Pages

Orange County

Fellow blogger, Life as a California Wife, has asked for opinions about whether to plan a beach vacation in Orange County or near Los Angeles. Of course, I am suggesting the OC, baby! :)

And as I promised, here is list of some of my favorite places in OC (of course, this is just few of the many fun things to see and do):

OVERNIGHT ACCOMMODATIONS:


Doryman's Inn Bed & Breakfast



Newport Beach









Newport Beachwalk Hotel



Newport Beach









The Anabella Hotel



Anaheim








The Fairmont Hotel



Newport Beach







SHOPPING:


South Coast Plaza



Costa Mesa








Irvine Spectrum



Irvine















Yardhouse Restaurant @ Irvine Spectrum



Irvine







Fashion Island



Newport Beach









DINING:


Corner Bakery Cafe



Irvine



* I love their iced mochas!







Chronic Tacos



Newport Beach



* These are all over OC, but the original started in Newport Beach.








Mama D's Italian Kitchen



Newport Beach



* They also have locations in Manhattan and Hermosa Beach.












NIGHTLIFE:




Memphis



Costa Mesa



* Other locations include Manhattan Beach and Santa Ana.







Fred's Mexican Cafe & Cantina



Huntington Beach









Hurricanes Bar & Grill



Huntington Beach






FUN THINGS TO DO:


Disneyland



Anaheim







California Adventure Park



Anaheim







Medieval Times



Buena Park







Boardwalk Balboa Peninsula



Balboa

* This is a great place to take a stroll, ride a beach cruiser bike, people or whale watch, or visit the Balboa Pier.






And for the dog friendly tourists....


Dog Beach


Huntington Beach


It's My Birthday!!

Yep, today is my birthday. I LOVE birthdays...even as I get older. I love the fact that there is a specific day dedicated to each and every one of us as a celebration of our life. How cool is that?!

In Memoriam

As we approach Memorial Day in the United States, we at Aboriginals and its associated web sites at ZuniLink.com, Native-American-Jewelry.org, Native-PotteryLink.com and TribalWorks.com, want to pause to recognize and thank those who sacrificed life, limb and family for our American freedoms. We encourage you to do the same.

Pause your holiday fun long enough to contemplate the loss of these heroes and the benefits we gained from their heroism.

Then celebrate the freedoms they protected and preserved for us. God bless freedom loving people everywhere.


Susanne & William Waites

Steven Tyler


I have long been an Aerosmith fan, and an even bigger fan of Steven Tyler. There's no denying he's extremely talented. I'm currently reading his new book, and it's a trip! The book gives a glimpse into the mind and character that is Steven Tyler. He's unbelievably creative in all that he does: the way he writes lyrics, the way he puts sound together for songs, the way he speaks, and just the way his mind works in general. There's definitely a reason WHY he's been so successful and why he's SO talented. I truly think the kind of creativity and talent he has can only be God given. And at age 63, I'd have to agree with one of his infamous quotes, "My get up and go has NOT got up and went."



Speaking Of Weddings....





One of my favorite country singers tied the knot recently (as most people know) and I wanted to post the cute pics of Miss Miranda Lambert in her wedding dress (formerly her mother's dress) and the dress she wore to her reception. Isn't she cute?!

The Zodiac in the Night Sky and Diogenes' Lantern

These Lights
Inside water, a waterwheel turns,
A star circulates with the moon.

We live in the night ocean wondering,
what are these lights?

Reading Rumi's poem  above made me want to revisit the images I'd culled from the letter Z, because I'd wanted to combine images of ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS with a turning ferris wheel in the night sky created from ZODIACs.

I started with the zoo from Barrackpore and a renaissance Zodiac:

But then remembered that I'd wanted a night sky and planned to include the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, so I revised it a bit:

(You can see more of the source material for the letter Z in this earlier post.)

Thinking about images of light, I was reminded of  Diogenes, the Cynic philosopher who was famous for going around with a lantern in his hand in broad daylight, looking for an honest man.
An engraving of Diogenes included in  a book on the history of hairstyles. (source code 15,218)
Undated image

1865 illustration

1946 William Gropper image.

1907 Harper's Magazine Illustration

My friend Sohrab Sadaat Ladjevardi, a great sax player who has a band called the Tehran Dakar Brothers, mentioned Diogenes to me recently, and that's why I went looking for his image. I found it in a folder marked PERSONALITIES: DIO. The PERSONALITIES folders are one of the largest categories in the Picture Collection and line most of one wall. Arranged alphabetically, like most everything else in the collection, the famous people in PERSONALITIES: DIO ran the gamut of trades and historical eras.  A few of the folks sharing that folder with Diogenes include:
Christian Dior NYT, 1953
The Dionne Quints from a 1979 NYT Magazine cover
And all grown up in Life Magazine, 1952
Dioscorides, a Greek physician at the court of Nero pictured here in a 13th century Arab manuscript.

Ronny James Dio was inexplicably absent. Diogenes, however, took up the lion's share of the folder. His insistence on living in a tub (essentially a trash bin), his rigorous rejection of material possessions, and his playful cynicism have inspired artists for thousand  of years. There are myriad representations of him from varied sources and eras. A few of my favorites include:










1979  Ad for insurance, which insists you can still be wise, even if you don't choose to live like Diogenes...  

 


There are also quite a few images of the story my friend Sohrab had reminded me of. It seems Diogenes was a celebrities celebrity, and one of his "fans" was Alexander the Great, who stopped by Diogenes' tub one day. Alexander purportedly asked if there was anything he could do for Diogenes. "Yes," the crusty cynic replied sardonically, "You can get out of my light. You are blocking the sun."

1799 Atelier LeGrand

1895 London Illustrated News

15th Century French manuscript

1923 magazine illustration


National Geographic illustration, 1949
I love the shifting historical representations of Alexander, Diogenes, and the tub, and the way their characteristics change, especially Diogenes, who sometimes appears as an irascible crank and other times as appears as a respected sage.

I'm not sure how or whether I will use these images in the film. Perhaps, it occurred to me, I could place a series of  "PERSONALITIES"  in a playground?

I went to look at the PLAYGROUNDS folders, and the first thing I found was a strangely misfiled image from PUNISHMENTS. I decided it was time to call it a day, but I leave you  with that image, which depicts a very adult playground...


(Thanks to Chris Arnold for German translation help.)