Reggie Burrows Hodges at CAAM + Election Day

Last week at the Getty I discovered local painter Reggie Burrows Hodges. Since I determined to follow (current social media parlance) him, yesterday I went to the California African American Museum for more of his art, A Theater of Miracles.

But first! Because it's not a presidential election year, there were midterm political races all over the country. After breakfast I ventured a couple of blocks north and voted on a long slate of candidates and initiatives. What a change from the first Tuesday in November 2025, when the ballot had exactly one question!

Besides Hodges' paintings, at CAAM I enjoyed Sinners: Sounds That Summon, an extraordinary chronological history of Black vernacular music in America. You need to read it and see it; it's on through March 14, so if you're in town please stop by the museum for "Sounds that Summon" and anything else that's current.

Notice how recent the paintings in the Hodges exhibit are!

• Two Handled Wand, 2023

• The Agreement We Rely On: Helen's Birdcage, 2023

• The Witnesses, 2024

• Jacopo Bassario, The Miracle of the Quails, 1554
Collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

• La Bolsa, 2023

• Triptych: A Discarding of Self, 2023

• Socrate, 2024

More Tuesdays than not I go to Subway for Tuna Tuesday after my museum visit or other activity. Yesterday being the first Tuesday after we fell back, and tuna feeling like a warm weather or even a summery choice, I went to Burger King. I like Whoppers (though I wish they'd improve the bread-bun-roll), but the real draw was in my never humble opinion BK has the best fast food french fries. My meal wouldn't photograph as well as one from subway, so here's my fave BK poster that seems to be in every restaurant and that dates back t0 2014.

By evening it turned out to be quite the historical day. Both houses of congress flipped decisively from red to blue; democrats won some key governorships and many local and state contests. If only we could undo all the damage, but we need to celebrate the dawn of a new day. Do you remember Ted Kennedy?

The work begins anew
the hope rises again
and the dream lives on.