A flashback to March 2010 when LA Friday Coffee visited the Griffith Observatory, Griffith Park, Los Angeles.
Last Saturday, while the boy was rehearsing for his school play, Rosanne and I took to the mountains, but we never really left the city. I have been poking around in Google Maps for a while now, looking through the Santa Monica Mountains for small pieces of green that donate public lands. Recently I located two such places, Trebek Open Space, just above Hollywood and just to the west of the much more popular and busy Runyon Canyon — and Briar Summit Open Space Preserve, closer to the Valley side of the mountains above Universal City.
A few photos from our walk
Trebek Open Space is accessible from Nicholas Canyon Road and the up and back route we took was about 1.3 miles in length. You can extend the hike by coming up from Hollywood and/or using streets to create a round-trip route. The trails are decomposed granite covered, yet well maintained fire roads. Briar Summit Open Space Preserve is LA DWP property and also the home to many radio towers on the summit. It is a nice .75 round trip to the top of the mountain and back on a paved access road.
Both locations are quite quiet for being in the middle of the city and both offer excellent views of the surrounding city, too. From Trebek you can see to Downtown LA and beyond and all the way to the ocean in Santa Monica. There were much fewer people at Trebek than the adjacent Runyon Canyon. Where we passed maybe 10 people during our walk the ridge line of Runyon Canyon, visible from the trail, was covered with people.
Below is a slide show from Flickr with shots of the scenery, birds and native plant life.
Click to see all the photos in high resolution on Flickr
I like to put my New Media skills to use to help out my cool friends, so I made a point to capture this reading by our friend, Lisa Seidman. She recently published her first mystery novel, “Killer Ratings” and held a reading at Book ‘Em Mysteries in South Pasadena.
From Killer Ratings…
“Los Angeles is no stranger to glamour, celebrity . . . and murder. When Susan Kaplan moves to L.A. to become a TV writer, she’s thrilled to be hired as a writers’ assistant on the well-regarded but low-rated TV series Babbitt & Brooks. The last thing she expects, however, is that she’d find herself working for the beautiful yet seriously neurotic Rebecca Saunders, the show’s less-than-competent associate producer who may or may not have gotten the job by sleeping with Babbitt & Brooks’ demanding creator and executive producer, Ray Goldfarb.
And Susan definitely doesn’t expect to find murdered Rebecca’s body in her office at the studio early one morning. When the police learn that Rebecca torpedoed Susan’s writing career shortly before her death, Susan becomes their number one suspect. Determined to prove her innocence and find the murderer, Susan discovers that all her colleagues have secrets they would kill to protect. From producers to writers to stars, it seems that the hopes and dreams of nearly everyone associated with the show were being threatened by Rebecca.”
About Lisa Seidman…
Lisa Seidman began her television career writing for the primetime serials Falcon Crest, Dallas, and Knots Landing as well as Cagney & Lacy, Murder, She Wrote, and Scarecrow and Mrs. King. For five years Lisa was the headwriter on the phenomenally successful, award-winning Russian primetime serial, Poor Anastasia, as well as Sins of the Fathers, Talisman of Love and the Russian adaptation of Betty La Fea (Ugly Betty in the U.S.). She received an Emmy nomination for her work on Guiding Light as well Writers Guild nominations for Guiding Light and Sunset Beach. After a year writing for One Life to Live she returned to Moscow as the headwriter of One Night of Love, which was nominated for an International Emmy Award.
For more information on Lisa and her writing, visit http://lisaseidman.com
Buy Lisa’s Book from Amazon.com in paperback or Kindle Format
Music: “Constance” by Kevin MacLeod, http://incompetech.com, Creative Commons License
Three years ago at the Places LA – Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve.
A walk through the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles from February 3, 2010.
A Year of Self Preservation with Douglas E. Welch @ Tuesdays with Transitioners
Tuesday, February 19, 2013, 12 Noon to 2 pm
Congregational Church of Northridge
9659 Balboa Blvd, Northridge, CA
Please RSVP on
It is a fact of nature that we often spend many hours of each day focused on someone else. We focus on our boss, our job, our family, our projects — but one person is usually left out of this focus — you! We can easily lose ourselves in the clamor for our attention. This year, though, I call for “A Year of Self Preservation”. A year of returning the focus to ourselves and our own lives, so that we can continue to help others.
It is my firm belief that we can only, truly, help others when we ourselves are in a good position. If we try to do too much, without the support of friends, family or a stable income, we risk placing our own life, work and income in jeopardy. This isn’t selfishness. Self preservation is about establishing a firm foundation where you can stand so you can offer a helping hand to others.
The tenets of A Year of Self Preservation are:
Join Douglas at Tuesdays with Transitioners and see how you can make 2013 the best year possible.
We are planning on taking this trip with Friends of the Island Fox, a group I have worked with on social media and podcasting for a number of years. We have always planned to take a trip to the Channel Islands, but never seemed to make it. This event sounds like the perfect excuse. Sign up soon to reserve your space! — Douglas
A Trip to Prisoner’s Harbor - Santa Cruz Island
Saturday, April 6, 2013
That’s right, this spring Friends of the Island Fox educators are leading a day-long adventure to look for both the island fox AND the island scrub-jay.
As the population of Santa Cruz Island foxes reaches recovery it is possible to observe them at more locations across the island. Santa Cruz is also the only home of the rare island scrub-jay. With its newly restored wetland area, Prisoner’s Harbor is one of the prime locations to encounter this unique bird as well as many other species.
On the trip over to Prisoner’s Harbor (about 1 and a half hours) there is the possibility of seeing many marine species as well.
Tickets will be $65.00 per person. A percentage of the fee will go to support island fox recovery efforts.
Read more about this trip on the Friends of the Island Fox web site
We have attended a Metrolink Holiday Toy Train event in the past and it is a great time. The kids especially enjoy it as it has trains (every kid LOVES trains, right?), music, lights and, of course, Santa! Check out the schedule to see when Metrolink Holiday Toy Train is visiting your neighborhood.
From the Metrolink Web Site…
Santa’s glittering train, the Holiday Toy Express®, is once again preparing to travel from city to city to entertain families and collect toys for the less fortunate. This year the Holiday Toy Express will bring joy to all of the communities we serve as it marks its 16th year of operation. This 41 stop tour, which passes through six counties, brings a brightly packaged gift to Metrolink communities – a 450-ton train decorated with holiday displays and 50,000 twinkling lights – and delivers a live musical performance, Santa and community fun.
Join us, ABC7 and Southland Firefighters who will be collecting toys at the station stops as a key part of their overall annual “Spark of Love Toy Drive” in the region.
Here are some photos from the 2008 Holiday Toy Train event at Van Nuys station.
Can’t see the slideshow above? Watch “Metrolink Holiday Toy Train 2008″ on Flickr
A friend of mine with a bit of an obsessive streak…although we all benefit from it! (LAUGH). Ric outdoes himself every year with his Halloween and Christmas light shows.
Can’t see the video above? Click this link to watch it on YouTube!
“Light Show is controlled by the action on the pinball machine. Microcontroller detects Start, Ball Launch, different modes, multiball, game over etc. and triggers custom light shows in a 160 channel Light-o-rama system featuring a giant flying Saucer and 6 martians on the house. Visitors on Halloween night had such a good time that some of them forgot to ask for treats! Pinball is a 1999 Williams Revenge From Mars with game video that was projected on the garage door. Audio was also broadcast on 99.1 FM for viewers in cars.”
Looks like someone clipped a fire hydrant today in Encino. I was driving by around 1045 this morning and traffic was all screwed up. I soon saw why.
Jason Tucker and Megan Enloe (@podcastjunky) at BarCampLA 6 four years ago
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