Venus, Christmas 2013

I spent a quiet Christmas day by myself.  Then in the evening I drove out to Santa Monica and took a leisurely walk along the bluff path.  It was an unusually warm evening and some people were actually out in their summer clothes. At times there was a fairly strong wind, but even the wind was warm. There was one bright star visible as the Sun sank behind the ocean's edge. Presumably it was Venus, the 'Evening Star'.

And people who hold "The Little Prince" dear to their hearts may find this view oddly familiar.

An oddly related post:  Cool Tattoo Et Le Petit Prince

My Tattoo

My no.1 favorite insect.

And my tribute to it (by way of Hokusai).

"Love Hurts"

Sometimes true, like many another cliché.

Hello Kitty Tattoo

Tuesday was May Day.  Which meant there was a convergence of multiple protests and demonstrations in downtown L.A. Which meant heavy police presence, traffic detours and (more than usual)general rowdiness.

 HELICOPTERS OVER PERSHING SQUARE

The evening rush in my downtown neighborhood is bad enough on ordinary days, but with a number of lanes in the heart of the jewelry district closed to vehicular traffic, the streets had turned into virtual parking lots.  Still, I figured I just needed to be patient and presently I would be home.  Complacent fool me, I had forgotten my own dictum:  "Everything costs more, takes longer and hurts worse than you thought".  As I approached my building I found the street was closed off at both ends of the very block I needed to access in order to enter the garage.  As there are hundreds of residents who park in the building, I imagine there was many a disgusted curse pronounced in the direction of City Hall Tuesday evening.  Anyhow, I decided the best thing to do was to get out of downtown, have a leisurely dinner elsewhere -- taking as long as possible -- and come back after a few hours.  Which is how I ended up in a Mexican diner in Hollywood at 8:00 PM.

In the end, the evening worked out all right.  The food was delicious, and while I was making inroads on my chile relleno a young woman came in who had an interesting tattoo on her calf -- in addition, I'm certain, to others that were not visible, as well as piercings other than the one through her nasal septum.  Naturally I had to ask for permission to photograph it, which she was happy to give.

Koi

Today I had lunch with Mom at our favorite Chinese place. There was a young couple seated at the table next to us, and I noticed the head of a fish peeking out over the back of the girl's top. It so happens I'm a fan of the colorful Asiatic ornamental carp, best known here in the U.S. by their Japanese name koi. I asked for permission to photograph the tattoo and got it.

Which reminded me of this.


On that previously-referenced trip to Jeju-do, South Korea, I happened across a beautiful koi pond in a park. Such extravagantly glamorous fish -- It's as if they were born wearing embroidered silk robes. And I'd say the tattoo artist did a fine job of capturing their sinuous beauty.



There are koi on the noren curtains in my flat as well. Wonder if they taste as good as they look? Just kidding.

Cool Tattoo Et Le Petit Prince

A mystical-looking image on a pretty girl at the market. The Etz Chaim, the Tree of Life -- or possibly it's Yggdrasil, the World Tree? But with those lower branches spread like arms the tree looks curiously anthropomorphic. I think it's a Mandrake Tree.


Which reminds me of something that happened years ago. I was at the Tower Records on Sunset Blvd. (it's no longer there -- the store I mean, not the boulevard), standing in line to pay for my purchase. The young woman in front of me was wearing a tank top, and I recognized the tattoo on her back as the last illustration from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, the one that shows a lone star shining above an empty desert.


I said, to the back of her head, "That, to me, is the saddest and the most beautiful landscape in the world", nearly-quoting the memorable first line from the last page of the fable.

She turned and looked at me with surprise on her face, obviously delighted to have run into a kindred spirit, and said "Yes, but to me the stars are laughing" -- not quoting so much as encapsulating another passage

Thus we began a whole little discussion about The Little Prince and Saint-Exupéry, feeling so cool and literate (well, I was -- don't know about her; for all I knew, she spent her evenings engaging writers in highfalutin' discussions in chic, slightly-shabby cafés frequented by unpublished professional poets). I was actually beginning to think: Hey, we've maybe got something going here... Then she asked what CD I was buying. I showed her my Luscious Jackson album with the sticker stating "Includes the hit, 'Naked Eye'". She wasn't impressed.