[Doing it Right] The Getty + Graffiti

August 26, 2013September 26, 20131 Comment

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a distinct change in my temperament and personality – sure, I’m still just as bouncy as I’ve ever but I’ve cultivated a need to take things a little slower on some weekends. If life is about the journey and not the destination, why not stop and smell the roses – right? Well, this journey as an Angelino has been more than wonderful but – not now, but eventually – I’m going to leave this ‘City Kitty’ lifestyle of go-go-go attitudes, glitz and glamour for something a little tamer. After five years, I’ve essentially exhausted all of my EDM outlets in this town – the clubs, the festivals , the underground, the rooftops, the pools. Don’t get me wrong because I’m proud to say I’ve done it, but lately I’ve been itching for something more – something that inspires me to evolve. As fun as it would be to live like this forever, everything in moderation (including moderation). A place in the country-side, close enough to the city to enough its amenities – sports teams, museums, concerts – but far enough away so we go to sleep under the stars, instead of being put to bed by sirens. So, until then I’ve made a vow to myself and to my close friends that we’re going to explore every creative outlet this town has to offer us.

I’ve had the pleasure of visiting a handful of museums within the past year and a half – in southern California, I’ve been to the San Diego Natural History Museum, the LA Natural History Museum, the Getty Villa and the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas. This past weekend was a gorgeous one, and I had the pleasure of bringing my boyfriend and his housemate on their first adventure to the J Paul Getty Museum. I hadn’t been since my parents visited in 2010 so I was eager to go back and see what had changed. On each side of our trip to the Getty, we adventured down Melrose and Fairfax to explore the graffiti and street art in my neighborhood. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, I’m sure you’ve seen my Oh, Snap series on Street Art – exploring the contemporary art of the area and contrasting it against the classical forms we saw during the day on Saturday was absolutely amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed the dichotomy between the two; hopefully y’all enjoyed these pictures as much as I enjoyed the experiences!

Doing It Right: My Lucky Date With Blue Medi Spa

January 26, 2013August 14, 20131 Comment

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Some people seem to have all the luck – raffles, clothes, apartments, friends; every bit and piece of their lives seem all too perfect to be real. I’m definitely not one of those people but believe you me: I’ve had my fair share of luck. Over the last three years I’ve been blessed with multiple opportunities that simply make my soul happy: I was lucky enough to visit one of my best friends in Shanghai last year and got to celebrate the Chinese New Years in style, I won a trip to Las Vegas through the good folks at Metrowize and I was privileged enough to not only worth the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Los Angeles, but I got to interview top notch designers like Christian Audigier and Lana Fuchs!

Over the last year or so, there’s been little luck to be found – which doesn’t bother me much, I definitely felt like I’d used up all my karma points with the universe! Well, a huge thank you to Blue Medi Spa of Sherman Oaks and Yelp’s LA East Elite Team for changing things up a bit – after attending the kickoff event for Yelp Elite’s last week, I got a strange phone call the next day saying that my raffle ticket had won me a night of pampering and a goodie bag. I’d just finished a big workout and literally had to pause and catch my breath -in between descriptions of spa treatments, I managed to squeak the words “…wait, I won?!” into the receiver. And a week and a few treatments later, I still can’t believe how lucky I was!

First things first, the staff is beyond lovely – they were ready and able to answer all of my varied questions, and are over the moon hospitable! After a quick and nifty iPad driven intake form, I was swept away by a technician named Stacey for some microderabrasion or as the folks at Blue Spa refer to it – MicrodermaBlue. Using the DiamondTome technology, the skin is exfoliated by distributing a stream of fine crystals and diamonds and then using a vacuum to suction the crystals – and your dead skin – up, up and away. The end result for me were that the top few layers of dead skin were completely removed, leaving a beautifully smooth surface with very little blemishes and an even complexion. Another perk to microdermabrasion, besides your skin feeling heavenly, is that makeup will apply easier: it won’t streak and you won’t need to touch it up at all! The service itself is roughly $150, but in my opinion it’s completely worth every penny (that I didn’t have to pay…)

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One thing that I didn’t take into account before my appointment is your skin has multiple layers: the microdermabrasion targeted the epidermis, or the top layer of the skin. My next treatment, Laser Genesis, targeting the endodermis (bottom layer of skin). Now, let me preface this section by saying that this is a pretty pricey treatment ($400 for just your face) and there’s no way I would do this on my own dime – but – I absolutely loved it and feel that if you can afford a treatment like this, do it. The microdermabrasion opened up my pores for the removal of dirt and dead skin and the Laser Genesis then goes in and minimizes them. It takes roughly 30 minutes, and 13 thousand light pulses, to finish your face – and not gonna lie, it feels a little strange. The light pulses hit your face in attempts to stimulate collagen growth; and as a warning: the light pulses feel very similar to being in a strong tanning bed and can be a little uncomfortable at times. The end result was that my skin tone and texture were completely evened out, and my cat scratches that I’ve had for years were almost unnoticeable!

Last, but definitely not least, I was presented with a goodie bag filled to the brim with amazing products which includes, but is totally not limited to, a Latisse kit ($120) with a one month supply of applicators and top of the line sunscreen + skin moisturizer from Fenix ($55) to ensure the treatments last.

Once again, a huge thank you to Blue Medi Spa and Yelp for making this girl feel so special; thank you, thank you, thank you! My face looks and feels wonderful and I couldn’t be happier

♥

Oh, Snap: Stunning Sunsets Vol1

January 11, 2013August 9, 20131 Comment

Over the last decade, I’ve developed a knack for capturing events ‘in-the-moment’: confetti at concerts, priceless interactions between friends and the nuanced emotions of animals. You name it, I’ve probably at least attempted to capture it. The only difference between me then and me now is experience, age, wisdom and dedication; so, kind of a lot. You’d think that with so many moving pieces, shooting people and animals would be on the more difficult end of the spectrum – but that would be completely false. With animate objects, you can engage them into acting, or even reacting – either way, they engage the camera in a symbiotic relationship. When you’re trying to take a picture of a dandelion or mural – you can’t exactly ask it to shift into the light, or angle themselves in another direction. It’s all up to you to be creative, which is where I shine. I love taking something that exists and manipulating the image into something bigger: bolder, colorful, lively; and I feel like sunsets are the perfect subject to demonstrate this.

LA Skyline

Newport, CA

Dallas, TX

Hollywood, CA

San Diego, CA

Echo Park, CA

Downtown LA

Newport, CA

Sunset Spot

Malibu, CA

Coachella 2011

Doing It Right: HARD Presents – Day of the Dead

November 8, 2012August 14, 2013Leave a comment

I think I’m finally on the verge of recovery from last weekend’s shenanigans – in typical Bouncy Kitty fashion, I more than enjoyed myself at the Music Festival last Saturday. Sure, there were lines and there was pushing, it took forever to get in and then there were a clusterfuck of people – but that all comes with the territory of festival dwelling and was more or less expected. Between the chaos and the camaraderie, I had such an amazing night with some of my closest friends – here are some of the highlights:

First of all, not to toot our costume horn but beepm’f’in’beep, my friends! The other weekend a zany, but plausible idea popped into my head in the middle of a brainstorming sesh: My friends and I were discussing our habitual Halloween “fall back” costumes, and a few of us admitted it was actually our “Plan A” every year and mine just happens to be a kitty cat (shocker…). Well, because we were going to ‘Day of the Dead‘ I thought it’d be fun to incorporate some morbidity into our costumes – so, obviously, I opted for “Dead Cat”…which turned into “Dead Animals”…which somehow turned into “Hey, guys! Let’s be ROADKILL!” I knew I loved my friends before, but I adore them 150% more because they went along with my ridiculously awesome idea.

Sexy Pieces of Dead Ass

The next highlight of the evening was getting a chance to finally see Miss Maya Jane Coles in action – as much as this was a personal highlight, it doesn’t begin to tell you how effing excited all my friends were. She was the sole reason they bought their tickets and fended off the damn bike fences – hands down, one of the best deep house sets I’ve heard all year and according to my friends it was 110% completely worth it.

One thing I love about using LA State Historic Park as a venue is the ample stage space for ostentatious set-ups. The Earstorm Stage where Knife Party ripped the festival a new one was no exception – it was huge, fabulous and stocked to the brim with more lights and lasers than I could count.

EARStorm Stage: Knife Party, Kill the Noise, Tommy Trash, Zane Lowe….

Last – but certainly far from least – I FINALLY SAW KNIFE PARTY! When Knife Party came into the scene last year I didn’t know how to feel or what to expect from their evolution as a group – but the more I listen to them, the more enthralled I am by what they produce: this melodic dissonance that I simply can’t get enough of.

Knife Party – Save the World

Knife Party – Internet Friends

The Audiofiles: Ready for the Weekend

September 13, 2012August 14, 2013Leave a comment

Live music might be one of my favorite things in the history of ever. I know that’s a bold blanket statement, but believe you me – I stick by it 100%. Whether it’s Folk, Indie, Rock, Hip Hop, World Music or Electro – there’s nothing quite like the live experience. I eat up the energy in the crowd like it’s my job and the music fills me up like a balloon; it’s one of the only times I can say that yes – I’m truly satisfied with my surroundings.

Last weekend was no different than any other weekend for me; bouncing around from location to location, experiencing so many different types of music. On Friday night, I went and enjoyed Beats Antique, Bones, Russ Liquid and Jeremy Sole at Club Nokia thanks to the Do Lab; with that much it was such a phenomenal display of musicianship, bouncing from electronic world fusion to glitch and trap. Saturday, I found myself at Dim Mak studios in Hollywood getting my Superfreq on to some amazing deep house and tech house sounds and then ended my night at the infamous Secret Cinema, a warehouse party that doesn’t start until 1 am and doesn’t end…well, ever. And things were finally wrapped up that evening at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood for some typical Sunday Funday shenanigans. Each event boasted a completely different type of sound, crowd and vibe – and that is one of the reasons I love this city: there are so many nuanced, musical subcultures that there’s literally something for everyone to enjoy.And now, being Thursday – it’s time once again to prepare ourselves to take on the weekend; these are the songs that are currently getting me excited for the clock to hit 5pm tomorrow night…

Tracklist

Noosa – Walk On By (Sound Remedy Remix)
Metrik ft Reija Lee – Freefall (xKore Remix)
Sub Focus – Out of the Blue (Xilent Remix)
Sub Focus – Falling Down (Kaptain Bootleg)
Krewella – One Minute (DotEXE’s Dopest Dope Remix)
Spencer & Hill ft Nadia Ali – Believe It (Cazzette’s Androids Sound Hot Remix)

Oh Snap: Street Art v1

August 18, 2012Leave a comment

In every way of the word, LA is bustling with diversity, creativity and inspiration. There’s as much diversity between the different cultures in LA as there are within them. The creativity and inspiration of each subculture here is born out of colliding ideas. And these ideas are translated into art, architecture, music, performance dance, and more – the key is knowing where to look; with street art, it’s no further than the wall of a dilapidated building, a fire hydrant or billboard.

Over the past few months I’ve been taking Urban Nature Walks and taking pictures of anything that catches my eye and I can’t wait to share it with you guys through my Oh, Snap! series. What better way to kick it off than counting down my top 10 pictures. All of these photos are taken with the Instagram Application for Android, and I’ll let you know what filters and edits I’ve used. Enjoy!

10.