Parking Lot In The San Fernando Valley

Last night a strong wind knocked over my tripod and broke the camera that took this photo*. I don't know how soon I can get it fixed or replaced so the quality and subject matter on the J-Weed might be up for grabs.

Could this be true? 2.5 percent of U.S. income goes to charitable giving today. During the Great Depression, that number was 2.9 percent.

*I think it looks better in a larger format; click on to it to make it bigger.

Champion

It might look like Yazoo, Mississippi in 1925 but I took this photo at eight o'clock this morning just east of Alameda, near the 4th Street Bridge.

Get Off The Grid

A cold rain is falling in Los Angeles. (I had the unusual sensation of rain dripping down the backs of both my ears as I took this shot.) But if the North Pole is really gonna melt "as the mystics and statistics say it will" (Warren Zevon), it might be your last chance to plant something in the ground and then eat it. In some small way, it might also helps things.

These, by the way, are sugar snap peas, picked three minutes ago. The pods are edible and delicious.

Song of the Morning: "One More Cup of Coffee" (Bob Dylan)

Quote of the Morning: - there is no Quote of the Morning, I have to be at work in thirty minutes.

Dress Shop

It may look like a time capsule from 1968 but this is a real store, whether it's a recreation or just lost in time, I don't know.

Speaking of 1968, I'm watching "The Velvet Underground: Under Review." It's worth watching if just for the Mo Tucker interview. Right now she's talking about how much she loves "Sister Ray."

Soon I'll be looking at a book of photos by Louis Stettner and having more cherry cobbler.

Cherry Cobbler In A Cast Iron Skillet

- and it's damn good.

Table And Chair

Win A Shiny New Dime!

Be the Jimson Weed's 10,000th visitor* and win this shiny new dime.

Meantime, let's put on Horace Silver ("Retrospective") and have some seafood pasta with garlic butter.

Thursday a.m. - As many a careful reader has pointed out, The J-Weed has already passed the 10,000 mark. How I received 175 hits/visitors/readers in twelve hours (it usually takes days) was briefly a mystery to me. But last night it was again mentioned in LA Observed ("A Piece of History") which I guess accounts for the upsurge.

The shiny new dime has been placed in escrow.

_________
* Yes, its been explained to me that this will be ten thousand "hits", not "visitors" but I just don't care.

Urgent Care

A Bottle Of Jolt At Little Caesars

...adjacent to K-Mart at Third and Fairfax. Is there a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?

Well, maybe and maybe I might have put these together for "effect" but I'm home now and listening to "Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster" and watching some acrobat movie with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis but - primairly - Gina Lollobrigida.

Mr. Electricity of Echo Park

"Half a million volts. Probably more like two million."
"Where?"
"Right here in this parking lot. It's killed everybody here. They just don't know it."
"Mind if I take your picture?"
"Go ahead, brother. You're dead too."

Orchids

Franklin Canyon Reservoir

By the way, Franklin Canyon Reservoir is located near the center of Los Angeles. Hard to believe, no? Just go north on Coldwater Canyon to Mulholland, take a left for about a mile. There's a fire station on the left as you come near the entrance. Take a hard left at the light. Look for the hawks perched at the top of the tallest pine trees.

Franklin Canyon

Late Night Parking

Quote Of The Evening

"Be nice to your wife,

if you got one."

Things I'm Liking Today:

1.) Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on C-SPAN. Just now there was a panel discussion which included Robert Scheer and Scott Ritter. Although they were invited, pro-war journalists did not show up. The highpoint was towards the end when Scott Ritter had a brief moment of "Don't you get it?" exasperation. "We are going to Iran. In 2006. We're already in the run-up. It'll be like this: Baghdad to Tehran to Damascus to Riyadh." End of story.
2.) "Ben Webster For Lovers" on Napster
3.) Teeccino, a coffee substitute, with just a tablespoon of coffee.
4.) Oh, yeah, what I'm really liking to day is that this is maybe a full week of no kidney stone pain.

Things I'm Not Liking Today:

1.) The City of Santa Monica. Is there any reason for issuing a parking ticket at 8:57 on a Sunday morning other than to generate money for the city?
2.) Most, if not all (with the exception of "From Here To Eternity") Frank Sinatra movies. That boozy, Rat Pack life has not aged well.
3.) I may be in the minority on this but I hate to see Steven Colbert doing his stand-up at the Washington press corp dinner. Sure, this year he zings Bush for Iraq, but next year he's sitting in the audience eating the best damn veal he's ever had in his life and laughing with the rest of the co-opted press when Bush does something akin to his sickening "Can't find the WMD in the Oval Office" video.

"Repairs"

Homelessness On Sunset Blvd.

I think its time for me to stop writing about me for a while.

Blogger, Blog Thyself

Why the sudden interest in a dirty, antiquated and convoluted plumbing system?

It's a self-portrait, of sorts.

This weekend I drank more water than I have ever drunk in my life. Yesterday I tried visualization and this morning I again got a 5:00 a.m. wake-up call. (My stones are early risers.)An hour ago I got the possibly bright idea to put my neck massager over the afflicted area.

This afternoon I see The Specialist to tell him that the stones feel lower but that's about it.