So I kicked off my holiday gift giving with Help-Portrait on Saturday. Though the rain diminished our turn out it allowed us to really spend time with each guest, and it was really rewarding to watch everyone behold their photographs and smile. Who knew that a beautiful picture could mean so much?
I also got a chance to meet and socialize with fellow photographers in Los Angeles, and overall, it was a thoroughly positive day.
Just check out the video below and let yourself enjoy the warm fuzzy feelings. (Bonus points if you can spot me!)
Help-Portrait L.A. 12.12.09 from Paul Huynh on Vimeo.
Came home from a full day to rest a little and then I was back out, once again armed with my camera. I hit up the Unknown Theater for Big Lovin' Panda's record release show to help equip & man their time lapse installation. The show was a tremendous success.
With a wonderful gift from Tony, I set up my camera to take a photograp every five seconds throughout the night. The idea was to replicate the Trinkets album art with contributions from the audience and the camera would capture its evolution. I can't wait to see the photographs edited into a video - don't worry, I'll make sure to share it with you.
I got home late and then stayed up even later for no good reason, so I didn't wake until sometime after noon on Sunday. Which left me with very little time to get ready to ride out to Pershing Square for Food Not Bombs, a minimalist anarchist approach to feeding the hungry. They rescue food that would otherwise be thrown away by grocery stores to prepare wholesome vegetarian meals, which are then handed out on the streets. We served a small group at Pershing Square and then ventured to Skid Row to finish.
I've been through Skid Row on foot before, but it's really a surreal experience to be down there on your bicycle on a chilly December night with a pot of vegetable stew in front of you and a ladle in your hand. It is seriously another world over there, a world so separate that it's created its own language, its own law, its own society. Food Not Bombs is a pretty bare operation which runs with no permits, no sponsorship, and no law. For three hours I was taken out of my element - and no matter how far from mainstream society you live, it is still a shock.
And I hope that's not my privilege showing.
This Thursday I am giving my time to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act phone bank, on Friday I am volunteering with One Voice, and on Saturday I am helping with Ace of Hearts' adoptions at Petco.
I always knew that volunteer work is a really rewarding way to spend your time, but during the holidays, more than ever, it's really helped me "feel the spirit." Since I don't own a television, don't listen to the radio, and have no money to spend at the mall, I feel that I've been able to enjoy the holidays without all the advertised pressure. The emphasis is not on gifts, but on giving, and feeling a certain warmth & generosity toward my fellow man. In the service of others, I have felt a genuine holiday cheer, and once I am done with my "gifts," I look forward to spending some time with my family, for whom I feel a new kind of love & appreciation this year. I hope to continue volunteering for different organizations in the coming months.
Emerging from the Metro station to a Pershing Square twinkling with light and uncharacteristically populated with folks enjoying the temporary ice skating rink, I was struck by a strange notion. With my pink bicycle at my side and walking with some uncertainty toward my destination, I felt very small and the world felt very big. In fact, the world felt reassuringly large and I felt peacefully insignificant. I was then overcome by a sense of awe and then a sense of magic, and for a moment, everything in the universe seemed exactly as it ought to, and I was exactly where I was supposed to be at exactly the right time.
But as we know, all work & no play makes Liz a very dull girl indeed, so Yours Truly is going on vacation tomorrow & Wednesday, and as such, you shall see neither hide nor hair of me.
I hope you will not miss me too much!
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