Scarves for Soldiers, II

I finished three scarves for U.S. Soldiers in Iraq. I plan to mail them this weekend. Read more about it here.

The scarf on the left is crocheted with Red Heart Soft Acrylic, color: Toast. The center scarf is crocheted with Red Heart Camoflage yarn. The scarf on the right is knitted with Paton's Tweed Acrylic. The dimensions of each scarf are almost 7 inches wide and 37" or 38" long. This was a quick project to complete and I know that the soldiers who receive the scarves will stay nice and warm on those cold nights this winter.

Busy weekend....I'm co-hosting a baby shower for a cousin; attending a b-day party and just doing all of the usual weekend things that we do. Have a great one, everybody!

Beige Food - Yum

Roscoe's Repast

We love BEIGE FOOD. By beige food, we mean food that has nothing green in it, is devoid of any other color except yellow, tan and beige, is usually starchy, fried, has lots of flour or sugar in it and is consequently delicious, but not really good for you.
One of the best places for delicious beige food is Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles. I recently visited the Altadena branch with my friend Beth.
Beth ordered the Sir Michael which is 1/4 chix, smothered in gravy and onions with grits and a fluffy biscuit. I ordered the Scoe-1 which is 1/4 chix prepared southern style with gravy and onions and with 2 waffles. We figured we should order a side of greens, just to make lunch healthier. Oy!
Lunch was particularly yummy. However, the greens were rather salty, leading us to believe that beige food should not be infiltrated with anything green no matter what!

Beth's Meal

Ellen's Meal

Lake Avenue, Altadena

I have been known to prepare some beige food meals myself. Below is a recent meal of fishsticks, mashed potatoes and yellow squash. I hadn't gone to the market in awhile and had to improvise, please. This does not really count as a total beige meal because of the addition of yellow squash and the green salad on the side. It is delightfully mono-chromatic however.

Homemade Beige Food with Fiber

Art Barbecue

On Sunday, we were invited to a barbecue at the home of the owners of Thinkspace Gallery, Shawn and Andrew. I posted about the last gallery show at Thinkspace few weeks ago.

Shawn and Andrew live in a nice looking early 50's tract house on the westside. Once you are inside their house, however, there's nothing average about the place! Since they are gallery owners and connoisseurs of the low-brow art scene, their home is jam-packed with incredible works of art! Every inch of their place is covered, salon style, with paintings, drawings, low-brow vinyl figures, sculpture, etc. Shawn and Andrew's home is truly a feast for the eyes.

That's not the only feast....Shawn is a faboo cook. This wasn't just any old hot dog and burger barbecue. Oh no. There were appetizers in the dining room, a buffet of salads and extras in the service porch, hot stuff cookin' on the stovetop, a chocolate fountain with sweets for dippin' in the kitchen, a barbecue full o' chicken strips, burgers, dogs, and many coolers on the deck full of beverages.

The guests were various artists from the scene, along with their friends, collectors and other artsy YOUNG types. I did feel like the den mother for the crowd, but everyone was so interesting and friendly, that we felt very welcome.

Thanks again to Shawn and Andrew for including us in the fun! Here are a few pix from the day:

Shawn and Andrew

I want a newstand in my dining room!

Art is Everywhere

The Divine Chocolate Fountain

we met fellow Wilshire Vista residents, Bill and Deborah

Photographer, Larry Underhill and Artist, Dennis Larkins

Too Cool Refridgerator!

Scarves for Soldiers

One of my friends from Stitches From The Heart is involved in a new project. Here's the info:

Scarves for Soldiers in Iraq

Do you knit or crochet? Last year, we mailed 195 scarves and some treats to our soldiers as a Christmas Gift from local Knitters and Crocheters. This year, we hope to send 250 and invite you to join us in this project. Everyone knows it’s hot in Iraq in the summer, but did you know it’s cold in the winter?

Every scarf must be in dark colors for obvious reasons – the size of each scarf should be 37-38” long and about 7” wide. As straight knitting, a single scarf doesn’t take much time to complete, so how about pitching in as one of Santa’s helpers this year with one or more scarves.

Just send your scarves to: Ann Roberts, 5464 Peacock Lane, Riverside, CA 92505 no later than November 11th (Veteran’s Day) and do attach your name and address or e-mail so the young man or woman receiving your scarf will know who made his/her gift. These fine young men and women are in a dangerous place, away from their families and friends – so let‘s show them we really care.
Thanks for being a part of this Christmas Gift project.

I've completed 2 scarves. One is knitted, black Paton's tweed, acrylic; one is crocheted, Red Heart Soft in a toasty color. The one I'm working on now is crocheted, Red Heart in the obvious camoflage colors. Since the scarves are rather short, this is a quick project to complete....a perfect stash-buster for all of us yarn-a-holics!

Nice New Year Celebration

Del Rey Yacht Club, Marina del Rey, CA

Well, Mom changed her mind about Rosh Hashonah dinner. We ended up going to the Del Rey Yacht Club for our New Year's meal. It was lovely and lively. The dining room was filled. My Step-Dad is a past Commodore of the Club, so were given a nice window table, overlooking the boats in the Marina.

Marina del Rey at dusk

There's a new chef at the Club and his meals have been kinda' shakey, but I think he's finally figured out the clientele and adjusted his cooking accordingly.

We had the obligatory apples, honey and challah (egg bread) to start the meal. A very nice salad of mixed greens, toasted walnuts and candied pears was next. The main meal consisted of delicious brisket of beef with tzimmes (which is a mixture of roasted potates, carrots, currants) and a lone matzoh ball next to the brisket. I'm not sure what the chef was thinking. He called it a dumpling on the menu. It was quite tasteless and beige. It needed to be in a bowl of rich chicken broth with some parsley on it. Oh well...the new chef did his best and almost made a perfect meal. For dessert we had a round of carrot cake with apple-honey glaze.

My Mom, Step-Dad, Husband and I all had a very nice time. Considering the amount of honey, apples and other sweet things we consumed, we should be guaranteed a very sweet and happy upcoming year!

After dinner, Larry and I headed up to Santa Monica to the Copro-Nason Gallery for the BLAB show. This is a group show sponsored by Blab Magazine. Many artists were represented: Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Shag and more. I was particularly entranced with some paintings by Amy Crehore. Her series of paintings were full of musical instruments (ukulele) and naughty monkeys! It was fun. We ran into many friends and saw some great art.

"The Strummer"

oil on linen panel by Amy Crehore

Rosh Hashanah

Sundown tonight is the beginning of the Jewish High Holidays. Tonight and tomorrow we celebrate Rosh Hashanah which is the Jewish New Year. I copied the following from the Judaism 101 site.

In Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means, literally, "head of the year" or "first of the year." Rosh Hashanah is commonly known as the Jewish New Year. This name is somewhat deceptive, because there is little similarity between Rosh Hashanah, one of the holiest days of the year, and the American midnight drinking bash and daytime football game.
There is, however, one important similarity between the Jewish New Year and the American one: Many Americans use the New Year as a time to plan a better life, making "resolutions." Likewise, the Jewish New Year is a time to begin introspection, looking back at the mistakes of the past year and planning the changes to make in the new year.

It's always good to review your life for the past year and think ahead to what you'd like to accomplish in the coming year. We all make mistakes throughout the year. The difficult thing is to try and correct those mistakes or to not repeat them. I'll give it my best shot!

Traditionally, my family gets together on the night of the first day. This year, that's Saturday night. When we were young, my Grandma Freida would cook a big, garlic-laden dinner of apples and honey, matzoh ball soup, gefilte fish, brisket, fresh vegies, tzimmes and fruit cocktail bread pudding for dessert. Until my Dad passed away a couple of years ago, my folks would invite Larry and I and a few other relatives to their club for a traditional chicken dinner to celebrate the new year. Our family is getting smaller and smaller. This year, Larry and I will be having dinner with my Mom and her current husband at a restaurant near their home. It is traditional to eat apples dipped in honey, to symbolize our hopes for a "sweet" new year. I'll bring some for dinner tomorrow night, just to preserve some semblance of ritual.

L' Shana Tova Tikatevu or Happy New Year everyone!

Eastsiders on the Westside

Venice Boardwalk at Sunset

Last night Mr. Larry invited me to a screening at the Sponto Gallery in Venice. Here's the description of the show:

WED, Sept 20. "THE RING" ('1952, 79m) Domenic Priore & Gene Aguilera, authors of the forthcoming book "The Golden Age of Chicano Rock 'n' Roll: An East L.A. Visual History" host a very rare screening of this evocative tale set in downtown L.A.'s Bunker Hill district of a young Mexican-American boxer who learns the dirty truth about the fight game. With Art Aragon, a local boxing idol who was the only game in town (pre-Dodgers, Lakers), Rita Moreno and more. Chicano teenagers in the film wear just-post-Pachuco fashions, lookin' very proto-Rock 'n' Roll. Also: rare clips of legendary East LA groups, such as Ritchie Valens ("La Bamba"), Thee Midniters ("Whittier Blvd.") and Cannibal & the Headhunters ("Land of 1000 Dances) at the height of their success, and 20 minute preview of Jon Wilkman's documentary "Chicano Rock!" 7pm pre-show features short films on Korla Pandit and Lord Buckley, a poetry reading by Ruben Guevara (Ruben & the Jets), plus a Q&A and CD signing with Little Willie G. and Jimmy Espinoza of Thee Midniters.

WOW! What a great night it was! We met on Ocean Front Walk at the Fig Tree Cafe at 6-ish and had a lovely panini and salad dinner. I hadn't been down on the Boardwalk in ages. It's quite a show of real L.A. people hangin' at the beach. It was slightly chilly, but very nice watching the red sun sink into the Pacific Ocean.

At 7 we walked over to the 7 Dudley Cinema. It's a small room, about 50 chairs were set up. On the screen, the magnetic Korla Pandit was staring out at the crowd while playing mystical eastern music on his electronic organ. Korla had a show on local TV when I was an extremely small child. The show consisted of Korla, wearing a bejeweled turban, playing music and staring into the camera. Once in awhile the camera would cut away to show Korla's hands on the keys. It was mezmerizing. I was lucky enough to meet Korla before he passed away at Exoticon '95 at the Park Plaza in L.A. He was fantastic.

Clip of Korla Pandit

After the Korla short, we saw a film on Lord Buckley. This guy was a very interesting entertainer. I never got to see him live, but I knew about him from films and records. He was a trip.

Lord Buckley on Groucho Marx's "You Bet Your Life" TV Show

The REAL program started when Gene Aguilera and Domenic Priore took the stage and talked about their upcoming book from Angel City Press, "The Golden Age of Chicano Rock 'n' Roll: An East L.A. Visual History". I know Gene Aguilera from his days managing one of my fave L.A. groups, The Blazers. They were frequent guests on my old radio show. Domenic Priore is a friend of Larry's from the L.A. Conservancy. Synergy, at work again. Larry has been hired to photograph Gene's East L.A. music memorabilia for the book.

Anyway, Gene and Domenic showed clips of some of the great East L.A. rock 'n roll bands from the 1960's like Ritchie Valens, Cannibal and the Headhunters and Thee Midnighters, and read some bits from their upcoming book. An unfinished version of Jon Wilkman's documentary "Chicano Rock!" was also shown. It was truly inspiring to see old clips of the bands from my childhood, along with interviews from the artists of that time. Here's little history of what Chicano rock from that era is all about.

Manager, Gene Aguilara at Sponto

Little Willie G and Jimmy Espinoza of Thee Midnighters

Ruben Guevarra got up and read some of his poetry and then there was a Q & A with band members from the original Midnighters, Little Willie G and Jimmy Espinoza.

When I was a kid in the '60's, I would race home after school to watch all the local dance shows, "American Bandstand" with Dick Clark, "Shebang" with Casey Kasem, "9th St. West" with Sam Riddle, "Where The Action Is" with Steve Alaimo and "The Lloyd Thaxton Show." Once in awhile, along with classmates, we'd get a ride to KTLA-TV in Hollywood to actually appear on "Shebang." I can still sing the theme song to the show...."at 3 o'clock the school bell rings, she-bang-bang, throw away your books and sing, she-bang-bang, put on your dancin' shoes......la la la...." Those were fun times. One of my all-time favorite bands from the era was Thee Midnighters.

It was great to actually meet Little Wille G and Jimmy Espinoza last night. They are reuniting with what's left of the band and taking the group on the road.

Both guys have been active in other bands for a long time. Willie G. has been doing lots of work with Los Lobos. It will be great to hear Thee Midnighters sing all of their wonderful songs again. Of course, we had to purchase the reissue CD and vinyl album too.

Larry @ the Cadillac Hotel on Dudley Ave., Venice

Suposedly, Jim Morrison of The Doors sang in the lobby

Oh yeah, the movie, "The Ring" was great too. There were so many shots of Los Angeles from 1952!

Grandma Squares

I've joined the huge group contributing squares for Grandma Purl's comfortghan. You can read all about it here. Tons of Laurie's friends and admirers from the internets have signed up to participate.

I've finished 3 squares. Thanks to Kristy for organizing this effort for Crazy Aunt Purl's Grandma!

Crocheted, Red Heart "Soft" Yarn, Diagonal Stitch, "H" Hook

Crocheted, Red Heart "Soft" Yarn, Up-Down Stitch, "H" Hook

Knitted, Red Heart "Soft" Yarn,

Double Moss Stitch with Herringbone Half-Double Crochet Border,

Size 8 Needles

The High Desert

Fire Damage in Pioneertown

We drove into Yucca Valley after our visit to Disneyland on Friday night. We checked into our motel and had a light coffee shop dinner and went to sleep. In the morning we drove out to Pioneertown to see how the recent fires had ravaged the town. It was astonishing. At this time of the year, the desert is usually dry and brown, but to see so many Joshua Trees with blackened, burnt limbs and brittle, cracked straw-like puffs of leaves was heartbreaking. Many of the homes in the area are gone. Luckily, the buildings at historic Pioneertown are OK. We headed out of the area after snapping a few photos.
The thrift shops and antique stores on Highway 62 are plentiful. I've been coming out to this area for about 20 years. There's always some treasure to be found. Mr. Larry and I scoured a few shops, visited the Sky Village Swap Meet at the Drive-In and then had lunch at the Crossroads Cafe

Thrift Shop Painting

Thrift Shop Afghans

Muffler Man at the Swap Meet

Mr. Larry and Mr. Swap Meet

Western Town at Swap Meet

Swap Meet Egg Cups

The Pink Panther is selling his tractor

It's Windy in Yucca Valley

Later, we made our way back to Pioneertown to Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace for dinner and a performance by John "Juke" Logan and his band. Juke is my former radio partner and he was celebrating his 60th birthday. It was a great show. Juke's band was stellar. The band consisted of Kid Ramos on lead guitar, Jeff Turmes on bass, Don Heffington on drums and Mike Tempo on percussion. Juke plays harmonica and keyboards.

Mike, Don, Juke, Kid and Jeff (front)

Kid Ramos was Smokin'!!!

Many of our old friends were in attendance too. We had a really wonderful time.
Sunday morning we did a little more sightseeing and car photography at the scenic Antone Martin's Desert Christ Park before heading over to Juke's house in Joshua Tree for an informal get-together.

Antone Martin's Desert Christ Park

Ellen's Latest Purchase

Cynthia, Juke, Steve @ El Rancho Juko Loco

Larry, Stringing his Thrift Shop Guitar
We headed back to Los Angeles at around 5pm. It was a fun-filled weekend.