"I don't even know what people do out here"

It has a roof -- albeit one that doesn't enclose the building completely. And there are walls, although some might find the cinder block threaded with twisted rebar and wrapped with black metal roses somewhat curious. Yes, there's a living room, if you want to call it that, with a fire pit, concrete benches and a 7-by-10-foot spa under a heart-shaped window (sans glass).

Here on the outskirts of Joshua Tree, the low-slung black pavilion is the brainchild of Robert Stone -- former punk rocker and studio artist, now architect. And if you haven't yet figured it out, his one-bedroom desert dwelling -- Rosa Muerta, or Dead Rose -- doesn't exactly conform to the prevailing fashions of modern architecture, nor is it a design stunt. "I'm not interested in big unconventional approaches to architecture," says Stone, a Palm Springs-area native with a passion for restoring lowriders. He points out that his 1964 Ford Falcon's sleek profile mirrors the open-air pavilion, which he calls an exercise in "glamping," or glamorous camping.

"I think there is room in architecture for capturing the moment and local situations -- something both cultural and site specific. I'm developing my own language here."

The project consists of four spaces -- living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom -- that are all black. Walls, ceiling and floor are pitch black. Ditto the stove, microwave, refrigerator, faucets, cabinets, toilet, light sconces, glass sinks, night stands, towels and bedspread. The 40-year-old architect -- with shaved head, flame tattoos shooting up his arm and "Punk and Freedom" emblazoned a bit higher up -- built the structure over three years, all by himself.

Working for his dad, a spec-home builder, he learned to plumb, paint, roof, run electrical lines, install septic tanks, pour concrete, fashion cabinets. "It's the only way I could get to build what I want to build -- I'm the cheapest carpenter I know," he quips.

Rosa Muerta sits in the middle of raw desert dotted with a few hairy-armed Joshua Trees. Stone rents it out to intrepid souls under his development Pretty Vacant Properties, named after the Sex Pistols song that he and financial partner John Anderholt repeatedly played in Stone's Indian Wells garage years ago.

"This place is not for 99% of people," the architect says. "It's a rental house, but we ask more of people who come here. I'm creating a place for people to create their own experiences. It takes a bit of bravery. Each person has to figure out how to live in it."
A king bed covered with a quilted duvet sits atop the matte black concrete floor in the bedroom. The building and everything in it are black — as much sculpture as home.

"I don't even know what people do out here," Stone says. "I just clean up."

"a vista rimmed in cobalt blue"

Wildlife biologist Kevin Ryan stood on the edge of a rocky ridge in the heart of untamed Santa Catalina Island on Friday, inhaled deeply and admired that has changed little in thousands of years.

Fog drifted off green hills bristling with cholla cactus and spiced with the scent of sage. The loudest sounds were the songs of meadowlarks. About 600 feet below, the ocean crashed on the boulder-strewn base of steep mountains riven by wind and water.

The view lies at the 20-mile mark of the new Trans-Catalina Island Trail, a 37.2-mile hiking route that Ryan, trail coordinator for the Catalina Island Conservancy, designed and helped build with pick-axes and spades.

"In a place like this, it's hard to complain about coming to work every day," Ryan said with a smile.

The trail officially opens today. A decade in the making, it climbs, dips and winds through backcountry largely unknown to the public and essentially unchanged since Tongva Indians roamed the 76-square-mile island.

Everything old is new again

On Sept. 21, 1945, Pasadena minister Charles Long and his followers stayed up all night, reading Scripture and waiting for the world to blow up, as Long had predicted.

"Many had sold their possessions, paid their debts and made peace with their neighbors," The Times reported.

To their considerable surprise, the sun greeted them the next morning. The minister matter-of-factly explained that he had made a "minor error in his calculations," The Times said.

Sixty-four years later, there still seems no end to end-of-the-world forecasts.

The latest concerns a supposed ancient Maya prophecy that pinpoints Dec. 21, 2012, as doomsday (a Friday, in case you were making plans).

A "Deep" Experience

The Phantom Ranch marks the bottom of Grand Canyon. You get there by hiking or by riding a mule down, down, down the winding trail. After you stop there, you go back up. The ranch, at which you can spend the night has food, electricity, flush toilets, air conditioning, and beer. It's a surreal experience. Everything you see at the ranch has arrived by either mule or helicopter.

The Grand Canyon Skywalk

You’re standing on a platform made of glass. The rim of the Grand Canyon is 70 feet behind you. The other side of it is 3 miles in front of you. Then you dare to look down and see ………… nothing - nothing but 2,000 feet of air between you and the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Until recently, a sensation like this could only be experienced in dreams. But now, on a small Indian reservation East of Las Vegas, dreams and reality will meld into one with the Grand Canyon Skywalk.

Located at Grand Canyon West on the Hualapai Indian Reservation, the new Grand Canyon Skywalk opened to the public on March 28th, 2007. The structure, consisting of a U-shaped cantilevered glass bridge jutting 70 feet past the rim of the Grand Canyon, was dreamt up by Las Vegas businessman David Jin while taking part in a Grand Canyon tour in 1996. With the help of Las Vegas design firm Lochsa Engineering, Jin’s creation will be sturdy enough to hold the weight of a dozen fully loaded 747’s, and strong enough to withstand winds up to 100mph. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin lead the first walkers on the Grand Canyon Glass Skywalk in a private ceremony on March 20th, 2007.

Angelus Temple

Angelus Temple is the central house of worship of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles, California.

It was constructed under the leadership of Aimee Semple McPherson and dedicated on the First of January, 1923. The temple, located opposite Echo Park Lake, had an original seating capacity of 5,300, huge for a church then and now, but suited well for the crowds McPherson attracted as an evangelical sensation of the 1920s and 1930s. A 2002 renovation left it with a capacity of about 3,500.

The lighted cross, atop the temple's dome, is a longstanding landmark. The entire temple was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992

$1,000,000,000 plan unveiled

The aging Wilshire Grand hotel and adjoining offices in downtown Los Angeles would be demolished and replaced with a $1-billion hotel, office and retail complex under a plan by one of South Korea's largest business conglomerates. Above, the two high-rise towers are rendered in blue in this image. One tower is to be 60-stories high and the other will be 40-stories.

The proposal is unexpected at a time when builders are backing away from big projects, and when the market for office space and condominiums has softened considerably because of the recession.


The existing Wilshire Grand Hotel

Hello "Bye Bye Birdie"

No sooner did he shed his "ER" scrubs than John Stamos is heading to the Great White Way. He and Gina Gershon will star in the first Broadway revival of "Bye Bye Birdie."

Roundabout Theatre Company artistic director Todd Haimes says "Birdie" will open this fall at one of its theaters. The 1960 musical concerns an Elvis Presley-like rock 'n' roll star, named Conrad Birdie, who is being drafted into the Army and the effect his departure has on the teenagers in a small Ohio town.

Stamos, in the role that Dick Van Dyke played in the original 1960 Broadway production and again in the 1963 movie adaptation, will portray the star's manager, Albert Peterson, and Gershon will portray the manager's long-suffering secretary.

"The Barrymores: Hollywood's First Family"

She was acting by the time she was 3 years old. Was there ever a question that Drew Barrymore wouldn't go into the family business?

Actually, it's more like a dynasty. Members of her family were performers before the American Revolutionary War. Her Oscar-winning great-aunt was Ethel Barrymore. Academy Award-winning Lionel Barrymore was her great-uncle. Her grandfather was none other than movie and stage great John Barrymore -- a.k.a. the Great Profile. Her grandmother was Dolores Costello, who had been in movies since she was a child along with her father, Maurice Costello, who was one of the top stars of Vitagraph Pictures in the early part of the 20th century. Even Drew Barrymore's father, John Drew Barrymore, who died in 2004, had a film and TV career.

The lives and times of this remarkable family are the subject of a new exhibition, "The Barrymores: Hollywood's First Family," in the David L. Wolper Center on the ground floor of the Doheny Memorial Library at USC. The exhibition, which opened to the public Friday and continues through July 31, features rare photographs, posters, letters, drawings and other related memorabilia. In addition to the Barrymores and the Costellos, the exhibition features other branches of the family tree, including the Lanes, the Colts and the Blyths.

Above, John, Ethel, and Lionel Barrymore pose with members of the Barrymore and Colt families in the Bel Air Hotel while taking a break from the filming of "Rasputin and the Empress" in 1932.

"Sydney Laurence Art"

Known for his dramatic landscape paintings of Alaska, Sydney Laurence was one of the first professionally trained artists to live in the Alaska Territory. His trademark subject was Mt. McKinley.

"the conservation of natural open space"

The Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy was founded in 1988 by a group of concerned area residents to preserve open space on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The Conservancy has been very successful through the years preserving open space by working cooperatively with cities, property owners and environmental groups, locating funds for purchasing land, providing tax benefits for land donations, restoring habitats, and promoting the conservation of natural open space in the Palos Verdes Peninsula. With its help, future generations will be able to enjoy this precious coastline in the purest state possible.

The Big Challenge

Las Vegas -- Within 90 days, this city founded on risk-taking is supposed to break ground on one of its biggest cultural gambles to date: the $475-million Smith Center for the Performing Arts.

The ground-breaking is taking place at a challenging time for Las Vegas' biggest cultural institutions, which have been buffeted by the recession. Most notably, the Las Vegas Art Museum closed last month. The museum's closing and cutbacks elsewhere have raised questions about whether a city that in recent years has tried to cultivate a more sophisticated and cosmopolitan image can sustain a high-arts presence and fill the seats at its fancy new cultural center. Previously, Las Vegas attempted to lure out-of-towners away from the slot machines and showgirls by offering brand-name artworks at splashy venues such as the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum at the Venetian Resort, now closed, and casino magnate Steve Wynn's Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art.

By contrast, said Myron Martin, the Smith Center's president, the "vast majority" of patrons at the new performance hall downtown probably won't be tourists, but southern Nevada residents.

On the Fast Track

At the ADT Event Center Velodrome in Carson, California, The 250-meter, or 820-foot, oval has turns banked at 46 degrees, more than the steepest NASCAR track, and at first sight it's intimidating for even an avid cyclist who has never pedaled on a track before. Recreational riders typically turn a lap at 25 to 35 mph, and pros can hit 50 mph.

"It doesn't seem possible that you can ride an angle like that," says Matt Thompson, a member of the South Bay Wheelmen cycling club. "But you keep pedaling and keep up your speed and you start to get used to it."

“Every person of color in this country knows more about racism than I’ll ever know, because they have to live with it every day," -- Jane Elliott

Jane Elliott created her "Blue Eyes / Brown Eyes" exercise for her Iowa third-grade pupils in 1968. For an entire day, she conducted her class as if the brown-eyed children were superior to those with blue eyes, to help the students learn the concept of racism.

A 1970 photo shows Jane Elliott's class in the midst of the "Blue Eyes / Brown Eyes" exercise. The blue-eyed children toward the back of the line are wearing collars.

Holmby Hills mansion listed for $150 million

Candy Spelling, widow of legendary TV producer Aaron Spelling, has put her 4.7-acre residence in Holmby Hills up for sale, all 56,500 square feet of it. Priced at $150 million, it's currently the most expensive residential listing in the U.S.

Officially known as "The Manor," the property -- which looks like a French chateau and is slightly larger than the White House -- is the largest home in Los Angeles County. Spelling, the mother of actress Tori Spelling, describes it as the "greatest entertainment house ever" with a "kitchen where you can cook for two or 800." The parking lot, dubbed the "motor court," can accommodate 100 vehicles, with 16 carports to boot.

World's "cheapest car"

Reporting from New Delhi -- With the flash of cameras and oohs and aahs from the crowd, an Indian company Monday launched what is billed as the world's least expensive car, six years after it was conceived and six months behind schedule.

The Nano will start at $2,200 after taxes and dealer costs, while the more expensive CX and LX models with heat, air conditioning and power brakes will go for as much as $3,800.

None of the models, made by India's giant Tata conglomerate, carry air bags or anti-lock brakes. But they will meet or exceed all Indian safety standards, company officials said.

"I hope it will provide safe, affordable four-wheel transportation to families who until now have not been able to own a car," Ratan Tata, company chairman, told reporters.

Faster than a speeding bullet . . .

Reporting from Nagoya, Japan -- This is a nation addicted to speed.

And to ride Japan's super Shinkansen, or bullet train, is to zip into the future at speeds reaching 186 miles per hour.


From Nagoya to Tokyo, the scenery whizzes past in a dizzying blur as the sleek engine with its bullet-like nose floats the cars along elevated tracks -- without the clickety-clack of the lumbering U.S. trains that make you feel as though you're chugging along like cattle to market.

These days, Californians dream of a future with high-speed elevated rails that would link Southern California and Las Vegas in less than two hours, or L.A. and San Francisco in just over 2 1/2 .

Japan, meanwhile, will soon have a class of train that could make the trips in less than half those times.


This is a nation where it's not nearly enough that the trains run on time -- they've got to break land records. And even that's not enough.

By 2025, a network of bullet trains connecting major cities is to feature magnetically levitated, or maglev, linear motor trains running at speeds of more than 310 mph.

CONCORDE 101, last official flight ! !

Russian Antonov 225 on ground - - largest plane in world ! !

Note: a visitor to my blog informs me that the Antonov was made in Ukraine not Russia (see comment below).

The 787 Dreamliner