The Gurly Life

Hearst Castle

First, I would just like to welcome the Hearst Corporation internet police. You can relax, only good things are in this post. Feel free to comment, we all know you've stopped by. Second, if there is no Hearst Corporation internet police, shame on them. Really. A media empire and no internet police. Pfft.

Hearst Castle took 28 years to build, and the architect was a woman, Julie Morgan. William Randolph Hearst, newspaper and mining magnate, built his little ranch where, after divorcing his wife, he lived with actress Marion Davies. Or maybe this was his vacation home. Whatever. It is big, it is fancy, and it is chock full of art. Hearst would invite famous guests for eclectic weekends, such as Churchill and Charlie Chaplin, but if you were a boring guest you would not be invited back. That's right. We went on a very informative tour with a terrific guide and the only thing that really stuck with me is that the boring people weren't invited back. Wow.

Anyway, I took some pictures, which you can see here. Below are a few I liked.

This was where Hearst met his guests for cocktails before dinner. The guests had the day to themselves, but they were expected to appear for cocktails and dinner. If you didn't, you weren't invited back. In fact, all meals were in the dining room, and there certainly was not room service. I wonder if guests were allowed to wander into the kitchen and grab something.

Neptune's Pool, the outdoor pool. Nice, right?

Reflections off the water. There's a color one too.

You can't tell here, but the little statue dude at the top of the fountain was wearing boots and a hat, but nothing else, so his little willie is hanging out. A curious choice of statue. Right around the time I took this picture I noticed a speck when I looked through the camera. Michelle and I spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out where it was, and ultimately concluded that it must be on the viewfinder. As I didn't see it on the photos, I guess it must have been. Told ya it was a tedious story.

I just love this courtyard.

This is the indoor pool. It's spectacular, with blue and gold tiles. One of the things I noticed about both pools is that they are not like modern pools with a deep end and a shallow end and maybe nice steps to ease you in. They're both just deep, and the only way in and out is using the step ladders. It's a little unsettling, I have to admit.

While visiting Hearst Castle I declined to use the port-a-pottie. As a general rule, port-a-potties are potties of last resort for me as I tend to throw up a little in my mouth whenever I use one. I was hoping the toilets might be gold-plated, but it wasn't so. Those were probably reserved for the guests who didn't bore Mr. Hearst.

Hanging out with Michelle

The bestest part of my weekend on the central coast, of course, was hanging out with Michelle.

Michelle and I have been friends for 16 years, since back in the day when we both had aspirations in the entertainment industry. I was working at the time at a below-the-line talent agency, and Michelle had just moved to the US from England to be married to her first husband. She was living in the OC, but was interning with us. Back then, I was one of those LA people who packed extra water, camping supplies and flares in my car whenever I had to cross the Orange Curtain. I'm only slightly kidding.

There are a lot of things I like about Michelle, such as her brains, her determination, her talent, her loyalty and her integrity, just to name a few, but there are some things about her that stand out for me. For one thing, Michelle finds humor is just about any situation - I mean, life is serious enough as it is, right?

I admire her greatly for setting up her photography business. Not just for doing it, because anyone can pick up a camera and "be a photographer." But not everyone does it right - Michelle is constantly working on her craft, learning, and challenging herself.

Michelle is a strong, opinionated person who can and does consider other people's perspectives and in some cases changes her mind and even her ways.That takes real intelligence. So anyway, you get the idea. We're friends, she's awesome, and you wish you were her. She's also beautiful.

Yes, this is the gorgeous Michelle. And before you go all googly about what a great picture I took, I will tell you that it's only because I follow directions. We were walking along a cute little creek near the Mission in San Luis Obispo and Michelle marched out into the fabulous light with the fall colors behind, turned and said, "Take a picture of me here." So I did. I may have mentioned a few times that Michelle is a photographer. You can see her photos on her website, Memories by Michelle, and I recommend you do. If you click on the Blog tab, you can see her posts about this trip, with photos.

Michelle always takes great pictures of me, so I tried to take some decent ones of her.

I really like this one, too, you can see the sultry side of her. She is likely to point out the imperfections in her face, but I think her face is perfect just the way it is.

Michelle has the travel bug. Pretty soon, she will be traipsing around the world taking photographs, husband Joss and daughter Daisy in tow. Daisy is the cutest, smartest little girl, and boy is she high energy. The thing that cracks me up the most about her is that she will run in circles around and around and around for much longer than anyone thinks possible. I don't know about you, but I don't remember having so much energy, even as a kid, that I had to just run and run and run and run. I did wonder where the circles came from, and this weekend I got my answer. This happened on the beach while we were standing around waiting for the light to go down.

Michelle and I make a good team. We inspire each other with our cameras, and the really awesome thing about traveling with a photographer is that she doesn't get annoyed when I take 20 minutes to get a shot. Usually I can't take photographs and be social at the same time, but with Michelle the two things are one. Bliss! We like to play on the internet, so more than once we found ourselves sitting together in the living room with our feet up in nap socks, laptops on our lap, editing photos and Facebooking, and tagging each other in our FB posts. Bliss!

Out photo trips were slow meanders punctuated by breathers, cups of tea, lemonades, and chats. Bliss!

Here we're chilling out at Hearst Castle, Neptune's Pool. It was chilly but the sun was lovely and warm and the little couches were too tempting.

I took a few more pics of Michelle, which you can see here. Mayhap you will prefer different photos of her than the ones I chose.

We stayed in Cambria, in a rental two bedroom cottage, only a hop skip and a jump from Harmony, Pop. 18. Brilliant idea. Very restful. Here's our little cottage, though I didn't take many photos of it. If you go to Michelle's blog post, Day One, you can see some lovely photos of it inside and out.

Here's our quiet little street, followed by some berries and some trees. Just because.

One evening we went into downtown Cambria and Michelle did a wine tasting for me so I could pick up some wine for a friend who had asked. What a trooper she is! During the wine tasting I believe I got hit on by a firefighter from Ventura - at last, you might think, what she's always wanted! Only, well, said firefighter was a woman. Close, but no cigar.

At the wine tasting we also chatted with a woman who said she teaches at a university training terrorists, and I thought, mmh, that seems unlikely. As it turns out, she trains therapists. Glad I asked before I ran out and called the FBI and caused everyone (me) a lot of embarrassment. No one wants to be put on the FBI's Most Annoying list (less notorious that their Most Wanted list, but it's the kiss of death if you're trying to be even a tiny bit cool, which is of course one of my goals in life).

Next up: Hearst Castle. Stay tuned for tedious tales of port-a-potties and imaginary bugs on my lens.

Hippo surprise

The only thing more awesome than this cute little hippo doodad (courtesy of Ms. Willow)

Is that it's actually useful.

Form *and* substance.

 

More iPhone fun

Now that I'm doing a lot of litigation, I'm finding that I'm just not as creatively inspired as I would like. I spend all my creative juices drafting briefs. Which are usually long. Whatever.

This is a photo I took on my phone and played around with, and then turned into a Polaroid. I wonder if over time the ePolaroids will turn yellow and/or fade.

This is me and Wendy, under the fluorescent lights. We look like ghosts. Kinda cool.

This is my friend/colleague, Kathya. She's getting married next weekend. Awwww!

This is Cricket. If you don't know this is Cricket, welcome to my blog!

Here is Maliboo Kitty, photographed with the Hipstamatic app. I don't know, I kind dig it. Note that I have the gall to tag this post with "art." Hah. Who's going to prove me wrong?

Another night photography jaunt

Thursday evening I again went out with my Meetup group to practice night photography in downtown LA. If you'd like to see the entire set on Flickr, there are only 20 photos. Here are a few.

Pretty floats

Before the rain began today, I went on another Meetup outing, to photograph the Rose Parade floats. It’s just like being in the parade, except that you're the one doing the moving, not the floats. And there are no bands, and no horses. It was cold, it was dreary, and by the time we headed back, it was raining. Nonetheless, it was totally worth the time. The floats are creative and elaborate, and really they are works of art and community. It’s hard to fathom how much work and dedication went into each one – except for the football team floats, which are two standard floats that get done up with the teams’ colors. Meh.

The Meetup portion didn’t quite come together – there were at least 4 gates into the area where the floats are parked, and I’m pretty sure I ended up at not the one we were supposed to meet. No matter, my mom and my neighbor Jill also came along, so we had a lovely outing.

I took a lot of pics, and took several hours of culling and minor editing for your viewing pleasure. I hope you will have a chance to take a look at the whole Tournament of Roses floats 2011 on Flickr. I really think the floats are gorgeous, so you won't be wasting your time. However! If you do not want to look at the Flickr set, here are five that I like. Enjoy.

[For the nerdy, I've provided links to the EXIF info for each one, right below the photo]

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I did learn something, too. When it's a cloudy/bright day like today and you're taking photos with the sky in the background, it helps sometimes to overexpose your subject just a little bit. On the last outing, I learned to shoot in RAW mode - well, I didn't learn so much as I realized that I'm better off with Raw files. A Raw file is basically an uncompressed file with all the information that your camera takes - it's a bigger file and it needs to be converted to a different format, but it has a ton more information and it does not lose quality as you edit it. In short, easier to control the end result. If you want to know a little more about RAW vs. JPEG, you can read about it in this article on DPS.

And with that, I bid you good night, and I go to sleep -- tomorrow begins a new year of work.

Some night photography experiments

On Sunday evening, I trekked out to the Lincoln Memorial again to play with my camera and take night shots. I learned a few things, and took some pics I actually liked. Probably not the most original pics you've seen of this monument, but also not the most boring. Here are three, and you can see the rest here (there are not a lot). The third one is looking out towards the Mall from the Lincoln Memorial.

And now, for some potty humor

You waited patiently and waded through my posts and photos - though not as much as I would have liked, don't think I don't know you're not really reading, but I love you anyway and I will reward you no matter what. My recent spate of potty discoveries inspired me.

I give you the following Pictorial Representations.

1. The normal potty we are all familiar with.

2. The family potty. Inspired by the family toilet, as seen here. Awkward but intimate. And you know what they say about the family that poos together...

3. The Japanese potty, with the bidet buttons. It can take you by surprise. (If you don't know what a bidet is, Google it.)

Concerning photographs

You have already had a glimpse of some of the photos I took – at least, I hope you did go see them, but if not, here’s another opportunity. I have also added links to all the sets from DC at the end of this post. So even if you don’t read it, scroll down to the links. I love comments on my photos, by the way, so feel free.

DC is a very photogenic city. Basically, all you do is point your camera at things, and POP! -- great photo. In other words, a monkey can take good photos in DC. I really got to take in some sights this weekend. I did not get to it all, not by a long shot. There are A LOT of Smithsonians I did not even walk into, I didn’t get to see the White House, or Arlington Cemetery, or the Pentagon (hello, Secret Service or NSA or some other military intelligence, if you happened to come upon this blog).  Oh stop your gasping, I did not have time for everything, so don’t be giving me that look.

Here’s what I did visit: the National Mall, the Washington Monument, the WW II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial (and this one, I went back for seconds on Sunday evening for night shots), the National Archives and the National Air and Space Museum. I was in the Museum of the American Indian for lunch but as it is not the at the top of my museum wish-list, I passed on it in favor of the Air and Space Museum.

As to most of these, I will let the pictures speak for themselves. The Washington DC set includes the Mall, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, WW II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Archives. The Air and Space Museum gets its own set, there were lots of rockets and planes to photograph and I thought some folks would like those. I also have a short set for the Lincoln Memorial at night. I will say a few words about some of these, however.

I have already mentioned the WW II Memorial. It is really grand, but it was a world war, and one of the few wars where the good and the evil were clearly defined: it is evil to kidnap people, tear their families apart, take all their belongings and pull out their gold teeth, and destroy them on masse because of some perceived ethnic flaw, or because they’re gay (yeah, he did that too). There is no choice but to stand up to such evil, and that’s what the world did. It was a war on two massive fronts: the Allies (Great Britain, Russia and the US) fought the Axis (Germany, Japan and Italy) in the Pacific and in the Atlantic.

These two fronts are represented by the sculptures at the two ends of the Memorial. It was the war where 6 million innocent Jews were slaughtered, an estimated 20 million people died, dozens of countries fought, and two atomic bombs were dropped, each of which killed 100,000 people or so (a questionable move, at best, I would agree – even the good make terrible mistakes). It was the war of Pearl Harbor.

A war like that doesn’t just get a subtle, artistic memorial, it gets a fucking awesome memorial because all the millions of people who died and all the millions of people who fought and survived deserve it. So for anyone who might have a thought that the memorial is kitsch or vulgar or too ostentatious, I recommend looking into the eyes of the remaining veterans who visit and telling them that their war does not deserve such recognition. And that’s all I have to say about that.

While I was there, I was able to mingle with and photograph some WW II veterans who were there on a bus tour. They are all pretty old, some in wheelchairs, and were accompanied by guardians. One guardian asked if I would take a photo of her with her two veterans by one of the sculptures, which I happily did. I also took this photo with my camera, and emailed it to one of them.

This is the email response I received from him.

Dear Elena,

 

Thanks for taking the time to take a picture of a couple of old Veterans and their assigned "Guardian". The group that took us from Harrisburg, PA to Washington was called "Honor Bus". Among other things a local middle school raised to money for the trip for about 60 WW II Vets. Other groups flew in on "Honor Flights' from around the U.S. Having that many people care about saying "Thank you" gave us a warm and fuzzy feeling about the future of the country.

 

Thanks again for being considerate to a couple of total strangers.

 

Bill Kelley  

"Bill" as a WW II Merchant Marine Officer when he wasn't so old

Is this the best thing ever? Yes!

The Vietnam War Memorial is just as moving as the WW II Memorial, but in a quiet way that initially underwhelms you but then creeps up on you and suddenly you’re in it, in all the sadness and the death. It was a smaller war that WW II, and the loss for the US was more individual: a lot of young men died (I think 60,000) for a war that turned out to be pointless, and they are missed to this day. The Memorial is made up of two long marble walls that meet at an angle. It rises out of the ground with a few names and then grows and grows until it is much taller than any man, and then grows smaller again and disappears once more into the ground with the last name.

There are thousands upon thousands of names. When you go, you cannot help but cry and touch the names and say a prayer for them whether you pray to God or Buddha or just the universe. You say a prayer for them and for the ones left behind, and for their friends who come to the wall to find their names and trace them on a piece of paper so they can have something of them to take away.

All this in one morning – I needn’t tell you that I was a wreck after that. My heavens!

And finally, a few words about the National Archives. Really, only a few. This is where the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution live. And I tell you what, when I got in front of that Constitution and saw it up close and personal, and saw all those signatures beginning with G. Washington, I cried. Again. I’m out of tissues.

All the monuments and historic buildings and collections, the National Mall, and the Smithsonians are all free to visit. Free. Not a penny do you have to pay to look at these things. I of course dropped money in every donation box I could find, and I joined The Smithsonian to support it, their museums really are remarkable. In addition, donations can be made to the The Trust For The National Mall, which is tasked with the maintenance of the Mall. It could use a little more upkeep, I think, so I will be making a donation to them, also.

I write this on the plane. As we took off, I thought of the 1903 Wright Flyer, which I saw at the National Air and Space Museum.

Washington, DC

I am in Washington, DC, for Deirdre's wedding. Deirdre and John got married tonight, it was a lovely ceremony. But more of that later. Earlier in the day, I took a quick tour of the National Mall, catching the National Monument, WW II Memorial, Vietnam War Veteran Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. It was a beautiful day.

I got to see a man on the subway who wore a bowler hat and had a mustache, and wondered whether it was Hercule Poirot. On my way back to the Metro I encoutered three Tibetan monks. One gave me an open loving smile, and I bowed namaste to him. A few minutes later I was able to stop by the Metro station and enjoy an amazing trumpet player strut his stuff for passers-by. Once I stopped, a whole crowd of people stopped too, and everyone gave him change. I was the last to leave. He asked me if I am a musician.

The National Monument.

Detail of the WW II Memorial. The inscription: HERE WE MARK THE PRICE OF FREEDOM. Each of those little things is a star, presumably for a life lost. This Memorial is majestic and moving, and today it was overflowing with WW II veterans. I cried the entire time I was there.

Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool. Which needs to be cleaned.

A man traces the name of a lost friend at the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial.

The Lincoln Memorial. Obviously.

The incredibly long escalator ride at the Bethesda Metro station. Ok, less historic, but still pretty impressive, I think.

I have pictures from my National Mall tour on Flickr. I apologize in advance for the many pictures I took of the WW II Memorial, it really was incredible and there was A TON of stuff to see. I did not take pictures of everything there, believe it or not, but there were writings, sculptures, fountains, bas reliefs, and lots of veterans just waiting to be immortalized. The veterans will not with us for much longer. If you can get past those, you'll see the Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam War Veterans Memorial pics. I hope you like them, it was a joy to take them.