The installation will showcase art work from over 200 artists with the years 1940 – 1980 displayed at MOCA Grand Avenue and 1980 to the present at The Geffen Contemporary gallery.

On November 19th, you can hear Two Artists Perspectives of Los Angeles in the 70s.

Join William Leavitt and Allen Ruppersberg, both of whom are featured in Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years, for a conversation with independent curator Carole Ann Klonarides about the experience of making and presenting work in the 1970s. This event is hosted by X-TRA, Los Angeles’s longest running contemporary art journal.

The talk is free to attend.

Class sizes are limited, so you must RSVP immediately.

Today, while walking down Broadway, I saw it from a different angle. The sun hitting the sign was too perfect not to capture. (It looked better in real life, trust me.)

'Jesus Saves' from Broadway

As I walked on south, I turn around to shoot more photos of my beloved Eastern building. Imagine my surprise as I noticed the shadow of the sign on the adjacent building.

'Jesus Saves' shadow

I am not a Christian, so this is more luck of the time of day for me. But for the lady at the bus stop who saw it when I pointed it out to my husband, it seemed to mean a lot to her; like she needed it.

The festival has stuff for kids, such as face-painting and pony rides. Besides, you can’t beat $5 pumpkins. Granted, it was a bit hot today and they could have used more shaded areas, but I’m sure funnel cakes, roasted corn and $1 bottles of ice cold water will make up for that.

You can also hit up the Kellogg Farm Store for larger ($7) or smaller ($3) pumpkins. Make sure you bring a wagon or wheelbarrow. It’s a hike back to the parking lot. You can see more photos here.

******

There is also an Insect Fair going on at the Student Center (see photos).  So be sure to check that out too. Entrance to the Insect Fair is $6 adults, $4 students and children 3-12 years, 2 and under are free.

Parking: FREE
Admission to Pumpkin Festival: FREE
Pumpkins from the patch: $5 each ( beach ball size) or 5/$20
Insect Fair: $6 adults; $4 students and children 3-12 years; 2 and under are free!
Petting Zoo $1/person, $.50 for cup of food for the critters

Last weekend, we went to see the new exhibit, Race: Are We So Different? at the California Science Center. On FriendFeed, I posted some quick thoughts on what I saw, but wanted to let the exhibit soak in before I wrote on it. I do not know how much of what I saw was colored by being black or that I was raised around people from all over the world or just by the fact that I’ve lived most of my life in Los Angeles.

On my first quick walk-through of the exhibit I was overwhelmed. There is a lot of information; lots to read, several videos and interactive media to play around with. The exhibit is very American-centric and seems to be geared toward black/white or white/Asian experiences.  The information on the Science Center’s website doesn’t quite prepare you for what you will actually see.

RACE explores the science, history and personal experiences of race, helping us understand what race is and what it is not. The exhibit provides guests the opportunity to think and talk about one of our nation’s most challenging issues and encourages us to rethink our assumptions of race and human variation. Through multimedia, interactive exhibits and imagery, RACE gives guests of all ages the opportunity to think and talk about a topic that touches our lives daily.

I don’t know that the exhibit itself, is actually useful or educational. As I mentioned in my FriendFeed post, my husband (he is Eastern European) said “This exhibit should be titled ‘White People are Bad’.” I didn’t understand what he was saying and I still don’t get it. From an historical context, I guess that could be construed. I teased him saying he was getting defensive. He said, “I’m not from here, I don’t have these hang-ups.” But just from our conversation, I decided to watch the handful of white (looking) people at the exhibit.

I noticed that an older white couple walked through with looks of utter disgust on their faces. There was a lot of eyerolling from them. That was only amusing to me because they were with three little kids, clearly mixed race. Most people visiting the exhibit were Asian or Latino. When they recounted their own experience with discrimination (intended or not), many of the white people there had defensive stances.  An older black lady there also had a look of disgust on her face. She said that the exhibit made black people seem “victimized” and that she liked to think that black people contributed to American society beyond MLK and Malcom X. She thought the exhibit was trapped in the 60s.

There was a Russian couple there. They were looking at the exhibit about voices. There’s a story from a black man, who said that when he called for an apartment, he’d be told to come in to get an application. When he showed up, he said people were shocked he was black because he didn’t “sound black” over the phone. Apartments were suddenly no longer vacant. The Russian coupled doubted this. I told them my story as I can certainly relate. I’ve been told “Oh. I thought you were Japanese…or something.” I’ve had the same experience here in Los Angeles finding apartments. I used to rely on my white friends to get me applications. When we were looking for a place to live 11 years ago, I sent my husband. There was one place in Los Feliz.  I called the number outside and the lady said come in. I walked in not a minute later and she said the place had been taken. I sent my husband in 5 minutes later and he got an application. The Russian couple excused the lady. They said, “Well, black people tend not to take care of things.” I asked them how long have they lived around black people. “Never, but everyone knows this.” Of course…I was “different”.

As for Asians, I think the exhibit does a large disservice of playing into stereotypes of the “smart Asian”. And judging from the responses, it seemed many of the Asians there thought the same thing. I spoke to two young Asian girls who told me how people just expected them to be smart and the stress of that. They also talked about how since they were Filipina, people also expected them to know not only Tagalog, but Spanish too. I told them how the Filipina painter we had hired was forced to learn Spanish when she moved to New York because everyone assumed she was Puerto Rican. Living here in Southern California, I’ve watched my Middle Eastern and West Asian friends get yelled at because they didn’t know Spanish. For the most part, those two groups were largely ignored in this exhibit.

There was some interesting historical facts on Native Americans. Some very uninteresting facts on sports and stereotypes. The exhibit includes some scientific information, mostly on genetic and environmental impact. There are some tidbits on health mostly focused on black people. Perhaps, if the exhibit room could have been larger, there may have been more interesting information, like what is found on the website.

I want to know what other people think of the exhibit. Or even if you’re interested in seeing the exhibit.

*****

RACE: Are We So Different?
October 3 – December 31, 2009

California Science Center
700 Exposition Park Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90037

Join thousands of animal lovers at the 2009 Wiggle Waggle Walk to help the more than 12,000 animals Pasadena Humane Society & SPCA cares for each year. Gather your family, friends, co-workers and canine companions. Collect donations and enjoy a scenic walk, jog or stroll of 1 to 3 miles around the Rose Bowl.

All fundraising information can be found on their website.

The Grand Avenue Partners, the association of organizations responsible for the annual Grand Avenue Festival, have decided to place the 2009 festival on hiatus and direct their collective efforts on assessing needs and possibly re-inventing the festival for 2010 and beyond.

Many of the Grand Avenue-based arts and cultural institutions featured in the Festival will continue to offer low-cost or free programming on Saturday, September 26, 2009 as well as offer ongoing community programs throughout the year.

A shame, to be sure. It’s is always nice to be able to wander Grand Avenue and take in performances from The Colburn School on over to the Cathedral. There were activities for kids, from creating art to making music and of course, all the food.

In fairness, last year’s event wasn’t exactly a fun time.  It was ridiculously hot, but no shade available. This led to the indoor events being overcrowded.  Many vendors neglected to show up, so there were many empty booths. Not to mention that despite all of the food vendors, there was no place for people to sit and eat. I can only hope that they event organizers are focusing on fixing these problems.

As for events this weekend, a quick glance at the calendars show only paid events. I’ve contacted people at some of the facilities and no one has any knowledge of free or ‘low-cost or free programming on Saturday, September 26, 2009′. I’ll update once I get more information.

The Hellenic Festival at  St. Anthony Greek Orthodox Church runs September 18 – 20 and has a jam-packed schedule of shows, tours and exhibitions.  Admission is $3 and children 12 and under are free. Street parking is available. Despite being at a smaller church, the Pasadena Greekfest seems much bigger, perhaps because there’s a lot more particapatory activities than there are shopping booths. For what it’s worth, the bonus of the Pasadena Greekfest is that the food is cheaper and definitely better than at the LA Greekfest.

You can see more of my photos of the LA Greekfest on my flickr page.

The exit onto Eastern Ave. (not seen in the photo) is the worse. If you get gas at the channel parallel to Eastern Ave., chances are you’ll be stuck there for a long time because of cars blocking you both the exit there and the first egress on Huntington.

LA County Fair

It’s that time of year again. The 2009 LA County Fair took advantage of the Labor Day weekend to open its doors. Opening Day is always exciting because you get to see everything so fresh. The fair will run until October 4th, so you have plenty of time to pick the best day to visit.

The Fair is offering $1 admission Sept. 5 – 7 between 10am and 1pm.  That means, tomorrow is your last chance to take advantage of this deal. Throughout the park, there are other cost-saving deals for the Labor Day Weekend, such as $1 fountain drinks between 1pm and 4pm and $1 carnival rides between 4pm and 7pm.

This year, we spent a lot less time eating and drinking and more time walking the fairgrounds. I’ve only missed 3 years since 1984, and used to go up to 3 times a week in college. This was the first time I had realized that there is an NHRA museum and a train museum run by the LA chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society on site. Be sure to check them out. The NHRA museum has  $1 entrance and with so much to look at, including the original Batmobile from the 1966 Batman TV show, it’s well worth it.

Also, worth catching is the Jursassic Planet exhibit (I have video in my Flickr photos linked below). It’s educational and just plain cool watching the dinosaurs move. If you have young ones, they may want to stay outside the hall. My three year old did not enjoy being in there and most little kids did a lot of screaming. As always, the new baby animals are a treat as are all the wonderful insects and reptiles on display in three different sections of the fairgrounds this year. The Home & Garden theme this year is Gateway to Africa and even I have to admit to being impressed. This is the first year in a long, long time that the theme was unified and tight, from the greenhouse all the way to the top of the hill.

So, wear some comfy shoes, get some sunscreen and have fun at the Fair. If you want to live vicariously for the moment, you can visit my flickr set.

LA Country Fair
1101 W. McKinley Ave.,
Pomona, CA 91768