A Day in LA: Washington Boulevard Art Concert

2010-03-07T12:51:00.001-08:00

Sarah Ibrahim -- Piangero, la sorte mia...

2009-10-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

A Day in LA: Washington Blvd Art Concert from sarahmariececelia on Vimeo.

two ladies, reading

2009-10-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

We arrived and set up around four. People came by bike, foot, and motorcycle, and we began. Katie read two pieces from Vergangenheitsbewältigung, her zine. I read from Jet Set Desolate.

I decided that morning to wear a very low-cut top, because I was interested in being conspicuously performative. Performing a character in the text, not myself. The selection I read was about Lena losing her virginity, and coming to terms with the implications many years later.

Noted: the interplay of gender and triangulation.

Two women reading. Men watching. We each read twice.

Both selections told of uneasy straight relationships, closing.

Katie's three ended in two. Ladies.

Meal Between Two

2009-10-12T23:52:00.000-07:00

Paul Pescador
Meal Between Two

I will setup a small table that will hold a large meal on the adjacent sidewalk of Washington Blvd. The meal will consist of soup, a side dish, main course, and dessert, which I will I prepare myself. The food will be placed in serving dishes and serving utensils with available plates and silverware. The table will contain no directions or descriptions, leaving it up to the public to choose how they should respond to the work. The table will remain in place for the period of one hour, then it will be moved to a different location on Washington Blvd, this action will repeat for the length of the event.

Abstraction at Work

2009-10-12T21:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who stopped by Abstraction at Work yesterday. As planned, the site-specific performance/installation took place at an abandoned lot on Washington Boulevard between Landmark and National from 9 am. to 6pm. Cars honked. Artists and puzzled pedestrians --including a share of canines-- inquired about the work in progress, activating lines of communication. Others had their eyes on automatic pilot or in sync with their Ipods. Artistic labor was undifferentiated from street marking, becoming visible only after a few hours, as abandoned pavement lines found themselves in colorful company.

--Mariángeles Soto-Díaz

Timelapse Video - The Writing is on the Wall

2009-10-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who contributed to our wall! Here's the timelapse from yesterday.

http://www.meghannmccrory.com/wall.html

The Neighborhood Network Watch: Wardriving on Washington Blvd

2009-10-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

Members of the Network Identification and Collection Division (NICD) went ahead and conducted a wardrive from Whittier to the Mid City area of Los Angeles later in the afternoon. A total of 261 wireless networks were found. 47 with no encryption, 160 with weak and easily crackable WEP encryption, and 54 with strong WPA encryption.

To learn more about the Neighborhood Network Watch please visit www.dhsnnw.org and http://emerymartin.net/interventions/the-neighborhood-network-watch/

I was just thinking about you

2009-10-12T14:58:00.001-07:00

oh, there you are

i don't know how to log in to the blog

2009-10-12T09:26:00.001-07:00

Hi Stephen: I'm writing a blog post below.

Trader Joe's Intervention Results

My project for the Washington Blvd Road Concert was both a kind of art-for-everyone and a kind of intervention of public space. I made small string-bound paper booklets (3x4 inches) titled "Fig" and "Egg" which contained text describing the special properties figs and eggs have that might help you learn to fly. As I wanted these books to appear authorless--and therefore possibly true, or earnestly believed in--I did not put my name on the books. I chose Trader Joe's as my location because of the public foot traffic and because people are accustomed to being asked for money/time/etc. there. I wanted to stop people in a place where they are accustomed to being stopped, but instead of asking them for something, offering to give them something. I stood outside the entrance, holding out books to Trader Joe's customers and asking, "Would you like some information about (figs/eggs)?"

About a quarter to a third of people said no. It made me a little sad how quick people are to reject. I wondered if I would have said no.

Another quarter to a third took the things from my hand without looking.

About half seemed excited; aware that they were receiving an unordinary object.

I think the authorlessness worked; a few people asked where the text came from. To these, I said I wrote it. I hope to have a better response if I do this again, but I'm also hoping that most people who didn't ask also are unsure where the text comes from. I was surprised in general by how much people believed what they were reading. The language is deliberately playful--it almost asks you not to trust it. The information is often entirely made up, but even when it's research-based, it's very filtered through me. But I still heard people saying things like, "Gross! I can't believe wasps tunnel into the fig!" This is true, actually, they do. I think. One person asked if my skewed Adam-and-Eve myth was true. I shrugged and told him I wasn't there.

I realized partway through handing out that Fig is pretty overtly sexual and also uses the word "fuck." As a verb. My first reaction was to stop handing these to people with children, but then I realized that people with children know about fucking. I tried to stop worrying about offending people and hand them whichever booklet I pulled out first.

Some favorite conversations:

me: Would you like some information about the fig?

dude: Which fig?

(I show him booklet)

dude: All figs?!

(I nod)

(dude cracks up, takes booklet).

me: Would you like some information about the egg?

lady with a bunch of kids: Sure. What, are they bad for you now?

me: No, no. This is pro-egg.

me: do you like figs?

person: what's a fig?

me: oh. here. you need this.

At one point, some guys from a local/internet/something radio station came and interviewed me and videotaped me reading outside the Trader Joe's, which drew some onlookers. They called the books "poetry" and me an "artist" which made me feel kind of outed, but also happy to be recognized for a few minutes as not just another possibly insane person. They somehow legitimized what I was doing in a way that was exactly not the point, but they came right at the end which was sort of perfect timing.

I handed out over 60 booklets. I hope these things: 1) That people take them home and read them and are surprised by what's inside. Especially that it has no intentional political agenda/place to send money/actual nutritional information. 2) That people wonder about the origins/intentions/truthfulness of these and have good conversations. 3) That people who read these find their next fig (or egg)-eating experience more interesting in some way. 4) That people's expectations are expanded or shifted, however slightly or briefly.

Yay road concert!!

"Wind Report": The wind was too strong on Washington Blvd.

2009-10-12T01:23:00.001-07:00

"Wind Report": The wind was too strong on Washington Blvd.

The Original Plan @ Washington Blvd + Wade St

11th of October Sunday at 5:30, it was so windy and the balloon kept getting blown down in the middle of the intersection.

So, I moved to Wade st, let the balloons fly and listened to the wind blowing sound from the can.

Photo: taken by Bree Yenalavitch.

--
Sojung Kwon
www.kwonsojung.com
www.planningayear.com

Vergangenheitsbewältigung zines still available! Fun for the whole family!!!

2009-10-12T01:11:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I read and distributed my zine today at the Washington Blvd. Art Concert. I have a bunch of leftover zines which I'd like to try to get out to you guys, if you're interested. [recall project here.] Sadly I am charging for them ($1 + shipping, which is $1 domestic or $2 international.) I'm only doing this to cover printing costs, which were far higher than I expected, and it's still pretty cheap.

NNW L.A. Network Identification and Collection Division (NICD) in Action on Washington Blvd

2009-10-11T23:30:00.000-07:00

Meeting up in front of the First Fundamental Bible Church (FFBC) @ 11000 Washington Blvd, Whittier, CA.

Neighborhood Network Watch (NNW) L.A. Chapter Network Identification and Collection Division (NICD) member J.R. Jones, equipped with Dell Mini 9, Quickertek Hi-Gain USB WiFi Adapter, and KisMac (open source wireless network discovery and penetration software).

Matthew Muro, a nearby resident and also a member of the L.A. Chapter's NICD.

Starting up a scan for wireless networks in the vicinity.

Matthew Muro points out the direction the networks are in to J.R. Jones.

Audrey Chan and Matthew Muro on the hunt for more networks.

In all 47 networks were found, with 5 unencrypted, 34 encrypted with the weak easily crackable WEP encryption, and 8 encrypted with the stronger WPA encryption scheme.

To learn more about the Neighborhood Network Watch please visit www.dhsnnw.org and http://emerymartin.net/interventions/the-neighborhood-network-watch/

Some Tap Dancing on Washington Blvd

2009-10-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

To see more work from Audrey Chan please visit www.audreychan.net.

A Day In LA: Washington Blvd & Sycamore: Drivers & Santa Clause

2009-10-11T22:37:00.000-07:00

From A Day in LA: Washington Boulevard Art Concert

Janet Sarbanes reading "The Ballad of Bud Long"

2009-10-11T22:16:00.001-07:00

River Heights

2009-10-11T20:03:00.001-07:00

--
http://www.akinacox.com

Clownin' on Washington Blvd

2009-10-11T19:18:00.000-07:00

small change

2009-10-11T18:53:00.000-07:00

at about ten to 3, I set a penny down on a curb in the small park on the nw corner of washington & normandie

2009-10-11T18:28:00.000-07:00

Jennifer styperk is making a caricature poem of me right now. Close to the beach in venice.

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2009-10-11T17:52:00.001-07:00

Samantha hands out informational poetry about eggs and figs at trader joe's

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oh I was just thinking about you

2009-10-11T17:25:00.001-07:00

oh there you are

2009-10-11T16:57:00.001-07:00

Andrea lambert just read

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Plein Air: Nude portraits by Austin Young on the Washington Blvd Bridge

2009-10-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

2009-10-11T16:39:00.001-07:00

Me and clownin dai

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installation by Ken Ehrlich

2009-10-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

Repair Shop

2009-10-11T16:27:00.001-07:00

Three pair of jeans, one picture frame, a leather satchel, a mule sandal, and an oval platter were repaired.

Many thanks to Megan Donovan for documenting the event!

2009-10-11T16:22:00.001-07:00

The writing sure is on the wall.

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2009-10-11T15:47:00.001-07:00

Tap dance on washington. big audience here, not pictured.

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Human wind chimes

2009-10-11T15:36:00.000-07:00

Magnolia

2009-10-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

Clownin
Sent on the Now Network� from my Sprint® BlackBerry

Great Day For A Game

2009-10-11T15:25:00.001-07:00

Thanks to all that stopped by!

Hello?

2009-10-11T15:23:00.001-07:00

"Hi? Guess what? I just scored a goal!"

2 Goals Ain't Bad

2009-10-11T15:22:00.001-07:00

GOAL!!!

2009-10-11T15:21:00.001-07:00

great goal by a stranger!!

:)

2009-10-11T15:20:00.001-07:00

Music

2009-10-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

Open academy youth orchestra outside of la trade tech

Luis Zavala - Documentation - Washington Blvd & Commerce Way

2009-10-11T15:07:00.001-07:00

Hi,

Attached is my documentation of my performance.

Thanks to all that came and played.

Best,

Luis

"A Pick-up Game of Street Futbol"

Revisiting a childhood activity of mine when I'd take part of random games of soccer on the streets, "A Pick-up Game of Street Futbol" follows on this nostalgia and will be recreated during this performance as it explores the modification of a public space and the customization of the city.

When: Sunday, October 11, 2009

Where: Washington Blvd & Commerce Way, City of Commerce

Time: 12:30pm - 1:30pm

Shauns balloon dog

2009-10-11T15:05:00.002-07:00

Shaun Klaseus's balloon dogs and real dog at the blue lune grand stop.

It's interesting how being on

2009-10-11T15:05:00.001-07:00

It's interesting how being on a motorcycle we can really smell the differences in each neighborhood we pass.

2009-10-11T15:04:00.001-07:00

Islands of la island transformation

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Oh I was just thinking about you

2009-10-11T14:48:00.001-07:00

2009-10-11T14:47:00.001-07:00

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2009-10-11T14:19:00.001-07:00

James rojas in montebello. I'm texting while riding on the back of a motorcycle. We're running late and will have to skip to the la river.

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2009-10-11T13:54:00.001-07:00

We got hungry... :-x

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2009-10-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

At the human wind chimes

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Oh I was just thinking about you

2009-10-11T13:39:00.001-07:00

There you are.

Plein Air

2009-10-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

Plein Air

2009-10-11T13:36:00.001-07:00

2009-10-11T13:13:00.001-07:00

At the first stop right now

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2009-10-11T13:10:00.001-07:00

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2009-10-11T13:03:00.001-07:00

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2009-10-11T12:45:00.001-07:00

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Clownin Part 2...

2009-10-11T09:59:00.000-07:00

The clown was last spotted in 2008, wandering San Fernando Road dispersing boob art. Today, Oct 11, she will roam Washington Blvd, possibly with a balloon. Beginning Downtown around 2:30 pm, this clown will head west. If you see someone resembling this description:

...except in different clothes, this person is a clown and should definitely be trusted. Stop the car, say something. If you come into contact with the clown, beware she is carrying tiny pieces of art, and you can have one. Any sighting of the clown should be documented and emailed to torrential.audience@blogger.com.

Plein Air- Nudes on the LA River Bridge

2009-10-11T09:37:00.001-07:00

Austin Young will be taking nudes on the bridge from 1-2pm.
Look for the blue polka dot screen.
Washington Blvd. is the perfect place to get a nude portrait.
Come and get yours. i'll post images to the 'A Day in LA' blog.
x
Austin

I was just thinking about you on Washington Boulevard (at noon)

2009-10-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

I thought that was you.

TOWN HALL TOWN CRIER!

2009-10-11T09:06:00.000-07:00

During your drive along Washington Boulevard, whenever the burning need to be heard takes you over, pull out your marching orders, a protest script and some signs (all provided in the downloadable art area of http://washblvd.tk) and transform Incredible-Hulk style into a TOWN HALL TOWN CRIER. Wherever you decide to stop (or even just roll down your window) is where the first-amendment magic will happen. Tape your signs to the side of the car, your chest, your silent minion, a Popsicle stick, what have you, and your preparation for the public stage will be complete. If you choose to have someone videotape you in the act, so much the better, because everyone knows the voice of the people is at its most patriotic whenever a camera is present. --- Robin Myrick

Picture Us on Washginton

2009-10-11T07:17:00.001-07:00

John Burtle and Carlin Wing invite you to come play a game of Telephone. Use your cell phone camera to help create a series of photographs that will bounce from coast to coast. While you are heading down Washington Blvd in Los Angeles, a small outpost of people are in Gloucester, Massachussetts, dawdling along Washington St towards the Atlantic. After signing up, you will receive a text with a photograph from this outpost. We ask that you take a photograph that in some way echoes or resembles the photograph you receive and then send it back in the other direction. As we travel down our respective Washingtons, we'll continue sending images cross-country until we reach the sea. At the end of the event, we will post the series to the "A Day in LA" website. In order to participate, give your phone number to John Burtle at the start of your trip down Washington Blvd, or text your phone number to (718) 753 1394.

The Writing is on the Wall

2009-10-10T22:58:00.000-07:00

Do you ever think about stuff? Do you ever wish it was on a wall? Ali Prosch, Ian James and I will be dutifully transcribing your thoughts, comments, laments, and jokes sent to us throughout the day via SMS text messaging onto a giant wall at the corner or Washington and Sycamore. Think: public chalkboard meets bathroom wall turned inside out meets collective protest sign.

Tomorrow between 12pm and 5pm Pacific Standard Time, send your contributions to: 213-590-3715

www.meghannmccrory.com/wall

small change

2009-10-10T20:02:00.000-07:00

I made 'small change' for myself to do at the event

I will realize it at 3pm in the small park/bus stop on the nw corner of normandie and washington

[location/image]

feel free to realize the piece anywhere, at any time

I was just thinking about you (tomorrow).

2009-10-10T19:02:00.000-07:00

I thought that was you.

Share The Light

2009-10-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

Tucker Neel kindly asks that you share the sunset with the Thomas Kinkade Company. Please dial 1 (800) 366-3733, and when prompted, dial extension 5191. Please leave a message describing the sunset in as much detail as possible for Kathleen Moon, Senior Executive Assistant to Craig Fleming, the President and CEO of the company.

- Tucker Neel

tuckerneel.com

tuckerneel.wordpress.com

CREDIT: An Absent Performance

2009-10-10T16:10:00.001-07:00

CREDIT: An Absent Performance

2009-10-10T16:04:00.001-07:00

CREDIT: An Absent Performance

along Washington Blvd between the 10Fwy and National Blvd

all day

119 Pay Phones on Washington Blvd as of October 11th, 2009

2009-10-10T14:07:00.000-07:00

We invite you to reminisce with us about the days when your pockets were always full with quarters to make phone calls.

Starting at the beach and ending at Whittier, we have numbered the public phones along Washington Blvd. Active phones are numbered in black and inactive phones in white.

Using the information provided below, call a public phone while you explore Washington Blvd – maybe someone will pick up. If you hear a phone ringing, answer – maybe someone will be on the other end. Post your location or which phone you are closest to on the blog by emailing alexishudgins.allysachs@blogger.com so that other people can reach you.

Feel free to blog missing or additional information and send in any images or stories you have about a public phone on Washington Blvd.

- Ally Sachs and Alexis Hudgins

October 7, 2009
Phone number / Location / Time
1 310.306.3650 / The Wings Famous Chicken Wing / 10:07 PM
2 Number unavailable / The beach / 10:11 PM
3 Unable to label (person eating a restaurant next to phone) / The Cow’s End / 10:14 PM
4 Unable to label (person eating a restaurant next to phone) / The Cow’s End / 10:15 PM
5 310.305.0290 / Thomas Burgers / 108 Washington Blvd / 10:19 PM
6 Number unavailable / 123 Washington Blvd / 10:22 PM
7 Number unavailable / 3130 Washington Blvd / 10:25 PM
8 Inactive / 13327 Washington Blvd / 10:28 PM
9 Number unavailable / 12973 Washington Blvd / 10:31 PM
10 Number unavailable / El Pollo Loco - Beethoven & Washington Blvd / 10:33 PM
11 Unable to label (police) / 10:35 PM
12 Unable to label (police) / 10: 35 PM
13 Number unavailable / 99 cent store - 12741 Washington Blvd / 10:38 PM
14 Number unavailable / Machatz Self Defense / 12466 Washington Blvd / 10:43 PM
15 Number unavailable / Lucky 7 Liquor - 12408 Washington Blvd / 10:45 PM
16 Number unavailable / 12332 Washington Blvd / 10:47 PM
Stopped for ice cream / Alibi Room - 12236 W Washington Blvd / 10:53 PM
17 Inactive / 12223 Washington Blvd / 11:19 PM
18 Unable to label (police) / DMV / 11:23 PM
19 Unable to label (police) / 7/11 - West of 405 / 11:24 PM
20 Number unavailable / 11181 Washington Blvd / 11:29 PM
21 Number unavailable / 11001 Washington Blvd / 11:32 PM
22 Inactive / 11001 Washington Blvd / 11:35 PM
23 Number unavailable / Tae Kwon Do - 10712 Washington Blvd / 11:37 PM
24 Number unavailable / 10409 Washington Blvd / 11:44 PM
25 Number unavailable / 10307 Washington Blvd / 11:49 PM
26 Number unavailable / Washington Blvd and Helms / 11:53 PM
27 Number unavailable / 8649 Washington Blvd / 11:57 PM
28 Number unavailable / 8582 Washington Blvd / 12:01 AM
29 Number unavailable / Mobile Station - Washington Blvd and Fairfax / 12:04 AM
30 Number unavailable / Mobile Station - Washington Blvd and Fairfax / 12:05 AM
31 Inactive / 5190 Washington Blvd / 12:11 AM
32 Number unavailable / 7/11 - La Brea and Washington Blvd / 12:16 AM
33 Number unavailable / 4879 Washington Blvd / 12:17 AM
34 Number unavailable / True Light Baptist Church / 4866 Washington Blvd / 12:21 AM
35 Number unavailable / 4800 Washington Blvd / 12:22 AM
36 Number unavailable / 4555 Washington Blvd / 12:28 AM
37 Inactive / Mobile - Washington Blvd and Crenshaw / 12:30 AM
38 Number unavailable / CW Plaza - Washington and Crenshaw / 12:35 AM
39 Number unavailable / CW Plaza - Washington and Crenshaw / 12:37 AM
40 Number unavailable / Catty corner to # 39 / 12:40 AM
41 Number unavailable / Washington Market Square / 12:42 AM
42 Number unavailable / Washington Market Square / 12:43 AM
43 Number unavailable / Between Norton and 8th / 12:46 AM
44 Number unavailable / 3814 Washington Blvd / 12:44 AM
45 Number unavailable / Washington and 8th (Even number side) / 12:49 AM
46 310.323.7699 / 3416 Washington Blvd / 12:53 AM
47 Inactive / 3213 Washington Blvd / 12:57 AM
48 Number unavailable / 3203 Washington Blvd / 12:59 AM
49 Inactive / Mobile - Arlington and Washington / 1:00 AM
50 Number unavailable / 2489 Washington Blvd / 1:05 AM
51 Number unavailable / Charlie’s Fixtures - Gramercy and Washington / 1:07 AM
52 323.737.9851 / 2330 Washington Blvd / 1:12 AM
53 Number unavailable / 2319 Washington Blvd / 1:14 AM
54 323.737.9130 / 2240 Washington Blvd / 1:15 AM
55 Number unavailable / 1874 Washington Blvd / 1:18 AM
56 Inactive / 2190 Washington Blvd / 1:20 AM
57 Inactive / 2190 Washington Blvd / 1:21 AM
58 323.733.0167 / 2171 Washington Blvd / 1:23 AM
59 Number unavailable / 2030 Washington Blvd / 1:27 AM
60 Number unavailable / 1989 Washington Blvd / 1:29 AM
61 Unable to label phone (police) / Washington and Vermont
62 Unable to label phone (police) / Washington and Vermont
63 Unable to label phone (police) / Washington and Vermont
64 Unable to label phone (police) / Washington and Vermont
65 Unable to label phone (police) / Washington and Vermont
66 Unable to label phone (police) / Washington and Vermont
67 Number unavailable / 1457 Washington Blvd / 1:39 AM
68 213.741.9002 / 1438 Washington Blvd / 1:40 AM
69 Number unavailable / 1347 Washington Blvd / 1:43 AM
70 Number unavailable / Original Lucy’s #1 / 1:44 Am
71 213.741.9019 / 1217 Washington Blvd / 1:48 AM
72 213.745.8400 / 1045 Washington Blvd / 1:50 AM
73 Number unavailable / 837 Washington Blvd / 1:54 AM
74 Unable to label (police) / Burger King / Olive and W Washington Blvd
75 Unable to label (police) / Burger King / Olive and W Washington Blvd
76 Unable to label (police) / McDonalds / Olive and W Washington Blvd
77 Unable to label (police) / McDonalds / Olive and W Washington Blvd
78 Unable to label (police) / McDonalds / Olive and W Washington Blvd
79 Unable to label (police) / McDonalds / Olive and W Washington Blvd
80 Unable to label (behind fence)
81 Unable to label (behind fence)
82 213.745.498X / 116 E Washington Blvd ??? / 2:05 AM
83 Number unavailable / 300 E Washington Blvd / 2:10 AM
84 Number unavailable / 440 E Washington Blvd / 2:13 AM
Stopped for the night / Washington Blvd & Trinity / 2:14 AM

October 8, 2009
85 213.745.9824 / 650 E Washington Blvd / 12:18 AM
86 Number unavailable / Sand Pedro and Washington Blvd (north side) / 12:21 AM
87 Inactive / 810 Washington Blvd / 12:28 AM
88 213.745.4358 / 1101 E Washington Blvd / 12:31 AM
89 Number unavailable / 1900 Washington Blvd / 12:34 AM
90 213.749.1633 / Alameda and Washington Blvd / 12:36 AM
91 213.749.1671 / Alameda and Washington Blvd / 12:37 AM
92 Inactive / Mobile – NE corner of Alameda and Washington Blvd / 12:40 AM
93 Unable to label (large group of people) / Soto and Washington Blvd / 12:45 AM
94 Number unavailable / Church’s Chicken – Washington Blvd and Atlantic / 12:57 AM
95 Number unavailable / 76 Gas Station – Ralph Lieberman and Washington Blvd / 1:07 AM
96 Number unavailable / 76 Gas Station – Ralph Lieberman and Washington Blvd / 1:07 AM
97 Number unavailable / 5959 E Washington Blvd / 1:14 AM
98 323.727.7940 / 5900 E Washington Blvd / 1:14 AM
99 323.888.6794 / 5901 E Washington Blvd / 1:18 AM
100 Inactive / 5904 E Washington Blvd / 1:16 AM
101 Number unavailable / Washington Blvd and Vail / 1:27 AM
102 No incoming calls / Maple and Washington Blvd / 1:31 AM
103 323.346.0807 / 1129 W Washington Blvd / 1:35 AM
104 323.725.9187 / 1111 W Washington Blvd / 1:39 AM
105 Number unavailable / Olympic Donuts / 1:43 AM
106 Number unavailable / 870 W Washington Blvd and Greenwood / 1:46 AM
107 Inactive / 524 W Washington Blvd / 1:48 AM
108 Number unavailable / 477 Washington Blvd – Washington and 5th / 1:52 AM
109 323.278.9981 / 400 Washington Blvd / 1:55 AM
110 Inactive / 123 Washington Blvd / 1:56 AM
111 562.949.5240 / 8729 Washington Blvd / 2:02 AM
112 Unable to label (large crowd of drunk people)
113 Number unavailable / 11303 Washington Blvd / 2:15 AM
114 Number unavailable / 11303 Washington Blvd / 2:15 AM
115 Inactive / 11347 Washington Blvd / 2:19 AM
116 Number unavailable / 11347 Washington Blvd / 2:19 AM
117 Number unavailable / Smart and Final – Washington Blvd / 2:20 AM
118 Number unavailable / Sorenson and Washington Blvd / 2:21 AM
119 Number unavailable / Sorenson and Washington Blvd / 2:21 AM
End of Washington Blvd

Freud A Washington: Washington Drive

2009-10-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

Bring your camera for this piece.

You can do either do Part I, Part II, or both.

PART I

As you travel along Washington Boulevard, keep an eye out for a public space, hidden place, room, or building interior where you would love to enact a specific desire or fantasy of yours. It can be anything. You have unlimited money to realize it.

Take a photograph of this place.

PART II

As you travel along Washington Boulevard, keep an eye out for a public space, hidden place, room, or building interior that reminds you of a specific fear of yours.

Take a photograph of this place.

PART III

Mail both the photo you took and the fear or desire to freud.a.washington@gmail.com

It can be anonymously if you wish.

I will compile a small magazine of everyone’s photographs with their captions, and send it back to you. Let me know if you would like your name printed with your page, or you would like to remain anonymous.

Tracy Molis

Repair Shop

2009-10-09T16:36:00.000-07:00

Bring me anything in need of repair, mending or transformation: your socks, a dish, a leg, a chair, your relationship, what have you. I'll fix it to the best of my ability with the skills and materials at hand. More than a recessionista response, the impulse to repair something instead of tossing it away is a kind of "Slow Object" movement. Akin to Japanese "kintsugi", the practice of mending broken ceramics with gold, my repairs can be seen as improvements, or a celebration of the wear and tear of life.

-Mary Beth Heffernan

Repair Shop is open 12-2pm, at 5281 Washington Blvd., Commerce, CA 90040 at Strong Ave., between S. Atlantic Ave. and S. Eastern Ave.

Map:

http://maps.google.com/?q=loc%3A5281+E+Washington+Blvd%2C+Commerce%2C+CA+90040&sll=34.002436%2C-118.165119

Human Windchimes

2009-10-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

Human Windchimes
performed by Clint McCallum, Bob Pierzak, Paul Feyertag, and Brian Griffeath-Loeb

Human windchimes will converge upon these points.
Please fan or blow. (Some fans and straws provided.)

I. Call
Washington Blvd & Rosemead Blvd, Pico Rivera – Wienerschnitzel corner
12:30-1:15pm

II. Journey
Washington Blvd & Watseka Ave, Culver City – traveling west to pass under the 405
2:30-4pm

Notes:
1. "It is clear," replied Don Quixote, "that you are not experienced in adventures. Those are giants, and if you are afraid, turn aside and pray whilst I enter into fierce an unequal combat with them."

2. On Solaris, a crew member taped paper over an air vent to remember the sound of rustling leaves.

- Carolyn Chen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCei8zGG_sU

I was just thinking about you (the day after tomorrow)

2009-10-09T06:29:00.000-07:00

I was wondering if I would see you and there you are.

2009-10-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

Abstraction at Work makes visible the relationship between the inconspicuous language of lines found on the street for the purpose of signaling and demarcating, and lines used as compositional elements in the language of abstraction. As a site-specific installation/performance, Abstraction at Work is concerned with deterritorializing abstraction’s areas of operation, working to make abstraction’s labor visible. The renewed visibility of lines also underscores an aesthetic experience of the city; lines communicate. Aware that abstraction has suffered from solipsism as much as seclusion, Abstraction at Work enters the public space, creating a plane for communication with pedestrians and the Washington Boulevard traffic.

WHAT: A day-long performance/installation by Mariángeles Soto-Díaz, part of “A Day in LA" organized by Los Angeles Art Road Concerts.

WHERE: West Washington Blvd., between Landmark and National, adjacent to a closed Mazda dealership

WHEN: October 11, 2009, 9am to 6pm

View from closed Mazda dealership

I'll be in the space to the left of the closed Mazda dealership

Between Landmark and National

LA's endless streets: lavish, symphonic.

2009-10-07T13:57:00.000-07:00

Streets in LA are so long! Meandering through so many places and non-places, night life mingling strips and industrial wastelands, taking random twists, they end up in unlikely conclusions. Like a good story, not the most resolved mode of travel, but tells a complex metanarrative through its necessary structure. These roads are like symphony-length music staves waiting to be translated to notes. Not literally, like the singing road in Palmdale, which plays the William Tell Overture when you drive on it. Just take a drive on Washington Boulevard, which brings you from suburban Whittier to vacuous concrete warehouse-land, the LA River, then strattles between Korean and black enclaves, becomes Culver City's art district and results in bourgie Venice.

This one road, all with one name, is neither the fastest nor most direct way to get to and from each end of itself. There's a certain lavishness in that inefficiency. The name is asking for some connection to be formed.

I frequently get lost in this kind of thinking, map-nerd moments, overanalyzing the geography of LA, admiring how long and aimless the streets are, which is how I came up with my road concert idea. My original idea involved reconstructing a street as scores made of found materials from the street to be interpreted by viewers-turned-musicians. But I figured it'd be more interesting to be out on the street itself getting people to go from A to B inhabiting all the in-between spaces for themselves.

In LA there are massive amounts of land that everyone skips, that are as desolate and hidden from the populace as a rural mountain road. What if those places became the destinations, to skip our usual IKEAs, 405s and Denny's, to generate a new kind of LA experience by bringing meaning and attention to a collection of these less obvious spots?

So last summer I curated the San Fernando Road Concert, an all-day arts event organized to re-imagine unused urban space along all twenty-three miles of San Fernando Road from Sylmar to Lincoln Heights with experimental music performances, art installations, readings, discussions and carpool happenings by twenty-one LA-based artists, writers, musicians. You can check it out at http://stephenvandyck.com/sanfernando.htm. It's like an inverted parade art concert. On the day of the event, audience members drove the length of San Fernando on a loose schedule, arriving at each spot to experience an intimate interaction with and/or by each artist. This year, on October 11th, I'm organizing another, on Washington Boulevard.

Add to the list of Los Angeles's glitz the extravagance of 30-mile streets. Some of the longest city streets in the world are in LA, Sepulveda Boulevard being the very longest in the world at 43 miles. Many other claims have been made, some also in LA. The prostitution and drug-dealer-wrought Colfax Avenue in Denver is only 23 miles. Playboy magazine called Colfax "the longest, wickedest street in America," but they're wrong about longest. The Guinness Book of World Records listed Yonge Street in Ontario, Canada, as the longest street in the world at 1178 miles. Sounds more like a country road to me. Some say LA's Figueroa is longer than Sepulveda. Figueroa has the longest street-span continuously in the city of LA; Sepulveda dips into Culver City. But both are discontinuous. Figueroa puts you on the 110 north before it restarts off to the side just a mile north. The city of Hermosa Beach voted to change their section of Sepulveda whicch overlaps to the PCH to just the PCH. Even still, the largest bit of Sepulveda is longer than Figueroa, Colfax or any municipal chunk of Yonge Street.

It amazes me how one iconic name, Sunset Boulevard, Wilshire Boulevard, even Washington Boulevard, can cover so much and so many kinds of turf. One name can have so many different meanings.

Some of the long roads of Los Angeles are so winding, even in the topographically monotonous parts of the LA Basin. Many of the lengthy LA streets originally started out as numerous disconnected streets in different towns that grew together. In 1915, the city of Los Angeles got an aqueduct, and easily convinced and annexed ten incorporated cities including Hollywood, Watts, Sawtelle and Eagle Rock. And then there are roads like San Fernando, Ventura or Valley Boulevard which were originally US Highways (US-99, US-101 and US-60 respectively) but got downgraded when Eisenhower built the Interstates. If you can imagine, most of what is now this endless metropolis was once all small towns with trolleys and orange groves connecting them. Car culture was an integral part of how LA developed, and consequently, Los Angeles has a very high concentration of flamboyantly designed drive-thrus, diners, giant statues of donuts and mechanics from the 50s, 60s and 70s. No one walks in LA, or so the song says. It’s just not reasonable unless your calf muscles outgrew New York.

It's no puzzle why Businessweek Magazine named LA the best city for artists (followed by Santa Fe, blech!). There's so much God damned space. All the old warehouses easily convert to huge studios. But kinda ironically, LA has only recently made gains as a city for public art. Because public art here is drive-by art. So either artists make works that are conducive to being seen from a quick and moving eye, or they've got to tell the public where to go. In this city, just stepping out of the car in an unfamiliar neighborhood seems like serious travel.

My father recalls LA in 1948 as a city that took a day to surpass. "There were no freeways. I can remember Olympic Boulevard, Hoover Street, Vermont. Those were the main throughways of the time. The clutch went out in my car. In those days we didn't have automatic transmissions. I don't think they existed. Whenever I stopped, came up to a traffic light, I'd have to turn the engine off, because I couldn't put it to neutral. Somebody'd have to push me. In those days we had bumpers so everyone could push each other. I'd have to get out of my car and ask someone. Going through LA, you couldn't bypass it. It took hours and hours, most of a day to get past LA. The idea of driving forever and ever without hitting a traffic light was utopian, unthinkable. The merchants thought they had an absolute right to have the main roads go past their businesses. There were no bypasses."

Whenever I try to sell LA to a skeptical out-of-towner, I explain how living here is customizable, that we can get in our cars and skip all the places we don't want to see, unlike New York where it's inevitable that you will walk every block and encounter every kind of person, not that this is a bad thing. The customizability combined with the weather is why the city attracts enclaves of large diasporas (or so claimed this Armenian lady I met on the street) like Little Ethiopia, Little Phnom Penh, from mostly-Armenian Glendale, mostly-Chinese Alhambra, mostly-black South Central LA and 79.5% white Republican Santa Clarita where the KKK has its California headquarters. And yet there are also some of the most integrated and diverse neighborhoods, like Long Beach, the most diverse in America according to USA Today: 15% black, 45% white, 36% hispanic, 12% asian, if that's how you want to measure or define diverse.

Why not have an event that exists within the extravagant car-based culture that this city was built on, instead of just seeing our gas-guzzling transit mess as a wrong-needing-to-be-righted?

—Stephen van Dyck

Washington Boulevard - I am thinking of you

2009-10-07T04:56:00.001-07:00

I'm thinking maybe it's enough just to wonder about it.

Counts of 8 @ W. Washington Blvd. & Crenshaw Blvd.

2009-10-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

Counts of 8

Since moving back to Los Angeles, I've been re-learning tap at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Baldwin Hills' Crenshaw Plaza. All of the combinations that we learn are structured around beat counts of 8, further broken down into 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 beats, etc. Choreography in tap usually starts on the 8th beat. My Achilles heel as a tap dancer is that I'm still learning how to count rhythm, the 1-and, 2-and, 3-and, etc. My grandmother exercises her reflexes every morning by clapping her hands, keeping a beat as regular as a metronome. By concentrating on my grandmother's steady beat, I hope my tap dancing will steadily improve.

- Audrey Chan
audreychan.net

Location: NW corner of W. Washington Blvd. and Crenshaw Blvd. in Mid-City, next to Universal Car Seat Cover, Lock & Key

Date: Sunday, October 11, 2009
Time: 3:40-4:00 pm

Look for this mini-mall sign. On the opposite corners: Starbucks, Jack in the Box, and a Mobile gas station.

Inspirational videos after the jump.

The legendary Nicholas Brothers with Cab Calloway in the 1943 film "Stormy Weather" produced by Fred Astaire.

Dancers Baakari Wilder and Chloe Arnold in slo-mo for the Discovery Channel.

Savion Glover, my original tap inspiration.

Warwalking with the Los Angeles Chapter of the Neighborhood Network Watch

2009-10-06T00:41:00.000-07:00

The Los Angeles Chapter of the Neighborhood Network Watch (NNW) will be conducting a series of walks that will acquaint the public with the methods, tactics, and technology used by the NNW's Network Identification and Collection Division (NICD) to find wireless networks within urban and suburban environments. Network security and its importance to safeguarding the homeland will be discussed while the group "warwalks" for insecure and secure networks. Come learn and "warwalk" with the Neighborhood Network Watch.

Place: 11000 Washington Blvd.
Whittier, California 90606
Meet in front of the First Fundamental Bible Church (FFBC)
Time: 12:20pm, 12:50pm, 1:20pm

The Neighborhood Network Watch is a domestic community based group that analyzes and collects network traffic from open public networks, for national security purposes. To find out more about the Neighborhood Network Watch please visit www.dhsnnw.org.

Islands Anyone? - map of traffic islands along Washington Blvd you can visit

2009-10-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

Islands Anyone? is an interactive map of all the traffic islands that are large enough for 5+ people to congregate on. You can visit the map to find islands and get directions to them or click on a link below. There is also a slideshow, which is a view of Washington Blvd through the lens of its traffic islands (6 1/2 minutes).

Below is a list of the locations on the map from West to East:

Fairfax Blvd: SE, SW, N – the SW island is one of the largest islands on Washington Blvd and the only one that has parking
Apple St: freeway offramp and border between Culver City and Mid-City
Hauser Blvd: this island has a bus stop
Pickford St: these islands are landscaped and perfect for those seeking an idealized, miniaturized nature hike/scenery experience
West Blvd: this island has a bus stop
La Salle Ave: this island is across the street from a check cashing store with a pair of female mannequins provocatively gesturing towards each other
Normandie Ave: the second largest island, this is actually a peninsula, and it has the most pedestrian traffic of the islands on Washington Blvd, it also has a bus stop
S Flower: the street level satellite image of this island appears to show a person on the ground, with another bent over them
E 23rd St: a lovely, triangular concrete island where you can enjoy some sun in an industrial area of downtown
Industrial Way: a triangular concrete island in an industrial area of southern Boyle Heights
S Grand Vista: a narrow median too small for assembly but with a look-out point for those willing to traverse a most narrow path
5 Freeway: West of southbound offramp, between southbound offramp & 5 freeway, between southbound onramp and 5 freeway
605 Freeway: very large islands between onramp and offramp, between onramp and freeway
Whittier Blvd: NW, N, S – This is one end of Washington Blvd where it turns into Whittier Blvd. These are large islands. There are a couple other small islands here, some are at the intersection but along Whittier Blvd. The island to the north of Washington Blvd is not accessible from Washington Blvd. You have to follow it down Whittier to the intersection of Whittier Blvd and Pacific Pl.

RECESS @ Washington Blvd!

2009-10-02T16:29:00.000-07:00

Let’s have recess! Flashback to the playground! Play hopscotch, hula hoops, hacky sack, chalk-drawing on the sidewalk, double Dutch jump rope. Balloons and lemonade even! Give your adult self a break from the mess of the real world, and let your inner child come outside and play at recess!

Project Location: SW corner of Fairfax and Washington Blvd, at approximately 5772 W. Washington Blvd. We’ll be the one playing underneath the power lines!

MAP: http://tinyurl.com/y998vv7

Project Time: 3:30 to 4:30 (or perhaps a bit later if people are still playing…)

-- D. Jean Hester

Circuitry

2009-09-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

"What's It Like In Culver City?"

Participants will be asked to complete, on foot, a circuit around Sony Pictures Studios at 10202 West Washington Boulevard in Culver City, California. This circuit shall be along the following route:

Begin at the NE corner of Duquesne Ave. and Washington Blvd.; take a right / head SE on Duquesne; at Culver Blvd., take another right; proceed to the intersection of Culver Blv. and Overland Ave. and take a right on Overland; finally, take another right on Washington and return to the NE corner of Duquesne Ave. and Washington Blvd. (Total walk time = 30 - 35 minutes.)

Each participant will walk to the accompaniment -- on Sony Walkman (provided, or bring your own) -- of certain pieces of vital social and statistical information regarding the area for which his / her traversing serves as the representative nexus (even if he / she cannot enter or "see" this central location). Said information has been sourced from the World Wide Web and been read aloud and recorded to audio cassette.

Simultaneous to his / her private listening, participants will also be asked to read aloud and record any language, text or otherwise, he / she encounters along his or her walk using the provided Sony hand-held cassette recorder. Bumper stickers, t-shirt slogans, public signage, overheard conversation are all legitimate or worthy texts for the purposes of this performance.

Once all the various recordings have been returned to the composer, they will be mixed so as to constitute a final or "complete" composition which will be made freely available via the World Wide Web.

-- Joe Milazzo

Andrea Lambert @ Washington Blvd

2009-09-30T17:52:00.000-07:00

Hello, I'm Andrea Lambert. I plan to read from my novel, Jet Set Desolate, from 4:45 - 5:00 pm.

I will be located at 5965 Washington Blvd, in front of the "Imperial & Wholesale Electric Supply." This is just past the intersection of La Cienega and Washington, by the blue pole sign reading "Culver City welcomes you." The LA river runs next to it.

Copies of the book will be available for $15, and nifty free postcards.

Katie Jacobson @ Washington Blvd.

2009-09-30T17:37:00.000-07:00

Hi. I'm Katie Jacobson. For the road concert, I'll be reading from and distributing my zine, Vergangenheitsbewältigung. Donations (to cover printing costs) are accepted/loved, but completely optional. Reading will be at approximately 2:00, but I'll be there longer than that for distribution.

Location: 901 W Washington Blvd @ Oak St. Right next to the 110-South on-ramp, and near #35 Bus Stop. It's this really beautiful, white, run-down church.

Time: ~2:00 for reading; 1:00-3:00 for distribution.

Parking: Park on Oak Street. If you're coming east on Washington Blvd, make a right onto Oak and there will be a dead end with plenty of parking.

What used to be signs.

Steeple?

Entrance to Oak St.

Oak St. side.