The State Park and Recreation Commission, in conjunction with the Parks Forward Initiative, is conducting public workshops throughout the state during September and October 2013. The workshops are being conducted to gather new ideas on how to improve efficiency, create financial sustainability, and better leverage partnerships within California State Parks. All of the meetings are webcast live on www.cal-span.org and archived on that site as well.
The California State Parks Foundation continues to push for better policies and legislation that will protect California’s park system. If you haven’t read through their Park Excellence Project, you really should.
From the CSPF website:
California’s state park system is at a crossroads. As a system, California’s state parks have persisted even in the face of challenging and shifting political, social, and environmental priorities. Yet, after more than a century of leading the way in preserving and protecting precious resources, today’s pressures – including proposals for wholesale shutdowns, current and indefinite closures, a $1.2 billion deferred maintenance backlog, and more – are the most challenging the system has ever seen.
Hadley Meares has posted a new article at KCET.org about one of my personal heroes, Walt Disney. I’m always fascinated by the intricacies of Disney, and finding out that he ate at the same places I like – like the Tam O’Shanter that was right up the street from one of my parent’s apartment buildings on Los Feliz – builds a stronger bond within me, linking me to those great people who shared the same likes, dislikes, and views as I do.
From the article:
“Walt didn’t like fancy stuff. . . . He was a very complex man, but his tastes were very simple.” — Songwriter Richard Sherman, 2009
The original Imagineer found inspiration everywhere he ate.
For all his fantastic dreams, Walt Disney was a mid-century man, with a middle-class, middle of the road taste in food. “Before he married mother, father had eaten in hash houses and lunch wagons for so many years in order to save money that he’d developed a hash house-lunch wagon appetite,” his daughter Diane wrote. “He liked fried potatoes, hamburgers, western sandwiches, hotcakes, canned peas, hash, stew, roast beef sandwiches.”
His favorite meal was a can of Gebhardt’s chili mixed with a can of Dennison’s chili, which he often ate at his desk. He was also a big fan of V-8 juice, which he would offer to visitors at the studio, who were often disappointed that there was nothing stronger available.
To read the whole article and find out more about where Walt Disney ate, go HERE.
CSPF’s Discretionary Grants Committee met September 11 and awarded 10 grants totaling $49,743 to benefit a number of California’s state parks. The organizations that received grants include:
- Anza-Borrego Foundation, $6,000 to support an expanded outreach campaign to increase visitation to the park, participation in park programs and activities, and park stewardship.
- Benicia State Parks Association, $800 to support a Volunteer Appreciation Event.
- California State Railroad Museum Foundation, $5,000 to support upgrades and enhancements to its website to increase park visitorship and engagement in park programs, activities, and stewardship.
- Coastside State Parks Association, $5,000 to expand and repair the boardwalk at Año Nuevo State Park to make the park and viewing of the elephant seals more accessible to all visitors. Continue reading
On October 3, 1941 first-time director John Huston’s film ‘The Maltese Falcon’ premiered in New York City starring first-time leading man Humphrey Bogart.
From Wikipedia:
The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film noir based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett.Directed by John Huston, the film stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade and Mary Astor as his “femme fatale” client. Gladys George, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet co-star, with Greenstreet appearing in his film debut. The Maltese Falcon was Huston’s directorial debut and was nominated for three Academy Awards.
The story follows a San Francisco private detective and his dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers, all of whom are competing to obtain a jewel-encrusted falcon statuette.
The Maltese Falcon has been named as one of the greatest films of all time by Roger Ebert and Entertainment Weekly, and was cited by Panorama du Film Noir Américain as the first major film noir.