Jensen Apartments (Echo Park)

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Too cold to take photos; this one is a few months old, taken on the skanky part of Sunset Blvd.

Quote of the day: There is no end, there is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life.
- Federico Fellini

Lyric of the Day: I hope you know more than you believe in.
-Gram Parsons

Recipe of the Day: Tuna fish with mayo and mustard and chopped onions on pasta.
- James Beard

Gower St. (Christmas Night)

Just so you know, last night I took almost a hundred photos. This morning, in the cold rain, I took more than fifty. None of them were extremely spectacular. Now I'm drinking mate from a gourd (a gift), with a heat massager (a gift) while reading "Will In The World" under a burgundy colored blanket (a gift) with "It Happened One Night" playing with the sound off.

Now its time for some re-heated pesto lasagna...

Finally, after two hundred pages, "Will In The World" is beginning to show signs of life. Shakespeare is now in London (which sounds a lot like East Hollywood) and he's fallen in Christopher Marlowe and Robert Greene, the supposed model for Falstaff, as well as various other playwrights, all of whom seemed to have ignored the hick from Stratford.

Like I said, just so you know....

Christmas in L.A.

It's Christmas Eve and I'm not doing anything until tonight. Between now and then there will be errands and chores (haircut, laundry, cat to the groomers) and I'll read my book, "Will In The World", which is getting to be another kind of chore. I got up early to take some photographs but my back is sore and I don't know why. I just turned off an incredibly disappointing Henry Rollins documenatary. Many years ago he wrote several vivid, angry, articulate and observant books about his travels, his music, as well as his grief about his best friend dying in a holdup. Now its all about driving in LA and what a hassle it is to fly. The sight of Henry Rollins performing in a dinner club with so many "Reserved" placards on the the front row tables is just pathetic.

But I'm looking forward to tonight. An organization called Food On Foot will be passing out sandwiches on Hollywood Blvd. until midnight. I'm tempted to take photos but that might be a bit intrusive.

[I guess my idea now is to keep coming back to this entry during the course of the day to give a little cross-section of Christmas Eve 2005.]

What is it about John Wayne that prompted AMC to have a day-long John Wayne festival on Christmas Eve?

A few days ago I saw a recipe for pesto lasagna. How hard can that be?

Sunrise (Twenty Minutes Ago)

 

Quote Of The Day

Ten thousand flowers in spring,
the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer,
snow in winter.

If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.

Wu Men
(1183-1260)

The Chairs Of Farmers Market

 

After several days of technical problems with my camera*, I am back in the world of the photoblogger par medicore. And let me say how grateful I am for it, a Nikon Coolpix 5600. The above photos were not cropped or photoshopped in any way. All I had to do was get out of bed at 6:30, drive down the street and there they were. (If you're familiar with the Hollywood Farmer's Market, you might realize that these three shots were taken within one hundred feet of each other.)

Now its time to wrap and mail Christmas packages. [Can I say "Christmas" on the J-Weed? Yes, I can.]

*I kept forgetting to adjust the setting from "close-up".

Merry Christmas To Me

It's only December 13th and I've already received my favorite Christmas present of the year.
Thank you, Lucas!

More Than You Need To Know

An overall sense of pre-Christmas anxiety this afternoon made me decide to stop everything for a few hours. From two until six - no television, no music and no computer. Any other activity would be allowed as long as it was quiet and given my full attention. In no particular order I read Friday's New York Times, last week's New York Observer, the current issue of Sun magazine, subscribed to a year of Sun, shaved, wrote and mailed several Christmas cards (if you're reading The J-Weed on a regular basis, you're probably going to be getting one by the end of the week), exercised (see part 4 of my November 25th entry), watered my carrots and parsnips (both coming along nicely), walked to the super market, tried to take close-up photographs of flowers in the neighborhood (unsuccessful), did two loads of laundry, threw several pieces of chicken with a new BBQ sauce ("Sweet Uncle Rays") into the slow cooker, read some of "Hand Carved Coffins" by Truman Capote, took out the trash, changed the kitty litter, drank green tea, vacuumed and exercised some more.

Actually, the momentum of it all carried me way past six and left me feeling calm and with quite a lot of satisfaction about getting it all done.

No Blogging Until The End

- of "The Misfits." Its not everyone's favorite movie but I like everything about it. It's about a way of life (Nevada cowboys in 1960) that is not only physically gone but is based on a sensibility - "I smell wages on you" (Let's call it "Transcendentalists Noir") - that's also disappeared. I'm no judge of acting but Marilyn Monroe seems to be just excellent. Also with the equally great Montgomery Clift and Clark Gable. Directed by John Houston and written by Arthur Miller.

"Was that you, crying in the ambulance?"

Problems. Nothing But Problems.

This evening I went Christmas shopping at the none-too-crowded Beverly Center and got nothing for nobody. However, for myself, I did find "Therma Sox". I bought them with the intuitive certainity that, although I didn't know how, great amounts of healing energy would soon be travelling up from the soles of my feet. Now that I have brought them home, I have nothing but problems. First, I have no microwave, the preferred way to heat the gel-like substance that goes into each sock. Cleverly, I steamed them (am I not a genius?) but found the heating gel too hot to handle. Letting it cool makes the sock considerably less effective. Another problem is that you can't walk on the sock as the gel would squish out under the pressure. So here I am, immoblized in moderately warm socks.

But the good news is that I'm now watching Robert Altman's "The Long Goodbye." Forty three minutes into it, I can find nothing wrong with it

Why Didn't Somebody Tell Me?

- that "Good Night, And Good Luck" was such a boring movie in which nothing happens? I understand and even admire its attempt to show how today's journalists, especially the telejournalists, are not living up to the standards of fifty years ago. (I also like to think that the movie was motivated by George Clooney's outrage over President Bush feeling comfortable to make several jokes about not finding WMD's to a roomful of journalists, all of whom found the jokes to be laugh-out-loud funny.) Perhaps it will shame a few into action. But the movie itself was nothing but people talking about what other people are talking about and then they talk some more about what they're going to talk about on the talk show. And a lot of it sounded like verbatim transcripts of speeches, Senate testimony and newscasts.

By the way, if you ever want to feel like Jack Lemmon, especially in his early Sixties -"The Apartment" phase - go the supermarket on a Sunday night, put four frozen dinners in your cart and and then walk up and down the aisles for a while.

And now, I too, have a cricket in my sink.

Last night, as I was roasting potatoes (uncooked cubes slathered in olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary and cooked for 20-30 minutes) I took advantage of a free trial subscription to Napster. Giving the installation away for nothing made me suspicious; it seemed too much like AOL and who wants that? The surprise was finding "The Specials" from 1979 for $9.99.

I'm almost finished with "Assassins' Gate" and the story just never improves. The contrast between the integrity and sacrifice of the soldiers along with the Iraqi people against the incompetence of the politicians is truly disturbing.

The Ambassador Hotel Is Coming Down

On the night of June 5, 1993 a friend and I went to the Ambassador Hotel to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Robert Kennedy's assassination. We brought Mexican candles and even thought to bring a lighter along to keep them going.

And we were the only ones there.

Off to the side there was an LAPD K9 unit training German Shepherds to attack heavily bundled figures, savagely clamping down on their arms and sometimes succeeding in dragging them to the ground.

As I recall, we lit our candles, there may have been a few others burning as well a some bouquets from others who didn't stay, but the anniversary of the man whose death had just as much political and social impact as his brother's, was clearly a non-event.

Then a policeman walked by with a bucket and a hose. A cat had crawled into the engine of his squad car and he had to hose out the remains.

At My Desk With Coffee (#4)

1.) "Scarface". I've never seen it but its on Bravo right now...chainsaw scene...a bit hard to take. Let's go with "Napoleon Dynamite", especially after an afternoon of reading "Assassin's Gate." If there was any serious commitment to the political and economic reconstruction of Iraq, George Packard (who described himself as formerly being pro-war) did not see it in any of his trips there.
2.) I was up taking photos early this morning and saw a lost dog wandering in the middle of the intersection of Doheny and Santa Monica Blvd. Wait - that was no dog - that was a coyote. I tried to get a photo but it went trotting off to the west in the eastbound lane of Santa Monica Blvd. So I turned around and took the above photo. (Does it look familiar?)
3.) Buy a mason jar, buy cheesecloth and buy a selection of seeds - alfalfa, mung, lentil and wheatberry. Soak them overnight, drain them and seal them in the mason jar with the cloth. Keep them in the dark. Rinse them twice a day. In about 72 hours you'll have something edible and oh-so healthy. [But don't get the wrong idea. Right now I've got more chicken in the slow cooker with more BBQ sauce and apricot preserves mixed in. ]
4.) Lay on your back on the floor. Hold an 8 lb. handweight in each hand, arms stretched above your head. Lift the weights up off the floor. You'll feel your stomach muscles working and this is not a bad thing.
5.) "Napoleon Dynamite" - I can see why it was so popular. The ending, beginning with Napoleon's dance, was so upbeat, almost sweet, and preceding it was a 'Wes Anderson in the Midwest and on a very low budget' story. For some strange reason it's left me with the desire to see "Raising Arizona."
6.) Prior to the war, the White House estimated that $2.5 billion would be needed to rebuild Iraq's infrastucture. Today, it is past the $200 billion mark.

it's a mason jar, full of sprouts

And they're good for you and what you're looking at now I've already partially eaten with cottage cheese and italian dressing but without "Cortez the Killer" by Neil Young playing. Is this not the greatest rock song ever? So the plan is to buy another copy of "Zuma" from the record store I hate most and then go across the street to "Book Soup" and buy a copy of "Assassins At The Gate" by George Packer. I've got a somewhat irrational fantasy of debating Christopher Hitchens on coast-to-coast tv about the Iraq war and I must be properly informed. (By the way, how many of you have not looked at the "Happy Couple" link?)

Because...

...it doesn't always look like this.

(As I was uploading, cropping and posting this photo I was also re-heating some soup for breakfast. Absorbed in this process, I burned the soup and the pan is now in the sink. This, as we know, is my life.)

***Win A Shiny New Dime!***

In some respects, it hasn't been a great day. I stayed home from work with what may or may not turn out to be the first cold of the season. The hot water heater broke before I could take a shower. Early into nap #1 repairmen came to tear off the building's old gutters and put new ones into their place. I asked them (politely) if they would use rubber hammers but was repeatedly ignored. Lousy movies all day on TMC. However, between nap #2 and nap #3 I did venture out into the beautiful California weather to take some photos.

Identify the location of the above photo
and a shiny new dime can be yours!

There's other good news as well. Tonight I cooked some delicious BBQ chicken in my slow cooker. Adding apricot preserves to the sauce was a good move. Early tomorrow morning I intend to go Lake Hollywood to take some more photos. Later in the afternoon the Netflix people tell me I will be receiving "Napoleon Dynamite", a movie I've never seen but am looking forward to.

And let's not forget what Thich Nhat Hanh says:

Be yourself.
Life is precious as it is.
All the elements
for your happiness
are already here.
There is no need
to run, to strive, search or struggle.
Just be.

Arlington West On Veterans Weekend

I was in no way prepared for such an overwhelmingly sad yet totally respectful experience. This morning there was nothing shrill, no politican was mocked or accused of lies or incompetence. There was only the simple presentation of names, many with flowers or personal messages from friends and family.

Los Angeles should be proud that Arlington West is here.

Peanut Butter Machine At Farmers Market

Yesterday, for no reason whatsoever, I took this picture of the Farmers Market peanut butter machine. This evening Caroline told me this is the same machine that she remembers from more than thirty years ago when she and her father would wait for Denise and her mom to return from Denise's doctors appointments.

You never know where your next blog entry will come from.

Homage To Matisse

By Mark Rothko

(You're looking at $22.4 million)

$70 Million Later

It now seems that at least three of the four major propositions of Gov. Schwarzneggr will be defeated.

This is the first time I've been on the winning side of an election in ten years.

At My Desk With Coffee (#3)

_x_ Take early morning photos on Sunset
_x_ plant carrots
_x_ laundry and vacuum
_x_ read John Ashbery article in New Yorker
__ post office
_x_ tutor
__ figure out this damn cell phone

Okay, now I've got about 80 Danver Half Long carrot seeds planted on the roof. They should sprout within 3 weeks (around Thanksgiving; mark your calendars) and be ready to eat in 60 to 80 days. It feels good to be planting something again.

For tomorrow, roasted chicken with maple syrup and sweet potatoes.

Sunday Under Grand Street

At this point, I don't quite remember what I had in mind when I started The Jimson Weed Gazette but I don't think it included ending up underneath Grand Street at nine o'clock on a Sunday morning. In the past two months I've taken myself to places in L.A. - Alvardao Terrace and Echo Park and Little Tokyo to name a few - that I would not have gone to in order to find photos for The J-Weed . To see close-up what a diverse place Los Angeles is has really renewed my appreciation for everything that's here.

Did I forget to mention that John Houston is another director that makes better movies than Hitchcock?Are any of Hitchcock's characters in any of his movies as vivid as what I'm now seeing in "The Asphalt Jungle"? Twenty minutes into it and everyone is stepping into or out of the shadows and ready to betray everyone else to get the girl, to get the jewels or, in Sterling Hayden's case, to get back home to Kentucky. Next time you're tired of watching a blond-woman-in-distress movie, watch this movie if only for the cinematography.

Gone, But Not Forgotten...

77 Hearses, All in a Row

(What in the world is the movie that's now playing on Turner Classic Movies? Its got Bob Cummings as an escaped convict with a Betty Grable/Ginger Rogers-type love interest. Its set in the southwest with a blind hermit who plays classical piano, a busload of circus freaks who protect him, communist sabotuers and that's just in the first half hour. )

Anyway, this was the afternoon of the World's Longest Hearse Procession at the Petersen Automotive Museum. More than 70 hearses ranging from the above 1947 Cadillac immaculately restored, to many vehicles who used the procession as a forum for their various Gothic sensibilities, none of which I understood until the procession was over and the live music by The Ghastly Ones started to play their strange mix of Surfer Goth. With an Elvira look-a-like dancing with Frankenstein, and the original Vampira off to the side signing autographs, all on the top floor of the museum's parking structure on Wilshire Blvd., I realized this was about having fun. (Sometimes I'm slow, real slow.)

...and now I've learned that the movie is "Sabotuer " by Alfred Hitchcock, a director who [brace yourself] bores me. Unlike Billy Wilder, John Ford or Howard Hawks, his characters seem thin and his plots contrived. I could sit down right now and watch "The Seven Year Itch", "My Darling Clementine" or "Only Angels Have Wings" for their secondary characters alone. Whereas "Vertigo" seems preposterous, every frame of "Rear Window" is clearly shot on a studio lot and "North By Northwest" is interesting if you don't mind villians who belong in comic books.

Just Another Whistle Stop

When Tower Records put up their bombastically large Jumbo-Tron over their Sunset Strip store, I made a solemn vow to never buy another record from them. Earlier this evening, however, I had the urge to hear "Stage Fright" by The Band. Do you see where I'm going with this? Yes, I could have downloaded it for maybe a dollar or two less but then I would have not run into my dentist, the estimable Dr. Shiri, nor taken these pictures, nor gone to Book Soup to buy yet another book on L.A. history (Fun Hollywood Fact of the Day: The house used in "Double Idemnity" is still standing. 6301 Quebec Dr. in Los Angeles., not, per the movie, Glendale.) In the end, however, I'd still be here listening to "Daniel and The Sacred Harp" and thinking about listening to it for the first time while I was living and working on a boat going up and down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Am I the only one who can't wait until the Special Prosecutor releases his indictments? Is a Cheney-Rove-Libby trifecta too much to hope for?

Runyon Canyon

Also known as "The Dog Park". Thirty dogs going up the canyon and at least that many coming down. More crowded (with humans) than I would prefer but then again, it's 130 acres of non-gentified Southern California wilderness less than two miles from Grauman's Chinese Theatre. I should not complain.

"Study for: Perception Changing Materiality (Water Lily)"

by Brad Melamed

Tired Man In MacArthur Park

No Reason Not To

(The only reason I'm writing this is that the movies on TCM tonight are so god-awful.)

As far as I can tell, there's no reason not to drink apple cider vinegar. Even tho there's nothing definitive from the FDA, and probably never will be, its said to be potent detoxifier as well as rich in potassium. But most of all, the cleansing properties of apple cider vinegar will ward off kidney stones, which means I should drink the stuff by the gallon.

And then there's bee pollen. Again, there's nothing that can be documented regarding the many claims that it strengthens the physical body as well as the immune system. However, what can be confirmed is that it, like the wheatgrass juice I wrote about last month, is extremely rich in vitamins and contains nearly all the known minerals, enzymes and amino acids.

I admit that I like the old-timey, semi-crackpot theories about health. Besides having (perhaps) some fundamental validity, especially in regards to prevention, they entertain me and give me a sense of being connected to a way of life that continues to thrive just under the surface of Los Angeles (and everywhere) in the 21st Century.

And Another Thing: "Walt Whitman's America" by David Reynolds. Its subtitle is "A Cultural Biography" and this is what makes it so good. Everything that was happening to America in the middle of the 19th Century found its way into "Leaves of Grass." Photography, women's rights, Swedenborgianism, the geography of rural Long Island and of course New York City and the Civil War, he wrote about them all as they were happening.

***

I now realize I missed tonight's "Celebrity Poker" but that I'm not bothered by not seeing it. As much as I enjoy watching any poker game, a big part of the appeal is watching the professionals play. I love their individual and widely varied strategies, their personalities, their camaraderie mixed with intensely competitive natures, even the way they dress, which with the exception of Johnny Chan, ranges from bland to stupefyingly bland.

Everything that I had to write about tonight has been about subjects at least one hundred years old. I wonder what this means....

Shadows In Los Feliz

Poached Salmon With Mustard Sauce

2 tbsp plain yogurt or sour cream
1 tbsp mayonaise
1 tsp Djion-style mustard
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/4 tsp honey
1 1/2 lb salmon filet (4 pieces)

Combine yogurt (or sour cream), mayo, mustard, ginger and honey. Set aside.
Cook the salmon in 2 inches of boiling water in a large pan; reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 8-10 mins (if salmon is one inch thick).

Take the salmon from the pan and spoon the sauce over it.

Eat and be grateful for The Jimson Weed Gazette.

Ukrainian Gentleman in MacArthur Park

My preconceived notion of this man, as I tried to surreptitiously take his picture, was that he was an Old World equivalent of a grump. Unable to sneak a picture, I reluctantly tried the forthright approach, "Could I take your picture?" With this he instantly transformed into a courteous gentleman, still of the Old World, and not only willing to accommodate me but also extremely eager to talk. He spoke no English although when I showed him his picture, he quickly pulled out photos of his wife in a hospital bed and started to cry. Clasping her picture, putting both his hands over his heart and then showing me more pictures, I couldn't understand if she was dying or dead.

In the space of half a minute I went from "Hey, he'd make a cool picture for my blog" to under-trained and overwhelmed grief counselor to 'This guy is not unlike my own father; totally bottled up but with so much emotion just under the surface.' It didn't matter I didn't speak a word of Russian, he simply had to acknowledge his loss in the presence of another human being. Still out of my depth, I offered him the bottle of water I was saving for a homeless photo subject. He took the water with one hand and reached into his pocket to pay me with the other. I quickly made him understand that this was just my attempt to do something for him. He smiled and let me take another picture.

L.A. Palm Tree (Sunday)

At My Desk With Coffee (#2)

Tonight, through the miracle of Netflix, I'll be watching "The Hired Hand". Directed by Peter Fonda in the very early Seventies, I'm hoping its the philosophical Western that I dimly remember it to be.

Sunday, before and after my trip to MOCA to see Basquiat paintings, I took a handful of photos that I'm happy with although I would agree they fall under the "L.A. Summertime Angst School of Urban Anxiety" but, like I say, I'm happy with them and am going to try and post them in the sidebar.

I've mentioned this to a few people since yesterday but while seeing the Basquiat paintings I realized that one of Basquiat's recurring themes is mental illness, his mental illness. Nobody seems to agree with this and I'm not denying his gifts with color and composition but while many other artists try to do justice to the human body or nature or society, Basquait choose to represent his mind. Overflowing with seemingly irrational references to consumerism, racism, his Spanish-Caribbean roots, black sports heroes, black jazz artists, and more I never got the idea that he was trying to make sense of it all like a good Westerner, only that I was witnessing a mind at war with itself.

But to appreciate Basquiat even more, go to the other show that Moca is displaying - "The Blake Bryne Collection." Usually I would be more sympathetic to this show in that, by and large, they are done by people like me, white and college educated and not much else, but without exception the paintings, and some sculptures, just sit there waiting to be discussed by their peers. A photostat of the dictionary definition of the word "Tart" (by Joseph Kosuth) or "Mesa" a collage by John Baldessari just can't compare with "Irony of Negro Plcemn."

Grub: A Recipe

First of all, would it have killed you to have told me the Little Tokyo Farmers Market is on Saturday, not Sunday?

But now it's October and that means it's the weather for:

Grub

Cook one pound of your favorite sausage in a large skillet.
Add plenty of cooked and cubed potatoes.
Next, put in a 16 oz. bag of frozen mixed vegetables. Cover (8-10 mins.?)

After these have cooked through, stir in an 12 oz. can of diced pineapple. Be sure to include the sryup as this ties it all together.

Now its off to the West Hollywood Book Fair...

"Don't Think: Look!"*

It's cold and overcast this morning; good photography weather. The plan is to go to Little Tokyo's Farmer's Market as a starting point. After that, finally, Basquiat at the museum.

Also, the West Hollywood Book Fair and "The Control Room."

*Ludwig Wittgenstein

Webster Has Some Questions For You

1.) Why don't you listen to Fats Waller more often? You know how happy he makes you.
2.) What could be easier than taking a half teaspoon of Spanish Bee Pollen everyday?
3.) When was the last time you watched "On The Waterfront"?
4.) Or "Sweet Smell of Success"?
5.) You have pocket fours and you're first to act (under the gun). Do you raise or fold?

Get back to me.

L.A.'s on Fire

But this is just a sunset.
Thursday, September 29, 2005.

Art of the Day

Jane Freilcher
My Cubism

At My Desk With Coffee

_X_ Buy NY Times and read McManus' poker column
_X_ Haircut [Sunday]
_X_ Buy shoes
_X_ Buy corduroy jacket [Monday noon]
___ Add Flickr to side bar (possible?)
___ Tutor [cancelled]
_X_ Little Italy Festival (photo op?)
_X_ Apple bread pudding at Famina
_X_ Pay parking ticket & write a FU letter to Culver City [Monday midnight]

Possible: meditate; laundry; go to Doug's [done]; Caesar salad with cheese tortelinni [done]; watch "The Misfits" and write a blog entry about it. (as of 10:55 pm)

Favorite classic radio song (at least for today): California Dreamin' by the Momma & Pappas

Last Photo Of The Day

Taken while John Fahey's "San Bernardino" album was playing. The trip back was through some heavy rain. It didn't reach LA until this morning. Total mileage:344 miles.

Datura wrightii

"Nightmarish hallucinations, followed by death". But let's not dwell on that.

Lepus californicus

Joshua Tree National Park is teeming with jack rabbits. Their numbers confirm my very unconfirmable opinion that once you take human beings out of the equation, Mother Nature is doing just fine.

The Joshua Tree Inn

Yes, after spending an unscheduled hour on the backstreets of Banning with Fred, I made it to The Joshua Tree Inn on the (I believe) 32nd anniversary of the death of Gram Parsons. I briefly spoke with the desk clerk and presumed proprietor of the inn, whose interest in anything, Gram Parsons or otherwise, seemed to be nil. At any rate, there were no stoner musicians, no rockabilly tourists from Japan, no other death-freak pilgrims to pay their respects to guy who wrote a large handful of beautiful and very influential songs so I got in my car and drove on to Joshua Tree National Park, the west entrance to which is just a half mile east of the inn.