Mortal fear of shiny floors

I had to rent this movie from Netflix because of the description:

Calm and confident “Dog Whisperer” Cesar Millan reveals the secrets to raising a pet that won’t grow up to have issues in this fascinating National Geographic Channel series. The first season chronicles the rehabilitation of over 50 different dogs, from a chihuahua with a biting addiction to a towering Great Dane with a mortal fear of shiny floors. With Cesar’s know-how, no misbehaved dog is beyond repair.

Beth: what kind of phobia is that?

Photo class

After so much digital, it’s a pleasure to re-learn everything the hard way…including focusing, which is a challenge…

High voltage

It’s one of the most surprisingly beautiful things I’ve seen/heard all week. The music, the narrator’s voice and the images are just breathtaking.

300 – the PG version (FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!)

This has to be one of the funniest videos I’ve ever seen.

Gentleman’s Agreement

Do not miss this movie. Look past the silences, the stiff upper lips, the slow pace, the long shots, it’s a revolutionary movie. It’s exactly 60 years old this year, and I’ve tried hard to remember a movie that made more poignant or powerful a point. Sure it has flaws, but they’re minor. There are very few things more important that what this film is about, and you won’t easily find a better movie about them.

The 1947 movie is about a journalist (Gregory Peck–phenomenal) who pretends he’s Jewish in order to get the inside story on an article he’s writing about anti-semitism. As he suffers people’s prejudice, relationships around him tense and fall apart, and he’s faced with the greatest choice of every person: in the face of injustice, do you stand up and act or do you sit down and shut up? It’s amazing. Nominated for 8 Academy Awards it won best picture, best supporting actress (Celeste Holm) and best directing (Elia Kazan, who did the unforgettable On the Waterfront, Streetcar Named Desire and East of Eden).

This is CINEMA. Now this is what I call art.

a saturday

After running about ten errands in an hour–not exaggerating–I went off to find the Earth day event in Altadena, just north of Pasadena. I never found it, but my wanderings brought me all the way to the foot of the San Gabriel mountains, and I marveled that I’d never thought of driving all the way there in the last six months. In fact, this was my first pointless driving exploration in all the time I’ve been here. I isolated some very promising hiking trails in the foothills, and bumped into very friendly people, lots of dog owners (including of an adorable bullmastiff-ridgeback cross) and some landscape painters.

I drove back East on Altadena to try and find the Earth day thing again–my intent was to take portraits of people there–and came across the gelato place that just opened on Altadena: Bulgarini’s. There was a massive spread of publicity on LA gelaterias and this was the most lyrical and effusive article you’d ever come across about ice cream, they literally waxed poetic about the pistacchio. So I stopped in, because I remembered that today was their opening day and it was free ice cream from 12 to 8 PM. I stood in line probably 45 minutes listening to my iPod and watching crazy kids play, and talking to their parents and generally enjoying the crowd brought together by the promise of free sweets.

The ice cream was good, the pistacchio very excellent but I missed the black cocoa from Ile Saint Louis’s Berthillon…such the snob that I am.

After that, I went to the bookstore. I got a parting gift for my boss, the Lonely Planet Paris, my constant companion when I was living there, and looked at photo books, then bought the new biography on Einstein by walter Isaacson. I knew instantly that this was the next book I was going to read, especially after getting the 40% off coupon from Borders, and I highly recommend it. I’ve already put a dent in the book and there are some priceless stories in there, and you’ll just come out richer from having spent time with the “impudent” Albert. It’s a gem, a real gem. Run to it!

I went home to craft a sign, which I thought was particularly creative. It says in black on bright green poster board “FREE Portraits! (photo class assignment)” the whole thing attached to a little wooden rod. My romantic idea was to plant it in the ground next to me in the park, reading my Einstein book and hope that people would see me as a harmless art student, not some creep wanting to take photos of their kids. So the next thing I did, was drive to my newly-discovered favorite park, adjacent to Caltech. I parallel-parked very poorly (I was nervous) and decided to test the waters with the book and the camera first, without the sign. I sat on a bench, the park lady (who’s been there every time I’ve been there, with a green chenille sweater wrapped around her face) a few benches down, and sitting near the swings. It was overcast, and there was a boisterous birthday party in the far corner. I never mustered up the courage to bring out the sign, but I did meet a Caltech biologist who was playing with her daughter, and is originally from Benin! So I gave her one of my little cards (taken of the beach in Pointe-Noire) and we said we’d meet for coffee.

After that I figured I was never going to pull out that loud sign anyway, and thought it was a pretty productive ten minutes in the park to meet one of probably a handful of Beninese in this area. So I left rather content, but still a bit embarrassed.

I went to have dinner at my favorite Thai place, and they teased me for not having come in at least a month, almost refusing to talk to me, saying I’d moved out of the neighborhood. They finally fed me and I came home to Einstein, kind of wondering how someone as shy as me is ever going to take people’s portraits or even venture into street photography, which is what this class is about. At least I’m tackling my big fears by even staying enrolled in the class. Luckily I have two volunteers for tomorrow morning…

To be continued.

Essa Peka and Dudamel

Something that’s been capturing my interest this past week is the LA Philharmonic conductor succession. First of all, their names are SO cool.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is the current (Finnish-born) conductor, to be replaced by Gustavo Dudamel in two years. Dudamel is 26 (most LA Philharmonic conductors have been in their mid-twenties) and is an international star. He’s been conducting since he was 13 (used to conduct 90 concerts a year at 13). He’s also wildly charismatic…check out what he said about his relationship to the LA Phil. Now this promises an exciting (and sexy) five years..

“We need to have our honeymoon together to make children. Then we have plenty of time to think about what we want to do (…)”

What cracks me up is the ripples that this made in the classical music world. Dudamel is so charismatic, he’s known for generating electrifying energy when he conducts betweent he musicians and the audience. People are comparing what’s happening in LA to an “earthquake”, Chicagoans are wringing their hands at having lost Dudamel. It’s this amazing hyper-dramatic saga worthy of Harry Potter in the choosing of Dudamel and the whole “he’s the ONE” thing.

Read this article. Just read them all, you’ll get a KICK! This thing is so much fun!

fragments of Redonkulous*

I was at Target a week ago to buy a personalized license plate cover. I wanted to put something funny on there like “Enjoy every taco” but they were out, or never had it in the first place. So someone taking over (inside my brain) got me to purchase a stupid floor mat with the closest thing to a pedestrian sign on it: a pink “ladie’s room” icon. Now I’m sitting here on a Saturday morning, contemplating my day, and I have to go return the misguided idea to Target. I feel I spend my entire life buying crap I dont’ want at Target and returning it. In fact, I’m getting so good at it, that I now can park in the strategic spot, return the crap and be out of there in 10 minutes flat, if not less. Sick thing to be good at. Anyway. I’m at the register, looking for a new brand of gum when I see…”Snickers Bubble Gum”. I audibly gasped and told the clerk: doesn’t bubble game with a flavor of peanuts and chocolate defeat the purpose of gum? she responded “people like it because the flavor stays a long time, but it’s really gross if you’re standing next to someone who’s chewing it”.

Since these are fragments, they’re just going to be all over the place. If I have to organize this I won’t write it.

Bits and pieces heard on the radio: The police chief in Kewaskum, Wisconsin, passed a school bus with red lights flashing because he was distracted by a truck. When he realized what he’d done, he pulled over, and wrote himself a $235 ticket and a 4-point penalty on his license! People were so moved by this all the way to Russia, that he started getting money to help him pay for the ticket. Some Saab owner in Wisconsin drove his car 1 million miles in 17 years.

Driving bits: on easter, I was on the 210 when I hear the traffic report (…”and a refrigerator is blocking the middle lane on the 210 East-bound past…” On the way to work the other day, and I hear “..and great news for banking! Finally (this bank) is open on Sunday for banking! So you’ll never miss a day of business!” and I’m thinking…this is GOOD news? Why!?!?! You don’t even have a valid reason for taking a break. No one already gets to take vacations, now weekends aren’t sacred anymore.

My boss is leaving work next week, she’s moving to…PARIS. Oh..the IRONY of the universe. why!?!

I’m taking an amazing photo class this quarter with a tandem professor team of Father-Son. They’re great. Except you all remember I went to Vegas and hated it? Well, I keep meeting these people who love Vegas. Student in my class: he spends 3 days a week in Vegas, drives 100,000 miles a year, and he’s the one who has done all the indoor and outdoor swimming pools in Vegas hotels since 1991. LOVES Vegas, says it’s an amazing place, the food, the night life, the casinos. Co-worker: “I’m going to Vegas. Can’t wait. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, baby. I’m driving out after work”. I’m meeting my cousin from Germany for the very first time. We meet at a restaurant in Pasadena, and I walk in, and they’re having a conversation with the manager. I hug and kiss her, her mom, politely say hi to employee, then we start talking. I say, “so, how long are you here for?” “well, we’re going to be here for a week, then we’re going to Yosemite, San Francisco, Vegas and back” “Oh, cool! You’re going to LOVE Yosemite! I wish I could go… Vegas is ok, I think you should see it once in your life at least…” Restaurant manager INTERRUPTS! “once in your life?!? What are you talking about?!? Vegas is one of the greatest places in the world! I go there three times a month! Everything’s there, best food in the US, best restaurants, best hotels, best entertainment!” I’ll spare you. He went on for literally 15 minutes. And of course, being part-French (which is like being part-bulldog) I couldn’t help but jab and make snippy comments about the tackiness of the place, which sent him on a wild rant even louder and longer than before. AWKWARD. He reeled cousin and her mom in closer, (away from me) and whispered sweet nothings to them, his insider tips about Vegas. So that was my first meeting with my cousin. Hijacked by a Vegas freak.

Redonkulous recycling. I have this amazing connection with Caltech, the university that’s in Pasadena. If you’ve never heard of it, it is one of those mythical places. Einstein used to come here and when he did, he ate at the Athenaeum, the campus restaurant. It is a very small campus, but exquisitely beautiful, with sun streaming onto the patches of grass, stately graeful trees, wisteria coated building walls. The campus is peppered with arches, and an eccentric mix of architectural styles that’s a pleasure for the eyes. So the natural and architectural beauty, the fountains, the perfect size, have made it my favorite place in Pasadena. Not only that, there is SOMETHING about it that just soothes me. I want to be there, all the time. Additionally, it is an incredible institution. It’s a university called nicknamed “the MIT of the West” and only has about 900 undergraduates and 1200 grads. 32 of its grads are recipients of the Nobel Prize. Anyway, great place all around. Great vibe.

I like being in Caltech so much…I volunteered to take the recycling from our flat (and we produce an insane amount) JUST BECAUSE the community recycling center is on the Caltech campus. Oh. and MOST ridiculous? Remember how I was poking fun at Germans for being so precise in their little recycling cubbies that were locked with a key?

Caltech recylcing center is locked outside of opening hours. We have () bins divided this way ( THIS IS NOT A JOKE):

-Newspaper ONLY
-Batteries
-Soda cans
-Cardboard boxes and brown paper bags
-White paper
-Colored paper
-Mixed paper (post it notes, envelopes, junk mail)
-Chipboard: most food containers and cereal boxes (milk cartons, egg crates, boxes…)
-Glossy magazines ONLY
-Telephone books ONLY
-Tin cans
-Plastic milk bottles ONLY
-Lab glass ONLY
-CRV glass (most beverage containers)
-non-CRV glass ONLY
-Number 1 plastic
-Number 2 plastic
-Number 3 plastic
-Number 4 plastic
-Number 5, 6 and 7 plastic
-Plastic bags.

Because I all love you so much (and because recycling methods and categories are one of my darkest hobbies) I’ve posted up a JPG of the layout of Caltech recycling center. Petey, feel free to tease me mercilessly now.

Predictably, once I get to the recylcing place, I have to sort through the trash because the bins are so far apart and eerything is so complicated. (click on the map to see it in it’s full-sized REDONKULOUS glory)

So many redonkulous things happen in the place of employment, but for fear of retribution, you will not hear of them. I’m out. Have to go buy film. And go to the recycling. And return the stupid pink bathroom-icon floormat to Target.

*Redonkulous = ferret word for something so ridiculous, it’s redonkulous.

Los Angeles to Paris on Google Maps

Check it out.

Read direction number 30.

:-)

no time for beauty

I almost wish I had never read this article. It is heart-breaking that people would have no time for beauty. Especially something as celestial as violin music, which by some miracle, made it to this dreary world.

read on..at your own peril…

Joshua Bell plays incognito in Washington DC metro.