the reflective path…L.A. holiday

Thanks for all the good vibes and wishes over the holidays. The last half of December was an idyllic time.

It was a great time to be with Betty & Herb and Phil. They enjoyed L.A. to the extent of seeing as much as they could in a short amount of time.

Their first night in town, I wanted to take them to a Mexican restaurant in Echo Park. Hard to beat in my opinion. The place is called Barragan’s and the waitresses dress in mexican festival costumes, you know the white blouses with the puffy shoulders and the colorful skirts. The place has been here in Echo Park since 1961 and our waitress has worked there for 30 years.

As mentioned in a previous post, I like to go there because Wednesday is Margarita night for $2.50, and they mix them extremely strong with a 10 minute latency. I remember one time I ordered a second margarita on the rocks with 2 limes. Two sips into it, the first one kicked in full force. I reached for a napkin and spilled the second one all over the table. That was my cue. I was done. And it was time to employ my DVD rental rule to margarita night. One is enough.

This was a Saturday night though, Betty and Herb were already tired and said they only wanted a snack. Three full dinners later we were satiated, and sat there beneath the glow of Christmas decorations. Faux pine branches with white lites buried in them lined each booth.

This touch was very impressive to Betty and Herb. I guess they thought proper Christmas decorating only existed in colder climates.

I will say it does look ‘off’ to drive past a house in L.A. with an inflatable snowman in the front yard or window. And yes as a whole, I will admit, the South and especially, Raleigh, take home the Christmas Decoration Emmy.

I have heard that Larry and Linda’s house are up for the Clark Griswold Award for electricity usage this year! And, that you could see it’s glow from Crabtree Valley Mall. Congrats Larry!

Alas Echo Park has Baragan’s to set the decorative pace. They are subdued but placed in a way that made everything brighter than usual, which was enough for the right vibe. No need for the plasma t.v. to flesh out the room lighting. Also enough for the next table over to stay for another round of margaritas.

As we left, I noticed traffic beginning to thin out. I was glad for this because I had already gone into, “Militant Tour Guide Mode to Capitalize on L.A. Traffic Patterns.”
The last thing I wanted to do is show them the finer points of L.A. gridlock; Which is easier to find than a Starbucks in Orange County.

Betty and Herb were pleased that Echo Park was a real neighborhood and not burried in abject poverty and squalor. I must say I agree. Echo Park, for whatever reason it’s been slammed for in the past, is very suitable and vibrant neighborhood. People are tolerant and nice, as long as you’re not encouraging automotive horn honking during rush hour on Friday night. Like any other place, people want to do their gig and feel good about being where they are.

Santa Monica is more suburban than Echo Park but retains it’s own vibe. Everything a person could possibly desire to purchase is available. More expensive than Echo Park, but very livable and friendly. The promenade Christmas decorations were blue lights spiraling around all the trees that line the promenade for 3 blocks. There might’ve been some gingerbread stuff too. The night we were there I took Betty and Herb our for Greek Cuisine. It’s a family owned operation and they really named it, “Greek Cuisine”. What it lacks in a catchy name they make up in vibe and amazing tabouli, & babaganush! (sp) (thanks to the Asherby’s who turned me on to this food!) At the time Betty and Herb really enjoyed this place. I began to realize they were digging ANY restaurant that didn’t have fried pickles as an appetizer on the menu. They were open to it and I appreciated their efforts very much.

Greek Cuisine was at the opposite end of the promenade so we had a long walk back to the car. It was the 3rd night of Hannukah and as we approached the second block, I turned to see a giant Menora set up at the entrance of the 3rd block of the promenade. It had electric candles so you could see how many days were lit up.
Since it was the first time I had experienced this and I liked keeping up with the days.

This night there were a handful of Orthodox Teenagers selling Hannukah candles. I could tell it was the last place they wanted to be. I felt a glimpse of how difficult it must be for these teenagers to be out there. They knew most of the promenade consumers were spending money on gifts to put under Christmas trees.

Since there are so many different cultures represented here I began to think of a more inclusive holiday for L.A.. A paradigm shift that was an amalgam of the best of all the holidays.

Festivus.

A viable holiday alternative. Set to music by Philip Glass or Steve Reich, or Mr. Stevo even.

Instead of Christmas sweaters there would be Spandex Jackets.

The decorative light colors could be Airport Blue and Red. Very appropriate for LAX travelers and would save a bundle on Airport decorations. Each plane that landed at night would elicit joyful clapping as the blue runway lights whoosh past the tiny airplane windows. Deboarding, customers would wish the Pilot, “Happy Festivus”, and would recieve a kind nod of thanks.

Instead of eggnog, for the month of December, All Starbucks would be allowed to serve Peppermint Mocha’s with your choice of bailey’s or a touch of vodka. Taking into account, of course, there is a designated driver. I’m totally convinced these drinks are laced with some addictive additive anyway.

Finally, think of all the easy cleanup! After Festivus you could put the celebration pole in the back yard with a tether ball and let the kids have at it. So much more inclusive. I feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.

In celebration of tether ball and celebrating inclusiveness, the Festivus Season Movie would be Napolean Dynamite. Shown 24hours straight Festivus day.

Just a thought.

It’s probably better to leave everything as it is. Just because with the good intention of being inclusive there would be someone who felt excluded and want purple lights; or Johnny Mathis singing songs written by Philip Glass; or naming “The Grinch” the holiday cocktail of choice, which would bolster sales of blueberry schnapps.

The past few weeks I’ve observed so many attempts to be separate and unique; one characteristic of the way I experience humanity that seems to be unifying.

As Jae Brainard has told me many times, “Humans are beautifully complex.”

Thanks for checking in.

Stephen A. Thomas

3 Responses to “the reflective path…L.A. holiday”

  1. Davak Says:

    Great update! We missed you this holiday season…

  2. Larry Says:

    Great post. You mention that you saw many people being separate and unique. Every person is separate and unique, just like everyone else.

    By the way, is this blog a good place for the annual Festivus tradition of “Airing of the Grievances”?

  3. sathomas Says:

    Larry,

    LOL. If I had emoticons we could turn this dialog into txt msg speak.

    This blog is the perfect place for the airing of grievances. As long as the grievances have everything to do with removing the plank of the writer’s eye instead grievances about the speck in someone else’s eye.

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