Tag: Pasadena

In Passing

Metro still runs buses along millionaire’s row, East Mariposa street, but the tram line headed for the base of the Rubio canyon funicular has been paved over, a familiar LA story. A few landmarks remain, among other imposing properties, the Rand McNally House, the Zane Grey Estate, the Altadena library, the Waldorf school. A film crew tows and films a ‘moving’ red pickup, flanked by police cars, another familiar LA story.

Turn left on Fair Oaks, across the liquor store parking lot, Abounding Grace Ministeries and the Altadena Church of Christ, then a few steps south, Hillside Voz de Esperanza; La Venezia court leads almost directly to the Pizza of Venice pizzeria. Where else but Altadena? reads the bus bench ad.

West on Ventura, the Charles White park, named after the painter just recently celebrated in Museums all over LA–nice to name places after local artists–and although the site isn’t exactly memorable, it does boast a detailed fitness panel, including a chart that tells me my BMI is 29. Walk faster.

Sheriffs hang out at the entrance to Franklin elementary, an all too common sight and sign of the times. A man–musician?–carries a sitar case to his car. Toy trucks parked along Ventura, dead end at the Arroyo Seco, where a constant flow of semis haul away dirt from the Devil’s gate reservoir, destroying a wildlife habitat itself a result of damming the Arroyo, which was done to prevent floods that swept away houses built too close to the water in the first place. A human story.

Crossing over the heavily fenced ”suicide bridge”, looking for a path to descend into the arroyo. On the west bank of the arroyo, tucked in the shade of small scrub oak, a homeless encampment–another LA story–towered over by the Batman Mansion.

Defenders Parkway, traverses Defenders Park, ending at Orange Grove, where Pasadena was founded, where the founders ‘picked out their lots’, home to plaques honoring Founders and Veterans, and the statue–“Enduring Heroes”–of an unarmed, ungeared, soldier walking and waving a flag at the Elks Lodge across the street.

I salute another statue, Rodin’s “The Thinker”, less that a block away, hovering over passers by on Colorado who’ve just left the Norton Simon Museum.

Sitting at a café terrace, sipping a nitro-brewed iced coffee that is meant to infuse the drink with a Guiness-like consistency–can’t go wrong there–while another customer has taken the piano chair for a late morning recital of “Let it Be”, reading Bashō

From this day forth

I shall be called a wanderer,

Leaving on a journey

Thus among the early showers

The Records of a Travel-worn Satchel , Bashō, 

There was no rain in the forecast, indeed, it was nearly one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, fairly humid and very sunny. Is there a better time for a walk?

Walking Project 029_up hill – Pasadena from chris worland on Vimeo.

Today : walked 17,965 steps, if you trust my iphone 6, drank 4 espressos and 1 iced coffee, had 2 inches of hair cut off, it was 96 degrees Fahrenheit when I checked, listened to “a love poem for lonely prime numbers” by Harry Baker which has been watched 1,349,510 times–or more accurately had 1,349,510 views, plus 1–received 66 emails so far–52 were junk–filmed 66 clips–funny koinkidink–read four pages of Rousseau’s fourth promenade just before 4 o’clock–did not make this up or plan it–and remembered I used to be good with numbers, now I just randomly notice them.

Walking Project 026_walking by numbers from chris worland on Vimeo.

In San Ber’dino changes I looked at the eco system and scenery changing as I climbed Mount San Bernardino. Something quite obvious struck me since then, that if you walk five to ten miles in any given direction, you are more likely than not to encounter some degree of change. And if you don’t, that in and of itself would be a change. To test that theory, walk the length of Lake Avenue in Pasadena/Altadena, California,

Lake Avenue:

Forty two blocks, five miles. Beginning at the gates of the Cobb estate at East Loma Alta Dr. in Altadena, where the lumber tycoon Charles Cobb once built his ‘kingdom on a hill’, literally above other early white settlers of the foothills, who were prospecting for gold in the canyons below,  and ending where it turns into Oak Knoll Ave in Pasadena, surrounded by mansions. Between that, fifteen churches–that I saw–including a mosque and a buddhist center, a house of prayer, and a meditation center; too many banks and financial institutions to count–concentrated south of the freeway, whereas all the churches are north of the freeway; a freeway and Metro gold line crossing, with a Metro station; two parks–plus a memorial one under construction; a Planned Parenthood clinic–often the sight of pro-lifer protests; an LA County Social Services building; a post office; auto parts stores; auto repair shops; discount stores; medical offices ranging from dentists to the Altadena Pet Hospital; chiropractors; a palm reader/psychic; beauty parlors; thrift stores; a pawn shop; a boxing equipment store; a job center; the Bunny Museum; several bike shops and only one used cars lot–sign of the times; a recently added Metro bike station–another sign of the times; a fire station; a tattoo parlor; the gamut of fast food chains, ethnic restaurants, diners and finer dining joints, juice bars and coffee shops–but only three Starbucks; a Mexican karaoke club; a pupuseria; and, well, you get the idea. It’s the kind of street that is busiest at rush hour, offering a direct access to the freeway, an artery of convenience connecting Pasadena with the foothills, missing, in my opinion, a bookstore.

Walking Project 025_lake ave from chris worland on Vimeo.