Visit the kelpforest....

Hmm, just talked to my brother and he's selling a piece of Disney concept art from the Peter Pan movie in an auction on Monday. I'm not sure I'd ever seen that one before, although he says it had been hanging in his bedroom. I am not nearly anywhere near as much of a Disney fan as he is (I tend to refer to the amusement park as Dismalland), but that's actually really pretty. There's a few other items of his in that auction too, but I'm not sure which they are. Ah, here they are... So if anyone cares to make a bid...I sure can't afford them...

Three Walt Disney storyboards from "Dumbo"

An Evyind Earle concept painting from "Sleeping Beauty" - the "Gift of Song"

Talking Rose Cel from "Alice in Wonderland" - where the flowers decide Alice is a weed.

Wow. From oppressive heat to pouring down rain; weather is bouncing like a rubber band...*

Well, I had been putting up mylife_onceaday photos that I'd posted to the community here, but then I got sidetracked by the scavenger hunts they started doing, and Sackboy Travels and other things. I still carry my camera around everywhere, but I guess I haven't been inspired to use it all that often, unless something really special or different happens. I feel like I seldom go anywhere new, and I'm constantly taking pictures of the same things, maybe just a different sky or another angle.

Anyway, the last non-themed thing I posted (here and in the community) was this, so I thought maybe I'd start catching up from there. And in a timely enough fashion, the next chronological photos are apropos for the month (and show I'm almost exactly a year behind - typical)...

http://www.ladayofthedead.com/



( LA Dia de Los Muertos.. warning - photo heavy )

Fantastic show. Great fun, the music was great and all the creations wonderful. I'm agnostic leaning toward atheistic, but if there is an afterlife, this is the way to celebrate it.

By the way, today is my mom's birthday. I think she might have liked this.


Link to all photos in this set. This year's Dia de Los Muertos at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery is on October 30. You might see another post like this after that date.

___________________________
*this damn post started on 10/5 when the weather was being really record-breakingly weird. Need to get 'puters fixed...

Doug called me to ask for some of Avalon's measurements - from the back of her neck to just below her elbow - because he was making her a poncho, and he was almost finished with it. It sort of looks gray below, but it's actually pink and blue; that sort of yarn that gradients from one color to the other. Then he emailed these photos to ask how she would like the little flower decorations put on.

( Just for fun, I thought I'd ask you, too... )

So a week or two ago, Doug called to see if we wanted to go to the Mouse Place, and I told him we couldn't because the passes had expired the week before. He declared that was a perfect time for him to renew them (as what's become his traditional gift), and then we could watch the tradtional Dismal Xmas Show, which they only do the first or second weekends of December, with an orchestra and various choral groups from local schools and churches. I guess the kids can handle at least one performance of the Story, and we hadn't been to the Drive-Thru Nativity yet. So we met at the ticket windows (Doug was actually standing there buying them when we walked up), and handed one to each of us, me and the kids, that is. He also bought our parking and we will get runsamuck's pass later ourselves. Which comes out to about even for paying him back the difference between the cheapest passes (which is what we did last year).

( some blurry pictures from last year... )

What a busy weekend!

I seem to have wound up dragging all three kids around by myself three times this weekend, although they say they had fun; first to Dismalland as I mentioned in the last post - I thought we'd hop on the Monorail in Downtown Disney and save some walking, but we got there just as the fireworks were starting. They stop the thing running during the fireworks show, so we stood in front of the Lego store and watched. Then we got on, took it to the stop in Tomorrowland, then got in line for the train and took it to Pirates of the Caribbean. Gareth crowded next to me on the ride and told me to hold on to him every time there was about to be a drop. Angus hid his face when the skeletons first appeared, but gradually peeked more and more looks. We had gone the previous Sunday with my brother; and he and his friends had taken them when I went to move the car. They told me when I got back that Angus told them "The androids are malfunctioning," and when the pirates were shooting canons at each other, "Please, I'm a scientist, I'm only doing research!"

After the ride, back on the train to the entrance. As we passed the dinosaur diorama, Angus announced, "That T. rex can't be fighting a Stegosaurus - they didn't live at the same time!" You know, I'm going to have to look that up in one of his dinosaur books now - because I don't know! I can never keep those geological timelines straight...

I've got some pics of when I went with Doug and his friends last Sunday...

We waited at the Lego store for a bit because I couldn't get through to Doug's cell phone when we got there - The store has some new residents...I didn't know Darth Vader had blue eyes...

( Legos )

We finally met up with Doug and his friends Randy and Scott at California Adventure, and thought the Bug's Life 3-D show would be good to start out with. However, the kids are variously freaked by it - something about the stink-bugs, I think. Angus and I were going to wait outside, but it turned out everyone else exited early too. So we watched the Electrical Parade, a classic. I remember we used to have the music on one of those disks that had pictures on both sides.

( (The No-Longer-Main-Street Electrical Parade) )

( waiting for the train )

Doug came down last Monday bearing gifts, among which were books for the kids; The Boy Who Cried Fabulous and Walter, the Farting Dog. The first he insists is about a little gay boy (actually he just has a rather florid vocabulary - let's wait and see about the other) and the second is self-explanatory. Both perfectly delightful books.

So, John's bad parent moment of the day is, while reading the second book to the kids, in which Walter drives off a pair of burglars with a tremendous blast of flatulence, and the Father shouts " He saved the VCR!" John inserts, "And it still has my porn tape in it!"

Did I mention we are going straight to hell?

The balance of the spout and handle of of a teapot, with each other and with the body of the pot, is an aesthetic problem to which no artist need be ashamed to devote his attention.
- Sir Herbert Read, art historian and critic, from Art and Industry

(The teapot is) one of the great fetish objects of our time.
- Arman

Last Saturday was pleasant - we did finally get to the teapot exhibition at the Long Beach Museum of Art - and it was it was a lot of fun. While many of them were not actually functional tea brewing devices (made of beads or crocheting), or were much too large to serve as such, it was very interesting how wonderfully weird even a functional teapot could be made. There were quite a few Yi Xing style, sets of cube shaped pots which were specially made for Cunard in the 30s (less likely to tip over on a rolling ship), and several having humanoid shapes with the spout in imaginative places (I was showing my friend Carole the brochure for the exhibit, and she pointed to one titled Red Devil,and said "I don't think I'd be comfortable serving tea out of that one!" It's in the slide show here, I'll let you guess which one it is. ;) Then there were sculptures either made out of everyday teapots or with a teapot theme. I'd really like to get the catalog. The kids must have liked it too, because they've been running around with the brochure, pointing out various items and asking "How big was this?" or "Why does this lady have a teapot for a head?"

John's mother decided she'd like to go along as well, and treated us for admission and to lunch afterwards as well; very kind of her. I of course was the slowest, so she and the boys sat on a bench in a gallery which contained a collection of historical coffee, tea and chocolate pots, some dating back to the 18th century. Gareth made the observation, "These pots are really old, Grandma, just like you." She rolled her eyes, and said drily, "Gee thanks, Gareth." She's a good sport.

Doug came down later that evening and brought his friend Randy (I think, he's such the social butterfly it's hard to keep his friends straight track of them all). Doug was very impressed with what John has done with the house; especially when he saw our bedroom - his mouth hung open and then he turned around and told John "You deserve a big hug!" followed by a big squeeze.

He took us to The Crab Cooker in Newport Beach for his birthday, which makes me feel a bit guilty. But he usually likes to go out, and since we haven't been able to afford it lately he tells us he doesn't mind treating us. The Crab Cooker is an almost historical restaurant we've been going to since we were kids. There is a 14-ft. white shark hanging in the dining room, old paintings covering the walls, cramped tables with mismatched chairs, paper plates and plastic cups, breadsticks in containers on the tables and brusque senior waitresses, some of whom have wrked there for thirty years. On weekend nights, there's usually at least a 45 minute wait to get in, but you can get a cup of clam chowder while you're waiting if you're really hungry. However, I usually don't because it's Manhattan, and I prefer New England. Doug says he's tried to imitate how they cook at home, but he just can't get it right, so he's willing to drive down from West Hollywood and sit on a hard wooden bench on Newport Blvd. to eat off a paper plate.

Normally, after dinner we'd head across the boulevard, walk out on the Newport Pier, look at the deserted dory fleet on the beach (unfortunalely since I now work for a regulatory agency, I can't quite look at them with the same eye as I did when I was a kid). and take note of whatever people are catching. But Doug didn't get here until 8PM and it would have been nearly midnight before they got home, and small kids needed to go to bed. Another time perhaps. Good to see Doug again; however, when we go out in a big group I don't get much chance to talk to him.

And now, I won't mention teapots for a while because I'm sure you're quite sick of me going off about them. ;)

Wow! My brother just sent me this link.

Live Wood!

This is his classical recorder group - they do weddings, parties, anything, usually during the holiday season. I think I especially like "Bach - Motet "Lobet den Herrn," but the "Washington Post March" is pretty fun, too. My grandmother always used to refer to this as playing his "whistles."