Santa Barbara Bells

They are beautiful and I have had a set for decades.

But as with all things, they eventually wore out and I got rid of them.

My sister sent me a set a couple of years ago and even they eventually died. So when we made our trip to Santa Barbara, I had to have their bells.

This set is modest and thankfully comes with a modest price, but you can get bells for upwards of $100. Those bells sound like a Church Organ. Mine, have just a little bit of high chimes.

I love the craft fair in Santa Barbara. A great place to stop and shop.

Soul Train

First off...Happy Valentine's Day!

Before I begin this post itself, I would like to acknowledge a personal connection to this show.

A person I worked with at KCET used to be the Associate Director of the show.

He was there when the shows taped and he was the one who put the shows together, for air. He happened to be a very good friend of mine, who swore my child was his. He died and was buried, 2 days before my son was born. In his honor, we named our child partly after him. A tip of the rabbit ears to my very good friend, Ed Johnson. My apologies Ed, that he never did learn to dance worth a darn. :-)

This cut from Soul Train turned up on You Tube recently. They have obviously been putting up some of the performances, from back in the day, for a new generation to find.

This particular video, was a song written by Donald Fagen for Greg Phillinganes, called Lazy Nina.

If you listen to the song, you can hear the Donald Fagen influence in the song. A special little extra is the nod to Soul Train in the Chorus of the song itself. You can see it in the lyrics down below.

Lazy Nina

In my life I have been all kinds of places
I have lived for the action and the thrill
Yes I've seen a thousand children sing
A sunset in Japan
When I close my eyes I see them still

But the road seems to lose it's fascination
And I find there's a picture in my mind
Of a room with windows on the sea
Yes she's waiting there for me
I drop out of space and time

[Chorus:]

Back in the maze with Lazy Nina
Walkin' the dog and watchin' Soul Train
Readin' the paper, goin' to movies
And at night we sing
Da Da Do Da Da Ooh Ya Ya

There are days when I wake up with a feeling
That the world is a strange and sunless place
It's a world where words have lost their sense
Where nothin' seems to fit
And then suddenly I'll see her face

In a dream I will drive along the ocean
At the end of a dark familiar ride
And I know the house I'm searchin' for
Yes she's standin' at the door
And I'm right there by here side

Daffodils Are Blooming 2014

I hate doing this to you all...but spring has arrived.

As I have mentioned before, the daffodils are the first ones to bloom in my garden. The freesias are not far behind, as you can see in the photo. Looking back at other years, like THIS one, I see that they usually turn up in March. This photo was taken LAST WEEK!!!!!

It was fall when I got home in December and now it's spring. Seriously, it's only been 2 months and no real rain to speak of!

The Dukes Of September Video

You may remember that I reviewed Donald Fagen's book Eminent Hipsters a few months ago. The vast majority of the book concerns the tour that he, Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald participated in called The Dukes of September. During that tour, the Band taped a Great Performances Special which will finally air during PBS Station's March Pledge Drives.

I don't know what the set list is, but the cut that has surfaced, is a Steely Dan song called Kid Charlemagne and you can view it, HERE.

The venue is Lincoln Center and I think it is a magnificent setting for Donald Fagen.

Photo #2 has, in addition to Donald, Boz Scaggs playing guitar and Carolyn Leonhart-Escoffery directly behind Donald singing back up. I am not sure who the other performer is.

UPDATE!

In honor of my posting this, Lido Shuffle turned up today.

Enjoy it HERE.

The Dolby Laboratories

Right down the street from where I work in Burbank, sits The Dolby Laboratories.

It is a pretty nice looking building, but I never in a million years thought I would enter it.

Circumstances got us a free screening at their theater and so last month we drove over to the building and got the chance that few people ever do, of visiting The Dolby Laboratories.

You park on the first level of the building, in the back and there is a door that you enter. Right there is an elevator, to take you to the other floors. There is also a corridor that leads to that door you see on the front side of the building.

In other words, the first floor is just a hall with 2 doors and an elevator. It was very weird.

The screening room or theater is up on the third floor and the main thing that surprised us, was the fact that there were about 12 speakers all around that small screening room. I was seriously worried that the volume was going to be too loud, but it was just fine.

The seats were the most comfortable leather seats I have ever been in. They reclined, of course and in addition, there were literally couches around, too. I guess for very laid back viewers.

I was impressed and glad I got to go.

Ocean Waves In Ventura

My Water Post For Today.

You knew that the Ventura/Santa Barbara area would eventually have its day in the sun.

Ventura was the last water I saw in Los Angeles, before traveling to New York and it ends up being the first place I returned to, when I got back.

I am really missing the fact that I saw water every day via the Oswego River and Lake Ontario, but I was glad to see the Pacific Ocean again.

This photo was taken in the Ventura Harbor area, right across the street from the Channel Islands National Park. There is beach access right there and we spent a few moments shooting the waves.

As you can see, they were pretty decently active. A treat for me.

I hope you pull up your beach chair and enjoy.

La Cocina Mexican Restaurant - Saugus

Saturday Night is generally the one day that my family goes out and eats in a decent restaurant. We don't eat in many different places, but I thought I would highlight a few of them here on my Sunday post.

There is nothing more quintessential Los Angeles, then a really good Mexican Restaurant.

In my time studying in Oswego, I did not go to the one "good" Mexican Restaurant in town. For one thing, I hate eating alone and for the other, I was so afraid that it would disappoint me.

So when I came home from school, one of the first places I went to, was our local Saugus Restaurtant, La Cocina. Note, we have another one that is on Bouquet Canyon Road, but ours is in our local (walking distance) neighborhood at the corner of Seco Canyon Rd and Copperhill.

Now it is not perfect. The wait can be upwards of 45 or so minutes, but the salsa is good and the chips are decent.

I don't think they put enough tequila in their Margarita's (the strawberry one is pictured up above) but I have had their Blue Cadillac Margarita (which comes with a shot glass of Grand Marnier Liqueur) and oh my God, that drink was strong. I loved it!

Their Albondigas Soup, which is in the photo on this post, is excellent and I heartily recommend it.

I usually have a Chili Relleno, which is a large poblano or other mild chili, filled with some sort of Mexican Cheese (possibly Queso Chihuahua or Queso Oaxaca). I have loved them since the first time I stepped into LA and they never disappoint.

They make a decent Chicken Taco, too. :-)

It's good to be home.

Sochi

Once again, the Olympic Torch is lit. You never believe it is real, until that happens.

The Winter Games have begun in Sochi, Russia.

I am watching the opening ceremony as I write this post and I am not sure what to say about it.

In some ways it reminds me of one of the Winter Olympics that took place in France. Lots of white. In addition, there was the young girl flying in the air, which reminds me of another Olympic Opening Ceremony. They all blur in my mind, so don't ask me where that was. :-)

My prayers that they keep this Olympics safe.

A Desert Sunset

This was a dramatic sunset a few weeks ago. The best I can do is pin it down to a weekend evening in January.

I had seen an ocean live shot on TV and I immediately went to grab my good camera and checked it out here in Santa Clarita.

The mountains in the background are desert sunset colors and then the sun sending those final rays of light over to the windmill that we have in the back yard. Nothing not to like, especially when you add in the beautiful clouds.

It looks like something you might see in a movie or documentary.

I hope you like it.

Pillowcases!

I took this photo for my good friend, from Facebook, "Charlie's Angel".

She does a lot of sewing, in her spare time and one of the things she makes, are pillowcases for her friends and acquaintances.

On my recent trip to the craft fair in Santa Barbara, I saw someone who sells pillowcases for a living.

I thought they were so adorable and I had to stop and get a photo for my friend.

Aren't the colors just stunning? He (yes it was a he) does a great job.

I don't know if he makes lots of money selling them, but they brightened up my day.

The Disney Channel Building

I have been getting off my bus about a half a mile or so from work and walking in.

Trying to get a bit of extra exercise in, during my busy day.

The place the bus drops me off, is right down the street from The Disney Channel Building.

The other day I needed change of a $5 and so since I had heard that they had a Starbucks in their lobby, I walked over to the building, before walking to work.

I had never been inside it and minus the fact that the Starbucks was gone and so I had to buy another kind of coffee, to get my change, it was interesting for another reason.

They have Radio Disney's station right there in the lobby of the building!

I couldn't get into it, but what I could see looked interesting.

Radio Disney goes all around the Country, via over the air in the top 25 markets and via cable, for the rest.

This radio station is the reason we have stars by the name of Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus and others.

A pretty cool detour and I think I might check it out again, for a good cup of coffee.

Oh Lucy...

I wasn't planning on showing off one of the statues at the Academy, that I highlighted yesterday. Since I mentioned it in the post, I decided to do so.

Lucy and Desi are the subjects of this statue, which is the largest one on the property. I Love Lucy is the show they starred in.

It is difficult to shoot these statues, because they are the color black, in a shady and sunny location. Too much contrast in the courtyard (which is why you don't get to see my photo of Johnny Carson).

Worth a quick post though, because they are wonderful.

By the way, I did not see these shows when they aired. We would watch them years later, in reruns. Binge watching for the first generation, I guess.

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

My Water Post For Today.

During the Christmas Holiday I got dropped off a few blocks from the subway and actually had occasion to pass through the courtyard of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The Academy is the home of the Emmy, if you didn't know.

It is a pretty cool courtyard area, just off Lankershim Blvd. and Magnolia Blvd. Serene, even though it was built by a busy North Hollywood intersection. You don't hear the traffic, you just hear the falling water from the fountain.

Besides this fountain with its water running down, there are statues of famous Television stars, like Johnny Carson and Desi and Lucy.

The biggest draw, is the Emmy itself. I wondered where the name, Emmy came from...and I found this note on the ATAS website.

"Syd Cassyd initially proposed that the award be called "Ike," the nickname for a television iconoscope tube, but it was deemed too evocative of WWII hero General Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower. Henry Lubcke, the third Television Academy president, eventually prevailed with "Immy," after the image-orthicon camera tube, which was instrumental in the development of television. "Immy" was feminized as "Emmy" to complement the design chosen for the statuette, which depicted a winged, idealized woman holding an atom. Her wings represented the muse of art, and the atom and its electrons the science and technology of the new medium. The Television Academy rejected 47 proposals before accepting the statuette designed by television engineer Louis McManus, whose wife served as its model."

May I state for the record that I always wanted just one Emmy. :-)

Superbowl 2014

Yes, it's Superbowl Sunday once again. I have no allegiance to today's teams, just to the stadium the game is being played at. :-)

Because it is Superbowl Sunday, if you know the angel house at all, chili is on the agenda today.

I have regular chili which follows the basic recipe for the pork chili I highlighted HERE. Just use chop meat/ground beef instead of the pork. I don't add the beans to this one and today, for the first time, I added a bottle of beer. We will see how it comes out.

The other chili I am making is my famous White Chicken Chili, which I highlighted HERE.

Hopefully, it too will come out good.

Cornbread, some appetizers and we are all set.

Go teams...uh, who is playing today? ;-)

Goodbye Jay Leno - Gonna Miss Your Cars

My neighbor at work, Jay Leno (who hosts the Tonight Show), will be closing up shop and leaving the old NBC Lot.

That just leaves the local NBC News located there, on what is now called The Burbank Studios. The construction of their building, which will be on the Universal Studios Lot, has been delayed.

Jay's last show from here in Burbank, will be next Thursday, February 6th. Following the Olympics, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon will start coming from New York on February 17th. The whole reason for the move, is that Lorne Michaels is now in charge of the show and so, of course, it needs to be where Saturday Night Live is taped.

This sign turned up on the side of Stage 11 on Monday. I thought it was just in the worst taste. You fire the man twice and yet he makes you proud? Really?

A very, very sad day for Burbank and the staff who have been working there for 22 years, in some cases.

Note, I am not a Jay Leno or The Tonight Show fan, but still...