Imaging - Religious Architecture

Trinity Lutheran Church
759 Linden Ave.; Long Beach, California U.S.A.
April, 2014 (c) Jim A. Beardsley

Creating my religious architecture image archive has become a fairly consistent hobby over the last ten years or so. It's proven to be an inexpensive pursuit that provides me with focal points from which to get a bit of exercise while I explore various neighborhoods on foot. What I enjoy most about building this type of personal collection is the availability of content everywhere I go, as well as the great array of structural shapes, textures, and colors which I encounter along the way. Add in some of the contemporary, cultural and historical elements of local architectural and my casual interest becomes an evolving appreciation.

Jim A. Beardsley's Religious Architecture / Houses of Worship Album on 'FLICKR'

The actual imaging is produced in three basic steps: (1) capturing a subject; (2) editing the selected photos; and (3) presenting, sharing, and preserving the results. It does takes a fair amount of time and effort. In my definitively amateurish case, I complete these steps with an assembly of cheap equipment, hardware, and supplies.

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Trinity Lutheran was originally built at its Long Beach site in 1910. Prior to taking on its current appearance the church underwent a number of reconstruction or repair projects that included rebuilding following a powerful earthquake in 1933 and recovering from a big fire in 1955. Now, it's a very photogenic building due, in part, to an absence of obstructions. With this photograph and framing, the late morning bright light played well on the east-facing elevation and the chosen shot was the first take.

Music - My Gripe with "Classic Rock"

          For a change this morning,  I'm hearing the local 'classic rock' radio station using a PC, Google Chrome, and http://player.liquidcompass.net/KSWDFM. Here's the problem: they just played (in this order) Journey, The Beatles, The J. Geils Band, and Boston.  Except for maybe The Beatles, I really, really don't care to hear selections from any of these groups - given the choice, I wouldn't play them myself.

         This particular station (KSWD The Sound 100.3  http://thesoundla.com/?nid=7) boasts that, on a daily basis, they never repeat a song.  They do, however, play lots of the same songs on a daily basis; mostly lots of the same ones highly commercial corporate stations like this (i.e Bonneville International of Salt Lake City http://www.bonneville.com/?nid=2) have been pushing on a formulaic basis to listeners for years and decades.  Considering all of the music entertainment choices available today, I simply cannot bring myself to regularly tune into this same old type of mediocre and tired content.  Mostly, I'm referring to middle-of-the-pack, [at one time] nationally and commercially successful bands / brand names? such as Boston, Heart, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. ad nauseam.

          That said, I can still listen to and like extended plays of any number highly influential and commercially successful [rock and other genre] groups from the 1960s and 1970s.  For instance, this week I listened to and sorta studied up on the first six studio albums by Led Zeppelin and I often explore the Rolling Stones' extensive catalog.  Finally, it's fair to note that I enjoy portions of the programming on 'The Sound' such as the comedy breaks and the 'rock history' offerings.  They'll be playing 10 selections from 1969 at 10:00 this morning -- I think I'll struggle through a couple of hours of the commercials, mishmash, and stuff I like and listen in / listen up / lend an ear.

A Thought or 2 - L.A. Kings & NHL History

     A TBT salute to the Los Angeles Kings in appreciation of their exciting Game 6 win over Anaheim at the Staples Center last night.  Going back 45 years, a month and two days ago to April 13, 1969 finds the Kings completing their first ever playoff series win as they upset the Oakland Seals by score of 5 -3 in Game 7.   Lowell MacDonald scored the clinching goal   (unassisted) at 7:53 of the 3^rd period. 

             The top attractions on the Kings squad that season were rookie goaltender Gerry Desjardins and leading scorer Eddie ‘The Jet’ Joyal.  It was the NHL’s second season of expansion (from the ‘Original 6’) and the East Division was vastly stronger than the West. This imbalance led, in part, to the rush of scoring records that really began to take hold during the 1968/69 season which included Bobby Hull’s new single season record of 58 goals, and Bobby Orr’s new record of  21 goals by a defenseman.  Notably, three  all-time greats also became the first in the NHL to score 100 points in a season:  league leader Phil Esposito had 126; Hull added 49 assists to his goal tally for 107 points; and the legendary Gordie Howe had a first-team All-Star season as he finished with 103 points. Geographically, these Divisions didn’t work too well either as the Flyers and Penguins struggled to get established in the Western grouping while lots of traditional hockey fans decried the absence of an expansion team in Canada. 

            The Jack Kent Cooke-owned Los Angeles team was swept out of the 1969 playoffs in the second round by the St. Louis Blues.  They failed to qualify for the postseason the next four seasons and didn’t win another playoff series until 1976.  St. Louis went on to get swept by Montreal in the finals as they scored only 3 goals in four games against future Kings goalie Rogie Vachon. In fact, five of the seven NHL playoff series in 1969 ended in ‘4-0’ sweeps while the ‘Original 6’ Canadian teams (Montreal and Toronto) were in the midst of an era-ending streak between 1955 and 1970 during which they brought the Stanley Cup back to Canada 13 times in 14 years.

            Good luck to Los Angeles at Anaheim on Friday night.  It’s been an entertaining and hard fought series, but I’d much prefer to see the Kings rather than the Ducks go up against the Blackhawks in the Conference finals.

A Thought or 2 - What is / isn't the Past? and a nice ExFloration

The past is never dead.

It's not even past.

                                                         —William C. Faulkner

Sepulveda Boulebirdo Paradise

Jim A. Beardsley (c) 2013

A Thought or 2 - Back to Blogger and Maybe My Best ExFloration

          Starting with a go-to composition and going forward with some revisions, ground rules and freshened ideas:  (1) primary focus on original content; (2) secondary focus on content that interests me while appealing to my various degrees and levels of appreciation; and (3) solely by and for me yet open to anyone.

Mission Bee Lily
Jim A. Beardsley (c) 2011