LBC

Well, we got out to the CBS studios out in Hollywood this morning only to find out that the Price is Right is cancelled today. What a bummer. Apparently Bob's endurance is waning..
We have four tickets so there would have been plenty of opportunity for fun.... Instead we hung out in the jewish part of Hollywood and ate well. In fact so well that I had to go to the restroom twice to make accommodations. Commencing the further exploration of an americanized culture, we dove into a thrift store where Andrew bought three pairs of fancy pants
(this is for you Crump) and I found a pair of Tony Lama's that fit like tick on a hound-dog. This is right in the same neighborhood as Miracle Mile where LACMA and the La Brea tar pits are located.
The tar pits are cool, Andrew drew an unauthorized sample for taste characteristics and found the results unfavorable. So far we have taste tested three naturally occurring substances and minerals and found the experience enlightening in its exploration.


LACMA is rad. Far better than the Getty as far as content, however, the Getty is the penultimate Los Angeles art viewing experience..... The featured exibition at the Getty was of John Heartfields work from Weimar and Hitler Germany. He was the first person to appropriate images from popular media and use them to tell a different, not so objective story. I really like this work. LACMA is featuring David Hockney (I liked his camera lucida drawings the best) and a glass show, which took me quite by surprise, there was some amazing work in that show.

Link to images

Saturday we met up with Brenda,Nick,Zachary and Lauren and went to the LA MOCA which is currently showing select Rauschenberg combines and an exhibition of Lorna Simpsons work. Rauschenberg was very cool, iconic in its direct use of objects, images and text.

Tim came home from work and we went to The Pike, a Long Beach bar owned by a former member of Social Distortion. There was a bluegrass outfit playing for about ten people, including us. They were quite good though and played some awesome renditions of "Blue Moon of Kentucky" and "Mystery Train" upon my request.
I don't know what it is, but The Pike feels like home and I fall in love for a few instants with the barkeep every time I'm there. She's always a brunette rockabilly girl with a quick smile and a graceful way. Whoever hires the barkeepers has high standards of a certain asthetic.




Our stay in the LBC turned out to be a nice rest stop and place to meet up with and find ourselves with friends of whom we havent seen in a while. Much thanks to you Tim for all of your hospitality. Brenda! It was great seeing and being able to talk with you for a while. I enjoyed giving you my rendition of what I thought each of the painting were composed of. I find that my view on most of fine art seems to always be abstract even when the painting is not. Anyway it was great to have spent time with everyone. We are back on the road now and yesterdays drive was full of great visual experiences. Those will be shown soon.
I will have you some images of drawings from the trip soon. The trip has thus far been very fulfilling. Hans and I will be in touch soon and hope all is well. Madison



We also got up at the asscrack of dawn to go fishing while in Long Beach, it was a lot of fun! We caught Sand Bass, which I cooked up for dinner for us all once Tim got home from work. Andrew also caught a small mackerel that was too small to keep. Some of the other folks on the boat caught Barracuda and Halibut.


MOVIE CLIPS:

Getting wet

Wish you were here

Rollin on dubs in the LBC

Motion picture

THE GOODS:

The Getty

LA County Museum of Art

MOCA Los Angeles

Paul Kopeikin Gallery

Desert Hot Springs, it's bath time!

Before and after.

Bath time was good, the water is just the right temperature and guess what?? It's free.
We hosed away almost four days of dirt and desert grime....

MOVIE CLIP:

In the spring

Salvation Mountain

Well, this is probably my fourth time visiting Leonard Knight out here in the desert. He is as hospitable as ever and eager to show us around. The old man is still pretty spry, but I do detect a slower pace about him that was not there before. His mind is still as imaginative as ever and he now has a website and DVD's to promote the existence of the mountain. He hands us a whole bunch of them to give out to people we meet.
Leonard was asleep when we got there so we decided to bust out the kite and fly it for a while... It was awesome!


MOVIE CLIPS:

Leonard talks about his process

The learning experience

Adobe

Kite flying

Ha Ha

Andrew tours the mountain

INFO ABOUT THE MOUNTAIN:

Leonards own site

PBS feature

Folkart.org

Many photos @ PBase

Slab City and the Great Ride

We have entered into an new realm. Arriving in the evening with wary light, we traverse a landscape of campers, and dogs in this rugged landscape. Slab city was a comfort to me after being near the Salton Sea. We set up camp and proceeded to eat some of our consumables while a nice campfire was set to burn for a while. Slab city you should know is an abandoned military base of which the only thing left is the concrete slabs after the buildings were taken down. Off in the distance you can hear the sound of a training scenario takng place in the now occupied military base just over the mountains. Its an interesting experience to know that the place you are about to sleep in, is now abandoned and not governed by any formal institution. We are truly free here. In the morning we find ourselves riding through the local camps to get to a canal where we were to go swimming. However this was empty and we quickly sought after the thrills of speeding up and down the steep walls. What fun!


Grape poachders that we are, we get up somewhat hungover and tired from staying up late at night riding our bikes around Slab City in the buff. Night time bike ride
The road system at the Slabs is labyrinthian and of course we got lost for a while and got chased by dogs. Just a little bit scarier than normal when you have no clothes on....

Slab City seems to be a place where people come to get away from whatever is troubling them and there are many stories about people gone missing from the slabs. Probably the most notable tale being that of Chris McCandless in Into the wild by Jon Krakauer
The only thing dividing the Slabs from the active bombing range to the west is the Coachella Canal, a main water supply way for Southern California. It's surreal camping there at night and hearing the distant thump of heavy artillery and other tools of warfare being put to test.


MOVIE CLIPS:

In the canal

Night time folly

INFO ABOUT THE SEA:

Slab City

Slab City story

Slab City @ Wikipedia

The Salton Sea

Dropping out of the high desert we went through Palm Springs and down through Indio and Coachella. Taking Highway 111 down the east side of the sea you start to encounter orchards along the road. Many kinds of fruit are grown, but mainly dates and various citrus. Before long we found some eating grapes and actually made two raids on the vines... red seedless. Our first stop was at North Shore, a town gone to seed after the yacht club closed down. This place was designed by a fairly well known architect of the sixties and was a jet setter resort with visitors like Frank Sinatra and Mickey Mantle.

We encountered a french fellow who inquired about swimming in the sea to test the bouyancy of this salty water.... well I wouldn't recommend it at this point in time. The shores are lined with dead fish and birds creating a rather toxic stew of botulism and other bacteria. Currently the sea is 30% saltier than the ocean and will be a dead sea in 15-20 years if nothing is done.

MOVIE CLIPS:

Andrew's reaction to the sea

Red Water

INFO ABOUT THE SEA:

Kim Stringfellow

Wikipedia

Photographs by Jeff Alu, scroll down to find photos

Journey to Giant Rock

Andrew on the calved segment.

Giant Rock is supposedly the largest freestanding boulder in the WORLD! We had a hard time finding the way and encountered our second digging session of the day.

Fuckin' Giant

Giant Rock

Giant Rock before the split

Hey Vega, I know I told you some shit about my apartment already but if you shower there could you please shut the bathroom door to keep the steam and what not from entering my computer, and works of art. Don't take it like a command, just do it bitch. Stay safe and try not to leave any surprisejizz on my bed. Talk to you soon. Madison
To anyone who reads this that may be affended by vulgar language/imagery please be aware that we intend no initial harm or foul. PS. My phone is down and is not charged because I forgot the car charger. I will charge it soon and call. Hope all is well and good. Madison

Bob Lewis and his posse

Bob is part of a group that is riding across the country on mopeds. They are going from Santa Monica, CA to Myrtle Beach, SC. There are 23 people in this menagerie. They used to do it on bicycles. We met them at the salt mines west of Amboy.

Amboy - The Ebay town

A stop in Amboy was necessary. We got the bikes out and rode around after talking to the caretaker of this place. The church was cool.


I'm pretty sure that this diner was the locarion used for the opening scene of the Oliver Stone film "Natural Born Killers".


Some action on the Burlington Northern mainline, the freights go screaming thru here at about 85 MPH. An awesome ride for sure!

Movie

Kelso Dunes

We camped at the Kelso Dune mass in hopes of flying a kite in the morning and promptly got the car stuck in the sand.
In the morning after digging out the car it was nice though..

Waterless dishwashing! It works!



What can I say?? Coffee is good!

Its a hot!

122ºF to be exact. We arrived in Baker at approximately 2200 hours to an ambient temperature of 110ºF. Its a hot!

After procuring beer and olives we set out course for the Mojave National Preserve to find somewhere to camp.

Capitol Reef

After Goblin Valley we hit the road west thru Capitol Reef. The scenery here is unreal.

Capitol Reef

After a while we found a creek running over and through the slickrock that had carved a series of large round holes and chutes through the rock. Skinny dipping ensued after assessing the temperature of the water with a big toe. After jumping in it took a good 45 seconds to catch ones breath. Being right next to the highway we didn't want to risk getting called in to ranger Rick by some do-gooder with a cell phone, and applied a modicum of modesty to the nudity.

Happy Fathers Day!
A while later while driving through Utah... We see large vehicles pulling monster machines made for aquatic travel. Up ahead a sign says STATE BLOCKADE. What the?!? Shortly thereafter two of Utah's finest tag team us with questions about our fishing habits and how said behaviour has any bearing on the contents of our vehicle. We answered their questions and they let us go with suspicious looks and a long look into the back of the car.

Valley of Goblins, safeguarded by exhilarating beauty

Today we woke up, gathered our gear, and road back to our transport. It was a quick and exhilerating run down. When we reached the car I threw my pack off and looked over at Hans. Hans looks at me and says, my bike is smoking! Sure enough it was. Our next stop was Goblin valley, which was no more than a few minutes in the car. When we pulled up, oh man, the park ranger on duty at the entry gate was beautful. keep in mind, we were in Utah, and my first thought was how many sisters did she have, and how i could get them all to marry me. She was indeed a fine morman specimen. Sadly we were not able to get a photo of our fine park ranger.I suggest this site to be of many eye pleasing pleasures! You should go if you get a chance.



Goblin Valley is always a treat, this time no different except no green skin this time.

Goblin Valley at Wikipedia

Van Hook Revisited

Well, it's at the close of day on day 1.
The camp here is named after the near-legendary mexican barber Eduardo Van Hook, who left a prosperous vocation in Juaréz, MX to hunt that near-mythical substance: Uranium.

We got there at sunset and drove the Escort as far as clearance would permit, then packed our packs and rode the bikes to the top. Well, sort of. It was much longer and steeper than what I remembered from last time. The camp is on top of a 150 foot cliff over Eduardos mine.
Exhausted, we made a fire of Juniper and made something to eat.

Here's a song from around our campfire

Later on there was an attempt at the age old desire to communicate with other living beings. We spotted another campfire on the opposite rim from ours and decided to initiate contact. This was done by affixing a flame of considerable size to a piece of paracord and then swinging it around in a large circle. Numerous attempts were made, and the only new thing to appear in the morning was a large burn hole in my shirt.



To Everyone and anyone whom has recieved this blog!
Our first camp was very momentous! Much fun and great to have started on the WCAT journey. Decompressing and remembering to live in the now becomes more apparent with every step. Hans and I are doing well and keeping up with fine nourishing foods such as Hans' home made tomato soup, viena sausages, and sardines. Madison

a little bit with a lot of salt!

well another day without. Something gestures a lost part of meaning within. With a fresh start, and the emotional joy of a childs happiness i am beginning a new. The day can be bright while sitting in the rain. Each spot a memory in time, and forever within, it will be carried. How the song bird sings and takes flight, a new journey begins. Something great is abound and because of this taste, I cannot sleep.