Ralph Carlson Blog

Moving on up

Earlier I posted about my wife’s first car and her initiation on the freeways of Los Angeles when they were at their prime. She caught on fast and soon the trusty Vega no longer fit her image. We had just bought our first house, three blocks from the beach in swinging Manhattan Beach and she was ready for a new car- still a Chevrolet but a far cry from the Vega. She was on the hunt for a Corvette and before long she found it. It cost her the princely sum of $6,000 in 1974 and it was her pride and joy. She loved that car and it did have a raffish charm. She drove it to her design jobs around LA and to her teaching gig at Cal Arts.

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The myth I grew up with was that degrees were the path to success.  So when I began getting disillusioned with my job, the answers was to get another degree.  The insight that my current job had virtually nothing to do with any of my education somehow didn’t matter to me – or to any of the employers out there- eluded me completely.  Also eluding me was the even more obvious thought that I might be better served by not depending on an employer.
So my solution was the only one I knew – get another degree. in this case an MBA.
I enrolled at UCLA in what was then called the XMBA program.  These programs are universal these days but were new for first class institutions like UCLA back then.  We were fully part of the regular program but they provided key classes in the early evening/late afternoon slot that fit our time availability.  My employer was into enabling this process and was tolerant of some adjustments to my work schedule and provided tuition reimbursement.
So I entered into three years of intense committment in which time I managed to stay married, move twice including buying our first nome and make some new friends.  I committed to work through without skipping a quarter but was burned out.  I vowed never to take another course in my life.  Thankfully we did not start our family until later.
I think I demonstrated great persistence in this effort.  I got the degree.  It got me a new job and a career that I thoroughly enjoyed.  But I only accomplished what I was able to see at the time.  My vision was limited to conventional thinking and I accomplished only conventional success.
There was nothing wrong with my persistence, then or now.  What was missing was my vision.  I had only limited ideas about what possibilities I could achieve.  I settled for small goals, conventional wisdom and comfort.  Persistence is a wonderful thing but only a small part of achieving success.

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Renzo Piano's addition to the Chicago Art Institute

Renzo Piano is the latest and hottest museum architect with additions at the Chicago Art Institute, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the San Francisco Academy of Sciences.  With the pedestrian facades, it is hard to understand why.  I have personally seen two of the three and have been inside his addition to LACMA.

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Continuing my post on our February visit to LA, we visited two more museums on Saturday. It seems like overkill perhaps but we are selective museum-goers. We have our picks and we don’ feel compulsive about looking at everything.

We started at the Getty where I made a strategic blunder when we (I) decided that walking from the garage to the museum was preferable to waiting 30 minutes for the train. Amazingly, my wife didn’t object – until we were halfway up the drive – easily a mile and with a rather steep incline. Then I knew I was in trouble so when we finally reached the train station level, I steered her towards some tables to sit down. When we finally continued up to the entrance, we had easily eaten up the 30 minute.

This was only our second visit to the Getty. We had never visited while we lived in LA because of the hassle to reserve parking. I like the grounds and the garden, the galleries, less. We focused on the photography (my wife is a photographer) and the modern art (late 19^th and 20^th century). They don’t really have anything more contemporary. So basically we took in the two sections and then hit the museum shop. Perhaps my favorite painting is this Van Gogh.

Then we moved on to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. It had been years since we had visited and we enjoyed the collection so much, I can’t figure out why we waited to long to return. It’s a lovely museum, marred only by the inadequate on site parking and the unfriendly time limits on the street parking. Their modern and contemporary art collection is wonderful and comprehensive. For some reason I remembered the Stella’s from my last visit but, alas, this visit they were not on display. We only had two hours by the time we drove to Pasadena, toured the parking lot several times and finally found a spot on the street but Norton Simon was hands-down the best museum visit for us and we will be certain to return.

The picture, by the way, is of the Hammer Museum, another museum we have never visited but must target next time.

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