I’ll be reading/performing/competing at Literary Death Match LA on May 30.
It’s more or less like competitive air guitar, but with words…
Where: Busby’s East, 5364 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles (map) When: Doors at 6:30; Show at 7:35 (sharp); afterdrinks after Cost:$7 preorder; $10 at the door
THE JUDGES Literary Merit: TBA! Performance: Ali Wong, comedian extraordinaire, who’s appeared on The Newsroom & VH1’s Best Week Ever Intangibles: Kurt Braunohler, comedic genius, co-host of Hot Tub comedy show
Whisky would prefer I throw her tennis ball than make art from old glass slats.
In my house I renovated last summer, most of the windows were the jalousie slatted glass type. They function like Venetian blinds, but they’re made of glass and don’t really offer much in the way of insulation or security. So, I decided to replace almost all of them.
(Unfortunately, the bulk of the replacement windows were crappy aluminum sliders—it was one of the first, and most expensive decisions I had to make, so I opted for the cheapest route. I wish I had done salvaged wood windows instead — which I did end up doing for several windows which turned out great).
Not wanting to throw anything away (I also had my contractor make a headboard out of the scrap wood from the ceiling) I kept the glass thinking, “One day I’ll make an art project out of these.”
I ruminated for months on what to do with the glass. My brother suggested making “sandwiches” of the glass using paint between each sheet and stacking them, letting the paint ooze out in between (a technique he’d done before with wood). But the glass was so heavy once you started stacking them, that this seemed unworkable.
Another idea was to paint the glass and then lean each slat against the wall using 2 nails to hold the slat. I was telling my friend John about the idea and he had the brilliant suggestion of buying a glass drill bit, drilling 2 holes in the glass, and then mounting them on the wall. So that’s precisely what I did.
I made a template for the drill hole using a block of wood and this made measuring nice and simple.I had read that adding water as you drill kept the drill bit cool and prevented the glass from cracking. I only cracked a couple.
Once all the holes were drilled in 10 pieces, I painted them with blue acrylic paint mixed with gel. I varied the texture of each one, sometimes using very little paint and sometimes using a lot. I also blended some with white paint to alter the hues.
I used aluminum spacers and rubber washers to make the glass look like it was floating off the wall (also one of John’s suggestions).
Just wanted to say thanks to all the kind words from friends and random strangers about my story in today’s Times. It’s not exactly the story I ever thought I’d write, but it’s nice to know people liked it.
Here’s a photo collage I made that the Times wasn’t able to run showing the ceiling demolition.
Also – I didn’t really include the fact that the property is a duplex (and trust me, renovating two houses at once is even more fun!) I rent it out on Airbnb, so check it out and if you’re coming to LA anytime soon, perhaps you can stay here!
I’ll also note that the one thing that kept me from completely coming unglued was having a kick-ass contractor. Those are his legs dangling from my ceiling. If you’re in LA and you need a really nice, funny, totally honest contractor, let me know!
A piece I wrote about my trials and tribulations renovating a house (and the subsequent destruction of my marriage) will be coming out in the NY Times soon. I’ll post again about it…but here’s a before/after photo in the meantime.
Thanks to Apple’s idiotic MobileMe debacle and their discontinuation of iWeb, I’ve moved my site to WordPress. I’ll be updating it periodically with news and other exciting things. Thanks for stopping by.
