 Since the organically and locally grown avocados on the tree behind my building are in season, I'm averaging one a day. Heaven! To think there was a time when I hated avocados. If only I had a lemon tree (which I had at my last apartment; perhaps my next home will have both). My avocados are fuerte, which I think is the second to the right in this picture. Fuerte is the "original high quality avocado" according to the California Avocado Commission, where I got this chart. black or kidney beans brown rice cherry tomatoes diced avocado So easy! The hot rice and beans melts the avocado. The original recipe had no beans and cheddar cheese as well. It too was delicious. This is the vegan version (but delicious enough for all -vores). I will now go enjoy, while serenaded by my musician neighbor (mentioned in earlier posts), who has purchased an accordion. I was very happy about the piano, but I'm not sure about the accordion... On my way home from the library last week (where I'd gone to check out a couple of middle grade books to see if they might be good Christmas presents for my 10 year-old nephew), I was stopped by a photographer named Mathieu Young (here's his website).
He was doing a video project, walking from downtown to the beach, filming people along the way. He'd done a similar still photo project (it took him four days to make the walk), and now he was trying it in film. Pretty cool to be discovered (maybe) while walking the streets of L.A.... Jazz
The piano playing is heating up next door. The musician keeps practicing scales, plus the first bars of "Clair de Lune." (He never seems to finish it -- maybe it's just a warm-up exercise.) Then, yesterday, he started in on some jazzy Christmas carols. He was obviously practicing the riffing, etc. "O Christmas Tree" and "The Christmas Song," and then, as if my mental request arrived on his music stand -- "Linus and Lucy" by Vince Guaraldi. I now predict some gathering around the piano at Christmas and singing. The Squirrel... Meanwhile, my enemy, the very well-fed squirrel, has started in on this year's crop of avocados. It's very annoying, because they're not ripe yet. He chews around the stems but can't keep a hold of them, so they fall to the concrete below. Sometimes he manages to get through about a quarter of it, before it falls. To be honest, if he's only chewed the stem, I'll take the avocado and let it ripen. So far, no rabies. Really, this is the healthiest squirrel ever -- very glossy coat and thick tail -- what comes from a steady avocado diet. HOWEVER, the avocados are not ready yet. They don't ripen if you pick them this early, they just rot. I have tried to explain this to the squirrel, but he just ignores me. Seeking Fresh Topics So far I've only written about avocados and my musical neighbor! Such is the life of the apartment-bound work at home writer. However, I hope to have new material since I'm heading east, first to visit family in Philadelphia and New Jersey, and then to tour around the Hudson Valley in New York and experience some pretty fall leaf viewing. Surprise!
This morning, after breakfast, my musician neighbor received delivery of a piano. Shouts of glee ensued, along with a lot of riffing. Throughout the day today, while mixing his latest assignment, a pop/disco piece, there were frequent breaks to play the opening bars of "Clair de Lune." Memories... I took piano lessons when I was younger, but I hated practicing and was in general a lousy, rebellious student (ditto for guitar and oboe). I loved playing though, and after my parents lost patience and stopped paying for lessons, I played a lot. "Clair de Lune" was also one of my favorites, along with the classic "Fur Elise," which I memorized, along with "The Theme from Romeo and Juliet." Interestingly, another tune I loved to play was "Tubular Bells" from "The Exorcist," even though to this day, I've never been able to get through the movie (I'm VERY easily scared). Cocktail Hour This evening, the musician has segued from "Clair de Lune" to jazz riffs, like the kind you hear at a piano bar. I predict future gatherings around the piano and singing by friends and family. Once again, just like the movies... In the movies...
When I watched movies as a kid, I loved how people who lived in the city (especially New York City) always had someone an opera singer living upstairs, or a piano player across the courtyard or could hear a saxophone coming from nearby. In Manhattan Then, when I moved to New York City to go to film school, I actually ended up with an opera singer living upstairs. Her singing echoed across the courtyard. In another building I lived in, there was a trumpet player. It was just like the movies! Here in L.A. I now live next door to a musician, who writes music for different venues -- films, TV, commercials (from what I understand from his cellphone conversations -- the buildings are very close and I can hear EVERYTHING). It's all original music, all in very different styles, although he may be writing music for a demo too. Luckily, I like his music, because I often have to hear the same tune over and over and over, as he works on it, or listen to just parts of it, over and over and over, as he edits/produces. His relentless work ethic is actually quite inspiring. He revises and revises, just like I do when I write, down to the tiniest detail. Mostly, it's just really cool. A couple of days ago, I heard him working on the lyrics with a collaborator. They sit out back under the avocado tree (the tree is actually on their property, although the branches happily extend to our side), and brainstorm. It's so awesome to hear them discuss phrases and rhymes -- it's just like the movies!! Right now, as I write this, he's playing his guitar. Just a short, sweet acoustic riff. I think I'll go listen... Guacamole? What's that?
When I first moved to Los Angeles, I didn't like avocados. I hadn't had a lot of them, mainly because I lived in the Northeast (before guacamole became plentiful everywhere). After I moved here, they'd show up in salads and other dishes, and I might take a bite, but mostly I picked them off. However, being a "thrifty" person (a nice way of saying cheap), when I moved into an apartment building with an avocado tree in the backyard, I wasn't about to let all that free food go to waste. The Experimental Gourmet Oddly, instead of just making a lot of guacamole, I became obsessed with finding recipes for all the falling fruit. Among the strange items I made: avocado ice cream (really!), avocado pesto, and a bizarre "New Wave" guacamole with very strange spices I can't remember and which you ate with fried wontons. Usually I am too cheap -- I mean thrifty -- to throw out the result of any recipe I try, no matter how disastrous, but I admit the ice cream landed in the trash. The others I stuffed down, gagging. (Actually the weird guacamole was okay.) Somehow, eventually, I grew to love the cute little green things, and I found actually tasty recipes for them (including one published in Cooking Light: avocado, brown rice, black beans and cherry tomatoes -- easy and delicious). Paradise Now I love avocados. I can't believe there was a time when I didn't! I'll eat them with just some lemon juice and salt on top, with chips. Or just salt and no chips. Or just...avocado... |
KathyI'm a novelist and screenwriter living in Los Angeles. Find details on this "blog" about my books and appearances. Want to reach me? You can Contact Me here. What I'm working on now:
- A new YA novel - A middle grade novel - An original screenplay for the Disney Channel Writing Book of the Month:
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