Surprising Janis for her 80th birthday

Janis Mary Angus had her 80th birthday on 24 August.

Her family had a surprise gathering.  Everyone was careful to hide their travel plans.

Her son, Rick Angus, told her about his plans to visit.  He arrived on early Friday.  While Jan and Rick were talking, a car pulled up to the house.  It was her daughter Kathy Brooks and surprised her with her arrival.  While Kathy and Jan were hugging, the other daughter, Judy Piano, was hiding in the car.  Judy popped out of Kathy's car and surprised her again.  As they were sitting in the kitchen and talking, her foster daughter Erica Reaves walked in with her husband Casper.  Erica said "I heard there was a party here", happily surprised for the third time that day.  A little while later, he son Owen Angus arrived with his wife Diane.  Friday dinner was a great gathering of all her children over home-made tacos.

After dinner, there was good conversation, good memories and plenty laughter.  In particular, Jan was remembering a family trip.  There was a boat that passed the family truck, going down the highway.  No car.  No trailer.  Just a boat.  The children in the camper were banging on the cab and pointing to the run-away boat.  Jan was laughing so hard and turning red at the memory.

On Saturday, the plan was everyone from Friday to meet for lunch at Aguayos Resturant in Calipatria.  . In addition, Owen's son Colin was there with his wife Breanna and their daughter Kendall.  Also at lunch was Jan's home visiting teacher Gladine Daker and her husband Ernie.

At the gift opening, one of the key gifts was a family photo album.  It contained photographs and narratives of Jan's life.  It also contained photographs and written dedications from the children, grandchildren, and friends.  Later, Rick was asking Jan a few questions to fill in the historical details about her life.  It was great to hear the family hear more details about Jan's life.

Later that afternoon, Judy's daughter Nicole Piano arrived with her fiance Dylan.  We had a chance to take photographs of three generations. Almost everyone stayed out at Jan's house that evening and had spaghetti for dinner. Wall to wall people for sleeping, just like old times.

Everyone was glad they could play a part in Jan's 80th birthday.

Three Sisters, Three Weddings

Three sisters at their weddings.
-Elizabeth Lane Gesner
-Erica Pinter Hickingbottom
-Eva Pinter Worthy

Getty Visit August 2012

Here are some of our favorite works which we saw at the Getty Center during our visit yesterday.

Several are copies from the Getty Website
www.getty.edu


Favorite Works

Herb Ritts, photograph, Tatjana, veiled head, Joshua Tree, 1988
Herb Ritt, photograph, Magic Johnson, Hollywood, 1992
Gustav Klimt, Beethoven Frieze, 1902

Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime

Pierre-Paul Prud"hon French, about 1805 - 1806 Oil on canvas Medusa Vincenzo Gemito Italian, Naples, 1911 Parcel-gilt silver  Landscape with the Castle of Massa di Carrara Leo von Klenze German, 1827 Oil on canvas  Moroccan Horseman Crossing a Ford Eugène Delacroix French, about 1850 Oil on canvas Waiting for the Verdict Abraham Solomon British, 1859 Oil on canvas

Scrapbooking: Gabor's Service

Erica created a scrapbooking page with items from Uncle Gabor Danyi's services.

Gabor Danyi Obituary

Gabor Danyi

Uncle Gabor passed away on March 22, 2012.  He was Erica's great uncle, her father's uncle, her grandmother's brother.

Gabor immigrated around 1967.  He was married to  Aunt Erzsebet and lived in North Hollywood for about 30 years.

Erica, Liz, and Casper do Contemporary Art in Los Angeles

Erica and Casper thought that Liz said she wanted to do Modern Art during her visit. So we planned a day of modern art. Liz just said art. Oh well.

We started the day with a coffee and pastry stop at Buzz Coffee on Beverly near Fairfax. We shared an excellent cappuccino muffin while people watching at the window.

From Buzz, we did some boutique shopping on Beverly. The first stop was Heath Ceramics. They had some excellent dinnerware, table lining and cutting boards. They also carry a line a canning jars by Werk. Liz thought that these would be great for gifting homemade jams and such. Our second stop was Rolling Greens Nursery. They sell plants but focus more on flower pots, terrariums, and old world decorations.

LA Weekly recommended an art exhibit by Camille Rose Garcia at Kohn Gallery on Beverly. The show was entitled Snow White and the Black Lagoon. Garcia takes the tradition, darker story and puts it into bold paintings. She emphasizes the heart cut out by the huntsman. As a medium, Garcia uses plywood and different layers of paint. Some of the paint highlights the grains the wood and incorporates it into the image.

The next few stops were in downtown Los Angeles. However, light Saturday afternoon traffic in downtown was made very challenging by a demonstration. Local labor union members were marching in support of the working in Wisconsin. The traffic forces us to park where we could and start walking, even though it was supposed to be a light walking day.

Casper wanted to surprise Erica and Liz with a stop by an art supply store. Both are into scrapbooking as a hobby, but many scrapbooking specialty stores have closed. Maybe they could find some supply at a traditional art supply store. We walked over to Raw Materials LA on Main Street. The store had some interesting stuff, but nothing that Erica or Liz needed. However, we were very impressed by the Old Bank District where the art store was located. We want to go back to explore the small bookstore and several restaurants we saw.

The main focus of the trip was the Museum of Contemporary Art on Grand Avenue. They had an exhibit by William Leavitt that Casper was intrigued by. Leavitt views ordinary objects and scene and how they could fit together such as on a movie or theater set. Erica really licked Leavit drawing where he showed motion by drawing overlapping outlines of the people. For example, one figure was a one first sitting back in a chair, then crossing her legs, then leaning forward. Liz was impressed by the permanent collection at MOCA. This was the first time she had send works by Roy Litchtenstein in person. Liz and Casper were both impressed by Litchtenstein's "Desk Calendar" work.

On the way back to the car, we stopped at the LA Central Library. Erica enjoyed showing our new favorite place to Liz, pointing out the hugeness of the building and the book collection.

Our next stop was the Century City Mall . Liz wanted to go to The Container Store. While Liz and Erica explored the multitudes of storage options, Casper went next door to Pink Taco to enjoy a Cuervo Silver while catching up on the NCAA Tournament on the ESPN.

The final stop of the evening was Clay Oven Indian Restaurant. Erica and Liz have had limited exposure to Indian Cuisine so we when for the Combination Dinner. We enjoyed paneer naan, samosa, tandoori chicken, chicken masala, raita, and mango lassi.


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Statue near White House; confusion

North of the White House, there is this statue that caught our attention. We thought it was a statue of George Washington. It was intriguing that one of the figures on the statue would be handing up a sword.

After a little research, we found out that this is a Statue of Lafayette. He is pleading to the French Assembly America's case in the Revolution. The figure with the sword is America, offering his desired role as a military leader. The two cherubs on the other side is the thank you from the US Congress after the war.

Smithsonian Link

Waugh's Holy Grail Knight Painting in the Renwick

In the Grand Salon at the Smithsonian Renwick Gallery, one of the major paintings is "The Knight of the Holy Grail" by Frederick J. Waugh in about 1912. It shows a knight in a boat praying to three angels, one of which has the grail.



















The University of British Columbia (link) has a good discussion of this painting which was inspired by the poem "Sir Galahad," by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1834). A longer excerpt is below.

When down the stormy crescent goes, A light before me swims,
Between dark stems the forest glows,
I hear a noise of hymns:
Then by some secret shrine I ride;
I hear a voice but none are there;
The stalls are void, the doors are wide,
The tapers burning fair.
Fair gleams the snowy altar-cloth,
The silver vessels sparkle clean,
The shrill bell rings, the censer swings,
And solemn chaunts resound between.


I find a magic bark;
I leap on board: no helmsman steers:
I float till all is dark.
A gentle sound, an awful light!
Three angels bear the holy Grail:
With folded feet, in stoles of white,
On sleeping wings they sail.
Ah, blessed vision! blood of God!
My spirit beats her mortal bars,
As down dark tides the glory slides,
And star-like mingles with the stars.


When on my goodly charger borne
Thro' dreaming towns I go,
The cock crows ere the Christmas morn,
The streets are dumb with snow.
The tempest crackles on the leads,
And, ringing, springs from brand and mail;
But o'er the dark a glory spreads,
And gilds the driving hail.
I leave the plain, I climb the height;
No branchy thicket shelter yields;
But blessed forms in whistling storms
Fly o'er waste fens and windy fields.

Visit with Family

Erica and Casper enjoyed our visit with family members during this Thanksgiving season. Sorry that we did not have more time. Here are a few quick photos. Thank you for introducing us to Wii gaming, Jose Tejas, and good cherry pie from the Hollywood Diner.

Joyce Robbins' Pet Squirrel

Guarding the back yard.

Smithsonian Castle Visit; Photo Exhibit

Erica was really excited to see the Smithsonian "Castle". Two great things about this facility among the various Smithsonian Institutions. 1.) They open at 8:30 am, compared to 10:00 am for most of the other buildings. 2.) In the West Hall, they have a sampling of exhibits from the other Museums; this is great for someone who does not know where to start with the Smithsonian Museums.

Another reason why we wanted to start there was they were exhibiting the results of Smithsonian Magazine's annual photo contest. (Link to website.) All the photos were amazing,
but three caught our attention.

The first was a news vendor in a small booth selling newspapers. The man's face is surrounded by newspapers. Erica noticed that the papers were in Hungarian.

The second was a degraded trailer home. Erica thought it looked like a structure she knew in Bombay Beach in Imperial County CA. When we read the caption, we found out it was the exact location that Erica remembered. (Decaying trailer, Garret Suhrie (Los Angeles, CA), Photographed March 2008, Bombay Beach, CA)

The third was a close up picture of multicolor plant leaves. As you look closer, a small frog was hiding in the leaves.

Trip To Washington DC

November 2010 Trip to East Coast
Washington DC

We spent a day as tourists Washington DC. It was a full day, but a quick one.

We left our hotel near the US Capitol. Here is a brief itinerary.
--US Capital Walk By
--Capitol Reflecting Pool Walk By
--National Mall Walk
--Hirshorn Sculpture Museum Walk By
--Visit and Breakfast in the Smithsonian Castle
--Visit the Freer Gallery
--American History Museum
--Old Post Office Walk By
--Metro a few stops North
--Visit the Renwick Gallery
--White House Walk By
--Metro to Reagan National Airport
--Pick up Rental Car, Return to Hotel
--Metro from Union Station to Dupont Circle
--Shopping in Kramer's Books
--Dinner at Maddy's Pub
--Metro Back to Union Station and Hotel



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