You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October, 2007.
Here are some photos and notes I took during the week of Great California Firestorm….
Day One, Sunday, October 21, 2007:
This was taken late afternoon. Malibu is in the distance. The grey stuff is not fog or clouds; it’s smoke.
This was taken a couple of hours later. Again, this is smoke, not clouds. I did not enhance the colors. In fact, the colors were far more angry and savage than comes out in the image.
I snapped these off my TV. These were taken at the other fires in the area. I’ve never seen anything start so suddenly, in so many different places, and escalate so quickly.
I knew then that this would be very bad.
Day Two, Monday, October 22
This is not a very good picture, but I just wanted to show how close to the city one of the wildfires got. This is West Los Angeles and Santa Monica in the foreground. That orange spot in the distance is a hotspot in Malibu. This is only about 16 miles away. This was taken Monday night.
Day 3, Tuesday, October 23
Today, I shot these images on the way to work. You can see the pall of smoke descending over the area. The air quality was very hazardous and we were advised to stay indoors. My eyes, nose and throat became very irritated.
By the afternoon, sickly yellow smoke had completely filled the sky. This was taken from my front porch.
Day Four, Wednesday, October 24
I didn’t take any pictures today. Things were pretty much the same in terms of air quality; however, the firefighter in Malibu were taking the upper hand and the winds were beginning to die down.
Day Five, Thursday, October 25
“Blood Moon”
I went outside about 5:30 this morning to empty my trash. On the way back from the dumpster, I looked up and saw this almost full moon. There is no way this photo can really capture the baleful orange glow. This is absolutely the most trippy thing I’ve ever seen in the sky (except for the UFOs I once saw but that’s another story). This is the perfect Halloween moon!
(I am surmising that the smoke from the wildfires caused this effect.)
I ran inside and grabbed my camera. So there I was, standing in the middle of the sidewalk, in my pajamas, in the dark, snapping pictures.
THEN, to totally freak me out, I hear this very low, quiet voice say “Lori, what doing?” I jumped a foot and a half. The voice was coming from my upstairs neighbor who was sitting in the shadows of his veranda catching some fresh air. I suddenly realized I was standing in the middle of the sidewalk, in my pajamas, in the dark, snapping pictures. How embarrassing……..
Full disclosure: I adjusted this image to correct for some blurring around the edges of the moon and I increased the contrast and messed with levels a bit to bring it in line with what I actually saw. Other than that, this is what it was.
Day Six, Friday, October 26
Fog! We have cool, thick, wet, wonderful, glorious fog! I think the Devil Winds are gone……….for now.
To finish up this post, here is a poem I wrote about 10 years ago. Who would have known how prophetic this was going to be:
“El Dia de los Muetos”
Spent from their fiery rampage,
Santa Anas
rest and brood,
flat-lining smoke
over the still indigo of the bay,
a remnant of their holocaust
through the hills. Swollen
pus-yellow moon slowly sinks;
ocherous shafts of dawnlight
prophesy yet another hot
October day,
while Santa Anas,
hot off the desert, wait
for the end of the day.
The devil winds herald
the arrival of the dead–
The Eve of All Hallows
The Day of All Saints
El Dia del los Muertos
From the Hebrides to New Spain
celebrations of death call
for a time of reflection,
a preparation for rebirth,
by the winds of change
that burn the chaff,
nourish the earth,
and make way
for sweet winter rain.
Lori Gloyd, 1997, 2007
Thanks for taking the time to read. Let’s hope this doesn’t happen again for a long time.
Images, text, and poetry: Lori Gloyd (c) 2007
My acupuncturist is a really smart guy. He knows that wellness is more than just physical, and he always takes a few minutes during each session to assess my emotional state and how it may be affecting my body.
To finish reading this essay, click HERE.
Image: “Qi Mandala” and text: Text: Lori Gloyd (c) 2007
I bought a tomato this evening at my local farmers’ market– a Japanese momotaro, deep red and as sweet as candy. I sliced it up, sprinkled it with a bit of salt and had it with my supper. It was like a taste of pure heaven.
To finish reading this essay, click HERE….
Image and text: Lori Gloyd (c) 2007
Los Angeles artist, J. Michael Walker, has spent the last several years of his life researching the names of the 103 L.A. streets named after saints. From his research he has made a collection of ink and seriograph images along with poetry depicting the saints in unique and contemporary contexts. The culmination of this project will be an exhibition at the Autry Museum early next year and the publication of a book entitled All the Saints of the City of the Angels: Seeking the Soul of L.A. on Its Streets.
To finish reading this essay, click HERE,
Text and image: Lori Gloyd (c) 2007
As I said in the previous post, my parsley bit the dust, literally.
To read the rest of this essay, please click HERE.
Lori Gloyd (c) 2007
The metaphor of gardening has often been used to describe the spiritual experience of women.
To read the rest of this essay, click HERE.
Image and text: Lori Gloyd (c) 2007
What I write here, I am simply tossing out for your consideration. This is an account of my own experience accompanied by photographs. Both are open for whatever interpretation you care to give them.
The Queen Mary, the Cunard luxury liner that cruised the North Atlantic from 1936 to 1967, is now dry-docked in the harbor at Long Beach, California. She is a hotel, a conference center, a museum, and a “genuine haunted ship” (with her own paranormal research center).
It is said that the ship is home to about 150 separate ghosts, though I fail to see how anyone could actually ascertain that. But that factoid does add to the ambience of the ship. Actually, the ghosts legends have been turned into an on-board “Attraction,” complete with special effects and dramatic re-enactments of the hauntings. It is oh-so-Hollywood and has spoiled the place for real ghost-hunters who need peace and quiet to “feel the presences.”
Even though I am not a ghost-hunter or psychic, personally, I don’t care for the Attraction much either. There’s so much to be said about engaging the imagination and scaring yourself silly with a good old fashion ghost story —which is what I think happened to me a few years ago when I took one of the ship’s old “Ghost Tours” (before they made it an Attraction).
These tours (sans special effects and weird music) were simply a tour guide taking guests to all the supposedly haunted areas of the ship. There are certain areas of the ship where the hauntings are particularly pronounced. For example, we were taken to Cabin B340, which is no longer rented out by the hotel, because the cabin is subject to frequent poltergeist activity. When our group was toured through, I didn’t observe or feel anything unusual.
Another place of ghostly activity is the First Class Swimming Pool. It has been empty of water for more than 30 years, yet women and children in 1930’s bathing attire are frequently seen and heard around the pool. While we were taking the tour, we stood on the balcony overlooking the pool, in the dark, while the guide shared the spooky stories. (If you go to this image of the pool, you can see the railing where we standing). One of my friends, who is a photographer, had her camera with her. For some inexplicable reason, the flash unit on her camera unscrewed itself and fell from her camera over the railing and onto the deck of the pool. As you can see from the image that is quite a drop. The guide fetched her flash and amazingly it was not broken. Maybe she didn’t screw the attachment on properly? Maybe something broke its fall? We amused ourselves by speculating on the notion that a playful spirit was having fun with us.
However, the mood changed for me when we entered the Engine Room. The Engine Room had been completely gutted and was simply a huge empty space with a catwalk over it. During our tour, the guide stopped us on the catwalk and began to explain some of the history of this area. For example, during World War II, the Queen Mary had been used as a transport ship. It collided at sea with another ship resulting in the deaths of over 300 people. It is said that the ghosts of the dead sailors can be heard screaming in this area. Also, in the early 1960’s a young engine room technician had been crushed to death by the closing of a water-proof door. It is said that he is frequently seen walking to and fro on the catwalks in this area. As the guide was explaining this too us, I felt myself becoming more and more anxious. Perhaps it was just the power of suggestion, being in a dark creepy room hearing tales of gruesome deaths. All I knew is that I needed to get out of there fast and the guide was just taking too long!
Shortly after this the tour ended, but I still felt disconcerted and anxious. We left the ship, and proceeded to the Skorpion, an old Soviet Foxtrot submarine, also a museum, dry-docked and adjacent to the Queen Mary. (See the photo above). We started the self-guided tour of the craft, but shortly after we entered, I became overwhelmed with anxiety and had to leave the vessel. Did an entity follow me from the Queen Mary or was I merely having a claustrophobic episode caused by being on a very tiny submarine with a lot of tourists?
On another trip to the Queen Mary, just this past year, I and several friends went to Sunday Brunch in the Queen Mary’s Grand Salon, another reportedly haunted area. A “White Lady” is often seen dancing by herself when the Salon is empty. I brought my camera this time and took several pictures. Most of the pictures in the Grand Salon had orbs floating about. Below you will see some of the better one where I have circled the orbs in red. You might explain the orbs as pixilated dust particles or reflections from all the glass and brass; however, in the picture with the harpist at the far right you will see a beautiful brilliant blue-white orb—that just doesn’t look like dust or light.
So, a haunted ship, a tourist trap, overactive imaginations???— I leave it up to you to decide.
Happy Halloween, one and all!
Images and text: Lori Gloyd (c) 2006, revised 2007
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