The Mystery that is L.A.

The week before last I went to L.A. for work. Then last week I injured my eyeball and could not blog about my trip. It was very sad. But now I am all better and hear to tell you that Los Angeles seen from the ground--by which I mean what is, in my view, the only way to see a city and start to get your fingers into it, your head around it: on foot and on public transit (which, of course, in L.A. where the car is king, is an astonishing and apocryphal notion)--is a rather fascinating and mysterious place, a place of well-hidden treasures and treasures hiding in plain sight, all separated by miles and miles of big fat nothing (which you are of course just meant to whisk past in your automobile); a place of a million tiny villages, each their own villagers who love to talk about how they never go to any of the other villages; a place that will annoy you and delight you all within the space of the same minute. Here are a few of the things I saw there (and that, it strikes me, I could have seen virtually nowhere else) that delighted me.

Floor Picnic

This is the picture I mentioned a while back, that reminds Bill of photos from his own childhood--action! projects! a hint of cheerful chaos! Because sometimes you just want to spread the contents of the sewing box all over the floor and then eat a cookie, right?

Art Happy

Here's a little digest of some of the artwork that's been pleasing me lately. As usual, there seem to be common themes running all throughout all over the place: an illustrative quality, and a cheery autumnal color palette, semi-wild creatures and scenes of playful activity. Huh.

Above: Ashley Percival

Holly Frean

Elizabeth Baddeley

Seona Hong

The Second Installment in the New Poem Series About the Spring of 2006

March 6, 2006
On Saturday

we went wine-tasting with friends
up in the Russian River

It was great fun as always
and also as always
a bombardment to the senses

In addition to far many more and more subtle
gradations of flavor and scent
than one is generally used to parsing

there is also an overload to the vision
The way the light falls into shadowy barns
and onto rolling bottle-colored hillsides

Mostly light and shadow really
and numerous shades of green


image source is here

Bobble-Headed Art Book Editor Aquires Project from Multi-Hat-Wearing Idiots

Oh my goodness, have I seriously never shared these illustrations here before? The ones where my beloved authors husband-and-wife writer/illustrator team Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr of Idiot's Books caricature themselves, their agent, and me, and tell the story of how they came to create the Chronicle Books version of their awesome originally-self-published tome of wonder 10,000 Stories? Seriously? Major major oversight on my part! Yikes. You can read the whole story in all its hilarity and glory here, but today on the Cabinet I'm just featuring a few of my favorite highlights.

Above, Matthew and I shake hands on our deal (this is an astral projection handshake since, dear friends though we are, we've never actually met in person) (I think in the original story he's looking up lovingly at either his wife or the giant of industry that is Chronicle, but here I like to imagine he's admiring my blog header).

Like most self-employed artists and writers, Matthew and Robbi wear many hats.

They work really hard.

This is what it looks like when a book editor buys a project from a book agent. Obviously.

And this is how we celebrate.

This is how Robbi celebrates.

 

Matthew and Robbi also have a whole bunch of kids. 

Three, Oh It's a Magic Number

This is just to say that there is: No. Scientific. Evidence. Whatsoever. that only children are more lonely/selfish/maladjusted than their counterparts with siblings. None. It's a stereotype that goes unchallenged and that people feel perfectly comfortable hauling out as if it were fact, when in fact it's anything but. The only study that has ever found a difference has to do with sad feelings in adult children during the illness of an ageing parent (it is, in fact, easier to endure that hardship with company than alone). The rest is so much bull-pucky. I'll spare you an endless rant, but if you're interested you can read more about this here.

Image above immortalizes the classic lyric "A man and a woman had a little baby, yes they did, there were three in the family, and that's a magic number" from Three is the Magic Number on the old Schoolhouse Rock educational show.

Drawing a Blue Sky and a Blue Ocean

Bill says this polaroid reminds him of childhood photos he's seen of me--sitting quietly and intensely absorbed in some quiet creative pursuit. Next week I'll show you the one he says reminds him of childhood pictures from his own family.