Happy Fourth of July

Today I got to be an honorary American. the best part of having my nails painted like this.. I can wave my fingers and say I'm waving a flag. Lame I know, but fun never the less. I even recieved a compliment on how awesome my nails were from the checkout lady at walmart. Today we went to a pool party that was kind of like a pot luck. except I think there was more beer than there was food, and the boys had brought 6 pounds of meat..


After it got dark at about 8:30-9ish (weirdest thing about LA. back home it doesn't get dark until 10-10:30ish), we traveled to another house which seemed to be quite the effort after all the beer was gone. We climbed onto the roof and set up to watch the fireworks. Because LA is so big, each community is considered a city so each city was doing their own fireworks. being on the roof we could see about 4 fireworks shows at a time. this was pretty cool, I just wish they were closer to where we were. And yes, the photo above is one I took of fireworks..

So now that I have been here for one week and three days.. I am starting to majorly crave some sushi. I am not thinking I need to pig out or anything but a roll or two would be delightful. Here is a "spicy tuna roll" done Yardhouse style. It is edemame beans and cucumber for the bottom layer, then covered in seared ahi tuna (aloott of tuna, i couldnt finish it all) and then covered in guacamole. wasabi soysauce around the edges and the red rooster hot sauce (dont ask me how to spell it). Good, yes. Feeding the crave? no.

Don't Just Scroll Past this Video

If you havent already watched this.. watch it.

If you have already watched this.. watch it again.

Remember, Alex is a classically trained ballerino.

(Video may not work, click to be redirected to the video on youtube)

El Tipiacs

If you ever travel to LA, this is a place to go to. There is always a line outside, but it is worth the wait.
Always order a Horcheta (milk and Cinnamon).
and come with a large appetite. The portions are Huge, but makes for delicious left overs.
My Dad ordered the Manuel special.. They have a challenge if you can finish this you get a T-shirt and a spot on the wall of fame. My Dad had no intention of finishing this, he knew it would make great breakfast in the morning.
I ordered the Okie de Pollo. Not quite as large as my dad's but still pretty huge (on man vs. food i believe they said it weighed two pounds). Amazing. but still had to take half of it home.

Finally, a Name

Yesterday the cousin and I went to the LACMA Museum, it was so amazing. I have been to museums before, but this was the first time i had been to one that was more modern. I got to see works by so many people we studied in Art History, dating back to the bauhaus and even some of my favorite pop artists. It was interesting to see some of the textiles mis-labled (the plain weave linen was neither linen or a plain weave). The most exciting part by far was the Japanese Pavilion. They even had a special exhibit on Utagawa. Not my favorite Japanese print artist but was still awesome to see. When descending the spiral ramp we got to see many scrolls and then there was one that stopped my cousin and I. it is colligraphy for Snow, Moon, Flower. When put together it is Setsugetsuka "a timeless Japanese poetic phrase symbolizing three of the four seasons (winter, autumn, spring). Here, each character is written in black ink, in archaic Chinese style" (quoted from the plaque). Now i need to learn to pronounce it properly. However this seems to embody what alot of my show is about. Seasons, atmosphere, poetic movement. we saw it, and it was just like.. This is It

Mark's Bar Mitzvah

so this entire weekend was devoted to my cousin Mark who just turned 13. friday we went to service and then dinner. saturday we went to service which took up the entire morning and then a lunch at the temple, had a few hours for a break and then off to the party. Mann Jewish people know how to party. start off with family pictures and the cousins fooling around with taking pictures and then the party motivators come in and keep all the children and three twenty-somethings dancing. barely even stopping to eat dinner we did choreography, running games (after the first few rounds i took my heels off for my safety and the safety of those around me). my cousin got hit on by tommy (11 years old) who thought she was 14, my other cousin(who is older than me and V) got i.d. right after the two of us ordered wine. and the three of us got invited to party with the motivators after the party at a place called whiskey. we didnt go though. so sunday is the after party pool party, we ate leftover food chatted swam in the pool (more like floated on a floatation device) and took naps around the pool.
The cousin and I. Here is the dress i had been working on. it has my computer chip design hand-printed on silk. it is one shouldered and pleated/darted around the neck

Th walls were upholstered. As soon as we stepped of the elevator i was like "the walls!!". It blew my mind!

Justin Beiber: Strumming my Pain with his Fingers

"this song is about Justin Beiber, too bad he wasnt around when it was made"
I am now in LA. and a mix of Justin Beiber and the Fugees came to this statement. Other than the not-so-fond of flying and passing about four car accidents every time we drive, things are going smoothly. Will admit though, the lack of shoulder checking really freaks me out. First meal: chipotle. I have been craving this small mexican chain restaurant, but this was just a snack. For dinner a friend hideki, who works at the boiling crab got us in for dinner. The average wait to get into this place at dinner time is one to two hours. Here you order seafood by the pound which is cooked in a bag with seasonings and put on the table. There is no plates or utensils, you use your hands and be prepared to get dirty. I didnt hesitate and my hands were bright orange by the end. I also developed a crushing technique when I needed to break into the hard shell of the crawfish. This little suckers shell is hard to break and ends up being alot of work for a small piece of meat, but not when you crush them!

After dinner I found this awesome vogue from taiwan. The guy seemed very confused that I was ok that it wasnt in english.
Today was the first part of my cousins bar mitzvah so we ate quite a bit for dinner at vactorio's. But the best part of my day was doing the hem stitch on my dress for tomorrow while putting my feet in the pool!
oh yes. I bought a new camera. hence the usage of more photos than usual. I got the photos back from the shoot for some of my jackets. I have gone through them and narrowed them down to the best ones. will post those maybe on sunday.

So Much to Do, So Much Rain.

Yesterday was one of the busiest days I have had in quite some time. a few days ago AW called to cancel my shoot in the morning, so I planned to make a brand new piece for the jacket shoot.  I designed and printed a computer chip print on a silk satin sandwash (my favorite silk to work with).  Then wednesday morning I get a call from AW, they had a model no-show and needed me to come in. After the shoot was finished I hurried home to work on the jacket and make up for lost time. a few hours later I whipped off to kensington to meet up for the calgary fashion interview.   It went well I wasnt really too sure what kind of questions would be asked but it kind of covered everything, from my inspirations to what I see in the future, to modeling, art, hip hop, dance, fashion, everything.  Run through the rain back to my car to go home to put the finishing touches on the jacket and pick up some last minute accessories for the shoot.  

9:30 pm rolls around and Im off to fish creek park to scout locations. I then learn that it is actually closing and Im being kicked out. great.  After figuring out some new arrangements we wait for all the models to arrive so that they can follow me to the new location.  We waited, and waited and i had one model no-show.  this made me a little upset and I felt even more disorganized even though i had planned so much and kept being thrown curve balls.  The shoot however went amazing.  The models were fantastic and bared the cold and the little bit of rain that was still lingering around and we managed to pull shots that was exactly what i was looking for. even if we needed to drive my car up the curb a little and use my headlights for lighting.  Once I have these photos, I think this blog will get a little re-vamping. 

Exciting stuff.