It's blustery and breezy in Los Angeles today. A barely measurable amount of precipitation fell which inevitably resulted in chaos on the county's concrete freeways. I climbed out of bed at 5:30, an act made almost Olympian due to the combination of pre-dawn darkness, drops and drizzle, and the warmth offered by my eiderdown. Winsor … Continue reading Sing a song of eiderdowns
Month: March 2014
VideoDisc Day — An introduction to the Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED)
On 22 March, 1981, RCA introduced a brand new but curiously retro analog video format, the SelectaVision CED VideoDisc system. Today the CED (Capacitance Electronic Disc) is all but forgotten but even at its most popular it wasn't well-known and was much widely-adopted than contemporaneous video formats like Betamax, VHS, and LaserDiscs. CED collection, Ron Treverton of Brantford, Canada (source: Personal … Continue reading VideoDisc Day — An introduction to the Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED)
Happy quasquicentennial, Orange County!
On this day in 1889, Orange County, California was born, making it 125 years young today. Pendersleigh & Sons Cartography's map of Orange County In early 1889, Pemberton Medicine Company (later Coca-Cola) incorporated in Atlanta, Colombia Phonograph (later Columbia Records) launched, Japan adopted the Meiji Constitution and the Eiffel Tower opened in Paris. Meanwhile in … Continue reading Happy quasquicentennial, Orange County!
Nobody Drives in LA — Exploring Foothill Transit’s 187 Line
With bicycles, buses, ferries, planes, rideshares, sidewalks, subways, taxis, and trains at Angelenos’ disposal, why would any sane person choose car-dependency? Nobody Drives in LA celebrates sense and sensibility in transportation. ***** Foothill Transit, one of Southern California's many public transportation agencies, recently turned 25 years old. It may come as something of a surprise then, that at this still … Continue reading Nobody Drives in LA — Exploring Foothill Transit’s 187 Line
All-Female Bands of the 1960s – Happy Women’s History Month!
In the first half of the 20th Century, there were many popular all-female musical acts. In the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s there were vocal groups like The Andrews Sisters, The Boswell Sisters, and The McGuire Sisters. In the early rock/soul era, the so-called "girl groups" such as The Shirelles, The Teen Queens, The Paris Sisters, … Continue reading All-Female Bands of the 1960s – Happy Women’s History Month!
Eric Brightwell 