I’m Going To Hollywood!

I won’t be doing any singing or dancing, I’m gonna buy some food! Not working, over the last ten months, I switched my routine up a bit, this will be like coming home. Right around the corner from the Hollywood Farmers Market, is the new W Hotel, it is scheduled to open early October, a lot of fan fair sure to be going on then. Hollywood has gone through some changes, in the years I’ve been here. I watched it crumbling through the 70s and 80s, all the time, hearing of a plan to revitalize the community. To dream the impossible dream, ya know, I never thought it would happen. I do remember the land grab at Hollywood and Vine, I remember the Brown Derby, it closing down, all the protest over this Historic Hollywood Hot spot, being demolished. It wasn’t until I went to work on the new W, did I understand long term planing, over 30 years, these guys bought the block, store fronts became vacant, Vine was looking more and more slum like through the decades. It was conflicting, the message, all this talk of revitalization, set against the reality, of a community visibly in decline. I am excited about the opening of the W Hotel, a lot of my sweat and blood is in that building. My first day, I was sliced and diced, I was installing sta-form, a metal lath material, concrete being poured at my feet, you know, one of those last minute things, that lath shredded my hands. Most of what I worked on in these buildings won’t be visible, most is covered, the structural concrete. In the main lobby of the hotel I built and set the radius forms, the landing for the grand circular staircase. I think, contingent on my work situation, that maybe on my birthday, my Granddaughter, Daughter, Son In Law, and I can go check out my work. I’ll tell you, building those radius forms, I sure did make a lot of saw dust, the piles that were swept away from curfing the plywood, allowing it to bend, were huge. For two weeks, it seemed all I did, was make sawdust, I could have done pretty good, being payed by the pound. It will be nice to see the finished product, it will be nice to show my family my work, another little piece of me that I’ll be leaving behind. I have a good feeling, I have heard all the thunder, I have seen all the lightning, finely I am feeling the rain, well maybe drizzle, even so, it is feeling pretty refreshing. If I am to start buying produce at the farmers market, it is sure a nice time of the year to start, the air is clear, all the smoke of the fires has blown off, its nearing harvest. It is at this time of year that chocolate peppers come in, along with the heirloom tomatos, the tree ripe avocado, make for a salad one could get excited about. I have a little problem with wheat, its poison to me, I cheat a little, its hard to get away from wheat. Everything works better if I just keep away from it. At the Hollywood Farmers Market, there is a guy, a baker, he knows about these wheat problems, people have, he bakes a variety of sour dough breads. These are not sour dough breads you will find in a grocery, more like the type of sour dough your grandmothers baked. I don’t understand it, the baker does explain it, what I know is, I like bread, this sour dough does not hurt me, something about the sour dough culture, eating the gluten.