My Word with Douglas E. Welch

Kiss Me, Kate at the Pasadena Playhouse – End of the Day for September 30, 2014

September 30th, 2014 dewelch Comments off

Late night out tonight, so an abbreviated entry. We spent the evening in Pasadena first having dinner at Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana and then off to see Kiss Me, Kate starring Wayne Brady at the Pasadena Playhouse. The pizza was good and very Italian, using Peitro Forno/Legno fuoco (Stone Oven/Wood Fired) just as they do in Sicily. A simple Pizza Margherita is always a good test of any pizzeria and this one one was pretty darn good. I love the slightly burnt, crunchy crust that the high heat of a wood over gives the pizza while the center crust is so think it almost disappears. The crust was lightly dressed with sauce, cheese and basil, just as it would have been in Sicily. I’m getting hungry just talking about it. (LAUGH) We also had a Caprese Salad and an order of arancini, one of Rosanne’s favorite dishes which I don’t/can’t make at home. They must have been good, as I didn’t get a chance to taste even the smallest morsel. Hrrmph!

Pizza margherita

Arancini

The show was an excellent way to spend an evening. The acting was great and the voices — oh my, the voices! Strong, clear, bright and gorgeous, especially the female roles. There is a fun an playfulness (and a bit of bawdiness) in the show that makes it spritely and fun with a lot of catchy (if sometimes forgotten) tunes to send you out of the theater humming. The show plays through October 12, 2014.

The shows was especially fun to see after having seen the Independent Shakespeare Company’s production of Taming of the Shrew in Griffith Park earlier this sumer. Seeing them in such close proximity allowed us to enjoy this show even more. That, and the fact that we are all theater people, of course, and can relate a lot to the backstage (and sometimes, onstage) antics of the cast and crew.

More information on Kiss Me, Kate

Previously on End of the Day:

Categories: End-of-the-Day, Food, Los Angeles, Places LA, Theater, Writing Tags:

LA Friday Coffee(?) – Raise a pint at MacLeod Ale Brewing Co in Van Nuys – Friday, September 19, 2014 – 6pm-10pm

September 15th, 2014 dewelch Comments off

Friday, September 19, 2014 from 6pm to 10pm

Raise a pint at MacLeod Ale Brewing Co in Van Nuys

RSVP on Facebook

Join us for a different type of LA Friday Coffee(?) at our new local microbrewery, MacLeod Ale Brewing Co. right here in our neighborhood.

MacLeod’s serves 4 types of traditional English Cask Ale and all are a tasty treat. A food truck of some sort is usually in attendance or you can order in or bring your favorite food treats with you.

Watch their Facebook page for announcements of food trucks and more.

Come and join us for a tasty pint of ale and some great conversation. Bring along a photo for thew weekly photo contest and maybe even win a free growler of beer. Check their Facebook page (linked above) for this week’s theme.

RSVP by clicking “Leave a comment” above or

RSVP on Facebook

Cask Ale, Games, and Casual Conversation

Categories: Drinks, Event, Food, Los Angeles Tags:

Noted: Americans rediscovering a taste for hard cider via The Los Angeles Times

August 17th, 2014 dewelch Comments off

Americans rediscovering a taste for hard cider via The Los Angeles Times

British transplant Jeffrey House has long believed in the appeal of a pint of fermented apple juice.

But when he landed in California in the 1980s, he found few Americans willing to venture outside the familiar territory of beer and wine.

Fast forward a few decades. Add drinkers who have been groomed by the craft beer movement. Throw in a dollop of gluten avoidance. Now, House’s business is producing 1 million gallons of hard cider a year under the brand Ace Cider, quadruple what he was making in 2008.

Noted: Six (Los Angeles) City Parks Are Getting Free WiFi via LAist

August 15th, 2014 dewelch Comments off

Six (Los Angeles) City Parks Are Getting Free WiFi via LAist

It’s summer and we know you’d rather be working away on your laptop outside under a tree instead of being stuck inside of a Starbucks. Well, you’re in luck. Our city’s Department of Recreation and Parks is launching a free WiFi service at six parks starting this Thursday.

Lend a helping hand by organizing an unconference – End of the Day for July 11, 2014

July 11th, 2014 dewelch Comments off

I always make a point to have at least 1 charitable work operating at all times. This has included a variety of volunteer positions, pro bono consulting and, tomorrow, the next CareerCampSCV (Santa Clarita Valley) at College of the Canyons. I think this will be something like our 11th CareerCamp overall and our 4th in Santa Clarita. CareerCamp is an idea I came up with back in 2009 to apply the concepts if an “unconference” to career development. I had been attending a variety of unconferenes on technology and creativity topics and it only made sense to me to use these organizational ideas to create and unconference of my own.

From Wikipedia…

An unconference is a participant-driven meeting. The term “unconference” has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as fees, sponsored presentations, and top-down organization. For example, in 2006, CNNMoney applied the term to diverse events including Foo Camp, BarCamp, Bloggercon, and Mashup Camp.[1]

Unconferences often use variations on the Open Space Technology format / method developed by Harrison Owen in the mid 1980s. Owen’s 1993 book Open Space Technology: a User’s Guide discussed many of the techniques now associated with unconferences, although his book does not use that term.

The term “unconference” first appeared in an announcement for the annual XML developers conference in 1998.[2]

The term was used by Lenn Pryor when discussing BloggerCon and was popularized by Dave Winer, the organizer of BloggerCon, in an April 2004 writeup. The first BloggerCon was held October 4–5, 2003 at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Sarah Winge, the organizer (with Tim O’Reilly) of Foo Camp, an early unconference, drew on her experience of open space and conversations with Harrison Owen to develop the format.[3] The first Foo Camp happened October 10–12, 2003, in Sebastopol, California. In 2005 some of the attendees from previous years decided to produce their own “Bar” Camp. These three events, BloggerCon, Foo Camp and BarCamp helped to popularize the term “unconference”. Foo and Bar Camp in particular popularized the form where “there is no agenda until .. the attendees made one up.”

I am always amazed at how successful these CareerCamp events can be. For tomorrow, we have over 200 people registered to attend. We ail have 5 presentation rooms available each hour and even more room for breakout sessions and casual discussions. I am currently planning on 1 presentation and leading one discussion during the day and then attending whatever other sessions interest me most.

One amazing occurrence at CareerCamp is how the event comes together even though it is arranged, ad hoc, on-site, by the attendees. It only makes sense really. When you put the success of the event in the hands of the attendees, they will make it a great unconference because they WANT it to be a great conference. When you put the responsibility in their hands, they will take it and run with it.

I have been trying to spread the word about CareerCamp as much as I can. We have held the in a variety of venues including churches and community colleges, met in plush electronic classrooms and outdoors on picnic benches and even held the first CareerCamp online. I think the idea of CareerCamp (and unconferences in general) can be applied in many different places, subjects and communities. If you want to learn about creating your own CareerCamp, check out the pages on the CareerCamp International web site.

Now its time for me to get some sleep so I can help people “Build the Career That They Deserve” tomorrow morning!

Previously on End of the Day:

Categories: California, Careers, End-of-the-Day, LA, Los Angeles, Writing Tags:

California Wildfire Information 2014 – A collection of resources for the 2014 fire season and beyond

July 9th, 2014 dewelch Comments off

As is common, we are in a drought again, here in California, and this makes the occurrence of wildfire more likely and also increases the damage that wildfires can do in the landscape and in populated areas. In an effort to stay in touch with the wildfire situation here in California, I have collected a set of resources to keep me informed when fires break out. While I live in the middle of the San Fernando Valley and fairly free from the direct danger of wildfire, fires in the surrounding areas can cause large problems with evacuations, smoke plumes and ash and also directly effect friends and family who live in or near wild lands.

“CAL FIRE is a State agency responsible for protecting natural resources from fire on land designated by the State Board of Forestry as State Responsibility Area (SRA). CAL FIRE also manages the State Forest system and has responsibility to enforce the forest practice regulations, which govern forestry practices on private and other non-federal lands. Two major themes are attendant to the CAL FIRE mission. One is the protection of the State’s merchantable timber on all non-federal lands from improper logging activities and the other is the protection of the State’s grass, brush, and tree covered watersheds in SRA from wildland fire. CAL FIRE is a “conservation agency” with origins stemming from the “Conservation Movement” of the last century.”

Cal Fire provides a number of online resources:

“InciWeb is an interagency all-risk incident information management system. The system was developed with two primary missions:

Provide the public a single source of incident related information
Provide a standardized reporting tool for the Public Affairs community
A number of supporting systems automate the delivery of incident information to remote sources. This ensures that the information regarding active incidents is consistent, and the delivery is timely.”

InciWeb Resources:

Enplan Wildfire Viewer

“ENPLAN provides environmental planning and geospatial information services and products to both public and private sectors. We have served over 500 clients since we began in 1980. Throughout our existence, we have remained absolutely committed to leading-edge quality and innovation in the solutions we deliver.”

Enplan Wildfire Viewer Resources:

ESRI Integrated Fire Information Map

Resources include:

Fire Locations
Filtered Tweets
Wildfire Perimeters
Fire-Related Weather Watches and Warnings

Categories: California, Elsewhere, LA, Los Angeles, News, outdoors, Technology Tags:

Photos: LA Friday Coffee at Magnolia Park Ladies and Gents Night Out

July 1st, 2014 dewelch Comments off

LA Friday Coffee had a great night of food , conversation and strolling during the June edition of Magnolia Park’s Ladies and Gents Night Out in Burbank. This monthly event involves tons of stores and restaurants, live music and over 25 food trucks all laid out along Magnolia Boulevard from Hollywood Way to California Street.

The LA Friday Coffee group met up at Romancing the Bean, a nice coffee house along the route. We drank coffee and brought back the food we had wandered off to find at the various food trucks. Wings seemed to be very popular among the group, along with shave ice and, off all things, Tater Tots!

Here are a collection of photos I took during the evening to give you a feeling for the event and possibly entice you to check it out for yourself. The July date is Friday, July 25, 2014. You can find out all about this event, and others sponsored by Magnolia Park on their Facebook page.

Slide Show

View a complete slide show on Flickr

Categories: Event, Food, Friends and Family, Fun, LA, Los Angeles, Photos Tags:

Noted: Above LA Timelapse video by Chris Pritchard

June 23rd, 2014 dewelch Comments off

Above LA Timelapse video by Chris Pritchard

Above LA is a love letter to Los Angeles and showcases my favorite way to view the city – from above. Whether on a rooftop, a hill, or a mountain, getting above the grind of the city allows you to appreciate it in a new way. Once you get even slightly above, the views and sounds begin to change dramatically.

Getting above it all has been instrumental in helping me get to know and appreciate Los Angeles. This piece was produced off and on over the course of two years, and the clips selected for this film are only a small percentage of what I captured during my quest to take in the city from different locations and in new ways. Some of the locations featured are popular and easy to access, others require some searching and hiking, and some are heavily restricted. But I encourage everyone – lifelong Angelenos, transplants, visitors – to hit the trails, drive the mountain roads, find a reason to get on top of a high-rise. From the basin to the valley, this city offers so many opportunities to rise above and look down. Never stop exploring.

Watch and Read More

“Noted” items are particularly good finds from my daily reading which I share via all my social media accounts.

Find more Noted/Shared Items here

Categories: California, Elsewhere, LA, Los Angeles, New Media, Shared Items, Video Tags:

Noted: The Valley’s First Craft Brewery Opens Today (Sunday), Specializing In British Ales via LAist

June 22nd, 2014 dewelch Comments off

This new microbrewery is right here in my neighborhood. I decided to avoid the crush of opening day, but I will be a making a visit very soon to do some blogging-related tasting! (LAUGH) — Douglas

The Valley’s First Craft Brewery Opens Today, Specializing In British Ales

Finally!

The MacLeod Ale Brewing Company opened its doors and tapped its casks for the first time today, allowing beer lovers in the Valley to not have to travel far to get the craft brews they desire.

The Van Nuys brewery specializes in British styles that are hard to find, even for craft brewers. This includes, pale ales, Scotch ales, and English-style bitters. The brewery is also serving the beers directly from the casks they are naturally carbonated in, meaning less carbonated brews served at “cellar temperature” between 50 and 57 degrees, according to the LA Times.

Photo: Camping at Sycamore Creek, 2011

June 17th, 2014 dewelch Comments off

Revisiting a photo from June 17, 2011 at Sycamore Canyon Beach

Previously in my Instagram Photos…

See all my photos on Flickr

Categories: LA, Los Angeles, outdoors, Photos Tags:

My Word with Douglas E. Welch

Archive

Kiss Me, Kate at the Pasadena Playhouse – End of the Day for September 30, 2014

LA Friday Coffee(?) – Raise a pint at MacLeod Ale Brewing Co in Van Nuys – Friday, September 19, 2014 – 6pm-10pm

Noted: Americans rediscovering a taste for hard cider via The Los Angeles Times

Noted: Six (Los Angeles) City Parks Are Getting Free WiFi via LAist

Lend a helping hand by organizing an unconference – End of the Day for July 11, 2014

California Wildfire Information 2014 – A collection of resources for the 2014 fire season and beyond

Photos: LA Friday Coffee at Magnolia Park Ladies and Gents Night Out

Noted: Above LA Timelapse video by Chris Pritchard

Noted: The Valley’s First Craft Brewery Opens Today (Sunday), Specializing In British Ales via LAist

Photo: Camping at Sycamore Creek, 2011

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