LACMA Rock

340 Tons of Rock

I have been following the story of the LACMA Rock much like many people in LA and beyond.  The story has made local and national news, as well as a friend's photo album on Facebook.  The rock has now arrived at its final destination - LACMA - where it will be installed as the main part of artist Michael Heizer's creation called Levitated Mass.

Here is an article about the final leg of the rock's 100+ mile journey from the quarry in Riverside.  This article has a nice selection of photos from the trip at the bottom of the page.

The rock has it's own Twitter account, as well as a ton (ha!) of videos on youtube (including this one).

I've seen comments from people who wonder why "taxpayer money" has been wasted (it is all private money), or what the big deal over "a rock" is, but, really, what a fun story!  With such an amazing amount of time and effort that has gone into this with modern conveniences, it surely gives one pause to appreciate the labor of the people who created Stonehenge, the Egyptian Pyramids, the great Mayan Cities, etc. without this technology.  I look forward to seeing the final installation. (I'm guessing that this one won't travel to other art museums on loan...)

In Ontario

Spring Break Begins

While walking through HMC today, I noticed this calm moment signifying that spring break has truly begun.  

Cell Phones While Driving

Just for the record, I took this picture while stopped at a red light, and I put down the camera long before the light changed.  (I often have my camera easily available.)  If you click on the photo, you will see that Michael D. Myers, lawyer from Rancho, is talking on his cell phone while driving (having just turned from Foothill onto Indian Hill).  While sitting at this spot (and other spots, as well), I often see people chatting away while driving, and it makes me nervous.  I really hope they don't hit me or anyone else down the road.

More Kid Funnies

A few funny things at school recently:

This morning I noticed, yet again, that one of our dear Kinders had her shoes on the wrong feet.  Thankfully they were slip-ons, so I had her take them off to put them on the correct feet.  She immediately crossed her feet so she could put them back on the way they had been.  I had to take one away while she put the other one on her correct foot first.   The teacher says she comes to school every day this way.  I guess I hadn't noticed before, but perhaps it's because she usually sits in the second row.

I told the second graders that I am planning a trip to Arizona.  One of them looked right at me and said, "Oh! You are going to see my tia!"  I said that I didn't know her tia, and she said, very seriously, "But her house is there!"

Probiotic Salad

As much as I like yogurt, I can only eat a certain amount of it everyday.  We know that yogurt is good for the digestive system because of the probiotics.  What other foods have this?  Sauerkraut!  We know how to eat sauerkraut on reubens and Polish sausages at Costco, but I decided to search for other sauerkraut recipes and came up with this salad, Tropcial Sauerkraut with Mango and Avocado Salad.  Since I have a few avocados from my friend Pat that are perfect for eating right now, this seemed like a good choice.

We decided that if sauerkraut can be tropical, then we could pair this salad with egg rolls from Trader Joe's.  The salad has a very strong blend of sweet and sour.  I thought it was pretty tasty, and I'm happy for the leftovers as this makes a huge batch.

LA Phil Chamber Music

We were fortunate, last night, to have been invited to a concert at San Antonio Gardens, hosted by the Foothill Philharmonic Society.  Three members of the LA Phil - violinist Lyndon Johnston Taylor, violist Mick Wetzel, and cellist David Garrett performed a Beethoven String Trio and then spoke about their recent experiences with the LA Phil in Venezuela.

After the concert, I spoke with Johnston Taylor about music education and other things. I asked if these three had ever performed trios before, and he said that this was their first time as a group.

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

The word was out on the street.  Pomona College's production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was good enough to spend a few dollars on and wile away/while away a sunny afternoon.  The audience had a fair share of Pilgrims in attendance since the word must have been out at Pilgrim Place, too.

I have not been to a theater production at Pomona for a long time.  Some, in the past, have been good, some, no so much.  This one has a thumbs-up from a friend of mine, and I had the spare time yesterday afternoon.  I thoroughly enjoyed the show.  I have not seen this musical before, so I can't compare it to another version, but given the chance, I would see it again.

Warm Sweet Potato Salad with Black Beans and Feta

It seems as though I can hardly get enough of sweet potatoes and black beans in combination.  Especially when I add a dash of chipotle.  Last night I made yet another variation, and I think this one is my very favorite.

I found the recipe on a blog that I stumbled on.  Occasionally I look at blogs that I follow regularly, or look at the profiles of some of the people who follow this blog and read what other blogs they read.  In doing so last week, I came across a blog called Ben & Birdy which featured this recipe.  It's under the Feb. 24, 2012 entry.

Instead of using pumpkin seeds, I substituted pepitas since I can find already roasted ones at Sprouts in the bulk bins.  I also put my salad on a bed of baby romaine rather than arugula.

Today I will discover whether this salad is good cold on the next day.....

The Other Wes Moore

I'm on a roll this week - two books!  Two friends recommended this book to me, and it came to the library for me, so I had to finish it before it was due back.

The Other Wes Moore is about two young black men with the same name who grew up in Baltimore about the same time (not knowing each other at the time) who ended up on very different life paths.  The author of the book ended up as a Rhodes Scholar from Johns Hopkins, the other is serving a life sentence for armed robbery.

The author has painstakingly researched the life of the "other" Wes and has chronicled their two lives in tandem.  Both Wes Moores grew up without fathers in their lives, both had loving mothers, neither had money.  Yet one made good, the other, not.

I felt as though most of the book gave pretty detailed information about the two lives, up to a point, but then at the end, it sort of petered out.  The author, in the end, asks himself how he got to be where he is, and the other Wes ended up where he did.  He says, in one sentence, that he has no idea.

That surprised me because I felt as though he answered that question in the book.  He had grandparents who had a little bit of wherewithal (they owned a home) and his mother took a proactive stand and sacrificed a great deal to get her son the help he needed by sending him to military school.  I think that made the world of difference between the two stories.

I am sure this book would give book clubs many topics to discuss.

The Joys of Teaching

I am so pleased with a new student who started with me last month.  He took recorder with me at Vista last year as a third grader (and did quite well).   He did not start an instrument in the school music program this fall, but he went to a children's concert by the Claremont Symphony Orchestra in January and came home to declare that he wanted to take violin lessons.

He has had 5 lessons with me so far, and I can tell that he takes his practicing seriously.  He also seems to have a natural affinity to the violin.  Today he told me that his goal is to be as good as Joshua Bell.  At the rate he's going, he can certainly achieve that goal!