Happy Afternoon, my Baby,
Well, I hate to say it.........mission aborted. After I dropped Pearl off, I came home to Google directions to Antonovich Park, and anything I could find about the missile site and the "residents only" sign pertaining to the road. The sign I didn't care too much about, even through it has intimidated me in the past. But this time, when I Googled, some recent newpaper articles came back about vandalism at the missile site. The site itself is fenced off and unaccessable, which I knew, but I also thought that there might be some artifacts in the park itself, the way that old movie camera track is visible at Garden Of The Gods. Antonovich Park is apparently huge, 2400 acres, so it's like six times the size of CSUN, which is a good sized campus. The missile site sits somewhere inside the huge park. The park is supposed to be accessible, but the missile site is not. But apparently there is no watchman up there anymore, so vandals have broken in repeatedly, which has brought LAPD's attention. Furthermore, I read that LAPD sometimes uses the abandoned missile site as a shooting range, and a SWAT Team training ground. So, when you add those factors into the equation, including the already intimidating "residents only" road sign, I decided against going. I still wanna go to Antonovich Park, road sign or no road sign, because it is supposed to be a legitimate city park, no different in status from Northridge Park or any other. And some of the Google results were hiker websites that mention the signs and tell hiking enthusiasts to disregard them, they aren't enforced. But still, I work as a caregiver, and have to have some measure of responsibility in my day-to-day activities, so with the vandalism, and all the unknown and possible restrictions on visiting the park, I decided against it for the time being, and am gonna wait until I have someone who will go with me.
What I did instead was to drive south to the Santa Monica mountains. If you remember, ringing the Valley we've got Santa Susanas to the West, San Gabriels to the North and East, and the Santa Monicas to the South. You go over the Santa Monicas, on the freeway, to get to Hollywood, LA or the beach. But if you remember earlier in the Summer, one of my first little road trips was to try and visit another old Nike Missile Site in the Santa Monicas, just off Mulholland Drive. I think that was in June or July. That time, I couldn't find the access road leading into the wilderness park. It is super steep up there, much steeper that the Santa Susanas in Chatsworth, so I couldn't park the car and wander around looking. It's the kind of place where you have to know where you are going, or you won't get there. Even Mapquest won't help much.
Well, this time I did find the access road, but again, you are in very steep terrain, on an unknown road that looks like a fire road, so there was no way I was gonna drive down the access road. There is space to park perhaps two cars at the start of this road, and you would then have to hike about a mile in to get to the park. Now, this park has no restrictions, and apparently the missile site is preserved, so I would love to see it. But again, I have to act responsibly, and will not try again until someone can go with me.
I know there's a good reason they put these missile bases up at the top of the mountains, but that makes them hard to access, especially if you don't know the roads, parking situation, etc. So, I will keep those trips on the back burner (but still in mind), and focus on other places, as well as return trips to Garden Of The Gods and Placerita and Vasquez.
Anyway, just to check in and let ya know what happened. And, I will just order my black and white film from Amazon. I don't think Kodak makes Pan-X anymore, but I can get some Plus-X or Tri-X, and I can get some Ilford and Agfa b&w too! Oh boy!
So, I am gonna go pick Pearl up now from Reseda Women's Club, and I will be back home around 1:45. Have an awesome afternoon. I Love You! :):) xoxoxoxo
1:35pm : Ha! Boy, am I out of it. I Googled "Pan-X", and got a Wiki of discontinued films. Pan-X was discontinued in 1987! Lol.......... :b
Plus-X has been discontinued, too. Man, those were great films, especially Pan-X. It had an asa/iso of 50, super slow for ultra fine grain. The grey scale was rich and varied. Spectacular daylight pictures with Pan-X. Plus-X was the in between film, with an asa of 100. It was discontinued in March 2011. But, they still make Tri-X! Yippee! Tri-X was their most versatile black and white film, with an asa of 400. You could shoot it in bright daylight or in a concert hall. You could even shoot a street scene at night, provided there were street lights. I actually used more Tri-X than Pan or Plus-X, because you could use it in more situations. The grain was not as fine, but it was still a good film. If you look at those shots I have of the guys in Motorhead, or the closeup of Steven Tyler, or my concert pic of Todd Rundgren; those were all shot with Tri-X.
So, I will order a roll, and then I will order a roll of this new Kodak TMAX 100, which is supposed to be like Plus-X. I don't recall the names of the Ilford or Agfa B&W films I shot, because I didn't use them as much. Kodak was always easier to find, in any store. But I remember that Ilford made especially good black and white film, and exceptionally good photo paper.
I can make that a project, and spread it out over several months, maybe even a year : buy several rolls of b&w, 36 shots a roll, so that I have 150-200 shots available. Film is cheap to buy, but expensive now to develop, so I'll make every shot count and take my time doing so, hence several months. Maybe I will do it once a year, so that I never lose the ability or feeling of setting my own exposures and focus. Plus, I just love film. Maybe it's not practical to shoot it all the time anymore, but at least a couple rolls once a year, just because it's magic.
(back later, resume having an awesome day.......) :):)
11pm : Listening to the Schubert impromptu as played by Wilhelm Kempff, a beautiful piece of piano music. Kempff was a Sagittarius like you, birthday November 25th 1895, and he lived to be 95 years old. He was a musician of incredible sensitivity, you can hear it in his tone and rhythm, almost mystical. This particular impromptu is one of my favorite pieces, and I think that Schubert ought to be recognized as being up there with the all time guys. He only lived to be 31, but he was very prolific, and he composed some of the most sublime piano music ever, I think.
In that piece, he uses a lot of left hand (is it left hand?, I think so but am not a pianist) repetition, or varying the repetiton slightly, but ohhh the effect.
There is nothing quite like the tones of a piano.
Well, my Angel, that's all I know for today. I will see you in the morn. This computer problem at Pearl's is proving difficult to fix, no matter what I do, even from the suggestions on the Interent, the same screen comes back up : "disc read error - press ctrl + alt + delete to re-start". I will keep trying. It sure is handy to have computer access during those hours. I really hate all the tech sites, because they assume everybody understands computerspeak. I don't, but I know that I can punch the right buttons in the right order, if I can just find a site that will give me that simple information. :)
And that really is all I know for tonight.
Sweet Dreams, I Love You. xoxoxoxoxo
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