Web Log...We blog...BLOG

This past week marks the 10-year anniversary of blogs and blogging. NPR ran a fairly decent series about blogs this past week. The link provides a history of the blog but, really, hasn't the essence of blogging been around for centuries? The "inter-webs" just provides another portal for people to campaign and to catalog, their ideas and thoughts. Is posting one's thoughts on a blog any different than spending a Sunday morning to go to Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park to expatiate on whatever random subject that seems important that day as people have been doing since the mid-1800's ? Of course, there's the anonymity a blog provides and comfort of being at home but isn't the idea of a discourse of the truth and speech still there? The blog is just another evolution of that ideal.



It's not lost on me that anything written in a blog may stay in cyberspace for an unknown quantity of time. Blogs are providing tomorrow's anthropologists with a treasure of data and information (along with a lot of crap --including my own blog). The Indiana Jones of the future won't be running around Egypt trying to find the Rosetta Stone but discovering obsolete computer code to decipher the secrets of primitive blogs.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

I went to my friend's house today for Christmas dinner and got home just a little past 10 p.m. I walked into my dark kitchen to feed my cat and just as I switched on my light, a blue flame caught my eye. I left a burner on low heat all day. I'm extremely lucky I didn't cause a fire. The last time I used my stove was this morning when I made some scrambled eggs for breakfast. I could have sworn I turned off the heat. I must not have turned the knob or accidently brushed against the stove and turned on the burner. Either way, this Christmas could have ended up much worse than how it did. I just wonder what my gas bill will be like now that a burner was on for nearly 12 hours.

Winter Solstice

Chicago received 49 minutes of more light during the Summer Solstice. Will Chicago have 49 minutes of additional darkness during the Winter Solstice?

Los Angeles
Sunrise: 6:56 a.m.
Sunset: 4:48 p.m.

Normal high: 68
Normal low: 48

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Chicago
Sunrise: 7:15 a.m.
Sunset: 4:23 p.m.

Normal high: 30
Normal low: 18

It does seem L.A. wins the more daylight category by 45 minutes for the Winter Solstice but Chicago has an additional 4 minutes of light overall -- at least by these statistics.

Light Display

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) sponsors this outdoor light exhibit in Griffith Park every year. It's suppose to be this big deal -- at least judging by traffic it creates. Since I live so close, I decided to view it this year. Let me tell you it's a huge disappointment. You stay in your car and drive very slowly through the 2-mile(?) exhibit. It's like being stuck in traffic but having some lights to look at to pass the time. It's not all that different as any other municipal light exhibits -- i.e., the Lincoln Park light display. Most of the light displays were of iconic L.A. locales -- Griffith observatory, the Hollywood sign, the ocean, etc. It might appeal to little kids but in today's world of bright lights, big city culture, I'm not even sure if kids would be impressed.

The saddest thing of the whole display is that as I was driving to the exhibit, I saw signs that informed people that the light display was a 40 minute wait, a 30 minutes wait and so forth until you drove to the beginning of the display. There was no wait when I drove through it but I would imagine that on Christmas Eve, Los Angelenos will wait in traffic that long to view it.

And, there was no snow to help create the ambiance.

Parade Preparation

I did something fairly unique and only native to Los Angeles --more specifically unique to Pasadena. I helped decorate a Rose Parade float last Saturday. My employer is sponsoring a float in the parade and I volunteered to help decorate it. All I can say is float-decorating is a long and tedious process.

At first glance the infrastructure of the floats seems like a huge paper machier project. In reality, the bodies, or chassis, of the floats are made from wood and chicken wire and then sprayed with a polyvinyl material. Then the floats are painted in the various colors of the flowers and organic materials which will eventually adorn it. Up to the last week of December, when the floats are decorated with the flowers and their fragrances scent the air, the media on the floats are just dry materials: lentils for orange, crushed lentils for a lighter orange, dried peas for green, grounded parsley for darker green. The hard part is painstakingly gluing the material onto the float. Some materials, such as the lentils, needed to glued on the float by hand. Other portions could be glued on the float by using a household sponge. A detailed-oriented personality is a must in this line of work.

Our float is being constructed in a large building just across from the Rose Bowl with several other floats. As of last Saturday, it seemed the decorating still relied heavily upon volunteers. Boisterous teenagers, probably to receive their community service credit now needed for college applications, seemed to make up the majority of the volunteers while some senior citizens sat quietly in a circle cutting up the petals of purple flowers that will eventually be glued onto the floats. Other volunteers manned the blenders which whirled on and on grinding the lentils, beans, bark or fruit into a colorful, mealy texture that give the floats texture. Others, like myself, began decorating the floats.

It was a lot of fun but because of my bum knee, I had to force myself into some extremely awkward positions. And, it was dirty. I wore a grey cashmere hoodie but took if off shortly after decorating. It was a good thing too because by the end of the day, my hair was littered with yellow flower petals because this kid was gluing petals to the top portion of the float, which happened to be directly above my head. My jeans and Chuck Taylors were covered in rice dust and lentils. (In fact, I just flicked a lentil off my shoe tonight.) My fingers stuck together because of all the glue which dried on them. All-in-all, it was a fun time and I did get to meet some fellow co-workers.

My first true memory of the Rose Parade (besides that it was just on TV every New Year's Day) was in 1984 when Illinois went to the Rose Bowl. Now, 24 years later I'm helping to build a float for the Rose Parade. BTW, which Big Ten team is playing in the Rose Bowl? Illinois is and making its first Rose Bowl appearance in ...24 years. I never would have thought as a 14-year-old living in Sullivan, Illinois watching Mike White take his Illini team to the Rose Bowl that I would be living in L.A. the next time Illinois makes an appearance. Funny, how things work out.


If you happen to catch the Rose Parade on New Year's day and see my employer's float, just know that I helped decorate it. The portion I did will be the clumsily glued together part.

T-Joe's

I have a love/hate relationship with Trader Joe's -- and lately it's been on the downside. As a concept, I LOVE TJ's. It's a poor man's Whole Foods -- the two-buck chuck, the trendy foodstuffs, the healthy and organic options, and the ethnic foods which are just on this side of being too exotic. Mostly affordable. Mostly yummy. Truly, what's not to love?

Except for the fact that no matter what time of day or day of the week, there are 100 cars vying for 25 parking spots. Inside the store, it's even worse. To get to those yummy, trendy foods every self-pretentious hipster wants so badly, one must knock down three other customers to get to them. It's not that TJ's isn't well-stocked, it is. It's just that the check-out line queues well into the cramped and narrow aisles.

This isn't just life at the Silver Lake TJ's. It's the same at any Trader Joe's. Urban or suburban. Los Angeles or Chicago. I can imagine the new store requirements for the the TJ's location scout: Small parking lot? Check. Building is just a tad too small for a grocery store? Check. Yuppies and hipsters live nearby? Check. Perfect stage-setting for the the TJ experience.

Now, I need to go make the delicious cioppinno I found at Trader Joe's. It's the perfect winter seafood stew.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm partaking in the Thanksgiving tradition of watching football --particularly the Green Bay and Detroit game. Detroit suddenly scored six unanswered points. Let's hope Green Bay can turn it around and haven't imbibed in the Thanksgiving cheer a little too early. (Somehow, I feel that I just doomed Green Bay by writing that.) I'm not a die hard football fan and don't dedicate my whole Sunday to watching football but I admit I'm enjoying watching the Packers play whenever I happen to catch a game. I'm thankful for their winning season.

It's only 10 in the morning here and the game is on tv. Another adjustment to the SoCal lifestyle -- football in the morning. It's so strange to wake up on Sunday and football is already on tv. I haven't even read the Sunday paper yet.

Be thankful for everything you have: family, friends, pets, health and strong knees, homes, jobs and Green Bay interceptions which lead to touchdowns, giving the Packers the lead.

Enjoy your turkey. The holiday rush begins tomorrow.

Just got back from a quick weekend trip to Chicago. I left a fiery Southern California and came back to a smoldering one. Radio commercials instructing fire victims how to file an insurance claim greeted me upon my return. Seriously, the first sound I heard when I started my car was an Allstate commercial. Welcome home.

I wasn't affected by the fires. There were fires to north of me, to the west of me, to south of me and to east of me. Luckily for me, all those fires were at least 30 miles from my home. The Griffith Park fire last spring provided enough excitement for the season.

I had a nice time in Chicago and finally got to meet some new cousins: Aileen and Isabella. Both are beautiful babies. Kids grow up fast. I attended a birthday party for Luke and Nora, who turned 7 and 5 respectively. They certainly are no longer babies.

Chicago is such a beautiful city and I miss it. I'm glad that I visited in the fall so I could at least get a taste of the season. Native Californians argue that there are seasons here. When I first moved here, I thought the weather would be warm enough so I could go to the beach all year. It truly is not as balmy as the SoCal Chamber of Commerce would like everyone to believe. I concede there are temperature variations here. The low temp in late fall and winter can fall to the 40's while the high temp will only climb to 70. "Summer" brings low temps in the 60's and the high temp can reach in the 100's but normal high is around 80 to 85. Does this change constitute as season? Perhaps, but not as extreme as the seasonal changes back East. Our weathermen -- yes, the (relatively) more serious ones are men while buxom blonde bimbos read the weather -- get excited if the temperature changes a few degrees over the course of the 5-day forecast.

The trip was quite a whirlwind trip and I didn't get a chance to visit long with any one person. Perhaps next trip will be longer. Of course, if the Chicago/Upper Midwest winter becomes too much for anyone, there's always a place in Southern California. It just may not be beach weather.

Saturday Night

Ever wonder what an old, spoiled housecat calls an exciting Saturday night? This vignette explores this question. It's a whimsical slice of life movie. The set is so inviting, one wants to jump into the frame. Casey Burke's performance ranges from a light playfulness to subtle hints of an intimating dark side. It's a must see. The filmaker said she came home from doing some errands one night and filmed this movie in one-take. It was also the first time she used Windows Movie Maker and found the movie making process loads of fun. Enjoy!

Production notes: The resolution in the picture is not the best. I used my digital camera. The James Blunt song was playing on TV and I didn't bother to edit it out.

Sunset Trifecta

It's been awhile since I last posted. The Sox are now in last place. I really haven't been doing anything worth noting. There are a few pictures I would like to share. This first one is of nothing special. I was in the Albertson's parking lot one evening and snapped it. I just think it's a nice photo. Griffith Observatory is in the background.




A couple weeks ago, we had a horrible heat wave -- above 100 for seven days straight -- and I went to the beach to escape the heat. As I drove on the 101 through the valley around 2:30 in the afternoon, the thermometer in my car read 120. I am so glad that I live on the other side of the hill. I don't care what I pay in rent, it's worth it. The Valley is notoriously hotter than the basin and the ocean is even cooler than the L.A. basin. I stayed at the beach until the last possible moment and snapped this photo, which was prettier than the actual sunset.

To finish off my trifecta of sunset photos, I attended a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Barnsdall Art Park in August. The excellent acting and superb writing (goes without saying) overcame the sparse stage. Truly, though, should there be an elaborate stage design for Shakespeare? I must say the Shakespeare plays I've seen have always been performed on a simple set.

It would have been a great evening except we sat next to some college-aged girls and they talked through the whole performance. They didn't understand what was happening and kept asking each other what was going on. Everyone around them gave them dirty looks but they didn't heed the warnings. Someone even shushed them and they didn't shut up. I overheard them deciding if they should stay for the second act at intermission. Unfortunately, they stayed.

The play was a part of a Shakespeare in the Park type of deal. One could bring a picnic on which to dine prior to the show, which is what we did. Barnsdall Art Park is on hill and we had a good view of downtown from this vantage point. The sun was setting and I liked the way the light reflected off the buildings. Now, for you Chicago snobs, downtown L.A. is not as impressive as the Chicago skyline but there's still a nobility about the skyline.

There's always next year...

The Sox are a complete mess of a team this year. Absolutely atrocious. They can't even get in a save situation so Bobby Jenks can set an MLB record of retiring 42+ batters in a row. Either the bullpen blows it or the bats go dead. It's actually embarassing that this team won the 2005 World Series and may end up in the cellar of the AL Central two years later. It's possible they may even fall behind the Royals. THE ROYALS! For goodness sake! Kenny Williams had better make some v.g. deals this winter and get us a shortstop (A-Rod!), and a decent bullpen.

I guess on the plus side, all those new players are getting some valuable playing time. Yeah, right, KW will just trade them for some aging players who know longer have the burning desire to win every day. And those younger players? Look for them in the All-Star Game in a couple years playing for other teams. The White Sox are a wonderful team on which to cut your teeth, just ask M. Ordonez, Carlos Lee, and Aaron Rowand. All 2007 All-Stars and the 2004 White Sox outfield.

Street View

It's hot here. I work in the San Gabriel Valley -- the SGV is not THE valley--and it was 110 there this afternoon. It was probably in the 90's where I live. Going to the beach will definitely be on my list of things to do this weekend. I can't complain about the weather, though, it's been a relatively moderate summer. Since I don't have a/c, I am thankful for that. Also, the humidity level is low which makes the higher temps more tolerable here in L.A. than what 95 brings in Chicago. I can live without the air-conditioning here. Still, it's hot.

Google has added L.A. as one of its street view cities on Google maps. What does that mean for you? You can type in my street addy and see what my block looks like from the street. For those of you who aren't familiar with this feature, Google deployed drivers to drive around the streets of L.A. to take pictures from the street and posted the pictures on the web. It's a warts and all type of deal. You can see all the gangbangers and druggies in my hood. Just kidding. It's fascinating to view and a huge time sucker if you are not careful.

Hollywood Bowl

I went to the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday, where the L.A. Philharmonic played Beethoven's 9th. Yes, there is culture in L.A. for those naysayers who think it does not exist in the Los Angeles urban genetic make-up. I love the Hollywood Bowl. It's wonderful to sit outside in the cool summer air listening to the the sounds of Ode to Joy dissipate into the canyon of the Hollywood Hills. To me, the Hollywood Bowl, along with the Getty, has got be one of the gems of Los Angeles.

Of course, besides listening to music, part of the fun of going to an outdoor concert is picnicking beforehand. My friends from my old job and I dined on a lovely summer meal of cheeses, prosciutto, fruit, bread and wine -- one of my favorite meals. And since it was my birthday, we shared a couple pieces of delicious, and sinful, cake from a local bakery at intermission. It was a fun evening.

In the picture to the left, some guy approached us to borrow our wine opener.

Also, thanks everyone for the presents, flowers and cards.

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Uncle Bill was in Los Angeles last weekend and I had a nice dinner with him and his friends at a little Italian restaurant on the beach in Huntington Beach. The food was decent and the wine selection was extensive. It was good to see him. I also have added the place to my restaurant repertoire.

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As I was writing this post, a bird was chirping outside my window and the sound caught Casey's interest. I so happened to snap a picture of it. So cute.

Blurring the line between art and life

Tonight after work, I stopped by Kwik-E-Mart. What makes this Kwik-E-Mart more special than any of the others across the U.S.? It's in Burbank and The Simpsons writers and animators work right down the street. So, if there were a convenience store that inspired Kwik-E-Mart, it would be here.

In honor of The Simpsons movie opening tonight, I'm posting pictures from my trip to Kwik-E-Mart.

Kwik-E-Mart's Wall of Fame. The Animators' version of the headshot.

A close-up of the drawing 3rd down on the right.

Mmm... donuts

Kwik-E-Mart's stance on fruit.

It Never Rains in L.A. in the Summertime?

I woke up this morning to an extremely rare sound: raindrops hitting the sidewalk. That's right it rained today in L.A., in July, in the middle of summertime. According to the National Weather Service, we received about 1/10 of inch of precipitation and there's a 20% chance of it raining tomorrow.

For those Chicagoans who don't understand why I am blogging this event, rain in L.A. in July is about as elusive as the strike zone for a White Sox bullpen pitcher this season or a World Series win for the Cubs.

Milestone

This was the reading on my odometer this morning. My car has hit the 10,000 mile point. Boo hoo. I've had my car for 19 months so 10,000 isn't bad mileage for the length of time I've owned my car. It's just sad to see my odometer hit the 5-digit mark.

Using the current data, I figured out my car is on track to hit 100,000 in just slightly under 14.5 years. I don't even want to consider how old I'll be then... And, yes, I am that much of geek.

Pink's

Yesterday, I blew my diet (and am now regretting that action after I got on the scale this morning and viewed the results) and went to Pink's. Pink's, named after its founder Paul Pink, is an iconic Los Angeles hot dog stand that has been in business since 1939. It sells hot dogs, Polish sausages (though they call them "Polish dogs" here), hamburgers, burritos and variations thereof. Pink's claims to have the "world's best chili dogs", which is their basic style hot dog but there are many toppings one can choose to put on a hot dog. The tell-tale sign this stand is for real is it did not offer ketchup as a topping of choice, which, of course, is sacrilege. It wouldn't be a hot dog stand in Hollywood if there weren't hot dogs named after movies and celebrities. One can order the Lord of the Rings Dog (BBQ sauce and onion rings top that dog). Even Martha Stewart blessed this stand as there is a hot dog named after her. Her dog's toppings include relish, onions, bacon, chopped tomatoes, sauerkraut and sour cream. Homesick New Yorkers and Chicagoans can also choose their hometown toppings.

The wait was long.

Very Long! It was nearly an hour.

But I prevailed and ate a Chicago-style Polish dog.

All-in-all, the food was decent. Eating at Pink's can only be a special treat and the long line does discourage me from eating there. Also, my waistline wouldn't be able to handle it. If I really wanted an authentic Chicago hot dog, I wouldn't go there. There was no celery salt and the toppings came on top of a Polish sausage instead of a hot dog. One word of advice: don't order the lemonade. It tasted like Kool-aid.

My Co-workers

Every spring at work, deer invade the campus and stay through the fall. Deer are everywhere. When I left work last week, there were eight deer grazing outside the door of my building. The amazing thing is that they are not scared of people. There have been several times I've seen the deer walking amongst us on the same campus sidewalks my colleagues and I use.

The deer are wild and not domesticated. My employer constantly reminds us not to feed the wildlife and I haven't heard of any stories of anyone doing so. The deer and us workers peacefully co-exist.

You don't see her because I've cropped her out of the picture (I didn't take this picture), but there was a woman standing just on the other side of the table. This table was being used for check-in point at an awards ceremony. I guess the deer thought they should have received an award also.

Scandal

When I lived in Milwaukee the city competed with everything Chicago, whose large shadow extended well beyond those 90 miles between the two cities. Everything from Summerfest to Milwaukee's lakefront development was compared to what Chicago did. Chicago, secure in its position as being the preeminent city of the Midwest, was too busy watching what New York did to care about Milwaukee. I would suspect that the rivalry between Chicago and New York is just as one-sided as the Milwaukee - Chicago rivalry.

Los Angeles has the same rivalry with New York, perhaps not as intense as the Chicago-New York one, but it does exist. This week a scandal broke which can only rival that of a Mayor Guiliani scandal. A few weeks ago, our mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, announced that he and his wife of 20 years were splitting. He was going to move out of the mayor's mansion but still work from there. His wife will retain residence at the mansion (and at taxpayers' expense?!?). Apparently, the mayor's mansion is similar to the office/residence balance of the White House. Many local newscasts reported on the separation, including a Spanish-speaking station, where a woman newsanchor read the story about the Mayor leaving his wife. The story may have raised a couple eyebrows and was a topic in casual conversation but nothing out of the ordinary.

It broke this week that the woman newscaster, Mirthala Salinas, knew about the separation earlier than the announcement because she's been the Mayor's "girlfriend" for the past year. Not only had she been in a relationship with the Mayor, she also covered City Hall. Ya think there may have been a conflict of interest? As someone who majored in journalism in college, I am aghast by this woman's ethics. The press is suppose to report on political stories not become part of the story. I'm not naive enough to believe this is the first time the line has been blurred but where does this woman draw the line and not contaminate her reporting? Where is her objectivity? I read yesterday that she was put on paid administrative leave by Telemundo. Good, I hope she is fired.

As for Villaraigosa, he cancelled his public appearances this week. The talk here in L.A. is if his political career (not only if he will be re-elected as mayor but there had been talk about him running for governor and/or eventually for president one day) can withstand the scandal. Where do private, personal affairs end and public interest begin in politicians' lives? Does how a politician conduct his personal life effect his ability to run a city? Will he have enough clout left to run a city? These are questions Angelenos are asking themselves this week. Scandal didn't appear to hurt Guiliani but his leadership during 9/11 was strong enough to withstand any kinks scandals may have left. I'm too new to L.A. to guess what the voters will do about the future of Villaraigosa and I certainly hope that we don't have an event like 9/11 to test the leadership skills of our Mayor. I will concede to New York on that one.

Summer Solstice

Can you tell which set of weather statistics for June 21 belong to which city? One city is getting an additional 49 minutes of daylight today.

Sunrise: 5:42 a.m.
Sunset: 8:07 p.m.

Normal high: 81
Normal low: 62

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Sunrise: 5:15 a.m.
Sunset: 8:29 p.m.

Normal high: 81
Normal low: 59

Nevada, Baby

On Sunday I did the famous drive between L.A. and Vegas to meet my dad who was there for a seminar. It took about 4 1/2 hours and I drove through the Mojave Desert, which I found absolutely beautiful. I can understand why the drive and the desert has been used a metaphor in movies. Apparently, I'm in the minority to find the beauty in the drive because when I mentioned it to some co-workers the reaction I received ranged from "There's so much traffic" (not when I was driving, in the direction I was driving ) to "It's so boring. Nothing but desert and it's hot." It could be a regional thing because I grew up thinking cornfields and soybean fields were boring to look at. Perhaps native Californians would find beauty in the cornfields if they ever bothered to stop in flyover country?...nah.

I met my dad for a Father's Day dinner and then the next day we drove to Hoover Dam. Since time was limited, we opted to skip the dam tour and drive through the Lake Mead National Recreational Area, on the Nevada side. Now, that drive was gorgeous. I wish I were a poet to describe the vistas and the beauty of the desert. Alas, I am not and took pictures instead.

A picture of the hydro-electrical engineering marvel from the Arizona side.

It's desolate, quiet, rugged, stark but beautiful. Because of the way the mountains were formed, the higher the layer, the newer (in geographical terms) it is. The red is from iron deposits.

Ansel Adams I am not. I was all proud of myself for thinking of this angle to try to capture the vistas and to incorporate the surrounding beauty...until I got home and realized this exact same angle is being used in a car commercial. Guess I am not as creative I thought. I hope that you still get a sense of the area, though.

It was too hot to see any wildlife but I did capture this hawk trying to escape the sun. The themometer on my car said it was 108 but it was still bearable since it was a dry heat (A cliche, but it's true!) and no humidity with which to contend. Imagine the warmth you receive when you put your hand under a lamp, it's the same sort of feeling but with more intensity. My grandma would always tell us that when the winter cold would become too much for her all she needed to do was bake her bones and she would feel better. I kept thinking that I was baking my bones.

Other things to note about the drive. There's an exit for a Zzyzx Road. I thought it was an interesting name. (More information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zzyzx%2C_California). I also had to pass through an agricultural inspection point upon my return to California. Nothing special happened, just thought it was interesting.

Oh, and one more thing: The thing about the traffic is true, I just happened to go against traffic both ways.

(And, yes, I did take this picture while going 80!)

When I wrote Thursday's post, little did I realize the Paris debacle which would unfold Friday morning, proving that L.A. politics and Chicago politics are on the same side of the coin -- different stories but the same side of the coin.

Showing the better side of humanity, Garrison Keillor is doing his best to keep the art of storytelling alive from being lost in this electronic age. It was wonderful to see/hear a radio variety show live. The show was longer than the allotted two hours. I wonder how they can keep the show its time slot when done live and without the convenience of an edit button.


Speaking of convenience, Casey has discovered something very Californian: bottled water. He loves bottled water. Every time I open the refrigerator door to grab some water, he runs to the fridge and starts meowing for it, something he never does when I take an Orangina or Diet Coke out of the fridge. He will even lick the condensation from the bottle. Oh, he can even tell the difference between tap and bottled. I took an empty bottle and filled it with tap water, refrigerated it, and he turned his little discriminating cat nose up at it. Don't worry, though, bottled water is only for special occasions. If he is thirsty enough, he still lowers his standards to drink good ole L.A. tap water. He's not a spoiled Californian cat, yet.

Etc.

After spending 3 days in the slammer, Paris Hilton is out of jail. L.A. can rest easy. It's hard to keep your perspective here when 15 minutes of a 35 minute newscast is spent on Paris and her jail-time on the local news. L.A. can be too impressed with itself sometimes. I usually listen to NPR for in-depth perspective of the news. Ironically enough, or because of the lack of local coverage, there are two NPR stations here in Los Angeles. Other than having the luxury of switching stations during the other station's pledge drive, I'm not sure why there are two stations. They air the same news programs. One station tends to have more "industry"-related news during the local coverage while the other station covers the local and state political scene. On either station, I am easily reminded that I live in L.A. when I hear "For your consideration" (for the Emmy, Oscar, etc) sponsorships. Right now, HBO is pushing some movie for Emmy consideration.

Tomorrow, I'll see Garrison Keillor record A Prairie Home Companion. Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan but since he's going to be at the Greek Theatre, which is practically next door, I thought why not go. It will mark the first time I'll be back in Griffith Park since the fire. It'll be interesting to see the damage up close.

What is up with Sox? As I write this, the Sox are losing to the Yankees 4-1 in the bottom of the 8th inning. At this point of the season, it seems safe to say that the 2007 World Series Champion will not be a Chicago team.

Over Memorial Day Weekend, I went to Point Dume in Malibu. I'm posting a couple pictures from that day.

Los Feliz Village Street Fair

Don't really have a lot to report. I had a pretty mundane weekend -- errands, laundry, chores, etc.

This afternooon, I went to the Los Feliz Village Street Fair, which was just down the street from me. I didn't bring my camera but there aren't a lot of differences between Chicago neighborhood street fairs and the street fairs in L.A. -- or at least this one. It attracts the same hipper-than-thou patrons, is set in a neighborhood business district which houses several chic clothing boutiques, ethnic restaurants, an independent bookstore, while bars and coffee houses are interspersed throughout the three to four block area. (Think: Andersonville Midsommerfest, which should be occurring in a couple of weeks.) Stages are constructed at either end of the fair, usually showcasing a rock band with a local following. The choice of chow was the usual pizza, tacos, burritos and hot dogs sold by the local restaurants. This fair, being in L.A., had a roach coach selling vegan and raw food but no sausage vendor could be found. You might see a vegan vendor in Chicago but there it's not a street fair without brats, Polish or Italian sausages being sold. One sushi restaurant had a tent but I didn't bother what type of cuisine it was selling. I love sushi and eat it probably once a week but it just seems wrong to eat sushi at a street fair. I'm not even sure if they were selling sushi but I opted for the Mexican fare instead. (I swear on a weekly basis I eat (Americanized versions of) Mexican, Japanese, Indian and Thai food. Currently, Indian is my favorite -- all those spices, lentils and vegatables. Yum! Yum! Thanks to Trader Joe's for keeping me fed.)

Other things to note about the fair: lots of vendors selling baby clothing, a la Alternadad style. If you want to dress your kid in pink tie-dye and not in pink ruffles, this is the place to be. Also, beads have replaced silver as the medium of choice by the artisans who sell jewelry at these fairs. (If there are any jewelry artisans out there reading this (doubtful as it may be): offering rings in sizes smaller than 6 would increase your sales. Your smallest size fits my thumb.)

Before I left the fair, I stopped and watched this band, Until June (www.untiljune.com). They were okay. I thought their music was pretty undiscernable from other popular bands of the moment but I have an untrained ear. While listening to them, I looked three seats to my right and saw a graying-around-the temples Scott Bakula nodding his head to the beat of the music. He appeared to like the band. A celebrity sighting, d-list as it may be, is the ONE big difference between L.A. and Chicago street fairs.

Hope everyone has a good week.

R.

Happy Star Wars Day!

Grab your light saber and celebrate! It's Star Wars day here in Los Angeles. Only in L.A. would the city council:

"RESOLVE to DECLARE May 25, 2007 as Star Wars Day in the City of Los Angeles and also recognize George Lucas’ 1977 film Star Wars for its tremendous impact on the citizenry of Los Angeles, the film industry and the world, and for continuing to inspire after thirty years millions of people to explore movies, fantasy, literature, and science as means of achieving their goals and dreams..."

(More hyperbole and a full copy of the resolution can be found here: http://la.curbed.com/2007-05-starwarsres-big.jpg)

Meanwhile here on earth, Chewbacca, one of the illustrious characters from this fabled story, can be found here in Hollywood in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theater much to the delight, or horror, of tourists. In the spirit of the day, maybe Mayor Villaraigosa will pardon him since Chewbacca was arrested a few months back for head-butting a tour guide who said Chewbacca shouldn't be begging money from the tourists. How far we've fallen since traveling around a galaxy far, far away as Hans Solo's reluctant sidekick fighting evil. Another Hollywood story gone bad.

Thirty years ago today Star Wars was released. I wish I could say that Star Wars exceeded my movie-watching expectations but the truth was that it set the threshold. The only two movies I remember seeing previously were Pete's Dragon and Snow White, which were fairly calm experiences. The buzz from the movie was so great that I already knew it was suppose to be a great movie even before watching it. I wasn't surprised by the experience. Actually, as an adult, I would have hated the first time I saw Star Wars. We went to a matinee showing on a hot summer day and and the theatre was packed full of kids who kept talking during the movie and running up and down the aisle to go to the bathroom or to purchase more candy to continue their sugar high. As an eight-year-old kid, though, it was all very exciting. I remember returning to school in the fall and all the kids were talking about seeing the movie during the summer. Some even saw it more than once! This one girl's older brother saw the movie eight times. We all thought she was so cool because of that...well, that and the fact her brother attended a Kiss concert during that summer too.

Happy 30th Anniversary Star Wars! The movie and merchandising industries haven't been the same since.

JPL Open House

As promised, I'm posting some pictures from JPL's open house, which is an excellent opportunity to see many of the ongoing projects there. The long lines and waits were worth it. (If you click on a photo, you should be able to enlarge it.)

This picture is inside the Mars Laboratory. The environs of this lab replicates the surface of Mars and has been used to help figure out solutions from issues the Rover has encountered on Mars. Remember when the Rover got stuck on Mars a while back? The solution was figured out here. This lab has extended the Rover expedition on Mars by several years.

If you have 3-D glasses, you may be able to view the surface of Mars in 3-D in this photo.

Inside the Robo-dome.

Information on current JPL projects.

One of the more unique road signs on Earth.

View of the San Gabriel Mountains from JPL.

Near the entrance of JPL

Saturday Morning

Ahh...Saturday morning, my favorite time of the weekend. Time to leisurely drink some coffee, read a little, write this blog and plan my weekend. Two whole days that do not belong to my employer. It's sad to think five of the seven days of the week belong to my employer. Girl's gotta make a livin', though.

June gloom has begun to settle in the Los Angeles area. The above picture is the view from my kitchen window. This year, since the L.A. area is going through a drought, it's a good thing. (As I was writing this post, I heard on the radio that National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) predicts the next time the "Southland" will get rain is this fall!) The hope is the cloud cover and moisture from the gloom will help minimize the wild fires. Native Californians like to complain about the June gloom but I like the cooler and cloudy mornings. Perhaps it was my upbringing in the Upper Midwest where beautiful days were to be relished but I always felt this pressure to go out and enjoy the sunny California weather and not stay at home. June gloom gives me the excuse to stay at home and get some things done here. Besides, the cloud cover will burn off by afternoon.

This weekend is one of those weekends where a lot is happening. Tonight, I'm going to see Wicked with some friends from my old job. The theater is in Hollywood and since I live the closest, I invited everyone to place for a cocktail before we go to the theatre. My old boss, "Broom Hilda", frowned upon the managers socializing and tried to forbid us from doing so. I smile at the thought of her finding out about this. I am so glad I'm no longer under her thumb. I am not the best of housekeepers but last weekend in anticipation of having guests this weekend and as a result of the fire, I did a lot of spring cleaning: washing windows, wiping down the baseboards, etc. so my apartment is pretty clean. I just need to tidy up before my guests arrive.

Tomorrow, I plan to go to the Open House at JPL. I hear it's a wonderful event. I'll take my camera and post some pictures. And that, my friends, is my weekend.

Hope all is well with everyone. Go Sox! Beat the Cubbies!

The Fire

The big news here is the Griffith Park fire. Last Tuesday evening, the Griffith Park that I know burned and burned -- approximately 800 acres, nearly 1/5 of the 4,300 acres in the park. The fire started around 1:30ish in the afternoon. A colleague of mine heard about the fire while she was driving home so she called me to tell me about it. At that time, the fire was moving NE of where I live. In fact, I work in the La Canada/Pasadena area and the smoke was visible from there. The smoke and ash assaulted you immediately when you went outside, it was so strong. When I got home at around 6:30 p.m., the fire seemed as if it were contained. In fact, it just seemed as if it were a normal day. I decided to go to the gym.

It was dusk when I returned from the gym and I noticed that the color of fire looked a brighter orange/red. I just figured that the color was more brilliant due to the contrast of the now darker sky. The traffic was also really heavy along Franklin and Los Feliz. Normally, I can drive to the gym in approximately 10 minutes but I just chalked it up to the Looky Lous who wanted to see the fire. That night it took me closer to 20 minutes to get home. When I returned to my apartment, the power was out, the fire appeared to be moving closer and closer to my place, traffic was being diverted from Los Feliz, the homes north of me were being evacuated and the media swarmed to my neighborhood. In the hour-and-a-half I was at the gym, the winds had shifted and the fire moved dangerously closer to the Griffith Observatory and Greek Theatre.

I'm not sure how much danger I was actually in since I live at the bottom of the hill and what chance the fire would jump and actually move down the hill. I didn't want to take any chances. I made a couple calls to some friends to see if I can crash at their places should I need to evacuate. My neighbors and I talked about those chances happening against the continuous wail from the fire engines trying to move through traffic to go up the hill. Half of the building had evacuated by this point. I pulled the cat carrier out of the closet and packed a suitcase --just in case the fire department (or police?) decided to begin evacuation the homes south of Los Feliz. I barely remember what I packed. I'm not sure if any of the clothes would have matched. I did throw in a prodigious amount of underwear because I remember thinking the clean underwear would be a good thing to have should I become homeless. My emotional state at this time was percolating just under panic level. It's a nerve-wracking process to determine what to grab when everything you own can be gone in twenty minutes. You just realize most things are just stuff at that moment. I wanted to grab some books but couldn't decide what to bring in that rushed time. Books are replaceable, cats and photos are not. It was also dark as the lights were out and I couldn't fully read the titles of my books.

After putting my brand-new laptop (a week old! The one no-brainer item I knew I wanted to bring) and hastily thrown-together suitcase in my car, I joined my neighbors on our front lawn to watch the fire. By about 12:30, the media had left, the crowds had thinned. We spoke to the traffic cop on our corner to find out what was happening. He said that if the area were to evacuate they would use loud speakers (probably bull horns) to evacuate the 'hood. I decided to go back in to try to get some sleep. I did have work the next morning. The wind calmed down overnight and by morning the fire was 40% contained and no longer a threat to the residences of Los Feliz.

Today (Saturday) parts of the park reopened: the zoo, the observatory, golf courses and museums. I plan to walk up there tomorrow to view the damage. I can see a lot of it down here. While there was no human life lost or homes lost, it's still sad to see the damage. The hiking trails I use all the time are gone but wildfires are part of the ecosystem. Shortly the vegetation will be growing again. I heard on NPR this morning that it appears that some the plants' roots may have survived the fire, which is a good sign. I'm including the photos I took of the fire. The pictures turned out horrible because I used the night-time setting on my camera but in the excitement, I couldn't hold the camera still enough to take a good picture. I should have known better. I plan to take some pics tomorrow too of the damage and will post them later. Casey and I have survived our Los Angeles baptism by fire.