Cookout, Art

May 9, 2003

Alex gave me a call, late in the day at work. He invited me over for some grilled fish, and to go see a gallery type art event. I showed up at his place (finally rode my bike again), and waited a bit for him and Linda to arrive. Turns out, they were in a car accident, and were delayed a good hour plus. The two of them seem embarassed that things weren’t "ready" or "in order," but to be honest… it was a lot of fun helping them get things ready. Linda and I worked on getting the charcoals roaring, and Dave showed up with a salad a bit later on.

Tori, one of Alex’s friends, showed up, and we all had a really nice meal of salmon, asparagus, polenta (sp?), and veggies. Awesome!

And Alex has this courtyard area by his place, which is absolutely perfect for cookouts. I see more of these when summer kicks in. :)

Afterwards, we all packed into Dave’s car and went to some warehouse for the Stray Show.

This is the view, first walking in. The place is freakin’ massive.

A shot of how high the ceilings are, and how big this place really is.

A side exhibit where a woman (her face painted in pink camouflage) helped people aim a paintball gun at Hello Kitty targets.

This was an installation piece, and I wish I would have written down the woman’s name who set this up. The whole time, I didn’t do a good job of getting artist names and whatnot… I tried to keep my picture taking at a minimum, figuring that most of the artists would get touchy with people taking pictures of their shit.

I made it a point to ask permission, for almost every shot. I’m polite that way. :|

This is the same installation piece (above), but below the white ruffles.

Ok. This thing… was just the best thing EVER. I don’t even know how to describe its beauty.

Needless to say, it was adorned with a ton of little doll men who had their pants down. Each man was mechanized, and would blow bubbles by dipping a stick, and then bringing it up to its bum.

The entire thing is remote controlled, and the "driver" can actually move the entire structure (which is on wheels). The lights blink on and off when the bubbles are activated, and the globes spin.

This thing fucking RAWKS.

On an even cookier note, I talked with the guy who made this (Nick). A bit later on, I see Michael, who helps do maintenance work for all the building that Ted (my landlord) owns. He’s talking with Nick, and the three of us get into a good conversation. As it turns out, Nick used to do exactly what Michael is doing now – working as the "fixit" guy for Ted. I found it a really quirky, interesting place to be… especially since Nick was one of the few artists that I spoke with while at the show.

I liked Nick a lot, and am in awe of the bubble piece he made. I’d love to watch him work some time, and try to learn from his mechanical prowess.