Raven Jake Dawes

Ridin' the Rails

Y'all, just so we're clear, $299 does not buy a sleeper berth and dining car benefits. You get a coach seat, access to the observation car and you can buy a limited range of snacks in the café car. There is a two-tier level of service on Amtrak and we weren't riding top-bunk, But the view's the same, the train pulls into the station at the same time, and let's face it, service ain't what it was in the Golden Age of Train Travel anyhow. 

Side note: unless you're actively eating, you're supposed to keep your mask on regardless of vaccination status. 

About the rail pass: From the site "Pass is valid for 120 days after purchase (30 days after first segment is traveled). Coach travel only. A travel segment occurs any time you board and disembark one of our trains (or other scheduled services). If your trip involves making one connection, you will use two segments of your USA Rail Pass." Is it worth it? Heck yeah, we'd go again in a minute. 

The seats are about the size of a narrow recliner with quite a bit of leg room. There's a luggage rack below for bigger bags and an overhead area for smaller stuff. The bathroom is about the same as a plane. 

This is the trip route:

Southwest Chief: San Bernardino with stops at Flagstaff (Grand Canyon), Winslow, Lamy (Santa Fe), Las Vegas, Raton

Greyhound Bus: Raton to Denver

California Zephyr: Denver with stops at Grand Junction, Provo and Emeryville (San Francisco)

Coast Starlight: Emeryville to Los Angeles

 

 

Kizh/Gabrielino Band of Mission Indians at the San Marino Parade

Folks, at the same time I was participating in the Sierra Madre July 4th Parade, theKizh/Gabrielino Band of Mission Indians were marching in San Marino's Independance Day Parade. Andy Teutimez Salas and his tribe were celebrating their heritage,  bringing awareness about the Michael White Adobe, and even more importantly, honoring the mixed heritage decendents of Eulalia Perez. We sat near them at the L.A. Heritage Fair, so we've met the Kizh before, but it was a shame to miss the parade. Andy provided us with pictures and filled us in on what happened:

We'd like to thank  the city of San Marino, "Sheshiikuanungna," for having us. This was another great day in our Native Land. In regards to the Banner of the Michael White family, the great-grand children of Michael White and his wife [Maria del Rosario], daughter of Eulila Perez, were the were the ones riding in the old 1938 car behind us. They have been members of our family for decades and are members of our Tribe. In the car was Anita White and Steve White, who are great-grand children. They still live in San Gabriel today and have lots of historic photos of their family members going back to the 1800's to share. On a related note, my father Ernie P. Teutimez Salas, Chief of our Tribe, has strong family connections to both the Native Kizh/Gabrieleno and Benjamin D. Wilson "Mt. Wilson" and the Patton Family.

 

Vote for the Sun Runner on Facebook

To my Desert Rats on Facebook,

Shanghai Brown is trying to get some grant money for the Sun Runner, an independent publication that supports all sort of Desert Ratishness, and therefore it's a good cause. Only takes about two minutes, and it's a worthy cause:

Hey folks,

I'm asking for your help from those of you who use FACEBOOK, but it's really easy. My magazine, The Sun Runner, is applying for a Mission Small Business grant through Chase and LivingSocial. This grant would make a huge difference for our ability to cover serious desert issues, as well as to help promote desert arts and culture, history, tribal matters, and more.

Facebook users can help support The Sun Runner Magazine with a few clicks.
In order to be eligible, we have to get at least 250 votes before June 30. The more votes, the better for our application.

To vote, all you have to do is go to https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/, log in with Facebook - then like them & then near the bottom of the email search for Sun Runner, California, Joshua Tree, and when we pop up, hit "Vote."

That's it. It only costs you a few seconds to help us be eligible for a grant that could make a significant difference for our ability to serve the desert region. Thanks for your help and support! ‹Steve "Shanghai" Brown

Goodbye, WKNTNKA

Now it was with a heavy heart that I bid farewell to the scrap iron in the driveway this week. Our landlord wanted it gone and well, it was time. So we called Pick Your Part and they took the Camry we had about 2 grand invested in - someone's gonna like the new transmission, new brakes and new power windows on that wreck - my F250 that I bought to replace the F150 and only lasted about two months before the transmission blew, but worst of all was losing my white buffalo, WKNTNKA. And the '72 Arrow camper.

Especially the camper. Man, did we have some good times in that thing. I'm not sure it is replaceable. I got it from my friend Jim, a guy I was working with, in about 2002 or so.  He and his wife had gotten a new motor home and just wanted it gone. It was immaculate. We took it on our honeymoon and a bunch of adventures since. Of course, city living hasn't been kind to it and its suffered all kinds of dings and dents since then.

I always picture it as looking just like this, though. Here's Jane and me, sittin' on the tailgate on our honeymoon back in 2003. We were doing a mostly-Arizona trip and ended up camping in a field near Walnut Canyon National Monument. It was an amazing journey, full of new discoveries and happy memories.

Now the truck it's sitting on, WKNTNKA, has had some issues, and they turned out to be terminal. Our truck doctor, Gazo, has kept it going years past its natural life expectancy, but on the last trip to see if the radiator could be replaced, he discovered that it also needed a new water pump and the engine was mostly shot.  It crapped out on me about 1,000 yards from home and I had to push it the final block. And shout out to the anonymous kids on the bus bench for helping out. I hate to admit it, but it helped put closure on a very sad day.

So now we've got a big ol' empty driveway, 'cept for my drum trailer, but now that the shock's wearin' off, there are a few perks. For one, we can now get to the woodpile. And I'm feeling like the back yard could use some raised beds...

Farewell, WKNTNKA/Arrow. Sometimes you just need to clear out some old stuff to make room for some new stuff. I can't wait.

Insider Magazine Article

Here's a special preview of my upcoming profile in Insider Magazine. Thanks, Matt!

Open publication - Free publishing - More blog

Where's George?

Here's a nerdy pastime for y'all: tracking cash as it moves through the economy. I got this greenback in change for a breakfast burrito at the Glendale Community College cafeteria. Where does it go next? I don't know, but if it falls into your hands you can see where it's been at Where's George?

First time I met a "George," it was at an art gallery in Santa Fe. Bought a Guadalupe/Santa Muerte tank top and got it in change. Fiver. I guess it was really a Where's Abe? although George W. was the president at the time. That fiver had started out in Hawaii, and I don't know where it ended up after it went towards the margarita fund at the Cowgirl on Guadalupe Street. But it had traveled far and gone through many hands.

Now this "breakfast burrito George buck" originated in Cedar City, Utah and has spent the last three years edging closer to California. So we've ordered a Where's George stamp (the treasury dept takes a dim view of defacing currency, but a lawsuit came to the conclusion that it's ok, so long as you don't go overboard with the modifications) and plan to track some greenbacks this summer. See where we spend our money and where it ends up. Now of course, this only works if everyone plays, so if you find a George, make sure you check in - it only takes about two minutes and it's pretty fun.

Culinary Historians of SoCal on April 14

It's going to be a busy month what with animals getting blessed and different lectures and Heritage Day and whatnot, but this one looks pretty promising too: 

The Cookbook Family Tree

 Saturday, April 14th, 2012, at 10:30 AM at the Los Angeles Public Library

Mark Taper Auditorium, Downtown Central Library, 630 W. 5th St.

Free and open to the public

Anne Willan speaking on…

“The Cookbook Family Tree”

Before 1501, the first four printed cookbooks were written in English, Latin, German, and French in four European countries. Who wrote these early cookbooks? Who read them? Who used them? Anne will explain the origin of these books and those of the centuries that follow. For her talk to the Culinary Historians of Southern California, Anne will be sharing her “cookbook tree,” a unique visual guide she has created to demonstrate how all the genres of food book we know today, such as recipe books, dining guides, gastronomic memoirs and more can be traced back to these early volumes.

Anne Willan Anne Willan has over 50 years experience as a teacher, cookbook author, and food columnist. The founder of famed French cooking school École de Cuisine la Varenne, Anne’s accolades include the IACP Lifetime Achievement Award, James Beard Award, and Bon Appétit Teacher of the Year Award. The author of over thirty cookbooks, Anne’s long-awaited The Cookbook Library: Four Centuries of the Cooks, Writers, and Recipes That Made the Modern Cookbook will be published in April 2012. The book is based on the extensive cookbook collection Anne and her husband Mark Cherniavsky have amassed through years of passionate collecting. Anne is also working on a memoir.

Charles Perry on Tiki Cuisine April 21

Folks, summer's coming up and I must say I have an inordinate fondness for retro tiki-ness. So FYI - this looks like a fun one. Mahalo, y'all

Oh and since I'm feelin' so aloha, following is Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole's rendition of "Over The Rainbow." Another Hawai'an brother whose life was cut short by poi addiction. Alright, there was probably some fried chicken in there too. RIP, IZ. The world lost a great talent when your rainbow faded.

Charles Perry on Tiki Cuisine

The Rise and Fall of Tiki

When: Saturday, April 21st, 2012 at 2:00 PM
What: Free Lecture at Pacific Palisades Library
Where: 861 Alma Real Drive, Pacific Palisades
Who: The public is invited to this event.

In the 1930s, two California restaurateurs created the Polynesian restaurant phenomenon that would sweep the country in the 1950s. Tiki restaurants, remembered fondly (and maybe a little ruefully), were over-the-top intoxicating environments, smelling of tropical fruits and flowers, their ceilings hung with puffer-fish lamps and outrigger canoes. You ate luscious sweet-and-sour dishes while being entertained by graceful hula dancing and sweet, dreamlike Hawaiian music. It was overwhelming – lyrical, jovial, romantic and sensuous, though certainly naive and mannered.

And yet the phenomenon collapsed practically overnight in the 1970s. Charles Perry tells the story of the rise and fall of Tiki. Mr. Perry has written for the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, and other publications, as well as translated cookbooks from medieval Baghdad, Central Asia, and other cultures.

 

 

The Loretto Chapel 2004

Folks, I've been trying to get a little more organized, gather some of those digital files that have gotten all over the place these past years, and I can assure you that it's been a rich voyage of discovery. For example, I just came upon some pics that we took at the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe in 2004. Here's the legend:

In 1872, Jean-Baptiste Lamy the Bishop of the Santa Fe Archdiocese, commissioned the building of a convent chapel to be named Our Lady of Light Chapel, which would be in the care of the Sisters of Loretto. The chapel was designed by a French architect, Antoine Mouly, in the Gothic Revival style. Although it was built on a much smaller scale, the chapel bears an obvious resemblance to the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

Two mysteries surround the spiral staircase in the Loretto Chapel: the identity of its builder and the physics of its construction.

When the Loretto Chapel was completed in 1878, there was no way to access the choir loft twenty-two feet above. Carpenters were called in to address the problem, but they all concluded access to the loft would have to be via ladder as a staircase would interfere with the interior space of the small Chapel.

Legend says that to find a solution to the seating problem, the Sisters of the Chapel made a novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. On the ninth and final day of prayer, a man appeared at the Chapel with a donkey and a toolbox looking for work. Months later, the elegant circular staircase was completed, and the carpenter disappeared without pay or thanks. After searching for the man (an ad even ran in the local newspaper) and finding no trace of him, some concluded that he was St. Joseph himself, having come in answer to the sisters' prayers.

The stairway's carpenter, whoever he was, built a magnificent structure. The design was innovative for the time and some of the design considerations still perplex experts today.

The staircase has two 360 degree turns and no visible means of support. Also, it is said that the staircase was built without nails—only wooden pegs. Questions also surround the number of stair risers relative to the height of the choir loft and about the types of wood and other materials used in the stairway's construction.

Over the years many have flocked to the Loretto Chapel to see the Miraculous Staircase. The staircase has been the subject of many articles, TV specials, and movies including "Unsolved Mysteries" and the television movie titled "The Staircase."

And here's a possible id on the builder:

The subject of rumor and legend for over a hundred years, the riddle of the carpenter's identity was claimed to have been solved in the late 1990s by Mary Jean Straw Cook, author of Loretto: The Sisters and Their Santa Fe Chapel (2002: Museum of New Mexico Press). The author claims the builder's name was Francois-Jean "Frenchy" Rochas, an expert woodworker who emigrated from France and arrived in Santa Fe around the time the staircase was built, and who may have known or at least met another French contractor who worked on the Chapel. However, at only 43 years of age, Rochas met with a violent death in December 1894. Unidentified attackers had shot him and left him to die alone in his small cottage and he was found dead in 1895. Cook found a January 5, 1895, death notice in The New Mexican which named Rochas as the builder of "the handsome staircase in the Loretto chapel". Frenchman Quintus Monier that told of Francois-Jean Rochas's death at Dog Canyon, near today's Alamogordo.

Now I don't know if Frenchy Rochas was the builder of the staircase or not, maybe it was St. Joseph - but whoever did it was a visionary. I've sure never seen anything like it. It must've looked even better in the days when it was assumed that God would keep the choir safe, negating the need for a handrail. See how one miscreant can ruin it for everybody? Anyway, that last picture is an interpretation of what it might have looked like pre-rail. I just thought those UFOs or Angels or whatever they are made the photo a little more fun.

The Loretto Chapel
207 Old Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 982-0092

LA Heritage Day April 29

Just a reminder y'all - come out to LA Heritage Day on Olvera Street on April 29.  I'll be there with the Friends of the Michael White Adobe and with the Old Spanish Trail Association.

Over here at the left, I'm surveying the wreckage from the San Francisquito Dam disaster, and if you don't know what that was, you'd better come to Heritage Day and see if one of the 200 member organizations can help you out.

http://laheritage.blogspot.com/

Blessing of the Animals Sat April 7

Folks, I was strollin' down Olvera Street just the other day when I saw a banner announcing that the annual Blessing of the Animals is coming up. Right before Easter. So if the critter in your life is a devout Catholic, or just plain bad, you might want to take the opportunity to launch a pre-emptive strike.

Over at the left, you can see that this Wookie is up to something. Now I'm not sure if a Wookie is technically an "animal" or more like another race of hominid, or if space aliens count as animals as far as blessings are concerned, but I do know this: You can't be too careful when it comes to Wookies. Or Bigfeet. Or Bears. Or rattlesnakes. Git 'em all blessed and let God sort 'em out.