Artists

Most of the people I know don't have regular jobs. They're writers, actors, musicians, artists, photographers and filmmakers. They also are middle-class taxpayers who carry mortgages and send their kids to public school. They're used to hard times. They've always lived project to project, rather than paycheck to paycheck. They've learned how to cut costs, eliminate excess and wait out the dry spells. "I'm good at this," one actor friend said.

The staircase is narrow and creaky, with a bookshelf made from a 100-year-old harp case teetering on the precipice of collapse at the top of the landing. Overflowing with open books, pages wildly askew and dangling from uneven shelves, the bookcase looks as if it's escaped from a vintage cartoon. Rolls of yellowed, turn-of-the-century sheet music waft through the air, unfurling from a manual typewriter suspended from the ceiling. A black-clad young woman, with a prominent pierced dimple and a philosophy book under her arm, slips by on her way up. She has found the way into the Labyrinth at the Last Bookstore.

A group of prominent cultural personalities have signed an open letter to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg asking the city to send more relief to the Rockaways, a part of Queens that was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. The letter -- whose signatories include Marina Abramovic, Cindy Sherman, Anna Deavere Smith and Richard Phillips -- states that families in the Rockaways "are still standing next to their destroyed and ruined houses trying to keep warm without food, water, electricity, heat, or internet.

Superlative singer-songwriters such as John Lennon are rare, but the next superstar could be about to unleash his or her talent in Las Vegas . The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus offers free tours of the rolling production studio and recording sessions through Saturday outside the front entrance of the Mirage. The Lennon Bus – a state-of-the-art facility that offers both audio and video recording – is a nonprofit facility offering its gear to amateurs and professional musicians.

The Women Artists Archives National Directory -- the first digital directory of information about women artists active in the U.S. since World War II -- has been launched at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., with the help of a $149,000 grant from the Getty Foundation, the philanthropic branch of the J. Paul Getty Trust. The goal is to fill a large gap in published art history by producing a digital directory of sources where the artists' artworks and papers can be found.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Iranian artists whose work is on display at Washington's Meridian International Center at an event intended to promote cultural links. Ten of the 14 Iranians who received special visas for the exhibition refused to be photographed with Rice, and two would not accompany her through the gallery because they were "uncomfortable," two organizers said.

Many of the artists in Calendar's random survey aren't exactly happy with the media and its coverage of artists on the cutting edge. A number of artists stressed the need for a locally published arts journal to foster a critical discourse and felt that the level of critical writing in the city's newspapers doesn't pack punch in art circles and doesn't measure up to other cities. When it comes to TV, well, they've written it off entirely.

The city is accepting letters of interest and resumes from artists who want to be considered for the design of a monument to honor the late Mexican American labor leader Cesar Chavez. A panel of art professionals and community representatives will select the artist or team to work in collaboration with the Recreation and Community Services Department.

A $22-million Burbank housing project opening in December is being designed to attract aging artistic types in what may be one of the nation's first senior artists colonies. The 141-unit apartment complex on a once shabby block at San Fernando Boulevard and Verdugo Avenue includes such art-enhancing amenities as a 45-seat theater and screening room, a senior fine arts collective with gallery spaces and two studios. Designed by Scheurer Architects of Newport Beach, the 1.

Huntington Beach is sponsoring a competition to select an artist to create a painting of the Municipal Pier. The landmark was closed for repair last year. The city is seeking an artist to focus on the human element of the pier, as a place where people came for more than 70 years to stroll, meet friends, fish, contemplate and watch the surfers. The competition is open to artists living in Southern California. The deadline for submission is May 1.