Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Our adventure for tonight was a trip back to Griffith Park to see the Independent Shakespeare Company’s production of Hamlet. This was actually the first time I’ve ever seen this particular play, and I never realized just how pervasive it is in our culture.

There is the story of the woman who read Hamlet for the first time and said, “I don’t see why people admire that play so. It is nothing but a bunch of quotations strung together.”

—Isaac Asimov, Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare

The show was well done. Even though I’d only read a brief synopsis ahead of time, I was able to follow the story, and it was entertaining. So this made for a nice little evening adventure.

Tonight, Kathleen and I went to the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles for a talk by Annie Jacobsen about her new book, Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base. The format of the talk was a conversation between her and M.G. Lord, author of Astro Turf: The Private Life of Rocket Science. We’d been to one of these events once before, when we went to see John Waters last year.

The talk was very interesting and entertaining. There were even three of her sources in the audience: Ed Lovick, Ken Collins, and Wayne Pendleton. They were engineers and a test pilot on the A-12 “Oxcart” project, which was the CIA precursor to the Air Force’s SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. So as you might imagine, they had some good stories to tell her for the book. Apparently, a lot of this was classified until pretty recently. The fact that the CIA was actively designing stealth aircraft in 1957 was kept secret until the late 1990s.

All told, it was an entertaining evening. And as a little bonus, we got to look across the street from the library and gaze up at the U.S. Bank tower and think about just how much it’s going to hurt when we go to climb the stairs there in September.

Tonight, Kathleen and I went over to Hollywood Forever for a special screening of “The Captains“. This is a documentary by William Shatner, where he goes to meet and interview all of the actors who have played starship captains in all the incarnations of “Star Trek“. It was a chance for him to confront and embrace what is surely his legacy, and to talk with the others and share their feelings on their participation in “Star Trek”, which will likely be the one thing they will all be remembered best for having done.

As one would expect, there were lots of fans there in “Star Trek” costumes. I don’t have a costume, but I brought along my tribble. And each incarnation of the show and each captain had its own set of fans. Even after all these years, it’s still an amazing thing that it took on a life of its own and became such a pervasive part of our culture.

William Shatner was there to introduce the film. Beforehand, I saw him in the middle of a little scrum of photographer, along with Henry Rollins. (WTF? Henry Rollins? What’s he doing here?) In his introduction to the film, Shatner spoke of how strange it was to be introducing this film at the cemetery in Hollywood. Looking over the back wall, we could see the sound stage where they filmed the original “Star Trek”, nearly 50 years ago. He talked about how he originally came to the part of Captain Kirk, and how nobody really thought the show would amount to much in the long run. And his having to come to terms with the fact that that one role has in many ways come to define his life. Apparently, it’s been an interesting journey.

The film itself was very entertaining. The other captains all came into it with at least a bit more warning that they were doing something that would be career-defining, since they all came along after “Star Trek” had become a worldwide phenomenon. Each one had a slightly different take on how their character should work, and hearing their reminiscences was a lot of fun.

In the end, Shatner came to terms with his legacy, which was the main reason he made this film. It was a lot of fun, and I highly recommend it.

Today’s bike club ride was one we haven’t done in quite a while. The last time was over a year ago. We’d planned on it several times last winter and spring, but we got rained out each time. So now that it’s summer, we finally got to do it.

The route was a ride over into Hollywood and up Beachwood Canyon to just below the Hollywood sign. Then over the hill into Burbank, and home by way of Glendale. It was a perfect day for riding.

The ride up to the sign was very steep, on a rough road with a fair amount of sand and dirt on it. This is the hill where I always tell people, “you may or may not see anyone you recognize from TV here, but you’ll be seeing stars by the time you get to the top.” We regrouped at the top, by Wolf’s Lair Castle. Then we headed up the rest of the way to the end of Mulholland Drive, just below the Hollywood sign.

On the way back down, we stopped for a photo-op at the bookshelf garage door. Then down the hill, past Lake Hollywood, and up and over into Burbank. Our stop was at Priscilla’s in Burbank. While we were there, I had a look at the 1920s-era racing bike they had displayed in the window of the bike shop next door.

On the way home, we went over the Chevy Chase/Linda Vista hill in Glendale, coming down on Lida into Pasadena. Then around the Rose Bowl and home by way of Orange Grove.

It was a nice ride, even if Tony did beat me to the top of all the hills.

41 miles

Last weekend, when we had our picnic at Lake Travis, one of the things we got at Central Market was jalapeños stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon. Yum. They were good. So today I decided I’d try making some at home.

The ones we bought were halved, stuffed, and then wrapped. I took a slightly different approach, slitting the pepper on one side and stuffing it, but leaving it essentially whole. Then I wrapped a half-strip of bacon around it and stuck a toothpick through it.

I cooked them on the barbecue, which may not be the best way to do this, since the dripping bacon fat caused a lot of flames. It may be that hot oven might be the best way to do this.

They were quite good. Lucinda and I both liked them. Clearly, more experimentation is in order.

This was in the L.A. Times yesterday:

Bicyclist harassment outlawed by Los Angeles City Council
New law makes it a crime for drivers to threaten cyclists verbally or physically.

By Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times

July 21, 2011
The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday passed a pioneering new law intended to protect bicyclists from harassment by motorists.

The ordinance, which backers described as the toughest of its kind in the nation, makes it a crime for drivers to threaten cyclists verbally or physically, and allows victims of harassment to sue in civil court without waiting for the city to press criminal charges.

I think this sounds like a great idea. It remains to be seen how it will work in real life, but at least somebody is thinking about it. And that in itself is remarkable.

The whole story is here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bicycle-law-20110721,0,3219222.story

It’s July, and that means it’s time for my annual spiritual pilgrimage back to Austin, Texas. Time to visit friends, have some fun, and generally enjoy being a Big Cheese for a few days.

Kathleen and I flew out of Long Beach early Friday morning. As always, JetBlue was on time. Sadly, the TV on the plane was broken. So we had no entertainment. But that was all right. I can be amused just by looking out the window.

On the way into Austin, we could see Lake Travis out the window. I’d looked it up, and the water level was very low this summer. Something to do with not having had rain for two months. Paolo had said we could come out to his house on Sunday to play in the lake, but that it was now a bit of a hike to get down to the water.

This year, the event was being held in the Airport Hilton, so we didn’t have to really do anything to get there. Just picked up the phone and they sent a van over to the terminal to pick us up. After we got checked in, we headed down to meet up with the group for the opening dinner social at Patsy’s Cowgirl Cafe.

After dinner, we went downtown. The next part of the event was a social at the Chain Drive, but first we went to see the famous Congress Ave bridge bat colony. It was an impressive sight to see so many bats flying out all at once. Then we headed over the place and I got to see some more old friends and schmooze a lot. It was a fun evening.

Saturday was mostly in the hotel. The lobby there was cold like a meat locker. After the daytime activities, we gathered up some of the presenters and all went to dinner at the Catfish Parlour. I finally got my fried okra. When we came out, it was starting to get dark, so they had the giant neon catfish sign turned on. After that, it was time to head out to the big party.

On Sunday morning, the event concluded with a breakfast buffet and keynote talk. The presenter was quite good, and he was very entertaining to listen to. After the talk, we hung around the room until everyone had left. I figured I should enjoy being a Big Cheese for as long as possible. And indeed, when we finally left, I could feel my cheese shrinking back down to its normal size.

Sunday afternoon was the Lake Splash. We headed out to Paolo’s, with a stop at Central Market to get food. And it still pains me to say that I really do wish that we had something like Central Market here in L.A. My hat’s off the the people at HEB for pulling it off. They really did a good job with that place.

The water at Lake Travis was indeed very low. The place where we finally set up our picnic is usually under about 40 feet of water. There were a lot of old drowned tree stumps, and the buoys that usually mark safe boating depth were just lying on the limestone. It was kind of surreal. But the water was still nice. Made the heat almost bearable.

Monday was our visiting day. We checked out and took Capitol Metro into town to meet my old friend Mike for breakfast. Then Stu came and picked us up and we headed out for a day’s worth of playing tourist.

We went to Mellow Johnny’s. I got a new water bottle and a jersey. Then we headed over to the park to see the dinosaur garden. After that, Stu took us out to Elgin for the famous barbecue there. And finally, we went back into town and spent the rest of our afternoon at the Yellow Rose.

The flight home was all right. But the TV was broken again. I checked my pictures, and this was a different plane this time. But it was broken none the less. But the upside is that JetBlue gave us a $15 credit for each TV-less leg of our trip. So we can put that towards our tickets to Chicago this fall when we go there for the Sears Willis Tower stair climb.

All told, it was a very fun weekend. And yes, my cheese has now returned to its normal size.

It’s summer now, which means it’s time to go to Fern Dell and visit The Trails cafe. It was a nice morning, but promised to get hot later.

We rode down into Los Feliz and then up into Griffith Park. I looked away for a moment on the climb up to the observatory, and Tony was gone. I spent the rest of the climb chasing him, and I never did catch him before the top. We regrouped at the observatory and then headed down the hill to The Trails. It was a perfect day to enjoy sitting at the table surrounded by big trees. It was quite idyllic. Then we headed back up the hill.

At the big junction by the tunnel, the sign warned us about possible wild animals in the park, including rattlesnakes and mountain lions. No tigers or bears, though.

We headed up Mt Hollywood, and once again, I’d swear that the hill had grown since the last time we rode there. We regrouped again at the top, and then headed down the other side. I stopped at one point to get some action shots of everyone coming around one of the turns. Then we met up again at the bottom, where we saw the miniature horse.

From there, we rode down the hill, past Travel Town, and then down the L.A. River bike path. Then back home up Figueroa and across South Pasadena.

It was a nice ride.
45 miles.
cycling

This morning, I went for a little bike ride while it was still early and cool. I did my usual 30-mile ride that doesn’t go anywhere in particular. But there was a small sightseeing stop today.

I’d been reading the list of places that are in the National Register of Historic Place in Los Angeles County. And I saw that they Pacific Electric Substation was only a 1/2 block detour from my route. In fact, it’s right next to my vet’s office, and I’d never noticed it before. So I decided to go see it today.

I rode down into Temple City and then across San Gabriel and Alhambra, and then up the back side of the hill to the South Pasadena Water tower. I got a picture up there with the help of a flat-topped mailbox. From there, I went up Arroyo and around the Rose Bowl. There was something going on there that involved large numbers of young women running. Nothing not to like about that.

I rode up into Altadena for the trip home. At Lake, I went right a half a block to see the old substation building. It was a very quaint old building. Then I continued on home.

It was a fun little ride.

It’s time to start practicing again. The U.S. Bank stair climb is coming up in September. This will be the first event of the fall stair climbing season. And it’s my chance to see if I can improve on my 14:34 time from last year.

Yet, I know that when I get to about the 45th floor, I’m going to be thinking, “OMG what-the-HELL-was-I-thinking-when-I-signed-up-for-this.” It happens every time. But I keep coming back. Because it’s fun.