Brown Motion

In Palm Springs CA for a conference for a couple days gave me a chance to do something different in the wee morning hours when I tend to awaken.  I decided on an impromptu road trip.  This time into the San Jacinto mountain range just south of the city I was based in. The name for this mountain comes from a saint of the Spaniards.  The mountain peaks at a summit of almost 10,000 feet but my objective was to drive some distance while gaining altitude that would afford a good morning view of the towns in the desert below.  Below is the scenic wonderland as seen in the 6 to 7 am hours looking north from the mountain for the most shots. The road that traverses the mountain is scenic highway 74 which runs over a 100 miles all the way from the desert through the high mountain  and descends to the coast in Orange County CA. Spotted a random bohemian from Oregon practicing his guitar in the early hours along the highway.  Said he wants to experiment playing it amidst the mountains

Going to L.A is always exciting because after a decade of visiting it there is always something else to do, see, eat, visit. This time it was no different.  Below are some snaps along the way. First up is the Design Institute in Pasadena where Ansel Adams once taught and the alumni include famous car designers that work for luxury brands including Tesla, Aston Martin etc. Down the hill is the Rose Bowl - a mecca for football lovers.  100 year old stadium was recently renovated.  For me it was simply a chance to walk in the parking lot (having no affiliation toward the sport itself) as the sun was setting watching the rays bounce of the San Gabriel mountains and spill into the San Fernando valley below. Another day we ventured to the coast and strolled Venice beach.  Took in all the human activity along with the kaleidoscope of color, both natural and man made that is a sight to see.

Los Angeles hides many towns within the city limits.  So labeled by virtue of their history and density of businesses owned by an ethnic minority and the crowds that frequent them. This trip in L.A was to explore the charm of these pockets of diversity in a crowded metropolis.  We began the trip by first visiting the old transportation hub - L.A Union Station.  Where trains from different regions along with multiple bus routes converge to take a traveler to and from the city. Now American transit systems and the infrastructure such as the Union Station certainly lack the efficacy and operational cleanliness of transport hubs in Europe.  It is evidenced by the relative apathy the traveling public shows to the system in part because the system does not operate frequently to be viable and neither does it connect from any point A to B given the vastness of this country. Hardly any traffic on the busiest weekend in America (Thanksgiving) save for a few old couples heading to meet

A sizzle is personal - what I might find sizzling may not be another man’s steak but so is Thanksgiving! For some it’s about thanking friends and family to some it’s their health and some the excitement of waking in the wee hours to get themselves that deal on the latest flat screen to ‘replace’ the living room drywall.  Ya. The screens are now so big even Home Depot is selling more screens than drywall sheets.  Why mount it when your entire wall is a screen?  For us it’s a bit of this and that but most importantly it is a big Thank you to America where we - 1.  Celebrate this holiday and enjoy time as a family which inevitably means a chance to 2.  Travel the great big country in search of adventure and history and FOOD - the holy trifecta At times big traffic aka carmageddon-ish scenes combined with atrocious parking fees or lack of space to park our chariot scenario notwithstanding we love to hit the open highways as a threesome and check out that One More Thing. So it w

A debut film for many including the director of the film and the leading ladies.  Protagonist is a Latina actor called Diana Torres who plays the part of a single mom that is helping put food on the table for her young daughter played amazingly well by a young talent from the bay area.  The director himself is also a native of the SF bay area and lot of the shoot is done in the Oakland neighborhood, the city in the east bay. Honest,  innocent and yet daring is how I would describe this film.  It is a stereotype busting tale of this young Latina who after taking abuse from the street thugs whilst selling her fruit cups and doing odd jobs in kitchens all over stumbles on a 'Help Wanted' sign at a Sushi place. After observing the place from the window for a few times she is emboldened to step in and get an interview with the Japanese lady that manages this place.  From there she gets hired through straight talk and by putting in honest hard work and power of observation wins

Almost an entire week and I could not find material.  To yam about.  Imagine that.  Might as well be under a rock. Nothing noteworthy in the scheme of things or net new observations so this is merely a filler.  Part to ensure that my faculties are operational. Let's recap what crossed my radar - POTUS lost his tweet privileges for all of 11 minutes. Desis celebrated Diwali in variety of manners suited to their belief systems (including religious, queuing up at temples, capitalist, facebooking, liking and in my case eating). A General fell from grace aka General Electric or GE - a large industrial conglomerate and a publicly traded entity making everything from  jet engines to medical equipment to locomotives and founded by an Edison; hit all time lows trading on the stock exchange.  Apparently the chief knew not how to steer (but flew around like an Arab sheikh with two company jets). Apple started selling Roman (not literally otherwise the Gauls would have had a picnic