Day 57, Dec. 9 - will blog for xanax

Of course the natural thing to be thinking about as the end of the year approaches is....baseball. And, as any Cubs fan knows, that means stress in general but now my husband is rumored to be in the center of a trade.

So, Mr. Hendry please take note of the following:

Notice that he has swung.

Notice that the ball is not in the catcher's mitt.

Why, because he HIT it. Something the Cubs need.

Find another way to get Peavey.

Please.

(and a belated thanks to Nikki for the photo!...see, it did go to good use)

Day 55, Dec. 7 - part deux

Okay....three earthquakes today around LA.

Or so I am told.

Oh, and the Bears won!

Day 55, Dec. 7 - Whole lotta shakin

Since I've been here there have, apparently, been two earthquakes. The most recent was a 5.1 aftershock of an earthquake that happened 9 years ago. I felt neither. But I did hear the sonic boom as Endeavor reentered the atmosphere. I figure I'm winning (so far).

Another good thing about LA is that the football games start at 10am, so I can watch them with coffee & the paper. Not your average experience, but it also doesn't take up the entire day.

Go Bears!

It's forecast to be 70 today.

Day 54, Dec. 6 - There and back again

Catching up for the last month is going to be pretty impossible. The short version is work, gym, silverlake lounge, part time punks, the breeders, Clifton's Cafeteria & Chicago for Turkey Day.

Starting with the election. It was a bit odd to be at the other end of the country as the election results came in. I was so used to waiting up for the left coast results to come in and out here it seemed like it was all over before I even got home. (Of course, that could have just been the candidate....) It felt great to watch Obama in Grant Park. (And am still jealous of Nikki for actually being there!)

The downside of the election was Proposition 8 (repealing the right of same sex marriages). Truly, I could not believe it passed. Still can't. I just don't understand how people can hold such hate within themselves.

This is one of my favorite responses, thanks to Julia (be aware that parents may want to preview this before letting their kids watch):

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

(Go to the funnyordie.com website & check out Ron Howard's Obama endorsement short.)

And then the city started to burn. Yet again, another event that is different up close. While it was too far away to smell or see it where I'm staying (photo was taken in North Hollywood), it was all still rather shocking. Especially the wildfires that spontaneously began one Saturday morning & burned most of the day, with news reports of people fleeing their homes as the fires "jumped" over freeways to their area. And unlike many of the fire reports I remember hearing over the years, this one was not destroying luxury homes but trailer parks. Perhaps I found it more devastating because I feel these people, like many of the Katrina victims will now be lost. And I suppose there's also the shift from having thought of fires as methodical events that could be controlled to something random, fast moving and....well, almost like it has the randomness of a serial killer. (And I am the one who hates anthropomorphism.)

But on to something pleasant. LA, and especially the area I'm staying in has a lot of street art.

On Sunset, near Silverlake Blvd.

Somewhere on Sunset in EchoPark.

On the gates of Subliminal Projects' store.

(where I spent 5 hours one Saturday waiting to get a limited edition, signed "Obama Hope" print.....for Julia. Yes, she does owe me!)

Also in my wanderings (okay, not so much wandering...really I was going to Target & decided to walk the 7 blocks instead of waiting for the bus) I found the building to the right. With so many random things in LA having big histories (like the steps near my house), and I was tempted to try to get inside, but I thought a six foot tall blonde climbing a fence might draw suspision, even on Santa Monica. So I googled it. (http://www.scottymoore.net/studio_radiorecorders.html) Elvis made history here and now it's shuttered up.

And then there's Thanksgiving.

As I've done for the past....5 (?) years, I went to the very excellent feast hosted by l.e.n. & jeff in Logan Square.

Even in White Sox country they rock the Old Style with true flair

I got an amazing flight/hotel deal, and ended up at the Hard Rock. They didn't quite rock my world, but I did stay on the Cheap Trick floor which amused me as that was the second concert I ever went to. (Bun E. Carlos was one of the reasons I wanted to learn how to play the drums.)

Another of the highlights of the trip....well, other than the glogg.......was the audio walking tour I did through Oak Park of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses. I thought it was a great tour, including notes about the prevailing architecture of the times (Victorian & Stick style) so you could see how disarming Wright's buildings truly were. I was motivated to do the tour mostly by a long standing admiration for Wright's architecture (something I share with my parents) but also because of a book I had recently read for book club, "Loving Frank." It is a fictionalized version of the true story of the affair that Wright had with the wife of one of his clients, Mamah Cheney (pronounced "maymaaa", for those keeping score). She eventually divorced her husband and the two of them ran off together, and he eventually built Taliesian in Wisconsin for the two of them to live in together. Wright never divorced his wife because his wife wouldn't grant him a divorce and so Frank & Mamah lived "without the benefit of marriage" until Mamah's tragic end. (A servant went berserk, burning the house to the ground & killing Mamah, her two children and several of the workers with an axe.)

So, of COURSE I had to go see the house that was the beginning of it all.

And somehow I have yet to mention Clifton's Cafeteria. It is hard to describe, I think you have to experience it. The short explanation is that it's, as the name suggests, a cafeteria. But it's a cafeteria with a grotto & a prayer "house" that patrons can use for 10 minutes at a time. (Needless to say, I did not go into the prayer house for fear of the extracurricular activities that may have been going on.....) But, actually, Clifton's is very cool & has done some really great work with the homeless, especially during the depression. (http://www.cliftonscafeteria.com/home.html) Jeff was actually the one whot introduced me to this establishment & if anyone comes to visit, I'll take you there.

Oh, the highly amusing thing about T'giving in Chicago was that I hadn't packed a winter coat to take to LA. For once, I was happy it didn't snow.

It was 79 degrees today.

Day 16, Oct 29 - And now, for something mundane

Work.

I started on Monday. Am enjoying the commute, actually. I haven't started reading on the bus as I'm still getting used to the route & don't want to miss a stop (especially on the rapid bus). But already, it's evident that there are regulars who have the same schedule that I do (which, for me, is actually an un-schedule as I seem to miss the bus I'm aiming for by about 30 seconds). The most fascinating so far is an unusually thin man who is rather well dressed, but always wears these very slim pants, which accentuate how thin he is. Add to this completely white hair with a deep tan and it's hard not to notice him. (No, not like THAT....)

And there's a group that always gets on at Santa Monica & Vermont who buy daily passes every day. Same people every day so far. Granted, it's only been 3 days, but since the daily pass is $5/day and a weekly pass is $17, I'm curious about their economics.

And the best thing about riding the bus is passing a lot of places that I'd like to go to. One of the most interesting is the Silent Movie Theater which apparently has a very intriguing past. (http://www.povonline.com/cols/COL123.htm and/or http://www.dearlydepartedtours.com/Deceased/a/laurenceaustin/silentmovietheater.htm) I'm planning to go there for their Halloween showing. It was either that, or seeing if Hollywood Forever was open late.

Day 8, Oct 21 - Yes, Virginia, there is public transport in LA

The car went back today. It was actually a relief to hand the keys over. No more searching for parking, no more trying to backtrack after missing my turn, no more trying to get across 5 lanes of traffic, no more worrying that I didn't lock the car...

Ok, I know...I worry about things most people don't think about. But, after the first few days of getting set up in the apt, I just felt like I was missing part of the city as I couldn't look at what I was passing because I had to keep an eye on the traffic. With a pass, I am looking forward to having more flexibility in travel with starts & stops as things look interesting.

So as my first foray into LA's public trasit system, I took the "flyaway" bus from LAX to downtown Union Station. It's a direct bus, no stops in between & costs $4. From there, a rapid bus got me back to Silverlake for $1.25. The trip, in total, took about an hour. Granted, this isn't an option when you have a suitcase, backpack, purse & two cats in tow, but it does show that the powers that be in LA are thinking about reducing the number of car trips needed.

They also have a "TAP" card system. It's a reusable, refillable card for bus & rail travel. One thing I like about it is that you can refill the card online & the balance is guaranteed against loss.

The thing I have yet to figure out is all the different bus & rail lines. Metro, Dash, Red Line, Orange Line, Metrolink. The good thing is that the buses have the racks on the front to carry bikes & bikes are also allowed on the rail system (for now, from what I've been reading.)

And, of course, the buses are all clean air.

So far, I'm impressed.

Day 7, Oct 20th - Close Encounter of the First Kind

Yes, I found THE house.

Now, I'd like to take credit for having amazing navigational skills. That I remembered the many times I had to look at footage of this place, along with aerials and was able to coordinate all of this information to zone in on her location. The truth is, I used Google Earth. Just entering "Kathy Griffin's house" into google came up with the results in google earth, including an aerial shot which is almost exactly the same as the ones used on the D-list as well as her exact address. On the internet no one may know you're a dog, but they can find you no matter who you are.

I find it amusing that, as editors on the D-list, we were made to choose shots that will not give away the house number or show the name of the house as if this is some closely guarded secret. About 15 minutes on the web gave it all away. Actually, I'm surprised it wasn't listed as a "local attraction" on my gps.


I also went to Griffith's Park & hiked up to the Observatory. On a clear day you can see....downtown?

It would have been a good idea if I had used the internet a bit more in scheduling my day. It's closed on Mondays.

And the weirdest thing I saw today was at a Starbucks....in a laundromat.