April 10, 2005

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  PHOTOGRAPHIC DAY TRIP
  Friday night the winds kicked up almost like before a hurricane, and as a result, Saturday dawned clear and fine. It was cool in the morning, but I decided to go ahead with early plans for a day trip to Perris, California with my camera. I had juiced up the batteries and put in a new videotape, cleared all the photos from the 256MB memory stick, and I got in the car, put the top down, and noticed I had no gas.
  Gas prices have been gradually ramping upwards with no relief in sight for at least a year. I figure now I’d better get some trips out of the way before the pump prices reach $3.00 a gallon, which is what premium is going for in some areas of town. I understand our prices in California are higher than in most of the country because of our “clean air” requirements imposed by the state, which means we can only buy gas refined here where the standards are in place. I put $30.00 worth of regular unleaded in the 10 gallon tank of my sports car. Where I was headed is close to Lake Elsinore, Hemet, and Lake Perris, which are “vacation spots” and when I got there, I didn’t see any less number of SUVs, toy haulers, ATVs or boats. At some point (the $3.00 a gallon price seems like the “breaking point”) I would surmise that there will be more of an outcry. I used to ride a motorcycle, and I’ve taken public transportation, and I hope I don’t have to do either again in order to save money. But yesterday, I gulped, and took off without a worry, even though I drove over 125 miles and used up over a half of my tank.
  The reason for the trip was to visit two outdoor transportation museums in the Riverside area. One is the Orange Empire Railway Museum, and the second is the March Field Aircraft Museum. I took over 225 photos and a half hour of video between both museums. It took a while to get there, but I spent most of the day at the railway museum, and only about two hours at the aircraft museum, which closed while I was there, meaning I had to skedaddle out of there before they closed the gates and I had to sleep in the belly of a plane. Both places are fantastic, with lots of train engines and cars, plus L.A.Red and Yellow Car trolleys from the teens to the 40s, including running trains on which the public can ride, and the aircraft museum had about 200 planes ranging form biplanes in the teens to the SR71 spy plane and large airforce cargo haulers. I got to climb up inside a B29 and a B32 from WWII. Those planes were incredibly cramped and soliders and airmen would spend many hours in those cramped spaces during the war.
  Photo spreads will be upcoming in the blog. In the meantime, I have a webshots gallery folder online with photos taken from the train museum.
  We have a small “railroad museum” in Lomita, where I live. It’s on two residential lots and is so small it has only a locomotive, a caboose, and across the street in a lot sized “park” a box car and tank car. (The link is to a Webshots folder taken by “gojirasan”.  I took some photos at Traveltown, in Griffith park, last year. And I have some photos of the old Red Car station in Bellflower online in my Bellflower folder in my Webshots Gallery. Two weeks ago, I was contacted via email by Corey Wylde, the editor of the “Gazette” newspaper for the Orange Empire Railway Museum. He wanted to know if he could use one of my photos of the station in his newsletter. I agreed, and he sent me the issue in pdf format last week. There was also a link to the museum and when I vistied the website, knew I would have to visit in person. Thus my day trip was planned, and the results are in my folder, and will soon be featured in an upcoming blog entry.

  
  

  NETFLIX NEW RELEASES
  Irrespective of the amount of money gasoline is going for these days, I’m still attempting to “save” some money in any way I can, and one way was to obtain a Tivo and DirecTV service in my media room, so I don’t have to rent so many movies. I haven’t been to Hollywood Video or Blockbuster for at least three weeks now, and am using Netflix for my “new releases”. One of the new releases from last Tuesday which I watched for the first time last night was the Alexander Payne film, “Sideways” with Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church (in his Oscar nominated performance), Sandra Oh, and Virginia Masden, (similarly nominated last year). The film was up for Best Picture, and is a typical Payne film (he directed “About Schmidt” with Nicholson and “Election” with Matt Broderick and Reese Witherspoon) filled with ironic humor, pathos, real humanity, and great acting. The script was adapted by Payne and Jim Taylor from Rex Pickett’s novel. The film is excellent, and was deserving of it’s Academy nods. (It won for screenplay.)
  The story concerns Miles and Jack, who were freshman roommates in college, as they approach middle age. Miles (Giamatti) is a wannabe writer and total loser, who has been obsessing over his divorce two years previous. He is depressed, sloppy, and the only thing he cares deeply about is wine tasting. He has written an overlong “personal” novel which he cannot get published, lives in a small messy apartment in San Diego, where he teaches middle school English. Jack is an ex television star who now does voiceover commercials. He is about to be married to a rich gal and the two old friends plan to spend a week in “wine country” in the Central Valley of California as a “bachelor present” to Jack from Miles.
  Miles wants the trip to be a bonding experience, and a chance to be happy for once “in his element” at the wineries, and Jack wants to go on a “pussy hunt” to get laid as many times as he can before settling down. The two hook up with a couple of gals and there are ups and downs, hilarity and heartbreak along the way. I understand the wine industry in Cali is using the film’s locations for “wine tours” which have become very popular. One of the conceits of the film is that Miles is an alcoholic who behaves very badly when drunk, but he has all the trappings of a “wine connoisseur” until he gets drunk, which is often during the course of the film.
  I got to thinking about wine during the movie. I don’t mind a nice merlot with dinner occasionally (Miles hates merlot, by the way, preferring pinot). But on the most part, I prefer beer, specifically Corona with lime, and I only drink “sparkling wine” like champagne with brunch on Sundays and on New Years.
  Looking back, however, I did drink wine when first introduced to alcoholic beverages. I drank Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill (hence the little graphic) with my buds right after high school. We would buy a few bottles, part somewhere on a residential street (our parents disdained drinking and didn’t know we were drinking for the most part) and then pass around the bottle. These were “soda pop wines” and were real popular for a time amongst my peers.
  I thought it was very funny when the guys in Sideways make a ritual of the “tasting process” and then when the pourer walks away, Jack grabs the bottle, and Miles says “fill em up” while he pours the glasses full of the sweet stuff. Pretty subversive stuff actually, but pretty realistic when people drink, and when they drink to excess fooling themselves that they are “connoisseurs.”

  
  

  LET THE MONKEY TESTIFY
  The Michael Jackson trial can get back in the news now that  Terry Schiavo is dead, the Pope is buried and Camilla has got a ring on her finger. When we last left Jacko and his trial, ex employees at ‘the ranch’ were telling the court that Michael fondled almost every child in his vicinity, including Mac Culkin (Home Alone) who denies any wrongdoing went on. (Don’t kiss. Don’t tell)
  I got to thinking about that monkey.
  Michael might have not stopped with child molestation. (Of course it must be noted for the sake of journalistic credibiltiy that he is innocent until proven guilty and even though the trial is in Santa Maria, in California, you can get away with murder (or so it has been reported)). Perhaps he molested the monkey. There are monkeys who can communicate with sign language. I believe is we were to teach the monkey to speak in this manner, we should get him on the stand. He might have seen more than the employees, and who knows, perhaps there was a little beastiality performed as well.
  Stay tuned for upcoming news releases on this important story.

  
  

  

  
  

  HEALTH
  I think it’s about time to pay lip service to this ill, and hope that soon the condition either rectifies itself on it’s own, or else it’s more trips to doctors in 2005, even though I got “sick” of them in 2004 owing to the nerve condition.
  Well, here’s the rundown on my latest abnormality. About four years ago I had to get prescription progressive lenses for my glasses. My eyes, which have been bad for years, finally went so far south that I couldn’t read the computer screen while working, nor the paper at lunch, and I was having a hard time focusing on about anything. The prescription lasted for about two years, and then I got another one early last year, because when eyesight gets slightly worse when wearing progressives, it makes seeing very hard to do.
  My optometrist told me at that time that besides the new prescription, I was developing cataracts, but not to worry, as I wouldn’t need an operation till I was in my 60s (about 8 years from now.)
  I didn’t worry, and my eyesight straightened up for a while, and everything seemed fine.
  Until about two or three months ago. I keep thinking my left eye is has ‘sleep in it’ because I can’t focus again. That’s not entirely the right way to put it. I can find a focus with the progressives, but there seems to be a constant “film” I’m looking through, only in my left eye. If I close my left eye, my right eyesight is perfect. If I close my right eye, it’s like I’m looking through skim milk some of the time. This is bothering me when working at the computer, driving, and watching movies on my bigscreen.
  I have tried “wiping” the eye to get rid of the condition. I’ve tried washing it out. I continually wipe my glasses, thinking there is a film over the lens.
  I think the “cataracts” if that is what they are, are growing. I am quite sure I’ll see the optometrist soon. As a visual artist and movie lover, my worst fear in the world is going blind. I’m sure if it happened, I’d live through it. Ray Charles did, so I can, I’m sure.
  Just thought I’d post these concerns on the blog because it’s beginning to worry me just a tad.

  
  

  Well, that’s the News and the Notes for this week. Until tomorrow, your reporter is signing off to go visit some other blogs today.

  
  

  Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, perhaps soon to be one eyed  fool  4/10/05

  
  

  (One Last Thing: I don’t like whatever Xanga has done to their “photos” capabilities. I’m almost ready to just point to photos on my server even though I pay for theirs. Sometimes  the photos don’t show up. Sometimes they take longer to load. I got “x’s” this morning on most of my previous post. It took forever to get the few photos in this post to upload, and I don’t like the fact that the list of photos already on the Xanga server isn’t alphabetized like before. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason to the way they are listed. I hope it’s just because the kinks are being worked out. I’ll have to go to John’s site to see if anyone else is experiencing these difficulties.)

  • 4:19 pm
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