Bread and Bread

Today's Blog As You Are blogger, Kathy Talley-Jones of Pasadena, California, is one of the least feeble people I know. But even human encyclopedias who spend their free time hiking through the desert have moments of doubt. Read on. Kathy (right), much like her pet tortoise, Kip, enjoys the desert. 3:11 a.m. not yet not yet can’t get up yet 3:24 a.m nope 3:47 a.m. must stay in bed until 4 3:59 a.m. oh all right… 4:03 a.m. What have I gotten myself into? A deadline at 9 a.m. for a script on the power grid of the future what do I know about the grid? For once I haven’t procrastinated but I have to edit and format and come up with ideas for infographics and treatments for interactives and ah shit well I’ve done the best I can tried to make the electric grid fascinating and smart appliances intriguing and 8:58 a.m. SEND If it’s not any good, at least it’s on time. 9:00 a.m. No sign of John. Has he died? Without the normal morning cues he’s slept in, “I have 11 minutes t...

Wednesday night I read in the Writers’ Row series at The Last Bookstore , an old bank converted to a big used bookstore, with shelves salvaged from a dead Borders and a wall clock that leaps forward every hour but is always wrong (well, except for twice a day, I guess? Its marginal functionality confuses me). You cannot get much more Downtown L.A. In 2012 than that. I was a little nervous because Jean and Linda, coworker and former coworker from New York, were there. They’d been to Really Important Readings at Really Famous Places. Would L.A. represent? Open mics are a little crazy. I probably don’t need to tell you that. But my nervousness reached a whole different level when an unbathed-but-not-exactly-homeless-looking guy took the stage with a hard black plastic case. He spoke into the microphone—something about breathing, about making the choice to breathe every day—but he kept wandering away from the mic and fiddling with the case. His eyes darted around, and he ran his ...

I had a dream that I was putting together an Amelia Earhart costume for Halloween, which would have been awesome, but last night was also PEN’s kickoff reading for Night in the City , a month-long celebration of L.A. literary and film noir. So instead, AK donned a fedora and I Googled pin curls. I think I looked more 1940s with the placeholder scarf than with the curls, but AK pointed out that the look I was going for was femme fatale, not war bride. Sort of Veronica Lake-ish ? Here’s Veronica Lake making a public service announcement to all the Rosie the Riveters out there, telling them not to wear their hair like hers. We hit the reading at the Last Bookstore and although the lit crawl that was to follow sort of disintegrated, we met up with Pedro, Stephen, Christine and Jody (below, as cheerleader) at Spring Street Bar. It turned out to be the perfect vantage point for watching costumed revelers. Some club nearby was having a big thing, and the stream of “sexy ...