Your Social Life - Special I Am In A Jam Edition!

You've noticed, dear beloved readers, that I have been a bit absent presently. If you follow my adventures regularly, you know I'm writing a novel. It's pretty intense, and I'm trying to be done with the first draft in the next couple of months or so, after which I'll be really looking for a job. All of this is a bit time-consuming, so I don't write as much on the blog as I would sometimes like to, but after 8 hours of writing fiction non-stop my brain is pretty fried. Hopefully we'll have a contribution by LA artist Vincent Johnson soon, about his time in the US Air Force during the Cold War, when he was working in a Soviet-designed geodesic dome. I'm totally looking forward to it, let me tell you! And in about 3 days FBC! will turn 1, yeepee! There will be an anniversary post, I promise.

Also, this nerdy occupation (writing a novel) requires that I don't go out that much, or it kills my concentration, ditto not picking up the phone or responding to email. Especially if you send me too many at once, but really it's phone conversations I'm eschewing. All in all, I'm not exactly MIA but you won't see me around at openings, so it's starting to get tough recommending options for you and Your Social Life.

So, if I were to go out this weekend, what would I do?

I'd totally go to Chinatown to attend the outdoor video screening curated by Andrew Bernardini, from 8.30 PM onwards, this Saturday on Chung King Road. All info can be obtained at Chung King Project
Aside from that, I don't know, I haven't looked yet what was going on, but I'm totally excited by next week collaboration between Machine Project and Fallen Fruit, where you can all participate and make jam. FBC! adores making jam, but has some doubt about what will come out of the project, if only because FBC! doesn't use pectin in her jams (tip: just use a lemon instead), and macerate her fruit in sugar for half a day at least before making her jam. But that's just me being pesky, because it sounds like lots of fun, whatever will come out of all that jam!
So bring your own fruit, preferably picked up from an expedition with Fallen Fruit, and make some fab' jam. My favorite jam/jelly/preserve flavors are, in descending order:

1. Violet Petal Jelly (I bring it back from France, yes)
2. Rose Petal Jelly (Westwood is your best bet to find it)
3. Wild blackberry preserve (not jelly).
4. Redcurrant jelly
5. Apple, Hard Cider and Calvados Jelly (made in Normandy, yeepee!)
6. Pomegranate jelly (I buy mine from Ha's Apple Farm)
7. A fabulous Italian bergamot preserve I've found at Surfas once, alas they don't carry it anymore. Boo hoo.

Of course you know about using real cane sugar to make your own jam, not that disgusting High Fructose Corn Syrup found in commercial brands, including the ones that look fancy. Anyway, it sounds all so exciting, I'm dying to go but it's likely I'll be too busy writing. Have a spoonful for me, will you? Thanks!

And something else that happens next week is the Freak Show Deluxe in Silverlake, at the Sacred Fools Theater in Silverlake. It's only $15, and I'm sure by now you're already seen Dark Knight, so there you go. Right now it's the only type of performance art I'm excited about, along with the LA Derby Dolls. And speaking about cool performance art, there's this thing on the BBC website today, how to disappear without a trace. It happens to hundreds of artists every year, but it may not be *intentional*. I'd love to see one day an artist project about artists who disappeared but never reappeared. I mean, not some kind of master thesis in a third-tier university Art History department, if you follow my drift.
OK, all for today, and this weekend there will be the anniversary post, the result from the latest poll, a new poll, and some other stuff. Have a good one!