One of the reasons I always wanted to move to a large city like Los Angeles was to have the opportunity to immerse myself in the local art and music scene. Well, that hasn't exactly happened even though I've lived in the LA metropolitan area for 2 years, 1 month and 5 days.But I have all sorts of reasons why I haven't gotten more involved. My career, for example, has been my main focus since the move. I've discovered that job hunting can be an extrememly time-consuming process. But three jobs and countless days of pavement pounding have payed off and I think that I'm doing pretty well right now. Then there is the acclimation process, getting used to the locals and their (bad) driving habits, the hateful LA and OC freeway system, learning the ins and outs of beach culture and the gruelling exploration of Disneyland. I'm not even mentioning how much effort is required to learn the art and skill of driving back and forth to Big Bear every other weekend in the winter. And hey - it takes a lot of time and energy to learn how to surf.
But this past weekend, in an effort to get back to my art school roots, Larry and I hopped in Eric's Jaguar (I'm so California now) to go see the Robert Rauschenberg exhibit at MOCA. I absolutely love Pop Art, and since Rauschenberg is generally considered a huge influence to that movement (among many others), I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity. The exhibit consisted entirely of his influential and intricate 'combine' pieces, and it was by far the largest collection of his work that I have ever seen.
I'm a post-Rennaisance man, so the rest of MOCA's collection of modern and contemporary was just as incredible. After seeing numerous other works by Rothko, Oldenburg, Warhol and Lichtenstein, my mental hard-on needed some satisfaction.
What I wanted to do was grow a goatee, find some horn-rimmed glasses, buy some reefer, purchase an entirely black outfit and go to a coffee house.But we went to The Grove instead. Oh well - maybe next time after I see the David Hockney exhibit...or the Damien Hirst exhibit...or...
Another source of my recent need of all-things-artsy was an Adobe seminar that I attended last week.
When I quit DJing a few years ago, I had done a lot of work with audio software. I also did a lot of video production as I worked on my first degree in Communications. As I watched the demos on all of Adobe's video and audio editing software, I was completely amazed at how many advances had been made - especially in the audio category - in just the past few years. As I wiped the drool from my chin at the end, I immediately wanted to go purchase the new Mac that I've been eyeing over the past month.
So my problem now - as it has been all my life - is too figure out which interest to tackle first. This problem is a good one to have, and I know that as soon as a solid idea surfaces, i'll be off and running. But I just really want to create something that I can be proud of, and have some fun with the process. And for me, the hard part has always been getting started.
But I think I need to get some surfing in first to....uh....gather my thoughts.