Dottie Angel - The Sweet, Whimsical World of ..........

Here's another one of those endlessly creative people.

How does she do it?

With multiple animals.

Multiple kids.

Multiple impulses.

A beautiful and unerring eye for color.

And the energy

to fulfill dreams!  (Could somebody?)  Make me more like her!

All pics Dottie Angel

****  Bonus links:  From earlier this week: Two fascinating, sobering discussions about Women and Art/Education with Judy Chicago and Bisphenol A and other plastics on WNYC still my very favorite radio station.  

My Mobil Home - Latest

How was the weekend everybody?

Just some Spring pretties

from this lovely blog by Anne Millet

that I've shared with you before.

All pics, My Mobil Home.  I love her way with color.  Perfect for the season.

Silver Lake Spring Weekend

Looks Like Spring To Me

(via Planete Deco and BOLIGmagasinet, Photo: Martin Durlov)

Loved this pic with its Easter Egg yolk-ey yellows and exuberant caladium.

And this one with the yummy green chairs.  What do you think?

  Have a LOVELY, SPRING-EY WEEKEND!

Downtown L.A. Walk - Part Two

I'm struggling to find words this week, after a very busy and exhausting month of February.  So I'll just try keep it simple.

The Ace Hotel from the Back

Bottega Louie lives on.

And it is still crowded and noisy.  (With still the best croissant in L.A. IMHO)

If you haven't had Bolivian cuisine yet, what are you waiting for?  Mo-Chica's seviche are supposed to be amazing.

L.A.'s skyline has ambitions, shall we say.  It's not quite NY!

Haven't tried it but it should be good.  Josef Centeno, the chef/owner practically invented the Downtown L.A. food scene.  When he was at the Lazy Ox, it was the Paradis family's fave restaurant.

Greening of Downtown L.A.?  It is a good thing!

A very arty street in the old "Bank District" just North of where the Ace is.

Along with the "Arts District" further East, this neighborhood seems to be

one of the most vibrant in Downtown L.A.  (Yes I think that's new housing coming!)

Though it retains many of it's noir-ish (Raymond) Chandler-esque charms.

Then again.

Let's just call it.

Multi-faceted!

NYC: At the Metropolitan Museum of Art

What can I say about the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York?

Except that visiting the Met

is like encountering the souls

of beloved ones

now departed.

If I were able to move into the museum

like Jamie and Claudia do, in The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

I could live with them again in a dream

of forever.

Me and my spirit guides.

It would only take me a couple of lifetimes to learn how to sculpt like an angel.  But I like to think that I'd get there in the end.

Here's a link to the Museum's website - well, especially to their publications which are an underappreciated treasure trove.  Enjoy!

We Have to Do More to Help Syrian Civilians - And We Can

I was originally going to post the usual cheery photos for this weekend.  But instead I'm sharing pictures of Yarmouk, an area of Damascus where people have endured the violence and isolation of war for years and are now starving to death.   Reporting from Lyse Doucet of PRI's "The World" (click the link) this week has been eloquent and devastating.  I will let her tell you what she has seen.  My words couldn't possibly measure up to hers.

These people are Palestinian or of Palestinian descent, refugees from the war of the 1940's many of whom, because of their long-standing stateless status have not been eligible for passports and so have been unable to leave Syria and the war.  

  (Photo:  Hosam Katan, Reuters)

I have to admit that I have become deeply discouraged about peoples' ability anymore to be good

(Photo:  UNRWA via Reuters)

to each other and to take care of each other.  We are living in a historical period of unprecedented wealth, creativity and possibility.  Globalisation has brought us infinitely physically closer together and instead of making humane compassionate choices to make a better world we have defaulted to selfishness, violence and hate - and just as lethal: indifference.  To be sure, if we are not simply indifferent, many of us are overwhelmed.

If you listen to Ms. Doucet's reporting she will tell you that the scale of the suffering in Yarmouk is not conveyed by the photos that we see.  In fact in the U.S. we are seeing very few photos at all in the mainstream press.  (Googling this subject in English yields very little information.)  I know that my blog has very little impact in the world but it's the least that I can do to share what the scraps of information that have come to me.

A UN aid agency has finally reached Yarmouk - with a pitiful and apparently utterly inadequate 60 packages of food on its first visit this week.  The UN has returned since, I believe.  BUT THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO DO.  It's reasonable to imagine that Yarmouk isn't alone and that even the UN faces limitations.

So I feel I have to do SOMETHING.  I just can't stand by and listen.  WE CAN ALL DO MORE.  I'm going to be contacting every politician and agency that I know of to beseech them to do MORE to help the civilians remaining in Syria.  You could too.  Here's a link to an Avaaz petition to Leaders of G-20 Nations which is a place to start.   

If this story distresses you too, it would make you feel so much better if you act.