We may not have Frank Sinatra oozing out of public speakers, making us feel all romantic and ready to buy -- the way Rodeo Drive shopping district does. In Echo Park I would propose Los Abandoned or Bert Jansch should we be so silly as to install speakers on lightpoles. And, in any case, we already have lots of public music coming out of garages and car windows. But Echo Park does not lack for Holiday Spirit, as the photo above illustrates. What you see (a couple of weeks ago) is a vintage Citroen, which was one of two vehicles representing the Echo Park Historical Society. Behind the slight glare of the windshield is Historical Society members waving at you. This is Sunset Boulevard. Three days after the holiday, the lights are still up all around the neighborhood; the vibe is subdued. We welcomed the rain yesterday early morning.

Rodeo Drive? I can explain.

My family and I had the frightening task of trying to "show" Los Angeles to our seventeen-year-old niece, Krista Leeds, who had not visited here since she was two years old, but who is bright and thirsty for knowledge. My plan was to show her everything she expected to see, the L.A. the rest of the country can't quite believe exists -- Rodeo Drive, for example (where we wandered into Cartier and saw a $3.25 million dollar price tage on a yellow diamond ring. To be honest, the price tag was a jackpot. There was not a single other tourist landmark on that scrubby-clean street that could carve out more mental space than that tiny piece of paper.) Then on to the Sunset Strip, etc. THEN, I thought, I would show her our world. Echo Park and vicinity. Elysian Park; Alegria; Chango; the weird ducks at Echo Park Lake; a few of our neighbors; the steep steep steep Baxter hills by automobile; La Parilla restaurant on Cesar Chavez; the Biltmore. These are our tourist attractions. It would be harder to communicate the charms of the Echo to a girl who understandably wants to go home and tell her friends she saw a movie star. You can lead a horse to water....

But it was the holidays, and my plan fluttered away in the high winds, like a feather. Krista arrived at night on the last day of Hannukah. We lit candles, and we all went to bed. Next morning, we ended up going to Skid Row first thing, because it was my last chance to visit the flower wholesale market. And we went to Rodeo Drive last day of her visit. Everything else was scrambled or dropped. So much for a structured presentation of Los Angeles. We dashed out to the Grove. We raced to Pasadena to see The Queen (the movie). Krista asked about homeless people on and off for most of the week. We spent a lot of time at home, preparing for Christmas dinner. It was a great visit.