broadcasting from the san gabriel valley

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Somewhere when the Joshuas turn into Cholla.....






Last week, I decided to take a detour through the Joshua Tree National Forest en route to Arizona. While I had visited the park round this time last year, I hadn't yet driven the park in its entirety. Map in hand, I paid the 15 dollar entry fee and head off specifically to look for the Cholla Garden. Interesting fact about the park is that there is a point where two deserts, the Mojave and Colorado, meet. Prior to the Promissory point of the park, the Joshua Trees begin to appear less often and a Cholla cactus will rear it's head instead. The Cholla Cactus, for those unfamiliar, are a beast of a plant which has several nicknames including Teddy Bear Cholla (soft they are not) and Jumping Cholla (which they seem to do if you walk too closely). Pieces of the plant fall off easily and if you walk too close and bump into one, beware. The needles of the plant seem to barb into your skin making them extremely painful and difficult to pull out. My one experience at 16 and being left with a welt of a battle wound taught me to walk as far as possible from these suckers.

Despite the deserved stigma attached, I still wanted to see a field full of Cholla as I had read about when looking closely at the park. About 20 minutes after the desert switch-a-roo, I saw a gleaming crop of Cholla.....as well as a warning sign!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

A Blast from 6 or 7 Years Past.....


As blogged about earlier this month, I picked up a copy of John Water's book, Role Models. It is just as entertaining and wonderful as I had anticipated. Reading the book thus far made me think back to the last time I read a Waters related book. That book was called Filthy and was more of a biography written by Robrt L. Pela. Around the time the book came out, Waters did a lecture as well as a meet and greet in the Phoenix metro area. While the exact locale of the meet and greet I can't remember, I have a fond memory of Waters introducing me to "Giggles" the Easter Bunny who hopped into out picture.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Adventures with the Seagull

I had mentioned earlier in the week that I pulled the ol' Seagull off of the shelf. Traditionally, I am a Porta user, but I found a sweet deal on the Fuji pack and had to go for it.


As I am without a handheld light meter, I followed the Sunny 16 rule for this roll. While some of the shots came out a tad under-exposed, some, like Baby Bear's porridge, were just right.




I still have an undeveloped roll to explore soon from the newly formed 'Adventures in Hiking and Eating Club'. Over the weekend, we took a trek up to Eaton Canyon to visit the waterfall. En route, it was suggested that we do this sort of a thing in group form more often. Then the idea of a post-hike food outing be added as well. I am not one to turn down a food outing! Anyway, I am really excited to check out the images from the trip.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Because...

Every video I have seen by Ok Go has put a smile to my face. Not only is this one cute, it is also in my neighborhood:

Here is the link to the video on YouTube for those who are reading this through the Facebook feed. Enjoy!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

I've Got That Artsy Feeling......


Now that I have a bit of time off before I hop back into the workforce, the desire to get back into all things artsy is high. Today was spent pulling the old Seagull off the shelf and shooting some medium format. While I don't think I shot anything too tremendous, it was nice to get back into the swing of things. In related news, specifically 35mm news, I found a pretty neat little wide angle lens on ebay today...new in box. Perfect for my Canon. I guess the digital revolution coupled with the shitty economy has produced some pretty sweet deals on film camera accessories. Lucky for me, the lens will be shipped out tomorrow morning. I am excited to play around with it and will post some images as soon as they are developed.

Don't Bother Me...I'm tired

Frito is a tired dog. I'd wager to say that he sleeps a good 20 hours a day. Don't get me wrong....he likes to play and scavenger around for scraps and he LOVES a good walk to the park, but well, when he is not involved in any one of those activities he retreats to a world of cozy pillows or a nice doorway and dozes off.



Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Dogs in Costumes

Dogs in costumes are a guaranteed way to make me smile. I am particularly fond the simple, yet effective lion costume. I am thinking of creating something similar for Frito, only more along the lines of a small forest creature. Perhaps a big, bushy squirrel tail. I will keep you posted.




Sunday, June 6, 2010

R. Kelly does it again.....



Oh man. While I was hoping to see the third installment of Trapped in the Closet, instead, I saw a link to the above posted video. For those of you who are reading this via facebook, check out the video here. For some reason, the blog feed, when linked into the facebook news feed will not show videos. You have to be reading the blog on this site in order to have the videos embedded. Long story, but a couple of you have asked!


Anyway, back to more important matters. Matters involving R. Kelly. This video is genius. Probably cost a whopping 25 bucks, but priceless in the laugh department. And to pose a question to the general public...any news as to if/when the third Trapped installment will be coming out? It sparked a conversation today between me and Nathaniel regarding who has the 'package'. I think all of them are carriers, but he thinks it will be isolated to one or two offenders.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Summer Read



While scouting on NPR today, I read that John Waters has just published a memoir called, "Role Models." The book, as the title implies, is Water's tell-all about those who have inspired him in some way over the years. In a snippet posted on the site, readers learn that Johnny Mathis is just one of the individuals whom Water's discusses in the text. Despite being unemployed and poor, I am going to Amazon immediately to place an order.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Afternoon at the Old Zoo


After reading about the abandoned zoo yesterday, I just had to set out to find the location. I was following some directions that had you take a 2 mile hike prior to arriving at the spot. However, I came to realize that once you park at the merry-go-round at Griffith Park, you can head a bit north to get to the quick path that will take you to the zoo. While a 2 mile hike was fine for today, it is by no means necessary to get to the old cages. Here are a few shots from my digital camera that I snapped. The house-type building, while amazing, was full of the buzzing of hundreds of bees, so if you decide to venture in, be alert!