First Things First This Holiday Season
"Merry Christmas you old Building and Loan!"  Of course you know those words were uttered by George Baily (Jimmy Stewart) in the Frank Capra classic "It's A Wonderful Life."  And, thanks to the weather turning cold here in California it actually feels like Christmas.  After Sept. 11 I think that this Christmas season will be all the more special because we'll be able to appreciate the little, and the big, things that make life grand.  I hope we can all take a moment when we're with our families this holiday season to thank the troops who sacrificed their holidays with their families to make sure that all of us are safe.  Thank you.
Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and Happy Kwanza.

Afterthoughts : Pining away no more, I hope
I haven't seen Kat in about two years now, yet she is a constant thought in my mind.  Perhaps constant is too strong a word.  Perhaps a better word would be persistent, and it's my own fault.  After pining away for her for the last 14 years it's hard to let go.  Nevertheless, I've thought for a while now that even if I were to bump into her some day in the future that those old feelings wouldn't be there as before.  I think that I'm more in love with who I've created in my mind than the actual woman.  In my mind she is a vision, a wonder and absolutely perfect.  However, that's not where she really exists.  A part of her essence does live in my mind, but the real Kat doesn't.  And there lies the problem.  For, as long as I pin my hopes on that imaginary girl I'll never be able to find someone who is all that I imagine her to be, but in the flesh.  I've run across a few that have come close, but my fixation on Kat's ghost has sabotaged my best efforts and turned them into inept attempts to find love.  Yet, I'm in a good place now.  I like myself a lot, to the point that I no longer care, or fear, what anyone else says about me.  I'm not perfect, by far.  Yet, I do like who I am.  I think it's time to let go of Kat's ghost once and for all and find someone who will appreciate the fact that I'm me.
So to you Kat I say, you had the most beautiful eyes when I first saw you... and you always will.

Man About Town : Olvera street
Olvera Street, in the shadow of City Hall and Union Station, is the oldest street in Los Angeles.  Today it's a bustling shopping area filled with knick knacks, Mexican pottery and leather wallets, and street singers... among other things.

However, knick knacks are not the only thing that you'll find on Olvera Street.  Here you'll find the history of Los Angeles in its infancy.  Back to the days when most of the houses were made out of adobe.  The Avila Adobe is the oldest house in Los Angeles (built in 1818) and there you'll find not only an example of what living here used to be like, but also a history of Los Angeles's search for water.  Across the way is The Sepulveda house, an example of the transition L.A. took from pueblo to fullfledged city.

There is also plenty to eat on Olvera Street.  The restaurant called La Luz Del Dia is one of the few places in Los Angeles that makes its own tortillas, right on the spot.  They are made in the old fashioned way, by hand and with real corn.  The warm tortillas alone are worth a trip to Olvera.

After you eat take a stroll over to the oposite side of the plaza to the first fire station in Los Angeles.  Fire station #1 is just as it was when it was built.  A guide will be happy to show you how the firemen used to work the horse-drawn fire truck.

Across the street from Olvera Street is Union Staion.  After years in decline the art-deco building has been restored to the height of its heyday.  Even if your not traveling anywhere, the station, which has been seen in countless movies and TV shows, is a remarkable example of the art-deco style that inspired it.

Editorial : Die Thomas Kincade, die!
"I don't believe, in time, that (Picasso) will be regarded as the titan that he is now."  Those are the idiotic words spoken by Thomas Kincade on a recent 60 Minutes interview.  An interview that not only showcased the 'artist' and his 'work,' but also showed just how gullible the American consumer really is.  Thomas Kincade has become a cottage industry, literally.  His paintings range from cottages to more cottages, to lighthouses, to cottages and street scenes.  Oh, and don't forget cottages, countless cottages.  For this, and his incredible marketing genius, Kincade is the most collected artist in America.
But, does that make him any good?  My beef with Kincade is not so much that he makes millions on his artwork, but that people buy into it.  It's OK to buy his work, but I hate that people dilute themselves into believing that buying a Kincade is buying a piece of art.  It's a piece of furniture, as far as I'm concerned.  No more than a coffee table or any other piece of furniture that you might buy from Ikea, for instance.  Because Kincade's work lacks all that is art I take offense when he says things about Picasso, or any other artist.  Why?  Because Picasso grew as an artist.  Kincade's work is stagnate, devoid of life.  Picasso introduced new lines of art, and expanded them.  Kincade works on pretty cards that are more appropriate to postcards than canvases.  And what does that say of Kincade's thoughts of other important, and progressive artists?  Perhaps he thinks that Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is nothing more than a funny little picture of a person startled.  Perhaps he thinks that Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase" is a jumble of squares and rectangles.  And perhaps he thinks that Jackson Pollock made nice finger paintings.  I don't know, but I think that I can take from his words about Picasso that Thomas Kincade thinks that he is not only God's gift to art, but that he is the only artist who will be remembered.  Believe me, he won't.
While his painting are nice for a hotel hallway, they will never inspire people to think beyond the status quo.  Because that's exactly what Kincade represents, the status quo.  There isn't a bit of risk taken by the man, and it shows in every inept brush stroke.  I don't mind Kincade making his paintings and selling them to the masses, that's fine.  What I mind is his disregard for those artists that took chances, shaped art, and sometimes changed the world.

You Decide

Picasso's Self Portrait
(Museo Picasso, Barcelona)

Kincade's Cedar Nook Cottage
(Copyright © 2001 Thomas Kinkade)

Etcetera : Motherland
I've loved Natalie Merchant since I first heard her singing lead for 10,000 maniacs years ago.  Her unique voice drew me to her musically and I quickly grabbed her first album, Tigerlilly, when it came out in 1995.  I loved it at first listen.  It continues to be one of my favorite albums because of the mood it sets in my heart.  Now Natalie's new album, Motherland, is out and it sets no less of a mood.  Natalie's voice is showcased in a variety of songs that many of the Britney Spears crowd will not like, or get.  But, that's OK, this album isn't really for them.  It's for me, and I happen to love it.  I'm sure that it passed low on the MTV radar scope, but that's a good thing.  Music shouldn't be about how many albums you sell, but rather about the quality of the songs.  While I'm sure that Motherland will not be everyone's cup of tea, I think that those who will appreciate Motherland are those who want more than just a pretty face on the CD cover... though, there is one of those on this one.