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.
posted by Alan at 6:21 PM

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.
posted by Alan at 10:20 PM

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.

Labels: Barker Dam, California desert, desert flowers, joshua tree, Joshua Tree National Park

posted by Alan at 10:17 PM

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 dow there to see how things were going but it looked like she was getting water-boarded; she was titled 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 there GnR signed off).

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 iin the lobby waiting for someone; he was wearing a baseball cap.

But that wait. 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.
posted by Alan at 1:57 PM

No issues for me but here are a bare few photos showing the difference between Monday and Tuesday.

Labels: fires, San Diego

posted by Alan at 6:49 PM

I went to Tokyo again last week. It was an uneventful trip but I had a good time with everyone. One night we went out to the musical instrument stores part of town and had the clerks pull down lots of nice vintage instruments. We played them and then had them put them back. That was fun!

Here are some photos. I did not have a lot of time this trip so I was only able to re-visit the Asakusa district.
posted by Alan at 7:20 PM

Urban Hipster Coolness

This last Friday I took the day off and the GF and I went to downtown San Diego. We were seeing Crowded House at Humphrey's By the Bay which is on
Shelter Island so we figured we could kill some time by pretending to be a couple looking for a new lifestyle and shop for a Downtown San Diego East Village condo/townhouse/rowhouse. You know, moving out of suburbia and into the urban hipster lifestyle environment that the still-in-redevelopment downtown is supposed to provide.

First, here is a Google maps of the area we were in - "East Village", near the new Padres ball field PetCo Park. If you turn on satellite images you'll see they are at least 3 or 4 years old; they show an in-construction ball park and a bunch of vacant lots where new condo towers are now.

Here is an info page for a bunch of different developments. We went to "ICON" and walked around "The Mark San Diego."

We saw 3 floorplans at ICON, one was an 1100 sq ft (100 m^2) 2 bed 2 bath condo on the 17th floor for $850K and two lofts on the 3rd floor of a renovated warehouse with the original outside wall left intact. These were 1035 sq ft (92 m^2) and 825 sq ft (80 m^2) for $435K and $419K respectively. The 17th floor was nice, nice view of the harbor and the ball park but it was on the SE corner which also means you get to see the railroad yard. The lofts windows were right at street light level - the light would POUR in at night I'm sure, plus it is across the street from the vacant lot where the proposed (but probably never to be built) new downtown library is supposed to be. Because it is more important to build a baseball field than a library.

The salesman emphasized that the 1100 sq ft 2BR 2 BA condo was priced differently depending on the floor you're on. Higher is more expensive. He also commented multiple times of the availability of parking (1 or 2 spots). I thought nothing of it at the time but later the significance of that became clear.

Then we walked around the neighborhood. It's still not completely redeveloped and in fact the steam has gone out of the effort with the condo glut downtown and the flattening (at best) of the housing market here. Turns out that the nearest grocery store is 9 blocks away. There was no dry cleaners nearby and no pharmacy or convenience store, either. The streets seemed a little dead, too; it was 4 PM on Friday and you'd think people would be starting to move around but not really where we were. We saw lots of old empty buildings ready for demolition; old warehouses, garages, parking lots. No gas stations though, old or new. We ended up at 8th and Island and liked the condos/row houses along the street (part of The Mark's development) but couldn't find the sales office. Very few were occupied; maybe 25% and there weren't that many of them, maybe a dozen?

So, now the significance of the parking space comments became clear. Even though you are living a downtown urban hipster lifestyle you still need a car to GET ANYWHERE, even with the trolley since the trolley makes a big lap around the downtown district but doesn't actually enter the center of it. This is antithetical to the urban lifestyle, right? You don't NEED a car. Everything is RIGHT THERE for you.

Here's the thing for me. Back 100 years ago, even "pre-war", people from all walks of life lived like this. Rich people lived uptown in brick fronted row houses, middle class people lived in apartments above their shops and poor people lived in Hell's Kitchen in tenement housing. The point is there was lots of choices for all economic positions.

I have to wonder about this in downtown SD; East Village was a piece of crap neighborhood and has been for decades and decades. It couldn't have been THAT expensive to buy a bunch of non-earthquake safe 75 year old warehouses full of rats with leaky roofs, could it? $1.25M for 1900 sq ft row houses right on F Street? That's not an "upper class" housing style, that's middle class housing. That's housing for a guy like me. And I feel I can barely afford my current mortgage which is a fraction of some of these prices.

I fear this means a massive RE value collapse in order to let the next generation buy and they won't be buying out here in SuburbiaLand because those houses will be sky high and be passed down from parent to child, just like houses used to be 100 years ago. They'll be moving back to the urban areas because it's the only place anyone will be allowed by NIMBYs to build vertically.

The only other possibility is if we start being like native Europeans and have a lower than replacement birthrate, in which case the terrorists will have won.

It seems far more expensive to build a downtown area over the course of 50 years, say, let White Flight to the suburbs in the 60's devastate the urban core, allow it rot for 25 or 30 years and then say, "Hey, you know what would be great? If we dumped billions of dollars to tear down old crap and build new crap with no supportive infrastructure like a pharmacy or a fucking trolley car stop at the corner." And make no mistake, downtown San Diego in the 70's and early 80's was a very scary place. Very scary. The Gaslamp began a recovery in the mid 80's but even now there are blocks that are untouched by the evil hand of Eminent Domain. There is however a two story Hustler store on 6th Street which is considered an upscale addition to the neighborhood.

I like the downtown area; I enjoy the restaurants and the atmosphere but if I were to move to San Diego proper I'd buy a Craftsman-style bungalow in North Park and restore it from the ground up before I'd buy a downtown condo and still have to pay for a car.
posted by Alan at 9:00 PM

Award-Winning Professional Photographer

It's all so very curious, this art-as-competition stuff.

I entered three images the Orange County Fair's Photography competition. This one was rejected, This one was accepted, and this one was not only accepted but was given an award.

It was only an Honorable Mention, which rates a light blue ribbon, placed right on the frame, but my happiness was based more on the fact that, because I am not a resident of Orange County, I had to enter as a professional, which I am most assuredly not.

So, a minor victory and a small professional feather in my photography cap.

Labels: award-winning professional photographer, Orange County Fair

posted by Alan at 8:50 PM