Talking Trash & Daily Dumps

As the final piece in Inhabitat's Green Home 101 series, I just wrote a story on trash and I now officially feel like I stink.  It is pretty phenomenal how much crap one person (ie, me or you) can create and discard throughout the course of a day.  I know Brian and I still throw out way more than we should despite our best efforts to recycle and buy bulk.  It really just takes planning and forethought and a healthy dose of environmental guilt (which according to the Washington Post is going strong).  With all this trash talk, I'm re-inspired to re-organize and de-clutter our house this weekend.  From top to bottom, I'm hereby establishing a new system.  If only we could get one of these Daily Dump clay composters from India here in LA.  I so, so, so want one...

 

Loitokitok Bound

So November 10th came around and my intrepid mother is finally off to Loitokitok, Kenya (near Mt. Kilimanjaro) with the Peace Corps.  I dropped her off at the @sscrack of dawn this morning.  Straight from LA to Kenya via Philly then Amsterdam.  It's almost like sending her off to military service with all the rules and regulations and packing restrictions.  At least they don't require a uniform or force volunteers to learn how to make wrinkle-less beds.  With the current economy, I can't blame anyone for taking a two-year guarantee.  I might consider public service, endoctrination, and eating beetles for that.  At any rate, I can't wait to visit her next year.

Opportunity Green 2008

I covered Opportunity Green this past weekend for Inhabitat, with my fellow Inhabitant Evelyn Lee.  The conference brought together a great cast of thought leaders in an attempt to bridge the gap between business and design, industry and innovation, money and ideas.  Here's a post to our first story and more to come later in the week.

Barack-the-Vote 2008

(The vote heard 'round the world - when California came in and the election was called)

Like most free-thinking people this Election Day, I was thrilled to be part of a defining moment in history.  We're all super heroes for throwing off the yoke of eight years of fear-mongering and incompetent leadership.  Brian and I somehow avoided the long lines and voted in no time at the local elementary school.   Kids seem to get what's happening even if adults don't.   It feels great to finally be inspired, to feel like my vote may actually have counted for something, to think that people are voting with their brains rather than their bibles for a change.  Who knows what the next few months will bring, but I'm hopeful.  And I'm glad to have shared the moment with close friends.

Superhero mural at Allessandro Elementary School/Deep Reflections by Little Kids/Brian's un-intentionally super-patriotic shirt/Pure unadulterated joy!

Perfect Palms Prefab

As part of Inhabitat's new effort to generate more video content, I visited Marmol + Radziner's Palm House in Venice, CA last week.  Leo Marmol was there to give us a personal tour of what will soon be his new home.  This modular prefab is sophisticated and sustainable.  Most of the sustainability comes from the efficiency with which it was built, but many of the materials have sustainable traits as well.  The thing that I noticed most was how little one notices one's neighbors when inside it.  Despite the expansive glass walls and its proximity to bustling street life and neighbors, the Palms House is an intensely private and serene space.  Too bad that peace comes with such a price.  Maybe one day....Unfortunately my iPhone shots barely do it justice so for an inside peek at the house, check out the full interview with Leo in the coming weeks on Inhabitat.

Art in August

This brings us up to August, I believe.  In homage to Creative Intelligence's original Cultural Hookie Day, a friend and I stopped work early today to go check out two different restaurants and two different art openings.  Nothing like a quadruple dose of culture in one night!  (Yup.  Food + wine count as culture in my book.)  After nibbling at both Sila Bistro and Rush Street (which are both sound, but not enough to swoon about), we headed to Royal/T's to the "All of This is Melting" opening in Culver City.  The art world may scoff at Susan Hancock as an "art market rookie" who throws money about without even remembering the names of the pieces she's bought, but if she brings attention to art & artists that people find interesting, how is that bad?  The show was packed so I wasn't the only one who liked the idea of states of change.  But then again, I don't know anything about art.  My favorite piece of the night was the giant blue phallus.  (Just kidding - it was the giant puppy.)  It probably helps that Royal/T is so surreal - part tea house, part gallery, part design shop, part japanime dream sequence.

When we got kicked out, we headed downtown to the LA Art Girls Biennial Fair.  My friend Marjan had a few projects showing, only one of which I caught before someone jacked part of an art installation and the gallery had to shut down early.  I guess everyone thought the junkie running away with the DVD player was performance art.  Fave of the night?  It's a toss up between the abstract yarn web and the very spankable unicorn.  I feel wholly enriched and more cultured now.

de LaB - Neutra Fundraiser

Another amazing highlight in July was the successful fundraiser that de LaB threw with The Architect's Newspaper.  We had a great turn out of over 100 people and we raised almost $3000 for the NeutraVDL house.  Thanks to all the people and all the sponsors who helped make the party possible.  I've never organized a fundraiser before, but it was actually really fun.  Mostly, thanks to the amazing photographer Adam Latham who made the house and everyone in it look so incredibly sexy!  To see more photos, check out our de LaB pages on Alissa's great site or on Facebook.