MUD AND ROSES is a close-up of a very large art installation by Anselm Kiefer called Palmsonntag (Palm Sunday). It consists of a huge-felled-fake palm tree and 30+ steel-and-glass reliquary tables in the auditorium/gym of a 1927 Spanish Gothic church which is in a really bad part of L.A. (poor and gang-infested). The tablets are really cool -- large, sleek, glossy with earthy materials sandwiched inside (palm fronds, red mud) and occasional artist scrawlings in French and Latin. You'll have to tilt sideways to look at this damn photo correctly -- can't figure out how to straighten it out!
99-DEGREES-FAHRENHEIT was the temperature in L.A. yesterday; the street is Catalina; in the distance are the Hollywood Hills (Griffith Park and Observatory is just out of view to the left); this neighborhood is largely a mix of Hispanic and Korean folks.
THE OMELETTE below "mud and roses" is an Ames' Saturday special -- made with swiss chard from the garden, sweet Maui onion, red bell pepper and blue cheese.
Below the omelette is the LOS ANGELES DOWNTOWN SKYLINE from Echo Park (which is where Ed played us a little flamenco).
ICE ICE BABY is a Vanilla Ice song that's been stuck in my head since 1991...that's how wonderfully bad it is. The actual ice you see here is from an art "happening" on Saturday in Westchester (near LAX) that re-enacts Allan Kaprow's 1967 "Fluids" in which 30'x10'x8' ice structures are built around the city and left to melt.
