“The parking lot idea, putting a lot inside Runyon Canyon, is dead on arrival. It’s not going to happen.” – John C. Gile, President, Friends of Runyon Canyon With apologies to Jackie Gleason, what we have here is a failure to communicate. Call it a simple misunderstanding. Or clumsy public relations. Or meager community outreach....
Runyon Canyon Park, the dog-friendly nature sanctuary in the hills above Hollywood, has been the subject of several essays in this space, as well as a scenic location in at least two or three of our books. It’s just about the greatest part of living in this neighborhood, and maybe all of Los Angeles. For...
Animal agriculture is the leading cause of global climate change and environmental devastation. Fossil fuels are a major contributor, yes, but livestock are actually the chief malefactors in terms of greenhouse gas emissions – and a litany of destructive ancillary effects. Environmental harms associated with the meat industry include deforestation (particularly in the Amazon basin),...
Nothing that’s ever walked, slithered, swum or flown the earth has ever been as intelligent as human beings. We’re the smartest species ever. The things we can do with our brain can’t be done with a sparrow’s brain, or an ant’s. Or even a dolphin’s. They’re clever, sure. And other species can do stuff we...
On a recent trip to Madagascar in search of wildlife in its natural habitat, we visited the magnificent Andasibe National Park, where a dozen species of lemur monkeys found nowhere else in the world make their home in the forest canopy. Viewing sifaka (“dancing lemurs”) normally seen only in captivity cavorting in the wild, leaping...
Chameleons are cute what with their changing colors and all that adorableness ready-made for advertising campaigns but when hunting they are less charming more like their brutish brethren that merely slither unblinking and expressionless the toughest poker pedant to take an oath Hippocratic or otherwise you would not find the same cute chameleon quite so...
Looking at the sun and hearing the yellowrumped warblers I realized conclusively today that all of this Everything is a miracle All this Life Please begin enumerating counting to 300 billion and perhaps When you reach the end of your Time here On yes this miracle of the galaxy You will know the truth like...
Tubular tubers must propagate rumors of doves in distress emitting foul humors. Now what would inspire this rank impropriety, this cunning indictment besmirching society? A rift is the answer, a chasm, a cleft, a cleaving, a shearing, a conscience bereft of feeling and thoughts of the popular kind, the ones that come straight out...
Tuesdays around here are Terrific Tuesdays! And not because of Tacos or Two-fers or the hair harvested like sod from Hasidic volunteers (Jew fur). No, Tuesdays are terrific around here, at my place and at the neighbors’. Tuesdays are when our domestic servants, our help, our remunerated slaves, our euphemism of choice – we get...
Look, we’re not qualified to discuss the scientific data on the sun. We don’t have that kind of education. That’s for specialists to debate among themselves. All we know is that there’s a strong case for the sun being the “center” of our galaxy and an equally strong case for us, Earth, being the “center”...
Hope RekindledThis past week has given us more hope for our diseased republic than any other time in 50+ years of paying attention. Observing and participating in a long-overdue peaceful uprising, occupying the streets, feeling the righteous energy of people of all ages, colors, faiths, and wealth (or lack thereof), has…
Used traditionally, in most Western music the bass keeps time churning out fat quarter-notes based on the root of a chord. Ba-dum-dum-dum-dum. On his addictive new recording Tines of Change, the visionary master bassist and composer explores his instrument’s under-utilized sonic possibilities. The concatenation of squeaks, grumbles, twitters, growls, whistles, knocks, cries, howls, and, yes, nice...
