All Things Magical: Dena Palser, painter; and William Orbit, musician

Friday's Photo of the Week:

After some adjustments in Photoshop, I got a pretty neat photo of Los Angeles that I'm really happy with. This is from the Debs Park hike earlier this week.

It reminds me a bit of some of the work of local painter Dena Palser, whose work can be found here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/FreckledPancakes?ref=top_trail
I definitely recommend checking her out. Her paintings are so soothing and beautiful. Here is one of my favorites, called Magical Stoney Point:

And some info about William Orbit! He is a remarkable English musician, composer and producer. He's probably most known for producing Madonna's best-selling album, Ray of Light. I believe he has also worked with Blur and U2.
I love listening to his instrumental pieces from Pieces In A Modern Style, and had the pleasure of listening to a new song on KCRW this morning from his upcoming album (scheduled for release August 16th, 2010), Pieces In A Modern Style 2 (pretty creative title, right?). The song was his arrangement of the 'Aquarium' movement from Saint-Saens' 'Carnival of the Animals.' There is a minute clip of it on this site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00szxqy about 4 minutes into the hour long interview on BBC Radio. But it's only available for a couple days. I did find a clip of the original music from Saint-Saens' composition below. I love it most right now because it feels like it could be the score to the book I am currently reading: A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeleine L'Engle. Or part of any Tim Burton film. Very magical.

The Sandpit, short film by Sam O'Hare

A Day In the Life Of New York City, in miniature:

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Watch this video FIRST, best viewed on full-screen in HD if possible. You will not be disappointed.
Trying to figure out how it's done? Read the article here:
http://aerofilm.blogspot.com/2010/02/sandpit-short-film-by-aero-director-sam.html

Or some of the highlights... this was a video of over 35,000 photos! Shot over a period of 5 days. The tilt-shift and time lapse effects were added in post. The music was created for the film by a band called Human.

This video is a huge inspiration for me as I'm currently working on a music video for the Idyllists that involves stop-motion photography. It takes SO long... you'll see why once the video is finished... who knows when that will be.

But in addition to this video, I think I'd also like to do another similar photography video with images from Los Angeles. Not exactly like this one, but it is definitely an inspiration. The more I live here the more I love it. Last night I was walking the dogs and ended up chatting with two of our neighbors (two couples) which turned into 3 hours of good conversation over a few glasses of wine. So much for dinner and working out. I had such a great time!

Debs Park, Los Angeles

Debs Park is the epitome of Los Angeles scenery. You'll see the tight-knit homes tucked away in the hills with several landmarks all around and a nice view of downtown. Apparently, there's a pond, but I guess I took the back way in to the park and missed it. The entrance to the park is here: 4235 Monterey Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90032. I entered on the west side of the park near the Audubon Center on Ave 52 (near the baseball fields). There are lots of trails, and I just wandered around for about an hour with the pups. It was very relaxing and enjoyable, despite the heat. Here are some pics:

Icehouse Canyon Trail, Mt. Baldy

For my good friend Kristina's birthday, we hiked Icehouse Canyon, a trail on Mt Baldy. It was beautiful. The 7.3 miles were difficult, but mostly because of the heat. If you aren't in for a difficult hike, just do the first mile up and mile back. This was the most shaded section and ran along the beautiful creek. It was spectacular!
I'm posting a few of my favorites from the hike below, but you can view the full album here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=252879&id=527707845&l=5222d6734d

FRIDAY'S PHOTO OF THE WEEK #25:

And the rest...

(click on any picture to view larger)

The Heavy at The Hammer!

I went to the Hammer again for KCRW's "Also I Like To Rock" and watched a band called The Heavy, which has gotten some good attention lately with a commercial and late night shows. Letterman was so impressed with them he had them play the song a second time (which I guess never happens)! Anyway, they were amazing. Here are some of my shots from the show:

Friday's Photo of the Week #24

DOG FIGHT!

In honor of Rita, since she's getting spayed today! I'm nervous for her, but also excited for her. I hope everything goes well. We'll be picking her up tomorrow and spoiling her this coming week.
These pictures were just so great. Here are more from the "event." This is a common thing for Rita and Uncle Bo. They LOVE to play together. Usually we kick them outside so they don't knock over furniture. Rita usually dominates, as you can see in the pictures below. :)

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!!!

House Update

Dining Room:
(painted and working on molding for windows, hutch, etc.)
Bedroom:
(completely finished since we got the molding around the windows!)

Living Room:
(with our retro couch of sparrows and flowers)

Kitchen:
(I love this kitchen.)

The back bedroom is completely gutted and we have started framing the walls and setting up electrical. There are several full days of work to be done on the back room, so hopefully we can have one of those days this weekend if our cousin's available.

My Weekend in Photos

The weekend was full and fun.

Meeting the Green's new baby, Koen Christopher Green:

Working on house projects:

Making pizza:

And watching the world cup at The York, which is a great little restaurant/bar near my house:

Quick update... I've learned that when most people "follow" a blog, they want to get email updates. If you have gmail or blogger, you can see all the new posts via Google Reader or Blogger dashboard. If you'd like to get an email update, let me know and I'll add you to The List.

Caballero Canyon, Reseda, CA

This is a nice trail close to my work. It is 2 miles south of Ventura on Reseda. There is plenty of street parking. I just used my camera phone for pictures, but I'll still put up a few. There are several trails in Caballero Canyon that you can take. I do the same one everytime.

Also, the path was more overgrown than ever before, so there was a few weeds to whack out of the way.

Nothing spectacular as far as scenery (besides the Encino reservoir and the canyon view), but it makes for a great workout.

It's 3 miles round trip, and the first 1.5 miles is straight uphill. I think you go about 750 ft in elevation. At about 2.5 miles, there is a cool lookout rock that's nice to lay out on and enjoy the view.Bo did NOT want to sun bathe on the lookout rock:

Regarding shade, it's not the friendliest hike. So go at dusk or dawn, or anytime less than 60 degrees out (this is hard for L.A.), or just bring lots of water and get ready to sweat.

Friday's Photo of the Week #23

"I want to play with Zoe... Where's Zoe... There's Zoe... Hi Zoe..."
"What, Treydan..."
Unfortunately he hadn't planned on what to say once he finally got her attention, so he just stood there dumbfounded while she continued the day with her friends. But later that day, after my little buddy had been following her and her beautiful twirly pink skirt around... with a fan, no doubt that he'd be there for her at any sign of perspiration on her forehead, I asked her if I could get a picture of her with T. She willingly obliged, and boy, was he happy!
This is one for your bedroom wall, Treydan. Don't say I never did anything for you. ;)

Friday's Photo of the Week #22

Although I'd like to post a picture from Anna's shoot for the photo of the week, I decided to choose something different since I already posted my favorites from her shoot.

Last night I went to "Also I Like To Rock" at the Hammer Museum. This is happening every Thursday in the month of July. The current exhibit was terrible, but I think they might be changing it by next week. The ongoing gallery there is nice, has a few Degas, Daumier, Monet, and Van Gogh.

The music was great!
Kitten got down and dirty:

And Saint Motel was a crowd-pleaser:


And I got some neat artsy photography as well: