Hey there Badger Girl! You are a funny lady, I was cracking up this morning. :) It should also be noted that your brother retains his usual high level of smart-assery as well. Funny runs in the family. We have a mascot at CSUN, nowhere near as famous as Bucky Badger or Tommy Trojan because in sports, CSUN is a Division 2 school. And, we don't even have a foorball team anymore, not since about 1993. But we are pretty good in basketball, and that's where you will usually find Matty Matador, in the gym during basketball season. Other than that, you never see him anywhere. If you don't like school spirit, you'd love CSUN, lol.
Well, it was an awesome morning. I headed over to Chatsworth, which is just a ten minute drive away, and I found The Garden Of The Gods park, just west of Stoney Point. You know how, with a lot of the places I've been visiting, I've remarked that I haven't been there in 40 or 45 years? Well, with The Garden, I hadn't even heard of it until yesterday, when I saw some guy's post on FB, from the San Fernando Valley Relics page. There were a lot of movie ranches back in the 1920s all the way up to about the 1980s. One thing is that they put a freeway through the area (there's those freeways again!), but the main thing is that they just stopped making Westerns for the most part. And, they oughta start again! I know it's probably more of a Guy Thing, but I love Westerns! Sometimes I get in the mood and I watch a bunch of 'em. :) One of the more famous movie ranches became notorious in the 1970s, and of course I am talking about Spahn Ranch. That is where the Manson Family lived for a long time, and during the commision of their crimes. The ranch had fallen on hard times, no one was making movies there anymore, and The Manson Family just started squatting there and took it over, and the owner was old and didn't care. Spahn Ranch is right next to The Garden Of The Gods, only it's not Spahn Ranch anymore. The Ranch burned down in the 1970s during the Manson Family trials, and has long since been replaced by a church.
But my trip to The Garden Of The Gods was awesome. The rocks there are majestic; the photos don't fully do them justice. I also went to an incredible park called Chatsworth Park North. There is a more famous park called Chatsworth Park South, very beautiful, but it has been closed for years because there used to be a rocket test site in the hills behind it, and over the years that site leaked toxic chemicals into the soil, so they have for years been trying to clean it up. It's where they tested all the NASA Space Rockets, and in the 1960s, you could here them roaring at night from miles away. I used to go to Chatsworth Park South all the time up until they closed it about 5 years ago, but I'd forgotten all about Chatsworth Park North. It was only by going to Garden Of The Gods that I saw a sign pointing to it, and so I went there and remembered it from my YMCA camping days as a kid. There are groves of oak trees there that are just magical, and in both places, the only person there was me. So it was quiet and extra special.
My little trips have all been inspired by you and my Dad, so "thanks Elizabeth, thanks Dad"! They have really been enriching to me, and I can't wait to do more, and revisit the ones I've already been to. :)
I hope your day has been awesome, and that your weekend is off to a good start.
I Love, Love, Love ! You, my Darling. You are the Absolute Best. Many trips and adventures for us lie ahead.
I am gonna go for my walk and will be back at the usual time. :):)
10:55pm : We are having an Indian Summer, where the heat begins late in the season and lingers into the night. I love nighttime when it's warm and I like to imagine the nighttime vibe in and amongst the sites I've been visiting, the ghosts that take over when the sun goes down. We have an interesting geology here in the Valley, where you have all these ancient rock formations at the west end, in Chatsworth, but then the rest of the mountains that surround us all look normal. Then to the north, on the other side of our mountains in what is called the Antelope Valley, we have dry lake beds, which is what they built Edwards Air Force Base upon. And that base and all the dry lake beds are surrounded by the Mojave Desert, with it's stunted Joshua Trees. It makes you wonder what kind of forces shaped the landscape, and it's the kind of stuff I find fascinating, and like to soak up a vibe from such places when I am in that environment.
I think some of it has to do with tremendous forces of water, and there is no doubt that this region was underwater a long time ago. It's interesting to see the huge rocks strewn about, and to wonder how they got there, and then to wonder why they stop at a certain point, and why the mountains change to a "normal" form at a certain point, and why there is a delineation.
It is also interesting, and you may find this so as an artist, the way in which landscape - especially certain aspects - seems to call to you and draw you in. Why does landscape call to you? I think it is memory. No kidding. I couldn't say if it is past life memory, or genetic memory, or simply a shared consciousness with humanity past and present. But I think if I was gonna get specific, I would say that certain, definite aspects of terrain call to you to try to tell you something from the long distant past. To try to get you to remember or make sense of glimpses in your brain, and in your emotions, that are buried, but that can reveal, upon contemplation, some measure of an answer as to why that terrain makes you feel something so strongly in the first place. I don't believe in Darwinism, which is non-spiritual and reduces life forms to random, competitive biology, and while that theory does have some small merits, having to do with genetic transformation, it is by-and-large worthless.
Humanity came from an energy, a spirit, and a memory. Part of that memory is long distant, and it is the reason we can feel deep seated glimpses when the air is a certain temperature and has a certain motion, or when we visit a place with a phenominal geological layout, and feel a connection beyond articulation.
It is interesting to think about, but more than that, it is just interesting to let yourself feel the minute details of information conveyed by the elements (weather mostly) and the landscape, to see what draws you in, and why it does so.
That's all I know for today. Now let's have an awesome weekend!
I Love You, Elizabeth. Sweet Dreams..... xoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment