LA

It's always a bit surreal to come back to this city I lived in for many years. LA is a love-hate relationship for me. The love part are our old friends who decided to stick it out, and I went out in search of them.

After the morning ritual I called our friend Anne Troutman to see if she was around. Success! The great thing about being unemployed is that there's always time to meet for lunch. She suggested Neptune's Net at Broad Beach, a biker hang out that serves a mean fish and chips. How could I say no? I swung by her place in Santa Monica. It's an old church (the oldest church structure in Santa Monica, I think) that now serves as home for Anne, her husband Aleks and son William. I love this house. Anne's been making some beautiful photo-montages from old exercise photos from the early 20th century.

The funny thing about LA is that people spend so much time in their cars that cars really become much more than transportation. Cars are conveyance, interior environment and clothing all wrapped in one. I guess that's why there's such a car culture here. A drive up the coast gets where you're going, provides great scenery and creates a relaxing, intimate atmosphere to chat. It was great to catch up on the last few years, hear about each other's kids as they approach the launching pad, and talk about how bad the economy is. The fish and chips were good too. After lunch we drove back down to San Mo, I dropped Anne off (because even if you don't have work, you still need to get your hair done) and went in search of another friend, Randall Wilson.

I hadn't been able to raise Randall through email recently and didn't have his phone number, so I drove over to his house, half-wondering if that's still where he lived. When I saw the 49 Dodge in front, I knew I was in luck. I found Mary, Sarah and Ryan, but Randall was at work. Mary told me where to go, and I ambushed him at Otis School of Design. We agreed to meet up later in the evening at his place, and I headed back to San Mo to meet with my nephew Nick at the Moving Picture Company, where he works as the lead 3D animator. More with Randall tomorrow.


Nick met me on the street next as I parked and we took the elevator up to the studio. I happened to see this "Job Missing" posted on a tree, I had to get a shot of it. (Crispin Porter Bogusky is an ad agency that set up an office in Boulder a few years ago and more recently laid off a bunch of people. They're the agency who did the Microsoft ads with Jerry Seinfeld) Nick showed me around the studio, introducing me to some of the folks there, and we had a short chat. Nick is really coming into his own, you can see it in his eyes and his demeanor. He's working hard. It's cool to see how all my nieces and nephews are developing. They're all such brilliant people. Nick and Timilee have their first child in the oven, so it's an exciting time for all of us, especially for my sister, who is going to be a granny for the first time. She can barely contain herself. Why bother?