“You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.” – Pema Chodron Lately, I’ve been thinking about how I cultivate weather inside my body. “Is it biological? Chemical? Cultural? Hereditary?” My rainmaking is not intentional. It’s torrential: sloshing around in my stomach, collecting in a moat– aimed to isolate or protect something. This … More Hello, Sky
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” – Henry David Thoreau I recently wrote about unconventional foraging for Atlas Obscura. It’s amazing how one small pitch quickly turns into an obsession. The more I researched the topic and interviewed naturalists, the less strange … More Foraging Ahead
“I don’t like Los Angeles. The people are awful and terribly shallow, and everybody wants to be famous but nobody wants to play the game. I’m from New York. I will kill to get what I need.” – Lady Gaga This is a pretty common interpretation of my city, which is why, it saddens me … More The Art of Living & Loving in Los Angeles
“I can get away with saying a lot of ideas that are young and naive. I’m liberated.” – Neil Young My therapist said I was naive recently, and I agreed, but then sort of resented her, so I like what Neil Young is saying here, but still, I want to know what he means by … More Hollywood Bowl & Little Foxes
“You begin with the possibilities of the material.” — Robert Rauschenberg The other day, my fiance and I shot a scene together on a sound stage. He is an actor, and I am not, so the whole experience was spatially overwhelming to me– take five steps and you’re at city hall, three steps and you’re … More Rauschenberg & Sound Stages
“Letters, in general, are meant to make up words and words are meant to make up sentences and sentences are meant to convey meaning. Breaking sentences back down into individual words and words back down into individual letters has the opposite effect. Meaning is reduced, taken apart, decomposed. Still, the letters and the words contain … More Twombly & Conjuring Spirits
“Los Angeles, give me some of you! Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town.” — John Fante (Ask The Dust) I took this photograph on Spring Street with my … More The Many Fantes
My fiance and I listened to Dark Side of the Moon last night before bed. I first bought that album when I was 16. It really is a magical album. I can’t decide on whether it feels this way because it reminds me of breaking away from youth, or because of its overall artistry– a … More Pink Floyd Forever
I want to talk about Southern California and what it promised us, historically, and culturally. Off the top of my head, there is the gold rush. Then, there is cinema, moving pictures. Fiction. Art. Music. Our own soundtracks. “California I’m coming home / Oh will you take me as I am / Strung out on … More California, Will You Take Me As I Am?
The homeless man I pass by everyday is missing. His area is in a new state of disarray and the brick wall is burnt. I am full of sadness. I am regretful that I avoided him recently. I hope that tomorrow, I see him, and that all my worries are laughable, but right now my … More Missing People
Here is what happens when you admire rebels, weirdos, and recluses at too young an age. You grow up, but you don’t end up thirty-three and living in a house, like with health insurance and a 401 K, instead you end up thirty-three and living in an apartment next door to an alcoholic who is … More THURSDAY: Lenny & Hollywood Living
Revising Loneliness 