Mouses Offbeat Enough to Make Even Mickey’s Tail Spin
One more byte from San Francisco: One hundred artists, celebrities and dot-coms are offering their fanciful interpretations of the computer mouse as art in “Tails of the City,” an exhibit that will culminate in an auction to raise money for charity.
Creators include the “cast” of “The Simpsons,” Bill Gates, fashion designer Kate Spade and Stanley Mouse of “Grateful Dead” skull-logo fame.
Spade dressed her “So Kate” rodent in rose-print fabric and hooked it up to one of her handbags. Peter Allen’s “Point Click Brief” mouse is wearing Joe Boxer briefs. Microsoft’s “Point and Pick” has a prosthetic nose attached, and San Francisco TV newscaster Mark Pitt’s contribution, “Surf’s Up,” features mouse mounted surfboard-style on the roof of a miniature Woody.
Craig Newmark, founder of the Craig’s List Web site, had a darker take on the rodent. His “The Dotconomy: A Cautionary Tail” diorama puts a mouse against the backdrop of a newspaper cover from April 15. The headline: “Wall Street Gets Whacked.”
The mouses--yes, that’s the plural of mouse in the brave new world--will be auctioned Thursday night to benefit an organization that sponsors dream trips for men and women living with life-threatening illnesses. But they’ll be on display through June on the second floor of the Sony Metreon Entertainment complex south of Market Street. See them online at https://www.tailsofthecity.org. Info: (415) 369-6030.
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Hopped off the plane Monday and went straight to dinner with Paper magazine’s Kim Hostreiter at Indochine on Beverly Boulevard. What was the publisher of New York’s bible of hip doing in L.A.? Celebrating the mag’s extended coverage of the West Coast with a few dozen friends, including L.A. fashion designer Jenisa Washington, stylist Tod Hallman and famed cross-dressing actor Alexis Arquette, who was, for once, dressed like a man.
I shared sticky rice with Joseph Corre and Serena Rees of Agent Provocateur, the British line of naughty knickers. The couple are in town to finalize plans for their first U.S. store, opening next to Costume National on Melrose this summer.
Agent Provocateur’s boudoirish London shop, dripping in Chinoiserie and sexy, Vivienne Westwood-clad salespeople, was an instant hit when it opened in 1994, and Rees promises the Melrose outpost will be just as seductive.
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Speaking of new projects, Indochine owner Jean Marc Houmard has been spending a lot of time in New York lately, working on an as-yet-unnamed Asian fusion restaurant, scheduled to open in November at the new 60 Thompson Hotel in Greenwich Village.
Will the boutique hotel craze never end?
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Booth Moore can be reached at booth.moore@latimes.com.
