Welcome friends! allow me to take you on a tour of the studio. Lets head up to the roof so I can show you a less familiar view of Los Angeles.
Here’s to our endless summer. We start out by looking south/east towards the water towers. They belong to the fair city of Vernon. Vernon daily photo blog ?? – NOT – Farmer John’s meat processing plant?? -YES! When the sky is white and the air is perfectly still, the sweet stench of blood is inescapable.
Looking east are the RR tracks and beyond that, the LA flood channel (euphemistically refered to as the Los Angeles River). You’ll need a misquito net to live here. The expanse of undeveloped land? A case of NIMBY. Cleared and slated to be a prison; the nearby mamacita’s of East LA said “No Way Jose! not another one!!” Beyond the empty tract is “little” Sears Tower. Looking north/west we see a one story building that serves as a strip club. My final zoom shot is of downtown proper. What you didn’t see on my 180 degree Wee Video tour is a view of the south/west; so heres a peek. Thats the Alameda Corridor.
Next stop….the interior
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We have only one neighbor as seen in the link. Everything behind us was torn out to make room for the prison. Later everything in front of us was torn out to make room for the Alameda Corridor (hot link). Together, ours are the only buildings that didn’t fall under iminent domain.
Only one neighbor? Where have all the addjacent people gone? Our sky is smoky white here along with a Farmer John hickory smoke smell in the air.
So enjoying these blog staycations this summer. Thanks for the tour.
From the rooftop it looks like an ocean of really, really hot concrete.
We’re having record cool weather, that’s why all the hurricanes are out in the Atlantic. Yay!!!!
Cool front door/security system. From the roof it looks like an urban desert, or is that dessert? Speaking of food, the gunk on the b-b-q grill might come off easier once the thing is very hot. Try a spatula or grill brush after heating then see if oven cleaner will take the remaining crud off.
I like that the roof seems to have railings. I’m a big chicken about heights, mainly looking down from up high.
You sure do paint a pretty picture my friend. “the sweet stench of blood is inescapable” This wouldn’t have something to do with creative juices?
Au contraire, I know this view very well. Somewhere, between here and there, there is an old autopark from the 20′s or 30′s. Very James M. Cain.
Although I really wish you hadn’t told me about the blood.
loving the front door and rooftop vid of your ‘hood – can’t wait for the studio tour!
BREAKING NEWS
Fire on the mountain. Break out point is the ranger station off of the Angeles Crest Highway
Who knew we had an active volcano in LA? Big news to me!
God it was hot today, seamed like the hottest day of summer and I just got home 10 min. ago after spending half the day in whatever air conditioned place I could find.
My studio is about 10 blocks north of there. Even with my hefty (rarely used) 1 horsepower exhaust fan, and 2 internal big fans it wasn’t cool enough to start working till after 6:00pm.
Guess we didn’t dodge that bullet afterall. The sky is a murky pinkish gray this morning, and even with all the doors and windows shut and the ac on, the inside of the house smells like smoke. Nothing compared to the great outdoors, however.
BREAKING NEWS
where the fire burned
BREAKING NEWS: I’m very familiar with the part of our mountain on fire. It’s one of the rare shady hikes available and it leads to a meadow with spectacular views of most of the nearby ranges. It’s also part of La Canada’s network of cross town trails that puts it in close proximity with housing. I also fear for the little skinny black cat at the fire station that Mary called in to see if she had a owner (does but not a good one). This fire-less video I took last fall of the area. The Palos Verdes fire is where this post took place
http://pasadenaadjacent.com/2009/07/19/off-my-tracks/
CO: I don’t know where they went but I imagine much of what they left behind is probably in a landfill. The 10 (collapsed freeway) is a small mountain that sits behind the Arts Colony further down Santa Fe.
Margaret: what part did you enjoy?
PJ: The land is raw dirt. Vernon is where Bandini Mountain is (remember the commercial) and all the slaughter and rendering plants; including where we take our euthanized shelter animals. Long story but I know this stuff
D: Did you enlarge the bottom photo? The architectural flourish (I can’t come up with the structural name) has fallen and you can just see the beginning of some lettering. Artist/welder/sculpture Malcome made the front entrance gate
(he’s single LADIES; income producing; english accent; grown children; owns a dog)
Jean: Fear of heights or vertigo? You’d never make it as a muralist. The scaffolding would do you in.
John E: I was being poetic. Today could be one of those days. That interspersed with the smell of burning scrub
Vetti: thanks I thought you ought to see it. Congratulations on your new line of work and I’m enjoying your collages
Mid-Town-G: The Volcanos behind JPL. I got out of the heat by going to see the Julia Child movie.
We used to have a monster fan. Grabbed it from the business behind me at the old studio. Was like listening to a jet plane.
AH: This ain’t no Brewery. This is a hardcore studio. Four studios and a musician. Not much in the way of distraction although Vernon used to have great thrift stores.
What’s an Auto Park?
I’ve read posts about Bandini. It must be very visceral to be near the plant. I noticed the metal work/gate and meant to mention it as I like it very much. I wonder if the maker knows he’s being touted as a good catch on the interwebs. It gives me the giggles.
Right now I’m watching the evening news about the fires you and Tash are experiencing. It’s so cool here at night for this time of the year and we’re also experiencing a lot of rain, very unusual for this time of year, such a contrast.
PA, I like the sound of my jet plane fan; put on blaring music and your imagination cap and I wonder when I’ll land in Maui ;-)
PJ, We have had an unusually cool summer until this week, now I’m wondering if September will be worse. We live on the edge here; the edge of the desert, the edge of the vast Pacific Ocean expanse, the edge of fault-lines and the edge of potential destruction by fire. I guess you could say the same about where you live and the constant fear of increasing Hurricanes.
The bigger question is why?
I knew a guy in college who wanted to take me to see the Farmer John mural on a date. I should of gone.
PAAceReporter – that’s some incredible, scary footage of the fire you got.
BREAKING NEWS
There’s a long flat ridge on fire, we don’t know what it is but it may be the Sunset Fireroad west of Millard Canyon as it meets up with the intersection of Brown Mountain fire road and Ken Burton trail
Below is a site that fell victim to fire
What was once theWhite City December 9, 1905
The incline ridge to White City dismantled 1941
Mid-Town G,
Right now, our nights are actually cool, something just unheard of. That’s why all the storms are in the Atlantic. It’s supposed to be because of El Nino/La Nina. We also have an infestation of small pecan roaches, billions of them, just unheard of. As to why, my understanding is that the Sahara Desert used to be the bread basket of Africa but was over-farmed and stripped of trees, now it’s where the storms that seed hurricanes are made.
PA,
Thanks for the update. See KB’s blog for my thoughts on evacuation plans.
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BREAKING NEWS: there’s a long flat ridge on fire, we don’t know what it is but it may be the Sunset Fireroad west of Millard Canyon as it meets up with Brown Mountain Junction and the Ken Burton trail
PJ: as far as my dating service goes it’s probably a bad time to bring it up.
About the fires. They’re dramatic but not as bad as it seems. The thing thats saving our ass is that we don’t have any Santa Anas going. The worst fire I can remember (besides those a few years back) was the Malibu fires of the late 70′s, where the fire jumped from range to range. That was horrifying. Now having said that, knock on wood those Santa Anas don’t show up.
Mid-Town-G: my car has air conditioning
Tash: Good god, I hope it wasn’t a summer date. The slaughter houses really do smell sickeningly sweet.
Re your question, it jumped the arroyo yesterday, so was/is also burning on the other side of jpl, but further north east. If you hike up the arroyo, past JPL, about 1/2 mile up you’ll see a fire road leading to Brown Mountain. That seems to be where the fire started in Altadena.
oh these fires suck…all that forest going up in smoke, all that smoke burning my eyes, etc.
PA, my car has air conditioning too + air bags. What do you think? I’s a late 90′s car! What do you think I’ll do, sit in the car wasting fuel, just to stay cool?
You and AH deserve a fire reporting Blog award… you want M&M’s or Snickers?
But I am more interested in interior.
Snickers.
Actually, the link queen can decide. She’s good! Have a link to Sunset Ridge up above Chaney Trail? That’s where the action is.