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ENTERED JAN 4, 2008

Back to my hometown, we celebrated Christmas with my family this year.







 
Roy with his favorite yearly gifts: Pentose and puzzles.

Mema is trying to make a point, but people are too busy digging in to listen. She's probably talking about how good homecooked meals are..I concur.

J's digital panoramas.

Night shots of the country.

We visited Chinqua Penn Plantation, a sort of eclectic globally-outfitted oddball mansion nestled an unsuspecting area near Reidsville, North Carolina. The plantation was built by Mr. Thomas Jefferson Penn and his wife, Beatrice Schoellkopf Penn in the 1920s. Mr. Penn was a businessman and farmer, worked in the dairy industry and later made his fortunes in the tobacco industry. Mrs. Penn was heiress to the Niagara Falls Power Company. Mr. Penn originally married Beatrice's first cousin, however, she died during the flu epidemic of 1919. Beatrice was also married, but after a trip abroad with Mr. Penn and her mother, the couple's passion for buying large oddball knick-knacks, overtook her marriage. She left her husband and embarked on the Chinqua Penn project with Mr. Penn.

They outfitted their enormous castle almost exclusively with articles purchased abroad. Door frames from France, columns from Japan, wallpapers, beds, and statues from China, gongs from Thailand, rock sculptures from Italy; they seemed to have a knack for shopping.

I've got my mind on banjos and cellos. If you have an extra, send it my way.

You can't beat that. Happy Holidays

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ENTERED JAN 4, 2008

Our first leg of this great trip led us to our nation's capital.

The Washington National Cathedral took 100 years to plan and about 83 to build, finishing in 1990, I think.

A nun at the cathedral was giving Sr. some fun facts and pointers for his next tour. The sculptures on the arms of the choir pews depict a lion eating a snake. If you look closely, you will see that the snake face is actually the face of Hitler and the lion would represent The US and Great Britian.

Woodrow Wilson is buried here; Eisenhower, Reagan and Ford had their funerals here. Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan are buried here among others. Full house.

J. Sr. will also tell you in his tour that the axis of the church is built slightly askew so as to prevent perspective from diminishing the true size and scope of the architecture.

Father, son and the Washington Monument.. I don't know the city may or may not be paying tribute to our clan.

The Roosevelt monument, a particular plaque that our president should refamiliarize himself with. It reads:

"We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization."

President's helicopter..he missed the plaque again. We tried to get him to stop in for a discussion, but he said he had to go golfing instead.

Postcard DC

We visited Union Station more to try to find a way to get down to southern Virginia, than for sightseeing, but while we were there, we enjoyed the scenery. Opening in 1907, the station has a magnificent ceiling and Hercules-style statues that are each supposed to symbolize grandiose Americanisms like Electricity, Freedom, Imagination, Agriculture and Mechanics, etc. The station was under major construction until the 1980s, when it reopened. Now it has everything a hung over traveler could want; movie theaters, restaurants, barbershops, latrines…you never have to leave.

 
I checked in with work. They've put together an excellent spy museum, but why must they give away all of our secrets.

Our next stop was Baltimore, J Sr. took us on the $1000 tour, all over the metropolitan area! This is the Mount Vernon United Methodist Church. Gothic churches are always a site to see, this one was built on the site of the Charles Howard mansion. Howard's father-in-law, Francis Scott Key died here. The building is made six of different types of stone. Its color comes from the use of the now rare green serpentine marble from the Falls Road area of Baltimore County, and buff and red sandstone trim. It was finished November 12, 1872. Because these stones do not wear well, it has been necessary to replace and repair major areas with more stable materials. At least that's what I'm told.

Baltimore Harbor

Last stop Annapolis. For some reason, I always thought of Annapolis as a grimy industrial city. Come to find out it is charming and quaint

I still have to buy Christmas presents! Don't leave me!

Karen and Sr. took us to a great seafood place, right on the water. Sr. prepares for a battle.

Annapolis Harbor

While at the harbor it is hard to miss the Kunta Kinte memorial. As far as memorials go, I am very fond of this one. There's a statue of Alex Haley, reading to a younger generation and there's also a series of plaques with really good quotes that run down the length of the harbor. I looked up the memorial online, because I didn't have time to read all of the carvings.

In the book Roots, author Alex Haley speaks about the atrocities of slavery, through the stories shared with his family by his ancestor Kunta Kinte. Kunta Kinte arrived on a slave ship docking in the Annapolis Harbor in 1767. One-third of the enslaved Africans died in the voyage. We are fortunate a young Kunte Kinte lived to tell his story.

"The strength and perseverance of our ancestors such as Kunta Kinte, teach universal lessons including survival through faith, strength through family, and wisdom through forgiveness."

Put them ALL in my stocking!

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ENTERED DEC 15, 2007

Some Miscellaneous Activities winding up the year.

Since J is in the big bad corporate world right now, we get to take advantage of company get aways, like this one to Costa del Mar in San Diego.

Don't trust the enormous pacific seaweed, it will roll you up into sushi and eat you.

J's work partner is Sol and his wife. The day before he had been complaining in his thick Russian accent about having to go to the zoo and buy a bunch of junk for his wife and daughter at the gift shop. This morning he showed up wearing something special for himself.

For Christmas we met up with J's old coworkers (and mine too since I did graphic work for them also). Veronique does J's old job, beside her is J's good pal, Verghese, a man who tells the absolute best stories, and the mastermind CEO and ball of fun to his right, Kaustav.

Some of my favorite people, Emi, David and Akemi. I know them from a community garden down the street from where I live. Emi is the master orchid grower at the garden and a wonderful person. David oversees the garden, he is a wealth of botanical knowledge and jokes. Akemi is brand new to the garden.

David and everyone's favorite Scottie, Casey.

One of my favorite plants, native to the Mediterranean called a Purple Aeonium. Looks to me like something from Dr. Seuss.

We saw found this colorful Chilean at a swap meet somewhere in Los Angeles.

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ENTERED NOV 30, 2007

We ended up in Arizona again, this time it's Thanksgiving.


We began simply by just going to spend Thanksgiving with J's Uncle and Aunt in San Diego. They cooked up the mega-turkey. We had plenty of eaters, her whole family celebrated with us.

New addition to the family. We visted Isabella, who is about 10 months old.

Since we were all of the way down in San Diego, it seemed only logical to take off from there for a weekend adventure. By day break, Friday we had arrived in Tucson, Arizona.

Retreat Book guided us to this remote plot of cacti. When we arrived, it was too late in the evening to make arrangements with the retreat staff, so as likeminded spiritual students, we sacked up for a short nap in the car. Early in the morning, the nuns, monks, and priests headed to the chapel for morning meditation, so we joined them. Following meditation, our presence was met with conflicted furor. Some were happy to have us; others wanted to call the police as we were on unauthorized property overnight. They were alarmed that we had come unannounced for morning prayer. If you know any wandering prophets, tell them they may want to steer clear. I was rather hurt to be approached in such a manner, by people I thought would be kindred spirits.

Heading out in the morning, we stumbled upon the Saguaro National Park.

We discovered it as we were driving along a back road. We climbed a brief incline and over the crest, just on the other side we found, to our surprise, a beautiful valley floor stretched out beneath us. It was like a gigantic pin cushion, perforated with thousands and thousands of Saguaro.

It takes up to 75 years to make a side arm on a cactus, like this nice one here.

The skin of the cacti actually expand as they take in water.

In the spirit of the backcountry, we picked up some pocket knives from this gentleman who was named Curtis, I believe. He had a whole collection and was telling us all about the art of making and trading knives.

Tucson is a rugged city. I like that. There are main streets without any curbs or landscaping. You get the feeling people here live with a little more self-reliance. There's a flashy spot of downtown and the few blocks around the university, but otherwise you're liable to see some dustballs rolling in front of your car. Towards the outskirts of town, we found some old dilapidated haciendas that looked like stomping ground for Wyatt Earp and his gang. In fact, I've just found out that Tombstone, the movie was filmed here.

Heading out of Tucson at night.

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ENTERED NOV 20, 2007

My brother, Charlie is officially Hitched.


Welcome to the family Peggy. Mr. and Mrs. Washington.

Mr. and Mrs. Washington x 2.

Merk was so pretty I had to put her picture up too.

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ENTERED NOV 5, 2007

Tehachapi retreat.


Wandering the countryside again, we found outselves in a tiny town called Tehachapi, nestled between the Sierras and the Mojave desert. Tehachapi as it turns out was a stop of for those traveling to the San Joaquin Valley during the dust bowl. If you got past the chapter about the Turtle in Grapes of Wrath, supposedly he mentions it. The town only has 5 traffic signals, so it makes a great retreat for city dwellers. In fact, with the abundance of land, many horse owners from Los Angeles have moved up here. So now they commute (2 ½ hours!).

Tehachapi suffered from a terrible earthquake in 1952. We watched an old scratchy video about it in their town museum. Back in those days, they didn't rely on FEMA. The townspeople pulled out their tractors, cleared the rubble, set up a hospital in the street and immediately began rebuilding.

Enjoying some foliage outside of their charming town museum.

In addition to their fine collection of barbed wire varieties, one of my favorite displays was a tiny plaque of rules made for teachers in Tehachapi circa 1872, some of the highlights are:

#3 Make you pens carefully. You may whittle tips to the individual taste of the pupils.
#4 Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, OR (incentive) two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.
#7 Every teacher should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum for his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.
#8 Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor, frequents pool or public halls...give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.

Tehachapi is also well-known for its inventive railroad pass, the Tehachapi Loop. Hailed as one of the greatest engineering feats of its day, the loop passes over itself, which lessens the angle of the grade, making it possible for trains to climb this rugged incline. The loop, designed by engineer William Hood, was completed in 1876 is still heavily used today. We tried to visit the overlook, but found it was completely clouded in, which a ctually made for some really fun eerie pictures.

Ghosts in the valley.

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ENTERED NOV 2, 2007

Biking.


Somehow over this past year, we've done a fair amount of cycling. Usually we take a bike path that cuts through southern LA out to the beach, from there it is nice and flat all of the way to Redondo Beach, where we get fresh seafood. Here we are with Shibat and Terabu, Nobuko and I are holding out.

He has an obsession with funnel cakes.

Shibata and Nick, his friend from June Lake who is both an expert cycle repairman and an alien, hooked me up with this beauty.

...and shoes to match. All I need now is some spandex.

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ENTERED NOV 1, 2007

LA Halloween.


In honor of i102fly..or just by coincidence, I was an airplane navigator this year for Halloween.

Because my friend Daryna is new in town, we decided to see some local flavor. West Hollywood is a scarey place on Halloween, so we braced up. In someplaces I had to cover my eyes at the indecency. Many Angelenos mistake Halloween for a pimp and hos party. Daryna and I were the only dressed females. Still Daryna managed to be harrassed by a drunken santa.

She has a thing for superheros.

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ENTERED OCT 2, 2007

A Ride into California Back Country.


That's me on the corner down in Redondo Beach. Leaving the city bustle behind.

Pit crew moves in half way up the 11-mile dust and dirt clothespin road that leads up to Mt. Palomar.

We knew these boots were chock full of cowboy Manliness, but still had no idea they would try to run off with the car.

The boots drove us to this cozy little Sunday morning retreat called Doane Pond.

Good place for a nap, don't mind the swampy water.

Meanwhile I do some informed bird watching. Jerome thought he saw a Double-Breasted Red-Tailed White-Striped Junca Swallow, but I note that this would be highly unlikely for this time of year. Chances of such a sighting are rare at best.

At mid-day we headed down to Julian for some world-famous Apple Pie. An interesting tourist destination for San Diego's nostalgic, Julian would like you to step back into Old town America. Main street is composed of dark wood buildings with hand-painted signs. Big old American flags hang over the store eaves. Every other storefront is a Mama's pie shop. It's picture perfect. Walk in you'll see Grandma in a frilly apron pleasantly baking away. Cross the street and find an old country store with wooden shelves stocked full with homemade jams and local Apple Butter. It's the place to be on July Fourth. The town explodes with bikers and families who come to see the parade and old west "shoot-em up" reenactments. I've been there four times now and was beginning to believe this fantasy. That was before we got some harmonicas at the Music Shop.

We were making a little harmonica noise on the curb, when a group started yelling at us from the shadows across the street. They were squeezed back into the corner of a lot, so much that you almost wouldn't notice that they were operating a small Apple stand. Noting Jerome's natural ability, they invited us over to jam Bluegrass style with them.

These were the real locals. No aprons. No quilts. Self proclaimed rednecks. Jerome accompanied Craig, the musician who was donning skulls on his shirt and a fedora on his head. The stand was operated by a girl named Ellie and her boyfriend Mark, both had done a damaging amount of drugs. Mark appeared to be presently tweaking. Ellie's family was one of the first to settle in Julian from France in the late 1800s. As she played in the dirt, she told me about seeing the original signed charter for 600+ acres of land that the family would cultivate into an Apple Orchard. Later she brought over some ore with gold flakes, bagged it up and gave it to me. Then ran down the old ways for panning it. It was sad to see the old knowledge still around but held in the hands of people so badly wounded, be it drugs, exploitation, time or history.

The other trash-talking fellow in the circle was a Diegueno Indian from Mesa Grande: the original San Diego tribe and interestingly, as Ellie was telling me, the only tribe that wasn't relocated to a reservation as the partitioned land was already their home. His main interests were strippers and beer. In one sentence you see the old traditions; he told us that his tribe bore an albino buffalo in 2004, a sacred prophetic sign of hope for the nation. Then in the next you see the reality; he told us that tourists can come to the rez for a night in a teepee, only $35 dollars with a spaghetti dinner.

After a while, everyone disappeared to main street or to the restrooms. Soon it was just our Diegueno friend and the two of us. Ellie and Mark left the care of the stand to the Native American guy, who talked on and on about all the one-dollar bills he had gotten from the apple sales and how he was going to use them for strippers. As customers approached he turned back into Dr. Jekyll offering delicious free samples and great deals. Before long he also had to relieve himself of the beer he had been drinking all afternoon. He couldn't wait any longer so he split too, leaving us alone manning the Apple Stand.

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ENTERED OCT 1, 2007

There was an old fashion storm here last week so we rushed down to the beach to soak in the beautiful cloud. I put on a dress and J took some really nice pictures.

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ENTERED SEPT 14, 2007

This one of the coolest things I've seen.


A weaving project brought to you by Merk. Each person in this weaving class made a certain number of similar sample weaving squares and in the end traded so that each student had one of everyone else's squares. As a final project, the challenge was to make a piece using all of the samples. Having seen the squares scattered around on the table, trying to figure out what to do with them, and then now seeing this... It's a masterpiece. I love it.

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ENTERED SEPT 12, 2007

This birthday has been characterized by a lot of good eating with a lot of good peoples.

Finally a special occasion gave Shibat reason to take us to the Absolute crème de la crème best Sushi place this side of Japan. Sasabune is so choice you do not insult the chef by telling him what you want. He brings you what he wants (called omakase - which is like saying "trust me" or "do me the favor") Deliciousness is served in rotations of matching sushi duos. He instructs you not to alter the taste with soy sauce (Dozo).

I've never eaten like this, and I'm likely never to do so again. This kind of cuisine is left for those who have to venture out because their private chef is on vacation.

My good friend Elly, who's lovely mom was visiting from Moscow, took me out for delicious, but of course healthy, dinner and dessert.

Should probably round this out with our outing to Laury's, Bernie's favorite restaurant in Beverly Hills. Because his daughter works there, he gets treated like a movie star and all of the customers turn to see him and speculate on who he might be, especially with his girlfriend Laurise at his side. We felt kinda gross when we left, it's not right to eat so much.

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ENTERED SEPT 10, 2007

For my birthday, we got cowboy boots and went horseback riding. In Griffith Park there are many stables that lead rides up into the Santa Monica Mountains.

I think it was a two hour trail ride that we made in about an hour and half. Our guide was a West African bloke, who talked on his cellphone most of the time and slapped at the horses to make them go faster. On the wall in the stable the rules of the trail ride read "Walk and Trot Only." There were four of us on the ride, two of which had never ridden before. The other two of us hadn't ridden in years and years. Our steeds were not your typical grandpa petting zoo horses. They wanted to stretch their legs. Luckily none of us fell off. Our horses were cantering and galloping most of the way. And when I say gallop, I mean it, full speed. It was a wild ride.

Look at that form, Ma. Mrs. Wiseman would be proud.

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ENTERED SEPT 7, 2007

We decided to go to Arizona in the hottest weekend of the year. For what reason? The red rock called us. Despite the heat, I'd say Arizona is one of my favorite states.

Phoenix is an oven. Literally you can bake bread on the sidewalk. To alleviate this problem, the locals have set up summer's answer to the space heater. On the eaves of every building and on the railing of every wall are these misters.

We headed north to Sedona and found a roadrunner. Here, I am hunting it. Riding down 66 in our jalopy, we actually saw some real dust bowls.

“Arcology is Paolo Soleri's concept of cities which embody the fusion of architecture with ecology. The arcology concept proposes a highly integrated and compact three-dimensional urban form that is the opposite of urban sprawl with its inherently wasteful consumption of land, energy and time, tending to isolate people from each other and the community. The complexification and miniaturization of the city enables radical conservation of land, energy and resources.”

Take a minute to digest this injection of non-profit vernacular.
In a nutshell this is an intellectual’s indulgent brain orgy. The complexification of the intellectual’s ideas lost in reality, introduced by a theory-based urban-inventive Italian eco-architectural cerebral-conceptualist named Paolo Soleri. Acrosanti has been fumbling along since the 60s. The theoretic blueprint intended the massive complex to one day hold up to 6,000 people in honey-combed cells.
I understand the popularly of communal living. There are essential values involved in learning to live, work and function as a group. Possessiveness, survival-mode fear, isolation, all have the opportunity to melt away in such a situation. There stands an opportunity to regain trust and kinship with your neighbors, to share and look after those who struggle. But is communal living the best or only way to fulfill these ideals? We are making a lot of sacrifices lately in the name of convenience and safety. Does the concept of freedom hold any weight anymore? Just think if you lived in Acrosanti, you’d never have to leave. Everything you need is there, your grocery shopping, entertainment, education, and doctor's office. And there’s no way to leave, because it is an eco-friendly environment…aka no cars. Isn’t that a tad bit scary?
The problem is everyday society isn’t so different from Acrosanti. Our education is standardized. Our food is modified and processed by several huge organizations. Our entertainment is owned by one or two enormous media groups and the drug companies own healthcare. What’s so different? It’d be a relief to get away from this honey-combed grid. Why encourage it? Maybe the 2000s are the anti-60s.

Dining hall and kitchen.

Inside the staircase there, which is the tower with the speaker boxes sticking off the sides.

Nearly lost my leg. This sneaky scorpion caught me unguarded.

Actually captured lightening. Go Casio!

Nothing like some tasty pastries and some good brew (Hazelnut) in the morning.

Mars landing.

Aha! Finally the red rock! Click to see panorama. Sedona is so lovely; it's unfortunate that the city has become overrun with tourist business. In every shop, there are those attempting to sell everything from rocks to energy vortexes. We actually had to pry ourselves away from a transplant salesman. He drew us in with free maps, then tried desperately to sell us land shares using every trick in the book, including coin tricks. If we took his real estate tour, he would tell us the secrets to the energy vortexes. Is everything here for sell?

There are many who believe that such a powerful spot on earth amplifies the energy of a specific person, the energy of the times, and even the energy of the earth itself. If this is true, I can tell you just from these few encounters that we are clearly in a time of aimless greed and materialism. On a brighter note, we can still hike for free. Psychics and scientists alike have laid out a "vortex" trail for those not so intuitively inclined. I'll need your credit card info, before I release this information.

This is a mediocre picture of Bell Rock. Click to check out a nicer panorama. Each vortex is supposed to have a specific energy. For instance, Bell Rock is said to have a physically rejuvenating energy, one that helps free inhibitions and brings out a playful childlike energy in serious adults.

Souvenir hunting?

Don't quote me, but I believe to the left you will see Boynton Canyon, another noted vortex of Sedona or a cluster really. If you are interested, this site is said to encompass both masculine and feminine energies, making it a good spot for balancing these sides within oneself and for harmonizing relationships with others. Click to check out the nice panorama.

This is the top of the Airport Mesa. I'm sorry they didn't come up with a better name. I'm sure in ancient times it was something exotic like Trembutelluah, but now they've named it after the airport just down the road.

Aside from the wonderful sunset view here, this spot has been said to recharge and align the physical body as well as enhance psychic abilities and expand one’s spiritual consciousness.

You might not expect this kind of greenery and signature national park ingredients just a few miles north of the red rocks, but here it is. I won't tell you how hard it was to crop the tremendous crowd of people out of this shot. Due to the heat, everyone in Arizona was water hunting like Bedouins, and we were right there with them. Very refreshing, I took a good wash here.

Flagstaff: Mt. Elden A storm was brewing while we took a nice bike ride all around the city. Flagstaff is a great city for mountain-biking nature-lovers. Right outside of downtown there are bike paths through lots of lush unkempt greenery. You could potentially live in a city, but feel like you are cozy in the country.

On the way to work? Who wouldn't like to walk or bike past this, only two blocks from downtown.

The Barren Wasteland begins. This is Ludlow across the Arizona border back into California. We rolled on empty up to a gas station and a few of these hollowed out buildings. In the station they actually had souvenir T-shirts that read: Ludlow, known for absolutely nothing. I took a moment to take a couple snapshots and put it on my map.

We booked back to LA just in time for my class at 3:00. Glad I dont have to make that commute everyday.

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ENTERED July 30, 2007

I headed home for the 80th annual Bobfest this year, celebrating Bob Burn's 80th year.


Here we are having our precelebration dinner.

Mema had arranged supreme fine dining.

Pop Bob enjoyed the brevity of 8 candles rather than 80. We say 80 years deserves some fireworks, load on the wax. Mema Sally was looking especially lovely.

Enthalling the audience a witty keynote speech.

Charlie and Peggy get used to posing for photos...and get quite good at it.

The Burns brothers reunite for Bobfest 07.

....in their natural state, doing what they do best.

Unlce Mike going what he does best. Aunt Audrey also doing what she does best.

This spawned me....

Red drops in for the fierce kickball game, our friendship survives the brutality.

The wind was blowing favorably for them.

Rematch.

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ENTERED May 30, 2007

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip to the Sierras with Merk and Randy.

Glacier Point.

Close call at the overlook.

Merk and Randy at Bridal Veil Falls.

Mariposa Grove, Sequioas.

Look out over the valley (Rte 41) No, I didn’t scan in a postcard.

Hiking up Vernal Falls.

Dreaded Half Dome.

Ferocious Bear sighting.

Instant Coffee problems at Yosemite West condo.

Hot Springs near June Lake.

We’re forming a band: Band photo.

Jerome versus Nature: Part II.

Famous Mobil with Jim in Lee Vining (Note: Jerome is going out for varsity this year).

Bodie – Ghost town

Artsy photos from Bodie

Merk and Randy at the La Brea Tar pits back in Los Angeles

Tar pit excavation

The Real Tar Pits: Venice Beach
We got tar all over our feet.

Dinner with our favorite neighbor, Bernie and his girlfriend Laurise.
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Thank you Victor and Jim for the excellent company.