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the art street journal is a free international art newspaper that’s published in LA by carmichael gallery.  you can receive yours for FREE via snail mail by subscribing on the site.  who doesn’t love free mail?!  my fave in the recent issue is the coverage of serbian photographer BOOGIE.  you might recognize some of boogie’s work in the new HBO series, “how to make it in america” – thanks elisa & seth carmichael!

i came across of our own zine at a local art store.  it was the last copy left.  if you know me there’s nothing i love more than homemade do it yourself zines – there is nothing greater than the smell of fresh ink on paper.  I HEARTHEARTHEART PRINT! of our own zine is full of good art, reads and imagery with few ads.  this zine has great potential and i secretly hope they up their internet game so i can check it out even if i can’t find the print version.  one of the ads that caught my eye was wewillconquer.com

if you are a fan of photography (or just like shitter material), get FREE subscriptions to after capture magazine and rangefinder magazine – i’ve been receiving these magazines for the past 2 years!

every summer my work gets the circus.  i think in the whole state of california we get it for the longest stopover – this year was 11 days.  even working one day of it is too damn long.

my observations:

• for the friday & saturday night shows, most of the mothers have their hoochiefied club outfits on for what i’m assuming is to go out and slut it up after they drop their childrens off.  super tight tiny black dress? check.  5 inch stilettos?  check.
• saturday & sunday mornings are full of parents wearing sunglasses, buying coffee and yelling at their kids to SHUT UP.  clearly signs of a hangover – it’s the circus, let your kids scream their heads off if they want.
• the circus sells popcorn or cotton candy for $10-12 EACH.  at least the cotton candy comes with a nifty hat.
• i actually witnessed a crazy yelling match between circus vendors, i wonder if this happens often since they travel 10 months out of the year together.  they must get sick of eachother.  the younger ones were playing their music on their ipods and singing obnoxiously loud during downtime (there were 2 shows that day: one earlier in the morning and another one at around 730pm so they take out their inflatable beds & relax or play on their laptops)  – so the older group starts yelling at them to “SHUT THE FUCK UP”.  it was crazy.
• there seemed to be much more circus kids than past years – during the circus they go upstairs to the “nursery” while their parents are working and after they come down and help their parents close up shop.  sometimes they’d be running around the concourse at 11pm or outside in the parking lot.  some of the preteens looked angry that they had to help their parents.  i couldn’t help but wonder how their little lives really were…
• one of the circus vendors had a little side hustle.  she had a little table set up for the other circus people to buy coffee, sodas, snacks and breakfast goodies.
• one of the circus performers, more specifically a lady that rides in on the elephants was in full makeup and helping her sister pack up her merch table at the end of the circus.  it’s a family affair.  while i’m watching them do this, one of the ladies from the nursery comes running over with a toddler in her hand with his face bleeding.  freaked me out!

my favorite part of the circus is watching the elephants. here’s baby barack – he’s such a cutie!

by the way, carnival people are called carnies – what are circus people called?

rsvp for the advance screening of “MACHETE” with the cast and filmmakers! august 25th @ 8pm at the orpheum in downtown LA

i like all kinds of blogs but i’m partial to those representin’ southern cali and those that are penned by females.  females have so much power on the internet these days and are kickin’ down the proverbial door – words have weight, yo.

i thought Tali$a Monet was hot and only after following her did i find out she’s skinhead rob’s gf, now fiance’ – CONGRATS!!!

fashion, art, music and all things fresh: dapper dames

i’m not usually a fan of tumblr but miss wallflower‘s use of images is so inspiring.

i don’t think there was a better way to spend a saturday.  the weather was beautiful and the location was smart.  it was at rainbow lagoon park (across the street from shoreline village).

gates opened at 10:30am; we got there sometime after 11:30am and the line for @grlldcheesetruk was super long.  we sought out @kotacotruck – more specifically cause their truck was wrapped for robert rodriguez’s new movie, “machete“  with art done by @misterctoons.  machete comes out september 3rd, btw.  sadly, we didn’t try any of their offerings and opted for @donchowtacos.  we really wanted to try their kung pao chicken chimale (chinese tamale) but they were only offering a 3 taco sampler for $6.  the tacos were kung pao chicken, chinese bbq pork and LA taco (carne asada with bacon & grilled onions)  – c & i liked the flavors on all of these but our favorite is the kung pao chicken.  i’m used to kung pao chicken being so heavy but this was really light.  it seemed to be all white meat cuts of chicken and excellent seasoning.  i could’ve gone for another kung pao taco but again, they were only offering the $6 sampler, boo!

after snacking on those we agreed to try @coolhaus.  was bummed to hear they only offered a sampler as well.  i guess it makes it easier for the food fest scene.  each mini was $2.  c got rocky road and i got red velvet.  talk about teasing your mouth.  the ice cream sandwiches were SO GOOD.  so good that we chased the truck the next day, heh.

we set up our blanket in front of the stage and listened to the band, “blue steel” – they were actually good, they played a lot of cover songs and i won a cd for naming a sublime song.  duke brought his legos and we just had a good ol’ time.  c ended up getting a watermelon drink, beef brisket slider and fries from @unclelausbbq – i still can’t decide if the fries are their creation or something you can buy from a food distributor, they were decent, i’m not complaining.  the brisket was good.  i would’ve preferred it to be a little hotter (temp-wise, this is always a complaint of mine) and the watermelon drink was pretty yummy.

the big winner for me was @thesweetstruck – they get a bunch of local favorites and sell ‘em.  my fave was the peanut butter & marshmallow cakewich from cake monkey.  i would’ve got another one but $4 each is a hard one to swallow for my cheap ass.

we got our tickets presale so it was $6 each, it’s going to charity so i didn’t feel bad having to shell out money.  we spent about $30 total for 2 people and another $8 for parking.  we parked at shoreline village rather than $10 at the long beach convention center. thanks to the organizers of this event, it was well planned and definitely someone’s “baby”  – GOOD JOB and can’t wait to spend more money on one of your events!

20+ food trucks will be in one location tomorrow from 10:30am-5pm!  including @COOLHAUS @ButtermilkTruck @grlldcheesetruk @KOTacoTruck @donchowtacos

$8 gets you in!  ticket proceeds will benefit adopt-a-teacher program and long beach city college student scholarships!

@LBStreetFood or Long Beach Street Food Fest

another FREEBIE in LA if you aren’t at san diego comic con this weekend!

my husband & i attended last year’s rebel 8 event with famous stars & straps at the fast life and it was pretty sick.  don’t sleep!

craft, art, design and DIY spectacular will feature over 250 of today’s finest indie-craft talents from all over the nation, free workshops, entertainment + other features!

these are just my personal random thoughts when rich and famous people bomb.  in this case, the recent jailing of lindsay lohan.  people like me who feel blessed with what we have often wonder where things go wrong for people who seem to have everything…

are we products of our environment or are we born with predispositions?  it’s a hard question for me to swallow being a mother of 3 but it’s a good topic for debate.  i honestly think things happen in our lives that change us.  who we become is out of  survival or necessity?  watching the news, seeing what i’ve seen in my own life and watching the past 3 seasons of nip/tuck on instant netflix has shown me there’s no real answer… for anything.  do what makes YOU happy. as long as you abide by state or country laws.  heh.

i know la guera will do fine in jail.

lindsay lohan

#2409752

century regional correctional facility

11705 s. alameda street

lynwood, ca 90262

can she be saved???

i love the .99 store – more specifically the .99 only stores some people might call me cheap but i like thinking of it as getting the most out of my money. yes, i know how to stretch a dollar, sue me. the best thing about the .99 store is that each location carries different stuff and some are better than others… but shopping there is always a fun, cheap surprise.

today’s haul:

not pictured:
-palmolive antibacterial dish soap
-bag of california red plums
-bag of nectarines
-2 mini seedless watermelons (i got asked by 2 different people how to choose a watermelon!)

and in that area, we saw a homeless dude with a cold starbucks drink. only in california!

P.S.

do NOT buy the kalima hawaiian hard creamer malt beverages (pictured^)  they are .59 each and taste like the creamer expired.  the label on the back says, “blended with rich creamy dairy” and i don’t think they knew the shelf life on their creamer.  i wasn’t expecting much but it was raunchy – after a few google clicks it looks like they won some awards in 2007 and were still in business in 2008 but the info pretty much died after that.  if you work for kalima and business is still very much alive, holler.