Pre-Dawn at Santa Anita

The grooming of the track. 

626 Night Market

This past weekend at Santa Anita.

FITNESS FOR EVERY BODY

Fitness for Every Body

I've worked with a local gym in Studio City, called Body Women Only, for some years now. This is our most recent collaboration. 

The billboard can be seen above the entrance to the gym on Laurel Canyon Blvd, just north of Ventura Blvd.

Some of the women in the family

Marion, Juliana and Jess 

Another hot day in Albuquerque.

New Mexico September 2012

 Eastbound on the Southwest Chief 5:46 a.m.

 The Sangre de Cristos seen from backstage at the Santa Fe Opera

             See the aspen trees on the lower right.

 The changing colors of the aspens. 

Day trip to Jemez Springs Bathhouse.  We were escorted through a controlled burn just outside of Los Alamos.  At the bathhouse the water comes out of the faucet at 154º

Borderlands 2 Production at Eagle Mountain

The Good Guys

The Bad Guys

Shot July 2012

Eagle Mountain, CA

It was a 4 day shoot with temps going as high as 120º

Fare Thee Well

No Triple Crown for this duo. Last Saturday the fans of I'll Have Another, Mario Gutierrez and Team O'Neill had one more chance to see them together. On Sunday I'll Have Another went into quarantine before jetting off to Japan for his next service to the horse racing world.  

When the duo won the Santa Anita Derby in April, everyone was invited to the Turf Club for a party. There was a DJ, girls in short skirts, guys looking to pick up girls, lots of drinks and many cheers for the winners. I was sitting in an alcove sharing a table with an older couple who were clearly members of the club. Upon realizing that the general public had been invited up to the Chandelier Room to celebrate, the horrified woman said 'We are leaving" And off they went. 

I hope to see Mario again at Santa Anita. Up in The Turf Club.

Morning Beauty

Stealing a few hours, I made it out to Santa Anita.

 

Horse Crazy

I'll Have Another and Mario Gutierrez in sync at the Santa Anita Derby back in April.

I found myself at the Northridge Mall at 3 o'clock on Saturday and the salesman at the Sears electronics department was kind enough to tune one of the TV's to The Preakness Stakes.

Now it's three weeks to rest and get ready to face Union Rags and Dullahan, amongst others, at Belmont.

I lived in Baltimore for 4 years and never went to Pimlico. It was where you went to get drunk and do something you'd regret. On Saturday, this is where I'll Have Another proved to the world what it takes to win: a very big heart.

I'll Have Another

-Updated-

For the past year and a half I have been visiting Santa Anita Racetrack on a regular basis. 

Here, indeed is a Rite of Passage in the making.

There's LavaMan leading the way at beautiful Santa Anita!

The crowd at Santa Anita was given a preview of I'll Have Another with Mario Gutierrez about a month before the Santa Anita Derby. His buddy LavaMan walked him onto the track. Galloping about 5 furlongs and looking relaxed, I'll Have Another caught my attention. Was this a Triple Crown contender in front of us? 

On Derby Day in April he thrilled the crowd by overcoming Blueskiesandrainbows (Mike Smith) and Creative Cause (Joel Rosario) to win the 2012 Santa Anita Derby. Here he is (#4), just around the 8th pole and with a glance towards the crowd heads for the finish line. 


And then, The Kentucky Derby!
Making The Front Page
En-route to Pimlico This is hysterical!

Pippin

Adopted from the Northeast Animal Shelter In Los Angeles in January of 2005.
He weighed 40 lbs, wore a pink rhinestone collar and was covered in bites and scars. He is named after the folk painter Horace Pippin, who's work can be seen in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

Words with Frie(nd)s

Perspective

On Friday night I saw the rainbow arch over the Cahuenga Pass in Hollywood. 

It passed right over Jesus and went straight to Capitol Records.

A Picture Book Soon to be Published

My Grandfather in 1929 as he crossed the Sahara. The book is accompanied by excerpts from his letters home as he journeyed from Algeria through the Congo. He was 26 years old.  
click here to view book

A Visit to Huntington Beach

View from Griffith Observatory

April 12, 2011.  50 years ago Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarian orbited the earth. A celebration called "Yuri's Night" took place at the Observatory. 

His quote:

"Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!"

A Picture of My Grandmother

Polly Wright Young was a school teacher in Baltimore. This photograph was taken by Jack Engeman, probably taken in the late 1950's. I scanned it from a contact sheet I found after her death 7 years ago.  
From a publicity statement about a show of his work: "The landmark Brown v. the Board of Education, Topeka decision by the United States Supreme Court on May 17, 1954 that declared unconstitutional racial segregation in public education propelled dramatic and historic changes in the Baltimore City schools. Jack Engeman, who had been photographing in the schools for years, was a witness to the changes, and his photographs reveal much about the decision’s impact."

She was born on August 11, 1911.  She is buried in Greenmount Cemetery next to her husband Louis T. Sandlass.

Pershing Square, Labor Union Rally

Click here to see slide show on youtube.

New Year, New Moon in Chinatown

Eggheads