I took today my bike and tried to explore the Limekiln Canyon again. This time I found the entrance easily, but my cute small bike isn’t made for such grade. And it was hot, too. After I passed Chatsworth St I took the right side of the canyon, but just beyond Freeway 118 there was a dead end. There was only a path scarp up to Rinaldi St. I took a deep breath and a drink of water and climbed the hillside up. Up there was a big ugly church. I took some pictures. But it was so hot, that I decided to go back home. I rode up to Corbin Ave and from there it was only downhill. But the trees was so small, that there branches hit me n my head. I must duck to could use the sidewalk. Near Lassen I nearly fell down, because of the bad condition of the sidewalk.

After chilling in the pool and a sunbath my cousin Omid came to pick me up. I could convince him to come to a concert by Emily Wells in Glendale. Actually, it was the forth Broken Wave Music Social Scene. i hadn’t idea what this was and even wasn’t sure, if it will be a concert or a party…

Broken Wave Music is a recording studio. It seems they organize every month a gathering for socializing and networking for musicians and creatives. The entrance was free and the drinks, too. We was friendly welcomed and asked to fill out a list, where they collected names, email and occupation (I wrote Tourist). I asked him, if Emily will do a show. He said yes and that a lot of people asked this. It seems a lot of fans of her was there. The party was right in their normal business rooms. So there was a big studio where the presented a documentary about another label. Outside in the lot The Pirate Charles had there funny show. In another studio where turntables and the DJanes played some smooth songs. They had drinks and beer and even a Black Jack table, but nobody liked to play.

On the one hand I felt a bit in a wrong place between this networking-doin’ professionals (But I had nice talk with Omid). On the other hand I couldn’t await until the concert get started. The concert itself was in a big studio. I felt in love to her music, since Bea tweeted a link to a video of Emily Wells, once (see below). I was so addicted by her music, that I bought her album as MP3 online after a few days (I can’t find it somewhere else and wasn’t able to took her MySpace-Profile with me).

The room was filled with people, some must wait outside. She started the concert with Symphony 1 In the Barrel of a Gun and the people got warm. She played with her band, a drummer and a bassist. It was a really cool concert. I love her voice and how the play and loop the sound. Oh, yeah. She plays a violin and sings. But she has synthesizers, ukulele, xylophone, toy instruments and a loop machine, too. She combines her sounds and fragments with the loop machine into a great songs. I don’t like to write about her music. Please just watch the youtube video below.

After the concert I talked with her and bought from each CD (there was three) one. She is very nice. Of course, I invited her to Germany for concerts. Maybe she will come one day. For me this concert and chance was unbelievable. I checked her website every few days, to see if there is a show. She had one just one day before I arrived. And tomorrow another in San Diego. But I know this was to far away. And now I just was there and saw her live… Yippie.

This weekend was amazing. It started on Saturday with a party at Amu Irajs and Manijehs house. We was there for lunch. Of course, there was tons of delicious Persian food. Amu Iraj made a lot of jokes and we a laugh till our we got hurt. I met my cousin Human (first time) and his cute daughter Daniela, but she was a bit shy. You can imagine how much fun we had from the pictures, especially when I tried to use the self-timer from Sepidehs camera. They were really patient. I reset the whole home decoration to have a good place for the camera. At least we have a picture of everybody.

Unfortunately we must left early, because Kevin and Sepi was invited to a party than evening. And everyone else, too(Human to another, Roya and Bijan to yet another one). In the evening I met Connor and Kyle, Kevins kids. We played Rockband 2 and I figured out, that the bass guitar on this game is much easier then then Guitar Hero. Ok, the guys was so nice to turn No-fail-mode on and I played the easiest level… After an episode of Family Guy we turned the Playstation off and played a real card game. I think the name was Apples and Apples, I must look back in Germany, if we have this game too, because it was really funny.

Next day we drove to Frazier Park which was 60 Miles north of Los Angeles in the Los Padres National Forrest. Friends of Kevin had a Ranch there with a donkey, chickens and an ostrich. Just checkout the newest photos in Picasa.
It was a real nice place. But they had also some motocross courses. We had a small motocross bike and a quad on the back. But the day didn’t start good. One of the kids there fell down while a jump and broke his leg. They brought him to his mum and later to the doctor.

We tried to overcome this incident with some good Persian food. We brought a lot of Kebab (or Kebob as I saw on a sign), rice, salad and vegetarian stews (Ghorme Sabzi and Gheyme). We talked a lot about languages and dialects. Dolores and Ingrid speaks German too, but they didn’t practice for a long time.

After lunch Sepi showed me the ranch. Micheal built nearly everything by his own. There was a donkey, an ostrich and chickens. They had lamas or so too, but one was eaten by a mountain lion and another died because of old age, Connor explained to me. He built different buildings including a jail (just for fun, not a real one). The area was a steppe, but they grew up plants and trees out there. There isn’t any water pipes out there, so they must sink for a well to get any water.

Connor took me for a ride on the golf cart. You remember this white small cars which prevent golfers to walk on a golf course? Connor used this more in a motocross, lead-footed style. Anyway, we had fun and it was fine after the ride, too. Then Kevin showed the quad to me. It’s a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle (ATV) with four shift gears. I never had something like this under my butt. With a lot of patience Kevin explained to me everything. I first slowly drove in first or second gear, but after a while got comfortable and tried faster and small bumps etc. It was really funny. You think an ATV is easy because of the four wheels? First it has a lot of power (even though this was a small ATV) and you must be careful while you turn. If you don’t balance the vehicle it can fall over regardless of the four wheels. I hope I didn’t stress the engine too much.

At the evening we put the ATV and motocross bike back to pickup truck and drove back to home. There we just watched a bit on the video Kevin recorded and fell tired asleep to bed. Altogether an (for me) unusual but really great day with a lot of fun.

You won’t believe it. I just found a biking area. Yesterday afternoon I took up my bicycle again and ride north. There is the Limekiln Canyon and on the map it looked interesting. But it was a bit hard to find it. Did you ever try to turn left with a bike on a street with 6 lanes full of SUVs and Pick-ups and no traffic light? I decide to rode to the next intersection with a bit more regulation (Are traffic lights socialism, because the government is regulating?). I knew the entrance to Canyon was in Tunney Ave, but I missed it and rode the Tampa Ave up to Chatsworth St where I thought I find the way to the canyon. Two teens tried to warn me (I guess), but I couldn’t understand what they said (because of the noise). It was a small path and nice (see pic above), but it became smaller and smaller. Just a feet left was the canyon, only two or three meters deep, but anyway a little uncomfortable… Just before the Freeway 118 (it was above me) I decide to change the side of the canyon. The hillside wasn’t such sharp and the LA river in the canyon was nearly total dry. I picked up the bike and climbed the hillside down and crossed the stream by jumping over the big stones in it. Without wet feet I reached the other side. And here was the comfortable, but car free Limekiln Canyon Rd. I rode this back, crossed Chatsworth St again and was back in Tunney Ave. It was a bit late and Roya wanted to pick me up for Dinner. So I decided to explore Limekiln Canyon next time.

Just a few sentence to the dinner. It was at Los Toros, a huge Mexican restaurant. The restaurant was full, so we must wait until a table became free. The gave us a number which was more a device with a flashing green light. When it was our turn, the device starts blinking and vibrating… We followed the waitress, but lost her in the big building for a moment. I guess (without exaggerating) we passed four or five salons until we found our table. The food was really nice. As starters we had plain nachos with a really tasty bean dip. I ate more from then as my real meal. When the brought the plates with the food, they put a small stand before the table and put the huge tablet on it. Then they started to serve the food. The burrito was fantastic. The menu said, the recipe was created by a Chatsworth native while waiting at the border. Now imagine how much time they waste at this ridiculous fences… Oh, and of course they asked me for ID because I ordered a Margarita .

Yesterday I did a small bike tour. I rode through Jumilla Ave to Plummer St until De Soto Ave. Plummer St is interrupted there by the LA River (you might remember it from Terminator 2) and the railroad, so I headed De Soto Ave south to Nordhoff St and rode on this one west again until Chatsworth reservoir. On Google Maps this looks like a huge sea, but it’s just a huge dry area. Wikipedia says: “A distinctive feature in the Chatsworth Area is the mostly empty Chatsworth Reservoir. The property belongs to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power”. There was a fence around the area, so I even couldn’t enter it. From there I rode the Topanga Canyon Blvd north until the other part of the Plummer St. I rode there through some “smaller” streets until I found Lassen St, which I rembered from our breakfast at Delis. I ride the Lassen St back to east until Corbin Ave and from there it was just stone’s throw back to Superior St. You can check my route out at Google Maps.

Of course, LA isn’t the best place to ride a bike. On Plummer St. there is at least a bike lane, but only until Winnetka Ave. There is a sign asking the car drivers “Share the road”. I wasn’t in the mood to try out if they listen to the sign. From this point I rode my tiny, cute bicycle on the sidewalk, which is in a bad condition. The branches of the trees hang down, so I must duck from time to time to continue my way. Sometimes panels of the sidewalk soar, so I must ride around it to prevent the tires from damage. On some intersections the sidewalk wasn’t lowered and they are much higher here then in Europe (maybe up to 18cm high). But if I wasn’t on one of the main streets, there wasn’t much traffic and I had the street for me (on most of the smaller streets there isn’t a sidewalk).

It was the first time since ages I had a sunburn again. I put sunscreen on, but at the Chatsworth reservoir it was so hot I washed my face with water. Tada, no sunscreen on my face anymore. By chance I wasn’t heading west from this point anymore. Hot and water reminds me two other anecdotes: I was riding the bike only for 15 minutes and the water I took with me was really warm (maybe 20 degrees Celsius). And when I stopped at the reservoir and stand up from the saddle for two minutes to take pictures the saddle was very hot when I sat down again. The sun here is really … effective.

In California the cars are allowed turn right even when the traffic light is red. Of course, they must take care not to hit another car or person. But riding a bike here you must take much more care then at home. They didn’t expect pedestrians or cyclists. On one sidewalk there were three guys on my way. My bike doesn’t have a bell and I just said sorry and one of them saw me answered “Execuse me, bud”. I love this friendly language. I know it’s superficial, but it has it affects anyway. I prefer it instead a grumble.

After nearly one and a half hour I was back at home. And what is the best thing after a sweaty bike tour? Right, jumping in to the swimming pool.