terra non firma

random bits

its been way too long since I've posted here. and yet my traffic seems to be rising prodigiously, mostly due to international traffic. so welcome, all my non-American readers. yet I will still try to keep this focused on LA as much as I can. so what's new?

• going to CA Boom 4 this weekend. the organizers have very kindly offered curbed LA press passes again this year. last year I skipped most of the home tours and the party. this year josh and I are going to both the party and some tours on sunday, as well as the show itself. will be bringing my new digital cam to take some pix for the site, and hopefully will post a few here as well.
• went to a panel discussion and performance by ozomatli on tuesday, as a guest of the lear center. (this is my week of free stuff apparently). I mention that here because most of the discussion related to the impact of los angeles, and their sense of place, on their music. while I wish they were slightly more articulate about the band's relationship to this city, the way they recombine and fuse diverse musical influences, and the role a band can play in the fight for social justice, ultimately I have to remember, they're musicians. they're already worlds ahead of the pablum most mainstream musicians spew. they're closer in spirit to musicians turned politicians like gilberto gil than to musicians turned messiah like Bono. and they put on a great show at usc.
  
• first resolution of 2007 is completed: I am now fully caught up in Battlestar Galactica. I was a little underwhelmed by the first season after all the hype, but seasons 2 and 3 really drew me in. its the smartest show on TV right now. now I am spending my time evangelizing BSG to john, who seems to believe allegory is somehow less important, less capable of eliciting genuine emotional responses than watching CNN. he's so misguided.
  
• I just booked some travel in april for a couple of conferences I'm speaking at: adtech in SF and the media in transition conference in MIT (those MIT kids are so smart! the conference initials and the school are the same). I left the travel plans for almost last min so I was forced to look for a nearby hotel in SF that was reasonably priced and I'm actually kind of pleased with my find: the mosser. granted, I haven't been there yet but its a 1913 victorian building that's recently been renovated so it looks like an interesting fusion on modern and victorian touches. and I can also pat myself on the back for another reason: The Mosser family donates a portion of hotel proceeds to their non-profit dedicated to the reforestation of the rain forest. its been literally years since I've been to SF, so I'm looking forward to the trip.
  
• and finally, curbed LA is running its Ugliest Building in LA contest. Its a contest born from josh's twisted head one random monday when our comments seemed low. apparently necessity and low comments are the mother of invention. but the submissions are starting to come in fast and furious now - everyone has a favorite most-hated building. our judges are christopher hawthorne from the latimes, lorcan o'herlihy, alissa walker from unbeige, and ryan from losanjealous . judging begins next week - can't wait.
  

posted by marissa @ 9:46 AM 2 comments

reason number 347 I'm a total nerd

the other day, I sent an email to james howard kunstler asking him to judge Curbed LA's ugliest building in LA contest and possibly contribute some eyesores to LA. while his schedule doesn't really allow him to judge the contest (although he might contribute some eyesores of his own), he sent me a really lovely email, that was quite complimentary about curbed. so I will treasure that email forever and ever.

after spending last weekend contemplating the state of contemporary suburbia in orange county, this weekend is shaping up to be slightly more urbane. olga and I attended the genart party last night. we also went to the fall party several months ago in santa monica. while I love last night's warehouse space in hollywood (it feels very brooklyn), its a tough space for a fashion show, since it lacks a runway. so rather than have a runway show, they set up individual tableaux for each designer. the problem with that is a) I'm too short to see anything and b) clothes at rest = kind of boring. clothes in motion = far more dynamic.

today I have my docenting duties at the schindler house - which I nearly forgot about it until last night. which meant I had to cancel yoga and brunch plans. The sacrifices we make for the architects we love. oh well. speaking of schindler, he got some major press this week and both the nytimes and the new yorker. the articles weren't about him per se but he got some major new york press coverage, nonetheless.

tonight there are plans afoot to make it to some of the chinatown gallery openings, but I suspect we'll never make it in time, since john and jack have arranged a dinner for 20 of their closest friends at a thai restaurant. fingers crossed, it won't be a 3 hour dinner.

posted by marissa @ 8:08 AM 4 comments

my return to orange county tits

spring break just began at USC, so to celebrate (kinda) a few of us are heading down to san clemente for the weekend. hey, some people spend their spring break in cabo or cancun with drunk co-eds and senor frog. and some of us decide to spend it with rich white golf-playing republicans adjacent to a nuclear power plant. to each their own.

I mock orange county but weekends in SC are very relaxing since they're spent at the beach and at the grill, even if overall I feel a strange sense of discomfort every time I cross the county line. and despite the presence of the strange nuclear boobs, the beaches there are actually pretty lovely. the question I am now facing: do I take my students' midterm papers with me and grade them while I'm down there or do I act irresponsibly and leave them at home?

posted by marissa @ 4:01 PM 1 comments

cnbc didn't cut me

I was on cnbc this morning talking about microsoft's marketing strategy - and of course, they chose the worst part of my interview to air. damn. at least this time I wasn't cut - I did an interview last week that I dont think ever aired because of the dow dropping 500 points. imagine that, I got bumped just because the stock market had the worst one day drop since 9/11. whatevs. I had very important opinions on sony blu-ray that the world should hear.! oh well, now you'll never know what I think of sony's strategy to drop the price on their blu-ray players. so sad.

posted by marissa @ 8:59 AM 2 comments