A lunch time walk in the rain

Whittier Narrows c.2012

“You can't stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” ~ A.A. Milne

A walk past someone's leap

3rd St  c.2012

"I'd rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done"~Lucille Ball

Walking by chance

mobile pic c.2010

I saw this car ad in a travel magazine during my lunch break a couple of years ago and loved the simplicity of it. Although, throwing a dart to a world map wouldn't be my first choice in letting chance pick my destination. I'd rather play roulette by spinning a globe and book a flight to the spot my finger lands on...even if it turns out to be Nowheresville, CA. Just once in my life.

But for now, I think I'll buy a map of the city of Los Angeles and take a walk wherever the dart lands...assuming I hit the map.

This could be fun.

A stumbling walk

Resilient c.2012

"All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity" ~ Robert F. Kennedy

"Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live."~RFK

A walk from the earth to the moon

Closer  C.2012

Giant steps are what you take walking on the moon

I hope my leg don't break walking on the moon...

I love being a tourist in my own city, especially when friends from out of town come to visit. Even if I’ve visited an eye rolling “overrated” hot spot a hundred times, it’s a completely new experience with each visit, and it's always enjoyable with the right company. I admit I take a lot of these "tourist" places for granted. It’s so easy to do so, and more often than not, the only time we notice certain spots is when the place itself closes or we lose someone who wanted to visit it.  One place I definitely took for granted was the Griffith Park Observatory.

I remember the field trips to the Observatory as a kid and I always had fun. Well, as much fun as a place of education could offer. As I got a little older I remember I began to put off plans to visit.  I swore I’d attend some of the musical shows “soon”. Then it closed down for renovations for several years during my early 20s. I can't say it was sudden. It was announced all over but I simply kept putting it off until I missed my chance. Once it reopened I fell back into the same pattern of “oh I’ll visit soon”. Before I knew it, another several years went by. I wish I had visited under different circmstances, but I finally made it back to the observatory last May, on what would've been my mother’s birthday to be exact. It was a gorgeous spring evening and I did something I’d never bothered to do before. I stood in the long line in order to look through the Zeiss telescope.  That night I finally saw the moon, up close and personal. Even though the whole process was a bit of an assembly line, and I only saw it for a few seconds, it was absolutely breathtaking. Many of my favorite songs and movie scenes center around the moon. My all time favorite author, Jules Verne, wrote an incredibly imaginative story about a few civil war vets who wanted to build a rocket ship to the moon. From the Earth to the Moon (De la Terre à la Lune, 1865) 

"Nothing can astound an American. It has often been asserted that the word "impossible" is not a French one. People have evidently been deceived by the dictionary. In America, all is easy, all is simple; and as for mechanical difficulties, they are overcome before they arise..."~Jules Verne, From the earth to the moon

Anyway, I had the chance to visit the observatory again last week with some friends that came to visit. We had some time to kill before a night out in Hollywood so it felt like a fitting way to begin their vacation. The telescope wasn’t open when we arrived but the view of the city was still enjoyable in spite of the colorful layer of smog. I have no doubt I'll be visiting this place more often. I feel lucky to have a place like this within reach. A place that makes the moon within reach.

"What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Mary"~ George Bailey, It's a Wonderful Life

An authoritative walk through the train

Busted 

The LA metro system is lightyears behind the rest of the other major cities in the world in several aspects. I've said this before and I'm not the only one. The part of the metro system I've never understood is the "honor" system when it comes to the fare. Paper tickets are sold at each rail station where you could buy a day pass for $5 or a one way ticket for $1.50. There are also plastic "tap" passes that you can reload and pay your fare on special tap stands as you walk through any train platform. There isn't anyone you show your pass to, and there aren't any turnstiles on the majority of the stations. If you're strapped for cash, forgot to break change or don't have time to buy a ticket as the train approaches, it's understandable if you skip buying a ticket. The likelyhood of metro sheriffs citing you are quite low even though there are warning signs everywhere about the consequence of breaking this rule. A $250 fine if you're caught without the proper ticket. So when the metro police suddenly decide they want to enforce the rules, they can rake in a good amount of money. I read the MTA want to make some major changes to address this problem.  To be honest, I don't know why this loose fare method was ever the norm in the first place.

That said, everytime I've seen someone get busted I can't help but feel bad for them. Sure, it's their own fault and that's the gamble they decided to take. But I've risked it before, especially when I was in high school and I got lucky. $250 is a devastating setback for many of these violators and conversely patrons not paying their fare is devastating to the city since it quickly adds up.

Whenever I hear the occassional "TICKETS AND PASSES" echo through the train, I panic for a split second and make sure I have my pass on me. I'd rather complain about money slipping through my fingers rather than knowing exactly where that money went. My final thought on the issue? I'm quite sure less people would take that $250 risk if the MTA didn't make it so incredibly easy. 

damn...

A torn walk

Polluted sunset C.2011

One December evening, I was walking past the Disney concert hall in Downtown Los Angeles when I had the sudden urge to stop and capture the sunset through a torn fence. When I got home and reviewed what I had shot, I realized this particular frame reminded me of a photograph I'd seen before. The tear in the fence made me think of an old photo Lee Miller took during her time in Egypt in the 1930s. A female photographer in Egypt in the 1930s. Can you imagine how amazing that must've been??

 Lee Miller is one of my all time photographic heroes and an amazing inspiration (pardon my *feminist* gushing).  I came to know of her during my fascination with Man Ray in my late teens. She worked with Man Ray (in several definitions) and was his model for several of his works. Her photographs weren't looked at in depth during any of my art or photography classes in college, which is a real shame. Her talent, work, growth, and fearless approach to her photography, especially during her time as a WWII photojournalist, make her one of the most amazing artists in my book. Of course, every creative mind strives to invent their own interpretations of ideas that may have been done before. But if you've been directly influenced, it's important to give credit where it's due. As my old history professors would always say~Always site your source.

Portrait of Space C.1937 Lee Miller 

Dang, girl. You changed my life...