The Unfashionable Human Body

Baby Moses' Favorite Spot

2008-01-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

During the middle of the day, when nothing else is going on, Baby M loves to sit on top of this futon sofa and look out the window.

Photo by Matt

Compare and Contrast

2008-01-24T20:59:00.001-08:00

I only spent about 15 minutes outside today. But it's hard not to contrast it with what things were like a year ago.

Dirty Moses

2008-01-23T13:41:00.000-08:00

Photo by Matt

Deepest Divide in Modern Philosophy?

2008-01-13T08:06:00.000-08:00

Whether it's possible to specify the conditions under which how someone reacts suffices to make that reaction true. Put in other words, the divide is over whether under non-circularly-specified ideal conditions, it's still possible to make a mistake.

Basically: Humeans think no, Kantians think yes.

The Lawn at UVA (Charlottesville)

2008-01-11T14:26:00.000-08:00

The most striking thing about the lawn at UVA are the colonnades that line both sides. I have no idea how to photograph them. If I try and give a sense of how long they are, they just end up looking tiny.

I've been a fan of covered walkways in general ever since reading Bernard Rudofsky's "Streets for People: A Primer for Americans". Beyond their utility, they just look great. Maybe they're part of what I like about how Venice Beach used to look:

(This is going to sound obnoxious, but the postcard caption is wrong: you're actually looking east, not west.)

Great Reading Spot

2008-01-10T20:33:00.000-08:00

I had assumed that I'd posted about this before, but a quick search of previous posts leads me to realize that I hadn't. It's my favorite place in the world to read. It's the water fountain in the LMU library, in LA. The gurgling sound produced by the water is just right, volume-wise and timbre-wise. And there's an enormous skylight above, which floods the space with light--without being too bright. And there are those big comfy chairs, which you can pull up to the fountain, close enough to rest your feet on.

Another Great Reading Spot

2008-01-10T20:16:00.000-08:00

Although I haven't actually tested it myself, I assume that this would be a pretty sweet place to sit and read. It's a small brick and glass structure that Jefferson built on the edge of his hill, with over a 180 degree view of the countryside. I don't know much about it beyond that, but it's so small I can't imagine it was built to be anything more than a place to enjoy the view, perhaps with one or two others or perhaps alone. You've got to give him props for building a small little glass-enclosed building just for that.

Jeffersonian Architecture

2008-01-09T12:41:00.000-08:00

Boing Boing is Biting My Style

2008-01-08T14:53:00.001-08:00

Press here.

Precious Crocs

2007-12-15T16:48:00.001-08:00

UVA, October or November 2007

Innate Ideas

2007-12-06T17:52:00.000-08:00

I checked out an old copy of Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" yesterday. It was printed in 1905. When I opened it up, I was disappointed to find out that it wasn't the complete "Essay", as Books I and III, and parts of II and IV, had been omitted. The perplexing thing is that in the editor's explanation of these omissions she says that Book I is omitted because "the innate-idea controversy is a dead issue". What's perplexing is that the she doesn't bother to mention which side of this controversy she thinks has turned out to be right. She simply takes it to be too obvious to be worth stating. But what was the consensus on this question in 1905? I have no idea. Did behaviorism (in the teens) upset the 1905 consensus (only to be upset itself by Chomsky)? Anyone have any idea?

Al's Deli (Evanston, IL)

2007-10-25T21:29:00.001-07:00

This is a supercute deli Meredith and I used to love going to in Evanston. It's run by two rather shy brothers who have an endearing fascination with French culture--as evidenced by their photos of Paris on the walls. (They also accept payment in euros.) They make the best roast beef and homemade blue cheese sandwich I've had in Chicago. With freshly-made cookies for desert.

South Side Waterfall #1

2007-10-24T20:43:00.001-07:00

This is the easternmost of the waterfalls I mentioned in a recent post.

Blues Brothers Filming Location

2007-10-23T22:04:00.001-07:00

Dixie Square Mall, Harvey IL
October 2007 (still standing)

Shit Fountain

2007-10-22T19:10:00.001-07:00

Wicker Park, October 2007

Baby Moses at UVA

2007-10-14T15:16:00.001-07:00

October 2007

Hyde Park, Chicago: Cafe Medici

2007-10-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

October, 2007

Humpback Rocks

2007-10-02T20:52:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday afternoon, Meredith, Moses, and I took a hike up to the top of Humpback Rocks, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. The view from the top was quite nice.

As always, Baby Moses loved scrambling up the trail.

South Side Waterfalls

2007-10-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

A while back I took a mini road trip along the canal that runs beside Rt. 55 as you leave Chicago. Early in my trip, I stopped and visited a visitor information center along the canal that had a large selection of tourist maps and brochures. As I'm inclined to in such situations, I grabbed a handful, including a useful map of the 'historic' towns along the canal. When I got back home I eventually looked through the rest of the brochures and discovered a rather interesting pamphlet describing a series of man-made waterfalls along a south side river. It turns out that all the development along the banks of the river was reducing the amount of air in the water, which was killing off all the fishes and whatnot that lived in it. They could've just pumped a bunch of air into the water at various locations along it, but they made the much more pleasant decision to build a series of waterfalls of varying size and shape alongside the river. These not only aerated the water but also created a bunch of rather nice places to visit. And with the pamphlet's help, I eventually went and visited four of these places.

Now, however, with the help of Google Maps, I can give you some idea of what three of these waterfalls look like. The bottom photo is the most interesting to me, because when I visited it looked like it was permanently out of commission. It's nice to see that at least when Google's satellite passed by, it was up and running.

I've included some street information in the Google Maps image grabs, so that my readers, if they're industrious enough, can go visit these waterfalls themselves.

High School Trip to France

2007-09-15T08:43:00.001-07:00

This is the itinerary of a trip I went on in high school. It was pretty sweet.

Red and Green Baby Moses

2007-09-14T08:53:00.001-07:00

Baby Moses Escapes!

2007-09-13T10:58:00.001-07:00

He did get out, but he didn't leave the front yard. He was happy to stay there and eat mulch.

Even More Baby Moses!

2007-09-12T07:37:00.001-07:00

More Baby Moses

2007-09-11T07:23:00.001-07:00

Baby Moses

2007-08-30T22:00:00.003-07:00

Summary

2007-08-30T22:00:00.001-07:00

The Final Leg

2007-08-14T23:23:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, August 14

Start: Indianapolis, IN
Finish: Arlington, VA

Distance: 660 miles
Time: 17 hours

Gateway to the East

2007-08-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

Monday, August 13

Start: Fulton, MO
Finish: Indianapolis, IN

Distance: 415 miles
Time: 14 hours

Optimism is true moral courage

2007-08-12T21:53:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 12th

Start: Tulsa, OK
Finish: Fulton, MO

Distance: 430 miles
Time: 14 hours

We started out by driving to the Woolaroc Museum in northern Oklahoma. It's located on Oklahoma oilman Frank Phillips' ranch and it contains his and his family's various collections of Native American artifacts, stuffed animal heads, guns, and porcelain collectibles. It's all contained in this enormous vault-like building.

This was the most interesting thing I saw in the museum.

And I thought this was mildly funny. The book titled "The Peacemaker" is actually a gun case.

We then drove north to Bartlesville, where Frank Phillips' home is located, as well as this Frank Lloyd Wright building that's been converted into a hotel and restaurant.

After a mediocre lunch in a small town just across the Kansas border, we drove up to Chanute, where the Martin & Osa Johnson Safari Museum is located. I've been there before with my Mom (years ago), but it was fun to go again. We watched a decent pair of documentaries about Martin & Osa, and I found out some more about the surreal chain of clothing stores recently opened by American Eagle called "Martin & Osa's". I also gained a newfound appreciation for Martin's photography: both in his movies and in his still photographs. (Though I still wouldn't second the over-the-top comments about his photographic skills that the museum curators made in the documentaries we watched.) I should probably watch some more of their movies. The only problem is that you have to buy them from the museum in order to watch them. I think it would be possible to make a really interesting documentary about Martin & Osa. As it is, the one's we saw didn't really deal with the complexities of Martin & Osa's relationships with their subjects.

We then drove to Kansas City and went directly to a baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Toronto Blue Jays. It was disgustingly hot out the entire time, but I've always found baseball games relaxing so I enjoyed it nonetheless. The coolest part about the stadium was that behind the back fence there was an enormous water fountain.

Throughout the drive today we listened to Caroline Alexander's account of Shackleton's adventures down south. Both me and my Dad were struck by Shackleton's statement that "optimism is true moral courage".

We were planning to try and drive all the way to St. Louis after the game, but as we drove across Missouri we found ourselves in the middle of a pretty rough windstorm (with winds up to 60 mph), so we pulled over mid-state and found a hotel.

Home of G.W. Bush

2007-08-11T23:51:00.002-07:00

Saturday, August 11th

Start: Albuquerque, NM
Finish: Tulsa, OK

Distance: 730 miles
Time: 14.5 hours

We started out the day by going to the International Balloon Museum in Albuquerque. Albuquerque is the location of the annual International Balloon Fiesta, in which hundreds (or more?) passenger balloons all take off at the same time, creating what I imagine is a rather striking photo opportunity. (I don't know what the point is beyond that.) The balloon museum isn't dedicated to the fiesta, but it's presumably the result of the fiesta being located in Albuquerque. The museum is dedicated to telling the history of ballooning, but it doesn't do a very good job of it. When it comes to the few historic gondolas that they have, for instance, you can't even look inside of them. It did make me want to find out more about airship travel in the 20's and 30's, though.

We then drove west of Albuquerque to Tinkertown, a folk art environment created by a guy named Ross Ward. Now, everyone knows I have a soft spot for kitchy folk art environments, but I wasn't that into Tinkertown. Its two main elements were walls made out of glass bottles and concrete, and hand-carved wooden figurines (which sometimes were automata). Check out the curiously-sexually-ambiguous figurine in the bottom photo (this is becoming a theme of the trip).

On the way to Tinkertown, my Dad spotted a place called "Burger Boy", so we went there for lunch. It was the first decent roadfood discovery of our trip. Their specialty was chili burgers, so I had the green chili burger. The patty was crunchy on the outside the way I like it and the green chili gave it a nice spiciness without overwhelming the rest of the burger.

We then got back on the interstate and drove to Texas.

Just west of Amarillo we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch, a series of ten Cadillacs buried head-first into the Texas dirt. (It was made by a collective of California artists who are also responsible for an architecture book on California Crazy vernacular architecture that I remember liking when I read it back in the late 90's one CTY summer at LMU.) I've stopped here twice before and I always like stopping whenever I drive by, even though it's nothing amazing. You really can see all that it has to offer by looking at the cover of "Road Trip USA". (The Cadillac Ranch and Randy's Donuts appear to be the two most popular Americana sites for tour book covers.) I think I like stopping just because I know it's been years since I was last here and it'll be years until I come by again. And I can never predict when, exactly, that'll be.

Once we got to Amarillo we went to a big Western Wear superstore that I've been to a few times before, but Western Wear bores me now so I didn't get anything.

For dinner we went to the Cattlemen's Cafe in Oklahoma City. Located next to the stockyards, it's a old steakhouse. They serve "Lamb Fries" (lamb balls), which the guy at the next table ordered. Our steaks were good. Late in the night, a guy who was at least 80 years old at another table near us serenaded his special lady friend with a song on his harmonica. The entire restaurant applauded.

Desert Landscapes

2007-08-11T23:51:00.001-07:00

Friday, August 10

Start: Tucson, AZ
Finish: Albuquerque, NM

Distance: 500 miles
Time: 14.5 hours

There's a very romantic scene in "Can't But Me Love" in which Patrick Dempsey's character takes his for-hire girlfriend to an airplane graveyard in the desert outside of Tucson. In the movie, they sneak in at night and walk in between rows and rows of out-of-service military aircraft that are being stored for parts. Well, that graveyard actually exists and you can take a bus tour of it. It's called "the Boneyard" and it's right next to the PIMA Air & Space Museum. Sitting in an air conditioned bus is nice, of course, but it's nothing like what I imagine walking amongst rows of old planes at night is like.

At the PIMA Air & Space Museum itself there are a bunch of restored military aircraft sitting outside in the desert sun, as well as a bunch of historically-organized hangars. In a WWII hangar dedicated to the Flying Fortress, I couldn't help but be amused by this unintentionally-sexually-ambiguous mannequin they were using to sell their hats and t-shirts. He/she reminds me of the neighbor on "King of the Hill".

For lunch in Tucson, we went to the El Charro Cafe, which is listed in Jane and Michael Stern's "Roadfood Goodfood". I don't recommend it. Not because it was horrible, but because it was boring. Just a generic after-work TexMex place.

After lunch, we drove to Silver City, New Mexico, which was a very cute small town that had somehow managed to keep businesses--including restaurants with actual customers--in its old downtown.

Then we drove through the Gila National Forest, which was strikingly beautiful: rolling mountains covered with rocks, bushes, and pine trees.

For dinner we went to the "El Camino", which was pretty bad. The interior was in great condition, however, and there was a lounge attached that was full of red leather booths.

Goodbye California

2007-08-10T00:36:00.000-07:00

Thursday, August 9th

Start: Los Angeles, CA
Finish: Tucson, AZ

Distance: 530 miles.
Time: 11.5 hours.

The California Experiment has come to an end, at least for now. I left L.A. today at noon, driving south with my Dad in Old School II. (My parents are taking turns helping me out with the California Experiment: my Mom drove out with me last January.)

Our only stop today was in San Diego, where we went to visit a high school friend and mentor of my Dad's named Corky. When my Dad was in high school, he was really into bike racing and Corky was a carpenter who moonlighted as a custom bike manufacturer. From age 13 to 16 my Dad spent a lot of time hanging out with Corky and his son, who was also into bike racing (and was national champ at some point).

Now, Corky and his wife have retired to San Diego, in order to be near their son, who's now a dentist. Corky spends most of his free time working on wooden duck decoys, which he enters into national duck decoy competitions. He came in second place one year. They're very detailed and very realistic.

We spend the afternoon talking about (a) how Corky and his wife met (at an ice skating rink), (b) how Corky got into making bikes (he'd always been fascinated by bikes and when his son was too young to ride a normal racing bike, Corky just made one himself, with no guidance from anyone else), (c) how California life is treating them (they love it), and what we should do about illegal immigration.

After talking for a few hours, we got back in the car and drove east. We had dinner at Taco Bell because we simply couldn't find anywhere else to go. We drove late into the night and finally made it to the outskirts of Tucson by midnight.

Overheard in Culver City

2007-08-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

Standing in line for 'Bourne Identity III', next to a poster for a new movie called 'Superdog', I overheard the following conversation between a man and woman who appeared to be romantically linked, but only barely so.

Man: I really don't see the point of all these movies about dogs. First there were all of those Beethoven movies, and then there was even a movie about a dog that could play basketball. Now there's a movie about a dog superhero. Do we really need more movies about dogs?

Woman (in a dismissive tone): People like them.

Man (in a surprisingly upbeat tone, but one which nonetheless suggested he knew his attempt to continue the conversation was doomed to failure): Are you saying that you find these movies interesting, that's there's something I'm missing about their real appeal?

Woman (in an equally dismissive tone as before, but now overtly annoyed): People like dogs.

Man (in what I can only describe as a brave tone of voice): OK, but people like ice cream. Are you saying there should be a ton of movies about ice cream?

Idea for a Philosophy Seminar

2007-08-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

I think it would be possible to cover a large swath of the topics that interest me in philosophy by centering a seminar around the following question: what does it mean to say that requiring players to dribble the ball makes basketball a better game than it would be if they were not required to dribble it?

Mariachi Breakfast at El Mercadito

2007-07-29T23:54:00.000-07:00

Meredith, Ben and I finally went and had a mariachi breakfast in El Mercadito, a three story market in East L.A. The first floor is all retail: mostly toys, clothes, and music. The second story is both retail and food. The third story is a large restaurant, with three competing mariachi bands playing in different areas.

It was fun, but I recommend (a) checking out all three bands first, before deciding where you want to sit in the restaurant, (b) just having drinks and chips (the food wasn't very good).

Convertible Car Crash Film Locations, Los Angeles

2007-07-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

The top photo is of the filming location for the final break up scene in Annie Hall. It's now the Cabo Cantina, but until recently it was a health food restaurant called "The Source". It's on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood.

The bottom photo is of the filming location for Mr. Lebowski's mansion in The Big Lebowski. It's the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills.

Both of the scenes filmed at these locations featured slightly absurd car crashes, both involving convertibles.

Delicious Idea

2007-07-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

Meredith and I went out for a farewell meal with our friend Carolle last week, before Carolle had to leave town to go back to her home in northern New Jersey. We ate at the newer Korean mall on Western, the one with outdoor seating. After dinner we shopped in the downstairs supermarket and I bought a beer I'd never seen before: it was called Max, and brewed by the same brewers as Hite (a Korean beer for sale at most Korean restaurants). Hite is almost absurdly un-beer-like. Meredith likes it, but probably because it tastes like soda water, which she also likes. So I didn't have very high hopes for Max. I was, however, intrigued by the can, pictured above.

Ben and I tried Max last weekend. It was fine, though it had a slightly distasteful aftertaste. Maya tried one before we did, and gagged in response to her first sip and claimed to be unable to finish the entire can, but Ben and I thought this was a bit of an overreaction.

De Stijl

2007-07-11T17:34:00.001-07:00

Some of the new townhouses being built beneath the LMU bluff.

All Things Must Pass

2007-07-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

The Moca Store on Main St. in Santa Monica is closing. And since it houses the Muji Store, that means the Muji Store is closing as well. It always seemed too good to be true, so I guess this isn't entirely unexpected.

Bungalow Amenities

2007-07-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

There was only one heater in our entire bungalow and we rarely used it. At most, we used it at night in the middle of winter. But our bathroom tended to be a relatively (for L.A.) cold place in the mornings, so I put together the following contraption, using a device I had first discovered at Radio Shack back in high school. It's a switch for turning on and off small appliances remotely. I put the switch on my nightstand and plugged a small space heater into the remote on/off device in the bathroom. This allowed me to warm up the bathroom, making it nice and toasty, all while still in bed.

The only precedents I can think of for such luxury were the remote controlled window shades I had in my hotel room in Tokyo. They were deluxe. You could sleep in total darkness long after sunrise, but then flood the room with light as soon as you woke up.

Not for the faint of heart

2007-07-04T23:47:00.000-07:00

If you look closely at the light blue plastic shoebox with the power adapters in it in the bottom of the photo above, you'll see the bloody possum carcass that I discovered the morning of our move. Marnie's dog Peanut, which she had left (unexplicably) with us the night before our move, probably killed the possum and dragged it inside. It was pretty gross.

Thums Up

2007-07-03T22:26:00.000-07:00

On Saturday afternoon, after we finished moving, Ben and I tried this Coca-Cola product from India. I bought it at Samosa House, on Washington Blvd. in Venice. I don't recommend it.

The obscure Coca-Cola product I'd most like to taste, of course, is OK Soda.

Disgusting Products, cont.

2007-07-02T15:43:00.000-07:00

Meredith bought this for me. As a joke, of course.

Goodbye to the Venice Bungalow

2007-07-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

So we moved out of our Venice bungalow yesterday. It was a sad day for me, because it was the first place I ever rented that I was actually proud of living in. I tried to get my family out to come and see it--especially the side container garden I put together--but they couldn't make it.

Pictured above is the small safe Meredith bought for me. I'm a bit of a security freak and our bungalow was decidely not secure. First of all, it backed onto hobo alley. Second, with only a little effort the windows were removable, so getting in didn't require breaking in. Both Meredith and myself locked ourselves out at different times and each of us found our way back in without anyone's help and without breaking anything. So when I first saw the bungalow an immediate thought I had was that it was that I would have to do something to secure my all-important laptop and hard drives. Searching ebay, I found the small safe above. I screwed it into the wall of the pantry and put together the wooden door hiding it. Sadly, I never got around to painting the wooden door the same color as the rest of the pantry (which I had painted when we first moved in). Nevertheless, it was pretty well hidden.

Goodbye sweet bungalow.

Workspace

2007-06-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but I been hella busy. Since we're moving out of Venice today, I thought I would finally post a photo of my workspace. It's been a pretty damn sweet place to work.

Overheard in Venice

2007-06-05T20:04:00.000-07:00

The scene: a 10 year old skateboarder with some friends talking to a middle aged dude driving an SUV.

Kid to Dude: Mister, will you drive over my skateboard for me? My Dad will only get me a new one when this one breaks.

Poetry

2007-05-21T01:30:00.000-07:00

I'm not much for poetry, but I really like the following passage:

Free the latch-key kids,
Let them run through the side streets
And knock over garbage pail lids.

From this great, albeit sporadic, blog.

Venice Beach Characters Update

2007-05-20T23:34:00.001-07:00

It's not unusual to see film and TV crews along the Venice Beach bike path and boardwalk, either filming commercials, or videos, or what appear to be part of an endless series of TV news/documentary segments about the Venice Beach scene. This evening there were a couple of TV crews filming people along the boardwalk, and as I rode my bike past the cameraman and producer of one of these crews I overheard one of them say to the other one: "We can't use him, he's a celebrity. He costs too much." I turned around to see who they were talking about, and it was none other than Jerome the Skateboarder (see previous post)!

Venice Beach Characters

2007-05-16T00:48:00.000-07:00

Harry Perry the Guitarist

Jerome the Skateboarder

Amir the Muscle Man

By searching Flickr I was able to find the above photos of some of the more memorable characters I see pretty regularly along the Venice Beach boardwalk.

And on YouTube:

Harry Perry

Jerome

Amir

My Garden

2007-05-14T16:53:00.000-07:00

Work completed May '07. Estimated move out date June '07.

A Day at the Sea on Lincoln Blvd.

2007-05-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

Lincoln Blvd. Neon - Daytime

2007-05-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

I tried to take a picture of this sign at night, but it didn't come out very well. I should try again at dusk. It's a sweet sign.

Oscar

2007-04-29T02:04:00.000-07:00

Venice Beach, April 2007

"Touch of Evil" Filming Location, Venice California

2007-04-27T03:45:00.000-07:00

The famously long intro tracking shot scene at the Mexican border town in Orson Welles's Touch of Evil was filmed just down the street from my current abode, on Windward Ave. in downtown Venice. I took these photos of what's left of the arcades on Windward late at night, when no one was around.

Here and here are links to what Windward Ave. used to look like.

Miracle Mile (1989)

2007-04-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

I really took one for the team with this one. This is the worst movie I've watched all the way through in a really, really long time. There are lots of location shots on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, it's true. But they don't justify having to sit through a tedious apocalyptic thriller of this level of banality. This is the kind of movie in which "suspense" is created by constantly having the characters make ridiculous choices, choices that only serve to unnecessarily complicate an already absurd situation.

Ugh! I feel like I need to take a walk just to clear my head after watching this.

Evening Bike Ride

2007-04-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

Oscar and I rode down to Marina Del Ray tonight and walked out to the ocean. Here's the view northwards, looking toward Venice and Santa Monica.

Ye Olde California

2007-04-12T16:25:00.000-07:00

Lincoln Blvd. April 2007

Parklane Cleaners, Lincoln Blvd.

2007-04-11T18:55:00.000-07:00

Lincoln Blvd., Venice April 2007

L. A. Movies, cont.

2007-04-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple more movies about Los Angeles that I just discovered but haven't yet seen:

Welcome to L.A. (1976)
Miracle Mile (1988)

Here's my full list of movies about L.A., though I've now realized it's become more a list of movies that feature prominent L.A. locations than a list of movies about L.A. My original idea was to list movies, like 'Annie Hall', that have something to say about what's distinctive about L.A.

Lincoln Blvd.

2007-04-10T00:25:00.000-07:00

Lincoln Blvd., Venice CA April 2007

Knob Creek

2007-04-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

Knob Creek, Kentucky April 2006

Venice

2007-04-09T00:50:00.000-07:00

These were just sitting on the street, like trash. I came across them the other day when I was riding from my bungalow to my house-sitting gig.

Venice, CA April 2007

Improvisation

2007-04-04T11:04:00.000-07:00

It's pretty cool having a girlfriend who's trained as an engineer, because she has a sweet set of problem solving skills. We're currently house sitting at a rather nice house here in Venice, and when we sat down last night to watch a documentary about Billy Wilder (consisting mostly of a series of 80's interviews with him, when he was in his 80's) on a big fat TV with the fire burning in the background, I decided a White Russian would be icing on the cake. They had vodka and Kahluha, but no cream. Meredith improvised with some vanilla ice cream, which worked perfectly.

Nixon Bowling

2007-04-03T14:43:00.000-07:00

Since my days here are numbered, and it doesn't look like anyone's going to be able to make it out here to visit (so I'm not ruining any surprises), I thought I might as well share with you what I've done so far to convert my Venice bungalow into the Dude's. Check out the poster on the wall.

Images of the Everyday

2007-04-01T01:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally found a movie that consists mostly of images of the everyday experience of average people in all of their mundane detail. It's Wim Wenders' documentary "Tokyo-Ga", which I highly recommend. It isn't perfect: the ending segment, in particular, struck me as rather empty. (Which is doubly disappointing because it's meant to be the climax of the movie.) But the long shots of riding in a taxi, or watching trains passing by, or a mother and child in the subway, are great. They capture the beauty and banality of everyday life perfectly. The long, unmoving, shots are obviously intended to emulate Ozu's style (the ostensible subject of the movie), but I couldn't help but think it would be possible to take similar shots of aspects of my own banal existence. The goal, of course, is transcendence of the everyday through the artistic representation of it, which Wenders achieves seemingly effortlessly. While I may not be able to achieve that goal, it would be comforting to think I might be able to achieve something a bit smaller: say, documentary honesty.

U Turn

2007-03-23T23:53:00.000-07:00

I haven't yet decided if this is how I feel about the West.

Philosophy Dept. Coffee Hour

2007-03-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

It's Friday afternoon, so I thought I would have a little coffee hour snack. On my time.

John Hyman's 'The Objective Eye' (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2006)

2007-03-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

This is a great book. In addition to all of the great philosophy it contains, it also contains a fair number of great lines. For instance:

p. 61: "Both sides mix truth with falsehood and exaggeration, as many philosophical theories that prosper do."

p. 162: "The safest battles to join are the ones that have already been won."

p. 190: "Like many philosophical ideas, it gets a leg up from the doctrine that it clamorously rejects."

p. 39: "Agreements are the only realities that agreements can produce."

p. 41: "It is true that agreement among observers leaves us in no doubt that grass is green, and agreement in clocks leaves us in no doubt that eggs are boiled in five minutes at sea level. But the statement that grass is green is not a covert generalization about observers, any more than the statement about eggs is a covert generalization about clocks."

There's more where these came from, but I encourage you to find them by reading the book on your own. It's worth it.

The Dude's Sweater

2007-03-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about eBay is that it makes me feel like I'm not alone in my excessive fondness for certain movies. I was going to buy the sweater above, which is the same sort of sweater the Dude wears for the second half of the Big Lebowski, but that was when it was selling for $8. Now it's $36 and rising. And that's not including shipping.

My favorite movie-related items for sale on eBay are the fake movie props. Try searching for "Indiana Jones prop" sometime. You'll love it.

White Russian

2007-03-10T21:03:00.000-08:00

Making your own White Russian is much easier than making your own Mojito. The one I made was 50 ml of vodka, 20 ml of Kahlua, 30 ml of cream, and a few ice cubes. I bought super heavy whipping cream at Ralph's, so it almost tastes like a coffee milk shake.

The Dude's Abode

2007-03-09T18:13:00.000-08:00

Above is the Dude's bungalow, from the Big Lebowski. It's at 609 Venezia Ave, in Venice, which is just a few minutes from my own bungalow. This means that my Ralph's is the Dude's Ralph's.

The next step, of course, is to start decorating my place like his. And I could start dressing like him. Or maybe I could settle for drinking White Russians.

The Fragmentation of the Humanities

2007-03-08T19:21:00.000-08:00

I love reading the MIT Press's Philosophy brochure that I get in the mail every once in a while, because of the extreme contrast between its first and second halves. The first half covers recent releases by their subsidiary Bradford Books, which focuses mostly on analytic philosophy that's heavily informed by contemporary cognitive science. The second half covers recent releases by their subsidiary Zone Books, which focuses mostly on cultural studies that's heavily informed by continental philosophy. Don't get me wrong: I don't think that those two traditions are mutually exclusive; it's the MIT Press brochure that treats them as such. But in reading their brochure from cover-to-cover, one experiences a drastic change from the extremes of one culture to the extremes of another. And it's all presented in the same font and layout, which makes for an experience similar to walking from Epcot Center's fake-French village to its fake-Incan pyramid.

That said, check out this summary of a new book published by Zone Books, Adi Ophir's The Order of Evils: Toward an Ontology of Morals:

"What remains of moral judgment when truth itself is mistrusted, when the validity of every belief system depends upon its context, when power and knowledge are inextricably entangled? Is a viable moral theory still possible in the wake of the postmodern criticism of modern philosophy? ... Ophir forges a new perspective for thinking about what it means to be a moral being: to be moral, he argues, is to care for others, and to be committed to preventing, at all costs, their suffering and distress."

The complex questions that they start with aren't even the best part. What I really like is his radically new perspective on what it is to be a moral being. Why hadn't anyone thought of that before? Caring for others by preventing their suffering and distress? That's so po-mo! No mere modernist could have even conceived of such a thing.

Home Depot

2007-03-06T22:40:00.000-08:00

So I'm in the Home Depot bathroom, minding my own business (quite literally). And the dude in the stall next to me starts calling someone on his cell phone, using its speakerphone function. When the other person finally picks up, it's a receptionist for some business. In an affected super-nerd voice, he asks her where the nearest bathroom is. She recognizes who he is, presumably because this is some kind of standard joke between them. He then says it's been a long time since they talked, and he asks what's new with her. She says she's pregnant. The tone of his response doesn't reveal any shock at this news, although what he goes on to say does. He asks her about the father and she says it's some new guy she's dating. The dude then proceeds to try and woo her, although I don't think that's exactly the right word for what it is (because she's not really in a position to be wooed at this point, and because what he says doesn't exactly amount to any kind of proposal). He says that if he were the father, they would move in together and try and make something of it. They would see how it goes. He declares that that's what having a kid calls for. Or, as he puts it, "because that's what a kid is, a kid". She couldn't be less interested in what he's saying at this point. He asks if he can see her after she has the kid, and she doesn't really respond to the question. He ends the call by saying that they should try doing the whole friend thing. And, once again, he says that if they do the whole friend thing, they would see how it goes.

What made the whole situation totally absurd what that she had to have known that he was in the bathroom the whole time, and in a public bathroom at that. Other people flushed their toilets early in the conversation, and I intentionally flushed mine when he started his quasi-wooing. And he himself flushed his toilet towards the end of the conversation.

Tuesday Night at IKEA (Again)

2007-02-28T22:16:00.000-08:00

Moving into a new place always means too much time spent at IKEA. I now know IKEA products well enough that the last time I was waiting in their customer service area, I could tell that the containers that they had extra nuts and bolts in were not IKEA containers. And I observed that the Billy bookcases they were using to hold these containers were anchored to the wall with brackets that did not come with the Billy bookshelves themselves. They were appropriated from the Pax wardrobe system. I mentioned this to our customer service representative, but she was insufficiently impressed. She seemed a little more interested when I told her about IKEAhacker, and told me that she was a big fan of something called "I hate IKEA", which I can't seem to find online.

This last trip to IKEA was too much, though, and I doubt we'll be going back anytime soon. They had put the wrong part in something we bought previously, and it was a nightmare getting a replacement. We had to wait for over half an hour just to talk to someone about it, then we had to wait well over an hour for them to get the replacement part from the storage area. And when I went back up to the customer service desk to ask if our replacement part had come from the storage area, the dude had the gall to tell me I needed to take a number and wait in line like everyone else. He didn't seem to give a shit when I told him I had already had my number called over an hour before. He just mentioned something about not cutting in line.

Of course there was an altercation in the parking lot also, because the crappy IKEA we went to doesn't police their loading area, and people just park there for hours (literally). I was waiting and waiting for one of the spaces to open up, so we could load up the car with the crap we bought, and after I had already waited 10 min., this dude had the balls to pull right around me into a spot that was just opening up. I told him I had been waiting, and he just ignored me. So I double-parked behind his car, blocking him in, and went inside. This didn't phase him at all, however, as he was still parked there over an hour later, after we had left, gone to Jamba Juice and Target, and come back to pick up the replacement part when it finally came out of the storage area.

What else? Well, I had a pleasant nostalgic moment when I saw the Duno lamp (photo above) that PJ bought when he and I lived together in a coach house in Hyde Park. It was the cause of our first roommate fight, as I hated it and he loved it, and he wanted to put it in the living room and I didn't. He eventually just put it in his room, and may still own it for all I know. If he doesn't, IKEA still sells them, so I'm sure he can get another.

Portability

2007-02-24T17:48:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed that I have a certain affection for small books. Well, Meredith recently gave me this absurdly small bookcase with blank books. Needless to say, it made me very happy.

Blue Skies

2007-02-22T23:00:00.000-08:00

License plate design has really gone downhill. Current Illinois plates, for instance, don't even bother to place Lincoln's head in between the numbers and letters. And the only thing distinguishing current California plates from the rest is a cheesy cursive typeface. I miss the old days, when plates were completely different colors and didn't have little drawings cluttering the sides. California's old blue-with-yellow-type plates, for instance, were perfect. They were simple yet distinctive.

A Peculiarly Philosophical Pleasure

2007-02-21T22:44:00.000-08:00

Occasionally, I'll read something that clearly expresses a thought that I've had a partial grasp of before, but never been able to adequately articulate myself. It's both satisfying and depressing to see one's previously inchoate thought put clearly and concisely. Sometimes, however, the other person's articulation of the thought is so perfect, one immediately realizes that as much as one could've tried, one never would've been able to put it so well. That's how I felt when I read the following passage by Maggie Little, from her essay "Virtue as Knowledge":

"Crudely speaking, there are three main camps of how to account for motivational failure: the Aristotelians place the failure in cognition, Kantians locate it in a failure of will, Humeans attribute it to the absence of a functionally-understood pro-attitude. Fancy as each may sound, they are all of them invocations of some rather empty variable until they are developed into detailed accounts. (Worse yet, think of the all-purpose modern explanation of what bridges motivational failure: the 'drawing of a practical inference'. Rarely is the advocate of this answer asked what it is to draw a practical inference, other than to become moved--much less whether those criteria satisfy relative independence constraints.)"

Old and New

2007-02-20T22:35:00.000-08:00

I've had the brown New Balance 574's above (top photo) for over two years. I first saw a pair of them on Josh S. in Chicago, and I had to have them. Sadly, they appeared to be completely sold out. But Meredith found a pair online, and I've been wearing them ever since. As you can see, they're pretty groody (sic?) at this point.

I've been looking for another pair of all-brown sneakers ever since, and New Balance has recently issued a new version of my all-brown 574's, though it differs in significant ways from mine (it's not all leather, the "N" is shiny patent leather, and the back heel is shiny plastic). Which gets me to the bottom photo. They're a pair of 25th anniversary Nike Air Force One's that Meredith got for me last week at Undefeated, on Main St. in Santa Monica. I wore them on my trip to NM, and they were pretty comfy. We'll see if they last two years, though.

Side note: My 574's may be old, but they'll never compare to the pair of sneakers that PJ wore for the first 3 or 4 years of grad school.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

2007-02-19T23:00:00.000-08:00

I spent the weekend at a philosophy conference in Albuquerque. The weather was colder than L.A., but the sky was crystal-clear and you could see for miles and miles and miles. I've driven through ABQ before, but never really explored it. This time, I saw a lot of the university and a little of the town. My general impression was that it is a very mellow place.

The Valley

2007-02-16T00:26:00.000-08:00

On a clear day, when I pass over the Santa Monica mountains I get a pretty sweet view of the Valley. But, as the picture above demonstrates, it's hard to document this view with a standard digital camera. Everything seems so much larger in real life.

Valentine's Day

2007-02-15T00:13:00.000-08:00

Meredith and I got the table above as a kind of joint Valentine's Day present. It's from one of my favorite stores in the world, Muji. It's a side table with a magazine rack.

I've got a lot more to say about Valentine's Day presents and Muji, but it'll have to wait for another time. I'm getting tired, but still have more work to do before tomorrow morning.

Documentary Honesty

2007-02-13T23:24:00.000-08:00

My daily (Mon-Fri) commute is a 24 mile drive up the 405. It's a reverse commute, so I usually make pretty good time. My best so far is 32 minutes.

The photo above is what the hill on the left of the off-ramp as I exit the 405 (on the way to work) looks like. It's not pretty. You can't really tell from the photo, but there's some pretty big pieces of trash there. I'm always struck by the enormous pieces of trash you sometimes see on the side of the highway. Just today, I saw a couch that was on the side of the HOV lane. I took note of it because we're looking for a new couch.

L. A. Winter Afternoon

2007-02-12T22:28:00.000-08:00

I took the photo above yesterday afternoon in Manhattan Beach. After taking it, I walked down the pier on the right, hoping to find somewhere to sit and re-read the best new philosophy book I've read in a really long time (probably since reading John Haugeland's "Having Thought"). I wasn't able to find anywhere suitable to sit, but my disappointment in this regard was tempered by the sighting of five dolphins just off the end of the pier. They didn't jump out of the water or anything, but it was exciting nonetheless.

The one thing you can't tell from the photo above is that it was quite windy out. Not windy or cold enough to justify measuring the wind chill factor, of course, but, then again, maybe the wind chill factor isn't such a great measurement to begin with.

To be honest, though, if it isn't obvious, I have ulterior motives in mentioning the wind. On the one hand, I wanted to work in a link to that Slate article, because it concerns a topic that I've had several conversations about in the past (with PJ, and with Nat and Josh): namely, whether the wind chill factor really measures anything worth measuring. On the other hand, I also wanted to mention the wind because I've noticed that I tend to try and take photos that portray the best aspect of things. It is often quite smoggy out here, for instance, but I haven't yet taken a photo of the smog, and even if I did I'd be inclined not to post it. A more honest documentarian would photograph the best and worst of things, and everything in between, however. I'm going to try and overcome this weakness on my part.

Spot the mistake

2007-02-12T12:39:00.000-08:00

From the back cover of Louis P. Pojman's "Theories of Human Nature":

"Pojman concludes with a discussion of the question of free will, ultimately asserting that each of us must decide for ourselves who and what we are, and, based on that answer, how we shall live."

Because we're free, I get to decide who I am, and what kind of thing I am? OK, I'm the King of France. And I'm a lizard. But since that makes me a sort of super-lizard, and I'm also a man, that means I'm Superman. And, based on that, I've decided I shall live like Superman.

Anyone for an ass kicking?

2007-02-11T23:02:00.000-08:00

Went out for BBQ tonight with Ben. I would say it was nothing to write home about, but here I am writing about it.

Poem of the Week

2007-02-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

Here it is.

The Most Annoying Thing I Have Read

2007-02-09T11:55:00.000-08:00

This is the most annoying thing I have read in a really, really long time. I found it hard to breathe while I was reading it. And I found it nearly impossible to finish reading it. Don't worry: it doesn't get any better.

Lawn Art

2007-02-09T07:37:00.000-08:00

Lawns at even the most expensive houses in Venice, CA are pretty small. So the details tend to be pretty interesting. Check out the grass in the top photo, and the use of skateboards in the bottom photo.

Welcome to Singapore

2007-02-08T00:37:00.000-08:00

Presumably, our currently lax attitude towards torture hasn't (yet) extended this far.

Lincoln Boulevard

2007-02-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

I've always been fascinated with Lincoln Boulevard, a north-south 4-lane road that runs from Santa Monica to LAX. It's lined with stores and restaurants, but it's hard to believe that any of them are actually open for business. They all look as if they haven't been renovated in thirty years--they're quite bleached by the sun--and they rarely have parking lots of their own, which in L.A. makes you wonder how anyone would go to them. Check out the Hoagie Stand above, for instance. I've driven by it 100 times and I always assumed it was out of business. But when I walked up to it to take this picture, I discovered it's open. There were even customers in line.

Expect to see a lot more photos of Lincoln Blvd.

Identity Consumerism

2007-02-06T10:26:00.000-08:00

As identity politics was to the 70's, identity consumerism is to the 00's. It's the phenomenon of thinking that in buying a product, you're joining a group of like-minded folks (presumably, like-minded in more ways than just liking buying that product). Saturn, the car company, was the first to really effectively exploit this technique, but Apple is currently its dominant practitioner.

Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Breaks

2007-02-04T21:59:00.000-08:00

This is what the internet is for. And, for those who haven't followed all the links I have in my "links" section on the right, it reminds my of this other excellent use of the internet.

No Compilation. No Bootleg.

2007-02-03T19:14:00.000-08:00

Longtime friends of mine will know that I have a very special fondness for mixtapes by DJ Muro, the "King of Diggin". So I was very happy to discover a Japanese blog with a series of posts on Muro's mixtapes. I don't have all the ones listed. (I do, however, have several that are not listed.) Although I'm now in email contact with a friend of Muro's who has promised to let me know about any new releases, I have no idea how I would get any more of the old releases.

A side note: when I first discovered Muro, in Tokyo in 1996, I had a good friend whose last name was "Diggin". She was also from a small town in Ireland named "Diggin", so she found his self-description/title extremely funny.

Venice Grind

2007-01-31T19:01:00.000-08:00

Following up a recommendation on O-Dub's blog Soul Sides, I discovered the Venice Grind, a small coffe shop that's only a short drive (or a medium-length bike ride) from my new bungalow. And, due to some ventilation issues at the bungalow, as well as the sheer boredom of sitting in front of my laptop at home all day long, I'm there right now. I've come here a few times lately to try and get work done. The physical environment of the place isn't particularly charming, nor is it all that well populated, but I really like it nonetheless. In fact, I like it more than any other coffee shop I've been to in L.A. (Not that I've been to that many, but I've been to a few.) Everyone who works here has been very friendly, and they have free (if a little spotty) wireless.

Things are getting a little more interesting as I write this, because some sort of poetry night is about to start. As far as I can tell, only three people have come for it, and they're definitely all poetry night regulars. They're currently comparing notes on the different poetry nights around town. The leader is a middle-aged woman who's very fond of mentioning how she's personal friends with all of the poetry and "spirituality" celebrities that anyone else mentions. She's now trying to convince this other middle-aged dude that some minor poetry celebrity he just mentioned would remember her if he saw her again. The dude she's talking to is quite a character, not unlike the Dude himself, only much more energic ("hyper" leaps to mind as an apt description). His favorite topic of conversation is jazz, and he's mentioned a lot of jazz musicians I've never heard of, usually in the context of saying things like "they taught the young hot-shots of today everything they know". They're setting up the podium for the poetry reading now, and he just complained that he's going to need more light in order to read his poetry. He's wearing sunglasses.

I hate to describe the last participant, but in the interests of accurate documentation I must. She's a very old woman, who came in pushing one of those personal shopping carts that people in pedestrian (read: non-L.A.) cities tend to have. I'll just say it: she's got a sizable white beard. It's about 2 inches long.

The Best Pizza in L.A.

2007-01-30T14:24:00.000-08:00

The best pizza that I've ever had in Los Angeles is currently being served at the apartment of my friend Ben. He's gotten the crust down, and now we just need to work on the sauce. As it is, it's a little bland.

The World's Smallest Tractatus

2007-01-29T00:50:00.000-08:00

I made this a few years ago. It's a palm-sized version of Wittgenstein's Tractatus. It's about a 1/4 the size of a normal edition of the book. I guess I thought it would be a handy thing to have around.

Restaurants I've Eaten At

2007-01-21T17:32:00.000-08:00

La Conversation: I picked Meredith up at 5:30pm on a Friday at a Hollywood hills mansion where she was filming her yoga video and after we sat in stand-still traffic for half an hour, we noticed this place on the side of the road in Beverly Hills. So we parked and went to dinner. It was wonderful. The ambiance reminded me of the Parisian Cafe in Arlington and Al's Deli in Evanston (both of which feature super-Francophile decorations) and our tortilla salads were perfect. (2/07, with Meredith)

Wakasan: This is a great omakase place that Ben introduced me to a couple of years ago. I guess LA Erica actually discovered it, but it's really Ben's place. It's great. (2/07, for Ben's birthday)

Tender Greens: Meredith and I continued our exploration of the much-publicized new Culver City scene by going on a date here. I had a salad and Meredith had an assortment of things including a soup. It was really low-key, which I liked. My BBQ chicken salad was pretty good, too.

El Pinto: On the Sunday afternoon of my visit to Albuquerque for an aesthetics philosophy conference, we went here with our host, the conference organizer, and a rather energetic young man from the Univ. of Hawaii. It's an enormous place, supposedly the biggest restaurant in New Mexico. They had a couple fountains inside, but they weren't really turned on. The food was good, if a little bit standard Tex-Mex. They had steamed tortillas, which looked good but which I didn't try because I was so full. (2/07, with Nat and others)

Jinky's: The pancakes here are really good. And if you go early enough (before 10am), there's really no wait. (2/07, with Meredith)

La Cabana: Gotta love this place. It's less than a five minute walk from our new place, the margheritas are great, and the decor is over the top. I had a burrito. I was a pretty standard cheese-covered one the size of your head, the kind you can get at any Chili's. I'm looking forward to taking my Chicago friends here, though, just because of the vibe. (2/07, with Meredith)

Wilson's: This place was mentioned in the recent NY Times piece on the up-and-coming Culver City scene, so when my Dad passed through town for dinner he took Meredith and me here. It was good, not great. My Dad and I shared some sort of wild boar sausage appetizer that the waiter described as very flavorful. It wasn't. My main course was the slow roasted pork, which I highly recommend and which partly redeemed the place. It was the most tender pork I've ever had, and the various sides were all perfect complements. The restaurant's a scene, but not over the top. The coolest thing was a large poster of Dennis Wilson that was hanging near the bathroom. I was hoping there might be a photo of him from "Two Lane Blacktop", but I didn't see one. (2/07, with my Dad and Meredith)

Koreatown Plaza: In the food court at the Koreatown Plaza mall, on Western just south of Wishire, they've got what appear to be a bunch of great places to eat. I say "appear" because I've always just gone to the same place and always gotten the same thing: Bi Bim Bop. It's always good, though, so why change a thing? (1/07, with Ben, Erica, and the Encino Man)

La Super Rica Taqueria: I went here with Ben, en route to Pismo Beach. The eating conditions were far from ideal: it was a cold, rainy day and this is basically a taco shack with an outdoor seating area covered with a plastic tent that leaks. I had a bunch of different tacos. The simple beef ones were the best. Just tasty beef on very, very fresh tortillas. The more complicated tacos were a little disappointing. (1/07, with Ben)

Bravo Pizza: It's on Main St. in Santa Monica. This is the best NYC-style pizza I've had in LA. A little bland, but they've got the crust right. (1/07)

La Playita: I've driven by this taco shack on the side of Lincoln Blvd. a million times, and long been impressed by the line of people outside at almost any time of day or night. As if that wasn't enough of a reason to check it out, a quick search on Chowhound brought up many recommendations. And as if that wasn't enough, a quick look at Google Maps revealed that it is only a couple minutes walk from my new house, so I walked over and had a shrimp burrito for lunch. It was pretty damn good, spicy in just the right way. And cheap: it was only $4.50. I think I'll be back. (1/07)

Mao's Kitchen: The food was good, but the service was horrible. It's BYOB, which we didn't take advantage of. I guess I would go back, but only if I brought something to drink and planned to hang out for a while. In that case, it might be a good time. (1/07, with Meredith and her dad)

Le Pain Quoidien: Meredith and I have been here several times, and everything we've had has been good, albeit overpriced. I assume this is the future of semi-fast-fresh-chain food. The themed environment is slightly, but not overwhelmingly, pretentious, and the service is well organized. The last time we went the couple sitting at the table next to us recommended the Nutella-like spread, which we tried and loved. It's normally a breakfast item, but we had it for dinner. (1/07, with Meredith and her dad)

Father's Office: Descending into the depths of the frattiness at the Father's Office is terrifying, but if treated as an anthropoligical study can be enjoyable. The beer selection is great, but the only reason to come here is for the burgers, which are among the best I've ever had. I used to say they were the best, but several recent visits just haven't been as good as my first few times. One thing I've learned is that since the sweet potato fries come long before the burgers, it's best to restrain your intake of the fries, because they'll seriously ruin your appetite if you eat as many as you might want to. (1/07, with Meredith and her dad)

AXE: Healthy, healthy, heathly, but not quite food as medicine (though some dishes are). And not half bad. (1/07, with Meredith and her dad)

Los Angeles

2007-01-18T09:39:00.000-08:00

Well, we drove 400 miles in 7 hours yesterday, and finally arrived in Los Angeles. This brings our total distance travelled to 3,300 miles in 8 days. OS II held up pretty well, and its seats were pretty damn comfortable. I just hope driving out here wasn't too much stress for its aged body.

Our drive yesterday was pretty uneventful. My mom and I drove this same route some time ago in OS I, and we tried to relocate some of the places that we stopped at on that trip. Our most memorable stop was the result of OS I's lack of A/C. We were driving out in the summer and it was damn hot out. My mom started to feel a little ill from the extreme heat, so we pulled over at an old diner that was originally built to serve the soldiers that were stationed at a desert training facility that General Patton had set up to prepare for fighting Rommel in the deserts of North Africa. This diner hadn't seen much action in years, and the only other patrons were a mom with two small kids. Anyway, as I said, it was damn hot out, and so the other mom's son decided that the best way to cool down was to stick his head in the toilet bowl. No joke. He came out with his head soaked in water, and when his mom asked what he had done, he answered.

We weren't able to locate the diner that this happened in, but we didn't try very hard. We did see a sign for a Patton museum, so I assume it was near there.

We stopped for lunch in Palm Springs, at a Roadfood destination that Nat and Melody went to on their (first) honeymoon, Sherman's Deli. The food was great, but the scene was even better. It appeared to be mostly retirees from NYC. Sitting next to us were three aged dudes, very tan and very flamboyantly dressed. The dude who ended up paying for everyone's meals was wearing lots of gold jewellery and an (intentionally) see-through white long sleeve shirt.

The Javelinas are Gone for the Day

2007-01-16T23:34:00.000-08:00

We drove 280 miles in 11 hours today. We started in Tucson and ended in Phoenix.

Today was our single biggest day of touring, and we saw some great stuff. There's a lot to do in and around Tucson, but we only did a fraction of it. The first thing we did was drive down to Green Valley and go on the Titan II Missile Museum tour. My mom wasn't into the whole Cold War thing, so she explored the nearby desert while I went on the tour. It's too bad she didn't come, because when I told her no one asked the tour guide any good questions, she said she would've asked why surrendering to the commies wasn't a better alternative than annihilating all mankind.

I've wanted to go on this tour for a really long time and it didn't disappoint. I think I liked it so much because I like the idea of living in an entirely self-sufficient underground house, and it gave me some idea of what it would be like. We didn't actually get to see the crew quarters, though, so I had to use my imagination more than I would've liked.

After the museum, we went to lunch in Tucson, at a Mexican seafood restaurant, and then drove out to the Saguaro National Park (East). My mom has fallen in love with javelinas and when I searched online for parks that have them the Saguaro NP came up, so our main goal in going to the park was to see some javelinas. Sadly, we didn't see any. The park itself was beautiful, though, and it's really cool that there's such a park so close to the city.

We then drove up to Phoenix, had some dinner and checked into yet another Comfort Suites.

Gorditas!

2007-01-15T22:46:00.000-08:00

We drove 600 miles in 11 hours today. We started in Pecos and ended in Tucson. We would've made even better time, except we hit another bunch of ice on the road about an hour outside of Pecos. Luckily, they had sanded the roads, so I had some warning that things were about to turn icy. Otherwise, I think I might well have hit the ice at full speed. Others weren't as lucky: we saw another bunch of semis and cars that slid off the road.

Sadly, we came across another sort of accident today as well. Driving around Tucson tonight, we passed a woman lying in the middle of the road, motionless. A bunch of other people were already helping her, so we didn't stop, but the situation looked pretty bad. I wish I could get the image of her lying there out of my head.

Since this post has taken on a rather depressing tone, I should mention that we listened to an incredibly horrifying This American Life episode today, about the current situation in Guantanamo. I highly recommend it; in fact, I think it should be required listening for all Americans.

We also finished listening to McCulloch's biography of Truman today. If McCulloch's depiction of Truman is at all accurate, then I have a new hero.

Our drive this morning began with a photo shoot at Ma Wilson's. Long-time followers of my travels, if they have a photographic memory, will remember that I took a picture of Ma Wilson's sometime in the late 90's. It was only when we drove past Ma Wilson's last night that I realized I had been to Pecos before. So I took a few photos of it again this morning. It looks completely unchanged, so I'm not documenting anything new.

Aside from the icy roads, our drive to El Paso was rather uneventful. Yesterday, the ice storm had transformed the otherwise barren wasteland into a relatively (for western Texas) beautiful landscape. I wish I could think of a metaphor that describes what scrub brush covered with a thin layer of ice looks like, to make the scene vivid for you. But I can't, and once again I forgot to take a picture of the one aspect of things that was memorable. There wasn't any ice on the brush today, so until we got close to El Paso, the scenery was pretty miserable.

We did take one interesting detour on the way to El Paso. From looking at the map, my mom noticed that we were just a few miles from the Mexican border. So we got off I-10 and drove south. The border was only a couple miles down the road. On the first road we drove down there was a border station with a big barbed wire fence, so we drove down another road, this time a dirt one, and stopped at what I assume was the border. There wasn't any fence. There was just a concrete covered irrigation ditch.

We didn't stop in El Paso, but we saw enough of it to note that it looks very different from every other American city I've ever seen. There didn't appear to be any city planning at all. The houses were just piled on top of each other. And the moment you got any elevation at all, you could see for miles and miles. I assume much of what were were seeing was Juarez, just across the border.

For lunch, we went to another great Roadfood find: the Little Diner in Canutillo, just north of El Paso. I had an "authentic" Gordita, which was basically the contents of a beef taco inside of a pita-shaped corn tortilla. It was pretty good.

After lunch, we drove up Rt. 28 and saw a rather disappointing folk art environment in La Mesa (pictured), took a photo of a nearby Roadfood destination (also pictured), and drove around a cute, but equally disappointing small town (La Mesilla). I should say, however, that I liked the look of small towns around El Paso and in New Mexico a lot more than those we saw in Arkansas and Texas.

The drive across southern New Mexico was quite scenic: it was an enormous flat expanse with mountains on all sides.

When we eventually got to Tucson, we tried to find a restaurant that was both mentioned in Roadfood and recommended by friend Tiff. After repeatedly driving up and down most of the streets of downtown Tucson, we eventually found it, but it was closed--hopefully, just for the night. Maybe we'll try and go tomorrow for lunch.