Crow with Grape walking across the Stater Bros. parking lot in Fullerton last Thursday.
June 2004 Archives
File under category of : Playing with Food...
The Wasabi Snowman with a pickled ginger hat in a scooped orange with an orange top parasol. Made by the odd blonde stoner/surfer dude sitting next to me at the sushi bar at Sushi Wave in Costa Mesa. Worth taking the camera out for.
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Left to Right:
6/17/04: View of the door from the ticket seller during the Jesse Sykes and Lisa Marr show.
6/05/04: Juan Puente, Bucky Boston, and Brandi after Manic.
6/17/04: As Loyal exits, he shows off his pickled eggs.
Did you know that the Trader Joe's in Huntington Beach was selling miniature potted african violets that fit perfectly in my car's drink holders for the ride home?
The Edwards House on Sat. 6/19/04 at it's original location of 431 E. Chapman Ave, Orange.
In most communities in Southern California, when an old building is in the way of "progess" it is demolished for whatever new building will be put in it's place, usually something ugly and in fashion with corporate architechs. Not in Old Towne Orange. In the mile square of Old Towne, there are over 1600 "National Registered Historic Buildings." If the building in question is in the mile square surrounding the Plaza and if it is registered, no demolishing.
If you are the owner of an old Victorian, like the house I rent, or a Craftsman, you have to get permission not just from the city but also from the historical society for any repair or remodel that will touch more than one wall. Two years ago, an impoverished elderly gentleman wanted to put plastic siding on his termite infested 1870s shotgun shack, but the city and the historical society would not let him. They instead, against his wishes, raised over $70,000 to completely re-do all the exterior of this two room shack with good hard wood planks and paint it. Now his shotgun shack, that would be more at home out at the Salton Sea, looks like a million bucks or at least $70,000.
The Edwards House on the Move - Mon. 6/21/04.
Thus, when the City of Orange wanted to expand the Central Library, there was one small problem: The Edwards House. The 1921 craftsman was in the way of the proposed expansion, so the City offered the house to any seller for $1, who would pay to relocate it to an empty lot in the mile square of Old Towne. It took over 9 months and a lot of LA Times articles to convince one of the two empty lot owners in Orange to buy the house.
Tonight was moving day. On June 10th, the City sent all the residents a letter announcing and explaining the move, as well as inviting residents to an Ice Cream Social with March Band at 8pm tonight to celebrate the House Move.
After a long day of Crow's arraignment at the Long Beach Courts with A, A, and P, and then to dinner with Mom at Walt's Wharf, I had nearly forgotten the Big Move. Silly me. At nearly 10pm tonight, I rode my bike to go get water at Rod's, when I saw the house in the middle of the intersection at Glassel and Almond. I immediately turned around and rode the two blocks back to my house for my camera. For the next half hour, I took pictures, investigated the scene (lots of folks milling about, post ice cream) and finally took a video as the house was towed around the corner.
At the Corner of Glassel and Almond about to turn the corner.
The best parts were watching the American Heavy Movers & Rigging guys lift one end of the house on hydraulics to move the wheels whilst the other end had its butt in the air, the SoCal Edison guys in cherry pickers lifting up the electric wires for the house to go under, and the kids at 100 S. Lemon St. riding their bmx bikes over the chaulk target marks that are to guide the movers on the empty lot to a correct deposit of the house onto the lot.
She'll be Comin' Around the Corner when She Comes....
She'll be Comin' Around the Corner when She Comes....
She'll be Pulled by One Big White Diesel when She Comes....
She'll be Pulled by One Big White Diesel when She Comes....
When She Comes!
I promise pictures tomorrow of her sitting on her new lot. I have an unedited AVI(49MB) movie of the Edwards House rounding the corner, please recommend a windows freeware movie compression software download, please...
The drummer for ADHD is a LA Dodgers fan.
Last saturday night, The Adolescents played at Alex's Bar with The Bronx, 400 Blows, ADHD, and the Chicken Hawks. As one can imagine, it was quite the night for people watching.
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Left to right: Luke and Johnny; Deb T. surveying all that she sees; Matt from The Bronx giving LuLu a smooch.
Local news is getting harder and harder to find. Not just the celebrations and defeats of the high school football teams in the area, but also news on local crime, local accomplishments, local issues, etc. The LA Times has significantly reduced their local news coverage, as the section that was "Orange County" is now "California."
This is just not a problem of large newspapers, but also of the internet. Several times now I have sought news links to relevant breaking local news only to find out that it is not covered for days or at all online. If I eventually do find an online link or source for the news, it is usually a follow up to the original event, not a reporting of the event.
Last night a friend had a severe loss of judgement and ended up in a 4 hour police pursuit. It was reported to me less than a hour after the high speed chase started, as it was on TV. TV coverage ceased after the first hour and we got reports from the friend's relatives. Many of us were greatly saddened and frustrated, as the friend in question had been working hard to get his life back on track.
Today, I have searched the LA Times, OC Register, Google, Ask Jeeves, all the local TV stations for a report on what happened, to no avail. How can a car chase be on TV for over an hour and not be in the paper or internet news?
Does this mean that my friend's actions are entertainment but not news? The man I know is humble, nice, and diligent, but has a lack of ability to say no to his peers. He also grew up in the wrong neighborhood and ended up the "rock star" of a certain gang. Since he got out of Chino in April, he moved away from his neighborhood, got a job, made new friends, started listening to the Briefs, and tried to stay out of trouble.
Around the third and a half hour of the suspense last night, I found myself babbling to two other friends about Charles de Lint's crow stories, specifically Jeck Crow. It was a complete non sequitor to my friends, but to me story explains, story redeems, story helps make sense of the broken pieces.
I think Crow must be Jeck Crow's son. By the grace of God, I pray for mercy and justice for my broken friend. When he got out of the car, he said sorry to all the police chasing him.
to Erika G! May this be your best year to date!
Your Golden birthday is when you turn the age that is the same number as the day of your birthday. For me my golden birthday was age 24 and it was a good year.
For my friends who were a bit young to truly enjoy their golden birthday the year that it fell, I tell them that the double golden birthday means a double good year.
Welcome to Ms. Jen's mathematically based invented cultural celebrations!
My mom and I went for a walk at the Bolsa Chica wetlands today. Spring is definitely turning into summer as the sun was warm and the black-necked stilt babies are learning to forage for food in the shallows.
In this three set of photos, the adult stilts were keeping an eye on two chicks who were exploring the shoreline on both sides of the railroad tie.
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This was the second June in a row that my mom and I have seen black-necked stilts shepherding their tiny chicks around the shallows.
On our way back to the car, we spied the below two egrets (one Great Egret and one Snowy Egret) standing in wait in the upwelling created by the tide flowing out of the pipes between the two lagoons for the schools of silver fish fry that love to swim in the churning waters. Twenty feet down the levee, I spied this young shark swimming towards the south side of the fish school. On the right, this low lying colorful marsh plant was flowering.
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So, in my last entry I wrote that many online polls have overstated questions, except... my revised question was even more overblown.
Silly Ms. Jen. I should not blog when exceptionally tired late at night. Nor should I post comments to other folks' blogs when it is late, I am very tired, and I can't think straight. Vlargh.
Agh. All week I have composed long, lovely blog posts in my brain whilst working on client's websites or driving down the freeway or riding my bike in the morning, but by the time I get to the late evening when all my work is done, I am too tired to write. Now, I can't even remember one quarter of things that I wanted to tell you. Here is what I can remember:
1) Mr. Charles, thank you ever so much for all the wonderful music.
2) What was Ronald Reagan to you? To Virginia Postrel at Dynamist, he was a central figure to her political formation. To me, he was a compatriot of my grandpa's who as as full of hot air as my grandpa was during the 1980s. Yes, Virginia, I am one of those folk who voted "Yes. He was a vacuous ideologue and his death was not unexpected. Enough already." As with any poll, MediaBistro overstated the choices and if I had the ability to re-word the survey, I would have voted "Yes, the meida coverage has gone overboard. A president's death is big news, but he was 93 and the coverage should be less hagiographic. Um, Iran-Contra?"
While I am grateful for the end of the communist regimes, I can't be grateful for the budget deficit, Iran-Contra, and the swing of the Republican Party to the right of the right under Reagan's watch. After seeing a great deal of media coverage this last week on his life and political career, I earn for a bi-partisan (Kerry/McClain anyone?), moderate administration to replace Bush/Cheney in November.
3. Photos from the last two days:
 Scruffy after his vet visit on Tuesday. |
 Three beatles on the bouganvilla in the sideyard. |
 The Long Beach sea/land skyline from Belmont Shores pier last night at dusk. |
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Landscape in Southern California - Left to Right:
5/30/04 - A piping band at the Scottish Games at the OC Fairgrounds;
5/31/04 - A bluebird nesting box at the Orange County Anaheim Cemetery where my grandma Marlyce and great-grandma Evelyn are buried;
6/4/04 - Alex and Aaron walking west out of Walt's Wharf into the setting sun.
Love him or hate him or be appalled by him, but one can't ignore or control the laughter at the barbed and political humor of Aaron McGruder's Boondocks, esp. yesterday's strip.
A house finch family is nesting in the underside of the overhang of the stripmall that India Sweet and Spices is in. When I walked out of India Sweet and Spices, I looked up and I saw the father feeding the babies insects. By the time I got my camera out, he had moved outside the nest and was watching me.
A "Fun Internet Black Hole" is a website that you trip on by following a link to another, then another, and next thing you know... it is hours later. Here are a few that have SUCKED me in recently due to the large number of links or large amount of content that can't be ignored:
Megalithomania - Four Winds Tour of Ireland 2001 - 2004
BBC News: Scotland: "Your Pictures" Photo Gallery
The Online Medieval and Classical Library (via Making Light in a round about way)
The Day After Tomorrow - Be sure to play the animations of the ocean currents at the Woods Hole Site.
The Tate - Will someone(s) please sponsor a trip to London for me?
Last but not least, a four year time suck... Alaska Volcanos - make sure you visit the Atlas section and look at the lovely pictures of volcanos.
Good luck in finding your way out...