Today I went back out to Chatsworth Park for a little more exploration. Being a mostly "manicured" city park, it's boundaries do not stray too far from the main lawn and gym area, but there are some wild, natural areas in the back, where I found that old tree last week. I hiked back in that area and found a couple of cool little spots, and then I found the trail that leads up to Santa Susana State Park, which as I mentioned is located just behind and above Chatsworth Park, and is many times larger. Really though, if you had lived in the Valley a century ago when the Chatsworth area was mostly wild, you would have seen that all the parks and areas I mention in Chatsworth are all close together and are really all-of-a-piece. When you are up high, like at the top of The Devil's Slide, you can see Chatsworth Park just below you, and Stoney Point about a half mile east, and Chatsworth Park North (a smaller offshoot) a half mile to the north. It's all part of one big area, and if you came down the mountain on the other side of The Slide, that's where Garden Of The Gods is, just a half mile away in that direction.
A ton of Western movies were shot out there when much of the area was part of Iverson Ranch, which was a movie-shootin' ranch, mainly.
Well anyhow, that's Chatsworth. I love it, as you know. :)
Tonight my friend David F. came over for a CSUN walk, and we saw something fairly awesome. Tall, billowing thunderheads had been stacking up in the northeast sky, behind the San Gabriel mountains just south of the Mojave desert. That happens quite often at this time of year. The thunderheads form when the humidity gets trapped by the mountains and it pushes upward into big expanding clouds. Once in a great while, at night, you will see some flash lightning inside those clouds, and it might continue for a minute or two, but intermittently. Not much of a big deal, just a few flashes, and even then it rarely happens. Usually the thunderheads just sit there.
But tonight, wow! We got a real Light Show, and SB - if you are reading - it was the kind of major lightning you probably get in the Midwest on a regular basis. Wow again! - the whole sky was alight, with constant, dramatic flashes within the stormclouds. The lightning flashed like you would see in a movie, only it was real life, and for us here in the Valley it was Extra Cool because we don't ever get to see lightning to that extent. Man, they must have gotten pounded with a bunch of hail and rain up in the desert, in Lancaster and Palmdale, 65 miles north. Someone must have videoed it. I will do some Googling to check........
That was all the news, except for that I watched the very first episode of "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea", which I may have reported was another Favorite Show of mine when I was a kid. It was one of the first TV shows I recall seeing, and I always watched it. "Voyage" was the creation of the great producer Irwin Allen, who became even more famous in the 1970s as the King Of Disaster Movies, with blockbusters like "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno" and "Earthquake". There was often a slight measure of Cheesiness to Allen's films, but he was still the king of special effects in those days, and he always gave you your money's worth. And most importantly, his films delivered in a dramatic sense. They were never boring.
But he got his start in television, and "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" was a huge hit. I have bought the first season on dvd, which I think I mentioned, and I will probably stop there, because after Season One the show got really big, and they switched from black and white to color, which took away from the authentic Sci-Fi feel of the show. And also, it became more for kids after Season One, with cheesy looking monsters on board the submarine every week. But Season One was excellent 1950s-style sci-fi, and I am looking forward to seeing all the episodes for the first time in over 50 years!
Elizabeth, just in case you are reading, I did see one post today, via your friend Morgin. I don't know if you meant that for me or not, and ever since the beginning of Summer and since you moved, it is hard to tell what's what, as far as communication goes. But if you did mean that for me, it was very sweet, and of course I still feel the same way about you. I am always thinking about you, and hoping you are doing well in your new city. If not, you can always move back. Your happiness as an Artist is paramount.
I do miss seeing your concert pics and I hope you are (or will) be shooting some shows soon. I just want you to have a blast in your life like you have been, and to take pictures and make music and make videos like you have been. Art and expression should be your life, and adventure.
And just plain fun.
As always, I am right here if you need me and if you want to communicate. :):)
Luckily a very easy song for tomorrow morning, because we did not rehearse last week, haha.
See you in the morning. Football season begins tomorrow. Yeah, I know......sports, SB. ////
:):)
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