| | M.E. Adventures in Shakespeare: Getting There 6/29/10
Greetings!
I've had many adventures since I left Austin, so many that it feels I've been gone for weeks. The train ride was
awesome; I made a couple of buddies along the way that were handy in
keeping things interesting, especially as cabin fever set in. The ride
itself was much faster & more comfortable than I anticipated. I
was accidentally directed to a lower cabin car which has wider seats,
more leg room, & only 12 seats. This cabin had 5 riders besides
myself so I had two fat seats, with more leg room than I have legs, all
to myself, making a generally pleasant ride with the exception of "The
Queen of The Train": a woman in her 50s who rides the rails often and
ruled our car with her giant vocal chords which were active most of the
time and usually had nothing interesting to broadcast.
We arrived in Los Angeles at about 7am on Friday, June 6th.
Considering I hadn't had coffee yet and no food since the night before,
it seemed like an eternity for me to get my bike out of train storage.
The brand new box I put my bike in in Austin was beat to shit and
burried under 30 giant boxes belonging to a family of 5 that were
moving to California from the East Coast. I twitched in anticipation of
getting my sweetheart out from under that heap. Finally, after a
gazillion years, I ripped through the little pieces of cardboard that
barely remained on my bike and swiftly straightened my handlebars and
put my pedals back on. Passengers aren't usually allowed in the
receiving area but that didn't stop me from test riding my bike in
giant figure eights in the belly of L.A.'s Amtrak station. Now that my
bike was working I was ready to go get lost, which I did swiftly!
I wanted to ride my bike the 13 miles to the hotel in Westwood but
now it was 8:30am and I still hadn't had coffee and, upon lifting my
bags, realized that somehow they were heavier than I planned
for them to be. Some gremlin must've stuffed some extra tools in there
while I wasn't looking. So I asked around about a bus only to learn
that the folks in LA are either confused or confusing when it comes to
describing their bus system. After 3 failed attempts at understanding
the bus in my caffeine free state, I tied my luggage onto my bike rack
with bungee cords, did some strange maneuvering of my limbs, and
managed to get on my bike. I then used nothing but will power to make
it go, without falling over, through downtown traffic, during rush
hour, all the while kicking myself that I didn't shell out the dough
for some paniers to balance my heavy load. My GPS picked this moment to
go apeshit and kept telling me I was in the middle of a dirt field in
Indiana and other blatent lies. Again I had to rely on the vague
descriptions of the people of Los Angeles. OK Go straight. Turn left on
7th street. Got it.
After 9 wavy uphill miles of 7th street where I crossed 3 freeways
and hit a dead end before finding the street I was supposed to turn on
from there, I had to practice my broken portunol (a rare mix of
portuguese and spanish) with an old Mexican man walking his
granddaughter to school. He told me I was ass backwards. I turned
around and went a few blocks while questioning my language skills. A
lady was watering her roses and spoke some English. She told me I was
ass backwards too and gave me a bottle of water for my crazy/stupid
bike ride. She didn't exactly say that, but her face said it. Somehow
the 9 mile return was also a steep uphill. I mean STEEP - like really
really hard without a load & impossible with 60 pounds on your
back. It was too early for this, I didn't have enough water, and my
bags weren't packed right so any further description of this segment
would just result in a lot of cursing.
I finally found myself downtown again and GPS was toying with me as
to which bus to take. I was a couple of blocks from where my droid was
telling me to go and standing directly beneath a bus sign that said
Westwood. I decided to listen to the sign. The fascinating adventure of
bussing in LA shortly ensued. Lifting my monstrously heavy bike with
the bulk of my belongings strapped onto it onto a bus where the driver
is too pissed off at her lot in life to lower the bus was only the
beginning. Yay, more pre-coffee oddly shaped exercise for me. Huff. I
get on. She immediately starts yelling at me that I put my bike on
wrong and it's going to fall off. So I stand there, helplessly watching
it wobble and waiver while waiting for her to stop driving like a
maniac so I can go fix it before the bus rolls over it. "Get behind the
yellow line!!", she screams as she continues to torture me for three
jerky, stop & go, city blocks before stopping to watch me lift,
twist, & lift my heavy life properly onto the bike rack. I finally
get to squeeze me & my other bag through the sardine can to ensure
my place among many indescribable smells & sounds. I try not to
look completely overwhelmed but my eyes are bulging and I spastically
keep leaning forward to see the names of the upcoming streets, hoping
& promising to turn my back on atheism if my stop comes soon. I
think I picked the busiest bus with the longest route in LA, and for
all the whining I've done about how Austin lacks diversity, let me just
say, I found it all on that bus. That delectable intimacy lasted about
45 minutes.
I get off the bus and it wasn't soon enough so I continue to turn
my back on god. The hotel is a mere block and a half away and I begin
to feel relief but it is snatched out of my heart when the grumpy old
imbecile behind the counter tells me my room isn't ready and he doesn't
know when it will be as he practices facial twitches which indicate
that I am the bain of his existence. He was almost as much of a brat as
the bus driver but I have yet to get coffee and all those smells on the
bus have made me testy and impatient. I proceed to put him in his
place. He backs down and helps me put my belongings into a storage
closet. Me & my empty bike go out for coffee. Finally.
After two hours of ambling through the UCLA area my room is ready.
I unload, catch up on some breathing, and soon I'm driving with my long
lost cousin and her precious offspring. I spend the next two days
getting to know my young, thrice removed cousins and biking the area.
My favorite ride was to Santa Monica Pier and all along the beach down
to Venice. The bike path is just the right distance from the actual
scene that you're close enough to laugh at it without actually having
to touch it. On the way back to the hotel I stopped for Persian Ice
Cream which is potentially the most divine flavor I've ever tasted.
Then, ZAP!, I'm off to the jobby job in Thousand Oaks. I'll have to
tell you about that later though because I have to go calculate some
loads now. I miss you all a ton!
SWAK!
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 | You brave heart, you! | -- Jeannie, 7/20/10
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Goodbye I Love You Two 5/3/10
Hooray! Hoorah! Its An Art Show! Huzzah! Come check out my latest trash to treasure artworks and say goodbye before I escape the Texas heat! (I'm a Yankee, whadya expect?!) This Wednesday May 5th, 7-11pm at the fabuloso East Side Showroom. 1100 e. 6th street. SWAK, Logica
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Slim Pickins @ Bouldin Creek Cafe! 10/16/09 Bouldin Creek Presents: "Slim Pickins", a small collection of works from "The Reuse Revolution" by Logica. Now thru November 12th. 1501 S. 1st Street.
Get yerself some chow while yer there, best veggie food in ATX! *love* | |
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Heads up! East Austin Studio Tour is Coming! 10/11/09| Aim Logica has left the sweet nest of Bolm/Big
Medium & invaded The Trouble Puppet Workshop at Salvage Vanguard
Theater where she has organized a ruckus of a show for EAST 2009 with
performances by Lex Land, Jordan Moser, Hocake, DJs Mary Mac & Dr.
Bullet, and a few other surprises. Oh yea, and Logica’s art will be
there too, featuring her paintings & trash-to-treasure series, “The
Reuse Revolution”. Holla.
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Yo Philly! 7/30/09I am
desperately yearning for all things yankee, including, but not limited
to: heavy accents that prefer the word "youse" over the word "y'all",
soft pretzels, Wawa, hoagies, temperatures below 107 degrees, subways,
trolleys, & uncalled for fuck-yous tossed randomly to and fro with
reckless abandon....
I'll be there August 15th - 25th. Let's run
around and spaz out while you try to convince me to move back to Philly
and I tell you funny stories about slow southern living and how it's
sneakily and sweatily making me dumb!
+ If anyone has a bike I can borrow for some or all of the time I'm there that would also rule! I love and miss youse!!!
Luv, Logica [aim.aime.amy.ame]
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Can I Pay My Vet Bill With Art? 1/2/09 | I'm trying to dig myself out of a financial hell hole. Please take a friendly gander at my website. I've marked down alot of prices to get things moving. I also take commissions. Thank You & Happy New Year! www. aimlogica. com
p.s.Forward At Will | |
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East Austin Studio Tour Super Fun Time 11/20/08 | YES!
It's that time again folks. This will be my fourth year in the East Austin Studio Tour.
I'm SOOOOOO Excited!
I will be waiting for you in my studio at BIG Medium and this time I will have a crew with me. I just started the Voicebox Project so I could work side by side with other artists that want to use their talent to help raise awareness & funds for social causes in our community. We are small but growing everyday and we're gonna save the world with art! You can read more about the project on the Voicebox page of my website. In the meantime, come join us and celebrate your community artists!
Sneak Peak: Friday November 21 st, 7pm Official Tour: Saturday November 22nd, 10am-5pm Sunday November 23rd, 10am-5pm Located at: 5305 Bolm Rd.#10 THANK YOU! love, logica
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Hello from the Carribean! 8/1/08 | Hello!! Well I have been down in the islands for a month now & clearly I have been having too much fun to park my butt in front of a computer for any length of time. So I'm giving it a shot right now but this will probably be short! I have some pictures up in my myspace account at www.myspace.com/art_spark
I've been having lots of adventures and snorkeling is definitely one of my favorite activities. The reefs down here are incredible and there are so many gorgeous creatures in the sea. It is extremely exhilirating and relaxing at the same time to swim in that world. The other day I even got bumped by a shark but I guess it was just curious about me because he left me alone after that and I am A-OK!
Hiking is my second fav thing to do and I've been climbing mountains every chance I get. The views are breathtaking and you feel like the only person in the world when climbing around this secluded island.
I've made a bunch of new friends...people down here are super friendly and easy going and everyone loves to share. It doesn't take but a ten minute conversation before someone is inviting you out on their boat or to go kick it on the beach. I'm looking forward to sailing on Monday with Jimmy and friends from Coral Bay and currently I am on my way to town to meet up with some local friends.
So, I better go as I am being beckoned to hit the road to Cruz bay. See ya later!!
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That Was Fun! Thank You! 6/27/08 | Last night was great! Thank You to everyone that came out to the show! I super appreciate you!
7 of my pieces found new homes. I get attached to my work because each one represents a moment in time that I alone experienced and some have emotional value that has no price tag. So, as always, it was hard to say goodbye. The good news is, the people that adopted them are all wonderful people that I know truly appreciate and will care for my art. And I am so happy that my art can touch others and make empty walls full!
In barely 3 days I will be heading to the islands. I'll spend 2 months collecting and incubating inspiration and I already can't wait to come back to my studio and put it to use.
In the meantime, I have taken my remaining pieces off the market until I return. Please feel free to use my website to browse and leave comments on your favorites! If you'd like, you can also sign my guestbook to receive my infrequent updates.
TaTa for now... | |
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| Previously published:All 25 blog entries | |
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