REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

It's a Great Weekend for the Redondo Beach Art Group's Power of Art

 If you are in the Los Angeles area, don’t miss the Redondo Beach Art Group’s 2009 Power of Art the next two days. The artists opening reception was tonight and I volunteered at the silent auction. The building that once housed the Red Onion and later Camacho’s, 655 N. Harbor Drive, was turned into “Living Art.” The building has been empty for a long time and is slated for demolition, so the City of Redondo Beach let us use it. It will next become a boutique hotel. So many people have worked countless hours to make this happen.

There were hundreds of people attending tonight and the weather is very warm, but fortunately the building is right on the Redondo Beach Marina so some breezes floated in.

I loved this purse in the silent auction and was glad when my friend Jianulla won it. It’s an upcycled piece created by local artist Penny Richards and features the 1908 image of early feminist Susan Walker Fitzgerald. Be sure to click on the image to read the words.

Here are Jianulla and Penny (right), but I’m too tired to take the glare out of the photo in PhotoShop. It’s time to go to bed with Dan Brown’s “The Last Symbol.”

Be sure to click on Penny's name--a fascinating woman! And she has other purses for sale in the boutique and you can visit her Etsy shop at Pennamite. 

 

 

Hair Salon Women Gone Wild - Michael Allan Redondo Beach

When I went in to get my hair cut and colored yesterday, Sharon, my beautician (she's at your left in the back) told me that one of the patron's husband had taken a video of them and put it in YouTube. Michael Allan Salon in Redondo Beach's Riviera Village is a neighborhood salon and you never know what will be going on in any given day. 

I actually look forward to my monthly visits there. This may be one of those kinds of events that you had to have been there to get the full effect of this video. But, I know all the beauticians and the customers. I wish I had been there. 

If I'm Not Here I'm at the Beach

On Saturday I took the Redondo Beach Historic Homes Tour one week early as I'm docenting and they had a caravan tour just for us. I had great fun and took lots and lots of photos. If you live in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, this tour on June 27 will be one you won't want to miss. I'll post a photo now and then. 

I love signs people who live at the beach put in their windows and I saw several. I'm into minimalist posting, at least today, so all I can say is this is a weekend of gratitude on so many levels. Friday was the talent show, Saturday was a fav artist's garage sale, the home tour, and I volunteered at the Malaga Cove Library in the afternoon. My son Tony and his family moved into their new house in Palos Verdes and last night I attended a party honoring a very dear and old friend's 70th birthday. And today, at the beach, the sun came out. Just living by the ocean is a gratitude within itself. 

Somewhere Over the Rainbow in Redondo Beach

I It rained yesterday, most of today, and rain is predicted for tomorrow. We need the rain badly and (knock on wood) so far this year my house has held tight without leaks. It should after all the fixes and upgrades I've done every time a leak would spring up. 

At sunset, the rain stopped for a while and I literally ran outside with the camera because I could see a rainbow out my bedroom window. When I was younger, it seemed like I saw rainbows often, but never as often in the city as I did out in the boonies. When you see all the phone and electric lines (we are not underground yet in my eclectic neighborhood), it takes a little (but only a little) of the rainbow magic away. 

I did manage to duck out to a close estate sale today  which had gotten hit so hard with the rain as they had about half of everything out on the back lawn and couldn't tarp it fast enough. I saw one lady buy a totally soaking wet 12 x 12' berber carpet, which it took two men to carry to her car. Such a deal! I got some arts and crafts odds and ends and felt my usual sadness knowing that his woman's life had ended or narrowed down. 

The rest of the day and evening I have spent researching and creating the February issue of my Macintosh user's group newsletter. 

Cookie, who is still perky, does not like rain and has had two accidents in the house today. And wouldn't you know that I'm hosting my Mac group's core group in the morning. After I hit post, I'm off to prepare the living room for company. It will be a good day to have a fire, however. As for Cookie, she will go out shortly for a walk, like it or not. 

So, above is my version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." And below is Doris Day's version at YouTube. I could have placed Judy Garland's really famous version, but I loved this one because of all the nostalgia photos. How in the heck does time pass so quickly?

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Why I Love Redondo Beach at Christmas and Every Day

It was a great Christmas, very low key, rain showers off and on, and a brisk wind which kicked up white caps and rocked the buoy bells. Part of my family came here for breakfast and Cookie was having another exceptionally good day. We reminisced in front of the fire, opened a few packages, and had a huge meal my son-in-law and I prepared together. After everybody left, I took Cookie out for a walk and suddenly remembered how I take my town for granted. I'm a huge believer in the power of place and I've been far too lackadaisical lately. I'm 1 1/2 blocks from the Redondo Beach Pier and I live in an eclectic neighborhood of old bungalows, townhouses (I live in one), apartments, and now more and more Mac Mansions are popping up. What started this train of thought was that my daughter and her family spent yesterday afternoon and evening on Skid Row downtown as they have for the past few years--delivering all the warm clothing, blankets, shoes et al they collect for a few months to give to the people living on the street at Christmas. I am not a rich person monetarily, but I was certainly reflecting today on a lot of the abundance I forget I have sometimes. My daughter is a court reporter and she and her court's staff also adopted a young family from the Department of Social Services which I wrote about a few days ago. Today she brought lots of photos of the 18-year-old couple and their one-year-old daughter. It was magical to see. So, I decided to see if I could find a few videos on YouTube about some of the things I cherish about Redondo Beach, particularly this time of year. I've tried to keep the clips short, but I place them here more for me than for you. For instance, the annual boat parade in King Harbor, which was two weeks ago, is always a hoot.

And now we have an ice skating rink next to the salt water plunge at the King Harbor Marina which is open days and evenings. I can walk to all the places I mention here. I haven't skated there but my son and daughter-in-law took their sons and you can see the boats in the marina and the ocean beyond while you are skating. Members of the L.A. Kings came recently to skate with the locals. And then there is the Redondo Beach Pier and International Boardwalk itself, which I used to spend so much time visiting. Dogs are not allowed in the pier area or on the beaches anymore, so I don't go as often as I used to, but there is so much to see and do. I've come away from this Christmas day determined to be more aware of my environment. This woman's video was shot today, Christmas, and she introduces it in sign language. You see the weather as it was. The buoy bells are clanging like crazy as I type at 11:30 p.m. as the wind is kicking up. But, it's always a hoot to go down and watch the surfers, any time of the year. This clip is near the breakwater in 2007. Both my sons surfed from a very young age and still do today, although it's harder in Port Angeles, WA. When I think how many times I drove them from Torrance to the beach with the surf boards sticking out the back of my station wagon, I smile. I keep my eldest son's boards in my garage ready and waiting for his rare visits. It was on the Esplanade bike path by this breakwater that I fell in 1985 while biking with friends. My shoulder has never been the same since. On Thanksgiving day, two young men were tragically washed away while fishing on this breakwater. So, here are a few reasons I love it so much in Redondo Beach, CA--and my daughter's Skid Row visit yesterday made me realize how much I do. We all need an emotional cattle prod now and then to wake us up, don't we?