Los Angeles

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Eaton Canyon After a Sunday Rain and a Day in Court

I had a few hours to myself late this morning. I was driving home from a Los Angeles Court where I was contesting a traffic citation and the San Gabriel Mountain range wet and dark with rain and gray and white marbled clouds above Pasadena looked dramatic. So I went home to get my camera and drove up to Eaton Canyon to capture a few images. To attend traffic court I had to call in sick for the morning. I worked at New Tech @ Jeff HS. It was awful. The kids were great. Smart. Talented. Hard-working. I have no fight with the kids. Admired them. But it is the adults who try to run their lives. There was a Mr. Collins. Dear Reader, you know who he is. He barked at kids' faces to get them to comply to some stupid code about wearing one's lanyard. Mr. Collins, you missed your calling as a concentration camp kapo. No, really, I think that you could have run your own camp and called it "New Tech Concentration." I was so sick of the administrative staff at that school with one exception. There was a secretary at the school. I'd never met LAUSD personnel with more grace, intelligence, and decency. Someone with her skills should not devalue or degrade her energies by handing them over to that Stalinesque district. I leave that behind me.

So after traffic court I drove up to Eaton Canyon and took a few photos from my pocket camera on the upper rim of the canyon. I only took a few.

On the southern rim of Eaton Canyon.

Snow-capped Mt. Wilson through the clouds and old Goody's diner, now empty, there on the northwest corner of that intersection.

On the west rim of Eaton Canyon.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

San Gabrielino Trail Near JPL on Sunday, March 18, 2012

Parking lot at JPL.

Head of San Gabrielino Trail.

JPL parking lot.

Driftwood?

View of Mt. Wilson.

JPL.

A music clinic in San Gabriel on Las Tunas. Windy.

Las Tunas with a view of Chano's.

It was a beautiful day.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Industrial Corridor in Vernon, CA

I took these shots on February 18 and am only now just posting them to my "Eye on LA" on St. Patrick's Day, March 17. Jimmy Larkin is holding a party for his Irish folks today. It should be fun and delicious food, like corned beef. But I wanted to get these pics up so that anybody looking at my site can enjoy these.

I liked this photo for the contrasts--red, black, white, and yellow graffiti paint all on a red caboose. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you'll note how comforting the morning light cast across the tracks is. It's not a bad picture.

I was so happy with this shot because the downtown buildings lit up by the morning sun occupy the center of this picture with the rusted trellis train bridge and the refinery to the left. This is taken from East 26th Street just west of Soto in Vernon. Love this city.

This angle captures the sun reflecting off the downtown building best. I like how the dark rust, black and gray water shimmers too and the concrete pillars under the bridge. For me, this captures the beauty of the industrial corridor of Los Angeles. Lovin' it.

The pictures that follow were taken on November 13, 2011. Also of Vernon. I just loved this area because it reminded me of what my dad and his father worked through and around.

This is the Soto Street Bridge over the LA River with the Vernon water tower to the right.

The Vernon Water Tower.

The Sears Building in East LA. My mother worked here at her first job since coming out to LA from Denver. She worked as a comptometer operator (see comptometer below). My mom operated one of these:

Directly across the street, just north of the Sears Tower, is this Standard Oil or Chevron Gasoline Station. Here is what the station looked like back in 1933.

Here is a 1933 shot of the Sears Tower and the Standard Oil Station.

I like the layers of light in this shot--blue at the top, yellow at the center just beneath the station roof, and the almost peach-yellow mixture of light on the street level.