Why Not?

"Why Not?" billboard by the AIDS Health Foundation on La Cienega


You folks know that I love spotting odd billboards that pop up around town. Now, there's nothing ridiculous about this billboard itself, but, in conjunction with the gleeful little star, the context made me laugh.

After all, why should one need a condom at the Carl's Jr? ;-)

Enjoy!!!

In the Bleak Midwinter

Christmas Tree ornaments, bulb and lights.

Regular readers of Paideia may have noticed that I've been dealing with a persistent illness for over a month now. It's not something that I've discussed at length here, but I've mentioned it in passing during the Weekly Wraps or when explaining why I didn't stick around longer at an art venue or show. Yet, this illness has made its presence felt by dramatically reducing my writing productivity, as I am constantly feeling fatigued, enervated, and generally debilitated.

This illness has also crashed the blog by keeping me from going out to events about which I would then write. I have missed out on dozens of interesting art show openings in the last month. I haven't even been to Bergamot Station since late October!!! And my Pacific Standard Time explorations have ground to a crawl, although I do hope to have a PST post sometime in the next few days.

Well, why am I going all "drama queen" and writing about my illness today? There are two reasons. First, I want to get this out in the open to explain why I'm not covering the Los Angeles art scene as diligently as I had previously done. Second, I wanted to alert you all to the fact that I might have to reduce my productivity even further, due to extremely overt signs that something is very bad with my health. I hope to get checked up today and, hopefully, given some medication that will fix me up good and fast.

Christmas Tree ornaments, rocking horse and lights.


There are too many exciting and engaging events to miss out on because of some nagging, hacking malaise. ;-)

Like a Kick to the Back of My Head

Concussion: Cerebral Bruising

Alright. Hopefully this post will be coherent. I got into a really bad car accident yesterday and have a serious concussion as a result. Honestly, I'm content with that being the worst of my injuries. Freeway collisions have high probability for crippling and fatal injuries, especially when a small car is hit by an SUV at high speeds. My car was destroyed, but I made it out relatively unharmed.

But this concussion is somethin' fierce!!! My ability to concentrate is almost non-existent. I've got a headache like a bell-ringing constantly in my head. And although I love my family, if they ask me my name, date, location, etc. another time, I think I'm going to explode. But I'm trying to stay positive on the whole matter.

It easily could have been worse. I got hit totally by surprise, so my body was fairly relaxed, allowing the impact's force to rush through my body in a non-disruptive manner, with the exception of bouncing my brain around the interior of the skull. Moreover, although I got knocked into the next lane, I got lucky in that a secondary collision didn't occur. Yeah, all things considered this grievous concussion ain't so bad.



Concussion: Brain Trauma


But I'm can't say that I'm a fortunate man. I'm just not as unlucky as I might have been. Whenever you receive an impact so hard that you lose consciousness, it is de facto an unlucky situation!