Category Archives: L.A.

Last

The name “David” means “beloved” in Hebrew. David Lawrence Young Sr. begat David Lawrence Young Jr. David Lawrence Young Jr. begat David Lawrence Young III. David Lawrence Young III begat David Lawrence Young IV. My father, David Lawrence Young III, … Continue reading

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Annual

For as long as I’ve been able to drive, and except for the years living in China, I have always driven up into Angeles Crest National Forest to Mt. Lowe  at some point during the week between Christmas and New … Continue reading

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Solstice II

For winter solstice, I treated myself to a pseudo-pagan feast!  A year ago on this day, I was waiting to fly through the longest night of the year.

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Ninety

It’s been ninety days since I last had alcohol.  I plan to break my alcohol fast on my trip up to San Francisco to see The Last Jedi with friends.

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Love & Narrative

All that being said, there are only two things in the universe which—despite evidence to the contrary—I have chosen to believe in:  love & narrative.  These two ideas are so important to me that I’ve even broken with my strict … Continue reading

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Belief

My dear friend Debbie told me that she had gotten into an argument about the differences between “belief” and “faith” and “perspective.” Perspective has two senses.  In the sense of “Well, from my perspective…” then, yeah, it’s closely related to … Continue reading

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Archstone FLASHBACK

I was digging through some old MediaWiki data and ran across these photos from when I first moved into & decorated my old apartment on Arroyo Pkwy and Del Mar in Pasadena.  

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Nerd

I’m allergic to taking selfies, but I felt like a needed to document the result of my presbyopia diagnosis.  It literally means “old man eyes.”

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Veterans

On this Veterans Day weekend, I find myself reading Thucydides‘ History of the Peloponnesian War and just came to the funeral oration that Pericles gave for the annual commemoration of the Athenian war dead.  I was particularly moved and saddened by this … Continue reading

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Melancholy

Over the years, I’ve joked with close friends like Martin and Ben about my life as if it were an indie movie.  A handful of things happened over the last couple of days which, once again, felt like a series … Continue reading

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Tempo

Apologies if this has been glaringly obvious to everyone else, but it just occurred to me that living in the era of ubiquitous instantaneous yet asynchronous communication (i.e. email, text messaging, & other forms of direct messaging) gives each of … Continue reading

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Delight

In reevaluating what I value in life, I keep coming back to how important I find the concept of delight. “Delight” and “delectation” both come to us from the Latin word delectare meaning “to charm.”  So, there’s that important connotation of … Continue reading

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Hole

This week, I stumbled on a metaphor for how I’ve been feeling about life: I have this hole inside of me.  The hole is despair.  It’s painful to look at the hole — or even think about it — and … Continue reading

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Portrait

At some point in high school, a friend demanded that I read James Joyce‘s The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.  I promptly bought a copy, put it on my bookshelf, and ignored it for a quarter of … Continue reading

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Appointed

At least once a week, I think of this moment toward the end of Brewster’s Millions.  It reminds me of the sand mandala.  There’s profound beauty in getting something exactly right, even if it’s just for a fleeting moment.

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