Day 4955: An easy step x step postcard & TBT & Shoes that grow.

"Journey": junk collage, ink, digital.

  

Want music?

    Click: Rufus, Step On By

2GN2S

An easy step-by-step postcard

1.

Marker sketch, a pencil would be better.

2.

3.

4.

Utilizing a marker, junk mail collage on heavy watercolor paper.

Permanent glue stick & brayer, 1 hour, 13 pieces. 

Demura Sensei's Costa Mesa Dojo Jr. Tournament

2008

   

 

  

 

A 5+ minute video, Dragonfly bully,  here.

 

Just because ...

Burnished-buff Tanager

Thursday's Smiles ... 

 

 

Hoping you feel all the good things in your day.

  

 

 

Day 4954: Drat!!! Taxes!!! & Not a sky rat.

"Tokyo Rose": junk collage, watercolor, ink drawing.

 

  

Want music?

    Click: Chaka Khan, Sweet Thing.

2GN2S

Drat!!! Taxes!!!

It's that time again, and it rolled around faster than last time. Every year I think I will start earlier and avoid the extra stress of a deadline, but I don't! So now I need to hunker down, bite the bullet etc. and get to work! My only claim to fame is that I do save every receipt, but that just means there's a lot to go through and sort. 

The goal is to finish all my totals and have everything ready to turn over to Chad my tax man by the end of the week. Done in March, I hope. What a concept?

 

Pigeons get called sky rats. But birds like these once carried messages through gunfire when every radio failed. And the part most people miss is this.

For thousands of years humans relied on pigeons to move information faster than any technology available at the time. Their homing instinct is so precise that a trained bird released hundreds of miles away can still navigate straight back to its loft.

That simple biological skill made them invaluable in war. During World War I and World War II, armies deployed hundreds of thousands of pigeons. When telephone wires were cut and radio signals failed, commanders often had only one reliable way to send a message through chaos.

A pigeon. In 1918 one pigeon named Cher Ami carried a desperate note from trapped American troops in the Argonne Forest. The bird was shot through the chest and lost part of a leg during the flight but still delivered the message, helping stop friendly artillery fire and saving nearly two hundred soldiers.

Today their descendants wander city sidewalks, pecking quietly for crumbs. Most people see a nuisance. History once saw a lifeline with wings.

 

  

 

A 4+ minute video, Narcisco, here.

 

Just because ...

Golden-naped Tanager

Wednesday's Smiles ... 

 

Hoping you feel all the good things in your day.

  

 

 

Day 4953: The Griffith Observatory & Apocalyptic Monument

"Cowgirls": junk collage, old photo, ink. (j.long)

                                                                       

  

Want music?

    Click: Switch, There'll Never Be

2GN2S

The Griffith Observatory

In high school, I lived with my Dad just six miles from this observatory in Griffith Park. I can even remember it as a child, and being fascinated by Foucault Pendulum. The hanging pendulum knocked a wooden pen off each trip of the arc. Hypnotizing! One of those little kids hanging on the edge could have been me. I seem to remember them dragging me off. 

I found this article and all the memories downloaded into my 84 year old brain. Surely on of Los Angeles' best attractions, with a spectacular view of the city and gorgeous surrounding park.

A terrific date night when I was in high school was to go to the "SAMUEL OSCHIN PLANETARIUM  with its spectacular Zeiss 

star projector, digital projection system, state-of-the-art aluminum dome, comfy reclining seats, enabling a great  view of the show on the big ceiling, sound system, and theatrical lighting, the 290 reclining seat Oschin Planetarium theater known as the finest planetarium in the world at the time. Every show was presented by a live, engaging storyteller."  I also remember the "engaged" speaker with a powerful 

yet soothing voice that fit the show perfectly. A great evening.

Zeiss telescope

Colonel Griffith J. Griffith left funds in his will to build a public observatory in Los Angeles because he believed in the transformative power of observation. After looking through the research telescope at Mt. Wilson.  Griffith said: “If all mankind could look through that telescope, it would change the world!”

Since opening in 1935, Griffith Observatory has fulfilled his vision by offering public telescope viewing through the historic Zeiss telescope, coelostat (solar telescope), and portable telescopes on the lawn. 

A magical place I'd like to revisit. I believe reservations are required.

    

 

  

 

A 6 minute video, Ugly Moche, here

 

Just because ...

 𝗥𝘂𝗱𝗱𝘆-𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗸𝗲

Tuesday's Smiles ... 

 

Hoping you feel all the good things in your day.