Coachella, Old & New

C O A C H E L L A

 

2 0 0 7

A couple of entries back, I wrote about my birthday trip to Coachella.  You can read that here.  I realize that there are so many posts about this desert oasis, yet I still feel compelled to write about my own experience.  I've always been nostalgic, and turning 30 has forced me to reflect so much more about my life. I look back fondly on how exciting and dramatic my 20s were.  I learned a lot through these experiences. About true friendships, and love.  It feels good to be 30.  I still have no idea what I am doing, but I can say that with complete confidence.  Life is good. 

2 0 0 7

2 0 1 2

2 0 0 7

 

2 0 1 2

2 0 0 7

 

 

2 0 1 2

 

Absolutely, one of the best performers there.  He played this favorite of mine and he wore gold sneakers.  We are kindred spirits, Jimmy and I.

your friend,

ava

All images  © 2007-2012 Ava Alamshah

Photographic Practices

I recently told someone that I didn't want to be a photographer.  In my heart, I knew that wasn't entirely true.  I'm not certain I can make it my career, but I know that I want to enjoy taking pictures again.  

This was taken as a study for how I want to photograph this house.  I love how the light hits the structure at a certain time, and the soft colors.  That classic brick fire place makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.  I may go back one of these beautiful spring days and capture it again, using film. 

your friend,

ava

I wonder about WONDERCON

L A C M A 

This was last Thursday, after the screening of Ralph Bakshi's Wizards.  Bakshi is one of Jeaux's biggest influences, and this was to celebrate the film's 35th anniversary release (and Jeaux's birthday).  There were so many people gathered around the now, 73 year old. Until dating a cartoonist, I had no idea the magnitude of Bakshi's influence.  Jeaux introduced me to Fritz the Cat not too long ago.  When Jeaux was a little boy, his mom rented Fritz not knowing that it was x-rated.  He thought that the animals were just tickling each other. 

We took these images in this crazy rubber/rope installation.  It kind of looks like we are in some sort of golden space forest, or at a rave. Tried to find the artist's name on the lacma website, but no luck. 

W O N D E R C O N

This was Jeaux's real birthday (St. Patrick's Day).  We were in Anaheim, and so close to Disneyland.  Such a tease to drive away from the happiest place on earth, but comic book conventions are fun, too.  In the photo below, I was pretty cranky.  It wasn't raining anymore, but we had been walking around a great deal and the crowds were starting to get to me. It was good to get some fresh air.

Trying not to look annoyed.  Hey, look at the cosplayers behind us! 

This is Jeaux and Peter Mayhew, aka Chewbacca!  Such a gentle giant.  I really wish I would have captured his hands in the photo.  They are gigantic!  It was a sobering experience for me, meeting icons from my childhood. I almost cried when seeing Mr. Mayhew, an old man now. I remembered how much I loved Star Wars growing up.  Also, he is sporting my favorite Star Wars film on his sweatshirt.  We think alike, Peter and I. 

the brothers janovsky 

Seeing Wizards for a second time was well worth it for me.  I appreciated it much, much more.  Maybe because I got to see the original pen and ink backgrounds. They were so striking, with a lot of detail.  There was so much texture and depth, and it was lovely seeing them restored.  The scenes looked so crisp and brand new.  


The C O L O R S were insane!  After the screening, Bakshi spoke and Jeaux did an illustration.  

LOOK! Signed by the amazing Ralph Bakshi!

After the q & a, I knew Jeaux would be nervous to meet the man.  I decided to head over, without hesitation.  Jeaux followed and to my surprise, Wondercon was quite the mellow experience compared to Lacma.  Most of the fans had left and it was just us along with Bakshi's son's and grandkids.  Bakshi is such a New Yorker in the best way.  Really punchy and to the point.  He is also fearless, which is a great quality. It was wonderful to see Jeaux so happy, like he had just met Santa Claus!  A while back, Jeaux was interviewed about his idol here.  He's done some lovely tribute drawings of Ralph that you can see here. 

As for my experience talking to Ralph, I can say that we both really like polaroid film.  I caught myself geeking out with Mr. Bakshi about my fuji instax, and we talked about how much we miss the square polaroids of yesteryear.   


Ava: "The colors were amazing."


Ralph: "Yeah! They had that muted effect"


Ava: "Yeah, super saturated."


In my head the whole time: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Afterwards, glancing over at Jeaux, Bakshi shook my hand and said, "Take care of him." 


And we were off, so high from that awesome experience. 

The man, himself!  Pure H A P P I N E S S

We ended the night with Bob's Big Boy.  I had a chocolate malt.  They make the best chocolate malts. xoxoxxx




your friend,


ava

LA

I love this city

Copyright Ava Alamshah, 2011. 

More Madonna Inn!

  The very regal Madonnas (Check out the accordion to her right!  I would love to find out more about their life story.)  

I wonder if Jane Mansfield ever stayed here? She would have loved these pink booths as much as I did.

Flower Power (this is on the way to the hotel pool)

*Jeaux*

  

Sprinkle on some pink sugar & Voila! (I wasn't that impressed with the cake to be honest. It was really hyped up & then when we finally ate it after breakfast, I thought "meh..it's just a vanilla cake with really sugary frosting".  I think I'm just more of a chocolate girl. It certainly looks magical, but my polaroid does not do it justice. Here's a better view from Jeaux's camera. 

"Hey is for Horses, but better for Cows"

     

MOOOOOooooooo!  (I wanted to get closer, but Jeaux was frightened for my life!) 

  

Mellow Yellow

If you look closely, that's a lil sea lion peaking out from the ripples! 

Waiting for our fish & chips!

                                        

epic

Copyright Ava Alamshah, 2011

Tim Burton

Jeaux and I have a funny thing in common that I found out a year ago when we first started dating. Both he and I were what we call, "Half Ass Goth".  Basically, we were both into Goth culture: All black clothing,  dark ruby or black lipstick, black as midnight nail polish, The Cure, but we were too chicken to go all the way with our looks. I had the imitation Doc Martin mid-calf boots, long black sweaters, fish nets and rubber bracelets, though I worried about my parent's reaction if I even thought about wearing dark eye liner and black lipstick. I hung around some people who were in those circles, but after my freshman year, I thought about going more Granny Chic. 

Jeaux was way cooler it seems. He managed to draw a wonderful sketch of Edward Scissorhands directly onto a tee-shirt of his, never smiled in photographs and listened to much better music (while I was still growing up in the 90s and trying to get out of my awkward faze, he was already past that so I had some catching up to do I suppose).

With all that said, imagine how excited we both were to find out that Tim Burton was going to showcase his art at the LACMA!  We had tickets in advance to take a CalArts tour. We finally went this past Saturday, and it was, well, overwhelming.  We ended up losing the group, which was fine with me because we were stuck behind a middle-aged CalArts alum who kept telling us how "so & so" stole his ideas and how bitter he was. He also mentioned numerous times how he shouldn't have even said anything. 

"I've said too much already."

Yeah, it was a little awkward. Besides this guy, we had the pleasure of meeting a woman in her 70s or 80s who went to CalArts later in life. I found that inspiring (its never too late after all). She was funny and loved to talk about her installations of plungers and penises. I could respect that.

There were so many people, and heavy breathers, some of them. It was tough to catch every single piece, but I'm glad we got to see his old sketches. The ones that were very interesting were the random sketches he did while bored at his job at Disney. Another favorite were his models and original pieces from "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories".

This was all good, but the most fun I had was when Jeaux and I got to mischievously touch the Angora Sweater from Ed Wood. That was our punk rock moment of the day and made me delightfully giggle. 

By the way, it IS super soft! Towards the end of the tour, it turned into the Hardrock Cafe, Universal Studios, in a way that was completely "Hollywood".

Copyright Ava Alamshah 2011

They wouldn't let us take pictures, so this is right outside the exit. They had these crazy balloon men dancing to Danny Elfman tunes. 

Later on in the evening I wanted to take Jeaux to Pizza Fusion on Sunset. I'm starting this gluten free diet and was excited to try their gluten free pizza, and pizza is Jeaux's favorite food. I have to be honest, the pizza was alright (this is coming from someone who has had the ultimate pizza from New York & Chicago). We got half pepperoni & cheese. Each slice only had a single pepperoni on it and overall the pizza was overpriced.  I'll have to come up with a good alternative or just create my own gluten free pizza one of these days. I'll keep you'll posted once I do. 

It wasn't all a loss though. I was, after all, in good company and we came up with this cute illustration while waiting. We took turns drawing each other. I'm happy with how it turned out. I can thank my boyfriend in encouraging me to draw again.

Copyright Ava Alamshah & Jeaux Janovsky 2011

your friend,

ava

Summer Stripes

This past Halloween, I decided to dress up like a stereotypical Frenchman.  I already had a beret, a scarf, my snazzy blazer....

What I really needed was a striped tee-shirt, but I was low on cash and extra low on time, so I decided to take an old white tee and have my lovely boyfriend draw some beautiful stripes with a black sharpie. 

I wore my costume proudly, complete with painted on mustache. 

(Notice "The Red Balloon" to the left of my chair.)  LOVE

Recently, I was cruising my favorite fashion blog, www.refinery29.com, and came across this:

http://www.refinery29.com/i-diy-how-to-spray-paint-a-breton-stripe-shirt?utm_source=search#slide-1

I showed it to Jeaux instantly and for a moment we felt pretty ahead of the curb (although, I'm sure we aren't the only ones who have made DIY stripe tee-shirts).  Anyway, theirs is pretty profesh looking. It gave me inspiration to start wearing mine out and about.

What do you think?

your friend,

ava

The Beginning

This is the first page from my very first diary.  I vaguely remember receiving it as a gift.  It must have been my birthday, but I don't remember for sure. I think I was in the first or second grade, so maybe 6 or 7 years old. I remember holding it and being in love with the color. Pink was my favorite color for a long time back then.  Mainly hot pink and neon pink (ah, to be young in the 90s). I gravitate more towards purples now, but I will proudly sport neon pink on my finger nails when I'm feeling sassy. It was wonderful to go back in time and read each page, wondering what I had to say at such a young age. Believe me, its not much in the beginning.

Here is a transcription: " I like toys. My name is Ava. I play with my toys. The toys that I play with is a lion named Leo. Leo is the best toy I have because he prectes (protects) me at night."

It's funny how as time progresses, life gets more complicated. I start to notice boys, and form relationships with girls.  There begins thoughts of jealousy, loneliness, adoration....

As time went on, it looks as though I would go back to old entries and add to them. Maybe I felt that my innocent entries in the past were too boring. Or maybe I wanted to add thoughts that I felt I had missed. 

"At school I like some of the boys in my class the boys names are Chris, Ryan, Ricky (Richy/Richie), Paul, and most of all Justin. He's the cutest. I think Chris is starting to like me. your friend, ava"

Notice I spelled cutest as quetiset or qutist. I highly embrace dictionaries and spell checks in my old age. 

This had to be the entry where it all started. The beginning of boys. I remember in the 5th grade when Chris, the same Chris in the entry above, told me he liked me......plus two other girls. The three "As": Ava, Alona, and Ayla. This didn't matter though because I was number one. As long as I was first on the list, I could forget that he was a little pimp. So funny what I was willing to settle for back then, but this was my first experience with having a crush. I'm happy to write that I am with the love of my life, Jeaux Janovsky, and it's only taken me five years of my dating career to find him....again (we were friends in college). He's an awesome artist and I recommend strolling through his own blog. We will be celebrating our one year anniversary at The Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. It is so wonderfully tacky, I cannot wait to document. I'll be snapping photos with my newly purchased Fuji Instax Camera ( I was able to snag it for half price online!) and will post them all for your viewing candy!

Until then...

your friend, 

ava