Murakami @ MOCA

If you're in the Los Angeles area, do yourself a huge favor and go see the Murakami exhibit at MOCA. It's the best $8 you'll ever spend (just $5 if you're still a student). The exhibit is open until February 11, 2008.

With over 90 works, the exhibit spans Takashi Murakami's career. His artwork is a blend of pop art, anime, and kawaii (cuteness). The subjects of his paintings and sculptures range from trippy mushrooms to an anime-type female morphing into a fighter jet. One room was covered in Murakami wallpaper with his signature happy-faced flowers. I would love to have that wallpaper in at least one room of my place.

The exhibit also features an animation room that showed the music video for Kanye West's "Good Morning." The song is just okay, but the music video was awesome. I also saw the first chapter of his animated film "Kaikai & Kiki." It was a short film that was both cute and very odd.

The Louis Vutton room seemed popular. Murakami is the one who created those white and pastel LV bags. I wasn't interested in the bags, so I browsed the room. I noticed that a few patrons were upset that a lot of merchandise were sold out.

My favorite part of the exhibit was a particularly weird sculpture: a naked anime male holding his cock and spewing his come around him like a banner. There was a companion piece of a big breasted woman spraying a milk banner. The two images will be implanted in my brain forever.

The line for the gift shop was super long. I spent too much money on Murakami stickers, pins, and buttons. A lot of his prints were around $800 or so, and most were sold out. If I had the dough, I would be interested in some of his pieces. Someday, maybe someday.

Here are some photos via The Hundreds.

Poppycock

On Friday night, I went to the opening reception for Poppycock, an art show by Ben Templesmith. He is the illustrator/artist of 30 Days of Night which has been made into a movie. 30 Days... was the first graphic novel I read in one sitting. It's a smart vampire novel with amazing artwork. Since then I've been impressed with Templesmith's work in Fell, another graphic novel.

The art show was at a small comic book store in Silverlake. It was raining that night, but that didn't stop the crowd from showing up. The show featured Templesmith's cover art and prints from the movie set. The crowd was a mix of comic book junkies, Templesmith groupies, and those in the entertainment business.

Templesmith was a lot younger than I expected, maybe in his early 30s. He looked stylish in a black pinstriped suit and black Chuck Taylors. With his lanky frame and reddish blonde hair, he looked at home with the hipster Silverlake crowd. He seemed tired and jet-lagged but he was a good sport. I was smitten with his Australian accent. What is it about boys with accents?

I bought his Poppycock, a book illustrated with "leprachaun erotica." No joke. I'm not really a starfucker, and I don't really get autographs. This time I did want him to sign my book. As I was waiting for my man to get his book signed, I picked up another Templesmith book, Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse. I leafed through it and thought the artwork was grotesque and completely intriguing. So I bought that, too, and got back in line.

He saw me and said, "Ah, it's you again. You bought another book!"

I smiled. I am not really good at making small talk.

Then he said, "I don't know if you'll like this book. Maybe I should put a warning label on it. Then again you did buy the other one with erotica in it."

And it was on the tip of my tongue to say, "That's okay. I write erotica."

But I didn't. I got tongue-tied. Idiot.

I just told him how much I enjoyed his work. After he signed my book, he drew a little illustration of a man's head saying "hello!" I thought it was very cool.

I'm still kicking myself for getting tongue-tied.

Dear Ben -- if you ever stumble across this post, I was the short Asian chick in black glasses. You shook the hand of an erotica writer. How about that?