tim merritt [dot] net

I tend to spot fungi when walking. I find the color and texture fascinating. So, click on the red toadstool below to see some pictures taken with my phone.

The pig speaks. Note the generous “chip BBQ” on the sandwich!

First Look: Travel organizer Tripit.com offers iPhone app, from The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Must learn about this app, and use it with Ellen, so we can keep track of each other.

Jason Kottke pointed to “this fascinating Reddit discussion, I won a $30 million lottery jackpot and have spent the last 5 years traveling the world. I find myself contemplating what I’d do with a fortune when I see the tens of millions in lottery prizes on the billboards around town. I try not to spend too much brain time on it; I haven’t bought a lottery ticket in years. There is some entertainment value in it, but it’s distracting as well, and even vicarious greed is greed and thus needs to be avoided.

The Reddit poster seems credible to me. If he’s a pretender, he’s good at it. I won’t comment on his values and choices, other than to say I appreciate that he’s not miserable as many lottery winners apparently become. I really appreciate his pointer to Wikitravel as an travel information resource:

Started as a beach traveler but became organized about it after I ran out of beaches. I tackle sections of continents at a time now. Wikitravel has all the information guides have for free.

“Ran out of beaches.” Oh, what problems to have! Anyway, I poked around Wikitravel, and looked at the page for Boulder, Colorado – Ellen and I are going there in October – and found some really good tips. Favorite!

We landed in Los Angeles at midday Saturday almost a month ago, and this post has been languishing. So here’s a quick compedium of what we did our first few days.

Saturday:

• arrived, visited, fell asleep after watching Phoebe in Wonderland

Sunday:
• had terrific breakfast at Black Cow Cafe in Montrose: poached eggs with orange Hollandaise, bacon, and tomato on corn pudding, with cheddar jalapeno biscuits; a Montrose Cristo sandwich; and coffee coffee coffee
• walked through the Montrose street market, looking at odds and ends, some craft art, and some lovely produce, fish, and other foods with a picnic in mind for this evening at the Hollywood Bowl
• took a nap
• met with Marlene and her friends Kevin, Jean, and Tim
• ate like royalty before the show
• watched Janelle Monae, Chaka Khan, and Adele perform (a wonderful show)

Monday
• Ellen had to be at her computer at 5 a.m. local as she’s not officially on vacation until Wednesday
• I got a hair cut and browsed a bit while she worked
• more nap
• met with Bob Harris, friend from JD’s movie nights in Atlanta, in his Hollywood neighborhood (across from the Scientology Celebrity Centre, ooh la la) and had a nice meal
• took in an improv show at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, artistic home of SNL’s Amy Poehler
• Bob took us on an impromptu walking tour of some sights in Hollywood, including parts of the Walk of Fame, the Pantages Theater, the Arclight Dome, Amoeba Records, and then, as a nice surprise for film buffs, a walk up a hill from Sunset Boulevard to see the Alto Nida apartment building, where William Holden’s character in Sunset Boulevard, Joe Gillis, lives before taking up with Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond

• after saying good night to Bob, we drove up Beachwood into the hills and found ourselves among narrow mountainous tracks, with incongruously expensive homes and cars above and below us on every curve, with rare views of the lights in the city below as punctuation

  A great start.

Here are inks to several photo albums I posted from the first part of our trip to California.

At the Wagner’s

July 1st

Party on July 3rd

July 4th

Descanso Gardens

The Getty Museum

Update – I’m changing these links gradually. The first albums I linked to used Flash, and I prefer a different method. I hope to have all of the links to the new type of galleries finished soon. Right now the only updates are for the 3rd of July album and the Getty album.

I’ve spent most of the morning photographing flowers and other plants here in Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge west of Pasadena. Lovely; I’m grateful for this beauty, for the opportunity to see it and make photographs of it. A small snap below, with the promise of a gallery of more to come:

Just shot some photos of a small coyote in Descanso Gardens. Will post the best (!?) one soonest.

Clark’s Trading Post needs a new Wolfman! Auditions are this weekend. The Union leader has a story here. I know Janine and Janne used to drive by Clark’s and scream “Free the bears!” and that Janine at least has taught her kids to do the same….

I found the link at Making Light, a website I read pretty regularly. It’s a group blog mainly written and edited by a couple who are both editors at Tor Books, one of the biggest SF publishers. Another of the regular contributors is Jim MacDonald military officer and a current Nationally Registered Wilderness EMT-I who lives in New Hampshire and often writes at Making Light about life in the Granite State. He’s an EMT (and publishes fascinating posts at Making Light about emergency care for lay people), a published SF author, and all-around Smart Person.

Just picked up our food for a hotel-room picnic from Papillote French Cuisine To-Go, a lovely little French kitchen near our hotel. I picked a mushroom soup (not creamy) to start, duck confit for me and a salmon and asparagus quiche for Ellen—both come with green salad and the chef’s ginger vinaigrette—and for dessert the merangue Ellen demanded. (Demanded! Yes!)

The charming Ariana made choosing the food very fun. She offered tastes of the soup, explained what was in the different dishes, told me of her (yet to be visited) relations in France, and made the whole experience a real pleasure before we’d eaten a bite.

While Ariana got everything ready for me, I walked down to the SCAD box office for tickets to the Battle Royale, the culmination of a very prestigious competition among several top-notch high school jazz bands—two from California, two from Washington state, one from Oregon, three from Florida. (See the extended quotation below.) this is some serious business, and we’re going to see the finals. Excited.

The winners of our fourth annual SWING CENTRAL High School Jazz Band Competition & Workshop, three of the finest high school jazz bands in the country, open the show with the music of Thad Jones, Benny Carter and Johnny Mercer.

Then, prepare yourself for an event of unbridled skill and improvisation. For decades, jazz musicians have pushed the limits of conceptual music: engaging in friendly competition known as “cutting.” BATTLE ROYALE pits masters of the art of improv going head-to-head. Selected student musicians from SWING CENTRAL are also featured.

Marcus Roberts Trio vs. The Clayton Bros.
Wycliffe Gordon vs. Andre Hayward
Scotty Barnhart vs. Terrell Stafford
Jeff Clayton vs. Mace Hibbard

Update: Excellent. The three bands were crisp and solid. The third place band got a challenging ballad which though subtle didn’t impress the way the more upbeat songs from the other two bands did. I believe the song didn’t serve them well. Very enjoyable. Then came the cutting: the bands and players they name above were just amazing, and that word is used on purpose. Amazing. Jazz lives, friends.

Some kind of wreck closed I-75 at exit 32 south of Macon—just now we had to exit the highway and get right back on. No visible wreckage but more than a half dozen emergency vehicles, and an ambulance pulling away just as we took the exit ramp. I wanted a pic of all the police cars but the Greyhound has dirty windows, the scene was far away, and I didnt want to climb over anyone for a different angle.\n\nI hope everyone comes out okay.

Taking Greyhound to Savannah to see Ellen. Shes been in south Georgia all week seeing clients in schools and school systems, and ended in Savannah. The forecast includes rain unfortunately, but Savannah in bloom should be lovely anyway. More later….

Edit: removed f@¢&ed up image-embed code; testing a fix now.

Later edit: image file got corrupted and it’s gone. Not a big deal; just me smiling on a bus.

A quick link indicating my frustrated desire to return to Paris. That is all.

Cheap hotels in Paris. Special offers on Cheap Paris hotels at Hotels.com.

Film treasures of Europe available online: This French Life

A different Tim than me, of course. Ellen’s colleague from work, Tim Stewart, met us in Jonesborough Tennessee for a thumping good breakfast at the Blair-Moore House bed and breakfast, where Ellen and I stayed last night. Then we went to hear Sheila Kay Adams at the international Storytelling Center. (I’m on my phone now; I’ll add links later.) Good fun and lovely mountain views, the leaves beautiful with fall colors.

Serious Eats is a seriously fun food blog, and while they enjoy and usually write well about fine dining, they also know how to point readers and eaters to good inexpensive eats as well. My mother – a.k.a. Mom, a.k.a. Nana – is travelling to Montreal and Quebec City with a dear friend from Switzerland early next summer. 48 Hours in Montreal: A Guide to Eating won’t entirely be to their taste (they don’t worship quite as ardently at the altar of the pig, for example) but they should find some valuable ideas here and it the comments. I may travel there next year too, but whenever I do, this will be one of my key references.

Just leaving the beautiful Bridlewood winery. To us Georgians, the excellence of California central-coast weather is a constant revelation. Bright sunshine all day, but with the low desert humidity, frequent breezes, and the world’s largest air conditioning system – the Pacific Ocean – it stays wonderfully comfortable all day long.

The wineries here are among horse ranches, vegetable farms, some small private houses, and the lovely golden hills. There’s a lavender farm we have saved for a visit tomorrow morning before we return to Global Gardens for some local olive oils and vinegars. We have happy happy taste buds.

Kalyra’s, and California’s, admonition to wine tasters.

Impending intoxfication aside, we unfortunately cannot take advantage of their generous deals on shipping wine to Georgia. We’ll have to put some our luggage and check it.

Room 349, Santa Ynez Valley Marriott, Buellton, California.

I’ve got more to tell, and show, about the trip I took to New Orleans last month with some folks from my church. We worked on a house, mudding and sanding drywall, painting the porch, and more. We stayed at Olive Tree Village, formerly a church and now a center for housing volunteer work crews from all over the country staying in New Orleans and helping Presbyterian Disaster Assistance with the ongoing Katrina recovery effort.

Of all the disasters of the last few years, one reason to keep New Orleans in mind is that it’s a great and unique American city, and it deserves far better than the sham “heck of a job” of recovery it’s received. Do what you can for New Orleans – it makes America a better country. Even if you don’t do it for New Orleans, do it for somewhere hit by disaster. It’ll make you a better person.

This guy was there, always keeping a helpful eye on sanitary conditions. He never complained and he had a drink of water ready whenever anyone was thirsty. So say hello to SinkMan.

As I said, more to come on the trip, but I thought you might want to meet him.