PDP/PPM Books Contest, week 4

Local Pasadenamites (as opposed to what--international Pasadanish?) will immediately recognize this rock formation, even though it's covered with gunite. It's our famous devil of the Devil's Gate Dam. This rock formation gave the dam its name.

But who named the "Devil's Gate" gorge? That's this week's contest question. Once again, I've linked you to the answer. (Read the whole post, it's fascinating.) Many thanks to Ann Erdman, Pasadena PIO, for her great blog.

If you've been checking in for the past few weeks you know the contest rules, but in case you haven't, here they are:

1. Email the 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 in the comments section will be rudely ignored.

2. That's all you have to do.

3. Tomorrow I'll ask my cutest, most innocent neighbor child to draw the winning name from a hat. I will search diligently for an actual child. I'll announce the winner in Sunday's post.

4. PRIZES! For your holiday gift-giving for for your lucky self:

Once again, this week's prize will be a brand new copy of Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010, thanks to Colleen Dunn Bates and Prospect Park Media. After today I only have one more copy of Hometown Pasadena to give away. We'll do that next week.

THEN we'll have another week or two of giveaways because we have a copy of At Home Pasadena, the lovely, hardcover coffee table book about beautiful living in our beautiful town;
AND
stick around, because we also have a copy of the brand new novel, Helen of Pasadena, by Pasadanish Lian Dolan. The book is now available at bookstores everywhere. Whet your Helen appetite by reading chapter one here, or meet Lian in person at Vroman's November 14th at 3pm.

Many thanks to Colleen, Lian and everyone at Prospect Park Media.

Killing Time

I always have a book with me, in case I have to wait--in the doctor's office, in line, at the repair shop.

Except when I forget my book, then I always have a camera with me. And there is always, always something to photograph, no matter where you are.

Anonymous Chairs

I was thinking of other photographers when I took this picture.

One photographer is Virginia from Birmingham and Paris. I made a comment on one of Virginia's Paris posts that a certain chair seems to be ubiquitous in Paris, "like those awful plastic ones are here."

The other photographer is -K- of LA. The photo I was thinking of is called Card Table in Beverly Hills.

This photo doesn't resemble -K-'s or Virginia's. We could call it an homage to them.

I took the shot in the garden of a place that was beautiful once. It's not beautiful anymore. It's been degraded by time, bad choices and neglect. Problems don't improve when you ignore them.

Toxic Cookies

inspiration: John Sandel

I've mentioned how John and I chase light around our house with our cameras. Sometimes, the light is subtle and fleeting. Sometimes, the combination of light and object are positively wild.

But you have to keep your eyes open.

Although this one fits more into the wild category than the subtle, if John hadn't pointed it out I might not have noticed. It was drying in the dish rack one afternoon. I've pumped up the color.

Don't worry. This is the outside of the pan.

Zen Monday: #119

It's Zen Monday again, the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. And unless I absolutely must say something, I stay out of the comments box until the end of the day to avoid influencing the discussion.

There's no right or wrong, although there may be an explanation.

REM, DST and PDP

Daylight Savings Time ended quietly last night, sometime between periods of rapid eye movement and solid snoring. If we were paying attention we set our clocks back before we went to sleep, and that's good. But everything's a bit off today, and that's...off. You'll hear no complaints from our house, though, as even early darkness is a small price to pay for an extra hour with Morpheus.

I'm not so off that I don't remember it's Sunday, and time to announce Friday's winner of the PDP/PPM books contest. Tada! Congratulations to Trish, a regular visitor, commenter and former Pasadenamanian, and the lucky person whose name was pulled out of the hat yesterday by my cute, innocent neighbor child.

Okay. Here's what really happened: Trish's name was pulled out of a (clean) dog poo bag by my cute, innocent husband, because when I went out with the hat I couldn't find any kids. Where the hell are they these days? Is it soccer season already?

Anyway, like many of you, Trish guessed the correct answer to Friday's question: What historic building is now occupied by Technique Restaurant? It's the old Star-News Building. Trish wins a copy of Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010, courtesy of Prospect Park Media. Congratulations, Trish!

Stick around for more chances to win books this Friday.

Toyon

A friend mentioned that I hadn't posted any photos from Hahamongna Watershed Park lately. She thought maybe I hadn't been going there.

I've been going, all right. I take pictures there all the time. I'm just afraid you'll get bored if I post as many as I've got. But okay. Here's a seasonal shot of the upper path on the east side of the park. A branch loaded with toyon berries hangs across the path.

Toyon grows all over the place here and this time of year we see the berries everywhere. Animals eat them--everyone from birds to coyotes. Humans eat them, too. I've never tried them but the Tongva people who once lived here did, and they made a medicinal tea from the leaves.

The Tongva people still live here, actually.

PDP/PPM Books Contest, week 3

At the new Technique Restaurant on Colorado Blvd., depending on which side of the table you choose you may gaze at the ceiling...

...or at what is perhaps a more dramatic view: the kitchen and some quirky, food-related films.

Technique is the new "classroom" kitchen of the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Pasadena. John and I had a lovely meal there the other night. We began with Grilled Haloumi Cheese with compressed watermelon and pickled rind, plus Roasted Bone Marrow with French radishes and toast with house-churned butter (I had to try it). For his meal John had fried, free range Jadori chicken, braised cavolo nero, pommes puree and a biscuit. I couldn't resist trying the Coffee Braised Short Ribs, parsnip puree and house made apple chips, which also came with some delectable root vegetables.

J raved about the cavolo nero all through dinner, of which he ate every bite. I didn't need a knife to cut my short ribs and I can't even begin to define the succulent flavor of that sauce. The parsnip puree alone is worth going back for. I did not eat every bite, I snarfed every bite.

We were too full for dessert. The room is a bit of an echo cavern, but that's the only drawback I can see.

An elegant, fantastic meal, cooked and served by Le Cordon Bleu students, and you won't believe the price. Go ahead, guess. (Liquor license is being applied for, so no wine.)

No prizes for getting that one right, but there is a prize today. We're supposed to be having a contest and indeed we are.

What historic building is now occupied by Technique Restaurant? That's today's contest question.

I've given you all the information you need to Google the answer. As a matter of fact, I've linked you to it.

A quick review of the contest rules:

1. Email the 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 in the comments section will be rudely ignored.

2. That's all you have to do.

3. This weekend I'll ask my cutest, most innocent neighbor child to draw the winning name from a hat. I'll announce the winner in Sunday's post.

4. PRIZES! Once again, this week's prize will be a brand new copy of Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010, thanks to Colleen Dunn Bates and Prospect Park Media. I'm down to two copies after today, so the contest will continue for two more Fridays--plus an additional week when Colleen and I will give away a copy of At Home Pasadena, the lovely, hardcover coffee table book about beautiful living in our beautiful town.

Stick around, because one lucky winner will receive a copy of the brand new novel, Helen of Pasadena, by Pasadanish Lian Dolan. The book is now available on Amazon, at Vroman's and at bookstores everywhere. Whet your Helen appetite by reading chapter one here.

Many thanks to Colleen, Lian and everyone at Prospect Park Media.

Enlightened Art

Maybe you see Tibetan monks creating a sacred sand mandala every day, but since I don't I found this enthralling.

These monks are visiting Pasadena from the Drepung Loseling Phukhang Khangtsen monastery in southern India. (I just love that a monastery has a website.) The monastery was founded 500 years ago in Tibet, but when the Chinese occupied Tibet, as you may know, the Dalai Lama and his followers were forced to relocate their operations.

The Museum's website says, "...sand mandalas depict the world in its divine form, representing a map by which the ordinary human mind is transformed into the enlightened mind." Here, two of the visiting monks use tapered metal tubes to place colored sand grains onto the mandala. When they're finished with one color, they tap the excess out of the tube and it sounds like clinking your fork against your plate.

These guys are experts. The monastery didn't send the new kids on this job. You can see the outline on the table, a blueprint of where this work is headed.

If you're as fascinated by this arcane art form as I am, you can watch it in action for free at the Pacific Asia Museum, every day this week and only this week, from 10am-3:30pm. I missed the opening ceremony yesterday morning. The closing will be Sunday, when this ethereal work will be swept away at 2pm.

And a happy birthday to my brother Stuart! I don't think he checks here, but I like to say it anyway.

A Jones for Coffee (I'm sure they've heard that one before)

A fervent discussion over at Pasadena, 91105 and Beyond tells me coffee is of enough importance to--well, to spur a fervent discussion.

Coffee is also important enough to spawn workshops.

When I picked up the brochure at Jones Roasters I thought this was something new, but Jones has been offering Coffee Workshops since 1994. They offer an Introduction to Coffee, Intro to Cupping (what is cupping?) and even Home Brewing (we're still talking about coffee). The classes are inexpensive and kept to small groups.

The one I'd really like to try is already over for this year: Guatemala 2010. I hope they do a Guatemala 2011.

I'm not particularly emotional about the particulars of coffee. But coffee itself: yeah, I'm fervent.

Zen Tuesday: #9

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. But as this is not Zen Monday but Zen Tuesday--hell, we can do whatever we want.

Theme Day: Public Transportation

(Tomorrow will be Zen Tuesday)

 

 

photo courtesy of Pasadena Adjacent

If you live in Pasadena you've seen this artfully decorated bus. Take a look at all the Pasadena icons: starting at left, you see the Thinker (one of Rodin's at the Norton Simon Museum), then the Colorado Street Bridge and the LA River. Next, City Hall in a bed of roses (we're the Rose City), the bell tower at St. Andrew, Pacific Asia Museum, a bunch of brands and...a bull.

Okay.

We are blessed at Pasadena Daily Photo today because, thanks to Pasadena Adjacent, we have scans of the original artwork that led to this design. How did she get hold of this work, you ask? Easy. Pasadena Adjacent, aka PA, created the art on this bus. Cool, huh? She was kind enough to take me through a little bit of the process.

Here's a scan of an early proposed design:

Left to right: PA started with the tile from the Royal Laundry on South Raymond. Next, parakeets. I didn't know this, but PA says there used to be parakeets (wholly different from our famous parrots) in the Arroyo Seco near where Busch Gardens used to be. (PA should know, she grew up here.) Then you have the bridge and the river.

The portrait of the two women refers to one of the more interesting stories from the Colorado Street Bridge's dark side, aka "Suicide Bridge." "...a despondent mother threw her baby girl over the railing on May 1, 1937. She then followed her into the depths of the canyon. Though the mother died, her child miraculously survived."

I was going to say "one of the more tragic stories," but they're all tragic.

Then we have the brands and the...bull.

You may be aware that some folks in Pasadena don't like calling our bridge "Suicide Bridge." The idea of commemorating a suicide attempt on the side of a bus didn't sit well with the bus art people. But they liked PA's work so they sent her back to the (literal) drawing board. I don't know why the tile and the parakeets were dropped--not iconic enough?

PA returned with this:

Now we're getting there! You see our Thinker on the left, and the bridge, City Hall in its bed of roses, St. Andrew's Tower and the Pacific Asia Museum. On the right we have a cut-out of a Rose Bowl Queen. Totally iconic Pasadena.

PA's idea was to include under the queen's crown a picture of Dr. Kate Hutton, aka "the earthquake lady." See the seismograph running along the length of the San Gabriel Mountains in the background? Dr. Hutton, a Caltech seismologist, is a local fixture on the news whenever there's earthquake activity. Queen Kate's scepter is a parking meter. PA says parking meters were new in town (it was 1994) and folks weren't too happy about them. I guess before then you could park pretty much anywhere in Pasadena for free.

The bus art people didn't want earthquakes or suicide or parking meter jokes.

Fine. PA threw the bull back in.

What's up with the brands and the bull?

PA had done her research. The brands are not about the bull, as I had assumed. They're the brands of of the different California missions. The bull represents the Indiana Colony, the first Anglos to settle Pasadena, some of whom were cattle ranchers.

And PA did manage to inject a bit of humor into the design: the Thinker is soaking his toes in the Los Angeles River.

This has been a fun post to put together, thanks to Pasadena Adjacent. Let's give her a big hand! She's an immensely talented artist and Pasadena is lucky to have her. Thank you, PA!

Update: I'm now at liberty to tell you that Pasadena Adjacent's name is Elizabeth Garrison. She and her partner Victor Henderson have created numerous works of public art around southern California. Tash did a great post about their work at Fire Station #5 in Westchester.

City Daily Photo is now 1299 blogs strong! Blogs all over the world are participating in today's theme day. Check them out.

Happy Halloween

This guy looks happy, right?

John and I saw him in the window of The Kitchen, a gourmet catering and gifty shop. It's in that "bonus" part of Pasadena that's so far west on Colorado Blvd. it's almost in Eagle Rock--but it's still ours.

Okay, this is it. Pasadena (even the bonus part) is decked out for Halloween. Tonight the holiday season begins in a big, loud whoosh!

We'd like to think no, we've got almost a month before Thanksgiving, but it's really only three weeks and that goes by fast. Then a month until Christmas, a week until New Year's, and poof! Where did the time go?

So I'm trying to think right now, to remember: savor. Savor the little kiddies coming to the door, savor the autumn clouds and crisp air, savor the parties even if there are too many, savor the food (of course), even savor the crowds at the stores, dammit, if that's what I have to do. I'm going to have fun this holiday season. I'm going to enjoy every minute of it, from the weird decorations to the traffic, so that every gift I give arrives in the hands of its recipient loaded with good vibes.

If this sounds like a resolution, it is. Feel free to call me on it if I start complaining.

Happy Halloween, for starters.

***********
I promised to announce the winner of the PDP/PPM Books Contest Week 2, and tada! It's Melinda Baumle of Pasadena! Congratulations, Melinda. Melinda's name was randomly drawn from among all the correct answers to Friday's contest question by my cute, innocent neighbor, PDP's resident geologist Becca. (What can I say? The neighborhood kids must have been working on their costumes.) Melinda says her prize, a brand new copy of Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010, will come in handy because she has little ones and is always in need of new things to do to entertain them. Hometown Pasadena has a good kids' section.

Hometown Pasadena makes a great gift, too. I have more to give away. We'll play again Friday.

Update: I forgot to say what the answer to the question was! The Braley Building is owned by the Church of Scientology.

Acknowledgment

It's about time I acknowledged that Halloween's coming tomorrow. Better late than never.

I like this holiday because of its roots in the Celtic holiday of Samhain (the Wikipedia article is well-researched). We've strayed from those origins, but there's still something pagan about dressing up as someone you're not and running around in the dark, begging for treats while threatening to play tricks if you don't get them.

Around my neighborhood, styrofoam grave stones fill the yards, ghosts dangle from trees and skeletons rise out of grassy front lawns. Horrid goblins hang from the neck above doorways, spiders crawl along rooftops and certain doors, when opened, emit screams.

I wonder how parents explain all this death to their children. My first thought is this is a good way to introduce them to it. Death is fun! It's only scary in a Boo! sort of way. Maybe the subject of death doesn't come up, at least not with the littlest ones. Maybe it's all just candy and costumes.

But of course Halloween is about death. That's what the Celts celebrated at Samhain--the end of autumn, the approaching winter, the symbolic death creeping over the land. It's a fine time, at season's change, to note that we walk in a world others once walked, and to acknowledge that in some ways they still do.

We live in the homes they built, we absorb the art they created, we learn, over and over again, how their actions shaped our lives. If we're lucky we get to see the ruins they left behind in Rome, in Paris, or in Altadena. We live among the dead and this is a good thing. This weekend we acknowledge and celebrate them.

PDP/PPM Books Contest, week 2

I love the faded writing on some of the buildings in Old Town. This says "Keller Bros." something. I can't make it out. I wonder what kind of business the Keller brothers had in there.

We're looking at the back of the Braley Building on Raymond Avenue. The Braley has housed a lot of businesses: an antiques mall, a sandwich shop, an accountant, a theater company, a beloved Italian restaurant--all at the same time, all when I was first discovering Pasadena, all gone now.

The Braley recently underwent a renovation it didn't really need, but new owners can do that if they want to. In this photo taken this past May, if you look closely you can see a worker putting the final touches on the etchings in the middle window on the right.

Who is the owner of the Braley Building?

That's today's contest question. I've given you all the information you need to Google the answer, so you don't have to be a local to figure it out.

Let's review the contest rules:

1. Email the 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 in the comments section will be rudely ignored.

2. That's all you have to do.

3. This weekend I'll toss all the correct answers into a hat and ask my cutest, most innocent neighbor child to draw one name. (The job of cutest/most innocent neighbor child will revolve throughout the duration of the contest. Last week it turned out to be Linda. The kids were all at the park or something.) I'll announce the winner in Sunday's post. (That's Sunday. Last week it was Monday. Change of plans.)

4. PRIZES! This week, once again the prize will be a brand new copy of Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010, thanks to Colleen Dunn Bates and Prospect Park Media. I started with five, but last week's winner, Tracie Cohen of Los Angeles, has deprived me of one. Now I have four of these to give away, so the contest will go on each Friday for four more weeks--plus an additional week when Colleen and I will give away a copy of At Home Pasadena, the lovely, hardcover coffee table book about beautiful living in our beautiful town.

I'm very excited because at some point during the contest one lucky winner will receive a copy of the brand new novel, Helen of Pasadena, by Pasadenamanian Lian Dolan. The book won't be available on Amazon until November 1st but I saw it at Vroman's yesterday. And you can whet your Helen appetite by reading chapter one here.

Many thanks to Colleen, Lian and all the Prospect Park Media writers for making this contest possible!

And a Happy Birthday shout-out to my sister, Ginab.

It's All High Tech To Me

I was going to post a photo of the entryway to the Guggenheim building at Caltech, but I like this shot better. Like yesterday's photo, I took this one inside on the second floor.

From the two shots, yesterday's and today's, you'd might guess the Guggenheim is a sleek, 21st century building but the exterior is actually more classic-looking. Inside, though, it's all high tech with natural light, modern art and glass display cases showing old documents and artifacts from early Caltech work.

The transition from classic, late 1920's exterior to modern interior is due to a renovation by John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects, completed in 2008. The linked article shows a photo of the interior of the conference room above; be sure and check out the slide show, too.

I'm intrigued by the document on display in the foreground. Could it be some world-saving formula, typed by Einstein's secretary?

Some of my titles are better than others.

For more Caltech photos, click on the Caltech label below.

Serene Science

Speaking of happy accidents, today I came across this photo in my files. I knew I had taken it at Caltech, but couldn't remember exactly where.

One day nearly two years ago (and I assure you I'm not digressing), Boz and I met a woman walking her dog. I had my camera, as always, and when I called to Boz the woman recognized his name. "You're the Pasadena Daily Photo lady," she said, or words to that effect.

Long story short: we became friends. It turned out she worked at Caltech and she invited me for a tour of the campus. I took this photo on that tour in March of 2009.

I don't know why I haven't posted it before except I forgot I had it, and in all that time I forgot what it was. So when I came across it I dashed off an email to my friend to ask her what it is.

She said this room is "on the second floor the Guggenheim building on campus (one of those flanking the Olive Walk between the Athenaeum and the turtle pond). This building houses GALCIT, the Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology." She sent me the link, too. If you click it you'll see a photo of a fantastic balloon. I got a picture of it deflated, which is cool but not as cool as seeing it full-blown. The Guggenheim building has an attractive entryway. Maybe I'll post that tomorrow.

My generous friend is Bellis, a regular commenter here. I'd say meeting her was a happy accident except it wasn't an accident. We both have dogs, we both live in Pasadena, and we both like to walk our dogs in natural settings. You could say our meeting was a happy accident waiting to happen.

The Caltech campus is one of Pasadena's most beautiful places to walk. The sun has returned and we're having a gorgeous autumn. Enjoy.

Happy Accidents

This isn't at all what I was trying to photograph, but some accidents are happy ones:

like how I ended up at a temp job in the 90's with a supervisor who is still my best client;

like when my regular doctor wasn't available and the nurse practitioner diagnosed and treated my problem that he couldn't help me with (poof! new regular doctor);

like when I stumbled upon Paris Daily Photo online and it inspired me to create Pasadena Daily Photo;

like how the rental house fell through at the last minute and John and I had to take a place in Altadena, thereby discovering the good life in The Dena (we got married in that back yard);

like when we ended up at the wrong animal shelter and instead of a vanilla lab we adopted Boz;

like when I went to see my friend perform in an improv show and her friend John was there too (see photo);

et cetera.

Got a happy accident? Let's hear about it.

Zen Monday: #118

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.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. And unless I absolutely must say something, I stay out of the comments box until the end of the day to avoid influencing the discussion. You know, because it's so deep and meaningful.

There's no right or wrong. We're here to have fun.

************

Thank you all for entering the PDP/PPM Books contest Friday. I promised to announce Friday's contest winner today. Tracie Cohen, you are the big winner! I'll email you and make arrangements to send you your book, Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010 from Prospect Park Media.

22 out of 23 entries got the right answer to the question, "What's the closest cemetery to Pasadena's northern border?"  It's Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena.

Thanks for entering! Another chance to win comes around this Friday.

Time Skies

Looking north to Pasadena from Raymond Hill.

On a fall day in Illinois when I was about fifteen, the skies were like these skies--cloudy and restless. It was my first year in high school. The route home from school was about a mile, maybe a little more. I could have cut through the neighborhoods to Lions Park but instead I took Taylor Street, because it was straighter and it got me to the same place. I guess I was in a hurry.

As I crossed the bridge over the Kishwaukee River a feeling of sadness overwhelmed me. It was a beautiful melancholy, an adult feeling I'd never felt before. I wanted to understand it, to keep it.

I slowed down and cut through the park, shuffling through the mixture of pine needles and autumn leaves on the ground. I didn't have words for the feeling, but I knew Time was moving--I was moving. There was no stopping either of us and precious things were being left behind. The brand new knowledge of that enormity was what I wanted to savor.

I stayed among the pine trees, as though stepping out into the open would end the spell. A trickle of river ran alongside the grove, and from where I stood I could see the small shelter by the baseball diamond. The park was empty. I waited as long as I could, hiding in the trees and holding my new feeling until some kids came along on bikes, breaking into the autumn silence. It was time to go home.

Fleeting time is a familiar concept to me now. It's just as enormous as it was then--no less beautiful and no less sad.