What a Weekend!

Karen drove down from Albany on Friday night. I don't have overnight visitors because I have no place for them to lie down. She is very resourceful and brought a mat and a futon etc. etc. etc. Good she drove. We needed to be up early so we could visit my farmers' market before going to UCLA for the beginning of the LAT extravaganza of books. I noticed that Google has a listing of all blogs that include the full and complete name of the event. I'm not usually shy, but those other guys write really well. So I'll just drop parts of the name as I type. The Times does have its own blog of the event.

Our first panel at the Festival was called Pageturners. It had four mystery writers that neither of us had heard about. I made a mistake getting these tickets. It should have been Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, and T. Jefferson Parker, but I goofed. We decided this was a good thing because we would learn about new authors. In this case David Ellis, Andrew Gross, Gregg Hurwitz, and Karin Slaughter. Thoroughly enjoyable. We were both not impressed with Ellis' latest book that we crammed into our pre-event reading, but it was fun to find that he is a Chicago lawyer who helped prosecute Illinois' old governor. Andrew Gross used to write for James Patterson and seemed to have left out of dismay at the formulaic plotting. So that was a plus. Karin Slaughter writes about children in peril, something neither of us care much for, but I may try one of her series to see if it can be read. Gregg Hurwitz told of a plot twist that he just had to include in a book - man drinking coffee on a quiet morning when he is snatched from his balcony by a Black Hawk helicopter crew. In other words, totally believable plotting.

The second and third panels of the day were held in Korn Convocation Center. The room had flags from all over the world on one wall. Neither of us knew what country was represented by the one above. Any ideas?

We saw Dave Eggers who had just won a Book Prize for Zeitoun the night before. You may recall that I read almost the whole thing. He is a very interesting man. He founded McSweeney which publishes a quarterly magazine of the unusual. And he is involved with an organization that tutors reading in school. Must check that out.

Finally, we saw Yann Martel who has a new book coming out about the holocaust. The story is retold through a fable about two dead animals, Beatrice and Virgil. He also wrote Life of Pi. The reviews in the New York Times and the Washington Post are scathing. Karen and I were considering that this might be worth a try. We'll see. Anything is possible.

Did you know it? Saudi Arabia.

Sunday we just had two panels. Karen selected both of them and they were great. First was Does the American Economy have a Future? This was with Jon Wiener, Joyce Appleby, Roger Farmer, Steven Hill and Matt Miller. I know, I'd never heard of any of them either. But it was fascinating. There is hope, but we must stop doing the same thing over and over. After seeing how hard it is to get change in health care, I'm not too sure how successful we will be in changing our financial practices. Keep your fingers crossed. Each of these folks have written books that sound interesting. I've passed the list on to Adrian, because he loves to read about the economy. I may actually buy a couple of these.

The final panel of the weekend was called Unstoppable Voices. We had five women for a change. That was very refreshing. They talked about how they find the voice for their books. The women were Jane Smiley, Marianne Wiggins, Susan Straight, Mona Simpson and Maile Meloy. I've read books by the first two and will keep an eye out of the last two. As for Ms. Straight. I now own a book with a short story of hers in it.

Karen met a guy in line for the Eggers panel who showed her a great book he'd just bought, Los Angeles Noir. The Noir books take place in cities all over the world and include short mystery stories. We looked it up Saturday night and learned that there are three books - LA Noir, L.A. Noir and Los Angeles Noir. I drove Karen crazy that night saying "remember Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, not LA in any form." Then we both forgot. So now we have L.A. Noir, a book that Adrian had heard about and would like to read, AND Los Angeles Noir. One of the stories in the latter book is by Susan Straight. Small city.

After the last panel we rushed down the hill so we could hear John's band playing. Murphy's Flaw has played at the FOB for several years. You may recall that I went to a coffee house to hear them a couple of months back. They are still good.

We ended the day at Tanino's in Westwood Village. Not very good overpriced food. Is it overpriced if it is really good? The company was good - John, Tom, Jim, and Karen.

A Tree Falls in South Pasadena

Wow, she does exaggerate. What happened was a delivery van clipped the low hanging branch of our pine tree. This was bound to happen. Why our landlord or the city doesn't do preventive cutting on these trees, I'll never know. I goofed on this picture. Adrian's car was right under that branch. It wasn't hurt. The branch is so long that it hung over his tall Jeep. Kinda slowed down traffic, which was great.

The city responded so quickly. We had a cop out front within half an hour. He closed the street. The saw truck arrived about ten minutes later. The tree branch is still out there, cut up, lying at the curb. We'll see how long that takes.

I met the neighbor from apartment 2. Yes, I've lived here 9 years. Your point is what? He's Gordon, just retired from Sears. Has lived in that apartment for 40 years. Wow. He also confirmed that the apartment complex was built in 1949. I was thinking '50's. Pretty close. I just had one art deco element to go on. I also found out that our loud neighbor, Manuel, bugs him too. His car radio drives me crazy. Gordon told me that he does the same thing with his house music. I am so lucky to have very quiet next door neighbors.

I've started a new needlepoint. This one is a picture of a Parisian Bistro. You can see that after a few days I've almost completed a window. There is a lot more to do. This means that I've been doing a lot of listening. I've finished 2.5 books since I started.

I re-read Six Days of the Condor. Yes, six days. They shortened the story to three days when they made the movie to fit better with Robert Redford's image. Why leave him hanging out in the cold for six days? I remembered really liking this story thirty years ago. It's less complex than I like now, but was still pretty exciting. The author does a short segment at the beginning, telling about writing the book and the transition to the movie.

I also read Deadheads by Reginald Hill. This was very good. It's part of a mystery series set in Yorkshire. I like the detectives, Daziel (pronounced DL) and Pasco, and the plot is really good. You sort of know what's happening, but not really and the ending is very good.

I'm currently listening to The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin. This is the follow up to Mistress of the Art of Death, set in the time of Richard II. The heroine is sort of a one woman CSI for the Middle Ages. Fun. Audible had a half price sale on books or I'd be dead in the water. This needlepoint is going to take a long time. See how little it looks on that big piece of fabric?

Just remember how it was hard to see a cat when I started my last needlepoint. He eventually grew into a real cat surrounded by a library of books. It just takes time.

Maybe it will be done before I fly back to Virginia for two months, starting mid-June. I decided to do some summer temp work at Booz Allen. Let's hope it all works out as planned.

Poppy Fields

Every rainy year brings millions of flowers to the California deserts. I figured that this year I'd have a chance to see them. There are many websites that tell you where to go and even have a nice bar that shows you the advancing state of the flowers. Once the bar rose above 4 (out of 10), I figured I should see what's up.

This is a 4.5 at the Lancaster Poppy Reserve. OK, not a great picture, but maybe you can see a hill smudged with golden yellow. I'll go back in a few weeks to see how this has changed. And I will take Adrian's advice and leave very early. Even in this lovely Spring weather we're having, it got hot as I walked up the hill. It was a well-cared for path, but the signs at the bottom of the hill that warned about rattlesnakes were a little daunting.

We used to hike in the Sierra Foothills a lot when I was a kid. My brothers used to catch and skin rattlesnakes and Mom even fried some for everyone to sample. Yes, it does taste like chicken, chicken necks due to all those bones. My sister even stepped on one once. Family legend? In any case, I'm not 8 anymore, not able to leap as high or as fast as my sister did. I watched every little hole and flat place along the trail. I did see two very fast lizards. Let the snakes eat them.

And please let the lizards eat all the gnats that swarmed around my face. They were thick. I held a Kleenex over my nose at some points in the walk. Sure, it was beautiful, inspiring nature. And next time I'm dousing myself with all that bug spray that I didn't use up in Virginia. And I wonder why I don't go hiking more often.

The prettiest poppies were next to the path by the information center. On those long hikes in my youth we used to try to identify all the flowers. There were Belly Flowers, Kneeling Flowers, Bend-Overs and more. I'm sure some park ranger knows all the real names. On this day I saw blue bellies and yellow bend-overs. Very pretty. And the day and the views were worth watching every step and inhaling every gnat. Really

Watch Out

Not everyone is lucky enough to own a Watch Camel. Some people have dogs to watch the doors, we have a camel. We've had the camel since Adrian was young. So was Julie. When she decided that a camel would be a perfect gift for Aunt Peggy, the aunt was curious. It became clear over the years that the camel is here to make sure nothing bad happens to us. This apartment has the perfect look out spot. Some may say it's a 50's design feature. The camel calls it home.

Just behind the camel, the needlepoint has progressed. At one point there was still a lot of blank spaces.

Now I'm writing words and outlining owl's eyes. My punny friends and families would like the catcentric titles of these books: Tale of Two Kitties, Three Wined Mice, and Caterbury Tales. Oh my, almost too silly even for me. I'm almost half way through the finish work.

As I needle, I listen. One of the things I've been doing is re-reading books in my Audible library. I'm very happy that I decided to listen to Legends again. This book won the Times' Book Award for Mysteries a few years ago. Littell did not leave his home in the south of France to pick up his prize. How smart of him. He would have had a huge admirer gushing all over him all evening. This book is probably too brutal for squeamish souls because it starts with a man being buried alive. It's hard to say those people shouldn't worry, because ... Because I can't tell you why. And besides, bad stuff happens all through the book.

It's about a CIA agent who can't remember who he is, he just remembers the legends that were created for him when he took on other persona for his missions. I really love the complexity and language of this book. I may have to read it in another three years.
Audible had a sale on first books in series. They were just $5.00 each. What avid reader of series could resist? First was the beginning of the Kurt Wallender series, Faceless Killers. Good for a $5.00 book. Stuff happens, mysteries are resolved. These are plodding stories. I wonder if the cold has something to do with that.
Harry Bosch is never plodding. I'm sure I read The Black Echo when it came out. Michael Connelly had just left The Times. It was fun to have a guy I knew from afar as a best selling author. The book is rich with the feeling of Los Angeles. Good book, nicely unraveled solution to the mystery.
Red Hot Lies as brought to you by Harlequin. In other words, chick-lit with a mystery twist. OK. Nice look at corporate culture.
Baltimore Blues is about the city of Baltimore and the ever shrinking newspaper world. It's not the Baltimore Sun, but some made up newspaper (I think) that has let the protagonist go. This leaves her at loose ends to pursue her rowing and amateur sleuthing. It was fun to know a bit of the city, she talks about the baseball park and the nearby Lexington Market. Adrian and I got to explore a bit of each. The mystery was OK.Rain Fall takes place in Tokyo. Never been there, probably never will. I have a friend who goes there a couple of times a year. I think he's 75. I kept trying to picture him in this very crowded and fast moving city. Maybe he knows some quiet spots.

John Rain, not my friend, is a middle-aged assassin. He's one of my favorite type heroes who can kick anyone's ass at any time. Do these people really exist? I liked this book so much I read the second in the series, Hard Rain. Why is this so much more satisfying than the Baltimore lady detective? I don't think it is gender. Maybe it's cluelessness. Maybe it's because she could possibly be a real person and John Rain could never be. It is fiction, after all.

The Flaw

I got to hear the band of my friend John on Sunday. They are Murphy's Flaw and they play bluegrass. They also have way too many people for the little stage in this coffee bar. John is 2nd from the right. He's the banjo player. They also had two mandolin players, two guitar players (one is a guest from Nashville), a fiddle player, a bass player and a Dobro player. They were very good.

A few months ago, The Flaw fell to pieces. Many of the band members left. Poor John was left without an outlet for a month or two. But he is resourceful and a good banjo player, so he was able to draw a whole new group to him. They seem to have a lot of fun playing together. After an hour they had a commercial break. The young mandolin player sang the credit express dot com song. Cute. Then he and the visiting guitar player did a few numbers together.

Fun evening.

Do you ever re-read your books? The thought never crosses my mind because I can't see these books. But I've been spending too much money on audible books purchased outside my monthly credits. So I've been browsing my "library." I have well over 300 books. It's been fun looking through them to select a "few" to put on my iPod. That and Per convinced me to read a real paper book by a real Norwegian writer. I don't know which surprised Adrian more - Paper? Norwegian?

Aftermath

They were still sawing on the weekend. No rain, no winds, just preventive measures. Can you see it? The big tree had grown all around the overhead wires that run down the street. After many hours of sawing limbs, they had to leave little plugs of tree that had grown around the wires. You can maybe see the big one in the upper middle of this picture. There are several smaller ones as well. Deferred maintenance. If the trimming had been done regularly, the big limb might not have brought down wires on Tuesday and would not have brought repair folk to clean up the mess for the rest of the week.

What we all needed was the good man, A Zeitoun, of New Orleans. He is late of Syria and a very busy construction entrepreneur. Married to an American who has converted to Islam, father of three daughters and a step son. He stayed behind during Katrina because he had been through too many storms to be afraid of this one. He rowed his old canoe through the streets after the levee broke, helping many people along the way. He also came in contact with those sent to protect the city. Major failure of effort. Major disappointment of attitude.

Okay, that's what I read before I got mixed up with the audio. I thought I was in the first half, knowing I had only one more chapter to read before moving on to the second half. Instead, I'd opened the second half and went to the last chapter. It was there that I found that Zeitoun had been arrested at his own house, put in jail and made inaccessible to his wife. He was mistreated in many ways I won't know, released and the arresters refused to give him back his wallet with his driver's license and immigration papers. Money was stolen from him and all his friends who were arrested with him. By whom? The only people around were the military and the police. Disgusting. His wife was devastated and changed forever. He still loves New Orleans and The United States.

The worst part about the story is that it is true. I won't go back to read the bad bits that I missed due to my error. My faith in the goodness of people is fragile enough. I will have to be satisfied that the Zeitoun's are good people. The bigoted, inept, scared people responsible for helping New Orleans upright itself are now in Haiti. I live in fear.

What is the balm that soothes the savage breast or the mind troubled by the failure of some people to be civil? Mystery!! Fiction!! Calgon, take me away from the reality of life. Ms. Grafton takes me away in the Undertow. Good book, perfectly diverting. Kinsey Milhone is still trying to figure out her relationship with her family. Her landlord is still a sweetheart. Plenty of stuff happens. Perfect balm for Zeitoun. Before I leave that, just let me say that Zeitoun is very well written. I just have a low tolerance for intolerance.

I've gotten a lot done with my needlepoint. Pictures another day.

It's Raining, It's POURING

Surely everyone has heard that it is raining in California. People are worried about the third of our seasons - fire, rain, mudslide, drought. I don't worry because I live on a very little incline and haven't had a fire in some time. However. the weather gods found a way to trifle with me.

First, a huge branch from a tree two apartments up hill from me fell down last night. Once again, fate was kind to me and the branch missed my car. They are sawing it into bits in front of our garages just below my apartment. You can't really see in the picture above, but they taped off the street on the other side of the power pole. One of the wires is down. It doesn't affect my electricity, thank goodness. The men worked on it last night until about 1:00. See just below my window. They had flashing lights and very loud tools going all night. Thank heavens for sleeping pills.

Had lunch with Per and Tom yesterday at The Times in that sad, deserted building. But the company was great. Laughing and talking, just like old times. Then I left so they could go back to work. The elevator got stuck just before the 4th floor. I didn't panic! In fact, I calmly called for help and it came in about 5 minutes. It was an old friend! I told him that I stopped the elevator just so I could see him. Man, I miss that place and all my friends, both there and gone. The funny thing is that I kinda miss BAH in Northern Virginia. Nice to have friends everywhere.

Fork in the Road

Old joke: What do you do when you come to a fork in the road? Take it. It seems that a local Pasadena artist took that to heart and shook it up. He didn't find a fork in the road, so for a friend's birthday gift, he added one. I love this. The road divides at this point and the huge fork has been placed in the median between the diverging paths.

As I am at sort of a fork in the road of my life, I'd like to take this as my symbol. Should I return to work? How should I use my time? How can I give back? What a fun place to be. Sort of like the median in the middle of Pasadena Av.

And here is another thing perfect for where I am in my life. Great Expectations. As I've been saying, that guy Dickens could sure write. He wrote two chapter segments for a periodical each week or month. People must have sucked up that magazine when it hit the stands, because I was always wanting to know what happens next in this book. Young Master Pip was given great expectations by a secret benefactor. How all of this ends up is just like life. How we get there is just not like anyone's life I've ever known.

People will be reading this and other Dickens books into the next century. I wonder which current authors will still be read in future decades, much less centuries? John Irving? JK Rowling? Dan Brown? What makes a book be a classic? I'd say - good plot, fluid writing, and interesting characters.

Another thing always sticks out for me in a book that might not make it a classic is an original way of saying something. Sometimes a sentence will strike me and I will want to write it down and memorize it. I never do, but I'd like to. That doesn't happen as much when I listen. Sometimes the writing just makes me gasp. Maybe I'll try writing those sentences here so I can find out if they make other people gasp.