I Heart Porter Ranch

Mostly the purpose of this blog is to focus on Porter Ranch and our neighboring areas.  But sometimes venturing outside of the valley is as much a part of living in the valley as living in the valley (does that make sense?).  This Saturday might be the perfect day to sneak away for a couple of hours.

20 Los Angeles museums will be offering free admission this Saturday January 25, 2014.  Enjoy a nice afternoon date at the Getty Villa and take in some warm winter sun (yes, in Southern California there is such a thing as “warm winter sun”).  Take the family to the Getty Center and enjoy a splendid picnic in the garden, or take the kids to LACMA and see Chris Burden’s Metropolis II exhibit with zooming mini-cars.  Or if you feel like some alone-time check out the Annenberg Space for Photography in the island-like Century City.

Here’s the list of the 20 participating museums this Saturday.  I’m sure there is something for everyone 🙂

• Annenberg Space for Photography
• Armory Center for the Arts
• Autry National Center of the American West
• California African American Museum
• California Science Center
• Fowler Museum at UCLA
• Getty Center
• Getty Villa
• Hammer Museum
• Japanese American National Museum
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art 
• Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial (Hollywood and San Pedro)
• Museum of Contemporary Art
• Museum of Latin American Art
• Orange County Museum of Art
• Paley Center for Media
• Pasadena Museum of California Art
• Santa Monica Museum of Art
• Skirball Cultural Center
• USC Pacific Asia Museum

We’ve all seen the recent signage change on the medical plaza at Rinaldi and Porter Ranch Drive.  Hopefully not many of us have had to actually visit the building for anything more than routine check-ups.  But it’s great to know it’s there in case we need to stop in for something.

The UCLA Health System has begun expanding their primary and secondary care services to several areas outside of their main Westwood and Santa Monica campuses.  These areas include the Westlake Village, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, Santa Clarita, and our very own Porter Ranch.  Medical director for this new expansion, Matteo Dinolfo, M.D., has brought his team of world class physicians to our town with their new refined and proactive delivery model of medical care.  Basically they’re here to keep us healthy and “thriving”!

Meet the new UCLA team of physicians here and please come welcome them at the new medical campus tomorrow evening at the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony.   Refreshments will be served.  No reservations required.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014, 5:30 – 8pm

19950 Rinaldi Street, Suites 300/310
Porter Ranch, CA 91326

Contact:

Nbonner@mednet.ucla.edu or (818) 271-2484 with any questions

I’m a deep sleeper. Deep. I slept through the first 10 seconds or so of the Northridge earthquake back in ’94. My dad threw a shoe or something at my head to wake me up…and wake up I did.  They say it lasted about 20 seconds but I remember it to be more like 2 minutes.  Everything was in slow motion: door frames swaying, my bed sliding across the room, mirrored closet doors shaken loose off their tracks, dogs barking, my Super Nintendo games flying through the air. It was like we were on a boat in the middle of a great storm with a drunken captain at the wheel.

I had just turned 14 then. My pubescent brain couldn’t quite process what was happening. I would love to say that my heroic instincts kicked in and I valiantly carried my unconscious mother and dog to safety but honestly I was scared out of my pants and frozen stiff.  My mother was fully conscious and was yelling at me to get the heck out of my room.

It was the great quake of ’94 and those of us that were there will never forget it. Everything changed after that from building and structural engineering codes to our daily vernacular to how we arrange our furniture.  We even had our own geographic malady for a while:  “valley fever,” remember that?  57 perished, over 5,000 were injured, and $40 billion plus in damage.  But like any great community we endured, rebuilt, and are standing strong today.

Tonight our Councilmember Mitch Englander is hosting an evening to commemorate 20 years since the Northridge Earthquake.  Community members are invited to come and share their stories of that day and their experience afterwards.  It should turn out to be a nice event to quietly celebrate the triumph of overcoming that tragic morning.

AfterStories – Commemorating the Northridge Earthquake
Northridge Recreation Center
10058 Reseda Blvd.
Northridge, CA

Friday, January 17, 2014, 6 – 8:30am

I’ve been a Valley kid off and on since I was born. My first home was in Arleta where I grew up until third grade, then we moved to Sherman Oaks, moved out of the valley, came back to Chatsworth where I stayed through high school, then I left for college in New York.  Now I am back in Porter Ranch with my family in our first home (and I don’t think we will be leaving for a long while).  All this time I’ve been trying to tell friends and colleagues that the valley is not such a bad place, that it is in fact cool, but hardly anyone listened.  However, I never really knew how cool the San Fernando Valley actually is, and how steeped in rich history it has been, until Valley Relics!

At least week’s PRNC meeting Tommy Gelinas was gracious enough to visit and share what has been his passion project for the past twenty plus years.  Tommy has been excavating, restoring, and preserving a treasure trove of valley artifacts tirelessly, with his own funding, and for no other reason than pure love and passion for his hometown.  You don’t get much cooler than that.  He’s collected everything from old Frosty Freeze signs to restaurant menus and matchbooks to funky jukeboxes and even a collection of vintage cars.  The list goes on as folks’ eyes get wider in delight.  As of last year Tommy so generously set up a museum called Valley Relics to share and display over 10,000 of these rare gems of SFV history.  It’s quite a glorious yet humbling collection that can only make a valley kid like me proud.

Tommy was even kind enough to host an elections mixer last Wednesday at his Valley Relics museum space which garnered a respectable turnout by fellow candidates, various council members and leaders of the community.

Tommy’s work truly cements the San Fernando Valley as incontrovertibly cool!  Valley Relics is open every Saturday from 10:00am-3:00pm.   Stop by, say hi to Tommy and his awesome crew, and let your mind be blown.

Valley Relics Museum
21630 Marilla St.
Chatsworth CA 91311

818-678-4934

Hour of Operation
Every Saturday from 10:00am – 3:00pm

Thanks Tommy!