I had a very full and fun day today making a diorama at the Machine Project space in Echo Park (coincidentally next to the Fretted Frog where I take ukulele lessons). There's nothing like having people around working on their stuff and a clock ticking to stir ideas you never knew you might have. I came in with only a vague idea of doing something inspired by Murakami's Wind Up Bird Chronicle and walked out with a complete diorama, I'm amazed. Normally I would have probably dragged it over a few days. Artist Amy Jo Diaz and architect Casey Hughes were super helpful both with inspiring suggestions and hands on assistance. Thanks!

Not far from where I used to live in Venice is an eclectic antique store and gallery named Obsolete. What a great name for an antique store. But don't go looking for old pictures of sailboats or a fifties dish set, your grandmother would probably not recognized anything on display here. Seemingly from an undetermined era, the carefully curated collection of unique objects, art, and furnishings on display are so cool and offbeat I would say they lean more towards trendsetting than obsolete! The store also doubles as a gallery and regularly features equally unusual artists. Each new artist is always a pleasant discovery but the one showing this month really hit home for me, since I love miniature installations. The artist reception for Tom Haney's mechanical sculptures, Undaunted, was Saturday November 13. I went the next morning and had the chance to take several pictures while the store was quiet and the sculptures were resting after an undoubtedly busy opening night.

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Here's another ahem, not-so-weekly mini: a project I made last summer which I'm only now getting around to sharing, but speaking of crazy little characters made with wire, it felt to me like the perfect time to slip it in. These guys are not drinking coffee like the running man in my last post, but mixing their own drinks from self-serving pods, which I imagined would be the way to go if you were in a bar functioning like the internet.

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A conversation with friends around Sunday brunch inspired this week's weekly-mini. We were talking about the biggest story in the news right now, the disastrous BP oil spill. When I got home I decided to take a closer look at the personal reaction of marine life coming face to face with the spill.

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