Eagle Rock

It happened at the same time, but a day apart. Driving on the 134 East looking at the town of Eagle Rock stretched to the South, I felt as if I were the first and only person to see this view. The first to see that exact configuration of lights in the houses and businesses, the street lights, stop lights, green lights, and yellow flashing lights. The children growing, dogs walking, couples shopping, cats eating. I had never felt as if I were the first person to see anything. But, the afternoon before that day, while driving on the same freeway in the late afternoon, I saw it.

The town of Eagle Rock is named after a huge bolder with the profile of an eagle's beak. I've driven by it for years. But that day, I drove around the slopes of the San Gabriel Mountain in the late afternoon and saw the shadow under the eagle's wings as it soared from the rock, its beak pointing toward the sky. Why the eagle took so long to show itself to me is a mystery, but I've been the only person on earth to see many things since that day.

Still In Love

Falling for Joan and David

When David was with Joan and Joan was with David. What year was it? 1993 I think. Freshly divorced with cash in hand, I discovered Joan and David and my first pair of expensive boots. It's been a long summer without them, but the fog and cool air bring my tattered, sewn, shoemaker friendly, resoled, multi-tapped, shoelace replaced babies out of the closet. Hello Joan and David.
Welcome Fall.

A Tiny House of One's Own

The idea of these tiny houses brings out the little girl in me. A place to set up an office or put mini-guests or have a tea party.

http://apersonalspace.com/home2.html

We Will Kick Off! We Will Kick Off!

Sunday football, again. At least the Green Bay Packers won, again. What Sunday Football does week after week is remind me of Bill Cosby and the comedy album my sister and I wore out as kids, Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow Right released in 1963.

"We will kick off! We will kick off! We will receive! We will receive!" from Toss of the Coin mesmerized us.

If you've never heard early Cosby, and this is his first comedy album, you are missing something.

A Polygamist's Polygamist

Friday was day two of the Warren Jeffs' trial.  He's the leader of a group of polygamists in Arizona.  I'm a big fan of the HBO show about a polygamist family, Big Love. The issue of forced under-age marriage isn't addressed on the show the way you imagine is the dirty truth. The Jeff's compound profit character, Roman Grant, played with evil glee by Harry Dean Stanton, was supposed to marry a young charge but she stowed away in the Hendrickson's SUV to reek manipulative havoc on greater Utah. That's not how girls raised in a compound are portrayed in the excellent documentary about Warren Jeffs, Damned to Heaven. As a lone investigator into the compounds many illegal activities says in the doc, "You can't deprogram them." All you can do is try and teach ex-members to survive in the outside world. While in the TV world of polygamy, Bill Hendrickson's tenuous hold on family unity, his business interests, and his relationship with a power-giving God are fun to watch, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near Jeffs. One of the lost boys from Colorado City, Arizona, said that Jeffs is actually shy, but power drives him to drone on in a flat monotone for mountains of taped lectures.

Damned to Heaven is in the same category as the wonderful and terrifying book Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer. Krakauer appears briefly in Damned to Heaven. Watch the Damned to Heaven trailer on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1cTk2cJQac

Pee Jag

As long as I'm on a pee jag, here's a story about Susan. Susan had been a singer in Chicago, a talented and ambitious girl, she decided to move to the Big Show, Los Angeles. There were lots of talented and ambitious singers in LA, so after singing the circuit, Susan became a booker on talk shows. Like a lot of people in LA, a second career was born. I met Susan on a variety show. She was single and lookin'.
During the show, Susan met a guy named Everett. He was a has-been writer in need of a second career but found Susan instead. He moved in to her house. He took. She gave. It's classic.

Susan would say, "Everett's such a talented writer. People won't give him a chance." It was like listening to a mother straining to convince you that it's a blessing to have a difficult child.

Susan couldn't see that she was the prize and this guy was using her. But having a man on her arm seemed enough.

For Everett, things turned out dandy. Susan's talk him up and, with her connections, got him a writing job and he pomptly left her.

One day shortly after the breakup Susan and I were having lunch at Hugo's in West Hollywood. Susan said that she had no regrets and, in fact, Everett had left her with one valuable lesson.

"Everett taught me to pee in the shower."

"What?" I said.

"Men do it all the time," said Susan. "It's a wonderful, freeing feeling."

"I think being free of Everett is the wonderful feeling," I said.

Showering the next morning, I thought about it. It's hard to do because girl muscles are trained to let go only when you're sitting down. But I tried. You know, it is a freeing feeling.

And Susan? She has a tiny dog on her arm now and is living happily ever after...with Hunter.