Bryan Jackson

Nobody Walks in Osage

People in Kansas cling to delusional folklore about who they are and what makes being a midwesterner great. They must think they are still pioneers on the Santa Fe Trail - why else would the wagon wheel motif pervade the decorative landscape? They deride densely-populated cities as traps - How can you breathe sandwiched like that between neighbors? They like to think they love the great outdoors, but as soon as a nature trail on a decommissioned rail road track is announced, everyone was up in arms. Nature, fresh air and walking are socialist! If so, then their festering, toxin-leeching-wall-to-wall-carpeted houses the embodiment of true liberty? When did fear-based privacy obsession create the need for year-round window treatments to blot out the beautiful big blue skies, fantasic sunsets, and the moon and the stars? Or maybe it was the sight of the crumbling streets and the weed-choked sidewalks they couldn't take?

On this trip, I've made a point of walking the portion of the Flint Hills Nature Trail that runs through Osage City every other day or so. You vote with your feet, right? I've been joined on most walks by family members. Everyone loves being out on the trail. However we have all been disappointed with the poor condition of the trail in Osage. It speaks volumes that a town filled with people with a multitude of chainsaws and garden implements can't gather enough civic-minded let's-build-a-barn-muster to clean up a three mile section of a trail. And why do some people use the trail as a toxic dumping ground?

On the trail there are no trash cans, no benches, no wayfinding signage, and worst of all, no people. Nobody. I haven't met a single person on the trail. We've seen a few solitary kids cruising side streets on bikes but no other hikers.

Today we headed out west of town for 2.5 miles. It was a beautiful walk.

A Very Gay Christmas Party | Super VivaHome

Tokyo - A sweet older gay Santa couple moved into a run-down stable (which they got for a steal) and completely redid the place from the groundup. The couple made sure to keep some of the old-warm charm - the former manger makes a cheeky, but sweet bar for making cocktails. For their first Christmas in their new place they invited over the lesbian snowwomen couple from down the street and their snotty reindeer neighbor Prancer (who is still single, big suprise). Although he didn't say anything, he clearly disapproved of their decorating style.

Fauchon For Sure

Yesterday started with a treat before an insane day running around Tokyo for installation supplies. Let's just say, the Japanese don't know paint - wall paint that is. Since most people here would never paint their apartment there is no such thing as a giant paint sample display - even at the big box Super Viva Home. Lesson learned. I ended up mixing my own.

While this store is big by Tokyo standards, my heart is still in Tokyu Hands. 

Finished pinku wall at community center akta - mandala installation happens today.

Cheap Lay's on a Pretty, Pretty Astro Night

It was one of those nights, chilling on the west edge of hollywood waiting for MZKINM to arrive so we could hit the Divine inspired Pretty? Pretty? gallery show at Meltdown Comics. I was on the phone with Heath, who was the reason I even knew about the show, commiserating  about not being able to be running around drunk and loud together since he is only newly in Arizona.  As we talked, I trolled the isles of awful at 7-eleven looking for anything I would actually consume. I settled on a Slurpee only to have the machine shit Coke on my hand. I guess you have to pay atttention to the lights tucked on the side. #3 was red as hell. Just another little design failure in a store for/of the end of the world.

The show at Meltdown was fun and I really like the back alley feel of the gallery space.  But what's up with low attendance? Is there something about the season? A kind of cultural fatigue? Or maybe it was the effect of the free booze. The low cal vodka was exactly like how I imagine drinking poppers would taste with the attendant instant headache.

Afterwards I made MZKNM go to Astro Burger - which isn't the same without the tranny hookers out front or spotting the likes of Henry Rollins or Dirk Shafer munching recklessly on greasy food.

Going to the Getty Supergraphics

 

Tonight I attended the Opening Celebration for Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980 at The Getty Center.  To open the evening there was a Cocktail Reception culminating in "The Reveal" that was at once massive and limp.  Actually, the best part was right before the supergraphic show started, when every single light at the Getty went out and it was just champagne, the night sky and a fingernail moon.  But then the music swelled and a movie trailer style voiceover began leading the audience thru pedestrian summations of each decade that the show covers, along with clipart-quality graphics and more overwraught underscoring. When you add in the corny catering it became all very Disney Themepark and... let's just say I don't think I will ever forget it.

I was however very interested in the show in the Getty Research Institute Exhibition Gallery, Greetings from L.A.: Artists and Publics, 1950-1980 curated by John Tain.   As someone who wasn't in California at the time, the social/polictical period is quite interesting.  I will be sure to return to take my time with the video interviews and emphemera.

So Many No's

 

World Order | Machine Civilization

World Order | Music by Genki Sudo /Takashi Watanabe, Words by Genki Sudo

Message in the YouTube video description, translated by the awesome Pink Tentacle:

The unprecedented disasters unfolding in Japan; earthquakes, tsunami, and nuclear explosions, will somehow change things to come. And to send my message about this, I have expressed it here with WORLD ORDER.These disasters can be interpreted as a turning point for civilization. I think that we have arrived at a time of revolution, shared with all the people of the world, in today's society, economy, and political systems.Incidents themselves are neutral. I believe that every single one of us, wandering through this deep darkness, can overcome anything, if only we let go of our fear, and face the it all in a positive light.The world is not going to change. Each one of us will change. And if we do, then yes, the world will be changed. It is darkest right before the dawn. Let's all rise up to welcome the morning that will be so very bright for mankind.

Little Taiko Boy | online!

Little Taiko Boy リトル太鼓ボーイ from All Out Attack on Vimeo.

PRESS RELEASE:

‘LITTLE TAIKO BOY’ SAFER-SEX MUSIC VIDEO PROMOTES A SPECIAL WAY OF WRAPPING GIFTS FOR LOVE ONES

In his new music video, Little Taiko Boy, filmmaker Bryan Jackson combines Western holiday traditions, Shinto mythology and Japanese gay culture to advocate a very different way of wrapping gifts for a loved one.

Little Taiko Boy's soundtrack is a safer-sex parody of the American Christmas carol "The Little Drummer Boy" interspersed with the slow rumble of a traditional Japanese taiko drum that sounds like a massive throbbing heart beat. Against this backdrop, several men meet in Tokyo's bathhouses, love hotels and cruising spots for intimate encounters, watched over by a glamorous drag version of Amaterasu Omikami, the Shinto goddess of the Sun played by Japanese activist and artist MADAME BONJOUR JOHNJ. Like a queer Santa Claus, the goddess leaves each couple a condom in a bejeweled wrapper as a gift and blessing for the night.

While Little Taiko Boy's setting is local to Tokyo, the contrasting elements woven together within the video emphasize how universal its issues are: the music brings together the modern and the traditional, the East and the West; the images depict the carnal and the spiritual, and ancient deities take up new roles in the modern world. And despite the urgency of its safer-sex message, the video not only embraces sensuality wholeheartedly, but does so with humor; after all, there is nothing "little" about either the Taiko drummer or the drum he beats.

Jackson made several trips to Japan in the course of developing Little Taiko Boy, working closely with AKIRA THE HUSTLER and Madame Bonjour JohnJ at Rainbow Ring’s COMMUNITY CENTER AKTA. The LGBT center and gallery takes an innovative, localized approach to community work that includes condom "Delivery Boys" who have done outreach and condom distribution in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ni-Chome district since 2003. The ‘Goddess Edition’ condom cases that Amaterasu Omikami gifts in Little Taiko Boy are inspired by the artist designed series produced by Community Center AKTA. Jackson made the video with a grant from ART MATTERS, a foundation created to assist artists who make work intending to break ground aesthetically and socially.

Little Taiko Boy on Facebook

 

Swell Party

With Jose in NYC most of the year, the Blue Line to Long Beach is one of those Metro lines I rarely take.  Every Blue Line trip is full sensory overload.  At the Pico Station, a contingent of Cosplay Anime convention survivors boarded.  I think of Cosplay as drag for geeks.  Well, more like female impersonation.  But considering the things I have worn in public, nothing much shocks me. Nor did the Cosplay tweens garner much attention from the passengers who have seen it all.

Later on, a station after we bid farewell to our affable entertainers, a new arrival took over their roost.  You know, the smell of tuna in a train car really travels fast.  Before looking up I thought - you can't eat on the train!  But then I saw the mangled tuna can, the crazy look in her? eyes, and the fact that this not-homeless-looking person was eating the tuna with the pointy end of a bottle opener.  A few stations later, after finishing dinner service the passenger disembarked, the smell of tuna however lingered on.

Fresh air, retirees, and cholo-adjacent fashion signaled my arrival to Downtown Long Beach. Walking along Ocean Blvd. with cars zipping the blustery winds were a welcome refresher.

The subject is of course the swell party at Jose's recently tightened-up, portfolio-ready condo.  In the evening, with it's sleek black stained floors, views to the Queen Mary and ocean backdrop, the place is effortless.  There were lots tastes and friendly faces including a dreamy potato and chickpea curry over couscous.  I had a lovely Veuve Clicquot-fueled time but had to leave early to catch the train back.  The bite of apple tarte tartin fed to me as I dashed out will live on in my memory.  Friendship and food are such guilty pleasures.

Quit Your Ditching

 

UPDATED: 4.15.10
The Timber Bamboo, hybrid Japanese Iris, and rock are now all in. In a month or so the cocoa shell mulch will be pulled out of the planting bed and I will attempt my first moss garden. This weekend I will extend this new bed down to the corner of the building. Also this weekend I'm going to cap the bottom of the stone planter with concrete to stop the tree roots that kept invading it, which should create a wet zone and finally plant it with a few varieties of Papyrus. Yay!

QYD:

Wouldn't it be fun not be famous? Wouldn't it be fun not to be rich?
Wouldn't it be pleasant to be a simple peasant and spend a happy day digging a ditch?
- Cole Porter

Actually darling Cole, NO, digging is hard ass work (or rather hard core work) and you my cocktail swilling friend would have hated it.

This garden project started back on Thursday with cutting back an overgrown bush/vine combo that had gone wayyyy out of control. Besides ugly, I still don't know what it actually was. Unfortunately it actually got uglier once the bushes were gone. Years of litter, party debris, and smokers butts (who seemed to think the earth was their ash tray) remained behind taunting my best ambitions.

I spent a major portion of the Saturday digging out the root remains and 10-12" of soil, and now the ugly has finally turned the corner on towards something great. With revised drawings in hand, tomorrow this should all begin to take shape. 

Metro Map Flap

Everywhere you look, the new and difficult to read Metro Red/Purple Line maps are having some serious sticky-back fail. While I was happy to see the old maps freshened up, the new ones are hard to read on the dim and dreary Red Line subway cars. The light weight font used for station names is swallowed by a gulf of unlit black ink. Begging the question: was this location tested with sets of eyes other than the designers? The good news is that the sag, curl, and wilt now hitting the new maps provides an opportunity to fix the typography flaws and prioritize readability over fickle form.

A Little Assistance

Maybe it's just me, but the more I ride Metro trains and buses the more I get the sense that people need a little assistance. Sometimes it is a lack of manners, missing information, language or cultural barriers, but Metro could do a bit more to guide people to be their better selves and make the entire experience more equitable and enjoyable. We are all in it together after all.

Today's problem is around signage and safety. Kudos to Metro for adding more space on more subway cars for luggage, strollers and bikes. Unfortunately they don't always get used as intended. Bike riders also need a little help here.

Below is the fairly typical bike/passenger problem. The bike is in the wrong place, creating a safety problem if there is a crisis. Clearly we need an assist.

What if the signage spilled onto the floor? Could be as simple as a stencil, an applied non-skid graphic, or for future trains, something done thru color to denote a zone.

Granted the yellow looks like crap with the brown, but you get the idea, right?

Metro Leakage

I called and complained about Metro moving the ticket machines and not posting any signage to point people to the new, and now hidden location. (upstairs and around a blind corner) Thoughtless crap like this causes needless confusion and missed trains. It makes you wonder what exactly they do at planning meetings. The pix are of someone's awesome handiwork answering that complaint of mine.

Mimi for Win! or, A Lady Whose Hoots Do

Congrats to Mimi Zeiger over at Loud Paper for another win! This time for her 100-word word missile on the coming decade for ICON Magazine's Microfiction contest. Her winning entry:

Kicking aside the Kone Dirt Devil flotsam, I pluck a plastic bottle from the oily surf. To cross the Palm by sunrise, I’ll need resources: water, anti-bacteria wipes, and ammo. The Avant Garde control the easternmost fronds and the Urban Gardeners’ Free Ranger Chickens patrol the west. In this archetypal battle—abstraction versus nature—my comrades and I fight for beauty.



This decade is our chance. At dawn, Burj Skeleton broadcasts the revolution. Its remaining infrastructure will vibrate with our adhan. Chengdu, listen.



The GeoEye satellite crests the horizon. It’s nearly time. My balaclava itches. Bottle tucked in my waistband, I run.

Hot Icy

Here is our 4th video for la Eyeworks in the series that couldn't end yet - but of course now it has since I dismantled the set all the way down to the hot glue lumps. The video is inspired by my first car-horn-blaring hot winter holiday in Los Angeles. You know that kind when you are missing family, snow, and you somehow discover that lovely spot that feels like home away from home. A new face (or frame) can be so refreshing.