Angels and Others

Artist and comrade  Carl A Affarian​ reminded me in a beautiful post today that our struggle for social justice continues. "The Struggle. The Struggle" I'm reminded of the words of two of our sisters in the struggle, first  #AudreLorde said, “Everything we do must contribute to the struggle, because everything they do contributes to grinding us into dust, and we will not be ground.” and second, Maxine Wolfe "It doesn't matter who's on the inside. Anybody can cut you a fucking deal.What matters it who's on the outside and how loud they're screaming." Keep screaming! Stonewall Riots New York City June 28,1969

1 While there are indeed two sides to every story, sometimes both sides are stupid. 2 if you think your life is crappy take a walk through the halls of Family Court at 111 Hill Street in Los Angeles. Your life is great. 3 Dress for comfort. Someone will always look worse than you. Always. 4 Judges and lawyers earn every dime they make. Mostly because they have to deal each other. 5 No one will confess. No matter how much you want them to. 6 No one will shout "You can't handle the truth ". No matter how much you want them to. 7 "Good" cafeteria meatloaf is still cafeteria meatloaf. 8 The courtrooms are kind of crummy. Those big impressive courts that you see on TV are...well...on TV. 9 The  ‪#‎ LemonadeLA‬  @MoCA might be the best lunch spot in Downtown LA 10 Law is beautiful and terrible and justice is a funny thing. 

Channel surfing the other night I came across something that I hadn't seen for quite awhile. No not Mexican midget wrestling, you can catch that on LA cable access Fridays at 2AM.   I saw a Bowflex ad and I was a little shocked. This ad was well … I don’t quite no how to say this…straight. This made me more than a little nostalgic for those good ‘ol man on man soft core commercials from the 80’s and 90’s.   Now those of you old enough to remember "Frankie Say.." t-shirts surely also remember these spots .   The young fair haired man-child clad only in a headband, red gym shorts, tennis shoes and baby oil goes through a series of muscle flexing exercises while an announcer extols the virtues of the machine in his best Barry White basso. Then after nearly ten minutes of slow pans across taught glistening man flesh some sweaty girl enters holding a towel to frighten all the gay away. I’m sure that for 10 or 12 people this ad was an informative pitch for an expensive pie...

    The time of the Krampus is upon us. Every year we look forward to his Teutonic Yuletide child snatching and extreme corporal punishment.  We also have to ask if any culture with a nasty Christmas imp that punishes naughty children can be all bad. OK other than that business in the 1940's?

What doesn't kill you... All Dressed Up... You said that you were wearing blue. Yes, Lion Yes, Lion and Street

 A word to the wise from New York street  artist and muralist  Tatayana Fazlalizadeh. Check out Tatayana's Stop Telling Women to Smile  Tumblr.

Le Brea/Santa Monica La Brea/Warring La Brea/Willoughby Crescent Heights/Norton More great street art from the 'hood. Really loving the fireplug instillation. The kids are working overtime this week.

Anybody know who these men are or the significance of the dates? Google says "No".

On the wall. Hollywood Blvd and Wilcox

I still don't drive so I spend a lot of time walking here in LA and as a result am lucky enough to see some amazing street art. These shots were taken in Hollywood over the past few months and reflect some of my favorite trends in street level art. An ever changing  mash-up of Banksy, wild style. cut and paste and good old fashioned paint that makes dodging traffic and 20 minute waits for the bus so worth it. After Arbus -Franklin Ave You are here - La Brea Ave Banksy Value- Melrose Ave ...too young - La Brea Ave The Great Beast- Sunset Blvd. Up a pole- La Brea Ave. What We Make It Part 1-Santa Monica Blvd What We Make It Part 2- Santa Monica Blvd. Red All Over- La Brea Blvd

I bought a new pair of shoes today. “You did what?” “Bought shoes?” “Oh my God!!!” OK... hardly an earth shattering revelation. I’m even known as something of a devotee of quality footwear. In the interest of full disclosure I once broke out into a cold sweat in the men's shoes department at Barney’s upon seeing a pair of tan Prada loafers. And yes, I bought them. So with all this shoe history behind me what makes this pair a big deal? These are workout shoes, Puma Lab II sneakers to be exact. And before my inbox fills with well meaning recommendations as to which shoe I should have purchased let me be the first to say ”Save it”. I’ve heard it all.   I need one shoe for running, one for walking, one for hiking and one for biking. Wrong Dr. Seuss. I need a get up off my fat ass and do something pair and since the worlds athletic foot gear manufactures have yet to get that specific these will do just fine. I realized a few weeks ago that for all my whining ...

Take that So my weight loss has now progressed to the point (20 lbs) that people are starting to notice and in so much as most of the people I come into contact with on a daily basis are pretty nice they’re mentioning my ever shrinking mid-section. Now for any normal person this would be a godsend, a validation that all one hard work and self control has started yielding dividends. As I’m sure you’ve all deduced from my weekly ramblings I’m not normal. I being the snarky but (hopefully) loveable curmudgeon that I am can’t help but receive every compliment (matter how well intentioned) as a statement unfinished. And of course the voice in my head must complete it. “Looking good… …not like you usually do.  “ You’ve lost weight…” …and not a minute too soon. “You’re looking skinny…” …not at all like the great lumbering land beast we’ve come to love . When complimented by co-workers or casual acquaintances I manage a sincere “Yeah? Thanks” and head out of the room before the...

This is Bucky. Bucky was a happy go lucky little pug without a care in the world but one day his owners thought it would be cute to dress him up like a character from a Sci-Fi movie. As happens so often in these situations pictures of this "cuteness" have turned up on the internet. Bucky is now a humiliated,depressed and suicidal little dog. We here at speckworld beg you...Please don't dress your animals up for Halloween or any other reason. It isn't cute...It's stupid. If you won't do it for us, in the name of god, do it for Bucky.

Uh …Hi…My name is Bob and I’m an addict. It all started when I was still in my teens; I’d watch an occasional episode of Julia Child’s The French Chef or The Great Chefs series on PBS for kicks.  Nothing major, it was all just fun.  The food seemed so exotic and special and a world away from anything I experienced in 70’s suburban Virginia.  As I got a little older I began to watch these shows on a weekly basis and discovered Chef Tell who was not only one of America’s first star chefs but the inspiration for a Muppet.  And all this years before the high priestess of American food writing, Ruth Reichl, made another German with an improbable name (Wolfgang Puck) a culinary god.  By my late teens my habit had grown to include The Frugal Gourmet with Jeff Smith and Burt Wolf, whose travel related shows were irresistible to someone who dreamed of a life beyond the tract houses and of food beyond mac and cheese. Time and travel gave me more opportunities to ...

"How like life is the endive, well shaped but ah…so bitter." I’m eating vegetables. I’m not particularly proud of this fact but it’s the truth. I have eaten more vegetables since starting my diet last Monday than in the previous six months. And not the fun vegetables either, the green ones. No corn, no potatoes, no carrots and no peas. I can, however, eat kale, cabbage and kohlrabi to my hearts content. Kohlrabi? Great, now I have to “google” vegetables to find out just how much I’m going to hate eating them. For the record Kohlrabi is a German turnip with the taste and texture of a broccoli stem. A broccoli stem? Yum! Give me more of that! I take solace in knowing that my green, leafy aversion is typical of many brought up in my class (blue collar) and my country (the good ‘ol USA) and that many of us were trained to dislike vegetables almost from birth. If your ethnic background, like mine (German/Irish), was one whose default method of vegetable preparat...