my van broke down on the way to the detriot airport, and i had to turn it around mid trip and take it home. it required me stopping every 3 minutes to pour in an entire bottle of anti-freeze... needless to say I was stressed. But my best bud Joel took me back to the airport, and I made it to the plane just as they were calling my name over the speakers. 4 hours later i landed in LA, rented a car and headed over to visit my buddy Michael Coleman who works at Girl. He took me for a tour of the building that houses a bunch of rad brands and radder people. Here we see a shit load of skateboards.

This is the skatepark in the back of the warehouse. I asked him how great it was to have something like this at your job, and Michael said that its one of those things you end up taking for granted. I know Michael from when he lived and worked in Chicago publishing BAIL magazine. He's been living in LA for a little over a year, and it was interesting to talk to a native midwesterner about the westcoast adjustment.

Walking around the office, we found Andy Mueller! I've known Andy for years, and have worked with him on Faesthetic several times. Ive never met him in person, so it was great to make the connection.

Turning the corner, we find Mr. Andy Jenkins! He is as nice as they come, and has an office almost as messy as mine. He sent a big shout out to fecalface.

Before I took off and settled in my hotel for the day, Micheal took me for my first In-n-Out burger. Fan-fucking-tastic!

The next day I drove around aimlessly in my rental looking for an internet cafe. After spending what seemed like 3 hours on the "110" I gave up and went downtown. I met up with my bud Toddrick, who works at Spectre Music. Ive been doing some design work for Spectre, and also have put my record label's music (pretendrecords.com) into their catalogue for media placement. But I know Toddrick from years ago, when he used to play drums with the Detachment Kit in Chicago, and my band would open for them when they'd come through ohio. Toddrick and I went to get some Korean fried chicken, which id show you, but I realize I take too many food photos already and since im doing this blog on a super famous internet art portal, i figure I should keep most of my photos and words focused on life as an artist.

After lunch with Toddrick I headed over to see Mark the Cobra Snake's office. He had shaved his beard off since I last saw him in nyc.

Next I headed over to Fairfax avenue for a little shopping. I have to admit, I was really really dissapointed with most of the stores that I see on all of those hype blog websites. But the one real gem I did stumble on was this new store called Family. It was hands down the most amazing art & book store ive ever been to, and I told the owners I thought so. If you live in LA, it's your duty to visit this place on a regular basis and buy at least one zine every time you stop by.

So that night after a day of eating and driving, I went to the media night for the want2bsquare show. The newly opened Scion gallery in Culver City is really nice, and it was interesting to see the work from NYC hung in a smaller space.

and if you youre not sick of seeing pictures of me, here i am with Roger Gastman. I've known Roger for what seems like a really long time, and have always really admired what he has gotten himself into. From publishing "While You Were Sleeping" magazine (before it got bad) to now publishing "SWINDLE" magazine with Shepard Fairey. He also publishes art books for people like Dalek and Rich Coleman. He will get more done in his life than most people do in a hundred lives. He has been very helpul in giving me advice on publishing and "the biz".

Seeing this photo reminds me I really need to go to the gym.

Here we see a wall of Maya Hayuk pieces.

Michael and Toddrick showed up, along with Toddrick's wife Maggie, and my friend Rory. Rory works for XLarge and has brought me in to do some shirts. He's another one of those guy's ive only met on the internet, so it was nice to make the connection. Here we see Rory, Toddrick and Maggie all up in my box.

After the show we went to Hurry Curry. I got something called the "Tokyo Special" which resembled diarrhea with a hardboiled egg on top, but tasted like heaven.

Then to a bar called JOKERS which played non stop classic rock. Michael can be seen here trying to convince us that he'd have a lot more fun in LA if he could find some longshoremen to hang out with.

The next day, while driving around and looking for some shopping I found this on a building off of Melrose. To say the least, I was a bit startled.

While on Melrose, I stopped into MunkyKing and took a picture of the giant Biskup HELPER sculpture. Im a huge Tim Biksup fan, so it was great seeing this.

On my way back to the hotel I saw this sign, and realized I had no choice but to go in and get a burger. Tell me this sign doesnt want to make you eat something.

At the official opening of the show, I met up with all of the other artists in attendance. Here in order we find me, Freddi C, kelsey brookes and maya hayuk. For some reason I decided to not show any teeth in any pictures taken of me on this trip. It was a concious desicion, but I can't explain what I was thinking.

If you can spot the tall guy wearing the yellow sweatshirt, that's Josh who runs RE:UP magazine. If you havent peeped RE:UP yet, it's one of the best designed magazines to ever hit the shelves. It was good to meet Josh in person. He is very very very tall.

inside Maya's box. They lit it with Black-Lights, which really helped out.

Inside of Dalek's box.

Inside Kesely's box.

Inside Sage Vaughn's box.

Oh oh oh.. and check this out! Mark Mothersbaugh feeding beer to one of my pieces!

Mark is one of the many reasons im proud to say I am from Ohio.

So.. the show was over, and we all went out for some beers. It was a pleasure getting to hang out with so many interesting people.. and I really feel lucky to have had the opportunity to take part in the show. (a massive thanks to everyone involved)

i wish i had taken more shots of all the old signs LA has. i'm not sure if it's the nice weather that keeps these things from being torn down, or an appreciation for class... i just wish they'd open a buggy whip in toledo.

Hopefully I will have more to share with you fecal faces in the near future.

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