A Puzzle of Space and Time and Play Me

Pieces of a Puzzle: a mild obsession with the song “Play Me” of Neil Diamond, a very strong emotional connection to some friends in Los Angeles (one particular , but thats another story ..) a remark of a teenage friend he could predict the sun would come up tomorrow and my instant resistance to it , wanting to state something like , do you have a clue how much work that is ? having a math/phil professor and a music teacher in my ancestor line (grandparents fathers side) possibly advising me from beyond…

Ok so after my friend made that remark about the sunrise every morning and looking up the ancient egypt mythology about the Sungod Ra and his nightly travel with the sun through the darkness and the land of the dead to revive his own self every night to rise again in the morning and reading #stilldark at 5AM in Los Angeles i was having the thought if there would be a day in the year where the sun would set here (Germany, Ratingen)  and rise in LA at the exact same time. It got inspired by the lyrics of “Play Me” . .. She was morning and i was nighttime. (which would change to HE was morning in that case… but i dont want to bore you with too much background chitchat..)

I couldnt get that out of my mind and one afternoon i started looking up sunrise/sunset times for Los Angeles for that day and compared it with our times. There is time difference of 9 hours between LA and Germany , and the sunrise almost matched for my city sunset time. While doing all that checking i realized that we have a difference from around 30 minutes of sunset times upto the north of Germany… to make it short , i finally – so i thought – found out that on Dec. 20 the times would be exactly the same only a few kilometers away in Essen. I already wanted to blur that out into the world and was thinking what  to do or maybe driving over a huge bridge to Essen at the exact time,  but luckily i crosschecked, to find out that i checked the times for Los Angeles on the…. Philippines !  – insert a mental picture of me hitting my head onto my desk here- .

alas .. at the dinner with my teenage friends i got a cool fortune cookie saying :

good that you follow your aims with persistance

so i didnt give up putting the puzzle together.

now i went onto another path , finding the matching spot in time and space for the longest darkest night , the shortest overlapping sun times, the city in Germany where that happens .

The date for the longest darkest night is obvious Dec 21 the winter solstice , right ? ok we have almost new moon (which is on Dec 22) . which will make it very very dark . Sunrise time in Los Angeles will be at 6:54 AM  http://www.sunrise-and-sunset.com/de/vereinigte-staaten/los-angeles which will be at 3:54 PM (15:54) our time. The closest to that for sunset here (3 minute)  will be very much up north in Germany in Flensburg right at the border to Denmark, Sunset is at 15:57 http://www.sunrise-and-sunset.com/de/deutschland/flensburg.

My thought was to ask all my friends here and in Los Angeles to be aware of that rare condition and maybe do a meditation or prayer at that time.  How awesome is that almost like a Ying Yang symbol with the DARK containing a tiny spot of LIGHT and to know even when you face the darkest night a friend can hold up the  Light for you and all of us ?

Imagine my surprise when i found out about a GLOBAL meditation happening right then ! Please look it up here and JOIN JOIN JOIN … there are the times given for everyone in the world ….

http://globalmeditation.net/

see you ! i will also meditate and play the Gong…

oh and here is some extra homework….

find the half / average between Flensburg and Ratingen… ( look up the sunset times for yourself…) in distance / sunset times …     using mainly the highways A52, A40, A43, A1 and A7… i have a certain idea it will come out somewhere around Bremen.   …

https://maps.google.de/maps?hl=de&output=classic&dg=brw

Dodging the ball

One question to begin with. how much did YOU like sports and games at school ?

well .. i. did. not.at.all.

While being born with a form of natural clumsiness and 2 slightly crippled feet and ankles , i always struggled everywhere to keep balance and develop strength and power. I had been  very skinny and underweight too. – well as a kid and teenager at least. The memories of being frustrated started early pre school already in a class for kids with these kind of issues. I remember clearly i didnt want to go to climb up that ladder thing on the wall or try to grab wool threads with my toes. I just wasnt able to do it. What i liked then was dancing and move to music, which later on was downed by a ballet teacher calling in my mother and let me show off my lack of getting to dance on my toes. … sorry . back to topic , but you get the picture.

So after Elementary School – where i think i was quite ok with the sports classes and a move to another town and life, i slighty started hating the sports classes , avoiding them (yes with the usual excuses for girls…) or even  skipping class. Sometimes i even had nightmares of the changing room and having to go to the class when i was way in my adulthood. Today while thinking about another topic it finally dawned on me what might have caused it.  The classes i disliked the most were the ones where the other students could vote for what kind of teamgame we wanted to play and they went for Völkerball. ,which is different of the american Dodgeball (when i googled the game i learned it always has been a game about war with many variations and rules)  I dont remember exactly what version we had to play or if we had to do different kinds, but it was always a situation like this. Choosing the members for your team, of course i was the one that usually got called out last . Which of course was very frustrating. One time i was very surprised , when i got chosen into the team as the second last and asked , why ?

The response was: you are so skinny and fast , its hard to hit you with the ball.  But you gotta catch the ball , so the game doesnt end . Yes, of course … i never could catch the ball or keep it in my hands.

So most of the times ,when i was in the team that was about to loose the game or in a case of an even match , i was the last one of the team in the field trying my best to not get hit and staying in as long as possible , so either a member of my team would make it back on the field , or the other team loosing. It was exhausting and i disliked the game anyway. To my taste – at that time already – the game was just useless , cruel and no fun . I d rather would have had a class with Rhythm and Dance, or at least the main part of the class on it.

Now how would you get me off the field , with me being the last member of the team to play.? The class is 45 minutes, we did play for lets say… 25 minutes. If the game ends right away , there will be most likely a re-play, reciprocation , return match. Should i give up and be hit hard by that heavy medicine ball ? Try to catch the ball ? Dodging it as long as possible and try to make it to the end of class gong? Catch the ball , run away with it , or hide it and hope noone remembers the game the next weeks class ? Catch the ball , put it on the ground or back in the closet and yell  ” i wanna stop this and go dancing ” ? i feel exhausted.

What would YOU do ? (to get off the battlefield , end the game , do a handshake and go dancing or whatever you enjoy doing… )

PS… i am currently looking into  things , that are not straining , challenging, competitive in any way ,  just fun and easy .  I will practice and then one day …

dance with a partner  …

on a Ball  😉

on a Völkerball… (hint .. hint… Googles translation..  )

Moondog, Nikola Tesla and a (kind of ) Tanagra Theatre

Ok , here it goes…

imagine a little village , quite bourgeois…  where people when they move , they only move like the next street or so, 2 pubs (one of them across your house ) one mailbox , no kiosk or little shop or anything like that. A suburb with a  750 year history… rumors getting dragged up and down inside houses, well groomed lawns and heaven forbid a leaf falling onto the well swept streets .  Yeah you feel you landed straight in a bourgeois hell. There were reasons at that time to move here – of course just for a short time you thought back then.

Then every attempt to get out got thwarted by a twisted Universe with a odd sense of humor.

So over the last few months , i was spending more and more time on the backside of my place  in a room that is used as meditation / guest / music room.  When you look outside there is a triangle of gardens shaped by the backside of the houses in the surrounding streets. Of course the gardens are kept clean by now 2 of those fancy shmancy Roomba grassmowers. I suppose there is a kind of competition going on… ha. Many mornings i spent time sitting there with my morning coffee and watching the landing airplanes being seen just between those 2 houses with the fancy mowers and vanishing behind the roof of house to the left. Some days i played my fabulous Gong which has his place in the meditation room as well.  Last year i took a few days of personal training with a music teacher /concert cellist and propably at the same time i discovered the fabulous music of an US artist who went by the artist name “Moondog “.Please read the full Wikipedia article here Moondog  I instantly fell in love with his music and his story.  He used to play in the streets of NYC first , dressed as a Viking, also with big orchesters like the NY Philharmonics , blind after an accident in childhood, he used to do all his compositions just in his mind and then writing them down in braille scripture, he was the master of counterpoint. In the seventies he came to Germany to just play a few concerts and then just stayed here cause he liked the people and played in the streets like he used to do in NYC. I do remember when we moved to this area in 1976 that i went with some friends to see a crazy musician but it slipped from my memory if we actually found him that day. My best friend saw him though  in the streets often when she went into town after school. Anyway , i started to use the music even for massage sessions and played the Gong to it. There was one piece in particular that i liked a lot. Maybe one of the most beautiful love songs i ever heard… High on a rocky ledge.

Now very recently there was a major road closure of the road leading into our village and with some construction work on another road it was almost impossible to get in and out of this place without having to take a detour of many kilometers and when you were not familiar with the detours there was a big chance of getting lost totally. That alone made me feel most uncomfortable already. Though i didnt really plan going anywhere that day , but you know how that is… once you close a door you wanna get out, right ?lol. Plus , the reason why  the road was closed was a bike race and there was some IDIOT YELLING into a microphone for over 6 hours straight through. I asked on social media why there is a need to do something that ridiculous. The poor people in the houses closer to the event. I even offered  if the Universe would not shut him up , i would do it , with a chair, in his face, followed by the wish that i would like to have nice people and nice music here for the first time since 15 years, cause so far i couldnt enjoy one single event outside in all that time. POOF… the magic twisted fairy ….

the windows . picture is last year. so much changed since then !

Just a  few days later ,  i decided to watch the sunset and the landing planes again from the window of my meditation/guest room . Standing there a little bored looking , my elbows propped on the windowsill and face in my hands and staring into nothingness.  All of a sudden thinking .. what the .. did i turn my notebook or Itunes on accidently ? I was hearing very familiar notes and piano riffs of my favorite Moondog song , sounding all over the backside gardens… Slowly it occured to me that someone else was playing MY kind of music !!!! Can you imagine how excited i got ?   Finally figured out the music coming from one of the apartments on top of house across the garden . The windows were set half open and at some point i could see a guy behind the glass. Then it got a little awkward . It was obvious he noticed me standing at my window and looking across towards him… cause he was looking at me with binoculars ! I guess he felt caught and started waving at me and then throwing kisses my direction. I didnt know if i should laugh or show him the magic of my middle finger.  But since it was kinda funny and there was still music playing i played along. The binoculars were followed by something looking like a camera.  He still was waving like crazy. One of the windows was opened , he yelled HEllO and then dragged a germans shepard dog upto his windowsill to bark hello as well. Poor doggie seemed to pedal with his back legs cause i could hear some ceramics crash down. The guy didnt seem to care about that.  Window closed again. Music still playing. When the album was almost finished , window was opened again and the following conversation was held yelled for all neighbours to hear over the distance of the backside gardens.:       Guy : “HELLO” Me:”HELLO , that was nice the music ” Guy:”What ? ” Me:”Moondog!” Guy:”What ? You know Moondog ? Thats awesome , i thought i only know him here ” Me:”No , many know him, his real name was Louis Thomas Hardin…. , i love his music and especially High on a Rocky Ledge… ” … keep in mind we held that conversation YELLING… Guy :” I cant believe you know him… then you dont belong into this village for sure !” Me: ” I guess so ” Guy:” i dont belong here either” Me:” Where you like to go then ?” Guy:” To …… Sicily !, have you ever been to Sicily ? ” Me:”No” Guy:”Then we go together ! You have to go come with me. ” Me…meanwhile a bit squirming and finding the conversation taking a little odd way… “Uh oh.. maybe.” Then the guy tried to set up another date at the windows for the next evening. I admit i then tried to avoid somehow, i mean i was curious who he is and such , but the thing with being watched with binoculars was a bit offsetting. I felt somehow uncomfortable with my window hangout and staring into nothingness , slowly switching to staring into the windows of the upper apartment trying to figure out if there is someone with binoculars. … .you get the picture. I did see  one room lit and something like a frame , of i first thought its a very dark painting  on the wall. My rooms were almost completely dark , but a bit light coming from a room behind , so i figure i was visible . Guy came into the room and went straight in front of the frame , which turned out to be a damn freaking MIRROR ! He looked into it and applying something to his face, i suppose some scent or after shave . Then it hit me … he surely detected me at my window in his mirror aiming directly at my place. Dont worry … i am not getting paranoid. LOL.

But since that moment i am aware of how easily a point of view can change , how much we could see with reflections and that i need some curtains for that room.

The Universe then threw me another ball this morning with this article and video about a Tanagra theatre and Nikola Tesla, where the preview picture on the net showes  a drawing of how the Tanagra works with its mirrors. Doesnt come through here , but this is the video the article contained.

I realized i have my own Tanagra theatre on the backside of my place and Moondog and Mr. Tesla shared an uncommon feature. They both developed everything they did in their mind first completely  and what they inventend WORKED  !!!

Btw… realized this village might not be that bourgeois at all… cause

I LIVE HERE ! HA !

Los Angeles stories: Los Feliz, standing on the corner

This is a story of an actual afternoon in LOS FELIZ , Los Angeles and a guided meditation of this weeks Yoga class i attended. They just merged in a very simple and beautiful way.

It started the night before , on our way to the movies ( Les Miserables) in the beautiful ArcLight Theatre. There was a little time before the show and my friend took me into the AMOEBA Music Store, which i found so great and enjoyed it very much. I was going through books – looking for some presents to bring to Germany – but that night i grabbed a CD with ” The best of Dean Martin ” that got several great songs including “Standing on the Corner ” on it. I didnt listen to the CD until the next evening .. which was the last one for me in LA on that trip.

Apparantly i saved the best for this day and i went to check out Los Feliz  ,parked the car with a valid parking ticket to 4:44 pm (really , you know about me and odd numbers meanwhile , right ? ) walked towards the end of what i figured is the main street, crossing the street at a light.

I was practically running into a guy , sporting dreadlocks and a guitar. Honestly i cant remember if he was actually playing music , but he looked so funny and like he was enjoying what he was doing. So i stopped and took a closer look at the tiny things he had on some layed out fabric in front of him… there were a frog, a sheriff star , all sort of things and something that was the top of a PEZ dispenser in form of a sheeps head with big bright blue eyes.

I asked ,”whats up with these ? ” Guy: ” they are for sale , they are special magic items” Me: ” what about the frog ? how much ? ” Guy: ” oh that one ! i cant sell him , he comes with me everywhere , thats mine ” Me. ” oh, ok , then i like the little sheep.. ” Guy: ” give me whatever you think its worth” … i went into my pocket with the change.. and gave him 5 bucks.

The expression on his face made my day, it was priceless.

I took a lot of pictures that afternoon , but i lost them . They were on my second phone i used , cause my iphone was running out of diskspace. The phone disappeared on my trip back .  So i will only post the video with the song, some pictures of what i brought from that day , plus written memories merged with the meditation.

The song

While having the song humming in my mind all day long and thinking how to write this blog , i went to my weekly Wednesday Yoga Class hosted by the other Hari Inder Kaur in Düsseldorf. The set we did was very soft , but yet powerful and as every week she was putting great music with it. We went in relaxation part at the end , while i still was having playing the song in my mind… yeah its really strong…right? It got overcasted very fast by what the soft gentle voice in the guided meditation of Yoga Nidra was saying….

you wander through a part of town and suddenly see a bookstore …. you go in and get lost in time reading the books … and you find PEACE within. 

It got my attention and i was walking with the soft gentle voice and trying to find the connecting things to my afternoon in Los Feliz.

While still holding my new lucky charm in my hands , i went away from the guy on the corner, checking out all the cute little stores and places on the way, passing by the faboulous oldest Open Mic places named “Dresden”  ( i went there a few nights before to listen to a friend singing there … its great. check it out )  .

A fun store named Y-Que , having vintage toys, all kind of gadgets and funky T-shirts , now my favorite Tee with a red star or a french Lilly and Los Feliz written on it… and yes i was wearing it to the Yoga class .

and then you see a Music Store … i started to cry when the soft gentle voice said this , cause it took me right back to Amoeba  – although not in Los Feliz- and you go in and pull out the CDs and start listening to heavenly music like the sound of the ocean  and find PEACE within…. 

passing by the local movie theatre – i forgot the name and thinking of all the dates that might have met here and all the great movies , just the same as the famous ones on Sunset . Honestly i would have loved to see a movie here .

and then you pass by a little cafe , you are having a cake and some coffee meeting lovely friends . you sit there and watch the street and  find PEACE within…

on my real walk that afternoon i actually passed by a cafe , where there was a nice guy sitting having a coffee , accompanied by a dog. The guy was wearing a basecap, dark haired with a beard and looking just like a massage pal from NJ with his dog Kody. I got a little confused and didnt know , if i should speak with him and so i just stopped for a second, giving the dog a pat.  My friend from NJ is one of the healers taking care of the victims of 9/11 and i wholeheartly thank him for that. He and his soulmate got a little boy last year, who – i think- was affected of this event too. Please send them good vibes.

I crossed the street again , cause i noticed a sign for a store named

“Cherry PIck Vintage” and i got curious what that is.  I went in and found something in the glass cabinets  . i will not tell yet what it is but ….the salesperson put it in a very sweet dark pink little box with a heart and handing it to me smiling.

open your heart. find PEACE … open your heart .

FEEL YOUR HEART. FEEL YOUR HEART . 

Los Angeles stories: Dec. 21 Mt. Wilson, Joe the Broadcaster

Dec. 21 2012… Yes  the Begin of the AGE OF AQUARIUS…

To celebrate this i decided to first get a massage treatment in Sierra Madre, which btw . was one of the best sessions i ever had and then head off to the San Gabriel mountains nearby and drive up some Highways by just chooseing the route by their names. Angeles Crest Hwy  and Starlight Crest Hwy.  My destination was a place i had seen in a Hypnotherapy session maybe  a year earlier. I was standing on the top of a mountain- together with another person(s) and wanting to look whats on the “other side” , it looked very good to me and while being way up in the air i was underneath the sea at the very same moment.

Back to the actual tour i took, i was driving up those high mountains – well for me it was freakin high, stopping at many of those mini overlook terraces and it went higher and higher 4000 feet and that was still not the top . From stop to stop i got better with taking self portraits at each one, as at most places i was the only car stopping. When i came to a crossing where i had the choice of going towards a bigger city on the other side – that was how it looked like on the google map and Mt. Wilson Observatory ( hey anothter Observatory ???? …. of course that got my attention) i asked a guy on a bike ,which direction might lead me to a spot where i could see both sides , like a pass. The friendly bicyclist sent me up to Mt. Wilson. I took the challenge … The road signs already were warning about icy roads and i wasnt so sure what tires my rental car had. UP and Up an Up i went on narrow curvy road.

and Finally ….. there was THE overlook terrace where i could see the snowy mountains on the one and Los Angeles in the – almost – sunset on the other side. Now Los Angeles was the “other side “. I parked my rental white Corolla and got out into the fresh cool clear air. Now i thought this time it would be nice if i have a full picture of yours truly standing in this awesome landscape and noticed another parked car on the LA side of the terrace. With no doubts whatsoever , walking over to the bit shabby looking beige Truck/ Bus , knocking on the drivers door and seeing a hippie looking older bearded man … knock knock :” Excuse me , may i ask you a favor and take a picture of me over there ? ” Guy : ” oh sure ! a pretty girl , what a pleasure .. hold on ” he jumped out of his Bus , i handed him my iphone cam and he took several pictures of me while talking…

Guy: ” what in this world are you doing up here all by yourself ?” … Me explaining what i saw in the therapy session and then asking him the same question… ” what are YOU doing here ? ” Guy : ” i am up here often and setting up Radio stations , i do collect broadcast items and doing Radio shows from up here. Look .. i show you ” .  While you might think now.. oh God , she is crazy .. talking to a stranger , in the middle of nowhwere on top of a mountain, i did not feel uncomfortable for only a  second and at some point where we were standing there talking other persons stopeed , including an elder woman who seemed to know the guy i was talking to. He introduced himself as Joe after a while and told me that many people dislike him , cause he is not very nice with some of his audience talking on his shows.

Joe : ” look Carola , if i would be nice to everyone , everyone would want to be nice with me too and talk to me all the time , but after a while it might get too much and then i would be Fake friendly. you know… so i am being mean on purpose and  i love to provoke people and get to their push the button points. ” I  gotta say that moment it made perfect sense to me and explained some weird behaviour of another person. Joe then turned on his Broadcast and started talking to some poor guy and being at his meanest best. lol. But he also told all over the Los Angeles valley that he is standing up there in the mountains with a beautiful nice Lady from Germany who is a Massage therapist, yes of course followed by some funny comments of his audience. Again , not for a mere of a second i felt uncomfortable and went on with the show from out in the hills. Joe ecen handed me the mic one time and let me talk myself. I tought that was very cool, talking on Radio from Starlight Crest at the begin of the Aquarian Age.

Joe also told me about his child (a stillbirth  ) whose remains were buried in the hills and  originally he went up there to be close to him on that special day , (and also there is some construction work up there and he was afraid to loose what its on this earth of his child) and his grown up daughter trying to find her way in life. I dont know , how we came to that topic , but i told him the “Lizzard King ” story i experienced a few days earlier and Jim Morrison and in opposite what i read about Jim giving credits for lyrics and poems also to his Band , Joe had another view on it . Now that i am back and thinking about all this , its becoming clear to me , that propably he might have known Jim personally .  We talked and talked and talked and slowly the sun was setting .  We were just between day and night, Ying and Yang , on a solstice night… and WHAT A FREAKIN BEAUTIFUL VIEW ! I could easily see Joes Vision of having a spiritual place up there , not for any organized religion or spirituality, but just for people to go to and meditate , contemplate, story tellers, eat , drink and just BE.

We then said Goodbye before the sun completely went down, cause i had to get back to Los Angeles for the evening , wanting to attend a Yoga workshop for celebrating that special solstice . I wish i would have stayed longer with Joe and continued to talk, as i realized this was the REAL celebration. Plus i never made it to the Wilson Observatory…. yeah another thing to come back for, i suppose.

Later on i learned that Joe the Broadcaster might be a known exxentric character for local LA.

Hopefully his Vision might come true one day.

🙂 stay tuned

oh and of course… the SONG… how could i close this story without a song … ? lol

Los Angeles stories: Griffith Park, The Cop and the Sunset

So this was another day , when i decided to spend the afternoon of a wonderful sunny clear day in the hills of Griffith Park, take a walk up to the Observatory. That day i thought i should go to the Observatory Museum store to get some Memorabilia for me like a coffee cup with Observatory decal for me to have my coffee in the morning at my hotel and later at my house in Germany and a very cool T-shirt for my  son.  Again  i parked my rental car at the main entrance to the park where the Trails Cafe is, just where i was sitting on a day earlier with Rick, the Starman

I spent a lovely afternoon up there , just sitting on the terrace of the Cafe at the End of the Universe , watching people , taking pictures and exposing my pale skin to the beautiful sun. Shopped at the store and the nice ladies told me to take one more postcard , cause they had a deal on a package of 4  and i started grinning when i noticed my charge for my items including tax. It came out exactly to : $33.33 . Yeah you know me with odd numbers. lol.

Observatory

I noticed the sun would go down soon , grabbed my bag and started to walk down back to my car . Must have been around 4 or 4:30 pm … It got dark quickly and when i arrived at the picnic area at the Trails parking place the sun was almost gone, but still daylight .. um twilight ? I  got stopped in my tracks , leaned against a wall and was just listening to a guy with a guitar and singing. I tried to stay out of his sight and was enjoying the free concert , but all of a sudden he jumped up , grabbed his guitar and ran …. i was wondering for a moment. Then i looked up to the parking place , where he was running towards and it slowly dawned (ha..) on me what he was seing. A police car, with the lights on. WTH… i also remembered there was a sign at the entrance saying : no parking after sunset. Oh oh… now i ran too , just to see a Cop right at the car next to mine  and one of those pesky papers on my windshield. DAMN.

The start of the following conversation should have made me aware that the idea of trying to flirt away the ticket and to play the dumb blonde tourist might not have been my best one…

Me – whilie picking up the ticket from my windshield – turning my head to the officer : “oh my .. a ticket ? i am just 2 minutes late ? could you pluuuueeeeze take it back ? ”

Cop : ” oh i am sorry Ma’am , i cant. I already took one back and i would have to prove there was a reason for taking it back. and you are so beautiful . ”

Me. ” ohhhhhh, what am i supposed to do now with this ? this is a rental car you know and i am only here to visit, i dont know how this works… ”

In the meantime the young guy with the guitar came over to us  , also begging the cop to take back the ticket, their tone was already a bit more harsh and the Cop snouted at the guitar guy : ” Sorry , as i told to the lady , i cant take another ticket back today as i already did one . Plus its after sunset and i was standing here for a few minutes with my lights on , for poeple to show up and get to their cars. ”

Guitar guy : ” but… the sun is just going down now.. come on … take it back .”

Cop : ” dont fool me young man… the sun went down at exactly .. ” while looking at his wristwatch ..” 4:43 pm , now its 5:08 and i am here already for a few minutes… ”

Guitar guy gave a few words back , but then proceeded to his car , while groaning.

Before i got into my car too , i thought .. what the heck , i may try just one more time to be the charming blonde tourist. Oh well… lol.

The Cop asked all kinds of questions , where i am from and trying to set up a conversation about the qualities of german woman..  He tried to find out if i am married , after he noticed my big beautiful rings and what place i stay.  I dont know , if he was just wanting to find out , if i am an actor trying to set up a improv scene or Holy Shit  i realized he REALLY  tried to pick me up !

and then the question:     ” Do you like to have accompany tonite ?”

Gulp…. ME:- and luckily i just told the plain truth – :

” yes,but from a certain someone… the guy i am here for” followed by a big smile.

Cop: ” oh Wow… what a LUCKY GUY ! ”

Needless to say , i just snatched my ticket , jumped into my car and left some wheel traces on the ground while driving away as fast as it was allowed.  The 63 or was it  $68 ? – i cant remember exactly as this ticket was followed by more later that trip –  i happily donated to the City of Los Angeles.

Also, yes this was the first and the last time i tried to get away with trying to be charming and flirteous. Yes, Officer i learned my lesson.

🙂 stay tuned.

oh .. originally i wanted to post Captain Beefhearts “Observatory Crest ” with this blog, but couldnt find it anywhere on Youtube. So this is the Day… Love this Song and was listening to it a lot while i was in SoCal. Enjoy

Los Angeles stories: Runyon Canyon and the haunted sunglasses

Los Angeles december 2012  a bright sunny gorgeous day and taking off to a hike to Runyon Canyon with my good friend Rocket. ….besides i liked the hike with my friendly friend , who was talking to every person , dog and little children,  i learned some funny things like Errol Flynn was the owner of that Tennis court up there and the top of the mountain with that big bench is named “Heavens Bus Stop.”

Heavens Bus Stop

walking up Runyon Canyon

After a while walking up the mountain i tied my pretty scarf around my waist as a belt and put my white  sunglasses up on my head to keep the hair out my face and cause i felt its nicer when you talk to people they can look in your eyes.

We were walking our way , sometimes stopping for taking pictures like we were tourists 😉 and i took a picture of a huge building up in the hills, pointed out to it asking my friend… “hey isnt that this haunted house up there ? ”

haunted house in the hollywood hills

broken haunted glasses

and i swear the very same second, or maybe even nanosecond , the sunglasses on my head just bursted apart with a loud CRRRRRK . the rim was broken ! … spooky , right ?

So it was obvious i had to get a new pair of preferably white sunglasses.

Back in my hotel and back online i had a funny conversation with a good friend in NYC

friend: “go to melrose , my cousin works in an eyeglass store there”.

me: ” hey , i cant go to every store on melrose and ask if there is a girl working there with a cousin in nyc. they might think i am crazy”

friend: “her name is Angela, the store is on a corner in the main place, the only one on a corner”

a day later i thought.. hmmm why not take that quest ? jumped in my white Toyota Corolla rental car and drove down Melrose, looking for an eyeglass store on a corner. Well , i saw an optritionist at a corner and decided to stop and park and take a look around in that part of the street. But when i was parking i spotted another eyeglass store on the other side and next corner. Now i felt really funny. What to do ? I walked up and down the street to check out the other cute stores and boom ran into a third eyeglass store that was quite in the middle of the others. It was one of these booth like little shops and i spotted a pair of really great white glasses with light brown decor on the inside that fit perfectly ! I bought them and told the lovely sales girl put a case in it and packed everything in a nice bag from the shop with the funny name of

CHILI BEANS

this made me laugh so much at a later time, in a set up about Chili (yeah that thing you eat) and Yoga classes… yeah i am leaving no silly fart joke out. 😉

Break on Through…

I love the new sunglasses and there were somc cool pictures from LA , where friends are mirroring in them or the very recent one i put on after i dropped my iphone and the display was cracked.

That picture  looks like i break on through to the other side  .. right ??? lol.

what did i learn with this ? dont point your fingers on a haunted house. lol. It might strike back immediatly, but at least i am having fun with it and got out a story.

😀 stay tuned

Los Angeles stories: Griffith Park, Rick “the Starman”

December 5 (thanks to facebook i was able to look up the day on my wall… hahaha) being in LA for a week and having no clue what amazing things were awaiting me,  i had an invitation for teatime at a friends house in the afternoon. It was already late morning going towards noon , so i decided to take a hike up to my most favorite places in Los Angeles, the Griffith Observatory,  cause that would fit so perfect in that beautiful bright blue skies sunshiney day.

So i went with my rental car , parked at the lot where the Trails Cafe is , at a very nice picnic area surrounded by large trees , green very green grass at that time , cause there was some heavy rain the days before, birds singing , little bridges over a small stream of water, benches and tables to sit at… i got a lemonade at the Trails cafe before walking up and just sat behind it on a hayball , (wearing all white clothes.. how stupid is that ?)

amusing myself with the set up of trimmed bushes in form of a horse all decorated with a blonde wig and a cowboy hat , while thinking hay… i am born in a town with the nickname.. “horseriding town”  how funny is that ?

After a while sitting in the sun i grabbed my lemonade , put on my sunglasses, tightened up the large bag with a Shiva decal i was carrying and walked off in my shiny bright white outfit .. white light cotton pants, a white blouse with flower embroidery that looked like a mix of mexican/hungarian whatever … ,white light jacket with brahma decal,  a light pink shawl that i wore the whole time of that trip, a beautiful chain of very large Rudraksha pearls  and a rhinestone hairclip resembling stars.  Now i realize how confusing that must have been for the person i met on my trip up to the Observatory , cause it was a wild mix of so many cultures and times. I think this explains later within the story.

About 2/3 up on the way , there is a kind of overlook place , where its so nice to stop and just watch the city , watched by the visitors of the Observatory up from you, looking towards the mountains or the ocean and like with almost all my hikes up i stopped there that afternoon , just standing there and waiting…

(now it seems like i was waiting, that day i was just standing there for no particular reason and watching the city) until a guy came walking up in a weird way while talking to himself. He was dressed in clothes , that you could tell they were good quality , but most likely purchased a long time ago, like a very nice tweed jacket and also one of his front teeth missing . (like Lord Ganesha .. the elephant headed indian God , who broke off one of his tusks for a friend in need…) He sat down on one of the benches , me still standing there i think trying to take some pictures , all of a sudden the guy started talking to me … ” Hey you know where the <i think he said.. theatre ?>… building is ? this or the other side ? ” while pointing out to the hills. I didnt have a clue what he was talking about and admit i thought at first … ” oh great , now i have that strange guy trying to get me in a conversation….. how do i get outta that ? ”

… little did i know at that point. …

He went on and then mentioned in a side note that he was walking since the early morning just to get up there and his knee is hurting , cause he injured it . He got up and came over to me asking politely where i am from and we started  a litte friendly small talk though and i asked what happened to his knee. I forgot what actually happened, but he started telling me , why he walks in such a weird way and said , usually people would walk in like 4 digits.. tap tap tap tap. .. tap tap tap tap…. but to protect his knee he walks in like 3 digits.. tap tap tap and then a little across tap tap tap .. across.. tap tap tap… and was explaining it with music .(btw a day later i tried this out .. it feels like waltzing and it really makes it easier )  Now he got my attention.  He  also learned to play piano in such a different way after he broke his hand and it was not working in the old way anymore. I got really interested in what he was telling me and obviously Rick (with that name he introduced himself to me at some time.. ) enjoyed the conversation too. Something in the very detailed intense way he was seing things totally fascinated me.  He noticed my indian/mexican style and was drawing similaries between mexican music / hungarian polka and german music and said mexicans and germans are very much alike with their joy how they experience their countries music. I never saw germans as that jolly in characters as mexicans , but he be right though. Then the sun must have set a glow on the hairpin  i was wearing that day , Ricks face lit up ..

” oh how beautiful , did you notice the way it breaks the light just perfectly ? Did you ever go into the exhibition inside the Observatory ?

There are 2200 pieces of jewelry that have the topic planets, stars  and universe.

They are all donated by a collector, a very sweet elder Lady. ”  Me ” oh no , never been inside ! ”  Rick asked me if he could take me there and show where they are and i thought.. why not ? So we went up further the hills and kept on chatting.

I got to know Ricks roots are german in the area close to Cologne and he was talking about his family and a great aunt of his and mentioned her name a few times and that he loves to see a picture of her on the Internet. I wrote down her name and later found out who she is : Maria Helena Stollenwerk A nun who was declared a saint .

We entered the Observatory Building and Rick made me go to the Information desk and ask for the Jewelry exhibit and told the person sitting there ,he found me outside on the hiking trail and was mesmerized by my hairpin, while pointing out to it. The clerk smiled at us and sent us to the right place,  The jewelry was amazing ,but what totally rocked was the fact Rick could tell something to almost every piece ! Like the period when it was made , the style , material … amazing.

There was one brooch that i liked very much and learned the shell in the middle is poisionig when you work with it.  Time just flew by ! and with a look on my watch i realized we had to leave soon  , cause i didnt want to be late with my afternoon appointment at Wolfs Head Haven.

And since i had the feeling it would be nice to invite Rick for a coffee or something to eat i suggested we step into the ” Cafe at the end of the Universe” to grab something to drink or eat and i was delighted to find out he didnt know about that place and got the Douglas Adams reference. hehe. So we packed some sandwich and lemonade and starting walking down the hills back to the parking place at the Trails cafe , where my rental car was parked. Rick ponted out so many details and structures of our surroundings, it was just mind blowing . Btw, did you ever notice how perfectly structured those little plastic nets around fruits are ? I now pay attention to those too. My new friend taught me that.

Rick loved the picnic area at the parking place , obviously he never had been there before and i was happy that i knew something to show him. We sat down and shared the rest of the lemonade , while still being very busy chatting along . Rick mentioned he didnt talk like that to anyone since months, which made me quite sad. It would be too much to write everything down , but this was the start of many great conversations with strangers in Los Angeles !

I truly enjoyed this and if someone of the locals knows Rick the Starman , please tell him i wish he had a great time in Santa Barbara , where he wanted to go by bike a few days later and

THANK YOU !  🙂

Los Angeles stories: Escondido Falls, the Lizard King

A few days before this happened i was practicing the Art of getting lost in search of the hiking trail for my first actual hike to a waterfall ever. I couldnt find the mentioned street name that i looked up before on Google maps for my Navigation system and started texting a friend , who used to hike up there many times .  How i found the Santa Anita Canyon Rd then and the trail to Sturtevant Falls may be another story , which was awesome by itself. Nevertheless a few days later , while meeting up with that friend i texted , he said .. “oh .. didnt you go to the store i told you to ask for the way ? ” me : “ummm ? you did write back tho? ” He: ” yes , i texted you 4 times , telling you to go to a certain store and ask, asking if you found it , hello , where are you ? did you get lost ? ” Me: “never got those ! ”   I guess my friend got a little concerned, when i mentioned another waterfall in that area where i would love to go to, and suggested Escondido Falls in Malibu instead, cause the only thing i would have to find is the parking lot and all the rest is marked with signs for the falls and since i didnt want to stretch my luck any further and not wanting to get lost in the woods or vanish forever in a Canyon i thought, this time i am gonna follow his advise.

So the very next day it was very beautiful weather , sunshine , blue skies and i didnt have any other plans for that day, so i decided to just do that trip on that particular day. The next good idea i had , was to call my dear friend Rocket (who always appears to me like a Shaman btw and is a fabulous Jazz Singer too) and ask if he would like to join me  and i am so glad he did ! At least he could understand my twisted thought of going on the search for the 4 missing txt messages. LOL … i was like.. hey.. they got to be somewhere ! maybe they went to the wrong waterfall.

So we took off from LA in my white Toyota Corolla rental car , trying to find the Winding Rd.  – yes another story of its own- leading to the parking lot of Escondido Falls trail.  Btw .. Escondido means Hidden 😉 A few hours and an hysterical time later we got there finally. We started our walk staying on the trail

stay on the trail

as the signs suggested, passing by fabulous Villas and Houses, for one just preparing the ground, which later on the way back i didnt like that much anymore. I mean i would be fine to live in one of the houses that are already built into the gorgeous mountains and the surroundings , but doing more damage , its just not neccessary. and oh the scenery is soooo beautiful down that hike ! Amazing.

We met several people on our way including some red bearded guys , walking with walking sticks looking like Hobbits themselves . Rocket: ” Hey, isnt this fabulous ? Look at this amazing scenery . You dont have to go to the 3D movies and watch the Hobbit. This IS f****g Middle Earth ! ”  Cracked me up. We were walking beautiful paths and all of a sudden i had a Doors song in my mind that i used to play in my office hundreds of years ago for a former consultant named Albert . I mentioned him in a few blogs earlier.

The song is  called ” Under the waterfall ”

and played it while walking on my Iphone, thinking … wow. maybe they were singing about THIS particular one we are just going to ?

Escondido lower Falls

Anyway , the place where the actual falls are is such a beauty and has definately some magic power, though already there were some funny weird things to be found like a burned piece of wood , that looked like a foot , a powerful looking walking stick resting right on a boulder in the water underneath the falls…..

white magic

So supposedly all this added to what happened on our way back to the parking lot. Walking that beautiful wooded alley all of a sudden i got stopped in my tracks , just missing a Lizard only a few millimeters  in front of my hiking boots .  I was amazed, cause usually i tend to overlook details of a scenery. Me. “Rocket.. look look a Lizard ! ” Lizard still staying on the trail and not moving at all. Me: ” you think its terrified , or you think its dead ? ” Rocket , carefully trying to push it :” yeah , propably dead or just dying …” Me : ” oh… you think i might put it to the side onto some of the leaves or in the grass… maybe nicer ” Rocket ” just leave it where it is, he just might have decided to spend its last minutes on this earth in the middle of that path enjoying the last rays of the setting sun… ” … Me still going on , i could not bare the thought of not making it “nicer” Rocket all of a sudden said ” you could eat it ” Me ” what ???? why ? ” Rocket ” cause then its soul might live through you ” and me at the same time rembering the song i played earlier and the story of the Lizard King… ” oh my gosh… you know who that is ? its THE Lizard King ! what are we going to do now ? Rocket: ” well maybe he came back just to see you again and was waiting here for you, just say goodbye Jim… ” after a few backs and forths where the Lizard still didnt move i finally gave in and accepted and just said and waved : “Goodbye Jim..” turning around starting to walk away… and that very moment… the Lizard got up on his little feet and made his way down from the stony path very quick !!!!!

the Lizard king

So what did i learn from this ? Once you let go and accept , its all good !

This story is dedicated to my friends Albert , who made me play that song so many years ago in the office where we worked together  , Rocket and also the one who sent us to Escondido Falls. 

The sugar horses or.. how i got pregnant in a church.

TRUE STORY ! nothing altered , but sometimes things might be different than it seems first.

a couple of days ago a friend posted a blog (this is the blog and my answer to it in the comments) about a public comment he received on YT , the person stating he/she thinks Tom should loose a 100 pound to get acting jobs at auditions. While i agreed that the person making that comment is not coming from a bad vibe and just made an honest comment , of course also with me things started to get loose in my mind. Coincidally a few days before that happened i got some Diet Protein Product  cause i had the feeling that some pounds too much jumped on my hips and waistline over the last few months . Well… not being really thin for the last couple of years  …. i added some more weight for several reasons ( medications, having to skip yoga , stress eating.. aso) and while being at an event i really really enjoyed and oddly enough there were pictures of me laughing brightly and just being myself and happy , afterwards there was one picture where i made a comment … oh no, no more sugar , candies from my favorite place.

(note .. i brought 2 Baiser sugar horses and some pastries from the store in my hometown , later shared some and send to someone , but the Baiser in this picture is long gone meanwhile… lol. ).

Sugar Horse

Anyway… that whole thing made me remember a story that happened to me , i think  in spring 2009 .

I went to a concert in a church in Düsseldorf, a friend of mine singing in the choir.  The days before i stayed with a friend , felt quite bloated , wearing a cute dress over a jeans , just to give you a picture. I took my seat on the balcony , asking the nice elder couple if thats the right aisle and seat . There was one empty seat between us. The concert started and at some point it became very emotional and there was a quiet beautiful sequence. All of a sudden the sweet elderly lady said to me : ” oh your child is going to love this” … Uh ?how she knows ?  i thought , my child (my son being in his twenties) is not here and i bet this is not his taste of music..uh, umm ? . and then a few seconds later the message got through. LOL. since i needed so much time to figure out and same second thinking .. “that lady is so nice, if i tell her i am not pregnant and just had too many sweets, she might feel very embarrassed ..” i just mumbled a fast ” .. oh yes, i am sure” mentally crawling underneath my seat.

Then the concert break came on and i thought .. “oh gosh , i bet they try to talk to me and ask when is it due ? ” i kept sitting in the aisle to avoid running into them outside. Of course they came back before the break was over. But meanwhile i was trying to count out in what week pregnancy i could be , still being in a twist of embarrassment and feeling hysterical. The couple got back on their seat and yes.. of course … the Lady : ” oh this is so beautiful , may i ask when it is due ? ” faithfully i answered ” oh in August.. (or was it July ? i cant remember exactly) ” and then it got worse .. Lady: ” you have more kids ?”Me :” oh yes i have a son already”  Lady : ” oh yes , with the second one you always get a little more on your hips .. ”  at that point i was beyond everything and had to keep a straight face and decided to just play along and telling myself , at least i dont look that old , so people stilll think the pregnant thing.

Just in this unexpectalbe case the elder lady is reading this here, i apologize i lied to you and even more while being in a church.

I later told that story to my friend in the choir , she got upset , but i was not.

Apparantly those pounds gathered around my waistline , that fooled even more , later i had some customers at a workplace who thought the same. I got at least 3 comments about it. 2 of them i told , i had too much sweets, but they werent believing me . With the 3rd one i started playing along and went through the scene , good rehearsal like from the impro acting class i took at that time. Also here my workpals felt bad for me, but i didnt feel embarrassed, cause the people who said it were sweet.  Yes, there were others ,where comments about my weight, shape , figure , outlook made me feel uncomfortable.

And when i was really pregnant with my son , at that time i was underweight , very thin , with almost nothing to be seen and whats been said about me THEN, was way worse .

So no matter how a person looks like , maybe its all different what you think it is.

stay tuned

😉

PS.. no i did not wear that certain dress from that day since …. lol