I’ve just returned to my Sonoma County retreat from a furious four days in Los Angeles. Being famous means I have to fly around quite a bit these days, which is fine – I used to do a lot of traveling in my former incarnation making and selling wine – but it’s always, always so good to be home.

BANKSY: I was lucky enough to be able to squeeze in a visit the downtown Banksy show. Talk about a LINE! I’m just glad that I was allowed to skip it, but I did feel kind of like a jerk, sauntering past hundreds of people. Banksy did a great job transforming a really beautiful warehouse space into a temporary gallery. If you don’t know who I’m talking about, click HERE. In short, Banksy is a guy who takes different hyper-contemporary art forms such as stenciling, appropriation and graffiti and presents them directly to the public in various urban settings. I wouldn’t say his genius is in his actual artistic technique, one can find superior examples of every medium he tackles – his genius is in his social and political commentary and the boldness with which he approaches each project. My favorite piece at the show was a massive painting that depicted a young girl, who stand atop admist a pile of rubble, bloodied and grasping a dangling teddy bear. To her left a cameraman is getting the shot. Behind her, a news woman is holding back rescue workers, making certain that the ‘news’ is properly captured before the Red Cross interferes. Stunning. The man is amazing. I’ve enjoyed watching him over the past few years and I look forward to everything he pulls off in the future.

GOOD MAGAZINE LAUNCH: A good time was had by all at St. Vibiana’s in Los Angeles this past Saturday evening as GOOD Magazine kicked off its inaugural issue with a grand party. I had the chance to hand out a few copies of Plan B 2.0 as well as briefly meet Audrey from GOOD, whom I had been pestering by email as well as my favorite LAist writer, Sloane Berrent. The party was great, the magazine is even better – congratulations to everyone at GOOD for making it all happen. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that publishing a magazine is a massive challenge. If you haven’t subscribed to GOOD already, now is the time. It’s only twenty bucks, and all twenty go to the charity of your choice. Does it get any better than that?

WILD TURKEY: I also discovered over the weekend that the best way to diffuse a potentially ugly late-night situation involving a posse of Santa Monica thugstas is to shove an unopened fifth of Wild Turkey into the mitts of the most inebriated member. The result? Raucous shouts of “SNAP!” (first time I’ve ever heard that in the real world – I thought it was a TV thing), a whole lot of chest bumping, male bonding (“Your name’s Tod? Yo, my name is Todd! Give it up!”) and the “thugsta password” with which I can now receive top-tier treatment at a certain watering hole. The story behind why I had the bottle of WT in my pocket is equally interesting, but you can ask me about that, dearest reader, next time you see me.

Oh, how many people have checked out the latest copy of Esquire? The Brad Pitt interview, while brief, is worth the price of admission. Actually, you can just flip through and read it in thirty seconds at the newsstand, saving you the money to buy a copy of Good or StayFree! Pitt’s reading list is what really got me going – all three books are worth a read. Anyone who drops McDonough’s name (William McDonough, author of Pitt’s recommened read, Cradle to Cradle - another side note is that in the same issue of Esquire a new cookbook by Charlie Palmer, who has a restaurant at the Dry Creek Hotel about one mile from where I sit, is reviewed and the book is like Cradle to Cradle, a new-fangled Durabook. You can read ‘em underwater and recycle them!) is more or less telling the world that they’re paying attention. Pitt seems to be talking the talk and walking the walk.

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The most significant book you’ve read or I will buy it back from you at full purchase price: Lester Brown’s Plan B 2.0 Trust me on this one, just order it. You’ll thank me later.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 20th, 2006 at 11:50 am and is filed under Fame. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.