It's been uncommonly cold here in Los Angeles for the last few days. It's nice to have a change of pace from the perpetual sunny and 70, but this blast feels arctic and the clouds yesterday were quite intimidating. Not since April 1974 when over 100 tornadoes ripped through my Ohio homeland has the sky been so uncharacteristic. All I have to say to that is: Interesting.

I was invited to participate in a panel yesterday for Dael Orlandersmith. Dael is an amazingly brave and daring playwright who's constantly challenging the dysfunctional world we've grown comfortable with. The panel was about family incest, particularly mother to daughter incest. The topic of her newest play. A topic that is quite disturbing and dare I say taboo, but all the more intriguing. Dael wanted to have a discussion about the topic and invited several local playwrights to participate in the discussion and give her feedback about the topic. There were three different "sexual" specialists invited to the panel. And each offered diverse interpretations of sexual abuse between parent and child: one believed sexual dysfunction originates from emotionally empty parents with sociopathic tendencies; one believed the dysfunction should be defined as a behavior that ranges from a mild kiss to penetration. Whatever the behavior, if the child feels "unsafe" or "uncomfortable" it should be deemed as sexual abuse; and the final and third specialist believed sexual pathology was another way the Republicans have found a way to convince Americans that the root behind most criminal behavior is sexual pathos and that the American people have now chosen sexual abuse as the new "witch hunt". He believed subtle sexual interaction within family is a natural as the impulse to eat [with obvious exceptions]. So... my reaction to this topic was this: extremely important. Because human beings need to be constantly challenged to find ways to discuss their honest lives and to find ways to walk the earth as healthier beings. Dirty laundry needs to be aired.

Now check this out: yesterday at around 6:55 pm I was driving down Melrose headed toward Highland. I was with my good friend Jimmie who had just spent four and half hours at Amoeba Music, shopping. And out of nowhere, a mid-sized animal scurried across Melrose like a bolt of lightening. I had NEVER seen anything move THAT FAST. I'm talking Cheetah-speed. I asked Jimmie if he saw it. Of course he says No. I don't know if it was a cat, a dog, an opossum, a coyote, what. But whatever it was: it moved at a speed that made me question the principles of gravity. Now I know I had two and half glasses of a Spanish red at dinner the night before, BUT unless slight dehydration has taken to hallucination, I saw something out there last night. Something fast, something almost... unearthly.

Until next time,

Keith