Griffith Park, Interrupted

Rainbow over Atwater! And other celestial happenings.

Donna Barstow — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:44:51 +0000

The rain, one day’s worth on Monday, made LA a little more beautiful. Within a few minutes I took both pictures. The first is fog shrouding the top of Griffith Park, making it look like some exotic European country. You can’t even see the ugly ugly hillsides, the same soylent green that they’ve been for over a year and a half now.

(The idea was to stop non-native weeds from growing - they sprayed gunk on with helicopters. Okay, good intention, but it only works if we get rid of all the bad non-native plants already in the park. Any progress report on that, people? In our meetings, I was told it was by volunteers. All 800 acres. Sure would like to know how that is going, and more, how to get rid of this crappy green that isn’t helping anything.)

Broody, moody clouds over Griffith Park hills.

The bottom photo is a rainbow I spotted 5 minutes later! For some inexplicable reason, it bypassed the Americana in Glendale, just behind it - perhaps feeling it’s as boring as I do - and went straight to a modest house in Atwater. (I’m only guessing - perhaps there are riches within.)

These are on top of my great excitement to spot two shooting stars over Silver Lake late Saturday night! I couldn’t find any information about it at Griffith Observatory… and why, may I ask? Why does our huge observatory not have celestial events listed? So I called them, and the operator looked it up in Google, instead.

Space.com explains:

This week brings us what usually is considered to be the most satisfying of all the annual meteor displays, even surpassing the famous Perseids of August: the December Geminid Meteor Shower.

And Moxie saw them in Hollywood, too!

Rainbows and puppies enter Atwater.

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The DWP almost ruined my dinner plans.

Donna Barstow — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:26:11 +0000

I hate the annual Christmas Light Festival in Griffith Park. The idea that the cash-poor city of Los Angeles decides that wasting tons of electricity is the best way to celebrate Christmas is almost as obnoxious as the truly knockout fumes from the cars if you get stuck in traffic there. Or the traffic snarls for hours on the 5 going South, as the lineup of cars snakes out of the park every night. For many years I’ve had to avoid going anywhere in the valley for 6 weeks a year, as the traffic jam coming home, sometimes for miles, just isn’t worth it.

Here’s a link to the DWP site, with all the info: http://www.DWPlightfestival.com/. Here’s a PR review of the light festival by LA Splash, which I never heard of before:

If you want to drive, load up with hot cocoa, or spirits for the adults not driving, and patience for the follies of others. Play some holiday songs you can sing along to. There is music along the Festival mile, but the wait coming up Crystal Springs Road from Los Feliz can be as much as a couple of hours…

The surreal stroll with blinking and animated light displays made us giddy and we laughed and sang like silly kids as we pointed and marveled.

Another great photo by Tambako the Jaguar! From Creative Commons. No, not from Griffith Park.

I didn’t feel at all giddy. I was scared. I was supposed to meet my friend for dinner in Toluca Lake on Nov 24, and I decided to take a nice drive through the park, and follow Forest Lawn Drive, rather than take the 5. Note that this is 3 days before Thanksgiving. There’s not supposed to be any light festival before Thanksgiving, let alone Christmas! I didn’t see any blinking sign in front, because there wasn’t any. (more…)

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Great horned owls invade Los Feliz for Thanksgiving.

Donna Barstow — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 07:48:59 +0000

I always look forward to major holidays in Los Angeles because it gets quiet! Even the freeways. All the roads. The quietest time of any week is Sunday evening, but holidays are blanketed as if we had the snow we never get.

Yesterday, Thanksgiving, was that quiet. So quiet, that some of the wildlife got overexcited. Did those people LEAVE finally? It was only 6 PM, just an hour after sunset, when I heard two Great Horned Owls singing a duet outside my window!

This is NOT a great horned owl! It’s a Snowy Owl from Zurich, from Tambako the Jaguar. He’s at Flickr, and this is from Creative Commons. This is the BEST place to get photos by permission, instead of using Google images, which STEALS images all the time.

If you hear an owl anywhere in northeast LA, there’s a 99% chance it’s a Great Horned Owl. You probably won’t be able to see it, but the call is distinctive - WHO (pause) who who - so that once you’ve heard it you’ll remember it. The rhythm is compelling, and I feel that before the sound, like a jungle drum beating in Silver Lake.

When I lived on Vermont, just a block down from Griffith Park, I heard them all the time. In Silver Lake, a mile away, not so much, but a few times a year. So it was funny to hear them on Thanksgiving so early!

Of course then a rowdy family, 20 or 30 people, came down the street and they were gone. But later on, I heard them (the owls, not the people) near the 7-11 on Hyperion. They were having a great time, exploring new places in the hood.

In other bird news (more…)

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DWP Light Festival walk and PROS meeting at Griffith Park.

Donna Barstow — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:25:51 +0000

Start the month off with a festive meeting! In case you wondered what these Griffith Park meetings are like, here’s your chance to see. These meetings are always open to the public, and new people are warmly welcome. I don’t think food has ever been offered before, so take advantage and come on by! Fun walk afterwards looking at the DWP lights the way they can best be seen - on foot.

PROS MEETING AGENDA DECEMBER 1, 2008
Griffith Park Ranger Station Meeting Room, 4730 Crystal Springs Drive Griffith Park

Holiday Fare and Beverages available at 6:45
Meeting Agenda starts promptly at 7 p.m.

followed by an 8 o’clock Winter Walk through the DWP Festival of Lights in Griffith Park

1. Call to order and introductions.

2. Forest Lawn EIR Scoping Meeting — Report on November 19^th City of Los Angeles Draft EIR Public Scoping Meeting for Forest Lawn’s 40-year Master Plan to develop the balance of its undeveloped site as cemetary property. Much of this land is currently naturally forested and abuts Griffith Park. (10 min)

3. Griffith Park Landmark Update – Report on October 31, 2008 Cultural Heritage Commission Meeting and steps we can take during City Council phase to help the family of Colonel Griffith have Griffith Park designated an L.A. Historic Cultural Monument. Discussion & possible action. (20 min)

4. L.A. Zoo Elephants – Overview of sanctuary vs. exhibit controversy currently at City Council and its potential impact on Griffith Park. Discussion & possible action. (15 min)

5. OLD BUSINESS (10 minutes)

a. Screen Actors Guild Plaque at Mineral Wells – Bernadette Soter

b. Greek Theater Vermont Canyon Recreational Access Issues – Lucinda Phillips

6. Committee and public comment on non-agenda items (10 min)

And then…Griffith Park DWP Festival of Lights Walk!

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If you get in an accident with a truck, you’re dead meat.

Donna Barstow — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:50:35 +0000

And neither you nor your family will get bupkis. Case in point: the Interstate 5 pileup in a tunnel near Santa Clarita in October 2007, which killed 3 people and 33 trucks and a car. (33 trucks in a row? Remind me never to drive there.) The crashes turned the nearby tunnel into a fiery inferno, melting cars and people. (another reference to hell in SoCal.) Fatalities included a little boy who was burned alive in his father’s truck.

The I-5 tunnel fire that killed 3 and burnt 34 trucks may not even have happened! Photo by AP, via Popular Photography.

The Times article says:

CHP investigators determined that Jose Reyes, 29, was driving at least 65 mph along the rain-slicked freeway when his truck veered left and crashed into a concrete median wall after driving through the tunnel, according to the prosecutor’s memo obtained by The Times…

Reyes’ crash set off chain-reaction collisions behind him that killed a 6-year-old boy and two adults, and injured 10 others…

But as traffic slowed, other trucks collided near the tunnel exit, leading to the fatal accidents about four to five minutes after Reyes’ crash. Flames shot through the 550-foot tunnel, trapping motorists and melting vehicles as temperatures inside soared to about 1,500 degrees.

A spokeswoman for Georgia-based Saia Motor Freight Line Inc., issued a statement Tuesday saying that the company’s vehicle had been regularly maintained and met state and federal safety requirements. The fatalities in the tunnel, she said, were unrelated to Reyes’ accident.

The company went on to say that there really was no tunnel, it was just a big barbeque pit, and the driver, Reyes, enjoyed a fine cup of coffee afterwards, on their dime.

Popular Mechanics analyzed the crash last winter, before the facts were in. They said the tunnel is dangerous on its own. (although there was no previous history of accidents, from what I could find. And, of course, Reyes was on the other side of the tunnel when he jackknifed, so, not.) They also gave the info that it happened at 10 PM. Drink and drive? Who knows, no one was tested in the emergency. But, yeah.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Courtney Armendariz wrote up the investigation and report. Courtney seems to be a very intuitive attorney: she argued both sides of the case, just guessing what Reyes and Saia would say in court, without, actually, you know, going to court. (more…)

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Halloween is over, but I’m not.

Donna Barstow — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:24:46 +0000

I’m starting a new category here, From Beyond the Grave. Who isn’t fascinated with death? And who will speak for those who have departed untimely? I am, and I will.

I spotted this item in the LA Times first, but instablogs has more details. Simon Rios is was an illegal who killed his wife with a pipe and strangled his 3 daughters. A week earlier he had raped and killed a neighbor girl:

An illegal immigrant serving five life terms for the strangling deaths of his wife, three young daughters and a neighborhood girl apparently took his own life Thursday by hanging himself, authorities said.

Simon Rios, 36, was found in his cell at the Pendleton Correctional Facility northeast of Indianapolis after noon Thursday, prison spokesman David Barr said. Rios was pronounced dead about 40 minutes later after guards and medical personnel couldn’t revive him.

There were no signs of foul play, Barr said…

Here’s the part that proves selfish, nationalistic urges never end:

Rios’ attorney, Michelle Kraus, said he left a note requesting that his remains be returned to his native Mexico.

Oh, okay, will do! Only, I wish you had done us all a favor, and walked back there on your own two feet before things, shall we say, got out of hand.

“I’m very sad. I know he did a very evil thing, and he always knew he did a very evil thing,” Kraus said.

Hey, you and me both, Michelle. Can you hear me crying?

More details and facts about his defense here.

Simon Rios, the one in the orange stripes. Maybe they should be yellow. Photo from fortwayne.com.

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When Prison Break clashes with the Los Angeles DWP.

Donna Barstow — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:58:38 +0000

Prison Break had a very intense episode this week. The title,”Greatness Achieved” apparently refers to my favorite character, Brad Bellick. Formerly a very scary, mean prison guard in Fox River, who delighted in throwing together newbies and hardcore homos, he was most hated by some viewers because he MAY have killed a cat belonging to one of the inmates. I am pretty sure that was never proved.

Wade Williams as Capt. Brad Bellick. RIP. Photo from Wentworth Miller Fansite.

But because the super writers of Prison Break knew what a gem they had in the actor, Wade Williams, they found ways to keep him around. Bellick was fired from the prison after the boys escap ed, and he became a freelance bounty hunter chasing them. His team up with Geary was brilliant, and so funny! Then he ended up in the Panama prison, Sona, along with everyone else. When we saw him there he was on the floor, beat up and filthy, with only a diaper as clothing. Obviously he had been raped.

We knew from earlier episodes that he lived with his Mom (at 40!) and had some kind of drug problem at one time. (I loved it when posters at TWOP wrote how funny it was that this butch, mean prison guard lived with his Ma, and then the moderator stepped in to say that in her family it was ok to live with your parents, so stop the criticizing! At 40? Really? Hello, it’s called Television without Pity, ding-dong.) (more…)

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You mean I have to get political, and write about cruel farmers?

Donna Barstow — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:17:07 +0000

I wrote in my cartoon blog, Why I Did It, about how I take my canary for a walk these days. He’s near enough to a window to get fresh air, but for him to go outside is nirvana. Can you imagine how the breeze feels against his feathers, ruffling them, tickling his skin?

I’ve had him for 4 years, and now, for the first time ever, he is trying to sing!!

From East Bay Animal Advocates.

Most farm animals will never feel fresh air on their skin, let alone a breeze. That’s farming for you! Yes on Prop 2 would fix this, at least for a few animals. (I wrote about this issue earlier when I criticized the faulty logic of yet another piece in the Times.)

Wayne Pacelle, President of the Humane Society, has been very public about this proposition - I never knew what he looked like until now, handsome fellow!

The greatest nation in the world, with the most innovative farmers, can do better than immobilize animals in severe confinement systems for their entire lives. Family farmers know food quality is enhanced by more humane farming methods, and they know there is a balance between animal care and economics.

…These modest reforms of farm practices won’t be costly to implement. The egg industry’s own California-based economist reports that producing cage-free eggs costs less than one penny per egg more.

The Times doesn’t like this - says it would outsource egg farmers. Well, yeah, if they were little helpless children, and don’t know how to run a business or change the simplest thing, like move one side of a cage. And you knew that George Skelton at the Times was going to be an asshole about this when he starts off in a demeaning way:

The right for egg-laying hens “to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely” in their little cages, to quote from Proposition 2. [My emphasis - DB.]

(And I rarely swear here, so you know I mean it.)

From the excellent and professional Farm Sanctuary.

I couldn’t find anything new in his article worth quoting, but here’s his ending:

The issue of hen confinement should be worked out between farmers, animal rights activists and consumers through the marketplace.

I’m going to ask my wife to buy only eggs from cage-free chickens. Then I’ll probably vote against Proposition 2.

(more…)

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Halloween fun in Griffith Park.

Donna Barstow — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:52:59 +0000

Oh, you missed this one. Next year!

Boo at the Zoo - Griffith Park
The Los Angeles Zoo is transformed into themed areas for trick-or-treaters with performances, pumpkin carving, crafts and creepy crawlies.
Location: the LA Zoo, 5333 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027 in Griffith Park off the 5 Freeway.
Dates: Oct 25-26, 2008
Hours: 10 am - 4 pm (Zoo is open until 5)
Cost: Adults $12, Children 2-12 $7, under 2 free
Info: www.lazoo.org

Image ©CT Department of Environmental Protection.

Ooh, looks like the scary part for this one is the parking.

Ghost Train Haunt

Griffith Park’s Travel Town
5202 Zoo Drive - Los Angeles, CA 90027
Phone: (323) 662-8030
E-Mail: info@lals.org
Website: www.lals.org

2008 DATES & HOURS: October 17-19, 24-26, 29-31, from 7:00 to 10:00pm nightly. Click here for the event’s flier.

PRICE: $5 suggested donation

PARKING: Free

PARKING PROBLEM: Not so much problem as confusion. The official address for Travel Town is 5202 Zoo Drive, but the entrance gate for this address is closed at night. The Ghost Train’s dirty parking lot is perhaps a quarter mile east. This is a dark road in the middle of Gritth Park with few cross streets and almost no street lights, but you will see the lights, artificial fog, and customers when you reach the miniature train area.

Well, that’s about it. I was hoping there was a cool Sierra Club Hike, or ravers party, but they haven’t told me about them. Or, you could just run around with 70’s style clothes and pretend you’re going to get murdered by the Hillside Stranglers, who buried two of their victims in the Park. (I thought at least two victims were left there, but could only find one, in this article:

Yolanda Washington
October 17, 1977
“The first victim was Yolanda Washington, a 19-year-old waitress, who was known to be a part of the Hollywood scene. Miss Washington was picked up off the street voluntarily and subsequently handcuffed and raped. Although the complaint does not say so, an investigative source said she was strangled in an automobile. Miss Washington was murdered Oct. 17, 1977, and her body was left at 6510 Forest Lawn Drive, near Griffith Park.”)

Not to mention one of the Manson murders happened 2 blocks away from me, 5 minutes from the park. I take relatives or would be-boyfriends there, to test their mettle.

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One win, two more to go!

Donna Barstow — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:24:05 +0000

I wish I knew baseball better, because I’d put it in baseball terms. And I do know the Phillies won! My father is happy.

Photo ©Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times. This is so wrong I had to reprint it here. Composite city, whoever you are, you don’t do it for me.

Since I didn’t go to the Cultural Historic Affairs Commission meeting, I will quote someone who did, Bernadette Soter, Chair of Parks, River and Opens Space Committee (PROS).

Hooray! This morning, by a vote of 3 to 1 (Barren, Louie and Scott in
favor; Dake opposed), the Cultural Heritage Commission resolved in
favor of recommending to City Council that it designate all of
Griffith Park as an L.A. Historic Cultural Monument.

The next stop is the Planning and Land Use Management Committee
(PLUM) which is composed of Councilmembers Reyes, Huizar and Weiss.
If it clears PLUM the nomination then go to the full City Council for
a vote. Mention was made that this could be a two-month process, but
no dates or details are available as yet.

More than 100 people from all over the City were in the hearing room
and at least 14 of them were PROS Committee members (wow!).

Credit goes to everyone who attended meetings and events on behalf
the nomination, sent letters and helped raised public consciousness
in countless ways. Let’s continue to work together to achieve this
important honor and distinction for Griffith Park.

Yes, big thanks to everyone who showed up and those who took the time to call or register with the online petition, and, yes, even write about these issues!

(Say, I wonder if LaBonge showed up this time…And what the HELL was Dake thinking???)

LA Now talks about it here. But now that Veronique got laid off there, I don’t have the same feelings towards it. Love is a two way street, LA Now.

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Griffith Park isn’t like the annoying homeless people, but it does need your help.

Donna Barstow — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:14:52 +0000

For those who haven’t been following the Griffith Park adventure, a few years ago there was a Master Plan proposed by Councilman Tom LaBonge for the future of the park.

That’s okay. I like a man who sets boundaries and likes to talk about our future! However, this Master Plan includes a hotel, restaurants, a pier in the LA River (!), flying trams, and all sorts of things to turn the Park into Disneyland North. No word on if there’s room on the trams for the Griffith Park animals that will be squeezed out.

Getting Landmark status from the Historic Cultural Commission is essential to protect the park from arbitrary use and building like this. The meeting is TOMORROW!

If the elephants got loose from the LA Zoo, or if we HAD any elephants there, Griffith Park might look like this. Photo by Kelly and Robin in Kenia.

The future of Griffith Park is in your hands. Please show your support by attending the 10AM Thursday Commissioners’ meeting in Room 350, third floor, City Hall.

Ron Kaye recently sent it on as an email alert, as well:
ACTION ALERT: Support protection of Griffith Park as a cultural-historical monument by turning out for the meeting of the CULTURAL HERITAGE COMMISSION at 10 a.m. Thursday (tomorrow), Room 350, City Hall. The commission is expected to vote on the issue.

But there’s another way you can support this, if leaving your computer would be a hardship, and it only takes a minute - trust me, I did it. Register support at: http://www.friendsofgriffithpark.org/Griffith ParkPreservationRegister.html

307 people have registered. Don’t more people than that use the park? Come on, be #308! (more…)

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Am I a hipster? Also, please define.

Donna Barstow — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:52:53 +0000

Somebody likes me, they really really like me!

Daniel B. Honigman, a Chicago guy who writes for Huffington Post, among other places, and works for the Chicago Trib Online recently included Griffith Park, Interrupted, in his roundup of some of the best blogs in Los Angeles!!!

The only other LA blog he has listed that I recognize is Eating L.A..

He says, however, that I’m probably not a hipster.

I didn’t know it showed.

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I’m not just a one-note band.

Donna Barstow — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:32:25 +0000

I’ve been invited to contribute to a group blog: Mayor Sam’s Sister City. They’re kind of raucous and wild over there. Still, I guess someone thought I was a needed voice to whip them up even higher.

I don’t know how often. I feel more at home here. But here’s my first post there. It’s about Felix the Cat, Councilman Tom LaBonge, and Griffith Park, and how the whole world is intertwined in some wonderful way.

Photo by Christine Cotter of the LA Times.

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I live in East LA, but I am not Latino.

Donna Barstow — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:00:50 +0000

Came across an interesting story by the AP a couple of weeks ago:

East L.A. — birthplace of the lowrider, Los Lobos and Oscar de la Hoya — is to Mexican-Americans what Harlem is to the black community. Now it wants to become its own city. Commonly mistaken for a part of Los Angeles, East L.A. is actually an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County, with more than 130,000 people — 96 percent of them Latino — packed into 7.4 square miles.

[CLIP] While outsiders often see the area as gang-plagued and poverty-ridden, East L.A. possesses cultural and political symbolism for Mexican-Americans.

I live in Silver Lake, right next to Los Feliz, which is certainly the East Side of Los Angeles. (My favorite story is how the former writer of the Green blog for the LA Times - www.latimes.com/emeraldcity - said she lived “all the way in Santa Monica, so I know nothing about Silver Lake…”) Hee! Yet, so far I don’t identify with this East LA article. What symbolism in Silver Lake? Let’s read on.

For decades, East L.A. has been a first stop for immigrants just over the border, though these days there are nearly as many Salvadoran pupuserias selling filled tortilla patties as Mexican taquerias selling tacos.

Photo from netstate.com. We could rename the California Poppy, the Western USA flower!

I don’t like Mexican food, can’t comment on this.

East L.A. is a fusion of cultures north and south of the border. Spanish is the predominant language, but it is a hybrid version, Spanglish, punctuated with Hispanicized English words: “breka” for break, “marqueta” for market, “cora” for quarter.

While nortena music booms from downtown stores, East L.A. has also produced artists such as Los Lobos, who have combined Mexican oompah sounds with American rock rhythms. Lowriders, often with customized Chicano-theme paint jobs, cruise the streets.

No, English is spoken in Silver Lake and Los Feliz, quite well, actually. I have seen lowriders in Hollywood, and I have heard of Los Lobos, however.

(more…)

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Halloween blessings and scary stuff in Griffith Park.

Donna Barstow — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 20:38:43 +0000

I am a Bad, Bad Blogger. But I’m back, so hold your horses.

I must tell you about this fascinating FREE seminar given tomorrow, Sat, October 18, at the convenient Riverside Auditorium, on Riverside Drive, right near the 5 entrance, and across the street from the fountain, where cheap people have their weddings.

It’s called: Re-Enchanting The City Conference V: Global Climate Change, and will have Dr. Danny Harvey, who worked with Al Gore on his book, and who won a the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. The emphasis will be on animals, for our park, but heck, we all sweat.

It will also include lots of other interesting speakers, such as Ronald Kosinski, Deputy District Director, Environmental Planning, CALTRANS, who will speak on Los Angeles “Wildlife Bridges, Overpasses and Undercrossing Changes.” I can’t wait until we get some wildlife bridges, like other, more enlightened cities, already have! Free lunch included, and it will break up into group discussions afterward with wildlife artists and photographers and biologists. Really nifty.

It starts at 8 AM. Unfortunately, due to private circumstances, I won’t be there that early, so I will have to miss the Chumash opening ceremony. But I don’t want to miss Dr. Harvey, who starts at 9:30. About 200 people are expected, nice!

I had a chance to talk with Chairperson Dr. Rosemarie White, who organized this whole shebang, today, and she said that Dr. Harvey came into town yesterday, and gave her a preview of his latest global warming news:

I warn you, the message is not good.

(cue scary music.) She told him:

That’s okay, the city needs to be slapped into attention. This is our destiny.

How can you resist a production like this? See you tomorrow.

Sponsors are:

The Sierra Club, Endangered Species and Wildlife Committiee
The Humane Society of the United States
The Recreation and Parks Department, City of Los Angeles
The Canada Goose Project / Migration Foundation
Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge

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