Rain

LA is a desert. Can't tell you when we last saw this sort of weather.

 
But it is nice for a change.

Cafe Society

It's probably better known for freeways and fast food, but LA has pockets of street society. Los Feliz is touted as 'walkable'.

Early on a Sunday morning, sidewalk seating awaits customers...

A walk round the block

Within five minutes of our place here in Los Feliz is the John Sowden House. Built in 1926 by Frank Lloyd Wright's eldest son, Lloyd, it was used as 'Ava Gardner's house' in the Scorsese film, The Aviator. In the 1940s it was owned by Dr Charles Hodel who, according to one theory (well, that of his son who wrote a book about it) was the Black Dahlia's murderer.

Such is the storied landscape we live in now. The streets and houses have film references. A walk within coo-ee of home is a film buff's adventure.

Turning left into North Kingsley you come across this apartment block which is supposed to be where Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) lives in Double Indemnity. 

'Drop me at the corner of Franklin and Vermont', says Lola Dietrichson 
to Neff. And we got excited because that's where we catch the 181. But 
in fact, the corner she got dropped off at is Hollywood and Western, 
also a stone's throw away.

 And then, for something completely different, there's this.

In Australia you're not often reminded of the Dakotas.

Simply look

I often shake my head when I realize how much there is to know in the world. On the weekend at the Autry Museum I saw these books in the giftshop - Blackfoot War Art, there was also Playing Cards of the Navajo...Is there no end to topics?

I remember someone once telling me that it's a 'sin' to be bored. Strong words, but I suspect you have to self-centredly work at it.

Metro monologues (although trying to be a conversation)

A conversation overheard on one of the LA Metro Local Lines:

A: ...Oh those motherf$@#$kers are crazy man. They fight. They can't, they can't take their liquor.

B: Anyway, he's getting out tomorrow

A:. They just FIGHT.

B. Fifteen years. That's too long. He's been -

A. I think, I think. They shouldn't drink.

B. Institutionalised.

A. For me? Oh man. 'Hospitalisation'. I took acid.

B. They say -

A. It's got you for life.

B. More women incarcerated in California than men.

A. You can't never get that out of your system. You take a drink, smoke some dope. Wham!

B. Often for drugs.

A. Speed, that's okay. Oh man.

Am I imagining it, or can I see where David Mamet's type of dialogue comes from?