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Last night Daniel and I were watching TV and a commercial for the new movie, Valentine’s Day, came on.

Daniel: “That movie has so many big stars in it and it looks so stupid.”

Me, all disgusted: “That’s cuz it’s about Valentine’s Day. Who cares about Valentine’s Day?”

Pause.

Me: “Am I like the most unromantic spouse ever?”

Daniel: “Yes. And it rules.”

Do you know who this song is about?

It’s about the serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Jr. I tend to embrace the grisly, so I love this song. Another good song about a killer is “Diane” by Husker Du. It’s creepy because it’s told from the point of view of the killer. But Sufjan takes it a step further—he asks what we have in common with a killer. It’s disturbing.

And brilliant.

Here is the restaurant I mentioned eating at during my photo walk around the eastside of Long Beach, a little taco place, where the kitchen/cashier area was barred off from the seating area:

I think that’s all I’ve uploaded so far from Long Beach. That window you see in the back is the walk-up window, you can order from the sidewalk.

We’ve had rain here so it’s been hard to get out much. I went to the park one day with Cat and her boyfriend when it was raining. Here they are reflected in a mud puddle:

It’s rare that we get rain around here. But all last week we were soaked.

I took this picture of a tree and bushes next to a wall that surrounds a gated housing development before we headed home:

I almost didn’t get it because I had to cross the street to get over to it and by this time we were really cold. But it was calling to me. I’m glad I took it. You can see the same wall on the left in this photo:

The park we went to overlooks the Bolsa Chica Wetlands, but you have to climb through bushes to see it.

I managed to catch some graffiti being removed the other day also, when I was on my bike:

That was taken with a fisheye camera.

Here’s a picture Cat took of me driving the truck awhile ago:

Wish I had more to say…I’m pretty braindead today!

In case you missed his farewell on the Tonight Show last night. Very classy. And what he says at the end is very powerful.

We’ve had a series of storms here this week. It’s been really windy and rainy, but nothing too remarkable. Except for the tornado that turned over a boat in the harbor, and another that flipped a (non-occupied) minivan.

When we first moved here, our swimming pool area flooded, but so far it hasn’t been that bad for us. Here are pictures from that past winter:

I’m not sure how long this weather is supposed to last, maybe we’ll get more flooding again this time. But so far we’ve been OK.

Yesterday before the rain started I drove over to Long Beach to take pictures. I wasn’t sure exactly where I was going to go, and I ended up in the neighborhood where my doctor’s office is. I’ve always wanted to walk around there with a camera. When I got there it was lunch time so I stopped at a little Taco place where you can get tacos for a dollar. While waiting at a table inside the little restaurant, I noticed that not only did the windows of the building have bars on them, but the cooking area with the cash register was also barred. Like a little prison cell inside the place. That was my first clue maybe I wasn’t in a great area.

I mean, it’s obvious my doctor’s office isn’t in a great area when you first get there. But this was a little worse than I thought.

I gobbled down my tacos (so yummy) and walked down the block. I saw an old drug store I wanted to get a picture of, but I noticed someone in an upstairs window staring outside with his arms crossed, and I thought, that guy might not be too happy if I start taking pictures of him. Second clue.

As I kept walking down the street, I noticed people in shop windows with their noses practically pressed to the glass, looking outside. There were a couple cop cars on a side street across the street from where I was and the cops were on the corner talking to two men. I couldn’t tell what was going on but it didn’t look like anything major. But people were like crawling out of the woodwork to see what was going on. Third clue.

Then I realized the only graffiti I’d seen was a gang graffiti tag. Duh. Totally must be a gang neighborhood.

So I kept walking down to the next light, snapping pictures of buildings, then crossed the street. There was an empty lot that someone had turned into a garden. It was all fenced and gated off, but from the way some of the planter boxes were decorated, it was obviously something kids were involved in. I thought that was neat. It was also right next to where the cops were. As I walked by them they didn’t glance at me. But I looked across the street and there were people standing in doorways all up the street watching whatever the cops were doing.

Totally reminded me of when we lived in a gang neighborhood and they’d pull someone over on our street. Everyone in the neighborhood would go out on their porches to watch as they surrounded the car with their guns drawn and had the driver exit the car slowly with his hands in view.

Haven’t finished off the rolls of film, so I haven’t developed the pictures yet. I’ll post a few when I do.

I’ve been waiting and waiting for American Idol to start back up. Pathetic, really.

The day it was coming back on, I called Daniel to see when he’d be home. I asked him if he knew what was happening that night. He said, “Uh, the most greatest thing in the history of the world?”

That distracted me. What exactly did he think was happening that night?

“Doesn’t your show start back up tonight?”

He knows me so well.

I was watching tonight and Elijah was strumming on his guitar on the couch next to me. He said something but I shushed him. Then I realized what he’d been doing. “You were just playing along with that singer?”

“Yeah. It’s easy to figure out and predict pop songs.”

Can’t remember now exactly what song it was. Possibly “Summertime.”

And now thanks to one of those last auditioners I have this song stuck in my head:

(Elijah groaned when that guy made it through. He said there are kids just like him at his school who carry a guitar around and “play like this”—he strummed two or three chords softly over and over–”and then they say it took them a year to write it!”)

So far I don’t really have any great favorites, except the Mormon guy from last week and um, I forget who else. The hill billy girl was awesome. Oh wait here she is:

Her singing starts at 1:50 or so. What can I say, I love hillbilly music. Don’t believe me?

I’ve posted before about the mind-boggling amount of liquor and donut stores in southern Cali. Well a new phenomenon is springing up: “tobacco” shops.

I noticed a lot of smoke shops popping up all over Huntington Beach awhile ago. But I never really thought much about them, other than apparently people like to buy cigarettes in specialty stores.

Then I took a trip to Venice Beach awhile back. In Venice they’re a little more obvious about what their main product is. Medical marijuana.

In Venice, there are shops selling marijuana that also have doctors who will prescribe it for you on the spot. I’ve heard that the “smoke” shops in Orange County will refer you to a doctor that will get you a prescription. How convenient.

The picture above was taken in a neighboring town to us. There are probably at least ten smoke shops within a bike ride of where I live.

The first art I ever encountered that really moved me emotionally (besides books and music) was the art of Andy Goldsworthy. I’ve posted about him before. He works with found objects in nature. His works are often transitory, temporary—he’ll make a sculpture out of rocks that will get washed out to sea. Or a sculpture out of ice, or sticks or branches. He takes pictures of his art and captures it on film.

There’s a documetary about him called Rivers and Tides, I highly recommend it. Usually when I hear people talk about art the way he talks about art, I get very dismissive, it sounds so hippy-dippy to me. But because his art strikes a chord in me, I love to hear him talk about it.

When I started riding my bike around Huntington Beach a lot, I found myself noticing the same graffiti tags and stickers in different areas. I started taking pictures of the tags and posting them on Flickr. Which ended up attracting people who are into graffiti, who I added as contacts. Before I knew it I was learning more and more about graffiti and specific taggers.

I find myself seeking it out now wherever I go. I’ve always thought graffiti was cool but never paid much attention to it. I’ve been thinking about what the appeal is for me. I mean, I’m a 39 year old suburban housewife. Why would I be interested in graffiti? Part of it’s that I never grew up (mid-life crisis?); part of it’s just my obsessive personality. But I also love what graffiti is. I live in a rich area. A rather crappy corner of a rich area, but still a rich area. Graffiti is not tolerated around here–it gets wiped out pretty dang quick. And part of what I love about graffiti is that it isn’t permanent. It’s transitory, like Andy Goldsworthy’s work.

But mostly what I like about it is that it’s a way for people—I usually think of them as kids, although who knows how old most of them are—to have a voice. To put their mark on where they live. I almost view it as ancient pictographs, which might seem crazy. But graffiti is sort of its own language. If you’re in the know, you can understand it.

I have a Flickr contact who takes pictures of graffiti done on train cars. I see one particular writer (or graffiti artist) pop up a lot on pictures train cars. He’s called Colossus of Roads. He draws a simple line picture of a man with a hat, and usually some phrase underneath. Here is a good example:

I stumbled upon a documentary about two guys, graffiti artists, who decided to try to meet Colossus of Roads. In it they talk about graffiti and how a train yard is like a moving art gallery, and the train cars the canvases. I love that. I find myself being moved by graffiti in the same way I’m moved by Andy Goldsworthy’s work.

You can see the intro to the documentary here:

http://www.blip.tv/file/31122/

The rest of the documentary is in bits and pieces on that same website (I think, I’m not sure if it’s completely edited together yet).

Here are some of my own photos of graffiti that I love:

It says “HOPE.”

This is in downtown L.A.

In an empty lot in Garden Grove, CA.

That’s Nathaniel up there holding my Polaroid. The throw-up on the left says BEOR! and the one on the right says SORAL.

These last two are on a wall in Chinatown in downtown L.A.

Yesterday Nathaniel and I tried our hand at some stop-motion movie making. His idea with the rocks.

Song is Modest Mouse – March Into the Sea.

It was a lot of work for only 21 seconds of video. But it was his idea to use big rocks! He did all the rock positioning. I stood and clicked the shutter on the camera.