| Travel page ... what I have been doing and where I have been going ... page 2 |
October 31 through maybe November 2 2008
I hope everybody had a great Halloween. I am in town this week. What has been going on in my life ???
Friday night I went to Carl Verheyen's place for chili dinner which was cooked by his wife. My ex-wife was there too as she
is a friend of both Carl and his wife and our youngest son went too as he is friends with Carl and Carol's son. The two boys
went off to trick or treat and came back with at least 20 pounds of candy, each.
I spent the night in West Hills as in the morning I was to take my two boys to Santa Monica airport to go flying with the
uncle Ian and my sister. Ian and my sister are not married but I refer to him as uncle Ian as he spends more quality time with
the boys than most of my own uncles ever spent with me.
Ian is also a pilot and is teaching my youngest son to fly and it would not surprise me if he continued on to receive his
private pilots license when he is a bit older.
I dropped of my boys and headed over to Burbank Airport where I was meeting a friend who was coming from out of town.
She is from Phoenix but spends a lot of time in Las Vegas. She is a friend of a friend that I met in Las Vegas a few weeks
ago. Anyway ... she came to L.A. to do a bit of work and asked if I would show her around. I am not sure who is showing
who around as she knows L.A. quite well. She has a very cool hotel room downtown and the subway stops very close to
hotel but she also got a rental car so we are not sure where we will go or what we will do but for now we are having a
good time.
We went to Hollywood even though it was raining. We got a bite to eat and then I was tricked into going bowling.
I hope everybody had a great Halloween. I am in town this week. What has been going on in my life ???
Friday night I went to Carl Verheyen's place for chili dinner which was cooked by his wife. My ex-wife was there too as she
is a friend of both Carl and his wife and our youngest son went too as he is friends with Carl and Carol's son. The two boys
went off to trick or treat and came back with at least 20 pounds of candy, each.
I spent the night in West Hills as in the morning I was to take my two boys to Santa Monica airport to go flying with the
uncle Ian and my sister. Ian and my sister are not married but I refer to him as uncle Ian as he spends more quality time with
the boys than most of my own uncles ever spent with me.
Ian is also a pilot and is teaching my youngest son to fly and it would not surprise me if he continued on to receive his
private pilots license when he is a bit older.
I dropped of my boys and headed over to Burbank Airport where I was meeting a friend who was coming from out of town.
She is from Phoenix but spends a lot of time in Las Vegas. She is a friend of a friend that I met in Las Vegas a few weeks
ago. Anyway ... she came to L.A. to do a bit of work and asked if I would show her around. I am not sure who is showing
who around as she knows L.A. quite well. She has a very cool hotel room downtown and the subway stops very close to
hotel but she also got a rental car so we are not sure where we will go or what we will do but for now we are having a
good time.
We went to Hollywood even though it was raining. We got a bite to eat and then I was tricked into going bowling.
| Maybe Frank Murdock www.impliedimages.com can tell me what is wrong with this picture. Does it matter that the angle makes her hair appear shoulder length when it is really longer in the back? Are there a different set of rules when something is candid rather than posed? I thank my friend for the use of her camera. |
| I really need to try to remember to take pictures once in a while of the great parts of a meal. I made this mistake in Flagstaff where I snapped a photo of the first course and then forgot to take pix of what followed. In Sedona I missed the entire meal. I need to leave my phone of camera on the table during the meal. I missed the asada tacos on the way to Nevada. I missed my burger at Peggy Sue's 50s diner. I will try to do better in the future. I have a chef friend in Paris that made me promise to take a snapshot of everything I ate after my divorce when I went out to eat and thought something was tasty. |
| This is a really pretty shot after the rain. |
| Moving along to later Saturday night November 1st and Sunday November 2nd. |
| I guess I will start with the hotel in Los Angeles. As you can see, the room is somewhat messy. I don't think my friend would do well on a boat or in a place where you want to keep a bit more organized. As you can see, the outer wall of the shower is the inner wall of the room. Interesting. |
| This is the roof of the hotel. The night before we went swimming. Close to the hotel is One Wilshire. When I was in the telecom business I used to go there at times as it is where the main central office is located for many phone companies. Oh yeah ... the pool is great and it is heated at night and nobody else seemed to use it at 1:30am. |
| Off to Hollywood via downtown L.A. for a late breakfast at some crowded trendy restaurant that my friend had been to in the past and suggested. |
| .... and I didn't even know what this was that she ordered. Actually ... it is some sort of poached or coddled egg. So who eats a runny wet egg with an onion anyway? |
| Wilshire Blvd. |
| These six shots are around Olvera Street and this was just before the election where there were a lot of people voicing their thoughts on Prop 8 in the upcoming election. |
| A quick stop for a sushi snack where we made new friends. |
We swung by my work and I got my car and we both went to the airport. Her flight was on US Airways at 4:05 from Burbank to Phoenix. I waited with her at the
airport, said goodbye and came back home and wrote this up and there you are ... done for now.
It was a great weekend spent close to home. There is always a lot to see and do if you just open your eyes to what is around you and do not get too deeply
focused on just trying to survive a work week or career. I learned that long ago while living on a boat but ... even when you know that it is really easy to fall back
into the trap of a conventional lifestyle.
airport, said goodbye and came back home and wrote this up and there you are ... done for now.
It was a great weekend spent close to home. There is always a lot to see and do if you just open your eyes to what is around you and do not get too deeply
focused on just trying to survive a work week or career. I learned that long ago while living on a boat but ... even when you know that it is really easy to fall back
into the trap of a conventional lifestyle.
| Monday November 3rd, 2008 - The Tonight Show |
Dan and I spent the morning over at NBC setting up for this evening's Tonight Show. They really don't allow photos but I was able to snap a few that I will put up
later when I have a bit more time.
Sugarland is the music guest this evening and at rehearsal it sounded great. Scott Patton is using Lil' Elvis which has a hand made faceplate that says "Tiny E" that
was a nickname that Scott Patton coined the last time he used one of the prototypes. Tonight will be the amp's first official televison debut where the amp will
be seen. There is also a 65amps London on stage.
There will be a 65amps London on stage tonight as in the above picture but this evening at the show the lap steel that Scott will be playing will be played
through "Tiny E" or Tiny Elvis or Lil' Elvis. Thad will be playing a Guild acoustic and Annie will be playing through an Ampeg B15 bass amp that sounds pretty terrific
too.
The FOH man Phil loved the "Tiny E". It has the 65amps master voltage control as a standard part of it's feature set and it is dialed down to about 7 watts for the
show tonight.
Dan and I left for an hour or two and came back for the taping of the show. The show taping went great. I spent my time with Phil up at the FOH console. I am
sure the show that airs tonight will be a pretty cool one. Sugarland was great and so were all the animals (Dan and I got to pet the sloth before the show and the
sea lion growled at Dan when Dan did not feed it the food that was close by). As an aftermath sidenote ... after the show I was talking to the folks from Seaworld
San Diego that were leaving at about 5:30pm to take the animals back to San Diego (in the evening traffic). The girls who were driving the truck, and the cargo
area of the truck is open to the cab, said the sea lion just took a big dump in it's cage so that would add a bit of a twist to an already hard drive.
Kate Walsh was just great and the stuff that you don't see on TV due to commercials was a lot of fun ... the band playing during commercials as sets are changed
was great.
During the Sugarland performance both Jay Leno and Kate Walsh were just off to the side of the stage where Sugarland was performing and both of them
seemed to really enjoy the performance.
later when I have a bit more time.
Sugarland is the music guest this evening and at rehearsal it sounded great. Scott Patton is using Lil' Elvis which has a hand made faceplate that says "Tiny E" that
was a nickname that Scott Patton coined the last time he used one of the prototypes. Tonight will be the amp's first official televison debut where the amp will
be seen. There is also a 65amps London on stage.
There will be a 65amps London on stage tonight as in the above picture but this evening at the show the lap steel that Scott will be playing will be played
through "Tiny E" or Tiny Elvis or Lil' Elvis. Thad will be playing a Guild acoustic and Annie will be playing through an Ampeg B15 bass amp that sounds pretty terrific
too.
The FOH man Phil loved the "Tiny E". It has the 65amps master voltage control as a standard part of it's feature set and it is dialed down to about 7 watts for the
show tonight.
Dan and I left for an hour or two and came back for the taping of the show. The show taping went great. I spent my time with Phil up at the FOH console. I am
sure the show that airs tonight will be a pretty cool one. Sugarland was great and so were all the animals (Dan and I got to pet the sloth before the show and the
sea lion growled at Dan when Dan did not feed it the food that was close by). As an aftermath sidenote ... after the show I was talking to the folks from Seaworld
San Diego that were leaving at about 5:30pm to take the animals back to San Diego (in the evening traffic). The girls who were driving the truck, and the cargo
area of the truck is open to the cab, said the sea lion just took a big dump in it's cage so that would add a bit of a twist to an already hard drive.
Kate Walsh was just great and the stuff that you don't see on TV due to commercials was a lot of fun ... the band playing during commercials as sets are changed
was great.
During the Sugarland performance both Jay Leno and Kate Walsh were just off to the side of the stage where Sugarland was performing and both of them
seemed to really enjoy the performance.
The sea lion photo on the right ...Not a very good picture ... phone camera and low light. This fellow growled at Dan a few times when Dan failed to feed him
when the sea lion knew food was within Dan's reach.
We were at NBC all day for the most part ... ate breakfast there, set up, sound check, lunch with the band which was really just a good hang with great friends.
Back to the shop for an hour or so and then back to NBC for the show.
It was a great day.
when the sea lion knew food was within Dan's reach.
We were at NBC all day for the most part ... ate breakfast there, set up, sound check, lunch with the band which was really just a good hang with great friends.
Back to the shop for an hour or so and then back to NBC for the show.
It was a great day.
| Wednesday November 5th 2008 This was something of an Obama post election party that started at about 2pm and ran well into the evening. I will copy most of the text here from my blog as I posted this over there as it happened and am now trying to update this page on my website and catch up a bit as I have been a bit lax on this page. Well .... the after election day party is still in progress over here at 65amps. It started about three hours ago and won't end until late this evening. Many of these photos are in my photo area on my myspace page with commentary. I also have a video of Sam Austin in a rare drum performance. Most of you know him as the blazing guitarist who played a duo with Brad Paisley on the song "Time Warp" ... the song that starts at 180bpm and ends at about 240bpm. Guitar player? Yes ... but who knew that he was arguably the finest drummer in the world, past or present? I am honored to spend many hours a week sitting just a few feet from this legend! The world class video is posted in my video section. Feel free to pass it on to others, post it on youtube or refine it and edit it for sale to other drummers as an instructional video. The video is on myspace on my page in my video area if you want to take a look. |
| Friday November 7th, 2008 Cell Phones ... Friend or Foe? This evening a friend invited me to a dinner at a place she likes in Sherman Oaks. She picked the restaurant and I was ready for a nice evening. Unfortunately ... at the table next to us an aspiring young musician (both drummer and singer) was performing. Normally I could overlook this sort of thing if the mother can the slightest clue as to what was going on but she was busy texting on her phone and was oblivious to the disturbance her child was having on others. So ... what do you do in a situation such as this? Is the cell phone a foe for causing the mother to have her mind elsewhere? Well .... you call upon the occult. First I asked my friend if there was some way she could hypnotize the mother or the child without them knowing about it. Maybe wave a shiny object like a spoon or something? She is a registered hypnotist and pretty adept at her craft but she said this was beyond her level of expertise. So I took the matter into my own hands. I called the waitress and asked if she had any rubber bands. I was able to get a five rubber bands but only needed three. I took a napkin from the table and fashioned it into the image of the child and held it close to the table candle. My logic was, if the child got hot and mom was convinced it had a fever she would whisk him home. Well .... it didn't work in the way planned but the child saw what I was doing and wanted to put things into the candle on his table. Mom was not happy with that. She moved the candles away from the child and that did not go over well at all with the little boy. The increased level of him yelling did speed up their departure and Nikki and I then had a nice dinner. |
| Below - Saturday, November 08, 2008 Downtown L.A., Chinatown, Hollywood with Jack and Graham Today my two boys and I spent the day in downtown Los Angeles, Chinatown and Hollywood. We had lunch in a great Vietnamise restaurant and ended up spending a lot of time with the family that owns the restaurant. We met the mother, daughter, brother and the two children of the brother. The brother was born at the same time as I was in Vietnam and his sister Connie was born just about as I was leaving, in 1969. They came to Los Angeles in 1975. We were asked to come back as friends as by the time we were done we were more than just typical customers. Many more pictures were taken than what are shown here or in my photo album of this day but most have my two boys in the photos and I am not that keen in posting too many personal photos on the net. Those photos will be reserved for people I know personally. |
| Below - Thursday November 13th 2008 - Dr. Z Carmen Ghia sighting! I went out to dinner in Agoura with my friend Emily. A lot of you know her as she was one of the SSM models for a long time and was also Miss L.A. Ampshow in 2005 and again in 2006. She has also been in many pieces of work by Implied Images and other photographer friends. I will put up some of her past work here that may jog your memory. Emily had just gotten a haircut and we met at the restaurant called Moz in Agoura for dinner. It was a nice spot ... restaurant with a varied Asian themed menu, a bar and a club area. During dinner a band began to play and after dinner I walked up to the band and there I saw a 2x10 Ghia combo ... unmic'd in a trio and sounding great. I had seared Ahi tuna and Emily had a veggie curry dish. Emily is a vegetarian but she smokes and that made for a great outdoor evening. Emily is now back in college but also has a high level career she loves but .... if you have a model requirement and the compensation is right maybe she would consider stepping back in front of the camera momentarily :) |
| Some of Emily's past work is show below |
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