Major Changes

They are a-comin'

Stay tuned...

mike

Melissa Contreras

With Cnote a day away, we decided to make things even more difficult by having a show at Black Market on Friday. But, Melissa makes things easy. First off, her artwork is great and went up in a flash.

Then Melissa got to work at installing the front window. These photos dont do it justice, it really has to be seen in person. She created a scene... come on by on Friday to check it out...





mike
www.project.bz

C-NOTE!

Exciting stuff... alot going on this week. We pretty much have finished up hanging C-Note 3, which opens tomorrow night. Wow, lots of great stuff... we added a lot of new artists this year, and these new guys rocked it!





okay, off to Black Market now to hang Melissa Contreras show, which opens Friday.

mike
www.project.bz

NYC Days 2 and 3

Damn, I was trying to write this on the plane, but a keyed-up John Gill kept throwing his little airline vodka bottles at me, distracting me the entire flight home (not to mention giving me tiny bumps all over my noggin). So, to the detriment of my loyal readers, you get this a few days late.

So anyway, it was a success. CW literally pissed their pants. Sure the floor was a mess, but it made us happy to know we came through.

Some shots of the multimedia extravaganza, replete with models and DJ and light show:






But man, not all was sunshine and lollipops. The artwork from ATL, after making many detours, finally arrived Wednesday around noon, 2 days late! When that UPS guy finally showed up, I nearly tackled him out of joy. Actually, all of us did. I think he was expecting a beatdown, what with 8 guys surrounding his truck. But with well wishes, we left the driver and hightailed it through Midtown... which is funny, cause New Yorkers will pass a guy taking a dump in the middle of the street or subway and not blink twice, yet, when we walked the two blocks to MSG with our giant 7'x7' canvases, we had gawkers and even a few followers.


The event was done by noon, so we got drunk and hit up some galleries. Went to quite a few places, but below is Jonathan Levine and then the Tim Hawkinson exhibit... oh yeah, and some dude doing Parkour.



We even managed to hit up MOMA, which as always, was very impressive. Check out Dali's Little Theatre, thats 5 panes of glass he painted on... you can't really see the depth in the photo, but believe me, it is pretty damn amazing. Jophen Stein, you are on your way...



Here are just some random shots from the three days... which for some reason, food seems to be motif.






Alright, now that we are back, we are gearing up for our Annual C-Note show on Thursday, as well as Melissa Contreras first solo show at Black Market Boutique on Friday. Pics to come...

mike
www.project.bz

NYC Day 1

Ahhh New York City, it would be a great city if it weren't for all those CHUDs running around.

Actually, this city is against me I believe. Evverything that could possibly go wrong went wrong... no ride from the airport, hotel giving away rooms, etc. But the mother of all - missing artwork! UPS, you just made the list.

After a day of yelling at the poor reps on the phones, our artwork was finally located on a container headed out to sea... seriously. It is supposed to be delivered today, so lets keep our fingers crossed.

In the meantime, Beau and Yoskay built out the frames and stretched the canvas



Despite the craziness, we forced ourselves out to check some galleries... Here we are checking out Sage Vaughn's exhibit at DACTYL.




We also stopped by Deitch, but they weeren't having anything all that exciting.

Alright, with Day 1 down and most of the work out of the way, we intend on enjoying ourselves today. This is Yoskay's first time ever in the city, so we hope to give him a good tour.

mike
www.project.bz

Pirates!

TindelMichi and Urban Medium just sent me photos of their unfinsihed 7'x7' murals from the ATL... lookin good so far.



I think I told you about our neighbor the music pirate. No, no, he is not pirating music, he sells music on-line and is an actual pirate.
Anyway, he brought over the new gun he just purchased, an authentic replica of an 18th Century revolver. It takes about 1-2 minutes to load and fire each shot (and yes, it does fire)... not so efficient by today's standards. Anyway, here is Intern Kim looking fierce...



mike
www.project.bz

Almost finished...

Yoskay rocking the last part of his mural before it gets shipped off.

Next week when we are in NYC, I'll give a better update on all the murals.

Going to see Spiderman 3 tomorrow night... lets hope it lives up to the hype...

mike
www.project.bz

Big Ass Murals

Yep, that's right, the time has come... we are finally working on those big ass murals for that New York project I have been alluding to. But first...

Whiskey Tasting!

We were invited to check out Seven Grand, that new fancy-smancy bar in Downtown brought to you by the same guys who own Golden Gopher and Broadway Bar.

Free Whiskey is always lovely... but as my friend Lobo said, "this place is full of Tools." I, reluctantly, must concur. Hey, if I wanted to see a bunch of guys in suits, I'd get a job.

Then we checked out Royal Claytons in downtown. It was French Connection Night, so live swanky beats were provided by the Mad Alsacians.

Definitely check it out... but only for drinks. The food is pretty dismal.

So here we are to the mural. The CW Network asked us to provide four artist murals for a project at Madison Square Garden. We start 'em here and finish them off at a live event at MSG next week. Yoskay Yamamoto is one of LA artists, along with John Michael Gill. From the ATL, UrbanMedium and TindelMichi round out the roster.

Here, Yoskay is startin' it off...


I'll post some more pics tomorrow of the almost finished product.

And finally, with yesterday being Cinco De Mayo, what better way to celebrate then by grabbing some food from my favorite Westside Mexican joint, Cinco De Mayo.

Sure its next to Tito's Tacos, the "#1 Mexican Stand in LA", so it gets no play. Hold on, don't say that, of course I love Tito's... but man, if you want REAL dirty Mexican food, don't want to wait, and want to pay Three Bucks to get full, then this is the place for you.

So I grabbed some to go and put on old favorite, "Convoy". Ernest Borgnine, Kris Kristofferson - one of several classic 70's movies that has no real plot but still wants to show some segment of society that gets over-looked.

The difference here is, this movie wasn't based on a book or TV show... it was based on a SONG! and what a song! "We Got A Big Ol' Convoy, Ain't She A Beautiful Sight!" For full crazy lyrics, go Here. In fact, if you read the lyrics, you don't need to see the movie... its all there.

Because of this movie, as I kid, I wanted to be called Spider Mike and make Big Rigs honk their horns and force my parents to ride up behind the Kentworths so we could start our own Convoys... ahhh the memories.


mike
www.project.bz

And then some...

its been quite a whirlwind, so lets get started shall we...

First up, Centro Basque in Chino. This old style basque restaurant is packed every Sunday for their family style eat-a-thons. Two Sundays ago, a Suburban full of us headed down for some amazing food and cheap wine.




By 4pm, we all were full and felt great... that's when local old-man perv Pierre stopped by our table for his monthly old-man fondling of KG.



He is there every Sunday, and everytime KG goes there he says the most inappropriate things... and yes, if I say they are inappropriate, then you know they have to be pretty bad. Talking about her, um, well, you know, and various things he would like to do to her, um, well, you know... yes, even for me, this guy was too perv.

But hey, it wasnt a total loss, we got a great meal, I won $25, and we visited the Gold Room afterward... all in all, as Cube would say, it was a good day.

Fast forward two days, and an era comes to an end. Yep, its gone. All gone.




That's artist and good pally Ralph Silerio cutting my hair up at his salon in Ventura. The 'stache slowly went away in stages: The John Waters, The Hitler, The Charlie Chaplin... until it was gone.

RIP Facial Hair December '06 - April '07
We'll miss you.

Another couple days and its the Black Market Boutique opening for HippyTree! Here the boys are preparing:


And here is the show itself:




You can see photos of pieces up Here.

What else? Oh right, Coachella:




Can't see too much in those photos, and really, there is not much I could say that you probably haven't already heard about Coachella weekend. I guess I could give you my review of bands and such, but honestly, do you really care what I think? So lets leave it at that.

Got some good stuff coming up, stay tuned...

mike
www.project.bz