Great Los Angeles Earthquake of 1974

Today while visiting my mother I found that she was already watching this disaster classic and not only that, but the infamous "earthquake scene" was mere minutes away so I waited for it and watched it and then got hooked and finished the movie and in turn neglected to get everything done at mom's place that I had driven nearly 30 miles round trip to do. I still find this more accurate than any other movie interpretation of this city being destroyed by earthquake. Sorry "San Andreas", et al. "Earthquake" IMDB "Earthquake" Wiki

Retro San Gabriel Valley

This image was tweeted HERE by Militant Angeleno three days ago. When I saw it my jaw just about dropped because it shows my hometown of Pasadena, CA, from back in the day before I was even born (1970). This is indicated by the newness of the freeways shown (Interstate 210 & State Route 134) and the lack of more buildings in many areas suggests this is circa second half of the 1960s. The section of I-210 on the right side of the image lacks freeway overpasses suggesting it is still under construction. The mountains in the background are the iconic San Gabriel Mountains girded with a mantle of wintertime snow; a scene much more common in the first 2/3s of the 20th century and earlier than nowadays. Image courtesy of CardCow.com (all rights reserved).

My Top 10 Classic California TV Commercials

Periodically I find my mind wandering back to television commercials that I watched while growing up in Southern California in the 1970s and early 1980s. These are a sampling of my favorites, all of which were strictly regional companies and limited to the Los Angeles media market or California media markets.

The ahead-of-his-time Shadoe Stevens used to do local "Fred Rated" television ads for the Federated chain of home entertainment stores in Southern California long before there were Circuit City or Best Buy stores all over the place, having started way back in 1970 and dying in 1989 as technology and consumer trends changed faster than they could evolve.... the story of business success or failure.

Miller's Outpost created many ads over the years of my youth with this being just one. The company began in 1972, changed its name to Anchor Blue Clothing Company in the late 1990s and entered bankruptcy during the Great Recession in 2009 and ceased to exist in 2011.

"Go See Cal!" Who can forget these ads growing up and watching television in Southern California in the 1970s and 1980s? Cal Worthington's "Go See Cal" campaign actually ran from the 1960s to 1990s.

Round Table Pizza had a great advertising campaign featuring these guys throughout the 1980s.

"Me and Sparklett's Water making friends." I have never forgotten that highly effective ad jingle from Sparklett's Water Company which still exists but is owned by hated Nestle Corporation.

I grew up on Winchell's Donuts which started in Temple City, CA, where I lived for 5-1/2 years in the 1970s into 1980s. I still remember this particular commercial for the drill sergeant.

Adee Heating & Plumbing created a memorable advertising campaign which only reached the Los Angeles media market but I was there and I remember these like it was yesterday. Quite catchy!

The jingle at the end of Roto-Rooter television commercials was inexplicably catchy and effective lasting for decades.

Anybody living in the Los Angeles media market in the 1970s and 1980s cannot but remember the distinctive voice and delivery of Earl Schieb.

I grew up with angry Larry H. Parker ambulance chaser television commercials, most famously, the ones with the black guy who allegedly won $2.1 million from a motorcycle accident, Parker's claimed specialty. After laws changed keeping damage amounts secret, the commercials had to only hint at the dollar amount that by later times was legendary and even satirized on comedy shows and late night television monologues. All the earlier commercials from the 1970s and 1980s are only hosted by Larry H. Parker who has disabled embedding so I can't share any of those here. However, I was able to find this 1995 commercial that gives you the idea of what the earlier ones were like and does feature the motorcycle guy. Note: nobody seems to be able to find any legal record of Larry H. Parker winning this man such a judgement and thus speculation is that his story is a fabrication.

Thunderstorm Over Mount Wilson

KNBC-TV Los Angeles just tweeted this dual image (above) of a strong thunderstorm over Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains of Los Angeles County as viewed from down below in the San Gabriel Valley. Below is a view of the storm approaching that locale as viewed from the Mount Wilson Towercam.

Channel Surfing the Northridge Quake

Twenty-three years ago this morning the M6.7 Northridge Earthquake slammed the Los Angeles Basin killing 57 people. This is a mash-up of recorded live coverage from various television news outlets. This is how I experienced the earthquake that morning, flipping from television station to station and even recording it much as this person did. However,  my VHS cassettes are not digitized and saved to Youtube... yet. I watched some of these same live segments replayed here. This is Part One of a series of twenty-four such segments with links to the next-in-sequence appearing on the player on this blog page after the video ends AND being at right of the video player on the corresponding Youtube page for this video if one goes there. Someday in in the not-too-distant future we will be doing this again for another SoCal quake. Be prepared!

La La Land's Architectural Rememberer in Miniature

I can't explain why I find this documentary short so compelling and perhaps even a bit haunting. Perhaps it is the skill of the documentarian Matthew Arnold-Ladensack and the score by Rhian Sheehan or perhaps it is the history being discussed or perhaps is the story of the miniature-maker-turned-amateur-historian Gerald William Cox. Probably it is a bit of each. Watch and enjoy!

LA // 1:87 from Humanity Pictures on Vimeo.

Citizen Fire Photojournalism 101

Today during the 2 p.m. hour, driven by strong westerly winds, a roadside wildfire along the eastbound/northbound slow lane of the Antelope Valley Freeway (Highway 14) ran hard across an adjacent wash further south, into some low-laying hills even further south, and still further south up into the Angeles National Forest at the western end of the San Gabriel Mountains. Tonight, the Sand Fire has run over the spine of the mountains and as of this posting is threatening Little Tujunga Canyon and environs over on the San Fernando Valley side of the mountain range.

Given the population density in the general area of this incident and the fire being up on a mountain range that is easily viewed from just about anywhere, a wealth of photographs and video footage of this conflagration was captured, some of it even very good or even great. Below are the very best non-fire photographer images of this incident I found on Twitter. To me this is citizen journalism at its best. The images are presented in the order I was approved to use the images by their creators whom I thank with all sincerity. I will continue to add more images as permissions come in as some photographers undoubtedly went to be bed early and won't see my requests until the morning.
*NOTE: remember that these images belong to these photographers and they control their use and retain rights to them unless otherwise specified.

This may be the very best image Everett Orian has ever captured on a camera. How iconic-looking and quintessentially Californian: In-N-Out Burger sign at dusk in an urban setting with double palm trees and a raging wildfire header in the background.

Daniel Scruggs, Jr., shot this very artistic image in Lake Forest tonight showing the setting sun sharing the sky with smoke from the Sand Fire.

Beth Shott shot this image from her neighborhood in the Sand Canyon Ranch area this afternoon early in the fire's progression right after it entered the Angeles National Forest. Note the BAe-146 jet tanker dwarfed by the twisting convection column.

Claudia Peschiutta shot this image along Placerita Canyon Road this afternoon. Note a bit of pyrocumulus cloud poking out of the top of the main convection column.

Matt Hartman shot this image from Glassell Park looking up over the Verdugo Mountains as the Sand Fire heads towards the camera but at a safe distance and many obstacles in between. To me, this massive header is quite reminiscent of a wedge tornado headed towards the camera such as are seen in Tornado Alley in the spring.

Brooke Hansohn captured this image from Burbank with the Verdugo Mountains in the background showing the fire running up into the Angeles NF at the west end of the San Gabriel Mountains and popping quite a bit of pyrocumulus cloud atop the main convection column.

Kevin Gill shot this ominous image from Santa Clarita which shows the fire not obeying the tradition of laying down after the sun sets as most wildfires do. The current red flag conditions effecting this area are manifesting themselves in this rather rambuctious nocturnal fire behavior.

Leonard Elick captured the drama of the early stages of the fire's initial foray onto the Angeles NF in the first couple of hours of the incident. Note the Erickson Skycrane rendered nearly invisible with the background of the smoke.

Carla T. captured this image from Valencia tonight showing both the intensity of the now nocturnal fire as well as the rather impressive extent of the fire over the western end of the San Gabriel Mountains and adjacent hilly areas.

Jose Cruz captured the moon rising through the smoke of the Sand Fire tonight as viewed from Newhall and it well conveys the degree to which the wind is pushing this fire to not lay down after dark as is typical of most wildfires.

Keith Garcia captured this intriguing and ominous view of the Sand Fire from all the way down in Hermosa Beach at the coast which gives one a good sense of how widely viewable this fire is across much of the LA Basin. The water tower reminds me of the "tripods" in the 2005 movie War of the Worlds.

Jack Husted captured this image of the Pasadena area from what I assume was a helicopter. The College Hills are at left and the San Gabriel Mountains are at right and center. The fire has moved up into the western end of this mountain range. I find the weird filtered daylight under a smoke deck most fascinating as there is an apocalyptic aspect to such a scene. Also, I came from Pasadena and find weird images of the place most fascinating. I watched fires burn in these mountains as a child such as the Pinecrest Fire in 1979 and my family was directly affected by the Kinneloa Fire in 1993.

Benjamin Woodle captured a series of amazing images and this one is my favorite. The entire series was taken from the same location in Santa Clarita. I like the backdrop of the nocturnal conflagration with the dark silhouette of the high-tension powerline pylons in the foreground of the image. Very artistic!

Laurenzo shot this moody scene on Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena tonight. I was born just down the way at Huntington Memorial Hospital and have many childhood memories of riding in the car with family down this street and elsewhere in this part of town. My parents used to store family belongings at one of the Public Storage Co. properties in this neighborhood back in the 1970s and I still have the locks they used. It is interesting to me to see my old hometown made to look strange due to this fire's smoke at dusk.

From Santa Clarita, Andrew Dawson shot this intriguing image tonight of the ominous but beautiful night-time wildfire with a bit of moon-made bluish sky above the fire and a visually-pleasing pattern of illuminated neighborhood swirling up the grade towards dark ridges backlit by fire.

Greg Doyle captured this hellish scene from adjacent to the famous Wildlife WayStation demonstrating how far the fire has progressed overnight from being a tiny little spot fire along the Antelope Valley Freeway nearly 12 hours ago.

Alanes captured this moody image from the O.C. at dusk showing the extent of the smoke cloud over the Southland.

Johnny Petillo captured this scene from what looks like the San Fernando Valley which shows how far this fire traveled in less than twelve hours.

Mo Sab took a winner here from the Santa Clarita Valley showing the moon rising over the conflagration and illuminating the smoke cloud top. The mix of fire light, moonlight, and city lights is amazing in this image.

Isaiah Talley captured the essential element of the wind driving this nocturnal conflagration through brush-covered terrain.

Fish Fire Day & Night

Two major wildfires broke out on the Angeles National Forest in eastern Los Angeles County this afternoon, about an hour apart. The more easterly now-1,500-acre Reservoir Fire began near Morris Reservoir in San Gabriel Canyon. An hour later, the now-3,000-acre Fish Fire began in the hills above Duarte, CA. The Mount Wilson Towercam is a wonderful way to watch wildfires when the operators are pointing it at a nearby wildfire. I learned this during the 2009 Station Fire. Below is an image from the Towercam captured during the peak of the fire's daytime activity and the latter image was captured tonight as the Strawberry Moon rose over the eastern LA Basin. Images courtesy of UCLA (all rights reserved).*Update: both fires were combined into the San Gabriel Complex overnight. Updated 6/21/16, 2:05 p.m.

Both images courtesy of UCLA (all rights reserved).

I'm Not Shy About This

I found this lush gem of contemporary progressive house ("Don't Be Shy" by LTN & Kokai) a week or two ago and bookmarked it. I then proceeded to forget about it until this weekend when I viewed it again and even shared it with mom since she grew up in Los Angeles. I figured she would enjoy the video aspect of the track as it is a visually-stunning time-lapse montage of footage of a nocturnal City of Angels. Crank up your speakers and full-screen the player.

Picture of the Day - Double La-La Land Lightening

This is perhaps the most sublime image of lightening over Los Angeles that my eyes have ever beheld. I am guessing this is from the recent storm that passed through that area in recent days. Photo by Emeric Le Bars (all rights reserved).

Nightfall Over LaLaLand

I encountered this track ("Nightfall") and accompanying timelapse video a short time ago as a result of a Google+ notification regarding a new release. I initially delayed checking it out for awhile but did so just now for a mental break from an upper division history class research paper rough draft I'm working on tonight. I'm underwhelmed by the track itself while overwhelmed by the video which is jaw-droppingly beautiful and features the city of my nativity: Los Angeles, CA. Enjoy!

27 Years Ago Tonight This Happened

Twenty-seven years ago tonight I watched the towering inferno within the First Interstate Tower in downtown Los Angeles unfold on KTLA-Los Angeles Channel 5 on my television in Atascadero, CA. It was near the end of my junior year of high school and I still remember legendary LA anchorman Hal Fishman's performance from the studio. 

LaLa Land vs. By-the-Bay

This is breathtaking timelapse footage of two of California's three great cities I discovered on Twitter last night. Enjoy!

Picture of the Day - Read A F*ck*ng Book

This is yet another humorous hack-job on a CALTRANS electronic sign... this time in downtown Los Angeles last night I believe. The previous hack of a CALTRANS sign to make it on this space was last year in downtown San Francisco's Godzilla Attack. Given the Southern California culture I doubt this advice will be much heeded by anybody not already reading a book.
Image courtesy of Spark Firepants via Twitter.

Cal Tech Kim-Day

Today I did a "Kim Day." A "Kim Day", for those of you who don't know, is a day in which I pretty much ignore my phone, do not attend to any of my regular responsibilities, and I take a day trip somewhere to do something cool... cool to me anyway. My 1990's into much of the 2000's was one giant "Kim Day" so I don't do them much anymore having pretty much expended a lifetime's worth. In fact, nowadays, I do this less frequently than a blue or a blood moon.

I was born in Pasadena, CA. Pasadena is home. Pasadena has changed. I have changed. You can't go home again. I don't want to live in Pasadena again. However, I can visit Pasadena. I enjoy visiting Pasadena and reflecting. Then I find myself happy to leave and head back home to the Central Coast. While growing up I either lived in Pasadena-Altadena, lived in a nearby city (Monrovia or Temple City), or visited Pasadena-Altadena from the Central Coast where I have lived since 1982 when I was age 11 turning 12. While growing up on the Central Coast my family commuted to Pasadena almost every weekend after my dad died in 1985.

Earthquakes have been an integral part of my entire life... a recurring theme and a common thread connecting so much of it. Also part of my reality has been the California Institute of Technology a.k.a. Cal Tech. Being in Pasadena, living or visiting, it has been a regular presence in my life, just like earthquakes. Added to that propinquity with Cal Tech, earthquakes in Southern California made Cal Tech a regular part of my earthquake experience as it has been for all Southern Californians since the days of Dr. Charles F. Richter. The public face of Cal Tech, earthquake-wise, has been Dr. Kate Hutton for 37 years. Whenever there has been a significant earthquake, she walked us through it emotionally more than anything else, by answering our questions. She was and is not just our seismologist, but also our quake mommy whom we run to for comfort after a scary earthquake. I feel like I grew up with her even though I never met her until more recently. I first encountered Kate online on California's Earthquake Forum and a bit later on California Disasters. She is good people and, despite her celebrity, remained a regular person which is more than can be said for many people who become famous. I later met Kate in person in 2009 at the Los Angeles County Arboretum when I did the Monrovia Rockhound's 46th annual rock show. 

For some time I have been wanting to take a tour of the seismo-lab at Cal Tech. In 2006 I did the USGS Menlo Park tour on the 100th anniversary of the 1906 "San Francisco" Earthquake. Heading into the holidays this year I felt it was time to take a Cal Tech tour. This year thematically for me as been a year of not holding back and trying new things and when necessary, stepping outside of my comfort zone. I mentioned to Kate my desire to drop in on Cal Tech and she graciously agreed to indulge me. Despite my car's mechanical integrity in question I decided to "damn the torpedoes" and go down to Pasadena today and trust God to keep me safe and my car roadworthy... which He did. Initially I hoped my mother would share the experience, but she was unable to attend.  Therefore, today turned into a "Kim Day."

The cherry on top for me was the fact a Santa Ana Wind event was setting up across Southern California today. On this day, I first encountered them on the south side of the Cuesta Grade where I was buffeted by down-slope winds at about 5 a.m. When I broke out onto Gaviota Coast on Highway 101 at about 6 a.m. I was greeted by about the most magical scene I have ever witnessed. The first light of dawn was turning the waters of the Santa Barbara Channel a dark blue to almost black upon which mysterious-looking but beautiful lights on oil platforms and ships twinkled. The sky was starting to low-glow in the east and illuminate just enough of the landscape of the Channel Islands beyond and on the Santa Ynez Mountains onshore to create a spectacularly beautiful sight. I did not feel like stopping to take photos (except one) and I'm not sure many a photo taken from the 101 Freeway corridor would have done the sight due justice. At the Ventura River I encountered the first current of strong Santa Ana Winds since the Cuesta Grade earlier. I could see its footprint on the sea-surface which was rippled by the winds where just north of there the sea-surface was smooth as glass. By the time I reached the Los Angeles Basin the winds were still in the process of clearing out the haze but the north wind could be seen pushing it ocean-ward. Below are some images of the highlights of my day.

Dawn over the Santa Barbara Channel.

This the the following images were taken from the top of Lake Avenue in Altadena, CA.

Verdugo Hills and Crescenta Valley

Downtown Pasadena, CA.

Downtown Los Angeles, CA with Palos Verdes Peninsula at left in distance.

Crescenta Valley with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's campus visible at center in middle distance.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada-Flintridge.

Lake Avenue headed down the hill towards downtown Pasadena, CA.

Downtown Pasadena, CA.

Downtown Los Angeles, CA, with the Rose Bowl superstructure at right in the foreground.

Where you see hills, think earthquakes because that is how these hills were built up over geologic time.

Santa Catalina Island is in the distance, then Palos Verdes Peninsula in middle distance.

Whittier Hills and Orange County beyond.

Santa Ana Mountains in the distance.

Whittier Hills and Puente Hills

I saw this CERT class advertisement on a sign on Lake Avenue.

Dr. and Mrs. McGee's old house at 1285 Woodbury Drive in Altadena, CA.
To me it always was and remains "The Folk's House."

The new owners have really fixed it up nice.

The charming but destructive ivy is all gone in front but the wonderful trees are still there.

The late Dr. Lois Groth's old home now stands abandoned and looks like a haunted house across the street from "The Folk's House." This used to be the tidiest and neatest property on all of Woodbury Drive from east to west.

A beautiful Santa Ana Windy day in Pasadena... these are the most beautiful days of the year at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. To me this is a quintessential Santa Ana Wind scene in this neighborhood that conjures many fond memories from my childhood.

I love this campus... I'm just not smart enough to attend school there.

Perhaps the most interesting map on the wall this day at Cal Tech's seismo-lab.

The media room at the seismo-lab at Cal Tech.

Kate firing up the big screen.

This was a simulation of the earthquake early warning system.

Each media outlet has its own feed connection.

Interesting paleo-seismological exhibit.

The Cal Tech Earthquake Exhibit
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).