Spain — Oct/Nov 2023

 

Victor and Rodney with the royal palace of Madrid in the background

Link to more photos. There are three photo albums in all: Below are links to separate photo albums for the Alhambra and the Picasso Museum. As always, view the photos individually to see the captions.

We took this tour of Spain. It went well, although it was colder than I expected, and we could not visit Gaudi's Parc Güell which was high on my wishlist (see below).

In Madrid, I was impressed by the underground highway that goes for miles. I was surprised by graffiti worse than L.A. I was somewhat disappointed by the Prado Museum, since I'm not much into classical paintings. It also remains behind the times with a "no photos" policy, and I found no water, and you couldn't leave and re-enter.

We toured the mosque-turned-cathedral of Cordoba, and the huge cathedral of Seville. By this time, I was no longer surprised by the new-to-me urinals we were seeing in every hotel. (See the photos.)

In Grenada, the highlight was the Alhambra, of course. As expected, I loved all the elaborate geometric decoration. Link to a photo album solely of the Alhambra. Similarly, in Valencia, I liked the City of Arts and Sciences designed by Santiago Calatrava.

Our last stop was Barcelona. We began with a city tour, including some architecture by Gaudi and others. With free time the next day, I wanted to visit Parc Güell, but I discovered that you need reservations and purchased tickets and it was all sold out for the day. I never thought that a public park would need tickets. If only I had known, I could easily have bought the tickets long ahead of time. Sigh. The other major sight I wanted to see that day was the Picasso Museum. That went well. Link to a photo album solely of the Picasso Museum.

Long flights, even in cramped economy seats, never used to bother me much, but now they are not very enjoyable.  Our return flight from Paris to L.A. was more than eleven and a half hours. I got up and walked and stretched a bit three times, but it was increasingly uncomfortable.

Putting it all together: Visa for Victor

The longest story in this blog is about getting a visa for Victor to come to the U.S. 

But when I want to send the story to someone, by clicking on the "Visa for Victor" label, the posts are in reverse chronological order.

So I have now put them in proper order in a new blog. Much better.

Scared little boy Donnie Trump

 

I have a nickname for Donald Trump like the ones he pins on others, one he's guaranteed to hate: 

Scared little boy Donnie Trump

He's scared of the truth, so he lies all the time. And now he's desperately scared of getting caught, too.

He boasts about being a great leader, but when he leaves the room, many consider him a dangerous buffoon and simply ignore his commands.

He acts like a little boy, including the name-calling. 

Last month, his niece said,  “Donald is and always has been a frightened little boy deep down.” I completely agree.

Scared little boy Donnie Trump

I sent a shorter version of this to the LATimes early this week. They did not publish it. 

As I was revising it, I thought I might send it to another paper and maybe also to Mary Trump. (I did neither.) It was only when I was looking for how to contact her that I came across her recent quote. 

And only while looking for a cartoon of Trump as a little boy to put at the top of this post did I come across this quote from Liza Donelly: "I began to draw Donald Trump in shorts. Simply because he acts like a schoolyard bully."

And then this (from 2017!): "Is it time for cartoonists to stop portraying Trump as a baby?" Oh, dear, I guess I'm really way behind the times.

Autographs - Cory Doctorow

 

I have written before about being a Doctorow fan. He was at the L.A. central library last night, and I bought his latest book and got his signature.

(Index to autographs)

Buddha's "Five Remembrances"

I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way I can escape growing old.

I am of the nature to get sick. There is no way I can escape getting sick.

I am of the nature to die. There is no way I can escape death.

All that is dear to me and everyone I love will change. There is no way I can escape being separated from them.

My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions.

My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

[Seen in Katy Butler's The Art of Dying Well. 

Also all over the net; see here, for example.]

Autographs — Bernath, Divya, Doyle, Kuintzle, Mahabal, Moran, Sivaramakrishnan

Ann Bernath, S.B. Divya, Richard J. Doyle, Rachael Kuintzle, Ashish Mahabal, Christine Corbett Moran

Caltech's TechLit Club

As an SF fan and JPL alum, obviously I had to buy this book. Happily, Vroman's held an event tonight with six of the authors:

Each read a portion of a story, and all signed books afterwards.

But when I got home, I find a seventh story autographed:

This is puzzling, because there were only six authors on stage,

and the six passed my book along and signed as I walked by. I did not carefully watch each one sign, but I didn't take my eyes off them much as they did. And I don't think there was a signature already in the book when I bought it twenty days ago!

Two or three of the authors said they had more than one story in the book, but Sivaramakrishnan's web photo doesn't match anyone on stage. The closest match would be Mahabal, but neither in person nor on his web photo does he look much like Allic Sivaramakrishnan. Nor do they do the same work, according to those two web pages.

P.S. Mystery solved: I asked the editor (and sort-of ringleader of the night's event) Rachael Kuintzle, and she replied, "Allic was present for the book signing; in fact, he was the first person you handed the book to, as the first person in the lineup. He just didn't participate in the main presentation."

(Index to autographs)

A Father's Day Memory

My father built this vacuum tube radio when he was a young man. It's one foot wide. Later, he incorporated it into the upper left corner of a large wooden bookcase he built, about four feet by four feet. By the time I remember it, the radio was empty and no longer worked. 

When I first moved to an unfurnished apartment in 1985, the bookcase was one piece I brought from San Antonio to Los Angeles, and I still have it, including the empty shell of the old radio.

Loosely related: When I was a boy, my father came home one day and asked, "Where is that music coming from?" I pointed to his shirt pocket, and he pulled out a transistor radio. I could tell he was disappointed that I wasn't more surprised, but how was I to know that a pocket-sized radio was something brand new?

Istanbul to Athens — April 2023

 

At the Parthenon

Link to more photos. As always, view the photos individually to see the captions.

After Victor expressed interest in seeing Greece, I looked to combine it with a bit more, and signed up for this 12-day tour. It went well. The temperatures were a bit cool, and there was some rain on several days. Getting there and back required very long flights, of course, and ten hours time change.

In Istanbul, we began with a visit to Topkapi Palace, center of the Ottoman Empire and home to the sultans. We then got in line early for the Hagia Sophia mosque, the first of several mosques we visited during this trip. We were supposed to next visit the Turkish and Islamic Art Museum, but it was closed due to an electrical outage. Fortunately, it re-opened the next day and we went then. That busy day also included the Istanbul Spice Market, the Grand Bazaar, a carpet-weaving demonstration (including carpets that change color depending on which direction you view them from!), and a Bosphorus cruise. We passed by Turkey's brand new first aircraft carrier, and saw a very long line of people waiting to see it.

We left Istanbul for Edirne, where we stopped at several mosques and a historic health museum. (I had no idea that the first smallpox vaccinations were in Turkey.) The traffic lights at busy intersections include the entire stanchion. (See the 9-second video included in the photo album.) This deserves to spread widely.

The next day we entered Greece. We spent the night in Kavala. The well-preserved aqueduct impressed me. We had great views from our hotel.

We had the archaeological site of Philippi almost to ourselves. In Thessaloniki, we ate all meals together and had a short cruise in the gulf. We were gifted with bags of mountain tea, oregano, and thyme.

At the Royal Tombs in Vergina, we viewed the Vergina Treasures. On our way to Meteora, I asked if we could stop for photos of Mount Olympus. We did, but it was somewhat obscured by clouds. We went to several monasteries in Meteora precipitously perched on massive pillars. 

Before reaching Athens, we stopped at the Leonidas Monument in Thermopylae. Leonidas, King of Sparta, led the famous 300 Spartan soldiers and other Greek soldiers who fought to the death and held off a vastly larger Persian army for three days in 480 BCE.

In Athens, we got to the Acropolis early. By the time we left, the crowds were huge. There's quite a bit more than the Parthenon. I particularly liked the caryatids of the Erechtheion, but it was only later at the Acropolis Museum that I learned that they were replicas, with the originals only in the museum. Also at the museum was this model of the complete Parthenon:

When I saw the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum in 1975 I wrote, 

"... half the Parthenon...! With all that ... right here [in London], why does anyone go to Athens...? I really never knew so much of the Parthenon was in London. Only the skeleton remains on the Acropolis, I suppose." 

Now, at the Acropolis Museum, many items are marked "(BM)" indicating that the originals are in the British Museum, and they want them back, of course.

Later, we briefly viewed Hadrian's Arch and the Panathenaic Stadium, the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble.

Autographs — Emily St. John Mandel

 

My book group discussed this author's Station Eleven in January 2019. I enjoyed it. This book, her newest, looks even more interesting. She spoke and signed books at the Los Angeles Central Library this evening.

(Index to autographs) 

Orlando — March 2023

 

Link to more photos. View the photos individually to see the captions.

I had heard that the Star Wars area at Disney World was bigger than the one at Disneyland (which we have not yet seen), and the Harry Potter area at Universal Studios Florida was more extensive than the one here in L.A. (which we have seen). So when I saw a cheap flights + hotel package for Orlando in March when there's usually not too much rain, I grabbed it.

Not everything worked out. First I found that the added parts at Universal were mainly roller coasters, which Victor would never do, so we dropped that. Once we arrived, we found that Uber was quite expensive, so we did use a rental car one day. Our cheap motel had mandatory resort fees, undisclosed until you checked in, of course. GRRR!! I hope the government succeeds in banning these! And finally, with every passing week, Florida governor De Santis angers me more, so I was unhappy spending money there. At least I did often wear these:

I also had, but never wore this more explicit pin:

As an Internet addict, I got online as soon as we were at the motel, but after about twenty minutes, my (rather old) Chromebook died! I was offline until we got back home! I only use my phone for phone calls and photography; I dislike doing Internet work on the phone.

Our Disney day began quite cool and a bit rainy, though it warmed up later. We didn't pay for Lightning Lanes, so we waited in long lines, but we did get to all of our desired attractions.

The weather improved after that first morning. Instead of Universal, we visited several other sites (see the photos): 

The Lake Nona Sculpture Garden has quite a few good pieces, including the charging bull famously on Wall Street and a Henry Moore.

The Morse Museum has the world’s most comprehensive collection of Tiffany works.

The Harry P. Leu Gardens is about fifty acres, including a large lake and multiple gardens. Many flowers were not in bloom this time of year, but at least there were butterflies in the Butterfly Garden.

I definitely wanted to see the Pulse interim memorial. I explained the event to Victor.