Music

So, last Wednesday evening we went up to see a concert that was hosted by the Honda Civic Tour. Oue dear friend Charles works in advertising and had in his possession some free tickets that we decided needed to be used and so we drove a civic hybrid up to Hollywood to go see BEP...Black Eyed Peas. I was a little hesitant on going because I did not think that I would really like the concert, but boy was I wrong.
It was unbelievably energetic. The music was really good and the band was fantastic. It was such a mix of different cultures and hip hop, funk etc. They had a segment that reminded me of stomp where they used tables and drumsticks for percussion. They had a trio of breakdancers that must have necks of steel in order to spin on their heads like they did. The pic is small, but as you can see...a lot of light and a lot of energy. The one thing that I appreciated was that the lead female vocalist wore an orange track suit.....so now I know someone else appreciates the orange sweat pant look.

The concert tour is giving away a free Civic that has been designed by the the band. I am not so sure about the design, but it would be cool to have a new civic. I would have to get the hood repainted because they have an evil monkey logo on the hood of the car and I do not think I could face that every day. Sign up to win the car here.

In other news, work has been crazy and my computer decided that it does not want to open a certain graphic document that I have been working on for three weeks. So, right now I am on hold until I have more memory installed on my computer and the IT department restores a back-up copy of the document. Until then I am working on tiny projects that unfortunately do not hold much interest for me. This last pic is of our friend Taras and I in front of the Gibson Ampitheater before the concert...but as you can see it was pretty dark in that area.

Artwork

Getting projects done around the house! Today I fixed the frame and hung up our new piece of artwork next to the dining table.

The piece is a diner called Cozy Cafe that is only a few blocks from our place and serves a fantastic breakfast. I know that if I showed the owner George this artwork he would want it for his place so I need to be careful. :)
If you would like to comission the artist, I know him personally-so let me know. He is VERY exclusive.

Sorry about the camera reflection in the glass, but here is a close-up.

A day at the Villa

Today I left work early to take a trip to the newly opened Getty Villa in Malibu. This place is booked through the summer so I was really excited when a co-worker and friend invited me to come along with her to see it today. Nestled in a small valley in Malibu is this gorgeous villa that was created to replicate a Roman country house, the Villa dei Papiri. The museum and art collection was housed in the main villa house, but on the property there were two other large buildings which were for restoration & conservation which were off limits to guests, which makes them all the more intriguing. They have students from a UCLA masters course that come to the villa as resident students to work in the conservation and restoration department....ooooh what I would give to be one of those students.
We ate lunch, went on a tour with a docent named Bill, who got a little winded on the stairs and kept breathing heavily into his microphone and then checked out the exhibits: Antiquity&Photography and Glassmaking in Antiquity.
The grounds and the building were just as fastinating and breathtaking. The large fountain at the top of this post would have been used not only for swimming, but as a place to raise fish for food and to keep the beloved family pets....eels were the pet of choice. The one item that I cannot seem to understand is the fountain where it appears the statue is riding a turkey. Cannot figure this one out....either a pillow or a turkey or as someone suggested an upside down pig. I did like the fact that the artist made sure that the statue is wearing flip flops. This statue was spotted in the herb garden where right before we left we helped to unburden one tree of one of it's heavy lemons. I think this was a good start to a great weekend. :)

Temptation Savior

This is what keeps me from going out and buying chocolate, chips or cheetos right after work.Orange sweat pants & blue crocs...yeah, I'm not going anywhere. These orange pants scream to be stared at.

Lazy Days

The weekend was mellow and has gone by fast. Sunday, I baked a loaf of Irish bread in the breadmachine and slowly cleaned up around the apt.
Friday evening was spent with friends at Hennessey's Bar and then a nightcap at Pat's II. We celebrated the green, but not as much as my sister...as seen here in her lovely shamrock glasses.

Monday, back in the office and I am trying to take it easy for a while this morning. I had a busy day here on Friday and am hoping that this week goes more smoothly. I also got a new pet. You can click HERE to see. I do not have to clean up after it and it will never shed on my couch, although it would be nice to have a pet at home. You can move the mouse around...the kitty is interactive.

Grocery Picks of the month

Dear Trader Joes,

Absolutely amazing is all I can say after having your delicious Lemongrass Chicken Stix. Who came up with this idea and where can I find their recipe book. I also adore your General Tsao spicy sauce to dip them in. Yum.

On a separate note, your freeze dried strawberries are becoming a favorite of mine to sprinkle over cereal in the morning and I am not sure how I will survive until I can purchase the next tub of them....work on bringing the price down for me...I work in non-profit you see.
Sincerely, the E factor

This morning I woke up with one of my ever occuring ear aches. I have brought the drops into work and have my head balanced over a mug of hot water....hoping that the pain goes away soon...

Kinda tired this morning, which is weird because I did absolutely nothing yesterday except go grocery shopping in the middle of the afternoon and watch the movie Junebug (very good). It was a veg day.
Saturday, we drove up to LA proper to visit an art gallery that had a show we had read about in the paper. It was an interactive art piece in which you had to move various pieces around the gallery room in order to open the second room in the gallery. It was a very small show with only two rooms which was a bit disappointing as we would liked to have seen more, but interesting.

The pic is a little small, but that is myself standing in the background and our friend Alec moving one of the pieces across the room in order to open the second door. They were strange pieces made out of wicker (I believe). The building was also attached to several other art galleries that we strolled through and then we headed up to the LACMA to wind our way through their collections. For dinner we stopped at Nyala, an ethiopian restaurant on Fairfax.

We ordered the "new customer" special that had several chicken, meat, and veggie items. The food was served on a huge platter and we all used this strange spongy crepe like thing to scoop and eat. Clean-up is easier for them with no silverware. The food was good, a little spicy. Most of it was unidentifiable, so if we had to reach across the tray we would say, I am going for that brown pile or I am going for that orangy pile. I know...doesn't sound all that delicious, but it was and we all left very full. Plus, the prices were fabulously affordable.

Weekend phat

Went to the ashes and snow exhibit on Saturday and I am not really sure what to say about the actual exhibit. I think my favorite part of the entire exhibit was the structure that it was housed in which is called the Nomadic Museum. It is a huge structure created out of steel cargo containers, as well as different recyclable items such as paper tubing and paper tea bags. The exhibit itself was very small and the photos were amazing, I especially like the photos with the lynx, but I did not care for the films that were presented. They were too slow moving and artsy for my taste. I think the exhibit was a 8 -10 dollar exhibit, not a 15 dollar exhibit. The one thing that was worth it, we ate at Jack Spratt's Grill on Pico right before coming to the exhibit and it was delicious. We have wanted to go to this restaurant for a while, but never have and we finally decided on it while driving up to the westside. We are glad we did, because the mediterranian salad that I had was fabulous and the burgers were enormous and well worth the order. Jack Spratt may have not had fat, but he certainly had large portions.
Sunday, we were on a quest to find a shamrock shake. We decided to walk down to the McDonalds which was in our neighborhood. We reminisced about the fact that last year during shamrock season we could not find a McDonalds that could give us a shamrock shake because they were either out of the mix or the machine was broken. We strolled up to the counter and asked for the shake and guess what....denied AGAIN. The excuse: The machine was broken. the horror!! So instead of buying anything else at the McD, we left and went to Subway across the street, so we could eat a little bit healthier. I am not sure if we will ever reach the elusive Shamrock shake.

Dafodils

Fridays are usually really slow and quiet in this office, a lot of people try to duck out on a Friday. The one thing that is nice in this office is a co-worker brought in a TON of dafodils for everyone and so there are around 15 to 20 vases with these flowers all over the office.

I just read the recent Smithsonian and now I wish that I could go to this Pompeii exhibit in Chicago at the Field Museum. I wish it could make a visit out to the west coast.

This weekend is all about relaxing and not doing a thing, but then again I have wanted to visit a couple of events that are happening here in town like the Snow & Ashes photography exhibit and we have a ton of laundry that we are going to have to haul to the laundromat. :(