Hey – that’s where I live!

Yesterday’s post about the cancellation of the Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service was a result of my questioning a member of the Los Robles Master Chorale as to why the event had disappeared from their website calendar. The sposoring group’s website hadn’t been updated since last year’s pageant, and today it’s down completely.

I sent an email to the LA Times’ arts and entertainment editor with the information. He said he was passing it along to the city desk. A couple of hours later an item popped up on the Times’ blog LA NOW about the cancellation. Since then, the story has been everywhere – KCRW, KPCC, KABC-TV, the San Jose Mercury News, UPI, the list goes on and on.

All this happened AFTER I tipped the Times about the story. Coincidence? I’d like to think that I started the whole ball rolling. There had not been word one anwhere on the Internet nor anywhere else about the cancellation prior to my contact with the Times.

It was ME who ultimately saved you from getting up at 4:30 Easter Sunday morning only to be met with a locked gate at the Bowl. You’re welcome.

I’ve been in communication with representatives of the City of Los Angeles in recent days concerning roadwork that’s happening outside my apartment complex. First I wrote to the email address listed for my city councilman Greig Smith:

To staff:

I and dozens of other Los Angeles citizens reside on a stretch of Owensmouth Ave. in Canoga Park. We have an issue with which I hope Councilmember Smith will be able to assist us.

I live on Owensmouth Ave. between Parthenia and Nordhoff Avenues. Last week, beginning a resurfacing project, the city department in charge of street maintenance ground off the surface of that entire stretch of Owensmouth, leaving a striated surface on the street that has increased traffic noise and caused a bumpy ride up and down the entire length of the street along with cliff-like edges at the curbs which jolt the suspensions of cars entering and leaving the driveways along the street. The process has also left a thick layer of grime on every surface in the area, including cars, sidewalks and even indoor counter tops as the fine grit has found its way through every nook and cranny. Life is not good right now.

I note with great consternation that all work-related vehicles and equipment have disappeared from the scene, and no workmen have been on site since last Thursday. No work was done on Friday March 26, no work was done over the weekend, no work was done on Monday March 29, and no work is being done today, Tuesday March 30.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m looking forward to the resurfaced street, but I fear that this work will drag on for weeks, when it should be completed in the shortest amount of time possible. I fear that the demographic of my neighborhood has caused those in charge of this project to place an inappropriately low priority on finishing this job, and thus getting life back to normal.

Why are they not working on this today?

Much to my surprise, I got a response from the esteemed councilmember himself just an hour later:

Dear Mr. Phillips – Thanks for your email, I appreciate your taking the time to bring these concerns to my attention. I have asked one of our staff members who works on street issues to contact you. Take care, Greig.

Sincerely,

GREIG SMITH
Councilman, Twelfth District

It was another 25 hours before I heard from Sandy Clydesdale, who is Councilmember Smith’s district director:

Hello Mr. Phillips:

There is a lapse of time between profiling a street and paving it and it sounds like this is pretty much within the pattern.   However, please understand that with the current financial problems within the City, there have been many layoff’s and mandatory furlough days which are causing additional delays in programs.

I am sending this to the supervisor over the paving program to see what the timeframe is.

My reply:

Thanks for the reply, but your allusion to the city’s woeful finances begs the question – why schedule and start a short-term project to address a non-urgent issue like this if it can’t finish it in a reasonable period of time? How much of a ‘lapse of time’ should we expect? Again this morning, no one was working on the street.

Not only are the residents on this stretch of Owensmouth being severely inconvenienced, there are indications the US Postal Service has suspended mail delivery in the area due to the road conditions. I am finding this hard to believe, but I can’t argue with the fact that no mail carrier has been to our complex since last week (outgoing mail is piling up), and the mailman answers to no one, certainly not the city of Los Angeles.

Again, thank you for your attention.

Interesting wrinkle about the USPS, huh? No delivery on Monday or Tuesday (on Monday someone had put out a piece of mail to be returned to sender waiting for the next pickup; it was still sitting there Wednesday morning), but our mailwoman finally showed up on Wednesday. My email to the USPS about that is still unanswered.

Anyway, back to Ms. Clydesdale (or is it Mr. Clydesdale?) – this came on Wednesday:

I don’t even show Owensmouth on a paving list for this fiscal year so will have to see what Street Services has on this.

So now it’s vandalism! Quite an effort to make a mark in the neighborhood. Still no workmen on site Thursday morning. Then a ray of hope, in a note in response to my original email, this one from Keith Mozee, Chief Coordinator of Resurfacing and Reconstruction for the city’s Bureau of Street Services:

Good Morning Mr. Phillips,

The project on  Owensmouth Av., Nordhoff St to Parthenia Av began on March 22nd & 23rd  will be paved/completed Monday April 5th. Resurfacing projects are normally done in two phases with cold milling being the first and the paving operation follows 1 to 2 weeks afterwards. This is the normal time frame as all resurfacing projects through out the city are scheduled the same way.  I apologize for any inconvenience and a motor sweeper  will  be sent to the location Friday April 2nd.

Thank you for the response, Mr. Mozee, but would you kindly verify that completion date of April 5 that you mentioned?

I ask because an official notice showed up on the front gate of my complex yesterday stating that the paving would *begin* on April 5. Will it indeed be done in one day?

There wasn’t anything happening on Owensmouth again today, so I tend to believe that you will miss your Monday deadline. How long will it really take?

Mr. Phillips,

The paving process will begin on Monday morning as stated on the flyer that was posted, and take two days to complete. The crew will be starting of at approx. 7 am, and if you could notify any of your neighbors to have their cars moved off of the street by the time indicated on the “NO PARKING” signs, it would greatly expedite our work not having to tow any cars.

Thanks, Mark

Don’t forget to schedule your mammogram!

I haven’t posted much in the way of personal stuff this summer, so here’s a little catch-up.

Although we’re still a couple of weeks away from the official autumnal equinox, summer’s done with the end of the long Labor Day weekend and the fall is approaching. Although, as I noted on Facebook earlier today, Southern California is likely to be subject to six to eight more weeks of summer weather – it’ll be in the mid nineties for the rest of the week.

We also have the major portion of fire season to come in the next couple of months. There’s been nothing in my immediate vicinity (yet) but the enormous Station fire on the northeast side of the LA Basin is stubbornly hanging on. The smoke in the bowl of the San Fernando Valley was easily visible yesterday as I came home from a weekend in Santa Barbara and Ventura.

Los Robles Master Chorale starts its 2009-10 season tonight with the first rehearsal of the newly-reauditoned 85-voice group, holiday concerts scheduled for December. This is also the inaugural season for The Consort Singers, a 24-voice group drawn from within the Chorale. This smaller group will be a little nimbler than its larger parent, and thus will be doing more outreach activity. Its first performances will be in November, an all-a capella program.

Also of note  – get it? Chorale, Singers, music, we sing notes? Get it? Ahem – the Chorale will be taking much of the program from its Spring 2009 concerts ‘on the road’ with a long weekend trip of some of the old missions in southern California next summer.

The reunion about which I’d posted several times last spring and summer came off without a hitch the first weekend of August. Some 80 people came together at Merced First Baptist Church to reminisce and worship together, and it was just fantastic. I couldn’t have hoped for a better turnout, and my only regret that we didn’t have more people and more time together. A bunch of us stayed to participate in the Sunday morning worship and that, too, was a glorious time. Several of us ministered with the worship team, I sang a solo, and about 20 of the alumni formed the Reunion Choir and sang a song at the end of the service. The church will be celebrating its 70th anniversary next year, so maybe we’ll see everyone again sooner than we thought we would.

My friend Elaine from Minnesota came out here three times over the summer, once to celebrate our birthdays at the beginning of May during which she also came to hear both Chorale concerts and to squeeze in a birthday visit to Disneyland, again over the Independence Day holiday, and yet again for the reunion in August – an embarrassment of riches after so many years away from one another. I was hoping to return the favor for the Minnesota State Fair last weekend, but unfortunately I couldn’t pull it together this time.

Other highlights include a couple of movies (Star Trek, Julie and Julia), a concert (Liza at the Hollywood Bowl), a trip or two to my favorite beach in Camarillo, the afore-mentioned trip to Santa Barbara. All in all, a fun summer in a lot of ways, and in some ways a bit of regret along the way. So here’s to you, summer – I’m happy to see you retire, and looking forward to the filtered-light days of autumn followed by the chill of winter – at least as chilly as it gets around here.

I was all set to watch a local fireworks display this evening, put on in conjunction with the Valley Cultural Center’s annual 4th of July concert in Woodland Hills. They were expecting upwards of 25,000 people for the concert and the fireworks display to follow (I kinda doubt that number). The fireworks were to be launched from the rooftop of the Marriott Hotel tower, so I figured that anywhere in the vicinity would yield a  pretty good view. Wrong again. They didn’t much clear the treeline from where we were, and since we were a half-mile away, they pretty much disappeared in the surrounding streetlights. I’ll know better next year.

I must say, though, that the ad hoc illicit displays in the surrounding neighborhoods were very impressive. In fact, they rivaled the displays from the fairgrounds after the stock car races that we’d watch from the street corner by my house when I was growing up, waving the sparklers with the white-hot metal wires, feeling the sparks fall on our bare legs. OOCH! OUCH! MORE! MORE! Now what sparklers are allowed are made of wood, and barely throw off any heat at all. Too bad for the kids of today.

Hope you enjoyed the holiday!

NPR’s All Things Considered ran a segment on this afternoon’s broadcast about the least appropriate wedding songs ever: songs like ‘Send In The Clowns’ as the bride glides down the aisle, or ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ ‘ for the couple’s first dance.

I’ve sung at a ton of weddings over the years, and have a ton of stories to match, but all the songs I’ve sung have been fairly appropriate: ‘One Hand, One Heart‘ from West Side Story, Billy Joel’s ‘Just The Way You Are’ and David Gates’ ‘If’ (both of those at my brother’s wedding), Dan Fogelberg’s ‘Longer’ (I sang it with my brother at my baby sister’s wedding). I sang a song of my own composition at my own wedding, interrupted not only by my own blubbering but the noise of an aircraft landing at Oakland International Airport, the landing pattern of which passed over our backyard ceremony. And of course I’ve sung Paul Stookey’s ‘The Wedding Song’ at a great majority of all the other weddings at which I’ve performed.

I sang at a wedding at Villa Montalvo near San Jose where I sang a snippet of a different song as each bridesmaid walked across the lawn. I was singing some pre-ceremony music when it started to rain at an outdoor wedding in the Santa Cruz mountains – I managed to fake my way through ‘Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head’ and ‘I Love A Rainy Night’. I’ve sung ‘Ave Maria’, I’ve sung ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, I was even in the ‘wedding singer’ business in partnership with a videographer – had a demo tape and everything!

I suppose the most unusual wedding I ever attended, much less sang at, was one at the Home Church in Campbell CA. I guess I got this gig because I was active in the church’s worship team as well as leading worship for the singles minstry on Friday nights. Anyway, the song the bride wanted me to sing as she walked down the aisle was Tanya Tucker’s ‘Would You Lay With Me In A Field Of Stone’:

Would you lay with me, in a field of stone?
If my needs were strong, would you lay with me?

Should my lips grow dry, would you wet them, dear.
In the midnight hour, if my lips were dry.

Pretty racy stuff, no? Especially in a church!

Anyway, there were TEN attendants – ten bridesmaids dressed in square dance dresses complete with flouncy petticoats and cowgirl boots; ten groomsmen in western-cut tuxedos with ‘smile pockets’ at each breast of the jackets – in peach, no less.

But the pièce de résistance, if you will, was the bride, kicking up her heels in a beautiful virgin-white square dance dress, virgin-white cowgirl boots, and a virgin-white cowgirl hat under her virgin-white veil.

Quite the sight.

It’s been interesting to sort of remake the website over the last few days. I like the new look: a little more neutral in color, the banner pictures look great in the new design, and it’s given me a chance to clean up some of the 411 posts that I’ve made in over four years.

I’ve seen some older comments from people who are no longer in my life (but, I believe, one or two visit this site from time to time), and it makes me really miss them. I’ve also been reminded of some of the things that have happened over the years – like in November 2005 when I stopped watching TV, the several times when I tried to commute by bus, the many movies I saw in glorious theaters around town. It’s been fun to look back on it all.

We here in SoCal have been blessed with very springlike days here in the waning weeks of winter. The temperature has reached into the low 80s the last few days, and even now at 5 PM on Sunday the temperature is a delightful 75, with wispy white horsetail clouds scudding across the valley sky. The wind driving those clouds is dropping to the valley floor, though; it is a portent of the inclement weather set to settle over the area for the next week; predictions of 20-30% chance of rain, and just generally overcast all the way through next weekend.

I’ve been working hard on the reunion referenced in the blog post from several days ago. I’ve digitized an entire concert by the Maranatha Singers from 1973 – those recordings have been posted at the reunion website youthofthe70s.blogspot.com. I also composed an update email that went out to the nearly 60 email addresses we have, and only two have bounced back as invalid so far, which I think is pretty good.

I didn’t sleep so well last night, so I look forward to racking out early tonight. Here’s to a productive week ahead, despite the gloomy weather to come.