Lawrence was a way the early settler came to Quebec and New Brunswick and made their way even to the Toronto area," he explains. "It has an ancient rhythm to it you can't deny when you put your feet in it."
In his early years working as a producer, Lanois took whatever gigs came his way. "I was engineering, or maybe producing, so that I can pay off my mortgage," he says. Around the point where the bills weren't such a burden, Lanois came into contact with Brian Eno. By this time, Eno was already renowned for his work as a producer (David Bowie's "Heroes" is among his credits) and a pioneer of electronic and ambient music. Lanois and Eno spent a few years collaborating together and their joint efforts include U2's blockbuster "The Joshua Tree." They weren't just hit makers, though. Lanois also co-produced experimental projects, like the Eno/Harold Budd album, "The Pearl." Years later, Lanois is still affected by what he learned from Eno. "The values that we operated by back then are the values that I try and live by today, so that has always stayed with me, if not specifically the sounds, then definitely the values and devotion," says Lanois.
The two worked with relatively little equipment, but knew the gear they had well. Lanois considers this a huge lesson-- "to get really good at a few things"-- and that became part of his personal work philosophy. For his performance on Studio A, Lanois only brought a few bits of gear. "I'm getting to know them pretty well," he says of the pieces, "and so I can do more effective work by being devoted to just a few things."
Similarly, Lanois retains the influence of other artists who have entered the studio with him. He says that he thinks a lot about U2 when he works. "I wonder what the guys in Ireland would think of this and so they become a point of reference for a standard of quality," he says.
Nearly four years ago, when Lanois was working with Neil Young, he was in a motorcycle accident that left him with ten broken bones. He was in intensive care for six weeks. "When I came up to the open air, everything looked pastel and beautiful and the simplest gestures seemed significant to me," he says. Things changed for Lanois after the accident. That's evident in his work. Lanois stepped back from producing other people's work to concentrate on himself.
"When I am working by myself, I see that as sacred time," he says, likening the experience to practicing meditation or Tai Chi. "I can make my mistakes in privacy and hone in on the things that mean the most to me."
But, he's not without collaborators on his own projects. Although Lanois does know how to play drums, he considers himself a "closet drummer" and brought in famed percussionist Brian Blade to play on "The End." Lanois says that this particular piece, with its thunderous rhythm, is a "powerful protest song," he says is intended to provoke listeners to "ask questions about what's going on around the planet." For his "Studio A" performance, Lanois brought in Kyle Crane, a drummer he met at a bar near his studio, to play drums. "I thought he had a lot of heart and a lot of passion and it's nice to be in the company of somebody who is a dreamer like me," says Lanois.
The rhythmic aspects of "Flesh and Machine" have piqued Lanois' excitement. "It's probably the first musical instrument that we, as humans, embraced," he says. Yet, the drums remain powerful. "Even in modern times we respond to rhythm and we like to move," he says. For Lanois, rhythm is a chance to explore a different sensibility than in past solo efforts. "I've done a lot with melody and chord sequences and now to have an opportunity of beat and rhythm and to feel that primal energy come up through my body," he says. "I like it a lot."]]>
Born and raised in San Bernardino, Sumney is the son of pastors who lived in Ghana, Germany, France and Canada before settling in California's Inland Empire. "It is hard to say how my parents being pastors informed my music," he says. "I'm not sure that it did, or, if it did, it didn't in a direct or explicit way." He did grow up in a house where gospel music and reggae played often and Sumney thinks that might have had some influence on his music. Save for a year of high school spent as a choir member, where he developed an appreciation for harmony, he learned how to make music on his own. "I'm self-taught in the way that anyone can be," says Sumney. He had some references-- Google and YouTube came in handy-- and tried to play the songs he heard.
A couple years after learning guitar, Sumney picked up a tool that came to define his sound. He found a loop pedal on eBay. Because the budding musician lacked formal training and knowledge of recording programs, he was limited in how he could make those melodies in his head a reality. "I figured getting a loop pedal would just be the easiest way to start writing songs and getting out the sounds and hearing them back." With the effect, Sumney was able to create sounds that were dreamy, maybe a little noisy, and overall poetic.]]>
The poetry in his music is part of Sumney's education. At UCLA, he studied creative writing. "There's no way my parents would let me get a music degree," he says. Plus, he didn't have the background for a music major. With creative writing, though, he could study poetry and that, Sumney knew, would help his songwriting. "Something that was really important for me was to learn economy," he says. "I learned a lot about being concise."
Eventually, Sumney was meeting with music industry types who encouraged him to go into the studio. At the time, the singer was listening to Amy Winehouse demos, as well as Sufjan Stevens, Elliot Smith and Nick Drake. He wanted something a little raw and wasn't sure that studio sessions would do the trick. Then he met Dave Sitek, from TV on the Radio, who suggested that Sumney record himself. Sumney wanted to record on a four-track, so Sitek lent him one. In his bedroom, Sumney recorded the songs that would comprise his EP, Mid-City Island. "It was an amazing experience, just learning about myself and learning about what sounds I like," he says.
As striking as the collection of songs is, Sumney admits that he was "afraid" to release it. "I'm really glad that I did," he says.
Highlighting the EP is "Plastic," a song that was inspired by Amy Winehouse. Sumney had been listening to the late singer's work around the time that he wrote this song. "I just loved the way she writes songs," he says. Particularly, Sumney was listening to demos that revolved around Winehouse's voice and a guitar. "She so raw in her emotion and so dramatically honest," he says. That approach became something of an aspiration. "If I could be so brave and so bold to write lines that were so honest with nothing but the guitar and the voice," he says. But there's a flip side to the story of someone who appeared so strong, but was also quite troubled. "I think she was someone who definitely flew," says Sumney, "but she flew with a certain artificiality."
Sumney's work has already drawn a lot of acclaim. "I think that in a lot of ways, it can be a distraction," he says of the attention. "I'm really grateful for everything," he says, but stresses that he tends to think more in terms of what he has to learn or do next. Where Sumney released his EP "quietly," he now says that he's ready for a studio-produced album with promotion and the works. The timeframe for that next release, though, is still unknown. Sumney responds, "Soon, I hope."]]>
Shaheen describes Long Beach as an unusual intersection between Los Angeles and Orange County. "It's just this weird port city that kinda pulls stuff from both places," he tells Studio A. Separate from both downtown Los Angeles and Orange County by a string of freeways, Long Beach blossomed into a musical hub in its own right. It's part of L.A. County, but unlike other neighboring cities, Long Beach has a bounty of clubs and events to support its local talent. Some of those locals -- The Shock, Hot Rod Todd, The Golddiggers, The Growlers and Grand Elegance among them-- influenced Tijuana Panthers and, later, became their friends. These bands may all be united by a garage-y rock sound, but that's not all that exists in the city by the Pacific Ocean. Wachtel is quick to point out the diversity among Long Beach musicians, from hip-hop to metal. Shaheen adds that, when Tijuana Panthers started, they were part of a "small niche." However, their beach-y, garage-meet-post-punk sound took off.
Tijuana Panthers' sound is hard to pinpoint. Like the city where they're based, the band mashes together a lot of different influences. "Chad's got that wicked Link Wray sound with his guitar," says Michicoff, adding that Wachtel can channel bands like The Misfits. They're fans of artists who found their footing in the aftermath of punk rock: Ian Dury, Orange Juice and Talking Heads are high on the list. Wachtel adds that he was influenced by an older sister who was big on 1980s icons like Echo and the Bunnymen and the Smiths. Plus, thanks to his dad, he discovered surf music at a young age.
Now on their third album, Tijuana Panthers has amassed a collection of stories, their own as well as ones related by friends, that influence every aspect of the band. The name itself comes from a tale spun by Shaheen's late neighbor, who traveled to Tijuana, bought a porcelain panther and got into a night fight.
The latest album, "Wayne Interest," comes from a saying that Shaheen claims is used by Germans. "It means just 'who care,'" he says. His bandmates, however, are skeptical.
"Sometimes, I think Phil made it up and it's not even real," says Wachtel. Michicoff agrees.
The album itself came together almost by chance. Michicoff met producer Richard Swift through a friend late one night while they were drinking. Swift invited the band to visit his place in Oregon and record on a 4-track. It took one-and-a-half days to get through 10 songs.
"We weren't intending to do the lo-fi thing for the sake of lo-fi," says Michicoff. Instead, the decision was made because Smith nailed the band's sound. Since the band is a three-piece, they kept it simple. Swift encouraged them to avoid recording parts that they wouldn't be able to play live, although there are a few bits that were added in post-production.
"Cherry Street," which appears on "Wayne Interest," is loosely inspired by an incident that Shaheen spotted on Long Beach's Cherry Avenue involving a group of police cars gathered in a small parking lot. "I just, you know, made this assumption in my head of maybe what happened," he says. Meanwhile, "NOBO" stems from and inside joke with their producer Swift and Cold War Kids' Matt Moss. Michicoff says, "I don't want to give too much away." What he explains is complicated, but largely based on seeing people without ambition-- "They're just trying to be angry at the world and drink a lot," he says, "And, I am wondering how they can afford the free time."
Time is limited for Tijuana Panthers. They work day jobs in addition to playing music. Wachtel helps out his his mother at her antiques and craft shop. He also does woodworking for a furniture designer. Shaheen is a teacher. The band isn't something that he likes to mention when he's at school, although he believes that the principal and teachers know about it. The double-life gets a little tricky as Tijuana Panthers becomes more popular, particularly when they played Coachella a few years ago. Shaheen says that "for years and years and years" nobody at the school knew that he had a band. Of course, when you make your mark in the music world, that all changes.]]>
When Sato was a baseball-playing teenager in Northern California, he drew. "It was just something I did when I was sitting on the bench," he says. "I would deface everything that could be defaced in the dugout." Sato's teammates would hand him their hats and gloves for a few doodles. Few balls escaped his pens. Years later, after he had relocated to Los Angeles, he came across some unmarked baseballs at his parents' house. Sato brought them to his studio and left them clean for a little bit before he returned to his high school ways. He drew bits of teenage flashbacks on the balls and The Lindhurst High School shooting is now part of a collection of memories sitting inside Martha Otero Gallery. "I hadn't thought about it in a long time," says Sato. He looked up the tragedy online after he finished the drawings and found out that it was the basis of a TV movie starring Rick Schroeder.
On another side of the ball, there is a depiction of an incident from his freshman year of high school, in suburban Sacramento, when Sato was beaten up in a park near some woods. He sketched out his friends. He drew the guy who beat him. The tiny visual cues tell a story in fragments, much in the same way that one would struggle to recall events that took place 20 years earlier.
One of Sato's early ambitions was to make maps "I really liked making maps as an idea," he says, before sighing, "but when you actually do it, it's such a pain." In his own way, though, Sato is engaging in map-making with his recent solo show, "Curses." "This is as close as I'm getting," he says, "memory maps."
Sato's work is filled with stories. Sometimes, they are based on history or literature. There is "Seance II: Jericho Rising" (2014), where the Battle of Jericho unfolds on a spiraling piece of paper. "That was one of the stories that was always so captivating to me because it's so nuts," he says. Sato gives the summary, surmising that, along with Sodom and Gomorrah, it's one of the Bibles' "craziest stories of mass murder." Sato's own take on, he says is, "kind of the spirit of joyful profanity."
Other times, the narrative reflects the process of making art. "The Battle of Book 52" is a Moleskin sketchbook with accordion-fold pages. He worked in it with pencil and ink, cutting the small illustrations into pop-up figures. "This is the struggle to get through a book," says Sato, whose collection of filled sketchbooks often included as part of his overall body of work.
In a way, it all goes back to memory, whether its the recollection of a Bible story learned as a child or a documentation of the artist's process. At the center of "Curses" is "Five Movements for Little Guys," a series of five watercolors on scrolls that are four-feet wide and ten-feet tall. In these works, Sato sets out to paint every person he can recall.
"Five Movements for Little Guys" first appeared at "SuperAwesome: Art and Giant Robot," a exhibition featuring works affiliated with the L.A.-based gallery (and former magazine) at Oakland Museum of California. The curators asked Sato what he wanted to do for the show. His response: "Give me 25 feet of wall and I'll fill it with something."
Initially, Sato intended to paint one wall piece that depicted everyone he remembered walking. Eventually, he broke it up into five parts. Sato isn't sure of the exact number of people in his paintings. He guesses that it's somewhere around 1,000 bodies.
As Sato continued painting, he noticed something interesting. People he knew in real life were getting mixed up with characters he recognized from pop culture. "There would be an amalgamation," he says, "things like people who remind me of characters from fiction, books, TV." Sometimes, two people would morph into one person in the painting.
"I mask out the figures," he explains, "so they're just a shape, maybe. Then I do these big washes over the top of it. Sometimes, it would just be the shape that reminds me of my wife or some kid in third grade who broke his arm."]]> Sato intentionally worked without referencing photos. Even with the TV and film characters, he went by the image in his head. "I wanted to try to remember them how my mind remembers them," he says. "Sometimes, I would look them up later and see how inaccurate or accurate they were."
The results vary. He says that some of his images didn't quite match the person. With others, he adds, the interpretations came quite close to people he hadn't seen in decades. As we talk more about the quirks of memory, he mentions "Rashomon", the Akira Kurasawa film where characters do not remember the same events the same way. Sato is working solo on his show, but he's still playing with the ideas of the accuracy of memory. It is, says Sato, a "super fun" exercise.
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Top Image: "Five Movements for Little Guys," Rob Sato | Photo: Liz Ohanesian]]>


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Discover a selection of top forums happy left on the internet. Come to share your passion on forums happy left and meet other fans of happy left. Then, why don't you create your own forum of happy left ?
Free forum : Hell is being placed in a locked and furnished room with other people and being left there for eternity to your own devices. You are their tormentor, they are yours.
Happy Holidays from GAYDAYZ Moderators! We are TINYCHAT'S #1 LGBT FORUM! Rules: Common Sense. For FORUM related issues, contact Brad or Frost on the chat or forums.
gaydayz, #happy, holidays, moderators!, tinychat's, lgbt, forum!, rules, common, sense, issues, contact, brad, frost, chat, forums
Free forum : A nice little Coop. It's clean, its neat. The water is warm. There's plenty to eat. The farmers have everything farmers might need. We all are happy, quite happy indeed.
uncle, willys's, farm, community, good, game, studios, coop, forum, help, tips, cooperatives, g.g.s, co-op, free

subset: commoncrawl


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Submit News
Please use the following form to submit news you would like published on the ITA site.
PLEASE NOTE: Only submissions following the ITA News Guidelines will be considered for publishing.
Do not use this form to submit events - events may be added here.
- Mark Kellogg Mini-Residency
Apr 01, 2015
- Trombones Only
Apr 01, 2015
- Tom Brantley Visits the University of Northern Iowa
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Apr 10, 2015
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I am planning to implement iOS game where certains assets - textures, shaders, etc. are downloaded at runtime when user buys specific in-app purchases . Its well known fact about Apple prohibiting downloading & emitting iOS app code at runtime:
3.3.2 An Application may not download or install executable code. Interpreted code may only
be used in an Application if all scripts, code and interpreters are packaged in the Application and
not downloaded. The only exception to the foregoing is scripts and code downloaded and run by
Apple's built-in WebKit framework.
Does this restriction also include Open GL shaders, i.e. can shaders code be downloaded at runtime?


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Can someone tell me what to expect with my peonies?
Last summer/fall I pick up two sad looking peonies at a garden center. They were so small and scraggily looking. I didn't know if they would survive, but I felt sorry for them, took them home and gave them a happy home. I just noticed 4 little shoots coming up from each plant.
Can someone tell me what I should do now and what to expect during the growing season. I read they won't flower for 3 years. I wish I could tell you the name of them, but the pots didn't even have tags.
Enjoy them. It may be possible that they will bloom this year but it will probably be a couple of years. Most peonies sold in this country are sold as red, white, and pink. It is nice to know the name but not necessary for your own personal enjoyment. I have a whole bank of peonies that I had labels wash away before I could add them to my diagram. Some animal also helped by removing some of the labels.
After the plant blooms or late this fall after the foliage dies down sprinkle arround the plants with a general fertilizer say 10-10-10 or 12-12-12.
If you fertilize just after the plants bloom you should be increasing the amount of nutrients that the plant stores. If you fertilize in the late fall you will be feeding the small white roots the plant sends out. If you fertilize too early in the fall you might have a lot of fresh growth that will freeze.
If you like your peonies you might want to join your Canadian Peony Society. You can receive information on peonies and discounts on plants. Who knows you might even meet your neighbor two blocks over that you can trade plants with.
Thank you for your response maifleur! I can't wait to see what happens. The "shoots are about 5 inches now!!! Lol, I don't even know what color they will be, although I seem to think on of them is red. I love buying the "forgotten" plants that are left over towards the end of the season and give them a home!
From the great advice you gave me, I assume the best time to fertilize is after they bloom, but what if I don't have any blooms this year? Would it be silly to fertilize after there anticipated bloom time?
Tks again for all your help! I love this website!
Go ahead and fertilize after you see the neighborhood peonies end their flowering. I think in Canada that could be the second week of July. The foliage will be helping the roots gather food. At the end of flowering unless you leave the seed pod on the plants start storing food fertilizer at that time will help the storage.
If you fertilize later in the summer you could trigger the plant to send up new foliage. This is why I suggested fertilizing late in the fall after the plants have gone dormant.
I too collect the orphan peonies either too small or missing labels.


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I Love Having a Sense of Humor
Personal Stories, Advice, and Support 1,975 People
"When troublesome days seem to make life empty,a lot of silly thoughts can help your mind remain fertile. Your sense of humor can also bring sunshine." — Dodinsky
lovingRIZA 51-55, F 0 Jul 5, 2014
I love my daughter. We were outside having aprivate talk and all of a sudden she shrieks and runs away fast into our home and jumps on the kitchen chair.... Why do you ask ??? Because the ground is full of WORMS !!!!!
jcain739 36-40, F 1 Jul 2, 2014
PMS jokes aren't funny.Period.
Jpfunjunky 31-35, M 1 Response 6 Sep 27, 2014
Two QuestionsA man was skydiving. He pulled his ripcord to deploy his chute and it malfunctioned, he then pulled the ripcord on the emergency chute which also malfunctioned! As he was plummeting downward, he saw another man coming skyward! As the two passed, one going down, the other up, the...
basementsong 41-45, M 0 Feb 7, 2013
It'S Always Good To LaughI enjoy having a good laugh, in my opinion i find it better than being serious all the time. I like smiling and seeing other people smile and have a good time laughing about something.
sadeyesallday 18-21, F 0 Jun 11, 2013
Crime Scene Investigation I am writing to saywhat an excellent product I have found Tide to be! I've used it all of my married life, as my Mom always told me it was the best. Now that I am in my fifties I continue to be amazed at the effectiveness of this wonderful cleaner. About a month ago, I spilled some red wine on...
jml2000 56-60, M 2 Responses 3 May 17, 2014
More Than Anything ElseI love having the type of personality that can take a joke and tell a joke, dish it out but can take it as well. You won't ever see me having a laugh where it is at the cost of another persons dignity though.
I think it's my one saving grace!People can fault me for the way I look or the things I've done. But something they can't fault me on is my sense of humour. Very dry with a little sarcasm.
picklebobble 46-50, M 1 Sep 17, 2014
If people are talking about you behind yourback... Just fart!
Jpfunjunky 31-35, M 1 Response 2 Mar 14
Laughter Is Good For the Soul!!!You have to laugh, we have these emotions for a reason. Laughter or a smile makes a difference. If u can find a way to laugh at yourself and situations then things do not seem so bad. Everything has its moments. Their say people who are funny outgoing...
Butterfly4 36-40, F 2 Responses 0 Feb 1, 2008
I Learned From The Greatsi'm Monstermaster13. If my username is any indication, I have a strange and off-kilter sense of humour. If my stories are any indication....I love making fun of cliches especially horror cliches. My werecreature parodies like the werejohncandy and so on are perfect proof of this...
Monstermaster13 22-25, M 0 Mar 22, 2013
Glad I Have A Sense Of HumorWhen you have a sense of humor, not only do you make other people laugh but you generally get others jokes and comments. Some people just do not the humorous side of much of what happens in life. If you can laugh at annoyances and mishaps, it makes day to day life much easier...
wheretheskymeetsthesea 56-60, F 1 Response 1 Oct 6, 2012
It's ******* fantastic being in love with urself it's not to often I feel this way so I just enjoy the experiences. no regrets. Than I stop using drugs and reality sets in. Then think to my self what a fucken idiot feel the feelings than later laugh at my self cause I'm human. Life's to short! Lol
Janisoneluv 26-30, F 1 Oct 5, 2014
HumorIf I didn't have a Sense of Humor - I wouldn't be married!!!
imaginaryfriend88 46-50, F 2 Responses 1 Jan 22, 2013
"I was addicted to the Hokey Pokey,but I turned myself around." **Saw this on a billboard,,, lol :)
lovingRIZA 51-55, F 2 Responses 2 Jun 21, 2014
When Bill Gates died,he went up to Heaven, where Saint Peter showed him to his house; a beautiful 20 room house, with grounds and a tennis court. Bill Gates was pleased, and spent many months enjoying the amenities of Heaven. One day, he was enjoying one of Heaven's many fine parks, when he ran...
jml2000 56-60, M 5 Responses 9 Nov 20, 2014
If you can't laugh at this,i can't be your friend lol
JerryJerryA 31-35, F 1 Response 1 Feb 6
Foreplay on a ticklish girl is a serious blowto the ego... They always laugh at your performance!
Jpfunjunky 31-35, M 3 Mar 21
Laughter Is Good For the Soul!!!You have to laugh, we have these emotions for a reason. Laughter or a smile makes a difference. If u can find a way to laugh at yourself and situations then things do not seem so bad. Everything has its moments. Their say people who are funny outgoing...
Butterfly4 36-40, F 4 Responses 2 Feb 1, 2008
I saw a video on how babies develop in the womband then come out of a woman's vagina.... And it gave me a headache and an anxiety attack. I'm gonna just adopt. **** it
curlyjaz 22-25, F 1 Response 7 Sep 1, 2014
I believe a sense of humor can brighten yourday, especially if you make a friend with the same sense of humor as you. Whether its a strange sense of humor or a normal one, :)
Anth1290 22-25, M 0 Jan 3
BuddiesTwo friends were in a bar celebrating. Had been drinking many hours and one of them got sick and before he could get to the bathroom, he threw up all over himself. He said: "Awww man! My wife is gonna kill me. This is a brand new shirt she just bought me!" His friend said: "Here...
basementsong 41-45, M 2 Responses 1 Feb 11, 2012
I Was A Used Car Salesman!Once upon a time, a long long time ago I was a car salesman. We are going back to the early 1980's, when a Chrysler Cordoba or Chevy Monte Carlo first broke the $10,000 mark, and an economy car was only $4,500. There was little profit to be made from new cars, so I stuck with the...
wetdog777 51-55, M 8 Responses 5 Nov 29, 2012
This would totally confuse mewhile driving. Hopefully no one got into an accident looking at it for awhile,,,,,,
lovingRIZA 51-55, F 0 Jun 21, 2014
And So It Goes.....When composing his great dictionary,the young Noah Webster travels to the Himalayas,where he climbs to the cave of the worlds wisest man."Oh great sage," he says,"what is the meaning of life?" The sage sits Noah at his feet and with great solemnity commences to tell him the...
bookerdana 51-55, M 3 Responses 4 May 16, 2012
romeo & juliet (2014) j: lolwhere r u romeo r: wana come over? j: cant r: y? j: idk parents r: lets kill ourself j: lol k r: swag j: swag
Cutebunny42 18-21, F 0 Jan 15, 2014
EP is full of so many ******* Viagra Poppin'Salty Old *** Men
mstv1112 16-17, F 2 Jan 7
I love a guy or anyone really with a sense ofhumor and who can take a joke. Life isn't fun if you around being uptight all the time. So let that giddy/goofy side out every once in awhile. I love a good laugh😋😄
DyingLightx 16-17, F 1 Jun 19, 2014
SmoshWho knows Smosh, on youtube, hey're really famous. And when I'm down I always watch their vids, they so hilarious. So I recommend you: Smosh! Especially vids like, I'm not racist, or 'I lost my hair" -littlewolf1 (Akitah)
littlewolf1 13-15, F 0 Mar 13, 2013
A Good LaughA good laugh can be as cathartic as a good cry. Humor can conquer sadness. I am never one to remember a good joke. I wish I could. I am a sucker for sarcastic, self deprecating humor. A good sense of humor is sexy, I think.
Freestanding 51-55, F 14 Responses 2 Sep 23, 2007
Laughter Is What The World Needs More Of...So Let Me Try To Do My Part.A joke I heard once goes like this: A very shy guy goes into a bar and sees a beautiful woman sitting at the bar. After an hour of gathering up his courage he finally goes over to her and asks, tentatively, "Um, would you mind if I chatted with you for a while?" She responds...
PeteVeritatem 31-35 1 May 14, 2013
Humor Is The Life Preserver In A Well Of GriefI haven't been here on EP for quite a while. Except for contacts from some incredibly faithful friends (who tried to stay in touch despite my reclusive behavior), I haven't been anywhere for quite a while. I lost my husband to cancer last September after a nearly 15-month...
mamapolo 56-60, F 2 Responses 1 Oct 25, 2010
I am very sarcastic, I have a dark sense ofhumor, I like to make people laugh. Nothing ever really bothers me.
ValhallaAwaits 22-25, M 1 Response 0 Sep 16, 2014
Plan For PeaceThat Claudia Schiffer must be a genius because I told a friend my plan to attain world peace, and he told me I have 'Schiffer Brains'.
cheleshere 66-70, F 0 Mar 13, 2013
Sense Of HumourSense of humour,Where would I be,Without it?Goodness knows,It's just not me,I need a laugh,Joke or two,I guess,It's just the way I am.
lazycrazybasket 46-50, M 1 Mar 10, 2012
Three guys went for a nature walk one day,they decided to travel up a huge cliff with a very narrow path along side of it. When they reached the top, they found a mysterious glowing rock. On the side of it was a message carved into the side, it said, this is the chance to be what ever you three want to be, touch this...
Sheismybestfriend 31-35, M 1 Response 1 Sep 16, 2014
A Man Walks Into A Bar....humor is the one thing that that i take seriously-like music, books, coffee its the good stuff!you notice i didn`t say friends or good people; its unnecessary cause humor is meant to be shared;sure you can see a funny movie or read the comics alone but if you`re like me(or is it...
bookerdana 51-55, M 2 Responses 1 Dec 5, 2011
If I Didn't Have It You Might As Well Shoot Me Now!Life without laughter just isn't worth living. Even in my darkest hour I can crack a joke about my situation - I can always be made to laugh, no matter how low I am. Most of the time when I'm crying I'm half laughing because I can see the hilarity in my situation..... it's...
AWUK 26-30, F 7 Responses 0 Feb 24, 2008
Ghost hunters: Can you communicate with us?*Door creeks* Ghost hunters: Oh so your name is Dave??
Cutebunny42 18-21, F 0 Jan 10, 2014
So...ever wondered why we name driveways,driveways, when park in them, and parkways, parkways, when you drive on them?
Sheismybestfriend 31-35, M 0 Sep 16, 2014
Conversations With My Dog ScrappyLaughter is a good medicine for all humanity who desire to have a tension free life and future. Let us therefore, as a family, learn to laugh again. Laughter will ensure the complete eradication of all the unhealthy pent-up anger, the up-tight frustration, and the sadness...
Healthguru 46-50 0 Jul 20, 2008
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Customer Reviews Summary
(based on 49 reviews)
Ratings Distribution
5 Stars
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of respondents would recommend this to a friend.
Best Uses
Most Liked Positive Review
Yes, to all of the above. This particular gift basket was received with surprise, delight, and enjoyed thoroughly by the receiver and their spouse. They reported that they 'ate the whole...Read complete review
Yes, to all of the above. This particular gift basket was received with surprise, delight, and enjoyed thoroughly by the receiver and their spouse. They reported that they 'ate the whole thing'!Also, the variety was excellent, as well as creative, especially, the get well cookies and the brain teaser, too!I would order this one, again and again.And, customer service was very helpful and handled my ordersmoothly and without wasting time.
Most Liked Negative Review
Product good but terrible shipping costs
Product was great and recipient was very happy but $35.00 for shipping in two days? Come on people - shipping was almost the price of the gift itself!!! Nix on the shipping next...Read complete review
Product was great and recipient was very happy but $35.00 for shipping in two days? Come on people - shipping was almost the price of the gift itself!!! Nix on the shipping next time! And please don't add it into the cost of the product and tell me there is "Free Shipping!" Very disappointed.
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Get Well Soon Gift
By Aniyunwiwa Group L.L.C.
from El Paso, Texas
Comments about Get Well Soon:
I had no idea what to get a friend of mine. This gift package excited me and I was sure it might do the same for my friend. She spoke of having several hours of fun. Thank you
Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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Great get well gift
By HollyHock
from Richmond, IN
See all my reviews
I sent this to a friend who had just come home from surgery. She loved it! She shared the goodies with her husband.
Perfect Get Well gift
By LaDonna
from Humboldt Ca
My son-in-law was stuck in the hostital . He was so happy to recieve this and couldn't wait to play dominos and word games , this was great to kill time and take his mind off things !
Great gift - good variety of items
By Deb
from Kill Devil Hills, NC
sent this to my mother for her birthday along with the fact that she had just been put in a cast on her foot so she was stuck in the house for awhile. mom loved the variety of items.
Recipiant was very happy with it.
By Nancy C.
from LI., NY
Did not see he item in person, but delivery was in only 2-3 days. Great!
Recipient loved it
By Mrs P
from Ohio
I sent the basket to a relative who had a recent surgery. She was thrilled with the variety of items and said she couldn't wait to try them. I was very pleased.
Friend loved it
By Mariann
from Lenexa, KS
Basket looked just like picture. Had great variety. Arrived on time. Friend loved it.
The perfect gift!
By Lisa
from Kansas City, MO
The product was just what we were looking for to send as a get well to a recipient who was going to be on a restricted diet. The basket arrived on the scheduled date and the recipient enjoyed it and thought it humorous, so it lifted his spirits as intended. Thank you!
Perfect get well basket
By Chocolate lovers
from Englewood, FL
This was a gift for my sister in-law who just had surgery. She is going to be laid up for several weeks and I liked the idea of the included 'activities' without a lot of 'junk' food. Arrived on time, the day after she got home from the hospital. She loved it.
(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)
My recipient loved it. Said it was huge
By Mimi
from Trenton, NJ
I didn't see it, but the recipient raved about how beautiful it was and how much it contained. I will definitely order from here again.