Andre the Giant has a posse.

I remember watching Andre wrestle a lot when I was a kid, but didn’t realize what a sweet gentle man he was until I watched The Princess Bride last night.

When he died he was 7 foot 4 and weighed around 500 pounds. He just wanted people to stop staring at him. We watched one of the extra making-of bits on the DVD, and apparently he loved making the film because everyone treated him like one of the guys.

He spent so much of his life being touted as a monster for professional reasons, but he was just a big old sweet giant boy.

They said he was too large for a regular car as a kid and one of their French neighbors took him to school in a van or truck he had. That neighbor was Samuel Beckett.

As you wish.

OK, so I may be one of the last people alive that had never seen Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride. Watched it tonight. One more thing crossed off the list.

Realised it came out the same year Joshua and I first met in Ireland. And they filmed parts of it there I think...

Last Friday in Cali.

Went and had breakfast with Moira and Joshua at Rose Cafe, a place in Venice. Moira had a meeting, so we three mouseketeers wandered around the canals for a while. It was a nice dream, the making-a-city-like-Venice thing. Thinking how nice it would be to live on a canal, then saw a nice little fixer-upper for a million seven...

We drove over to Bergamot Station, and Joshua wanted to pull into a photo gallery where he’d bought stuff over the years. Turned out it was this great guy Peter Fetterman, who we’d met at Art Chicago a few years ago. Peter was out of the gallery for a few days, so we didn’t get to talk to him. I remember him being a real credit to his species (the gallery owner) a species which needs some good examples (other than J.D. McFadden of course).

Took Lex out to the Pier and walked back for some nice lunch at a middle eastern place on Washington I think was called Gaby’s...

Riding around Venice on bikes.

The highlight of yesterday was having lunch (a place on Abbott Kinney called Three Square—with a sassy French waitress) and riding bikes around Venice with my friend Peter.

Peter and his wife Katinka have a really fabulous modern house off Abbott Kinney.

We stayed in last night and watched The Wedding Singer, which surprisingly I’d never seen—maybe little bits of it. You can already see Sandler coming into his own as an actual actor, not just a predictable doofus. Love that Drew. And who knew Billy Idol could be such the save-the-White-Wedding-day kind of guy?

Culver City limits.

Went gallery hopping in Culver City yesterday. More than 25 galleries right there in an area a few blocks wide. On Washington and La Cienaga btwn Washington and Venice.

Favorite show was Jesse Reno, a Portland artist who was showing at BLK/MRKT. Reminded me of Casey McGlynn a lot. SHow called Symbols and Beings. Great gallery.

Also enjoyed Marion Peck at Billy Shire Fine Arts. She had one incredibly fine large painting, then a lot of the same riff on little big-eyed children and animals, which goes a long way in my book. But very well done. Billy is the guy who also owns La Luz de Jesus.

Some really fine modern trompe l’loeil paintings by a guy named Ron Rizk at Koplin Del Rio. Reminded me of those great Dutch paintings of still life and things stuck to walls. Ron’s apparently an older guy who teaches around here, maybe USC? Talked to the owner for a while, she was nice.

Also nice stuff at Corey Helford. Andrew Brandou “As a man thinketh, so he is (a visual recounting of the history of Jonestown)”—a little freaky, more cute animals, but great odd narrative paintings.

Also had another lovely meal at Tender Greens and enjoyed the free parking garage in beutiful downtown CC.

Schwimmin’ pools movie schtars.

After a little breakfast, had a busy morning of swimming and hot-tubbing. It’s a tough job, but somebody, you know...

Getty up (some more).

Wanted Lexie to see the Getty, so we went again today.

Had to take the rental car back to a place that was way down Wilshire toward downtown. Had to get up before seven to be able to make it back in on time. Heard there was supposed to be protesting over immigration laws that was expected to lock downtown up. Glad we were headed back out asap.

I would have gone back anyway, but there were three new exhibits that opened today...one called Medieval Beasts (illuminated books), One called Radiant Darkness that had a really beautiful painting by a Dutch painter named Gerrit Dou (attaching it, but you can’t possibly appreciate how beautiful it is as a jpg), and a show of animal paintings and drawings by Jean-Baptiste Oudry you might remember that famous rhino of Dürer’s, this guy painted it too...the first rhino to be seen by Europeans, brought to Holland in the 1740s.

The van Gogh of Irises was still great...and that Degas The Milliners.

I didn’t sleep much in the run up to the car return, so the afternoon was for napping.