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206_phone

206_phone, a photo by scott_waterman on Flickr.

Phone me!

Far Out. Far In.

Your inside is out and your outside is in.

-J. Lennon

The auspicious lotus from the Huntington Library collection.

I'm not all that crazy about winter but we've turned the corner and I'm so glad. The days are getting longer which will continue from now till June 21st after which they start to shorten again. The way in is the way out. Who said that? Can you tell me?

Beautiful Science at the Huntington.

The world in a tiny tree.

A window in a fence. Isn't that great?

The last thing I did in 2012 was pay a visit to one of my favorite cultural institutions, The Huntington (Library, Art Collection, and Gardens). What a treat and how fortunate we are in L.A to have such a treasure. I hadn't been since they opened the newly expanded Japanese garden and completely rebuilt the teahouse. " The teahouse, called Seifu-an (the Arbor of Pure Breeze), was donated to The Huntington by the Pasadena Buddhist Temple. Built in Kyoto in the 1960s, it made a return trip to Japan for restoration in 2010. Kyoto-based architect and craftsman Yoshiaki Nakamura (whose father built the original structure) oversaw the restoration. The restored teahouse was then shipped back to San Marino and painstakingly reassembled here under the tutelage of Nakamura and other expert craftsmen who had traveled from Kyoto for the project. " 

I'm taking you to tea. Walk through the sliding panels.

Here we are.

And here is where we imagine ourselves to be.

The previous owners of my own house were Japanese American and I feel they imbued the place with that spirit. The house is also imbued with cold when it's cold just like a traditional Japanese house. But I love all things Japanese. Well, let's make that a number of things Japanese. So from Japan to China, actually Taiwan for lunch after the Huntington. It's a little place not far from the Huntington in Arcadia. Din Tai Fung: voted best Chinese restaurant 2012 by L.A. Times readers.

The Japanese Garden continued. Here we see the future through the past.

The to-go bag from Din Tai Fung.

Goodbye old man 2012 and hello baby 2013. The way out is the way in. That's a labyrinth and that was my start of the new year. 

Here it is, the labyrinth in my neighborhood..

And here is the labyrinth in the Chartres Cathedral, same design.

 It's taken me nearly 10 years to at last pay a visit to the Peace Awareness Labyrinth which happens to be 20 minute walk from my house. It's behind the old Busby Berkeley house on Adams which now houses the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness. Read all about it if you care to, all I know is that they very kindly allowed us access to the gardens and labyrinth and left us alone. How nice, awful nice. Really quite paradise and the song went on forever. (apologies to D. Bowie)

Early Music

Early December 2012. 

This is Royce Hall , the symbol of UCLA

This is the Powell Library. It faces Royce Hall. Note the illuminated clerestory filled with early voices.

There's a new collaboration: Will I. Am with Brittany Spears called "Scream and Shout". Is that really new? I guess. I haven't heard it but December 1st I sat in the Rotunda at the Powell Library, UCLA and heard people singing. I mean singing, no vocoders, without microphones, not even a musical instrument and it was quite wonderful. I'll tell you what else was wonderful: the Powell Library. That's not new. It's been wonderful since 1929 when it opened.

At the end of the performance a little audience participation involving Perrier bottles lead by this fellow.

Upon closer inspection I felt I saw Maya influence in the tile. Could that be?

Elisabeth Le Guin on the right, a founding member of Philharmonia Baroque.

Now here you get a better sense of the space. The dome is 45 feet high.

These are the windows throwing off light that you see in  my exterior shot  (above).

In typical southern California fashion the architecture of UCLA is a mish mash of styles but the Powell Library and Royce Hall are dominated by a Northern Italian Romanesque influence. Yes, you'll find Byzantine and Spanish Moorish notes but it all really blends quite nicely and fittingly. The Architects, George W. Kelham and David Allison got the Italian vibe from the L.A. basin and that became their guiding principle. You may know our climate here is Mediterranean like Italy and there are so many natural vistas throughout the state that could easily stand in for the Italian peninsula.

I stayed long enough to see the space cleared of chairs and people and took a few more shots.

I wandered across the hall to the main reading room.

I thought this was pretty special. The dome in the main reading room is decorated with  antique printer's marks.
This is a diagram showing some of the marks.

Like many blogposts this one is a kind of failure. I can't reproduce the experience of hearing marvelous voices filling the acoustically brilliant rotunda and I've only got a cursory selection of photos to share with you. But the Powell Library has been included on lists of the most beautiful college libraries in the world so you can find of photographs of it elsewhere. And just for your information the program listing for the night's entertainment:

 

UCLA Early Music Ensemble and Contempo Flux:

'Ad Te Levavi'

Saturday, December 1

6 p.m.

Directed by Elisabeth Le Guin, Joshua Fishbein, and Gloria Cheng, these two ensembles will unite to present early music by Hildegard of Bingen, Pérotin, and Guillaume de Machaut, which sonically resembles contemporary works by Frank Ferko and David Lang.

In the center that's Gillian Wilson, curator emerita of the Getty.

 

Now, tell me. What have you been up to?

small works on paper

DSC04494, a photo by scott_waterman on Flickr.

Colorful days of November.

A restaurant in Mexico City I've never been to.

Here's a logical follow up to my last post:

Art Image L.A.


Thanks for visiting.

Gallery X

grimes03, a photo by scott_waterman on Flickr.

From my Gallery X series on view now, right now.

And you're in it again.