Art's Big Night Out

Everybody was out last night for Art Night. Pasadena was lit up and showing off with free museum entry, art exhibits and performances all over town. At Paseo Colorado (above), folks turned out to hear Carl "Sonny" Leyland and his swinging trio at the Pasadena Jazz Institute.

Art Night is part of Pasadena Art Weekend, sponsored by the Arts & Culture Commission. Events continue today with Art Talk at the Boston Court Performing Arts Complex and Sunday with Art Market at One Colorado. It's a biannual event, so if you missed it you get another shot at it this fall.

(Goodness. There's a link for everything, isn't there? I'm exhausted.)

As Palm Axis predicted in yesterday's comments, I had trouble getting folks to let me take pictures of the art itself. But I got a couple of good (legal) ones. I'm loading new software today and hope to have those up soon.

Nobody Coming

This little shack stands at the intersection of Green Street and Chester Avenue. From this angle, it looks like not much goes on there. Then you come around the front and see this:

I couldn't find much about it on the web except this, which is fascinating enough for me. The Karmann Ghia's gone and now they're selling an SUV. The place is still "maintained, but not used," as Mr. Wray says. And he's right; the place looks like a designer has fixed it up to be a painting--or a movie set.

Waiting

This old beauty has been sitting behind Robin's BBQ restaurant on Rosemead Blvd. for quite a while.

I don't think it's going anywhere. I think it's waiting, like an old wolf who knows its time is up, and this is the spot it has chosen for dying.

The Long View

This is the view of downtown Los Angeles from the Sam Merrill Trail yesterday. When you're down in the smog and you look directly up, the sky looks clear blue. You have to get some distance on it to see it.

Our air is markedly better now than it was when I moved to southern California 20 years ago, but there's still room for improvement. California tends to lead the nation in environmental protection and air quality legislation. Maybe this (undoctored) photo tells you why we keep trying so hard.

North Lake Avenue

I'm in Pasadena, facing south. The mirror looks north on Lake Avenue. It's about three miles to the foothills in Altadena. I took the photo for fun, messing around. Later I realized the dominant feature in the reflection is the swath of land laid bare by last August's brush fire in the Angeles National Forest.

Click on the photo to enlarge it and you get an idea of what the locals see passing through on the freeway, or heading north on local roads. You can see the scar from everywhere.

It was a minor fire of 12 acres. Firefighters got to it immediately and put it out fast. Since the area is mere yards from homes, that's a fine thing.

Zen One

This building at the corner of Foothill and Daisy is for sale. I'd guess it was built in the early- to mid-20th century, despite the 19th century look. The fact that the builders took the trouble to make a mundane thing such as a vent into an attractive detail may speak about the rest of the building. It may not. I didn't notice the missing flashing until I blew up the photo. That just makes me like it more.

Pasadena Chines

Pasadenans (Pasadenites?) indulge in the Rose Bowl Flea Market the second Sunday of every month. People from miles around come to pick through acres of stuff. The tradition, pastime or strange habit of rummaging through stuff is called chiner in French. (I learned that at Paris Daily Photo, the inspiration for this blog.)

Ah, but Pasadana is doubly blessed with opportunity to chine. On the first Sunday of each month, the PCC Flea Market is held at Pasadena City College. I hear it's pretty good, too. If I'm going to practice what I preach, I'd better check it out soon.