June 28, 2021 Commentary with my son

June 28, 2021 Commentary with my son: They call it “La La Land” for a reason. There is good amount of dreaming but there is also a good dose of reality. COVID-19 provided the reality check to an industry that has relied on people getting together in a packed space to consume entertainment. The Sunset Strip. The Comedy Store. Whiskey a’ go go. People have to gather at a place to be able to provide the patronage for this profession. And even though aquariums are open not all the venues are open in LA. COVID-19 might have disappeared from the LA Story, there are still pockets burning with the energy of frustration. But I spent the day with a few people who were able to take that energy and convert it to creative energy and strive to improve upon what was planned just before the pandemic. I had the opportunity to see the work of an artist whose hands can sculpt things from clay, and listen to the music that is made right there right then. Within that creative energy, it is easy to put COVID-19 out of mind for a bit until reality come crashing and you realize that the Lockdown has been extended. Another 15 days. Will that make things safer? Will we be closer to looking like the scooter studded walk along the Pacific at Long Beach after the lockdown is over. It is not about the place; it is about the attitude that has overtaken life in Southern California with the summer holiday kids crowding at the Manta Ray petting pool at the aquarium. A sense of satisfied victory is around, wine and pizza in the afternoon, sitting around and learning about the work of an artist, walking around in Century City Mall and people watching. The World was as if the last several months in Pasadena and West Hollywood was the hibernating period and we have all woken up. Yet in Salt Lake there is the slight hesitancy about going out in the car. The frantic calculations of when to do the RTPCR test if one were to be flying domestically. The anxiety whether there will be Ola at the airport. For the nomad it is only a set of hoops, things one has to comply to in order to retain the freedom of movement. If space and place have to be made irrelevant then getting back on the road is the answer. To get a tow hitch welded to the car. I was shocked by the price. Hook up a trailer, hit the road, make people laugh with your music and go entertaining. The freedom to be able to go places because place at some point will become irrelevant if we are to learn from COVID-19. But looking at the World I am sitting in, the desire to normalize place is paramount in our minds – be it through an aggressive re-occupation of the forbidden spaces. The bar. Or by continuing policing of places by allowing limited access. The bar. Two places, two rules and the nomad lives through “another day another town.”