Friday's Photo Of The Week #13

Photo of the Week (posted earlier this week, but had to post again)

I love the perspective, colors, and negative space in this photo. And the subject: A man and his dog, out in nature. Can't be beat!
Some random tidbits:
This morning I got into my car and went to turn on the pandora station on my phone, but before I did, some random music started playing for me. It was sort of an electronic beat with no lyrics except an occasional "come on". It lasted for about a minute and then stopped. I have no idea where it came from since the auxiliary was turned on, but no music was actually playing from the stereo or my phone. It's a mystery to me...

I bought a CD this week: Codeine Velvet Club. I love it. This is one of the bands I saw at SXSW.

Here's a video on youtube for you to enjoy:

And a few pictures that I took while at SXSW 2010:

Cheers!

Mt Baldy hike

This was a spectacular hike! 16 miles round trip. It's only about an hour away from LA (be careful on the switchbacks through Baldy village! We had to slow down to first gear several times...) We got to the trailhead only to realize that we left our food at home. We still had water, so we decided to go halfway. But fortunately, halfway is the ski house, where they serve food. So we were able to still go as far as we could to the top.
This is Mt Baldy from the Ski House, and you can see where we turned around. We didn't make it to the very top because it was too deep of snow and too narrow of a path.
But we did make it 9400 ft up (the peak is at 10k ft). Total we hiked a 4000 ft elevation gain. At the point that we stopped, Rita had tried to chase a snowball and ended up sliding down about 400 ft of a steep incline (~75 degrees). It was really scary. We weren't sure if she would make it back up. Here she is, trudging her way back up...
The hike was absolutely beautiful. It took about 5.5 hrs. We were really tired the last hour, but the trail was all downhill, so that helped a bit.
Rita loves the snow, and made for some great entertainment the whole hike. She couldn't figure out the difference between snow and a snowball, so she'd dig around and try to find the thrown balls.
Here are some of my favorite pictures (click any photo to enlarge):

(the icy switchbacks)

(Mt Baldy with the view towards Los Angeles)

(the waterfall)

(such blue skies!)

To view the whole album, click here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=223433&id=527707845&l=635ad7d784

Joseph Arthur at the Stronghold, 04-23-10

Here are some pictures from Friday night's show at the Stronghold:

Friday's Photo Of The Week #12

(this is supposed to be playing frames as a GIF, but I can't figure out why it's not working...anyone?)

Last weekend we took a last minute trip to Flagstaff. It was a nice visit. I got to see my brother play baseball (he really is the best player on the team). He's a left-handed pitcher in his senior year, going to college for baseball too! Go Robbie!!
And since my niece and nephew are just too cute to not post pictures...here they are:

Reminder: Last night to see Joseph Arthur at the Stronghold in Venice, 10:30pm tonight. Anyone want to go with me? :)

Air and Street Art (Banksy, in particular)

I was listening to Air (Moon Safari) on the way to work this morning and it was lovely. Play this beautiful video for some background music while you read on...


On Tuesday night, Sam and I had a wonderful double date with Daniel and Caprese. We had a delicious home-made meal and went out later to see the movie "Exit Through The Gift Shop." This movie is about street art, but more specifically, Mr. Brainwash (MBW). Almost two years ago, June 18th, 2008 to be exact, I went to the opening night of MBW's art gallery: Life Is Beautiful exhibition, in Hollywood, CA. "Exit Through The Gift Shop" is in theaters now, and ultimately about this art show. I had waited in line for several hours that night and right when we got up to the front, they turned us away for the night. It was simply too crowded. I went later on that weekend to see what the hubbub was all about. I took pictures of the show, which I don't have with me at the moment, so that will have to wait for a future post.

So I want to do a few segments on street art because I find it simply fascinating. I adore Banksy and I own this wonderful book:
It was pretty cool to learn about other major street artists, including Space Invader and Shepherd Fairey. More about these street artists and MBW in another post, but in the meantime, here are a few of the major pieces of art that Banksy has done:





P.S.-FREE download of Band of Horses song from their new album HERE. Album comes out May 18th. :D

Eagle Rock Mountain

Come along for another hike!

This is the beautiful city that I live in, Eagle Rock, with the view of downtown not far away. A few months ago, I took a quick hike up this hill and wanted to follow the trail, but didn't have the time, so I came back 2 weekends ago when I had a spare 2 hours and did this trail:
From the 134 heading east, you exit Harvey and turn Left. Then a Right on Holly, and go a short distance to the end of the street where it curves around, where the trailhead is. The first 20 minutes is a steep climb up some rocks. This is the hardest part of the hike, so it starts you out pretty tough, but is peaceful the rest of the time. Here is a picture of the view soon after you reach the top of the mountain:
A gorgeous view of downtown for most of the hike! It was overcast, but made for some good hiking weather.

Downtown Panorama (click to enlarge):

Griffith Park and Hollywood Hills Panorama (click to enlarge):

Beautiful trees, beautiful rolling hills:

A view of Eagle Rock. This trail doesn't go to the actual rock. I'll still have to find it some other day.... I think the rock is off of Figueroa St. You can see the Figueroa exit sign in this picture:

Colors!

Rita, such a pretty girl: