Missle Stations in LA

[click any images to enlarge]
Collin, Georgette & I spent a nice Sunday afternoon hanging around a non-operation missile station. Decommissioned in 1966, the United States Nike Missile Guidance Facility LA96C is now the best scenic point I have been to since living in Los Angeles.

Hidden off the beaten path of Mullholand drive, deep in the San Vincente State Park one can find extensive fire road hikes with passing Los Angelians of all kinds. The photo below has an excellent last sentence that cracked me up. Reminded me of the show Lost as well.

The hike to the actual towers is not very strenuous in any way, but it is quite a site to marvel once at the station. There are several viewing areas w/ tables & benches alike to relax & spend an afternoon.

My favorite part was being able to look out to the mountains & see the first snow covering Big Bear & the surrounding mountains. It was then possible to turn your head to the right & look out over the Pacific Ocean & on out to two smaller islands off the coast. Miraculous!

From this point there are several other hikes & bicycle routes to take.

And remember, "WE WILL BURY YOU."

TIME TRAVELING

This past week an amazing exhibit opened up that I hope everyone can get to see sometime in the next five months. The California Heritiage Museum has worked with several skateboard historians to gather a plethora of boards, skates, photos & wheels together under one roof.



The museum is located just off Ocean Park in Santa Monica, California. Almost set in the heart of the original Dogtown, where skateboarding crawled out of the ocean & onto the streets. The old two story house/museum has been ronvated to help bring each visitor back in time to what many of the homes in California looked like when the area was first developing.

As you wander through the bottom floor, gazing upon roller skate relics & a new style of soap box racer you can't help but wonder how the search ever began for such items, let alone who had them?! Some of my favorites were the older photos of kids riding the old plank & box scooter racers.

Up the stairway their is two great displays of skateboards as they evolved into a trendy childs toy, taking on the shape of small surf boards. Some of my favorites were on these walls.



As the exhibit snakes around the top floor of the house, visitors see the progression of board shapes, wheel materials, and the varrying bright & evolving graphics that accompany the boards from day one. I even saw the very first board I had in 1988!!

Lastly, you come to some of the newest boards on the wall (pictured above) made by Girl Skateboards. These are a tribute to the history of our sport & an homage to the past. These boards display a history that is important for future generations of riders to understand, to help them see where their sport came from. Thank you so much to the California Heritage Museum for putting together such an amazing exhibit for the public to see.

CALIFORNIA HERITAGE MUSEUM MAP

View Larger Map

OUR AMAZING EARTH

*make sure to click on some of the photos to enlarge. they are spectacular! especially the first on the right, my favorite.

I recently was turned onto one of the most amazing YouTube videos I had ever seen! My jaw locked wide as I viewed the 6 minute clip that I have posted below. It is of El Camino Del Rey a narrow 3 foot wide path built into the side of a cliff wall 900 feet up. Built in 1905 for construction workers to move supplies between to water falls in southern Spain, El Camino Del Rey alas has fallen into serious disrepair & only now temps the bravest climbers.

GREAT SITE WITH MORE INFO, STORIES & PICTURES

Skip to 1:20!

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Now we move over to China where there is a mammoth staircase, plank walk ways & there is no way you can look down in search Daosist temples high atop Mount Hua. Travelers to Mt. Huang/Hua Shan have come experience death-defying & awe-inspiring views like no other on the planet. Below is a short video of just a small portion of the trek that is like nothing you have seen before.

GREAT SITE WITH PERSONAL ACCOUNTS, STORIES & MORE PHOTOS

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Lastly, on down to South America & into the jungles of Bolivia to travel the infamous Yungas 'Death' Road. This is a narrow dirt road that connects two smaller towns with La Paz that has heavy traffic flow despite the 200 to 300 deaths a year! The video below is a great little insight into traveling the Death Road & making it out alive.

GREAT SITE WITH MORE INFO, STORIES & PICTURES

MAGNITUDE - A Look Back

Was taking a trip down Nostalgia Road. On the corner I came across these three videos from last summer. These are of our 'for fun' jam band Magnitude. All these songs were made up as we play them & have never been reproduced. All Improv. Hope your enjoy! These are my three favs.

NOT EVEN

FALL OF APOLLO

SENSES

Flickering Images

Fascinating long article-in-progress at GreenCineDaily by the wonderfully named Simon Augustine on portrayals of the edges of sanity in the movies; particularly provocative on the question of how our own projected desires become intertwined with the cinematic image:

“Think about how a film works on our minds when we enter the darkness: presented with a series of convincing and absorbing images, sounds, and performances, we are enraptured by a simulation of reality so powerful it produces genuine emotional and visceral reactions. The irony and paradox of the movie screen: a coordinated and intricate construction that by means of a skilled combination of elements—sets, makeup, actors, special effects—manages to affect both transportation from reality while also eliciting seemingly very real emotion, self-examination, and insight among its audience.

A group of strangers pay admittance to watch a flickering series of make-believe situations together, until moved to tears, screams, or feelings indisputably authentic in some sense. An odd set of circumstances. The “magic” of the movies, a true sorcery. But also, pardon the expression, kind of nuts, too. There they are: crying, yelling, anticipating, not because of another person immediately before them, or a direct situation, but because of a screen; something that in a fundamental sense is not really there. You might be persuaded to think these people freaking out because of mere images and sounds are suffering an unusual pathology of some kind.

From one perspective, they are sitting in an empty room, reacting to nothing at all. Like madmen.

Yet once the lights go back on and the street beckons, an audience carries an encounter with the illusory out of the realm of the unreal into the external world, to use it there in some fashion; to see a facet of reality more clearly, more empathetically, with greater intensity. They are truly changed. Maybe not so loony after all.”

- Via The Film Talk

100th Post - Spread the Music

I'll admit I have been a little distracted lately... I have a new creation that is taking off a little, little bit. Lights & Sound is up and waiting for you to pillage its free concert audio download!



I felt it proper timing to spread my blogging wings a little more, this being my 100th successful post on Day in History via... Just take a look back to my first mile stone.



Went off to Amoeba in Hollywood today with the company of Georgette & Collin. I was determined to purchase some good vinyl vibes of the reggae persuasion.

The Wailers Live: Talkin' Blues
King Tubby: Lost Treasures
Lee Perry & The Upsetters
Don Drummond: Best of

Flaming Lips Friday

It would appear that it is Flaming Lips Friday. On this day, several new Lips oriented musical adventures have been brought to my eyes & ears. I want to share them with you...

FIRST... and my favorite!

At all the tour stops on this previous Lips tour, the venue recorded the show & the audio was then emailed to each person that purchased a ticket. Well... today, on Flaming Lips Friday, I have the recording from the night that Georgette & I attended AND I have it uploaded so you can get it for free at link below. This was definitely one of my top ten shows on all time to attend. Thanks Georgette!

THE FLAMING LIPS LIVE
Ponoma, CA - 8.18.09

SECOND... If you would like to hear the newest Flaming Lips album for free! ColbertNation has it on the main page, top left. Streaming all eighteen tracks! Really amazing new songs.

THIRD... Colbert sat down and talked with Wayne, lead singer of The Flamings Lips, they had a good chat about one of their most prolific songs Do You Realize. The band goes on to play a great new song live.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Wayne Coyne
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

Convinced of the Hex

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Flaming Lips - Convinced of the Hex
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

Morning Sesh

Filmed this by myself the other morning...

skatepark.
Uploaded by JDBCreativeMedia.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my dear friend Pouya
[he's in the front]

The Getty on a Sunday

*click any of the images for enlargement*


There is this small window of time each week. This time is greeted with serene spontaneity & brings a new adventure each week... this window is Sunday.



On Sunday the thirteen of September, my girlfriend embarked on her first visit to The Getty Museum in Los Angeles. It began with a stop at the bakery down the street for morning nourishment & then off.



There were many new things to see this time around. We spent a pleasant afternoon walking about & seeing most of the exhibits before time took it's toll. Alas, it was a great morning spent.

Above, portion of a french landscape drawn by Van Gogh. At the top is a small field in a Monet painting.
Below are Irving Penn photographs I appreciated.

OFF ROADIN'

Off Road Skateboarding - Los Angeles
Uploaded by JDBCreativeMedia. - Discover the latest sports and extreme videos.

Hostel Living

Just over two years ago, I spent sixty some odd days as a traveler. Each day involved a new journey & something amazing new to see, but it also made me aware of my surroundings in a completely unique way. With each day, brought night & a need for a place to rest our eyes. This was where a new world of hostel living entered my life.

Venice Beach Hostel & Hollywood Blvd Hostel

Recently though, I have been noticing around many of the places I frequent here in Los Angeles there are second and third floor hostels in areas I had never even noticed before. I found myself looking up to the windows, barely catching glipses of rickety bunk-beds & kaki clad Europeans on adventures of their own.

Alas, looking up into those same windows I can see my past experiences. The times when I sat on the edge of my bunk, looking out of a forgein window, down at a magnificent city I had only read about in books, or out at the Jungfrau at the foot of the Swiss Alps. I was there. Ready to explore.

Above is a picture of the hostel I stayed in while visiting Interlaken in Switzerland. I only hope the travelers today are enjoying my city as much as I enjoyed theirs.

THE FLAMING LIPS LIVE

Georgette took me to see The Flaming Lips set the Fox Theater's smoke alarms off...

The show was like nothing I had seen to before. The reviews I had read beforehand could not do the live spectacle justice. It was so entertaining to have a host like Wayne interact with the crowd beyond said vocalist duties. They handed out lazer pointers to everyone in the crowd to enjoy for the whole set. Wayne held up a giant mirror at one point for everyone to shine there lazer off...

We Danced | We Sang | We Were Merry

[by Georgette!]

X-Games Meets Poncho

Last week's vacation was pretty much the greatest (see below post), but this week is shaping up to be pretty good as well. On Monday, my roomate and I went and saw the new XGames 3D movie. It's only out for a week so get to it before Friday! Below is a still of one of my most favorite and innovative skateboards of our time, Mr. Bob Burnquist.

To see Burquist's switch BS180 the mega ramp on the big screen was worth the $16 alone.

It was quite the show of athletic ability... I found myself wondering about the difference in atheles in this modern world. There is the classic sports, such as baseball or basketball, that have seen a proven decline in viewership and participation, but still the individuals seem to make millions of dollars. When on the flip-side you have the ever increasing individual sports like snowboarding, surf, and skateboarding that make so little to get by b/c so so many corporate ties have burdened the sport. I mean really, why do YOU think they added snowboarding to the Olympics years back? Beacause viewership was down...........

Anyways, on to Tuesday's fun....

Streaking underground, carried by two rails, some friends & I were off to Hollywood & Highland for Wine and free Latin Jazz. However, this was not just ordinary latin jazz. It was the grooves & rythms of one of the best in the world, Pancho Sanchez. By the end of the first set there was a decent two or three hundred people watching the event. Good times were had all around.

Vacation Time

"Summer time and the living is easy." A line sung by numerous artists all throughout the decades from jazz, to reggae, to street performers. I must say this last week of Summer has truly been living easy. I spent my first full week off work since August of last year! Six days a week for a year.......... anyways. I wanted to share a short overview of the events that took place b/c I made sure to fill each day with activities.

SUNDAY - Abbot Kinney St in Venice

My parents came out to Venice from San Diego for lunch and an afternoon visit. My Mom is staying in LA with my sister who just gave birth this past week to my new nephew Jackson Armstrong Geller. Congrats!

My Dad & I spent some time looking through records which was a good time. He bought me Cream's Goodbye album on vinyl.

MONDAY - Found a deserted skatepark in Burbank

Thanks to a tip online, TheDude and I checked out a new skatepark in Burbank, which we found to be closed with no one rolling around. Well, the fence was only 6ft high so what do you think we did? Hoped that, and rolled around. The Cops showed eventually, but posed no threat.

TUESDAY - Walt Disney Concert Hall Tour & THE FLAMING LIPS

Designed by Frank Gehry, the Disney Concert Hall is a terrific display of imagination and engineering. It is free to take a 'go at your own pace' audio tour of the whole building. This is a must do tour!

PICTURES FROM THE FLAMING LIPS CONCERT SOON!!

WEDNESDAY - More skateboarding & Friends

The Usual*

THURSDAY - Angeles Crest & Beyond

Stepping back into the past for a moment, to February 2009. My friend Carlos & I took and adventure out into the mountains via Highway Two aka Angeles' Crest, only to be met by a road block 40 miles deep amongst the trees. Flash forward to vacation 09, packed the car with more friends to shoot some black and white photogrpahs.

Ed, Collin, Carlos and I made or way over the sixty plus miles of mountains to meet the town of Wrightwood on the far side for an ice cream. There will be a post soon with a lot more details about this trip. It was primarly for photography purposes... hint hint.

FRIDAY - Six Feet Under House & The Farmers Market

At roughly an hour an episode, 12 episodes a season, and five total seasons, it would seem that I know the Fischer family pretty well. My girlfriend Georgette sure does. Well, since she was the prevailing influence in my appetite for this HBO show entitled Six Feet Under, I only found it fitting to give a little back to her. On my last day of vacation I took her on a surprise visit to the funeral home that the Fischer family lived & filmed at for the duration of the show (2000-2005). You should have seen her smile!

Then it was off to the food paradise that Los Angeles' Farmer's Market on 3rd. After making a slow lap and working to decide on a food choice, we opted, before even buying the first round, to come back later that week to try others. On a full stomach I spent the rest of my last day of vacation relaxing. Saw good friends that night with some good music.

Ennis House - Frank Lloyd Wright

There once was a time... a time close to a decade ago when I was studying the angles and shapes of buildings over the cuts and structure of the motion pictures. There once was a time when I wanted to be an architect. I truly wanted to design roller coasters, though fearing many of them even here in LA at Six Flags.

Alas, I spent years studying other designers, learning AutoCAD, and working to understand landscape and its influence. I even have blueprints for a house I designed on ETID Drive. Even though my path did not continue this way I learned very valuable things from looking at the world around us just a little different.

Another great aspect to this is I was introduced to Frank Lloyd Wright's work. One of the most important days in my architecture history was the day that my parents took me to tour two of the homes he designed in Los Angeles, Ennis House (shown here) & Hollyhock House. I had never seen such inovative design when arriving at the Ennis House that day in the Los Feliz Hills. Built in 1924, it was quite different for it's time. The exteroir portion seemed to flow out of the hill as the drive wrapped around it's castle like structure.

I love how you can see through the driveway out to an enourmous view of Los Angeles. The interior is a gorgeous wood & stone world with many of the rooms seperated by small changes in elevation, which was one of my favorite features.

However, these photos I shot a week ago when I reviseted the house for the first time in eight years. I spent almost tour house walking around the house shooting photos and just looking at the ideas presented in the house's design. You can really see the Mayan influence through the building.

The sad part is the house is no longer available for tours. It had become to costly for the city to keep up the renovations to allow tours. The house is now on the market for $15 million, with an estimated $10 million in work to get it up to great standards.