May 2018 – Page 3 – Observations Along the Road

On The Road Again

Posted onWednesday, May 9, 2018Authorcahwyguy

As I plan my summer vacation, travel is on my mind. So here is some news chum related to travel, with some articles you might find of use:

Customs and Immigration. Here are some tips on how to avoid long custom and immigration lines if you travel internationally. The focus of the article is on an app called Mobile Passport that can evidently save loads of time. I don’t know; I haven’t traveled internationally since the 1980s.
AirBnB Tips. I have a friend that, essentially, lives in AirBNBs. She’s built up a collection of tips and advice on finding a good AirBNB. Essentially, these tips are how to define your profile to make your expectations clear, and the warning signs to look for in listings of AirBNBs you look at.
Carry On Sizing. Airlines continue to make things difficult. One of the more recent things is shrinking the size of your carryon back. What worked 10 years ago may not work today. Here’s a chart of the carry-on sizes for all airlines, for handy reference.
Hotel Shampoo. Two interesting articles related to hotel shampoo. The first looks at the issue in terms of privilege: the right shampoo for hair care differs by ethnicity, and the default type of shampoo in almost all hotel rooms is designed for white, Caucasian hair. You want a great example of microagressions and privilege, look no further than that little bottle. Most non-white travelers will either need to bring their own, go shopping for the right shampoo, or use the wrong shampoo. All wrong choices. Further (potentially making matters worse), hotels are now getting rid of those little bottles and replacing them with larger bottles, mounted to the wall, that have pumps. The surface explanation for this is using less plastic and being environmentally aware, but there are hidden statements about people taking the little bottles for private use, and saving money by not paying for the little bottles (and there is no guarantee they aren’t refilling with the cheapest thing). Sharing the bottles may also be less sanitary.

A Programming Challenge: Fringe Scheduling (Updated)

Posted onTuesday, May 8, 2018Authorcahwyguy

userpic=fringe As we are entering the season of the Hollywood Fringe Festival (FB) again, meaning over 350 shows and events spread over Hollywood and West Hollywood during the month of June, it is worth reconsidering the problem of how to best schedule the shows you want to see in the time you have within your budget. My current solution has been to build a spreadsheet of shows that I’m interested in with all their times and durations, sort by start day and time, and try to do a best fit by visual methods. Here’s last year’s schedule as an example.

But this is an imprecise method, and truthfully, a royal pain to set up. Two years ago I presented a programming challenge to address the problem. No solutions came out of it. So I’m trying again. Now I’m not an actor, director, producer, or anything connected with the theatre industry, other than an audience member. I am, however, a computer scientist. I’m a software engineer, and I know how to draw up specifications for problems to be solved. Scheduling the Fringe is a solvable problem, although perhaps not NP complete and a bit travelling salesmanish.

Here’s my challenge to you: I’m going to lay out the problem as I see it. Can you develop an app or a web page that can solve the problem in a usable fashion? No pay involved other than the glory of the challenge, but I will pass any good results on to the folks at the Fringe.

Here’s the problem:

You have a database of shows and events. Each show has webpage link, a title, a venue, a ticket price, a running time, and some set of performance times.
You have a database of venues, each with a street address (which you can likely use a Google interface to get GPS coordinates and walk time).
You have a list of shows and events that someone is interested in, together with what we’ll call an interest level: 0 – no interest to 3 – must see. This could be an added parameter on the current Favorites list (go to the website, create a user, and then you can save favorites), or it might be entered in some other way.
You have a list of times for which the person is available, including some times marked a “meal breaks”. For example, I might be available weekends between 11am and 11pm, with a 1 hour dinner break after 5pm. You get to determine the most user friendly way to specify this. Perhaps this could interface with Google Calendar?
You have a desired dollar amount they want to spend on tickets.

Given these inputs, produce a best fit schedule, that includes as many of the highest priority shows as possible, then as many of the next priority tier down, and so on for priorities 1-3. You need to take into account walking time between venues, or if the distance between venues exceeds the walking time by 15 minutes, driving and parking time (parking can take up to 15 minutes if you aren’t lucky). You could build into the schedule transportation between non-walkable venues via Lyft or Uber. You need to take into account meal breaks. Allocate 10 minutes before a show to allow time to check in and get seated. Make sure the total cost does not exceed what the user has indicated.

Ideally, this tool might even connect to the ticketing system (including purchasing Fringe buttons) such that once a schedule is set, it can be ticketed. There might be the need to adjust if a show is sold out of tickets. Ideally, whatever it ticketed could then be saved to Google Calendar or whatever the Mac folks use.

For now, build the databases as you see fit. If you need, I can talk to the Fringe folks and get you information on the JSON/XML API to interface with their site. Ideally, this should be something usable by folks used to normal websites (i.e., not a complicated interface). Who knows, you might be able to design it as an app.

I think this is a solvable problem, and might actually be a good assignment for a class as an example of a real world problem. Feel free to post questions here, and either I’ll answer them based on my experience, or I’ll pass them to the Fringe for resolution.

OK, Go….

Interesting Visualizations

Posted onTuesday, May 8, 2018Tuesday, May 8, 2018Authorcahwyguy

Visualizations are fascinating things. Taking data and then adjusting a map based on that data can often provide insight that would not be readily apparent otherwise. Here are some examples I’ve seen over the last few weeks that have, at least for me, made me realize something I hadn’t realized before:

Segregation in America. We like to think of America as a diverse society, a melting pot of peoples and cultures. But in our day to day reality, is it? Is the mixed neighborhood we see in the media the reality? The answer is, unsurprisingly, no. Here’s a fascinating article from the WaPo that uses maps to highlight segregation in America (if you run into their paywall, use Incognito or Private mode). As the article notes, “…some cities remain deeply segregated — even as the country itself becomes more diverse. To explore these national changes, The Post analyzed census data from 1990, 2000, 2010 and the latest estimates from the 2016 five-year American Community Survey. Using that data, we generated detailed maps of the United States using six race categories: black, white, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American and multi-race/other for the available years.” The maps show significant segregation within each city, and for most cities, allow you to enter an address to see how segregated or diverse your local community is.
Jews. Here’s a map that purports to show American Jews by county as of 2011. There’s a bit of controversy over it, but for me the main takeaway is how concentrated the pockets of Judaism are, and how empty other areas are. If you were to correlate this to areas where antisemitism is the strongest, my contention is that antisemitism flourishes where Jews are scarce. If people don’t see Jews regularly, they fear the unknown. Now connect this to the first map, and explore the theory of whether the areas of the strongest hatred of the immigrant and the Muslim are precisely those areas that have the fewest immigrants and Muslims. If we don’t see diversity — if we see people only as categories and not people — hatred flourishes. Stereotypes are believed, and fears magnify. These two maps, taken together, show why we have so much work to do in this country.
Density. This map (and alas I don’t have anything better than the FB image) shows areas with equal population: first the coasts, and then the major cities of NYC and LA. Again, this visualization explains quite a bit, especially when you think in terms of politics. The politics of population dense areas — and the needs and concerns — tends to be very different than the less dense areas. The nature of crime is different, the diversity is different, the pressing needs of homelessness and economic distribution are different. Is it any wonder there is such a tension between the dominance of heavily populated areas in the popular vote vs. the power of less dense areas in the electoral college? [ETA: Here’s a better source for this mapping, which points to an even better source.]
Property Value. A similar interesting visualization comes by looking at property values. A handful of counties in the US account for the bulk of the value of the property in the US (and guess where those counties are — especially in light of the previous three maps). This demonstrates one reason behind some political trends we are seeing (combined with the adage from the musical 1776 about conservatives: most people would like to protect the possibility of being rich than face the reality of being poor). Here’s an example: “New York City’s 305 square miles make up 8/1000ths of 1 percent of the land area of the United States. Yet New York City accounts for 5 percent of the nation’s housing value—more than every single state but four (one of which is, of course, New York state).” The article’s conclusion is also interesting: “Folks who can’t afford to live in those places don’t get to take advantage of those labor markets. The demand to live in these places is soaring, but the desire among incumbents to accommodate newcomers is low. Hence NIMBYism, high housing costs, severe inequality—the whole shebang.”

In terms of non-map visualizations, here are two:

Sushi on the Brain. Here’s a scientist who explains complex concepts using sushi. This is one that must be seen to be believed, for example, a model of the sections of the brain that control language, depicted in fish and rice. And with that, I return you to your lunch.
Terms and Conditions. For a student project, Dima Yarovinsky printed the terms and conditions on paper for major social apps — WhatsApp, Google, Tinder, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, respectively — which highlights what we’re getting into.

What a Difference a Plot Makes | “School of Rock” @ Hollywood Pantages

Posted onSunday, May 6, 2018Monday, May 7, 2018Authorcahwyguy

School of Rock (Hollywood Pantages) About a month ago, we sat in the darkened theatre that is the Hollywood Pantages (FB) to see a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber (FB), lyrics by Glenn Slater (FB). It was ponderous, and overblown — yes, it was Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera (based on a book by Ben Elton, which in turn was based on the book The Phantom of Manhattan by Frederick Forsyth). Last night, we sat in that same darkened theatre to see yet another musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber (FB), lyrics by Glenn Slater (FB). This one, however, was glorious and energetic, and one of better musicals we’ve seen this touring season. This one was School of Rock – The Musical (with a book by Julian Fellowes, based on the Paramount movie written by Mike White), and it was a clear demonstration of how a clear and coherent book, combined with different forms and a different sensibility can lead artists in a different and better direction. It was a 180° turn from Love Never Dies, and had music so infectious (in a good way) that I saw 6-year olds, who attended the show, singing the songs on the way out. This is a good thing — it instills a love of live theatre and live performance early, and keeps the artform alive. Which is a notion that School of Rock would love, because its thematic goal is similar — to instill a love of rock as the artform, and to keep art alive.

The story of School of Rock roughly follows the outline of the original movie. Rocker Dewey Finn is stuck in the era of rock. He has a job he doesn’t care about, and lives to play (or overplay) electric guitar in a burgeoning rock band, living with but not paying rent to his high school friend and former bandmate, Ned. The collapse of all of this — being kicked out of the band, losing his job, and demands for the rent from his roommate, Ned Schneebly and Ned’s girlfriend, Patty — prove the catalyzing incident for the rest of the story (hmmm, just as demands for rent are the catalying incident in the musical Rent… but I digress). When the principal of a prestigious prep school, Rosalie Mullins, calls Ned to see if he can substitute teach, Dewey intercepts the call — and hearing what it pays, decides to impersonate Ned so he can get to the Battle of the Bands. Nevermind the fact that Dewey is unqualified to be a teacher — rock and winning the battle is what is most important.

Once ensconced in the Horace Green Prep School, Dewey (now Ned) figures he can skate though by letting the kids have continual recess. But he soon discovers that the kids can play music. The idea is born: Form a band from these kids, get them to the Battle of the Bands, and win the prize. The next step is never clear (other than paying the rent), but that’s not a surprise for Dewey. The remainder of the story is just that: forming the kids into the band, outsmarting the other faculty who are not enamored of Dewey’s teaching method, and dealing with the inevitable discovery and near collapse of the scheme at the end.

Unlike Love Never Dies, which had muddied character arcs and little character growth, what makes School of Rock work is precisely the character growth and arc in the story. Almost every character grows and changes in some way through the story: Dewey learns from the kids about himself and what he can be (including being a better version of himself); the kids learn that they do have a unique voice and talent that makes them more than nerds and misfits; Rosalie Mullins finds the rocker that was insider her all the time, and becomes a better principal for it; Ned finds his backbone and learns to speak up for himself. The plot, in essence, is a testament to the transformative power of Rock to empower and change, and to channel anger and rage at the system into good.

School of Rock is also a very different Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. If you think of ALW, you think of sung-through pieces, whether they be rock like Jesus Christ Superstar or Evita, melodramatic like Phantom, or dance and movement like Cats or Starlight Express. But School of Rock is a traditional-style book musical, with dramatic spoken scenes between the songs, and use of the songs to propel the narrative and transformation forward. In an excellent interview with Glenn Slater on Broadway Bullet, Slater writes how Webber was hesitant to do School of Rock because of its American voice, and didn’t want to do the music until Slater reminded him of his rock roots of Evita and JCS. I think it is this hesitancy that pushed Webber out of his comfort envelope, and led to some of the best music that Webber has written in ages.

But what makes School of Rock succeed, and what wins over audiences every night, are the kids. Jesse Schwinn did a series of rehearsal reports (alas, there’s no good single link) during the pre-opening phase of School of Rock where he talked about the discovery of the original cast of kids in the show, and how these kids were so remarkable because they were playing their own instruments on stage. That’s true on the tour as well: there is a remarkable bunch of kids on stage that win audiences over nightly with there talent: kids that not only have been acting, but playing the piano since age 5, playing guitar since age 6, and exhibiting similar targets that just astounds. They make this show ROCK!

A number of the songs in this show standout for their melodies and their ability to serve as pop-ish numbers, These range from the rocker “Stick It To The Man” (which is an earworm) to the beautiful “If Only You Would Listen” and the closing “School of Rock”. I’ll note that the score does exhibit a few ALW-isms in that particular songs have their themes keep reappearing.

The elements in this show combine in an almost perfect way: kids, a transformative story, great music. It probably would have won more Tony awards, but it was up against Hamilton. One does not win against a steamroller. I think this is a distinctly different ALW musical; do not let the fact that ALW is involved prevent you from seeing this.

Laurence Conner‘s direction and JoAnn M. Hunter‘s choreography work reasonably well in this show — moreso for the kids than for the adults. In some ways, that’s because the original story paints the adults with a broad stroke with broad characterizations. I particularly enjoyed a number of the little touches — facial expressions, reactions, and so forth, as well as the energy of the dance numbers. I didn’t notice when I read the program that Conner has been involved with some of the more melodramatic sung-through shows of late: Phantom, Les Miserables, and Miss Saigon, and Hunter was involved with a new show at the Ahmanson quite a few years ago, Harmony.

In the lead position at our show was Jameson Moss (★FB, FB). You’re probably going, “who?”. Moss was the understudy who, according to his Twitter feed, found out at 4:30 PM that he was going to be going on the first Saturday evening performance at 8:00 PM. He’s a relatively new actor, with a few TV and film credits and only one theatre credit I could find (this show appears to be his debut), whose rock band was invited to perform at the Whisky A Go Go when he was only 18. This is a long-winded way of saying that, for an understudy, he did a damn fine job. He had some sound problems and wasn’t as clear to hear as he could have been, but he handled his songs well and seemed to have a good interaction with the kids. Oh, and the normal players for the role are Rob Colletti (FB), with Merritt David Janes (FB) doing the role at selected performances. Liam Fennecken (★FB) is the other understudy; more on an oddity with him later.
[★ indicates their professional FB page]

The adult female lead (not quite a love interest; more of an obstacle) was Lexie Dorsett Sharp (★FB, FB) as Rosalie Mullins. I quite enjoyed her performance, especially her facial expressions and movement. She brought down the house with her performance of “Where Did The Rock Go?” in the second act.

Of course, the real stars of the show (as least in the eyes of the audience) were the kids, eclipsing the smaller adult roles. The kids consisted of Olivia Bucknor (★FB) [Shonelle – Backup Vocals]; Theodora Silverman [Katie – Bass]; Cameron Trueblood [James – Security]; Alyssa Emily Marvin (★FB) [Marcy – Backup Vocals]; Carson Hodges (★FB) [Mason – Tech]; Grier Burke [Tomika – Vocals]; Gilberto Moretti-Hamilton (★FB) [Freddy – Drums]; Vincent Molden [Zack – Guitar]; Huxley Westemeier [Billy – Stylist]; Theo Mitchell-Penner [Lawrence – Keyboard]; Iara Nemirovsky [Summer – Manager]; and Gabriella Uhl [Sophie – Roadie]. All of these kids are talented, but quite a few deserve special recognition. Let’s start with the musicians: Silverman, Moretti-Hamilton, Molden, and Mitchell-Penner are great on their instruments, and really really shine in their solo moments. It reminds one of how much talent there is in the kids of this world — be it science or music or performance. Burke blows the audience away with her solo of “Amazing Grace”, and Nemirovsky has some great comic and leadership moves as summer. Lastly, Westemeier’s a hoot as Billy.

Turning back to the adults, the remaining non-ensemble named characters are Matt Bittner‘s Ned and Emily Borromeo (★FB)’s Patty. Both find the humor in their lightly drawn roles as foils to Drew; Borromeo captures the authority aspects of her characters quite well, and Bittner is great as a nerd rocker.

The remaining on-stage team serve as ensemble members and cover smaller named roles as indicated: Patrick Clanton (FB) [Gabe Brown, Mr. Hamilton, Jeff Sanderson]; Kristian Espiritu (★FB); Melanie Evans (FB); Liam Fennecken (★FB) [Bob, Mr. Sanford, Cop]; Elysia Jordan (FB) [Mrs. Hathaway]; Deidre Lang (FB) [Ms. Sheinkopf]; Sinclair Mitchell (FB) [Snake, Mr. Mooneyham]; Jameson Moss (★FB, FB) [Stanley, Mr. Williams] (note: at our performance, he went on as Dewey); Tim Shea (FB) [Doug, Mr. Spencer]; and Hernando Umana (FB) [Theo]. At our performance, John Campione (FB) swung into the ensemble, but not as one would expect into Jameson’s role; rather, he swung into Liam’s Bob/Mr. Sanford/Cop for some reason. Did Liam swing into Jameson’s ensemble roles? It isn’t clear. Note: There are so many understudies here, I’m not noting who understudies whom.

The swings (◬ indicates kids) were John Campione (FB); Christopher DeAngelis (FB) [Dance Captain]; ◬ Rayna Farr; ◬ Bella Fraker (★FB); Kara Haller (FB) [Asst. Dance Captain]; ◬ Jack Suarez Kimmel; and ◬ Jesse Sparks.

In addition to the kids onstage, music was provided by the local and touring orchestra, under the musical direction of Martyn Axe (FB) [Keyboards]; the touring orchestra was much larger than usual; there was minimal local supplementation (♪). The pit orchestra consisted of: Julie Homi (FB) [Asst Music Director, Keyboards]; Anthony Rubbo (FB) [Guitar 1]; Diego Rojas (FB) [Guitar 2]; Oscar Bautista (FB) [Guitar 3]; Lynn Keller (FB) [Bass]; Taurus Lovely (FB) [Drums]; ♪ Mike Abraham (FB) [Guitar 3]; and ♪ William Malpede [Keyboard 2 Sub]. Other music positions were: Benjamin Zoleski (FB) [Childrens Music Director; Band Tech]; Lynn Keller (FB) [Librarian]; Talitha Fehr (FB)/TL Music International [Music Coordinator]; Stuart Andrews [Keyboard Programming]; and ♪ Eric Heinly [Local Contractor]. John Rigby was the music supervisor.

Note that, regarding the music in the show, it was all by the aforementioned ALW and Glenn Slater, except for the following: “The Queen of the Night” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; “You’re in the Band” by ALW/Slater with quotes from Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, Ian Anderson Paice, Lou Reed, and Ludwig Van Beethoven; “In the End of Time” by Jack Black and Warren Fitzgerald; “Math is a Wonderful Thing” by Jack Black and Mike White; “School of Rock” by Mike White and Sammy James Jr,; “Amazing grace” by John Newton; and “Edge of Seventeen” by Stephanie Nicks, with kind permission. If you listen carefully, you’ll also hear a bit from ALW’s Song/Variations, as well as, of course, Cats.

Finally, turning to the production and creative team. The scenic and costume design by Anna Louizos worked well — I especially liked the rotating doors used for the Horace Green school and the way the blackboard was constructed; the rock outfits were also a hoot. Josh Marquette‘s hair design supported the costumes well. Natasha Katz‘s lighting design worked well and established both mood and emotion, but she gets a “tsk, tsk” for letting her website expire. Mick Potter‘s sound design was defeated, alas, by the cavernous Pantages house: there were times that the lead could not be heard clearly, and there were other times that other characters words got lost. Part of that could be written off to understudy mic placement, but I missed the subtitles from Love Never Dies (about the only thing I missed about that show). Other production credits: David Ruttura [Associate Director]; Tara Rubin Casting [Casting]; Allied Touring [Tour Marketing/Press]; The Booking Group [Tour Direction]; Troika Entertainment LLC [Tour Management]; Brian Schrader [General Manager]; Maia Sutton [Company Manager]; Larry Smiglewski (FB) [Production Stage Manager]; Amanda Kosack [Stage Manager]; Abby L. Powers [Asst. Stage Manager]; and Neuro Tour [Physical Therapy].

School of Rock continues at the Hollywood Pantages (FB) through May 27. Tickets are available through the Pantages Website/Ticketmaster. Discount tickets may be available through Goldstar Events or TodayTix. This is a really fun show; go see it.

***

Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre (or music) critic; I am, however, a regular theatre and music audience member. I’ve been attending live theatre and concerts in Los Angeles since 1972; I’ve been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I’m a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I am not compensated by anyone for doing these writeups in any way, shape, or form. I currently subscribe at 5 Star Theatricals (FB) [the company formerly known as Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB)], the Hollywood Pantages (FB), Actors Co-op (FB), the Chromolume Theatre (FB) in the West Adams district, a mini-subscription at the Saroya [the venue formerly known as the Valley Performing Arts Center (VPAC)] (FB), and the Ahmanson Theatre (FB). Through my theatre attendance I have made friends with cast, crew, and producers, but I do strive to not let those relationships color my writing (with one exception: when writing up children’s production, I focus on the positive — one gains nothing except bad karma by raking a child over the coals). I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.

Upcoming Shows:

Next weekend brings Soft Power at the Ahmanson Theatre (FB). The middle of May brings Violet at Actors Co-op (FB). The last weekend will hopefully bring a Nefesh Mountain concert at Temple Ramat Zion; the weekend itself is currently open.

June — ah, June. That, my friends, is reserved for the Hollywood Fringe Festival (FB), including The Story of My Life from Chromolume Theatre (FB). I’ve begun planning my scheduling using the HFF18 information, and it looks like we’ll be seeing 19-20 shows over the weekends in June. More on that when the schedule finalizes. Additionally in June we’re seeing the postponed Billy Porter singing Richard Rodgers at the Saroya (the venue formerly known as the Valley Performing Arts Center (VPAC)) (FB), The Color Purple at the Hollywood Pantages (FB), and possibly Do Re Mi at MTW. The latter, however, is on a Sunday night in Long Beach, and so Fringing may win out.

July will get busier again. It starts with the 50th Anniversary of Gindling Hilltop Camp, followed by On Your Feet at the Hollywood Pantages (FB). The next weekend brings Jane Eyre The Musical at Chromolume Theatre (FB). The third weekend in July brings a Bat Mitzvah in Victorville, with Beauty and The Beast at 5 Star Theatricals (FB) that evening. The last weekend may be a Muse/ique (FB) show. August starts with Waitress at the Hollywood Pantages (FB).

As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Better-Lemons, Musicals in LA, @ This Stage, Footlights, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411 or that are sent to me by publicists or the venues themselves. Note: Lastly, want to know how to attend lots of live stuff affordably? Take a look at my post on How to attend Live Theatre on a Budget.

Headlines About California Highways – April 2018

Posted onTuesday, May 1, 2018Authorcahwyguy

Another month has come to end — a month to busy for me to get to web page updates. But I can still share some headlines with you — both for your information, and my memory for when I do get to the updates :-). Stay safe on the roads, folks, and if you drive the Sepulveda Pass corridor, remember that Metro is doing a survey for future improvements in the corridor. Note: If you run into paywall problems on any of the sites below, try viewing the article in your browser’s private or incognito modes.

A look back at the beginnings of Highway 101. Mrs. Lucy Levy’s mud-stained trousseau while traveling through Santa Barbara County in the 1880s was testimony to the fact that we live in a land of little rain until it rains. On Presidents Day weekend, we were driving to a Mission Museums meeting in Solvang when a winter storm moved in. We suddenly realized there were many drivers on the road who might never have driven in a real rainstorm. Until the modern freeway, El Camino Real was hazardous during the best of times. It could be a long and dusty trail that also abruptly became a windswept and mud-flooded plain
Interstate 805 California. [Note: This is here because it had some immigration sign information I need to capture for my website.]
CALTRANS WANTS TO WIDEN LINCOLN BOULEVARD. Caltrans will host a community meeting on Wednesday (March 28) to discuss plans for widening Lincoln Boulevard between Jefferson Boulevard in Playa Vista and Fiji Way in Marina del Rey. The heavily trafficked 0.6-mile stretch of Lincoln traverses the upper and lower segments of the ecologically sensitive Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve.
Highway 246 passing lanes project continues. Drivers traveling on Highway 246 will encounter some lane closures with one-way reversing traffic starting Monday. Caltrans is completing a project to construct passing lanes in both directions of the road near Lompoc from Cebada Canyon Road to Hapgood Road.