Gridlock, Bridges & Shuttles, oh my... PartOne

So much of our Los Angeles streets have been laid bare, literally and figuratively, this past month in Los Angeles.  From Carmageddon II to the magnificent entrance of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, when people stopped on the freeways to see its last flyby, and today, its final journey, earthbound at two miles per hour, to the Space Center where it will be forever housed.

Whether the concerns of incredibly awful traffic -the condition in which I have been photographing all these many years while stuck in it, in my car, on my shift and out my window - to the absence thereof leading up to the closing of the 405 to demolish the old Mulholland Bridge to amazing plans and works from municipal, electrical, aeronautic and other agencies to put together this last final parade of this beloved of space shuttles, Los Angeles has drawn together as one community these days.  It is exhilarating.

I walked the streets yesterday and today - Crenshaw and Martin Luther King - streets that radiated neighborliness, talking to people from within and without, all entranced by the shuttle's passage.  Adults brought their mothers and fathers.  Parents brought their children.  Cameras and mobiles recorded pics and through it all, the space shuttle moved ever so slightly, to the right, to the left, to avoid a tree branch here, an electric light pole there.

I heard talk of the history of what we now call "South LA" and could see vestiges of that even as I walked: the old Jewish temple now a baptist ministry.   The reminder that what was once called "West" in the early days of the city, a place filled with magnificent homes - many still beautifully preserved and others now being revived - and orderly communities - was name-changed to South Central after the Watts riots of 65.  Now changed further to South LA.   The shuttle passed Leimart Park, a gathering of intellectuals and jazz clubs in the 20th century, started out African American but appealing to smart people all over the city.  A fought for new Metro stop brings us there again.

I met those who had worked at some of our fabled rocket plants - Hughes, Rocketdyne, Lockheed...

For now - perhaps more later - some pics from yesterday on Crenshaw below Martin Luther King Bouldvard, people waiting for the shuttle and today, starting at 8:30 am, there it was...

below:  a somewhat chronological order and this first set, people watching...







 












 

 

 

The Second Carmageddon in Los Angeles

Californians like to complain about traffic and we talk about distance in terms of minutes and hours as opposed to miles and the word "depending," as in "....depending upon the traffic" is a part of our idiom for travel distrance.

However, even though I've sat occasionally in the morning rush hour that takes sales clerks and mechanics from Riverside County (60 miles but sometimes two and one-half hours away) to the Santa Monica Beach, or the 16 mile trip from my home to downtown Los Angeles which can take one hour and one-half, it seems that Sao Paulo in Brazil tops even us:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19660765

 

Courtesy of AP & BBC News

Wow, a new post!

Been the busiest year - with some incredible highs and a couple of lows .....

More to come with an update but today is about Los Angeles, and its history of aerospace and flight.

A child of Los Angeles with childhood memories of visits to my parents' friends, the husband of which invented the atomic clock that was essential to space flight, I sat today on the beach - where else! - to watch the last flight of the Endeavor, cradled on a 747, a plane now dear to my heart (see my 747 Wing House series), do its last ever fly over.

Some quick pics...

The Year in Review - So Far in Installation

Working on my website with installation shots of the year's exhibits, I realize that I have been in exhibits averaging one per month since January.  Plus other awards and good news, it has been a good and busy almost 1/2 year.  More to come on acitivities soon in my periodic email news report but, thought it would be nice to post the installation pictures right now.

January 2012: starting off with 'ROUND THE CLOCK: CHINESE AMERICAN ARTISTS WORKING IN LOS ANGELES at the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College, a Getty sponsored Pacific Standard Time Exhibtion.   The beautiful and important exhibit by independant curator, Sonia Mak, bringing into the well-deserved spotlight these fine artists, lessor known possibly because of their ethnicity, but known within important artist circles, who worked commercially but showed spectacularly.

I was privileged to have included my photographs (in a print and a photo flipbook) of Tyrus Wong in his retirement, flying his amazing handmade kites for the past 30 years at the beach.

February2012: At Morono Kiang Gallery, Los Angeles Downtown, curated by Shervin Shahbazi:  FAR AWAY, SO CLOSE.  Photographs by LA Artists of Los Angeles in the l980s.

 

MARCH 2012: Along with occasional artist collaborator, Martin Cox, our project WEST COAST/WEST COAST was exhibited along with other international artists at the Western Australia photo biennial in Perth, FOTO FREO in the DIVERGENCE exhibit at Midland Atelier .

MAY2012:  LOOKING GLASS, my first ever exhibition of work from my DETROIT: DEFINITION project, included in an exhibit curated by Shana Nys Dambrot at the Analog Salon, Culver City.

MAY2012:  Chosen in a juried competition and exhibited at the annual AIA National Convention in DC, my photograph of the 747 Wing House, representing one of the "Best of the Year: ASMP/Architecture."