I remember the late afternoon, after this last pre...

I remember the late afternoon, after this last presidential election. It started in the Gelson's market, on Franklin near Bronson. I was behind a nice-looking woman, who was fumbling to fill-out her check. The checker said: "It's Nov.8th, honey, the day after the election." The check-writer started crying. The eerie silence, in that big, fancy store was finally broken by the soft voice of a very old lady, in a big sun hat: "It was just like this, I was in here, then, right before Thanksgiving. They'd just killed the President in Dallas." Cut to a very rare, free, neighborhood parking space. I won't say where.There! Up ahead: LACMA, admission is FREE after 6 pm, on weekdays! Getting my sticker, and entering the almost empty main-gallery I was pleased to see the charming Matisse tile mural, that use to hang in Mrs. Broidy's patio. Around the corner was a stunning array of Picasso, including one of his later, bold works, a 1969 symphony in yellow.This place goes on, and on, and on. An encyclopedic collection of world culture. Start in the lower level: take a tour of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Islamic world, Asia, the stunning newish pre-Columbian art of the Americas, move through the Europe of Rembrandt, Hals, Manet, Monet: I tumbled right into the 21st expression of David Hockney. You really are transported to another eorld! I felt like Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" "Nothing bad can happen here!" Well......almost nothing: a new, $700 million (that'll be an even billion, when done) LACMA "master plan", endorsed by a hand-full of Hollywood "big wigs" calls for tearing down ALL of these ecclectic, serviceable and semi-signifigant galleries and theatres and replacing them with a huge, brand-new LACMA that would "morph" movie special FX-style across Wilshire. PLEASE people: spend that money on BUYING new art, especially by underrepresented communties; and education and outreach. Art education in our public schools in now a luxury, and that's wrong! If something like LACMA isn't "broken" don't try and "fix" it!