You know how postcards sometimes don’t ge mailed, and find their way to the lining of your suitcase, to be discovered only the next time you’re packing? This postcard is one of those. So today, a gray morning in northern Michigan, I pulled it out of the lining, cleaned it up a little, and sent it to you.
Just to let you know, it is not always perfectly sunny and bright in glamorous LA. This could be northern Michigan in April. OK, except for the palm trees.
One day we planned for whatever might come, and headed for Long Beach. We could look at the ocean, the beach, or the Modernism exhibit at the Long Beach Museum of Art. The ocean and beach part could almost be Traverse City except for the manmade oil island offshore. OK, and the palm trees.
The Modernism exhibit was absorbing, and I kept making Michigan connections. If I had some time I’d write all about that and probably bore you silly. Maybe another day. A little boredom is good for a person. (There’s an intriguing interactive exploration, Discovering Design, on the Herman Miller website.) But instead of the Kandinsky or the ceramics you get this brick wall from the Museum gardens. It reminded me of Mrs. Uhdd and I thought she should have one for her collection.
Really big cities are full of unexpected art. Some of it was on display at LAX, where it is a bracing antidote to the constant recorded pronouncements by the so-called Homeland so-called Security so-called Administration. I should probably be imprisoned in a room full of Dali for giving you this distorted image of one of Marissa Roth’s black and white images, but I’ll chance it. Somehow, and not just for the shadows cast by palm trees, it couldn’t be anywhere but LA.
And I couldn’t be anywhere but home in Torch Lake Township. Travel is delightful. Home is home.
Torch Lake Views 
dmarks
April 30, 2009
Nice photos. I wish i had some good photos of my LA trips.
Gerry
May 1, 2009
Thanks, d. Good memories are even better than good photos.
uphilldowndale
May 1, 2009
LOL, I’d fallen for the wall before I’d even read the text! You know me too well!
Gerry
May 1, 2009
It’s always nice to bring back just the right souvenirs for one’s friends.
flandrumhill
May 3, 2009
Imprisoned in a room full of Dalis! Ha ha 🙂 I have only one in my office but it’s enough to skew my vision on most days.
You’re right about big cities being full of unexpected art. Why is that? Do artists need the anonymity that’s present in larger populations to suddenly feel safe to come out of the woodwork??
Gerry
May 3, 2009
Dunno. Mostly I think big cities have room for everything. The sheer number of people of all kinds and tastes and abilities means that a city reaches critical mass of, say, people who have a serious interest in art. There’s unexpected art everywhere. Look at Daugherty Johnson and Dale Reedy and Babs Young and Betty Beeby. But there’s more of it in big cities. There’s more of everything in big cities.