A New Noise

The theater for A Noise Within, the classical theater company soon to be moving to Pasadena from faraway Glendale, is rising atop the Stuart Pharmaceuticals Building like a new layer on a concrete cake. A rendering of what the interior will look like accompanies William Goldstein's article on Hometown Pasadena. In fact, HtP's been covering the move particularly well.

The 1928 Masonic Temple Building ANW leaves behind in Glendale is a lovely old has-been. My guess is she was tough to heat on cold days, impossibly hot in the summer and they probably had to incorporate her plumbing noises into their sound design. But she's an old beauty all the same. I don't know what's in the building's future, but keep an eye on Cinema Treasures. They usually have good info and the best pictures of these faded dames.

Goldstein's article is about ANW's final show in their old space. Right now the nights are neither cold nor impossibly hot. A good time to see a play.

Nudge

I don't know what I initially meant to photograph here--the flowers, probably.

Boz, who often accompanies me when I'm shooting, is never coy about his feelings. He's patient, but he lets me know when he thinks I have enough shots and it's time to move on. He's usually right.

Cut Your Grass

Apparently I'm not the only one in Pasadena who wants to kill my grass. The big room at the Pasadena Convention Center was packed last Saturday for Pasadena Water and Power's "Cut Your Grass" workshop. The morning was led by the energetic Tim Wheeler, horticulturalist extraordinaire, who I remembered from an irrigation workshop I attended a couple of years ago.

Well, damn. Two years. It's been that long and I still have the most terrifying back yard on the block.

Tim can keep a crowd interested for three full hours. He's knowledgeable, dynamic and fun. He can answer almost any (relevant) question you put to him. It was a fascinating workshop and they're going to have another one August 20th (keep your eyes on Pasadena In Focus). And watch PWP's website August first for information about financial incentives for killing your grass.

But I'll never make it by August first. I'm beginning to think I won't make it at all. Yes, I want to kill my grass--which is not grass, but weeds--but once I do that I have to remove the dead stuff, and once I do that I can't just leave the dirt, I have to plant something, or put in a hardscape or a pergola or something, and it's a big yard, and all that takes planning and effort and labor and moneymoneymoney and I'm just overwhelmed. I have no idea where to start.

I want someone else to do it.

Zen Monday: #140

It's Zen Monday, the day you experience the photo and share in the comments what you've learned.

Your first Zen Monday? Tell us what comes to mind--what the photo makes you think of or how it makes you feel. There's no right or wrong, no secret, no prize. Just have fun.

Mondays are your turn. I enjoy Mondays very much.

Castaways

Yesterday, my friend of 23 years took me out for a belated birthday lunch at the Castaway in Burbank. This is a place where you go for the views.

The view here is to the southwest overlooking Burbank, Forest Lawn and Griffith Park (the hills in the distance). At night it's all lit up (not the hills) and if you look more west than south you can pick out Disney, Warner Brothers and Universal studios. The 101 freeway is easy to spot, flowing like red and white water.

But you'll have to imagine all that. Our two-day heat wave is over and yesterday was cool and misty. The hills were like description in a story--not central to the action but complimentary, a setting or a mood. If it's true, as the Irish author Anne Enright says, that "all description is an opinion about the world," then yesterday those hills looked like they hadn't changed in 23 years, except after all this time they're even more green.

Wild on Walnut

When East of Allen's Michael Coppess emailed me about the wildflowers on Walnut, I knew just what he was talking about. A couple of blocks' worth of beautiful flowers are opening up along the north side of the street between Kinneola and Daisy Avenues, and he thought I might like to photograph them. Did I ever. Thanks, Michael.

It's an industrial area, where artist's studios mix with factories (and flowers, apparently). I like it. There's not much traffic except the cargo carriers that cross an old train trestle parallel to the road.

You really ought to go over there while the flowers are blooming. There's way more going on than I could fit into one picture.

Theme Day: Edges

This isn't a photo about edges any more than any other photo is about edges.

I had planned to post something else. But yesterday I posted about the Japanese Garden at the Huntington Library and that got me thinking about Japan, its crises, and the edges we live on.

The edges we live on in southern California:
The San Andreas Fault, which may or may not dole out
the big one during our lifetime (seismologists say it's a matter of time--we just don't know how much), and if/when it happens, it may or may not be big enough to damage
the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant, which may or may not already be in violation of safety codes.

Even without the dangers there's no dirtier energy than nuclear, with its toxic, terrible waste. I'd sure like to see American nuclear plants shut down. I'm thinking of the workers trying to tame the raging nuclear power plant in Japan. They may be sacrificing their lives and they know it. That's the edge they're living on now. They've become stoic heroes, because their country needs them.

All of us live on edges--maybe we drive too fast or eat the wrong foods or just don't look when we cross the street. We have the power to smooth those edges.

There's not much we can do when the planet gets cranky, but we can shut down Diablo Canyon and San Onofre before the San Andreas Fault does it for us.

The City Daily Photo community continues to grow. As of this posting we're 1368 blogs worldwide! Find one in your favorite town and see how they interpreted today's theme.