Night Running

Sometimes while on travel for business one has to take an opportunity to do something a bit different. On Monday evening I participated in the Blacklist LA night run with a couple hundred people I did not know. Blacklist LA is a running group that meets on Monday evenings (and other times during the week for those training for upcoming races), highlighting street art and building community in the process. It is a very cool group and I am a bit jealous of my Angelino friends who have the opportunity to run with the Blacklist LA folks on a regular basis. In any case, I knew the group was meeting at LACMA's Urban Light on Monday evening, so I went to check it out.

Photo from Blacklist LA. 4 Jan 2015.

Photo from Blacklist LA. 4 Jan 2015.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mural by Hijackart. La Brea & San Vicente in LA.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Urban Light at LACMA.

Photo by Blacklist LA. Urban Lights run 4 Jan 2015.

We did 2 miles to the corner of La Brea and San Vicente, where we saw a mural by street artist Hijack (Jacques Guetta, son of Thierry Guetta. Thierry is also known as Mr. Brainwash and the subject of the award-winning film Exit Through the Gift Shop). Then we ran back, for a very quick 4 miles total.

This was such a great experience, and I hope I have a chance to run with them again on my next visit to LA.

Chris Burden's Urban Light is a Los Angeles icon, using 202 restored cast iron street lamps. I had not seen this at night before, so that was a bonus. The artist recently died in May 2015, and it is worth reading this background article on how the piece became an LA landmark.

Historic Los Angeles

I am currently in Los Angeles for meetings. Yesterday I had the chance to wander around the historic core of LA, where my 5th-great-grandfather Francisco Suastegui may have walked when he was in the city in 1835. In my years of living in LA, I never had the opportunity to visit Olvera Street, so it was nice to stop through briefly on this visit.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Olvera Street, Los Angeles.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Tiles on Olvera Street, 3 Jan 2016.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Avila Adobe, Los Angeles.

The photo above is from the Avila Adobe, the oldest standing residence in Los Angeles. The home was built in 1818. Below is a photo showing a historic ledger, I wonder if Francisco Suastegui's name appears in it. I was not able to touch the ledger. So close, but out of reach.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Interior of Avila Adobe.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Blessing of the Animals mural.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Angels Flight funicular rail.

I also took the opportunity have some tacos at Grand Central Market and explore the new Broad Museum. I will have more on these in an upcoming post.

Potomac Yards

Photo by Patrick Jones. Potomac Yards, Alexandria, VA. 27 Dec 2015.

The photo above was taken at Potomac Yards in Alexandria (outside the new Giant grocery store in the Notch 8 complex), showing the historic rail yard. Today the former rail center is a growing development of apartments, condos, offices and retail.

Hello 2016

Source: NYPL Digital Collection. Postcard dated 1908.

Star cross-country man

Before Christmas I wrote about my wife's 2nd-great-grandfather, Andrew Jackson Halter and several of his children. Her great-grandfather was Calvin Luther Halter, born 16 May 1909 in Evansville, Indiana. He appears in the 1927 school yearbook for Evansville Bosse High School.

Calvin Luther Halter, 1927.

He also appears in a photo for the Chemistry Club (2nd row, 4th student on the left), looking very much like he could have been at Hogwarts School for Wizards.

1927 Evansville Bosse yearbook, via Ancestry

Just after graduation, Calvin married Helen Elva Umbach on 13 June 1927 in Evansville. They appear in the 1930 US Census, living in the household of Helen's parents. Allison's grandmother appears in this census record, not quite a year old.

The family appears in the 1940 US Census in Evansville, Knight Township, Vanderburgh County, Indiana.