Pasadena Central Library, West Wing

When it comes to Pasadena's Central Library, there might be no better tour guide than Dan McLaughlin, Librarian, Archivist and Pasadena historian. Lucky me, I asked him for a tour and he said yes. He even held my book, Act As If, when I took his picture. (Which I did not ask him to do but I wasn't going to turn him down.)

Dan is also an author of novels, plays and history books, two of which I purchased at Art Night. You may remember Pasadena Pursuit, the Pasadena Museum of History exhibit he curated across the hall from Ann Erdman's Mystery History.

I'm working on my new novel and it takes place in a library. It might even take place in Pasadena. For research and inspiration, I hoped to snoop around, above and behind things in Pasadena's Myron Hunt-designed, 1927-opened, 130,000 square foot Central Library.

Let's start with the library's west wing, which is way bigger than I imagined it could be.

When you enter the door west of the check-out desk where it says "Staff Only," a corridor takes you past a coffee room and several offices. Pretty soon you come upon this long room where books are being checked in and catalogued. I'm standing near the west end of the room. The windows face out onto the parking lot. Does the purple protect workers and books from the sun? The door at the far end opens onto the hallway that leads from the parking lot into the library.

We're on the second floor now, right above where I was standing when I took the previous shot. I hope the employees don't mind me showing their lounge. I think it's pretty nice. Very roomy and comfy, with a kitchen off to the left. The coffee room on the first floor is a lot smaller. This one's more like a full kitchen.

I never knew about this and it's hiding in plain view! The walkway leads from the lounge to the office pictured below. You can look north over the parking lot and to the mountains from here. Next time I'm at the library, I'm going to look up from the parking lot and see if I can spot it.

We're looking toward the mountains. More purple. I'm gonna go with sun protection.

Dan asked me to be careful about taking photos of library patrons. "We like people to feel safe here," he said, "we protect their privacy." I don't think you can recognize anyone in this photo of the Main Hall, taken from the second floor balcony looking east. The Hall's floor is cork, to reduce noise. The woodwork is quarter-sawn oak.

An interesting tale about the chandeliers: they're replicas of the ones Myron Hunt designed for the building. Other lights were installed in the 1960's "which obscured the beautiful ceilings," and no one knows what happened to the originals. But Hunt had designed the same ones for the Huntington Library, and these are copies of the Huntington's.

I took about a million photos and I'll post more. But I want to thank the library staff right now, and especially Dan McLaughlin. I had hoped to be inspired by my tour and I haven't stopped writing since.

Do you want an architectural tour of the Pasadena Central Library? Yes, you may have one.

Anniversary

Summer, 2000

Before we got married, John and I had a date to the Huntington Library and Gardens. We asked a stranger to take our photo under the grapevine gazebo in the Shakespeare garden. That day, I knew we were going to get married when we bought a Huntington membership together. We married November 3, 2001, in the back yard of our rented house in Altadena.

Whenever we go to the Huntington we ask a stranger to take our picture at the gazebo.

Us 'neath the gazebo in 2010.

Once more, beneath the gazebo at the Huntington this year, 2014. That grapevine has really aged.

Happy anniversary, sweetie. These thirteen years can only be bettered by those to come.

Bookmarks: Classics

If you visit Trinity College Dublin you can pay €9 (about $13.50 U.S.) to see the original Book of Kells. It's said to be one of the oldest illuminated manuscripts in existence, and perhaps the most beautiful. I mean to visit Trinity College Dublin ASAP.

The First Folio of Shakespeare, printed in 1623 not long after Shakespeare's death, is less rare. Scholars believe that about 750 originals were printed. After nearly 400 years, 228 still exist. That's a pretty good ratio. One of them lives at the Huntington Library and Gardens, right here in San Marino. Often, you can see the Huntington's First Folio displayed under glass, in the same room as their Gutenberg Bible.

There are those who say "under glass" view will soon be the norm with the most common of hard-bound books. Maybe. In fact, sure, why not? I've always loved hard-bound books for their beauty, even when I used to buy them new. I even have a Pinterest board called "Books As Beauty." But hardbacks are getting so expensive, if you actually read a lot you can't afford them, unless you buy them used.

There's a huff-puff lately about whether or not digital books will replace print. I don't think they will, though as digital readers become easier to use (and not so ugly, please), more people will use them for their convenience, not to mention the price. Since the beginning of time, humans have been all about convenience. Since money was invented, we've been all about getting it cheap. I don't know when money was invented, or when time began.

Just like movies didn't kill radio, and TV didn't kill movies, and video didn't kill TV, digital books are not going to kill print books. Print books may die, but that'll be suicide, not murder.


I hope you'll check out my guest post on Blurb Is A Verb, the blog of Sarah Pinneo, author of Julia's Child. I love the tag line for her book: "A delectable comedy for every woman who has ever wondered if buying that $6 box of organic crackers makes her a hero or a sucker." My post is called Everything Takes Longer Than You Think It Will. Feel free to leave a comment!

Break

Let's take a break today. Get an early start on the weekend, what do you say? At least in our minds.

If you could take any break you desire, what would it be?

Okay, so, the impromptu flight to Paris is out of the question. What's possible, then? What is within reason?

A mid-afternoon cookie. Wait--no--think big! Something between Paris and a cookie. A trip to the post office doesn't count. Neither does a dog walk. I do that every day.

What would you do for your break?

Asymmetry

I wished I'd gotten to the center of the walkway to take this photo. Symmetry, you know. It's so pleasing to the eye. But a moment is a moment, it fleets, and you don't always have the chance to position yourself perfectly for it. You raise the camera (or the baseball bat, or your hand) and you click (swing, grab). A sideways catch is better than no catch at all.

And a garden is a garden. Even a manicured one gets a little wild. No matter how much you trim and mow, it's the fringes that tempt.

Another Huntington Surprise

We're in the Associated Foundations Teaching Greenhouse at the Huntington Library and Gardens. (Apparently we slept here.) This, uh, item is on the top of the shelf pictured in yesterday's photo.

Any guesses?

You probably know what it is but I haven't a clue.

The Huntington's Surprises

With colors like these, it's tempting to use the "saturate" function in my editing program. But I left them alone. They're fine on their own.

These planting pots are shelved in the Associated Foundations Teaching Greenhouse at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino, which graces Pasadena's southern border. The Greenhouse is one of the Huntington's many surprises. For the longest time I didn't even know it was there, but it's right next to the Children's Garden. I couldn't find a specific page about the Teaching Greenhouse on the Huntington's website, but you can glean information about it here.

There's an interesting/weird thing in the upper left corner of this photo. I'll show you a picture of it tomorrow and we'll try to figure out what it is.

Margaret Finnegan: Goddess of Inspiration

Today is release day! You can now buy a brand spankin' new copy of the brand spankin' new novel, The Goddess Lounge (paperback here), by South Pasadena's Margaret Finnegan. That is a beautiful thing, partly because I love Margaret and partly because I love The Goddess Lounge (ebook here). Also partly because Margaret inspires me.

Margaret's blog, Finnegan Begin Again, would be inspiration enough to read her novel because one always wants more of her unique writer's voice. But she's gone further by involving her readers in the processes of publication and promotion. We've been reading about goddesses, we voted on the book cover, and when it was time to make book trailers we contributed photos of ourselves being goddesses.

Margaret has created two (two!) book trailers. Here's one:


Here's the other:


I'm in the second one twice! The first photo you see is one John took of me. Plus, that's my voice, reading from Chapter Two. I'm honored to be included.

The publishing industry has changed so much in the past few years that publishing the book yourself has become the way to go, or it's certainly at least as viable as the traditional way.  I love what Margaret's doing. Her energy and innovative ideas inspire me, and I can't wait to get my copy of The Goddess Lounge.

Water Began It All

This weekend is your last chance to see a small and fascinating exhibit at the Huntington Library and Gardens.

Water Began it All features meticulous paintings by Michael J. Hart. Mr. Hart's long history as Vice President and General Manager of the Sunny Slope Water Company got him interested in the San Gabriel Valley's long history with water. If you want to see what the land looked like before it was settled, Hart's detailed paintings give you a good idea.

There used to be a lot more water here.

One of Hart's inspirations is still visible on the property of the Sunny Slope Water Company. Turn north onto La Presa Drive from Huntington Drive. Within a block or so you'll see a stone marker by a fence on the west side of the street. Just beyond the fence--the eastern boundary of the water company's land--you'll see a stone dam built by Tongva Indians under the supervision of Joseph Chapman (a story in himself). I included a photo of the dam in an article I wrote for Patch a little over a year ago.

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At first J and I thought the spurs pictured above were not everyday spurs, and were worn only for show. But the more I think about it the more I realize that's a 20th-Century concept. The Spanish who settled here in the 18th and 19th centuries didn't ride for show. They rode for a living. They conquered the Tongva and they conquered the water and to them, all of it was business.

Geisel Geyser

All it takes is a neighborhood walk to know that Dr. Seuss used to hang out around here.

I have it on good authority that he spent time at the Huntington Library and Gardens. Go there and visit the desert garden and you'll know what I mean.

Perhaps he never walked down this particular sidewalk on this particular street in Pasadena. But just the other day, someone stood on this very spot and thought about him.

Theme Day: Perspective

Today's theme at City Daily Photo is "perspective." That can be a technique used in art and architecture to show distance or elevation. It can also be how you look at things. For instance, this could be a hole in a hedge, through which you view a field of small avocado trees being watered by a sprinkler. Or it could be a window into the past, to the days before Henry Huntington bought his land in San Marino and this was merely a farm.

City Daily Photo is now 1412 blogs strong, the most recent being Denpasar, Indonesia. To see how other blogs around the world have depicted the theme, click here to view thumbnails for today's participants.

Blackberries

A friend posted on Facebook about picking apricots with his dad. It reminded me of the hot summer days of my Illinois childhood, when blackberries were in season. My dad would give us each a bucket or basket and load us into the station wagon, and we'd head along the country roads outside of town. We'd find a patch of brambly bushes and pick until our baskets and bellies were full, our fingers purple.

My father had grown up poor in western Kansas. He knew where to find wild food, although I think it was less about having been poor than it was about having lived in the country. In summer we sought blackberries. In winter, walnuts.

As we grew older we kids lost interest. My dad got busier. The little forest near campus where we hunted walnuts was torn down and a new building took its place.

I'd forgotten about the blackberries until long after I moved to Los Angeles. I was back in DeKalb for something--a class reunion, maybe--and I drove my rental car out along the country roads south of town on my way to visit my father's grave. Along the way I stopped, and now I can't remember why. It could have been a whim of exploration, I like to do that. I pulled off the main road onto a dirt road.

Something about the bumpy old road was familiar yet not, and I didn't know what drew me until I saw the blackberries. I stopped the car and got out. I was beginning to remember, but it had been so long the memory itself was as scratched as an old photo. The road had once been lined with trees; those were gone, and to one side I looked out over plowed fields. To the other side there was a house that hadn't been there before.

A woman stepped out onto the porch. She was younger than me and her smile was tentative. "Can I help you find something?"

"We used to pick blackberries here when I was a kid."

"Okay, so you're not lost then."

"No. Thanks."

She smiled, but not happily. "This isn't the road anymore."

"Are you saying I'm on private property?"

She nodded.

"Sorry, I didn't realize," I said.

"'s okay."

I took a longing look at the blackberries and got into the car. Back on the two-lane blacktop I continued driving to the little hill, miles beyond town, where my father lies buried. His grave looks over a stand of virgin prairie grass.

I don't need to set aside a day to think about my father. I miss him all the time. Around Father's Day, though, it's impossible not to miss him more.

Bring a Wagon

I believe this rose is called "Easy Does It."

Here's one called "Neptune."

I don't know if these are part of the Huntington Library and Gardens' 37th Annual Plant Sale, but I know they grow them at the Huntington because I photographed them there. So it could happen. Have no fear: legions of other plants are waiting for you to take them home.

The sale is a big deal for lots of reasons, not least of which is that some of the best gardeners in the world work at the Huntington, creating hybrids and propagating heirlooms. (Some plants in the Desert Garden are over a hundred years old.)

The members’ preview sale is this Saturday, May 14th, from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and the sale opens to the public on Sunday, May 15th.

About the wagon: really.

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.

No Japanese Garden?

How ever will we manage?

If I'd only read my Huntington Library Calendar when it first arrived, I wouldn't be telling you this at the last minute: "Beginning April 4, the Japanese Garden will be closed to visitors through next spring so that renovations can begin to this much loved, 99-year-old landscape." So if you want to gaze serenely at the Japanese house, gawk at the fattest koi in the west or wander across the bridges while the koi gawk back at you, you'd better do it by April 3rd.

The garden's going to be great when they reopen it. The house will be renovated and a traditional Japanese teahouse--donated by the Pasadena Buddhist Cultural Center--will be added. I don't know what else they're going to do. The garden looks plenty gorgeous to me as it is. Maybe they'll restore the central, arched bridge to its original color of bright red. I hope they don't trim that willow.

In the intervening year we shall have to content ourselves with the other 111 acres of gardens at the Huntington: the Desert garden, the Australian garden, the Herb garden, the Chinese garden, the Shakespeare garden, the Children's garden, the Camellia garden, the Lily Ponds, the Subtropical garden, the Jungle garden, the Rose garden...how positively dreary.

Arbor

If you're not joining us for the Hahamongna Walkabout today, you might head on over to Linda Vista and plant a tree.

Arbor Day is April 29th. Pasadena is celebrating early by planting 50 new trees today along Linda Vista Avenue, with volunteers staging from the corner of El Mirador Drive. The trees (coast live oak, jacaranda, American sweet gum, sawtooth elm and one of my favorites, Chinese elm) were donated by the Pasadena Beautiful Foundation, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Pasadena has about as many trees as it has people. Such a friendly and diverse population.

PDP/PPM Books Contest, week 5

Hey! I've just found out that my newest piece is up at South Pasadena Patch. It's a short history of the Cawston Ostrich Farm, one of the most unusual places ever. I loved finding out about it, and searching out traces of where it once stood.

Now, on to today's important business, about a fascinating place that is very much still standing: What famous San Marino institution just received a $100 million gift?

That's this week's contest question, and in that sentence there's enough information to Google the answer. You might also recognize the institution in today's photo.

Why are we having a contest, you ask? Because it's the holiday season and you need books to give as presents. Because Colleen Dunn Bates, publisher at Prospect Park Media, gave me books to give to you as presents. Because why not?

Here's how we do it:

1. Email the contest question answer to me. There's a link to my email in my profile at the upper left. You have until midnight tonight, Pasadena (Pacific) time. Answers received after that time will be discarded (I got two late ones last week.) Answers in the comments section will be rudely ignored.

2. That's all you have to do.

3. Tomorrow I'll ask--well, whomever's wandering around my neighborhood, to draw the winning name from a hat. I'll announce the winner in Sunday's post.

4. PRIZES!
Today I'm giving away my last copy of Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010.
Next week we're going to give away my one and only copy of Prospect Park Media's first foray into novel publishing, Helen of Pasadena by our very own local Satellite Sister, Lian Dolan. Whet your Helen appetite by reading chapter one here and check out Lian's list of appearances here. Go get her to sign your book!

More giveaways after that, believe it or not, because we have a copy of At Home Pasadena, the lovely, hardcover coffee table book about beautiful living in our beautiful town.

Big thanks to Colleen, Lian and everyone at Prospect Park Media!

The Real Thing

This moss-covered bust of Shakespeare stands (where else?) in the Shakespeare garden at the Huntington Library and Gardens. He looks like a friendly, handsome guy, doesn't he? Maybe, maybe not.

The Huntington owns many fine portraits. I especially admire those by the great Sir Joshua Reynolds, who knew how to make a likeness look like it was painted from life. But none of the portraits in their collection are of Shakespeare. Only two likenesses of Shakespeare have been proven to be definitive. Both are posthumous. One is the funerary monument that looks over his grave inside Holy Trinity Church at Stratford-on-Avon, England. The other is an engraving by Martin Droeshout, printed in the First Folio of Shakespeare in 1623 (Shakespeare died in 1616). Many have claimed to own a portrait of Shakespeare, but only these two are proven to be the real thing.

It's thought that about 1,000 Shakespeare First Folios were printed back in 1623. Of the 228 still extant, one is housed at the Huntington Library. It's one of the most valuable books in the world and it's often on display for viewing by the likes of you and me.

I had long been using the Folio in my research when I had the good fortune to study Shakespeare in England one summer. My teachers included members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. I got to walk the ground Shakespeare walked. I went to Stratford-on-Avon and visited Shakespeare's grave. I returned to the States with a reverence for the bona fide genius of the man.

My First Folio is a 20th century facsimile copy of the original. Every once in a while I like to make a pilgrimage to the Huntington to see the real thing.

Literary Lane

It would be tempting to move in at this corner just for cachet. One pictures thatched roofs and stone garden walls overgrown with vining roses. Alas, although this San Marino corner is mere blocks from the Huntington Library and Gardens (a stroll through which evokes images of 19th century Europe), this corner is built with 20th century ranch-style homes, and expensive ones at that. The cachet here is San Marino itself, where the median list price of a home, as of July of this year of all years, was just under two million dollars.

I wonder what Geoffrey Chaucer, the 14th century poet/diplomat, would think of this corner. The guy was no slouch--even Shakespeare studied him. He was accustomed to wealth, not of the ranch-style home kind but of the castles and kings kind. If Chaucer came to town I suppose we could take him to the Huntington, but where else would we go?

Here's a Google map for you.

Parc San Marino

Virginia Jones has two (count 'em, two) daily photo blogs: Birmingham, Alabama Daily Photo, where she posts explorations of her home town, and Paris Through My Lens, where she posts her photographic visions of Paris, a town she and I have both dreamed of living in.

I think Virginia and I both love our home towns or we wouldn't blog about them every day. But we like to dream about Paris. I've never met anyone who's been there who didn't yearn to go back, even if they've been there many times.

Virginia's been there many more times than I have, and she's taken lots of pictures. Her photo of the gate at Paris' Parc Monceau inspired me to post a picture of this often-overlooked gate at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino. Karin Bugge also posted a photo of this gate in one of my favorite Altadena Hiker posts. All three of us managed to photograph our gates under moody skies. Maybe we're all daydreamers.

My vision of living in Paris involves exploring the ancient streets, gardens and history until I've discovered every inch of the city. This fantasy includes having unlimited funds despite not having a job. I imagine one reason Paris seems so dreamy to those of us who've visited as tourists is precisely because we're on vacation and we're allowing ourselves the leisure to explore.

I'm lucky: blogging about Pasadena gives me not only the opportunity but the motivation to explore Pasadena, and to find hidden treasures like this gate. Next time you're at the Huntington, seek it out.