Lately...

I really love the new Kanye West c.d. My friend Dom gave it to me for my birthday and I have been playing it like crazy. On Sunday alone, I must have listened to it at least four times. Of course, I love "Gold Digger," which is played so much on the radio and is such an infectious, funny track. But other songs in the alum like 'We Major," "Celebration," and Chuy's favorite "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" are also brilliant tracks. I love West's themes of losers and drop-out and being poor and being carless or without gas. His debut album was called College Dropout. His current effort is called Late Registration. I guess, I can relate!

Last Friday I went to the Hollywood Bowl with friends from work. It was my first visit to the bowl all summer. I normally tend to go at least twice in the summer. We saw Bebel Gilberto giving a sweet, soothing, sensual performance. And we saw Pink Martini doing their usual set. They started with Ravel's Bolero and ended their show with samba dancers... I think I will wait at least a year until I see them again. Perhaps I have seen them perform too many times. Their shows seem too familiar and unoriginal lately.

Did you guys know that there is a cornfield right outside of Downtown L.A.? It is a few blocks east of Chinatown, just north of Olvera Street, off of Main Street, as if one were driving toward Lincoln Heights from Downtown. It was unbelieveable! It is some four blocks long. They were having a festival there on Sunday (many hippy-types were present). I had the most wonderful, calming time walking through it...