Your Hometown...

[JStarr]

Brianvds I'm a strange one: I want to live either in the inner city or out in the countryside. My idea of hell is living in the leafy suburbs. Alas for me, due to all manner of circumstances, that is exactly where I now find myself stuck: a dreary, boring suburb. I don't think I have ever actually taken any photos of the views: there are none worth photographing. Not even suburban gardens: because of sky-high crime rates, everything is now hidden behind high walls and electric fences. Everyone is cocooning.

_______________________________________________________
I am very intrigued by your plant patterns, and your seeking out of light/shadow geometrics- I think those are a treasure trove of ideas. Do you know the art of Jessica Brilli? She's got that seeking out the shadows that define the light thing going on- her flat passages make me envious, but, there you go- a lot of artists make me envious.

I would love to see what else you have done with your patterns.

 

[Artyczar]

Well, I'm born/raised in Los Angeles and most people that are not from there, and/or have never experienced it in-depth, loathe it. Also, most people already know what it looks like from television and movies. I have never gone around and taken pictures of the "sights."

I do have favorite places, like the Norton Simon Museum and Griffith Park, so these are Google grabs:

Griffith Park Observatory:

I'm also a fan of the Beachwood Canyon neighborhood under the Hollywood sign where I've lived before. Lots of funky things up in the canyon....

^ That's the entrance to the road that leads up to the sign when the area was called Hollywoodland:

 

[Artyczar]

Now I live about 2 hours east of LA in an unincorporated area of San Bernardino called Joshua Tree. It's the high desert, about 45 minutes above Palm Springs (low desert). It's known for it's weird trees, the national park, and its rocks. Rock climbers come from all over.

This is the view out of my back window/studio, which is basically the other side of the National Park:

Here are some other shot near my home:

 

[snoball]

Oh, and wind that will scour you off the face of the planet- the local radio used to guage the wind every morning with different metrics: No Skirt Day, Tie Your Hat to Your Head Day, Do Not Open the Car Door Day-- wicked wind.

Our weatherman gives a "small dog warning".

 

[JStarr]

Now I live about 2 hours east of LA in an unincorporated area of San Bernardino called Joshua Tree. It's the high desert, about 45 minutes above Palm Springs (low desert). It's known for it's weird trees, the national park, and its rocks. Rock climbers come from all over.

Yup- other than the dry lake bed instead of rocks and that the Joshua trees were... sickly-ish comparatively, looks like Edwards.

I LOVE your rocks- I remember them now (there's a AF/Army/Marine exercise ground out there somewhere, I think) but I believe Joshua Tree has a few more Mojaves than Edwards- and they can stay there. They are the second most predominate species here, but rarely grow
huge- two or three feet is usual. We've had a few on our property, and it is the only creature not allowed- ever. They get relocated with a shovel to the trash can.

 

[ZenDruid]

All of these were taken a few years ago, within cycling distance of where I live, with a common old point-and-shoot, and many would argue that I am actually blessed

You have a good eye, these are excellent photos. I like your sense of composition. Every one of them is material for a drawing or painting or presentable as a good photograph.

 

[brianvds]

Brianvds- I'm a strange one: I want to live either in the inner city or out in the countryside.

As a kid, our family spent nearly every summer vacationing somewhere a distance from home. My dad was totally into Nature and the natural wonders. We visited Niagra Falls, Mammoth Caves (and many other caves), the Black Hills, the Badlands, the Grand Tetons, the Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone, etc... We also explored many historical sites: Gettysburg, Fort Sumter, the Serpent Mounds, Mount Rushmore, etc... I also grew up surrounded by nature... our backyard butting up against a large wooded area complete with swamps, small rivers, and various wildlife. However, my dad had no liking whatsoever for cities. We almost never visited Cleveland which was only 35 miles away. On our various cross-country travels, he would do anything to avoid the cities. I never even visited the Cleveland Museum of Art until I drove there myself at 18 years old. Throughout my years in Art School, I visited almost all the big cities with major art collections from St. Louis to the East Coast: Toledo, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Buffalo, Washington, New York, etc... Sometimes I drove alone. Many times I drove with one of two artist friends. With the exception of a few years when we moved to a college town some distance west of Cleveland so that we could be near our younger daughter, I've spent all my time since Art School living in New York, Cleveland, or the immediate surrounding suburbs. I've thrived on the urban environment: the cultural institutions, the art galleries, and art community, the access to working space, etc... I suspect my wife wouldn't mind living in the boonies... but even then, she lived with her parents for years far out in the sticks and hated it... needing to drive to the larger cities every weekend. I would just go insane.

I grew up here - our house was just below that steep hill in the background:

And if you climbed to its top, you saw this:

I do not recall that I was ever bored when we lived there. There was always something to see or do.

My father died when I was 12, and then we moved to the local small town. But there too I could walk out of town into the semi-wilds surrounding it, and the town itself had much character. Also, when I got old enough to pretend to be 18, friends and I could go drink in the pub, where they turned a blind eye to underaged customers.

Then, as student, I lived in a suburb of Pretoria called Sunnyside. Alas, not much more nature walks, but boy, did the place compensate. It was slightly run down and disreputable, lots of students, but also working class people, old folks, weird and wonderful street eccentrics (there was a locally famous prophet urging all who would listen to repent, and an elderly gentleman who would get into arguments with parking meters), curious little shops and cheap restaurants (as in dirt-cheap, so even students could easily afford them), pubs where, like a veritable Toulouse-Lautrec, one could hang out with everyone from philosophers to truck drivers to goths to prostitutes, and on Saturdays, sooner or later, a bar fight would probably break out too.

Best time of my life, I now think. Cities here do not have much to offer in terms of great art museums or that sort of thing, though there are some such attractions. But the inner city has a heartbeat and soul you get nowhere else. Alas, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing: after South Africa's great political revolution, Sunnyside went to hell, and it is no longer a place where one might want to live. So now I have to find some way to turn the meager raw materials of the respectable suburbs into art.

 

[Artyczar]

Yup- other than the dry lake bed instead of rocks and that the Joshua trees were... sickly-ish comparatively, looks like Edwards.

I LOVE your rocks- I remember them now (there's a AF/Army/Marine exercise ground out there somewhere, I think) but I believe Joshua Tree has a few more Mojaves than Edwards- and they can stay there. They are the second most predominate species here, but rarely grow
huge- two or three feet is usual. We've had a few on our property, and it is the only creature not allowed- ever. They get relocated with a shovel to the trash can.

There are what seems to be a billion Joshua Trees here, some thousands of years old. Some are so huge it's kinda crazy. It gets pretty green out here if there's enough rain and snowfall during the winters.

I am actually not sure exactly what Mojaves are. Do you mean Chollas? Those are awful, and they are everywhere. Our dogs would often get those horrible needles stuck in their paws, and so do we sometimes. I don't mind how they look out on wild properties, but I'd love to rid of them on ours.

The Marine base you are referring to here is in 29 Palms, and it's pretty close by. We can see their "little Iraq" with binoculars, and they do mock invasions and bombings all the time. It rattles the windows in our house at times! No one cares for it, to say the least.

 

[OliveOyl]

I really like this thread! So thanks to all for sharing a bit of yourselves and I hope more people post about “their place.” Mine, to the surprise of absolutely no one….is way too long.

But anyway…I lived in lots of places but for the past year and half I’ve been in Albuquerque, New Mexico. People sometimes shorten it to ABQ or call themselves Burquenos. It’s a city divided into quadrants. North is Colorado and south is Mexico. The Sandia Mountain range is 10,000 feet high and runs along the east side with the city sitting in its foothills. The Rio Grande River, surrounded by a bosque, separates east from west. I live across from the Sandias on the west mesa, a 5,000 foot high area of dormant volcanos, lava rocks, ancient petroglyphs, canyons and coyotes. Sounds nice and wild but really…it’s the burbs.

ABQ is mostly suburban sprawl and construction is non-stop. Our realtor told us that they’ll keep building until they run out of land, or water. Water in fact, is a big and complicated issue and one I don’t fully understand yet, but it’s somehow a clash of new growth vs. traditional farming. There are cultural “attractions” of the usual sort, restaurants are mostly the chain-variety type, the churches are in strip malls, and it seems there’s a dentist, nail salon and car service on every corner. Like any city, it has its industrial ugliness and dangerous areas along the outskirts, and problems like homelessness, fentanyl, and crime. But by far, the VERY worst thing about living here is the drivers and my whining about THAT would take us to eternity and back. Trust me, it sucks.

It’s got a very diverse population which will reach 1 million this year, making it the most congested spot in the state. No doubt, we have our fair share of wackos and aholes. But the other “normals” seem to be hard-working, blue collar, salt-of the-earth types who have an accepting “live and let live” philosophy. The cost of living is relatively cheap, the weather is great, amenities are abundant, and healthcare is…adequate. The nicest surprise though, is to discover all the open spaces and trails and when you’re in them, it’s hard to believe you’re even in a city. They are nice and needed escapes.

I’m too lazy to dig up more pictures and besides, what can I say about the place that you haven’t already seen on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul? (Ha, that seems to be its own little cottage industry.) I could show pics of the dramatic sky, or the sunset pink mountains, the muddy Rio, the cottonwoods in the bosque, the buffalo herd in the foothills, acequias and arroyos, tumbleweeds and cholla, the adobes in Old Town, the low riders on Route 66, powwows in the pueblos, the rattlesnake and turquoise museums, breakfast burritos and paletas, the native pottery, chili ristras, lavender fields and lllamas, horses and coyotes, jackrabbits, road runners, lizards and scorpions.

For me (an outsider), everything here is about “the land” - the ancient geology that contains western traditions and a rich history. Today it still seems tough and rough laid over this underlying tension of “how will I ever survive?” (In other words, it’s not exactly relaxing and serene). I think it will either burrow into your soul and entrap you forever, or send you off running for the hills. So far, I’m (()) so sometimes I’ll use the “Albuquerque” video below as a…lure. Because the singer grew up here but then moved away, she still seems to carry some nostalgic and sweet memories. Whenever I come across a point of view from a loving insider, it gives me hope that ABQ+ME might turn out okay in the end.
The End!

Albuquerque

Okay, this is pretty good, too. Lowriders…

 

[JStarr]

There are what seems to be a billion Joshua Trees here, some thousands of years old. Some are so huge it's kinda crazy. It gets pretty green out here if there's enough rain and snowfall during the winters.

I am actually not sure exactly what Mojaves are. Do you mean Chollas? Those are awful, and they are everywhere. Our dogs would often get those horrible needles stuck in their paws, and so do we sometimes. I don't mind how they look out on wild properties, but I'd love to rid of them on ours.

The Marine base you are referring to here is in 29 Palms, and it's pretty close by. We can see their "little Iraq" with binoculars, and they do mock invasions and bombings all the time. It rattles the windows in our house at times! No one cares for it, to say the least.

Mojave Green rattlesnakes. Nasty, highly venomous, one of the most deadly in CONUS snakes. You don't know about Mojaves?
Mind where you put your hands and feet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotalus_scutulatus

Yes, there's Twenty-nine Palms, and there's Ft Irwin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Irwin_National_Training_Center there was an entire desert training area- LOTS of facilities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Training_Center and some are still in use, there's the Marine Corp Logistics Base at Barstow, and there's Edwards AFB There's a TON of training going on all around you- especially if you add in Yuma Proving Grounds which is a target impact area for the Navy off-shore.

It's all part of what defends the country.

We used to visit Joshua Tree- funky little town back in the early 80s. The scenery was always spectacular.

 

[Artyczar]

Mojave Green rattlesnakes. Nasty, highly venomous, one of the most deadly in CONUS snakes. You don't know about Mojaves?
Mind where you put your hands and feet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotalus_scutulatus

Yes, there's Twenty-nine Palms, and there's Ft Irwin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Irwin_National_Training_Center there was an entire desert training area- LOTS of facilities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Training_Center and some are still in use, there's the Marine Corp Logistics Base at Barstow, and there's Edwards AFB There's a TON of training going on all around you- especially if you add in Yuma Proving Grounds which is a target impact area for the Navy off-shore.

It's all part of what defends the country.

We used to visit Joshua Tree- funky little town back in the early 80s. The scenery was always spectacular.

Yes, I know about the snakes. I thought you were talking about a plant I'd never heard of.

If you were last in JT in the 80s, you'd be very, very surprised as to what has happened to this place! We'd been coming out here for almost 25 years, and it was a quiet, quaint little community. Now it might as well be NY City. It's rife with people, and not just on the weekends. You can't even make a turn onto the highway near the village without waiting ten minutes for all the people to walk by across the smallest street (no traffic light there), so it's packed with tourists, new shops, modern-built homes, etc. Housing costs have quadrupled. Just since Covid, they have more than doubled. An average home here is more than a half million. You can get something for under that if you want to make all kinds of improvements. New construction is out of control. Visitors to the park keep going up, up, up and there is a line a few miles long every day to get in. It's sad and we keep hoping it will mellow out, but it keeps getting worse.

 

[Artyczar]

View attachment 31758
I really like this thread! So thanks to all for sharing a bit of yourselves and I hope more people post about “their place.” Mine, to the surprise of absolutely no one….is way too long.

But anyway…I lived in lots of places but for the past year and half I’ve been in Albuquerque, New Mexico. People sometimes shorten it to ABQ or call themselves Burquenos. It’s a city divided into quadrants. North is Colorado and south is Mexico. The Sandia Mountain range is 10,000 feet high and runs along the east side with the city sitting in its foothills. The Rio Grande River, surrounded by a bosque, separates east from west. I live across from the Sandias on the west mesa, a 5,000 foot high area of dormant volcanos, lava rocks, ancient petroglyphs, canyons and coyotes. Sounds nice and wild but really…it’s the burbs.

ABQ is mostly suburban sprawl and construction is non-stop. Our realtor told us that they’ll keep building until they run out of land, or water. Water in fact, is a big and complicated issue and one I don’t fully understand yet, but it’s somehow a clash of new growth vs. traditional farming. There are cultural “attractions” of the usual sort, restaurants are mostly the chain-variety type, the churches are in strip malls, and it seems there’s a dentist, nail salon and car service on every corner. Like any city, it has its industrial ugliness and dangerous areas along the outskirts, and problems like homelessness, fentanyl, and crime. But by far, the VERY worst thing about living here is the drivers and my whining about THAT would take us to eternity and back. Trust me, it sucks.

It’s got a very diverse population which will reach 1 million this year, making it the most congested spot in the state. No doubt, we have our fair share of wackos and aholes. But the other “normals” seem to be hard-working, blue collar, salt-of the-earth types who have an accepting “live and let live” philosophy. The cost of living is relatively cheap, the weather is great, amenities are abundant, and healthcare is…adequate. The nicest surprise though, is to discover all the open spaces and trails and when you’re in them, it’s hard to believe you’re even in a city. They are nice and needed escapes.

I’m too lazy to dig up more pictures and besides, what can I say about the place that you haven’t already seen on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul? (Ha, that seems to be its own little cottage industry.) I could show pics of the dramatic sky, or the sunset pink mountains, the muddy Rio, the cottonwoods in the bosque, the buffalo herd in the foothills, acequias and arroyos, tumbleweeds and cholla, the adobes in Old Town, the low riders on Route 66, powwows in the pueblos, the rattlesnake and turquoise museums, breakfast burritos and paletas, the native pottery, chili ristras, lavender fields and lllamas, horses and coyotes, jackrabbits, road runners, lizards and scorpions.

For me (an outsider), everything here is about “the land” - the ancient geology that contains western traditions and a rich history. Today it still seems tough and rough laid over this underlying tension of “how will I ever survive?” (In other words, it’s not exactly relaxing and serene). I think it will either burrow into your soul and entrap you forever, or send you off running for the hills. So far, I’m (()) so sometimes I’ll use the “Albuquerque” video below as a…lure. Because the singer grew up here but then moved away, she still seems to carry some nostalgic and sweet memories. Whenever I come across a point of view from a loving insider, it gives me hope that ABQ+ME might turn out okay in the end.
The End!

Albuquerque

Okay, this is pretty good, too. Lowriders…

Your terrain sounds a lot like ours, and don't you just love it? Something about it is magic. I have a few friends that live in ABQ, and it's a certain kind of person that connects to it. I'm glad that's what seems to be happening with you.

 

[JStarr]

Yes, I know about the snakes. I thought you were talking about a plant I'd never heard of.

If you were last in JT in the 80s, you'd be very, very surprised as to what has happened to this place! We'd been coming out here for almost 25 years, and it was a quiet, quaint little community. Now it might as well be NY City. It's rife with people, and not just on the weekends. You can't even make a turn onto the highway near the village without waiting ten minutes for all the people to walk by across the smallest street (no traffic light there), so it's packed with tourists, new shops, modern-built homes, etc. Housing costs have quadrupled. Just since Covid, they have more than doubled. An average home here is more than a half million. You can get something for under that if you want to make all kinds of improvements. New construction is out of control. Visitors to the park keep going up, up, up and there is a line a few miles long every day to get in. It's sad and we keep hoping it will mellow out, but it keeps getting worse.

Yup- it sounds sad.

It's why, when we decided to move from one crowded, far-more-expensive-than-justified area (Puget Sound) we came waaaay down here where it's likely not gonna grow much- there's just no reason to grow. Other than Ft Huachuca- which is a giant school so military members other than cadre don't stay long- and the attending contractors, there's nothing much here.

That's why we like it.

Not interested in that many people in one place all the time- won't even go to Art in the Park because of too many people. Should make it by appointment only. Bisbee up the road does an Art Walk every, Tuesday, I think it is, but too many of the little funky shops closed during CoVID, and the replacement folks are more import-from-Asia junk and what they believe is going to sell "good nutrition" foods and gimmicks. Bisbee is supported mostly by tourists over late fall/winter, but summer is mostly locals- we ain't buyin' it. Those shops will close before summer's over (storefront rents are waaay high) and before next Spring, a new crop of wannabe business folks will try their luck.

Sort of like mining- which is what Bisbee is known for- a whole lot of work and it'll likely go bust.

Thanks for the exchange- hope your spot in the relentless sun mellows out.

 

[JStarr]

View attachment 31758
I live across from the Sandias on the west mesa, a 5,000 foot high area of dormant volcanos, lava rocks, ancient petroglyphs, canyons and coyotes. Sounds nice and wild but really…it’s the burbs.

So... like you, I live in a desert area with all those same descriptors- except my river is called the San Pedro, flows *north* here (illegal crosser!) and often disappears underground for awhile- and, while we have bosque-y areas, it's mostly riparian- used to be savanna/steppe according to who is doing the descriptor- and MY question is: WHY did any peoples travel HUNDREDS of miles- past the mountains and plains of the US or past the same plus beachfront abundance of Mexico- to get here, look around at nothing much other than sparse grass and spiky plants that live to hurt you, sharp, trackless mountains, little to no water except in monsoon, few large animals for tools and clothing and WATER CARRIERS (bladders, mostly) but lots of small rodent-type animals, WHY did they get here- how bad was it wherever they came from- that they saw this place and said, "Yeah, this looks good!"??

Water is HEAVY- most of the petroglyphs and other signs of indigenous humans are WAY UP HIGH (not like 3 Rivers Petroglyphs) and their adobe brick cliff dwellings are WAY UP HIGH- how did they get water up there? With few relatively lightweight animal innards to carry, but instead, HEAVY pottery? I don't get it- how bad was wherever they came from that they got here (probably in or just after monsoon when everything looks full of life) that this desert looked so good, they stayed here?

It's not made sense to me- and I have two of the largest mammoth kills sites in the US just a couple miles up the road so I KNOW we had early human (11k to 23k years ago) habitation- but they aren't the ones who lived up in the cliffs and drew on the walls; they were nomadic and made rough, domes shelters from bones, wood and grass.

It are a mystery to me- had I gotten here twenty years ago and saw what the cliff dwellers saw, I would've kept going to a tropical beach.

Lucky you, though- Abq is still a terrific adventure!

 

[OliveOyl]

Your terrain sounds a lot like ours, and don't you just love it? Something about it is magic. I have a few friends that live in ABQ, and it's a certain kind of person that connects to it. I'm glad that's what seems to be happening with you.

Hi Ayin and back at ya.

Yes, I often wonder…what kind of person IS drawn to a desert place? The ancestors on my mother’s side are long-time, hearty New Englanders via Canada (so lots of trees and rivers). But on my father’s side, those ancestors came over by boat to New York City, from Sicily. (My peeps are always on the move!) So all I can say about my own attachment to the desert is maybe some kind of primal connection to Sicilian roots?? I imagine that the hot, dry, and Mediterranean climate isn’t all that dissimilar. I don’t know because I’ve never been to Italy, but only wish I could have dragged the ocean over from my last place to here and then, I’d have it all. But I shan’t be a greedy little grub.

But what about you and Hannah? Did you land in Joshua Tree because of that landlord situation? Or was the plan to always end up there? Would you ever move away or is this…it…forever?

Just wondering.

 

[Artyczar]

Hi Ayin and back at ya.

Yes, I often wonder…what kind of person IS drawn to a desert place? The ancestors on my mother’s side are long-time, hearty New Englanders via Canada (so lots of trees and rivers). But on my father’s side, those ancestors came over by boat to New York City, from Sicily. (My peeps are always on the move!) So all I can say about my own attachment to the desert is maybe some kind of primal connection to Sicilian roots?? I imagine that the hot, dry, and Mediterranean climate isn’t all that dissimilar. I don’t know because I’ve never been to Italy, but only wish I could have dragged the ocean over from my last place to here and then, I’d have it all. But I shan’t be a greedy little grub.

But what about you and Hannah? Did you land in Joshua Tree because of that landlord situation? Or was the plan to always end up there? Would you ever move away or is this…it…forever?

Just wondering.

Maybe the Heeb in me is drawn to the desert, I don't know. But I didn't think I'd ever like it here when Hannah introduced me to it 24 years ago. She'd been coming out here for about 30 years already and she fell in love with it, biking around. When I first met her, she kept telling me about a "shack" she stayed at in the desert where she wanted me to go to with her. I kept wondering how I could get out of it. The idea of it was horrifying. A shack in the desert? No thank you! It sounded awful to me.

Then, one night, we were driving back to LA from Vegas after her stepdad had passed. She said, "We'll take the 'scenic' route and go through Joshua Tree. We'll stay the night at the shack and you can finally see it!" Oh Jeez, I thought, I'm trapped!

It was pitch black when we got there, but the inside wasn't a shack at all. It was a cute little cabin. Still, no one had been staying in it for a long time and moths were hovering around all the lights. Ew!

When I woke up the next morning and went outside, I was blown away. It was absolutely gorgeous and silent. There were boulders all around us and birds and plants and it smelled wonderful. I fell in love. We luckily had access to that "shack" for many years.

We had always planned to retire to Joshua Tree one day and were looking to buy something (like a get-away place) while we were living in LA but could never afford to do that (balancing to places). Of course, we are kicking ourselves now because maybe we could have if we knew what the prices were going to do. We could have bought something for $75-100K back then. No such thing now. Try $600K. No kidding.

But later we ran into a lot of financial difficulty right before Covid and it wasn't feasible to stay in LA anymore. We couldn't buy here or there and probably never will. Hannah was working remotely, so we just decided to rent long-term here. It's a bit like semi-retiring early because the cost of living was much less. We were lucky to get here when we did before Covid because there are no more long-term rentals in Joshua Tree anymore. They are all Airbnbs or four times the rent. Our current landlords will be selling this place in about 5 years and if we can't buy it by then, I don't know where we will end up next. Another state? Old-folks home? Pushing shopping carts? Who knows?

 

[JennieJo]

Any other Aussies out there. I'm from a small town in Western Australia. Pemberton, in the south west corner. Known for its tall trees. I like to say: I'm a bush babe, born among the trees. It's not totally untrue.

No pics, sorry. But, I've screenshot a Google search. As they're all advertising pics, I don't think they will object.

Now I'm living in the bush surrounded by tall trees on the other side of the country.