Food Party: Green Screen Cookies

If Julia Child and Pee-Wee Herman created a cooking show together, it would have probably looked a lot like IFC's new series Food Party.

Food Party is a mind-bending, non-reality cooking show with Thu Tran as your hostess, a cast of unruly puppets as culinary aides, and a cavalcade of fictitious celebrities as surprise dinner guests. Shot on location in a Technicolor cardboard kitchen as well as other foreign and exotic cardboard locations, each episode will or will not instruct you on how to prepare wild gourmet multi-course meals with ingredients you probably have on hand in your kitchen already, such as pretzel rods, eggs, narwhal lungs, bizarre plot twists, secret ingredients, and pizza. After all, you never know who might show up for dinner.

Virtual Homelessness

I'm hooked on Robin Burkinshaw's blog Alice and Kev. The blog follows the life of two characters she created in the latest Sims game. Burkinshaw created the father and daughter pair, "moved them in to a place made to look like an abandoned park, removed all of their remaining money, and then attempted to help them survive without taking any job promotions or easy cash routes." Kev is mean-spirited, hot tempered and inappropriate. He also loves tormenting Alice, his daughter. Alice is nice, weak-willed and generally unlucky. Burkinshaw updates the blog daily as Alice and Kev go on with their difficult virtual lives. Their story is surprisngly heart-breaking and sometimes purely strange.

MJ: The Ballet

My favorite Michael Jackson tribute.

(via I *Heart* You)

Crips and Bloods: Made in America

The latest doc from Stacey Peralta (Dogtown and Z Boys and Riding Giants) focuses on the personal stories of two of the country's most notorious street gangs, the Bloods and the Crips.

Made in America explores the history of gangs in Los Angeles - the first gangs were started as "social clubs" for young black men that weren't allowed to join traditional organizations like the Boy Scouts. Peralta also examines the evolution from the Black Power movement of the 1960s and early '70s to today's self-destructive war between the Bloods and the Crips - the decades-long battle has claimed more than 15,000 lives.

Documentary Magazine interviewed Peralta about the film.

Finally!

I've been a bad blogger. I'm sorry. I don't have much of an excuse other than I've been preoccupied with unemployment. This week will continue with regular posts.

Photo by Marten Lange. I recently took a cruise up the west coast - from LA to Vancouver - and the sea looked like this for the entire trip. So beautiful.

Green Porno

Isabella Rossellini is back in another season of the weird and beautifully crafted, yet scientifically accurate, Green Porno series for the Sundance Channel. Last season focused on the sex lives of insects. In season two, Isabella Rossellini explains the reproductive habits of marine mammals.

(via Swiss-Miss)

A little color

It looks like someone got a tan just in time for summer.

Hello Weekend!

I hope your weekend is filled with lots of art and friends.

(photo via smosch)

From the back

Lately I've been really into reverse portraits. I first saw them on Cup of Jo. (Where so many great things are brought to my attention.) Perhaps I like them because they are so unexpected. Or maybe it's because I'm forced to fill in the blank. The above portraits are by Marjaana Kella and the bird portraits are by Audrey Cooregan.

Tilahun Gessesse

Tilahun Gessesse, known as "The Voice" of Ethiopia, passed away last week at the age of 69. He died of a heart attack en route to the hospital with his wife. Gessesse came to become one of the most popular pop singers during Ethiopia's "Golden Age" in the 1960's. He endeared himself to the nation by raising money for the victims of the famines of the 1970's and '80's. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Addis Ababa University in appreciation for his contribution to Ethiopian music, and he received a lifetime achievement award from the Ethiopian Fine Art and Mass Media Prize Trust.

I first heard Tilahun Gessesse about a year ago on an Ethiopian '60's pop mix. His voice is enchanting and emotive, check it out...

Hello Weekend!

There's a lot to do this weekend - more birthday celebrations, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, and Joshua Bell at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Have a great weekend!

(photo via ffffound!)

More incredible gift wrapping from Sam. This was one of my birthday gifts. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo - I forgot my digital camera so we had to make do with Sam's iphone.