I know that we’ve been putting up a lot of images from our recent trip to Avalon, but we took over 800 pictures and many of them came out quite good (if I do say so myself). We will probably be posting these over the next few weeks in the afterglow of a wonderful island getaway.

This beautiful tile mural is over the box office in the foyer of the famous Casino in the City of Avalon on Catalina Island. She has been restored form the dark days of the 60s to the 80’s when this gorgeous structure fell into disrepair. Luckily, the whole place is looking good, although some places around the building could use a power wash. Nonetheless, this is one of the several wonderful aquatic murals in the Casino’s foyer. Click on the image below to see a larger version.

This is a pleasant view of the shallow water by the beach in Avalon. I love the textures of the sand, rocks, light and bubbles. Click on the image for a larger view.

An artist’s sketch? Not really. This is a post-processed picture of the Point Vicente Lighthouse that Damsel took through her telephoto lens just after last Christmas.

I processed it with a freeware graphics program I use called Irfanview. I used edge-detection and inverted the colors (negative) to get this rendering.

. . . and see if they’re missing a fountain!

I took this photo of the elaborate fountain in front of the clubhouse at Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The sheer gaudiness made me think of the line from a movie where one of the principal characters made the remarks about the Vatican missing a fountain. Can you remember which movie?

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Vincent Van Gogh. We were fortunate enough to have been able to see many of his works a few years ago when “Van Gogh’s Van Goghs,” his paintings from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, were exhibited in Los Angeles.

From InfoPlease:

Born in 1853, Van Gogh’s works are perhaps better known generally than those of any other painter. His brief, turbulent, and tragic life is thought to epitomize the mad genius legend.

During his lifetime, Van Gogh’s work was represented in two very small exhibitions and two larger ones. Only one of Van Gogh’s paintings was sold while he lived. The great majority of the works by which he is remembered were produced in 29 months of frenzied activity and intermittent bouts with epileptoid seizures and profound despair that finally ended in suicide.

One of the most famous of Van Gogh’s works is “Starry Night.”

Rome apples in a monkeypod bowl under the morning light make a nice still life photo subject.

On our weekly visit to the flower concession, I came up with this nice combination of irises and tulips and promptly photographed them. These look so nice with the complimentary colors and graceful lines under the soft illumination. This beautiful arrangement (if I do say so, myself) looks lovely on the dining room table.

Not sure about the name of this amber-colored variety of roses, but they are very nice. These roses are our centerpiece on the dining room table this week.

I’ve always admired the photographic works of legendary photographer Ansel Adams. Today is the 104th anniversary of his birthday.

From WikiPedia:

Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 - April 22, 1984) was an American photographer, known for his black and white photographs of the California’s Yosemite Valley.

Left: Half Dome and Merced River, Winter (Yosemite Valley) by Ansel Adams - Credit Ansel Adams Gallery

Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco, California in an upper-class family. When he was four, he was tossed face-first into a garden wall in an aftershock from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, breaking his nose. His nose was never repaired and appeared crooked for his entire life.

He became interested in photography when his Aunt Mary gave him a copy of “In the Heart of the Sierras” while he was sick as a child. The photographs in the book by George Fiske piqued his interest enough to persuade his parents to vacation in Yosemite National Park in 1916, where he was given a camera as a gift.

Adams disliked the uniformity of the education system and left school in 1915 to educate himself. He originally trained himself as a pianist, but Yosemite and the camera diverted his interest toward photography. He later met his future wife, Virginia Best, in Yosemite. She was known to be particularly camera shy. Adams long alternated between a career as a concert pianist and one as a photographer.

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We’re sad to report that this instantly-recognizable voice has fallen silent today. Damsel and I have always loved and enjoyed Lou Rawls’ style and music. Rawls was a veteran of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Paratroopers. He had an extraordinary gift as a performer. We have all benefited from that gift.

From Wikipedia: Lou Rawls

Louis Allen Rawls (December 1, 1935 - January 6, 2006) is a Chicago-born American soul music, jazz, and blues singer. Known for his smooth vocal style, Frank Sinatra once said that Rawls had “the classiest singing and silkiest chops in the singing game.”

Rawls has released more than 70 albums, been in movies, television shows and voiced-over many cartoons. A high school classmate of soul giant Sam Cooke, Rawls sang with Cooke in the Teenage Kings of Harmony, a 50’s gospel group. Rawls enlisted in the US Army as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division in 1955. He would leave the “All-Americans” three years later as a Sergeant and hook up with a group he had sang with before enlisting, the Pilgrim Travelers. In 1958, while touring the South with the Travelers and Sam Cooke, Rawls was in a serious car crash which claimed the life of one person. Rawls was actually pronounced dead before getting to the hospital where he stayed in a coma for 5 1/2 days. It took him months to regain his memory and a year to fully recuperate. Rawls considered the event life-changing.

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