Hurrican Sandy

I have survived a tornado, two large earthquakes and now a hurricane. While we did not suffer like the east coast we did have winds up to 70 mph which took down a lot of trees and power lines. We even had a neighbors siding on our front lawn along with some plasterboard. We were fortunate and only lost power for about 9 hours. But a tree down the street took out our internet for 11 days.

I have to say of the three violent acts of nature I still think the most disturbing is an earthquake. To someone who has never been through one it is hard to explain the feeling of being an earthbound creature and having your solid foundation begin to shake you silly and there doesn't seem to be anywhere  you can hide from it.

Below is a piture from our town:

Epicure from The Lakewood Daily Snap blog

Still earthquakes, higher taxes, Governor Moonbeam and the pron star condom issue aside, I miss home

Sunset Blvd Billboards From 1974

Follow this link to a great Flickr page full of billboards along Sunset Blvd. from 1974. I was 19 at the time and we spent a lot of time on the blvd. I remember many of these billboards. The album above reminds me of those days. Thank you Larry the Frog.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/larrythefrog/sets/72157616537275243/

Joe South

I just found out Joe South died this past September 5th at the age of 72. He was one of the great singers and song writers of his time. He belongs in the Rock Hall of Fame. I remember the first time I heard Games People Play on KHJ. Humble Harv introduced the song and said you have to listen to this man he is heavy. He was right.

Below is a link to a YouTube video of my favorite Joe South song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AirBbS4R7Z0

Toy Cars

Here are pictures of what is left (sigh) from my childhood toy car collection. I gave most of it away years ago to my cousins son. Some of the cars in the pictures are more recent as people still give me cars for Christmas:

My Apartments

Recently on Facebook people from the SF Valley and LA pages have been posting pictures of their old houses. All my years in the Valley were spent in apartments. So being short on ideas for a post, here are my apartments:

13760  Sherman Way Van Nuys CA

Center building top front

7347 Haskell Ave. Van Nuys CA

8070 Langdon Ave. Van Nuys CA

7924 Woodman Ave. Van Nuys CA

Was Jane Russell's Aprtment building

14341 Chandler Blvd. Van Nuys CA

Memory Park Ave. Sepulveda CA

Kittridge, North Hollywood CA

12364 Magnolia Blvd. Valley Village CA

I forget a few of the addresses and am too lazy to look them up. They span from 1960 to 2006. Thanks to Google Street View for making this egotistical exercise possible.

Village Recorders Tour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpT-q4aKWac&feature=youtu.be

Lake Effect Studio

I recently bought a small audio mixer which can be plugged directly into your computer through the USB slot. Since I got rid of all my fancy equipment I wanted something small to record songs and other projects. One of the othe projects we are working on is a Van Nuys Boomers podcast. Right now it is going back and forth between the Rats. If we do something good I might share one or two here. A little music in the backgorund and personal memories.

This small table houses some of Lake Effect Studio. I had to have a name and that seemed to fit the project. The guitars, keyboard, tower speakers and 1,000 watt amplifier are elsewhere. But this is all it takes to complete the task. Two mics, a mixer, an iPod, MP3 player and some misc. equipment.

I keep asking myself why I have less room in a three bedroom house with an attic and a basement than I had in a two bedroom apartment in the Valley. Ah, tenants! One is gone, two to go!

It Was the Sixties

Below is our brand new dining room set in our apartment at 13760 Sherman Way. The year is 1964. This set went well with our aluminum Christmas tree and the bright orange plastic dishes and cups.The name of the bird in the cage is "Kookie". Named after the character from the TV show "77 Sunset Strip". Kookie used to wait in between the venetian blinds for me to come home from school. Kookie also like Vodka and orange juice. When my parents had friends over and they had drinks you had to share it with the bird. If you tried to shoo the bird away he would bite you. Yeah that's pudgy me and Mom.

Oscars Restaurant

Who remembers Oscar's Restaurant at the corner of Sepulveda and Vose in Van Nuys. We used to eat there all the time. Seems like my Dad always ordered a Chili Size. Here is a picture of the restaurant which replaced Oscar's. I believe this is the place that had red hamburger buns. 

(Picture from The San Fernando Valley Relics page on Facebook)

Vintage Stereo System

One of my childhood memories was visiting a friend who had a console stereo system, which to a young kid sounded great. No this is not the actual stereo system or the friend, sigh. But I thought it was a great looking console stereo.

Cruising Van Nuys Blvd 1972

Below is a composite of images from 1972 of Van Nuys Blvd on a Wednesday night. Photos by Richard McCloskey.

Cruising Van Nuys Blvd

Just a quick reminder why we used to cruise Van Nuys Blvd.

Photo from the http://wildbunchcarclub.com/id21.html (Wild Bunch Car Club of Southern California)

GI Joe Footlocker

The box below with the label Stereo Equipment used to be my GI Joe Footlocker. Unfortunately I painted the box black and no longer have the innards but the box is still going strong and still holds my cords, plugs and electronic tools.

Crushes

A friend and I were talking about famous and not so famous girls/women we had crushes on over the years. My friend said I had unusual taste. He's right, I never got Pamela Anderson or any other number of famous women. So I put together a little picture of 4 women who at one time or another I had had a bit of a crush on and thought were pretty.

Three actresses and a news anchor. And no blondes. With three actresses who worked in Hollywood I can justify posting this in an L.A./SFV themed blog.

More Momentos

LP openers from Tower Records. Not much use for these anymore

Gone but not forgotten. The best bookstore in the SFV

A Muntz key chain

A Las Vegas souvenir from The Sahara Hotel

 A gift from Radio Rat

My Favorite Sign

This hangs on the outside of my home office door. After so many years of being interrupted at work I have reached the age where I can no longer tolerate being interrupted when I am working on a project. It has worked very well and my throat feels much better since I no longer have to growl (as much, I still do)

The Hollywood Tropicana

Who remembers finding these all over the valley years ago. I used to find them on my windshield

Book Markers from Local Bookstores

Jane Russell at Taos West

Below is a picture of Jane Russell from January 1972 taken at her apartment complex "Taos West" on Woodman Ave. in Van Nuys California

Steak Burger Van Nuys CA

Does anyone remember a small place called Steak Burger that was at 6336 Woodman Ave. in Van Nuys? It was on the east side of the street just south of Victory Blvd. We used to go there back in the 70's. They had very large hamburgers on what I recall seemed like a specially made bun. We would cut classes at Valley College and go there or to Jack in the Box on the other side of Woodman. Then we would go play golf. This is probably why I spent too many years at Valley College and ended up with nothing but memories of cutting classes. The location of Steak Burger was about at the spot in the picture below

Thanks again to Google Street View

Various Momentos

The piece below is from the print shop at Birmingham High School. I don't recall how I came to have it because I don't recall taking print shop

Below is a milk bottle cap. I used to keep my paintbrushes in the bottle which is now long gone

My badge from Butler Bros Department Store, circa 1973

Yes its blurry and I should redo it

Builders Emporium

Here is an article that appeared in the Valley paper for the opening of the store in Woodland Hills. Radio Rat and I helped set up the store. He went on to work there when it opened. While we set the store up we had a hotel room at the Holiday Inn nearby where we did let off some steam, albeit not Rock Star level it was fun and we left the furniture intact.

Butler Bros Department Store

Who remembers the Butler Bros credit cards. Here are some blanks.

Photo Scans

Universal City Walk 1999

1973 Battle of the Bands Flyer our Band Participated in

2000 Pictures from Santa Monica Pier

Santa Monica Pier

1999 Pictures of Hazeltime Elementary School

Below are rather poor pictures I took while driving by my old Elementary school