Tag Archives: Phillipes

Spring Forward

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  • Lopez Cyn, the Land of Contrasts

NEW *IMPROVED* THOUSANDTH POST!

[Patient Reader, I took a good month off posting; not that it was a good month. Besides civilization and its discontents, there were tech troubles, with software and hard; I’ll spare you the gory details. Consider that I deleted that series of geology posts that had been leading the View, unknowing, towards a brilliant idea. Recall how, marveling at recent changes in the land, and inspired by the synergy of Pres. Biden’s initiative in protecting public lands, I proposed a Nat’l Geologic Monument for the upper LA River watershed. It is an important idea, one that, upon re-View, deserves a more serious appeal than my slapdash bloggery. So, watch this space for the link to a new glossy website specifically promoting the SFVNatGeoMon, soon to appear, with the View’s epic photography.]

Meanwhile (thank Thoth and Damey), via a new set of tin-cans-on-strings rigged to the old conch shell, hot-wired to the rusty TV aerial up on the roof, the View is Back. Well, why not give the New Optimism a try? Trashing a few gloomy public-affairs posts, I have re-set to Post 1,000, and offer this carefree album of Views I’ve had but you’ve missed, this Spring, 2021.

  • Ceanothus, California lilac
  • Warty-stem ceanothus
  • Abutilon palmeri…
  • Indian mallow
  • Miners’ lettuce! Claytonia perfoliata
  • Choreopsis at Pacoima
  • mosses and lichens inhabit a moist geo-hydro-vent through the rocks at Elsmere Cyn.
  • buckthorns
  • Yerba santa
  • Phlox!
  • White sage
  • buckwheat and deerweed
  • Dodgers Stadium
  • Philippe’s ‘The Original’ indoors newly re-open
  • But we chose outdoor dining!
  • Then a stroll through Chinatown…
  • ….like people!
  • Life is skittles, life is beer!

Happy Halloween, And Peace For The Dead

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In memoriam Richard Martin

Mom and Dad shared with all of their kids, their own love of American history and the importance and fun of celebrating social customs. Dad took me trick-or-treating for the first time with Chris in 1969. Dad carried a flashlight and we boys were dressed as cowboys and Indians and I’ve loved Halloween and the West, and bandanas, ever since. Bless you Dad, thank you sir, rest in peace.

By the tricks of goblins, Larry Freedman joined me, and our treat (his treat) was a stroll around the Plaza and French-dip lamb with bleu cheese and Lagunitas at Phillipe’s! First restaurant (parking lot-beer garden) since Covid-19.

  • The Camposanto at La Placita, taken back to the CFP from a dry goods, a hardware store, a parking lot. RIP.
    The Camposanto at La Placita, taken back to the CFP from a dry goods, a hardware store, a parking lot. RIP.

During 30 years of living in LA I’ve watched Dias de los Muertos observances move from underground to mainstream. Since LA’s monuments are often draped in skulls this time of year, I’ve come to love it as a special time, an invitation to honor the pioneers’ struggles and to learn their wisdoms.

  • Don Felipe de Neve, governor of Las Californias and founder of LA, RIP
    Don Felipe de Neve, governor of Las Californias and founder of LA, RIP

This year, Halloween just didn’t exist. Nobody was in costume, no parties, no trick-or-treaters, no giggling Cleopatras getting into Ubers on the corner. With coronavirus aflame in lungs across the land, it is impossible to celebrate Halloween; bobbing for apples is right out. But it’s still the most beautiful season to honor the dead. I went to San Gabriel Mission, mother of Los Angeles.

The dead who built Mission San Gabriel, and Los Angeles, who lie in this historic cemetery, and at La Placita, are sending generations worth of bi-lingual love and the special grace of the Angels, to poor gutted-out Mission San Gabriel. I was happy to see a first-class historic preservation team is at work putting up a temporary roof against the advent of the rains — while they….figure out how to save the building.