I was asked to write a column this month for my good friends at Core77 and I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to report on the extremely inspiring panel I saw when I was in Madrid about alternative art spaces in LA. Case in point: The above space. That’s Machine Project, a tiny unremarkable storefront about a mile from my house. And yes, it was converted to a forest last year few months. And yes, I attended a pancake breakfast in that forest one hot spring morning. There was a maple syrup tap that came out of one of the trees. They were also playing the most adorable old nature films about baby bears.

It’s places like these that make me lay down and kiss LA’s concrete. Not that you can’t find places like this everywhere, but that in LA it seems like we have so much space for them. Like that Manifest Equality show that I wrote about a month ago. The organizers found something we have far too many of on our streets:  Empty box stores. This Big Lots had sat vacant for so long in Hollywood, yet for a few weeks it was energized with the creative energy of hundreds of people (and besides, the fluorescent lighting is effective, if eye-searing, for seeing art).

The creatives I feature in my piece have inspired me to no end, but they’ve also provided true community centers, which, in LA, isn’t the easiest thing to do. These are places where we see our neighbors, meet new friends, get exposed to music, buy art (and mingle with the artists!) and shop for gifts, like at Ooga Booga’s amazing and miniscule space in a Chinatown strip mall. The spaces these creative have occupied are nothing special, but the way they’ve curated the square-footage so specifically for their audiences is something to be admired. Be sure to head over to Core77 and read “Real Estate Bust: How Creatives Are Carving Up L.A.’s Empty Space.” Have a fantastic weekend in a favorite space near you.

That lonely aimless feeling you felt yesterday was more than the sloth of Labor Day leaving your body. Everyone who had something to look forward to in life went back to school, while you just dragged yourself into the same old office with a hangover and the inability to eat anything without grillmarks. Well, I know just the thing to cheer you up. Today Core77 released its Hack 2 Work feature, a reprise of its popular Hack 2 School roundup from last year. This year, I join plenty of my esteemed peers in doling out advice on everything from taking Fridays off (by the lovely Sarah Rich) to some really amazing office snack gourmet by my fellow foodie Emilie Baltz (with some seriously awesome food styling and photography).

My contributions are:
How to Get Invited to Speak at a Design Conference

Dos and Don’ts For Your Design Firm Blog

How to Shower People With Gifts

Enjoy! And don’t feel too bad for yourself. It is a short week.

I totally should have posted this earlier today, but I was too busy plundering the Ferry Building to put together non-food thoughts. All day tomorrow I’ll be liveblogging Compostmodern on Core77 which means you can play along at home with your usual drinking game. Take a sip of beer every time I type the word “sustainable.”

Lots to report about the Designing Obama event on Thursday night, too, which was probably the most fun event I’ve ever been a part of. But I’m sleepy and my fingers need to rest up for tomorow. See you then!

Update: Here’s my wrap-up and all the liveblogged sessions in one convenient post.

Okay, so I was a bit slow to the “Black Friday” table (I always thought “black” + any day of the week meant something horrible, although this year, it did). But did anyone else not know that yesterday is now called Cyber Monday? Luckily the kids did at Core77, where they published their annual 77 Design Gifts Under $77. Not that you should be buying anything in this economy. Or maybe you should? Buy Nothing? Donate Everything? Buy Handmade? Make something yourself with kitchen scraps and old copies of the New Yorker? Someone needs to write a guide to gift-giving in a recession.

Regardless, some of you will definitely need to buy something to impress someone in a position of authority (we call these bribes where I come from), and Core77′s picks are an annual best-of list when it comes to the witty and the wise. (And in case you’re wondering what those Barbies are doing, they’re just shimmying down the straws of the BottleBob bottle cap hole punch, one of two gift guide exclusives.) From the list, here were the gift ideas I contributed:

Phuze Design Glass Cocktail Rings, $62

TOMS Shoes (of course), $42-48

Kiso Ashtray/Desk Organizer, $48

Plunger Lamp, $72

Stanley Thermos, $42

One-Way Flight Originating at JFK on JetBlue, $59

Imprint, by Daniel Eatock, $37.80

Virgil O. Stamps Custom Letterpress Notecard Set, $77 for 20 cards

And when you’re done there don’t click away: Core77 is where I wrote another delightful holiday-themed piece, “Conventional Wisdom: Eight Ways to Save Design Conferences.”

For the next few days I’ll be live-blogging the Art Center conference over at Core77. The theme is Serious Play and last night’s opening was pretty seriously fun. Should be a good time; as you can see from this illustration Jeff Decoster drew of me at the last Art Center conference, I just kick back, relax, and type 1456 words a minute for twelve hours at a time until my fingernails pop off.

While you’re at Core77, check out “La Tour Awful: The Truth Is Rendered” a piece I wrote about that Eiffel Tower proposal that got everyone buzzing a few months ago.

Okay, back to raking my bloody fingers over the keyboard.

After recording plenty of audio interviews, my first Straight to Video production for my good friends at Core77 features the delightful Elena Manferdini and her elegant MERLETTI<inter>LACE installation at SCI-Arc. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s up until May 11 and definitely worth the trip downtown.

I shot this with my new Flip Ultra, which I highly recommend (Mac users need to install this free plug-in, but otherwise, no issues whatsoever). Still working on improving the sound quality (I’m gluing acoustic tiles to my closet walls right now) and optimizing the export from iMovie, but overall, I think it turned out great. Thanks to Elena and everyone at SCI-Arc who shot my b-roll for me. See, that’s one of the benefits of having such a cool little camera: Everyone wants to play with it!