Simple lines, so sublime . . .

The sun is finally back in the phrase "sunny California."

Out walking today around the Rose Bowl I saw the simple, sensual lines of this tree that stopped me in my tracks. Like the crease of flesh at the elbow, behind the knee, between the legs, this form had all the sculptural and sensual completeness of a human form with roots.

Other lines of these simple, painted planks of wood that closed off all the streets around the parade grounds in Pasadena are lying inert waiting to be retrieved and stored for the next parade.

Last night at John Lithgow's opening performance of "Stories by Heart" at the Mark Taper Forum I was reminded of how we never outgrow our hunger for stories. This is what the stage looked like before he entered to take us on a trip into the magic of the stories that played a major part in his life. Stories he knows by heart. Being in LA, the center of a storytelling culture, reminded me, too, of how we are all storytellers even if we don't realize it.

Some scenes outside the Taber.