Rainy Day Music

While my friends back in Los Angeles are suffering through the hottest temperature ever recorded in L.A., I am sitting upstairs in my office with the window and door open enjoying the 60 degree weather and the light rain that has filled the day. While typing this I have switched on iTunes and am listening to my rainy day music.

I began having specific rain music back in the 1970's when I lived on Chandler Blvd. I would play music while doing a variety of things in my room. I also liked to look out the window down at the street (See the picture above) and watch the rain. Over time I put on specific music for the mood and it became my rain music. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. Now when ever I hear a raindrop I go to my office and fire up the music.

The first album I put on is, Astral Weeks by Van Morrison. The combination of a jazz accompaniment under Morrison's mystical lyrics makes for the perfect music for a rainy day. It helps that he mentions rain in a couple of the songs.

Another album is, Tales of Mystery and Imagination by the Alan Parsons Project. Here the lyrics, inspired by the works of Poe, and the Atmospheric music fit the rain, and the night.

For some reason I go through a Beatles period every winter and every time it rains. Any Beatles album will do but I always go back to The White Album for those rainy nights. I remember when the album came out KRLA played the album with interview comments by George Harrison's about each track. It was night and it probably was raining when I heard the program.

Another obvious rain and in this case night song is, Riders on the Storm by The Doors. I always have this vision of the one armed man from the TV show The Fugitive roaming Mulholland drive at night in a driving rain, looking for someone to kill. The one armed man figures in another one of my stupid fantasies. When I was a kid we would come back to Ohio to visit my Grandmother. In her basement was a pool table I liked to play with. Well one night while there I watched an episode of The Fugitive. The next day I was going to go down to the basement when I got this crazy notion that the one armed man was down in the basement ready to jump out at me. I didn't play pool the rest of that visit unless someone went down with me. I now have a basement of my own and the Grandson is afraid to go down there. I wonder what vision he has?

WW2 Photos From Japan

The other day I was scanning photos from a WW2 scrapbook my Grandmother kept for my Dad while he was in the Army. He was stationed in Ota Japan during the occupation period. He was assigned to what was the Nakajima Aircraft Plant. He found these photos of the plant while there. The photo above shows Japanese officials entering what s called the CP Building. This was the headquarters building. The photo below is from the actual airplane factory on the premises. You may notice the equipment appears to be American made

I can only think of one connection between these photos and Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Both share the Pacific Ocean.

My online research finds that the former airplane factory is now part of Fuji Heavy Equipment. They now build Subaru's at the sight.