LA Parts 1 and 2

I made my way to Los Angeles once again in April and then again a few weeks ago. I must mention them in two parts as two significant changes happened after and before each trip respectively...

Domcon LA was the purpose for the trip in April. I had been copying DVDs, developing promotional merchandise, and procuring banners, business cards and such for a few weeks beforehand, but now it was show time and I was ready to sell, sell, sell! I arrived at the Sheraton LAX on Thursday evening in as much of a clandestine manner as possible. Fortunately I was able to spend the rest of the evening with a treasured slave who took me out for a divine meal. We had a wonderful session afterward and that served to clear my mind for the upcoming event. Stress relief has never been as fun as via the flesh of another human being...


The show started on Friday and went through until Easter Sunday. Despite what most thought was poor timing of the event, I was quite pleased with the turn-out. I had a blast at my booth, due in no small part to the aid of squonk. He was the master sales person and took over peddling my wares when I simply wanted to perch in the booth and observe. The DVDs moved well from day to day, but the biggest news was what I was able to accomplish after a year of DVD production: a distributorship deal! Yes, you'll now be able to find Vinyl Queen videos in an adult video store near you. I am as proud as a new parent over this situation. My DVDs are also going to be sold in Europe so I can't wait to return to my favorite sex shops in Frankfurt and see if my titles are there. How cool would that be? Thus, I can definitely say that Domcon was a success. Of course, I also got to encounter lots of cool new people, step on a few souls, and have my photo snapped a million times, but the success of my business trumps all of that good stuff.

LA Part Deux saw me returning to the southland for a more subdued trip. There was a vast difference in my mind set as I wasn't lugging all of the "stuff" from the previous trip. However, I was feeling very good about the time I would be down there as I had recently found out I was one of the new
Foot Night Spokesmodels! Now instead of just showing up to the parties, I would be doing a Meet and Greet and have other duties to go along with my title. As usual, I had a blast at the party and was able to see many faces that I missed when I couldn't make the March party. I'm already looking forward to the July party with it's sure to be summer theme :).

The rest of my trip was quite subdued and mostly filled with art, shopping, fine food, and then more art. I was finally able to spend time in Hollywood in a leisurely manner. Squonk and I traipsed about Hollywood Blvd. and then up to the shopping center on Hollywood and Highland. Our day was capped off by a stunning meal on the top of the Bonaventure. Now I have one MORE reason to love that hotel. Their steak house is quite awesome...

The art portion of our trip took us to the LA Museum of Contemporary Art and the Huntington Museum in Pasadena. As a member of the SF MOMA, I was very disappointed in the shows at MOCA we were able to view. I realize that the establishment has a few sites, but I thought that the downtown venue would have better descriptions of the art held within. Granted, we were only teased and denied by the ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG show that was installed but not yet open on the other side of the museum, so all the more reason to make your more minor shows hold their own. AFTER CEZANNE featured works from the permanent collection that dealt with the figure post-WW2. Ok, that's all very fine and good but the show needed A LOT more help on the description front. I felt like the pieces were very weak without some sort of text to tie them all together. Ok, the figure was prominent in each work, SO WHAT. Give me more. I am a trained fine artist and I was bored and not amused. If that's how I feel (and I'm aware of the history and motivations behind many of the works I viewed), then how is the museum-goer who knows NOTHING about art going to feel? The idea is for the museum to keep people coming back and enjoying art. I couldn't blame a tourist wandering through there that day to leave disappointed and even more confused about modern art. Well-placed text descriptions in each room can go a long way to helping the lay person comprehend what they are viewing and leave with a sense that they learned something, as opposed to "what the heck is that crap on the wall doing in a museum?"

The Lorna Simpson show was not amusing to me for reasons too complex for just a blog, but I WILL say that the video installation poked at my kinky brain. There were a series of video projectors in the center of the room that placed movies on the wall at equally-spaced intervals. When you walked into the room, it was somewhat unnerving as each video piece had something different going on--but some confronted you directly as if you were walking into a conversation. The empty rooms featured in some of the other pieces led you to wonder what would happen at some point in your viewing ( which I wasn't patient enough to find out that day). My thought was how interesting it would be to set up a dungeon in such a manner. Instead of hanging equipment on the walls, what about having a video projector display either the Mistress involved in the session, or a another Mistress. The slave could have the live Mistress engaging him but he would never be bored as when she walked away to get an implementt, there would be this large moving image on the wall talking to him, taunting him, and distracting him. The larger than life aspect of the video projection also intrigues me. Hopefully some day I can realize such an innovation...

Last but not least was the trip to the Huntington Museum in Pasadena. Of course the day began with a fabulous breakfast at the Raymond House. I can't stop recommending them for a meal while in that fair city. The Huntington is like going to the Met in NYC. Yes, really. You MUST dedicate an entire day, have comfy shoes, and be prepared for A LOT of art. The collection isn't as varied as the Met ( no duh! ), but it is certainly voluminous for what it features: portraiture. MY GOD I SAW A LOT OF PORTRAITS! For someone who wasn't particularly amused by that type of work while in art school, I certainly got an education during my visit. I always like to know WHY an artist makes the choices he/she does, and the Huntington did a fabulous job of educating its viewers on the changes in portraiture over the years. It didn't make it necessarily any easier to see image after image of lords and ladies in all of their finery, but it did serve to explain why there is usually so much detail in the face and hands, and yet the garments can seem more of an afterthought.

Of course, there are other objects and historical items to be seen at the Huntington, but you'll have to find out about those on your own. I hope to return in the future to explore the grounds and the famous Botanical Gardens. My eyes simply couldn't handle any more stimulation last time and we needed to head back to the Bay Area. Many thanks to squonk for his chauffeuringg and hosting ability. He's a wonderful travel partner and I can't wait to see how things turn out in New York!

VQ