pedestrian saga

Do you ever get a song in your head that propels your legs, and before you know it, you’ve covered much more sidewalk than you remember?

Out of deep storage my brain recalled a Concrete Blonde favorite from a time long before I pounded the sidewalks of East Hollywood, and yesterday it walked me all the way up to the Los Feliz post office and back.

And I swear I heard the voices singing to me…
Singing to the rhythm of the beat of my feet,
I swear I heard the voices singing to me -
Keep on, keep on, keep on.

-Concrete Blonde, ‘Still in Hollywood’

(For the rhythm listen to ‘It’ll Chew You up and Spit You Out’ on Still in Hollywood album - same song, different lyrics.) stillineho otherae

At my post office there’s usually a clerk working the line, pulling out folks who are there to pick up packages only, buy only stamps or money orders. Behind me the line shot straight through the internal automatic door and winded out of sight. The clerk was trying to help an old man and yelled to the crowd, "I need an Armenian speaker! Anyone translate Armenian to English?!"

Jumping from a simple platform 109 meters up, free-falling 60 meters down to swing through a gorgeous New Zealand river canyon (peaceful and still but for my choked scream and the quiet whoosh of my body rushing through the cool air at 140 kph and the murmurs of a dozen spectators), harnessed to a few bungy cords by a set of carabiners…And I did it TWICE! (more…)

The geography of sprawl and the predominance of car culture conspire with my innate timidity to make it hard to meet new people in Los Angeles. So I was pleasantly surprised when a neighborhood lady stopped me on this morning’s walk with Gordon to pet him and chat about her dogs. Bob, now I know who the giant furry spinning one belongs to! Shoot, I should’ve introduced myself formally and asked her name…

Speaking of fantastic French movies, Bob and I really enjoyed Les Triplettes de Belleville earlier this week, feeling that it lived up to the hype. It’s a French-Canadian animated feature that tells a funny, moving story without bothering too much with words, but instead relying on crazy, detailed imagery and great music (get a taste by watching the trailer). This is no shiny and cute Finding Nemo - it’s chunky and unpredictable and dark. I love the world of Bruno the dog, the prevalence of bicycling and other people- (and, er, canine-) powered transportation by the underdog protagonists, and I love the fact that a bunch of frumpy old ladies save the day. Take that Disney…

Vic James, our friendly Red Carpet Tours leader, e-mailed me just after I returned from his fantastic tour of New Zealand to say that the New York Times Travel section was doing an article on movie location tourism and needed more Lord of the Rings -related photos. (NB: The NY Times site requires free registration - grrrr - before you can access the article.) Thanks to my grandpa (whose awesome Nikon D-100 digital camera I used on the trip), my mum (who was very efficient about transferring all the photos to CD-rom), and my enthusiastic Aunt Mary and Uncle Steve (who kept after me and helped me select the best ones), I submitted via e-mail 12 photos, highlighting recognizable Lord of the Rings locations and taken with love by an amateur photographer-tourist and pretty big fan. Would you believe that one of these made the first draft of their layout? How exciting it would be to tell my touring companions that they’re walking like Rohan refugees across the pages of the New York Times! Alas, in the final round of editorial decisions, my photo lost to the gorgeous (but ubiquitous) promotional still officially distributed by New Line Cinema back prior to the release of The Two Towers. How can I possibly compete with the trilogy’s official photographer, Pierre Vinet?

I picked up a copy of today’s NY Times to keep the article in which I was almost published. But to read more about my adventures in New Zealand, check back to this here blog - hooray for self-publishing!

The New York Times Travel editors considered my picture for their January 25 article on movie location tourism.

>>My tour companions (Steve, JD, Vic, Kristin, Alane, and Mum) walk back along the trail of the Rohan refugees on Deer Park Heights near Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand. The Remarkables in summer form the background.

Alas, they gave in to the beauty of Pierre Vinet’s promotional still photo of the Rohan refugees reflected in the lake and the Remarkables under fresh winter snow. Can’t compete with that!

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Our rotary cheese grater has surpassed the manual milk frother as my favorite kitchen tool. Ever since I obsessively revisited Le fabuleux destin d’Amelie Poulain a few months back, I’ve been wishing for a cheese grater like Amelie’s - Bob indulged me and picked one up for a Christmas present.

We are now proud owners of a cheese grater much like this one.

Amelie fantasizes about a domestic life with Nino in my favorite scene in the film.

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We ran out of our usual store-bought bar soap today, so I tried instead the awesome lavendar soap that my neighbor makes. There is nothing quite like a fine bar of homemade soap (er, unless it’s the kind the Fight Club guy makes). I try to buy local products whenever possible - looks like for my soap I’ll just walk next door from now on!