Glenn Branca: Better Than Woodstock?

Well, maybe not but Glenn Branca's Symphony no. 13, “Hallucination City,” last night at the Walt Disney Music Hall was certainly a memorable experience. 100 electric guitars and one excellent drummer creating an effect of something like a hurricane that had studied nothing but Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring."

I don't think I've ever experienced music or any other sonic event to have traveled up so many rungs of my spinal column and to have stayed there for so long. When they passed out the earplugs, it wasn't a joke.

But the music itself was audacious from the first chord of the specially tuned guitars with brief moments of melody moving through the can't-stress-it-enough loudness.

(If you'd like to read a nice review and explanation of "Hallucination City", check out http://wishiwerethere.typepad.com/pgwp/ )

Fence Post In The City

Woke up this morning at six to take photos, fed the cat and went and back to sleep until seven thirty. Got dressed and drove three blocks to the closest Starbucks (doppio con panna), walked south on Robertson, half a block, to take this picture.

Happy birthday, Frank O'Hara (1926-1966).

"Don't Think, Look"

No In and Out

Quote of the Week: According to Bush, the question of whether U.S. troops will ever leave Iraq will be one for “future presidents.”

Garage

The Carrot Turnip Casserole Gazette

I bought a box of stuffing, boiled three homegrown carrots (below) and half a homegrown turnip, mashed them and mixed them with brown sugar and butter, added cheddar cheese to the stuffing, mixed them all together and then baked it.

Homegrown

Three Years Into The War

Yesterday there was a memorial in MacArthur Park for the 240 California soldiers who have died thus far in Iraq. Combat boots laid out in a grid with the name of a killed soldier attached. Interspersed with the boots were civilian shoes to acknowledge the Iraqi casualties. I'd have to say that it seemed too understated, it was not attracting much attention from anyone who passed by.

Much more powerful was the smaller memorial early yesterday morning outside of La Placita Church next to Olivera Street. It was for Jesus Suarez del Solar, killed in Iraq in March of 2003. A woman who I took to be his mother held a bouquet of roses and said just a few words. I don't understand Spanish but his father spoke very passionately without once raising his voice. I learned later that its been alleged that Jesus died after stepping on an illegal US cluster bomb and that his father is now active in the peace movement.

Hollywood Ladder

Cesar E Chavez Ave

- looking south, west of Mission. 7:30 this morning.

Colder and wetter than it looks.

Hoover St.

Billboard Eyes

This might not be the most original photo I've ever posted but I'm sick with a cough and a cold, reading "Tibet, Tibet" ( which is really grim), first drinking coffee and now tea and I guarantee I'll still be asleep before noon.

Painted Wall

Hollywood Office Lobby

Rain On the Roof, Rain In The Alley

Ed's

Wall in West Hollywood