heavy metal

Metals field trip ;)

Who knew lead was so insidiously gorgeous? Also loved the bars of bronze and the red patchwork of the steel bar ends. 

the dining society

A friend of a coworker, Kevin Van, started THEDININGSOCIETY -

a monthly (almost) gathering of people interested in sampling some of the best food and drinks from some of the best local chefs and mixologists. I'd say half the experience was the venue itself, the old Echo Park Rec Center on Logan and Sunset - a space with giant ceilings, endless brick walls, and a long table under a simple string of lights. Great food, great conversation, great mix of strangers. 

The dinner pops up at a new location each time, and a new cast of chefs, mixologists and sommeliers creates an entirely unique dining experience. 

We [Breakform] made the table for Kevin - it was designed to fit within a budget, be easily broken down into segments that fit into a small Uhaul, able to be quickly assembled by two people, durable, and (goes without saying) nice on the eyes.. Welded steel angle frames with hand-finished plywood infill resting on a light gauge steel tube framework atop IKEA table legs. 

Of course while you're in the neighborhood, you have to stop by El Prado for a drink. 

it's cool to recycle

Envelopes can be so boring, so I decided to make some of my own. 

Ingredients:

(1) Paper grocery bag

(1) Geological Survey Map of Permafrost and Ground Ice Conditions

(1) Boring envelope you can open and trace

Rubber cement

Scissors

Pencil

The two layers are great because it's like a mullet: business in the front, party in the back (or inside in this case..you get the point). It also makes for a thicker envelope, which just feels nice and like you paid a lot for it, which we know you didn't. You can use old wrapping paper, newspaper, comics, phone book pages, sewing patterns....whatever you can rubber cement and fold without having a problem. Brown paper has such a great texture too - great for transfers if you really want to go to town.

Since I didn't want to glue these guys shut, I just found some stickers to do the job: 

chinatown day

Oscar Mayer Wiener in LA

C'mon...if any of you know me, you KNOW that the OMWM is the wallpaper on my phone...a drive-by snap shot of it parallel parked in a residential area (random) in my old Chicago neighborhood. So imagine my excitement when I saw it again the other day parked out back at Chez Jay. Glorious.

SUPRASENSORIAL

This exhibit at MOCA's Geffen was pretty great - re-creations of Latin American installation work, mostly from the '60s and '70s. All I can say is I wish I had known about the pool..

Watts, B&W

Some more to snack on from Watts