Faithful readers will already know that I’m a liberal. But just to make it clear, I am a liberal with a neon pink capital “L” that you can see from space. I am a civil-libertarian, an authority-suspecting, e-waste recycling, workers-rights-supporting, gun-controlling, universal healthnik, who thinks it’s the government’s job to regulate corporate polluters and hedge […]

With the air show, my micro-campaign for the new G.I. Bill, the discovery of the cooling-vest charity and Memorial Day, it’s been a strangely military May at the normally not-so-military Cohen household.
To learn how it came to be, you’ll have to read the posts to come this weekend, but for now, get warmed up:
Read […]

A day at the air show can leave you breathless, but too sun-drenched to blog — so we’ll have to let the picture do its thousand words. More on the March AFB Airfest 2008 to come — once we catch our breath.

M&M have arrived, providing us with a reason to celebrate and the main ingredient for the feast: grass-fed beef from the Hearst Ranch in central California. Laurie Sue will join us, so we’re preparing a leisurely dinner for five, with lots of delicious food and lots of time for meandering conversation. Last night, Val and […]

Damnit! It turns out that I can’t do a major website relaunch and keep my whole house out of whack with my do-it-yourself realist painting workshop. Too much chaos! Website work wants order! Okay, break down the still life, resked the whole thing after the launch and visit of M&M next weekend.
On the M&M visit […]

I’ve seen lots of paintings in the last few weeks: three juried group shows and an exhibition at the Long Beach Museum of Art. It’s been good; it sent me off on my current realist exercise and it’s been sort of encouraging. I feel a happy understanding of the language of paint. It is good […]

I spent the afternoon mixing medium into color — sitting on the back porch, listening to Miles Davis and thinking, “this is the best goddamned job I’ve ever had.”

The vine is going to town! And …

Ajax is getting into his daily summer sunbath routine.

I know I said the curation of the recent portrait exhibit at the Long Beach Museum of Art fell flat, but the paintings themselves left an impression on me. I found myself thinking a lot about the high level of technical performance required to create the hyper-real portraits in the the show. So when — […]

Wow, things are suddenly so busy here — only time to bang out a roundup.
Doing: With Val’s hot, under-the-hood stylings, I’m redesigning a new and streamlined CaliforniaAuthors [sketch], with a simultaneous rework of thenightnote [sketch]. Also: I’m still on board with Claudio, helping him with the lightning-fast launch of his dream practice. While he works […]

We have found the first sign that the vine has restarted its annual journey! The first growth of the vine means happy Spring! Here’s to the grapes of Fall, 2008.

To see another picture of the vine, click

… as covered in the Grunion Gazette, now officially the only newspaper that cares about me, and conversely …

My test/procedure at the audiologist went well and I am cleared to resume my normal activities tomorrow, including driving. It’s funny how news like that can make everything beautiful. The California sky was California blue. The sunlight caught in my Parisian perfume bottle, made a light show in my cozy bedroom. Val took photographs. The […]

Well, faithful Night Note readers, I’m going to be away from my desk for the week, because I’ve got a case of benign positionally induced vertigo — an inner ear problem in which calcium crystals form in your inner ear, shift around when you turn your head a certain way and make your brain think […]

I recently started using a new knife — an old knife I used to use all the time, one I learned to cook with.

For a long time now we’ve had a nice set of kitchen knives. We use them all constantly, and I’m pretty adept. But they’re not the kind of knives I started with.

There’s a lunar eclipse! Right this minute! Here’s a pix of how it looks from Covina Avenue. [thx for the heads up, Laur]

Okay, dragging my ass home from Fluklahoma — as slow as the Greyhound local, stopping at every little bumfuck town from here to Wellville. I got a euro-postcard from M&M. Yeah, got to keep in touch. So here’s a little news from the road back to Normal (wherever the hell that is).
Listening to: Amy Winehouse. […]

Okay, need a test to see if you’re truly over the flu? Get dressed, drape yourself with a glittering and heavy collar of Mardi Gras beads and walk the 6 blocks to your polling place to cast your vote for your candidate for President. Shaky, clammy, icky? Crap!
No! It’s not because I voted for Barack! […]

Well this was the first shaky-kneed day back for me. All day I felt like a wet chick. Val’s doing much better and is back at work. I’m wading through e-mails, washing pajamas, paying bills, thinking I’m gonna need to lay back down. I just wanted to thank everyone who commented and called. It is […]