Yes the title of the post has a double meaning ... I fell last week and took a header down a driveway. I'm blaming the whole daylight savings/time change thing (for everything) any chance I get, so let's go with that! It's usually light when I come out of my student's house, and with my arms full of art supplies ... well, you get the idea. Anyway, nothing broken, just a bit bruised so I got lucky! Phew!
So, after two Aleve, a bag of frozen peas on my knees and a little glass ofDon Julio Añjeo I cuddled up, and it felt like fall.
Paradiso, Assisi
I mentioned a few posts ago about looking for signs of fall in Los Angeles, or at least fall colors. On Pinterest I have a board called "Artful Autumn" with various images of paintings and photographs by all sorts of people that speak to me of fall. Sometimes it's just the colors and tones.
Anyway, I decided to go through some of my travel photos and see what I could find, from past trips that I'd taken in the fall (that I hadn't already posted.) Most of the photos are between 2008-2014.
I threw in a few of my earth toned artworks in the mix as well.
Shrewsbury, Massachusetts
Ojai, California
Happiness is when what you think,
what you say,
and what you do
are in harmony.
~Mahatma Gandhi
Shrewsbury, Massachusetts
Ink and conte on paper, 2008
Freedom is not worth having
if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
~ Gandhi
Shrewsbury
Lake Como, Italy
Rome, Italy
La Maddelena, Rome
The weak can never forgive.
Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
~Mahatma Gandhi
Shrewsbury
When I admire the wonders of a sunset
or the beauty of the moon,
my soul expands
in the worship of the creator.
~ Gandhi
Sancta Santorum, Rome
Ink and gauche on paper, 2008
Ojai, California (2012)
Piemonte, Italy
Shrewsbury
Rome
Shrewsbury
Assisi, Italy
King Gilette Ranch, Santa Monica Mountains
You must not lose faith in humanity.
Humanity is an ocean;
if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,
the ocean does not become dirty.
~Gandhi
Cat Sanctuary, Rome
Watercolor on Paper, 2013
Lake Casitas Ojai California
This was the post I was planning to put up over the weekend before the attacks in Paris. So many of the Gandhi quotes synchronistically resonate. Along with all of you, I am continuing to keep Paris in my thoughts and prayers, as well as Beirut, Iraq, Syria, Central Africa, those that lost loved ones in the plane crash in Russia, and the 60 million refugees and internally displaced. My dear friend's family also lost a loved one last week, and they are always in my mind and my heart.
A couple of friends and I are on a mission to get out and do some different things around town. When I see special screenings at the old theaters downtown, I get very excited. Especially if they are in one of the theaters I haven't been. Such was the case with the Million Dollar Theater, the oldest theater in Los Angeles, built by Sid Grauman who also built the famous Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. You know, the one with the movie stars' hand prints?!
Happily, I've gotten to see some old silent movies in some of these theaters, along with a live organ.
Here is lovely little film with Gene Kelly about the history of movie theaters ... at 6:46 they talk about the Million Dollar Theater. :) At 16:53 you'll see one of my favorite theaters, The Los Angeles Theater.
Me, being a goofball at the box office!
This particular screening was not of an old silent movie, but the 1978 version of Dawn of the Dead, in honor of Halloween! While I am not a horror movie fan (no thanks on putting those images in my head!) this is a very campy film, and the only memory I really had of it was someone playing it at a party in High School, twenty something years ago.
Just to make sure we could handle it, Karen and I watched the first 3 minutes on youtube.
This screening was put on by Cinespia, who also does movie screenings outdoors at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where I saw Barbarella! (Yes, an actual cemetery! Rudolph Valentino is buried there!)
I love these old theaters! Most aren't open for regular movie releases. At least the ones downtown aren't. They are rented for special screenings, special events, as well as film sets for movies and television. The ones on Hollywood Boulevard are a different story, like the Chinese Theater, the Egyptian, and the El Capitan.
For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake. ~Alfred Hitchcock
Strangers used to gather together in the dark, like Ancient Greeks participation in the mysteries, dreaming the same dream in unison. ~Angela Carter
Upstairs, a full bar and this lovely lady below! Yikes!
A creepy mannequin in a shopping mall fountain, in the film ...
I see horror as part of legitimate film.
I don't see it as an independent genre
that has nothing to do with the rest of cinema.
~Guillermo del Toro
This guy "Stephen" (David Emge) didn't become a zombie until the 3rd act of the film. His poor financé!
The screening was a hoot. People laughing and screaming and hollering. It was a ball!
In my view, the only way to see a film
remains the way the filmmaker intended:
inside a large movie theater with great sound and pristine picture.
~Ridley Scott
Here's Lauren posing with the lovely skeleton lady upstairs ...
Lauren, me, and Karen ... so fun!
... The whole idea of movies,
was it was special to go to see -
you went to a movie theater to see something
that was magical
and amazing,
in a very special location.
~ Bob Balaban
This video from YouTube shows what you can't see now of the Million Dollar Theater, from the street!
Here he talks about the lobby ceiling along with some other information, about Sid Grauman and the architect.
More unseen murals above the false ceiling ...
Below, I'm at the oyster bar at Grand Central Market, around the corner from the theater. No oysters for me, just red wine to go with my tomato soup!
The creepy tunnel leaving downtown ...
It's not easy finding fall colors in Los Angeles. You have to look closely, and sometimes in unexpected places ...
The Alcove, near my work ...
Fun ghost cupcakes!
But the Margarita was more refreshing on a warm evening ...
Not easy to dress for fall during an Indian Summer in Southern California ... so chiffon and stockings with lots air conditioning, but in fall colors!
Designers want me to dress like Spring,
in billowing things.
I don't feel like Spring.
I feel like warm red Autumn.
~Marilyn Monroe
Ah yes, fall colors for Halloween perhaps? This early 70s frock of my grandmothers ... I could be a cast member of hair? Vampire hippy? Laura Ingalls Wilder?
I think I'll go with my old Kimono ... modern vampire Geisha? I'll have to think on it.
Below, with my prayer book Illuminata, by Marianne Williamson.
I realize it was a strange time to stop and take a photo but I am a visual gal after all! I couldn't help but notice the details of my favorite bookmarks with the delicate little flower ...
And for the kids (OK and me too!) I painted monster eyes on my thumbs!
Walking in my neighborhood, still looking for those autumn tones ...
Yay! I found a few trees with color ...
Still keeping an eye out ...
Lovely colors through the gates of a shop on La Brea Avenue ...
Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons. ~ Jim Bishop
Pizza Romana across the street from the Showcase ... the Diavola pizza tastes so much like a pizza I had in Milan! So you close your eyes and order the vino rosso Montepulciano!
And here, my little student Evie (5) and her Jack O'Lantern!
What's a bigger mystery box than a movie theater? You go to the theater, you're just so excited to see anything- the moment the lights go down is often the best part. ~J.J. Abrams
