Hohoho...

Where's the nog?

Anyone else notice a shortage of eggnog on shelves this winter?

Vigilante or Socipath?...

I'm walking through the parking lot across the street from work - I notice a fellow get out of his car and start walking ahead of me, in the same direction I'm heading... He's one of those generally nondescript people, save for a very red T-shirt, dark aviator sunglasses and somewhat of a large blobby tribal type tattoo peeking out form under this left sleeve. We cross two lanes of cars and I'm thinking about tattoos.

He's about ten yards ahead of me and seems somewhat twitchy - looking around as if someone were following him. I chuckle to myself wondering if he thinks I'm following him since we are heading in the same direction... Suddenly he stops, looks around for a few seconds and cuts to his right between parked cars. Does he really think I'm tailing him?...

I about five feet behind him at this point - I notice him fidgeting with something in his hand. Is he hallucinating that I'm a deceitful troll following with nefareous intentions and preparing to stab me with a magical object?... Am I the paranoid one now?

He fiddles with something in his hand some more - I realize it's just keys! Quickly he scrapes the car he's standing next to - a nondescript gray Ford Mustang with no visible stickers or decals - once, a long swipe the length of the passenger door and one shorter swipe at the back fender. I can hear a loud screech - the scrape definitely went through the paint. The fellow doesn't look around and just keeps walking with a bit of a satisfied gait in his step.

I'm stunned for half a second. It seems so totally random - he could of just as well dropped his pants and shat next to the Mustang - it would have made just about as much sense in this context.

I was tempted to catch up to him and ask just what the reason was for keying that particular car - was it vengeance for a parking spot stolen from under his nose? Does he hate new Ford Mustangs? Did voice in his head command him to do it? I thought better of it and instead followed him across the street and for another half block till I entered the air-conditioned, security guard monitored [with locked down elevators] cocoon of my place of employment.

"Lots of fucking weirdos roaming the streets", I thought to myself as the elevator took me to my second floor office...

Gravestone Photo

Guglielmina Chiaffarelli
1899 - 1913

Yay! DNC & RNC Conventions are over!

Both the DNC & RNC conventions were stomach churning for me - each for it's own set of reasons. They only things that made 'em bearable were The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Distilled in each thirty minute episode was more truthful analyses of what happened each convention day than I heard on radio or saw on TV... Almost without exception it was as if the media was purposefully ignoring the Naked Emperor scratching his genitals.

This clip from The Daily show has been making the rounds - I've gotten it from several people and even Sen. Barbara Boxer is sending it around... If you missed the two-fisted tag team Stweart/Colbert coverage, you can find it at TDS's Indecision 2008 & The Colbert Report.

RNC: Village Mob in the Schoolyard

Driving home from work the radio was on and Rudy was whipping up the crowd into a frenzy - I didn't realize it was him at first... And now, sitting on the couch and watching [Sarah]Palin give her speech via C-SPAN I have the same impression I instantly got in the car. The Republicans have taken on an diametrically opposed character to that of the Democrats.

Watching this, it seems like a bizarre hybrid between the despicable girl in junior high running for president of the class and an ugly village mob.

They're stupid and ugly, so you should never vote for them!
They smell and look funny! They're probably foreign... I'm smart and pretty and proper.

No substance, no facts - just pointing and making fun of the opponent.

The crowd, taken in, laughs at every joke regardless of whether it's utter nonsense. Whipped into a frenzy, group think is in full force - with pitchforks and torches they would gladly burn the farmhouse of the only doctor within a hundred miles because he's been fingered as a witch... You know, with his scientific method and all, trying to cure the plague... Which after all, is going against God's will.

It's rather fascinating that the two parties are trying to present opposing images of what America was, is and could be. Unfortunately, if one wipes the lipstick that's been slathered on each pig, it doesn't take too much rubbing to see that there's still a porker beneath.

And again, another election cycle will pass with the American people being hoodwinked into putting their hard earned capitol into swampland development - assured that it will make them money for nothing in no time at all... They will only enrich the robber barons.

DNC Buzzword: Infomercial

[Normally I don't comment much on politics save for in private, but 'tis the season...]

Starting last Friday, the word I've heard over and over used to describe the Democratic National Convention 2008 in Denver, Colorado (and the Republican National Convention 2008 in Minneapolis, Minnesota coming in a couple of weeks) is Infomercial... perhaps you've heard it too. It seems to be the buzzword and the sad thing is that it's accepted as being the way things just are - more akin the the ego stroke of the New Year's Day Tournament of Roses Parade than any serious political convention. What's the point? Perhaps in the election cycle of 2012 all the pretense can be shed. The DNC & RNC will fund their "conventions" with 100% corporate sponsorship and something useful can be done with the our tax money that is currently given in addition to corporate payola. Furthermore, instead of news channels pretending this is anything more than a celebrity red carpet event and that there's serious news to be covered, the DNC & RNC can just buy commercial airtime like any other infomercial and leave the news for actual news worthy items.

A More Poignant President...

These two fellers running for president are like damp moldy towels - which one smells worse is a matter of perspective... Think about it, can you back either of them 100%? 75%?... 50%? How low are you willing to stoop grasping at straws?

Woodlawn Cemetery - Santa Monica, CA

[Vance "See Ya" North & Lois "Go away I'm sleeping" North]

A couple of clever grave markers found at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, CA. The cemetery holds some real gems in the way of upright headstones. Small enough to thoroughly explore in one day yet containing numerous examples of upright headstone types and styles from the turn of the 19th Century through early-mid 20th Century when uprights fell out of favour...

Twilight Zone Marathon...

The Twilight Zone marathon is a staple of holidays - mostly I remember it being a Thanksgiving Day tradition... But today it's a 4th of July run on the Sci-Fi channel... A Twilight Zone marathon while celebrating the birthday of our country is a rather poignant thing. Every episode a commentary on the 20th Century psyche of the United States - the hopes, contradictions, musings, daydreams, wickedness, despair, paranoia, kindness... the list can go on and on. It's all there in a nutshell, under thirty minutes per episode.

The Twilight Zone is also a collective experience. Discussion of favourite episodes is always an entertaining way to whittle away some time - and usually leads to discussion of other worthwhile subjects. Most - other than the old - first experienced The Twilight Zone as kids in the form of daytime TV reruns, probably after getting home from school - in the block of time when there used to be no daytime "talk shows" or other crap programing produced as cheaply as possible on every channel. That's how I experienced it and that's how almost everyone I know did - in different cities and at different times...

The details of my initial viewings of The Twilight Zone are probably a little different than most. As a latch-key kid I would get "home" from school - I loosely call it "home" because it was a rented garage... I would warm up some prepackaged thing in the toaster oven and turn on the TV. Not speaking a word of English, most TV shows would not hold my attention except for The Twilight Zone. Thinking back, I don't remember the episodes with sound - the narration and dialogue probably sounded like a bunch of gibberish, but that didn't matter - I didn't have to know what was being said to understand the meaning. The images are so well thought out that I could follow the story just by watching - just like reading a well put together comic book in a foreign language - if it's done well, you don't have to read the words to understand 75% of the story. Some stories were creepy some were fascinating, but always they were absorbing.

At some point I began to understand English - I'm not sure if it's the pictures that taught me what the words meant or if it was necessity, since no one I associated with, except for my parents, spoke my native tongue... it was probably a combination of both. As I started to understand the words, a whole other level of subtelty to the stories was unlocked - which I still enjoy every time I watch.

Whenever the Twilight Zone marathon is on, there's something compelling to leave it on - even if only in the background. A quick glance at the screen and most of the episodes are instantly identifiable, bringing memories of the story line - compelling one to sit down and watch. It's somehow comforting to know that every year for a major holiday, when TV people aren't around to mind the station, some channel will run a marathon because it's easy and cheap. When this Twilight Zone holiday marathon tradition ceases a remnant piece of the 20th Century will also cease.

The Twilight Zone Museum
The Twilight Zone on Sci-Fi Channel

Dog PEZ?

It doesn't happen in Los Angeles.

There's the myth that in Los Angeles one bumps into movie stars at every Trader Joe's or walking to the ATM one bumps into Sid Caesar. Perhaps the dreamers who don't live here imagine themselves driving through a parking lot in the San FernandoValley and seeing the members of Love & Rockets standing around after exiting a Red Lobster. I'm saying, this doesn't happen! Stop dreaming! Don't believe the hype! One can't just look out the window of their office and see filming in process going on... One of the most absurd musings would be to imagine that one would almost run over Kevin Bacon standing in the street "scouting" a location when driving one's hearse to work in the morning...

[If you want to see some photos of the real Los Angeles, go visit The Jimson Weed Gazette.]

LAFitness

LACMA 2007.12.28

[SoCal: Southern California Art of the 1960s and 70s from LACMA's Collection]

The Beast

The Beast is hungry - a villager offers a child in hope of not having their hovel burnt, food stocks pillaged and livestock raped.

When the Best hungers - the Beast is unstoppable.

I took this photo quickly and sprinted off - not wanting to attract the Beast's attention. It's is said that men have turned to stone under the disapproving gaze of the Beast.

eDoodling (?) - Doodling In the Post-Electronic Age

A friend has discovered the joys of the cell phone and sending pictures with it - I guess I'm the lucky recipient on an almost daily basis. These three showed up yesterday. I have no idea where they're from, but I suspect they had something to do with what he was doing in the morning. I thought about putting them here as just an image - but in reading a blog post, Requiem for a doodle, they sparked a thought.

Perhaps the multimedia message through the cell phone is the new doodle - I wouldn't know if the kids are doing it because I don't really know any (kids, that is) - but perhaps they are. It's not quite the same as sitting in a classroom - eyes about to glaze over - and with pen in hand, doodling whatever comes out of the subconscious - yet, in some ways it can be. The images snapped are not random and something has compelled the individual to take them and send them off to friends or family or perhaps upload them to a website, instantaneously. Doodled thoughts that used to end up in a drawer somewhere, maybe now are posted for all to see - those that would take an interest to anyhow - on the web.

In school the only thing that would keep my eyes from glazing over during a lecture delivered in a monotone voice was to doodle - I must have pages and pages somewhere. I still doodle in work meetings - it actually helps me concentrate on what is being said. I also carry a cellphone with a camera - one of the features that sold me on the particular model is that I can use it with one hand and it doesn't look like it's in use. I take snapshots of things that catch my eye whenever possible. The two (doodling and the e-snapshot) are not the same, but they are perhaps linked in that the mind is trying to capture, express and preserve a thought. Maybe.

Sunbathing in a Parking Lot

As I traversed the parking lot across the street I noticed these two people - apparently sunbathing - against the south east corner of the CitiBank at Fairfax & 3rd. There was no homeless gear to be seen stashed anywhere. One of them looked like they were trying to nap and the other was either lighting a cigarette or a crack pipe. Curious. At least they weren't naked.

Oscar's Red Carpet or The Day After

There ain't much on the TV on a Sunday afternoon - since I'm home doing a bit of relaxing and have the TV on there are a couple of choices at 15:00. Watching the red carpet pre-show of the Oscars or watching The Day After on Sci-Fi channel.

I was in elementary school when The Day After came out (1983) and I didn't watch it, but I remember kids the next day talking about it and being really freaked out about the possibility of nuclear war. By that time I think most Americans had come to their senses and realized that all out nuclear war was not survivable for anyone living anywhere but in the most remote of locales - and certainly, a city like Los Angeles - which still had a considerable manufacturing base for the defense industry - was right at the top of the targeting list...

I remember doing emergency drills, but not anything specific for a nuclear attack. The air-raid sirens (which can still be seen around Los Angeles, but are not disconnected) did go off a few times for tests, if my memory serves me right.

Though the rhetoric that had everyone on edge during the Reagan Era is not present anymore - the count of nuclear warheads stockpiled is still just as lethal - and in this case, out of sight out of mind is not a good thing. No nukes is good nukes...

Vehicle Under Duress

[vehicle was located on Hauser Blvd. just north of Wilshire Blvd. next to Ralphs]

The facts of the vehicle in question are self evident - what I wonder is whether the vehicle was abandoned, spray painted and then booted or was it booted first and an angry owner decided to spray paint and abandon it?...

Oh yeah... WGA Strike is over.

Indeed, the WGA strike is over.

Here's one of the nicest guys you could meet on a picket line - Lieutenant Jim Dangle (Thomas Lennon). Thomas Lennon and his writing partner, Robert Ben Grant (Deputy Travis Junior) were the only two "famous" people I was impressed meeting during the strike.

Back & Forth

Amazed by Stuffed French Toast

Kevin is so amazed by his first encounter with Swinger's Stuffed French Toast (stuffed with cream cheese & topped with fruit) that he feels the need to document the plate for posterity.