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Vegas and SD Fair

Went to Vegas for a few days 2 weeks ago for my birthday present. We had a great time. The weather was comfortable; cloudy and warm. It even rained a bit one of the days. Vegas is hurting; even though we were there Sunday through Wednesday the crowds were still exceptionally small. The cabbies asked us if we wanted to ride down the Strip or take the side streets - that's never happened before. Restaurants were 2/3 full, we bought tickets for Cirque du Soleil's "Ka" 24 hours before the show time and landed 4th row center seats. The pool was practically empty and one night we had the entire outdoor patio of the East Side Lounge to ourselves.

I had two photos accepted into the SD Fair this year out of 4 submitted but while the percentage was disappointing the results weren't; both images received "Honorable Mention" awards. We went this last weekend and had beer and brats, walked the fine art and the photography exhibits, she bought some jewelry and we walked the Halls of Crap, too.

Fair Photos and Vegas Getaway

This year I again entered some of my photographic work in the San Diego and Orange County Fairs. This one was accepted in both fairs' competitions, while this one was accepted in the San Diego Fair but rejected by the Orange County Fair.

I also went to Las Vegas last week for a few days as a birthday present. Vegas is dead; lots of empty restaurant tables, empty lounges by the pool and the cabbies would ask us if we wanted to take the Strip or the side roads (in the past the side roads were the only choice due to all the traffic on las Vegas Blvd.).

The guys came over yesterday for a band rehearsal to prep for later this summer's party.

New York City April, 2009

I spent a short but really fun week in New York Ciy last week. Gargoyles, Guggenheim and Gramercy, oh my!

I went to Shenzhen, Guangdong, PRC and Hong Kong last week for business. Shenzhen is across the harbo(u)r from Hong Kong. It is possible to land at Hong Kong International Airport but never enter Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; you can go straight to the regular PRC via a ferry and then go through passport control into China when you dock.

That's what I did. It's about 2 hours from landing the plane to getting to the hotel.

Coming back I had a driver take from my hotel in Shenzhen to my hotel in Hong Kong via his car; we had to go through a big-ass passport control area prior to driving across Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor bridge back into HK.

My outbound itinerary was SAN to SFO to HKG, ferry to Shenzhen. Return was HKG to SFO to SAN. SFO to HKG was about 14, 14.5 hours. Return tip was around 11, 11.5 hours.

Hong Kong still uses its own currency, the Hong Kong dollar, official exchange rate 1.05 to 1 RMB. Shenzhen is in an economic development zone; 15 years ago it was a tiny fishing village. Now it is a huge city with all the hallmarks of fast money and a bubble economy and infrastructure. I visited a factory that manufactures my company's products; it is out behind the glitz of boomtown Shenzhen. In fact it is what we would call a "company town" from the turn of the last century. The company site is literally miles of 10 story tall buildings full of Chinese workers making our stuff. They live in dorms and eat and shop on the company property.

The engineers I worked with were mid-20's maybe and the workers on the line, many of whom are women, had an average age of 18 or 19. It was a fascinating glimpse into how our economy (meaning the US for me personally but really it's any Western country at this point) and China are inextricably linked.

A headline in the South China Daily one morning was "Finance Minister still buying Treasury bonds."

And now here are some photos.

I also went out to Anza Borrego Desert State Park a few weekends ago and took some night sky photos.

New Year

One month into the new year and only a few things to report.

I went to Santa Barbara between Christmas and New Year's, which was really fun. I spent a day driving around the local Wine Country and went to Solvang for lunch. The Hitching Post was closed, though; they're open or dinner only.

I also caught up with a Rome friend in LA who had come over for a quick 10 day Southwest US road trip.

I continue to work on music and songs in the little recording studio I have and making great progress. It's great to have such talented friends come over and play on my stuff.

I am collecting and shooting images to enter into the San Diego Natural History Museum photography contest also. The last day to enter is March 15. A few weekends ago I shot a bunch of images down at the pier, some of which are decent.

Tokyo and Thanksgiving

I went to Tokyo for a short and uneventful week about a month ago. Our flight was about 5 hours late and so we arrived at the hotel sometime after midnight, which really wasn't all that bad. I did get to visit Kawasaki Daishi temple one afternoon, which was quite beautiful and also quite empty. The monks were there and one of them was pounding slowly on a huge drum. It sounded great, echoing around inside the temple and then out into the courtyard. It was very late afternoon, though, so there wasn't much light butr I did manage to take a few photos regardless.

Thanksgiving was fun and we all had a great time. I didn't do anything "different" this year regarding turkey cooking; we just had roasted turkey breast; all meat, no bone, super moist an very very good.

Rome Trip

Summer was uneventful. I worked a lot and completed the latest house project - a new and much larger balcony a patio cover. I threw a summer party for my Italian friends which was fun - the band played in the living room for an hour or so. I worked on some new songs - wrote, arranged and recorded them. I need some guitar work from Erik and some keyboard work from Jeff to finish them.

I went to Rome for a week or so and returned a week ago. Photos are here. The next day I went to Las Vegas for a few days.

Going to Japan in a few weeks for a shortish week.

Crowded House and Taiwan Redux

A few weeks ago we went to see Crowded House at the Orpheum Theater in Downtown LA . The Orpheum is a 1920's vintage theater that was originally built for vaudeville and "talkies." It's on S. Broadway, a few blocks away from the Bradbury Building and one of about a dozen similar era theaters in varying states of disrepair and use.

We spent the afternoon walking around the Broadway Downtown District, looking at the various theaters and other sites, including the Clifton Cafeteria and went into several buildings in the Jewelry Market area which is immediately adjacent to Broadway.

The neighborhood is fine in the daytime if very urban with the attendant noise, crowding and dirt, but the evenings are a little different. It's not that far from Skid Row and so walking to and from the hotel for the show was not an option, so we used the hotel's limo to take us there and pick us up.

The show was great and the evening was very warm, even when the show was over at 11 PM.

The next Monday I went with a pal to Yosemite National Park for a photo safari thing, th results of which can be seen here. That was a 4 day road trip well-spent; we had a great time together and with the group and got to see the park in a way I never have; with lots of water and roaring falls. The sunset on Wednesday at Glacier Point was unbelievable as well.

I went to Taipei, Taiwan on business last week for a short week as well; I took some photos while I was there. You can see those here.

Las Vegas Trip

We went to LV again this year for the GF's b-day. This is the third time in 12 months we've gone; I'm starting to feel we've done all the A-list things we want to do and are starting into the B-list stuff.

Our first night there we saw Elton John's "Red Piano" show, which is at the Colosseum at Caesar's Palace. The night after that we saw "La R(e with that little "hat" symbol on it)ve" which a water-based Cirque du Soleil-type show. Our third night we saw Blue Man Group.

Not being a huge Elton John fan I was more interested in seeing Nigel Olsen (drums) and Davey Johnstone (guitar), both of whom have been with him for nearly 40 years. His long-time bass player Dee Murray passed away a few years ago. The show ended up being pretty good; some gorgeous production values, a very bawdy show and stage sets and the band was musically flawless. He opened with "Benny and the Jets" which is in my opinion too slow for an opener and the audience reaction was enthusiastic but not high energy. The show really kicked off with the second tune; "Philadelphia Freedom." The production really shined at this point; a huge video screen above and behind him lit up with a very dynamic video to go with the song.

"Someone Saved My Life Tonight" had a very weird video to go with it, too, involving a guy with his head in an oven and a guy in a bear suit. No, really. "The Bitch is Back" feature a shiny-bikini-wearing Pam Anderson pole dancing video. Elton himself was quite engaging and had a very approachable persona on stage. His in-between song patter was somewhat scripted (per a couple of reviews I read after the fact) but it had a natural feel to it and was pretty funny as well.

The GF loved the show, I thought it was good and I enjoyed the giant inflatable tits. I think he has another few-weeks-long-stand with this show in June and then maybe again in the Fall but that might be it after that. He did this show to fill in between Celine Dion's "A New Day" show but that show has ended its run and now they have Bette Midler and Cher coming in so la dee frickin' da.

La R(e with that little "hat" symbol on it)ve at the Wynn was OK; we splurged on VIP tickets for this event which meant we had special seating, champagne, strawberries and our own backstage video monitor that allowed us to see what was going on underwater and back stage. I found that more interesting than the show, actually.

Blue Man Group at the Venetian is a show that combines performance art, mime, dance, science and physics and rock and roll into a funny interesting show featuring 3 guys in blue make up. There is a bunch of audience participation, including a thing at the end that requires EVERYONE in the audience to help. At one point during the "Rock Star Tutorial" segment of the show (we were taught some basic rock star movements such as the head nod and the fist pump) one wag shouted out "Freebird" and the band responded instantly with the intro. Not bad.

We also visited the Atomic Testing Museum, which is about a mile east of the Strip on E Flamingo Rd. This is a Smithsonian Institute museum that is incredibly well done. Why an Atomic Testing Museum? Well, because in the 1950's through 1992 a part of the desert north of Las Vegas was used for testing nuclear weapons, first on the surface and then later underground. There are many photos of mushroom clouds taken from downtown LV; people used to take their lawn chairs onto the hotel roofs to watch the test. The museum captures the cultural context of the Atomic Age and has a lot of interactive exhibits, interviews with people who were part of the program and also discusses the unintended public health consequences of (especially) the surface testing that occurred.

So that's 3 Vegas trips in 12 months for us; I think that's going to be it for a while.

Joshua Tree National Park

All of the photos

Joshua Tree National Park is a desert park northeast of Palm Springs and south of Twenty-Nine Palms, sandwiched between I-10 and CA 62. Palm Springs is a glitzy weekend community for Hollywood types, Twenty Nine Palms is a Marine Corps town.

My Dad, my brother and I went out there a few weekends ago to hang out together, do a little hiking and take photos of wildflowers, which were blooming like crazy in the southern part of the park this particular weekend. JTNP has always been a favorite local destination of mine; it is renown for its rock climbing and its Joshua Trees, from which of course it got its name. It's about a 4 hour drive from Los Angeles, about 3 to 3.5 hours from my house.

We drove out to the southern end of the park, parked along the side of the road along with a few other cars and wandered into a flower-rich field. My Dad and I both enjoy photography and my Dad seems to have specialized in botany photos so this was a good reason to get together, spend some time road tripping and taking photos. I used my Canon 10D with my Tamron 18-200 F 3.5/6.3 lens.

My brother pointed out the lizard on this rock.



Purple lupine.



Mountain off in the distance



The desert doesn't bloom like this every year; we had a fairly wet winter and had some rains into March which is unusual. It was this combination that triggered the large masses of flowers this year. Next month the cacti will bloom.

Field of purple lupine



The Joshua Tree National Park website claims there are about 80 species of flowers blooming out there right now (or were, the season is very short and is ending now, about a month after it began).

This is probably my favorite landscape shot from this trip; purple lupine, canterbury bells and lots and lots of brittlebush and golden poppies.



Sunset at the Barker Dam parking lot.



A Joshua Tree silhouetted against the sunset.

Beverly Hills Hotel

Through some particular events in my GF's life I found myself at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Thursday afternoon for a one-night stay. The Beverly Hills Hotel is a 5 star hotel with a legendary history. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor honeymooned in one of the bungalows there (Number 5), Will Rogers and Douglas Fairbanks used to eat lunch in the Polo Lounge every day, Guns n'n Roses signed their record contract there.

She had a hair and make-up appointment at the salon they have; I caught her in the hallway as she was leaving for it and I was arriving to the room. After about 30 minutes I went down there to see how things were going but it looked like she was getting water-boarded; she was tilted back flat in the chair and the make-up artist was leaning over her intently. I decided instead to grab a bite at the Fountain Room, a coffee shop diner they have (and is where GnR signed signed their contract).

Later, she went to her event in the hotel-provided limo and then a few hours later came back. In the interim I had reservations for the Polo Lounge for dinner for us. She called me as she was leaving so I could meet her in front to help with her stuff; award statue, gifts and flowers. As I was waiting some older movie producer types got out and walked up the ramp into the hotel; gray hair, big round black rimmed glasses, pullover shirt, leather pants. Bowling ball pot bellies.

As we came down the stair case I swear Lauren Bacall was in front of us in line. We were seated at a decent table but we did not see anyone we knew as a celebrity but obviously there were some fairly well-off people there.

The next morning we went to breakfast at the Fountain Room; James Taylor walked in and sat down at the opposite end. He was scruffy and hauling a backpack around with him. We later saw him in the lobby waiting for someone; he was wearing a baseball cap.

But that was it. It was an interesting experience but also fairly expensive for my loser middle-class lifestyle. But now I can say that I have stayed in the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel and eaten dinner at the Polo Lounge.