Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: California

  • San Diego – Commons Bar

    San Diego – Commons Bar

    This bar in the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego isn’t here any more, it closed in January 2018, which was three years after I visited.

    The Commons was a sports bar, although that’s not rare in San Diego, but it was all clean and comfortable.

    I remember deciding that I’d sit by the bar, which was modern and all on-trend at the time. It also wasn’t very busy, although that’s not surprising given that it was a weekday afternoon in January.

    And this is evidence of my ever changing beer tastes, as it’s a Stones Pale Ale, which I’ve just discovered was discontinued shortly afterwards (they now make Pale Ale 2). Perfectly acceptable, but I’m not sure that I’d have picked that now if given a choice. Stone Brewing is a local company though and it has an international reputation, primarily for various types of IPA.

    I like happy hours and there’s plenty of those about across the United States. Here I went for chicken wings, but I remember were perfectly acceptable. I know this as I’ve never had chicken wings in the United States that weren’t perfectly acceptable….

  • San Diego – San Diego Public Library

    San Diego – San Diego Public Library

    San Diego public library moved to its current location in 2013, in a building designed by local architect Rob Quigley, who can apparently see his building from his apartment. I visited this structure in January 2015, as part of a free tour organised by the library and I still consider this to be the best designed public library that I’ve visited anywhere in the world.

    Unfortunately, the photos I took with my phone back in 2015 aren’t great, but they’re all that I’ve got to use, so they’ll have to do. Although I feel the need to return to San Diego, for many years my favourite city, so perhaps I’ll go back.

    Huge efforts were made with the external design of the building, which cost $185 million, which is primarily just for the library, although there’s also a school housed here as well.

    Whilst waiting for the tour, I had a little browse here, at the books for sale section, although I couldn’t easily carry any, so I desisted.

    The interior of the library.

    The baseball section of the library.

    This is the area for teenagers, where adults are banned from (other than staff) to try and ensure that they felt it was an area just for them.

    A lecture theatre area.

    An old library cataloguing system, I think for press cuttings. I like that these things are kept in place, although technology might make them partly redundant, they can still be an inspiration to people.

    There was lots of space to work, in areas that were quiet and with areas that had extensive views.

    This was quite advanced at the time of my visit, a 3D printer.

    Some of the things that had been designed on the printer.

    At the top of the building there’s a viewing gallery, with fine views over the local landscape, including the bridge to Coronado at the rear.

    The view of the top of the building when standing on the viewing terrace.

    And the pinnacle of the building, the rare books section, an integral part of the design.

    The tour was interesting and engaging, all free of charge to visitors, and it’s no surprise that the library is proud of their building. The council have taken a pretty negative approach to much of this, there’s a public ordinance voted on by local residents which demanded a greater public spend on libraries, but councillors have over-ridden it. When I visited, the library had seen a cut in its library funding, but a local backlash saw it returned back up to a higher level.

    As a library, I found this impeccable. Modern, bright, proud of its traditions, spacious, exciting, well-designed and clearly an important part of their local community. Very lovely.

  • San Juan Capistrano – Morning Walk

    From mid-May 2019, these are the photos from my little morning walk along the seafront at Capistrano Beach. Capo Beach was badly damaged by the weather last year and so there are some construction works afoot to try and fix it, with evidence of the half disappeared basketball court in the below photos.

    There are some photos of the damage at http://www.meetsanclemente.com/south-orange-countys-beaches-are-rapidly-disappearing/.

  • Los Angeles – Laguna Art Museum (The Cook Book by Ruth Peabody)

    Painted by Ruth Peabody in 1925, this painting is apparently showing a pensive looking women planning what meal to cook. Peabody gave the painting to Laguna Art Museum in 1966 and I liked the pose and look of the woman in the artwork. Although, as ever, I’m confused as to why the items on the table are painted in what I consider a clunky way which is out of perspective, but I’m sure it’s very artistic indeed.

  • Los Angeles – Laguna Art Museum (Dorothy’s Dream by Jerry Burchfield and Mark Chamberlain)

    This is a quirky piece of artwork and one which I thought was actually quite thought provoking. It relates to the 1980 Canyon Project in Laguna Beach and the artists wanted to show that the area was important environmentally. So the artists collected a load of trash from along the road and they then arranged it on light-sensitive paper. It’s apparently a Cibachrome photograph, although that’s not something I’ve ever heard of.

    Sadly the artists have both died now, Jerry Burchfield in 2009 and Mark Chamberlain in 2018, but the artwork feels modern and contemporary even though it dates to 1988. Dominating the section of the gallery that it’s located in, the artwork is fifteen feet wide and five feet high and is split into seven sections.

  • Los Angeles – Laguna Art Museum (Los Angeles City Hall by Paul Lauritz)

    Paul Lauritz was a Norwegian painter who ended up in California, with his desert paintings apparently being his strong-point. After trying to find money in gold prospecting, he opened an art studio in Los Angeles in 1919. This painting of Los Angeles City Hall was painted in 1930, just two years after it was completed. This is also the building which has been on the badge of Los Angeles police officers since 1940.

  • Los Angeles – Laguna Art Museum (Tangerine by David Simpson)

    “Simpson began experimenting with interference paints, soon becoming fascinated with the mercurial characteristics of the medium. Interference paints, which have only six pigment variations containing micro-particles covered with titanium oxide, reflect and refract light, giving rise to nuances of color and optical illusions of depth.”

    I’ve pinched this text from Wikipedia and it was written about David Simpson, who created this artwork in 2018. I have to say, it was in my very inartistic opinion, the most abstract artwork the museum had on display. The viewer is meant to look at the various tones of what looks to me like nearly the same colour. But, each to their own, I’m sure it’s a masterpiece to some people.

    I’ve come to the conclusion though when the information panel by a painting manages to describe solely how the painting was created and doesn’t mention any meaning or relevance that it might have that there’s one obvious conclusion which can perhaps be drawn. And that’s the art gallery hasn’t got any clue what it is either. But perhaps art isn’t meant to mean anything.

  • Los Angeles – Laguna Art Museum (Therapy by Dan McCleary)

    Dan McCleary is a Californian artist and he has been spending some time trying to promote art to communities in Los Angeles. This oil painting seemed to have some clarity, and the information panel noted that “this seems to highlight the sometimes absurd complications in one human being’s attempts to understand another.”

    McCleary, who was born in 1952 and is still painting, has the honour of having an artwork in The Met in New York, which I consider to be the best gallery in the United States. It’s called McDonald’s Number 1, but The Met has decided not to put it on display. That would irritate me if I’m being honest, if such a great gallery had a work of mine and then they left it out the back….

    Anyway, I know nearly nothing about art, but I like the style of this artist’s paintings.

  • Flights – Los Angeles to Boston Logan (American Airlines)

    I’ll start this post by commenting that I’ve written to American Airlines (not that the customer service staff can really do anything with my message), as the crew member said that they appreciate all feedback (which is the sort of mistruth that is often said). It was a frustrating flight, as nearly everything was excellent. The lounge exceeded my expectations, the airport staff and cabin crew were friendly and efficient, the entertainment system was decent, the snacks were fine, the service was quiet as it was a night flight, the aircraft was clean and we arrived on time.

    However, the problem is the recline on the seats, or at least, it’s a problem for me. Once thought of as the preserve of the budget carriers such as easyJet and Ryanair in Europe and Allegiant in the US, decent airlines are now scrapping the damn things, or at least offering customers the choice of rows where seats can’t recline. They cause seemingly endless arguments on flights and with the limited seat pitch and space between seats, they intrude far too heavily into the person behind. British Airways have started to scrap reclining seats in some of their short-haul flights and Delta have started to cut back how far the seats recline.

    The compromise of having several rows which have no recline seems to me to be an excellent one. No system is perfect in meeting the needs of every passenger, but that will mean that the majority of seat recliners get their seat recline, and the majority of those who don’t like seats reclining also get their way. I’m very pleased that at least British Airways has seen sense on this issue.

    The screen, which was bright and had an excellent range of different films and television programmes. One clever innovation is that you can also watch these films and programmes from your phone should you wish, which is probably a pre-cursor to the screens being removed in the future.

    The business class seats that I wasn’t in….

    The coach seats that I was seated in, which were actually otherwise entirely acceptable in their unreclined state.

    The crew came round and offered a free drink, with snacks of pretzels and biscuits. I opted for my usual Dr. Pepper, with the crew serving everyone efficiently. I was surprised that they served with the cabin in darkness, but they didn’t seem to experience any issues.

    Arriving into Boston, the pilot mentioned that those sitting on the right hand side would be a good view of the city, and fortunately, I was sitting on the right hand side by the window.

    So, in short, the flight was excellent, but the airline’s overly generous recline policy means that I won’t likely be flying with them again in short-haul. Which means I’ll be back to Allegiant.

  • Amtrak Pacific Surfliner (San Juan Capistrano to Los Angeles)

    Not many photographs of this train journey unfortunately……

    So, the time arrived to leave the delightful Alexis and Jose in San Juan Capistrano to go back to Los Angeles and then back to Boston. The train arrived on time and was a double decker Pacific Surfliner, Dylan would have been very pleased with the size of the train as well as the loud ringing and general noise.

    The train was only moderately busy, so it was easy to get a seat. The staff were their usual very friendly selves and everything was clean and comfortable. The wi-fi didn’t work the other day on my trip here, but fortunately it was functioning well today. I had thought that the train went to northern California, but it actually stopped at Los Angeles, so everyone got off and at the time expected.

    The journey is a simple one, lasting under 90 minutes, with the usual spacious seats and also the option of the cafe bar on the train for those who want it. The on-line tracking of trains on the Amtrak web-site also works well, so I could see the train coming towards San Juan Capistrano.