Visual remnants of Death Valley

My favorite desert in CA is Death Valley & occasionally Jason & I get to grace it w/ our presence. It's so big, we hit up a different area each time. This March trip was to the most touristy section which is Furnace Creek. Make reservations before you go! Or you may just do what we did the first night which was camp out at the Sunset camp in the gravel. It's really for hundreds of RVs and overflow for the hand full of sad little tent campers that couldn't make it into one of the other full camps. Not so bad, really. People were nice & we scoped out a spot at Texas Spring up the hill the next morning. They do have a spring there, too.

And some neat lil' trails directly around the campground. A lot of campers would go wandering off in them at night & we'd see their little flashlights floating around in the darkness. Some views from one we climbed.

A bit of our campground in the back ground. Beyond that, Sunset campground. Beyond that, the oasis of Furnace Creek Ranch.

The Devil's Golf Course. Ha ha ha (get the joke-yes? no?) That's Telescope Peak in the background; the highest point in Death Valley. 11,000-something feet, I believe? The ground is very crunchy to walk on.

Behind me is the Natural Bridge. The hike to it is pretty easy, but be sure to have a spare tire for the drive up the road to the trailhead. More washboard than a country mountain band? Yes.

Bad water is the lowest point in the western hemisphere, but we didn't have to swim there. Behind us is a little puddle which is home to the Badwater Snail. They are visible & tiny. (I also highly suggest the floppy hat when in DV. Saved me from being Lobster Girl yet again after a desert trip.)

Another crunchy place to walk.

These "sculptures" were everywhere. At first I thought they were neat, but then I realized jerks were breaking apart the salt flats to create them. Jerks. Telescope Peak in the background again!

I've been wanting to go to the Opera House in Death Valley for years & got to do it this time around. Created & ran by Marta Becket for 40 years, it probably won't last much longer. Hopefully it'll still get used for shows & won't turn into another small, dusty museum.

It's located at Death Valley Junction.

The place is actually a bit creepy, but there's a lovely pond across the street from it w/ real live ducks!

The center piece of the full room mural Marta took years to paint; the Renaissance Queen & King & their court. When we got inside, I've never seen a crowd more vicious about taking pictures of EVERYTHING. Would've thought they were getting pictures of some celebrity love child.

Detail of the ceiling.

Jason at the paper mache piano in the prop display room.

Marta was kind enough to sign my picture postcard of her after her performance.

This is where the Golden Canyon hike meets the Red Cathedral.

There's a side trail from Golden Canyon that goes to Zabrinskie Point. This used to be mining territory & there's still a bunch of old shafts to be found in the cliffs.

The signs guided us on proper mine safety.

So of course we went in.

Part of the trail leading from Golden Canyon to Zabrinskie Point. It was a round trip hike of about 6 or 7 miles. Not really that hard, even in 90 degrees. Really.

Behind me is Manly Beacon. I have no idea why it's called that. Oh, wait, it's named after someone named William Manly. Hmmmm... Notice I'm in focus & the Manly is not.

This is a hill to the side of Zabrinskie Point. It was more interesting than ZP, so I got a picture of it instead.

There's a twisty curvy drive called Artist Palette Drive. It's all colorful from the various kinds elements in the ground, such as iron, kids!

Colors!

The bloom was in full swing. Little tiny flowers EVeRYWHERE! And lizards.

'Till next time Death Valley! I'll miss you. xx

CA Video Art Opening

The Getty Museum in LA had a fantastic opening & show of California Video Art. I was lucky to get an invite from one of my friends who had a piece in the show. If you have a chance to go while it's showing, it's well worth it. Here's me with the lovely & talented video artists Dale Hoyt & Lynn Kirby. They were both my teachers & advisors in grad school (now my friends). I happily ran into them both at the show.


Also present, were some awesome previous co-workers that I used to have the pleasure of working with at the Getty before I moved away from LA. *sniff* Miss you guys! Of course I didn't get a picture of almost any of them, except for Sophia Allison w/ her husband. (Sophia's a very talented 3-D artist.)


After the show, Cindy, Janice & I played with the lovely, but scentless white flowers in the Getty Garage.


Cindy was kind enough to give me shelter whilst I was on the West Side.

Thare she blows!

A lil' group of us went whale watching in Long Beach. It was so very hot that day, but as soon as we got out of Rainbow Harbor, the temp dropped about 20 degrees. The captain of the ship asked everyone aboard to be on the look out for whale spouts & if we spotted one, we were to shout "Thare she blows!"
Here's one blowing.


Johana's not going to get a single wrinkle until she's 80.


I really want to make a bad joke about a whale of a tail, but I'll spare you.


Passing the Queen Mary.


And no trip to Rainbow Harbor is complete without going to the hat shop. Brenda has the cow on her head which I'm milking. I'm practicing my 70 year old lady look.


Janine lets us know who's boss.


The chicken laid a Pam!


Janine in front of the Rainbow Harbor lighthouse.


Jo & me. I'm oh so happy!


Brenda waves goodbye to the night. Sleep well little whales.

Parade of the Chariots

Every year in Venice, there's the Parade of the Chariots, which is a Hare Krishna festival. Even if you're not a Hare Krishna, it's a pretty neat event to go to. It starts with a ceremony from the Santa Monica Civic Center & then heads on to Venice Beach with hours of yummy vegetarian food, live-free performances, and other booths selling various paraphernalia.
The Chariots. (Doesn't the lady in the lower right look ecstatic?)


Performers on the stage.


I guess the guy sitting in the middle is the Master of Ceremonies.

A Grand Day out in LA

We did another fun, crammed day with Becca & Rolin, starting off too early in the morning at the South Coast Botanical Garden.
Here's the sexy couple that joined us.


Ah, contemplation in the cactus garden.


Adorable little birdie bathing.


See me. Hear me. Feel me.


Scouring the area around the Banyans. I have no idea what we were looking for. Worms?


Becca & her vaginal banyan art.


Lovely crane in the pond.


After that we checked out the amazingness that is Watts Towers. These were made by a little Italian man named Sam Rodia. He spent over 30 years creating it all by hand. Everything is made from concrete, rebar, & ceramic tiles & glass. There's a great hard to find documentary about him, called "I build the tower". When he first moved to LA, he was looking at two different plots of land to buy; the one he did in Watts & another in Beverly Hills, before it was "Beverly Hills". It's where the current location of the Beverly Hills Hilton is located.



This is Jason's book jacket photo.


Moi in front of the sign explaining the tower on the left is based on Marco Polo's ships mast.

Then we were off to Randy's Donuts in Inglewood. Yum Yum Yum Yum!!! Jason & I got the "big one!" Can you tell I'm tired of smiling for the camera?


Nom nom nom!!1!


Bellies now full sweet gooey goodness, we made the short trek to the California Science Center. This is truck display outside that Becca & Jason are strong enough to lift up.


A pretty neat purple gazebo w/ odd hanging little golden balls was located just outside.




One of the things I wanted to do before leaving LA was to see the Museum of Neon Art. They had lost their downtown lease & were currently closed. However in the meantime, they had a show of 6 artists at the CSC, so I wanted to go & see the work. I didn't realize that they only put in one piece per artist in the show. It was still neat, but just a little blip in the hallway. So here's a neon lizard.


They also had a "Fear" exhibit up, which included tarantulas & hissing Madagascar cockroaches. Becca has a fear of falling so she let herself be strapped into a "fall" machine. It was safe, but made a very loud noise on impact.


I followed up that by riding the air bike, which is suspending 3 stories above the lobby. There's a net, but I didn't really care about that when the person who ran the bike decided to have it rock back & forth. Nope, did not like her.


We're tired & sleepy & hungry. We decide to drive to El Pueblo for food. But first, view the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall. The architecture is just odd to me.


At the yummy cantina in El Pueblo.


Though we're no longer hungry, we're still tired, though not yet grumpy. Everyone was very nice in continuing to Angels Flight, located at Hill & Third downtown. It was supposed to open again in the summer of 2007, but has yet to at this time. Originally built in 1901, what's neat about AF is not only does it claim to be the shortest railway in the world, but also the rail mechanism itself is somewhat unique. It had two cars pulled by one cable; so one car would go up & the other would go down. This one closed in 1969. A new mechanism was used when it reopened in 1996. New isn't always better, because about 5 years after it opened one of the cars lost control & crashed into the other causing someone to die. Here it is from the bottom.


And the top, too.


And just so you know- Do not Feed the Pigeons.


And Do Not Eat the Pigeons. Really, Angels Flight isn't in the best neighborhood.


Our day of bliss over, Fred bids us au Dieu & to come again.