a string of hits

Here's a photo I took yesterday outside the Rite Aid at Franklin and Western. I just finished a hike up Mt. Hollywood and went to pick up a Rx on the way home when I came across this man playing a broken trumpet outside the store. As I left the store, I asked him if I could stay and listen and take some photos, and he seemed quite content to let me do that. I asked him where he was from and he told me instead where the woman who wrote the song he was playing was from. "...mumble mumble mumble...She's from Nova Scotia. It was a string of hits!" O-kay. "What's your name?" I asked, and he replied with chuckle," Earthquake. My name's Earthquake." O-kay again. He continued to play this garbled "string of hits" as I watched him-- and the people around us.

What I found most interesting was that, a half hour earlier when I walked into the store to pick up my Rx, few people were stopping to give him a second glance, much less any money. (The honest truth is that he isn't a very good trumpeter.) But when I came out and started talking to him and taking photos, all of a sudden that changed. People started walking more slowly past him, and 90% of them dropped dollar bills into his Thrifty Ice Cream cup. I wonder if, because someone was paying attention to him, they thought that he was suddenly more interesting that he was before? A little more deserving of their dollars? Or they saw that a young woman was interacting with this man, so he couldn't be too crazy or too much of a threat? I'm not sure, but it was certainly fascinating.

It reminds me of a great article I read a while back by Gene Weingarten about virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell, who played unnoticed in a Washington Metro station for 45 minutes. This man sells out concert halls with $100 seats, and yet less than a handful of people stopped to listen to him play outside of the subway. Again, fascinating.

joshua tree

a couple weeks ago, i had an assignment to take a picture of a tree. uh....what? and not just any tree, but a tree with feeling. the happiest tree i've ever seen, or the most melancholy, or the most inspiring. I was at a complete loss-- where should i even begin? this was by far the most challenging assignment i've ever had to wrap my little mind around. mostly because i am not a nature photographer. and i don't particularly like landscapes. i rarely think landscape photos are interesting-- at least the landscape photos i take, anyway. so this was a big problem. how do i take an meaningful picture of a tree?

luckily, it dawned on me that this would be the perfect time to visit joshua tree national park, something i've been wanting to do since moving to southern california. if i couldn't take an interesting photo of a tree, gosh darnit at the very least i'd have a photo of an interesting tree. so, i rounded up the troops-- my buddy tas and his gorgeous wife jamie-- and we headed out to the desert.



after all my complaining, i have to admit that i was very pleasantly surprised. joshua tree is an amazing place, full of strange landscapes and a strikingly beautiful desolation. i've never seen anything like it. i want to go back and camp, wake up early for the sunrise, and spend the day among the yuccas. maybe go rock climbing, or do some hiking through the desert forests.





the cactus is making babies!



a cactus baby stuck on jamie's finger.



spring was on its way... pretty wildflowers everywhere and flowering yuccas:




gorgeous:

East LA Mariachis

A couple weeks ago my friend David and I went out to East LA to see what we could find. We stumbled upon this group of very friendly, jovial mariachis. They played a little for us, and though I don't know much Espanol (at all!) they were so nice to me. I wish I knew their names so I could go back and give them copies of these pics!

True Blue Tattoo

I know, I know. I've been slacking. So much for the New Years resolution, right? Well, hopefully this excuse will suffice-- I was bedridden for almost a week with the flu. Now that I'm all better, expect a flurry of photos. The documentary class kicked my butt, but I have tons of new pictures to show for it. Hopefully you like them as much as I do!

Here are a couple of my favorites from a shoot I did at True Blue Tattoo on Hollywood Blvd-- right across the street from Sweeney Todd's. Told you this was a cool little area!

Landon and the folks at True Blue are awesome. Landon is probably the biggest Dodgers fan you'll ever meet-- so much so that if you get a Dodgers tattoo, it's some ridiculous price... $8 I think? And free tats for anyone on the team. If your a huge LA fan, it's kind of hard to beat that deal! Anyway, here are the pictures. Go say hi to Landon and Chris and Vanessa. They're awesome and do really great work!


True Blue Tattoo
4648 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90027
(323) 924-2369

Sweeney Todd's Barbershop, Los Feliz CA

Every night as I drive home from work I pass an unassuming strip of Hollywood Blvd. that is quietly growing into one of the coolest little parts of LA. While these two or three blocks may often be passed over in favor of Los Feliz’s more established hipster heaven, Vermont Ave., around the corner there are a few shops that are worth a stop out of your way.

My favorite of the bunch is Sweeny Todd’s Barbershop. I know, I know. I’m a girl. I don’t need a barber. But my always-dapper partner in crime does, and I’m so jealous he has a place like this to go to get his hair(s) cut. In fact, he wishes his hair grew faster so he could go more than every other week! Sweeney Todd’s is a man’s barbershop. There are no $40 shampoos. There is no whiny hipster music playing on loop from sleek speakers above. No cell phones allowed. Just Todd and Danny in their white barber’s smocks and long scissors, snipping away while vintage tunes play in the background. There’s a rack of old Playboy magazines across from a glass case of curios—almost-rusty keychains, vintage combs, and other nicknacks. The walls are sparse with the exception of black and white headshots of famous leading men of yesteryear and a couple of aged posters advertising the “latest” in hair cut, care and style.

I’ve always wanted to photograph the shop so when I got the assignment to shoot “someone at work,” this was the only place I wanted to go. Todd was nice enough to let me crash the boys’ club for a little while and I had a great time talking to the various clients waiting for their turn in the chair. One gentleman, Mike, had been going to Danny for his haircuts for over 45 years!

If you’re a guy and you want a great haircut, go to Todd’s. Tell him I sent you!

Sweeny Todd’s Barbershop
4639 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027

class act

hello, friendly blogland!

just wanted to give a short intro to the next couple posts i'll be adding. on a whim, i decided to take a documentary photography class. i love taking these kinds of classes because they challenge me both technically and creatively, and i feel like you can never, ever do too much learning. plus, i like that i can write everything off as 'education' come tax time! :)

this class is one of the best i've ever taken. our teacher, anthony friedkin is an incredible photographer who's done the kind of work i would love to do someday. honestly, the guy is an artist and journalist rolled into one, very enthusiastic fountain of knowledge. he grew up in california and is a peer of stacy peralta (writer/director of the amazing film dogtown and z boys) and does really stunning ocean photography. as a hawaii girl, seeing those pictures makes me feel like i'm a little closer to home. in addition, he's worked for magnum photos. if i could accomplish just one thing in my lifetime, i would love to work for magnum. not easy to do... but boy, wouldn't that be amazing!

anyway, i'm learning tons and will be posting the results from each assignment here so that they don't get lost in my ever-growing archives, never to see the light of day...

enjoy looking and i hope to hear what you think!

Simone

I'll be the first to say that I've had my fair share of weird roommate situations (including renting a room from a "massage therapist" in San Jose, though that's a whole blog entry unto itself.) However, I've also been lucky enough to meet some really amazing people like Simone Shin. Simone and I both rented a room in this funny little yellow house with a red door in South Pasadena. We bonded over the weirdness of our other roommate, who kept squirreled away in her room during the day and was a smelly food-eating, crazy club-going party animal at night. One of the first times I talked with Simone, we were discussing getting internet for the house. I was tired, so I looked around her room and found a chair to plop down in. And plop I did. See, Simone is an artist. And the chair was not really a chair, but a sculpture of a chair made out of cardboard and fabric. When I sat down, I crushed her sculpture. I felt TERRIBLE. I ruined ART! But Simone was gracious and made a joke and I knew then that I liked her more than any other roommate I'd had in recent history.

Even though I moved out of that house soon after Simone moved in, we've tried to keep in touch as much as our busy schedules will allow. I was so, so thrilled when, out of the blue, she contacted me last week because she'd been nominated for a prestigious illustration award and needed a photo to submit in case she was selected. I was like, OF COURSE! I mean, if anything else, it was a way to work off some of my destroyed-chair-sculpture karma. And, more importantly, it meant we'd finally meet up like we'd talking about for ages. Anyway, long story longer, we did the shoot, she won the award and we finally got to hang out. What more could I ask for?





If you have time, stop by Simone's website and blog. She's amazing!