ADVENTURES WITH LADY DI: Proper Hugging Etiquette
This past weekend, I dragged Amanda Jones and Lady Di with me to the going away dinner for one of my former co-workers. I was sad to see him go, but happy for him and his new opportunity at the same time. As we were all parting ways the topic of hello/good-bye greeting rituals in other countries came up. A kiss on each cheek for Quebec, Spain, Portugal, or Mexico (among other countries I’m sure) and one extra kiss for a total of three air/cheek kisses from the Swiss, French, and I believe Italians (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t feel like looking it up). I have experienced most of these customary cheek and air kiss greetings since I was little. We laughingly discussed those that we’ve sometimes encountered that will skip the cheek and try to kiss you on the lips catching you completely off guard. Most of the time you just laugh it off and escape politely as quickly as possible.
Funny enough, Lady Di and I were just trying to explain how lengthy of a process saying hello and good-bye can be just a few days prior to two of our new guy friends Jamie (native Irishman) and Robert (a native Brit) when we go out. Our expansive circle of friends seems to have adopted the hug as our official hello and goodbye greeting. For the most part, the hugging stays manageable, but with one particular group of friends that we have in common it can be endless. The problem (although it’s a welcome issue) is that we all know each other, and there are certain events that can bring us all together…it is then that a few hugs can turn into literally hundreds. I’m not sure how it began, but we all do it and most new people generally take to it very quickly as well.
TRAffIK BEAUTY: Re-Creating the Look – “Golden Goddess”
photo by Jessy Plume
Make-up Artist Laurene Alvarado (read our interview with her here), shows us how to get the “Golden Goddess” look.
Just in time for Summer!
Model: Jean Louise O’Sullivan
Products used to create this look:
Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Honey (24K Gold)
Price $16
Price: $7.29
CArgo Matte BeachBlush™ – Tenerife
Price: $26
Price: $16.50
L’Oreal Paris Colour Juice Lipgloss
Price: $7.99
Next week Laurene will share some of her favorite products with us
To learn more about Laurene Alvarado please visit her site
The War for Independence Part III: Webcomics
The War for Independence
Chapter 3: A Couple of Webcomics
Print media is circling the drain. What’s left of it is mostly devoted to the shenanigans of insipid, pandering flash-in-the-pan celebrities and shiny advertising that’s been trained in a lab to actually cram itself down the reader’s throat. This means I need a different place to look at cartoons. Fortunately, they’ve invented something called the “inter-net,” which contains plenty of comic strips in the spaces between the amateur porn. Here are two of my favorites.
Achewood/Chris Onstad
I can’t provide much of a bio on Chris Onstad (he’s not very forthcoming, and I usually can’t be bothered to look much further than Wikipedia) aside from the fact that he went to Stanford and was the editor of that school’s humor magazine. (more…)
OUT IN TRAFFIK – FEEL MODE 2 DVD RELEASE @ DOWNTOWN INDEPENDENT
During last night’s Downtown Artwalk, the Graffiti Art sub-culture was the main focus at the Downtown Independent Theatre during the Art Show doubling as a DVD Release Party/Screening of Feel Mode 2. Although it can easily be argued that this artform is probably the most highly visible and most easily accessible to the general public, the negative connotations associated with the lifestyle of the in your face result of tagging up walls can often deter art lovers from actually accepting this as a valid form of art. The FeelModeInc., behind last night’s event, is trying to help change these viewpoints by establishing a multi media design house specializing in the Graffiti and Urban Arts market and by releasing their Feel Mode Graffiti DVD series which is an ongoing project that started in 2004 showcasing a wide range of some of the country’s most prolific graffiti writers, according to their site, www.feelmode.com.
Last night the Feel Mode crew brought the streets to a more controlled gallery setting taking advantage of the various multi-media facilities available at the Downtown Independent, which included: DJ’s (Zo, King Solomon, Fat Jack), live paintings, projections, and even some impromptu skateboarding on the rooftop bar; paintings and art on canvas prominently displayed on the first and second floor lobbies and walls; and special screenings of Feel Mode 2 in the theatre itself.
Here is the trailer for Feel Mode 2 – “The Game Done Changed”
With last night’s event the Downtown Independent showed it’s versatility as a space that not only lends itself to carefully selected film showings/screenings for music lovers (The Harder They Come, Wild Combination, This Is The Life, The American Astronaut), wine enthusiasts ( Corked!), as well as film buffs (The Guatemalan Handshake, The Times of Harvey Milk, Jake’s Corner), but also often plays host to events (International Festival of Cinema and Technology, LA Japan Film Festival, Zero Film Fest).
Their low ticket prices (most film engagements stay at about $5) and their more than reasonably priced concession stand ( most items are well under $5 including beer and wine) are the equivalent of flipping the bird or sending a “shame on you” message to big name chain theatres. It is definitely worth checking out and even more so if you are a resident of downtown Los Angeles (downtown residents often get discounts for events that have admission fees)
Currently playing is Know Your Mushrooms - “From the award-winning director of COMIC BOOK CONFIDENTIAL, GRASS, GO FURTHER and a host of paradigm-shifting films reappraising the backwaters of popular culture, Ron Mann investigates the miraculous, near-secret world of fungi with his newest piece of cinema, KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS.”
The Downtown Independent is located at 251 S. Main Street Los Angeles, California 90012. Visit www.downtownindependent.com for more info.
FEATURED MAKE-UP ARTIST – LAURENE ALVARADO
Long Beach, CA based Whittier, CA native Laurene Alvarado credits watching Lord of the Rings:Return of the King (in German) while on a trip to Germany in 2003 as the definitive moment when she realized that she would become a make-up artist.
“I’ve always loved movies and watching the behind the scenes of how they were made. The make-up and special fx were always my favorites to watch,” states Alvarado
When asked what she feels makes a great artist Alvarado narrows it down to, “Someone who isn’t afraid of makeup. Too often, people think or learn that there is only one way of doing something, and that stifles their creativity. If you do something and don’t like it, then take it off. It’s just makeup. Don’t be afraid of it.”
It is this mentality paired with her love of experimenting with make-up to create great looks that has had Laurene Alvarado working on some of today’s hottest sets, including recent projects I-Empire (documentary on Angels & Airwaves), and Season One of “90210,” which with it’s success has taken up a lot of her time.
This month 
Laurene will share with us some of her favorite looks and products and even took some time out of her busy schedule to answer a few of our questions recently and this is what we learned:
The War For Independence Part II – Tim Schafer
Welcome to the second part in my series about people who Make underappreciated Stuff by sidestepping the conventional. This series is brought to you free of charge by Eric’s Unwavering Conviction in His Own Snobbery, LLC.
Chapter 2: Tim Schafer
http://www.doublefine.com/news.php
“Rhubarb is a controversial flavor of pie.”
–unnamed agent, Psychonauts
As evidenced by the forthcoming video game “based” on Dante’s Inferno, most of the writing in video games hangs out in the literary spectrum between “garbage” and “total fucking garbage.” Dialogue-wise, most game scripts probably would have been used as toilet paper by the discerning Dukes of Hazzard editorial staff, and philosophically, the apex of the medium is somewhere around “Hey, guys! I just skimmed the Cliff’s Notes to No Exit!” But thank fuck—thank holy fucking fuck—for Tim Schafer.
Schafer started his career developing games for LucasArts. One of his first projects was The Secret of Monkey Island, which was conceived as a straight pirate adventure game. He (along with his co-writer Dave Grossman) wrote some placeholder text that was never intended to be in the game, but the series’ creator thought it was so funny, he decided to keep it in. Remember that word “funny,” because it’s going to come up later. He did a few more games for LucasArts, including Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, but I’m going to skip ahead a bit, because it’s Double Fine Productions and Psychonauts that I really want to talk about.