Observations Along the Road – Page 4 – 🎭 Theatre Writeups, 🛣️ Highway Updates, 📰 Musings on the News, and other 🗯️ Rants and Roadkill Along the Information Superhighway

🎭 Guns, Elves, and Christmas | “A Christmas Story” @ Ahmanson

Posted onSunday, December 17, 2023Sunday, December 17, 2023AuthorcahwyguyLeave a comment

If you noticed, I haven’t been writing theatre reviews of late. My last full review was of Ghosts at the Odyssey Theatre, back in October 2022; there was an explanation why in a post from May 2023. This may be changing — watch for a post before the end of the year. But last night we saw A Christmas Story at the Ahmanson Theatre, and it is just crying out in my head for some … observations. This won’t be a full writeup.

So what did I think of A Christmas Story (book by Joseph Robinette, Music and Lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, based on the motion picture of the same name)? Suffice it to say that I saw this simply because it was part of the Ahmanson season, and once was enough for me. The performances were good, and there were a number of laugh out loud moments, but ultimately it wasn’t timeless. Perhaps this is because I’m not Christian and the nostalgic Christmas has no special place in my heart. But I think there are a number of deeper problems with the show as a whole that I wish to opine about.

As noted, I’m not a Christmas person, and generally not a Christmas musical person. My favorite is still A Mulholland Christmas Carol, which I saw back in December 2012. More recently, I really enjoyed the version of A Christmas Carol that the Ahmanson did back in December 2021 with Bradley Whitford. But most Christmas musicals I can take or leave, and most fall into the leave category. White Christmas and Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (soon at Broadway in Hollywood) — I’m looking at you. There are various reasons for this indifference, but it generally falls down to the fact that nostalgia falls flat with me. This harkening back to snow, and hearth, and gifts, and the magic of Christmas pass evokes little. It seems to miss the point of the holiday.
There is one modern Christmas musical I do like: Elf, which I last saw at the Canyon Theatre Guild in December 2019, and is currently running there through Dec 23 2023. Elf is filled with joy and exuberance; and it has memorable and hummable songs that you can enjoy hearing out of the context of the story. It is a movie that called out for musicalization; there were elements of the story where you could easily see the characters bursting out into song. I contrast that with A Christmas Story, where you ask yourself: Why? The movie itself was fine as a nostalgia piece, but the scenes and incidents didn’t cry out “make me a musical”. In many ways, the Christmas Story musical was more a series of vignettes than a significant story with a through line, and characters that grew and changed over the story. I’ll gladly see Elf again; for A Christmas Story, once was enough.
Another problem with A Christmas Story: The Musical is its setting. The audience for which 1940s Indiana has any meaning is rapidly dying away. Literally. The adults from the 1940s are dead; the kids from the 1940s will be within the next 5-10 years. The time and places, and the memories from this story will be increasingly foreign to Gen X, Y, and Z. What are department stores? I thought Santas were in shopping malls, and toys were at Walmart? What are these mail-in contests? There is just increasingly little that will invoke memories. That will limit the stage life of this musical, which will be propped up by endless showings of the movie. Other Christmas stories of this time period: It’s a Wonderful Life or White Christmas, have more staying power because they don’t play on nostalgia (and let’s not mention Here’s Love, which is just a musicalized Miracle on 34th Street).
Additionally, there is the issue of the object at the center of A Christmas Story: The Musical: A gun, specifically a Red Ryder BB Gun. which you can still get today. Only in America would you have a musical celebrating a gun; perhaps that makes this musical play better in those parts of America that yearn for a return to 1950s America, 1950s values, and a culture where guns are a part of life. Yes, we know phrases like that are dog whistles today, and I’m sure those notions weren’t in the mind of Jean Shepard when he wrote the original short stories, or in the minds of the movie makers. Yet themes get perverted by our times — and I feel this theme won’t resonate long term with the youth of today.
Where does the notion of bribing children for being good all year come from? Was it added to Christmas by the parent’s lobby? It’s certainly not in Christian theology as I understand it, where the reward for being good is an eternity in Heaven with Jesus, not Tinker-Toys. Is this notion the Protestant equivalent of Yom Kippur, given that they did away with Catholic Confession? These are the thoughts that go through my head during a Christmas musical.
The musical captures all the major stories and points of the movie: all those scenes you remember. But with the musical, you ask yourself: Why was this included? What do these scenes due to advance the story or grow the characters? Story-wise, you could drop the flagpole scene, or all the hullaballoo about “A Major Award”, and the story would progress equally well. Again, this shows why this was not a movie that called out to be a musical; or if it was to become one, it needed radical rethinking to build it into a proper musical book of its own. Buddy the Elf had a journey. DId Ralphie?
This is not to say the show was bad. There were some laugh out loud moments — in particular, the dogs (Reba and Jethro) with the turkey. The tap numbers were spectacular (and special kudos to Addalie Burns for the tap specialty. I enjoyed the Christmas dinner scene. The performances were strong, and it looks like the show (which is a tour) cast locally (although the “tour” seemingly had only one stop, and appears to be a remounting of the 2021 tour for Los Angeles). I noticed quite a few local cast, with draws from past 5-Star Theatrical, MTW, McCoy Rigby, Actors Co-Op, and such productions. But it was ultimately “donuts for dinner” (a phrase from [Title of Show], referring to something that seems like a good idea at the time, but is filled with sugar and in the end leaves you hungry).

Should you go see A Christmas Story: The Musical? I think it depends on your views on Christmas, and Christmas nostalgia for Christmas in 1940s white-break America — the land of Hallmark and Great American TV Movies. Once was enough for me.

Don’t be surprised if I have thoughts next week, when we see MJ – The Musical. Going in: I can easily see why one would want to build a jukebox musical out of the MIchael Jackson catalog. But given Jackson’s personal history, I find the notion of the biographical approach (and one that really only presents the good) to be puzzling. He’s gone, and the funds support his kids, and the song rights holders (i.e., Sony, if I recall correctly), so it is less cringe-worthy than buying a new Bill Cosby album, but still… Next week, we shall see.

You can also expect a post before the end of the year regarding theatre reviews going forward. Yes, I’ve been attending theatre through 2022 and 2023 — just not writing about it. The old-style reviews took just too much work (even this one took a couple of hours). I’m debating picking up the review mantle again, but they won’t be as detailed. At least that’s the intent, but who knows with the way I write.

🛣 Headlines About California Highways – November 2023

Posted onThursday, November 30, 2023AuthorcahwyguyLeave a comment

November. The month where you start to get sick of pumpkin spice, and wonder why they are playing December holiday music so frippen early. Or is it just me. But one more month, and 2023 2023 will be in the history books. Then comes the election year of 2024. Oh. Boy.

November saw us recording two more episodes of the podcast; of these, one has been released and one is waiting to be edited. I may edit it during the Annual Computer Security Conference (ACSAC) next week, or it may be delayed a bit more. The Route 1 scripts are written; Route 2 will be written between Christmas and New Years. As always, you can keep up with the show at the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org , the show’s page on Spotify for Podcasters, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcaster or via the RSS feeds (CARxR, Spotify for Podcasters) . The following episodes have been posted this month:

CARxR 2.03: Route 1 – Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. In Episode 2.03 of California Highways: Route by Route, we continue our exploration of Route 1 by exploring everything about the segment in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, from Solromar / Malibu at the edge of Ventura County to near Guadalupe in Santa Barbara County. We’ll go over the history of this segment of the route, the history of the route through various communities including Malibu, Oxnard, Ventura, Lompoc/Vandenberg and Orcutt. We’ll go over the freeway plans, discuss relinquishments, names, and some current plans. (Spotify Link)

Additionally, the Updates to California Highways for September and October are now posted to the California Highways site. I’ll be working on the next round of updates between Christmas and New Years. Lastly, for those that use iPod Classics, I’ve figured out (finally) how to mirror my iTunes Library to my Android phone. Might not be a big deal to you, but it is to me.

One last plug: For those in the cybersecurity field: Registration for the Annual Computer Security Conference open, but you only have two days. We start in Austin on Sunday.

Well, you should now be up to date. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for November:

Key

[Ħ Historical information | ＄ Paywalls, ＄＄ really obnoxious paywalls, and ∅ other annoying restrictions. I’m no longer going to list the paper names, as I’m including them in the headlines now. Note: For ＄ paywalls, sometimes the only way is incognito mode, grabbing the text before the paywall shows, and pasting into an editor.]

Highway Headlines

＄ Napa Silverado Trail roundabout project moving forward (Napa Valley Register). Napa city officials have given staff the go-ahead on project approval and environmental evaluation for a roundabout project that will eventually replace a traffic-clogging five-way intersection east of downtown. The project to replace the current crossing with two roundabouts linking the Silverado Trail, Third Street, Coombsville Road and East Avenue won City Council approval in 2017, but has been slow to get off the ground. A partnership between the city and Caltrans, the project was slated for a 2022 groundbreaking and 2024 completion, but work was delayed in 2021. The city’s public works director, Julie Lucido, said at the time that funding took longer than the city and state expected, in part because the price increased from the original projection of $8.2 million to between $11 million and $20 million.
Past Visions of Los Angeles’ Transportation Future: 1940s (Metro’s Primary Resources). The last 100 years of transit and transportation planning in Los Angeles hold stories full of challenges and opportunities, successes and failures, and some surprises, little known “firsts,” and enduring urban legends. We are taking a look back — decade by decade — at key resources from our collection to contextualize the seminal traffic, transit, and transportation plans for the region in order to provide greater understanding of how we arrived where we are today. The economic uncertainty of the 1930s gave way to a decade marked by a Second World War and continued rapid growth of Los Angeles. Military bases and ports serving the Pacific Theater in WWII, along with a burgeoning aerospace industry, primed Los Angeles for further growth — and all the planning, construction, operations and consequences that come with it. Following the conceptualization of the “freeway” as a new type of parkway in 1933, the opening of the region’s first “freeway” (the Arroyo Seco Parkway) in 1939 set the stage for a decade of numerous, extensive studies and plans for a highway network serving the rapidly growing and densifying County. One early effort was the July, 1941 Report on the Feasibility of a Freeway Along the Channel of the Los Angeles River from the San Fernando Valley to the Los Angeles – Long Beach Harbors.
What the Golden Gate Is (Finally) Doing About Suicides (The New York Times (shared)). It was May 27, 1937, the opening day for a stunning new suspension bridge across a gap in the California coastline known as the Golden Gate. Before cars were allowed on the crossing, an estimated 200,000 people celebrated between the bridge’s four-foot-high rails, more than 200 feet above the water. Doris Madden, 11, was there with her parents. It was one of her favorite days of her childhood, a story she told until the end of her life. About 78 years later, in 2015, Madden’s 15-year-old grandson, Jesse Madden-Fong, was dropped off at his high school in San Francisco.
Metro, Caltrans Announce I-5 Full Closure in Santa Clarita (SCVNews.com). The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the California Department of Transportation will fully close both northbound and southbound directions of Interstate 5 Golden State Freeway from the State Route 14 Antelope Valley Freeway to Calgrove Boulevard 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 4 to 8 a.m., Sunday, Nov. 5, to demolish the Weldon Canyon Road bridge. Motorists should expect delays and consider taking alternate routes during these closure periods.
Projects Chosen for Climate Adaptation Funding (Streetsblog California). California Transportation Commission staff recommended fifteen projects to receive $309.2 million from the Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program (LTCAP). The program was created in 2022 in response to concerns about the vulnerability of transportation to climate hazards including sea level rise, flooding, fire, and the like. The money comes from California – $148 million, allocated under S.B. 198 – and the federal PROTECT formula program established under IIJA. That program, Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation (PROTECT), provides another $252.4 million over five years.
Construction Confusion: Drivers encounter multiple projects on Sacramento freeways (Fox 40). If you had to use a movie title to describe Sacramento freeway construction, you might call it “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” The Caltrans website lists three dozen current projects at various stages in District 3, which includes much of the Sacramento region. Many of the projects involve freeway widening and repaving. That describes what is happening on Interstate 80 over the Yolo Causeway between Davis and Sacramento: a $280 million project with a target finish date of December 2027. There is also a $39 million dollar widening project along Interstate 5 in Sacramento from Arena Boulevard to the Yolo County line, scheduled for a summer 2025 completion.

🛣 Changes to the California Highway Website covering Sept – Oct 2023

Posted onFriday, November 24, 2023AuthorcahwyguyLeave a comment

With respect to the highway pages, I’ve been busy the last few months. Writing podcast episodes. Recording podcast episodes. Collecting headlines. Incorporating headlines. Reviewing all the sources I review, plus researching scripts. The result: some piping hot updates for you. I’m please to announce that the updates for September and October (with a little bit of November, as least from AARoads) are done. I”ll take a bit of a breather for the conference, and then work on incorporating headlines from the last two months of the year. As always, “ready, set, discuss”.

This update covers September and October, and perhaps some of November 2023. Before we dive into the updates to the California Highways site, an update on the California Highways: Route by Route podcast. As always, you can keep up with the show at the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org , the show’s page on Spotify for Podcasters, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcaster or via the RSS feeds (CARxR, Spotify for Podcasters) . The following episodes have been posted since the last update:

October | CARxR 2.01: Route 1 – Orange County. The start of a 10 episode series on Route 1. This episode focuses first on “first” highways, then LRN 1, and then all about Route 1 in Orange County.
October | CARxR 2.02: Route 1 – Los Angeles County. The second episode on Route 1. This episode focuses on Route 1 in Los Angeles County.
November | CARxR 2.03: Route 1 – Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. The third episode on Route 1. This episode focuses on Route 1 in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, up to about Guadalupe.

Turning to the updates to the California Highways pages: Updates were made to the following highways, based on my reading of the (virtual) papers and my research for the podcast in September and October 2023 (which are posted to the roadgeeking category at the “Observations Along The Road” and to the California Highways Facebook group) as well as any backed up email changes. I also reviewed the the AAroads forum (Ꜳ). This resulted in changes on the following routes, with credit as indicated [my research^(ℱ), contributions of information or leads (via direct mail or ꜲRoads) from Anneliese Agren⁽²⁾, Tom Fearer⁽³⁾, Megan Löwenberg⁽⁴⁾, Joel Windmiller⁽⁵⁾: Route 1^(ℱ,2), LRN 2^(ℱ), I-5^(ℱ), I-10⁽³⁾, Sign Route 10⁽³⁾, Route 13^(ℱ), Sign Route 14⁽³⁾, Sign Route 18⁽³⁾, Route 20^(ℱ), Route 23^(ℱ), Sign Route 24⁽⁵⁾, Route 30⁽⁴⁾, Route 33^(ℱ), Route 34^(ℱ), Route 37^(ℱ), US 40A⁽⁵⁾, Route 46^(ℱ), Route 47^(ℱ), LRN 56^(ℱ), Route 58^(ℱ), US 60⁽³⁾, Route 70^(ℱ,5), US 70⁽³⁾, Route 71^(ℱ,3), Route 90^(ℱ), Route 91^(ℱ,3), AZ Route 95^(ℱ,3), Route 98⁽³⁾, Route 99^(ℱ), US 101^(ℱ,3,5), Route 110^(ℱ), Route 113⁽⁵⁾, Sign Route 118^(ℱ), Route 121^(ℱ), Sign Route 126^(ℱ), Route 131^(ℱ,2), Route 135^(ℱ), LRN 153^(ℱ), LRN 154^(ℱ), Route 210^(ℱ), Route 215⁽³⁾, Route 226⁽³⁾, Route 230⁽³⁾, Route 232^(ℱ), Route 251⁽²⁾, Route 274⁽³⁾, US 395⁽⁵⁾, I-405^(ℱ), I-580^(ℱ), I-980^(ℱ), County Sign Route J14⁽³⁾, County Sign Route J18⁽³⁾, County Sign Route J19⁽³⁾, County Sign Route N1^(ℱ).
(Source: private email through 11/23/2023, Highway headline posts through the October Headline post, AARoads through 11/23/2023)

While doing research for the California Highways: Route by Route podcast, in addition to the changes to specific route pages, I identified some useful broader resources. Some of these used to be on Caltrans pages, but were lost during the accessibility remediation, if not before. Through my research, and with the help of Anneliese Agren⁽²⁾, these have been made available on this website as indicated:

On the Caltrans Resources page:
- “A History of Road Closures Along Highway 1, Big Sur Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties, California ” (November 2001)⁽²⁾

Added some new resources to the Maps page: Auto Club of California Strip Maps (1916-1920), David Smoller Map Collection (2201 maps covering primarily California, including Auto Club maps). I also received a pointer to a San Diego specific index of maps in the San Diego library, but couldn’t find the links to the maps themselves. I was also provided a resource for dating old Auto Club maps. Thanks to Vic Turner for finding these resources. Adding a link to USGS Topoview.

Reviewed the Pending Legislation page, based on the California Legislature site, for bills through 2023-10-15. Although this was about a month before posting these updates, it was sufficient to catch what the governor signed in the 2023 legislative session. New bill introduction will be captured in the next update. As usual, I recommend to every Californian that they visit the legislative website regularly and see what their legis-critters are doing. As many people are unfamiliar with how the legislature operates (and why there are so many “non-substantive changes” and “gut and amend” bills), I’ve added the legislative calendar to the end of the Pending Legislation page. Noted the passage (or veto) of the following bills and resolutions:

🎧 Success! Turning an Android Phone into an iPod Backup

Posted onSaturday, November 11, 2023Sunday, November 12, 2023Authorcahwyguy2 Comments

If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you know I enjoy listening to music. Perhaps “enjoy” is too weak a word. I love listening to music. I have since I was a kid, and I would lug a briefcase of hand-recorded cassettes to camp. I jury-rigged my own cassette player to car interface in my first cars. I’ve used various Walkmen, Discmen, and finally iPod Classics … all in a quest to have all my music with me at all times. Further, I don’t want any of this streaming crap, where you are only leasing the music from the music companies at any time. I want my albums, with my album covers, when and where I want them without a dependence on an Internet connection. Albums in the cloud? Feh!

In this quest, I’ve modified my iPod Classics to remove the spinning hard disk, using the iFlash card to replace the hard disk with solid state memory. I used the iFlash Dual card to put in 2 256GB SD cards, making each iPod Classic have 512GB, or about 477-483 GiB. But there is a limitation on the iPod Classic software — it gets wonky and likes to reboot over about 42K tracks. So my iPods only have part of my collection. I have two iPod Classics, each with the same collection of music synced to iTunes regularly. If you need a good person to do iPod hardware mods in Southern California, let me know and I’ll get you in touch with my guy (who is out in Pasadena).

How many songs do I have? Right now, just over 56K.

So I’ve been searching for a solution to have all the songs on my phone. I will not use an iPhone. I don’t want to pollute and confuse the iTunes ecosystem. I’ve been using Android phones that can accept SD card storage. There are many mid-brand models that do — I’m currently using a Samsung A51 with a 512GB card.

Previously, I had been using the combination of iSyncr and Rocket Player from JRT Studio. But they sold their company about 2 years ago, and the new owners screwed the pooch and broke the software. I NO LONGER RECOMMEND iSyncr and Rocket Player. Under the new owners, Muma Studios, the software no longer works and is overpriced. The key advantage of their software and this combination was: (a) the player could play from storage; (b) the player had an equivalent of smart playlists; (c) it synchronized the music between my PC and Android, and (d) the synchronization tool could move metadata (ratings, last played, etc.) to and from iTunes.

I’m pleased to say that I’ve found a new solution. It isn’t turnkey — you’ll need to do a bit of fiddling and a sync takes about 1/2 hour. But it works. Here’s what you need:

An Android phone with SD card storage. The Samsung A series works will (the high end line seems to not take SD cards). There were also some Motorolas and Pixels, as I recall from my last search. Here’s a search for appropriate phones.
Syncthing. Syncthing is a continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between two or more computers in real time, safely protected from prying eyes. There are versions of the software available for almost any platform, and it is free.
Gone Mad Music Player. (Google Play). This is a customizable music player, with loads of skins, that supports the equivalent of smart playlists and can play music from SD card. There are a few limitations: the smart playlists aren’t as smart as in iTunes (that is: not all of fields you can test on in iTunes are available in GMMP); the ability to bookmark in a track works different (i.e., in GMMP you bookmark as you are playing to come back; in iTunes it is a “Remember Position” flag on a per-track basis (useful for podcasts and audiobooks; GMMP does have a setting that allows me to Auto-Bookmark all podcasts, which should work for me); there is no per-track “skip when shuffling” flag — instead, it is a global setting of Audio>Other>Stop After Each Track (yes, I know, not quite the same — I use skip when shuffling to create smart playlists of podcasts, and if every track is “skip when shuffling”, it stops after each track). But it’s about the best I can find. This has a small one-time fee to move from the trial version. That is well worth it.
Perl. Either Strawberry Perl or ActiveState Perl; both are free for personal use. Perl is the tool I use for the script I wrote. Right now, I’m also using a Visual Basic script adapted from one written by Steve MacGuire (TuringTest2 on the Apple Support Forums (iTunes for Windows; iPod). I hope, one day, to move that functionality into perl as VBScript is being deprecated by Microsoft. That will also require me to understand better the iTunes COM interface.

Here’s how the process works for me right now.

Setup.

Synchronize your phone with Android. I’ve got syncthing set up to “mirror” my iTunes Media Library to the SD card on my phone (send only on the PC, receive only on the phone). This took a bit of figuring out to get the SD pathname correct.
Get GMMP, and get it set up to look only in where you have stored your music on your phone. Do a scan to have it find all your music. Set up equivalent smart playlists in GMMP to your iPod playlists
Add another directory to syncthing — this time, you want bi-directional syncing between the GMMP directory on your phone (in my case, /storage/emulated/0/gmmp) and a directory you create on your PC (in my case, it was d:\dpf\music\GMMP).
Create a directory, GMMPStatFix, to hold the scripts and such (in my case, d:\dpf\music\GMMPStatFix\).

Updating.

Synchronize iTunes and your phone. I don’t normally leave syncthing running, so I start it up on both ends and wait for everything to be synchronized.
Start up GMMP on your phone and do a scan to find all the new tracks (Settings > Scan)
Backup your Stats in GMMP (Settings > Backup > Backup Stats). This creates a stats.xml file, which syncthing then copies to the GMMP directory on your PC.
Once stats.xml is copied to your PC, go into iTunes and Export your iTunes library into the GMMPStatFix directory (File > Export > Library). Save it as iTunes.xml
Run the updatestats.bat file. This file runs both the perl script GMMPStatFix.pl and the VBScript ExportImport.vbs, which is a slightly modified version of Steve’s script (primarily, to work with ASCII files instead of Unicode). This is what the perl script does:
1. Copies the stats.xml file from the GMMP directory to GMMPStatFix.
2. Runs the perl script, which does the following: It slurps in the old stats.xml file, if it exists. It slurps in the new stats.xml file. It then chews that stuff with the iTunes XML file. This allows it to figure out the new information for the stats.xml file in terms of ratings, last played, and playcount (I don’t care about skip counts). It will also figure out when the ratings, playcount, and last played needs to be updated in iTunes. It will warn if there are computed Album Ratings, which I hate. It then generates a new stats.xml file, and a file of changes to be made to iTunes.
3. The perl script also extracts all the playlists, and creates them in a subdirectory of GMMPStatFix called playlists. This includes the current (static) versions of smart playlists. These are all prefixed with (iT). To move the playlists to your phone, simply create a playlists directory in your Media library on your PC, and copy those playlists you want on your phone to that media library. When syncthing syncs, it will copy them over, and your next GMMP scan will add them to your GMMP library.
4. The perl script lastly invokes ExportImport.vbs to make the changes to iTunes if there are changes to be made. I’m working on fixing the dialog boxes so it doesn’t confirm everything, but does output to STDERR what it is doing.
5. Lastly, it copies the stats.xml file back into the GMMP directory.
Syncthing then copies the stats.xml file back to the phone.
Once stats.xml has been updated on the phone, go into GMMP and Settings > Restore Stats.
Close syncthing on both sides if you want.

That’s it. Both sides updated.

If you want a current copy of the perl script and the modified VBScript script, just drop me a note at faigin -at cahighways -dot org, and I’ll get them to you (or comment here).

🛣 Headlines About California Highways – October 2023

Posted onThursday, November 2, 2023AuthorcahwyguyLeave a comment

We’ve made it to November. Two months to go and 2023 will be in the history books. Then comes the election year of 2024. Oh. Boy.

October has seen me finish the “scripts” for the first 10 episodes of the podcast; my attention will now turn to Route 2. The first two episodes of season 2 are now up. As always, you can keep up with the show at the podcast’s forever home at https://www.caroutebyroute.org , the show’s page on Spotify for Podcasters, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcaster or via the RSS feeds (CARxR, Spotify for Podcasters) . The following episodes have been posted this month:

CARxR 2.01: Route 1 – Orange County (The start of a 10 episode series on Route 1. This episode focuses first on “first” highways, then LRN 1, and then all about Route 1 in Orange County)
CARxR 2.02: Route 1 – Los Angeles County (The second episode on Route 1. This episode focuses on Route 1 in Los Angeles County)

A side effect of the new season is that I’ve discovered a number of interesting historical articles and sources. Some will be in the entries for the episodes themselves, but I’ve also saved some to the headlines list so that I’ll go through them again to update the pages. These articles will be marked in the headlines list with the Historical (Ħ) flag. Next up is recording episodes 2.03 (Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties) and 2.04 (SLO and Big Sur), and working on the Highway Pages — specifically the October and November headlines, AAroads posts, and the CTC minutes.

One last plug: For those in the cybersecurity field: Registration for the Annual Computer Security Conference is now open. Look at the program — which is strong — register for the conference, and make your hotel and travel. I hope to see you in Austin in December.

Well, you should now be up to date. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for October:

Key

California Highways: Route by Route Podcast

The podcast is currently on a break between Season 1 and Season 2. Back episodes are available at the Podcast’s forever home, as well as on its Spotify for Podcasters home. The Spotify (nee Anchor.FM) link also has links to the podcast’s page on most major podcasting services.

Highway Headlines

Ħ Proposed Parkway System – 1949 – Los Angeles (FB/Sharrye Hagins). Map of 1949 Proposed Parkway System
Caltrans: We Need Complete Streets at Freeway Interchanges (CalBike).\ When Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed CalBike’s Complete Streets bill in 2019, he assured Californians that we didn’t need the mandate for safer streets. Caltrans, he noted, had new leadership and would implement the needed changes without legislation. Caltrans does appear to have made some positive changes in the past four years. CalBike is working on a report to assess how well the agency has done and where Complete Streets upgrades are lacking. Take our Complete Streets Survey.
Monthslong closure of Highway 35 in Santa Cruz County begins (KSBW 8). Caltrans fully closed Highway 35 in the Santa Cruz Mountains as they began winter storm damage repairs on Monday. Highway 35 closed starting Monday, Oct. 2, three miles north of the junction of Hwy 35 and Hwy 17, near Bear Creek Road. Caltrans hopes to complete construction by Dec. 10. Once the work is completed, this section of Hwy 35 will remain under one-way traffic control for several weeks.
Caltrans held a public meeting to discuss Highway 46 widening project (KSBY). Caltrans held a remote public meeting from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to discuss a proposal about converting a 3.6-mile section of Highway 46 East to a four-lane expressway in San Luis Obispo and Kern Counties. The project will include modifications such as changes to the highway alignment, avoiding high utility relocation costs, and reducing the existing grade of the highway., According to Caltrans, the antelope grade stretch sees the most volume of trucks on the central coast. The steep grade makes it harder for larger trucks to speed up causing bottleneck congestion.
Report: Bike Lanes Can’t Make up for New Roads (Planetizen News). A new report calls on California to rethink its “traffic-creating, pave-the-earth approach to transportation,” highlighting the environmental and public health impacts of rampant freeway construction. According to an article by Melanie Curry in Streetsblog California, despite the state’s efforts to support clean air and water policies, the inertia of the status quo and a fear of change “has led to focusing on difficult but politically plausible solutions like electric vehicles, cleaning up the electricity sector, and calling for low-carbon fuels.” For the authors of the report from NextGen, those efforts are in part a distraction from lower-hanging, but more politically challenging, fruit: “As long as California keeps expanding highways to accommodate driving, all the other efforts – to increase EVs, to produce clean energy, to add bike lanes – will have been a waste of time.”
Caltrans details plans for elevated Highway 37 causeway near Novato (Marin Independent Journal). The first phase of a massive plan to elevate Highway 37 to prevent regular inundation from sea-level rise is set to begin with an estimated $1.6 billion project in Marin. Caltrans officials held a presentation recently on the agency’s plan to rebuild a 2.5-mile section of the 21-mile North Bay commuter route as an elevated causeway from the Highway 101 interchange in Novato to the Atherton Avenue exit. The project would be the first in the agency’s plan to elevate the entire highway onto a causeway before the road connecting Marin and Solano counties becomes regularly inundated by rising sea levels, which Caltrans projects will begin in 2040.

🇮🇱 So, About Israel

Posted onWednesday, November 1, 2023Wednesday, November 1, 2023AuthorcahwyguyLeave a comment

With all the discussion about what is happening in the Middle East, and all the discussions about Israel and Palestine, I thought I should make some things clear:

I unequivocally support Israeli’s right to exist as a nation, and as a space where Judaism can be practiced safely. The land where Israel is located is the traditional homeland, going back to biblical days. We can quibble on the exact borders, but the current borders — which exclude Gaza and portions of the West Bank, are as reasonable as any.
Many — but not all — of the Arab and Palestinian groups that are involved in these battles have as a fundamental tenet that Israel does not have the right to exist. At all. A Hamas member stated today, “Israel is a country that has no place in our land. We must remove that country because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation and must be finished.” You can not negotiate with organizations and nations from a position where they deny your right to exist. Simple as that. Were they to recognize Israel’s right to exist in some form, a solution can be achieved. While they refuse to do so, a solution is not possible. Note that Israel has recognized the right for some form of Palestinian nation to exist, by ceding the land of Gaza and portions of the West Bank. Note that other Arab nations have not provided land for the Palestinians, even though the land was part of the same British mandate.
Hamas is behaving much like ISIS did on 9/11: They specifically attacked civilians to create terror, and have specifically located their facilities in civilian areas because of the PR benefit they gain when their military facilities are attacked and civilians are harmed. Hamas has specifically made the decision to put their population in danger. Israel’s war is with Hamas, not the civilian population. Hamas has made it nearly impossible, however, to root out the terrorists without collateral damage.
That said: Support for Israel does not mean I always agree with the actions of the Israeli government. Judaism is not the same as Zionism; support for the nation of Israel is not the same as supporting their government. I love and support America; I despise Donald Trump (especially when he was President). I do not agree with all the actions taken by Netanyahu, although I do agree that Israel has the right to go against Hamas, just as America went against ISIS.
Israel has not always treated its Arab population well. It didn’t treat the established population of Gaza and the West Bank well when it governed those lands. That fact cannot be changed, just as America has no excuse for its abuses in the areas of slavery, or in the abuses of the internment camps, or in any other form of racism that has occurred. That can only be corrected moving forward (and is unlikely to be corrected under Netanyahu, alas); and will only be corrected once said population is not trying to wipe Israel off the map. That really is the fundamental problem.
There is no excuse for antisemitism. Period. End of story. In particular, Jews throughout the world are not the individuals who have governed the Palestinian areas. That treatment is not what Judaism believes in. Dislike or even hate the current and past Israeli governments if you feel that way, but do not take it out on Jews throughout the world. The same is true, by the way, for anti-Muslim hate. Hate Hamas and these terrorist organizations. Do not hate the Palestinians or Muslims, who outside of those organizations are peaceful and kind people.

Let us all hope for the day, when each side recognizes the other’s right to exist in the Middle East, and we can work to negotiate a settlement based on that recognition, and the fact that beneath it all, we are all monotheistic siblings with a shared basis.

🤣 You’re out of luck today. The banks are closed

Posted onMonday, October 9, 2023AuthorcahwyguyLeave a comment

In 1961, the humorist Stan Freberg issued Volume 1 of The United States of America, a musical telling of the founding of America through the Battle of Yorktown (Volume 2 goes through the end of World War I (“They’ll never be another war…”)). The first scene on Volume 1 relates the story of how the Native Americans discovered Columbus. Although many things have changed since 1961 when this was recorded — Columbus is no longer held in the same regard, the portrayal of the Native American would be very different — there are still points that ring true, especially the exchange:

Columbus: Alright. Hello there. Hello there. We white man. Other side of ocean. My name, Christopher Columbus.
Chief: Oh, you over here on a Fulbright?
Columbus: No, no. I’m over here on an Isabella, as a matter of fact. Which reminds me. I want to take a few of you guys back on the boat to prove I discovered you.
Chief: What you mean discover us? We discover you.
Columbus: You discovered us?
Chief: Certainly, we discover you on beach here. Is all how you look at it.

Over 15 years ago, I started posting this particular scene from The United States of America every year on Indigenous People Day (nee Columbus Day). I do it as a celebration of Stan Freberg, who died in 2015 at age 88, one of the best satirists America has seen. Although it is clearly dated, every time I hear it I find new references and insights. It is always Stan Freberg day for me. It is a day when we celebrate the story of how Native Americans discovered a Italian sailor, and the world was never the same. Just look at all he brought us: “real food: starches, spaghetti, cholesterol, … all the better things. That’s called progress.” It is a day when we celebrate how the inhabitants of Miami Beach discovered an illegal boat person on their shore, and made the gigantic mistake of offering him and the others on his boat asylum… and look at what happened. It’s a day that highlights the arrogance of Columbus and his party, just taking land and pushing aside the Native Americans. Or, just perhaps, it is a day that celebrates a city in Ohio for reason no one really knows, other than we needed to give bankers a 3-day weekend in October, because we all know they need the respite.

In any case, the banks are still closed.

I present a transcription of the scene, just as it happened. If you would like to listen to it, here’s the YouTube of the track:

🛣 Headlines About California Highways – September 2023

Posted onSunday, October 1, 2023AuthorcahwyguyLeave a comment

Happy new year to those who celebrate: Be it the new Jewish New Year, or the new US Government Fiscal New Year. We have a continuing resolution; we don’t have a shutdown—this is good news. And so: Happy New Year.

September has been muchly getting ready for the new season of the California Highways: Route by Route podcast. I’ve been busily writing episodes. This season, we’re covering Route 1 and Route 2, and I’ve written six episodes covering Route 1 from Orange County through and including San Francisco. Next to write is the episode on the Golden Gate Bridge. A side effect of this is that I’ve discovered a number of interesting historical articles and sources. Some will be in the entries for the episodes themselves, but I’ve also saved some to the headlines list so that I’ll go through them again to update the pages. These articles will be marked in the headlines list with the Historical (Ħ) flag. I’ll soon be coordinating with Tom to start recording episodes. If you think you might know a good interview subject for the following segments of Route 1, please let me know ASAP: 2.01 Orange County; 2.02 Los Angeles County; 2.03 Ventura and Santa Barbara County; 2.05 Monterey and Santa Cruz; 2.06 Pacifica and San Francisco.

I also expect to get back to working on highway page updates, now that I have a headline post to go through. First will be catching the legislative updates, as the session has concluded and bills sent to the governor for signature. My goal is to have the next update round cover September and October.

No roadtrips on the horizon, although there will be a So Cal Games Day in October.

Well, you should now be up to date. Here are the headlines that I found about California’s highways for September:

Key

California Highways: Route by Route Podcast

Highway Headlines

Stretch of highway in California named after slain Indian-origin police officer (The Hindu). To honour a fallen national hero, a stretch of a highway in the US state of California has been named after 33-year-old Indian-origin police officer Ronil Singh who was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant in 2018. The stretch of Highway 33 in Newman was dedicated on Saturday to Mr. Singh from the Newman Police Department, the Modesto Bee newspaper reported. Signage proclaiming the “Corporal Ronil Singh Memorial Highway” stands at Highway 33 and Stuhr Road.
State allocates more than $39 million to highway projects in Mendocino County (Fort Bragg Advocate-News). The California Transportation Commission allocated more than $3.1 billion for projects described as “improving the state’s transportation infrastructure, making it safer, more sustainable and more reliable,” the California Department of Transportation announced this week. According to a Caltrans press release, “the allocation includes nearly $1.8 billion in funding from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021and almost $200 million in funding from Senate Bill (SB) 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017.” […] The projects funded in Mendocino County were listed as:
＄ Napa has bridge replacements planned – drivers beware (Napa Valley Register). Here is a tale of five bridges to be replaced in coming years — one smack in the city of Napa, the others farther afield — and the traffic impacts that might result. Don’t take these bridges for granted even though they cross small creeks instead of mighty rivers. You can’t get here from there without them, not without a detour. That leaves the challenge of how to handle traffic while replacement work is underway. Caltrans and Napa County are already making plans for bridge replacements that are to start in 2024 and 2025, giving plenty of advanced warning. Here’s a preview of what’s to come:
Roundabout coming to State Route 121 and Eighth Street East intersection in Sonoma (Sonoma Index Tribune). Elected officials met at the intersection of State Route 121 and Eighth Street East on Thursday to celebrate $1.5 million in new federal funding for a roundabout to replace the current T-intersection. Leaders of the proposed roundabout project — and an accompanying bike lane — say its introduction will help increase vehicle safety, but it will require drivers to operate outside of the box — and into a circle. “During the recession years ago, (the roundabout) fell off in the shop plan,” First District Supervisor Susan Gorin said. “Sonoma County Transportation Authority) were working on the roundabout at the four corners down there. And so it just made sense for them to continue their work with Caltrans on the design.”
September 4: This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History (Metro’s Primary Resources). 1948: Lankershim Boulevard opens to traffic under a newly completed Hollywood Freeway overpass as part of the “Barham-to-Vineland” segment of US-101. Much of the construction involved overpass accommodation for both the Pacific Electric rail lines and six lanes of freeway.
Caltrans completes $8.7 million SB 1-funded project to repair State Route 14 in the Mojave Desert (The Ridgecrest Daily Independent). Caltrans today announced the completion of the Freeman III Project, an $8.7 million State Route 14 project that repaired 15 lane miles of pavement, stretching from one mile north of Red Rock Canyon Road to three-and-a-half miles south of the Freeman Gulch Bridge. The project was fully funded by Senate Bill (SB) 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017. The contractor Griffith Company used a sustainable partial depth recycling (PDR) technique, which supports Caltrans goal of leading climate action by recycling existing pavement. During the PDR process, crews dug out current road material in localized sections and recycled it, combining the material with Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA). The HMA was then reapplied to the excavated areas. Crews then laid a two-and-a-half-inch layer of Rubberized Hot Mix Asphalt on top of the PDR to restore the high-quality ride and serviceability of the existing roadway.
OHLA Converting Expressway Into Freeway in California (Construction Equipment Guide). OHLA USA Inc. began work on Phase 1 of the California Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans) SR-71 Expressway to Freeway Conversion Project in spring 2021 and crews are hard at work to deliver it by summer 2025. The $174.544 million project, taking place in the city of Pomona, covers 2.7 mi. between SR 71/I-10 interchange (Mission Boulevard) and the Los Angeles/San Bernardino County Line. Phase 2 of the project, the North Segment, covers the area from the SR 71/I-10 interchange to Mission Boulevard. Construction is expected to begin next spring, with a completion in spring 2027. Thus far, OHLA USA has completed Stage 1 of the roadway jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) roadway project, which included demolition of existing AC/JPCP, excavation and backfill of base, placement/revisions to existing drainage systems and placement of new JPCP.