iPhone Wednesday #2 - The Counter

A super-clean lunch place in Studio City featuring "custom built burgers," The Counter was new to me when I stopped by a couple of weeks ago for take-out. The music was loud (visit their website with your speakers on for the gist), so you know me--I didn't stay. But the burger I escaped with was excellent.
Other bloggers known to do iPhone Wednesday are Kim at Seattle Daily Photo, Chuck at One A Day - Mostly Seattle and Ming at Bangor Daily Photo. No guarantees of an iPhone shot, but whatever you find there you'll likely enjoy.

Forgive me, readers, for I have strayed outside the holy realm of Pasadena. But 2010 is a new era and you never know what your intrepid blogger will do. You can't tame me, I tell ya!

Home Shopping: Even Now

The sign in the window says NO TRESPASSING in more ways than I thought possible. What it means is, "the bank owns this house and don't even think about messing this up. Don't EVEN. Just have your agent call so you can buy the damn thing."

Maybe you should. I hear it's a good time to buy, if you have the means. I dared--yes I EVEN--to peek in the windows. You're going to have hardwood floors, a fireplace, wood trim and a healthy lemon tree in the side yard. That much I know.
I also know there are at least two sweet little old ladies on the block, and at least one guy who looks pretty good with his shirt off.










Late-breaking news: One of my Facebook friends, Iranian photographer Amir Sadeghi, was arrested yesterday at the office of Farhang-e-Ashti newspaper, his place of work, for having published images of the security clampdown on protesters last December 27th. More on Overdog.

Zen Monday: #83

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about. There's no right or wrong. It means what you think it means, or what you want it to mean.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. And I stay out of the comments box to avoid influencing the intellectual path of the discussion. Because you know, when I get in there it all goes downhill.

As I post each new Zen Monday photo I add a label to last week's to identify it if necessary. Remember, last week Zen Monday was Tuesday.

Confession: I didn't take this photo in Pasadena.










for clarification

The Best Camera

I never thought I'd leave the house yesterday. We were safe and comfortable.

But during a lull between storms we realized we were out of coffee. At least one person in our household must have coffee at a certain time of day, so a hurried excursion was organized. I grabbed my wallet and iPhone and out we went.

On the way back, because I didn't have my camera, we were treated to the most extraordinary light.

The Canon would have done better. Even the Olympus would have given more clarity. But Chase Jarvis is right. The best camera is the one that's with you.

For information on the soCal flooding and mudslides of the past few days, please check in with Tim at Altadenablog, Debbi at Altadena Above It All and Kathy at KCH blog. This time around I can even recommend a traditional news outlet.

Vestiges of Deco Glory

I took the liberty of brightening the rainy sky in this shot so you could better see the art deco glory of Angels School Supply at 606 E. Colorado Blvd. Perhaps it's better known to old-timers as United Artist's Theatre. Clifford A. Balch designed the building for the firm Walker & Eisen. It opened in 1931-32.

I love CinemaTreasures.org. I read every word of their page about this building. Even better: I clicked on every link. And most of those links are photos.

Here's the theatre in the 1940's. Cool cars.
This one's earlier. Probably closer to when the theatre opened. More cool cars.
At some point, at least as early as 1961, someone thought it would be a good idea to cover the entire facade in aluminum siding. Sexy, huh?
Here's how that looked at night. (I had to throw that in. Me and the Zep. Wait. Hey! I was actually at that concert. At least as far as I remember.)

So anyway.

I haven't been inside Angels. That will change. Someday soon my camera and I will go in pretend search of school supplies and see what vestiges of art deco glory we can find.

Cold Faithful

I spotted this pair outside Zeli Coffee Bar on one of our rainy days a couple of weeks ago. I don't think the dog was cold, really. He had on his fur coat. But you wouldn't have caught me sitting outside that day.

We're expecting more rain today and tomorrow. Maybe thunder and lightning on Saturday. I hope so. We can always use the rain. And having grown up in the Midwest, I miss a rousing thunderstorm. Generally, though, California dogs aren't crazy about them.

Superfluous Detail: Celebration in Cement

Well I've had enough nature for one week! I need something urban, thank you very much.

This building on East Colorado Blvd. is empty right now. What was it--Aardvark's? Does anyone remember?

I don't think this is a historical structure. I believe this superfluous detail is a recent addition. But I could be wrong. Tell me I'm wrong.

I'll Wear Daffodils in My Crown

daffodils grow along an old fence at the Hahamongna Annex

Monday night I went to my first Pasadena City Council meeting. Because so many of you commented on Monday's post, where I expressed concern for the fate of the Hahamongna Annex, I thought I'd report back.

Everybody won!

That's the gist of it. Everybody got some of what they wanted. Nobody got all of what they wanted. In other words, democracy worked.

With 35 people asking to speak on the Hahamongna issue, Mayor Bogaard asked the public to refrain from speaking if someone before them had already made their point. I'm sorry to say there was an awful (and I do mean awful) lot of repetition. But the mayor, known for being a gentleman, kept the meeting moving and pretty much kept commenters to the time limit. (One of those commenter occasionally comments here--Laurie Barlow. Check out her well thought-out post on the subject at The Greensward: Civitas. She's in my blogroll, by the way.)

I was impressed with the City Council. They listened to the Staff presentation and public comments and asked good questions. There are some very sharp people on the Council. And here's the best part: they included almost all reasonable public requests in the plan.

I know. The mind boggles.

There's still a "bikes only" path in the plan. (For now.) I don't want it. But this isn't about what I want or don't want, this is about what the majority of people want. Democracy worked this time. When the bike path comes up for review, maybe we can try a different governmental system, such as Petrea As Queen.

Something else you should know, by the way: it took from just after 7:30pm to 11:15pm to resolve the Hahamongna issue. Most of the people clapped, got up, put on their coats and bumbled noisily out of the room, not noticing the small group that stayed behind: the City Council. With more items on the agenda, for them the night was young.

Zen Tuesday: #7

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about. There's no right or wrong. It means what you think it means, or what you want it to mean.

Zen Tuesday--ah, hell, I don't know. It's up for grabs.

Hahamongna Watershed; Theme day: Wood

We interrupt Zen Monday because of an important issue on the City Council agenda tonight. I promise we'll have Zen Tuesday tomorrow. (Hey, maybe I'll find Zen at City Hall!)

Item 6. on the City Council agenda is "Public Hearing: Adoption of the Initial Study and Approval of the Hahamongna Watershed Park Master Plan Addendum for Hahamongna Annex."

If you've followed this blog for more than a day or so you know that to say Hahamongna Watershed Park is close to my heart is an understatement. It's practically my muse.

The plan has benefits, including improved facilities for the Rose Bowl Riders. There will also be a nature center, but if you ask me, introducing nature via a "nature center" is a sure way to teach people that nature is boring. (Oh well. At least the kids get a field trip--that is, if there's any funding for field trips. But that's another post.)

Other parts of the plan are more complicated. I can't explain it because I don't understand it. Apparently there was a road in the original plan. Upon public outcry the road was taken out of the plan and everyone thought things were fine. Nobody wants a road through what is a bit of Eden in the city. But one group, Friends of Hahamongna, fears that the language in the plan is too vague, leaving in the possibility for a road.

I've read this stuff. The language is indeed vague. As I said in last Thursday's post, I wish people would write these documents in English. Whether it means "road" or not, I don't know. I'll have to go to the meeting and listen to what everyone has to say because on this subject I have only questions.

The plan is clear, however, that a large number (some say about 70) of trees will be removed from the park--not necessarily invasive trees, just non-native trees that support wildlife--when we've just lost 250 square miles worth of trees just north of Hahamongna in the Angeles National Forest. (See Altadena Hiker's take on the subject, also Laurie Barlow's post at The Greensward: Civitas.)

That's a long way around to today's City Daily Photo blog theme day, "wood," a lot of which will be chopped down and mulched in the implementation of this shiny plan.

I think we can compromise. If it's really, really necessary to remove those trees I'm sure someone at the meeting can explain why. Then perhaps we can remove them in a few years, once the mountains have regrown some habitat.

John, Boz and I have taken so much pleasure in the open space of Hahamongna. The park belongs to us, just as it belongs to everyone. It does make me nervous that people who don't use it are about to vote on its fate. I hope they've taken the trouble to go there, take a long walk and enjoy the serenity of an hour away from the city's clamor and agitation before they decide to turn it into the more of the same.

The meeting's at 6:30; Item 6 will be heard at 7:30. When I called City Hall I was told citizens are free to skip the first part and come at 7:30. Read the info. Come, speak up, or just be present. City Hall, room S249.

To see what other City Daily Photo bloggers do with today's theme, click here.

Last Day, January 2010

Johnson Field looks green after rain, doesn't it?

I took this photo January 23rd. At left, John and Boz face off. At right, a father and his kids play ball. It was inevitable that the twain should meet.

After I took the shot I walked to the drinking fountain and met Jodie, the mom of the ball-playing family. We had a connection: she's the photographer and blogger at The Four Seasons, another Pasadena blog (we have a plethora of great blogs and bloggers in Pasadena). Not only that, Jodie's husband Steve is THE Steve--you know Steve, right? No? Well, Steve had extensive information for me about my Woodbury Creek post, and as a born and bred Pasadenamanian he's loaded with local lore.

We have such cool people here. I love that I photographed this meeting just before it happened. To compare Last Day photos, click the Last Day Project tag below.

Welcome Weekend

Here's a view of the tower of St. Andrews Catholic Church as reflected in the windows overlooking the parking lot behind the LA Financial Credit Union at Fair Oaks and Walnut.

No, I'm not making a statement about money and religion. I just thought it looked serene.

I have a serene weekend planned. You?

There's a new daily photo blog in town called Pasadena, 91105 and Beyond. It's just a little over a week old so if you get there quick you can read all the posts so far and not miss anything. Go say hi to Kat and enjoy this welcome addition to Pasadena's wildly robust blogging community.

Welcome, Kat!

Fluorescents Be Damned

We had to duck out early on the Mayor's State of the City event last night (actually tonight, as I'm typing this) because I had (have) a migraine. There's Mayor Bogaard on the right, getting ready for his speech. He looks calm and collected, I think.

We stayed long enough to hear my voice-over for the "Charting a New Course" video. John says I sounded good. I'll have to listen again. I think there'll be a link to the video on the public access TV page of the City's website today, or soon.

I very much appreciate being included in the event and I regret the lousy timing--mine, not the Mayor's.

Nature's Course

A transient river flows through Hahamongna Watershed Park, charting its own course to carry the recent rainfall from the mountains to the dam. See it while you can. We live in the desert after all.

Tonight the Mayor's State of the City event will be held at LaSalle High School. The event's theme is "Charting a New Course." Mayor Bogaard and his staff choose a different location for his speech every year. Last year--or was it the year before?--it was the Rose Bowl locker room, remember? Wish I hadn't missed that. This year I'll be sure to attend because I did the voice-over for the video presentation and I haven't heard the final edit. Could you miss that? I can't. It's a big event (free), starting at 6:30pm, and all are invited.

Another free event I plan to attend is the upcoming City Council Meeting on Monday, February 1st. The Council will discuss the "Adoption of the Initial Study and Approval of the Hahamongna Watershed Park Master Plan Addendum for the Hahamongna Annex." I've read the addendum and find it difficult to follow (and my degree is in Rhetoric). I dearly wish they'd write these things in English. But because they don't they've got some Hahamongna lovers up in arms wondering if they're trying to pull something. Are they going to put in a road across our precious mid-city wilderness? Are they going to tear out non-invasive, non-native trees using funds that might be better used elsewhere in this economy? (Actually, that part's pretty clear. They are.) And who are "they?"

Frankly, I'm not sure. But I'll go to the meeting and listen. Since I don't understand the plan I'm dependent on others to interpret it for me, and different people have different interpretations. My request of those who wrote the plan would be to please rewrite it in English and make their intentions clear.

The time of the meeting is listed as 6:30pm and the public hearing on the Hahamongna Annex issue is listed as 7:30pm. Many postings say the meeting is at 7:30. I'll try to get to the bottom of this today and let you know what time to show up so you can get a seat. Update: I just called City Hall. The meeting begins at 6:30 but it's okay to enter late. The issue will be heard at 7:30.

Time after time, nature shows us that she will out. She showed us in Haiti just over two weeks ago and undoubtedly she'll show us again and again here at home. Whatever the powers end up doing or not doing to Hahamongna in our lifetime, nature will chart her own course long after we're gone. The decisions we make now must be about how best to flow with her in our lifetime.

Too Popped to Pot

I attended an event at the Pasadena Convention Center last Sunday--a seminar called POP! Your Book, Brand, Business and Career.

On the lower level, the Los Angeles Pottery Show was happening. We had this great view coming and going from the conference room, as we crossed over the lower level on bridges set with tables and chairs.

All that colorful pottery was tempting. I thought I might check it out after the seminar was over.

Once inside the packed room I forgot about pots. The POP! seminar was absorbing before it even started, because the speakers came early to network with participants.

I was there to learn, not to blog, so I didn't take photos. I listened, scribbled notes, laughed and scribbled more notes. The organizer, business writer Karen E. Klein, did a nice write-up of the event and posted shots of speakers Sam Horn and Lilli Cloud on her blog, Financially inKleined.

The two brilliant branding/marketing experts kept us riveted for three hours. You can see by their websites that they're tops in their field. We were lucky to have them together.

When we came out, the pottery show was closing down.

Ah, well. I got what I came for. I didn't need pots. I needed to pop!

More Water

The Pasadena blogging community was agog--nay, thrilled with a jealous pang--when, on January 19th, Pasadena Adjacent posted this revelatory tour (with her customary, fun-filled video) inside the workings of the Devil's Gate Dam tower. She and Mr. V. braved the rain to get a scoop and a coup. No one we knew had been inside that mysterious tower before.

When I took this photo on the 23rd, the skies were giving us a sunny reprieve and--what? Those dam workers were giving tours to moms, dads and cherubs.

I broke the news to PA. "You mean I’ve lost my V.I.P. status?" she said. "The carbon's off the lily!!!"

But she got there first, with video, photos, and a nice shot of those orange things.
Here you can see the orange things at work. (You may have another word for the orange things, but we like to use the technical term, Orange Things.) They appear to be an aid in corralling debris. "Debris" in this case is everything from uprooted trees to escaped socks.

This is the same pool of water I featured in my post on Sunday. I was standing sort of up on the left side of this picture to take that one. We were told by the dam engineers the water's 57 feet deep at it's deepest point (or it was when I took the pictures.)



I took this shot about a year ago. John is below the dam chatting with Becca, PDP's resident geologist. To give you an idea of the amount of rain we had last week, I cropped the photo below for comparison. On the right of that shot you see the cement slab beneath which John and Becca are standing in the "dry" photo. If you enlarge the "wet" photo you'll also see a cement outcropping jutting out below the dam on the left. I had crawled up next to it to take the "dry" picture above; it's on the right side of that photo.

Zen Monday: #82

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about. There's no right or wrong. It means what you think it means, or what you want it to mean.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. And I stay out of the comments box for most of the day to avoid influencing the intellectual path of the (highly sophisticated) discussion.

As I post each new Zen Monday photo I add a label to last week's to identify it if necessary.

Nature, Doing Its Job

The whole world burst out of its proverbial house house yesterday and enjoyed the sun. Hahamongna Watershed Park was flooded with bikers, hikers, horses, dogs and mountain runoff.

The other day on The Sky is Big in Pasadena (not a misnomer, by the way) there was a discussion about whether or not the past week's weather was unusual. Seemed like it was, but one commenter reminded us that a winter deluge is the norm. It's just that during our years of drought we've become accustomed to winters bereft of rain. Last week's storms weren't enough to end our drought, but they helped.

The flooding at Hahamongna Watershed Park is severe enough to have permanently altered the landscape. Trails we knew are gone and will not be back. What remains in their place is as beautiful as what we'll miss.

And the infrastructure held up. The Devil's Gate Dam did its job. So, I'm told, did the Pasadena Water and Power workers who've been running the joint in 12-hour shifts. Kudos.

Inspiration for the photo: John Sandel.

Tilt

This is Earlham Street, looking west from Lake Avenue.

I did not take this photo on a windy day.

Any scientists out there? What is it about our trees? Is our sun always in the southern skies and if so, why isn't that true of everywhere in the northern hemisphere? Is it axis tilt? Magnets? Or is it just my medication?

And to think I once thought of majoring in astronomy for about five minutes.

I am so tempted to remove that street light.
I feel better. Just don't enlarge this, I don't have Photoshop. And if my medication's the problem you don't want to upset me.

The Lukens Estate

Here's the house we've been talking about. I wasn't planning to post these shots. I want to get across the street and get up high on something to shoot over the fence. From this low vantage point I don't think you get the magnificence of this big ol' Victorian pile.

According to Thal Armathura of Avenue to the Sky--a blog all about Lake Avenue--this was once the Lukens Estate. Thal's been embellishing my Lake Avenue posts all week with his vast knowledge of Pasadena history. (The Lukens Estate is actually on El Molino, but the entrance lane used to be Locust Street, starting all the way over on Lake Ave.)

Quoting Thal from Wednesday's comments: "The long time present owner and restorer of the Luken's Estate, Roger Kislingbury, is a legend in Pasadena, and I'll present his story in a near future update on Avenue to the Sky...Roger is a friend and most recently he was the owner of the Old Pasadena De Lacey's Club 41, but the whole story of his adventures in Pasadena will be forthcoming...He has worked really hard to restore the Luken's Estate...He is a master of historic preservation and historic recreation. The Mecca Room, Art Deco magnificence, in Old Pasadena on Colorado next to the 99er Bar, he restored with such finesse, we were astounded."

I look forward to Thal's post about Kislingbury.

Theodore Parker Lukens was the first Pasadena Real Estate developer and a two-term Pasadena mayor (1890-92 and 1894-96). He was many other things, too, including a conservationist who whose nickname was "the Father of Forestry" for good reasons. The Wikipedia article about Lukens is an eye-opener, considering our recent momentous fires in the San Gabriel Mountains. There's also a great old picture of the house, which was designed by Harry Ridgeway and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lukens was one of Pasadena's earliest citizens, extremely active in civic life, a promoter of natural causes and a friend of John Muir. He even promoted the establishment of Oak Grove Park, for which I'm grateful. He's buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena. After reading about him I like him so much I think I'll go pay my respects.