Miller Time

UNITED STATES—The next day, after Tina and Lee have witnessed the dog love knot, he feels inexplicably good and so does Tina, Joe's sister. In their separate frames in the city, and they feel impervious to the petty struggles and stresses inflamed by the daily grind. This euphoria was a gift that came by proxy through the dogs. When others...

UNITED STATES—So Lee goes to this house in Silver Lake by Micheltorena before going bowling with his friend Joe. Lee's friend has invited him to bring Prince Deveraux, since their new roommate has contributed something new to their household, a poodle. The dogs can keep each other company while Joe's sister keeps an eye on them. When Lee arrives with...

UNITED STATES—It was the trough right between Christmas and New Year, between overindulgence and overspending. People were slowly coming back to town and there still remained an adequate supply of parking spaces in Hollywood. As a consequence, Greg Burns found himself behind the car that had haunted him since last summer, when it still had dealer plates. Must be nice...

HOLLYWOOD—Fuller Hill is the spot, all right, perched up on a high knoll that owns the passing Hollywood Freeway and the downhill slope of Franklin St. traffic. The sun sets, and the pedestrians cross. The perspective pulses with rhythm and even the cars seem suspended in a pleasurably drowsy trance. Up here on Fuller Hill I can go to...

UNITED STATES—As they sank into the couch, Mr. Monroy opted for Nescafe and Mrs. Monroy accepted the honey-ginger tea proffered by Mr. Wynn. "Thank you, Don Carlos," she said. With the real estate sharks absent, the 'don' reinserted in their courtly discourse. And she started to speak frankly about why they were forced into selling. "During the summer we got really...

UNITED STATES—In this last little corner of Bunker Hill two tenants jumped ship when they learned the Monroy's were going to sell to a couple of East Side real estate sharks. The Monroy's were not your average owners. The charmingly dilapidated bungalow that crept up the steep slope was not just another of Mr. and Mrs. Monroys' many properties;...

UNITED STATES—Not Toledo, as promised for the mythical roasted rabbit... but Segovia. We departed mid-morning after a sluggish morning due to the cumulative effects of all the merrymaking. Midday hunger drove us out of Madrid. We reached Segovia clustered around hills and ravines, full of tan buildings from the 1500s. A Roman aqueduct sweeps across one end of the town....

UNITED STATES—The transcendental discovery in parque El Retiro in Madrid that it was possible to walk in the street and drink wine was mollified by something that happened outside the bar Aleatorio, where we presented out bilingual journal. I took a bottle of beer outside and was harshly rebuked by a man from Tunesia, who had a very harsh...

UNITED STATES—A striking invitation was sent out by Miriam, the girlfriend of Dave America who engineered the trip to Madrid to present our bilingual anthology, "80 mph." When we arrived at the literary bar in the Malasana neighborhood Thursday night, we were greeted by a mood different from that which met us at Tuesday night's story reading. The place...

UNITED STATES—Wednesday turned out to be a day of surprises. The focus was for Colombian filmmaker, Juan David, to submit his recently completed movie to film festivals. It took us to an unlikely, un-Spanish setting: the Grove of Madrid. It is a huge hit with the busloads of Asian tourists. They love shopping at the homogenized same classy stores...