Speed of Life

 by Gregg Chadwick My brother Kent called me last night while he was dining with our parents because he had a question for me. “Do you remember the name of the French restaurant in La Jolla where they would not serve me Cherries Jubilee for dessert  because I was underage?” We laughed and chatted for a while and all I could come up with was Chez something. Fortified by a double espresso this morning I began to think about that meal and the wonderful times we have had as a family dining out, traveling, and learning about art, history, culture, and food.  My first thought was to check in our collection of matchboxes from our travels over the years. I vaguely remembered a picture of the Eiffel tower on the matchbox and maybe the menu. It was the early 1970’s so likely there was a hand drawn feel to the menu and signage. I was studying French in Junior High and my brother was learning it in High School so we had few problems with the menu that night. We had visited Paris with...

Must Watch - Paint & Pitchfork: Illustrating Blackness | The New Yorker Documentary In a documentary by Christine Turner, the painters behind the official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama share their thoughts on the portrayal of Black bodies on canvas. Shirley Ngozi Nwangwa in the New Yorker describes the genesis of the film: "When the filmmaker Christine Turner got a call from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art ( lacma ) asking whether she’d be willing to make a film about the painters Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, she didn’t hesitate to say yes. She’d followed the work of both artists for several years, once even going to see Sherald’s work in New York while nine months pregnant. And she knew that the only way to showcase Wiley and Sherald in all their glory, she told me, was to “give them the same reverence, dignity, and respect” that they grant their own sitters. The final product, “Paint & Pitchfork,” explores the unfinished legacies of two Black cultural...

On January 6, where was the Secret Service when pipe bomb was found near Vice President-elect? — Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) July 22, 2022 Elaine Luria is a 20-year Navy veteran who knows what it means to honor an oath. She's also in a TOSS-UP district ( #VA02 ) and is very worthy of your support in this midterm cycle. Please follow and support this patriot: @ElaineLuriaVA . #Jan6Justice — Nick Knudsen 🇺🇸 (@NickKnudsenUS) July 22, 2022 “President Trump did not fail to act [on Jan. 6]….He chose not to act.” That’s it. #Jan6Hearings pic.twitter.com/RfS75rg7b7 — David Corn (@DavidCornDC) July 22, 2022 Kinzinger draws a direct link between Trump's refusal to call off the mob and his desire to sabotage the electoral count in service of the coup. "The mob was accomplishing President Trump's purpose, so of course he didn't intervene." The mob became Trump's weapon in the coup. — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 22, 2022...

Congrats Steph! https://t.co/Ih1beq2aGl — Gregg Chadwick (@greggchadwick) July 21, 2022

LBJ signed monumental Civil Rights Act, today 1964: pic.twitter.com/rp2i4eEN41 — Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) July 2, 2022 Gregg Chadwick UCLA School of Nursing Dean Hassenplug Meets President Johnson, 1964 36”x36” oil on linen 2019 UCLA School of Nursing Collection  

From the City of Lights - Paris  Gregg Chadwick Pigalle - City of Lights 48"x36"oil on linen 2015 Kavich Reynolds Productions Collection, Los Angeles, California 

"The Battle of #Stonewall - 1969"  by Sandow Birk 1999 Oil on Canvas, 96" x 120" Collection of the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍⚧️ http://sandowbirk.com/stonewal l 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ #OTD in 1969 patrons of the Stonewall Inn in #NYC rebelled against police who entered the bar to harass patrons. Stonewall is considered a galvanizing event in the #LGBTQ #CivilRights movement. The Stonewall is National Historic Landmark. We Are #SantaMonica #History #Pride pic.twitter.com/dZJ3h11gi3 — Santa Monica History Museum (@SMHistoryMuseum) June 28, 2022

"Car-dependent suburbia is subsidized by productive urban places. That's why American cities are broke. But how bad is it, and who is subsidizing who? Watch the rest of the Strong Towns series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... Urban3 is a consulting company that helps cities better understand the economic impact of development. They have worked with many American cities to better understand and visualize the costs of development, and uncover which properties are productive, and which are not. Some municipalities have been willing to share that information, and it has provided a fascinating glimpse into the financial problems caused by sprawling car-centric suburban development. https://www.urbanthree.com/ This video explores some of the cities analyzed by Urban3, and provides some lessons that cities should learn about how to build Strong Towns." Watch this video ad-free on Nebula here: https://nebula.app/videos/notjustbike...

They Knew. They ALL knew. https://t.co/7UoMPlsrXq — Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) June 28, 2022 Whoa. Testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson feels like the smoking gun. Don’t let them say they didn’t know what Jan 6 was going to be. They knew. pic.twitter.com/5FdLQubC9C — Julie Cohen (@FilmmakerJulie) June 28, 2022 Wow! Trump was told about the weapons at the 1/6 rally, Hutchinson testifies. He harangued the mob *after* this, including directing the mob right at his vice president! — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) June 28, 2022 Cassidy Hutchinson is Alexander Butterfield. She’s connecting Jan. 6 right back to Trump, who did not care that insurrectionists were armed. He knew and still told them to go to the Capitol. — Renée Graham 🏳️‍🌈 (@reneeygraham) June 28, 2022 "You know, I don't f'ing care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me. Take the F'ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let...

At Glastonbury Olivia Rodrigo brought Lily Allen onstage and spoke out against Friday's horrendous US Supreme Court ruling: "I'm devastated and terrified that so many women and so many girls are going to die because of this. I wanted to dedicate this next song to the five members of the Supreme Court who have showed us that at the end of the day, they truly don't give a s*** about freedom." Rodrigo then went on to name the five justices who ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, with Chief Justice John Roberts filing a concurring opinion.  "This song goes out to the justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh," Olivia Rodrigo said as the crowd roared. "We hate you." Thread: https://t.co/LsgTcKEYSa — Christopher Knight (@KnightLAT) June 27, 2022

Full video of Bruce Springsteen performing "Working On A Dream" and "Dancing in the Dark" with Coldplay/Chris Martin at #ColdplayNJ - June 5 | via @buckIands pic.twitter.com/c9ocxRgahU — CPing Media (@CPingMedia) June 6, 2022 Impossible to capture the magic of tonight’s show in one photo but this one captures how I feel. Thank you New York and New Jersey. PH pic.twitter.com/bxxPyvhcJR — Coldplay (@coldplay) June 6, 2022

  by Gregg Chadwick 44 years ago today, Bruce  Springsteen's  fourth album  Darkness on the Edge of Town was released. The wide open romanticism of Born to Run was missing from this new album. Instead we were greeted with a powerful mix of  Steinbeck, Hopper, Woody Guthrie, and Springsteen's unleashed guitar. Bruce's new guitar sound was both lyrical and powerful. I put that sound into my artistic toolbox and pull it out when I need to. In the opening track Badlands, Springsteen howls that "It ain't no sin to be glad your alive." I've held on to that line as a call to action ever since.  Gregg Chadwick Love In Vain (Castro - San Francisco) 16"x20"oil on linen 2016 I had just finished my freshman year at UCLA and  this was my first summer on the Monterey Bay in central California. The pace of life was so much slower than Los Angeles or Washington DC and I found time for study and reflection in the hours after my temp job finished. I would go fo...

 by Gregg Chadwick Gregg Chadwick The Wound-Dresser (Walt Whitman, Washington D.C., US Civil War, 1865) 30” X 24” oil on linen 2011 "The eyes transcend the medium." -R.B. Morris (Poet, Musician, Songwriter)    Walt Whitman's poetry is a continual source of inspiration for me. Whitman's life story is also deeply moving. In December 1862 Walt Whitman saw the name of his brother George, a Union soldier in the 51st New York Infantry, listed among the wounded from the battle of Fredericksburg. Whitman rushed from Brooklyn to the Washington D.C. area to search the hospitals and encampments for his brother. During this time Walt Whitman gave witness to the wounds of warfare by listening gently to the injured soldiers as they told their tales of battle.   Whitman often spent time with soldiers recovering from their injuries in the Patent Office Building (now home to the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum), which had been converted into a hospi...