I landed in LA two weeks ago, and spent time with friend before flying home.  I was struck by the beauty of California- even with all the drag-strip minimall architecture, and the highway culture, I found it to be a lovely place.  Although I kept expecting it to “look like the movies”, which it never actually did.  There were too many ugly people, too much detail, in fact- films are so physically passive, maybe there’s no way to get that experience when you’re walking around the set.  Maybe I’ll move out there sometime.  I’m thinking about an apartment swap to test the waters sometime after the winter.

Since then, I’ve been suspended, feet off the ground, at my folk’s place, but I’ve finally gotten back into my apartment, and I’m scrambling to get back in the swing.  Beijing was very productive for me, and Boston’s so far proved very unproductive.  I lack an office over here- in China, I had the Tube Station.  I need to find a very isolated place that serves coffee that doesn’t object to me sitting there 9-5.  Which, I suppose, means that I need to find a real office.

True Grounds, over in Ball Square, has 75% of what I need…  It’s not far enough away, I suppose.  Part of what helped me out the last two months in the Northern Capital was that I needed to actually get on my bike and ride a couple miles.  Exercise, like drawing and writing, is its own kind of thinking.

I’ve got to write about forty pages this weekend, by the way, for grad school.  So maybe I should just stop writing this stuff and get on with the work.  I’ll probably pick out a section to post on the main site soon, to give people a sense of what I’m working on.