Chris Burden’s Metropolis II En Route to LACMA

Chris Burden’s Metropolis II, is a kinetic frenzy
of 1200 Hot Wheels toy cars, gigantic roller coaster roadways, toy tracks, wood block, tiles, Legos, Lincoln Logs and a whole lot of noise. Metropolis II is expected to be unveiled at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2011. A clip documenting the work-in-progress was filmed in Burden’s studio in Topanga Canyon, California. 





Bigger, better, faster, stronger —Metropolis II is an evolution of a Burden’s earlier work, Metropolis I. A visual and auditory construction of 80 toy cars, two single lane highways and monorails on tracks, Metropolis I is at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan. 

LACMA also features another of Burden's monumental compositions, Urban Light, a dramatic sculptural arrangement of salvaged 1920s- and 1930s-era cast iron lampposts from the Los Angeles area.

The Formosa Pocket Park: Good Thing, Small Package

Peaceful, sustainable and verdant. 
The Formosa Park, located north of Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, a green space designed for neighborhood use.

Enter through frosted glass.
It’s 4600 square feet, with drought-tolerant plants, water-conserving irrigation, rocks, sand and a water feature. Compared to most parks, it’s a postage stamp.
The forest floor is translated into a metal shade above, with cutouts that filter light and flirt with sky.
A sculpture reminiscent of a desiccated tree occupies an unexpected corner.
Seats mimic the scattered shapes of fallen leaves, punctuating the winding walkways.

The park was designed by Katherine Spitz Associates.

It adjoins the Formosa 1140, an 11-unit condominium building of blood-orange corrugated metal, wood and glass, developed by Richard Loring of the Habitat Group and designed by Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects. The condo building’s vibrant palette and towering geometry make it hard to miss in a neighborhood of vintage brick and stucco, giving the adjacent residences the effect of unwilling matrons clustered at an impromptu block party or a wake; the pocket park, somehow, softens the effect.

Formosa Park opened in August, 2009. It closes at night.

Project Angel Food’s DO GOODING good Cookies

It’s not often that the opportunity to do help others comes in delicious flavors, but such are the perks of Project Angel Food’s Ginger Snap, Iced Lemon and Chocolate Chip DO GOODING good COOKIES. 
The cookies are the first product line from Project Angel Food Bakeries, an enterprise developed in Project Angel Food’s Vine Street kitchen, which cooks and delivers more than 13,000 meals a week to men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. The DO GOODING good COOKIES have been launched in a special partnership with Hollywood and West Hollywood Pavilions Stores; they retail for $3.99, and 100% of the price will go to directly to support the work of Project Angel Food. 
The packaging makes the cookies pretty enough to give as gifts—the delightful pink, yellow and orange cylinders were designed by Richard Manville and directed by board member and volunteer Jacqui Farina. And the cookies were created to be equally beautiful within, using real butter and cane or beet sugar, and eschewing corn syrup, preservatives and hydrogenated or partly hydrogenated fats. Which, in my book, practically qualifies the DO GOODING good COOKIES as health food.
Final note—Project Angel Food has been operating for 21 years, and to date, they’ve prepared and delivered more than seven million meals free of charge. 
You can find the DO GOODING good COOKIES at these Pavilions locations:
727 N. Vine St. Los Angeles, CA 90038
8969 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069
Yum.

Z Best

Zinke’s Repairs, Glendale, CA.