well, yeah.

Meet the Biz

On a recent afternoon in downtown Los Angeles, Kelly and I took our pretty little Lizzie Vance from San Diego to the Toy District and put her in front of the camera. I gave her some eyeliner, a velvet dress, some white oxfords and this orange suitcase, but the rest of all that style and class business you see below is hers alone. Please witness as Lizzie becomes The Biz, discovering this city one alleyway at a time.

 

 

 

 

 

a new dream.

1) to get hired to be an EXHIBITIONS PREPARATOR at the Field Museum in Chicago and:

• Assist with fabrication, assembly, installation, dismantling and/or moving of exhibit properties
• Clean and repair existing exhibits and displays, mounting and dismounting artifacts, building prototypes
• Maintain exhibit interactives and animatronics
• Repair broken or improperly working interactives and animatronics
• Research and maintain interactive parts and supplies inventories for permanent exhibits
• Troubleshoot exhibition, interactive and animatronic problems and works with supervisor, manager, or outside service technician to solve problems and implement solutions
• Responsible for low voltage electrical repairs, mechanical repairs, pneumatic repairs, and lighting repairs.
• Read architectural drawings, mechanical drawings, and electrical schematics
• Perform woodworking, metalworking, and plastic work to build or repair exhibit elements
 
2) and hang out in the Plants of the World exhibit ALL THE TIME

illustrated history christmas

This year we exchanged secret santa gifts in LA before jetting off to Chicago for holiday festivities. It was so nice and very magical, and there were stockings and bamboo branches and lights and Vince Guaraldi and wine and laughs and a paper tree on chopsticks.

I got lucky and Jimmy Marble drew my name; he made me hand-drawn reproductions of two of my most precious photos! The first is a photo of me and three of my best friends, just being friends one night.  Look!

 

The second is an eerily similar photo of my mom and three of her best lady friends taken the 80s before I was born. My mom and her friends were at what she later explained to be an evening of live music and outdoor frivolity held under a full moon, "one of our infamous Moondances." (!!!) They rented a boat and took it out on Lake Michigan and had a really great time.

 

What a cool gift. What a cool Christmas! The drawings made my mama real happy, too. She's the one in the flowers and specs up there! 

Anyway they're framed and featured in the Girl Zone. Come and check them out if you can. I can even introduce you to the artist.

SAN FRANCISCO WINS

Can you tell me what is better than spending some sunny winter days wandering around a cool city with a bunch of awesome people, eating pizza? No, you cannot.

Los Angeles Biweekly Report

One of the coolest things about living in downtown Los Angeles is that even people who've lived here for years think it's an adventure to explore it. Whenever we're looking for excitement we just go outside and wander through alleys or into lofts for lease pretending to buy or strange, rustic, woodland-themed cafeterias or famous old buildings or movie theaters or Irish basement pubs or drugstores called Million Dollar RX. There's something about a leisurely roam around an old, saturated downtown with your friends that feels pretty spectacular, especially at night. 

Photo taken by Kelly on his 26th birthday, a night to remember

Everywhere I go there's something I've never seen before, and it's moving fast. There's really no shortage of new diversions. There are beautiful old cars and buildings everywhere, odd objects left on the sidewalk or in the middle of the street to wonder about, and signs announcing upcoming filming locations that tell you what Hollywood is getting up to these days. There are all kinds of people, all kinds of dogs and cats and hand-painted signs and warehouses and taco trucks. All kinds of colors.

I sleep in a bed that's over 5 feet off the ground and I wear lotion with 55spf every day. I wake up most mornings to the intercom ramblings of a mysteriously productive pallet wood yard that is our neighbor to the south, and trains rolling along the tracks that border our lot to the west. It's hard to stop moving in a place like this.

Some accomplishments:
1) Met and befriended Real Life Guard Dog
2) Was awarded free garlic bread at Toddy G's, famed local pizzeria

Also, we shot a movie in a day last weekend. Martin Morse directed it, it's called Sports Short, and it's super awesome. By 10:31pm we were gathering around the table Jimmy made for a family dinner and homemade gelato, so that was pretty weird and exciting.

Some visual evidence:

Cars on fire, propane fireball. 

 It has a porthole.

Los Angeles. Home of modern-day inventors that drive spaceships to diners.

Chili the Guard Dog, SAG

Early morning Baby Baby show.

Girl Zone.

siroccoresearchlabs.com

true life: i reside in california

what having a good time looks like