Play in the Rain

An Amphicar would be really convenient in the rain.

A heavy rainstorm comes to Long Beach once or twice a year, so this is a limited opportunity. When the rain strikes, it's apparent that almost everybody in the city is clueless on how to conduct themselves.

City planners did a terrible job building the city and have failed to adapt. The streets and gutters don't allow water to flow, causing floods and puddles all over. Doesn't this make for conditions that are usually not fun when you're walking and driving? Yes.

Sometimes, you need to embrace these things and not worry about getting soaked. Stand on the corner of Redondo Avenue and Broadway Avenue under an umbrella or overhang and watch people have their days ruined by the rain. You will see pedestrians trying to cross the street carelessly and step in the puddle, or try to leap the puddle and fail.

Suck my wake.

Watching cars drive in the rain is awesome. Most people get so tentative because they aren't used to it that they drive 15 MPH. Some people don't notice the flooding and they fishtail and hydroplane and lose control. There are spots all over Long Beach with huge puddle buildups, and there were great clips on the news last year of people kayaking on flooded streets. If you have access to a kayak, go out and have fun.

Instead of staying cooped up inside because of rain, go outside and watch it ruin peoples' days. It's just water. And summer will be here in like three months, anyways.

Weird Hipster Events



Hipsters dressed up in their finest cut-off jean shorts and v-neck shirts for this formal event.

Have you been to a hipster event? Usually, they're held in musky museums, populated with mustachioed, fixed-gear riding, half-on/half-off beanie-wearing hipsters. Finding out about these events is tricky unless you've been to one before. They pass out so many flyers that you're aware of upcoming events for months.

These events are usually promoted as showcases with a combination of wine, snacks, music, and artists selling their work. The music comes from spoken-word poets, bands, and DJs. Weirder locations equal hipper parties.



Warning: Hipsters at one o'clock.


A recent event was "MixMas" on Dec. 11, held at Lyon Art Supply downtown. Walking into an empty store makes you think it's not the right place. You venture to the back, which has artists and food stands with tamales and Korean tacos. There's an open garage with several tables scattered to display art and sell wine, and a door leading into the "music" area.

The music area used a storage room as the stage with a projector screen up and to the side, showing an animated movie. The music had electronic music spun by the awesome DJ Ston3wall. He was followed by a weird spoken-word dude trying to align with the movie, who was so awful that even some hipsters left the room.

While you may not fit in if you don't have dreadlocks, the hipsters won't care that you don't pay for anything because they don't buy anything, and they're high. Enter at your own peril and don't go too often or you might become a hipster.


Set List for the strange music room.



DJ Ston3wall mixes his set of electronic music..











Long Beach Museum of Art... Wait... Long Beach has a museum?

 

Cecilia Miguez' "All About Time" mixes bronze, clocks, and wood to create the best threeway since Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser, and a camera. 



  The Long Beach Museum of Art is free on Fridays and Thursday evenings, but it’s only $7 otherwise. Even for the tightfisted, there’s no reason not to check it out and get some culture.

Located at 2300 Ocean Blvd., the museum has an upstairs and a café with views of the ocean. The setting is important, but art is the focus.

"Into The Woods" captures Stoney Lamar's inclusion of wood to create art.

Currently, the museum’s exhibitions are “A Light in the Shadow,” a collection of works created by female artists, “The Lipton Collection,” filled with wood art that was collected by Dr. Irving Lipton, and “Branching Out,” where sculptures mostly consist of wood.

On an analytical note, what qualities distinguish great pieces from trash? One large canvas above the stairs is covered almost in yellow with a diagonal line and a half of an oval in black. It is utterly atrocious. It gets people to discuss how bad it is. It might make you think that it has some deep meaning that you don't understand.

It doesn't. Claire Lamb asked, "What makes art a piece of shit?"

However, the museum features impressive sculptures. “All About Time," by Cecilia Miguez features bronze and clocks and Deborah Kupinsky's "Midnight Ride" shows attention to detail and a captivating imagination.

The museum is not crowded and the staff doesn't stalk you, so you own the place. Culture, fantastic artwork, space, time, garbage, and freedom can all be experienced with a quick visit to the Long Beach Museum of Art, for cheap, or free.

The Long Beach Museum of Art is fun and doesn't cost too much money when it's free.