___________ Driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles not long ago I headed inland and stopped off in Fresno. The state’s fifth largest city had not been on my list of must-see places, but Paul Groth at Berkeley had assured me it was worth the detour in order to walk the Fulton Mall. Fulton Street […]
A friend gave me a book with this title for Christmas; a collection of short essays about miscellaneous, yet meaningful objects, it’s one part Roland Barthes and one part Antiques Roadshow. Passing through a whole country worth of significant stuff, and with plenty of rumination time behind the wheel, I have been taking things pretty […]
A damp morning in San Francisco requires a good strong cup of coffee but I had concerns. When I was in Portland I had several lousy lattes. I have no doubt there is fine espresso to be had there, given the caffeine proclivities of the Pacific Northwest, and I am sure that I simply made […]
Driving in Los Angeles is like walking in New York. It is utterly unavoidable and constantly shifting between extremes of exhilaration and annoyance. Automotive congestion, like pedestrian congestion, has its own internal rhythms, ebbs and flows, and these can change subtly and suddenly, requiring a Zen-like mastery of each new traffic situation whether on the […]