My Little Mountain Town

Los Angeles, California. In keeping with my recent theme of highlighting the unexpected aspects of Los Angeles, I took a side trip today to the nearby Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. You may recall from an earlier post that I was working on a film called Ticket to Ride earlier this week. The film was shooting in this park and I was so impressed by the view of snow covered mountains (see my Snows of Los Angeles post) that I just had to come back for some photos. And the park has more to offer than just this view. It is a pleasant wooded hilltop area, perfect for a family outing and seems great for birds (I even saw a hawk on the shoot day). Of course I have to gripe about the abundant eucalyptus, not to mention the adjacent oil field (see oil well picture below) - although the latter is interesting in its own right. I did have one big regret of the day and that is that I have had some camera difficulty. While checking out the oil wells, I met an amazing musician by the name of Erol Griffin. Erol was camped out on the side of the road, right by an oil well, playing some killer jazz. The juxtaposition of the incredible music with the oil well was a sight to see and Erol kindly let me film a bit of his work. Unfortunately, the file ended up being corrupted, so I'll have to leave it to your imagination!


My trip to Kenneth Hahn was only the midpoint of a great Los Angeles Saturday. The cold spell we have been having snapped and temperatures were in the high 70s today. We also have a nice swell coming in, so I started the day with a little surf in Marina del Rey, just north of the Venice Pier. As I can't film myself out in the water, I went back at sunset to take a few shots for you. Unfortunately, the best surfing takes were among the files to be lost along with Erol's oil well jazz. However, I have included a little sunset montage here for you. The winds shifted onshore in the afternoon, so it doesn't reflect the beautiful glassy conditions from this morning - complete with dolphins and sea lions keeping us company in the line up!

Finally, after sunset, I stopped by my neighbor's art show. I am extremely lucky to live adjacent to some of L.A.'s most talented artists - including Dustin Otterbach, Cain and Pie's Little Army - and tonight was an open invitation for everyone to check out their wares on Catamaran. There is a video clip of this for your viewing pleasure as well!

Getting to Know the Neighbors

Marina del Rey, California. This weekend, other than getting things organized on the homefront, has been about getting to know my neighbors a bit better. On Friday night, I joined Venice the Menace (VTM) Comandante Scott Braman for a performance of The Quick Six, a mean band composed largely of VTM co-conspirators. Then, last night, friend and former Conservation International (CI) colleague, Hari Balasubramanian swong over from Silverlake to the Westside and we were able to catch up for a bit. Hari has the all time sweetest job at CI. Well, it's the sweetest if your thing is being based in LA rather than DC and spending 75% of your time traveling to remote jungles and coral reefs on every continent!

Following my meet up with Hari, I swung back over the neighborhood for a party hosted by my next door neighbor, actor Andrew Keegan. Hosted in an off-the-hook penthouse condo across the street, this was my first night to really hang out with my eclectic neighbors including marine biologist, Craig Schuman; artists, Dustin Otterbach and CAIN, and holistic health and fitness guru, Sandie West. The party was, well, WOW! Just imagine the stereotypical Los Angeles high life party from the movies and you get the idea...