Yes, I am late to the party, but what the heck.
Hugh Hefner died at 91 years old on Wednesday. I am not sad about that, but I am sad for his 2 younger sons, Marston and Cooper. I wrote a post about them back in 2009, right here on this blog.
They both are right around my son's and his friends age and at that time, the things they were doing, matched those of the "sons" in my life.
If you want to check it out, you can see it HERE.
I got a kick out of revisiting it.
Yes, this could be a water post, but trust me, I have another one for another day.
This was the last photo I took of the Bay Bridge.
The sun was finally lighting up the clouds behind the bridge and yes, you could finally see some of the lights on the bridge itself.
I can't even begin to tell you how beautiful it is...well, minus the fact that it was getting a bit chilly, so we did not hang around to enjoy it even more.
There are hotels in the area and if you are into spending lots of money, it is probably well worth it.
We had to get onto our BART train back to Millbrae, so we did not tarry.
Thank you Bay Bridge for the beautiful light show.
Happy Birthday KCET!
53 years ago today, we went on the air.
I have gone into detail on the event, many times...especially during our 50th Anniversary celebration in 2014/2015.
We (the staff) say this quite often, who knew we would still be around 6 years after leaving PBS.
Well, we are and we are currently semi-stable, money wise.
Watch, layoffs will commence tomorrow, just because I said that. :-)
October we will launch 4 different series, so we are super busy creating content for air and web.
SoCal Connected begins on 10/10, Lost LA begins the same evening. Border Blasters is also there, that same night and Town Hall starts a week earlier on 10/4.
Always happy when we are in production.
Happy Birthday...and many more.
Photo is from our old lot. I miss it so much.
It has been a brutal time for The United States.
Not one, not two, but three Hurricanes have hit areas of our Country...and we still have some Hurricane season left to go.
The latest one, Maria, hit Puerto Rico and I feel very bad about that.
Mostly because I do not see help coming, as I did for Harvey in Houston or Irma in Florida. (Note that I did give via my Church, for those hurricanes.)
So yesterday I saw (again) that our 5 living Presidents had joined together and they added Hurricane Maria to their list of places to send donations. Since I could tell them where the money I wanted to donate could go, I was in.
If you are thinking of a good place to send money, why not to our 5 Presidents. Bipartisan, and administered by the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. By the way, 100% of the money sent, goes to the disaster relief.
I never liked The Red Cross, in that the money you send eventually goes to another disaster, not the current one. It is a way to work, but not one I prefer.
Here is the link to the 5 President's One Nation, One America Appeal.
The people in those disaster areas, thank you.
I talked about "The Tower", back in 2015. You can read that post, HERE.
The other day, we came through the pass and the sun was starting to set, so it threw some beautiful colors onto "The Tower".
I was all alone in the back seat and so I leaned over to the other side and got a decent photo of it.
It is so good, it almost looks like a painting.
I hope you enjoy.
My Water Post For Today.
The bird put up with us, so that I could get a photo of the water, bridge and her (or him).
What more can I ask?
We spent quite some time at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.
The first time just chilling and the second time, eating an ice cream cone.
The water, the boats, the people and yes, the birds, made it a serene time.
I hope you enjoy.
There is no water in this photo and you might ask, why is that?
Well, I came out onto the bridge and could not resist taking a few photos, water or no water.
It is just so stunning and it begs you to take its photo.
So I did.
We did eventually get more formal photos, but this one shows off all that is the Golden Gate Bridge, on a beautiful sunny day (usually a rarity on an afternoon in San Francisco).
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Well, first off, I am so glad I wrote my post before the long slide occurred. We are now (sigh) 98 and 56.
In spite of losing 20 games and just winning 7, we managed to clinch our division last night.
Thankfully Arizona was not playing great ball, or we could have lost that, too.
It was ugly. It felt like the Dodgers had Senioritis (you know, that thing that happens to Seniors who have been accepted to college and suddenly don't make any effort to pass classes anymore). They couldn't win if they tried and they couldn't win if they didn't try.
Sometimes hitting was nonexistent and other times pitching was.
Hopefully, we are done with this slump and we can get into a better mindset, since there is just over a week left of the regular season.
Yes, I am humble, but for 2 straight months before, it was magic.
Let's Go Dodgers!
We were walking along the waterfront, on Monday and off in the distance we could see a bow and arrow...a huge bow and arrow!
Both of us are like, what the heck is that and what does it mean.
Until I put the words Bow and Arrow into Google, I had no idea.
THIS is what I found out.
"Cupid's Span is an outdoor sculpture by married artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, installed along the Embarcadero in San Francisco, California, in the United States. The 60-foot (18 m) sculpture, commissioned by GAP founders Donald and Doris F. Fisher, depicts a partial bow and piece of an arrow.
Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's Cupid's Span, made of fiberglass and steel, was installed in the newly built Rincon Park along the Embarcadero in San Francisco in 2002. The piece resembles Cupid's bow and arrow, drawn, with the arrow and bow partially implanted in the ground; the artists stated that the piece was inspired by San Francisco's reputation as the home port of Eros, hence the stereotypical bow and arrow of Cupid. Leydier and Penwarden wrote, "Love's trade-mark weapon naturally evokes the city's permissive and romantic reputation, while formally its taut curve resonates wonderfully with the structure of the famous suspension bridge in the background.""
I didn't buy this card, but I seriously wanted to.
How many cards harken back to lyrics of songs and places and things?
I thought it was seriously creative and big enough to allow the sender to put their own thoughts onto the card.
In case you can't read it:
this city is so cooooool!
sittin' on the dock of the bay, thinkin' of you
wish you were here
peace and love
what's up?
thanks
other_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
You are never bored when you shop in San Francisco, that's for sure.
Both evenings, when we were in town, were spent at the Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco.
You saw the first nights photo. Pier 39 looking toward the Golden Gate Bridge.
Since it is the newest part of the bay area, we returned on Monday to get photos of the Bay Bridge.
It has some really wonderful light shows that go on all evening and we wanted a chance to take some photos of them.
We ended up taking BART to Embarcadero Station, the last stop before the Transbay Tunnel takes passengers over to Oakland.
We walked a half block and there we were. Right by the Ferry Building.
They have really outdone themselves inside, with a total rehab of the facility.
You can get Ferries to places like Sausalito, Tiburon, and Larkspur (which we did one time).
They have food booths, markets, ice cream, wine, cheese, restaurants, bakeries, etc. It was quite the thing.
Unfortunately for us, when we returned at sunset, almost all the places had boarded up for the evening.
Talk about a commuter only venue.
I liked how the sunset photo came out and if you look really close, you can find my Husband in the photo. I fell behind...
I have mentioned Coit Tower before...in THIS post.
Every Time I visit San Francisco, I am brought back to that visit back in 1974.
Who knew that one day, a short 5 years later, I would move to this far away state, that includes a town that is so wonderful and unique.
The hippy vibe is still around town (it is the 50th anniversary of the summer of love don't cha know) and back in '74, I felt it the most, right up there at Coit Tower.
No flowers in our hair, but a leather bracelet with flowers stamped and painted on it.
Always good memories.
My Water Post for today.
I took many photos from different areas of San Francisco. I will eventually show off some of them.
But for now, I give you my best sunset photo of the Golden Gate Bridge, from Pier 39.
You just can't go wrong, with that.
Enjoy.
The evening started out great, with us snagging a parking space on Grand Blvd, about 2 blocks from the venue. They had benches in front of the residence where we parked, so we sat down, watched the scene and ate our dinner. Total parking fee, about $1. Win!
We walked over to Staples and were in our seats before our opening act, Allen Stone, came on.
He was featured on an episode of Live from Daryl's House, but both my Husband and I were less then impressed with his performance. The fact that there was no audience to speak of, was part of it. Oh well, he was on about 20 or so minutes and then the reset happened.
It was about 7:15P, we had Tears for Fears, who opened with Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Absolutely kick butt way to start a concert.
We then went on to about 8 or so songs that we did not know, including a cover of someone we also did not know...though I heard Change in there somewhere and I actually KNEW that one. Otherwise, oh well. Wait, looking at the setlist, I see Sowing the seeds of love and I know that one, too. Woot, 2 songs in the middle that I knew.
The close and encore were both their other big hits, Head over Heels and Shout. A wonderful way to end the show.
Sorry that I didn't know more
Setlist
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
(with intro - Lorde version)
Secret World
(with snippet of Let 'Em In by Wings)
Sowing the Seeds of Love
Advice for the Young at Heart
The Working Hour
(First time since 2014)
Change
Mad World
Memories Fade
Creep
(Radiohead cover)
Pale Shelter
Break It Down Again
Head Over Heels / Broken
Encore
Shout
===========================
A large change of set occurred between the two supergroups and I bailed out and left my Husband to watch them take down 4 lighting towers.
Next up, Hall & Oates.
They definitely had an entirely different setlist, then when I saw them at the Hollywood Bowl, a few years ago. Daryl Hall was in excellent voice and totally dominated the concert (as is his way). John Oates also sounded great, for whatever Daryl gave him to do. Not enough, IMHO.
Here is the setlist.
Family Man
(Mike Oldfield cover)
Maneater
Out of Touch
Say It Isn't So
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (The Righteous Brothers cover) (John Oates takes the lead)
One on One
She's Gone
Sara Smile
Is It a Star (John Oates takes the lead)
I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)
Encore:
Rich Girl
Kiss on My List
Private Eyes
You Make My Dreams
They had a new guitarist working with them named, Shane Theriot, and he definitely channeled the late, great guitarist, T-Bone Wolk. I liked his work on the guitar solos and even to the cowboy hat he wore.
As is usual, I love all of the supporting band (drummer this evening was Brian Dunne). Charlie DeChant (as usual) killed, especially on his 10 minute solo on No Can Do. Eliot Lewis, Everett Bradley were there, though I was not sure who was in the bass position, might have been Klyde Jones.
Minus the nosebleed seats, it was a good, inexpensive, evening out and we enjoyed it.
Photos: Top is Tears for Fears and bottom is Daryl singing Sara Smile
One of the many pledge programs that I end up watching, over and over and over again...is The Piano Guys.
Again, I can't listen to the program, because I am in a cubicle at work and so I am just going by what the captions say.
The show always draws me in and I watch more than I want to (since I do want to get my work done).
Their story can be found HERE. Please check it out, it is pretty interesting.
I love the fact that they went to Red Rocks to perform. It is in Colorado and someday I would like to watch a concert there. That always adds to any concert, recorded for pledge (Joe Bonamassa, Jon Tesh, The Moody Blues all come to mind).
The bottom line is that there are videos out there, that you might want to check out. Or maybe the concert is out there, somewhere.
They are worth a few moments of your time.
There is a feeling of lightness in the angel house today.
My friend started her Camino walk almost exactly 1 year ago today.
I decided that I wanted to get my icon of St. James finished and on his way to her, by this week. Remember, that I started him while she was walking the Camino de Santiago. You can see her half way point and my progress, up to that point, HERE.
Up in my Facebook feed this week were her beginning memories, of leaving the U.S. to begin the journey. This made me realize it was time, so I worked on him at home on Wednesday evening and packed him up for his cross country journey.
I hope my friend enjoys him. He is what he is, but he has grown on me.
Bye James, safe journey to your new home.
Tonight's the night.
The rescheduled Hall & Oates and Tears for Fears concert is at Staples Center this evening.
It will be chock full of music.
Allen Stone, starts us off.
He was a guest on episode #51 of Live from Daryl's House, so we will see what he has to offer.
Next up is Tears for Fears and all I know about their setlist is that they begin with Everybody Wants To Rule The World. You can't beat that, in my humble opinion.
Then after a reset and break, we get Hall & Oates and their band.
I have seen them perform before and I fully intend to enjoy their music.
More on how it went, when I have time to write it up.
My station started airing movies on Friday nights, about a year or so ago.
We get them from a distributor called American Public Television (APT).
I guess the ratings were doing OK and so they came up with this other group of movies from a man named Charles Cohen.
So then we began to air two movies, back to back on Fridays.
A few months ago, they purchased a package of 10 movies directly from Sony Pictures.
One of those 10 films is a movie I was an extra in...Redbelt.
My programmer had to screen the movie for FCC objectionable language.
It turned out to be 5 pages worth of deletes that they had to do, on Tuesday. The movie is rated R, by the way.
My thought: Is there any movie left? :-)
So, if you are in the Los Angeles market, you can view it on Friday at 10PM.
My Husband and I watched a wonderful Documentary called The Trees, last week.
It was about the park that was created at the 9/11 Memorial.
Over 400 trees were planted at the site, over the course of a year or so.
They were chosen from areas like NY, NJ, PA, and Vermont. All boxed and cared for by an arborist.
Then there was one more tree, that was added into the memorial park...the only tree that survived the falling of the towers.
Another arborist took this tree to the Bronx and he nursed it back to health.
It spent 10 years with him and his team, not only getting healthy again (as best it could), but he would trim off little cuttings from it.
After years of trimming, he has well over 100 trees that all come from the genetic stock of this one tree that survived.
Over the years, these trees have been planted at places like other 9/11 Memorials around the Country, the Fort Hood shooting site, and the Boston Marathon Bombing, just to name a few.
My Husband and I plan to go visit the Memorial next month and it means so much more to us both, after seeing this program and learning the story of these trees...especially the survivor.
The second photo shows the arborist who brought the tree back to life. The first photo shows the tree during the one week a year that it blooms. By the way, it is a Callery Pear Tree.
My Water Post For Today.
We are going to take a trip to San Francisco, this week.
We hope to see Donald Fagen and the Nightflyers perform at the Masonic Theater.
In honor of that fact, I thought I would revisit that beautiful City by the bay.
A slightly different view, but always so perfect. (Click the photo to see it bigger)
Hopefully, the view from the top of our hotel on Nob Hill, will give us the reverse view (without fog).
Enjoy.
In the midst of everything bad going on...Harvey, Irma, Earthquakes in Mexico, Wildfires up north...I thought I would show off a piece of good, that happened last week.
This is on Thursday morning, when the Full Corn Moon was out.
Normally the moon in the month of September is the Harvest Moon, but because it turned up so early in the month, that designation goes to the moon at the top of October.
Thus, we get The Corn Moon, because the corn is harvested during this time.
Looking forward to that Harvest Moon next month. Always spectacular.
I guess they ask this question, because of the death of Walter Becker.
How many Steely Dan Concerts have you seen, over the years?
My answer is: 20 going on 21.
I managed to miss both the East Coast and West Coast concerts for the Two Against Nature tour.
I was on vacation in NYC, when the Jones Beach Concert was going on. I thought about it, but it was way too late, by then.
In Los Angeles, I thought about trying to get to Irvine Meadows, but decided not to, since I could not get in touch with the person I would have gone with. I found out later that my Steely Dan work friend would have come with me, had I bought the tickets that I saw at the last minute. Oh well, live and learn.
2003 -3 Concerts
My first year, I managed to get to the Fairgrounds at Paso Robles, The Roseland Ballroom (Friday Show only), and Universal Amphitheatre
2006 -3 Concerts
In 2006 we were treated to Donald Fagen going on a solo tour, at the Wiltern Theater, L.A. Then we saw Steely Dan at The Embarcadero Marina Park, in San Diego, for the final concert that they played 2 sets with an intermission in the middle. Then I flew to Michigan, for the SD/Michael McDonald show at DTE Energy Music Theatre.
2007 -1 Concert
Chumash! Santa Ynez
2008 -2 Concerts
We saw them at the Nokia L.A. (ask about the champagne and truffles sometime), then at the Pond in Anaheim
2009 -4 Concerts
Royal Scam, Aja, Gaucho, and Internet Request Night, at the Gibson Amphitheater
2011 -2 Concerts
Santa Barbara Bowl and The Beacon NYC (Rarities and Unreleased)
2013 -1 Concert
Boston, The Wang Theatre
2014 -1 Concert
The Forum, Los Angeles
2015 -1 Concert
Santa Barbara Bowl
2016 -1 Concert
Hollywood Bowl Opening Night
2017 -1 Concert(going on 2)
Santa Barbara Bowl (Hopefully Donald Fagen and the Nightflyers this month at the Masonic in San Francisco)
Which concert, out of all of them, was my favorite?
It is a tie between The Roseland Ballroom "Everything Must Go" Tour and the infamous Rarities and Unreleased at the Beacon.
May Donald continue in Steely Dan's name, for years to come.
A writer who I follow (his link is on the side of my blog, or you can click HERE).
His name is Earl Pomerantz and he brought up a subject that I actually believe is an important addition to the lives of those of us "Of A Certain Age".
In other words, a book about the different things that start to go wrong, and how important is it to your overall health.
Things like:
My knee hurts!
My hips hurt.
I get winded walking up an incline.
Why can't I hear anymore.
Well, you get the idea.
I hope that he decides that (since he is a writer) maybe he should be the one to write a book.
I would be on that line, in a heartbeat...or not.
Melody visited us at KCET, 4 years ago.
My Son, who was Project Manager of the brand new EcoCar3 team, wanted me to show her communications at our station.
I gave them a tour and they talked to 2 people in our Communications Department, on how to manage campaigns and who to contact, with information.
As is usual, it is who you know in this business and we tried to point that out to her.
She graduated from CSULA and got accepted at UCLA for her Masters Degree, so minus Facebook, I don't see her in person anymore. A real shame, because I came to like her and miss talking to her.
She graduated from UCLA and is now a productive member of our society...and a Dreamer.
Here, in her words, is her story.
“I came to the United States from Guatemala when I was 9 years old, but I didn’t find out I was undocumented until I was 17 and ready to go to college. With a 4.0 in hand, I was preparing to apply to California’s top schools but as I was going through the process, I found out that I didn’t have a social security number. It hit me like a bat to realize that even if I graduated from college, I couldn’t work as a professional.
“I took a leap of faith and went to college anyway. Often I would wonder if going to college was the right decision but I knew that I loved learning and I loved going to school. When I found out about DACA, I was so happy to be able to do the little things, like check out books from the local library with my new ID. Knowing that the administration somehow understood my situation even though they didn’t know me personally was an incredible feeling. Today, I have a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from the University of Southern California.
“I’m very proud of the work that I do as the Statewide Youth Organizer for CHIRLA’s California Dream Network. I get to train other young people to rise up as organizers and to be a voice for immigrants and young people who are undocumented. I want undocumented young immigrants everywhere to know that I am here for them and that they are not alone. We’ve come so far and this is not the time to go back into the shadows.” – Melody
Thanks to U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, for profiling her on her Facebook page.
I waited for the Labor Day Weekend to get a box of produce and I am glad I did.
I was hoping to get figs from them, but decided that I would buy them myself.
3 pint containers for $11. What the heck.
As you can see in the second photo, those figs are now fig jam. That is a quart container, by the way.
I did not want to wait any great length of time, because figs go bad, pretty quickly.
Without any further ado, here is what came in the box.
1 bunch of Kale
1 bunch of red and green lettuce
1 bunch of Thyme
4 tomatoes
1 pint of Cherry Tomatoes
1 bag of Wax Beans
4 Peppers (a variety of colors)
a large bag of Autumn Royal Grapes
2 Vegetable Pot Pies
3 pints of Figs
1 head of Garlic
1 Onion
I thought it looked kind of sparse, but now that I wrote them all down, it is plenty, even without my Figs and Pot Pies.
The Pot Pies were buy 1 get one free, so I decided to try them.
We ate the beans with dinner the other day and I will cook some more, later on in the week.
Zucchini will probably be next up, to be eaten.
I hope to cook the peppers, too.
My only problem was the fact that it was super HOT this weekend, so we only cooked what had to be done.
See you next time.
It has been a very hard 2 days.
The death of Walter Becker has brought out so many posts and so many memories.
Up onto my Facebook feed, Twitter feed and Blog feed, among other places.
I am overwhelmed by it all.
This photo I found, right at the end of day 2, and it said it all for me.
The Pretzel Logic cover, that I have mentioned before.
Godspeed to you, Walter. You will absolutely be missed.
A tribute by his daughter, Sayan Becker (the one mentioned in Book of Liars, with the line "And there's a Hello Kitty for his pride and joy"), can be found HERE.
My Water Post For Today.
Sean P. Mills did not tell us where he took this photo, but I love it.
A fisherman, some waves and a sunset.
What more can you ask for.
I hope you enjoy.
Has died.
Paging Audrey, from Circus Money.
Kind of how I feel today.
=======
Photo:
This was at the back door of the Roseland Ballroom, 2003. As close as I ever got to Walter.
Kevin Torres, who works for KDVR Denver, went to Burning Man this year. He happened to show the link to the live feed for the Burning Man and so I spent last evening watching the show.
There is no way (at my age) that I would go to Black Rock City, but it was cool to actually watch him burn.
Kevin told that you could remember a loved one (via a note) and it gets burned with the Man.
He and his team built an art structure, to assemble out on the Playa.
I don't know if that gets burned, or if they take it out with them.
Kevin had to leave a few days early, to work. So he stopped documenting the experience.
Thus, I do not know the fate of what they built.
But the Burning Man burned and all was well out on the Playa.
Pretty cool, all in all.
Happy Labor Day weekend. The last hurrah of summer...
I got out of work at 2PM, just after a fire started in La Tuna Canyon.
Our van rushed out of the Burbank area, to beat the traffic mess that we knew would follow.
The one thing that happens with a fire, is that the sunset suddenly becomes more dramatic.
This was one of them.
It "almost" makes up for the fire itself.
Enjoy.
While I was at the Iconography Workshop, there were several icon books in our lunchroom.
One of them was a compilation of Saints and one of those Saints was St. Catherine of Alexandria. Click the link to learn a bit about her.
The only thing I know of St. Catherine, is that she was supposedly tortured on a wheel.
You hear about that object, in a Moody Blues song called Eternity Road.
The book (written by Sister Wendy) mentions that similar to St. Christopher and St. Barbara, St. Catherine my not have really existed.
I was heartbroken to hear that and hope that this is untrue.
She seems like a pretty wonderful person and I am honored to carry her name.
