SWOON!!!

On both Thursday and Friday, the paper had pictures and a little bit of story about this production. Australia's Strange Fruit performing "Swoon", the most notable thing about it being that it is performed atop 4 meter tall fiberglass poles!!!



It was being shown at no charge in downtown Los Angeles from Thursday to Saturday. One of those things that, after hearing of, I just had to see!!!



It was quite a spectacle, well performed, along the lines of a mime show, but much more acrobatic!!!



In addition, I got to explore some previously uncharted areas of my city and take a great deal of photos!!! Seriously, I ended up with over 200 shots in my camera by the time I made it home. I also videoed the performance, and may upload that at some point.

Rapid Random

Just a few random things I wanted to post on!!!

My wife got lucky and got Jury Duty. Had her calling in since last Monday, but Friday was the first day they actually had her come in. So far, she's on a jury. I notice that when I was on Jury Duty, there were wild fires going on then, too. I saw the smoke rising from the hills yesterday when I was taking the boys to the railroad open house.

I know I've been hiking up there, but I remember the name of the place more than the place itself.

Incredibly hot this weekend. I kind of wanted to take the boys or the whole family to Universal Studios to partake in some of the moist activities that occur there, as well as getting some use out of the year passes. Of course, I don't think I'd drive, but take the rail line.




All images swiped from the 'Net.

The system went down several times on Friday. I wrote about it on my cup. "For a buggy system, it is remarkably stable" and "Do not attempt to adjust your computer. We are controlling the transmission." I wonder how many people actually made the Outer Limits connection.

Wifey's going to take the rail line to court tomorrow instead of driving. If she'd had the presence of mind, she could have gotten a Metro pass at the court and gone without having to pay. Hopefully (and if commuting that way suits her tomorrow) she'll pick one up when she's there tomorrow.

Instead of going to Universal, I did yard work yesterday. That, and the railroad open house. The lawn actually came out looking fairly decent just running the mower over it and weed eating around the edges. Had to cut back a lot of other greenery, too, it's that time of year when the Fire Department does inspections.

Writing about the yardwork reminded me that I should water the grass a little.

My mom called today and talked a bit to my wife. Catching half of the conversation I got that she'd bought something for my oldest boys' birthday present. As she was getting ready to hand the phone to me, wife tells mom that she'll have to tell me so I know what she got him. As soon as I'm talking to my mom, she starts telling me about a Stanley Kubrick video collection she bought. I thought that was quite cool, but a rather odd thing to have gotten for the boy. Apparently, it was not for my son but just something she'd picked up.

Earlier in the week I'd needed something for my cup, so I wrote part of an Emily Dickinson poem:
HOPE is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all!!!

If she'd had the Metro pass, could have used that to ride free to Universal. I don't suppose that she could grab a handful of them???

They had a note on the board at work to let them know if anyone is interested in a permanent Saturday shift. Oh yea, I am interested!!! Saturday shift means you get Fridays off, and the shift is from 6:30 to 3:15, so you've still got some Saturday left. If you don't fall asleep after work. It also means a little more gravy in your paycheck. Now, there's something to hope for!!!

I know there is more random, because I had a thing or two that got left off the last random!!! The hour grows late...

ÃÝË's Been Working on the Railroad

Now, this was cool!!!

There was a blurb in the paper about an open house going on at a model railroad club.





I've always loved trains, and, even without my input my youngest has pretty much loved trains from infancy.



They have their own building with a layout over 5,000 square feet, and a great amount of detail. If you look closely, in the first picture you can see there's a guy bungee jumping from the bridge span. I didn't even see that until I looked at the picture tonight!!!





It also happened to be pretty close to my home, so that was a plus, too!!!

Return to Oz

Now this was cool!!!


Last time I went to see Wicked, I had a few things I would have liked to have done different. I would have liked to have taken the train there. I would have liked to have taken my wife there. I would have liked to be able to pick up some tickets to take her for her birthday and not have to take out a second mortgage.

Well, today we got a friend to watch the boys. We hopped the rail line to the Hollywood and Vine station. Riding the train is really a great way to get around, provided you can spare a little wait time. We put our names into the daily ticket lottery drawing.

The deal on the ticket lottery goes like this: Two and a half hours before showtime, they start taking names for the drawing. Two hours before, they draw names. If your name is drawn and you are present, you can purchase one or two front row tickets for $25 each. One of my co-workers told me about it, said it was the deal they do now instead of student passes. 26 seats, the whole front row.



Well, DING DING DING DING DING, WE GOT A WINNA WINNA WINNA!!! Appropriately enough, it was my wife's name that got drawn, it was in celebration of her birthday that we were there. Front row, almost dead center. We were able to chat a little bit with the conductor before the show, and make eye contact with the actors. The only downside is you aren't as readily able to take in all the action at once, you've got to look around more.



Of course, there was this matter of having two and a half hours of free time in Hollywood. More than that, actually, because what with the train we showed up early. Directly to the left of the Pantages is a tiny little cafe, and I bought her a really tasty rosemary chicken sandwich before the name depositing. Between the name deposit and the drawing, we just loitered in front of the theatre. After we got the tickets, we walked over a few blocks to Sunset so she could get a coffee from Starbucks, cashing in a gift card she got for her birthday. After that, we browsed in a store for a while. Everything was priced too high, and of course we would have had to cart it back to the theatre and on the train. A fun little wasting of time just under the Hollywood sign, in the shadow of the Capitol Records building.

She loved the show!!! I knew she would. Happy birthday!!!