Play of the day

It has been ridiculously beautiful in Los Angeles lately. New Year’s day was sunny and warm. Excluding a few colder days since, it feels suspiciously like spring. This, I suppose, is not the ideal winter for our specific ecology but it does make for glorious weekend walks along the Silverlake Reservoir and outdoor drinking at The Red Lion.

Luckily the warm weather has not hindered the phenomenon known as the ‘winter halo.’ The play of the day is simply this: I looked up at an enormous moon as I drove home around 6:30 today, and by 1 a.m. it was hugged by a perfect circle of something like clouds. It looked like this during the lunar eclipse about a month ago as well.

The sunsets in New Mexico are unbeatable. Nuclear, really, if you follow Delillo. I’d say though, given our temperate climate, the moon in Los Angeles has a spectacular and awesome quality that belongs very much to the city. And when that moon is full, good things happen. Terrible things happen. Magical things happen. It is one among many reasons that this city is livable, whole. Sprawling though it may be, we still have a relationship with the much larger universe. The sky is a serious thing here, light pollution and all.

Look up. You won’t be sorry you did.