This past Thursday, Nate and I took the metro into downtown LA for the monthly art walk event.  Dozens of business and stark empty halls transform into colorful displays as dusk approaches. 

First, we found our way to the menagerie of food trucks nestled tightly together in vacant parking lots.  Now full with colorful doors and windows shaping an eclectic food court, we were almost paralyzed by our options: pulled pork, creative wraps, dim sum, fusion tacos. It was a feast for the eyes, ears, and nose for sure.

After our bellies were content from the Lobster Truck and French Fried Chicken Truck, we meandered through the different art galleries.  We pondered the meaning of someone taking old scraps and binding them together with glue and paint to make a wonderful art statement.  We were also struck by the notion that in a city struggling to redefine itself, we were instantly handed maps to art walk despite the others walking by too.  Did we stick out that much? 

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Let’s see. What are you doing this Thursday? Could it be that some turkey is in order?

I’m not one of those lineman-caliber eaters myself, but I do enjoy a number of the holiday’s particular flavors. I’ll let the cooks in my home do their thing, then I’ll set to carving, and soon we’ll gather and eat, friends and family. Perfect.

What I’m not so sure of is whether the TV will be buzzing in the background. We watch our share of football in our family room, but we’ve no fans in-house of any of the particular teams this Thanksgiving, and since the day kicks off with one potentially horrendous mismatch—Lions vs. Patriots—it will be hard to get sucked into the day’s “drama.”

Christmas is coming, though. For several seasons now that has meant one mammoth matchup or another, usually involving the Lakers, who are both a regional favorite and wear championship mantles.

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It is an amazing time to be alive.  Never before has information been so accessible or so fast.  Airplanes have internet and fuzzy ant television is now a thing of ancient history.  Changes in media culture are happening quicker and quicker.  Take the time between the inventions of radio and television… it was decades.  Now it’s a matter of months before the new gaming system or new iphone comes out.  People not only expect this, but also make their lives revolve around the latest and greatest.  The pressure to keep up with the Jones’ is pretty overwhelming.  Today will be marked in history as one of the largest audiences ever at and watching Michael Jackson’s memorial, I can’t help but think if this had happened 10 years ago, would it be the same?  Celebrity culture has always been an odd and awed phenomena, but with the advent of everything happening so quickly – it has definitely been thrust even more into the spotlight.  Fans on CNN who were hanging out at Neverland called him a “prophet.”  And the outpouring of tributes and grief are like nothing the world has seen.  I’m not even sure if Princess Diana, who likewise had an enormous outpouring of tribute and grief attributed to her death, had the massive amount of attention that I’ve heard from my friends all over the world who are struck by Michael’s impact there.  Sure in Los Angeles, it’s kind of normal, but Haiti? People received tickets to Michael Jackson’s memorial on Sunday and could fly half way around the world to be in Los Angeles by Tuesday morning and they are here.

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