Category Archives: Los Angeles

October 18, 2019 · 23:39

Ash

I hadn’t driven the Volvo in a while, but I had left the windows cracked open so that it wouldn’t fry inside setting in the sun.

When I did get in there, I realized that it had been open like that while last week’s brush fires had been going on about ten miles upwind from us.

Configured like that, it made a perfect little trap for ash and debris blown by the wind. The seats, floor mats, window sills, and controls were all covered with ash, twigs, and detritus. (I love that word!)

It’s also a good indicator of how these fires spread so damn fast in high winds. All of this was obviously cool by the time it got here, probably because it was fairly light. But much closer to the fire line, where the hot, heavier stuff is being carried, the fire will keep jumping and jumping, a couple miles at a time, hot embers falling into dry brush, dead leaves, the tops of palm trees…and the cars of people who left the windows cracked open.

Something to be remembered for next time, especially if the fire isn’t ten miles away!

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Filed under Disasters, Los Angeles, Photography

October 13, 2019 · 23:08

Fancy Music

In an effort to broaden our horizons a bit, this year we’ve picked up a subscription to a small series of concerts for the LA Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown.

It was spectacular!

Gustavo Dudamel is the legendary conductor and neither he, the LA Phil, the soloist, or the music disappointed.

The acoustics could not be more perfect, even sitting in the second balcony at the back.

We started by hearing two pieces that I was unfamiliar with – Sinfonia India (Symphony No. 2) by Carlos Chavez, and a Piano Concerto, “Universos Infinitos” by Esteban Benzecry. Both were wonderful.

We finished with two favorites of mine by Aaron Copland – Fanfare for the Common Man and Rodeo.

Hearing Fanfare for the first time live by a world-class orchestra was absolutely stunning. I had no idea how strongly it would affect me.

Rodeo was just a lot of fun. The way Dudamel and the orchestra played with the different instruments and musical lines was both humorous and joyous. Since it’s music for a ballet I was wondering how it might be presented differently in a ballet setting since it would be secondary to the dance. Maybe I’ll get a chance to find out some day.

If you’re in LA or visiting and you have a chance, go see the LA Phil! They do more pop music concerts at the Hollywood Bowl (“Star Wars” music, “Game of Thrones,” etc) but their classical concerts at Disney Hall are even better!

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Filed under Los Angeles, Music, Photography

October 11, 2019 · 23:38

Door

We found a new place to eat last Sunday. The food was very good, interesting, different – but also different was the door to the restaurant.

It was a mosaic of cells, each about 6 inches by 6 inches, and each filled with a different sort of seeds or nuts or spices.

On the one hand I found it beautiful and fascinating – on the other hand, I had questions. Like, how do you keep tiny critters (mice, bugs, etc) from getting in to eat the nuts? What about mold?

I didn’t ask. I just went with it being different, interesting, unique (at least, to me), and pretty.

That was enough.

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Filed under Los Angeles, Photography

September 30, 2019 · 23:44

I’m Getting Gas Over Gas

What the hell happened??!!

(Images from GasBuddy.com)

Things were okay all summer, at least by LA standards. Yeah, I know that gas is almost a buck a gallon cheaper in most of the country, and in some places more than that, but for LA, hovering steadily at about $3.67/gallon is okay. That’s the average for the area – I was usually finding it for about a dime less in the West San Fernando Valley.

Then it started to creep up.

Then it exploded last week!

There’s a couple of places near work where the cheap stuff, unleaded regular, self serve, is $4.25/gallon. We’re not talking about Beverly Hills here, or some “oasis” station in a “gas desert.” We’re talking about a place on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills with another station across the street and two more within a mile in either direction!

Geeze!!

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Filed under Los Angeles

September 28, 2019 · 23:59

To The Driver Who Turned Left In Front Of Me

Yeah, that was way, WAAAAAAY too close, dude or dudette!

Yeah, I was turning right and had slowed down and was signalling, but there was no way any sane person would have gunned it through the intersection like that. It’s a good thing that neither of us had an extra coat of paint on our cars or we would have been swapping it.

And the way you then fishtailed your way back over into the left lane and gunned your mom-mobile SUV like NCC-1701 going to Warp Six – impressive.

So as I pulled up next to you on your right at that stop sign that you graciously deigned to honor, I was ready to use my “driving finger” to “signal” that I thought you were “number one,” if you know what I mean.

Who the hell drives like that?

But I didn’t, because it turned out you were just a kid, probably really early in your driving learning curve…

…and you Mom in the passenger seat was saying things to you at such a volume that my flipping you off and screaming would have just been pale and pathetic in comparison.

Good luck, Mom. I’ve been there.

Today was my turn to be a little bit more experienced, a little bit faster, a little bit smarter.

Tomorrow you’re on your own.

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Filed under Distracted Driving, Los Angeles

September 27, 2019 · 19:54

Some Old English Guy’s Here

Rod something?

Jeff Bark? Buck? Bork? Is he that Swedish Chef guy?

I hear that Maggie may – or she may not. We’ll see where the night leads.

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Filed under Los Angeles, Music, Photography

September 17, 2019 · 20:47

Spelling Counts

The LA Kings have their first pre-season games tonight (it beats repeats of Hallmark movies that I’ve seen multiple times) but the game’s not on either television or radio. I finally found out that it was on the iHeartRadio app, so I downloaded the app and created an account. I found the game, but also learned an interesting lesson.

If you’re searching for “LA Kings” but type in “LA Kinks” by mistake…

I’m hardly a prude and I have a vivid imagination, but there are apparently things out there that are so far out of my range of experience that words simply fail!

And not one of those suggestions mentioned either of the Davies brothers!

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Filed under LA Kings, Los Angeles

September 13, 2019 · 20:28

REALLY Full Tonight

And I got out the good camera for the occasion.

Remember I said you could see Griffith Observatory? It’s over to the right from this view. This is the big peak in Griffith Park, with the Hollywood sign just on the far side to the right of that radio/TV tower. (Click on the image to view it full sized.)

Ooooh, looky what I found! Just five hours short of full, that’s about 99.99% illuminated and coming up through the evening haze.

Play with the exposure time and you get some detail, craters and “oceans.”

Remember that hill and radio tower?

You could almost reach out and touch it.

Pull back a little bit and you can see the lights coming on across the San Fernando Valley.

Looking for the owl. (Didn’t see, or hear, him.)

Is that a dot in the upper left, at about the 10:00 position? No, that would be a plane taking off out of Burbank! I was shooting a series of bracketed shots and you can clearly see the plane coming up from the lower left, going in front of the moon…

…and then taking off a bit to the upper right before looping back around to cross over Van Nuys Airport and head north toward Northern California or the Pacific Northwest. (I’ve taken that takeoff many a time!)

Lots of hubbub online about “a full moon on Friday the Thirteenth!!” Give me a break. Just enjoy the beautiful moon and the view – you don’t need anything more than that.

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Filed under Astronomy, Los Angeles, Photography, Space

August 12, 2019 · 22:30

Better Than A Poke In The Eye With A Sharp Stick

Getting out of work at 20:15 sort of sucks. Knowing it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets any better sucks even more.

Having this sort of view off of the parking lot deck doesn’t really make up for it, but as the title says…

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Filed under Los Angeles, Photography

July 13, 2019 · 22:53

Mystery 2021 Model Something-Or-The-Other

SoCal being SoCal, we’ll occasionally see one of these on the road:

This is most likely a prototype, pre-production version of some sort of big-name sports car. It might be a 2021 model undergoing testing of some sort.

The bizarre paint scheme (actually just some sort of glued on sheets, sort of like that weird shelf paper our mothers all put in the kitchen cabinets) is designed to make it hard to discern the exact shape and contours of the vehicle. The car manufacturers need to get some real world test data, but they don’t want anyone in the real world to know what it looks like until the advertising gurus pop up with the appropriate marketing campaign, probably at some world class auto show.

We were stuck in stop-and-stop traffic, so I had plenty of time to gawk. You’ll notice that even if you peek in the window, the dashboard, instruments, and pretty much EVERYTHING is covered up.

If traffic had been just a bit more horrible, it would have been tempting to hop out and see if one of those camouflage sheets had a loose end available for a good, hard tug. Just ’cause, don’t you know!

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Filed under Los Angeles