31 December 2011

NYE2011 : the details.

i've made new year's eve plans for the first time in years! i believe the past couple years, i've just sat on a couch and had champagne; last year's was my own couch and a bottle of veuve clicquot, so not bad, really. for about the same reasons i hate hollywood, i tend to hate new year's eve and the accompanying parties.

this year though, we stumbled upon something pretty cool - LACMA's the golden stag, a new year's eve in "roaring-20s style. for one night only in L.A.’s legendary park plaza hotel, return to the glamour, big bands, cocktails, dance, and utter charm of a bygone era." tickets were $50, and $150 for VIP; so we thought, why not, let's do this right, and got ourselves on the big daddies and leading ladies VIP list! i'm really looking forward to it - hopefully the head cold james has right now buggers off before tonight.

here is the information we were just sent about the evening with much more details than are available on the website. haven't decided yet if i should / if it's worth it to bring my camera, but if i do, i'll be sure to post.


The Golden Stag, presented by LACMA Muse and Sypher Art Studio

Where
Park Plaza, 607 South Park View, Los Angeles, CA 90057

When
9 pm - 2 am; last call at 1:30

Drink
Waiter service delivers complimentary drinks from the VIP menu (below), plus a midnight champagne toast. Drinks are not included at the Park Plaza bars.

_Beer & Wine
_Champagne
_Pisco Side Car
    2oz Pisco, 1oz Triple Sec, squeeze lemon juice;
    shaken and strained, garnish with lemon
_Speakeasy Martini
    2.5oz Vodka/Gin, splash Dry Vermouth;
    shaken and strained, garnish with olive
_Bootleg Manhattan
    2.5oz Bourbon, splash Sweet Vermouth;
    on rocks, garnish with cherry
_Old Fashioned
    2.5oz Bourbon, splash simple syrup;
    shaken with orange slice, and cherry, strained over rocks, garnish with orange and cherry
_Champagne Cocktail
    5oz Champagne, 1oz Pisco, splash simple syrup;
    shake and strain Pisco and simple syrup, add cherry garnish, top with Champagne
_Bee's Knees
    2.5oz Gin, pineapple juice, splash simple syrup;
    on rocks, garnish with lime
_Prohibition Coffee
    2.5oz Vodka, chilled coffee, cream, splash simple syrup;
    on rocks, no garnish
_New Orleans
    1.5oz Gin, .5oz Absinthe, splash Dry Vermouth, orange juice;
    shaken and strained, garnish with cherry


Eat
Fruit and cheese plates to share start the culinary adventure by chef Justin Bastian. Stuffed mushrooms are ready at 10 pm followed by waldorf salad to cleanse the palette and beignets for dessert. Thank you to Melissa's and The Co-Op for their generous donations.

Move
The Speakeasy is in the Bronze Room on the ground floor to the left of the staircase, just past the Gold Room.The Grand Ballroom is upstairs to the left. The Gold and Bronze Rooms both connect to the patio.

For Your Entertainment

Grand Ballroom
9-9:45: Music of the 20s
9:45-10:45: Elliot Deutsch Big Band with special guest Brent Canter
10:45-11:45: Interlude
11:15-11:30: The Lindy Hop Kings; performance followed by an interactive lesson
11:30-12:30: Elliot Deutsch Big Band with Brent Canter, featuring a rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight
12:30-1:15: Modern club music
1:25: Grand Ballroom closes

Speakeasy (Bronze Room)
9-10: Big Daddies and Leading Ladies only
9-9:30: Alice Underground (Instrumental)
9:30-10: Duets with Alice plus solos by Sasha & Tasha
10-10:50: Series of short musical and dance performances, including Syphilrance, Astra Dance Company, Hollywood Hotshots, and The Josephina
10:50-11:20: Pianist Dennis Hamm
11:20-11:30: Diana Knight solo dance performance
11:30-11:50: Interlude
11:50-12: Countdown to Midnight
12-12:05: Hey Pachucho, performed by Sylphirance
12:05-12:35: Duets with Alice
12:35-Close: Music of the 20s

Patio/Grand Staircase
9 pm-Close: Rotating musical and dance performances

30 December 2011

a huntington library visit.

i've been to the gardens at the huntington library several times now. i feel like i almost always get the same photos, so this time i tried doing things a bit differently. i just had my 50mm with me, and i tried to get photos from ground-level, or parallel to the ground, where i usually take plant photos from above. so.. i ended up on my butt or knees a lot. >.<






ramen yamadaya : tonkotsu ramen in culver city.

i love ramen, and i try to go to all the best spots on LA. my favorites are daikokuya, santouka and shinsengumi - and all for different reasons. i'd recently heard of yamadaya and lots of good things, so i had to go try it.


sunny blue : omusubi in santa monica.

found this place while walking down main street in santa monica the other day. i totally fell in love with them from my trips to japan, and have always wished one could get these outside of the japanese markets. i just got some very basic ones: tuna mayo, kara tuna, and shrimp mayo (the special of the day) to go. they are made to order, and if you eat it immediately, they just put a fresh nori around it, but if you're getting it to-go like i was, they even have the plastic wrapped nori for you, so that it doesn't get mushy in the mean time. they were a perfect snack for later that day. yay, omusubi!

24 December 2011

merry christmas to all..

and to all a good night!


now, gimme those cookies, fat man! he seemed to say...

22 December 2011

silverlake's first annual beard and mustache competition.

tuesday night was silverlake's first annual beard and mustache competition, and james decided to enter it. it was held at the silverlake branch of los angeles public library, and while we had no idea what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised at the turnout of some amazing facial hair. the celebrity judge was joel stein from the LA times. and jack passion, two time world beard champion was also on hand (and won his category, of course) to talk about his book, the facial hair handbook, and answer questions.

james entered in the santa category, which consisted of him and one other guy, with a last minute kid entering himself, and he won! i mean, who wouldn't love this mustache?

close-up of james's mustache.

anyway, the echo park patch does a pretty good write-up on it, for more information. this post is more about some of the pictures i was able to take. i took many more, but have not yet had the opportunity to get them online yet.

freestyle competitor.

james, freestyle and mustache competitor.

jack passion, two time world beard champion.

freestyle competitors.

fake beards - children.

fake beards - women.

winner of freestyle beards.

jack passion talking about his book and answering questions.

silverlake librarian and MC for the evening.

winners of most scholarly.

fake beards - women winners.

fake beards - kid winners.

the winning santas.

jack and james.

21 December 2011

a los angeles snow globe.

gorgeous los angeles bokeh "snow globe" time lapse from all cut up films:




roundup : electronic music and old-timey dancin'

uhm, i love this! clogging or polka (i think) plus lmfao? amazing.


this one is kind of fun, some old school charleston plus daft punk.


interesting how little dance has really changed.

20 December 2011

BRAVE(S): disney vs. mlb?

oh, how exciting!
the animation industry and major league baseball seem to be in a bit of a clash.

from stitchkingdom:
It all started back in March of last year when we reported on trademark applications which appeared to have been confirming a title change for what was then known as The Bear and the Bow, but is now known to be Brave.
Fast forward to this past summer when — after filing a number of extensions — the Atlanta National League Baseball Club, owners of the Atlanta Braves,  formally filed an objection to many of the trademark applications. Although trademarks are specific to their singular and plural forms and the Braves do not possess any trademarks for the word BRAVE (only BRAVES), the organization believes that damages will occur as a result of Disney’s trademarks being approved as they have used the singular form before on merchandise and insist it is common for fans, media, et al to use the singular form when referring to a single player, whereas the pluralized form refers to the entire team.
i wonder who has better lawyers? >.<

the eleventh doctor : lacking sources.

while david tennant / 10th doctor is my personal favorite, i love these images from the matt smith / 11th doctor incarnation.



i love tumblr, as it helps me find these sorts of fun thing, but it sucks because there is NO SOURCE INFORMATION. all i have is the tumblr and/or amazon cloud url for them. i would love to source these properly and give credit where its due, so please please please, if you know who or what made these, do let me know!

children of dreamworks.


people bring their kids to campus dressed up for halloween every year. they are too darn cute for words.








more photos can be found in my dreamworks halloween 2011 flickr photoset.

19 December 2011

i'm on a horse.

andrew jackson and fountain; jackson square, new orleans, la.



trailer : the dark night rises.


saw this trailer in theatres this weekend playing before sherklock holmes: a game of shadows (which is a good, fun movie - better than the first i think). i am so excited. especially to also see marion cotillard, anne hathaway and joseph gordon-levitt.

firsts: blew a tire.

gah, it finally happened. i blew a tire. while driving 60+ mph on the 5 north. at night. hit a pot hole. left front blew out. there wasn't a real shoulder, but some dirt i could pull off on. i was freaking out, because james wanted to change the tire. did i mention this is a night, and there was no shoulder? and what i was pulled off onto wasn't even, so the car was up on an angle? and that we were around a bend, so cars couldn't even see us until they were about 20 yards from us?

anyway, it was not pleasant. james calmed me down though and convinced me he could do it. i stood by and watched traffic though so that i could, theoretically, pull him out of the way in case anything happened, as well as just being more visible standing than he would be crouched down by the tire. it ended up being fine. we got to our destination. and life is okay.

unfortunately, i didn't just blow a tire, my two left side wheels are bent, and thus need to be fixed or replaced. i found the wheels online for $200each. volkswagen wants to charge me $600+ each for new ones. eff that. repairing the existing ones will run me around $150each, so i'm going with that.

thank goodness for james in all this - keeping me calm and knowing about cars. i might still be stuck freaking out on the 5 if it weren't for him.

17 December 2011

me and my shadow : crew shirt.


how exciting. i just got my puss in boots crew hoodie yesterday, and today our very small crew on me & my shadow got t-shirts as our holiday present. fun fun.

16 December 2011

frugaldad : illusion of choice.

i thought this was particularly interesting since dreamworks animation is independent (paramount is our distributor, but we are a publicly owned stand-alone company, unassociated even from dreamworks studios, as far as i'm aware).

Media Consolidation Infographic
from frugaldad.


rise of the guardians : first look.

from dreamworks animation, via hitfix.

on his Motion/Captured blog over on HITFIX, drew mcweeny does a very nice write-up of our fall 2012 release, rise of the guardians, which he got to preview earlier this week. it includes our very first poster for the film as well (above), which is pretty sweet in my opinion. reading through it, i had no idea how much of a media franchise this was for william joyce, with an accompanying thirteen illustrated childrens chapter-books called the guardians of childhood (two of which are released, the man in the moon and nicholas st. north and the battle of the nightmare king).

from mcweeny:

I like that the film feels very different from the sort of bright comic adventures that most animated films aspire to these days.  Each of the Guardians lives in very different worlds, with very different palettes, and as we were shown a few sequences and some design work and a rough trailer, we got to see the way the characters have evolved visually over time.  The Tooth Fairy, for example, originally had a much stronger Hindu influence, classically Indian in design, but her finished design makes her look more like a hummingbird or a tiny parakeet.  Jackman's getting a chance to turn up the Australian as the Easter Bunny.  He's heavily armed and he's got a swagger to him, designed as a long, lean, muscular character.

My favorite design has to be The Sandman, though.  I love that he doesn't speak, and he rides around on a cloud of golden sand, perpetually chasing the sunset, showering the cities below him with the very stuff of dreams.  He's played for comic relief in some ways, but he's also very wise.  It's going to be interesting to see how these very different characters play off of one another, and how they face down the challenge of Pitch, the force of evil in the film.

Pitch is being designed as a very real threat, and this is where you can see a bit of the Guillermo Del Toro in there.  Joyce and his director Ramsey talked to us about how important it is to them to make the scary parts genuinely scary, and the movies they mentioned as touchstones, like "Sleeping Beauty" or "Fantasia" were movies that made huge impressions on young viewers because of the way the images seemed to be very primal and dark and terrifying on a basic level.  Everyone we spoke with talked about how important it was to them to make the film feel like a big adventure, with peril and stakes and real scale.

it's not one that i'm working on, but i know quite a few people who are.

15 December 2011

PIB hoodies and the golden globes.


we got our puss in boots crew gift today - a hoodie! the above is printed onto our left sleeve. the hoodie is a grey heather, from alternative apparel.

also, the movie was also nominated for best animated feature golden globes today! how very exciting. the other nominees are the adventures of tintin, cars2, rango and arthur christmas. that kung fu panda 2 wasn't nominated (which one, i didn't work on, and two, if only one dreamworks movie is to be nominated, it really should have been kfp2 instead of puss - so i'm doing my best to be objective here), among other reasons i won't voice publicly here, it just shows how much "the industry" doesn't really care or know about animation.

nicole mlakar photography and rufus!

had to share this from nicole mlakar photography today; meet rufus!

photo taken by nicole mlakar photography, via her blog.
i subscribe to nicole's blog (and totally wish she were LA-based!). she takes amazing pet portraits, and this guy today was just too cute to not share! i mean, just look at that face!!!

12 December 2011

arm-resting.


sanford's favorite spot on the couch - resting his little arms on the arm rest. isn't he insanely flat-faced, even for a frenchie?

DIY : holiday cards!

made my own holiday cards this year! busted out the home letterpress kit from lifestylecrafts james got me for my birthday, finally. i did a silver damask letterpress print on its side for the top, and used the same pattern for a blind letterpress print on the bottom.


09 December 2011

wagville

i've been wanting to find a doggy-daycare for sanford for quite some time now. he had so much fun at K9 playtime up in san francisco when we went for a long weekend back in july. i would have done it much sooner, but things got so busy during puss in boots crunch time that i kind of forgot about it.

anyway, what got me thinking about it again is the upcoming christmas vacation. we'll be in alabama for christmas, and didn't want to deal with trying to reserve flights for sanford to come on the plane with us when they're already hard to get and expensive. basically, i needed a place to board him and started doing lots of research.


the place i ended up finding was wagville, both because of the facility, reviews and proximity to silverlake. i contacted them and they put me on the waiting list for their christmas boarding, and scheduled sanford for an evaluation, which was today. and he passed! i got to tour the facility, which is really nice and big. with separate indoor and outdoor areas for big and small dogs. someone sat down with me and sanford, asked questions and assessed sanford. then they took him into the small dog area to see how he would get along with the other dogs, and he did really well. i'm such a proud puppy mom right now! everyone there was super nice, and of course, sanford stole the show with how darn cute he is.




all images from www.wagville.com/tour
my impression of the place so far is great, i'm super excited to take him in for doggy daycare - i think it will be really great for him to get to socialize with other dogs. and the best part is, they'll be able to board him over christmas! what a huge weight off my shoulders.

---


wagville
2400 north san fernando road
los angeles, ca 90065
323.222.4442

HtTYD : gift of the night fury.

the how to train your dragon holiday special, gift of the night fury. it's loaded with cute about halfway through, and even gets to be a bit of a tearjerker at the end. in a happy way of course. ALSO, hiccup's pillow: see that lovely burlap texture/material? that was me. back on the movie that is. kind of happy it's getting so much screen time in the short.



no idea how long this video will be up, or if dreamworks will make whoever take it down. but, enjoy!

update: clearly not very long, as the video has been removed. bummer.

08 December 2011

taiwan543

found a fun new little blog today: TAIWAN543, a self-described "online magazine with a mission to close the gap between Taiwan and the world." i find it a bit amusing that just about all of the staff either grew up in or currently lives in southern california, and a few of them even grew up in the same LA suburb as i did, arcadia. in fact, i recognize one of them from my elementary or middle school days.

anyway, i totally dig it and have subscribed. the taiwanese american community is shockingly small sometimes, and it's always nice to at least feel more connected to it and the "homeland" itself, one way or another. and with posts about taiwanese-americans in the industry, major leage baseball visiting taiwan, and even opportunities to visit taiwan, what's not to love?

trailer : madagascar three.

the studio's new trailer for madagascar 3, set to come out this summer.

roundup : typographic maps.

a few months ago, i came across these beautiful city subway maps in type from TRNSPRTNATION. they have them for boston, chicago, london, new york city, san francisco, washingtonDC, and most recently, los angeles! the LA one is a little sad (but that just reflects our public transportation system, really) but it got me to thinking that someone should do one of the freeway system in LA! maybe if i have some free time...




then today, i found axis maps! they offer online interactive map services, but i discovered them through their store of typographic maps. how cool is that! i particularly love that some of the backgrounds/non-street-areas are given the names of the neighborhoods. totally bummed they don't have one for los angeles yet!