Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The Desert


After months of being away, there's a long list of things to tend to, but thankfully there's an ease to getting things done in the desert.
After stopping at the rock supply company
I was close to a canyon I had never explored.
Even though the light was fading, and the gate would close in 45 minutes
I had enough time to enjoy the trail, take some photos, and commit to coming back.










Monday, October 27, 2014

Bucket List

I'm not a bucket list sort of person.
 I prefer not to fixate on having specific experiences. 
HOWEVER,
if I did keep a list, being inside The Kaufmann House would be on it.
I don't know what it is about architecture and design that makes my heart flutter,
but it does.
I get a beautiful ache from aestecially pleasing enviornments.

I became aware of The Kaufmann House during visits to Palm Springs, 
years before I became a home owner in the desert.
I was in awe of the house from many published photos.
Then, when I moved to a house down the street from the iconic structure, part of my desert routine was stealing glimpses of the upper level porch rising above the main entrance.
Today I had a private tour of the grounds and house.
IT'S SPECTACULAR
  Grand linear lines puncture the arid landscape. 
Buff-colored sandstone, steel, wood, and glass.
Neutra's vision was to build "a machine in the garden, juxtaposing a foreign, man-made construct onto a wild, unrefined natural setting."  
He achieved his goal, and I crossed something off of my phantom bucket list.
I took photos, but respecting that this is a private residence and I was a guest, I'm not posting them.
the photos below are from the architecture firm Marmol  Radziner
who restored the house beginning in 1993.















Sunday, October 26, 2014

Dial M for Monkey

As if you weren't already on my mind.
As if I needed another reminder that you've been gone for six months.
Six months today you took flight.
A few days ago, looking out the office window, I saw two cats on the back deck.
One curled up on the daybed, the other nestled under the table.
They looked at me, longingly, or perhaps that's what they saw.
First time in 17 years I've ever seen cats hanging around the yard.
Today, while running errands and listening to a random shuffle on a Pandora station
an album title popped up on the car screen --
Dial M for Monkey
from a band, Bonobo, I had never heard of.
If I only could Dial M for Monkey
and have you reappear.
I would, in a heartbeat.
I wish I took more photos of you.
I wish I had moving images of you.
I wish you were here.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Pumpkin Fest

Autumn is here.
There's a noticeable dip in temperature after months of dry heat.  Dark mornings and a setting sun sinking below the horizon earlier and earlier.
I've worn boots twice this week.
 The physical and emotional shift is happening.  I desire to nest, make soup, and curl up in bed with a book.
An excellent weekend was capped by dinner with dear friends and the amazing pumpkin festival at the Descanso Gardens.












Rose






Saturday, October 18, 2014

JB

Celebrating JB's birthday


with lobster

 champagne

 and pumpkins!



Friday, October 17, 2014

Harvest


Thursday, October 16, 2014

NORMAN FISHER



Norman Fischer's Stanford Commencemnt Speech
Thanks, CMS for sharing it.

We all have high hopes for you, probably higher hopes than you have for yourselves. Let's be honest – as much as we discuss and practice wise punditry, we older people don't really know what the world will require in the coming times – and we are a bit bewildered, and unsure, though we hate to admit it. To grow old is to gradually cease to understand the times in which you live. So we are placing our trust and our hope in you. No pressure, of course. But the promise of the future really is yours.
And yet the truth is, it is not going to be so easy to survive your promising life. For one thing, there are a lot of promising young people out there – not only here at Stanford, or here in California, here in the United States, but also in Europe, in China, in Latin America, all over Asia, and in India, and Africa – some of you in fact are those people – bright, energetic, and mobile. With so much competition, and so much anxiety about that competition, it is possible that success, if it comes, will not come easily. It is also of course possible that success will not come – or that it will come, abundantly, but that you will not find it as meaningful as you had expected. It is also possible that success comes, and you do find it meaningful and satisfying – but only at first, when it is still bright and shiny. And that later, the state and pace and social implications of the successful and ambitious life you will have lived will wear you down, and you'll find yourself tired and bewildered.
It's also possible that as time stretches on your personal relationships will not work out as you had hoped, your sense of yourself will not hold up to scrutiny, that there will be disappointments and setbacks, acknowledged and unacknowledged – in short, it is possible, even likely, that there is some pain awaiting you as you go forth from this bright day – ruptured love affairs, betrayals, losses, disillusionments – seriously shaky moments. It's possible too that, as you move through the decades, it will become increasingly difficult for you to maintain the idealism and the hopefulness you have today. It's possible that one day you will find yourself wondering what you have been doing all these years, and who you have become. It's possible the life you wanted and have built will not be as you'd expected it to be. It's possible that the world you wanted and hoped to improve will not improve.
Anyway, you will keep busy, you will have things to do. And you will try not to notice such feelings. You will try to deny any despair or disappointment or discouragement or boredom you may be feeling two, five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years from today. And probably you will be able – more or less – to do that. But only more or less.
I am sorry to say all these things to you on such a wonderful day and in such a beautiful place as this.
I realize that baccalaureate speeches are supposed to be bright, uplifting, and encouraging. The folks at Stanford who invited me to speak today sent me links to previous baccalaureate talks so I would know how they usually go. The speeches I looked at were wonderful – they were serious about challenges ahead – but they were always positive. So, yes, I too intend to say something bright and encouraging. But I thought I would be more convincing if I were also realistic. And it is realistic to say that your lives from now on are likely not going to be entirely smooth sailing. The skills you'll need to survive may be more than or other than the skills you have been focusing on so far in your life. The truth is, it takes a great deal of fortitude and moral strength to sustain a worthwhile, happy, and virtuous human life over time in the world as it actually is.
OK, here is the uplifting part:
Your life isn't and has never been about you. It isn't and has never been about what you accomplish, how successful you are or are not, how much money you make, what sort of position you ascend to, or even about your family, your associations, your various communities, or how much good you do for others or the world at large. Your life, like mine, and like everyone else's, has always been about one thing: love.
Who are you, really? Where did you come from? Why were you born? When this short human journey is over, where are you going? Why – and how – does any of this exist? What is the purpose and the point of it all?
Not even your Nobel Prize-winning professors know the answers to these questions, the inevitable, unavoidable, human questions. None of us knows the answers. All we know is that we are here for a while before we are gone, and that we are here together. The only thing that makes sense and that is completely real is love. Love is the only answer. This is no mystery – everyone knows this. Whether your destiny is to have a large loving family or to have no partner and no family – love is available to you wherever you look. And when you dedicate yourself to love, to trying your best to be kind and to benefit everyone you meet – not just the people on your side, not just the people you like and approve of, but everyone, every human and nonhuman being – then you will be OK and your life – whatever it brings, even if it brings a lot of difficulty and tragedy – as so many lives do – as even the lives of very privileged and promising people sometimes do – your life will be a beautiful life. As I promised, this is uplifting – or at least I hope you find it uplifting.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Malibu

Drove out to Malibu to have lunch with two reporters whose story we optioned.
They were staying at a glorious house on the water, served us a delicious lunch and told us tales about their time in Baghdad.
Every which way I turn, life is good.









Sunday, October 12, 2014

PS

It's been a LONG 5.6 months since my eyes rested on the desert landscape.
I missed it.  I need it.
For ten years the San Jacinto mountains have anchored me in a calm oasis.
The desert is my secret weapon, my small town touchstone in an urban life.
A semi random decision, a why-not, this could be a fun art project, real estate purchase
that profoundly affected my life.
I could never have known this, anticipated all the ways it would add quality to my life, but am grateful that something lead me to this notion.
All the more reasons to say yes to opportunities, and semi thought out ideas.



Saturday, October 11, 2014

Ray LaMontagne

Excellent show at The Greek.
Laughed and enjoyed the gorgeous surroundings 
with Sweet Spruce.