A few years back, I had a job right by the Forest Lawn in Glendale. On a particularly miserable and stressful work day, I decided to go for a walk at the cemetery during my lunch break and I came across an older section of the grounds that had beautiful tombstones and monuments. One of the graves even had a bench carved into it, practically inviting me to make it my designated lunch spot, so I did. Several jobs later, I still long for my cemetery lunch breaks on that stone bench.
A few weeks ago I was feeling a little restless, so I grabbed my camera and headed back to the old spot. If you follow me on instagram, you saw a couple of stills that I captured during my visit.
I also did some filming that day, but hadn’t gotten around to editing the footage until recently. Enjoy a bit of darkness accompanied by the musical stylings of Florence + the Machine, because it’s never too early in the year for a good dose of “Memento Mori”.
Life has been strange, crazy, stupid and awesome, all at the same time. Needless to say, my blogging has been on the back burner for several months. I apologize to my readers (all 3 of them) and want you to know that you are not forgotten! In fact, here’s a mix for you all of you. Get your dance on with no pants on.
Hope you are all feeling the exquisite onset of the symptoms associated with Spring fever. I know I certainly am.
I made you an End of Summer Mix with songs I’ve been playing all season and a few that seem to make it into the rotation every Summer. Some are chill and some are made for dancing in your chonies.
Please, slow your roll, 2012! My gawd, this year is flying right by. Once again, Instagram makes it possible for me to remember what I’ve been up to since I can’t remember what I did 10 minutes ago without a visual reminder. Starting from the top:
1. In April I finally got to witness the amazing Garbage, live! As you may recall, I nearly lost my mind with excitement when Garbage announced their new album. All of the L.A. shows sold out in a matter of seconds, so the bestie and I drove up to Vegas to see them. TOTALLY WORTH IT. They were everything I had hoped for and Shirley is sexy as ever. Here’s a clip I recorded of them performing #1 Crush – and why do I always forget to turn my phone sideways? http://www.twitvid.com/embed.php?guid=SKENT&autoplay=0
2. Some friends and I went to check out the Transmission L.A. exhibit curated by Mike D of the Beasty Boys. Sadly, this was right around when MCA passed away, so the mood was a bit somber. We did get to experience lot of impressive, animated installations like the one above. All of those wheels were turning but my phone didn’t really capture any if the motion. Bummed that we missed the Kogi pop-up restaurant at MOCA, though.
3. One of the things I love about L.A. is simply having access. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in the presence of cinematic greatness simply because I’m local. I was lucky enough to score a couple of free tickets to a live Q&A with Danny Elfman at Warner Brothers studios to promote the new Dark Shadows movie a few weeks ago. DANNY freakin ELFMAN! He shared an interesting little story about how Johnny Depp recently confessed to him that he stole some guitar picks at an Oingo Boingo concert when he was a young lad, never thinking they would cross paths. Cute <;3
4. I accidentally stumbled upon the iconic, gargantuan donut that sits atop Randy's Donuts! One of those places I had always seen on TV but had never driven by, even though I've lived in L.A. my whole life. Something about seeing a giant donut that just makes you smile.
5. Ah yes, Halloween prep. So it begins. "But it's only May" you say. Puhlease. We normally start decorating/planning effects/building/crafting during the Summer and we STILL never have enough time. This year, one of the new effects we plan on adding is a ghost maid who will appear and disappear through one of the windows facing the street in front of our house. We filmed my friend Leslie in front of a green screen and below is a sneak peek at the end result:
Pretty fancy, aye? Yeah. We ain't messing around when it comes to Halloween ;p
Congratulations for getting to the end of this lengthy and way overdue post!
xoxo
-D
Even after reading blurbs online about how Shirley Manson “confirmed” that Garbage was working on a new album, I questioned whether or not this was a legit statement. This is one of my favorite bands ever, so I didn’t want to get TOO excited just in case it wasn’t true. I still hoped, though.
Well, today a friend posted this video:
OH HELL YESS. Omg. This means they will probably tour. I am SO there.
While I, myself, am feeling quite festive this year, we’ve all had years where it seems we just can’t get excited about the holidays. If this sounds like you, you’re not alone.
From the subtle lighting shifts and indoor snow, to the sleepless and indifferent expression on her face. This song is like a sweet “bah, humbug” lullaby and I dedicate it to anybody out there who’s feeling like a scrooge.
Special thanks to my bo’friend for turning me on to this song. It’s definitely getting added to the xmas playlist.