PW

I have a friend who uses chopsticks to keep the beat while driving.

I have developed a dangerous affinity for taking (in "taking" do I deprive another of ownership?) photographs while driving. Mostly on the 10 freeway. It seems that Los Angeles is a city viewed mostly from inside of a car looking out at the street. As the song says "nobody walks in LA". Perhaps if you walk in LA then you are a nobody...

It's not enough to be bipedally mobile in our society, that is not dynamic enough, one must acquire the maximum amount of mobility economically feasible by cybernetically enhancements, such as a car, phone, PDA, laptop, shoes.

Chopsticks, taking photos: that's what red lights are for. I shoot photos from the car, but, on the freeway, only if I'm a passenger.

"Taking": (1) In 1970 I lived on the Hopi Mesas for three weeks. As is often cited, the Hopis consider images to be sacred and will confiscate any film or even drawings made in their villages. There are very few published photographs of the Hopi Mesas, most of them date to 1910 and before; after that photography and any sort of image making was prohibited on the Hopi reservation.

"Taking": (2) On Sunday night I went to see the Netherland's Dance Theatre II at Royce Hall. There were the customary announcements about cellphones, pagers and photographs, and, not really listening, I assumed the photograph announcement to be the same one before every Nutcracker Ballet: a prohibition of flash photography for the safety of the dancers.

At one point of the performance, 16 of the dancers selected 16 audience members and dragged them onstage. My daughter was one of them so I took out my digital camera, set it to "NO FLASH" and took a photo. At the end of the performance, an official stopped me and demanded that I erase the image. (He didn't do anything to the fellow sitting next to me who answered his phone (!) and had a phone conversation during the same performance!)

Both the Hopis and the Netherland's Dance Theatre assert ownership of their images, albeit for a different purpose.

Viewing LA from inside a car: yes, you've got the point. Behind the wheel, between the eyes, in my head.

pw