EEK Studio is a finalist in a competition for a new canopy structure to be built in Grand Park in Downtown LA. Please take a moment to vote for our entry UNDERCOVER PICNIC at the link below and help us bring our installation to our own “backyard”!
“Drawing inspiration from the idea of Grand Park being ‘everyone’s backyard’, our proposal envisions the new canopy as a floating picnic blanket in the sky, sheltering a territory for collective gathering and revelry. Our design synthesizes the graphic iconographies of familiar picnic spreads like traditional gingham with the vibrant colorways and palettes of Mexican serapes, to remind us of shared meals in the park with family or lounging under the stars at an outdoor movie. It is inviting and familiar yet the large scale and abstraction of the pattern and object creates a wholly unique experience synonymous with the novel role Grand Park plays as a resource to the entire city of Los Angeles.”
In the ever increasing day-dreams of what I would do if I weren’t an architect, this place has really been floating at the top of my various inspirations. (They are currently hiring!) I dream of returning to this clean white space, lounging at a huge table with a frothy latte in a bowl and nibbling on a most beautifully composed gravlax tartine. Vergennes, Vermont has it good, well actually all of Vermont does. Sigh.
EEK explored the Yucatan for spring break and of many memorable bites consumed, Apoala was far and away the most outstanding. We had a lazy lunch there the day we arrived to Merida sitting out on the lovely Plaza Santa Lucia after a rainstorm. Bonus, you can see local dance groups practicing for weekly performances in the square. Apoala is stylish and comfortable, the staff was awesome and we all befriended the manager Arnie who showed us his secret speak-easy in the back. This was one of the most amazing meals I’ve ever had and I eat a lot. Merida is lovely but I would make a pilgrimage back there alone to sit on the plaza and eat this ceviche again.
I haven’t had too much time to hang out with my Netflix account since binge watching Orange is the New Black season 2 but I watched the recent Divine doc over the last few nights and couldn’t have loved it more. Like many I was introduced to the insaniac world of Divine and John Waters via Hairspray at the tender age of 7 which instantly became my favorite movie. Since then my John Waters love affair has not ebbed from watching all of his earlier films at 16 in 16mm at calarts summer school to having him sign my copy of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and talking ab Debbie Harry at Wesleyan to seeing his xmas stage show a couple years ago. But I digress this is ab Divine. The film does such a nice job of capturing the dichotomy between the often shy, sensitive, and sweet Glenn Milstead and the balls out/DGAF personae he created that seriously busted up the drag scene. He was beloved and earnest and dedicated and I cried, a lot at the end when JW talks ab losing him. Its the love letter to Divine that he deserves, WATCH THIS!
Unfictional, one of my favorite radio shows has done it again with this oral history piece about Jeff Buckley’s break-out London moment. YOU MUST LISTEN NOW!!!
I just got back from a few days in Montana. My man and I decided to skip town at the last minute in a major way for 4th of July. We flew to Missoula and set off in a suped-up Subaru Outback to Glacier National Park. I teared up as we drove along the shores of Flathead Lake passing cherry grove after cherry grove, kids jumping off bridges into rivers and clamoring shoppers at many a roadside fireworks stand. I don’t take many pictures of natural landscapes bc pics never do them right, so here’s some images of this shiz that really gets my juices flowing. EEK is an americana nostalgia road trip junkie to the core and this was a much needed dose of unplaces, natural beauty, kitsch, and quiet.
Seriously, one look at this place Compania de Cafe, and I want to get in the car and drive all the way out to freaking San Fernando. What a beautiful interior and those cookies with the frosting modeled after Mexican Painted pottery….damn Bonita. See more gorgeous photos here.
