Month: November 2015

Rojava

rojavaIn the course of continuing to follow the photographic work of Lynsey Addario, today I came upon this fascinating 11/24/15 New York Times Magazine piece  by Wes Enzinna about a little-known aspect of the mess in Syria.

NOTE:  NYTMag stuff is generally subscriber-only content, but I think you can click through on the “No, Thanks” option to see it on a one-time basis if you don’t want to subscribe. 

rDay Two-Hundred-Forty-Six: Thanksgiving Report

Nik and Lawrence visit Grandma Janet at 103 and get a Google Hangouts session going for her with some of the Seattlites: Ivi, Melissa and Rohit. We look in as the latter three are the midst of feast preparations, later to be joined (but whom we missed) by Lisle, Chika and Jared.

On the homefront, we make it a day of board games (Kim buys half a dozen games, some actually never before used, from a local thrift store at the rate of $1), interspersed with frequent snacks and light fare whenever desired — like lobster sandwiches and cheesecake — eschewing a one-time, traditional gluttony session. (For those numerous world travelers, would-be inluded, in the family, we can make a qualified recommendation of the “Travel Buff” game.)

Finally, we watch a couple of espisodes of the new Amazon speculative, alternate dystopian history fiction series, based on the Philip K. Dick work, of “The Man In The High Castle”. (While it may have been a bit overhyped, at least Nik and Lawrence will continue watching.)

Some wireless remote testing …
output_g8ZRqD

more is less …20151126-DSC_0030-Edit

 

P.O.P., Looking Back

When I first came to LA in the early 1960s, P.O.P. (aka Pacific Ocean Park) was a Santa Monica seaside amusement park often mentioned in the same breath as attractions like Disneyland.  Today, with the foul weather and a non-functioning camera, I again turn to my ancient archives of unprocessed b & w negatives, finding an undated set of exposures marked P.O.P. but which I estimate to have been taken sometime in the 1968 – 71 timeframe.  If I recall accurately, P.O.P. went bankrupt by the late 60s and was eventually demolished.  My favorite image of the series is this one:
1971-08-01-2-Edit
Some other rather uninspired photos were on the roll, but I will display them anyway here for a little more context.

Another photo in the same batch shows the intersection of Bay and Main Street in Santa Monica.  I think Bay led right down to the beach, and may have been an entrance to P.O.P.  Here we can compare my early photo with a 2015 Google Street View capture.

1971-08-01-4-Edit

2015_main-bay_SM
Finally, the same roll of film contained a couple of unmarked, unexplained scenes that I cannot identify.  But they don’t look like Santa Monica to me.  Maybe someone can help out with this one.