Wahoo's Hurley Mural

It's been about a year since Wahoo's commissioned Hurley to paint a mural at the Wahoo's store on Bristol and Baker in Costa Mesa. So I think it's a good time to celebrate its one year anniversary. Grab a grilled fish banzai bowl with brown rice and black beans and enjoy the art of Jason Maloney, BigFoot One, and Bwana 

When you go to Wahoo's take a few extra minutes and let the kids check out the mural up close. There are three artists' work on the wall. Can your kids see any differences? Do they have any favorite characters or sections of the mural?

A Kid's Dream

"I built a model of this car when I was probably ten years old. It just kind of grabbed me."



From a little, plastic, dollar model car built as a child to owning one of the most collectible Mercedes ever made thirty years later. Listen up kids, keep your dreams alive.

"Everybody should be able to set a goal as a 10 year old child and fulfill it" 

Well said.

via Depth of Speed

Sheep Hills (World Famous)

As an Orange County family it's fun to get out and explore some of the more hidden spots - the oddball spots. Sheep Hills is a great place to check out. It's a BMX bike trail with plenty of dirt jumps. It's maintained by the local BMX riders.

Most of the jumps are for more experienced riders but it's a lot of fun to take a turn going through the trail with the kids when it's not crowded. I've even seen some families using RC cars on the trail when there's no riders. 

Sheep Hills also has a little history. Quite a few pro riders practiced dirt jumping at Sheep Hills in the early and mid 90's. Read what some of them remembered about going there - Shaun Butler, Todd Lyons, Brian Foster, Mike Griffin, and Ryan "Barspinner" Brennan.

It's a little hard to find. Sheep Hills is located in Talbert Regional Park in Costa Mesa on the border of Huntington Beach. There's not really any good parking. I found the best place to park is on Balboa Blvd. from 19th. Enter the park then follow the trail to the right. Sheep Hills is in a cleared out space in the center of the park. You can also park at Victoria Vista Park or enter the park off the bike trail at Victoria.



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Lucha Libre Smackdown

From the photo files.  The dangerous Curled Finger Attack Mode with wrestler mask at Lucha Libre Gourmet Taco Shop. We had the pleasure of sitting in the Champion's Booth - an over the top corner booth that included gold rimmed fluted glasses and chips served in a vessel fit for a champion luchador. The kids had fun clanking their glasses and making pretend thank-you speeches to the people on the other side of the velvet rope. They also enjoyed the fancy cloth napkins, bean and cheese burritos, and refillable Orange Bang while I enjoyed a San Diego staple - the classic California burrito filled with carne asada and fries.

Check out the Google 360 view of the restaurant.



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Cut Paper Collage

Create art without getting paint on the floor and a mess on the walls. Cut or torn paper collages are an easy way to create simple or complex designs. Made famous by Henri Matisse and Eric Carle, cut paper collages are a fun experiment in focusing on shapes.

Recently, a few kids entered these cut paper collages into a local art contest. 

Look at this one! A curvy whale filled with block shapes. A shadowed water spout and are those nail heads on some of the blocks? Beautiful and full of color. I wish every animal in the ocean was as interesting.

My colorful sea creature wish is granted. Are my eyes deceiving me or does this dolphin seems to be full of love and good cheer? The water is wavy and framed by a block frame with a few stray hearts bobbing around the ocean depths. The background can as easily be an ocean of calm. colorful ripples or wispy clouds at sunset when the dolphin jumps out of the water. 

This last one is a shocker. A bright orange, pink, and yellow jellyfish. Different shapes radiate from the circled body of the jellyfish. The water seems to be moving and bubbling like a shaken can of soda ready to explode. I like this one. 

If you want some more examples of current cut paper collages by great adult artists, take a peek at the work of Carin Berger , David Thorpe, and Philomena Maranao. 

     

Cardboard Labyrinth at Caine's Arcade

Recently visited Caine's Arcade in Boyle Heights with my son who volunteered to help for a couple of hours. This is a small video of Caine's first try at a home-made cardboard labyrinth game donated by guest game maker, Marc Humpert, who was also volunteering.
 
First, the game is great and the kids and adults swarmed around it right away. Like a usual tilt labyrinth game the cardboard moves on two axes. Because of the length of the box it's a little difficult to grab both handles for little kid arms.  But it's made so that tilting forward and back and right and left can be done by the main handle. One handle can control the entire labyrinth. That's what you see Caine doing.

Second, the game play was challenging but can be conquered after a five or six tries. Caine asked to make the game harder so the game creator, Marc Humpert, cut out a few more holes where Caine pointed and made the path more difficult.

 

An added feature of the game is an interchangeable game/maze board. The maze lifts out of the frame and can be replaced with different mazes - ingenious for a game made from pieces of discarded cardboard. It reminds me of the labyrinth game I played when I was younger.