Art Walk, Old Skool.

Art!

You kids are probably too young to remember, but once upon a time images were captured not with electrons and silicon, but with "film", a gooey mixture of chemicals slathered on a strip of (probably flammable) plastic or paper or whatever happened to be at hand. And there was none of this "instant gratification" you youngsters talk about. With film, you didn't get to see your photos until you took the film home and soaked it in poisonous chemicals in your bathtub. Yuck. "How could this be possible" you ask? Well, luckily for you, I discovered a working example of one of these ancient devices during an archaeological dig in the ruins of a garage in Burbank, California, and I brought it with me to Art Walk. What follows was recorded using that quaint and now-so-obsolete technology.


To say that Art Walk was "crowded" is an understatement. Wall to wall people made it hard to walk on the sidewalk (but there were plenty of cops to keep you from stepping on to the street.)

There was art, as you would expect. But it seems the more popular Art Walk gets, and the more people there are, the less art I see. This isn't a cut an Art Walk, mind you. This is me people watching rather than art gazing. As I live in the 'hood, Art Walk has become an adventure in finding art I would like to return to and enjoy later while enjoying the party in the right-now.

Art, meet commerce.

I have no idea what was going on here.

The newly-expanded Art Parking Lot, featuring extra fuse-popping lights.

Bars and bands were hoppin'.

A new bar "Down and Out" at the site of the old "Charlie O's" soft-opened for Art Walk. The place has sliding glass doors that give the effect of the party spilling out into the street. Note the portraits inside above the bar. Not seen in this shot: O.J. Simpson.

But mostly just people, people, people...

These old-fashioned cameras don't focus themselves, they rely on you to do it for them. You get to twist a knob whilst peering through the viewfinder until you stop seeing double, which is impossible to do when it is dark, and you are drunk.

Commies!

You kids with your new-fangled electric cameras... (The police car is responding to a "415", which seems to be the police code for "a guy holding a bag of ice to his face.")

On the way back to the loft, I was hit by frozen tater-tots thrown from one of these windows. The bastards ducked back inside when I turned and pointed the camera at them... There is nothing subtle about these antiques. Getting a candid shot takes skillz with a "Z".

I was feeling annoyed with Downtown...and then I remembered why we left Silverlake

So we're still in the process of trying to find a daycare center for Nathan (something that has turned out to be a far bigger PITA than I expected). I've been striking out at places in and near downtown, so we decided to see what was available in Silverlake. MB contacted a place called Camelot Kids and was told a) they don't like getting phone calls--all contacts have to be made through their website, b) they had no openings for 2009 c) they had very few openings for 2010 and they had a selective admissions policy. Wo.

MB decided to check out their website and discovered the following gems:

* There's a "Conflict Resolution Word of the Month," described as follows:

Conflict resolution is something that we all work on, on a daily basis here at Camelot. We have brainstormed and come up with various ways on better educating our children about conflict-resolution. We have decided to showcase a different word each month that every class will discuss during one of their school days. We hope that by doing this they may have a better understanding of that word and can formulate different tools to apply to their everyday lives.

MB and I were guessing which words they used. He came up with FAIL and I came up with CRETIN and POSEUR.

* The website includes a lovingly detailed description of their toilet cleaning routine:

* Every urinal, commode, sink and even the floor is treated with Sanis Ultra clean, followed by a fresh water rinse.
* Water is vacuumed away along with all bacteria and soil, allowing floors to dry quickly.
* All fixtures are blown dry so your restroom is ready for immediate use.

Along with this, we have Suzanna our cleaning lady who comes twice a week and cleans each and every bathroom as well as all the other rooms in the facility. The toilets have also been fitted with an anti-bacterial solution that sanitizes after every flush.

We also have an air purifier in each class-room to remove airborne particles and hopefully reduce the spread of gems between the children.

*They offer classes in organic gardening, Bollywood and "Pixies, Fairies & Imps!"

My boss has a theory that modern liberals, in the absence of a meaningful spirituality, have taken to turning their children into fetish objects. I laughed when she told me, but now I think she's on to something.