Restoration Photograph Part Two - Saturday 1/14/2009

Most of the daylight hours today were spent scanning and fixing photos. Well, we did run errands, and I did have my hair cut and styled, and we did go to a hoot and sing some songs with our friends in the evening....really great evening!

Anyway, this is me with my first posse. Pops and the Sibs. Great back-up group. Lots of harmonies.

Trikegirl...Coming through!



Riding solo at eleven. What a great summer. The only downside was that Ginger had to run alongside rather than ride uptop with me.

Starboy was a real stinker, and threw me off again and again. But I rode him around bareback as much as possible. Only had him one summer, but oh what a great time that was.



Sometimes groups wear me out. I put this photo up on Facebook. I've stayed in contact with one of these girls continuously ever since (Diver, in the lower left corner) and have reconnect with two others on Facebook recently.

It's nice to have roots.


Fooling around with the timer on a Polaroid camera in 1981. (Do you love the measuring tape shoe laces?) Texaco was already living in California.

My family makes me laugh.

Everyone says I look like my Mom and I take it as a compliment, you bet. I wish I looked as good at all our ages as she does!

Poetry in Motion - Friday 2/13/2009

As I left Priscilla's with my coffee this morning I noticed a flier for their upcoming poetry reading. A note at the bottom urged open mic readers to honor the wishes of the coffee house that will provide them a stage by abstaining from profanity or graphically sexual language.

My first thought was, "Wow, poetry ain't what it used to be."

But by the time I got upstairs and pulled this book off one of the shelves in the office, I'd realized that poets have been pushing the boundaries for a long long time. (See: Walt Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric".)

Wonder what racy stuff Homer wrote when he wasn't working on "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey."





Oh, and it snowed in SoCal again!

I drove home around noon so I was able to see it fall in big fluffy flakes. It coated the hillsides in a little over an hour .

Hydra's van pool was stopped on Sierra Highway on the way home, but make it through okay. He'd left the Tahoe parked by the pick-up point, so when he got home, he brushed snow off of it before putting it in the garage.

Restoration Photograph - Thursday 2/12/2009

Started playing around with my scanner and software this evening. This shows just the preliminary difference between the original faded photo and the partially restored one.



I can clean up that border, for instance. This is my brother The Brain, his new car, and our dog Ginger.

Ginger. She was seriously one of my best friends growing up. When we swam out into the lake, she'd eventually get upset about us being so far away and swim out to us.

I used to ride around on my Huffy dirt bike with her on my lap. She listened to everything I had to say. She slept with me at night (sorry, Mom.)

I still get choked up seeing her picture. She was a great friend.



Just had to throw in this idyllic shot of chubby baby me. Cue "Blue Skies!"

Weens's Flowers - Wednesday 2/11/2008

Someone sent Weens a bouquet of tulips.

Who, Weens?

Who?

After the Rain - Monday 2/9/2009

I am pretty sure that I had a clear idea of why I wanted to take a photo of my coffee when I was doing it, but I can't for the life of me imagine why now.

As I was taking this shot outside the Studio City branch of the LAPL, a guy waiting for the light on Laurel Canyon hollered out, "Don't for get to take it off!"

Not so many years ago I would have assumed this was a double--or maybe even a single--entendre.

Today I recognized it for the simple kindness it was, a nice man not wanting me to forget the cup until I heard it crack on the pavement behind me. I waved and nodded, and stopped myself from saying, "I'm actually pretty focused on it."

Ha ha.



The Facebook Photography Contest this week was "Skyline." It was a gorgeous day for it, the rain and hail having scrubbed the air. I pulled off of Laurel Canyon and drove up Selma Avenue into the Hollywood Hills to get this obstructed view. Too late to enter the contest, but here you are.


It's writing group night! Yay!

Clearly the animals at Braveheart's house are deeply unnerved by my presence.

In my experience, domesticated animals have an uncanny memories when it comes to people with the right length of fingernails who are willing to use them on haunches and bellies.

Prep Day - Sunday 2/8/2008

Hydra boils eggs for the week ahead.

We rehearsed Luckenbach Texas with some friends today for a little single-song performance next Sunday. Fun!

Friday Night Lights - Friday 2/6/2009

After having our taxes done by a great guy in Glendale, we waded up the freeway to The Granville in Burbank for dinner. It was quite lovely to sit in the bar area looking out at the pouring rain.


I tried the famous berry mojito, which was delicious. Muddled mint, white rum and blackberries. I would say that with the creation of this cocktail we, as a species, have arrived.


Hydra had a burger that was mounded with bacon and mushrooms, which was apparently fab. I had the seared ahi over smoked Gruyere with basil and pine nuts and an order of the rosemary and sea salt french fries which we started with as an appetizer. The Granville is famous for its yummy sweet potato fries, but I was in the mood for my favorite tuber.

We launched the Tahoe back into the river that was the 5 freeway and navigated over to Northridge for a hoot. Yeah, as in hootenanny.

It was a very relaxing evening. Sometimes more than 40 people show up to take a turn singing and playing a song and singing along with others. There were maybe half as many last night, so we had plenty of time to practice singing "Sue City Sue" a couple of times before calling a member of our group who has been battling depression and singing it for him over the phone. It's his kind of song.

Hydra sang "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night," with which I harmonized. He backed me up on "Just the Other Side of Nowhere." The hoot host and I were sitting in the back finding harmonies to other people's songs and she invited to join her on "Across the Great Divide."

The musical equivalent of a three dog night? Three great songs, anyway.