Playing With the Box

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At the risk of appearing like I have no life, I am making another blog entry today. It is very exciting (and nerve-wracking) to come up with an idea and throw it out to a bunch of artists. Add a deadline and you are sure to end up with hives if you expect it to be met. Still, as the entries come in from various corners of the world (yesterday we received a delightful entry from Adam Peele, a designer in Tokyo, Japan!), it is like Christmas morning every time we receive an entry.

Adam sent us a box of cardboard white mice that operate under golf ball power! He said they reminded him of a mechanical toy mouse he wanted as a child. They kind of remind me of a toy mouse that my brother bought on the Venice boardwalk when we were kids. We saw a man hawking this 'magic' mouse that would skitter up his hands, trying to crawl onto his chest. He kept rotating his hands rapidly so it could never actually crawl onto him. What we couldn't see was the piece of fishing line attached from a button on his shirt to the mouse's nose. We fell for it and bought one of the mice and were duly disappointed that it wasn't really magic. Still it was a pretty good illusion for a dollar.

We still have not secured a venue or a date for "Playing With the Box", so if you are an artist and want to be part of this inaugural event, there is still time to submit an entry! For more details on the rules and regs, email us at latda@latdamuseum.org and put "I want to PWB" in the subject line.

Buried treasure

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Another story from the other Coast...

Story: Phoenix, AZ, when [I was] a kid, was a suburban hot bed of toys. I had a Zorro outfit, with a mask, cape, and sword that had chalk on the end for drawing the "Mark of Zorro"...Steve Canyon helmet, Rifleman rifle, a Mare's Leg from "Wanted Dead or Alive", models. When I got older, I buried all my toys in the backyard. Worth a small fortune now..all buried in a heap....sigh....often considered digging them out and going to eBay!!! I just remembered I had a Roy Rogers set..including "Nelly Bell"...the Jeep.

TV ruled my toy world. Aviation models, too. Great how the backyard, with toys, and friends, became such a full world...and we had to make our OWN sound effects!! Now, the adult toys are way too expensive and somehow not as fulfilling as those of my youth...but I still make models...and they touch the fun.

--David, Brooklyn, NY

Yes, and all that creativity is now serving David well in his career as musician-composer. By the way, David, where did you say you lived in Phoenix?

What is it about buried toys? I don't think I have ever lived in a house where I didn't dig up a cat's eye marble or five. I know that it probably has something to do with the size of the object and its tendency to roll away, but there is something exciting about seeing the glint of light from a mud-encrusted bump in a dirt clod - like finding diamonds.

There is a lovely story in an exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum about a Japanese American boy who was incarcerated at one of the camps during World War II. He was eight or nine at the time and one of the rare amusements he had in camp was a bag of marbles. For some reason, I don't remember why now, he buried the marbles under the front steps of his barracks home. Many years later, while on a pilgrimage to share his past with his children or grandchildren, he remembered about the marbles. Although the barracks were long gone, he figured out where his former home stood and paced out where the front step would have been and dug up his marbles.

Buried treasure...

Got Bush?

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For anyone out there looking to donate an artifact to LATDA, we are looking for one of those new Dubya inaction figures. We have been collecting many comic strip references to the doll… I mean, action figure, and think that there is a future show about action figures of people who have nothing to do with ‘action’.

Which brings me to the topic of what kind of toy it is appropriate for a museum to collect… The philosophy at LATDA is that we will collect with themes for exhibitions in mind. Ideally we would like objects in our collection to reflect the best and sometimes the worst in toy design, but where do you draw the line? For example, the George Bush figure controversy also led us to look at the talking Governator doll, supposedly depicting Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is his voice in the microchip, but the head looks nothing like the subject. It would be better to buy a replacement chip from the company and insert/attach it to a real Terminator action figure. At least people who license images from movies have to hew to a certain level of quality control.

When I visited the site that produces this particular doll, they had an entire line of politically satirical dolls. They had accumulated quite a bit of hate mail that they posted for all to see. The fact that they produce custom action figures was interesting (although, again, the quality was dubious) but I didn’t know whether it was appropriate to support them.

Chicken Boy and other amusements...

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Last night I attended a presentation by Amy Inouye and Kathy Cadien at the Skylight Bookstore on Vermont in Los Feliz (haven't been there since it was Chatterton's!) These two artists told their inspirational tales of passion for two hunks of Fiberglas - Chicken Boy and Pegthroat the Pirate.

What I took away from the evening (besides a feeling of camaraderie and empathy) was the lesson that all grown-up dreams become inextricably tied up in a web of politics and financial responsibility when they are on their road to reality. That these women have both persevered to save their Fiberglas guys (22' and 26' tall, respectively) for a period of years, is an amazing story. But it was comforting to note that along the way they have both assembled their own band of supporters. They are my role models and heroes!

Note to LATDA fans: Amy Inouye is also a designer and artist, and was once of the first people to submit a piece for "Playing With the Box". It is a wonderful piece of work that is entitled "Design-Your-Own-Disney Hall". We will endeavor to link a picture of it to our web site as a preview for our first show. Stay tuned. (Amy has also designed a book with photographer Gary Leonard entitled, "Symphony in Steel: Walt Disney Concert Hall Goes Up" published by Angel City Press)

As a welcome respite from the strikes and fires of the past week, I went to see "Dressed for Thrills: Vintage Halloween Costumes" at the Craft and Folk Art Museum (Los Angeles). This is an exhibition based on the book of the same name and written by Phyllis Galembo, who owns most of the artifacts in the exhibition. As usual, CAFAM created a beautiful jewel of an exhibition, and the only thing it wanted for was another two or three rooms full of artifacts. I wanted MORE (especially having read and purchased the book last year.) It was an interesting presentation of actual costumes and large cibachrome photographs of children wearing costumes. The photos were presented as artifacts themselves. After re-visiting the book, I don't know what costumes I would have added to the current presentation (although I did like the 'Queen of the Night'). The ones with printed Halloween patterns were the best. The show is up for one more week...Go see it and support CAFAM. A bonus exhibition of woodworker Sam Maloof's work is on the third floor.

Our first toy story!

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Here is our first toy story submitted by a real person! (We have had a few others that were submitted by the likes of Auguste Rodin and Wally Cox, but they turned out to be test missives submitted by the web designer…)

Story: When I was but a wee tyke (somewhere in the vicinity of five or six years old), I inherited a large, stuffed bear from my older sis. The bear, 'though pre-owned, was in pristine condition (and, incidentally, taller and wider than I was) until I decided its pristine plump-ness would make a perfect trampoline. I jumped and thumped on its poor ursine carcass until one of the eyes popped off. My mother (who, I assume, was keeping watch on her possibly insane son) said, "That's not very nice. How would you like it if the bear jumped on you and your eye popped out?" Fearing for my then-perfect vision, I stayed a respectable distance from my one-eyed crash pad for the rest of the day. It's almost 40 years later and I can still clearly remember the nightmare I had that evening: A monstrous, stuffed, one-eyed bear chasing me, trying to grab one of my eyes to replace his.

I don't think I ever played with that bear again.

--Neal, Los Angeles, CA

Why is it that so many of the really memorable toy stories have this sort of dark twist to them? (We at LATDA are in R&D for an exhibition on this very theme…Neal – you may become part of that exhibition!)

When I was a child, I read every piece of juvenile fiction that had to do with dolls. I read the Rumer Godden classics including the Miss Happiness and Miss Flower books; Hitty: Her First Hundred Years; The Lonely Doll; as well as any number of forgettable titles. When I ran out of titles in the juvenile section of our local library I started searching the adult fiction card catalog. An observant librarian stopped me from checking out a book called The Deadly Doll – I think it was a piece of pulp fiction.

Anyway, one of my favorite stories was an obscure book called The Village of Hidden Wishes, by David Fletcher. I read this book when I was about 8 or 9 and was never able to find it again. Every so often I would describe it to others, having forgotten the author and title, in hopes that someone would recognize it and lead me to it. In my senior year of college, I paid my first visit to the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles. As always, the book came to mind and I described it to someone there. As I was talking and walking by the shelves, I suddenly stopped and reached towards a book with a blue spine. It was like an automatic writing impulse. My hand went straight to the book that I had been searching for over the past twelve years or so. As this was in the days before abebooks.com and Ebay, I had no way of purchasing this now-out-of-print book. But when I re-read it and made a note of the title and author, I was able to continue searching for my own copy. Eventually a librarian heard my story and ‘de-accessioned’ a copy from her library that had not been checked out since 1964.

It was a story about two sisters who owned two dolls that looked just like them. They foolishly wished that they could trade places with their dolls for a day and mentioned the fact to the proprietor of the local doll hospital. As they had deposited their dolls in the hospital for repair due to less than attentive care (their dog had savaged the dolls), Mr. Moon was less than sympathetic. The upshot of the story is that the girls do indeed trade places with the dolls and are tossed in the toy cupboard to face the ire of the rest of their neglected toys. The ringleader of the angry mob was Big Teddy. (Neal, did you ever read this book?)

Noho

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It keeps rising in the LATDA horizon. Actually not just from the horizon, but from all directions. It has been suggested as a possible site from no less than four different and unconnected people. There are many aspects that lend credence to the idea – the CRA involvement, the new Metro link station, its proximity to the studios and connection to the animation community. All in all, a pretty amusing location…

Here’s a report I emailed on 7/16/03:

On Sunday I decided to do a little reconnaissance in North Hollywood. I actually found a vacant building that would make a very charming museum...it was two stories and a total of 11,000+ sq. ft. It was one block from the Metro station and surrounded by vacant lots. I took down the number and will try and make an inquiry. Unfortunately it was only for lease, not for sale. But then again, we don't have that kind of capital yet anyway. But it always helps to have a vessel in which to visualize one's dream.

In the same neighborhood I passed an interesting place surrounded by auto repair shops. It was a blockhouse covered with cat's claw ivy gone wild and overgrown. The word "Museum" was scrawled in folk-arty type on the side of the building - it caught my eye and I pulled over to check it out. There was a pair of shoes hanging over the telephone wire in front - a pair of clown shoes. The letters 'C-I-A' were painted on a small ivy-cleared sign on the roof. When I got close to the front door (buried under a very dark overhang) I could see a painted clown face in bas-relief. To the left of the door was a small showcase with some very creepy rubber puppets jammed uncomfortably inside the glass. The sign said "California Institute of Abnormal Arts" with a smaller card that read "Dead Puppets Society". Although I have an instinctive dislike for clowns, I knocked on the door while at the same time flashing on the fact that no one knew where I was...

Being a dyed-in-the-wool Angeleno, I have always had a natural distrust and disdain for all things Valley. But I know that it is changing. Sandra Tsing Loh lives out there for chrissakes – how bad can it be? Still, when I was roaming the near deserted streets in dog-day heat, I had a hard time visualizing the lively, animated scenes depicted in the renderings on the NoHo Arts District web pages. But then again, I remember what Old Town Pasadena looked like 30 years ago. I would have never imagined it to be what it is today. But can we wait 30 years?

Stage fright

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As soon as we set up the blog and I made the first couple of entries, I was seized with writer's block amplified by stage fright. It's not like I have broadcast the fact that we are now 'on blog' or anything, it is just that I was suddenly self-conscious and paranoid about 'telling all' as it happened. Of course, an addendum to that last thought is the fact that nothing HAS happened in this past week. Until LATDA is up and running as a going concern, I maintain a day job with another museum. We opened an exhibition on Friday, so I was focusing on my contribution to the smooth and successful member's reception. Part of my duties entailed locating and receiving some last minute merchandise for the museum store -- PVC sperm and humpback whales. The shipment arrived a bare five hours before the reception, but made it into the store along with a children's version of 'Moby Dick'.

In addition to opening exhibitions, we have launched our annual mail order catalog - a week earlier than last year. This has given us a leg-up on sales and made life busier than usual at this time of October.

So LATDA issues and pursuits had to wait until the weekend. Gary and I took our daughter to visit the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. It was two-fold mission: first to present an interesting alternative to a liberal arts college (she's a high school senior this year) that corresponds with her current interests; and secondly, to view their current exhibition "Mourning Glory" a fascinating display of Victorian mourning clothes. We were treated to a special tour by Judy Yaras, the manager of the FIDM Museum Store and an instructor at FIDM. I was much impressed by the student work on display and tucked away the thought that FIDM might be a good resource for LATDA when it comes time for exhibition design and marketing. The student work showed a lot of innovation and creative energy.

After FIDM we walked over to the Museum of Neon Art. Somehow I wasn't aware that they were a short walk from FIDM within the same block. One would think that this would be a serendipitous location for them -- so close to a school full of design-aware young people. We checked out their current exhibit of Los Angeles street lights. So beautiful! Gary was able to leave some information about the designer of some of the old lamp posts on view. Elin Waite's mother worked for the city of Los Angeles and designed the poles. I talked with the woman minding MONA about how they were able to find their current location. She turned me on to the CRA as a possible source of assistance. I am adding them to my list of people to contact. I know that they recently moved to Chinatown and are in temporary disarray (heard this through the NoHo people), but will make an effort to contact them shortly.