Why Angelenos Will Never Embrace The Bus, Part 2

I am angry, a very angry bus rider that was stiffed by a bus I needed to take today to get to Pasadena.

Montebello Bus Lines

I sat over 50 minutes waiting for a bus that never came. In this case it was to ride a Montebello Bus Line, line 30, that in my experience is never on time. I sat across the street from my doctors office, where I get daily radiation, needing this bus to get up to Huntington Drive, about a 45 minute walk, about a 10 minute bus ride. Yes, if I had known.... Then I connect to a Metro Bus that heads to Altadena just north of Pasadena.

The Metro Line of buses and trains are more or less on time but they are down far more than I feel they would be in Chicago, New York and even Atlanta. I can't even begin to recount my embarrassment as I called and told the person I was meeting that I couldn't get there. There was no bus. Even if it showed up late I would never have gotten the connecting bus I needed. So there it is ... why only the poor or those that have the time, use the bus.

I am convinced if the middle and upper classes used and depended on mass transit like those in New Jersey, Philadephia and New York City suburbs that here in Los Angeles you would see a change probably almost overnight. We are so married to our cars that you see long lines of cars on every freeway at rush hour with one person in them as you whiz by them on a huge Metro Link train or the small Metro lines ... the Blue Line, the Gold Line, the Red Line and the Purple Line with more to come maybe if we are lucky by the 22nd Century.

However, unlike China, that could build an 800 mile long high speed train from Beijing to Shanghai in two years, its taken more than three years for the Gold Line to go from the Sierra Madre Station in Pasadena to Arcadia, CA a distance of maybe 10 miles. As far as I know, that new extension isn't open yet. Again ... get the middle and upper classes to use them and they will not stand for this kind of behavior.

Metro built themselves a huge multi story building that looms over Union Station and all the Amtrak, Metro Link and rail service lines in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange County. Maybe its time to empty that building and force every employee in them to attempt to use what they manage and have designed. There probably would be many changes especially if you said there will be no parking anywhere around so, well, take the train or bus to work. I would suggest that every bus line in the county make the same requirement of their employees as well. Let them see what we have to put up with in an up close and personal manner. Again, if they had no place to park, there would be so many changes and done so fast that it would literally make the public's heads spin. THAT IS CHANGE!

The fares continue to go up and services are changed and dropped each and every year. It seems that the idea that people just gave up is beyond their ability to comprehend.

I like taking the Train and with an app that gets me around on buses because even when you get anywhere in LA, the cost to park your car would be the same as taking and paying for 5 or 6 of your closest friends. Yet, the bus has to arrive in a timely manner. They don't.

Much of the blame has to be with the city and country planners. Streets that are already burdened with traffic are seeing even more buildings rise. Wilshire Blvd. and Santa Monica Blvd. are truly Dante's seven circles of hell. It can take an hour, AN HOUR, to go three or four miles at rush hour. I have seen people walk faster than the traffic. Its not just Los Angeles either. Many cities in their rush to get that property tax have done the same thing. The quality of life plummets. This cavalier attitude has got to change. With streets and freeways crumbling, the time has come to make big changes. Make it easy and timely to get mass transit. Maybe rather than getting even bigger, our mass transit systems may need to get smaller with more of them. Should they compete? I don't know. They rarely do. Maybe its time to completely re-think what needs to be done. We are all tired of the same pat old answers. Maybe its time to truly think it through "out of the box."

Thank you for reading my blog. This Blog discusses a wide range of design issues. While painting is important we endure design, good and bad,  each and every day in the things we do and use. They are not always to our advantage. Please check out some of the other blogs!

WHY Angelenos Will Never Embrace The Bus

After years of driving, I had my first experience actually riding two different bus company lines today. Without wheels and wanting to go to Pasadena, CA to church, I decided to give it a try. My only other choice was to walk and later I had to do just that. It was 99º out when I did.

It seems that most buses provide bus racks

There is a great Apple App called MOOVIT that gives you just about perfect step by step instructions to use public transit. Now if only the bus lines would be as conscientious. I'm just sayin'.

Metro Bus in Los Angeles

In my case the first bus I took was a Montebello Bus (MB) that conveniently posts their bus signs for bus stops; many are the same places that LA's Metro lines stop. The difference is Metro clearly marks which bus lines stop there, MB lets you guess. Beside arriving well past the posted time, I was on my phone calling about "if" the bus was actually running, when it appeared. It was the right bus number posted on my phone but their sign gave you no clue. Looking at my phone I discovered I was already running late and worried about connecting buses. To go a mere 6 miles required three different buses and two different bus lines. I chose one that seemed easy to follow but there were more choices, one including buses and getting on the Metro Gold Line - a train! To drive it would take about 15 minutes, to take the bus 1 hour and 15 or so minutes, if you were lucky. Since this was a Sunday there were fewer buses. However, you would think they would be more on time, not less. Not one of the buses I rode was anywhere near full. A few passengers had bikes and used the racks like old pros. A nice touch.

The next bus was at a strange confluence of Atlantic and Garfield just below Huntington Drive (confused? well it is when you ride the bus). You have to walk from Garfield over to Atlantic to catch a Metro Bus. At least the posted Metro sign thoughtfully assured me by posting the numbered bus I was looking for that was going north. When the bus arrived, I put in the fare and told him I needed to get off at Colorado, the main east-west drag in Pasadena. As we rode north through South Pasadena to Pasadena on a street I've driven a million times, I realized that all of my doctors were "on the way" to Colorado. Since the transportation at the home is spotty at best, its good to know.

Our stop was just north of Colorado and then I had to cross the street to catch the next bus going east. It finally dawned on me that I might be able to use my Metro Train card. I could. The driver explained to me, after I put in my fare, that it was just like getting on the train, you "tap" the card and depending, subtracts money from the card. Here I worried about having enough dollars, quarters and dimes to pay the fare. At least with your Metro card its just a tap away!

Amazingly I got there on time, a 75 minute journey including a 5 minute walk.

The Inter-Pacific Red Car

I hoped that going home was simply a reverse of my trip north but I must have hit some key wrong because my instructions suddenly disappeared. I had to enter my "current location" which showed where I was on the street asking where I wanted to go. I found out where I had to start. Its amazing really. It knew exactly where I was and showed me how to get there; if I was driving, but I wasn't, so had to rely on the best App I could find. I have about 6 different Apps on my iPhone 6 and MOOVIT is the only that gave me what I needed using public transit. I got lost on my last stop and had to walk over a mile home. It was again my fault though the MB sign was a mystery; the bus late.  Which bus stops here? I don't know if MOOVIT covers other places, the only one I care about is the Los Angeles basin, with one of the worst public transit systems in the world.

Public transportation in Los Angeles at the beginning of the 20th Century was one of the finest in the world. Long before LA was a 100 mile wide megapolis, you could go from the beach in Santa Monica to the desert in San Bernardino, a land of nearly limitless orchards, Long Beach to Mt. Low, high up in the San Gabriel Mountains. With the introduction of the automobile came freeways and freeways replaced trains until the last line to Long Beach ended around 1962. Disney's amazing film, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" chronicles the destruction of public transit that occured. Ironically when after six failed voting attempts to get Angelenos to pony up the billions required to create train lines, with finally government help, the old Long Beach, now called the Blue Line, was the first to go back online. However, it is not an easy connection. You have to get on the Red Line, then exit and get on the Blue Line to head south.

After a few days using subways in New York City and New Jersey Transit, you realize how convoluted we made riding anything Metro touches. While it's easy to blame Metro executives, the fractured city-states of Los Angeles are also partly to blame as well. Places like Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Westwood fought tooth and nail to stop Metro from "polluting" their neighborhoods. Only when revenues started to fall, the public began to avoid the congestion of getting there were discussions suddenly back on the burner.

LA Surpasses NYC with worst traffic in U.S.

Several years ago I was meeting a friend at the Wiltern theatre at the meeting of Western and Wilshire Blvd. for a concert. I had to come from Rosemead Blvd. and the I-10 freeway driving to Pasadena's Sierra Madre station, taking the Gold Line to Union Station then take the Purple Line. I got there in a bit over 60 minutes. He, traveling on Wilshire Blvd. from 26th St. in Santa Monica, a mere few miles away, took more than 90 minutes. As you can see there is a crying need for public transit but, either no one wants to build it for fear no one will use it. My last stop at the time was under a huge new condo. If I worked in a place where I could avoid the streets I'd move there and probably regain my life! What is missing is a coordinated plan that allows and pays for increased public transit to avoid the freeway and street congestion we suffer from. Buses? Why buses? They use the same lanes as cars and are trapped just like cars with only more victims inside. I've seen people walk faster than the bus drives!

You might question, who rides the bus, who rides the train? Well, poor people who simply cannot afford to own a car but many others who just don't want the hassle of driving on congested freeways and paying increasing car parking lot fees. It is indeed a unique mix of the rich and poor. However, fares are not cheap. I mean they had to pay for the huge Metro Skyscraper that looms over Union Station. Projects that should take a year or two take decades. China built an 800 mile high speed train track from Beijing to Shanghai in two years. The link from the Sierra Madre Station in Pasadena needed 6 months of "testing" to go as far as Arcadia, maybe a distance of 7 - 8 miles. It took them years to even construct the line. They already had the right of way even.

Until getting on a bus or train with lines that make sense, well signed, are on time and meet the needs of the public, not the needs of the powers that be, even congested freeways are not enough to get them to switch. Like I said I knew how to get from point A to point B, just not on a bus.

Thank you for reading my blog! I urge to you please read some of the earlier postings. They all refer to how we have designed our lives.

The Ubiquitous Cell Phone: The Good and Not So Good

The crowd group texting

Today, after radiation treatment, I went to the gym to do my normal routine much to the delight of my oncologist, and possibly for my own wellbeing as well. As I was about an hour later than usual for some reason I noticed that the crowd was generally in their 20's-30's and that cell phones were just about in everyones hands. I was robbed once in a gym and take nothing of value ... let alone my iPhone.

Phone used for music 

It struck me as a bit odd and annoying. In between their very short sets, they were so busy texting they had no idea that someone may have wanted to use the machine they were merrily texting on. As a culture, we have become completely addicted to our cell phones. I think that in about 20 or so years, doctors of the neck and spine and chiropractors will have jobs for the rest of their lives from necks ruined by citizens literally bent over phones.

Many patrons of gyms bring their own music even though the gym plays music often at near ear numbing loudness. Unless their headphones are better than anything I have ever used, it must be annoying to listen to two sets of music. As I observed that after lifting their weights, like the man on the right, they then take a looooong rest between sets and text away or even stopping to see what the alert brought them.

Tests have shown the dangers of phone use, especially texting. It is said that the death rate texting while driving is about the same as drinking and driving. We just can't seem to get away from them. They take up just about every free minute and some that aren't so free. More and more places are forbidding phones because they are annoying especially when you have to hear another's talking.

Just because you are riding a bike you are a risk

Why is the cell phone so dangerous? First of all, you are trying to picture in mind's eye the person you are texting or talking too. Your mind struggles to see nuances that are not visible. We become so intent that we literally have no idea of our surroundings. I remember getting rear ended once. The cops finally made the woman turn off her phone ... she was still talking. I think she was so busy chatting that she didn't see we were all stopped. When you are on the phone you do not see a thing. I can hear already, "I can multi-task." Studies have shown that we delude ourselves if we think that is true. You can do a variety of things but NOT in the same instant of time. You go from task to task and think you are multi-tasking because you don't stop. Ever been to a restaurant and seen a group of four at a table? Usually all four are busy with their phones ignoring that fact that living breathing people are right in front of them. I have even heard where they text each other ... mere inches away! We have become a society that wants contact just not with real people.

Sending a picture to Grandma

The cell phone or "smart" phone with dumb users has also become the camera of choice. It can be used for family shots as this wonderful mother and child photo shows. Its a fast way to keep family members in touch or upload instantly to Instagram or Facebook. Sometimes the uploaded pictures that seemed so clever at the time will turn out to be, ugh, unfortunate down the road. It is quite common now for employers to ask for an applicants Facebook name and they then peruse their postings. Those drunk photos at the last party do not make many selling points.

Hey, look at me!

And as we learned in the Wiener episode in New York, "selfies" are also quite popular. There are many guys at the gym, which are lined with mirrors, taking photos of themselves to post or impress someone. My gym has it posted that cameras are not allowed. I wonder if anyone has considered the cell phone. They now have cameras as good as most point and shoots and in some cases better with the advantage of getting that photo uploaded in seconds!

Even in its archaic state the first photos taken of the passenger plane making an emergency landing in the Hudson River were taken by an early iPhone. It was posted in minutes and made it to most newspapers front page. The photographer won awards for it.

Selfie's begat selfie sticks that after ruining several valuable pieces of art are now banned in most museums. Who wants a hole in a $100 million Van Gogh? Who will pay for its restoration? It became a problem that no museum wanted to deal with. The obvious choice? Ban them.

Cell phones are amazing video cameras as well. We see acts by the police recorded. The new iPhone has movie camera recording ability even with stabilizing for sharp, non jittery images. Recently a young movie director made an entire movie, and won awards for it, using his iPhone 6 Plus. Its been known for awhile now that making a digital film is much cheaper. However, the cost to equip every movie house in the country with digital projectors would cost billions. Consumers though have taken matters into their own hands and bought huge TV sets with stunning resolution and wait for the DVD, often with better sound and clarity. Your phone might be able to record baby's first steps and be seen in all its glory, maybe even bigger than real life, on your TV or Facebook, in seconds.

I can remember walking in to MacWorld as Steve Jobs was finishing his keynote speech for the first iPhone. What we saw was nothing like what people thought it would be. What is was supposed to do, well, most of the attendees, Mac Heads for sure, thought there was a bit too much cannabis being smoked over at Apple. I had Motorola's RAZR, the most advanced phone at the time and it was miserable to use. If I wanted to do or change something I would look for a 16 year old and have them do what I wanted. When I got my first iPhone its ease of use was stunning. I could do in a few short taps what all other phones could never do.

However I don't think anyone dreamed what they would become. David Pogue spoke the next day at O'Reilly's books saying the iPhone would be the definitive device of the 21st Century. Turns out he was right.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please check out some of the earlier postings. They all cover in one way or another how design affects our daily lives.

Never Settle For Just Plain

A new unfinished frame

Ever wander through a store and stumble on the craft department? I don't just mean what you find at Hobby Lobby, Michael's, JoAnns's or A.C. Moore, I've noticed that stores like Target and Walmart are carrying some of these same items. Paints, brushes and even wood frames, birdhouses all at varying prices. The wooden frame shown here was $1 at Walmart. It is about the same price at Michaels.

Here is the finished frame

A dollar? Well, you gotta get that, right? So you get a frame ... what do you do with it? I know that I have talked about this but I feel that each project, no matter the cost of the platform, be it a birdhouse, tray, platter or picture frame, presents a wonderful opportunity to think outside of the box. That is what prompted me to try this project.

Detail of a Crazy Quilt Frame

Since I started creating a variety of items using a "crazy quilt" design where I painted fabrics just as you might see on a fabric created quilt, I painted these items that seemed to be a hit. I won an award from DecoArt for my original "crazy quilt" birdhouse prompting me to try other that sold well on my former Etsy store.

I don't know about you, but finishing a wooden frame, either with a stain or a color didn't offer much of a challenge. As you can see here, the same frame painted is totally different. 

Right now, let me point out that it can a tedious process. Here's why:

First you have to select base colors of your fabrics. I used six (6) base colors. They were used at least twice on the frame. Since I wanted this to be a holiday frame, I decided to choose colors that would be found on Christmas wrapping paper.

Once the base "fabric" color is painted then each color would have its own, unique pattern. As you can see in the detail, these patterns again are similar to patterns would find on Christmas wrap. And let me tell you when you finish some patterns you are so very happy.

Even the back must be painted - here I used
a solid color

To complete the effect, I use a golden ink pen that you can paint on acrylic paints to create stitches, the final touch for my Crazy Quilt frame. This takes between one to two hours. You may not need to do this but "stitching" the fabrics together in paints add a final finishing touch.

To be honest, it is pretty easy to do. But remember it also takes a lot of time. I recommend you work on several items at the same time as you must allow the paint to dry since each painted fabric has the same design. It is too easy to smear paint used on one side as you work on another. Trust me, I know all about this! Its a pretty good thing acrylics dry quickly. It is relatively easy to repair or recreate but being careful saves having to waste time doing this exact thing. Go ahead try it. Since most of you already have the paints and brushes it's a small cost to experiment with a new style.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please read some of the earlier blogs. I cover a wide variety of crafts, books, movies and more ... all items that depended on someone's design. 

My, My, Concerts Have Sure Come A Long Way: Going to the Foo Fighters Concert

One of the earliest live concerts that I saw, other than those in college, and we had some pretty good acts I might add, was a Sonny and Cher Concert is a city park in Seattle, WA. In those days all you needed was a fair sound system, a few lights and an enthusiastic large crowd. This was at their height too, 1967. How things have changed.

Electric Sign at Honda Center

Saturday I was with a friend who got tickets for the Foo Fighters Concert at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. Normally an ice skating arena for the Ducks hockey team, it does a nice job of making things accessible for concerts. It was packed and all the groupies were out on the floor. The bands leader, Dave Grohl, had broken his leg falling off a stage somewhere in Europe but didn't let that slow him down ... not one bit! The stage was set up with a long runway and he rode an electric cart up and down it from the stage to everyones delight!

Dave Grohl on his electric cart!

As much as I wanted to go, I was afraid I wouldn't know any of their music but when I went to that old standby, iTunes, I found clicking on their music I was more than surprised at how many of their songs I knew! I hadn't memorized the lyrics as many in the audience had but at least I knew the tunes.

My other fear was that I would be the oldest one there by several decades, not that it mattered but you do get tired of being stared at as if you are, say, a living fossil. There were other grey beards as well!

Watching all this I realized that what was once a simple production - an audience, lights, some kind of speakers and play music for the fans has changed from music oftentimes to a "production." We have come a long ways from "I Got You Babe" played forever in the movie "Ground Hog Day" to Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift or the Foo Fighters. Just think this all must be loaded on a truck. Sounds like "Ground Hog Day" to me!

Watching the bands take down and put up the next day at the Kaa Boo Festival in Del Mar, it has become something much greater than those early days. AND, it took somebody(s) to design and implement it. At Del Mar there was much scurrying around as the crew for the next band set up. I was in fact awed by all that went on and wondered how they could do it over and over again in venues that were never the same.

Honda Center filled for the Foo Fighters seen from the Nose Bleed section

I can't help but believe that long on-the-road concerts are grueling for just about everyone involved. Lessons must be learned at every stop, adjustments made to provide not only the best sound but the best show for the audience. I'm sure it doesn't take much to defeat the original purpose but also what we don't know won't make any difference anyway. 

Sometimes artists have great opening acts but Saturday night was not one of them. One of he biggest problems to me is the volume of sound. It is so loud that besides being unable to think, you are subjected to a volume of sound that almost makes you deaf. I couldn't understand a word they said and, of course, had never heard of them before so didn't know their music. It was hard to even pick out the tune. Loud does not make for great music.

While loud, the Foo Fighters were a bit different. You could recognize the music and on the first bar

Foo Fighters on stage

or two, the audience came to life. In fact they played a solid 2 1/2 hours straight!

Watching all this, studying what they were doing, you realize that concerts, like everything else in life, are designed for a certain affect. The huge video screens showed details we would never see, the sound was well, loud but tunes and voices were audible, the lighting was at times dramatic and changed with the flavor of the music. The overall effect is to surround you with an otherworld experience. It does too!

They are returning to Anaheim again next month and I heard people say they were coming back for that concert. I must be callous but unless they had a new album I wouldn't want to come back for a year or two.

Thank you for reading my blog. Why not take the time to read my older blogs that comment on a variety of ways our lives are designed.

Beards & Hair: A Short History of Men's Facial and Head Hair Styles

For many years, something upwards of 30 years, I wore a beard. I am not sure why but it seemed a logical next step from years of wearing a mustache. When I worked for Kmart in the early 70's we manager assistants were told NOT to wear beards, mustaches and the like by the corporate office in Troy, MI. I rebelled and grew a mustache, something I could do in a week. Every other man in our store, located back then and maybe even today in the backwater of Los Angeles County, Lancaster, CA grew a mustache too.  Few would visit us from Troy, MI and the manager, who didn't dare, supported our rebellion. I had tried earlier when I was in the Peace Corps but it was so hot and muggy in West Africa, I sweated so much I could feel the rivulets of sweat go down every hair! However, I moved on to a beard in the more civilized San Gabriel Valley, just east of the Los Angeles city limits. 

Post Metrosexual beard and hairstyle. 

All that's missing here are the tattoos.

Bin Laden

Recently I have become aware of the beards the post Metrosexual men have been wearing. Never much of a fashionista, a short jaunt to Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade recently made me totally aware that the young men were dressing differently than what was being worn in Alhambra. There are many Asians in my area now and they are probably as tuned in to the latest fads as anyone but even they couldn't match what I had seen on the west side. As I perused "People" magazines in doctors offices I saw this was what all the stars were wearing as well.

There were many young men that didn't look all the different than the model (above left) with a kind of pompadour on top with hair shaved on the sides and well, a Bin Laden styled beard. Neat and ratty.

General Grant - Savior of the Union

Never having seen this fashion before I wondered why would young men ape a face style from a man (Bin Laden above right) or group that we have fought now in wars for at least 14 years - the Taliban, ISIS and other Arabic terrorist groups. Yet we have a history of beards in the United States and looking farther into this realized beards are here today and gone tomorrow.

General Ambrose Burnside

The founding fathers were generally beardless, nary a mustache. However, by the time of the Civil War, just about every general and the Union President sported a beard. Why, we will never know. Someone was a trend setter and soon the fashion swept the nation. 

President Abraham Lincoln

There were a variety of styles to choose from ... a full beard like General Grant shown here or a modified moustache shown on General Burnside. That Grant won the war and Burnside was a disgrace seemed to have no affect on fashion. President Lincoln had a modified scraggy beard usually favored by Quakers and the Amish, eschewing the fancy twists and turns of some of his peers.

After the Civil War beards fell out of disfavor unless you were a settler who didn't care or have the time on the plains as railroads brought thousands of farmers to settle the land from around the world. Working class men rarely sported a beard. Class equaled head fashion.

King George of England

Europeans made beards acceptable again at the beginning of the 20th century. King George of England as well as Czar Nicholas of Russia had beards that sported a rather dandified mustache with many modifications. Captain Smith of the HMS Titanic also sported such a beard. Two years later when World War 1 started soldiers didn't have the time to preen themselves. Beards fell out of favor. The 1920's and 30's saw clean shaven men. Their frivolity was spent on suits and shirts and hair styles that we would recognize today. Suddenly men dressed much we do today and beards were a thing of the past. Women's styles were more drastically changed.

Lionel Richie with his Afro

Instead men worked with their hairdo's. Anyone remember the Afro? It wasn't just for the African Americans either. 

I sported an Afro being told it would hide my growing bald spot that started in my 20's. I don't know why women go through curling! Finally I started wearing it short after seeing a "combover" flipping in the wind. After that I swore that I would never ever do that, and never have.

The Afro was followed by the "shag" I think pioneered by Rod Stewart. Men, pretty much, didn't wear a beard but by then I did. There were a few mustaches, but mighty few. Again they were long droopy types recalling a cowboy on the farm. My father-in-law wore a beard for many years and since I had very sensitive facial skin it seemed the answer to a whole range of problems. When it was discovered that I had a blood disorder and had to beware of any kind of cuts when put on blood thinners, the beard was for me the best solution. It was bad enough shaving under my chin and neck!

Rod Stewarts shaggy cut

For awhile now, men have sported a two or three day unshaved look beard. It was popular everywhere ... movie stars, thugs and the average Joe on the street. I always thought it looked like you were too lazy to shave that day. When the clothing ads starting using models with that look it really took off. I remember reading an article written by some fashionista saying it was "sexy" and turned women and probably other men on too. I remember wondering if she had ever kissed a man with a 3 day beard. Like kissing sandpaper. I guess girlfriends and wives are good sports.

Hugh Jackman forgot to shave today

There were many, many styles in between. Marlon Brando, James Dean, Elvis Presley and the Fonz with their pompadours, the buzz cut and totally shaved heads especially favored by African-Americans, styles that faded sometimes and then suddenly returned. Remember the spiked Homer Simpson "does"?  With the likes of Justin Bieber ... hair piled on the top of his head and cut short on the sides the market was open again. The one good thing about these styles, if you had a head of hair to do it with, was that when a fashion died, you could always get another haircut.

What is so amazing to me is the need for men, who I guess spend as much now on certain grooming products as women, to follow a trend and yet within it be strive to be different, creating an element of individuality. This trend I believe started with tattoos. Tattoos could be individualized to the man but the fact you had them made you part of a group. I remember as a child only red neck, white trash ever had a tattoo. It was usually one or two on a bicep and usually 

Fashion elements combined - from the 50's to the 21st Century

covered by a t-shirt. Suddenly everyone had one. Many tattoos are undeniably beautiful in the here and now but give them 15 - 20 years when skin begins to sag. I remember my son being enamored with the huge eagle on the chest of our 80 year old neighbor who seemed to always be shirtless. However, one look and you knew the huge eagle on his chest had landed. 

While a tattoo is forever, mercifully haircuts seem to change like the weather. We live though in an era today where  our heads have elements of all past trends ... pompadour, military buzz cuts, beards of the Taliban and enough tattoos to please the Yakuza! The man shown here on the right has all these elements, even the rolled cuffs on his jeans ala James Dean! Where once this would have be been anathema to all regular people, it has become acceptable when movie stars such as Angelina Jolie and other stars sport such additions to their bodies. Why is it acceptable? Will the next generation continue this or will they, like the Boomers generally avoid doing this? 

These elements are conscious designs that we create for our lives seeking a kind of individuality within a carefully chosen group. I do have to wonder though, how many people wake up the next day and wonder why did I do that? This may not be a bad time to invest in laser tattoo removal!

Thank you for reading my blog. Please check out my other blogs that cover and whole range of comments on the designs that shape our lives!

Crazy Quilt Tissue Box

Step 1 - getting the design on the item

Trying to keep myself busy and my mind and hands active I decided that the plain wooden tissue box on a small table next to my chair needed something. I didn't want it too colorful or even a solid color or stained wood, I definitely wanted a little more character than a plain wooden box.

If you have never tried creating a crazy quilt design, try to pencil in what you would think fabric scraps might look like on an object. I have used this on birdhouses (my first series), wooden plates and now this tissue box. The drawn "fabrics" are all shapes and sizes depending on the item you are making. The secret of a good crazy quilt is that you use whatever is at hand ... cottons, velvet even suiting and tie materials.

Before doing anything though, I gave the item a light sanding feeling for rough edges and iffy sides. When I felt that it was smooth, I was ready. You might want to use a sealer for your next step making sure the wood was 100% dry before putting on the base coat. I was going for a more primitive look and usually like the look of paint getting soaked up by the wood.

Your next step is to pencil in the "Crazy Quilt" pattern. I had a dream about it and in that dream I had done each of the sides and the top in different color ways ... 

Step 2 - coloring the fabric base colors

blues, greens, reds, yellows and purples on top. It was an interesting idea. However, as I started painting I realized that "pieces" of fabric from the other sides needed to be brought in. This helped keep the palette in a kind of continuity with the two sides it was touching.

I tried to use a base color at least twice on each side. That way you didn't have to use too many colors (I used something like 35 as it was, WAY too many?). Yet, it seemed that I needed to use this many to keep the continuity I wanted where base colors blended into the next side. I started with the top using purples that would blend in with the four side colors of blue, yellow, red and green. Finished, I think it worked.

Step 3 - flat base fabrics of paint completed

While painstaking, it is important to follow these steps and see where the colors take you. It is not always easy and I repainted more than one fabric scrap to make it's color fit especially as it would creep around the side into the next color way.

Once the entire surface is painted (No, I didn't seal the box first as many would do because I didn't care whether the paints soaked into the wood or not. However if you are having problems stop painting and seal the wood. You can always continue painting when the sealer is dry.) Then comes the real decision making time. What designs do I give my painted "fabrics?"

As you can see from Step 3, on the left, the base of flat fabrics is often ragged and complicated. It seemed right to me to do this because of the variety of scraps I have seen leftover from a sewing project. It would have been easier to make more or less squares but then, where's the challenge? Here you can also see the red, yellow and purple sides. Notice how they tend to invade each others spaces. I believe that it makes for a better continuity.

Step 4 - adding fabric design on base colors

Now for the designs. For me, this is never easy. While I am using gel and Sharpie pens for designs, this is not a smooth paper surface and lines don't always go as straight as you would like. The same goes using even liner brushes with paint on them. Probably I don't have the steadiest of hands but more than once I feel thwarted by the surface as I draw or paint a line, circle or square. If you wanted a more perfect surface then probably a coat of sealer well sanded would give you a smoother surface. I wanted to have a kind of hand-drawn feel. I didn't want it perfect. What's the fun of that?

As you can see here, on the blue, green and purple sides, (right) the fabric designs are being added on. I often used the same design giving it a different color way as I went around the sides. In the end it would be changed the minute I started to "antique" it making the patterns and sides become far more unified and making individual differences less noticeable. That was my goal from the beginning. The solid flat colors can be jarring (look at Step 3 again) and even with the fabrics in place a bit much. I say this loving color!

Step 5  - The finished, antiqued box

However, when all is in place, the base colors and fabric designs,  I think that there needs to be a process that makes it all work together. For me it is the antiquing, a wash of brown heaviest on the edges and washed inward. That's why I usually use DecoArts Traditional Raw Umber rather than black because with age things go brownish not blackish. It is a matter of preference. I believe you could use any color you wanted depending on the look you wanted. I have tried other colors but for aging something I find that dark browns seem to work the best.

As you can see in Step 5 the antiquing has given the box and instant antique look, a look where after years of use the box has achieved a patina of old age just like you might find on something old around grandma's house.

The last step, for me at least, is to take a gold pen, or one that will write on the acrylic and put in the stitching that would be used to hold the fabrics in place. That's right, each and every piece of "fabric" is "sewn" in place with golden thread. As daunting as that sounds, it can be done in about an hour. After all that has already taken place ... putting on the base coat, then the fabric designs what's another hour? When you are looking at it or holding it, it gives the entire piece a very finished look.

If you are a crafter, get out some object and give it a try. I am going to try a wooden photo frame next and possibly teach it to my class of seniors. This is something they can easily do and have something they can be proud of. Add a photo and they have a wonderful memory of family or friends using a piece of art they created themselves.

If interested in buying this small treasure, contact me in comments where we can reach a deal.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Comments are always welcome. Please check out my earlier blogs as they range from a wide variety of comments on design and how it affects our lives!

Finishing the Seniors Second Craft

Successful senior crafters

Despite a rough start for me, today was a kind of triumph for my crafters. A new member came and after finding another pot, had her start though there wasn't a chance she would get done today.

For those that were here last week, they had pretty much painted the stripes, dots and pot lip on their plastic pots. 

The finished pot

Today we finished the pots by putting the daisies, I had planned for four, on the sides. After a bit of practice and time spent showing them together and again personally, I had them work on their daisies. One interesting senior, who doesn't speak a word of English, who pretty much does her own thing, painted Chinese characters instead of daisies. I have to admit that it looked very nice. Since I can't or read write Chinese, it was a pretty nifty twist.

Recreated Flower Pot In Chinese

Once the pots were finished, painted and hopefully dry, I pressed floral foam into each pot and had each person pick their own artificial flowers. Once they were pressed in, we then kept it "authentically "real" by using real moss. I must admit they looked pretty nice. In fact they were all very proud and I encouraged them to take them to their rooms but bring them back for the next class. I would coat the paint with a varnish because unless that extra clear coat is there, the paint scratches off the plastic pot quite easily. 

While I am sure each of these crafters learned something new and had their horizons stretched, I have to admit that I learned a a great many new things too. When I think of an idea for a project I assume that it will be followed as closely as possible. I mean, after going to four or five Las Vegas Painting Conventions and one Society of Decorative Painters (SDP) convention that was the point! You left with a near perfect item.

Another variation of a design

We say we go to these conventions to learn, hopefully, new techniques but we slavishly copy what the teacher has already created. At the SDP, as I recounted in an earlier blog,  one teacher encouraged us to "do our own Rosemaling thing" and that got us in trouble. As she taught what she had already created I realized my "winging" it was trouble. Completely unable to follow what she was doing, I realized what I had done didn't follow her design at all. I packed up and was all ready to leave when she came over, asked why I was leaving and after explaining she asked the class how many others had done the same thing. A whole bunch raised their hands. So much for doing your own thing.

This, however, is also an example of how I was going to teach my crafty seniors and fought their impulse to stray. When one senior really did her own thing I realized, what I had done had no meaning to her. She was happy with what she had created and to be honest, the sides of the birdhouse where she used her own, ugh, design, impressed me! It was amazing in fact. I put her birdhouse away so it wouldn't disappear.

Today, as I was teaching daisies she had other things on her mind and the pot above is what she created using Chinese. Once the flower she picked and the moss was in place she broke into song. It was in Chinese but she was so proud. We all stopped what we were doing and let her hold up her pot and sing. It was a defining moment for me. The photo on the right is a rendition of my design but done in her own way. Is it any less? She was very happy and proud. Who am I to criticize? It dawned on me that this is what artists do all the time. They may go to school, do their teachers bidding but when the time comes they must make their own way. They must create their own vision and not use someone else's. 

Teaching these seniors has been ultimately a wonderful experience. They can see what I have done, after all the sample is sitting there in front of them but unlike all the classmates at every convention I've been too, they are willing to take a chance and do what they want! I don't think a teacher can ask for anything less.

Brown Is The New Green: Living In the Drought of California

Dead lawn in Alhambra, CA

Taking my morning walk early to avoid the unrelenting heat of the past week, I noticed one lawn after another looked like the one shown here (left).

I am sure the entire world knows that California is in the midst of the worst drought in its recorded history. How did this happen?

It wasn't all that long ago that having a lawn that looked like this, lets say as soon as last year, you would get a citation for failing to maintain your property. Now, its a badge of pride. You are conserving water. 

The same was done when a property in another San Gabriel Valley city took out their lawn and used Astro Turf instead. The city was quick to issue a citation about that too. Now, as you can see in this 

Astro Tuff vs. a dead lawn.

photo, many cities are encouraging homeowners to do this exact same thing. It looks good year around, saves using smog producing lawn mowers and all it takes to keep clean is a blower! How nice is that?

Growing up in Oregon, water was rarely an issue. In fact you usually had too much. Still though, dams manage most of the rivers creating electricity and water management. 

The thing that has always amazed me, and I have lived in Southern California since 1970, is how poorly the state has managed its water. Rain water just ran down to the sewers and out to sea. Really? They were all for building huge dams, 100's of miles of aqueducts and other grandiose projects. However, simple things like saving the rainwater that fell on the streets seemed beneath the planners of the Department of Water Resources. The liberal north has been begging the DWR to dismantle the Hetch Hechy dam east of San Francisco, their main source of water. Those people must have found something else to agitate about as not a word has been said about tearing the damn down the past year. 

Evaporation Saving Black Balls

The Sunday Los Angeles Times had a big article on how the state was going to plan for the next drought. I guess there is nothing they can do about it now except having Gov. Brown asking all of us to use 25% less water. He is asking a state that is the most efficient state using water in the union to use even less. It looks like it is working. However, we are already using 25% less water than we did 20 years ago.

Locally, the city reservoirs have been adding black floating balls to literally cover the open water saving millions of gallons of water from evaporating. Black seems like a strange color but as a spokesman said, "we want to save the water, we don't care if its warm or not." Millions have been purchased at a cost of 36¢ each yet are supposed to last 10 years and can be recycled. It will be interesting to see if it works.

A Familiar Site on California's Freeways.

In a region that is naturally more desert than not, the idea of having vast green lawns will have to change. Some homeowners, knowing that they will pay through the nose for water, tore out lawns and planted desert landscaping instead. The idea caught on! The state has had two state sponsored rebates to help pay for the removal of your lawn and replacing it with rocks and desert loving plants.

The Times article talks about DWR's future. There will be more sewage treatment plants, recharge basins and desalination  facilities. They are looking for high efficiency projects in steps rather than grand projects like more dams, aqueducts and such. Steps like reducing thinning overgrown forests something Native

The drought is closer to home that we know!

Americans knew 200 years ago, fixing leaky delivery systems, gathering more data on water usage and encouraging more efficient use of water. Finally they are retooling their flood control systems to capture rain runoff and funnel it to underground storage. The cost of this and other measures will be $500 million but already, they say it is paying off. Locally developed water development is up 50% and imported water down 40%

There was a fascinating broadcast on "60 Minutes" where Leslie Stahl interviewed a water treatment plant manager. He said when they are through with waste water it is purer than what you would get out of your tap. He wolfed down a glass while Stahl after demurring finally drank her water. She had to admit it tasted good and you would never know that awhile ago it came from homes and had who knows what was in it. We could cut water usage down quite a lot using recycled water. It seems to work on the space station!

Agriculture was slow to use more efficient methods.

Agriculture, historically has been the biggest user of water in California. Some of the crops really have no right to be grown here. They have huge water demands that would be better grown where water is more plentiful.

50% of urban water usage currently goes to landscaping ... or did. However, the state and water company rebates and some very talented landscapers have created beautiful yards that actually offer more than a boring old lawn. The challenge is changing the habits and minds of Californians. After all we are a state of transplants. Many come from colder climes yet for half of the year they have rain and flowers and the time to mow their yards. Having the

Drought tolerant sustainable yard

greenest yard is a badge of honor. As New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and now California have discovered, this vision wasted untold amounts of water and wasn't sustainable. This drought probably wouldn't have been as bad if many of the proposed policies were already in place. Americans are reactive and rarely look far ahead for potential problems. The DWR says it has learned its lesson and is planning for the next 100 years. With a forecast of 50 million Californians in the near future, they better be. As we have discovered there is only so much water to go around.

The irony is that there has been more rain storms in Southern California this summer than in recent memory, certainly since the 70's. Where did the water go? Storm drains that kiss the Pacific Ocean.

Oroville Lake in Northern California

As you can see above, yards do not have to be gravel and a spindly cactus. Many of the best are

beautiful and offer far more interest than a green lawn with the added demand of less care and maintenance. Its win-win for all concerned.

However, as you can see on the right, not following the new proposals will make lakes like that created behind Oroville Dam look like this. Every one. It is shocking but when you realize that 50% of the water was sucked to water lawns and who knows what else, something has to be done. There are rumors we will have an El Niño of epic proportions. Will we? The experts say that even if we do, it will not end the drought. It is time to maximize the collection of those rains and while it may not end the drought, it can certainly give us a lot of water that in past years would have flowed to the sea.

If you think California is alone, think again. I read a book several years ago that said wars would be fought over, guess what? Water, yes, water. With 7 billion people on earth, clean drinkable water might well be more valuable than gold. It is showing us the effects here first. We can only hope the lessons we learn here can be used around the world. You would think with 70% of this world covered in water there would be enough. The issue, and one that could well be fought over, is there isn't enough palatable water, at least yet. California can yet again lead the way!

Thank you for visiting my blog. Please read a wide selection of earlier blogs that address the issues of design in all its myriad forms.