Queen Mary

Collector John Thomas is crazy about all things Art Deco. How crazy? So crazy that he bought three Art Deco mantelpieces — one marble, one bird's eye maple and one birch — and brass railings from the old Argyle Hotel (now the Sunset Tower Hotel on the Sunset Strip) even though his two-bedroom condo in Long Beach has neither a fireplace nor a staircase. "The running joke is that the availability of Art Deco is drying up because I've got it all," Thomas says with a grin.

EVENTS Boasting "the world's highest cleavage to horsepower ratio," the 19th Annual Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show and Calendar Girl Music Festival will display motorcycles and the models who love them at the Queen Mary in Long Beach. A music festival including all-female rock bands and an AC/DC tribute band will take place from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. The music accompanies exhibits by 195 motorcycle parts manufacturers. The Queen Mary 1126 Queen's Highway, Long Beach. 10 a.m. Sun. (877)

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There's the mime with the French accent, the Peruvian fashion designer and the Swiss sculptor. Their origins vary as much as their crafts but this weekend they, and dozens of other artists from across the globe, have gathered aboard the Queen Mary for something of a local world's fair. The goal: launch a project where artists of many cultures travel together in one ship taking their work and their ideas to docks across the world. The Queen Mary — a vessel that's long been stationary in Long Beach — won't be that ship, but the multinational nonprofit behind the project, Arts Olympus, is using the historic local site as its launch pad through today.

The Queen has seen better days. A makeover has been long overdue for the venerable Queen Mary, the retired cruise ship turned tourist attraction and hotel docked in Long Beach Harbor since 1967. But repairs to the city-owned ship have been delayed because of financial crisis and organizational wrangling. Long Beach officials now believe the ship is getting its long-overdue upgrades under a new management company that also operates hotels and restaurants in Yellowstone and Grand Canyon national parks and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Question: I would like to go to Europe, but I am too afraid to fly. I know there are cruises from New York (where I live) to England, but I'd like to stay in Europe for probably close to three weeks. Is this possible? -- Stephanie Kreppein, Smithtown, N.Y. Answer: Yes, it's possible, and if money is no object, it's relatively easy to do. Cunard, which is almost synonymous with transatlantic crossings, has a series of them in spring, summer and fall that may be easier, logistically, than piecing together repositioning cruises (although there are many of those)

Even after the costumes are worn, the candy collected and the ghoulish jack-o'-lantern has turned back into a pumpkin, Halloween doesn't have to be over -- if you are willing to be entertained by a good ghost story. Almost anywhere you look in Southern California, it seems, from private houses to public places, tales abound about the shades of the living walking among us. The spirits are benign for the most part, said Laurie Jacobson, a TV producer, historian and writer who specializes in the haunted side of Hollywood.

I'm sorry Jim Winnerman's article "Wing and a Prayer" [Aug. 23] missed one of the country's finest biplane rides, especially since it's here at Santa Monica Airport. Black & White Biplane (www.blackandwhitebiplane.com) operates one of the most beautiful WACO biplanes in the world. Black & White also is the only carbon-neutral ride operation in the U.S. (we purchase carbon offsets) and has a perfect safety record. L.A. offers wonderful aerial tour possibilities, with coastline and ridges and everything in between, from the Queen Mary to the Hollywood sign.

The idea being pitched to Long Beach by a small Las Vegas entertainment company is extraordinarily ambitious, if not downright outlandish: Renovate and restore the Queen Mary and return her to sail the oceans of the world. Cairngorm Entertainment Group is backing the Queen's Project, an organization that is soliciting funds for the proposal it estimates could cost as much as $1.5 billion and require at least four years of dry-dock restorations.