To Live and Dine in L.A.

I am headed down to L.A. to catch up with my old roommate from Chicago and my old roommate from college (and potentially another one of my other bfs from college!?) in mid-March and being the slightly anal-retentive person that I am I'd like to have a basic itinerary sketched out so that maximum fun will be achieved.

So one can imagine my surprise and delight when two of my favorite publications Esquire and GQ both published articles on not only the most important meal of the day, but also great places to grab a bite in the City of Angels.

I'm also a DIY kind of girl when it comes to food, but I will shell out my hard-earned bucks for some greasy bacon, eggs over hard, and a waitress that calls you "hun," as in "What can I do ya for, hun?" ***Sigh***, though that may be limited to the Midwest, especially at George's Grill, the Milwaukee equivalent of a Waffle House.

However, though I probably won't have a waitress who looks like she could drop an engine in a built-from-the-garage-floor-up hot rod, my waitress will probably look like she is about to drop dead from self-inflicted starvation in hopes of a movie producer just happening to discover her, L.A. is apparently the best breakfast city. Or so says Devin Friedman in his (-?) article with the same name in GQ's March 2009 issue, page 202.

"To visit L.A. is to act like you wear $300 chinos and drive a black Range Rover and wear sunglasses that would otherwise embarrass you. And to wake up in L.A. is to pretend that you don't have a job and eat breakfast at 10 a.m. L.A. is a breakfast town. Breakfast at ten in Cleveland or Houston is a lonely affair, where you'll meet the kind of people who steal Sweet'N Low and talk to their lottery tickets. In L.A. though, if you eat a scramblette at Toast or some raspberry and lemon pancakes at Griddle Cafe, you'll be surrounded by people who seem famous even if they're not. Plus- there's the food- killer coffee at Kings Road (see page 203 [Kings Road Cafe 8361 Beverly Blvd., corner of Kings Road and Beverly 323-655-9044] omelets with caramelized onions at the Chateau Marmont, huevos rancheros basically everywhere, and all that great produce (never have breakfast in L.A. without at least one avocado). It's a breakfast town where people actually eat breakfast, at restaurants, every day of the week, where there are dedicated breakfast spots instead of lame brunch places. And it's one of the few locations where there' no shame in ordering the egg-white omelet with veggie bacon. Because L.A. is a place where, in general, there is no shame."

We haven't decided where we shall be dining, but a review to come.
Possibilities include:
Griddle Cafe, 7916 W Sunset Blvd., (btwn N. Fairfax & N. Hayworth Ave) Los Angeles, 323-874-0377
John O'Groats 1056 Pico Blvd., (at Patricia Ave.) West Los Angeles, 310-204-0692 ogroats-restaurant.com (very positive review at menupages.com and I love me some gentrification)
http://losangeles.menupages.com/restaurantdetails?restaurantid=25415
Kings Road Cafe, 8361 Beverly Blvd. (at the corner of Kings Road and Beverly), Los Angeles, 323-655-9044 (GQ's Editor in Chief Jim Nelson's pick)
Nate 'N Al, 414 N. Beverly Dr., Beverly Hills, 310-274-0101, natenal.com
Toast, 8221 W 3rd St., (Btwn S Harper Ave & S La Jolla Ave) Los Angeles, 323-655-5018
or some hole in the wall place that serves huevos rancheros

Oh, and if you're in the South, stop in at a Waffle House, it ain't exactly Le Bernardin, but it's a definite slice of life. There are 3 of them, I kid you not in a 5 minute driving range in Augusta, GA.

Let's Get (Reluctantly) Political

I am probably the least political person I know. While we were waiting for the Bush administration to wrap up I tried to ignore the accusatory headlines, the celebrity finger pointing/Bush bashing that was more fashion than politically motivated for a lot of the participants, and the general state of dissatisfaction that ran rampant. I always say, and this is just me talkin, but unless you think you can do better and are willing to put your money where your mouth is, it's best to keep such thoughts to yourself.

I applaud our new elected leader's courageous decision to want to fix this sorry state of affairs, but that doesn't mean that I'm so filled with political inspiration that I'm going to run for office too.

However, politics are intrinsically connected with planning. In a perfect world, urban planners would construct and design urban, suburban, and rural utopias that would spring forth from the ground using only sustainable, earth-friendly materials with everyone agreeing that whatever changes implemented are exactly what the location needs, money would flow freely, and politicians would provide ardent and unfailing support. I imagine that such world also rain gum drops and have organic unicorns as the preferred mode of transit as well.

However, in the real world, planners must rely on politicians to champion their projects and obtain city funding when applicable and align their projects with politicians' own agendas. This point was brought up in Alexander Garvin's work, the American City: What Works, What Doesn't (New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, Ne Delhi, San Juan, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Toronoto: McGraw-Hill, (c) 2002) Mr. Garvin talks about "a new approach to planning," which "explicitly deals with both public action and the probable private market reaction." [emphasis author's own] (Garvin, 8)

Mr. Garvin goes on to say,
"Such change-oriented planning requires general acceptance of the idea that while planners are in the change business, others will actually effect the changes: civic leaders, interest groups, community organizations, property owners, developers, bankers, lawyers, architects, engineers, elected and appointed public officials- the list is endless.

Being entirely dependent on these other players, planners must focus on increasing the chances that everybody else's agenda will be successful. They may choose to do so by targeting public investment in infrastructure and community facilities, or by shaping the regulatory system, or by introducing incentives that will encourage market activity. But whatever they select, their role must be to initiate and shepherd often-controversial expenditures and legislation. More important, the public will be able to hold them accountable by evaluating the cost-effectiveness of the private market reaction to their programs." (Garvin, 8)

I realized that I am a certifiable dork when I noticed that Mr. Garvin's American City is the size and weight of the average college textbook, yet I found the material fascinating. This isn't a slam against Mr. Garvin, his writing style is informative and engaging. But that doesn't change the fact that I read textbooks for fun.

I recall talking about the strange bedfellow relationship between planners and politicians during my summer internship with the city of Visalia and discussing this subject with the incredibly generous and experienced Andy Chamberlain, one of the senior planners.

Andy told me, and this cobbled from my hastily scratched notes, nothing was recorded and he was not on record, that "Planning is ultimately about politics, it shouldn't be, but it is." He went on to say that politics means both political politics and people's personal/business agendas. "Planning needs to focus on the long-term good for everybody, but how to achieve this with everyone coming in with diametrically different goals and having everyone walk away with a sense that compromise was reached as far as possible." (paraphrase)

Andy knows what he's talking about as he has diffused many a potentially tense, or even volatile site plan review meeting with a firm but empathetic manner. Even when the developers or architects would come in with a my-way-or-the-highway attitude, regardless of the city's set mandates, Andy made sure that everyone had a chance to air their grievances, but that did not also mean surrender on the city's part.

Andy not only is an excellent planner, but he also has an unintentional Socratic method built into his conversations, sparking me to think broader and farther about a topic. For example, I stopped by his office to talk about my research on the e-waste zoning amendment project on which I was working and during our discussion he wondered out loud about other underutilized applications such as solar panels on top of buildings which set Thanks again Andy, for everything.

More Thoughts on the Economic Apocalypse

I have decided that our current economic state is like being involved in a car accident, with yourself as the driver. (not the driver of the chariot of the Economic Apocalypse, but the commander of a vehicle in a hypothetical car accident)

Yes, there were definitely things that could have been done to prevent it- driving just a little bit more defensively than usual, pausing for that additional split-second at the light, leaving the house earlier/later, nor not even getting out of bed at all. . .
or, in terms of our sorry economic state- not shopping above our means, especially in terms of real estate, viewing the stock market as this infallible system where our money would always be secure, letting really dumb lending practices slide, etc.,

(For a slightly more itemized list check out TIME magazine's article "25 People to Blame: the Good Intentions, Bad Managers, and Greed Behind the Meltdown" compiled and ranked by Massimo Calabresi, John Curran, Justin Fox, Stephen Gandel, Sean Gregory, Peter Gumbel, Barbara Kiviat, Bill Saporito, Adam Smith, and Josh Tyrangiel, TIME magazine, Thursday, February 12th, 2009
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877351_1877350,00.html

For a slightly more succinct summary of the aforementioned article from the NY Daily News, check out Time Magazine's 25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis by Corky Siemaszko
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/02/13/2009-02-13_time_magazines_25_people_to_blame_for_th.html

But the fact of the matter is, stuff happened and now we have to assess the damages, brush the glass out of hair, and go back to work. Wait am I the only one who went straight to work after getting T-boned in Lincoln Park in Chicago? Yeah, maybe. . . Irregardless, we emerge from this a little shaken, but also a little smarter, and a little more cautious the next time we foray into that wild and unpredictable world.

In my continuing quest to educate myself on economics I came across this amusing but (as always) informative article by one of my favorite columnists by Joel Stein,
"I Bought an Expensive House. My Bad, Not Yours," TIME magazine February 25, 2009
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1881581,00.html

Ah Venice!. . .is sinking?

For those of you who haven't heard, Venice is sinking into the muck on which it was built.

This isn't exactly breaking news. It's been happening for centuries, as this will happen when people who are escaping political persecution choose to build their new town in a swamp, literally. The buildings, the bridges, the priceless artwork- everything that is Venice- is constructed on top of pilings that were driven into the murky waters and thus a city was erected.

However, to quote W.B. Yeats's poem, "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;" -"The Second Coming"

I had first heard of Venice's slow sinking when I was in junior high to high school while watching one of those evening news shows. I don't remember exactly when it was broadcast, but I do remember that it was on 20/20 as I was a big fan of Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters. I have since stopped watching those shows because they make me too nervous to ride on commercial buses, whose brakes haven't been checked in twenty years, which has been verified due to their investigative reporting, or the faulty structural strength of bridges that cross mile-wide canyons and plunge unsuspecting travelers into the ravines, as evidenced by hard-hitting journalism. And let's not talk about what really makes one's dirty water hot dogs so yummy.

In any case, despair lept into my heart and I vowed that I must see Venice before it sank and disappeared forever.

I count myself inordinately fortunate that I have been able to see Venice twice since viewing that news report, once as a college student abroad and another time with my mom and grandparents.

I was in Venice in late May/early June both times and I was pleased to note that the city was still holding strong.

This however, was apparently not the case last December 2008.

I picked up an old TIME magazine (December 15, 2008) at my work and was leafing through it when I noticed an article by Howard Chua-Eoan entitled, "the Moment 12-02-08" under their "Briefing" section. In the article Mr. Chua-Eoan noted that rain, wind, and the tides conspired together to raise the water levels, covering the already minimal ground cover. At one point, the sea level was five feet above normal.

This makes the "MOSES" project all the more vital. MOSES is a flood-control system designed specifically for Venice's rising water problem, including contributions from the dean of engineering at UC Irvine. MOSES is an acronym of its Italian name. The good news, it's half done. The bad news is that it costs about $5.3 billion, funding has run, er, aground, and its not estimated to be done until at least 2014. (all facts summarized from Mr. Chua-Eoan's article) A more detailed summary can be found through Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOSE_project

On the news report from long ago I remember hearing about the various attempts to staunch the rising waters of Venice, including one giant engineering project, which is best akin to a hinged door, or a lock, in the nautical sense. This was apparently that project, working like a giant door, attempting to literally shut out the rising waters.

Here's hoping that some freakishly wealthy benefactor considers Venice his or her spiritual home and is able to enhance the funding of this project. A place so beautiful should not have to drown.

Cities Can Be Like Lovers

I was going to post this on Valentine's Day, what with keeping in the holiday spirit, but I just couldn't bring myself to do so. Deep, deep down I think I justified it that if I did Hallmark would have the final victory :) Though to be Valentine's day is just the day when chocolate prices are grossly inflated beyond any reasonable form of consumer pricing. Luckily, the prices are slashed the next day and into my waiting arms they fall!

I love love love Irish punk music- Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, Flatfoot 56, the Tossers, the Ducky Boys, the Pogues-not in any particular order of course, who could choose a favorite?- but a common theme I have noticed is their personal pride in their cities of origin. For example, the Dropkick Murphys are proud Boston boys and sing loud and proud about their city.

"For Boston" by Dropkick Murphys, best heard on their Live on St. Patrick's Day album-
For Boston, for Boston, we sing our proud refrain/ for Boston, for Boston 'tis wisdom's earthly fame/ for here are all one and our hearts are true/ and the towers on the heights reach the Heaven's own blue/ for Boston, for Boston 'til the echoes ring again/ for Boston, for Boston thy glory is our own/ for Boston, for Boston 'tis here that truth is known/ and ever with a right shall our heirs be found/ 'til time shall be no more and thy work is crowned/ for Boston, for Boston thy glory is our own!

The Tossers are based in Chicago, which gets at least three shout-outs on their latest release, On a Fine Spring Morning. Chicago is also mentioned in several of their other CDs, including, "the Valley of the Shadow of Death."

The Tossers also have a truly moving recitation of a poem about the city of Dublin, as spoken by the inimitable T. Duggins, their lead singer, on the opening of "Drinking in the Day" from the Valley of the Shadow of Death album [all spaces by own, as reflected by the natural pauses in the recitation, I misplaced my CD booklet and do not know, at this time, who is the author of the poem, but when I find out, I will be sure to give credit where it is due]
"A man should clear a space for himself,
like Dublin city on a Sunday morning about six o’clock.
all Dublin itself are rid of our traffic then,
and I walk.
Houses are solitary and dignified,
streets are adventures twisting in and out,and up and down my mind.
The river’s talking to itself and doesn’t care if i eavesdrop.
No longer flooded with purpose,the city turns to the mountains and takes time to listen to the sea, and i witness all three communing in silence, under a relaxed sky.
Bridges look aloof and protective. The gates of the park are closed, green places must have their privacy too.
Office blocks are empty, important, and a bit pathetic if they admitted it.
The small hills of this city are truly surprising when they emerge in that early morning light, nobody’s ever walked on them yet, they await the first explorers to straggle in from the needy north and squat down here, this minute, a weary legion between the cathedral and the river.
At the gates of conquest they might enjoy a deep, uninterrupted sleep.
To having knew so much, and without mercy and still be capable of rediscovering yourself, the old nakedness is what makes a friend of this city when sleep has failed.
I make through that nakedness to stumble on my own, surprised to find a city so like a man.
Statues and monuments check me out as I pass, clearing a space for myself the best i can, one Sunday morning, the original son, in Dublin.

T. Duggins possesses a beautiful Irish brogue and to hear him recite this poem is like listening to art.

Flogging Molly is based out of L.A., but they sing more about the Emerald Isle than they do the City of Angels. But they named themselves after the L.A. bar where they often performed in their early days.

These bands' love affair with their cities had me thinking. Number one, I hope to inspire such enthusiasm and devotion in whatever cities I will help plan in the future. If only every inhabitant felt moved to pen a song about their city's finer attributes, like a love letter.

But I also think that for those of us who love certain specific cities, the relationship could be equated to that of a romantic relationship. There are definitely atributes that make us weak in the knees- Harvard Yard, the sun dappled hills of Kentucky, Venice's canals, Minneapolis's quirky charm, etc.,

Yet there are things, like any human relationship, that drive us crazy- waiting for a non-existent bus in the Chicago drizzle, the snottiness of Parisian waitstaff, the nonstop traffic of L.A., etc., Streets that arbitrarily disappear, bars that used to be cool until they were reviewed in the Villaeg Voice and suddenly became filled with yuppies, or worse, hipsters, etc.,

In the end, we take the good with the bad, and perhaps find beauty where others may see nothing special. I hope you have a special spot in your heart for a special place that brings you happiness and peace.

Come Together, Right Now, Over Me

So thanks to Mike Davis I was supremely depressed by the state of things in this world and why can't things be better than they are. (see blog February 9th, 2009 "We Built This City, We Built This City on Rock (and Greed)" to find out why.

Luckily, my favorite magazine ever (!) Juxtapoz Art & Culture magazine just put out their February 09 issue. juxtapoz.com For those of you not in the know, or who have not been subjected to my incessant ranting about the awesome-ness of Jux, Juxtapoz is a magazine that shines the spotlight on supremely talented contemporary artists who fall under the low-brow/ Pop Surrealism/uncategorizable umbrella. This is not to say that they're not talented in the more technical aspects of art. Some are more on the "graphic/illustration" side like Shag, but others like Ron English and Sas do work that borders on photorealism, with a surreal twist. And one of their most prolific artists is Shepard Fairey, the man behind the Obama "Hope" screenprint that generating lots of love and controversy. (for more see http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/arts/design/10fair.html?_r=1)

The reason I bring up Jux is because Marco Berrebi did a great article on this artist named JR, "Art 2.0 and the Apostle of Participative Art." (Juxtapoz, February 2009, pages 60-73) JR takes pictures of every day people, blows up the images, and then literally integrates them into the urban fabric, landscapes, etc., His execution reminds me of the multi-storied "live picture" fountain/"sculptures" by Jaume Plensa in Millennium Park in Chicago, right off South Michigan Avenue and across the street from the Art Institute of Chicago. (see my photos)

If you've never been to Millennium Park, go during the summer so that you can really enjoy these "fountains." They are videos of real people, not celebrities, projected on at least a three-story high scale. As you can tell from my pictures, the people's faces are closely cropped and are passive. They blink, yawn, and stare. Then, every once in a while, they pucker up their mouths as if to whistle or spit, and a fount of water shoots down, often on the delighted children that splash in the water below. (see photo on right) Everyone I've observed that goes near the fountains, there are two of them that, er, face each other, is always delighted by the spectacle. This is how art should be- funny, accessible, and integrated into the landscape.

JR, however, has a more political bent to his work. The work I was most moved by was his piece "Face2Face" www.face2faceproject.com (see photo below left) Together with a writer named Marco, they launched the biggest street art exhibition ever and took photographs of Israelis and Palestinians. But they asked the people to make silly faces.

Now, when you think of the Israelis and the Palestinian people you see in the news, you rarely, if ever, see them making funny faces. However, for this work, people pulled out their slapstick grins, their crossed-eyes, their stuck-out tongues. And I was deeply touched by this respectful but also joyful expression of humanity. Regardless of what you believe, regardless of where you are from, we are all human and we all love laughter. It was a simple feat, but a significant one. And literally integrating it into the urban landscape made it physically impossible for people to ignore our shared similarities. The people displayed on giant images had vastly different creeds, but for a moment they were able to see deep down how similar they really are. For more information on JR, check out his site, Jr-art.net

I would love for every city every where to host an exhibit like this, to have us literally come face to face with our humanity and the humanity of others. Perhaps by blowing up our similarities so big that they cannot be ignored we might be able to really see "the other." Ah, the restorative power of art!

We Built This City, We Built This City on Rock (and Greed) or Why L.A. Looks the Way It Does

All references to the band Starship aside ( I love me some baaaad 80s music!) this blog is a summary of how L.A. came to be so sprawled out.

I have been reading Mike Davis's work, Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster as planning in and around the greater Los Angeles area is where I would like to focus my career after grad school. I've read good and bad things about Mr. Davis's writing and
critics have called him paranoid, a left-wing nut, etc., So I was wary to approach it with a very open-mind and not acceptable every word as gospel.

To read Ecology of Fear or City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in the City of Los Angeles, his prior work on the city of L.A. does make one wonder how sound the author's mind truly is (his, not mine, though there is always room for questioning there too) Mr. Davis has written several other works, his latest is called, Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism, co-authored with Daniel Bertrand Monk.

Mr. Davis does come off as a bit of a conspiracy theorist/end times street prophet, but he has done a lot of research and he's firmly rooted in what he believes.

A word of warning: I read Ecology of Fear on Saturday mid-afternoon and only on Sunday night was I able to peel myself off of the floor from despair and face the rest of the week that's how devastated and depressed I was over some of the things mentioned that could have been entirely preventable! OK, it wasn't that bad, I managed to squeeze in a few episodes of the TV show Bones and do some laundry too. But the evidence against common-sense development is pretty damning.

For example, do you remember those horrible fires that burned, without abatement for days, in Malibu last summer, 08? Apparently, Malibu has a documented history of wildfires. The Chumash and Tong-va Indians would burn the bush every year in order to prevent it from getting more dry and brittle with each year, thus heightening the fire potential, but the Spanish put an end to that. (Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster, Mike Davis, New York: Vintage Books: a division of Random House, First Vintage Books edition, August 1999, 99) But annual wildfires didn't deter greedy twentieth century developers who saw the potential for beachfront property to be sold at a premium, nevermind the fact that multi-million dollar homes would be built, literally, in fire corridors.

Now, as a future urban planner and general common-sense oriented human being, I would assume that the city would be responsible and step in saying that there is documented, long-standing evidence that says that it would be unwise to build here. But the city of L.A. has a long history of looking the other way as cold hard cash is slipped discretely into pockets or treasuries and Malibu was not the first occurrence. It's an age-old story- avarice and real estate, politics and corruption- have you heard about Illinois's governor lately!? However, L.A. really takes the cake in terms of real estate greed.

Chapter 2 of Ecology of Fear, "How Eden Lost Its Garden" is awash with examples of developers who used their political pull to slash and burn areas zoned specifically for agriculture, just so they could plop down more subdivisions. I'm not saying real estate in and of itself is bad. But L.A. in the early twentieth century was swarming with developers who were more like locusts, trying to put down houses wherever there was earth!

Early environmentalists tried to point out that rampant development would have a devastating effect on the already fragile ecology, but they didn't have the deep pockets and spheres of political influence that the developers enjoyed. A few measly environmental protection measures were set up, but rarely were they enforced. And slowly the land of orange groves and unspoiled mountain ranges became the faceless, bland facade of suburbia.

Some of the early eminent urban planners such as Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., and Harlan Bartholomew saw the writing on the wall. They observed that "the things that make [Los Angeles] most attractive are the very ones that are the first to suffer from changes and deteriorate through neglect." (as cited by Davis, 62) Charles Mulford Robinson, champion of "the City Beautiful," was involved in authoring a report for the Los Angeles Municipal Art Commission in 1907 (Davis 63), and called for boulevards and parks, only to have his words go unheard.

And for you architecture buffs, Richard Neutra weighed in and criticized the annihilation of the Los Angeles hillsides at a symposium of architects and planners right before World War II broke out. (Davis 72) This is ironic because Neutra is now known for his private homes that are nestled in the hills of Hollywood, among other places.

But, I realized, after a handful of Riesens chocolates and many outraged sighs later, that it would be hypocritical of me to sit here and wallow and lament the current state of Los Angeles. Haven't I been advocating opportunity through hardship?! Isn't every difficulty also a challenge to do better, to rethink?

It's pointless to bemoan that which we cannot change, i.e. the past, but that doesn't mean we can't learn from past blunders and use it to shape the future.

As George Santayana observed, "Those who do not learn from the past, are doomed to repeat it." Therefore, armed with the knowledge of what really didn't work, I look forward to shaping the future with ideas that will work, for the good of all people.

O Joy, O Rapture!

Hurrah! At long last I have finally obtained Douglas Farr's book, Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature. It was/is intended to be one of my birthday presents (February 5th, which gives you less than 24 hours to find me a suitable gift, just kidding, of course) from my parents, but the box from amazon.com came early and well, I peeked.

My mom and I also have an on-going debate when my birthday really is. As I was born in South Korea, I say that due to the International Time/Date line that my birthday is technically February 4th, she insists that since I was born on February 5th, never mind that it was in Korea, my birthday is February 5th. To be safe, I celebrate all week long :)

A breathless review of Mr. Farr's work will no doubt ensue soon. I'll just have to ignore Daniel E. William's Sustainable Design: Ecology, Architecture, and Planning, which I received for Christmas, (both Mr. Farr and Mr. Williams' works are published by the same imprint, Wiley) Mark Girouard's Cities & People: a Social & Architectural History, which I picked up in Dinkytown, also at the holidays. (For more on Dinkytown see my January 1st, 2009 blog "Won't You Take Me to. . .Dinkytown?!) and Alexander Garvin's the American City: What Works, What Doesn't, which is still pending from a zealous fit of spending this summer on amazon.com. Hey, you have to get your free shipping somehow and I will maintain, to my dying day, that my purchase order was under 25 dollars! Hmmm. . . either that or I will continue my habit of reading three incredibly different books at one time. Currently it is Robert Ludlum's the Bourne Identity, James Hall's Michelangelo and the Reinvention of the Human Body, and Alexander Garvin's the American City.

I'll keep ya posted!

Walk in My Shoes

Some days in my small town, waiting to hear back from grad schools, I feel like I am going to die of boredom. I know that this is a medical impossibility, but there are times when I feel as if I may make the medical journals and be the first case.

I'm not disparaging my town. It is relatively safe, it is a good place to raise kids, enjoy small town living, or study agriculture. Apparently, the annual World Ag Expo is held one town over, an honor to be sure. But for some one who lives and breathes art, live music, theater, and philosophy I have clearly chosen the wrong town to re-establish residence in proportion to cultural amenities.

As I have mentioned in past blogs I walk to work. It's completely flat, there are copious sidewalks, and frankly I enjoy it. Some days more so than others, but overall, very much so.

Today I was walking home from work and I couldn't help but notice what a truly lovely day it was. The sun was reflecting those gorgeous golden rays that I love, that can only be found in the late afternoon light, the wind danced gently over my bare arms, and the mountains in the Sierra National Forest were clearly visible on the horizon.

I attempt to live by the 19th century French writer Emile Zola's motto, "I am here to live out loud" and I live for those moments when I really feel alive- soaking in the Piazza Navona in Rome, cruising La Brea in L.A., walking the streets of Charleston, South Carolina, etc.,

However, as I was thinking I considered that maybe this time in my life is a small respite before I (hopefully) am swept into the waves of grad school life. I have plenty of time to research at my leisure and while I would give my right arm to live in a big city right now, some days it is nice to live in a small town and the quiet that it affords me.

So, maybe living out loud may be art museums and jazz clubs, but it can also be small pleasure like being able to see the mountains and walking to work. May you too find small pleasures in unexpected places this day and always.