Who knew?

Who knew I had a blog.... here re-discovered (exhumed?) here on Google Plus or something. I'm not even sure. Yikes ... maybe I can market things like Santamonicaacupuncture.com or Eagleherbs.com or taiqi.me. So much has happened since I was last here in 2009. Take note google whatever- (Alpahbet- you've changed too!) The Doug Eisenstark blog is back! Google me - SEO friendly - put me on the front page!

Party

Image by deisenstark via Flickr

I never was a big Minutemen fan although I saw them in the mid-70's in a little bar in Missouri. And yet I kept hearing what a great guy Mike Watt was and so when my friend Kio Griffith invited me down to Long Beach to Mike's birthday bash in Long Beach, I went. I got to say I've never hung out with such a group of nice people in a bar. Everybody was really cool without being overly hip and Mike himself seemed liked a super nice guy.
Pictures here on flickr.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/8490706@N02/sets/

rent the movie

I just sat through an iTunes "rented" movie version of Rent. Having lived through the time and the place that Larson wrote about I pretty much boycotted seeing the play. However, when I bought my first used Ipod off of Ebay the previous owner generously left a number of pop songs included a dozen from Rent. I liked the songs, I thought they captured the time pretty well.
However, the film is pretty much my worse fears. Really, the only thing that was wrong was the... film. It should have been shot in 16mm and used real squats... not those fake open spaces. The beauty of NYC comes in spurts and in unexpected places and times. I would have loved to have seen it directed by Kyle Kibbe and shot by Maryse Alberti.

My students often ask me what books to read.

In TCM there are increasingly a number of good English Language books out there. I have several reviews on my website taiqi.com/reviews.htm.

I'm going to mention a few both new and old books.

I think the newest (2nd Edition) is one of the best books out there when it comes to formulas. It really is worth getting. The first edition actually is better is some ways when it comes to describing Zang-fu patterns. The 2nd is helped by Volker Scheid's historical analysis and tracking different ways of looking at the formulas.

The granddaddy of great books is Steven Clavey's Fluid Pathology. Clavey is a great writer and very intelligent. He now is the editor of the Lantern in Australia. I had a chance to see him several years ago and he has a great sense of humor. Sort of like a down-under version of Al Stone. (Although Steven is also an American). Anyway, this book lays out a number of strategies and theories concerning all that encompasses phlegm and fluids.

More to come.

hep c patient in a nutshell

Had a new hepatitis C patient yesterday and the advice remains pretty constant.

1) don't drink- basically all the bad cases of HepC are from those who still drink (yes, even wine) or have only recently quit.

2) eat well, the Mediterranean diet seems to be the best - olive oil is great as well

3) take Milk Thistle

4) a cup of good coffee a day is good.

5) try not to worry - its bad for the liver

I didn't prescribe herbs right away for this person but will soon enough to stave off further liver problems.

loft art

Today I went to an open house/art show for a new condo disaster. As I was leaving I realized I should have made notes. This was a group art show done in the rooms of a newly built apartment complex. It was a ruse to sell these slow moving artifacts.

These are so-called lofts that they are selling and apparently not so well given the economy, this means... (has meaning) concrete floors, white walls and an unfinished wood support running thought the middle... I am sure you know where they are, the advertising says they are at the corner of Cool and Convenience, that's in LA. For the artists, oh yeah, super ironic, like given a shot in master's house. The loft complex itself looked like a prison block, it occurred to me that the two story loft apartments were a way to get around 3 story building codes. Do you detect a bit of cynicism here? I was joking around with the artists that I heard there was a lottery to raffle one of the lofts away. Actually, I should have just gotten a jar and a roll of tickets and done some small time graft outside the front door.

I went into one of the model unoccupied lofts, the literature says that these suckers start at over half a million, it was small. Apparently these are known in the trade as Lawyer Lofts, we are a far way from old manufacturing space and garage spaces that I remember from the old days where artist actually used to... paint and do art. Sure enough in this "model" with its fake widescreen TV and fake laptop, on the porch was an ashtray with I swear to God a fake cigar in the ashtray. see photo.

The lobby features what I assume are 2 fake Robert Longo pictures circa 1979. My apologies to the artist. and to Robert Longo.

Like I said, it feels prison like. A center courtyard gives the appearance of community but don't dare make a sound, as it travels. The guy playing music in the courtyard through his turntable and little Fender amp had no trouble filling entire complex. One imagines that despite the transit center promised in the distant future most, tenant/inmates will be taking the elevator from the underground parking straight up to their cells... er... apartments lining the outdoor hallways. A three foot wall separates this walkway and a jump into the courtyard from those hapless tenants once they see price of these condos plunge- no pun intended. Put up a few wire cages along the walkways and you got an instant Public housing project. String a few clothes lines from building to building and now we be talking Green and not just hype. Instant tenement.

Oh jeez. I'm in a bad mood. I was talking this morning with an old acquaintance and his work with community planning in Westlake, aka McArthur Park, in LA. He started out by saying community development means nothing if it just means the community gets thrown out once it gets developed. Amen, Bro.

Anyway, on to the art and this is where I am unprepared. Always good to see Kio Griffith's work represented with four pieces. Aska Lida had several funky thumbtack and beaded paintings that were great, tempted to buy one but resisted. Ichiro Irie in the same space had a series of photographs showing a guy urinating outside several museums. Since the lofts had all had none-working bathrooms I think he could add one more photo to the series.

I just managed to catch Peter Alexander take down his acrylic cubes. I was intrigued. Look inside and they opened inward to a world of angles and perspectives.

My favorite work was upstairs in Cell 311. It lists Andy Brown, Keaton Macon and Brad Spence. At the head of the stairs was a dangerous little piece, rolls of cash wedged between 2 sheets of sharp glass. Remove at your own risk. Greed has a price.

One room, overlooking industrial Pico was the remnants of some concerts, garbage, tickets, cigarette butts, beer cans and a forlorn video.

Then my favorite, a video of a water faucet, behind us a closed bathroom door and the sound of overflowing water. Very cool. Very interesting. Especially since by this time and the unworking toilets I had to go. and I don't mean leave.

Why am I so down on this project of the Intersection of Art and Loftsales? Cause in the midst of housing crisis these developers are so bankrupt. I mean financially, morally and in general... taste-wise. Can all they sell is a fake cool? there is a limit to edgy and these guys are over the edge thinking that somehow buying into a half a million buck condo has purchased anything close to the limitlessness of art and artists. Meanwhile visit the Torrance Art Museum who cosponsored this weekend.

It's late and listening to my favorite LA radio station, KXLU, and fooling around with a new plug-in Zemanta for this blog.
Thinking about a great lecture last week on classical Chinese Medicine from a scholar, Elizabeth Rochat at Emperors College. She is a legend for the number of books she has put out over the years with the late Father Larre. She has been lecturing a lot but came to LA only because she is an old friend of the new Academic Dean of Emperors, Jacques Mora-Marco. Elizabeth didn't disappoint, everything one would hope from a Parisian intellectual and scholar. Including a humble and humorous outlook.