3rd row stage left, one last time

It was Ronnie James Dio day in Los Angeles today, according to one of LA's councilmen. For now, you'll have to take my word for it. One could not wish for a more cloud-free and warm breezed day on which to have a memorial.

The Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills lent the use of its Liberty Hall auditorium for the memorial. As the 1,000 seat capacity was sure to not hold all of the friends, family and fans in attendance, additional seats were set up on the lawn to the north of the Hall. Even with me arriving 90 minutes before the memorial, I really wanted to be outside with the fans.

The presence of the group from Westboro was negligible:

The memorial, thankfully, took place as far from the entrance as possible. Greeting most every visitor was a big outdoor screen.

The attendees were a fairly broad cross-section of people. A few were grade-school or teen-aged. Many were closer to middle age (like me) and a few were Ronnie James' age.

I've never attended something like this in my life. Memorials and funerals, as far as I was concerned, were for family, friends and the occasional co-worker. What could a heavy metal fan like me get from going to something like this?

Honestly, I have been in a funk for the last couple of weeks. All of my usual ways of dealing with bad news had escaped me. Everytime I played a song of his, tears would well up and a lot more emotion than usual got thrown out with my voice as I sang along. In the interest of being there for others and for represent

ing the LGBT fan-base at the memorial, I finally decided yesterday to be there today.

I avoided the lines for a t-shirt. It was not for the sake of saving money; it was more about saving energy so I could sit outside as long as possible during the service. I wound up leaving the outdoor sitting area twice before 2 PM to find a patch of shade under which I could cool myself before returning to the bright beaming sunlight.

The memorial started shortly after 2 PM after an unusual five-song pre-memorial, pre-recorded set, only one of which including Dio's voice. Even then, his was only one of many.

Today's master of ceremonies, naturally, was Eddie Trunk. Even with the stories shared by many of his staff, friends and his son, I managed to stay for the first two hours of the memorial only. I didn't hear or see anything that I would not have guessed based on what I knew about Ronnie James Dio. It was fitting that many of the musicians he worked with in the past were there today to sing and play acoustic version of some of his best known/loved songs.

Nearly all sitting outside with me were also conserving strength and stamina in the first two hours of the memorial, with one notable exception -- the "mysterious" figure on the far left:

Every song was cause to walk as close the the big screen as possible and pose, headbang and flash the "evil eye" sign from all possible positions of the clock (above his head, to the sides, at 10 and 2, etc.).

A few snickers drifted from some who sat nearby me every time he drifted forward. I have to give this guy respect for keeping the hood on with all of the heat and sunlight shining down and getting into the spirit of tribute and celebration which the rest of us were just too sun-stroked to shake up.

I'd like to say the group gathering in front of me in the photo to the left were a bunch of somber mourners awaiting a turn at paying final respects. Sadly, they were swarmed around a poor official who was only trying to dole out commemorative "programs" to everyone. A relatively brief 30 minutes later or so, I was able to walk up to that poor hassled employee and happily be handed a program of my own. Again, nothing all that surprising to be found in the program itself; however, it is certainly another way of commemorating the day.

So, did going to the memorial today change anything? After about 3 1/2 hours in the bright, breezy sun, I pretty much had the melancholy melted out of me. There were promises made to permit those sitting outside to come inside and pay "final respects" to Dio after the memorial was over.

Any leftover remnants of childhood mania over metal were sweated out today. I cannot say that, once recovered from today's dehydration, I'll never again get ramped up over a crazy, fast-beaten, loudly-cranked tune. I can say that, as we all grow older, that the passing of the next heavy metal icon should not come as such a shock to me.

Though I'm quite happy to keep that day as far off in the future as possible.

** brrrrrzzzzzzhhhhh **

Lots of loud roaring and screeching was heard all through the afternoon on the Boulevard. Oh, and there were all sorts of indy-style and drifting cars doing their thing for fans gearing up for this weekend's Long Beach Grand Prix.

The cars looked cool. The fans enjoyed the show. And the Boulevard was once again home to something truly unique. And loud. And smoky.

Did I mention loud?

What made today's experience unique for me

Today was my second time attending a pro-peace rally/march in Hollywood. The march route was a bit shorter than last year (no pass-by the CNN building on Sunset Blvd.); however, the number of participants remained unchanged from last year. At least, as far as I could see by walking around the people before and during the march.

The variety of groups represented were the same (click here for the photos), but I only got three handouts this time around. I missed not seeing last year's lone anti-march protester -- but only a little. And, truth be told, the pre-march rally and most of the march itself felt a little bit like routine.

Until we stopped just before Hollywood Blvd. and Highland Ave.

Ron Kovic addressed the march at that point in the route and wanted those "within the sound of (his) voice" to sit down where they stood - whether in the middle of the Boulevard or on the sidewalk (I split the difference and sat on the curb). About one hundred people or so heard the instruction and sat (see the 2nd and 3rd to last photos in the collection) for about 5 minutes. The mood of the march changed from "oh, we're doing this again . . " to "Oh. This is something new!"

This motion felt something like hitting a reset button for the march. As we crossed Highland Ave. and started into the crowd of weekend tourists milling around, the chanting got louder and more passionate, the sign waving got a little more frenzied and, perhaps feeding on the spectator's energy, the march felt revitalized.

I only wished I did. Getting a little low on blood sugar and feeling an achy lower back from the hours of standing, marching, etc., I headed back to the Metro stop and home.

So, instead of being the minister last year, I received a dose of ministering today. I pray others received a dose of that as well.

T minus five days: a small slice of life

The view of the setup of Sunday's big show

Tonight, as I was in between trains, I took a small break to refill the wallet and grab a small snack to stop a minor blood sugar crash. I finished off the snack, tossed the wrapper and turned to walk back down into the subway stop. In front of me stood a young woman who was talking to someone on her cel. She faced the same direction I was and, in front of her, was an elderly couple. The man was well dressed and holding a cane in one hand.

To the man's right was a woman about the same age who also had a cane in her free hand. The woman was struggling to walk down the stairs with an obvious case of gout.

The young woman was well into her cel phone conversation and may have been grateful for the break in forward motion to focus on that conversation. The young woman served as a barrier to anyone wanting to pass to the old man's left side. I picked up on what was going on and positioned myself a few steps above the old woman. For those rushing down the stairs eager to catch the next train out of downtown LA, they easily breezed by to my left, easily missing the old woman and her cane so she could slowly ease down into the subway station.

I took my time taking out a tissue to combat allergies while being paused ten steps from the platform entrance. I watched all three of them as the old woman, getting more wobbly and arched as she descended those final few steps.

I took a second to smile, silently offering praise that she successfully made it down the stairway, then praying that she and her companion would continue their journey safely.

Were the woman on the cel and I on the MP3 player temporary guardian angels or just subconsciously following the teachings of our parents to help someone without making them feel invalid? Someone else can rule on that. I write this simply in gratitude for the ability to do with relative ease that which someone else does with great struggle and a healthy dose of fear.

Please take a few moments in the days to come to be a "guardian angel" to someone without their knowledge-- for purely selfish reasons!

A view of red carpet underneath clear plastic with security and tourists scattered about. Just because it's my blog and why not post a picture of this?

The countdown begins!

The Boulevard is slowly gearing up for an award show on Sunday March 7. Today's new roll out was metal barricades with security posted here and there along the barricades.

As we get closer to the Big Night, the closures get a little bit bigger. This is my first time navigating the Boulevard during this time of the year and I'm quite happy to keep you posted on how things are going. Enjoy the pics!

What the hail?

Ooh, I've been waiting so long to say that!

It's not rock salt or my personal stash of diamonds cubic zirconia strewn on the ground and photographed at night for maximum visual effect. I "got lucky" being in LaHabra for a haircut earlier this evening when a teeny, tiny yet strong cell of heavy rain/lightning/thunder passed by and created a small hailstorm. I'm having so much fun documenting the wacky state of weather in Southern California, I'm almost forgetting all about the state of politics in the Supreme Court, the Congress and the White House.

Almost.

Another good soaking

And, we still have a day or two more of this cold water dripping from the sky. How does everyone else in the U.S. manage this much water all at once? Here's some photos from the Boulevard neighborhood showing how the cars driving down Franklin Ave. were handling standing water in a decent downpour in the middle of the afternoon. . .

Even a set of stairs leading up to an apartment house was sort of getting into the act.

I have to admit I am having a lot of fun just walking in the rain. We don't get a lot of it here in southern California, so when it happens, I find a safe place to be and try to get outside for walks as often as I can.

The sunshine returns by late Friday. Hoping for some more unique rain-soaked photos tomorrow.

Neither rain, nor sleet, etc.

The slogan is, for the most part, true of the US Postal Service. It's also true of the folks who set up the front of Graumann's for a World Premiere movie earlier this evening.


The layer of clear plastic with the white, nearly vertical lines at the bottom of the picture shows the top of the tents that were pitched as I was walking to work today.

By lunchtime, everything was nearly set up. The title of tonight's movie (see the banner-style poster on the lower left corner) which is being shown tonight is a pretty apt description of the effort it takes to set up a Red Carpet affair even in the rare L.A. rainstorm.

And, I suppose, a good description of the movie's plot. Whatever.

Cold water falling from the sky

v0x5

Well, it almost never rains 'round here . . .

My water-resistant jacket barely worked this afternoon. The winds were spraying around the water, making the Boulevard look more like the middle of a mild hurricane or the aftermath of a large structure fire (rivers of water, every wall and floor sopping wet, etc.). See for yourself:

Above: looking across the street at the Jimmy Kimmel Live building

Below: a view of Graumann's Chinese

It rains hard enough for long enough, you might as well pack a couple of oars in the backseat of the car. And, there's more rain on the way this week.

On the boulevard today

Starting, I'm sure, before dawn today and continuing up to and through the time I post this, Hollywood Boulevard was shut down between Highland Ave and Orange Ave for a premiere screening of a much anticipated new movie being released everywhere on Friday. Perhaps you can see what the movie is from my pics?

Late this morning, a new star was officially unveiled on the Boulevard as well, timed to match with the release this Friday of a new movie in which this actress stars. Glitz, glamor and business meet and swirl like soft-serve ice cream around here.

Meanwhile today, tempers flared a bit with the health care/insurance reform bill process. As someone who isn't a politician, I am well past the temper and am content to just grumble to myself over all of the . . well, politicking . . over something which directly affects people's lives -- no hyperbole here.

Waiting for a bus

I had an interesting start to an otherwise routine Monday.

Metro in Los Angeles had a portion of their light rail service closed all along Washington Blvd. for the weekend. The closure was due to end last evening. As what sometimes with any construction, it went a bit past schedule.

The light rail I ride stopped at the Washington Blvd. stop, everyone disembarked and slowly started to queue for Metro buses which arrived every few minutes to pick up commuters from across the street from the stop, then shuttled through four remaining stops in the route.

I could use this forum to grouse about the construction delays, the bumpy bus ride, the 30 minute wait on my still recuperating legs (never mind the rest of the walk and ride to work after the bus trip with stiff joints and sore thigh muscles).

or

I'll write about the mass of humanity shuffling along while others skipped ahead of the queue by skipping into the street only to be abruptly placed back into line by one of the many Sheriff's Deputies keeping the foot and motor traffic running.

I met two teachers while waiting for the bus: one an ESL teacher of adults and the other a literature teacher of high school juniors. We and others around us kept reminding each other that it could be colder outside, it could still be prior to sunrise, it could have been raining.

A large black bird on top of a telephone pole squawking, ruffling its back feathers was causing the crowd around the pole scattering in different directions and the bird was having its . . uh . . morning constitutional.

Each comment, each turn around to view the crowd in front of us and the never-ending mass of commuters from more arriving trains, every wisecrack and passing catering truck with cruel promises of hot coffee on a cold fall morning, elicited laughs, giggles, snorts (from me - freaking deviated septum!) and a far more relaxed atmosphere than it could have been.

So, I got to work 45 minutes late today. I took some comfort that a few thousand others were in the same figurative boat as I was and was grateful to God for all the ways a potential disaster was turned into a chance to interact with fellow commuters and find the basic goodness in most everyone.

A little nip in the air at dusk

Another beautiful Southern California sunset. Unlike the one six days ago, this one came with a nice cool breeze from the ocean. Sadly, the cool breeze is fast on its way out of here.

I'm also getting the impression that a "public option" component of health insurance reform is slowly sinking down the drain after today's Senate Finance Committee meeting and 13 votes against both proposed "public option" amendments.

Other bills in the Senate and Congress include a "public option" for those whose employers do not or cannot provide group coverage for their employees. A comfortable majority of Americans want to see a "public option" in the health insurance reform, yet there were some Democrats in the Senate who get all kinds of nervous about having this "option" in legislation.

Are they filled with dread at the promise of folks in the U.S. that will thank them endlessly and re-elect them when they pass insurance reform with a "public option" component?

Who could pass up all of that love and support from their constituents?

My guess is it's those Legislators who are well funded by those who want nothing to do with health insurance reform. Nothing in politics speaks louder than love these days than money and fear.

******************** ******************** ******************* ***************

P.S. I'm an SEIU member as a home health-care worker. I still haven't seen any benefit to me directly with SEIU's affiliation with ACORN. If there's a left-wing conspiracy between my union and the much-maligned community organization group, no one is inviting me to the secret planning meetings.

When/if that happens, you know I'll write about it here.

Hotter than blazes today

The only upside to the miserable hot, dry Santa Ana winds today is a beautiful sunrise Los Angeles skyline.

For the moment, the newest wildfire in the Moorpark/Fillmore CA area has not blown its smoke in the direction of L.A. However, I am reading/hearing predictions of full containment of this fire by this weekend.

Then, speaking of wildfires, at least the metaphorical sort, comes a story of a Census employee who was found hung in eastern Kentucky earlier this month. The story itself hints at all sorts of circumstances, from suicide or a crime committed by someone with which the man was related to the not-so-big-of-a-leap toward this being some sort of creepy hate crime. Will have to wait to see what happens, but it appears readers of this blog have a whole slate of theories of their own.

And, if you haven't been enjoying the General lately, check out today's post on the fight against Halloween. I'm still one of those odd gay dudes who does not like Halloween at all. However, if there's a good scary movie playing on that night, you'll find me there. Better to be in a group than on one's own on such a creepy night like that.

Maybe this year's Halloween is well worth looking forward to if it's at least 40 degrees cooler than today was!

Fresh from the Blvd.

A scene becoming awfully frequent these days -- another wreath, flower and candle arrangement at one of the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Blessedly, the daily struggles for Patrick Swayze are over. On the Blvd, the camera operators, photographers and tourists (and me) are all struggling for the best view/photo of the newest temporary shrine.

As the work week ends

One of the great joys of living in Southern CA: gorgeous sunsets nearly every day! While I know that moisture, dust, smoke and other particulates in the atmosphere and the sun's position in the sky determine the colors present in the sunset, the little child in me can't help but stand in awe and give praise to God for the amazing artwork done just for lil' ol' me.

I do the same thing with star-strewn skies or a full, bright moon in the night sky and photos from the Hubble telescope, knowing full well the science involved in it all.

A nice way to end a very turbulent week for many around the nation.

"We don't need no water let the m***erf**ker burn . ."

(the post's title comes from the chorus of the song "Fire Water Burn" by Bloodhound Gang)

The latest photo from my little corner of SoCal of the Station Fire. The website for our local "The CW" station is reporting the Station Fire is over 70% contained (basically, 70% of the fire cannot burn any further in any direction without dying out). Part of the containment efforts today was setting backfires to the east of Mt. Wilson (the large hill on the left in the background) and you can see the smoke still rising from the backfires on the far right of the photo.

While we're talking about backfires, I'm with Rep. Frank on the "You lie!" cat-call from the right side of the Chamber. Here's what he had to say on the Rachel Maddow show last night about Rep. Wilson's little outburst:

I don‘t think it‘s a big deal. Look, I think free speech—you know, heckling is a tradition, obviously, in the British parliament. They even have mikes that come down to hear the heckles.

I think what we should take it as—it is unusual—it‘s a sign of how effective the president was. These guys just couldn‘t handle it. I looked at John Boehner and he looked about as glum and as dour as—as possibly he could be.

So what Joe Wilson did was just scream out in frustration because the president was nailing it. So we‘ve got to be very clear, Wilson lied when he said the president lied. And he talked about illegal immigrants. It‘s clearly excluded from the bill.

My guess is that those who are participating in fanning the flames of nastiness in last month's Town Hall meetings across the country realized the truth was being spoken at the front center of the room last night and the "You lie!" was a feeble last gasp at trying to draw attention away from the President and the message of the evening.

If you believe the polls taken after the President's speech, it makes it even more clear that the demonstrations being put on by the far-right conservatives and health insurance industry lobby are much like the Station Fire has become around here in SoCal.

Something easier to defeat with every passing day by starving the fire of its fuel. Let the fires from the far-right. No water necessary -- let the (metaphorical) fire burn so everyone sees what the "argument" from the far-right is fast becoming:

Lots of wispy, white smoke - the last gasp of fire soon extinguished on its own.

So pretty, so cool and so weird

Yet another smoke and humidity and heat inspired cloud tower appeared on my ride home tonight.  Finally, the fires in the area are getting more and more in control and, for the first time in over a week, the setting sun looked like  . . .  a setting sun!

I even watched a 10 minute clip of Sen. Franken of Minnesota chatting with a few of his constituents at their State Fair.  As to how those who appear in the video were chosen or if this crowd was grown organically, I cannot say.  As these sorts of things go, it was just lovely to hear people with genuine disagreements with Franken speaking in a civil tone and wonderful to hear an elected official who had studied up on the Health Insurance reform movement in the Legislature!

For those who need to cut their pure, unfiltered political chat with something non-sensical and not nausea inducing, please feel free to cue up the video clip below after you pause the 10 minute Franken video at the "10 minute" link above:

Creepy Yet Cool, day two

Today's "creepy yet cool" photos were taken on the Blvd.  The top photo is facing west toward the Pacific.  The smoke from the Station Fire has drifted over the Hollywood Hills and has turned a normally bright blazing ball of sunlight into . . well . . something like an amber traffic light (like the one I photographed today just a minute after I took the photo of the sun).

I keep swearing I'm going to stop noticing the atmospheric changes caused by this fire; however, every day has been something different and fascinating.  However, I'll enjoy the first day with no big event in the sky.

Whenever that's supposed to happen

Kind of creepy and kind of cool

Yes, the hills in the far background (just north of L.A -- that would be downtown L.A toward the back left side of the first photo where the tall buildings are) are indeed smoking!  Most of the largest of the wildfires in Southern California are burning in an area between La Cañada and Acton.  The first photo shows the south edge of this fire.

In the second photo, I captured a little bit creepy yet beautiful sight a little closer to home thanks to the eastward push of smoke from this fire, some hot dry weather and a set of meteorological circumstances I'm not quite bright enough to explain.  The smoke clouds are stacked up on top of each other like oversized mushroom caps.

Temps were not quite so high today and I even started to feel a slightly cooler breeze coming from the west late today as I walked down the Blvd.  Hopefully, we turn the corner on the temps and humidity before the fire reaches more homes.

An orange lining in every "cloud"

If it's hot and dry in Southern California, there must be fires burning.  This time around, my little slice of SoCal gets to sit back and watch while multiple fires burn all around.

These photos I just took as the sun sets on the West are from the fire near La Cañada/Flintridge.  The low hanging sun filtered through the smoke created the look of these dramatic smoke clouds.  Lack of wind and moisture take care of the rest.

It's the longest I spent outside today taking these photos above. Even 30 miles away the smoke and ash are sneaking into everyone's lungs and, frankly, it felt as if I was slogging through a pool of water to get to the corner and snap these.  It was worth it!