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This photograph taken some time ago I felt deserved a second look.

Also..I’d like to acknowledge a nomination for the Beautiful Blogger Award. I’m deeply honored by the nomination because it comes from someone who’s photography and intelligently sensitive writings about photography and art set him way above the pack. Here’s a link to Munchow’s Creative Photo Blog. It’s well worth checking out.

A couple of months ago, Diego Vivanco asked me via a lovely friend we have in common, Leo Sanchez, if he could come over to L.A all the way from Spain, to film me sketching around Los Feliz and Silverlake for few days.
'Oui!' ('Yes!') I replied. He jumped in the first plane available, with only his camera and a toothbrush in his bag, and the adventure started as soon as he landed in L.A.
Here's what Diego and Ian clark at Kauri Multimedia, along with a great musician in London, made out of all the material gathered over a couple of days in this lovely neighborhood.
I truly enjoyed working with Diego, he did a brilliant job, and so did Ian and the musician (I do not know his name, yet, unfortunately).
You can watch it in HD here, or embedded below.


Sketch! A Visual Tour of Silver Lake and Los Feliz from Kauri Multimedia on Vimeo.

Today’s guest blog post is by Teneasha Pierson. Teneasha is a proud alum of Howard University and has recently accepted an invitation to serve as a Health Education volunteer with the Peace Corps in Kenya. Find out more at www.teneashapierson.com.

At six years old, I was the princess of a magic kingdom eponymously named “Teneashaland”. I started my day greeting animals while skipping through the glittery, hot pink paths of the forest. I feasted on cotton candy plucked from the sky, and after a full day of presiding over my kingdom, I slept on a super-sized pillow made of the super soft fluff that fills teddy bears.

Teneasha Pierson

I loved fairy tales. Fairy tales taught me that I could overcome. They taught me that strength of character was a critical factor in my success. Most importantly, they gave me hope that my potential was not limited by my environment or my lack of possessions.

This lesson was priceless and changed the trajectory of my life.

I grew up in Oakland, CA in the eighties when Oakland transitioned from the progressive home of the Black Panthers to a major hub of the crack epidemic. My neighborhood unraveled quickly.

Despite my circumstances, education was always presented as a way to avoid the pitfalls of my community. In my home and in my neighborhood my love of reading was nurtured. I wore wire-framed glasses very similar to Simon the Chipmunk and was equipped with a backpack filled with the greats: Dr. Seuss and a selection of the Disney classics, among others. I was a princess in my mind and in my community I was considered a scholar.

As I grew older, I hung up my tiara but I held tightly to the contents of my backpack.

Education and reading has made good on every promise it made. I was the first college graduate from my family and my community. I have had the opportunity to work in the fields of public policy, public health, intellectual property law and I will soon have the opportunity to serve in Kenya with the Peace Corps.

Books can change lives and inspire hope. I am proof of that.

Pictured above for those of you who don’t know, the zookeeper of Allen’s Zoo exploring at one of my favorite places.

I saw something while exploring the intertidal zone today I’m not likely to see for a while again if at all. While looking at the usually seen inhabitants, (hermit crabs, sea stars) I rounded a rock and saw what I initially thought was the largest sea star I’d ever seen. It was about two and a half feet long (.7 meters). My mind making sense of something I’d never seen in the wild. Then realized then it wasn’t a sea star. It was a Pacific Octopus. I recognized the coloration from images in books I’ve used as reference. Although I know they happen around these ocean zones I didn’t know if it was still alive. It was not in water. I reached for my camera then remembered took the batteries out yesterday as they needed to be replaced. I then thought it probably wasn’t alive and waiting for the tide like the other things in the intertidal zone. It’d be sad to take a photograph of it then.

Also……Happy Mothers Day mom and all moms.

Tagged: About Me, Allen Capoferri, Beach, California, International, Nature, Ocean, Photography, USA

Taken about a week ago I thought this photo had a look of Biblical proportions.

Also…

Many of you already know I’m a cinephile possibly from mentioning it on previous posts. I’ve only recently become a fan of the late Yashujiro Ozu. Two of his films resonate with me, Late Spring 1949, the first of his later films and An Autumn Afternoon 1963 his last film. These films have made such an impression on me I’ve watched them at least a half a dozen times each, finding the commentary on the DVD very informative and helpful to understand and appreciate these films. I’m not usually an old film buff, and often find many films of the similar time too dated for me to appreciate. These two films however seem to transcend that and reveal the essence of what it is to be human and that’s art.

Taken about a week ago at my evening walk. Happy Valentines Day everyone.

Taken yesterday while walking with my daughter.

What makes for a successful book distribution? A spacious warehouse, enthusiastic partners, and amazing volunteers. Our latest distribution in Stockton, California had all three!

Over 50 fantastic volunteers, many recruited through Stockton’s Chamber of Commerce, came out to help distribute over 150,000 books. The work was intense: beautiful, large pop-up books such as Big Frog Can’t Fit In take up space. Within 3 days, nearly 11,000 boxes of books were processed and then loaded into UPS trucks or personal vehicles.

As you can see, we had to get creative – anything to get books to kids!

If you live in the Los Angeles area, or will be visiting this fall, or are up for a road trip, you’ll have three chances to spend an evening with some amazing authors … and get new books to kids in need at the same time.

Jane Lynch, Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson, and Deepak Chopra & Leonard Mlodinow will be appearing at Live Talks Los Angeles events this fall, and the proceeds from every ticket sold will help First Book bring brand-new books to children from low-income families in Los Angeles.

First Book is thrilled about our new partnership with Live Talks Los Angeles, and we hope many of you are able to attend one of these great shows and support the work we’re doing in California. Ticket prices for these events start at $20.

• Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson – Thursday, Sept. 22
• Jane Lynch – Sunday, Oct. 2
• Deepak Chopra & Leonard Mlodinow – Tuesday, Oct. 11

If you attend one (or all) of these events, share a message on our Facebook page and let us know what you thought.

Admission Day, September 9, was a state holiday when I was a girl.  Today we look at our history with a more critical eye to get a better understanding of the human condition.  California became the 31st state to join the Union on September 9, 1850, not long after gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848 in Coloma.  By 1869 the first westbound train arrived in San Francisco thanks in no small part to the Chinese and Irish Immigrants yet in 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which banned all Chinese immigration.

California History is the fourth grade curriculum throughout California.  Here at Sts. Peter & Paul’s we use the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt History/Social Science textbook and follow the California State Standards and the Archdiocesan Curriculum Guidelines.  Students in fourth grade explore history, indigenous people of California, the Spanish and Russian influence in our history, the California Missions, the Gold Rush,  immigration to the Golden State, and of course geography.

You might want to check out some of these links to learn more about the great state of California and you too can exclaim Eureka! I have found it!

• California Kids Page, Just for Kids State of California
• Kids Zone, California Museum
• Houghton Mifflin GeoNet Game
• Learn California
• California Historical Society, History Online
• Library of Congress, California History Collection
• National Geographic Kids
• The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco

Graphic from Flickr Creative Commons by kevincole.

0 Comments on California, the 31st State as of 1/1/1900

Taken during me and my daughter’s walks. Note; our friend above is “boiling” mad.

First Book is in Los Angeles this week, and we have half-a-million brand-new books waiting to be distributed to schools and programs serving kids in need in southern California and across the country.

As you can see, 500,000 books is a LOT of books. And a lot of work. But it’s also a lot of kids who’ll have books of their own to read. Woot!

If you’ve been reading the headlines on just one news service in the past few days, you’ve probably come away shaking your head and wondering what the future holds for you and yours.

Here are some examples of things in the news.

• A legislator in California has proposed that the 13 counties south of Los Angeles be separated from the main body of the state and granted statehood, to become the country’s 51^st. The apparent reason behind the proposal was that the state is simply too big to govern efficiently and needed to be pruned, so to speak. The proposed new state would be called “South California.”
• The huge iceberg that calved from a Greenland ice shelf last August is now in Canadian waters—Labrador, to be exact. Curious how it went west rather than east as common thought would expect, isn’t it? It’s being monitored by satellite from a beacon planted on its surface. Its original size was one-quarter of its parent ice shelf. That’s many billions of gallons of fresh water floating around desalinating the North Atlantic as the berg melts.
• All of those extended unemployment benefits and past government tax cuts will expire in January, leaving millions without any available income.
• Immediate results of Minnesota’s government shutdown due to lack of finances are beginning to come to the front. The Minnesota Zoo will suffer greatly if not funded soon, for instance. 

These are just a few of the headlines from yesterday and today. Granted, the Minnesota Zoo’s problems don’t seriously affect any of those living outside that state. Its fate does point to those smaller and less visible victims of gross financial distress plaguing each of the states this year.

 Costs of everything have risen, populations have increased and revenues have fallen due to the housing crunch and employment downturns.

 With unemployment benefits being suspended in January, Minnesota may not be the only state taking a leave of absence in the coming months. Those states hardest hit may follow suite in alarming numbers. And your state may just be one in the flock.

Canada is the one having to deal with the iceberg and its potential for danger—for now, at least. As the berg dissipates in the Atlantic’s northern waters the cumulative effect of all that fresh water in the Northern Atlantic will affect everyone. It’s become a favored climatological theory that desalinization of those waters helps bring about the slowing of the oceanic conveyor belt and hastens the cooling of the Earth to the point of a little ICE AGE.

And the one headline that really should clue the populace as to how shaky things are, both socially and economically, centers on the California issue. For a state—any state—to propose a split of both territory and legislation to the point of putting the motion before the state government is a rare event. It puts the spotlight even more brightly on the condition of some states to conduct business and remain solvent.

For any state to suggest such a territorial split encourages others to consider their own situations and conditions. The social ramifications are staggering for the coming year. At the moment it’s not important if the motion passes. The idea has already fallen ou

I really don’t know what to say about Dr. Ellen. Except this: if you read Pleasures and Palaces, also by Juliet Wilbor Tompkins, you will not find it to be anything like that.

Structurally, Dr. Ellen is centered around three women: there’s Ellen Roderick, who lost a husband and a child in quick succession, used her period of mourning to study to become a doctor, and then moved into a mountain cabin and set up as a physician for the locals. Then there’s her younger sister, Ruth Chantry, who lives with Ellen, but doesn’t share her ideals or sense of purpose. Ruth is young and vibrant and wants to be around people all the time, and she’s increasingly resentful  about the way Ellen keeps her in isolation. The third woman is Ruth’s friend Christine O’Hara, shallow, easygoing, and flirtatious, who provides Ruth with a brief respite from her exile when she invites her for a visit.

It’s on that visit that Ruth and Philip Amsden meet. Philip is in his thirties, and architect, and not so much stuck-up as aloof. Also, he’s the person the book is about, really. He’s captivated by Ruth’s enthusiasm, and her naive enjoyment of everything, and lets himself be drawn into the various activities Christine has scheduled for Ruth’s amusement.

This leads, eventually, to Amsden, Christine, and Will Wallace — chubby, good-natured, has the reputation of having a good sense of humor — joining Ruth for a visit once she returns home. There Amsden finds Ellen Roderick to be less tyrannical than he expected, and a lot more impressive, especially for the way she weathers the several scandals in which they become embroiled. There were a fair umber of preachy bits that I was never entirely sold on, but the problems Ellen is faced with seemed real and serious, and the people who caused them were vivid, well-realized characters.

There’s a lot to like here. The stakes always seem high, even when they’re not.  Ruth is far more interesting than I would have ever expected. Rory Dorn the probable lesbian is kind of awesome. But there were also things that just left me confused. And by “things,” I mostly mean the ending. I have very little idea of what happened. On multiple levels. And then, the tone of the book was sort of puzzling as well. Some of it felt so heavy, while other parts were uncomfortably light. This isn’t comic relief at work, unless Tompkins was trying for comic relief and hadn’t quite got the hang of it.

So, not a perfect book–not by a long shot. But it was really interesting, and I was definitely hooked for the couple of hours it took me to read it. In a way, I think Dr. Ellen‘s unevenness worked in it’s favor. I never really felt like I had a handle on what was going on, or what was about to, and so it felt suspenseful and exciting. And interesting, in plot, character, and content, which is hard to pull off. This is one that I found in a bookstore, rather than one I read online, and, while I’m still not totally sure how I feel about it, I think I’m glad I own it.