Nothingness Is A Somethingness

Red Hat, Red Shoes

Hollywood Tree

Once a friend told me about using the dictionary as a divination tool. The idea was to open the book and see which one of the words at the top of the page you resonate with. Today "self-distrusting" was at the top of the page. But let's not dwell on that. It could be that Pass The Hatchet by Yo La Tengo is my favorite song from 2006.

Echo Park Sofa

Not Sick No More

After nearly cracking a rib from coughing, I drank a shot of the above cough syrup, took the above photo from bed and was asleep probably ten seconds later.
Vignette of the Night - taking pictures, or trying to find some, in Hollywood and in order to take the most direct route back to my car, I walked down Santa Monica Blvd from Highland to La Brea. Also had a donut at "Donut Time". Truly a "Street of Lost Souls."
"Meal" of the Night - Trader Joes vegetarian corn dogs in my new extra-big toaster oven (Thank you, Denise. Thank you, Caroline.)
Music of the Night - "Peace Piece" and "Blue in Green" by Bill Evans

Faucet

Winter in L.A.

Winter in L.A. (2)

Still sick.

Quote of the Night: It’s about narcissism... So much of what is done on the web is people getting on there and writing their diaries as though everyone ought to care about every one's inner turmoils. I mean it’s extraordinary...

George Will

Fence at Venice Beach

(Actually, I think its the structure that supports the Santa Monica Pier, but that doesn't sound as nice.)

Still sick.

Germiness

Yep, I'm sick.

Because I read that Lou Reed is staging his "Berlin" album, I tried to listen to it for the first time in a whole lotta years. I couldn't get through too much of it (his writing is just too thin) but it did give me the chance, via Napster's surprisingly wide selection, to listen to the solo work of other ex-Velvets, Nico, John Cale and Moe Tucker. None of them mixed too well with a head full of cold medicine, black tea and Starbucks espresso brownies but it did lead me to "Music For Films" by Brian Eno.

Blue Eyes

I always try and talk with someone before taking their picture but this gentleman, while he didn't seem to be drunk or high, was not up for conversation.

By the way, George Packer's articles in The New Yorker have been saying everything about Iraq since 2003 that the Iraq Study Group is saying now.

At My Desk With(out) Coffee (#12)

I think its funny that someone in Los Angeles had an idea to do a mural of the Mexican muralist Jose Clemente Orozco. I saw it a few months ago around Washington and La Brea, I think.

I'm still feeling good from my Night With The Corn Maiden - two of Trader Joes very tasty "Euro-Mex Cuisine" tamales while listening to Lee Konitz play with Gerry Mulligan. (Napster, and I suppose all the other music download sites, are so impressive - I read something somewhere that sounds interesting and thirty seconds later I'm hearing it.)

This is Day Thirteen Without Coffee. And I still miss it. But I'm sleeping better, I'm more clear-headed in the mornings and I just couldn't deny that my stomach was beginning to say "Enough."

Quote Of The Morning:

A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe,
a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself,
his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from
the rest. A kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting
us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons
nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this
prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace
all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
--Albert Einstein 

Rosslyn Hotel (Historic Core)

Built in 1913 with the annex added in 1923. Located at Fifth and Main, its on the eastern edge of what's called the "Historic Core", an area of Los Angeles that appears to have thrived in the late 19th and early 20th Century.

Note that while the Historic Core is beginning to gentrify, this is not an area to explore at night or with kids.

Barclay Hotel (Historic Core)

Barclay Hotel (1896). First Hotel in Los Angeles with a telephone in every room. Fourth and Main

News (Historic Core)

(For a somewhat better version of this photo, just click onto it.)