Random thoughts on art, technology, stuff, and occasionally Real Estate: September 2008

Just thinking out loud here, not complaining or criticizing, just thinking:

When I Google the words "Northeast Los Angeles", my blog Nelalive.net comes up on page 1, position 3.  Positions 1 and 2 are occupied by a public service community info site, which is OK by me.

My sponsored Localism community "Northeast Los Angeles" comes up on page 2 of the Google search, position 7. (Right above a Squidoo lens for NELA I made back in 2006 :-)  )

Wondering what it will take, how long it will take for the Localism community to move up to page 1 of Google.

To give it a little nudge, which may or may not do any good, I took the URL of the Localism community http://localism.com/ca/highland_park/northeast_los_angeles  and submitted it to Google's "Add your URL to Google" page.  Can't hurt.

If anyone else wants to do this for their own Localism communities:

Add URL to Google here: http://www.google.com/addurl/

Add URL to Yahoo here:  https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

UPDATE 9/24/2009:   Today, Localism is on page one of the Google results, near the bottom, but still page one  http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=t&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4DKUS_enUS273US273&q=northeast+los+angeles

Our early ancestors were deeply aware of changes in the seasons, and changes in the heavens above them. 

As the days shortened, the harvest wound down. The fields were nearly empty, because the crops had been plucked and stored for the coming winter.  As the autumn equinox approached, the ancients celebrated the changing seasons and gave thanks for the harvest.

Each equinox signals a balance between dark and light, an equal amount of day and night. While our ancestors celebrated the gifts of the earth, they also accepted that the time of light was ending.  They had stores of food to eat, but the crops were brown and going dormant. Warmth was behind them, and long days of cold ahead.

During Medieval times, The Christian Church replaced earlier Pagan solstices and equinox celebrations  with Christianized observances. Replacing the fall equinox is Michaelmas, the feast of the Archangel Michael, on September 29.  His feast was celebrated with a traditional well-fattened goose which had fed well on the stubble of the fields after the harvest. In many places, a there was also a tradition of special large loaves of bread made only for that day.  It was a time for beginning new leases, rendering accounts and paying the annual dues.

In 2008, the autumnal equinox occurs on September 22, at 3:44 PM (15:44)

One of the members of the Compuserve Photography Forum, posted a link to this photo gallery.

The images are of very athletic dancers performing on the streets of New York.  The juxtaposition of street art and dancers makes for some striking images.

Here, take a look:

http://www.pbase.com/rcalmes/dancers_on_the_town

And here's the gallery showing how the shots were made:

http://www.pbase.com/shatterbug/the_making_of_beautiful_dancers_on_the_town

My curiosity finally got the better of me.

I ran an Active Rain Search for Wasilla, Alaska

Betcha didn't know that Marty Van Diest is the Number One Featured agent for Wasilla, or that the featured property on his blog right now is a beautiful log home priced at $200,000.

(This post is not intended to make any political statement about the governor of Alaska, either pro or con. 

Whenever an area that is unfamiliar to me is in the news, I find one way to learn a little bit about it is to read some Active Rain or Localism posts by agents in that area. 

Thank you, Marty, for the Active Rain geography lesson!)

Save this date!  The tenth annual Eagle Rock Music Festival  takes place "SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4 2008 // 5PM-MIDNIGHT".

Musicians perform at sixteen unique one-night-only venues ranging from tire shops and formal stages to coffee shops and even motel poolsides up and down Colorado Boulevard, which is closed to vehicle traffic, and open to crowds of pedestrians between Eagle Rock Boulevard and Argus Street.

Each venue highlights a different type of music, going beyond genre boundaries to create a place where Angelenos of all-ages can find a melody, beat, or guitar riff to enjoy.

Only one LA publication, Arroyo Seco Journal,  has published the complete, formal lineup of artists for the October 4th event.:  http://www.asjournal.net/localnews.html

Eagle Rock Music Festival on MySpace http://www.myspace.com/eaglerockmusicfestival

Image from Sarah Brewer http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewAlbums&friendID=271113263

OK. Fine.  The U.S. Federal Reserve has stepped in with an emergency $85 billion rescue of AIG Inc to stave off a bankruptcy that officials decided would have a "catastrophic effect on global markets".

This is taxpayer money, right?  So how about giving the taxpayers something in return. 

AIG is an insurance company, right?  OK.  How about give every single taxpayer in the United States a complementary life insurance policy.  It doesn't need to be a large benefit, let's say $1,000.  Each taxpayer would be the "insured" and the taxpayer could name anyone at all to be the "beneficiary" (heir).

Since most of the taxpayer population is going to be around for awhile, the payout would be spread out over many decades.

However, since on any given day a certain number of taxpayers are going to pass away, the country will have the economic stimulus of the payouts to the heirs steadily entering the economy.

I can even see a market developing ("I'll pay you $200 to name me as your beneficiary") which gets even a little more money circulating in the economy.

Hey, somebody's got to start thinking outside the box!  :-)

It's Tuesday again! Join us at the Old L.A. Farmers Market in Highland Park. The market is open every Tuesday from 3 to 8, on Avenue 58 and Marmion Way.

Note:  Old L.A. Farmer's Market accepts the EBT food stamp cards for food purchases.

Every week there is a Neighborhood Council booth where you can learn about what's going on throughout your community.

The Market also features numerous craft vendors, located on Marmion Way, and farmers, whose booths are on the east side of Avenue 58, north from Figueroa

As you can probably imagine, I follow animal rescue news during times of disaster.

Code 3 Associates, Denver Dumb Friends League, Humane Society of Missouri, Noah's Wish and SPCALA (Yay, Los Angeles!) have all deployed to aid Houston SPCA in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

Conspicuous by their absence are Best Friends Society and Pasado's Safe Haven; both were very active in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and deployed early to Louisiana in preparation for Hurricane Gustav.

Pasado's web site carries a short statement about why they have not responded to Hurricane Ike.

I don't know what bureaucratic feathers might have been ruffled (Pasado's ~was~ pretty intense in their Katrina efforts), but I think it's a damn shame that ready, willing and able hands are turned away.

UPDATE 9/17: Best Friends is now on the scene.

UPDATE 9/24: After reading SRM's comment, I am adding a link to MuttShack's web page with updates on their hurricane resuce actions.

Announcement: Cypress Park Branch Library hosts a reading by two writers, one from the community.

Contact: Conrad Romo, (323) 931-1200, www.tongueandgroovela.com
Branch Librarian Patty Rostomian, (323) 224-0039

LOS ANGELES - Most of the attention the working-class, largely Latino community of Cypress Park northeast of downtown receives from major media comes from spasms of gang violence. The fatal shooting in August of a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy. The February shooting outside Aragon Elementary School.

But the community is much more than that.

The Cypress Park Branch Library, a hub of community activity at 1150 Cypress Ave., will showcase another side of the neighborhood with a free reading 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, featuring two local authors, one of whom grew up in Cypress Park.

Reading from their work will be Reyna Grande, author of the critically acclaimed novel "Across a Hundred Mountains," and Conrad Romo, who produces "Tongue and Groove," a five-year-old monthly reading event at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, and who grew up in Cypress Park a block from the former Southern Pacific railroad yard.

Grande, who was born in Mexico and came to the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant at the age of nine, received a 2007 American Book Award and the 2008 El Premio Aztlan Literary Award, for her first novel. She is currently finishing a master's program in creative writing and her second novel, "Dancing with Butterflies," is scheduled to be released in 2009.

Romo, a second-generation Angeleno, has had short stories published in Palehouse, Wednesday magazine and Noveltown Review. His short story, "Cement God," was recently featured in Tu Ciudad magazine and also appears in the Anthology "Latinos in Lotusland."

Romo organized the reading in an effort to give something back to the community where he grew up, to call attention to positive aspects of the tight-knit community, and to show that Cypress Park is defined by more than just the headline-grabbing violence of a few gang members.

"There are other stories," Romo said. "A whole community can be identified by just a few actions. . . .  but there are other stories, other people who live there."

Looking for something to do today?

Here's just a partial list of events happening in Northeast Los Angeles on Saturday, September 13:

8:30 - 10:30 am  - Audobon Center in Debs Park:  Family Bird Watching Walk en Español For families with children ages 4 and up. Join an Audubon naturalist in looking for birds in Debs Park. This walk will teach you how to identify birds that live here. Bring your own binoculars or borrow some of ours. Coffee and pan dulce will be served. This program will be presented in Spanish.

 8:30-10:30 am -- Mount Washington Elementary School:  23rd ANNUAL PANCAKE BREAKFAST** Don't miss this Mt. Washington tradition! It's a great way to meet old and new friends. Breakfast includes pancakes, sausage, fruit, juice, and coffee. Adults $6, Kids $3. We'll have live music, t-shirts for sale, raffles, and our local fire department.

11:30 am - 6:00pm -- Monterey Hills Jazz Festival:  at Budd Wiener Park located at the intersection of Via Marisol and Via Arbolada in Los Angeles, California. Performers will include Lori Andrews, Luis Conte, and the Pasadena Jazz Institute. This festive event will feature free admission, free shuttle service, a prize drawing for the first 50 adults and a jumper for children.

12:00 noon - 4:00pm -- Southwest Museum of the American Indian-Open House:  Southwest Museum, Mt. Washington, 234 Museum Drive.  Here's your chance to find out what's going on behind all the  scaffolding around the tower at the Southwest Museum! Our annual Open House features guided tours of the buildings and gardens, live performances, and family activities.

3:00pm - 9:00pm -- Community Festival and Fireworks Show:  at the Franklin High School football field, 820 North Avenue 54, from 3 o'clock in the afternoon to 9 o'clock in the evening. Admission will be FREE. There will be plenty of food and family fun, game booths and prizes, free live entertainment, an aerosol art contest, a 50/50 raffle, a dunking tank, face painting, and a mobile skate park including community resource and health booths and rock climbing. Children and youth are encouraged to bring their skate boards, helmets, and pads.

6:00 - 10:00 Second Saturday Art Gallery Night  Participating galleries across Northeast Los Angeles