Hats Off at the LA County Fair

I attended the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona today to enter some of my millinery curiosities. The critics were kind and though my hats were a bit more lavish and odd they were still well received. I took second place overall and the other two placed first and second in their categories.



The woman who took first place overall had a stunning red hat. Some African American women take great pride in their ‘church hats’. There are several books published about this subject and I find this particular culture both interesting and beautiful, if I could sit through church I would like to attend a service just to admire all the hats around me, unfortunately this is not enough to get me into a church. She took first place and enjoyed her time at the fair as her husband slept in a chair enjoying his own time at the fair.


Cute Lolita wears my prize- a small hat containing a gift certificate within it.


After the judging we walked around the fairgrounds that were crowded and offered every type of fried food imaginable, from deep fried oreo cookies to deep fried coke, don’t ask. Fair goers appear able to classify into two categories, those who attend to see the exhibits and those who attend to eat fried fat foods chased with Rolaids and 20 oz beers. I found myself somewhere in the middle and did enjoy a couple eight dollar 20 oz beers but found the food too nauseating to enjoy, ironically the fair is sponsored by McDonalds.

There were the cutest group of young girls in traditional Mexican dress performing on stage and I had to snap a picture of one in particular.


On a final note Alex found an event he is going to enter next year, get your papers ready.


I was happy to have attended and look forward to connecting with all the women I met today in the hopes of perfecting my craft.

Mannequins

These ladies are ready for the fair and as I stand before them waiting for them to come to life I realize I've watched Mannequin too much, that or I need to spend a night with a beautiful girl, or several nights with several girls.

Sunset for a Swan

It was raining last night, I believe it hasn’t rained in los angeles for decades, or so it feels. Upon this wet excitement alex poochinie and I trekked up the hills of Barnsdall Park and over several bottles of champagne and cigarettes we watched the sun set behind the clouds. This was one of those magical moments where red velvet curtains opened on a creaking wooden stage and if only for a moment we were able to see inside.

Gentrification Strikes Back!

I just had my coffee and read this article from todays LA Times. I found it so hilarious I had to write to the editor. You can the view the article here.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-silverlake13sep13,1,3454034.story?coll=la-headlines-california

L.A. parking plan a threat to hipness? – CA Section 9/13/2007

I had a good laugh after reading this article. The irony is that these residents are complaining about ‘more money being less hip’ or parking meters being too intrusive when over fifteen years ago the original residents of Silverlake- mainly low income Latino families, were displaced or relocated as a result of higher and excessive rent increases when new ‘hip’ residents moved in. Long gone are most of the Latino family owned restaurants on Sunset blvd to make room for trendy coffee shops and the Sunset Junction Street Fair, once free or on a donation basis, now charges an admission of about twenty dollars, keeping low-income native families from attending this ‘community’ event. Before the residents of Silverlake begin to complain about the changes to their hip little city they should consider whom they displaced when they moved in and the impact they had. I say put a parking meter right outside their front door. I think it is incredibly classist and racist that the impact of gentrification on low-income families was not mentioned in this article.

Sadie Ginger Jones

I don’t know the actual birth date of my dog however it was sometime in October of 1994. My dog will be 13 next month. Our trips to the park have gotten shorter as when we go she tends to just lay in the grass, when she is not eating it. Her hips are sore and her two back legs drag the ground when she walks. I have to physically pick her up to put her in my truck and she struggles to get up on the bed most of the time. I don’t want to think about life without her. She has always been there for me, to lay with me when I cry, to leave a mess for me when I get home from a long day of work, and to look at me with her head tilted when she knows I am about to do something wrong. I bet if she could speak she would save me a lot of time as she has watched me grow old alongside her. If you have a pet you know they become a regular fixture of your support system. I am most certain she will live to be thirty…

I Go Walking After Midnight

I’m sitting on the floor watching Monique build my website and to be honest I’m bored. Half of me wants to help her and the other half wants to nap, so somewhere in the middle of thinking I came to the conclusion that if I just sat here and typed she would think I was working on something. I look serious, real serious.

I went walking last night up to Los Feliz and down the quiet streets of the upper class neighborhood that echo the hills of my home. It was one of those magical nights where after feeling cooped up in the house, I wish I lived in a coop, my hamster began running overtime to remind me I need to make new friends so I left and started walking. One of the nice things about my neighborhood is that several of the old brick houses have galleons on their weather panes.

I walked up and down the streets feeling as if at any moment I was going to stumble upon some magical wooden door that would creak open and an invitation from a hobbit would beckon me into some other place. It didn’t and I ended up at Rite Aid to buy an ice cream sandwich, mint chip (as if there were any other flavor). There was a man sitting outside the door asking for change so I bought him one too. He thanked me and I headed back for home passing several bars on the way. I’m trying to cut back on my drinking, it has gotten me into a lot of trouble lately. My mania shifts and people walk on eggshells and for them I am sorry. I want so many things to be different in my life, too many fuckin things.

Finished Garden Tea Hat

Pigeons Blammed for Deaths?

I found this article to be very sad. very sad indeed.

Experts Tie Pigeon Dung, Bridge Collapse
By MARTIGA LOHN, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed interstate bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: pigeons.

Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago. Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the Interstate 35W span's framework helped the steel beams rust faster.

Although investigators have yet to identify the cause of the bridge's Aug. 1 collapse, which killed at least 13 people and injured about 100, the pigeon problem is one of many factors that dogged the structure.

"There is a coating of pigeon dung on steel with nest and heavy buildup on the inside hollow box sections," inspectors wrote in a 1987-1989 report.

In 1996, screens were installed over openings in the bridge's beams to keep pigeons from nesting there, but that didn't prevent the building of droppings elsewhere.

Pigeon droppings contain ammonia and acids, said chemist Neal Langerman, an officer with the health and safety division of the American Chemical Society. If the dung isn't washed away, it dries out and turns into a concentrated salt. When water gets in and combines with the salt and ammonia, it creates small electrochemical reactions that rust the steel underneath.

"Every time you get a little bit of moisture there, you wind up having a little bit of electrochemistry occurring and you wind up with corrosion," said Langerman. "Over a long term, it might in fact cause structural weaknesses."

Langerman emphasized that he wasn't saying pigeon dung factored into the collapse of the 40-year-old bridge. "Let's let the highway transportation and safety people do their job," he said.

The problem is familiar to bridge inspectors everywhere.

The Colorado Department of Transportation spent so much time cleaning pigeon manure off bridges that it is embarking on a two-year research project looking for ways to keep pigeons away from its spans.

"It can be damaging to our structures because it's slightly acidic and it has other compounds in it that can dissolve especially things like concrete," said Patricia Martinek, the agency's environmental research manager.

Pigeon guano isn't just a danger to the bridges.

In the Denver area, the Colorado DOT pays outside environmental specialists to clean bridges wearing full biohazard suits with respirators because of heightened fears about bird flu and other diseases, said Rob Haines, who supervises maintenance there.

Keeping pigeons off bridges usually requires a multi-pronged strategy that can include netting to block holes and surfaces, spikes to keep them from landing, and sometimes poisoning, shooting or trapping the birds, said John Hart, a Grand Rapids, Minn.-based wildlife biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The problem is that pigeons are naturally drawn to bridges and tall buildings since they're descended from cliff-dwellers, said Karen Purcell, who heads Project PigeonWatch at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Bridges offer shelter from predators and flat surfaces for nesting and roosting.

"It's a nice fit for them," Purcell said.

Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board issued an update on its findings in the collapse Wednesday, saying investigators are looking at whether chemicals used in an automated de-icing system had any corrosive properties.

The state Transportation Department wasn't concerned about the system; in fact, the agency is planning to install a similar system on the replacement bridge, said Khani Sahebjam, a state transportation engineer.

The de-icing elements are inside the concrete deck, Sahebjam said, so he wouldn't expect them to pose a structural problem.

The automated system was triggered by weather conditions and kept the state from having to send crews to spread de-icing chemicals, Sahebjam said.

Little Birds Hat

Little birds.