Summer 2007 – Page 2 – Agenda Magazine Archives

Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black

A few weeks ago I was arguing with a friend from across the pond on which of us would claim Amy Winehouse for our own. I argued since she already had a boyfriend, it was too late for her to play the lesbian card. She countered that American imperialists have stolen enough women from England. I know what you’re thinking. Why fight over just another alcoholic twenty-three-year-old Jewish female Motown singer from London? O. K., maybe that wasn’t what you were thinking. This isn’t another cookie cutter chanteuse , and that’s the point. She’s not only reinterpreting the sound of a forgotten era, but she has the emotional sincerity to back it up. Our standoff was ended with the news of her marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil. I guess I’ll have to start wooing a Pipette.

Winehouse’s first album, Frank , was a huge success in England but wasn’t released stateside. I strongly recommend the album if you can find it. Her latest, Back to Black , raised her to new levels both commercially and artistically. After completing Frank , she met her eventual husband. Infidelity and the usual self-destructive behavior ensued, leading to an extended break-up laying the emotional groundwork to Back to Black , with such telling tracks as “Tears Dry on Their Own,” “Love Is a Losing Game,” and “Wake Up Alone.”

In a world of cardboard cutouts lip-synching prefabricated songs, an artist like Amy Winehouse is a punch to the gut. These songs aren’t only the despair of a regretful lover. They drip with innate sexiness and pays homage to Sarah Vaughn and the Shangri-Las without being bound to innuendo of their eras. Collaborating on the sound for half the album was New York producer Mark Ronson, who brought in the fabulous Dap Kings, best known for their work backing Sharon Jones. This perfect storm of Winehouse, her tumultuous relationship with Blake, Ronson’s vision, and the Dap Kings made this one of the best albums of 2007.

The first song and single is “Rehab,” inspired after her label attempted to get her treatment for alcohol abuse, to which, according to the song, she replied “No, no, no” just in time for the Spring wave of drunken debutantes. “Me and Mr. Jones” has possibly my favorite line of the year so far with “What kind of fuckery are we? Nowadays you don’t mean dick to me?” You never heard the Supremes say that.

Every song but “He Can Only Hold Her” is written in first person with words that could have been ripped from a journal. We may not agree with the way Winehouse lives her life, but we can understand the passions that went in to her songs, though at no point does she ask for our sympathy; and judging by her career, she doesn’t want it. It isn’t just the words. She has a gin-soaked voice, ill fitting of her age, and over her short career she has shown impressive musical instincts. If you still have doubts, go download the album’s namesake “Back to Black” or “You Know I’m No Good”; and if at the end of the song you’re not transported to a time when bars were smokey and jazz was king, then feel free to ignore me.

The problem with reviewing Back to Black is that Winehouse the artist and Winehouse the person are so intertwined that you can’t separate the two. On one hand you have this small woman with a beehive singing beyond her years. On the other you have a troubled woman who has a history of cutting herself, eating disorders, and substance abuse. During her Coachella performance, the crowd cheered every time she took a drink. Rarely have I been so disgusted at an audience. Winehouse has all the warning signs of a tragic “Behind the Music” episode. Maybe the marriage will help her live happily ever after. Maybe not. History is littered with the craters of shooting stars, but Amy Winehouse has created two records that should be in your collection, and that’s better than most. I give Back to Black 4 stars.

http://www.amywinehouse.com

A.i. (Artificial Intelligence) – Indie Hit Makers with a Retro-Futuristic Concept

A.i. (Artificial Intelligence) – Indie Hit Makers with a Retro-Futuristic Concept

If musical or artistic talent is hereditary, then A.i.’s Nick and Zack Young’s cup overfloweth! Their great uncle, Joe Young, was one of the founders of ASCAP in 1914 and one of the great songwriters of Tin Pan Alley. He wrote over 500 songs, including such hits as Al Jolson’s “My Mammy,” “I’m Sittin’ on Top of the World,” “Dinah,” “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue,” and Frank Sinatra’s “You’re My Everything.” It’s no surprise that these brothers started making music when they were children—Zack played the drums, and Nick, the guitar. A few years after that, Nick and Zack formed the group A.i. They signed with DreamWorks Records, and in 2002 released their debut album Artificial Intelligence. They toured and eventually lost their keyboardist one night before a gig. Once back home in Los Angeles, and only a week before they were to hit the road, they found keyboardist Milen Kirov. The three musicians had a magical connection and immediately started writing.

How did you guys come up with the name A.i.?

Nick: Actually, I came up with it a long time ago. Around 1996, I was in my dentist’s office and I was reading an article on artificial intelligence. Something about the name hit me. It was before the Spielberg movie and stuff. No one really knew what artificial intelligence was. We thought it was a really cool name. We decided to roll with it. It kind of represented what we were doing with our instruments and so forth.

How long have you guys been together?

Zack: Nick and I started the band around 1996, 1997. We hooked up with Milen four years ago, the fall of 2003. It’s almost a decade.

That’s a long time. So, I understand that you have an interesting background? You come from a filmmaking background?

Nick: Yeah, I guess. All our families are really creative. Our father’s a filmmaker, Robert M. Young. Our great uncle, Joe Young, wrote a bunch of songs in the early 1900s for all kinds of singers.

Milen: I am originally from Bulgaria, and my parents teach and perform Bulgarian music.

That’s interesting. Do you guys listen to a lot of that older music?

Zack: Just as of recently. Nick is kind of the Joe Young historian of the family. He’s kind of finding his roots. He’s been finding out a lot about our heritage—Joe Young, in particular. He was an amazing songwriter. He was the founder of ASCAP in 1914. He wrote a bunch of great songs. My dad used to sing us lots of the songs when we were kids.

Nick: We just kind of grew up not knowing what to do with ourselves other than making music.

So you’ve had a lot of support with your music, then?

Nick: Definitely. I think that all our parents have really been supportive in terms of letting us do what we want to do, really supportive in terms of the arts. I used to skateboard, and I think my mom was really happy when I started playing guitar. I wasn’t coming home all beat up and bruised and stuff.

Tell me about A.i. then. Tell me about your music, the sound, all that stuff .

We’re really excited about this new album called Sex and Robotsthat we’ve been working on. It’s really been this whole new vision for the band, kind of reinventing ourselves. Rich Mouser was an integral part of putting this album together. We had a lot of fun doing it, and we got to really experiment with all sorts of instruments and not be held back in the studio and just be able to do whatever we wanted to do. We’re really excited about this album.

Milen: I think the essence of A.i. is this co-existence with the human and the electronic, the robotic. Therefore, we called our album Sex and Robots. We use electronic instruments, but we play everything live; so, I think we have a huge variety of sounds to experiment with, and also make them come alive.

Nick: There are points where we are writing the music the way that cyber technology has gone in this whole Internet direction, and the way technology co-exists with us today. I’ve been really inspired to just play with these guys and use electronics and synthesizers, drum machines, and live instruments—whatever the song calls for to bring these songs to life.

Who is your audience?

I think the music speaks to a lot of different people. Our father—he’s old and he likes the music. We have young girls 15, 16. They respond to the music, sometimes 17, too. We design our music to speak to a wide audience, not pinpoint it directly. The girls are definitely more inspiring to sing to than guys. But if the guy’s listening to it, and he’s pretending to sing to his girlfriend, that’s okay too.

I heard your music, of course. I’m sure you’ve heard this comment a lot: It’s very retro ’80s. It reminds me of Devo and some other bands in the ’80s. Tell me how you decided to use that sound particularly.

When we were working with our producer Rich Mouser, we started going back to the great albums we loved, and we started listening to Genesis and INXS, Prince, and all sorts of things. We brought some stuff to Rich Mouser, and he heard it and immediately started playing us music that reminded him of our music. It kind of started off as an organic process—it wasn’t “let’s go retro!” All of our music is just coming from inspiration and making music that we like and what we want to hear. Real rock and roll is music that is searching and discovering something new. We started listening to stuff back when drum machines first came out and synthesizers were first coming out and people were experimenting. There were all these discoveries being made that people don’t do today because everything’s too simple today with computers … and everybody’s writing music on their computer. We always feel like we need to play live, and that’s one difference between us and other bands that play electronic music. We play live, and we don’t want to sit at a computer and play music. We need to be able to connect with the audience directly. We got inspired by the music of the 80s, the songwriting. We strive to write a good song, a good melody. I think that all those artists in the ’80s had these new, exciting instruments, synthesizers to work with, but they achieved writing great songs in the studio, using huge radio sounds but it was not only for the purpose of experimenting. The experiments were helping to create a beautiful melody or a good song all together. This is probably our biggest goal, and it gives us the biggest pleasure, that we can use any instrument that has been used in music in the past 30 years or so. We have acoustic instruments, we have analog instruments, we have digital instruments on the album. But in the end, with all of these instruments, all this experimentation, the result is a song with a beautiful melody.

That’s a good explanation. So who plays what in this trio?

My name is Milen and I play keyboards and a synth bass.

My name is Nick Young and I play guitar and sing.

And I am Zach Young and I play drums and electronic drums.

You guys used to be signed with DreamWorks? What happened with that?

We had a record that came out on DreamWorks in 2002. We put our album out in DreamWorks and they just didn’t really know what to do with us, or do anything with us. We got out of the situation with them, and we just found it really empowering to go into the studio and start making our second album. We had a different keyboard player before who ended up leaving the band, and we found Milen. We kind of needed to reinvent ourselves, kind of find that initial spark of why we like playing music together. That’s kind of where this whole new direction came from.

So you guys would call yourselves an Indie band, then?

Yeah, I would say so.

I heard you’ve had some success. You’ve been played a couple of times on KROQ. Tell us about that.

Cat Corbit at KROQ “Locals Only” show started playing one of our songs, “Tell Me You Love Me.” We ended up getting played on KROQ. We were on a show called “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” on 97.1, which was really scary at first ’cause these radio people are just so quick, talking and stuff—it actually went really well. Callers were calling in saying [whether or not they liked the song or the band]. We had great response from people. We played the first two songs on the record, “Hey Now” and “Tell Me You Love Me.” People loved them both. The challenge now is just for us to get out there and start playing night after night. We really just want to bring this music to people in person. From the beginning, we’ve tried to stay away from [using sequencers and drum machines] because we don’t want to be controlled—if we want to do a chorus twice the length or do a jam out, we’re not controlled by [any] machines. Even though we’re using a lot of cutting-edge technology within our instruments, we try and figure out ways to keep it live as much as possible. So, there’s not sequencing or anything like that—it’s all played live.

It’s interesting because it does have the electronic sound to it, and I saw the live show. A couple of times during your show, I thought it sounded so electronic, but I saw you slamming and hitting on the drum and thought, “Wait a minute, that’s coming from him!”

Zack: That’s definitely something we’ve done in terms of my drum set. We’ve done a lot of experimenting over the years and figured out ways to play a lot of these sounds. Because we used to go to shows and we’d go to a rave and we’d see all these people dancing and we’d see a DJ playing. We love a lot of the aspects of the music, but we were missing the live element of it—we’re musicians to begin with. We try to figure out a way where we could bring this music to life in a certain way and not be controlled by machines.

That’s unique. Tell me. What is the highest high that you’ve ever had while you’ve been in this prospect of Indie music.

Every time we play, that’s the highest high, knowing that moment, playing the music and getting that feeling, you know. That elevated feeling is the best. It doesn’t matter if we’re rehearsing in this room (their rehearsal studio in Los Angeles) or if we’re on stage—every new day, every new performance, every new song that we create, and just being in that moment of creating.

Have there ever been any lows?

Definitely, there have been lows. Luckily, we have been fortunate enough not to have anything catastrophic happen to any of us. There are times when we’re working on a song and we can’t figure it out—things don’t seem to click. There’s writer’s block—whatever you want to call it. There have been times where it’s definitely been hard, and especially being an independent band. There are a lot of challenges. There have been hard times, but the times when we all play together, we forget about everything else. That’s the best time.

Now I have one more question for you. As a band coming up, and trying to break into this crazy music industry, do you have any advice for a band whose trying to break in?

We’re still trying to figure out our own strategy. If you’re in it for a career, you have to love it. So, have fun doing it. I think the world in general can get pretty dry. A lot of lube and a lot of Viagra, and I think that you’re liable to break through the barriers. If you’re in music, for the wrong reasons … my advice is keep at it. Have fun. Keep writing. Keep playing. Just keep getting better. I think people will notice you.

Milen: Even though you might think you choose music, really, music chooses you. Business-minded people can help you with advice, but the main advice for a musician is just keep playing.

Nick Young, vocals, guitar

Milen Kirov, keyboards, synth bass

Zack Young, acoustic/electronic drums

Interviewed by Kaylene Peoples

Transcribed by Aiza Cayanan

Sarena Traver – Racecar Driver and Fine Jewelry Designer

Sarena Traver – Racecar Driver and Fine Jewelry Designer

Moms, don’t worry if your daughters want to be racecar drivers. JeTalia’s head designer, Sarena Traver, makes racing cars and creating fine jewelry look risk-free. This mother of two incorporates the fluid motion of racing in her couture line by creating jewelry that moves! JeTalia is stunning and unique. Sarena believes that jewelry is a statement of a woman’s personality, evoking strength, beauty, and individuality. Her four collections, Cage, Synchro, Apex, and T2, are versatile and timeless. Shareeka Epps, named one of the Top five Most Talented Newcomers in Film 2006 (“2007 Spirit Awards”), wore JeTalia; and Rebecca Gayheart is also a fan of the chic line.

It is no surprise that Sarena would follow in her father’s footsteps. Her father owned a gem business, and she was his apprentice at just seven years old. That, combined with innate creativity, led to JeTalia. Sarena graduated from Gemological Institute of America. She draws her inspiration from surfing, racecar driving, and traveling; and the freedom and movement in her own life is revealed in her designs.

I try to incorporate movement in some way, whether it’s sliding pearls or sliding cage that holds a pearl inside, which is free to move and roll around. So because I likeracing and the movement involved with that, that’s what I try to do with my designs.

— Fine Jewelry Designer Sarena Traver of JeTalia —

JeTalia is a very unique name. How did you come up with that name?

JeTalia came from both of my children’s names. My son’s name is Jet, and my daughter’s name is Talia.

Did it take you a while to come up with that, or did you try other names first?

I considered other names like last names, my last name, but ultimately it came to using the kids’ names. It was more personal.

Well, how did you get involved with designing jewelry?

Growing up as a child, I would sit down with my father—he was a gem dealer—and color sort his stones and help him weigh them. I have always been involved with gems from the age of seven. As a result, I just kind of rolled into this progression of jewelry design and started another career within marketing. After I had my kids, I decided I wanted a change; so I went to school for jewelry design at GIA, and here I am.

Tell me about your jewelry.

It’s fine jewelry. I mostly work with 18-carat yellow gold, platinum, white gold, diamonds, and pearls.

If someone were to ask you to describe your jewelry in two or three sentences, how would you do that?

I would describe the majority of the pieces as whimsical, more feminine, free flowing, and a lot of movement. Movement is really key for me, and just something to make you feel beautiful.

Who is your demographic?

My demographic for JeTalia Jewlery would be 35- to 55- year old business-minded women, very successful, love to be feminine, and sexy. That’s pretty much it.

Where could someone buy your jewelry?

Well, right now just online. www.Jetalia.com. But in the future, higher end department stores, beauty salons, and boutiques.

What are some of your price points?

JeTalia’s price points range from $1,000 all the way up $18,000.

When did you get involved with racing cars?

I got really involved with racing cars the last few years and my husband does it. We have a great time together going out to the track and sharing that. It’s a lot of fun.

How long have you been doing that?

I’ve been racing cars for about three seasons now.

Is a season like a few months out of the year?

A season is approximately six to seven months out of the year. So there is some down time, and you can choose to do other races in between; but if you’re with a series, it’s pretty much six to seven months.

Well, that is pretty dare-devilish, wouldn’t you say?

Yeah, especially when you’re a mom and you’re doing other things, too—I try to fit it all in. But when you love it, you just make it happen.

What’s it like being a racecar driver?

It’s fun! It’s an adrenaline rush. It’s a good time.

Tell me about the rush.

When you’re going at high speeds and you have something go wrong with your car, and you crash, there’s no other feeling like it, when you’re heading for a cement wall at 80 miles an hour. And it hurts, but you get back in the car and do it again. You know you have a whole separate family at home on the tracks, and then you come home and you have your own family. It’s probably just the competitiveness that I like as well.

Are there different kinds of races?

There are different series that you could get involved with. There’s open wheel, which is what I do, Formula Mazda cars. I just did the Koni Challenge, which is a whole other series. There are lots of levels, depending on your budget, what you enjoy, and how fast you want to go. There are different types of tracks, too. So there’s really a little bit of everything for everyone.

Are there really a lot of women racing?

Unfortunately, there are very few women who race.

You’re definitely in the minority. Do you find that you may be considered somewhat of a role model to young girls because there are so few women racecar drivers?

Yes, it’s fun. When I take my kids to school, all the parents and teachers are really supportive of what I do. They love that I race cars. They had a career day [last Spring], and they asked me to come in and talk to all the kids—and they absolutely ate it up! They had so much fun with it. It was really interesting to go there and see all the little girls wanting to try on my helmet, wanting to hold my trophies. They really loved it, and I think reaching out to them and telling them that they can do any sport that they want. It doesn’t have to be racecar driving. It could be anything, and I think it really inspired them. It really touched a chord and, hopefully, HOPEFULLY, I turn a little girl into a little racecar driver one day.

What kind of car do you race?

I race Formula Mazda cars, which is an open wheel car. And [just recently], I had a race [where I drove] a Chevy Cobalt, which is a sedan.

Do these companies sponsor you for your races?

JeTalia is my sponsor.

How does JeTalia fit into racecar driving?

I try to incorporate movement in some way, whether it’s sliding pearls or a sliding cage that holds a pearl inside, which is free to move and roll around. And because I like racing and the movement involved with that, that’s what I try to do with my designs—right now with the [current] collections—the next phase of collections might be something totally different.

As the designer of JeTalia, what has been your highest high?

Seeing the pieces completed. It’s such a process from start to finish, with getting your education within that field, and taking and applying your knowledge, doing your designs and working with people on those designs. And just creating the piece, and seeing the end product—that’s a pretty good high I’d have to say.

What was your lowest low?

The lowest low was probably designing my website. That was quite the process, going through multiple web designers, and just the stress involved. It’s a whole other process—very time-consuming and very frustrating at the same time. So you just hang in there and you get through it, and eventually it will happen … and it did—that was another high moment. When it was completed and we were live on the Internet, it was a great moment, but there were definitely some highs and lows.

How many years have you been doing JeTalia?

Probably close to two years.

So you’re new, you’re basically almost an upstart, really. As an upstart, do you really feel that it has been a great amount of success up to this point?

Oh, definitely! You know the whole point is that you have to take baby steps, and be ready for a great opportunity for any moment. It’s been good moving forward in a slow manner, and finally being ready for that opportunity.

What advice would you give to someone that might aspire to do what you’re doing as a fine jewelry designer? Is there anything special that you could offer to help him or her?

Just do your research—lots of research in every field, and every aspect. It will pay off in the end. And be patient because it can’t happen overnight. Just stick with it.

What was your greatest moment as a racecar driver?

It would have to be getting a podium, getting a trophy out of the race, and having that great feeling that you just kicked a lot of butt from the racetrack, and had a really good time doing it, and you worked really hard at it, and it’s a good moment when you can do that.

What’s involved in training for a race?

There are different areas. There’s the physical, where you could train and diet—all of that to prepare. But I would say the most important thing is the mental [preparation]—really focusing on what you want and visually preparing for that. Seat time in the car is very important too—getting out there and actually putting laps together, working on that and having it just be perfect, every time.

Since you’re a minority in this sport, I guess you’re mostly racing against men. Is there ever more than one female in a race?

Sometimes, but it’s rare. I really haven’t had too many opportunities where there’s another woman. My last race, I brought by my co-driver, and she’s great to race with. She’s been around for a very long time. She’s 63 years old and she’s been racing for 30 years. She’s definitely a wonderful mentor to me in the racing field, and she is really supportive. I have a blast racing with her. But other than that, I don’t really come in contact with too many other women on the track.

Do you race only locally, or do you travel to other states?

I travel. But there is another series that I do, and then there’s the western series that travels just this region primarily.

What’s your lowest low when racing?

It would have to be when you crash a car—when you hit a cement wall, or tire wall, and you can’t continue in the race—or you total your car. Now that’s a pretty bad low.

And that has happened to you? Were you hurt?

Yeah. It’s not fun. You get hurt, but you recover, and you get back in the car because you love it. It’s absolutely addicting!

To learn more about Sarena Traver and JeTalia, visit her website at www.jetalia.com.

Interviewed by Kaylene Peoples

Interviewed by Kaylene Peoples
Transcribed by Tamara Baskin

Gunner Johnson – Sculptor with a Rare Vision

Gunner Johnson’s exceptional art and sculpted pieces have shown in galleries and have appeared in the movie Batman Forever. His newest jewelry line lends practicality to an already exquisite collection. His art pieces and his jewelry are quickly becoming a favorite among celebrities.

Having started this career in 1990, Gunner is one of the few sculptors who sculpt in steel. He also sculpts in wax to create jewelry. How he got started is a very unique, and interesting, story. He was living with his girlfriend and was avoiding going to bed with her. He started drawing to pass the time. He discovered he was very good. He sold a few drawings, and from there, a whole new creative world opened up.

When I would draw, the time would just disappear. The next thing I knew it would be 4 or 5 in the morning and I was still up drawing.

—Gunner Johnson—

What were some of your first drawings?

The first drawing was like a starship portal, as if you were inside a flying saucer and you were looking out and you were seeing the other starships that were part of your group. We were hovering over a planet and the planet had died. It really set this whole imaginative thing off for me. The second drawing, I was a Sioux Indian warrior, and that was charcoal and white oil pastel. So it was all just experimental at the time. I was just fooling around with it.

People don’t just pick up a pencil and draw these elaborate themes. Surely there must have been some indication that you wanted to do this at some point in your life.

When I was a kid, I was really into drawing, and my dad said, “Son, you can’t be an artist.” I remember wanting to be an artist at 9 and 10 years old. He said, “No. You should be a doctor or a lawyer. People don’t become artists. That’s not what they do for a living.” So then for the next 20 years I didn’t do anything. I mean I was doing other things, but I did nothing with art. I just stopped.

As I look around your apartment, I am overwhelmed by your depth of style as well as by your precision. These pieces should be in one of the top galleries. What is it that inspires you?

I just start feeling something and I just run with it. I get a feeling to do a piece and I have no idea how I’m structuring it. And depending on that piece, I have no idea where I’m going with it. Basically, I start with a feeling and fighting that whole idea that I can’t do it in my mind saying, “No, you can’t do this. You don’t even know how to do this.” And just spending the time just working on it and working on it until an idea comes up. And the more I do it, the more I become trained in allowing myself to just go with the flow of creating.

This whole time when your dad told you that you couldn’t do your art, what did you do?

Stole cars, climbed people’s balconies into their houses. I did a lot of crazy things. I was building sets. Basically, my dad told me to do what I was doing and work as hard as I could to make a living at whatever I do. And then I got into acting. I was doing some nonunion stuff. I did a film with David Carridine. I did some showcases and some plays. I studied really hard. I was really into it.

So this amazing chair that you are seated in, did you create that? And if so, how?

A friend and I went up to Topanga Canyon. We were actually going to Temescal Canyon, but this time, they wouldn’t let us up into the mountains with our dogs. We ended up at this place where I had gone to many times to meditate and hike with my dog, Topanga canyon. This was after the fire of Topanga and Malibu. Everything was burned except for this wood that you see on this floor (pointing to the legs of the chair on which he is sitting). I had this flash of this weird throne with wings of this wood and I had never seen wood this large before. Later I picked up a couple of books called Way of the Peaceful Warrior and Sacred Dream of the Peaceful Warrior. And I was really excited because I really liked these books. I came home and the next morning I was in a huge earthquake. One of my neighbors, Cindy, had been screaming upstairs and I thought she was trapped. So I jumped up out of my bed. I wasn’t thinking clearly, and I started running towards the door, and an antique just fell. I ran into the glass and ended up cutting a tendon in my right foot. So here I was injured in the earthquake and I had three weeks to read. People started bringing books over, and I was reading like crazy and I was getting really aligned with things. I got in this state of mind that I’m going to build this throne—this vision I had.

FEMA had paid me $1200 to fix the broken antique, and three weeks later I got my walking cast. I took the money and I bought welding gear—I never welded before—and I taped a piece of rubber on the bottom of my cast and hiked for three more weeks to look for more of this wood. I retrieved over a hundred pieces. I brought it back and proceeded to build this throne. With this piece, I basically cut the bottom of the leg and set the leg into a formation, and then I started visualizing how I was going to build the rest of the chair, one step at a time. That’s how this unfolded. It just took me two and a half months to build. My first piece out of steel was a candleholder that I practiced on and then I started working on this.

That’s amazing. It seems so daunting.

Everybody has an ability to open up, create stuff, and to come into alignment with what it is they’re really supposed to do. I just happened to find it. I put a show together and I got this piece done. I’d begun to gather a huge show. And it was from that show that I sent the pictures for Batman Forever. They were doing this movie and I had no idea about the characters. I sent the picture and the next day Warner Brothers was at the show. They came to the gallery and they wanted this chair in the show.

What’s next for you?

I’m not looking for a show at the moment. I’m looking for a very large space because I want to start teaching in this space and I want to incorporate people’s ideas and what they feel and what their idea is in learning and to actually formulate ideas within the class at the same time to build more pieces. I’ve actually completed a jewelry line. I’m working on another one, a leather one. Gunner's Leather Studio

How do you price your pieces?

It’s very hard for me to figure out pricing. That at times has been my downfall. Up to this point I get so passionate I can’t sleep. I’m waking up all night, which is actually something I do while I’m building pieces. Because I get to the point where I’m excited and I’m actually seeing the piece materialize. I’ll wake up, and in my mind, I’ll just be solving problems, problems I couldn’t figure out when I was working on a piece. I’ll wake up sometimes from a dream as I’m solving that particular problem of the piece. Once I wake up, the idea just comes.

Do you sketch your pieces before you create them?

I only sketch for clients that require a sketch. I might do a quick sketch, but to build something, it needs to unfold [naturally].

How can people buy your pieces?

Word of mouth, my website, or at my shows. I got so tired of trying to sell the work, but yet I couldn’t get them to see it. A lot of the galleries I visited wouldn’t take me because I didn’t have this long resume. I got so tired of trying to sell. This is where I backed out. I know that I have made something people aren’t seeing out there. You don’t see this in a gallery. You don’t see an alien woman (“Spitfire”) created with 80 feet of tubing and steel rods in her body. People don’t do this. I’m still trying to get to the stores to buy it. People are afraid to get out of the mainstream. They want to do everything that everybody else is doing—they won’t take a chance.

Now I’ve gotten into a different state of mind. I watched the movieThe Secret—I watched it 13 times now. And this movie is so precise on how easy it is to get what it is you want that things are beginning to fall into my lap again. You want to hear something funny? That’s how I built these pieces in the first place. I just believed that I could do it. Now I can actually bring my jewelry line and my artwork together.

Gunner’s jewelry has become a favorite of actress Rachel Melvin from NBC’s Days of Our Lives. She wears it on the show almost daily. Currently, Gunner’s jewelry can be found in the following stores:

Traffic
8500 Beverly Hills #654
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Black Blue
82711 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405

Rock Star
3835 Cross Creek Road Suite 3A
Malibu, CA. 90265 (310) 456-7374

Kitson Men
146 North Robertson Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA. 90048 (310) 358-9550

For more information, visit www.gunnerjohnson.com

Interviewed by Kaylene Peoples
Transcribed by Lisa Trimarchi

Adrian Bellani – An Actor with a Passion for Giving Back

Having moved here from El Salvador just two short years ago, Adrian Bellani has accomplished more than some who’ve lived here their entire lives. He has a successful acting career as the character Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald on the soap opera Passions, and he gives back to the Hispanic community as an ambassador of PADRES Contra El Cáncer (Parents against Cancer)—a charity that aids lower income children and their families whosuffer from cancer. Adrian just recently spearheaded a fundraiser in May, which raised quite a bit of money for the charity. Eva Longoria (the national spokesperson for PADRES), ambassadors Adrian Bellani, Matt Cedeno, Cristian de la Fuente, and Angelica Castro, along with comedian Carlos Mencia, Actor Amaury Nolasco, and many other celebrities played to raise money and awareness for PADRES Contra El Cáncer at the May 20th “Spike for HOPE” Celebrity Beach Volleyball Match in Hermosa Beach.

I’m very passionate about what I do, very spiritual, and I’m very positive. I have a very positive outlook on life.

—Adrian Bellani—

How long have you been acting?

Paid acting, I guess since I started Passions, which was only a year and a half ago, which is not long at all. Time has flown. I’ve only been out in California for two years. I have never taken acting class. I have no experience whatsoever before this.

How did you get the role as Miguel Lopez-Fitzerald?

I was very blessed and I was very lucky. My agents called me up and told me there was this audition they wanted to send me out on, and they really thought that the breakdown was similar to me as far as the description of the character. I went in and totally nailed it and … I’m here today.

Wow! Congratulations. So, let’s talk about some of the other interesting things that happen in your life. Tell me about PADRES.

I’m very much involved with PADRES Contra El Cáncer. It’s an organization which helps improve the quality of life for Latino children and their families. I say Latino because themajority of the kids we take care of are Latinos, although we are an organization that takes care of any child, from the ages of zero to twenty-one, and no family is turned away. Doesn’t matter what race, what ethnicity, what origin … doesn’t matter.

We take in a family and provide an individual plan for [them], catering to the child and his or her family’s educational, economical, and emotional needs. Over 70% of the families that come in, their annual income is under $20,000, which isn’t a lot of money to have a child go through cancer treatment. An organization like this really provides these kids and their families what they need to survive, whether it’s grocery or transportation vouchers, just classes, or daycare. PADRES is a family organization. It doesn’t only help the child, we really cater to the family. This is important because when you have a child or when you have any family member going through something so serious like cancer treatments, you know we’re all in the same boat together, and we all have to survive it together. They all have to be there for one another, and this organization does some amazing things.

Is this pretty much nationwide?

Right now we have our offices here in Los Angeles, pretty much work in the Los Angeles county area, but I think the long-term goal is to go nationwide one day.

How long has the organization been around?

PADRES Contra El Cáncer has been around since 1985.

What was it that made you really immerse yourself into this?

About a year ago, I met the CEO of ALMA through another ambassador of PADRES, and he really [spoke] passionately about his job and the organization. I was just drawn to it, and cancer has been in my family for years. My grandmother had breast cancer. My aunt had breast cancer, and my little cousin when he was ten, was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus. I felt like it was something that I needed to do—you know, really try to help out these kids.

What does the money that goes towards these children do specifically?

Every so often, families with diagnosed children come in and they are provided classes so that they will understand what their child is going through, know what type of treatment they’re getting, and know how to take care of their kids throughout those treatments. It’s amazing. It’s beautiful. And the people, the staff, and the hospital, it’s just out of this world. I’m very close to everybody.

I commend you. That’s a big thing to take on. I understand that you tried to donate some shoes for hurricane Katrina victims. Can you tell me a little bit about that experience?

It just makes me irritated just to think of it again. Well, when Katrina hit and devastated the entire city of New Orleans, I saw all this stuff on television, and it was sad to see people weren’t really helping out at the time. I would like to mention that I was not onPassions at the time. I was pretty much a struggling actor and working at J. Crew, folding clothes until two or three o’clock in the morning. But I really wanted to help these people out somehow. It was just so sad to see that nobody was really doing anything—and I have access to this shoe company in El Salvador and they were willing to donate $500,000 worth of shoes that would be provided to the Katrina victims. These people had obviously lost not only their homes, but all of their possessions, too. $500,000 worth of shoes is a lot of shoes, and whether or not you could provide shoes for every victim or not, you could possibly provide shoes to every child and every female. I did everything I could to get in touch with the people I could talk to to actually tell them this is what I have and this is what I want to donate. How can we do this? Nobody, and I mean NOBODY cared. Absolutely nobody. I called so many people that I felt I could reach out to and say this is what I have, and this is what I want to do, and this is what I want to offer, and nobody even cared. El Salvador has the second largest U.S. embassy in the world, and we even called the U.S. embassy. They told us—and this was word for word—: “At the moment we are only accepting money. We do not accept anything else.” So you couldn’t give them clothes. You couldn’t give them towels. You couldn’t give them anything. All they wanted was money. At least that is what they told me.

How long after Katrina hit was this? Was it a week? Was it a month?

This was within the first month. It was really unbelievable. I don’t know, I guess I have to be Angelina Jolie or something to actually get some attention. It’s sad. You know people—just the normal citizen and the normal person at the time—wanted to help out, and nobody gave a crap about it. I’m sorry for the victims.

I’m sorry that happened, or should I say didn’t happen because it kind of makes a person jaded.

I was really upset for a while. And it was just unfortunate that the U.S. government would actually say something like that, too: “We’re not accepting any type of donations unless it’s monetary.”

I think every actor should be able to give back and do something. We’re so much in the public eye and we make so much money, you know it’s sad to see the people who are very well off and do nothing to give back.

If you had been on Passions back then, having some celebrity status, do you think it would have made a difference?

I honestly don’t know. I’m on a soap opera. It’s a great job and it’s a great career to have. But then again it is not a career like a Sean Penn or Angelina Jolie or somebody like that. I would never have the connections like somebody like they would have, having a company that actually wanted to donate half a million dollars in shoes. That’s pretty good right there.

What’s next for you?

As an actor I think there’s a bright future ahead of me. I think there are a lot of things coming my way. Hopefully, I will be able to keep working and giving back to my community and to PADRES Contra El Cáncer.

One day I want to start a foundation in El Salvador, and from that money, provide scholarships to certain kids. I want to take them out of public schools and put them into private schools and give them education throughout their life. I think something like that would be very important, especially in a country like mine where it’s a poor country.

Education is probably the most important thing for a country—for a nation in general. You pretty much have to educate one generation. And it’s done after that. With education, I think a country does better—an economy does better—families do better—kids do better.

To find out more about PADRES Contra El Cáncer, visit their website at www.iamhope.org. Also visit Adrian’s website atwww.adrianbellini.net and www.officialadrianbellani.com.

Check out the video.

Interviewed by Kaylene Peoples

Transcribed by Tamara Baskin and Lisa Trimarchi