Friday, May 18, 2012
Morning Dew
I wanted to share this photo I took outside of my apartment this morning with my iPhone. With just a little blurring of the background using instagram this was the result. What a great start to a Friday morning!
Monday, May 14, 2012
Billy Wilder Theater: UCLA Film & Television Archive
Every year my entire department of 200 people take a day in May to set aside work and spend time doing something fun. Since I work in the Admin office my boss, Phebe and I are in charge of coming up with these activities. Pleasing 200 people not only diverse in interests but age and activity level is no small task. You always have your complainers, "to much walking, better food, it's too hot outside, it's too cold, blah, blah, blah." But we soldier on and this year I think we knocked it out of the park!
Catty-corner to our office building sits the Hammer Museum. Within the museum is the Billy Wilder Theater. This was the setting of our event "A Day at the Movies." UCLA's famed Theater, Film and Television Department has a film archive which happens to be the second largest in the US (behind the Library of Congress) and one of the top 10 archives in the world. Our event, comprised of Jan-Christopher Horak speaking about the process of restoring old television and film and showing clips from works they have restored. He would give a brief history of the work and then show the short clips.
We started with some news clips. The first was a recording of Marian Anderson, a black singer, from 1939. Apparently, Mrs. Roosevelt had invited Marian to sing at one of her events but the daughters of the revolution would not allow Ms. Anderson to come through the front of the venue but enter through the servants quarter. Marian refused and Mrs. Roosevelt was so upset she decided to have the concert on the Washington Mall. 30,000 people of mixed races showed up for the event and the clip we watched was the only recording of this historic moment.
This was followed with rare news footage of the Harvey Milk murder. Most of us are familiar with this event, if not, read here. Watching this new footage was intense and makes you realize how the news today is so edited and contrived.
Then we were shown on of their oldest archives, from 1929 of Sol Volinsky, "The Eccentric Entertainer" he played the piano and the violin at the same time!
One of the first color films was called "I want to be Bad", from 1930. This was a two color technicolor with a red and green register. This was a combo to create caucasian skin tones.
One of my favorite clips was a documentary about "Hollywood: City of Celluloid" which showed footage Los Angeles in 1932. No wonder everyone wanted to live here, perfect weather, orange groves, large plots of land and no traffic! I tried to picture myself in LA in the 30's and determined I would have loved it even more than I do now!
This was followed by two classics, a 1939 Betty Boop cartoon of Snow White which featured music from Cab Calloway and a 1933 Laurel & Hardy comedic act called Busy Bodies.
The next 3 clips were also my favorite because they were from old television shows. "The Gene Kelly Show" where he did a duet with then 13 year old Liza Minnelli, "The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show" featuring The Everly Brothers and "The Johnny Cash Show" where the man in black sang a duet with Bob Dylan. We learned that most television shows prior to 1958 have been lost because show were live and not recorded. The only way they could be recorded was by setting up a 16 mm camera and recording it off the tv screen.
We ended with the pre-MTV music videos. Apparently in the 1940's for a short time you could watch a "soundie" on a jukebox. These were short recordings in Digibeta. We watched Cab Calloway "Blues in the Night" and Joi Lansing "Web of Love."
The crowd (my coworkers) loved the show! As did I. In fact, watching these old clips put a desire in me to turn back in time and imagine what life was like back in the day. I can't wait to go back to the Billy Wilder Theater to see the full length films they have restored.
Our May Event was such a success! I was so pleased that I decided to not ride the bus that day, put on some Cab Calloway and walked 4 miles home basking in the CA sunshine wondering what it would be like to walk those same streets in the 30's.
Catty-corner to our office building sits the Hammer Museum. Within the museum is the Billy Wilder Theater. This was the setting of our event "A Day at the Movies." UCLA's famed Theater, Film and Television Department has a film archive which happens to be the second largest in the US (behind the Library of Congress) and one of the top 10 archives in the world. Our event, comprised of Jan-Christopher Horak speaking about the process of restoring old television and film and showing clips from works they have restored. He would give a brief history of the work and then show the short clips.
We started with some news clips. The first was a recording of Marian Anderson, a black singer, from 1939. Apparently, Mrs. Roosevelt had invited Marian to sing at one of her events but the daughters of the revolution would not allow Ms. Anderson to come through the front of the venue but enter through the servants quarter. Marian refused and Mrs. Roosevelt was so upset she decided to have the concert on the Washington Mall. 30,000 people of mixed races showed up for the event and the clip we watched was the only recording of this historic moment.
This was followed with rare news footage of the Harvey Milk murder. Most of us are familiar with this event, if not, read here. Watching this new footage was intense and makes you realize how the news today is so edited and contrived.
Then we were shown on of their oldest archives, from 1929 of Sol Volinsky, "The Eccentric Entertainer" he played the piano and the violin at the same time!
One of the first color films was called "I want to be Bad", from 1930. This was a two color technicolor with a red and green register. This was a combo to create caucasian skin tones.
One of my favorite clips was a documentary about "Hollywood: City of Celluloid" which showed footage Los Angeles in 1932. No wonder everyone wanted to live here, perfect weather, orange groves, large plots of land and no traffic! I tried to picture myself in LA in the 30's and determined I would have loved it even more than I do now!
This was followed by two classics, a 1939 Betty Boop cartoon of Snow White which featured music from Cab Calloway and a 1933 Laurel & Hardy comedic act called Busy Bodies.
The next 3 clips were also my favorite because they were from old television shows. "The Gene Kelly Show" where he did a duet with then 13 year old Liza Minnelli, "The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show" featuring The Everly Brothers and "The Johnny Cash Show" where the man in black sang a duet with Bob Dylan. We learned that most television shows prior to 1958 have been lost because show were live and not recorded. The only way they could be recorded was by setting up a 16 mm camera and recording it off the tv screen.
We ended with the pre-MTV music videos. Apparently in the 1940's for a short time you could watch a "soundie" on a jukebox. These were short recordings in Digibeta. We watched Cab Calloway "Blues in the Night" and Joi Lansing "Web of Love."
The crowd (my coworkers) loved the show! As did I. In fact, watching these old clips put a desire in me to turn back in time and imagine what life was like back in the day. I can't wait to go back to the Billy Wilder Theater to see the full length films they have restored.
Our May Event was such a success! I was so pleased that I decided to not ride the bus that day, put on some Cab Calloway and walked 4 miles home basking in the CA sunshine wondering what it would be like to walk those same streets in the 30's.
Billy Wilder Theater
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Napa, San Francisco & Los Gatos
I had been itching to go up north for a while. Everyone kept saying "Oh, you would love it there!" Just so happened, Matt and Amy had a wedding to attend in Los Gatos (hour south of San Fran) so I finally had an excuse to go/ tag along. We roped Rob into going too. Roadtrip!!
On Friday, we set out on our journey on Interstate 5, which would usually be a drab scenery of brown grassy knolls but since we have been blessed with rain this year, it was actually quite green, lush and beautiful. Late in the night we made a stop in Pleasanton just to rest.
The next morning (Friday) we got up bright and early and made our way to Napa!! Amy and I have become quite the wine connoisseurs the last couple of years, so we were excited to try out something outside of our Trader Joe's cellar.
Napa is overwhelming...overwhelmingly awesome. All you have to do is drive down the road and you have a ridiculous amount of fine wineries to choose from less than a mile from each other. It reminds me of walking down Rodeo drive and seeing one high end store after the other but with wineries! (And the fact most of it, I can't afford).
We started off at Castello Di Amorosa, we did not do a tasting but wanted to check out the mid-evil castle that sits on the winery. Pretty cool. Then we sat down and ate some lunch at Farmstead Restaurant. It was so yummy and fresh. I had one of the best burgers ever garnished with chopped pickled cauliflower and homemade ketchup.
After lunch we visited 3 different wineries to do tastings: Caymus, Frog's Leap, and Inglenook. We loved the feeling of Frog's Leap because of the covered back porch looking out into their aged vines. I must admit I had my doubts of the winery because of the name, frogs doesn't make me think "fine wine". I stand corrected though, it was wonderful. But our favorite wine came at the end of the day at Inglenook, a Francis Ford Coppola winery. We shared a bottle of Edizione Pennino, a Zinfandel, the perfect end to a beautiful day.
On Saturday, we hopped in the car and headed down south towards San Francisco, a city I have always wanted to visit. Since our final destination was south of San Fran we breezed through town first stopping at Pluto's for lunch and then walked down to a park to take in views and snap pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. I hopefully plan on spending more time in San Francisco in the fall because I won a 2-night hotel stay at a Marriott from work a few months ago!! I can't wait to go back again.
We then cruised further south to Los Gatos, the town where the wedding was held. We settled in to the Toll House Hotel complete with fresh cookies and then Rob and I dropped Matt and Amy off at the wedding site and went downtown. Downtown Los Gatos is one of the cutest towns I have ever seen. It embodies a small down feel yet it is centered in the middle of the Silicon Valley. Rob and I walked around the shops and then treated ourselves to a massage. We ate dinner at The Pastaria & Market where they make their own pasta. It was delicious and had a warm Italian family feel. I could pack up my bags and live in this town...only if I had a million dollars.
What a fabulous trip! I can't wait to go back and explore more of this area of California. I am so blessed to live in a state that has such diversity not only in people but landscape. Cheers!
On Friday, we set out on our journey on Interstate 5, which would usually be a drab scenery of brown grassy knolls but since we have been blessed with rain this year, it was actually quite green, lush and beautiful. Late in the night we made a stop in Pleasanton just to rest.
The next morning (Friday) we got up bright and early and made our way to Napa!! Amy and I have become quite the wine connoisseurs the last couple of years, so we were excited to try out something outside of our Trader Joe's cellar.
Napa is overwhelming...overwhelmingly awesome. All you have to do is drive down the road and you have a ridiculous amount of fine wineries to choose from less than a mile from each other. It reminds me of walking down Rodeo drive and seeing one high end store after the other but with wineries! (And the fact most of it, I can't afford).
We started off at Castello Di Amorosa, we did not do a tasting but wanted to check out the mid-evil castle that sits on the winery. Pretty cool. Then we sat down and ate some lunch at Farmstead Restaurant. It was so yummy and fresh. I had one of the best burgers ever garnished with chopped pickled cauliflower and homemade ketchup.
After lunch we visited 3 different wineries to do tastings: Caymus, Frog's Leap, and Inglenook. We loved the feeling of Frog's Leap because of the covered back porch looking out into their aged vines. I must admit I had my doubts of the winery because of the name, frogs doesn't make me think "fine wine". I stand corrected though, it was wonderful. But our favorite wine came at the end of the day at Inglenook, a Francis Ford Coppola winery. We shared a bottle of Edizione Pennino, a Zinfandel, the perfect end to a beautiful day.
We then cruised further south to Los Gatos, the town where the wedding was held. We settled in to the Toll House Hotel complete with fresh cookies and then Rob and I dropped Matt and Amy off at the wedding site and went downtown. Downtown Los Gatos is one of the cutest towns I have ever seen. It embodies a small down feel yet it is centered in the middle of the Silicon Valley. Rob and I walked around the shops and then treated ourselves to a massage. We ate dinner at The Pastaria & Market where they make their own pasta. It was delicious and had a warm Italian family feel. I could pack up my bags and live in this town...only if I had a million dollars.
What a fabulous trip! I can't wait to go back and explore more of this area of California. I am so blessed to live in a state that has such diversity not only in people but landscape. Cheers!
Rolling Hills along the 5
Caymus Winery
Frog's Leap Tasting
Matt & Amy by the Frog's Leap Vines
Besties!
Best Wine of the day!
Golden Gate Bridge!
The Pastaria & Market
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