Yes, of course they practice. But I’d never noticed that one of the practice points was right there in the middle of it all. I’d just got off the Blue line train, using a different route on my way to USC for a change, and about to jump onto my bike.
In other public transport news, I remain disappointed in the USC “Air Quality […] Click to continue reading this post
I was in Joshua Tree for a couple of days on the weekend, camping and hanging with some friends. It was a very pleasant time indeed, with groups of us taking turns making meals, and with bouts of talking and walking here and there, and sleeping in our tents listening to the evening wind howling at times.
Here’s a closeup (click for larger view) of a flower bundle of the Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens ), which is just a stunning plant.
The whole bush is pictured below.
Breaking news! On Monday evening, while heading for the bus stop I saw a lovely and welcome glimpse of the future. A train on the new Expo line tracks!!!! They are just testing, but it was exciting nonetheless. It is going to be so exciting and transformative when this line is done, and phase one opens later this year! (November, perhaps?) I’ll be able to use the subway/metro system to get all the way from my neighbourhood (on the red line) to the stop 5 minutes from my building, after one change downtown. I’ll feel a bit of a deserter if I stop using the bus to do the journey (assuming that the schedule is such that it it quicker than the bus!), but I’ve got to support this line too! After all, by 2015 or so, after phase two opens, I’ll be able to take this train from my office all the way to the beach…! […] Click to continue reading this post
Ok, so how long did it take you to spot that NPR’s 3D story today (“Advances In 3-D May Mean No Ridiculous Glasses”) was an April Fool joke? I thought it was rather excellent, and was in unbelieving mode from the moment that they began to talk about the surgery, which is utterly ridiculous, and made no physics sense to me at all. But the funniest give away was the line:
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Since I did not manage to put together an April Fool joke this year (again!), I’ll leave you with a joke sent to me today that I’d heard some time ago, but still makes me laugh out loud since it is so close to the truth about how keen we Physicists tend to be when it comes to problem-solving, and sharing the solution, even when it is not such a good idea. I do not know the originator of the joke, but here it is:
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The exo-planet hunting craft Kepler has found 1235 candidate planets orbiting other suns so far. The APOD site has a lovely composition by Jason Rowe showing representations of all of those suns with the spots on them that represent the planet transiting in front of them (that’s how they are found by Kepler). They are all nicely […] Click to continue reading this post
While on my way to work yesterday, I encountered an unusual sight (pictured on the right). It was a walking stick, leaning up against a post. It was unusual to me simply because I imagine that someone had lost their stick, and so someone else, upon finding it, had put it there in plain view so that the owner might find it again. Alternatively, the owner had simply forgotten it there? But surely you would not lose or forget and item you presumably depend upon for walking…? Either way, I’m finding it difficult to imagine a narrative leading to this circumstance that does not have slightly disturbing undertones to it. […] Click to continue reading this post
It was quite a busy week for me, and so all those moments I meant to stop and post thoughts and observations seemed to evaporate as I went from one thing to the next, with rather full days. I hit the ground running on Monday with several extra things on the calendar including being an external member of the committee for a thesis defense in the Chemistry department. Always useful and instructive to look in on what one’s colleagues are up to, and it was a rather nicely written thesis well defended.
The evening saw me at Bovard Auditorium to attend a pleasant visit by author Michael Ondaatje. My colleague from English and Comparative Literature, Hilary Schor, always super-enthusiastic about great authors, gave an introduction and then he came onto the stage and read a few extracts from his work before having a rather nice conversation with Hilary. Then the audience joined in with questions and comments of their own. While it was not full, it was a decent audience for this event, given its type, and I was happy to get the perfect seats I got. I had not done an RSVP, and came as a walk-in only to discover that some of the people on the door knew me and arranged for me to sit in the reserved seating for special guests. Only then did I remember that I’m on the committee that partly was responsible for this event […] Click to continue reading this post
One of the things I’ve noticed is that there’s not an awful lot of focus on pure drawing in the art world here in Los Angeles. I don’t see a lot of it up in galleries, on artwalks, on people’s walls, and so on and so forth. At least not in comparison to painting (especially) or sculpture. That may be a function of my ignorance, not having studied all the aspects of the “scene”. It may also be a more widespread phenomenon than just Los Angeles. Not sure. Anyway, when an exhibition with a drawing focus does come along, I get excited and often go. (The Getty had two big ones in the last couple of years, I should say, focusing on da Vinci (hurrah!) and Rembrandt (hurrah!) and his students on different occasions. But what about contemporary work?)
Well, to my delight I discovered that Saturday had an opening event at Gallery Nucleus with two major highlights for me. The first was that it was focusing on pencil drawing by current artists (Lined in Lead: Works in Graphite), and the second was that Michael Zulli would be there (there were some works of his on display) for the opening. I simply love his work in the graphic novel art world. I’ve no idea if you read […] Click to continue reading this post
Tomorrow’s full moon is going to be the closest to us in 18 years, apparently. It’s called a supermoon by some, and no doubt some will try to link it to many major events here on earth, both natural and man-made (if you’ll forgive the distinction). I won’t do a long post about this issue, but instead refer you to Phil, who is excellent on the science of this and related subjects.
What I will say instead is that all commentators seem to have missed that this is the best opportunity in years to gather moon-milk! Get out your ladders and buckets and go for it!
What am I talking about? At my last birthday I was given* a lovely collection of stories by Italo Calvino, and the first one is entitled “The Distance of the Moon”. It begins with a description of the fact that a long time ago the moon orbited much closer to the earth, as you may know, and then weaves a delightful story from there. The story involves reminiscences, by the narrator Qfwfq, about those good old days when the moon came so close that once a month (yes, I know) the earth’s inhabitants would take boats out onto the sea to the where the moon came close and climb up a ladder to its surface to gather the much-desired substance known as moon-milk. A lovely extract follows: […] Click to continue reading this post
It does look a bit like a coconut macaroon, and a particularly tasty one, but I must report that it is in fact an example of a Fremont pincushion (chaenactis fremontii), a white flower blooming in the deserts of the South West. I took this one in Death Valley yesterday. (It is Spring break, and I decided to get away for a bit.) Click for a larger view. There’s a tiny little creature of some sort perched on one of […] Click to continue reading this post
A scene from Saturday in Grand Hope Park downtown Los Angeles. Several of us turned out to sit, picnic, and chat about being pedestrian in LA. It was about building communities, connecting with people, getting around the city, development, the homeless, the artists, the businesses, restoration, preservation, and so on and so forth. See the site here. I knew about it because Linda Pollack of Habeas Lounge contacted me because she wanted me to come and share a bit about how I use public transport in combination with walking and cycling (and she wanted me to do a bit of show and tell with my Brompton folding bike (you can see it in the picture). […] Click to continue reading this post
A snap of some bathroom fittings (nickel finish) just before I installed them in a “new” bathroom, before my guests arrived in December. I rather liked the look of them all gathered there, on the simple background of tiles. I say “new” (in quotes) because the bathroom was actually finished way back in 2008. Procrastination… Yeah.
Somehow I’d never got around to finding the various fittings I wanted for it, partly […] Click to continue reading this post
