Into The Wild Tour Begins

This small crappy cell phone photo was taken at the first concert of the 30 Seconds to Mars "Into the Wild" tour. It's Nottingham, England, a week ago last Friday, 2/19.
At some point in the concert they moved to a small stage in the audience, I don't know for what reason, but I thought the gesture was nice and it made a very interesting photograph. By the way, Jared Leto, frontman for the band, is currently sporting a mohawk haircut, so he is the blury person with the white light on him.

I wonder if the fans were aware in advance of the fact that the area by their seats was a stage. What primo seats! :-)






As videos and photos come in, I admit I am grabbing a few and I made a little collage of them, for here. That way, I am not clogging up my blog with photo after photo. They are in one place. :-)

The Into The Wild Tour...England.

In good news for me, the US leg of the tour has been announced and has just gone on sale...minus Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.

I plan to try to get tickets for the final show of the tour, at the Greek Theater on Saturday May 15th and I plan to go with my "Other" son #1, my favorite son...lol

The Saints In My Life

Who are these women and why do I have them sitting on a blog post?


Answer, they are my Saint's names.

They are a piece of who I am.



Obviously one of them is the Blessed Virgin Mary. Probably most Catholic females have some part of her name woven into the fabric of theirs. I consider it an honor.


Another is Saint Bernadette. I have a cousin who is a nun and my name comes from her. I always think of the Song of Bernadette, when I think of this name.


The final saint is St Catherine of the Catherine Wheel, which is depicted in the photo. The story goes that when they went to torture her, the wheel miraculously fell apart and she was spared the torture. A good thing. :-)

I always got a kick out of the fact that Mike Pinder of The Moody Blues had a reference to Catherine's wheel, in a song called "Eternity Road".

Turning spinning, Catherine Wheeling, forever changing, there's no beginning.


I consider it an honor, to be named after them all.

The Gates To Thai Town

These are the angels that guard the gate to Thai Town in Los Angeles, California.

I get dropped off many evenings by my boss at this very angel and I swore I would come during the day and get a few photos.

I had to go to work on a recent Sunday and I made a stop to photograph the angels.













They are called Apsonsi, and you can read more about them on the plaque that is at the base of the statues. (It is the last photograph in this post)


There is one on each side of the street and though the plaque references 4 of them, I have no idea where the other 2 of them are.












I think it's a beautiful spot on Hollywood Blvd. Something you don't see every day, or ever, for that matter.

For more posts on Thai Town, which is on Hollywood Blvd, just down the road about a mile from where I work, click this link and this link.

To check out the subway stop that started all the redevelopment and made Thai Town, the formal area you can now visit, click here.

Scenes At Work

When things get really ugly at work there's nothing quite like letting loose with the 50 cal gun. :-)














This was how it looked at my workplace yesterday. There was some sort of movie screening going on. A rental.

We were warned that there would be some unusual props around the lot, but I really was totally unprepared for what showed up.










Lots of contaminated signs, quarantine, Mobile command center, red lights blinking. It was truly surreal.

Why was all this going on? It was for a movie called The Crazies. Click the link to read about it. Suffice it to say, the movie is filled with depraved, bloodthirsty killers. It will release on February 26th.
They had the screening party at a nearby movie theater and the after party, over on our lot.








Since our lot was where they filmed the original 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this movie screening party, seems to fit right in.

Here's an account of the screening, from a party goer.

Crazies Event

Underneath A Golden Palm Tree...Hollywood

I got into so much trouble last time I quoted a lyric of a song...but that is what is running through my mind as I write this one...America's "Hollywood"

Actually I took this photo the day after a rain storm, because everything was just so clean and beautiful. Here's the view from the roof of my workplace parking structure.

Yeah, it's pretty darn perfect.


"Hollywood...Come to the party the drinks are on me...for free...the drinks on me"

Soto Station Metro Gold Line

This is one of two underground subway stops on the (mostly) above ground, Metro Gold Line.

Soto Street, in the heart of Boyle Heights is just to the east of Downtown Los Angeles. The station is just a beautiful place to experience. Maps, birds weird blue glowing thing hovering about the stairs. It's beyond anything I have ever seen before.




This is what it looks like, at street level. Clean lines and more structure then many of the subway stations get. It's a hit with me.

St. Joseph Husband of Mary Church Courtyard

My Water Post For Today.

I have better photos of the fountains at this Church in Las Vegas, but I love how the Church photo looks almost like a water color painting. My friend, Cindy, brought me to this Church a few years ago and I really loved it's California Mission Style, in the midst of HOT, HOT, HOT Las Vegas. An oasis of calm and coolness and just a perfect place to gather before or after Mass.

I hope you like it.

All Things Come To An End

If you have read the top part of my blog over the years, you saw that my Husband lurked in the Electronics Department of Walmart.

As with all things, I knew that this fact would eventually change and as of Friday, it did.

Walmart is no longer a part of my families life.

No more discount card, no more asking the guy to pick up something at work and bring it home.

Walmart came into our lives 7 years and 3 months ago and we thank them for all the years of supporting our family, through some tough times.

Now days, we are doing much better, financially and even though my guy lost his job, we are not overly worried. He has retirement income and his pension coming in. We were just using that extra money to work on our house a bit. You remember the roof from last year, right?
This year, God willing, are windows, doors, a kitchen counter and painting the outside of the house.

Some of that will hinge on my job, which, of course is always of concern. I am sure they are looking for more people to cut there.

Our benefits come from my work, and darn, I was hoping that the Congress would get some form of health care legislation passed.

I would feel more secure, with that albatross off my neck.

It seems that this will not be the case, so onward we will go, on this ride called real life.

Breed Street Shul

A few months ago, the Gold Line opened up an extention into the East Los Angeles area. A predominately Hispanic area of Los Angeles, it has a long history of housing immigrant populations, as they arrived in the city. Back in the early part of the last Century, it had a thriving Jewish immigrant population.
The original Jewish Deli, Cantors, was located at the corner of Brooklyn (now renamed Cesar Chavez Ave.) and Soto, along with Jewish butchers, bakeries and of course, a place of worship...The Breed Street Shul.
At it's height, there were over 10,000 Jewish residents of Boyle Heights, in East Los Angeles. As things changed, they moved on to places like the Fairfax District, the Valley, etc and other newer immigrants moved in. The Shul closed and had been left to fall into disrepair. If you would like to read more about it, here is the history of the Shul.

A Jewish friend of mine will soon be leaving the Los Angeles area and when he came over a week ago, I told him that he really should take a trip on the new Gold Line and visit the Boyle Heights area, where the Jewish roots of Los Angeles are. He answered back that he would love to, especially if I came along. That worked for me, since the only time I took the Gold Line, I was alone and really didn't feel safe walking around without someone along.


After the recent rains and cold weather, last Saturday turned out to be a beautiful warm, blue sky day and just perfect for a walking tour of the neighborhood. We rode the Gold Line to the Soto Street Station and got off at an underground station. I guess they do not want the trains climbing high elevations, so instead they tunneled underground in this area. It is a beautiful station, by the way and deserves it's own post.
We walked north for a block, until we got to Michigan Street and then turned to the left. Walked a block and then turned to the right, which brought us to Breed Street. A short distance ahead, we could see the Breed Street Shul. It dominates the street, even from a distance and behind its construction fencing. There is a restoration effort going on and you can read the current update on the Breed Street Shul.

If you find this of interest and would like to learn more, the restoration web page where you can make a donation, if you so desire, is here.

I am glad that the City is trying to keep this small piece of Jewish history and I was glad my friend and I took the walking tour of the area. We experienced so much and I highly recommend it to people.

An Annoyed Kitty

I know it's a dark photo, but to me the shot says so much about me and my cat. I love how she looks and I tend to take many photos of her. Unfortunately for her, that just annoys her no end.

I win though, cause I get those photos anyway.

Be annoyed cat, it doesn't bother me at all. :-)

Save The Peak

They covered the Hollywood sign the other day.

It has been illegally covered many times, but this is one of the few times the changing of the sign is sanctioned by Hollywood, itself.

The sign is referencing the fact that they are trying to raise something like 11 Million dollars to buy the land around the sign. Actually, the land off to the left of the H.

You can read about it here.

My Needy Child Gets His Orders

I would like to start this post by saying that I love this child so much!


My "Other" Son #1 finished his schooling last week.

On Tuesday, he got his orders. He will be coming to Camp Pendleton in San Diego County.

Yay we all think.

He is coming back to us, only a 2 hour drive away.
He can even get his car and drive it down to the base, so he has transportation, while stationed there. Great!!!!!

Then he drops the bomb...he hopes he will be assigned to the deployment that is going out next month. Deployed means more pay and trust me, there is never enough money for my "Other" son. Of course there is never enough money for my real son, either...but that's another story. lol

Have any of you seen what is going on in Afghanistan, with the Marines? I was watching some of the news on Sunday and I was not happy to see how dangerous some of the things that the Marine Battalions have to deal with, are.

You can read some of it, here.

Well, guess what?

That boatload of heartache, that I referenced to in my second post about my "Other" son and his enlisting, may now be arriving in the Angel House.

I may have one of my "sons" in harms way...like next month.

ACK!

Presents Back And Forth

My Birthday, My Sister in Law's Birthday and My Sister's Birthday. That's how it goes every year. January, February and March. We send money to the kids, of course and the guys don't seem to care for gifts...but the three of us exchange gifts each year. Hey, we know how to party. lol

The beautiful lighthouse egg was a present from my Sister in Law this year. I don't know if she has ever seen this blog, I truly don't think she has, so the lighthouse is just one of those coincidences in life. It's created by Thomas Kinkade, who as a painter I go back and forth on...a bit too commercial for my taste.
This is very beautiful though, so points to Mr. Kinkade, for that. :-)

In the background of the photo is a San Francisco music box that was a gift from her many years ago. As I have mentioned before, I am a real fan of San Francisco and love cranking up the music box, upon occasion.




This is my and my sister's gift back to her this year.
I fell in love with the amethysts that form, either a flower or a sort of cross, according to how you view it.

We are hoping that she likes it.

The Harbor At Morro Bay

My Water Post For Today.


I have visited this area before, but this time, no rock is involved.

Here is Morro Bay, with the boats, the far mountains and of course, the water.

Here, in the middle of a brutal winter, enjoy the peacefulness that our wonderful views of the Pacific Ocean, can bring.

A Valentine's Day Gift - More Rainbows

Happy Valentine's Day!

I didn't send anyone chocolate, so instead I send the gift of beauty to all my blog readers. :-)


For some reason we are getting lots of rainbows this winter. Not just a rainbow, but dramatic, multi-arch rainbows.
Right at sunset, as the storm is finally ending, each time.

That is probably the reason for the rainbows. Most of the storms this season come during the day and end around 4PM. Great for traffic and great for rainbows.

The sun finally peaks out from the edge of the cloud cover and bingo, there you have it, another stunning rainbow that makes all of us in our office, go running to take photos.

Enjoy.