I’m LAMO, this is my blog. I like to make costumes and music videos but in the daytime I have a career as a ‘cool hunter’. Last week I went to L.A to find some cool. Here are my findings!
I’d never been to California before so I was pretty excited. I stayed in a crummy apartment near Venice Beach and on day one I went for a walk to see the bums. It was 8am and they were just waking up and hanging out in big groups near a beautiful new skate park. They were really friendly and had customised carts covered in keepsakes. They varied a lot in age and generally either had skateboards or guitars. I was too pussy to photograph them but I did photograph these vans. They reckon they’ve been parked there since the 70’s.
This was the skate park
Next I saw this guy; pretty exciting for me and him!
Because it was our first day and we were all jet lagged we had a bit of a wander around Venice and Abbots Kinney. Abbots Kinney is a street full of upmarket yoga places and boutiques. It’s a bit “Primrose Hill”, but you can score weed there really easily to.
The restaurant we went to has just become the new place “to be seen”. We didn’t see any celebs but we did sit next to the woman who does the voice for the equivalent of Bob the Builder in LA - big time!
Next day we went to Silverlake, which is equivalent of Hoxton/Broadway Market (i.e. so over). I liked it ‘cos I was a tourist.
Here was a cool girl. She was proud of her ‘cute’ t-shirt but I thought she was way cuter than the shirt.
This guy Joe’s store was awesome, it’s called ‘Come to Mama’ and is the best vintage store in the area. He carries amazing 70s hand-selected pieces; from denim waistcoats to flares and vintage vinyl. They had a party that night. I think he was stoned here, although it may have been just his 70’s vibes.
This 70’s denim waistcoat was pretty amazing. All his stuff was in fact. Check out his shop if you go.
There were parties up and down the street for some Art Crawl. We went to as many as we could. The first one was called ‘Blood is the New Black’ and the artists did a lot of Black metal and rock inspired prints.
This one reminded me of the London based Japanese band Bo Ningen.
This guy was also at the private view. He was pretty special
On the way home I saw this dog driving a car.
The next day was the big one for me. It was the Rose Bowl Flea market. People come from all over the world to deal in denim and all kinds of collectable vintage clothing and wares. It was fucking huge! I’m used to big markets but I was fully overwhelmed, so much so that I only bought one pair of boots. The prices have sky-rocketed too
This kid was about 11 and pretty amazing.
I took about 300 street-shots. Here are my favourites.
Next I went to a party at my mate’s house in Echo Park. This is the Dalston of LA (i.e. almost so over). It was Ruben’s birthday - he photographs metal bands for the Spanish Metal Hammer - and we hung out in his yard. Cute!
To get anywhere in LA is a massive drive so the only ‘real’ parties I went to were small and intimate, but really fun. This one started getting interesting when a ‘mature’ LA hair metal band called Snew turned up. Everyone had to head-bang to their song for a video they were apparently making.
Then I went outside, where I met this guy. Yes, that is a lot of weed he’s holding.
And this guy and his snake skin trousers.
They were generous and I had a GOOD night. I was now super stoned and miles away from Venice beach. With luck I managed get a ride home with a wasted chick in a 80’s BMW. The car definitely felt like it had been lowered but she said it was just me being stoned. She was totally out of it but they don’t worry about that kind of stuff in LA. We drove for ages in the wrong direction and ended up in Compton, which was about 30 minutes past my turning. She kept saying ‘this is sketchy’ and she locked the doors. I loved it.
That was the best bit of my trip, but here are some other snaps that I didn’t want to leave out.
