On the road to Shambala

I'm stealing my own post from our La-dee-dah site and pasting it below - I'll update it as soon as I have a chance with some more funfacts about our tour and more pics/video!
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I have an addition to the list of places that truly make living in LA special... Shambala.

That's right people, Tippi Hedren's very own cat preserve, and I don't mean the little cats that chase birds. She has lions and tigers and ligers, oh my!!! There are also some strange looking ducks, leopards... and Tippi Hedren's own house right on the premises.

Check it out and sign up for tours at - http://www.shambala.org/

Tippi is not some flighty old-bird (getting all these "Birds" references!) flirting with a cause celebre. She spends her life working to stop private citizens from owning/procuring/raising exotic animals and has rescued as many big cats as she could afford to from pretty horrible situations.

Patrick, the liger, was rescued from a down and out zoo that kept him in a small box which caused his leg muscles to atrophy. Out at Shambala he has lots of room to bound around and has regained his strength.



This is a picture of Patrick the liger eating his lunch.

They even adopted two tigers that were left behind when Michael Jackson fled the country and abandoned his Neverland Ranch!

If you have the moola, you can rent a $3000 per night tent and stay over night. Tippi will come out and dine with you and take you on a midnight tour of the cats.

The drive out to Shambala is not too bad, towards the end it does get pretty circuitous and the "entrance" comes up at the last second on your left so don't miss it.





Isn't he kingly and beautiful?

It's an interesting tour, you might want to avoid doing it when it's too hot as it is all outside and dusty etc. But if you get a chance you might just find an animal that you want to "adopt" and help care for on an ongoing basis!

Hollywood Goes Home For Me... Again...

They're shooting Indiana Jones 4 in my hometown, a block from where I grew up.
I always knew that Indiana Jones would show up to whisk me off to my new fairytale life, now that he's really showing up I don't live there any more (literally and fairytale-wise figuratively.)

I would love to see New Haven transformed back to 1957 and at this point in my life would be more interested in splitting some Pepe's pizza with Speilberg than getting swept off my feet by Han Solo ... ummm... ok, no, you're right I'd still run away with Han or Indy, but Mr. Speilberg if you're listening I know that city pretty damn well and would be MORE than happy to be your local New Haven expert :)

Memorializing 2007

Great 4 day weekend - went WAY too fast, the days literally slipped right by so no time for a full post right now, just a few more thoughts from the story people...

"Someday, the light will shine like a sun through my skin & they will say, What have you done with your life? & though there are many moments I think I will remember, in the end, I will be proud to say, I was one of us."


"My New Rules For Living Simply (As of This Year) 1. When bills come, just throw them out. Who needs all that clutter & heart-ache? 2. Have a room for everything. Don't ever do anything in a room you're not supposed to. (This works best in a hotel) 3. Take a couple of days & really find out your 3 favorite foods. Clear everything but these 3 foods out of your house. After awhile, you'll be so sick of them, you'll just go out to eat for every meal. Your kitchen will stay perfectly clean. (to be continued)"

Some Pithy Bits from the Story People

"I held out my hands & asked where I could help & somebody grabbed me & pointed me towards the future & said, You've got your work cut out for you & I said, isn't there anything easier? & he laughed & said you could dig around in the past, but it's just busywork & that made perfect sense so I shrugged & started right where I was, along with everyone else"


"Destiny? there's only your time & then there's not your time, she said. All the rest is made up to keep you busy"



"My favorite holidays are Christmas & disco, he said & I said since when is disco a holiday? & he looked at me with more pity than I thought possible"


"When I grow up, I want to remember that I always wanted to be about a thousand different things & one lifetime didn't seem nearly enough. When I grow up, I hope it's at the very end when it doesn't matter anymore anyway"



"this is a yo-yo that teaches everything there is to know about life, but it spins so fast it's all a blur & it takes a long time to figure out that that's exactly what it's trying to teach you"


"I like to write about the stuff going on in my life as long as it's interesting, but otherwise, I'd rather just read."



"off on another adventure of a lifetime & hoping he won't forget halfway through this time"

In the words of Tom Petty...

"The world is coming to an end, and he means that optimistically..."

Amen my Man!

"And, I think it’s really quite the opposite. That when you have a precedent set like that, and you have somebody, George Tenet, acknowledging in his book, that he knew that the Administration was deceiving the American people into a situation that is murdering young men and women from this country and others, that George Tenet and Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice and George Bush et al should be in fucking jail."

~ Sean Penn on Bill Maher

"Winning and Losing thing..."

"This winning and losing thing is where we are behind in our consciousness..."

"Guys who shoot their mouths off and act over confident end up flying onto an aircraft carrier and saying Mission accomplished!"

"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time things bother me!"

~Garry Shandling on "Real Time with Bill Maher"

Products with Photos I took under water at the Great Barrier Reef!

Lots of products with fishies and beautiful coral from my trip to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef!!!

http://www.cafepress.com/fishphotos

New Online Store - Art Thru A Lens

These are products with photos I took in Iowa of beautiful windswept fields and windmills and gorgeous, breathtaking big skies!!

Store for Mother's Day!!

My online store for Mother's day - or any day you want to buy an adorable t-shirt, mug, bag with an even more adorable koala on it!!!!

Another new Online Store!

Some more fun stuff to buy at a second online store!!!

http://www.cafepress.com/makeitfunnier

Check out my new online store!

It's a work in progress, but check out my new online store for tees and accessories that only a Hollywood insider could love!

http://www.cafepress.com/ijumpedtheshark

Infiniti Dealership in Glendale, Ca.

me: "Hey I wanted to talk to someone about a letter I got from you guys, it said you would buy me out of my lease...?"

guy: "Yeah, actually you're gonna have to come back on a weekday and talk to either Chris Cho or Chris Kang, they're our used car buyers..."

me: "Oh, ok, so they're both..."

guy: "Korean?"

me: "...uh, named Chris..."

guy: "Oh, yeah right, ha ha."

Loans that Change Lives

Upset about America's disinterest in foreign aid?

Then do it yourself.

There's a new link under my "Creative & Inspiring" banner.

I had lunch last week with some work friends and a woman who is working with our production designer on the museum board, an upcoming opera and a conference happening next year called 5D (I think) that links art, design, architecture and science all together. (Obviously there is a fifth topic that I'm forgetting... since it's called 5D.)

Anyhoo we had a lovely ladies lunch discussing the state of the world and the frustration of how little impact it feels one can make. Among many topics (you KNOW I brought up the TED conference and how infatuated I am with what they do!) Helen mentioned a program called Kiva that she and her son had discovered.

Kiva takes the idea of microloans and lets you actually pick what project and person you can afford to help out with a loan.

You can link to multiple NY Times articles from their site that lend it further credibility.

Most of the loans are repaid and most of the micro loans go to women to help raise their status in life...there's a very specific way you can reach out and help!

The Little Girl Giant...

A surreal Royal de Luxe moment sent on from mon cherie Farrar.

http://www.thesultanselephant.com/gallery/gallery.php

BE-WARE - TWO of my FAVORITE things...

Chris Ware AND This American Life!!!!!!!

But I really just have friends - Dar Williams

'He's a quiet man,' that's all she said
And he's a thoughtful man
It's just he likes to keep his thoughts up in his head
And we finally meet, and she tries to draw him out a bit
She says 'He's writing something,
Hey now, why don't you talk about it?'
And he doesn't make a sound
He's just staring at his coffee
And I know there's all this beauty
And this greatness she'll defend
But I think it's in my friend
I have a friend in a bright and distant town
She's found a common balance
Where you do your work, and you do your love
And they pay you, and praise your many talents
Well I'm passing through, and we know we won't sleep
She laughs, puts up the tea
She says 'You know I think you remember every part of me.'
And the water starts to boil
And if I had a camera
Showing all the light we give
And showing where the light extends
I'd give it to my friends
Sometimes I see myself fine, sometimes I need a witness
And I like the whole truth
But there are nights I only need forgiveness
Sometimes they say 'I don't know who you are
But let me walk with you some'
And I say 'I am alone, that's all
You can't save me from all the wrong I've done.'
But they're waiting just the same
With their flashlights and their semaphores
And I'll act like I have faith and like that faith never ends
But I really just have friends

Maybe It's Hate, Probably It's Love

So the winter "cold" has dissapated in LA and left a faint whisper of a chill that's making it feel very fall-like. The leaves showering down around us adds to the feeling. As someone who lacks air conditioning I'm afraid to say it, but it's almost summer in LA. (Not that it was every really winter, we had two or so weeks in there when it got down to 39, our heat kicked out and the neighbors shaved their cat, but that was the coldest it ever got.)

I've been procrastinating all day from writing my resume. In all of my "adult" life (I feel as much an adult as LA feels the "cold") I've never had such a strong urge to throw my years of struggling and experience out the window and take up botany or street music or run home to my mom.

Dad told me last night not to let my emotions confuse the issue when assessing my deal at work. Easy said but almost impossible to do. Especially in today's world our jobs ARE our lives, we work longer hours than ever, the idea of working 9-5 is a joke. (I have friends who bartered those kind of hours and are considered to work PART-TIME.) We throw all of our hearts, minds and energy into moving up and moving forward (at least I did and I don't think I'm alone.) I even read some article today about a stylist who was quote as saying "What do I care, I'm 32, I don't have a boyfriend and I don't have children, why WOULDN'T I work all the time?!" Ummmm... maybe so you can fine time to FIND a boyfriend or HAVE children? But who am I to judge, I've basically done the same thing in my life and many of my friends have as well. We're having families much later than our parents, although sometimes I wonder if it is really by choice as we tell ourselves, or also because of need and circumstance. We chose to move to big cities and chose careers in intense, cut throat areas - neither of this things lend themselves to having the time, the money or the resources to have children and families. The people who seem to jump into it first mostly have families and parents close by to help financially and with babysitting.

Any way this is all running through my head as a accept (or don't accept) the deal at work - is it enough money to get us started, is it moving me forward fast enough that I will reach my goals before I have children, does that matter, I don't know...

All right I have to force myself out of this brain freeze and get going...