This is the Mount WilsonPinko Snow Tower. This is where the Mount Wilson internet camera is placed. According to the fellow who moves the “Tower Cam” about, it also serves as a fire lookout. Mary doesn’t like going uphill, but she will.
If your at the right angle, and it’s clear enough, you can see the itty bitty Snow Tower (encapsulated in the blue dot) from the valley below. Mary prefers the canyon floors.
The Tower Cam is usually aimed in the direction of the 100 inch Hooker telescope and beyond. I like to keep a collection of Mount Wilson screen shots. Although I dream of snow, Mary and I are not expecting any.
I wouldn’t be caught dead without my fully loaded Jericho 941.
This curbside treasure was imported to the US as the “Baby Eagle”. The Jericho 941 is a high-capacity 9mm automatic with the addition of a slide-mounted safety/decocker. It was designed to duplicate the reduced power police loading of the .41 Magnum. The Jericho 941 is the preferred service pistol of the Israeli Security Forces (and me).
The Santa Ana’s are here and we (to the east and west) areburningup. Welcome to the Towering Inferno. Welcome to the time of year when palm fronds catch the wind and become flying projectiles. Welcome to the very location that I watched our mountains (in tandem with the Malibu fires) burn in 1978. It was at night and it was horrifically beautiful. That’s how Shiva likes it.
Raymond Chandler
“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Ana’s that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.”
One of three original designs made into 24 glass panels
ceramic frit on 4′ x 8′ glass panel
One of four panels (plus a whole lot more) low fire 8″ x 8″ tile
Over atPasadena Daily Photo, Petrea is defending the virtues of public art, bless her heart. Since it’s my desire for blogging purposes, to remain under the moniker of Palm Axis, I’ve decided to do a post on the process of installing public art without giving authors, agencies, architects, contractors, locations or the finished result. Trust me, it’s spectacular.
O.K., for those of you who won’t wear a flea, would you be willing to put your ex’s ashes in a flea theme tower? Ann are you listening? Notice the pagoda roof? (only one corner sags). This is an example from my “Asian/Oakie not Karokee” period. Warning: don’t try slab construction without the aid of a professional (my ceramic instructorKeiko Fukazawa).
I have it from a reliable source (my Japanese born ceramic instructor Keiko Fukazawa), that the Japanese have an insensitive description related to couples where the male is smaller then the female (and it has to do with a “he” flea).
I’ve done Icons and OGs and now a T-flea. Next assignment: restaurant identity. The project is due tonight. I have nothing. On the plus side, I did put a nifty post together on the subject of restaurants. It awaits it’s debut in my cyber space draft cabinet.
For the love of God, it’s an egg people …. an egg!
I was running embarrassingly late for my ceramics class. I estimate an hour and a half late. I was at the corner of 64 and Church and there they stood. Four mid century (heavily used but lightly rusted) lawn chairs. My head spun “exorcist style” and yet I kept going. Then the itch started. I continued north, but the itch got stronger. I’m no match for the itch. I made an illegal U in front of the San Raphael library and headed back at break neck speed. I had to get there before a “Wee Wah Weedah Wagon Bumpity Bump” saw them. In my haste, I left the table behind. The scrap guys got it and I now live with the constant pain of regret.
The phrase “getting it cheap is part of the esthetic” is by my photographer friend D Gorton. I blatantly stole this weekly concept from Petrea over at Pasadena Daily Photo.
I liberated these gardenias from a hedge in front of a dentist office.
I adore Gardenias. Their scent always reminds me of Gene Harlow who happened to be the daughter of a dentist. I’m also reminded of my eighth grade graduation where we each wore a gardenia corsage. I digress, back to Harlow.
You see, her funeral was the biggest ticket in town, M.G.M. made sure of it. Her service was held in the Wee Kirk O’ the Heather chapel located in Glendale’s very own Forest Lawn. The chapel was drenched with gardenias, ten thousand of them to be exact. Jeanette MacDonald sang “Indian Love Call” Harlow’s favorite song. I happen to prefer Slim Whitman’s version. In case you didn’t know, Harlow wrote a sexually explicit novel that the studio bought up in full and destroyed, she posed nude in Griffith Park, (bleached her pubic hair which was rumored to be the cause of her death) and was the inspiration for the character of Cat Woman in the Batman comic series.
Eva Cockcroft, was a Los Angeles muralist who died in 1999 at the age of 62. She often addressed social themes in her work. Cockcroft was also a widely published critic with a commitment to political art. Cockcroft cowrote Toward a People’s Art: The Contemporary Mural Movement, first published in 1972 and reissued in 1998.
I remember when she was working on the Compton station. She feared that she had exceded the budget and would be stuck paying for it out of pocket. I think she did overextend herself but maybe it was meant to be. I believe she sang her swan song in Compton. The last time I saw Eve, we were both competing for a project at a small Hollywood theater. We both lost the commission to the “Third Man”.
I had a post at the ready, but the Mac did not come back. In truth, he left rather graciously. Even so, the poops still growing wings and taking flight. As for me, due to my passion for the living (adios Sara) natural glories of the San Gabriel’s, I was in no mood to waste a perfectly good scat identification opportunity. Queen Victoria, your opinion? Anyone? I have theories, what’s yours? hint: big. If you should choose to select the image…very very big
