Yesterday was kind of a good/shitty day. Good in theory, shitty in execution but got leagues better towards the end of the day. Work wasn’t bad. I had a bit to do to keep me busy all day. I’m disappointed with myself this week because I organized all of my files and had intended to get a huge chunk of them in the drawers but didn’t feel so hot and couldn’t do it. I’ll do it next week when I’m feeling a bit better. I bought a bag of almonds this week and there must’ve been something wrong with them because they made me and Kristyn sick. We know it was the almonds because both of us had the same experience:
Eat lunch, including some almonds. Get really sick and wonder why. Take something for the illness and feel better. Celebrate with a handful of almonds. Get really sick. Haha. Yeah it’s the almonds.
You would think this would stop me from eating In-N-Out Burger but then you’d be wrong. I didn’t have time to pack a lunch yesterday and was going to go pick up lunch somewhere. But then I got an email from HR saying that they were giving us all free In-N-Out for lunch.
Here is the In-N-Out truck:
The rest of the day was ai’ight I spose, just kind of uneventful when I was kind of hoping it would BE eventful. I’m waiting on some news that I wish would just ARRIVE ALREADY. I know I’m gonna be disappointed because that’s the way things work out for me in California but the waiting is KILLING ME so I’d rather just take my bitter pill and swallow it. POSITIVE THOUGHTS COLEEN, POSITIVE THOUGHTS.
Kristyn knew I was upset so to cheer me up, she suggested we go see the Tim Burton Exhibition at LACMA. I am not one of those Tim Burton fans that cloaks their homes in “Nightmare Before Christmas” memorabilia. I like Tim Burton’s style a lot but wouldn’t categorize myself as a “huge fan”. But I thought it would be interesting to see and I am SO GLAD we went.
What I didn’t realize was that it was mostly an art exhibition as well as a retrospective of his life. Fascinating. Tim Burton grew up in Burbank, California (close to here) and just drew a lot. The exhibition starts with all doodles and sketches that he made as a kid. Short films he put together with his friends to show his family. Contests he won, posters he made for events in town. It goes on to show a children’s book he wrote and submitted to Disney, along with his hand-written submission letter and the response from Disney calling it “imaginitive but derivative of Dr. Suess”. The exhibition progresses from like the early 70’s to currently. The funny thing is that there are characters who appear over and over again. Like Jack the Pumpkin King, Zero the Ghost Dog and others. He goes through phases where he tries on different styles in his drawing and painting, works in multi-media formats, then pencils, chalk, white-out, paint, sculpture, all kinds of stuff. Then he goes to art school and then gets an apprentice position in Disney as an animator. You can see his disdain for the routine animation work he does at Disney, a lot of kind of sinister Mickey stuff. But his art always has a sense of humor about it and a little story. Sometimes the story is written right there on the page. He’s big on limericks and humorous stories accompanying his drawings. And a lot of this stuff isn’t like professional work, it’s just sketch books and notebooks, pieces of cardboard with doodles on it.
And then, of course, he starts getting into the movie biz and you see his notes on making movies like Edward Scissorhands or Beetlejuice, Mars Attacks and the Batman movies, Nightmare Before Christmas and the Corpse Bride, so much cool stuff. Props from the movies, as well as the little puppets he uses in his stop-motion animation. The most interesting parts, however, are his notes and sketches of the characters. Tim Burton has a way of making EXACTLY what’s in his mind come out onto the the paper/canvas/big screen/whatever. So interesting and charming.
It was really inspirational to both of us. And I forget the exact quote but we both walked away smiling at his one drawing. It was of a bunch of little Monsters and it said, “When a bunch of little monster’s are scared…” Next to it you see all the little Monsters in one big mound to form a big monster. Above that it says, “…they form a bigger monster.” “When a bunch of little monsters are scared, they form a bigger monster.” And that was what I needed to hear yesterday.
I couldn’t take any pictures in the exhibit but here are some statues outside of LACMA. A Piggy.
This gathering of street lamps.
Here is Variety’s headquarters I presume. Interesting.
They had live jazz music. Everyone was sitting at tables and/or picnicing in the grass. It was cute.
The bark of a palm tree I was hiding behind.
This was after the Tim Burton exhibition. This elk/deer/whathaveyou is a sculpted bush or a fake plant supposed to look like a sculpted bush, IDK.
Here is Kristyn outside the Tim Burton Exhibit. LACMA is huge! We have to go back. There were all different buildings and stairs and escalators, etc.
Here are the street lamps lit up.
Variety again.
Here we are inside the street lamps display.
Palm trees lit up.
There was a whole area with giant metal animal heads on sticks. Good times.
We were hungry and wanted to come home to eat dinner.
We sat out on the lanai for a bit and watched the cats freak out. Sitting out there looking at them inside is like watching a giant adorable fishbowl for cats. Kristyn couldn’t resist sticking Elvira’s belly out the door. Elvira looks thrilled haha.
We ordered spinach and garlic calzones from Tomato Pie. SO GOOD.
And then we had a little bit of a brownie and watched some Maude. Oh and we looked at this Kewpie doll for a hot minute.
And that was our day! : D
Buberella 