Friday, September 30th, 2005
My most recent painting says “Fuel”, I chose to write the word “fuel” as an attempt to add more meaning to my art. And also to raise awareness of the fact that (as Chevron puts it) “Energy will be one of the defining issues of this century.” I wrote a little bit about it in the post “Will You Join Us?.”
Thursday, September 29th, 2005
Well, traffic hasn’t been good the past few days….
Last night, The 118 freeway was closed (due to the fires), and the 101 was really bad because of it. So me and my car pool buddy decided to go to PCH and take the streets through West LA and Hollywood to get from Agoura Hills to Burbank. It took us over 2 hours to get home that way. Mostly because of street traffic in Hollywood. I don’t know if we would have got home faster on the 101 or not.
This morning me and my buddy headed off to work at about 7:15am as usual. I got a message from my mom saying that they were evacuating Agoura Hills and other areas due to the fires. I got in contact with my boss and let him know. We kept on heading for work until we heard that up by Kanan in Agoura Hills the freeway was a disaster. So we got off the freeway at the end of the SF Valley before heading up there. We stopped at a Starbucks in Woodland Hills and talked to a lady who said she was evacuated and that everybody from Agoura Hills had been getting phone calls all night long, saying to evacuate. Then we got a call from work saying not to come in today. So we headed back. And now, I have a manditory day off, (without pay I’m sure).
Hope they can get those brush fires under control soon..
Monday, September 19th, 2005
I am an artist, and my great grandmother was an artist. She specialized in etchings. This is a sketch she did at Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy, a long time ago.
I believe she would sketch a site, then take it home and create the etching plate. I have scanned a few of her prints and I put them up in my gallery. I don’t know exactly when these were printed, but it was nearly 100 years ago.
From left to right these are titled:
“Beaver Meadow Brook” , “The Printer” , “Val de Grace” , and “Copley Square Boston”
Friday, September 16th, 2005
These photos of hurricane Katrina where emailed to a co worker of mine.
Here is one more photo
katrina photos on Technorati
Update: I just found out that these are apperantly not photos of the hurricane itself..
It appears they are the photos of storm chaser Mike Hollingshead
Thursday, September 15th, 2005
The disaster that hurricane Katrina brought is a great tragedy. Many peoples lives have been lost. Homes have been destroyed and the lifestyles of an entire metropolis of people (and more) have been drastically changed.
We have all heard about this terrible tragedy that recently took place in Lousiana. But many of us have a somewhat detached view of what is going on over there. All I know of it is from the radio. I don’t watch tv and I haven’t even taken the time to look at the paper to see pictures and read about it. Even for all those that watch the news and see all the footage of the aftermath, nobody is really being affected like those who are living through this or who have family that are. Like many others I want to help and it seems like the only thing I can really do, is donate money. They will be needing money to repair and rebuild for a long time from what I hear.
Personally, being detached from this event as I am, I confess that some of the thoughts that first came to mind after hearing about this disaster, where about the coming “Big One” that is reported to definately hit Southern California one day. I was told (in 1998) by my science teacher in high school that within 50 years a large earthquake from the San Andreas fault would occur. And that it wasn’t a matter of if but when.
After hearing of the destruction Katrina brought, I can only imagine the devastation that could occur in the Los Angeles metropolis if our infrastructure is destroyed. KFWB 980AM and KNX 1070AM in Los Angeles have recently but on a joint radio broadcast that is now available as a podcast via the web. If you live in California, I highly recommend you listen to it. It is titled “But For The Grace Of God” and you can click the title to download it.
One of the notable things mentioned on this broadcast is that FEMA reported just before 9/11/2001 that the three largest disasters that our country is most vulnerable to are..
1) A terrorist attack in New York City
2) A major hurricane hitting Lousiana
3) A major earthquake erupting on the West Coast
There are also many tips on how to prepare for an earthquake.
It is overall very informative and I recommend listening to it.
After hearing the reports of Katrina and the destruction she caused, we know it can happen. And again, the experts claim, its not a matter of if but when for the West Coast.
