chase the light

The last two movies I’ve been on have had little flash games built for them. Polar Express and now Zathura. We screened the film today. I can’t really reveal anything about the movie, but the house that’s in it is beautiful. Such a grown up statement. I wouldn’t have said that 5 years ago. Cinco de Mayo, ole! It’s partly cloudy, cool, and I rode my bike to work. Which I do most of the time. I’m a regular Ed Begley, Jr. Junior these days [LINK]. Sometimes I have to throw a little bag of things together and strap them to the handlebars of the bike. Two days ago it was a container of teriyaki chicken from Trader Joes. Which I threw into the refrigerator as soon as I got home. Tonight I got it out of the refrigerator and found my iPod and cell phone. Doh! So that’s where they went…

Spent the day cruising around San Pedro and ended up at the Warner Grand Theater [LINK] for a screening of “I Built the Tower”. It was part of the 2nd L.A. Harbor International Film Festival. It’s a documentary on Simon Rodia who built the Watts Towers over a period of 33 years between 1921 and 1954. For a film that was 22 years in the making it left a lot to be desired. It never fully answered the question of why? They never get the answer from the subject or really present a reason for themselves. Councilwoman Janice Hahn was on hand as a sponsor of the film, and surprise, surprise, she was in it. She got up and talked for a brief moment. She’s the daughter of the late Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and the sister of current Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn. Who is so gettin’ voted out of office in the next election. Also scenes from “Pearl Harbor” were shot at the theater and on the street out front. Right after Ben Affleck gets his punk ass blown out of the sky and his best friend totally starts puttin’ the moves on Kate Beckinsale. San Pedro is also the old haunt of Charles Bukowski. I was never really a fan of poetry until I read a few things from him and realized it wasn’t poetry I disliked, but poets. Most dance around too much describing what red would be like. Bukowski said “red” and got to his point. One in particular called “air and light and time and space” [LINK] has been my kick in the pants when I’m procrastinating, lazy, or just complacent. From the book “The Last Night Of The Earth Poems” [LINK]. Do yourself a favor.

The Bungalow Heaven area in Pasadena contains a huge concentration of my favorite type of homes in the Los Angeles area. The Craftsman style bungalow. It contains over a 1000 homes in various forms of bungalows. Craftsman, Tudors, Period Revivals and Queen Annes. This house was constructed in 1914 foor $4000. On a clear day you can see Catalina from the second story. This house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in August of 2004 for it’s influence of the Arts and Crafts movement. Love it.

I just got my new painting back from the framer and I love it. I bought it at one of Jett Jackson’s shows a couple of months ago. It’s called “The Belly of the Beast”, Los Angeles being the beast. I liked it because it reminded me of the downtown area and the 6th street bridge. There are also lots of water towers on buildings down there. It’s the area where the artist lives so its no doubt had an influence on her.

It only took me four months to put the photos together but what the hell. Nine days in New York City and I didn’t see one superhero. So, a recap from December… After years of trying to find someone to take me to New York, so they could show me around, I finally caved. I’m now going. I went. Last time I was in New York was 1977. The summer of the New York City blackout, Son of Sam, the Apple II was released, Star Wars came out, Elvis died, and Studio 54 was in full swing. I thought I would try to finance the trip in a way that steers clear of my bank account. So as I was cleaning the house I was thinking of ideas of how to do this when I came across the infamous “penny jar”. Hmmm… I’d been throwing quarters, dimes, and nickles in there too. I certainly didn’t want to count it all and put them into rolls. I remembered the Coin Star machine at the grocery store that does all that and takes a small cut. So I packed up pennies, put them in the cart, wheeled them through the store and started dumping into the machine. Ching, ching, ching, ching… it took forever and I refused to look at the total until I finished. As the last coin dropped through, a total of 4106 pennies, 818 nickles, 1146 dimes, and 329 quarters. Total cash amount $279.31! Minus the processing fee, 254.45! Ok, so straight to the bank and then online to book a ticket. No one can beat Jet Blue to New York so I type in Long Beach to New York. $255.20. Roundtrip ticket to New York? .75 cents. Priceless.

Anyway, favorite thing I overheard on the street while passing two girls… “…if it wasn’t for my boobs I would have been completely broke…” I so wanted hear the rest of that conversation. Random photos from the city, people looking at art at the Met and MoMA, Trump related things, the scariest ass display of Polar Express in the windows of Macy’s, an a final link that has all the photos in one big gallery. Also a video compilation of songs from the John Lennon anniversary in Central Park and two of the news stories from a couple of my photos. The Pale Male story and Senator Charles Schumer bitching about something.

It was a cash loop day for me on Thursday. I work for Sony, they put money in my account, I go to store and plop down the debit card for a Sony PSP, the money went back too them. Hey wait a minute?? I bought two games, Wipeout and Ridge Racer. Two of my favorite games from the old system. I like racing games because you can quit them at almost any point. Unlike full immersion games where I’ve sat there all night getting fat beating up an elf to steal a knife so I can cut open a spider to get a magic crystal. I don’t have that kind of time. I’m not in college anymore. Not only did I pick up the PSP, but my Amazon UK order came in with two Stereophonics cds. An old one with extra songs including their cover of “Handbags and Gladrags” and their new one that’s not even released in the U.S. yet. And they’re at Coachella this year! Rok on.

The goal tonight? Rip the Stereophonics cds, put them on a Memory Stick so that I can play them on the PSP. Exactly what they wanted. I’m putty in Sony’s hands today. When I pulled up to the store my thought was… “that’s only about 100 people, that’s not bad.” Baa. Baa.

…and the coolest thing? Logging in and making this post via the PSP’s web browser.

After two years I finally made it back out to the Poppy Reserve in Antelope Valley. It’s a nice show this year but more importantly it was the first time I got to see the memorial bench we had put out there for both of my grandparents. We spread her ashes out there and now having a place to go sit makes it all the better. As I was out there an older japanese couple came up and asked, in broken english, if I could take their picture. As I talked to them I told them that the bench was for my grandparents. After first saying they were sorry, I reassured them that it was OK they asked if they could sit on it. I laughed and told them that’s exactly what it’s for! So they smiled big for the camera in front of all the flowers on my grandparent’s bench.

Caller I.D. on my phone. The Prince of Peace, AKA Jesus, didn’t leave a message. I wonder what he wants? Hopefully tomorrow a burning bush won’t try to talk to me, that’s too much responsibility.

Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

According to the real time tracking on the L.A. Marathon website, this is Luis Armando Medina Guillen from Victoria, Mexico. Victoria is just south of the tip of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico. He is 37 years old and did the 26.2 miles in 2:44:02 to finish 27th in the wheelchair division. He smiled when I shot photos of him [LINK].

We won the Academy Award last night for the Visual Effects on Spider-Man 2! A long overdue first for Imageworks. Yes I fondled the little gold men. Heavy little buggers. We had champagne to drink, sandwiches to eat, and balloons to pop. [John Dykstra], [Scott Stokdyk], [Anthony LaMolinara] and [John Frazier] all picked up an award. Anthony partied a little too much last night and didn’t make it to the party today. 3 out of 4 ain’t bad. This is John’s first Oscar since he won one for the original Star Wars in 1977.

Another trip up to Mammoth for the Imageworks ski trip. After last years solo snowmobiling trip I was able to gather 5 more this year and the trip was outstanding. Visted the caldera and a couple of small craters where we stood on the edge and looked down. It had snowed all week so we had huge drifts and massive amounts of powder to ride in. All the trees were covered in snow and looking very Seussical. Me, Jill, Alberto, Alice, Howie, and Michelle all partook. Below is our group on the caldera. caldera: a volcanic crater that has a diameter many times that of the vent and is formed by collapse of the central part of a volcano or by explosions of extraordinary violence.

Last year my parents had bought a boat in Michigan and trailered it out to California. It was to replace the smaller boat, but they never felt comfortable on it. So on the chopping block it went and they found a boat that they really liked. The size was better and they could take it more places and sleep much better on it. The real plus for me is that it’s in the San Juan Islands! Uh… nice one parents!! So my dad was driving up to take the things from the old boat to outfit the new one and my sister was going to in Seattle on business. I just hopped a plane out of Oakland after Macworld and picked my sister up in Seattle and we drove to Anacortes and ferried over to Friday Harbor and stayed the weekend hanging out! Unfortunately my mom had to work. The boat is a Nordic Tug [LINK], which is way more comfortable to cruise in than a sailboat, and warmer. In Friday Harbor there’s a seal that hangs around the dock that has only one eye. Her name is Popeye. She’ll come up to your boat and slap the water to tell you she’s there. On Saturday, we took the boat out around Shaw Island and skirted below Orcas Island. On Shaw Island there were a few Bald Eagles and I was able to get a shot of one of them. As we were coming back in it started snowing and ended up snowing all night. Snow is so rare in the San Juans and it’s been so long since I’d seen any I loved it. I was staying in a warm suite at a hotel in Friday Harbor while my sister and dad slept on the boat. That is until the electric cable running from the dock to the boat shorted out and they lost power. Which meant no heat. Which meant they were heading to the hotel for the night too. Of course my sister had been in Seattle on business and had all her business luggage. It’s snowing like mad out and she had to drag her lugagge 1.5 miles to the hotel as the streets were fluffy white, and my rental car doesn’t have chains. The movie theater was playing “Elektra”, so I didn’t go. This coming summer I get to see the Orcas swimming around for free!

On the way up to the San Juan Islands I stayed a day in Seattle. I wanted to see the Mark Ryden exhibit Wondertoonel [LINK] at the Frye Museum before meeting up with my sister. Since I’ve spent so little time actually in Seattle I went touristing around. Of course if there’s something Led Zeppelin related I’ll go see it. Which in this case is the infamous Edgewater Inn where the “shark incident” occurred. At the time you could fish off the balconies of the hotel… well you’ll see [LINK]. These days if that sort of thing went on all kinds of lawsuits would be flying. The Beatles also stayed at the hotel on their 1964 tour and there’s a famous picture of them fishing out the window [LINK].

After years of not going to Macworld, I think the last one was in 98 or something, I hit the Moscone Center to check out the new goodies. In a way I was disappointed because there was nothing new released that was really geared towards me. The new Mac mini and the iShuffle, which is really uninteresting if you already own an iPod. I did like the display they had them on as everyone could walk up and try it out. That is if you want to put earphones in your ears that thousands of strangers have done before you. Yuck. It was hard to even get near a Mac mini. They’re small. I went down to the wharf afterwards and had dinner, watched the sunset and the seals bark and play.

In 1995, in a classroom I was teaching in, I found this postcard late one night. It was in the tray of the chalk board in front of the class. It had actually been there a few days getting moved around. It first caught my eye only because it was a painting from my favorite classical painter William Bouguereau. “The Abduction of Psyche” from 1895. The painting was now a 100 years old. The classes had left awhile ago so it had obviously been left behind. I flipped it over to find a love note from a girl. There was no one in any of the classes that I knew of named either Josh or Naomi. So I’m not sure how it ever decided to land in my hands but I’ve kept it this whole time. I was cleaning out a closet and opened the box that it was in and read it again. I’m not sure how old she was when she wrote it, she could have been a teenager, she could have been in her thirties. All I know is she is 10 years older than she was and I hope she hasn’t changed.

All together now… Awwwww….

“This is a vision of us. What do you think of my dream come true? Isn’t it a little blue? You know what I mean, I hope. Here is that thing I wrote. Hope you enjoy the postcard. I’ve been saving it for someone really special for about a year now and I guess you came my way.

Eternally, Naomi

P.S. I’ll give you the story of Psyche and Cupid sometime.

I’ve been going crazy for almost 6 1/2 minutes and I think the flowers on my pretty dress are falling off too slowly for anyone else but but me to see, but you were pretending oh so well when you said, “why are you crying girl?” and, “sit on my lap, ooh brr, it’s so cold so why don’t you take off your dress little girl?”, but I laughed and said “only the flowers, I’ll take off only the flowers.”
Naomi – November 24, 1995

After years of trying to find someone to take me to New York, so they could show me around, I finally caved. I’m now going. Last time I was in New York was 1977. The summer of the New York City blackout, Son of Sam, the Apple II was released, Star Wars came out, Elvis died, and Studio 54 was in full swing. I thought I would try to finance the trip in a way that steers clear of my bank account. So as I cleaning the house I was thinking of ideas of how to do this when I came across the infamous “penny jar”. Hmmm… I’d been throwing quarters, dimes, and nickles in there too. I certainly didn’t want to count it all and put them into rolls. I remembered the Coin Star machine at the grocery store that does all that and takes a small cut. So I packed up pennies, put them in the cart, wheeled them through the store and started dumping into the machine. Ching, ching, ching, ching… it took forever and I refused to look at the total until I finished. As the last coin dropped through, a total of 4106 pennies, 818 nickles, 1146 dimes, and 329 quarters. Total cash amount $279.31! Minus the processing fee, 254.45! Ok, so straight to the bank and then online to book a ticket. No one can beat Jet Blue to New York so I type in Long Beach to New York. $255.20. Roundtrip ticket to New York? .75 cents. Priceless.

Oh Neko. Oh lovely, lovely Neko. Oh wait I said that Thursday. I’m repeating myself in my haze of Neko. So I pulled a major blunder as I stopped by the El Rey late in the afternoon to check when the box office was opening. I pull up on my bike (how green of me) and the box office was closed but the front door of the theater was open and some dude was standing out by the curb chatting with someone. I politely interupt them to see if they know what time the box office and the doors open. He kinda chuckles and and said “Doors at 8, Show at 9. Come by we’ll play a few songs for you.” Not making the connection AT ALL. I actually thought his remark was kinda weird. Of course when I finally come back for the show, guess who jumps up on stage first. Dexter Romweber, yep the guy out front. Damn. Stupid me, had I not missed him at the San Francisco show I would have totally known who he was and not been a fool. He’s only been slugging it out since the 80’s with the Flat Duo Jets. He was great though in a Elvis, Eddie Cochran on a distorted 11. Dexter’s drummer didn’t use a hi-hat, he just pounded the drums and cymbals a lot. The Sadies came next and are a garage-punk meets western-movie soundtrack, bluegrass rave-ups en psychedelische campfire ballads. I bought a CD after the show since I really liked them. Very polite with their preacher suits and ties and “Thank you ladies and gentlemen” after each song. Then it dawned on me what Neko had done. Brilliant. Have your backing band open for you so that they get warmed up and get all the kinks out before you have to show up on stage. A free soundcheck before an audience. Neko was good once again, but much more low key. Hardly any audience banter and very few technical problems except for those long tuning pauses between songs. Setlist: Favorite, If You Knew, Souful Shade of Blue, Outro with Bees, Blacklisted, The Tigers Have Spoken, Maybe Sparrow, New Song, Rated X, Hex, New Song, Furnace Room Lullaby, John the Baptist, Lucky Eye w/Dexter Romweber, Make Your Bed, Train From Kansas City, Benny Hill Theme, Loretta.