So my gf/wife leaves with her mom for her neice’s wedding shower.
Immediately, I don’t have a clue about what the fuck to do with my time.
So I go with Salerno to the L.A. County Arboretum in Arcadia for a preview of
the Baldwin Bonanza, where you can buy all sorts of plants and trees and gardening stuff.

You know, if you read this blog how synonymous I am with plants and gardening.
But it was okay, the arboretum is the single best place to go on like athird date - afternoon, peaceful, gorgeous setting, not ostentatious like Decanso Gardens or pretensious liek the Huntington Gardens, the Arboretum has the advantage of a thousand strolling peacocks and the house that they filmed Fatasy Island at.

And there was a lot of great food booths and gardening people bouncing about.
So yeah, anyway, I think she gets back tomorrow but now I am wonderingg if she doesn’t get back until Sunday.

Shit, I should have listened when she told me.

My neighbor found a teenage kid burglarizing his loft. He held him and saw me and had me call the cops. Lots of homeless case the joint here, I think the kid was a scout for some other thugs looking to lift some valuables.

Two idiots here let a homeless guy stay with them and were shocked when a lot of their valuable shit went missing.

The vibe here is definitely a little frayed at the edges lately, funny stares, less sense of community. Reminds me of the other ten years I spent living Downtown, so it does not bother me, but gotta tell the wife to remember to look around and walk purposefully, even when it seems like such the gated community here.

Went to the printers on Monday and inspected the new issue proofs. Had to tweak two images, the computer guy there told us that every single job has some different tech issues and that there is no uniformity whatsoever. HE had a great line, There are no experts, only troubleshooters. Something about that was awesome.

Lotta work to do this upcoming week. Lots.

Barring calamity, we go to the printer tomorrow morning.

So my friend mentions that the Jacques Louis David exhibit at the Getty ends this weekend.

Me: Fuck. Did you see it?
Friend: Yeah, you should go.
Me: FUCK!
Friend: It is pretty good. i went back to see it again this week.
Me: Is Marat in it?
Friend: No.
Me: Oh. The Oath?
Friend: No. They emphasize his post-revolution court paintings.
Me: Aw fuck that noise, fuck it, I am too busy, I would drive out for Marat but not that bullshit…

She went on to describe the genius in the paintings on display, but I am not going. It was only later that I was thinking about the conversation being so base when the subject matter was supposedly so rarified. Story of my life.

In the words of Paul Westerberg… One foot in the door, the other one in the gutter.

I don’t get asked to be on mainstream art world panels because, well, they are a bunch of scared sheep.
Here is a great summation of a recent panel discussion on art criticism.
You could pretty much apply it to every panel discussion.

When: May 26, Thursday, 7:30pm-
Where: Pharmaka Gallery, 101 West Fifth St (at Main) Los Angeles, CA 90013
What: STOP MAKING BAD ART: Lecture by MAT GLEASON (Coagula Art Journal)

Mat Gleason, internationally acclaimed publisher/art critic will discuss Bad Art.
What makes art bad -does the definition of Bad change over time?
Is some art so bad that it is lousy into perpetuity?
Are there defining characteristics of bad art that can be exorcised out of one’s artistic vocabulary?
Is mediocrity worse than awful?
Is a waste of talent better than the presence of pretension?
None of these questions may have an answer, but the speaker will definitely provide an informed, impassioned opinion.

Mat Gleason is the publisher of Coagula Art Journal, the defiantly independent magazine of deconstructive, impassioned art criticism.
Founded in 1992, Coagula is L.A.’s largest nationally-distributed art publication, available free in over 300 galleries, bookstores, schools,museums and coffee shops across the U.S.

In 1999, David Bowie raved about Coagula:
Gleason clobbers the closed door snobbishness that has increasingly distanced the public from the rarefied air of the art world.

Admission $5 at the door.
Open to the public.
Seating is limited. Please RSVP to info@pharmaka-art.org or stop by the gallery for sign-up by May 15th.

THIS IS A FUNDRAISING EVENT. ANY DONATION (CASH & SUPPLY) WILL BE HIGHLY APPRECIATED. We are currently accepting both public & private donations.
Pharmaka Gallery is a non-profit organization 501(c)(3) that provides art education to the public. www.pharmaka-art.org

Cosponsored by Coagula Art Journal

Parking recommended: Lot at 4th & Main, $6 before 4pm, $3 after 4pm.

PRESS CONTACT: info@pharmaka-art.org

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Apparently, they got 40 reservation in three days after sending out that release.
Nice. Now I just gotta hone those theories of mine…

background info on this post:
I am the President of a non-profit group that sponsors an artists’ open studio tour

Oh man, we rescheduled the Brewery Artwalk to May and today it became apparent to me that a lot of people had planned for the event to be at the original date (originally scheduled for this weekend). People were running around the local hovel here with confused and exasperated looks about them. Many artists who do no live here sublease space in studios here for the event. And a lot of them are out of the loop, so they came down today to plan for this weekend only to get the news that things had changed. Crazy.

Yesterday I went to Gallery C’s show - the Kuspit curation closed and the new show is quite far from his California New Old Masters, it encouraes viewers to also touch the artwork. After twenty years of blowing dust off of the Van Gogh impassto, ths was quite the catharsis.

Oh and a tax lecture: Why do people who are all mom-n-pop anti-Starbucks totally unconsciously walking into H&R Corporate Whoe Block for their tax assistance? Just a thought, folks.

So my mother and brother (one of them) went to opening day (should that be capitalized?) at Dodger Stadium today and came by to visit the gf/wife and I. We took them out for an early dinner (my mother’s birthday was recent enough and my brothers is coming up – 2 birds, 1 stone/check). So they saw the place, the wife’s artworks and we had a nice time. The Dodgers had a dramatic, come-from-behind win and my brother was still completely excited about it. We had got my mother a handpainted Mexican tea set and she just loved it.

So that was all nice.

Earlier, the cleaning lady was almost done earlier today without doing anything that would be worthy of blogging when suddenly a local, Dermott, came by to tell me he was opening a gallery here at the Brewery. He said something in Spanish and she went off on me because I have total gringo pidgin-Spanish and Dermott is flawless, at least for a gringo. So then her and her sister (who I am totally forging a resume for) start telling poor Dermott all of their life troubles in half English and half Spanish and he is in like surprise attack shock and he starts giving her parenting advice and the sister boyfriend advice and I start laughing, because for once, I am just watching.

All I could tell him was “Bet that is the last time you stop by on a Tuesday, eh?”