November 11, 1958

The decline of the market,

as well as my lifespan

has had me in periodic bouts of anxiety recently...

Then Michael & Jack climbed into my bed early last Tuesday morning and with a "SURPRISE," greeted me with balloons -

2 foil-shelled reminders of my forced entry.

M & J experience this as a bonding event - we all have annual BIG days on a numbers theme - not realizing that it also marks a flipside; the promise of our eventual separation.

We went to a seafood restaurant for an early dinner with Elle, Jeff, & Alex - Pepperdine students we befriended last year - returning home for a beautiful cake topped with strawberries, blueberries, & quite the pyrotechnic display.
The Kwongs joined us for cake & presents - handmade cards, three potted plants - olive, bugenvilla, jasmine - and a Motawi tile with a FL Wright motif hand-delivered from Illinois (thank-you, Kwongs!) and...

M & J's school and Tiger Scout pictures

"Happy Birthday, Your Majesty"
"You Float My Boat"

revealing a castle

and a boat

Carolyn had arranged a surprise hot-air balloon ride in the Temecula Valley, an emerging vineyard region near San Diego.
But the fierce Santa Ana winds postponed my foray into risky behavior - while fanning several serious brushfires - so we went on to the Orange Empire Railway Museum to see our blue friend,

A creation of a British minister wanting to instill moral teaching - staying on the right track - Thomas the Tank Engine is really a delightful story that also seems to inspire greed, as youngsters clamor for more track, trains, and merchandising.

This is our second Thomas outing at otherwise defunct railroad graveyards (note theme) - a Thomas engine pulls 4 cars of kids forward at 5-10 mph, then reverses -all for about 20 minutes. Dull stuff, really. The incessant picture-taking, official certificate for the ride, and the nonstop warnings to not stand-up just did me in - mostly catering to LA families who've never been on a real train, I guess. It was very cool to see some old trains that used to crisscross LA, before the automobile industry closed it down.

It was a kick to see these retired conductors become kids, again.

***

Back to bubbles. 17th-19th century, pre-American Japan self-described itself as the "floating world" (ukiyo) - a kind of frothy, topsy-turvy, limbo where traditional values became commodified and, as a result, unstable, open to market swings (the modern civil war of 1868 that ushered in modernity followed). On that theme...

Water (Chinatown)

Oil (There Will Be Blood)Real estate (yet to be filmed?)

***

Some recent, favorite quotes:

"The cloying appeal of sitting with strangers in a space modeled after the living room set from Friends, sipping coffee you can make yourself for a quarter of the price and drink in the quiet and comfort of your own living room, was lost around the time real disposable incomes started to plummet Q4 2007."
Eric Janzen

"The only way to make money in a casino is to own one."
Steve Wynn, founder of Bellagio, the Mirage

“The flow of the river is ceaseless and its water is never the same.
The bubbles that float in the pools, now vanishing, now forming,
are not of long duration:
so in the world are man and his dwelling."
Kamo Chomei, 1212

***

Verdict?

It's only money.
(seemed timely to cash my mom's "brick" of 10,000 yen bills I found in her house; saving two bills for Michael & Jack)

***

Wrap-up?

Fires. balloons, assets in smoke

This Advent, I renew my appreciation for calls for hope, comfort, & the laying up of treasures where moth and rust cannot corrupt (Matthew 6:19). Contrary to typical exegesis - eg NAY to material things and AYE to the spiritual - I believe this is an exhortation to act in such a way so that your returns don't degrade; the spiritual meanings are symptoms of a better condition, a permanent life. The problem is corruption; not materiality.

Silver lining? Sadness is "proof" of better things to come.

It's already November 17th, but I stand corrected. I believe the big 50 is also a "promise" of reunion.

Michael & Jack are right.

Kurosawa & Sushi

I took my film class to the Motion Picture of Arts & Sciences (the Oscar folks) to take in their tremendous exhibit celebrating the work of director Akira Kurosawa. They had cool posters - some of my favs were by Polish designers...
and hundreds of AK's paintings, costumes, brushes - even his sunglasses! He was trained as a painter first, drawing all of his storyboards (sometimes with amazing detail), including Martin Scorcese's collection.
All of this previews the centential celebration of Kurosawa's birth in 2010 via an international exhibit, AK100.

I was in a particularly good mood, so drove to Gardena - my "hometown" - and picked-up 25 sushi bentos by...
a hole in the wall country-style, cheap but best sushi in town, sushi. The combo mix below is only $5.05!
You can't beat the presentation - a handsome, white cardboard box wrapped by individual sheets of printed paper knotted by green string:
Hasn't changed in over 40 years and no one can figure out the secret to their rice, which is what makes it so special. A cousin of mine once got the merchant's son - over many cups of sake - to divulge they use an iron kettle and do NOT soak the rice overnight (a commonly held belief for superior rice in Japan).

They are open 'til 3 on Thanksgiving, so maybe I'll make a run!

Big Donut

I turned 50 yesterday, but before posting about that singular event, let me talk about donuts. For a treat, my folks would take us through a drive-in donut shop called Big Donut; a chain, of which Randy's Donuts near LAX is the lone survivor.
The LA landscape used to be dotted with larger-than-life hot dogs and donuts, parked atop stands or wheels...
ending, by contrast, at Disneyland, where castles and iconic Swiss peaks (Matterhorn) were scaled-down.

[Incidentally, my homespun theory about high diabetes rates among American ethnic groups - at least in the second generation - is that they often double-up on both native and host country dishes; eg we had rice AND mashed potato for Thanksgiving; gravy on the latter.]

So I was intrigued to discover Stan's Doughnuts near our home - a father/son establishment with "world famous" donuts. The shop was built around these

peanut butter filled chocolate delicacies...

although the cherry & blueberry danish are equally fine.

I sometimes buy 2 dozen and bring to class or the office. Unlike break-rooms in the corporate sector, where treats are common, hungry academics inhale anything I bring. It's given me more freedom to experiment with recipes, because the leftovers will always nourish a language instructor!

BTW, Stan shines with specialty doughnuts, but their regular glazed, cake, etc - while good - are not (I feel) as wonderful as neighboring stands, such as Brad's or this new one below:


Like Pao's in Tacoma, all of these shops are run by Cambodians or Vietnamese (see the Buddha figure on the counter), who seem to have cornered this market, as Koreans do with dry-cleaners. Pao's still ranks as my overall, all-time favorite.

I sometimes tell my students that these communities (and their shops) are the only places you find a hat tip to religion in America (unless you count outdoor garden statuary which seems heavily weighted toward Eastern iconography - that Zen = gardens equation). I note now that donut shops may be our patisserie, where people sit and enjoy a moment of sweet rest.

News flash: Stan's is featuring their seasonal pumpkin doughnuts, again!

Block Art

Michael & Jack really enjoy these solid maple blocks. The earlier creations, hotels (an unremarkable Four Seasons went up near our house) or churches (buildings he routinely enters), now giving way to "compounds" - a testimony to sprawling LA?

This Playmobil queen spends time in the kitchen
(Michael drew her majesty's two-burner stove)

The knights dump their gear on the floor.

Religious art

Mom & Dad with raised arms

Simba & Jack's "Man" find a niche, as well.

There is, apparently, a new theory in child development, suggesting that boys being more successful at mathematics may be related to early tactile play with heavy items, such as blocks - an early wiring for abstraction. Then, again, I think some guys just go into actual construction. Reminded me of Lawrence Sommers' (possibly the new Treasury Secretary) controversial remarks concerning women and math, during his brief tenure as Harvard's president.

Music lessons

Michael and Jack's Suzuki piano & violin lessons have been going well,

although Jack only works on posture now.

It's awfully cute to watch him bow before beginning his lesson. It's too soon to even think about martial arts, like Taekwondo (M & J are in gymnastics), but these East Asian disciplinary rituals are attractive to many children and parents, as a remaining vestige of respect, duty, & ritual in contemporary society.

Besides music, the day is rounded out by Tiger Scouts, art and French classes, outdoor playgroups. Homeschool mornings tend to be pretty intense and very indoors; afternoons are "out" in the world. Also, seems that more resources are spent in private lessons out here, at least in contrast to people we know in Tacoma, whose children, if homeschooled, spent the afternoons simply playing together, I think. More like what I did after coming home at 3pm; killing time 'til supper.

Tick Tock: "Trick or Treat!"

Inspired by a Lausanne school costume, Carolyn dressed Michael and Jack as jester clocks, with round "Tick" "Tock" signs from their hat tips.

Our empty-nester cul-de-sac was absolutely dead, so we drove over a few blocks and hit pay dirt! Michael was fascinated with teams of youth swarming the night streets - "Mama, kids are everywhere." Incidentally, the housing parcels here are SO big, that the candy/sq ft ratio was skimpy, which was fine with us (boring parents), but I was a little sad that M & J wouldn't have the post-haul, inventory accounting experience that my brother and I used to have.

The parade moment at our church's defanged family harvest party.

As elsewhere in America, Halloween has become an elaborate play date. An outreach to the surrounding apartments, we served up chili and hot dogs to walk-ins. It was a TON of work, and I'm curious at how the post-event wrap-up will go; because our church suffers "low relationality," the entire evening simulated community life, but...there you have it. Then, again, probably appropriate at this point in American life.

Jack's preschool with Mrs Hill: teacher as old witch! (Nice lady, actually).