Two beef taquitos and a handful of chips submerged in a scoop of bacon guacamole and a layer of lettuce and pico de gallo. And, for maximum eat-on-the-go efficiency, it is prepared IN A WAFFLE CONE.

Gelato meets taco.

Only in Austin.

With Keith in the garage inhaling toxic fumes every night I started to get really jealous. So I looked around the house for something I could paint.

I’ve had these Chinese Bottle gourds for a few years. They used to be a bright mint green but have slowly dried to a beige, speckled perfection. The seeds inside even have a little rattle to them.

No patterns, no plan, just paint. It goes to show you what a little color can do.

For a new project we’re launching at GOOD, Casey, Beth and I got to visit an amazing school garden with the LAUSD’s green policy director Mud Baron (at right). Yes, that’s his real name. Theresa Dahl, in white, is a mom and garden goddess at Carthay Center Elementary, and gave us a tour of the garden that was a sea of asphalt only a few years ago.

With the help of volunteers, the school built several raised beds where just about everything you can imagine is growing. Compost was donated from local supermarkets. We had some awesome spicy mustard greens that tasted like wasabi.

The students learn to grow plants from seed, transplanting the seedlings into bigger and bigger containers until they’re ready for the ground.

This is part of a papaya grove where all the trees were grown from a single papaya that got tossed into a compost heap.

Here are some peach blossoms in the fruit orchard, where a retired maintenance worker takes care of the trees, making sure they’re appropriately pruned.

Theresa said the students were outside learning about life cycle when a mouse ran out of the compost heap and started nibbling on a strawberry, only to have a hawk swoop out from the sky and pluck the mouse from the garden. You can’t teach that in the classroom, folks!

I’ll write more soon about what we’re planning over at GOOD, but until then, I’ll leave you with some good advice from one of the students.

Ahhhh, Oscar season. When we cover our most famous street in luxurious, pedestrian-friendly carpet but only let celebrities walk there.

Little gold men start appearing on the sidewalks, wearing their cute plastic skirts.

And we worship them like gods.

Yesterday I got to see the set of the Academy Awards and interview its designer, the lovely David Rockwell, for Fast Company.

There were, of course, no photos allowed inside the theater, but afterwards my media credentials did get me onto the red carpet.

Which, as you can see, is covered in plastic, twice. It’s supposed to rain this weekend.

Here are the risers where the non-famous people get to sit.

And here’s where people like me get to stand and ask famous people questions. All day. In heels.

As I was snapping this shot, a cameraman who was shooting an interview with someone else came over and asked if he could see my camera. It’s new, and its awesome, and everyone wants to see it, especially people who love cameras, so I let him.

He told me to pose, and I thought he just wanted to play with my camera, so it took me a minute to figure out what was going on. I started laughing and said thanks, but I didn’t need my photo taken. “Are you kidding?” he said. “You gotta have your picture taken on the red carpet!” So I did.

Another cameraman who was shooting nearby even got into the act. “Come on!” said my photographer, as he snapped shot after shot. “This is the Oscars!”

For the fifth(!) year in a row, I’ll be headed down to Austin for the SXSW Interactive Festival, where, for a few warm, sunny Texas days, I talk tech and eat only tacos. Since I have to make a detour to cold, wintry Chicago to see my dear friend Heather (and my dear friends at Coudal) I won’t be getting there until Sunday afternoon, so that means I have to pack twice as much tech-talking (and twice as many tacos) into a short amount of time.

But! I will be doing one panel, kind of a special one. On Monday, March 15 at 11am, I’ll be moderating a roundtable with Valerie Casey, founder of the Designers Accord, with whom I write Designers Accord case studies over at Fast Company; and Casey Caplowe, creative director at GOOD, with whom I created the GOOD Design program. This talk is part of Studio SX’s programming, which we were told is more like a fun, Charlie Rose-style talk show (and it will be filmed!). So please come by and see two of my favorite people if you’re at SXSW. Afterwards, maybe some tacos?

To get you in the mood, you can read some of last year’s coverage and browse some of the years before that. See you in Austin!

Update: By the way, the amazing J.D. Nasaw, who coordinated our Studio SX program, also runs the incredible blog Citizen Taco, which includes—yes!—a SXSW taco guide! Now that’s some delicious synergy.

If you can remember back, way back, almost two years ago now, before a person named Barack Obama was president, there was a little art show at the Democratic National Convention in Denver called Manifest Hope. The show eventually traveled to D.C. for the inauguration and helped make some of the pieces downright famous. This year, the same group has tapped more than 150 artists for a new show, Manifest Equality, which will be open through the weekend at a former Big Lots in Hollywood. The space was designed by Commune Design (who did the amazing Ace Hotel in Palm Springs that I wrote about at GOOD) and it will feature many of my favorite artists, including my most favorite, Keith Scharwath.

A house was getting gutted at the bottom of our street and every day a pile of architectural detritus would grow on the curb. Keith “rescued” this door, scraped it clean, and transformed it into his piece.

“This door was probably opened and closed many times, allowing or denying access to many people,” Keith says on his blog, where he has more photos. “Now it’s open forever.”

You can see Keith’s door and over 400 other pieces through Sunday. March 7 at Manifest Equality, 1341 Vine Street, in Hollywood. I took lots of photos of the show. Hope to see you there!

On the last day I was in Madrid, I made a big loop around the city on foot and managed to snap a bunch of cool tapas bar signage.

I loved these little illustrations.

Looks like it used to say something else but I couldn’t tell what.

Really, what more does one need?

Double bonus for the awesome accidental 80’s signage captured above.

This place was the perfect shade of apricot and the perfect shade of mint—a visual daiquiri.

Some Spanish restaurants make you really feel right at home.

Because what’s better than karaoke? Laser karaoke!

The Madrid metro was clean, colorful and easy to navigate, but I loved these little branded buckets the most. They were so cute, it almost made you happy it was raining!

I supposed it’s better than a Low Tech Hotel.

I headed towards the Royal Palace but the line was really long for tickets, so I opted to go inside the Almudena Cathedral, which is next door, instead. And then I looked up.

The most vibrant colors I’ve ever seen on a cathedral ceiling, as a children’s choir sang to a hushed crowd. What a pleasant, unexpected treat!

Speaking of treats, most helados shops were actually shut tight due to the cold weather. But I managed to find a special exception at Mallorca, these awesome little pastelerias found all over Madrid.

The coolest part was their system to keep track of your purchases as you roam the three-story epicurean playground because they know you’re probably going to eat that trufa helada de coco about 30 seconds after it comes out of the case!

All my photos are here. Hope you enjoyed our Spanish adventure!

Los Angeles is the featured city this year at ARCOmadrid, and it’s so fun to see little reminders of home by the L.A. artists all over town. This is a painting of the Olive Motel, which is just up the street from my house.

Also from my neighborhood, the collective Fallen Fruit had a fantastic exhibition at Intermediae Matadero.

They’re trying to plant these 60 fruit trees in the neighborhood…more on that later.

Doug Aitken’s The Moment screening in a cavernous space inside the Matadero, a former slaughterhouse.

Invisible City at Le Instituto Cervantes, featuring a dozen LA artists addressing everything from our city’s relationship to the police to the way the ficus trees buckle the sidewalks.

The incredible Panorama Los Angeles curatorial team of Kris ‘n’ Chris, otherwise known as Kris Kuramistu and Christopher Miles. You can read more about the show in an article by another Chris, Chris Lee, over at the Los Angeles Times.

The adorable Christopher James Alexander, curator for the Getty Research Institute, just after introducing the Madrid version of the show he first created in LA: Julius Shulman’s Los Angeles. I covered the opening for Dwell: In Madrid: Julius Shulman’s LA.

The Shulman show was designed by the stunning Maria Velez from the Getty, who also designed the show’s exhibition at the Getty and in Guadalajara, Mexico.

One of the best events of the fair was a panel on alternative ways to present art, featuring Emi Fontana from West of Rome (whose Women in the City show I wrote about for Print), Russell Ferguson of UCLA, Wendy Yao of Ooga Booga (who I included in my favorite LA places for Dwell) and Mark Allen of Machine Project (whose LACMA takeover I wrote about for Fast Company).

Two of my favorite new friends from the fantastic gallery 1301PE on Wilshire, Brian Butler and Isha Welsh (if they look a little shadowy here it is because they are mysterious men).

The tireless ladies of ForYourArt: Karen, Bettina and Melissa. If their fingers lose contact with their BlackBerrys for too long they start to turn blue.

LA-based performance troupe My Barbarian presenting their hilarious version of the Oscars, which are really called the Goyas in Spain—you even get a little statue of Goya’s head.

ForYourArt’s Melissa Goldberg and Bari Ziperstein (in sharp vintage frames!) at a fantastic dinner organized by Mary Leigh Cherry of Culver City gallery Cherry and Martin (thanks, Mary Leigh!).

Muchas, muchas more photos over at Flickr…

Have a seat and check out some of my favorites from the quite fantastic ARCOmadrid fair, which just happens to be the largest art fair in Europe.

This was like my 80’s wardrobe had been liquefied in a blender and poured onto a canvas.

Devendra Banhart does the most wonderful little drawings, which are now available as a limited edition catalogue. You also get this awesome zine as well as some of his music.

Taking photos of “hidden” cell phone towers was totally something I wanted to do, but Robert Voit beat me to it.

Paintings of Hearst Tower by Enoc Perez. We found a painting of the London Gherkin in the closet. He must have a thing for Norman Foster.

I loved these. Famous album covers rendered in embroidery by Alice Wagner.

Me in a Tony Cragg funhouse mirror.

A Warhol that looks like Matt Damon.

And a Hockney that looks like Corey Feldman.

I wore just the right kawstume to the KAWS opening.

And found some extremely gorgeous new work by Ryan McGinness.

There’s lots more photos where those came from…

Hung with an ethereal swirl of fine mist, Madrid was absolutely breathtaking last night.

This is Le Instituto Cervantes where the show Invisible City features L.A. artists exploring mythologies of Los Angeles. Daniel Joseph Martinez’s words are draped between the pillars.

At the gilt-y Palace Hotel, me and Wendy Yao (of the delightful store Ooga Booga) show off our martinis in glassware circa 1986.

It’s rather disturbing to come across these legs all over the place, their stiletto heels draped in a white blanket like a dismembered supermodel.

But disturbing in the most delicious way.

Later we asked a taxi driver to take us to a bar where all the art people go called Cock. He took us here. And also, to a place named CATS.

Finally we made it to Cock, where it was so crowded the bartenders refused to make mixed drinks. Also photography was strictly not allowed, but I snuck this one of the lovely Linlee Allen.

It just wouldn’t be Madrid without stumbling into a piano bar at 3am and singing a few tunes like “New York, New York” and “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You.” The best part about singing in a foreign country:  If you mess up the words a little, no one will ever know.

Many, many more Madrid photos, over here…