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I’ve been going out picture-taking a lot with a Flickr contact who is really fun. We love going to the same types of places. She’s really good at taking pictures of people, though, which I am not! She and I went to a spot where some train cars are parked last weekend and Elijah came along. She got him to pose for her! Amazing.

I can’t put the pictures right in my post because she doesn’t allow that on her Flickr settings, so I’ll just link to them.

Here’s Elijah on a train car.

Me and Elijah together.

I was nervous being up there.

And Elijah on the tracks.

It was a cool cloudy day, which we don’t get too many of around here. Awesome to take pictures in. I still need to get my film developed from that day.

Because I’m an introvert, if I don’t get regular alone-time I start to wig out. Not wig out—I think it’s almost impossible for me to really wig out—but Daniel noticed that I was starting to get a bit cranky and offered to take the kids to our friend Dave’s this weekend.

YES!

Of course the kids didn’t want to go. All of them wanted to be left home without the others, and wondered why just having one person around, even if they stayed in their room the whole weekend on their computer, would make a difference.

It does. Believe me.

So I’ve had 24 hours of completely quiet aloneness, aka bliss!

What did I do? Pretty much the same stuff I always do. But it’s just so much easier to do alone. Even housework. I have a hard time doing housework when people are around. Is that weird? I just get in this burrowing-mode where I can’t do anything if there are people around.

Anyway, this week I’ve managed to socialize as well. Rare for me. I met up with a Flickr contact who it turns out works just down the street from me at a really cool preschool. We met up for a few minutes on her lunch hour and took some pictures.

They have a horse at her preschool! Among lots of other animals.

A couple weeks ago, Daniel, Nathaniel and I went into downtown LA. Nathaniel and I stopped by an art gallery I’d heard about on Flickr. They normally feature artwork by graffiti artists—not graffiti, other stuff they do. So we dropped in, and they were having a show on prison art.

The door was locked but a sign said to knock, so we did. A man came to the door and let us in. The gallery is small. He stood in the middle of it, staring straight ahead, just zoning out. He never said a word to us.

A lot of the art was mostly drawings of naked women, which was kind of funny to be looking at with my 19 year old son. But it was interesting—all the artwork was done by prison inmates, and most of it had a letter from the artist talking about his work. The one who did the really lurid naked pictures said that he started drawing to make money or trades with the other prisoners, and everyone wants the naked chicks, so that’s what he draws.

I asked the fellow working there if I could take some pictures and he nodded his head. So I snapped a couple, but only three. Here’s one:

The sign says "This plastic cup was done using a needle and cigarette ash by an unknown inmate in San Quentin."

The other pictures I took were of this stainless steel toilet that someone had etched stuff on. Don’t think I want to know how an inmate got ahold of anything sharp enough to scratch steel…

Here’s a shot I took with my half-frame camera of the sign for the gallery on a street corner:

The upper frame is a shot of the pavement right next to the sign. The plaque reads: "Private Property - Permission to pass over revocable at any time."

One more shot I took of the building next door to the gallery. I love this little street in downtown LA:

My camera’s going out, the shutter is staying open too long, so it’s over exposing and everything is blurry. But it’s kind of a cool effect.

My parents recently picked up an old camera for me and inside was an exposed roll of film. Really old, probably from the 50s or early 60s. I developed it today.

The pictures are of a farm. Most feature a horse with a colt and a cowboy.

But some feature a milk cow and a farmer and a little girl.

“Milk Cow - And Proud of It!”

At the end of the roll were these turkeys and a cat:

Is it me, or do turkey’s talons look really funny? They totally make me want to laugh.

I love finding old film like this and developing it. It’s such a mystery. So many possibilities. Who took the pictures? The Mrs? Did the farmer take the pictures that he isn’t in? Where were they taken? (Probably western WA somewhere.) Who are these people?

You can see all of the pictures as a slideshow here.

There’s a story behind this picture.

The other day we were in downtown L.A. My son Nathaniel and I were walking on the sidewalk under these windows when someone threw a glass bottle out a window and it crashed into pieces just ahead of where we were. A woman across the street (where this pic was taken from) started yelling "Hey man don’t be throwing stuff out the window! There are people down here!" etc. Nathaniel and I considered inching along close to the building to get past the spot where more bottles might come crashing down but instead just jaywalked across the street.

The woman was still yelling at the guy and he poked his head out the window. I tried to snap a picture of him but when he saw my camera he ducked back inside.

Sometimes I want to tell people, "Don’t worry, the picture will be all blurry."

The woman kept talking. She said, "You could kill someone doing that! I seen it happen before. Right on this street a couple weeks ago!"

Here is the restaurant I mentioned eating at during my photo walk around the eastside of Long Beach, a little taco place, where the kitchen/cashier area was barred off from the seating area:

I think that’s all I’ve uploaded so far from Long Beach. That window you see in the back is the walk-up window, you can order from the sidewalk.

We’ve had rain here so it’s been hard to get out much. I went to the park one day with Cat and her boyfriend when it was raining. Here they are reflected in a mud puddle:

It’s rare that we get rain around here. But all last week we were soaked.

I took this picture of a tree and bushes next to a wall that surrounds a gated housing development before we headed home:

I almost didn’t get it because I had to cross the street to get over to it and by this time we were really cold. But it was calling to me. I’m glad I took it. You can see the same wall on the left in this photo:

The park we went to overlooks the Bolsa Chica Wetlands, but you have to climb through bushes to see it.

I managed to catch some graffiti being removed the other day also, when I was on my bike:

That was taken with a fisheye camera.

Here’s a picture Cat took of me driving the truck awhile ago:

Wish I had more to say…I’m pretty braindead today!

We’ve had a series of storms here this week. It’s been really windy and rainy, but nothing too remarkable. Except for the tornado that turned over a boat in the harbor, and another that flipped a (non-occupied) minivan.

When we first moved here, our swimming pool area flooded, but so far it hasn’t been that bad for us. Here are pictures from that past winter:

I’m not sure how long this weather is supposed to last, maybe we’ll get more flooding again this time. But so far we’ve been OK.

Yesterday before the rain started I drove over to Long Beach to take pictures. I wasn’t sure exactly where I was going to go, and I ended up in the neighborhood where my doctor’s office is. I’ve always wanted to walk around there with a camera. When I got there it was lunch time so I stopped at a little Taco place where you can get tacos for a dollar. While waiting at a table inside the little restaurant, I noticed that not only did the windows of the building have bars on them, but the cooking area with the cash register was also barred. Like a little prison cell inside the place. That was my first clue maybe I wasn’t in a great area.

I mean, it’s obvious my doctor’s office isn’t in a great area when you first get there. But this was a little worse than I thought.

I gobbled down my tacos (so yummy) and walked down the block. I saw an old drug store I wanted to get a picture of, but I noticed someone in an upstairs window staring outside with his arms crossed, and I thought, that guy might not be too happy if I start taking pictures of him. Second clue.

As I kept walking down the street, I noticed people in shop windows with their noses practically pressed to the glass, looking outside. There were a couple cop cars on a side street across the street from where I was and the cops were on the corner talking to two men. I couldn’t tell what was going on but it didn’t look like anything major. But people were like crawling out of the woodwork to see what was going on. Third clue.

Then I realized the only graffiti I’d seen was a gang graffiti tag. Duh. Totally must be a gang neighborhood.

So I kept walking down to the next light, snapping pictures of buildings, then crossed the street. There was an empty lot that someone had turned into a garden. It was all fenced and gated off, but from the way some of the planter boxes were decorated, it was obviously something kids were involved in. I thought that was neat. It was also right next to where the cops were. As I walked by them they didn’t glance at me. But I looked across the street and there were people standing in doorways all up the street watching whatever the cops were doing.

Totally reminded me of when we lived in a gang neighborhood and they’d pull someone over on our street. Everyone in the neighborhood would go out on their porches to watch as they surrounded the car with their guns drawn and had the driver exit the car slowly with his hands in view.

Haven’t finished off the rolls of film, so I haven’t developed the pictures yet. I’ll post a few when I do.

I’ve posted before about the mind-boggling amount of liquor and donut stores in southern Cali. Well a new phenomenon is springing up: “tobacco” shops.

I noticed a lot of smoke shops popping up all over Huntington Beach awhile ago. But I never really thought much about them, other than apparently people like to buy cigarettes in specialty stores.

Then I took a trip to Venice Beach awhile back. In Venice they’re a little more obvious about what their main product is. Medical marijuana.

In Venice, there are shops selling marijuana that also have doctors who will prescribe it for you on the spot. I’ve heard that the “smoke” shops in Orange County will refer you to a doctor that will get you a prescription. How convenient.

The picture above was taken in a neighboring town to us. There are probably at least ten smoke shops within a bike ride of where I live.

The first art I ever encountered that really moved me emotionally (besides books and music) was the art of Andy Goldsworthy. I’ve posted about him before. He works with found objects in nature. His works are often transitory, temporary—he’ll make a sculpture out of rocks that will get washed out to sea. Or a sculpture out of ice, or sticks or branches. He takes pictures of his art and captures it on film.

There’s a documetary about him called Rivers and Tides, I highly recommend it. Usually when I hear people talk about art the way he talks about art, I get very dismissive, it sounds so hippy-dippy to me. But because his art strikes a chord in me, I love to hear him talk about it.

When I started riding my bike around Huntington Beach a lot, I found myself noticing the same graffiti tags and stickers in different areas. I started taking pictures of the tags and posting them on Flickr. Which ended up attracting people who are into graffiti, who I added as contacts. Before I knew it I was learning more and more about graffiti and specific taggers.

I find myself seeking it out now wherever I go. I’ve always thought graffiti was cool but never paid much attention to it. I’ve been thinking about what the appeal is for me. I mean, I’m a 39 year old suburban housewife. Why would I be interested in graffiti? Part of it’s that I never grew up (mid-life crisis?); part of it’s just my obsessive personality. But I also love what graffiti is. I live in a rich area. A rather crappy corner of a rich area, but still a rich area. Graffiti is not tolerated around here–it gets wiped out pretty dang quick. And part of what I love about graffiti is that it isn’t permanent. It’s transitory, like Andy Goldsworthy’s work.

But mostly what I like about it is that it’s a way for people—I usually think of them as kids, although who knows how old most of them are—to have a voice. To put their mark on where they live. I almost view it as ancient pictographs, which might seem crazy. But graffiti is sort of its own language. If you’re in the know, you can understand it.

I have a Flickr contact who takes pictures of graffiti done on train cars. I see one particular writer (or graffiti artist) pop up a lot on pictures train cars. He’s called Colossus of Roads. He draws a simple line picture of a man with a hat, and usually some phrase underneath. Here is a good example:

I stumbled upon a documentary about two guys, graffiti artists, who decided to try to meet Colossus of Roads. In it they talk about graffiti and how a train yard is like a moving art gallery, and the train cars the canvases. I love that. I find myself being moved by graffiti in the same way I’m moved by Andy Goldsworthy’s work.

You can see the intro to the documentary here:

http://www.blip.tv/file/31122/

The rest of the documentary is in bits and pieces on that same website (I think, I’m not sure if it’s completely edited together yet).

Here are some of my own photos of graffiti that I love:

It says “HOPE.”

This is in downtown L.A.

In an empty lot in Garden Grove, CA.

That’s Nathaniel up there holding my Polaroid. The throw-up on the left says BEOR! and the one on the right says SORAL.

These last two are on a wall in Chinatown in downtown L.A.

Yesterday Nathaniel and I tried our hand at some stop-motion movie making. His idea with the rocks.

Song is Modest Mouse - March Into the Sea.

It was a lot of work for only 21 seconds of video. But it was his idea to use big rocks! He did all the rock positioning. I stood and clicked the shutter on the camera.