Wednesday, March 08, 2006
PAINTED CLOUDS....These clouds look absolutely fake, don't they? Like someone painted a backdrop and hung it out there behind the buildings and the rest of the city filling up the horizon with these perfectly formed beings....
This is a close-up of almost the same view but with more of the city showing...These clouds still look painted...This is the kind of day that makes people want to move to Los Angeles...These pictures were taken from my Deck...and that is Downtown Los Angeles....Hard to believe that we have all these big buildings now...for years, and years and years because of earthquakes, they didn't build anything over twelve stories...!
This was the closest close-up and these clouds still look absolutely fake, fake, fake....! But they aren't. They are the real thing. And even though I know this and I saw them in the sky that day with my own two eyes...I cannot get over the fact that they look painted....nature, wow....there is nothing like it.Here is a very interesting little 'baby' person that is growing on a plant on my patio. This plant is in a pot and eventually we will put it in the ground. Probably in early May...
The arm in the foreground is another plant entirely. The little 'baby' is on a strange but interestingly shaped plant...(the name of which I cannot conjure up at this moment) it's rather triangular in shape though the sides are slightly curved....it gets pretty big and they arms become rather top heavy and so it grows all over the place..It has amazingly large flowers which are quite beautiful....(no flowers at this time of year...they will come later)...But isn't that baby just about the cutest little critter you ever saw? 
This is an Aloe....(not Aloe Vera, though...). There are many kinds of Aloe's and this one is flowering right now, but the flowers haven't opened all the way yet. I was looking down from my deck onto my garden that is underneath my house and I saw this and thought it looked quite beautiful from above like this, so here it is....and then, in this photograph just below we have this beauty, again.
And while I was out on the deck, I noticed that succulant that was flowering and which I posted about a few days ago is still flowering....these little flowers are so perfect, aren't they? And they are only about a half an inch to three-quarters of an inch long....I think they are so damn beautiful! Here's another angle, down below...these blossoms are not quite as open yet, but there are more of them on this little sprig than there are in the previous picture...so incredibly beautiful....
This is a gorgeous rather small succulant that has these little fleshy arms. And here is what is amazing about this plant, besides it's color and the shape of the arms and the symmetry, which would be more than enough to make it 'special', there is another fantastic thing about this plant and it's sisters and brothers, and it is this: If one of the arms should break off for some reason like an animal knocks into it, you just lay it down on some dirt, either in a pot or just any part of your garden that you would like it to grow, and it will root right there and begin a whole new plant just from that one little arm sitting on top of the dirt. Talk about regeneration....Nature....AMAZING, AMAZING!!!!More to come.....
**UPDATE: Just a note to say that I probably won't be able to put up a new post for a day or three..(lol)..because of S.T.A.G.E. cause even though I cannot be there, I have much to do for it, anyway....we are ALMOST THERE!!!! Hooray!**
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 3:02:00 AM
Monday, March 06, 2006
POLUTION SIGNS and other stuff....Here is another Side-Of-The-Building-Visual-Polution-Sign...that I just happened to see the other day when it just happened to be an extremely crispy-clear day...this sign is all the way down on Wilshire Blvd. which is quite a distance from me....maybe 7 or 8 miles...(I'm not good at this, so it could be 10 miles or more...) I hadn't noticed this painting until that day...it looks like cars in a row and I have no idea what this visual polution is Advertising...but it covers the entire side of that buliding....not like the last one that was being consrtructed or whatever it is they do, just down the hill from me...Now that it's finished, it is obvious that it definitely was meant for all of us up here in these hills...they only used the top half of that building...
And here it is...and it definitely is for Target...but, what does it mean? I don't have a clue! Do you???Then, I noticed that the other Visual Polution iPod thingy has just changed from an Orange background to a Blue background with a slightly different picture, but still advertising iPod! And here is that one, too...
And that's still the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in the foreground...I've got a few other photo's of odds and ends as seen from my deck...like, about ten days ago or so I noticed smoke rising from what looked like Cedars-Sinai Hospital, which is just on the edge of West Hollywood, sort of...I took a couple of close-ups of the smoke as the fire was burning and luckily they got it out very very quickly, I'm glad to say...and it was not any of the buildings in the Cedars-Sinai complex, which btw is huge!
It was somewhere closer to me in front of those buildings...I never did find out where or what or how...most likely because they got it out very very quickly...There is a house that is on the street below me which has been being renovated for over a year...it's one of those houses that they tore everything down except for one wall, because here in Los Angeles that is considered a renovation as oppossed to a 'new' house, even though it really is a completely new house, but supposedly everything is easier if it's a renovation as opposed to a new house in terms of permits and such. The tiles for the roof sat on the top of the house for at least two months and then, finally about three weeks ago they had five guys working on this roof for a few days....
This of course is a close up of these guys working...and of this house...I continued to follow the progress of the placing of the tiles...
But they are still not done with this roof....after a few days, all work stopped, again! I have no idea why..but then, I've never understood anything about Building or Contractors or the lack of 'keeping to a schedule' that seems to happen on every job I've ever heard about...I'll keep an eye out for any more progress...and show the finished roof.So, then, today...(Sunday, March 5th) I began hearing a lot of noise outside of my windows that face the city...and it grew and grew and grew! Too the point where I began to find it kind of annoying...So, I went to look at what was going on out there and saw quite a few helicopters, and realized it was because of The Academy Awards just down the hill from me. Some of these helicopters were carrying banners and other stuff that you were supposed to be able to read--though I wasn't able to read any of it---but before all that, I saw this huge decorated blimp...
I don't think this was advertising anything cause if it was, it didn't have anything on either side except all of this abstract art work...I think it was the Blimp that held the cameras that were taking the overhead pictures for the Pre-Show Red Carpet thing...I can't say I saw any overhead shots, but then I wasn't looking for them, you know? Anyway...I loved the way this Blimp looked...it was really pretty, and on both sides, too...!
And here's Sweetie, who is really responsible for me checking out what was out there (pre Helicopters, that is)....I saw him run over to the window as if he was stalking something and I got my camera because I loved that he saw something out there and was 'held' by it...you know that position just before a cat pounces??? (Maybe....) Well, he was watching the Blimp! I think it looked like a big slow moving bird to him! (lol)Sorry this is rather a blah post today...I just haven't had time to do anything 'in depth'....so I figured some fairly interesting photographs are better than nothing at all. Thanks for understanding....
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 1:17:00 AM
Saturday, March 04, 2006
BUTTON GROWTH....and other signs of Spring...Here is a photograph of the continued growth of 'The Buttons' on "George" that are no longer looking like buttons. Now they look more like Nipples...but that will change too, as further growth takes place any minute now....I left this photo on it's side because truthfully you can see the growth better than if the photo was upright...(which is what it should be, of course)...I love that the fuzzy look is becoming more obvious now, especially in this position...The wonders of nature continue...more will be revealed as time moves on.....
These are the flowers on a Euphorbia Lambii, when they are completely open, as they are right now. They look like little bells to me...beautiful perfect little bells--almost like some flower you might see in an English Garden...I love that we can see the rain residue, too...There was a 'surprise' rain night before last and into early A.M. (Thursday...) I say 'surprise' because they have been predicting rain for possibly Sunday night-Monday! It's okay with me because we do need it, but I'll never understand how with all the modern scientific ways they supposedly have to predict the weather now...The Farmer's Almanac is still more accurate than any Doppler whatever....lol
This is a Euphorbia Medusa....and if you are familiar with the Medusa story, you can see why....Hair all over the place...What's interesting to me about all the plants in my garden is---there is always something that is blooming all year long. And all the plants have their blooming time which is different from one another. All the Euphorbia's have been blooming all through the so called winter months, but then go dormant during the summer months and the Euphorbia's also have their growth period during the winter months, too...So, their are always some pretty little or BIG flowers to look at during the year....I already posted that magical night blooming Webercereus Johnsonii---that was the arm that bloomed as it sat on my patio---if you can recall that far back....
Take note of this amazing plant in the photo above...a 'Night Blooming" Cereus....right now, there is no evidence of the remotest kind yet that there will even be flowers on this plant...each arm will have any number of night blooming flowers, which by the way are huge!!! In fact, I would have to say they are unbelievable in their magicalness! Right now, it looks like pretty much---well---like nothing! But believe me, when it flowers, for that one night a year....you won't believe how extrordinarily beautiful each flower is, and how very big each flower is when you consider that each of these arms is about as big and round as a rather thick pencil....I will post this photo again to show the transformation....but that won't be for some weeks yet....we have to begin to see some teeny tiny fuzz balls to know that there will be flowers coming...and we don't see any of those, as yet....
Another Euphorbia person....None of these plants looks like they could or should be related---that they actually are in the same family is quite amazing, but true...What unites them is the sticky white liquid that is their 'blood', if you will...and I believe I mentioned this previously...like The Pointsettia Plant is a Euphorbia....These little red leaves on this plant is another sign that something is always visably growing here in my garden...and again, the Euphorbia's are having their growth period, right now...
So the photo above is a Succulant with some flowers....Blooming in January-February....
And here is a slightly closer look at this tiny little delicate beautiful flower...I tell you, the beauty of nature cannot be beat...each of these flowers is not even an inch long, and look at the intricate shape and color variations....This Is The Best, isn't it.....?More to come as more things bloom....
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 3:25:00 AM
Thursday, March 02, 2006
S.T.A.G.E.One week from tonight, on Thursday, March 9th....the entire company of this year's S.T.A.G.E. Event, "Do Re Mi- Comden & Green's Broadway" will have it's Dress Rehearsal. This amazing Event comes together in the most miraculous way, and when you consider some people will be stepping off planes Thursday morning and going right to The Luckman Theatre for a 'Sound Check' and in some cases, their first rehearsal of the song they are going to be singing the next evening and the following two evenings, (well Sunday is a Matinee, in fact)....for an audience of 1100 people at each performance--this truly IS Miraculous!!!
There are 'no people like show people', I tell you....truly, truly.
For 19 years Betty Garrett and I have been the Co-Chairs of this Event and both of us hold this evening and this cause very very dear to our hearts...The brilliant David Galligan, (who recieved a Lifetime Acheivement Award from The Ovation Awards, here in Los Angeles, this past November) was one of the founding members of this Event and has been directing it for the 22 years is has been in existence. Over these 22 years, we have raised approximately $5,000,000. for AIDS related Oraganizations.
This years beneficiery's are AIDS Project Los Angeles and Project New Hope, both organizations provide services to men, women & children living with HIV/AIDS which are not readily available to people anywhere else. Over these 22 years, The S.T.A.G.E. Event Proceeds have benefited such organizations as APLA, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, AIDS Service Center, and Project Angel Food, among others.
Last year we were lucky enough to have one of this country's greatest national treasures as a part of our show.
The sublimely talented Fayard Nicholas, who along with his brother Harold, were THE Premiere Dancing Partners of Twentieth Century Film and Theatre. Having played ALL over the world, their careers spanned from The Cotton Club in Harlem, to The Kennedy Center Honors in 1991. They recieved every Award conceivable, and then some. They played a Royal Command Performance for the King and Queen of England in 1948. They headlined at Carnegie Hall in New York City. They traveled for the USO performing in Vietnam as well as with Bob Hope. They have done everything there is to do in show business except Opera---Plus they have their very own star on Hollywood Boulevard, as well they should. Harold died in 1991 at the age of 70...and dear Fayard's very last dancing appearance was on the S.T.A.G.E. stage just one year ago---a short 4 months before he died at age 92.
Often, S.T.A.G.E. is lucky enough to have the special talents of some very special people due to the close proxinity of our venue and the fact that we are right here in Los Angeles. The year we honored Cole Porter, the fantasically talented David Hyde Pierce joined our company and brought his great great talent to the stage and his superlative humanity to his fellow performers. A nicer, dearer man, never lived. There is a CD of this particular show: Cole Porter-A Musical Toast, available for purchase at Amazon.com. That particular year our cast included the talents of such terrific people as Gretchen Wyler, (Who sang her show stopping number from "Silk Stockings", which she sang in the Original Broadway production, 'Stereophonic Sound') and Megan Mullally, now of "will & Grace" fame.
One year we were lucky enough to have that great great Broadway & West End star, Betty Buckley. ("Cats", "Carrie", Edwin Drood" & "Sunset Blvd.", etc.,etc.,etc...) It was the year of George & Ira Gershwin and Betty Buckley sang, "How Long Has This Been Going On". We had a steller group that year, along with Betty Buckley there were, among others, Shaun Cassidy, Holly Near, Roger Rees, Sam Harris, Brian L. Green, Debbie Shapiro Gravitte, Carole Cook, Shirley Jones, B. D. Wong, Julia Migenes, Lucie Arnaz, Davis Gaines...(He of 'Phantom Of The opera' fame....), and the brilliantly talented Bruce Vilanch.....
Plus about 15 other stars that I haven't even named....it was the l-o-n-g-e-s-t S.T.A.G.E. show we ever did....in fact, the joke is that the second act curtain is just coming down about now! (lol)
But it was a fantastic evening and there is a double CD available, (it could have been a triple..!) at Amazon.com of this show, too...Some of the songs included in this CD are"Somebody Loves Me", "I've Got A Crush On You", "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You", "It Ain't Necessarily So", "S'Wonderful", "But Not For Me", "Love Is Here To Stay", etc., etc., etc....The Gershwin brothers wrote some of the greatest songs ever heard! (In case the Amazon link doesn't work, the proper name of the CD is: George & Ira Gershwin - A Musical Celebration....MCA)
And, this year the always hilarious Bruce Vilanch is with us, again. The last time he did the show, we got to work together, 'hawking' to the audience at the end of the Intermission some "live auction" items, in particular, a fantastic "Musical Quote" - Eight bars of hand written music and lyrics by one of our great living theatre composers...in that particular case The Musical Quote was by Stephen Sondheim--signed and dated. And it was framed beautifully, too--Museum framing, and this particular one sold for $5,000! (We had three of these treasures--one for each performance...as we will this year, as well...)
Working with Bruce was so much fun, plus he is one of the sweetest kindest people you would ever want to know...He has written special material for all the greats! Billy Crystal...(Every Academy Award show Crytal has done...), Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, and Bette Midler, to name just a few. And for years and years he would appear at any and all AIDS Benefits he was asked to do...besides being a comic genius, this man has an enormously generous and giving heart....
In 2003, Bruce toured all over the country with the Musical "Hairspray" and played it here in Los Angeles for many many months with Marissa Jaret Winoker who won a Tony Award for her performance on Broadway and who will be doing our show for the second time, next weekend!! Hooray! So we have these two talented people back together again! How lucky is S.T.A.G.E. and how lucky are the audiences that will be seeing the show on March 10th, 11th & 12th...
Go to stagela.com to read more of the details....It's almost here, and we are all getting very very excited....I wish ALL of you could be here on that weekend and be swept away with the music and the talent as will the rest of the audience. Besides being the Best Show In Town, it is for such a good and much needed cause!
Ahhhh, come on....fly out!
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 4:02:00 AM
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Nature Nurture's
Today I need to go back to the earth and look at all the nature that is around me and be reminded of how these things of nature, nurture me....and hopefully, nurture you, too... I cannot remembe the name of this plant, I'm sorry to say....These arms are about as big and round as a big fat cigar....and the intricate design of each of these arms just knocks me out...nature---in all it's beauty and geometry, too---creates things that are truly astounding....but, here is another look from a slightly different angle...same plant....a different day, too....more sun...so we see more of the exactness of that glorious pattern....this pattern that repeats and repeats hundreds of times in each little arm....BEAUTIFUL!
I have a couple of these plants and they are all related...they all came from one plant...and that one plant is in the ground...This one, in the photo, is in a pot because an arm or two got broken off and so we planted it in a pot just to let it root. But it looked so very pretty in that particular place that I decided to just leave it there and let it do it's thing....And it's thing is to grow and multiply! And it has been doing that very successfully for a couple of years now...so, unless something happens to the sister plant that is in the ground, we'll just leave this beauty in the pot exactly where it is right now. It sure is happy there and that's important for a plant, cause if they are happy, they are beautiful and they then nurture you!
Another wonderful plant is this beautiful succulent (Echevaria, I believe)....the color alone nurtures me every time I see it.....the shape, too. I don't even know how to describe this color---
and I'm a painter and in order to mix these colors, you would have to use about 8 or 10 different colors, mixed very very carefully, and even then...this would be near to impossible to do...Oh, I know it can be done perhaps, by a De Vinci or a Rembrandt....masters of color, they were, but God's Garden....well.....almost impossible to duplicate. And that shape....my my my....so very perfect yet not, if you see what I mean. This plant is in a pot, too, out on my deck, which faces the city...but I have a few in the ground, as well....they are sturdy plants even though they have a delicacy to them....they look very delicate to me, anyway, and I think it's the softness of each leaf which gives one the feeling of delicacy....thick, but soft...I'm in love here!And this is one of my very very favorite plants....I probably have 50 of them in various sizes, all over the garden. Many are 'volunteers'.
This plant is called a Senecio....(It has a second name because there are many types of Senecio's....and I use to know it, but I've forgotten it....sorry about that...) This Senecio grows like a weed....the little puffs of flower seeds fly off with a very slight wind and land on the ground and wherever they land, they root and grow. That's why I have so very many of these plants...and we've pulled up more than I can count over time when they were very very small cause in a day or so from that moment of pulling up, there could be ten or fifteen more little volunteers!
These next photo's give you a closer look at the bark of the Senecio....bark is really not the right word, and truthfully
I don't know what the correct word is...but given that, look at the pattern on this....and it is so smooth. There are no little 'stickers' on a Senecio...nothing to hurt you in any way...Beautiful Beautiful Lush plant. And to the side there, by the way, is 'George' with the "buttons" that will be growing and that I am watching? And in fact there has been a little bit of growth since the first photo which was on that last "walking" post, as I recall...I love the leaves on a Senicio....very long thin soft leaves....clean in a way, just like the stalk or bark. Smooth and clean, and BEAUTIFUL, Oh my....this plant nurtures me soooo very much and has since I planted the very first one's 20 years ago. I never tire of looking at them and they make me feel incredibly good every time I do look at them because they are like works of art; so very sculptural; such a lovely soft color, too! This plant feeds my soul.
Here's another special plant....strange and beautiful and, believe it or not, I believe, another type of Senecio! (Who would believe....?) Here are two photographs of this small plant that grows low to the ground. It is almost white in color because it creates this powdery stuff on each of it's thick juicy looking leaves to protect it from the sun, all the while, needing the sun...And you can see that on one of those leaves the powder got washed off and so you are able to see that underneath that powdery white stuff is a green leaf.
These plants will do well in the ground if they are in the proper somewhat protected area where 'the elements' like heavy wind don't get at them. This next photo is a closer look at these very beautiful leaves. They are soft soft soft and it's the powder that gives them that soft look.And again, you can see the light olive green of these leaves where the rain has washed that magical powder off....Isn't that amazing?
Once again, this nurtures me.
I saw this wonderful plaque many many years ago, in a friends garden in Sarasota, Florida....I was having a show of my Paintings there in a lovely Gallery which I think is gone now, called The Foster Harmon Gallery. Foster had been there in Sarasota for years and years and years. My friend Barbara had moved to Sarasota from Chicago after her dear dear husband, who had been my voice teacher in New York, had died. Barbara is originally from England and a Proper Garden was always very very imporant to her wherever she lived here in the states. She had this plaque in that sweet garden of hers and I saw it and knew I had to have one for my garden...And, luckily, we were able to find one right there in Sarasota...and here it is, a bit beaten by the elements, but still wonderful and so very very true.
I apologize for turning on the 'Comment Moderator' and the 'Registered Member' thing, but I've had a number of nasty mean spirited Anonymous Comments which I don't need and in fact, which nobody needs....So, if this very angry person wants to leave a comment, they will have to come out of the woodwork and not hide behind "Anonymous", anymore.
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 1:54:00 AM
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