Annie Hollywood

neurotic New Yorker moves to LA — my photo diary

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    The land where the South Fork of the Kern River leaves the mountains to greet the valley looks like paradise, even when it’s not hard won. I can only imagine the astonished rejoicing of California settlers who survived the trip through Death Valley to see this. Joshua trees and verdant ranchland—these two things shouldn’t go together, and yet they do, at Canebrake Ecological Reserve, an oasis we discovered by accident, when our dog was getting carsick.

  • 2013-05-17

    Randsburg isn’t a place you end up by accident—we missed inconspicuous turnoffs twice. The defunct mining town (aka living ghost town) was actually bustling on a Friday afternoon, revivified as a hub for off-roaders. This form of recreation was completely off my radar, so it was interesting to see who does it—mostly ruddied families wearing plastic gladiator gear—and to notice the number of parks and trails available (we saw more dune buggies from our hike into the Owens Valley Wilderness).

    I found the town gorgeous and curious. I couldn’t really tell which businesses were open or closed, which houses were lived in and which were abandoned (my explorations were curtailed by my dog). There were shiny new cars and No Trespassing signs. I felt nosy. Most of all I admired the art with which the townspeople had arranged their gardens, their storefronts, their trash, their past—

    The bricoleur, says Levi-Strauss, is someone who uses ‘the means at hand,’ that is, the instruments he finds at his disposition around him, those which are already there … not hesitating to change them whenever it appears necessary, or to try several of them at once, even if their form and their origin are heterogenous… If one calls bricolage the necessity of borrowing one’s concepts from the text of a heritage which is more or less coherent or ruined, it must be said that every discourse is bricoleur. —Jacques Derrida

    Randsburg photos 1, 2, 3, 4

  • 2013-05-16

    Fake panorama, Stewart Falls / Provo Canyon, UT

    Fake panorama, Stewart Falls / Provo Canyon, UT

  • 2013-05-15

    Converging signs

  • 2013-05-14

    Dead end End of the Trail steer skull, Randsburg Cal. (old post office) / Vintage Visolube gauge / Baltic 5-stamp mill / Red Crown gas pump globe & false fronts An interesting historical note on the old stamp mill: it was built by Llewellyn Iron Works in Los Angeles, the site of a bombing linked to strikers who blew up the Los Angeles Times building two months earlier. That workers would turn to terrorism to express legitimate grievances is even more shocking and frightening now than it was one hundred years ago.

    Dead end

    End of the Trail steer skull, Randsburg Cal. (old post office) / Vintage Visolube gauge / Baltic 5-stamp mill / Red Crown gas pump globe & false fronts

    An interesting historical note on the old stamp mill: it was built by Llewellyn Iron Works in Los Angeles, the site of a bombing linked to strikers who blew up the Los Angeles Times building two months earlier. That workers would turn to terrorism to express legitimate grievances is even more shocking and frightening now than it was one hundred years ago.

  • 2013-05-13

    Technical difficulties Expiring domains, eBay piracy and LCD disease (1, 2). Tomorrow is a new day, where money grows on screens. Prosperity pixel, preach.

    Technical difficulties

    Expiring domains, eBay piracy and LCD disease (1, 2). Tomorrow is a new day, where money grows on screens. Prosperity pixel, preach.

  • 2013-05-12

    Bottle service Pink saltcedar & washing machine on porch / Fork & spoon wind chime / Backyard bottle tree / Nesbitt’s orange soda thermometer Randsburg “living ghost town,” Mojave Desert

    Bottle service

    Pink saltcedar & washing machine on porch / Fork & spoon wind chime / Backyard bottle tree / Nesbitt’s orange soda thermometer

    Randsburg “living ghost town,” Mojave Desert

  • 2013-05-11

    Sticks & stones & gold

    The Rand Desert Museum was closed when I visited the defunct mining town of Randsburg, but I did learn from a flyer taped up on main street that four prospectors would have set out with, among other things, six oxen and a single tent, 400 pounds of bacon, six pounds each of nails and cream of tartar, and two gallons of pickles and brandy, respectively. The whole shebang listed for $486.65 in the 1859 Leavenworth Ledger: $12,256.25 in today’s dollars, an investment of a little over $3,000 per person. That sounds doable, but it was fool’s gold after all—Gold Rush merchants made more money than the miners by supplying them.

  • 2013-05-10

    But when I climb up to my island peak, escape awhile the madding world of strife, I envy not an earthly thing. This life, which sometimes galls, is swept clean of its cares by friendly winds, and once again I smile. Ay, truly, life seems sweet—a thing worthwhile.
    —Capt. Eddie Harrison, Nov 24, 1912 – Oct 10, 1992

    2012 Catalina birthday hike route

    Freebied, ferried, dog carrier lockered and hiking permitted in Avalon, we made a false start reaching the beginning of the Trans-Catalina Trail, hugging the coast past Lover’s Cove. Last year, Pebbly Beach Road was closed due to falling rock, so we chose to turn back and maintain our cranial integrity.

    As we wound our way back through and above town, we got to see part of the setup for the downhill skateboard race the next day, the Catalina Island Classic (a rebirth of the 1977 event, amazing youtube video blocked). Hairpin turns overlooking the ocean were packed with hay bales in case of crash landings. People were taking golf carts instead of boards up the hill though.

    The views throughout the hike were literally breathtaking—we were completely exposed after the first mile on the trail, and reached the top of the ridge as panting, sweating tomatoes.