Day of the Dead LA

The weekend of October 27 we (Kerry, Andrea and Kerry’s boyfriend, Mark) traveled to "loverly" Los Angeles to find artists and photograph the Day of the Dead festivities in the area. We are working on a book, Day of the Dead Crafts, that has a quickly approaching deadline. This trip was all-important in making the book a success and LA didn't let us down.

We arrived on Thursday night and turned the 25 minute drive to our hotel into an hour and a half tour of metro LA (humming theme to Gilligan’s Island). After some sushi and a couple of drinks all was well and we plotted our strategy for the Dia de Los Muertos weekend.

If you have never experienced a Day of the Dead celebration mark your calendar NOW! It is a must for anyone interested in crafts and fun. We will spare you all the details and share with you the highlights of our trip. First you’ve got to visit the best original folk-art store in Southern California, http://www.folktree.com/homepage.htm. For local color and many Day of the Dead happenings stop by Olvera Street, http://www.olvera-street.com/ and the street festival held on the 6th Street bridge in downtown LA. Both events have lots of great arts and crafts, food, music and terrific people watching.

The grand finale is the amazing celebration at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, www.ladayofthedead.com/. The cemetery opens to the public in the late afternoon with a procession. Scores of artists from all over the world have created Ofrendas (altars) along the palm-tree-lined streets of the cemetery. These Ofrendas are a visual feast. In addition artists have booths with Dia de Los Muertos crafts for sale. There are also two stages that feature traditional and nontraditional music and dance. Oh and the food is also terrific. People come decked out for the occasion and it goes on into the night. We came back to Denver amazed and craving more.

Meet the Chicks

Publishing corporation. That rolls off the tongue nicely with a ring of authority. Let me say it some more…corporation. COR-poration. CORPORATION!!! Wow, that is a powerful release of steam that makes me feel so…so…so grown up! Couple that word with "publishing" and stand back, people, and watch your step in our bustling Manhattan office that is just running amok with photographers with cameras slung around their necks, models preening in the studio, editors in power suits barking out orders between calls as they prepare to dash off to lunch with coveted advertisers.

Yep! That's exactly what it's like at Cantata Books, Inc. Exactly, to the T, especially if you trade Manhattan for Denver and power suits for jeans and t-shirts or sweatshirts and yoga togs. Office? Well, we call it an office, but the Cantata offices are really in my fiancé's basement (LOVE that man!). Hustle bustle? As much as four people can muster, which, when fueled with coffee and deadlines, can be quite impressive.

Small buy mighty, our crew is pretty darn cool: There's me, Kerry, a.k.a. executive editor, and my business partner, Andrea, who is the photographer, accountant and designer extraordinaire. Darlene is our awesome managing editor and the creative bean behind lots of our writing; she also does her best to keep me organized and on-track (a tough job because I can be pretty DUH! when I get overwhelmed). Last, but not least, we have Susha, a terrific designer/writer and, most recently, the all-important Web master for our brand new Web site, thechicksguide.org.

Andrea and I launched Cantata Books a couple of years ago because we were tired of creating cookie-cutter craft books in a corporate environment that left us no room to be creative. I mean, we wanted, we NEEDED to create craft books that are as offbeat as we are. Admittedly, not an easy task, but lots of fun because we are such a cool little family. I don't care that our "corporate" lunches come from Taco Bell or that Andrea is the only one who gets to run around with cameras around his neck. Fun, yeah, that's what we are all about.

So, if you want to have some fun, check us out. We've got books, a couple of Web sites, a Myspace page and now this blog. We'll try to take a break from our breakneck publishing corporation to connect with you a few times a week. Power suits optional.