Let me tell you all about Oregon & why you should be listening to Bootsy Collins & Curtis Mayfield right now. Praise be to the plum wine man!

I was playing the Rick James song 'Busting Out' when I crossed the border from California into Oregon. My girlfriend lives in Portland and for the past month we have been going on driving adventures all over Oregon. I had planned on exploring France this year but that got canceled so instead I am enjoying all of the best that there is to see in Oregon. This episode starts in Whale Cove, then on to Ona Beach then back to Portland. I have circled Oregon and I have some stories to share with you. From Crater Lake and Cannon Beach to the Last Blockbuster in Bend and seeing 'The Outsiders' at a drive in movie theater in Newberg I have been squeezing joy out of this last bit of summer. I went to Plush, Oregon just because I loved the name and slept in a grocery store parking lot in Lake View. On the news Portland looks like a lawless hellhole right now but those skirmishes all happen downtown and I have found the best places in this city  to relax with minimal pandemic stress. Let me tell you all about Oregon and why you should be listening to Bootsy Collins and Curtis Mayfield right now. Praise be to the man who makes plum wine and gin!

Hooray for humanity! Joy be upon you! Shalom Amigos!

Have you eaten a peach lately? 

This was my mom's last week in California so after four months of not leaving my neighborhood I rented a car and we blazed up the highway to Sequoia national park. During a life threatening virus outbreak it is good to look at 3,000 year old Sequoia trees and be reminded that the earth survives and life goes on.  We learned what not to do if you are attacked by a bear, cougar or struck by lightning. Our next trip to the Huntington library was a bust and we were turned away for not having reservations. For the 4th of July we drove up to Santa Barbara and discovered this gem of Spanish architecture with a gorgeous beach and vibrant pier. Because the fireworks were canceled we drove back home in time to catch all of the illegal fireworks being shot off that can be seen from my building. Thank God for the criminals of Los Angeles who provided the celebratory entertainment. On our last day today my mom crushed me 237-210 in our Mom and Tom Scrabble championship and she will take home the trophy. I'm thankful that I have spent these past four months with my mom, it is a memory that we will always cherish in that we survived it all together and nothing could make me happier than for my mom to thump me at Scrabble on our last day when it counted most. Her smile as she held up the trophy is a sight that made my heart glow. I will be lonely when she leaves but it is my pleasure to present to you now the one and only Sara Rhodes, my mom! Shalom amigos y amigas and long may you run!

In this bleak and anxious world there is still so much joy and beauty to discover.

During the rut the males exhibit tough guy behavior in order to attract a mate, me myself I always preferred dancing.

In times of tragedy is when human beings show their best sides and their most compassionate sides. Now is the time to speak out and demand that everyone shows a better side of themselves.

When was the last time you let out a good yodel?

You can yodel as my mom and I take you on an audio tour of the best museums in America... while wearing face masks of course.

Join me now for a few happy yodels and a celebration of knowledge as my mother and I take you on a tour of the best museums in America according to PBS.

First you will learn how yodeling became a part of country music and how I got my oldest most authentic country music albums from a deceased black woman from Jamaica.

My mother and I have been walking up and down each neighborhood street in my area and we got to experience for the first time being in a bank with everyone in the bank wearing face masks. My mom loves the stencil sidewalk graffiti all over Los Angeles, especially the updated Covid 19 graffiti on Melrose ave. I greatly appreciate the joy of getting a package and today I got a massive box from my friend Jasper in Delft, The Netherlands. Holland lives in my heart forever and my friend Jasper sent me a big box full of love that I share with you as well as honoring the HEMA highlighter pens for the copious amounts of joy they have given to me. We have gotten our news from the Grove shopping plaza because that is the main town square of the area I live in. A CBS Evening News woman who was filming there told us the stores have been given permission to open but the employees are reluctant to return. We rightly praise Rob Reiner's movie 'Flipped' for being the masterpiece that it is. Then for the past week my mother and I have been watching the PBS documentary series "Great Museums' about the best museums in America. Here for you now my mother and I share with you the best bits of knowledge from the following museums:

The Living Museum of Music that is the city of New Orleans

The Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio, Texas

The Charleston museum in Charleston, South Carolina

The Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi 

The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York

Ellis Island Immigration Museum

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana 

The Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

"There is nobody I'd rather have with me in a beer hall brawl than my mother standing beside me with a broken beer bottle in her hand."

On our daily walks around my neighborhood my mother and I have been amazed by the exotic plant life and my mom wondered how it was possible that desert plants can survive and thrive next to plants that are predominantly in the North East of the United States. We stopped into the plant store on Beverly Blvd. to ask and the man who worked there said, "Plants here don't follow plant rules." I thought that was a funny image of our biker gang exotic flowers not following the rules of others. 

In this episode my mom and I talk about the good things we have been putting into our brains in the form of the documentaries we have been watching and the books that we have read. We talk about the BBC's 'The Adventure Of English', all about the history of the English language and we learn the mind blowing story of Squanto, the Native American who spoke English and kept the Mayflower pilgrims from perishing during the first winter they spent in this new land. We talk about PBS Ken Burns' Mark Twain documentary and the book 'The Bohemians' by Ben Tarnoff, about Mark Twain's time in San Francisco and we learn that Artemus Ward was the first stand up comedian in America before Mark Twain. Then we talk about the PBS Ken Burns documentary 'Country Music.' From this we talk about how Bonnie and Clyde had to have the latest Jimmie Rodgers records, the powerful story of when Sarah Carter dedicated 'I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blues' on national radio to the man she loved and upon hearing it drove to Mexico to find her. We talk about Hank Williams and how his mother went with him to his rough early gigs and would fight beside him whenever bar room brawls broke out. "There is nobody I'd rather have with me in a beer hall brawl than my mother standing beside me with a broken beer bottle in her hand." We tell the best stories we just learned about Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, Charlie Pride, Roger Miller and Dolly Parton. 

Then we talk about the two books my mom read this past week, 'My Israel Trail' by Aryeh Green and 'When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple.' During this global pandemic lock down my mother has often said: "Sometimes you've got to call people and cheer them up." 

I'm honored and privileged to have all of this uninterrupted time with my mom and this episode is a happy stroll through the best stories we learned this week delivered with love just for you. Joy be upon you!

If my mom ran Hollywood every movie would end with the family all going to church more often.

The great virus lockdown film festival continues!

In this batch of films that my mother and I have watched we discovered that we both love any movie with Jeff Bridges or Clint Eastwood in it. We also discover that my mom won't stomach certain things and is not afraid to ask me to stop a film if she really doesn't like it. You can say what you want about Woody Allen but in not one of his films does anyone ever take a shit in the middle of the road in a wedding dress like happens in the Judd Appatow film. This week for us has seen us loosen our restrictions and start taking walks through my neighborhood every day. It is good for our souls to feel the sunshine on our face, cool breezes on our hair and to see how many extraordinary fig trees are living in my neighborhood. Each night we watch a film and in this conversation today we talk about the 25 films we have watched in the last 25 nights. 

It is a hardy feast of movies and I hope you enjoy my mother and I's thoughts and feelings about the these celluloid stories. 

Here is the list of the movies we have just watched:

Space Jam

Crazy Heart

True Grit

Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid

For A Few Dollars More

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Legend Of 1900

The Revenant

Judy

Bridesmaids

Midnight In Paris

The Only Living Boy In New York

Talladega Nights

Sleepless In Seattle

You've Got Mail

St. Vincent

La Grande Belleza

I Saw The Light

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Crossing Delancey

A Walk In The Clouds

My Fair Lady

Hang 'Em High

Gran Torino

Parasite