Leap Day Once Again

Happy Leap Day Everyone! We will see this day again in 4 years. Want to know why we do this, click here.

This is the second time my blog has acknowledged this day. I thought that I would reprise my post from back 4 years ago, just doing a bit of updating to acknowledge the fact that it has now been 12 years since Steely Dan released Two Against Nature.

For those who missed it the first time...blog rewind. :-)

Each Leap Day brings the real birthday of Steely Dan's first album after the 70's, Two Against Nature. In real years, the album reaches it's 12th birthday, but since it was released on February 29th, I like to think that it's only three. :-)

Steely Dan broke up in the early 80's and didn't put out another album as that group, until almost 20 years later. In honor of the fact that they had reformed, they did a Sony taping, known as the Plush Video. I have a friend at work, who mentioned that he was waiting for that album and show to come out and that is when Steely Dan entered my radar again. I had owned several albums, back in the 70's, Katy Lied, Royal Scam, Aja and I had a cassette of the soundtrack to FM. I loved their music, but due to them basically disappearing for many of those years, getting married, raising my son, etc, I had totally lost touch with them. That all ended, when the album and show came out. I started looking for websites about them and found a whole community over on Under The Banyan Trees. I lurked on that board and watched as everyone went to concert dates, met up, got Steely Dan Tee shirts, etc. I finally posted in February of 2001, almost a year after the album came out and I have made lasting friends, from that one comment from a work friend.
What do I think of Two Against Nature, 12 years later. I still love it and I still totally think it deserved the 4 Grammy Awards it got in 2001, beating Eminem, for album of the Year.

===================
Photo:
Me, wearing my Steely
Dan 2VN Subway Tee Shirt.

A good friend, upon
hearing that it was my
favorite shirt and I was
sorry I did not see them
in 2000 to get a chance to
buy one, sent me her shirt.
I wear it with pride and
would like to publicly
thank her for her amazing gift.

3 Hours Apart

These two photos were taken on Saturday morning.

What a difference 3 hours makes.

The first photo was taken when I went out to get the newspapers at 7:15AM.

I had no idea we were going to get any fog and so it was a total surprise to me.

This second photo was taken after we returned from our gym class. As I drove home, I was shocked at how clear the mountains were, off in the distance. It turned out to be a beautiful day.

By the way, I don't believe I introduced you to our new stop sign. The City found a little money in its budget and decided to make our corner a 4 way stop, with very prominent crosswalks.

We in the angel family, heartily agree with this decision.

Hoover Dam: Downstream

My Water Post For Today.

My workplace is moving the week of the NAB, so even though we seriously thought of going to Vegas this April, we really can't. It is just too unpredictable a time in my company's life. This will be the second year in a row that I miss out and I don't believe I am saying this...but I am missing it, just a little. :-)

So I decided to go back to the last time I saw Vegas, with my Marine son's girlfriend (now wife). We brought her to Hoover Dam and I got some different shots of the area. This one is straight down from the top of the dam.

I truly love the colors of the rock sides and the blue color of the water. I truly don't think there is anywhere else that looks quite like this. Enjoy the Colorado River, winding its way down to the border of California and Arizona and ultimately, Mexico's Sea of Cortez.

Mr. Rogers And Me

We had a show feed in recently that sounded interesting. It is a show called Mr. Rogers and Me. As a employee of a PBS station, I had the extreme honor of meeting "The Man" once and so this immediately interested me enough to get a screener of the show.

The person who made the documentary works for MTV and thus, a totally different generation from Fred Rogers...and yet, his doc is made slow, thoughtful and wonderful. Nothing like what you would expect from MTV types. I was so impressed. He traveled around the Country interviewing different people who Fred had a major impact on.

No matter what your feelings are on the man, I think you will be touched by the program and I highly recommend it. Check your local PBS Station, they may be airing the show soon.

You may be wondering what the photo is. As both he and I found out, Mr. Rogers spent many summers in Nantucket and the Church he worshiped at, St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Nantucket, honored his memory with a plaque. If you look close, he is depicted as a Saint. Watching over the membership who not only knew him, but the ones who come after him. I like to think that Fred would have appreciated the gesture.

Gentle, Kind, True.

What a lovely thing to do.

Riding The Metro Orange Line

The other day I was running late getting down to North Hollywood and so to give my husband a few extra minutes to get to his brother's home, I got out of the car at the Laurel Canyon and Chandler stop on the Metro Orange Line. It ended up being the last stop before North Hollywood Station, but it gave me the chance to try the bus out.

First off, I had to buy a ticket, because that seemed to be the way they did business. When the bus arrived, I ended up just stuffing myself into it and thus, didn't even see if it had a fare box. Good thing I had that ticket. :-)

I got the definite impression that there is some fare evasion, even though as we got off, there was a Sheriff standing there and he could have easily made us show our ticket. I also wasn't sure if my TAP Card would work and since I did not get to the front of the bus, I may never know. That had been my original plan, TAP at the bus and then TAP at the subway. Oh well, a paper pass is what worked in this case.

Being I was standing, I was glad the trip was just a few blocks. Not the most comfortable way to go, but it got me there. In it's favor, they run about every 5 or so minutes and they are extending the line a few more miles out toward the west end of the Valley. It is definitely better then taking a local and it seems to be heavily used. A good thing.

Master Control Circa 1970 - 1984

We are furiously packing and taking things home, getting ready for the big move. Something that turned up was this photo of Master Control. The original one at our Sunset Blvd. Location. When I came to KCET, this was what the room looked like. I remember sitting in chairs about where the camera took this photo, talking to the engineer in charge of Master Control. It was always a fun time, watching them set up the 3/4 cassettes for the breaks and rolling carts and reel to reel audio tape. Running records on a turntable. It's a miracle we got on the air at all. ;-)

In the mid 80's they cut my Videotape library in half and moved Master Control over to there, where it lived until we went digital in 1999. Our new one, being built in Burbank, will be either our 5th or 6th Master Control. I believe we had a location before the infamous 1313 Vine Street (where so many Hollywood Television Theaters were shot) so I would think we had a Master Control over there, too. I will be attending a funeral of an Engineer from those early days, so if I see some old timers, I will ask them about the before Vine Street time.

UPDATE: The man that put us on the air so many years ago, Engineer Roy, states that our first Master Control was at 1313 Vine Street. Thus, this Master Control will be our 5th one.
If there was another place for the infant KCET, it was probably just office space somewhere.

When I look at this, it reminds me of how much technology has changed in the 32 years I have worked at the station.
All I can say is WOW.

More Construction Slated For Children's Hospital

I have noticed on my walk past the Children's Hospital complex, that there have been markings on the pavement recently. Markings like what I am seeing, usually mean construction is on its way.

So the other day, I asked the guard at the door to the employee entrance. He said they were going to build a pedestrian overpass between some of the buildings. I was glad to hear it, because they seriously need it. Then last week, I saw a surveyor (seen in the photo), doing his thing and I decided it was time to check this out. I found an article explaining it all, HERE.

10 million dollars donated by 2 women, will build this bridge. I seriously was so impressed!

Go ladies! You both truly ROCK!

Makenna In The Covers

I don't know if it is a result of her being sick a week or so ago, but suddenly Makenna began burrowing under the covers. My Husband was shocked when he walked into the bedroom and saw a lump under the covers. Our cat Jessica used to do this all the time, but Makenna has never done this. I heard about it, but it wasn't til I walked in on her last Saturday, when I saw it for myself. Well, a little bit of burrowing. She made a nest, actually, but still...

Not exactly happy that Mom interrupted her sleep, as you can see. :-)

I've Looked At Clouds From Both Sides Now

Sunset on a rainy day in Santa Clarita, just over a week ago. The Trader Joe's parking lot, if you need to know. ;-)

I mentioned in another post, that I had been following these clouds for about 15 minutes, first coming out of the Newhall Pass and then later, when I got out of my car to go shopping, the rain arrived. This photo was taken just before it started to rain. I was so impressed with how dramatic they looked, that I took my crappy cell phone camera and shot straight up.

It came out magnificent!

I've Looked at Clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds...at all.

Rocks In The Water: On San Diego Bay

My Water Post For Today.

I haven't been by the water for a bit, especially San Diego, so I decided to cheer myself up, with a photo from there. This is San Diego Bay, at Ports of Call.

It is a calm area and so you don't get much in the way of wave action, but the rocks and water always make my day.

I love the blue/green of the water itself and the seafoam around the rocks. Some algae too, if I am not mistaken.

I hope you enjoy.

One Reason Why LA Is So Cool

I am going to start this post by stating that I love architecture!

If my 2 hour trip out to Fallingwater last year didn't prove this, I don't know what else to say to convince you.

A friend of mine, Kevin, came out to LA late last year. In the course of his visit, he took the time to tour this home. That is when I found out that this lovely house sits up on the hill high above the Sunset Strip, right by the DGA Theater I go to. If you look close, you can see Sunset Blvd is on the lower right side of the photo.

The last time I was in the area, I tried to check out the houses on the hill.
What I found is that you really can't see it up there and gee, what a shame, because it is gorgeous and I would love to see it!

Is something nagging you? Does that first photo looks a bit familiar?
Maybe this photo will give you the answer.

This second photo was taken in 1960 by Julius Shulman. In my humble opinion, this is one of the most iconic photos of 20th Century Los Angeles.

It showcases not only the house, which is stunning, but it captures the look of women who lived during that time. The end of the 50's and the beginning of the 60's. The dresses, the hair the style!

Oh and the view.

I LOVE LA!

Come See Cal

Come see Cal, Come see Cal!

This was what we would chant, when engineer Cal Slater was either Technical Director or Engineer in Charge on a crew.

I can still hear those words, taken from the Cal Worthington commercials of the 70's and 80's. He was the man in charge, so many times and a good friend through the 80's and 90's. He retired many years ago and we got the word last week that he had passed on. Today, we will attend a memorial service for a man who was so much a part of KCET's early history, working on Hollywood Television Theater, Visions, Cosmos, The Merry Widow, and even Penn and Teller Go Public. Of course countless Pledge Drives and News shows throughout the years.

As much as he worked many productions, his biggest claim to fame was the fact that George Lucas needed to destroy Alderaan in the original Star Wars. He came to our lot and shot Cal moving the Grass Valley Switcher fader bar back and forth. That small shot that you can see HERE ended up being in the movie and it also became part of the KCET lore. We all knew whose hand that was and as the decades passed and tech types would notice that it was a Grass Valley Switcher, I could proudly say that I knew the man who destroyed Alderaan. :-)

Godspeed to you Cal. You will be missed.

An Almost Rainy Day In Santa Clarita

We had almost rain on both Monday and Wednesday of this week. Just a small amount both times, but in the case of Monday, I was driving home just as the sun was setting. I slowly drove down from the Newhall Pass into Santa Clarita and saw all these clouds hovering above the land. It was pretty spectacular and (of course) I grabbed my cell phone to take the photo. Bad angel...

I love how it literally has a bottom to the clouds and I wondered if I would eventually drive into some rain. That did happen about 15 minutes after I took this photo. Of course while I was at the market, so I had to walk in the rain. I actually enjoyed it, especially since we have had so little this winter. I know we on the West Coast are not the only ones missing our winter this year.

The Pointe: A Powerline Runs By It

I highlighted this stream in a water post a few weeks ago.

This first photo shows the stream coming from my new building.

I am not sure how it travels...maybe under the land just off to the side of the building.

It could also run under the street, but who knows.

I just find it interesting and wanted to document the exit of the water.

After I took this photo, I turned around and shot toward the south, rather then the north. I wanted the view as the water traveled to the LA River.

What I ended up with is a photo looking toward the bridge that I eventually went up onto, in order to take the photo of the river that ended up being in my water post. In case you care, there are actually 2 bridges in Johnny Carson Park. This is the first one.

As you can see in both shots, there are power lines all over this park!

The photo that was the water post, managed to keep the power lines totally out of the photo. Hey, I am THAT good. :-)

Forgot what it looked like? Check it out HERE.

Makenna Gave Us A Scary Week

Last week I posted about how everyone is now so tied up in Makenna and how even my Husband, old grumpy, has given his heart and love to her.

One should never tempt fate...

Not 2 days later, Makenna was off her food. Like in seriously off her food.

We started watching her and then, as it went into day two, we started getting worried. So worried, that we were passing looks at each other. Those sort of "Oh No, not another cat" looks. I thought back to the post I had just written and was even more heartsick. I was even ready to take her over to the vet, if she didn't start showing signs of improvement.

Day 3, she threw up (a fur ball, I think). Suddenly, she was all better. Trying to eat us out of house and home, once again.

Thank GOD!

Valentine's Day 2012

Happy Valentine's Day.

Since my Husband proposed to me, 32 years ago today, I guess I should acknowledge the holiday.

I read something that struck my fancy and probably speaks for this holiday the best.

Half price chocolate on the day after the holiday! WOOT!

We have no V Day plans that I am aware of, but I would like to thank my guy for figuring out we might make a good couple and for getting up the courage to propose to me.

I still truly appreciate the extra effort you went through, to make me yours. I proudly wear your name and your ring.

To all a good day, and try not to over indulge on chocolate. :-)

Heinz Field

My Water Post For Today.

A friend of mine posted a link on Facebook, to a house built on the south side of Pittsburgh. Seeing the photos of one of the rivers, reminded me of my time there last year.

It made me nostalgic, so I went back and found this photo of Heinz Field, the home of the Steelers. Over to the far left, is their Science Center. This photo is taken right at the point where the 3 rivers meet.

Being the rivers of Pittsburgh are not a rushing bunch, you don't get much in the way of white water, but they beautifully frame almost everything in this city.

I hope you enjoy.

How Will I Know

Everyone has a memory.

For me, the name Whitney Houston will always bring this video to my mind.

If you were in on the first generation of MTV, this one, along with such icon videos as Billy Jean, made the channel.

On the day after her unexpected death at 48, try to check out the video, How Will I Know. Please note that I was having trouble loading it, last night.

This was Whitney at her young best. A great shame.

PS: As an artist, the colors in the video, totally rocked my world. It was magnificent.

Orange Cashew Ice Cream With Caramel

Sorry for the delay on this post.
The ice cream wasn't done in time and I had visitors on my computer last night, so I couldn't even vamp one. Thus, you had to wait until after gym class. :-)

If you remember correctly, we gave our son an ice cream ball for Christmas. It only makes a small amount...which we found out later, was an issue, but we thought it was cute. He brought a group of guys over to help and off they went, cutting orange rind and cashews, heating the milk and half and half, I taught them how to separate eggs, etc. After napping for a bit, I woke up at about midnight last night, I was all set for some ice cream...but I heard the bad news that it was still chilling in the freezer. I missed the throw the ball thing, so maybe they didn't shake up the ice cream enough?

I went to bed at that point and figured I would check it out this morning.

The Verdict: Good, but I think I would grate the orange peel, rather then cut it.
The caramel was just outstanding! They are getting quite good at that.

What next? :-)

Photo 2 is my son with his laptop open to the recipe, doing the cooking. Now if I can just get him to clean up. lol

The Pantages Theatre

My husband and his post a few weeks ago, discussed the Pantages Theatre itself, but I just showed you the outside of the theatre, on my posts. I thought since I have a few photos, I would show off the inside....but first off, the outside under the overhang.

We waited for the doors to open here. As you can see, old style ceiling above us and shots of the performance, on the wall. I still had problems with those show photos, since I had NO IDEA about the play itself.
Interesting anyway.

This is just outside the overhang, on the street.

Stephen Schwartz, who wrote Wicked, got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in April of 2008.

I was totally unaware of the fact that it is right out front of the Pantages!

Perfect placement.

I heartily approve.

When you get into those first doors, this is the area you are in. There are doorways to the lower level and two staircases up to the balcony area, which is where I am, when I took this photo. The landing in the middle. Look straight across the photo and you see the other stair, with people climbing up. On the left are the doors to the street and on the right (behind the kiosks selling tee shirts and stuff, are the doors to the performance area. I love the look of the place, but as is the way with all these wonderful spaces, we were not able to take photos from our seats! A real shame, the place is gorgeous!

I hope this gives you the feeling you would get, if you visited to the Pantages. I happened to find Defying Gravity performed for The Tony Awards. If interested, check it out HERE.

The Pointe: A View Of NBC

A few weeks ago, I took many photos around our soon to be new workplace at The Pointe. I figure I will show a few of them off, in the next few weeks. This first one is the view off to the West of our building. It is the side entrance to the NBC Lot and the soundstage on the left side is where The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is shot now days. In case anyone cares, this is not the stage that he used to be taped in. This is the one he has used since 2010, when he returned to the Tonight Show.

As I have mentioned before, I believe we will have privileges at the NBC Commissary, when we do relocate in 2 months. Yes, I am really looking forward to that, though I am not a big commissary person.
I usually bring my lunch to work, but I think I will make an exception to check this infamous place out. Oh Yeah!

The Grapevine

When we have reason to drive up into the San Joaquin Valley of California, we take a journey through a mountainous area called The Grapevine. What you are looking at in this photo, is the start of the southern ascent through the Tejon Pass.

It begins at the area called The Grapevine and rapidly ascends almost 3 thousand feet in about 10 miles or so. You hit a plateau toward the top of the pass, at a place called Lebec. Off to the right you pass Frazier Mountain area, which is the closest place we in Santa Clarita, can access snow in the winter. I used to bring my son there quite often, to sled as a child. A quick lift after that exit and you reach the crest of the pass at 4144 feet. You then begin a gradual descent to the Santa Clarita area, passing Gorman (a rest stop), Quail Lake, Pyramid Lake and eventually Castaic Lake at the north end of Santa Clarita, the City where I live.

As you can see in the photo, it is a beautiful pass, with the mountains surrounding the area looking almost like God painted them onto a canvas. Especially around Gorman, it has this look and part of that is due to the fact that you are passing right through the San Andreas Fault Zone and I guess the action of the 2 plates, makes it look so lovely. Something good coming from something bad. Quail Lake, though man made, sits right on the fault zone, as it bends away from Interstate 5, going toward the east and eventually, Palmdale.

The Pass is so hard to get up, that in bad weather, you will hear that I-5 is closed at The Grapevine. That is so that people don't cause major accidents through this very dangerous area. They either get an escort from the CHP, or they travel all the way to Palmdale and take another route to the Southern California area.

I hope you enjoyed a little road trip.

The Man Who Hated A Cat

I was downloading photos from our cell phones and camera the other day and look what I found on my Hubby's cell phone. :-)

The man who hated me and my son for bringing a cat back into our lives, has 5 photos he took of Makenna in the rocking chair in our living room. Surprise, surprise!

He never ceases to amaze me, with the way that he eventually comes to truly love the cats in our lives.

The old softie...

The Land Of Oz From The Air

First off, yay, New York Giants! Superbowl Champs! :-)

=====================

My Water Post For Today.

We travel way Upstate New York for another look at my college campus, this time from the airspace over Lake Ontario.

As I have mentioned before, I went to school on the shores of Lake Ontario. I always knew how wonderful the lake looked from the buildings on campus, but I never knew how wonderful the campus looks from the lake.

In the winter time, the area in the bottom part of the photo, where the shoreline curves are where most of the dorms of New Campus are. Some of the highest winds coming off the lake, would pummel the poor students trudging off to class in the morning. Thankfully, this photo is taken in the summer, when the trees are green and the land, just spectacular. The water, so very turquoise and beautiful.

I hope you like it.

The Poinsettia In My Life

My poinsettia is doing quite well, now days. Living the life of Riley in my bay window. The poor thing was not doing well at work and when my work friend was going on vacation, she willed it to me. It did a bit better in my care, but when the first 4 day weekend came, I brought my car and drove the plant home with me. The cat immediately checked it out on the coffee table that I initially put it on. So I had to move it to the credenza that holds our TV. Well, it didn't look any happier in that location, so I finally got the great idea to make room for it in the bay window in the kitchen. It is now into February and it has lost maybe a 6 or so leaves in 2 months. Before, it was losing leaves constantly, several a day.
I guess work is not healthy for plants or other living things... ;-)

I don't know how long it will eventually last, but at least I made it happier.

Musso And Franks

Last Saturday evening my Husband and I decided to make an evening of it, when we went to see Wicked. We chose a really old style Hollywood restaurant...Musso and Frank, on Hollywood Blvd. It is not far from Hollywood Highland area, just a block or so walk and since we took the subway, we did it. In our case, we were following Cat Woman which was interesting in itself, since every few seconds she would go "meow". She "thankfully" was not the Cat Woman who has been all over the news these past few days. ;-)

We were not positive we were going, so I did not make reservations. This meant that we ended up at the counter by the grill. Not a problem, actually. We enjoyed watching the chef cooking the grilled meats, as you can see in this photo.

I ended up getting their Original Fettucini Alfredo. Here's what their menu says about the dish.

"Silent film stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were frequent guests at Musso’s. While on their honeymoon in Rome, they dined at Alfredo’s restaurant and after tasting the Fettucine Alfredo, they begged Alfredo for the recipe. He declined them. The next night the newlyweds again dined at Alfredo’s and presented a golden fork and spoon to Alfredo. This time they got the recipe and brought it back to Hollywood. They asked Musso’s chef, Jean Rue, to make the dish. He often prepared it specially for the famous couple, but the dish was never added to the menu. We now proudly serve the ORIGINAL Fettucine Alfredo as prepared for Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford."

I enjoyed it, but definitely wish I could have taken half of it home with me. But that was impossible, so I ended up eating it. Hubby got the Country Fried Steak with mashed potatoes and enjoyed it, too. Portions were large, so we did not get desert.

I would like to go back again sometime and maybe do the table thing. :-)

The Art Of Henry Cram

I have had many people cross my path at work and I connect usually on Television levels. Not surprising, since I work at a TV Station. Recently, I became friends with a person in our New Media area. He edits segments for our website and while I was telling him how much I liked one of his segments, he mentioned he went to art school. Fast forward to our Holiday Boutique and I see him at one of the tables with lots of little figures of animals. I was enchanted with the personality of all of them, but especially of this sheep. So enchanted, that I bought it! Knowing that I really won't have much room at the new place and that I am in the process of taking stuff home. Well, too bad. He is coming along with me to the new place.

I got him signed by the artist and when I brought him back to the office, several people went and commissioned custom work from him. The best confirmation of talent that I know. :-)

If you are interested, you can check out some of his work HERE.

Hicksville Comets

Happy Groundhog Day!!

I belong to a Facebook page for my old High School. Not like I have a big interest in it, but a friend does and his interest, got me to join it. For the most part it is just people looking for long lost classmates, or photos of long gone buildings...but this one brought back many memories. This was the Football decal, from back in the day. Six very Un "Politically Correct" hicks spell out the name of our team, The Comets.

I decided to check in to see what the Comets logo looked like in the 21st Century. Surprise, surprise, not a hick to be found. Meteors seem to be much more he man... :-)
Click the link HERE and check it out.

Ah the memories...

A Package From Belgium

Methinks someone smells something... ;-)

I received a package from across the big pond. My friend, Gina sent it to me.

She had threatened to send cat nip along, but at the last minute, pulled it out and just send candy, chocolate, tea, perfume and stickers of some of her interests...some of which intersect with mine.

Unfortunately for me, the chocolate melted. My son threatened to eat it anyway, but so far he hasn't.
Some of her stickers now live on our desk in the Den.
Scooby Medina, in particular.
How can you turn down a rescue for dogs. :-)

Thank you so much, my friend, so sharing your Euro slice of life with me. When I thought back I realized that this month, we have been friends for 11 years. That's a long time for an Internet friendship.