On a whim, I invited a gaggle of girlfriends to my teeny tiny apartment in Los Feliz for a cocktail party on Friday night to celebrate our friend Heather's latest art collaboration at SciArc. Ten seconds after I sent the e-mail, I realized that the only party food I had in my cupboard was bourbon and beef jerky. Mind you, it's Vietnamese beef jerky made with red pepper spices, sesame seeds and soy sauce by a company that was named after Cho Cu, the famed market in Saigon, whose moniker means "old market" in English. But non-Vietnamese speakers have to be extra careful when they enunciate the accent for "cu." If they're not, they end up saying instead "penis market."
Heather is a lighting director extraordinaire who heads her own company called Luminesce Design. At SciArc, I signed the guest book and was asked how I heard about the event. I had no choice but to scribble: Heather Libonati Extraordinaire.
The architectural installation was titled Dragonfly, drawing inspiration from the simple but sturdy layout that defines the insect's wings. After my friends and I left the exhibit, we were told about the problems that the architect and structural engineer faced in building the single base within the wall from which the gigantic metal wing jutted. I thought it might have been good for us to be warned about the issues with the support before we stood in awe underneath Dragonfly. This is the view of Dragonfly from the second floor catwalk hovering above the gallery. Now knowing about its structural problems and all, I can see the similarities between the sculpture and a cookie cutter ready to slice the humans below.
My friends and I waited patiently until the sun set after 7 p.m., when Heather's genius with lights manifested itself.
SciArc hosted another exhibit at the same time as Dragonfly's reception. Held in the library, the second party honored the architect George Yu. This is one of his sculptures sitting in front of the window on the north end of the tiny library filled with Mies Van Der Rohe-designed leather couches. My friends and I were disappointed that the change of venue didn't mean a different array of snacks. Yu's acolytes were offered the same chocolate-covered pretzels and mixed nuts that Dragonfly's fans were.
At the party in my small but cozy apartment in Los Feliz, I showed up SciArc by offering Adriano Adami prosecco from Silver Lake Wine. I even made some break-and-bake Toll House cookies. Because all the women on my mother's side of the family are great cooks and hostesses, I've been trained to entertain with a sense of humor, a bit of style and plenty of good food. In addition to providing red cloth napkins, I made sure to constantly fill my friends' glasses with bubbly from Italy. It was too bad that I didn't have enough time to pick up the pizza I ordered from Il Capriccio. Such a bad hostess, I had to dispatch Eileen and Erin to the pizzeria located two blocks from my house. Oh, a time like this reminded me how much I need a personal assistant or butler.
I ordered a large pie topped with Italian sausage and another that was described as vegetarian. I usually frown upon vegetarian pizzas because the cooks generally toss any vegetable that didn't make it into the salad onto the meatless pie. Il Capriccio, however, made their vegetarian version the right way. They roasted all their vegetables beforehand so that you didn't bite into a broccoli floret that was still raw and crunchy in the middle. We liked the vegetarian pizza so much that there was only one slice left. It was later eaten by Mathew at the tender hour of 3 o'clock.
I thought prosecco, pizza and cookies might be a little too unhealthy, what with bikini season around the corner. So I also had some cherries on hand.
Erin loved the sock piggy, which nicely complemented her men's wear-inspired vest and striped metallic blouse. As Diana Vreeland would have declared, piggy is the new black. As Isabella Blow would have modeled, piggy should belong on the noggin rather than under the arm.
After Heather and her husband/our honorary girlfriend Mike left, Eileen, Erin and I headed to a birthday party that one of Erin's friends threw in Echo Park. No birthday party in Los Angeles would be complete without a pinata. Since the birthday girl was turning 29, her papier-mache horse was stuffed with adult treats, such as vodka, whiskey, scotch and prophylactics. And the kid in everyone loved the Blow Pops, chocolates and Tootsie Rolls.
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