Subtle by comparison

Long time, no blog. Sorry about that.

This weekend, I'm in Tucson, Arizona. As luck would have it, they are having an unseasonably "warm" snap, not dissimilar to the one we've had in California - just hotter. This is desert, after all. This sure has been a funky year for weather... hotter hots (90's in LA in early March), colder colds (feet of snow in Seattle with my friends Karen and John), unusual flip-flops of season at inappropriate times.

Tucson, on first look, and of course in comparison to Simi Valley, is brown and flat. Neither trees nor buildings out here are very tall, and it all sprawls out on the floor of the valley. The roads follow a pretty easy grid system downtown, although some bright spark decided that it would be cool to have numbered roads in both directions... 6th Street runs north to south, 6th Avenue runs east to west. And yes, there is a section where they weave across each other. I met a gal that owns a coffee shop at 4th and 5th today, and I'd like to stop by tomorrow for breakfast. The odds are good that I'll go to the wrong 4th and 5th first!

Having grown up in Merrye Olde England, I notice green. In Southern California, we have a lot of green because we plant grass in the middle of our desert and water it incessantly. In Tucson, they're a little more environmental about it, planting what grows, embracing what is supposed to be here. The lack of green is shocking, but understanding the eco bent makes up for it. The light is clear, the space expansive, and the natural beauty subtle.

It also occurs to me that I have grown so used to the density of LA that it took me a while to grasp that the town wasn't deserted, just more spread out. They also haven't embraced LA's seeming need to tear everything down every 10 years to start over - or at least to change the facade to the flavor of the decade (remember the Miami Vice pinks and peaches in the 80's?). There are some interesting older buildings, and tons of fabulous old signage, all perfectly serviceable and thus all still standing. I really enjoy how that gives the place character. The picture above is one such character - a building that was once a video store and is still a memorial. It was also heartwarming to see that despite its defunct state, the mural wasn't covered in tags. A subtle respect for the art.