A Moody California Winter

I finally made it to the "Birth of the Cool" exhibition the day before it closed. It was worth the trip --especially with the clouds that turned the sky all shades of grey threatening to open up and pour at any moment.

Chet Baker and Crew (1956) by William Claxton

Here's the sound track from the exhibition (which goes great with a rainy day, by the way):

Moon Dreams - Miles Davis
In a Mellotone - Chico Hamilton Quintet
What's New- Art Pepper
The Blessing - Ornette Coleman
Out of Nowhere - Gerry Mulligan, Joe Benjamin & Paul Desmond
Something Cool - June Christy
Let's Get Lost - Chet Baker
The Trouble With Me Is You - Zoot Sims Quintet
A Gem From Tiffany - Shelly Manne and His Men

Halima and Chet Baker (1955) by William Claxton

A shoulda-woulda-coulda I'll regret for a long time

I made my list of some 80-odd favorite landmarks on both sides of the Bay, and ran from one to the other in a mad attempt to win my own scavenger hunt of memories...

One place I didn't make it to, but assumed would be there the next time I was in the City, was Red's Java House.

Now comes word that the Port of San Francisco is raising their rent five times over, thus ensuring that the best darn burger and cuppa coffee (and one of the best secret places to watch a sunrise when the East Bay is clear of fog) will be, no more.

There just wan't enough time to revisit all the places I knew in the City, I tried to tell myself. Choices had to be made; priorities to be followed. How was I to know?

If you've never been to Red's, or if you have, but not lately, you better get down there quick and enjoy one of those quintessential local experiences that is all too soon about to become a part of the past. And you'll get a damn good burger, too.

Then you will have the dubious honor of belonging to that illustruous club which can say with pride, "Ah, you should have been here back when..."

Just because I've not been posting doesn't mean I've just been sitting around the house...

One thing after another has kept me from posting; but I've not been sitting around going crazy over it.

The Getty just opened an exhibition of Manet's The Bar at the Follies Bergere. They've given it the royal treatment, with a room all to itself. Hard to believe that this painting is now 125 years old!

I took myself on an 'urban road trip' at the beginning of June, logging a total of 138 miles beginning and ending at my front door. I began with the centennial celebration of the Port of Los Angeles, which took me around some streets I haven't seen in decades. A definitive highlight was being able to climb to the top of the restored Point Fermin Lighthouse. The coastal fog obscured Santa Catalina Island, but it was a treat, all the same. I think it might have been the first time I've actually climbed to the top of a lighthouse!

I try to watch myself from opening my mouth on such excursions when not absolutely necessary (nobody wants to be that know-it-all on the tour bus who butts in on the tour guide). The employees of the POLA had scant knowledge of some of the sites, such as the former Fort MacArthur reservation, now home to the Angel's Gate Cultural Center, the Korean Friendship Bell and museum, the Fort MacArthur museum, youth hostel and marine animal rescue station. As it turned out, a number of the folks on the tour were locals of the port area, so we were all able to swap various stories about some of the sites.

Sadly, the tour didn't include a trip over the Vincent Thomas Bridge, although there are several monuments to mark the location of East San Pedro's Japanese-American fishing village and the fishing industry. Few Angelenos know of the existence of an entire community on Terminal Island that was shipped off to the Manzanar Relocation Center during World War II. Not only has every trace of the community been bulldozed, but virtually the entire Long Beach Naval Shipyard is gone; all across Terminal Island there is new construction as the port enlarges both the shipping container facilities and provides more slips for pleasure craft. The map they provided each participant with did, however, include a history of the fishing village among the many historic sites not covered on the tour. At last, there is more inclusion of one of the more shameful parts of American history --and Los Angeles history-- getting acknowledged.

After touring around San Pedro and Wilmington, it was on to the second Culver City Art Walk. This year there was 150% increase in the number of galleries over last year. The town is definitely on the art scene radar, now. It wouldn't be incorrect to say that Culver City has become quite an art town --not bad, considering it was practically an urban no-man's land just a few years ago.

Sunday I took in the Los Feliz Village Street Fair and the second annual Lummis Day in Highland Park.

...And there were a number of events I didn't even have time to get to ...yet.