MARCH FIELD AIR MUSEUM

We went to the March Field Air Museum located in Riverside California, along the I-215 freeway, you won't miss the rows & rows of planes! It is a fun place to check out even if you are not an aviation nerd. Lots of exhibits and history for a good price. And it's March now, so what better time to post this! We visited in Oct 2017.

22550 Van Buren Blvd, Riverside, CA 92518
It is open everyday except Mondays from 10am-5pm.
 https://www.marchfield.org/



Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children. Free for children under 4 years old.

Our AirBnB lodging was just 15 mins from this place so we had to visit it. I'm not a plane or military enthusiast but all of us were pretty excited when we saw the planes from the carpark. There is hardly a chance for us to see these amounts of historical planes at such close range and so vast a space.

First we were greeted by this magnificent SR-71 Blackbird! You won't be able to tear your eyes off it. That is a gorgeous sleek design if I ever saw one.

We had fun taking photos with this heavy Japanese turret gun. I've seen that battleship movie Yamato.

Commercial airline uniforms from the past also included.

There is a NASA & Russian space exhibit room. Here are some flight simulators for the kids.

Also a large exhibit on the different wars. There are window display rows on both sides.

After the indoor exhibit in the hangar, we headed outdoors where almost all of the planes were displayed. And there were many!

It was hot, dry, windy and very sunny, typical Californian summer in the desert. We all got a little crispy.

I recall there were Russian MiGs, US Fighter Jets, Bombers. I only know the B-17 bomber. Below is a B-17G Flying Fortress.

Hiding under the wing for some shade! I forgot my hat and sunglasses and of all colours, chose to wear black. You are not allowed to touch the planes.

Next to the March Air Base so we got to see planes land nearby.

There were also Vietnam-era helicopters.

It may take a few hours to explore the grounds if you want to read the boards in detail; a good idea to come earlier and allow some time to browse the gift shop. They stock nice pins, military patches and toys, of which I bought several pins.

That's it, there are way too many photos so I added a chosen few. I give this place a big thumbs up, just remember to bring water, a hat and slap on sunscreen! Oh and your cameras of course!

THE HAUNTED QUEEN MARY

Halloween is up next so this is a good time to post my Queen Mary photos from 2010! I was too lazy to post it then and only had it on Facebook albums. Better late than never.

The RMS Queen Mary is permanently docked at Long Beach California and reputed to be one of the most haunted ships around.

The ship's maiden voyage started in 1936 as an express transatlantic passenger liner between Southampton and New York. She was converted into a troopship in WWII and became known as the 'Grey Ghost' for her speed and new camouflage colour. In 1942, she collided with her escort ship HMS Curacoa, killing 239 British soldiers. The ship was ordered fullsteam ahead nonetheless and to abandon survivors, many of whom were killed when the giant propellers cut through them. This is one of the reasons why people believed the ship is haunted besides the other deaths onboard. In 1947 she resumed passenger service, and her last cruise was on (get this) October 31, 1967 (Halloween), arriving on Dec 9, 1967 at Long Beach where she has been docked ever since.

You can freely walk the top deck and the next few levels like the hotel corridors, restaurants, lounges. The infamous pool area and lower decks are out of bounds unless on a guided tour. Here are rows and rows of carpeted corridor, it is easy to get lost since they look identical. It is very quiet and your ears may hurt from the silence. The hotel rooms are still functioning so you should be quiet anyhow.

We were there for the Coast to Coast AM 'Ghost to Ghost' live radio talkshow broadcast and for me it was mostly to see a place of interest in California that wouldn't require me to pay. The others wanted to see George Noory lol. Guided tours have a fee so we skipped it and decided to roam as not to make it a wasted trip since there was a small paranormal convention going on, but it was badly organised and we backed out very quickly after they wanted to charge us too much money.

A banquet room. We peeked in, we were curious because it was so dark in there, I had to turn on the flash on the camera.

The bathrooms were nice, just dark and eerily quiet. It had one those annoying eco-lights that would turn off if it determined no noise = no people. We were deep in the ship so that was unsettling.

Deco style bins.

One of the exhibit areas.

Top deck.

One of the views overlooking Long Beach.

Life rafts on the sides.

You know Singaporeans call reversing a car 'Go Stun', actually it came from the phrase 'Go Stern' like the back of the ship.

In case you were wondering, yes we saw George Noory. There was actually a crowd gathering outside the small lobby and you can look through the glass window and watch them chat! And no, we did not see any lady in white!

LACMA NOV 2012

A trip to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art last year in November 2012. The current featured exhibition is Stanley Kubrick, it runs till 30 June 2013. 'The Shining' is one of my favouritest film, so I was delighted the exhibition was just what interested me (had obtained a free pass too).

These were some proposed cover art that were rejected.

Love the twins!

2001: A Space Odyssey

Designed by Georg Jensen for the film

A Clockwork Orange

Barry Lyndon perhaps? Haven't seen this film yet.

There was a small feature on Expressionism in films. LOVE Metropolis (and the poster). I just saw a 'Giorgio Moroder presents' version with a remix of the soundtrack with 80s music, unfortunately it kinda bombed, sorry.

I watched Dr Caligari after this exhibit lol.

Paul Kelpe, Signs (1925)

El Lissitzky, Proun 3A (1920)

Wassily Kandinsky, Signs (1925)

Wassily Kandinsky, Three Free Circles (1923) and Study for 'Circles in the Circle' (1923) 

Wassily Kandinsky, Melodious (1924)

Claes Oldenburg, Giant Pool Balls (1967)

Roy Lichtenstein, Cold Shoulder (1963)

Pablo Palazuelo, Diferencias XII (1987)

Picasso

Egyptian coffin

Ashurnasirpal II and a Winged Deity, from Nimrud, 9th century B.C.

Deity Performing Ritual Purification, from Nimrud, 9th century B.C.

Christ and the 12 Disciples, c.1450-1500

Archangel Raphael from Italy Naples, c.1600s

Francesco Picano, Saint Michael casting Satan into Hell (1705)

Jan van Huysum, Bouquet of Flowers in an urn (1724)

Claude Monet, In the woods of Giverny: Blanche Hoschede at her easel with Suzanne Hoschede reading (1887)

Claude Monet

Maurice Denis, Motif Romanesque (1890)