L.A. Bike Summit 2009, Biketopia

This is James Rojas. Among the many things he does are these magnificent candy-colored re-imaginings of our urban landscape, often excluding cars. The roads in his whimsical (yet serious) models, are intended for pedestrians and cyclists; public transport, too. Of the many reasons I enjoy his work, foremost is that it makes me not take for granted that the way things are in our built environment is the way they must be.
You can read about another project of his here. He had an installation titled "Biketopia" at this past weekend's Bike Summit. I also saw his refashioned downtown on Park(ing) Day last year.

Trade Tech, Again

L.A. Trade Tech is a good place to go with a camera if you like the sorts of things I like.

L.A. Bike Summit 2009

The first L.A. Bike Summit took place today at L.A. Trade Tech south of downtown today. It was quite inspiring to see the large crowd of cyclists involved. Speakers from New York, Portland and Mexico City shared wisdom from the bicycle advocacy movements in those cities. As is common at bike-related events these days, there was bicycle valet parking. The valet parking at today's event was in a large meeting room.

"One Straw Revolution"

"One Straw Revolution" by Masanobu Fukoka is a book less about farming—as I had expected—than philosophy. It's more than a bit theoretical and assumes a foundation of knowledge uncommon among contemporary American readers. Reading it was helpful for me, though, in understanding the natural processes through which plants propagate, how human intervention fits into the picture and, most significantly, when our input is best minimized.
Having finished the book not long ago, a light went off in my head when I found these small, tightly grouped seedlings (variety unknown) planted by a bird who had used our raised bed as her WC.

More Bike Lanes

And lemonade stands every few blocks, please.

Cedar Waxwings?

The tree in front of our living room window, a cotoneaster, attracted a noisy and ravenous flock of cedar waxwings last winter. Twenty or more birds flew in quickly and loudly, ate large amounts of the bright red berries, and within seconds disappeared. They did this for a number of days—no sight of them when they weren't in the tree—until the tree was emptied of its round red snacks. Then they were gone.
We haven't seen them yet this winter, and are wondering where they are.

Green Toys

She received this cool gift for her birthday, and we planted the seeds today, with great ceremony.

Red Oak Lettuce

Not the most flavorful lettuce growing in our backyard, but it adds a nice visual touch to a salad. And it probably has some nutrients and stuff, too.

Sugar Snap Peas Winding Down

A month later, we can still pick a bowlful of snap peas every few days. It feels unseemly having favorite plants—somehow akin to favoring one child over another—but these peas give so much and taste so good and come in such a toddler-friendly bite-size edible package. And if you give them something to climb, they're very easy to grow.
On that note, one important lesson learned: Sugar snap peas don't like to climb a tepee trellis. They prefer to grow straight up, and not to have to lean or reach much.

ATOC ’09, pt.4

We chose a spot on a hill to watch the racers go by, mistakenly thinking that the incline would slow them down enough so that we could actually see them. Hills don't slow down professional bike racers.

ATOC ’09, pt.3

Bicycle valet parking was available at the Rose Bowl for spectators who rode to watch the race. It may be a well-kept secret, but L.A. is a bike town. It is.

ATOC ’09, pt.2

She doesn't know the half of it. Nor do we. Whatever the case, Floyd Landis can ride a bicycle very fast and can handle it better than almost anybody, and it's good to see him racing again.

ATOC ’09, pt.1

We went to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena yesterday to cheer on the racers riding the second-to-last stage of this year's Tour of California. The camera-to-person ratio is much higher at a bicycle race (particularly considering the Lance factor) than a zoo, museum and flickr photowalk combined. I was quite happy to see this photographer set up with his 4x5 view camera, waiting patiently for what I hope turned out to be a successful shot. It's not about the camera, but sometimes it is.

Piñata, Before

THREE!

Post-piñata.

Break It Down

Fruit stickers don't decompose. I say do away with them.
On a compost-related note, our friend Brent made a video describing worm composting, which seems great but perhaps labor-intensive, and with a narrower margin of error than the standard Throw-It-In-A-Bin-And-Let-It-Become-Soil method.

High Rolling

Buttercake Bakery

I had the good fortune to work with some fine people at Buttercake Bakery the past two days. They're on Pico with a new store opening at Sunset Plaza soon. Their cakes, cookies, tarts, bars and cupcakes are all exceptionally good. Nice people; great sweets. That's as close to an endorsement you'll get on this here photo blog.

Franklin Canyon Rainy-Day Car Picnic

We did manage a short hike before it started pouring.

Page Relief Pt. 2

Here's a Polaroid of the relief at the Page Museum, (see below) shot a couple of years ago. Don't know who the kid in this picture is, but I'm sure he's not recognizable enough to sue me.

Groundhog Sloth

In front of my favorite non-Assyrian bas-relief. At the Page.

Osborn Architects

Peas

We planted about 30 sugar snap pea plants, and are harvesting the first ones this week. They're easy to grow, look beautiful and taste great. The more you pick the more they grow, and if I recall correctly our plants produced for more than a month last winter.

Not Too Late

HTTP://WWW.USASERVICE.ORG

L.A. Creek Freak

Joe Linton is giving a bicycle tour of the L.A. River, Saturday, January 24, at 11am. If you have a working bicycle and live in the L.A. area, you don't want to miss this. Joe wrote a most readable and usable guide book titled "Down By the Los Angeles River," on Wilderness Press. The great thing about this book is that Joe wrote the text and also illustrated it; I love his interpretive hand-drawn maps and his illustrations are great. If you have even the slightest interest in exploring the L.A. River and are not sure how to get started, Joe's book is a superb guide. Our family has used it for a number of riverside (walking) expeditions that have gotten us out of the house and a little more familiar with our beloved city and the river around which it was founded.
A couple of months back I sent Joe an e-mail about an outing our family had just gone on, using his book, and he posted my snapshots and e-mail on his blog.

Dress Up

Summerwinter

Joined some friends for a fun ride to the Cycleway Cafe in Highland Park today. It was a little under 50 degrees when I set out early in the morning and about 80 degrees when I returned in the afternoon. Earthquake weather? Global warming? Just hard to dress for.

RIF

Ring the Alarm

Not that silly Beyonce version, either. First broccoli we've grown from seed to harvest. Just a few posts below we still didn't know if we'd see this moment. It's a pretty moment.

Process

A friend is curating a group show that's opening at the Lucy Florence Gallery on January 17. She asked me if I'd like to participate, and, well, now I'm in over my head.
I'm doing a piece called "Aleph" (which has nothing at all to do with Wallace Berman), that's really just the Hebrew letter painted in my interpretation of a Japanese calligraphy style.
The problem is that the style I'm attempting to imitate was perfected by great masters who spent years practicing their craft. I've had maybe two weeks, and it's been a long time since my last painting class in high school, when the focus was other people's graffiti books anyway.
Why did I bring this up? Because if you're in town I'm inviting you to have some free wine and cheese—perhaps even fruit—and look at artwork by some other people that'll probably be good. Also, I believe that hard work is its own reward; so while my "Aleph" may indeed be pretty crappy when all is said and done, I've put a lot into it, and it feels good.

Golden Chard

Stakes Is High

Nutri-Bud Broccoli. It's difficult to get a sense of scale from this image, but that broccoli crown is about four inches across. If we harvest and eat this one, it'll be our first, after scores of unsuccessful attempts and too many weak and discolored seedlings that didn't make it.

Backyard Salad for ’09

About a year ago we bought a couple of galvanized containers from Seeds of Change, and they've been great for growing a small salad supply. They're so compact and portable that they can easily be moved around to get more or less sun, as needed.
Salad greens (and reds), fall through spring, have been our most successful, cost-effective and rewarding minicrop, as they're easy to grow, taste a ton better than anything store bought, and are available at a moment's notice.

Faster Than You

And me.
This is Andrew, an old friend and coworker from my days at Mountain Biker magazine. Back then I was fortunate to work, and mountain bike, with a bunch of talented riders and good people. It was a fast group, and I never was quite able to keep up, but I learned a lot.
This photo was taken during the last day of the SoCal Cross series a couple of weeks ago in Woodland Hills.

Greetings From the Kid and Us

"I Want to Be Left Here"

That's what the kid said as she and I were touring the restaurant after finishing our meal. Between a friendly and helpful waiter, an actual train (trolley car, really) inside the restaurant, mere feet from our table, and a colorful cup with a bendy straw, she decided the Old Spaghetti Factory, Duarte, was where she wanted to spend the rest of her life.
Do you remember thinking that way?
I'm still reeling.

The Old Spaghetti Factory, Duarte

We happened upon the Old Spaghetti Factory in Duarte on our way home after some fun in the snow at Mt. Baldy. Have you been to the Old Spaghetti Factory lately? If the last time you were there was 15 years ago, you wouldn't have any trouble recognizing the more-is-more faux Victorian eye-numbing splendor and unsubtly flavorful flavors. I can't say my food was very good, but it was great eating there, particularly with the spumoni ice cream finale.
Worth a drive to Duarte, unless you're coming from St. Louis, in which case, you should just visit the location in St. Louis, which I'm guessing looks exactly the same as the one in Duarte.

First Snow

Edible Tomorrowland

Frontierland would seem a more likely candidate for edible landscaping, but it works just fine in Tomorrowland, too.
They grow food in Disneyland, and it looks great. Do cast members get fresh produce as a portion of their pay? If you know where the food goes please tell us. Asking the woman at the nearby churro cart didn't get us very far.
And yes, we did see Eeyore, bless his gentle soul.

Ditty Bop Velostyle

We saw Amanda—one half of the Ditty Bops and recently married (CONGRATS!) to the other half, Abby—while at the No on 8 demonstration last month. We could point to their marriage as yet another overwhelming argument against hateful laws, but I'd rather take this opportunity to commend Amanda's rare achievement of being car-free in L.A. (so I've heard), and yet so damn stylish while getting around by bike.
Take notes, kids.

Raised Perspective

Here's another view of the bed in which we're growing the majority of our sugar snap peas this year. Also (clockwise from top), oregano, golden chard, sage, broccoli, thyme, a bean of uncertain origin, the peas, more thyme and eight Russian kale plants.

Focus