Tiny Greek Dancers

While we were at the Greek Festival on Sunday, the children who attended the Greek school, showed off their Greek dance skills. The traditional dance called the Kalamatiano was the first dance done. The children dance in a line, moving in a counter clockwise circle. The male at the front of the line, not only leads, he does extra steps and moves, like squats and jumps. It was quite cute.

The next dance was done by just the males. It was a more advanced dance, incorporating those same moves that the lead dancer had done in the Kalamatiano dance.

I can't tell you how cute they were and how much the audience (and me) loved them. :-)

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church

Last August I made an Icon of St. Kateri. The group that put on the workshop, have kept us informed of things over the past year. I got an email the other day that said that St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which is located in Northridge California, was having their yearly Festival.

I have gone to this festival occasionally, over the past 30 years, so it wasn't news to me. What was news, is that they give tours of the Church itself, all afternoon. Being it is a Greek Orthodox Church, it has Icons all around the altar area.
I was encouraged to go check them out...and so I did.

The Icons are not actually painted. They are mosaics and as you can see, stunning mosaics. The tour guide explained many things about the layout of the Church.
The most prominent part of the altar area is the iconostasis. Here is an explanation, via Wikipedia.

The iconostasis, also called the τεμπλον/templon, it is a screen or wall between the nave and the sanctuary, which is covered with icons. There will normally be three doors, one in the middle and one on either side. The central one is traditionally called the Beautiful Gate and is only used by the clergy. There are times when this gate is closed during the service and a curtain is drawn. The doors on either side are called the Deacons' Doors or Angel Doors as they often have depicted on them the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. These doors are used by deacons and servers to enter the sanctuary. Typically, to the right of the Beautiful Gate (as viewed from the nave) is the icon of Christ, then the icon of St John the Baptist; to the left the icon of the Theotokos, always shown holding Christ; and then the icon of the saint to whom the church is dedicated (i.e., the patron). There are often other icons on the iconostasis but these vary from church to church. The curtain is also drawn and opened at various points in the service.

Above and behind the iconostasis (if the iconostasis does not reach the ceiling) is the Πλατυτέρα των Ουρανών/Platytera ton Ouranon ("more spacious than the heavens"), the icon of Virgin Mary with Christ blessing all. Oil lamps burn before all the icons.

So, in St. Nicholas Church, you have an iconostasis with - from right to left, St. Michael the Archangel, St. John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. Past the door in the middle you have Theotokos (Mother of God) aka Mary and the Christ Child, St. Nicholas and St. Gabriel the Archangel.

Above the iconostasis is the icon of Mary and the Christ Child, with 2 angels surrounding them.

The second photo is a relic of St. Nicholas. As you can see, it is highlighted with a spot light.

The dome is also absolutely beautiful and it contains Jesus Christ, so that he is symbolically at the highest point in the Church.

I am so glad I spent a few hours of my day, visiting the Church and Festival.

More on the festival, tomorrow.

The San Diego Surge

One of the changes that has happened to the couple down in Oceanside, is that my Marine son's wife has joined a women's football league.

When she was in High School, she played on the men's team, so she is no stranger to hard played football.

This time around, it is a woman's pro team, that tries to fill the gap between Superbowl and the start of the new season in August.

Her team is the San Diego Surge and it has been interesting seeing her (via photos) competing in games and her team winning very consistently. Their record is currently 5-1 and they are assured a spot in the playoffs.

Honestly, as a woman and as a women who competed in sports in High School, I am amazingly proud of her.

You GO girl!

=============================
Photo:
Is of a Touch Down dance.
It was one of several she had
in that particular game.

The Stuff At My Workplace

After a 3 day weekend, I am back in my cubbie and I thought I would share a photo I took recently.

Yes, I know you have probably seen some of this stuff before.

I am a collector of things and I get great pleasure having some of them sitting on my desk, making me just a little happier then other people, who have absolutely nothing but whiteness.

I have no idea why pigs have ended up being part of the collection, but there they are. I have the sheep that artist and coworker Henry Cram made and I gave him a pink tie recently. I have no idea why, but I guess I did it for the amusement factor.

Brown Bear was a toy that we got in a Happy Meal at McDonald's, decades ago. My son used to sit on my floor playing with him and I can't let it go.
He stays and keeps me company, to remind me of those long ago days, when my son wasn't winning 7K awards at car competitions. :-)

May they brighten up your day.

A Water Fowl Family

My Water Post For Today.

It's Memorial Day and what better way to celebrate, then to sit by a lake in a park and enjoy a day with picnicking, games and fun.

I am sure many will travel today, to do just that and one of the things they will do at MacArthur Park, is watch these ducks zipping around the lake.

I honestly have no idea why there are 3 adults and 2 children, but that's what is there. Could the male duck have 2 females? Could the couple have adopted the lone female, or a female with 2 ducks? The possibilities are endless, but they were definitely acting like a family, protecting their young.

I hope you enjoy a day at the lake, on a lazy holiday weekend.

Los Angeles Central Library

If you remember, we spent a bit of time in the Los Angeles Central Library a few weeks ago. I showed you the inside, but this time, I am going to show you the outside.

It is the most unusual building I have ever seen. In New York, you have the 2 lions who guard the front doors, but here in LA, it is an Egyptian theme that influences this building...especially the very top. As you can see there is a pyramid with suns on it and the pointy thing at the apex of the pyramid is a torch that symbolizes the light of learning.

There are so many pieces of artwork, I can't even begin to explain it all, but you can read about a lot of it, HERE. One of the things that we did physically see, is the elevator that is totally covered with the cards that used to be in the card catalogs in the library. There is a photo of the car, on the link I gave you. We all got a kick out of it.

In my research, I found out that there is a reason the tallest building is right across the street from the library. I thought it was just chance that brought that high rise to the land adjacent to the library. Instead, it was a fundraiser called "Save the Books". Back in 1986 there was not one, but two arson fires at the library, which closed it for the better part of a decade. Lots of rebuilding and restoration had to go on, especially of the priceless collection of books that got water and smoke damage. What they did was sell the Air Rights above their historic building to the developer across the street. Up to 35 floors of air rights are allowed to be sold. That allowed the First Interstate Bank building to be as high as it is, at 73 floors. So Los Angeles got a beautiful restoration and the tallest building west of the Mississippi, both at the same time.

It is a beautiful place to visit and if you are in the area, via subway or car, you should check it out.

Love, Lust, Faith + Dreams

30 Seconds to Mars has a new CD out, as of this past week.

It is called Love, Lust, Faith + Dreams. I used to listen to whatever cuts get released ahead of the Streeting Day, but now days I avoid them like the plague. This helps me view the work as a whole, without getting to a cut and skipping it. Only 2 times through and this is my favorite cut Conquistador. BTW,this cut also contains "Up in the Air". They did perform it on Jimmy Kimmel, but it seems there is no official video on his site, just crappy cell phone videos with people screaming and hands waving in front of the phone. It must have been a rehearsal song.

Anyway, that aside, the first cut on the CD, "Birth" seems to be just perfect to start their live show. Very moody and theatrical and no words...it then breaks into this song and I can see that Conquistador is going to be a kick a$$ opener. Listen to it, it's got lots of energy and should work just fabulous in that role. They are truly a touring band first and so anything that helps them put on a good show, is a good thing.

I do like their first release from the CD, "Up in the Air", but it has been taken and made into their first video. Similar in style to their This Is War's "Hurricane" video, it has lots of S & M and soft core porn. Honestly, not my cup of tea. So that hovers over the song and hurts it, IMHO.

As to the rest of the CD, there are good tracks, including "City of Angels", which attracts me, natch. Another cut,"Bright Lights". includes the lyric Bright Lights, Big City within it. For the Steely Dan fans in my blogosphere, Donald Fagen wrote a song, "Bright Lights, Big City", for the movie of the same name. I feel this song might be a node to the movie, but who knows.

After 2 run throughs with the CD, the remainder of the songs are not as memorable but I look forward to learning them all.

The CD is stylistically similar to This Is War, so if you are looking for their first CD, this is not it and if you are looking for A Beautiful Lie, this is also not it. They have moved on, as they should.

More power to them. Onward guys.

And The Winner Is...

This information was embargoed until the morning, so that is why I am posting it so late. Rather then at my 6AM ET/3AM PT normal posting time.

The EcoCar2 Year 2 Award Ceremony was held at the Hotel Del Coronado last night. They live tweeted the evening and one after another, many teams won...but our team lost.

It was getting pretty depressing, because I knew how hard my son worked on his Electrical Engineering presentation and another team won the award. Toward the very end, CSULA won the Most Improved Award (remember they were 13th out of 15 last year) and that gave my Husband and I the first hint that maybe they were going to pull this thing off after all.

Remember back in March, when they went to Colorado to be inspected, the guy who looked at their car said that chances were good that they would end up in the top 3. (I was going to be real disappointed if that guy was wrong, btw.)

I sent a text message to my son and sort of hoped he would give me a hint as to what happened. My prayers were answered.

Year Two Standings

1st Place: Penn State

2nd Place: California State University Los Angeles

3rd Place: Ohio State

I found an article: HERE and a press release HERE, if you want to read more.

Another View of the Tallest Building in Los Angeles

I wrote about this building, back in January...but I didn't have a good photo. If you want to see that post, it is HERE.

One of the really good things about our recent walk around Downtown Los Angeles, was that we got really up close and personal with several iconic LA buildings. This one in particular. It is the U.S. Bank building and I am just 1 block away from where I took the original photo...and what a difference it makes.

The building is the tallest one west of the Mississippi, but even from this vantage point, you can definitely tell it commands the entire area.

Supposedly, it will eventually be shadowed by a new building. The first one to be built in LA since the late 80's.

We shall see if that comes to pass.

Saint Honoré Pistachio

I am only a few days late on this post. Saint Honoré's Feast Day is May 16th.

Several years ago, I went to lunch with Huell Howser at Bottega Louie's in Downtown Los Angeles. It was quite the place. They spared no expense and as someone remarked, it looks like the Taj Mahal inside.

Well a few weeks ago, my Husband, friend and I took a walk around 7th and I had to bring them inside this restaurant...at least for a moment.

I hadn't been there in 4 years...but my memory of the pastries was spot on. They are still incredible.

This particular one really got me interested enough to take a photo. Saint Honoré Pistachio. It is the obviously green one in the middle.

So I went searching, to find out the origin of the name and a bit about it.

It ends up that Saint Honoré is the patron saint of Bakers. Ah, now I understand. :-)

Maybe someday, when I have a fortune and don't mind spending it on a dessert that costs $12...I will try one.

It's Just About Official - Oswego In The Fall

It looks like it is official. Well, I am waiting for the paperwork to sign, but I hear that it is just about wrapped up.

I will be attending SUNY Oswego for the Fall Semester.

The first thing I wanted to find out was, if I was still capable of learning. I was worried. I am getting up there in age. Is it still possible?

In good news for me...the answer to that is a resounding YES! I got an A+ in my Social Networks and the Web class. What got me, is that the teacher said he was a hard grader and didn't routinely give out A's...or B's for that matter. He kept mentioning that most work ends up in the C category, just average.

Obviously, don't ever wave a flag like that in front of me. lol

I emailed him to thank him and he said I had earned it with hard work. I am truly humbled. An A- would have made me very happy. This...wow.

In good news, I have him for 2 classes in the Fall. Double work, but now I know what he is looking for in his projects and I hope that gives me a leg up.

Oops...back to the story: I did apply and I did get accepted to full time Grad School. 4 of the courses I need for the degree are offered in the Fall. They don't overlap on each other and they are all on Tuesday and Thursday. So the germ of an idea hit me. Why not ask if I can work 3 days a week remotely and go to classes on the 2 days. If I have a laptop that connects, I am in business. My employer gave me one back in 2008, to use when I attended a PBS Traffic Advisory Committee meeting and I found it worked out well for me. I asked I.T. if we still had such things and the answer to that is yes.

I have a friend who I went to school with and he teaches in the Comm Studies Department. I asked him if he knew of anyone with a place to rent, so he hooked me up with his landlord and I have an apartment in downtown Oswego for the Fall semester.

I am hoping to get my car out there, either driving it or having it brought over. We will see how much money we have and what we can arrange.

Lots of stuff happening right now, but I have good feelings about the entire thing, so hopefully it will work out to my advantage.

Water At The Mall

My Water Post For Today.

We went to dinner at our local mall.

The place is blast furnace hot in the summer, so to cool it off, the mall put in a wonderful fountain, right outside of TGI Friday.

We got there just before sunset, so I got this really nice photo with my cell phone.

I hope you enjoy it.

Mother's Day Sunday Breakfast

We had to get up super early last Sunday, to bring our son and his friend down to Cal State LA.

Since we needed to make a bagel run, we decided to put the two things together and get breakfast...and bagels.

It was a nice last meal with my son (and his friend). Being I am missing him so much, I am glad we made the effort to do it.

After today, 5 more days and he is back with us.

My thanks to his friend for getting this wacky goofy photo of us. :-)

The Eagle Flies!

There they are, CSULA's EcoCar2 Team, running on the Desert Proving Grounds in Yuma.

They were the second team to pass inspection and first team to complete all testing on the Proving Grounds.

They may get to try to improve their results, over the next day or so, but for the most part, they have proved they have the right stuff.

Congratulations to the team (and my son, of course). Your hard work has paid off in spades.

Onward to San Diego.

My Three Men

These are the three men in my life. My Husband, his brother and, of course, my son.

I liked the fact that the three of them were rocking mustaches and in my son's and brother-in-law's case, beards.

Can you tell these guys are related? :-)

It is so rare we get together now days, with my son so terribly busy.

It was a good that we managed to coordinate a late afternoon dinner, to celebrate a birthday.

Mother's Day didn't turn out that good...oh well.

I think I will keep them all.