’13 November

November 28

A few of my favorite Thanksgivukkah images.

Lona, Hartley, Trevor, and Beth put on a major festivo for forty or so of their nearest and dearest at the old Shanghai Reds (recently renamed).

It’s a lovely venue, and I got to pick up the girls for a quick swing-by. We had a lot to do at home so we only stayed for an hour or so.

They had crafts and entertainments and the big holiday buffet for which Shanghai Reds was always well known.

Windy and Jeff…

…and the cousins with the holiday photo-op hats Windy provided.

Christa, Caleb, Charis, Rome, Lilly

Here come some of Angela’s pictures. Back home the girls helped put together their Happy Thanksgiving Turkey!

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A Thanksgiving FEAST!

From the top around: stuffed squash, baked beets, mashed potatoes, fennel and orange salad, Brussels sprouts and quinoa salad, mushroom casserole, carrots and parsnips sauté. Dessert: stuffed pear!

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We had such fun table decorations, we visited and played games, and a grand time was had by all.

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November 27

This was so fun! I made Rome and Lilly’s annual Holiday Card based upon their own design. Rome sketched it out and had all the ideas for the photos. One of my favorite things!

November 26

My I have been lax these last many days taking a picture but between lunches out I have made a big advance in several long-term on-going chores and am happy to report good progress finally.

November 24

A cute Janet Klein photo I forgot to use.

(internet pic)

November 23

Windy stopped by with Food, low-cal and delicious, and then we went to Bergamot Station.

We can walked there in 20 minutes, popped into a few galleries, and then walked back. Too Fun, good and good for you.

This is a new show at one of the galleries, up for only a week, of whimsical kinetic sculptures. Visitors are free to touch them, turn the cranks, press the buttons, watch them go, which is very cool.

November 22

Right, my ten-thousandth picture of the pier, 10,001 coming right up.

November 21

Susie and I enjoyed a day full of delights. The LACMA Robert Irwin Palm Garden was in fine form.

Was it something about the color of the day or did they recently paint this building, the Pavilion of Japanese Art? Or did I just forget it was always this green?

We got tickets for the member’s preview, first hour of the first day to see the new Alexander Calder retrospective. The black and white photo is Calder supervising the installation of LACMA’s first commission (Three Quintains (Hello Girls)) an iconic work only recently taking second place to Chris Burden’s Urban Light.

DO go see the show. Everyone was smiling, honestly, you cannot help but smile. Along the side wall, easy to miss, there’s a video of his circus that’s a total kick even if you don’t watch the whole thing.

Then we had a wonderful lunch at Bulan on Melrose. We had, on another outing, had lunch at Bulan in Silverlake and both meals were YUM, just get everything with regular tofu and don’t mess with the fake chicken or the fake beef or the fake shrimp for that matter.

November 20

Lilly and I were busy today, walking up and down hills, running and kicking, dancing around. That little girl can GO. ‘Com’on com’on Granny, let’s Play.’

Jazz Hands! Both Rome and Lilly have dance performances on December 8th – the whole school is on the program so that should be good fun.

November 17

It was another Pepperdine morning with Sharon. Eight laps around the track and lunch.

This time we added a swing by the Weisman Museum on campus. I was taken by this work. It’s a collage the size of a Garage Door, called Darkhorse by Brian Porray (born in 1979, working in LA) who’s done a ton of projects in a similar vein.

November 16

Lousie organized a festivity and it was lovely to see her looking so well and happy.

I took the picture of the three ladies and I’m so short they’re looking down. A waiter took the picture of the four of us and he’s so tall we’re looking up. Point Of View.

November 15

Every year since I retired, Boban and I have had lunch together twice for our respective birthdays. Lucky me.

November 14

Lilly loves the mango lassi at the Indian restaurant in their neighborhood and since it’s an easy walk, about a mile round trip, and since we have so much fun along the way, we both like to go when we have the time.

We also went with Rome for a library outing which was a treat. All is well!

November 13

On an outing with Marsha and her sister. Before..Pretend after. I am so going to do it for real as soon as I reach a ‘decent’ weight or age 70, whichever comes first. I’ve told myself this for at least a year now and am indeed closer to age 70 but no closer to losing a single ounce. Ouch!

nf.

November 12

West on Wilshire Blvd to get Sharon…

…to meet Nancy at the Hammer where there is always something cool to look at.

This tree is a moving projection outside the café and it is spellbinding.

Thanks ladies, I had fun!

November 11

Out and about recently with plenty of road time I noticed on three separate occasions exit after exit drivers with their &*(%turn signals on. GRRR. And now I’ve remembered that all three were driving with their driver’s side window down.

Ah ha, when you drive with the window down you can’t hear the clicker clicking click-e-ty click click click. A reason maybe, although not reason Enough.

(internet pic)

November 10

I did ask myself this very week ‘What’s up with that crane?’. They’re rebuilding the pier section by section and are set to be finished by spring, well in advance of the big summer tourist season. Let’s see how they go.

I was down here to meet Marsha and her sister for lunch on the pier and then we took a spin on the Ferris Wheel.

From the big-basket Ferris wheel that everyone enjoys and you would too despite how much you hate Ferris wheels from when you were a kid and some other punk kid kept rocking the seat so hard you wanted to puke…first punch out the kid and then puke.

November 9

Brigitte and Knut from their fabulous collection of (2-3 thousand) trip pictures. They traveled for three and half months by car from Portugal up to the farthest north reaches of Norway and back, sightseeing and visiting with family and friends the whole way.

WOW!

November 8

Alex and Carol are doing some land cruising these days leaving their boat in Florida for a while.

Another view. When they’re not touring around they are going to set up shop here in this fantastic RV Park right in one of the most popular areas of Long Beach on the bike path, steps from the ocean.

It’s really good!

After a tasty lunch and a short stroll we went to the Museum of Latin American Art. I didn’t do any Dia de Los Muertos this year so I was glad to see she was still around.

There was a big photography show on loan and it was quite wonderful.

Meet Diego. I had questions and Diego had answers. Thanks for taking the time! I was in this picture but you can take my word for it, it looks better like this.

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I was nuts for this series called Superheroes by Dulce Pinzon (born in 1974 in Mexico City now living in Brooklyn).

You can go to her website to see the whole collection. Not all of them were on display but many more than these four were and they were all amazing to look at.

Everything here I got off the internet since this was a ‘no photography allowed’ photography show.

From wiki: “The main goal of this project, done in 2006, was to pay homage to the brave and determined men and women that somehow manage, without the help of any supernatural power, to work many hours in extreme conditions for low wages which are saved at great cost and sacrifice and sent to families and communities in Mexico as remittances, which is used to help their families that are back home to survive.”

There was a sign at the beginning of the pictures telling the name, occupation, home country, and the amount of money the person sends home every month.

The prints were big and beautiful, worth going out to Long Beach just to admire them.

Hi guy!

November 7

Ahh, a beautiful beach walk with Sharon. What a gorgeous day at home ahh sweet-home.

I took the Monday Ladies (my Valley Girls!) to dinner and a show in Hollywood. Nice. We ate Thai food and saw Janet Klein. The dinner went well and Janet Klein was in fine form. I was so happy!

November 6

So, what am I allergic to? Apparently nothing. Nothing. Now what? Vasomotor rhinitis? Local Allergic Rhinitis? Histamine intolerance?

Maybe I just get colds with allergy symptoms instead of cold symptoms? It seems clear this is not a life threatening situation so I’m calm, and glad to be doing something about it however slowly.

November 5

Fun day with the girls! This is Rome on the left and Finley on the right showing their arm-loads of the latest and greatest gotta have ’em stretchy friendship bracelets all made by elementary school girls.

I’ve heard it’s very easy to buy the small weaving loom and rubber bands, and off you go. Rome made one for me so now I have a cool, colorful, stretchy bracelet too!

November 3

The Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City has a new show open…

…and I enjoyed the outing with The Cousins, Sharon and Nancy. It was excellent (The Power of Photography, National Geographic’s 125th Anniversary) but also very, very crowded so you might want to wait a few weeks. It’ll be there through April.

STILL, and a very long way to go.

Seeing actual hardcopy like this makes me shiver. I’ve been at it off and on for months and am still short of finishing volume two. Yikes. Will I EVER finish. I’m going to try to stop talking about Proust until after the new year.

Swann’s Way, Within a Budding Grove, The Guermantes Way, Sodom and Gomorrah, The Captive, The Fugitive, Time Regained

November 1

Liz and I went to Will Rogers State Park today for the march up to Inspiration Point. Liz walks faaast.

That’s Century City in front of Downtown with Westwood and then Santa Monica to the right, the Hollywood sign and Silverlake to the left.

We enjoyed the very modest Visitors Center and the tour of the Will Rogers House.

I was gone most of the summer this year and hence missed one of my all-time favorite things to do – have a picnic on the grass and watch the polo matches only an arms length away from the horses as they thunder by.

Just above the polo fields and the house, a last view of the Pacific Ocean.

And then we went for another walk, for good measure, from my house to Huckleberry to top off the day with some well earned calories.