Salvador Dali at LACMA

I went to the Dali exhibit at LACMA last night. It was amazing! I didn't think I'd see anything new, but damn was I wrong. Leave it to an LA-based museum to change it up and showcase Dali's cinema work. It was awesome to see how Dali brought his artistic vision to life on the screen with such greats as the Marx Brothers, Hitchcock, and Disney.

The museum showcased a variety of his paintings and sketches, too--some of them refreshingly new to me. But I don't think they were the best examples of his work (see below for some of my favorites). I think LACMA failed a little in this regard. Dali is a painter who is world-renowned for his paintings and sketches, and while film provided him an opportunity to bring his paintings to another realm of art--moving picture--and therefore provided more insight into how his mind worked--something he deeply relished--the museum should still have had more of his familiar and unique paintings and sketches present. It does a disservice to those who aren't familiar with his work as much as it does for those who love his artistic variety. His overall style and artistic prowess lies in how diverse his paintings are and how he evolved as an artist over time that explored a number of mediums. I attended the Salvador Dali exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2005, and the standard it set for me is a hard one for LACMA to compete with.

There was one piece that I absolutely fell in love with all over again:

Dali -1937: "Metamorphosis Of Narcissus"

A painting from the exhibit that was new to me was:

Dali -1945: "Melancholy"

Some favorites--a few of these not available at LACMA--include:

Figure at a Window (1925):

Cannibalism in Autumn (1936-37)

Drawers Cannibalism (Composition with Drawers), (1937):

Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach, (1938):

Visage of War, (1940):

Victory - Woman Metamorphosing into a Boat with Angels (1945):

The Temptation of St. Anthony (1946):

The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952-54)

The Maximum Speed of Raphael's Madonna (1954):

Crucifixion (1954):

The Infant Jesus, (1956):

The Meditative Rose (1958):

Some quick sketches

I drew this as a quick sketch at Canter's on Sunday.
"Smile now, Cry later."

It's a throwback to urban Chicano and Lowrider culture and iconic imagery. We all have our moments of laughing on the outside but hurting within.

And I finished this sketch around 4am last night after receiving some charcoal pencils, a sketchpad, and an easel from a friend for Christmas. I've entitled it:
"Compatible Nightscapes: The dick that Loves"

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I really dig surrealist art and in many ways it's the genre that inspires me most--and therefore influences my sketches most. People always ask, "what's the meaning?" and there are others that are more straight forward and say stuff like, "That's depressing" or "It's too dark." In this case, the meaning is in the title. The drawing is about darkness as much as it about other things, including light. It's not my fault if you can't see it.

I scream Bologna!

WeHo, 11pm and I'm craving ice cream. A friend and I hit up Pavilions and start browsing the ice cream aisle. He grabs a box of vanilla wafer sandwiches after a lot of mutual indecisiveness. He's down 'cause "they're small and lite", and I'm down because we've been eating In N Out like a couple of addicts. So even though I've been craving some slow churned Rocky Road, these little things will have to do.

So I bite into the first little sandwich and it's got this familiar taste, which I can't quite place. It wasn't till I finished the first one and bit into the second little booger that I recognized the taste. "It's bologna! It has a bologna aftertaste!" My friend let out a little laugh and smirked as I swallowed the vanilla on vanilla wafer sandwich.

The next day I'm craving one of those little sandwiches so I walk over to the fridge and take a look at the box. The fricken things are made of tofu! They're non-dairy ice cream sandwiches! My friend started laughing at my surprise . . . explains his smirk I thought. I took the tofutti product out of its wrapping and had another sandwich.
Bologna never tasted so good.

Pico Union Toy Drive

Toys
I attended a toy drive at Alvarado Terrace Park in
Pico Union to mingle with parents and to outreach for our upcoming community workshops.


And then before I knew it, work became fun again. I remembered the joys of Christmas giving as I watched Santa and Mrs. Claus give toys to local children, posing for pictures with them before the kids were whisked away from the inner courts of the tent.

I walked through the toy drive and found a girl--maybe 7 years old--kicking ass in a pickup soccer game. Some toddlers danced around their new remote control car, waving their cheeto-orange fingers to the sky, stomping their feet in reverence to their newfound joy.

And I became a kid again as I watched all these kids receive a piece of Christmas just three days before the main event. I mean c'mon, there were toys, a pony ride, a petting zoo, and a big ass turtle! Merry Christmas!

Humanity, Spirit, and The Divine

My aunt Julie passed away on June 16, 2007 at 5:45pm in an intensive care wing of a Hawaii-based hospital. She was 59 years old. I stood there in the room, motionless, wiped clean with shock, sterile like the room, which hinted an odor of cleansing chemicals and medicine. I've lost my voice over the last year and standing bedside with my aunt--Olympic Torch Bearer, Air Force Veteran, Lesbian Writer and Educator, believer in Light and Transcendence--as she lay on that hospital bed in a coma, just one day after speaking to her, muted my soul even further.

And I was reminded last night as I scanned Craigslist for jobs (among other things) how fortuitous it is to share with others. Sometime during the night, I began exchanging emails with a woman that wanted to share her writing and receive feedback. The exchange was liberating and therapeutic as we settled into an open and easy interaction.

Ever since returning from Hawaii, I've had an increasing desire to converse with random people in random situations, mostly to listen to and share stories of pain, our visions for life, and to connect with another human being. It seems that when someone passes, there is an opportunity to absorb some of their life force. My desire to connect with others is one of the things I picked up from my aunt as she closed her eyes and her spirit filled the room.

Growing Pains: Sex, Love, and Sperm to Donate.

SEX:
I've been getting the same advice for years: you're young, be with as many women as possible. People also say it's the "tried and true" way to get over an ex so I've been hearing it a lot lately. It's funny how some think sex is the panacea to our personal ills. Now c'mon, of course there's more to life than sex! Isn't there?

Here lies my dilemma. I'm craving some intimacy like a madman but I have values about sex that aren't the norm. One woman told me I'm afraid (which part of it is fear), then she dug her tiny tongue into my tonsils like a doctor gives an oral exam and fear turned to disgust. Others say "don't feel guilty", and to "just go with it", then they get their kicks and have less qualms about "moving on" then I do.

LOVE:
And so I remember love. New beginnings like the end of Swingers when Favreau finally meets Graham. You know that connection that puts you in another realm for a few minutes, each of you caught in a moment. The future is yours for the taking.


Then there's the devotion, passion, and transparency of Slater and Arquette in True Romance. There's something about that gritty "I'll stand by your ass no matter what" kind of love.


And there's the hope, humor, and spiritual connection found in Nacho Libre. Seeing as how I'm kind of like Nacho, it makes sense to desire something deeper with a beautiful woman.


Okay so I've seen too many movies. But I have a value of building something that lasts. Am I weird or naive for thinking that sex should be shared with someone you love--a life partner who will stick with you through thick and thin? I wanna hit the skins--but give me some substance!

Sex and love aside, think about some other benefits of having a loving partner. Think about the tales of older women buying a car (or having one repaired), purchasing large appliances, or searching for a home and getting the run-around. They're treated as second-rate because no man is present. It's as if being a single woman often puts you in a position to either be fodder for desire or an easy target to be taken advantage of--others belittle your womanhood if you've got no kids and no husband.


And women aren't the only ones. If a guy embraces a softer side of his humanity, then he becomes a "nice guy." He inhabits a societal role where one needs to "grow a pair" and move on like my friend insists. She might be right about moving on but it's also a nice reminder of how critical theories (like feminism) rarely translate well in practice. Guys who fit the "nice guy label" usually don't fly by societal norms of masculinity, and people have no problem reminding the world how completely out of their element they really are. And where the hell is that community that collapses dual natures and embraces the rich spectrum of our humanity!?

SPERM TO DONATE:
Naturally a post about sex and love and "growing a pair" would inevitably lead to baby-making. Someone called me an old soul again the other day, so I wasn't surprised how dumbfounded I was when a friend asked if I'd consider donating sperm (can someone say, No Country for Old Men?).

I've always thought of having children the old-fashioned way, but never really entertained the thought of having a child without love--not to mention without sex--for very long. But what about being a donor to a needy couple or even a private donor to a loving friend.

We started talking about all the possibilities of raising the child together with the parents--old-school Nino & Nina status. And then he said, "what would you tell your future partner though?" I answered, "It's not like I'd sleep with her physically, so what would it matter?" Funny the complexities of our values, eh?

So yea, as of now if the right person asks me, I'd give 'em some offspring--if they'd let me play a supportive role in raising the child. But consider the protocol for becoming a donor. I have better chances becoming a triathelete!

The whole process really gets one thinking about health, lifestyle, family background, and even physique. It's dating on steroids because the goal of sex (or masturbation) is to reproduce and not for sexual gratification--and high grade baby batter depends on a lot of factors.

Don't know if I'd be a potential donor, but our thought experiment got me thinking about my health (eating right and exercise) and lifestyle (drinking and smoking for example) and life choices like my career and daily habits. Once a family comes into mind, sex with someone you don't love feels more second-rate then being a "nice guy."

And in terms of the money garnered from sperm donation, there's alternative ways to earn a buck or market oneself.

Cafe Tacvba at the Gibson

Went to see Cafe Tacvba at the Gibson a few nights ago. It was awesome! I waited and waited for a mosh to start but it never happened. (Maybe I should start my own next time). =P

With Christmas around the corner and the roughest year of my life coming to an end, I needed a change of pace, a different experience to mark the beginning of a new year--and what better way to spend a night than to see one of the best rock en espanol bands ever with someone you love.

The concert was a gift to me and my ex-girlfriend--a way for me to find some healing and to show her how awesome I think she is. She's moved on and "met people", while I'm still dealing with the end of our relationship and this insane year of deaths and transitions. Either way, we both deserved an awesome gift. It was nice to sit up front, literally feel the music in my bones, connect with the vibe of those on stage, and know that this gift is a gift of love--to her and to myself.

Thank God for a beautiful night and an opportunity to open new doors! It's a new year!