Blue Heron Blast

Robin Adler & Mutts of the Planet - River

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Thu, 31 May 2012 21:29:00 +0000

City of the fallen angels

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:10:00 +0000

I traveled to Los Angeles yesterday with my friend Ken Seals for a rewarding but ultimately exhausting, fun filled day. Our first stop was at my favorite mexican restaurant in the world, La Cabanita in Montrose. We both dined on an adored their amazing chuletas, thin pork chops cooked in a pasilla chile sauce topped with sour cream. Amazing green tomatilla sauce and a smoky chipotle sauce, the cuisine just doesn't get any better. It was great riding up with Ken because, besides being a great guy, we have very similar taste in music. Started with the Band, Will the Circle be Unbroken, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, made for a very nice ride.

After lunch we drove over to the Getty to see the new Herb Ritts exhibition. We parked in the lot off of Sepulveda and took the tram up the hill. Ritts is the late Los Angeles fashion photographer, known for his slick and sinewy black and white photography of nudes.

I must candidly admit that this was my first trip to the Getty. What a repository and what a revelation! A beautiful complex, inside and out. Lots of space and perfectly designed down to the nth detail.

Ritts is not exactly my cup of meat. Think Mapplethorpe, west coast edition. Technically brilliant, the commercial photographer liked to venture into both overt homoeroticism and the rather grey androgynous area between gender, but only with the most beautiful of human bodies as his subjects. It is a celebration or continuum of the Nazi era film work of Leni Reifenstahl. The brutality of fashion, set to a colored aryan ideal. Ritts subjects sometimes wore thorns or clay or became inanimate figures on a mantle.

In at least the Ritts photos I saw, I notice an interesting phenomenon; men are quite soft and women are invariably hard. He has no problem celebrating the most delicate and gentle expressions of men but his women are taut faced, severe and contorted. His swimmer Lynn is like a drug store mannekin or a man in drag. The women might have sand or water on their face, always obscured and I noticed usually slightly out of focus. He did not appear to allow his women models to be femininely beautiful.

His subjects also often obscure their sexuality. Several photos showed androgynous bodybuilders of undetermined sex entwined with each other. Gender blurring is great and evidently you can make a whole career out of it. It just got tedious for me. Only a few pictures resonated. But it obviously worked for him so I guess he never felt the need to stretch or alter his approach. The curse of success, I suppose.

The stuff was quintessentially Los Angeles in its reliance on perfect form and surface. I just didn't feel a lot of breadth underneath. Bit shallow I think. I really liked one of the photos, reminded me of my photographic hero, Weston. And sure enough underneath the work was a thumbnail of a Weston piece that he riffed on. Might as well borrow from the best.

Ritts is a master of photography. Some of his dark on dark techniques are truly amazing. I wonder if there is any more slightly personal work extant, perhaps not as candy filled and wrapped up in sexual identity. This bored me very quickly.

*

View through screen, Getty © Robert Sommers

Next door was a great collection of early photographers, more pleasing for me. Adams and Cunningham, Stieglitz, Steichen, Weston, Brady. Early camera lucida work. A wonderful photo of Mrs. William Morris. Bravo. Another of powerful picture of Martha Graham dancing in her dance piece Lamentation. The Gloria Swanson photograph. A murderer's row of photography. (another term of venery) I was in heaven. The Getty has a lot of money and they have spent it very wisely. An absolutely incredible museum. And they let you mostly take pictures. A very pleasant staff, I might add.

*

Mirror

Ken looked at each Ritts photo methodically, gave them much more deserved attention that I could muster and I decided to go upstairs and look at the fourteenth century german drawings. A fantastic exhibition. Durer and Holbein, Cranach, the Master of the Coburg Roundels. Many artists whose identity are lost to history and are now only identified by initials or glyph.

Lucas Cranach the Elder

We continued upstairs in our wing to european paintings. I was in a room with three Manet's, one Renoir, three Monets, three Degas, a great Jericault, two Pissaro's, a so-so Sargent, maybe more expensive canvas than I have ever seen in one place. Great Van Gogh. A large Munch, a turner that the Russian guard told me was just purchased for 55 million.

We saw earlier paintings as well and many objects. Illuminated pages, stained glass. And only managed to scratch a small portion of the museum's offerings.

I am really hoping to get back up to the museum
soon to continue to sample its many fruits.

*

After dinner we drove through Burbank and up to the Castaway Restaurant, perched high above the city. Ken belongs to a photographer's group called Clickers and Flickers and they meet every month for a meal and a slide presentation. A lot of old pros, a lot of film people.

We had drinks in the bar. A really good jazz band with a blonde woman sax player were grooving on the other side of the room. Met a few photographers, looked out at the great view of the expansive valley below.

We got seated at our table. Introduced ourselves tot he group. I had an older man who was a friend of Weston, Ed Martin across from me, Gail Natzler, Otto's widow to my immediate left. A school teacher and her husband on the other side. A man who just created a photographic tarot deck, Lee Varis.

People brought shots of their latest work. I thumbed through the slick magazine that the group puts out. All very impressive.

The featured guest was ace Los Angeles Times photographer Mark Boster. He just published a book entitled Four Seasons of Yosemite: a photographer's journey. Mark is a great photographer and responsible for some of the paper's most iconic shots. His slide show was incredible, especially the shots he has taken for the paper. He is a smart and funny guy, a self confessed member of the 7:30 a.m. crash and burn crew.

We finally left for home around 11 and started the long drive back to Fallbrook. I want to thank Ken for driving and for accompanying me on this quite epic day.

The Last Thing On My Mind

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:23:00 +0000

Deep River Blues

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:04:00 +0000

A legend has passed.

Water District Riposte

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Wed, 30 May 2012 12:06:00 +0000

I recently published a blogpost that contained an unsolicited letter from an anonymous person that made certain allegations regarding the management operations of the Fallbrook Public Utility District. I received this letter yesterday from my neighbor Bert Hayden, who is a board member and print it in its entirety, in the interest of balance and fairness.

Robert,

Thank you for forwarding your blog with the anonymous email regarding FPUD to Barbara, she provided me a copy.

If I may I would like to set the record straight.

The author is either Director McPhee or one of his supporters who follows Director Mcphee’s misleading and incorrect ads in the Village News. By agreement with the Village News, “Opinions” from any of the FPUD Directors will not be accepted or published. The Village News will accept paid advertisements; and Director McPhee often chooses to advertise his incorrect and misleading, speculative opinion.

Transportation costs

I don’t know where the dollar amount regarding transportation originates but the total cost quoted sounds like the cost of operating the entire FPUD fleet to me. The Board has discussed take-home vehicles in the past and determined that we would rather incur the expense than delay responding to an after hours emergency while an employee drives a personal vehicle to the FPUD yard and then drives to the emergency with the appropriate vehicle; after hours is up to 16 hours each day and week ends.

Lewenger’s Contract

FPUD did contract with former General Manager Keith Lewenger for professional services in the areas of transitioning the new GM, continuing the negotiations with the Base (which were at a critical stage) and working on a project which would allow four of the north county water districts to share equipment and specialized staff and perhaps save money for all by reducing duplication. GM Brady controls Lewenger’s working hours and since February, Mr. Lewenger has billed $1308 of which FPUDS ¼ share was $327. (This was for work on the sharing project).

Santa Margarita Conjunctive Use

FPUD has rights to 1/3 of the water flowing down the Santa Margarita River (as documented in Federal Court). This is very complicated because there are lots of complex water rights that are prior to the court decision. But for the first time we have a “Letter of Understanding” with the Base re. water sharing (the FPUD share is an average of 3,100 acre feet per year), delivery ground rules, etc. which has been approved by USMC in Washington and the Department of Defense. Efforts are under way now to flesh-out the details so the project can proceed; probably a 200 page document that will take more than a year to get DOD approval.

SD Water Authority/MET Representation

While he was General Manager Mr. Lewenger, at the direction of the FPUD Board, consistently worked to keep both Metropolitan and San Diego County Water Authority, (our water wholesalers) water rates as low as possible. Unfortunately, on the San Diego County Water Authority Board, FPUD’s weighted vote is between 2% and 3 % of the total. Mr. Lewenger’s reputation and skill in working with the group provided us with much more representation than our small percentage would allow. The City of San Diego has more than half of the representation. By joining with Valley Center and Rainbow we have been successful in establishing an agricultural SD County water rate (which continues for the next two years) even though the Metropolitan interruptible agricultural surplus water program ends this year. (This is the Met. program that sold farmers cheap water for 17 years and then with the drought, contractually required a 30% reduction in agricultural water usage. The result was many of the Avocado trees were stumped or the groves abandoned). Likewise San Diego County Water authority is one of a number of water agencies (a number like 33) that belong to Met. Even with a no vote from the SD Water Authority, the rate increases passed; but the increases were less than Met’s staff proposed and Lewenger’s efforts to moderate the increases obviously helped. Los Angeles County is the major player on the Met Board. Mr. Lewenger currently works for the city of Carlsbad and is their representative to the San Diego County Water Authority and also represents The Authority on the Met Board.

Per Diem Payments

While he was General Manager Mr. Lewenger was receiving Per Diem for his Water Authority Service while being paid by FPUD. The Board explored the issue with the Water Authority. The Water Authority would not agree to reimburse FPUD rather than Lewenger for his service on the Water Authority Board and the only other alternative was to refuse the Per Diem. The Board determined that since the District benefited significantly from Lewenger’s involvement, and water rates would not be reduced by refusing the per diem, that the Board would allow Lewenger to receive the payments.

Breach of Fiduciary Duties

Since both MET and The Water Authority have Boards that are entirely made up of representatives from member agencies, I can’t see where any breach of fiduciary duties occurred.

Thank you for allowing me to set the facts straight.

Bert Hayden

Director Seat Number 1

Fallbrook Public Utility District

Easy To Be Hard

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Mon, 28 May 2012 22:44:00 +0000

Fossil Fool

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Mon, 28 May 2012 22:11:00 +0000

I was honored to be a judge at the Fallbrook Car Show yesterday. I was joined by my buddy Bill LeMasters, who has a garage full of fine italian metal. My secret every year is having somebody that really knows their stuff helping me and he was just fantastic. I had a really good time and didn't take pictures for once. Plenty of people did. Had a very nice Gullwing in my class but it didn't win. You don't win for having the most expensive car but for the best turned out car and the 190 Mercedes was as sweet as they come.

My pals Garry Cohen, the Escondido glass blower and teacher and Leven Jester came over to the show to see me. Hadn't seen Garry in ages. They have been friends for ever. Leven and his wife Bethany have a business in Fallbrook called Paleofacts. They sell fine fossil and mineral specimens from around the world. Their inventory is always interesting and wonderful. Fallbrook has quite a few high level gem and mineral dealers and many collectors and I am privileged to know quite a few of them.

Anyway we went over to their place after the show and convinced Leven to show us some of their nicer stuff. The iridescent fossil in the picture above is an ammonite from British Columbia. They develop the most incredible rainbow sheen. This ancient mollusk from the cretaceous period is about 70 million years old. It comes from a region near southern Alberta. Ammonites existed for over 300 million years on our planet. Quite valuable, this one was marked around $9500.00. Breathtaking.

Leven and Beth have a very nice collection of trilobites which they have collected in Morocco. With these pictures you can see them in three dimensions.

This is a horseshoe crab fossil from Germany.

A forgotten dragonfly on a dendritic substrate.

My late friend and idol Rick Griffin originally introduced me to Garry Cohen. Rick, Ida and I went to a costume party and Garry was wearing an astronaut suit and Rick recognized him inside the suit. I have known Garry since I was about 19. He went to elementary school with Rick, talked to me about the incredible contraptions Rick would build, even in the fifth grade. Garry is a fabulous artist, jeweler, ceramist, glass blower, anything. A unique talent. He was the man who developed the initial image for an iconic psychedelic creature called the monitor, originally a totemic design for a jewelry piece. He says he got the idea from Rick, Rick said it was Garry. Whoever. They both ran with it.

Man from Utopia © Rick Griffin Estate

You really can't beat lifelong friends, can you? They stick with you whether you are up or you are down.

Vanadanite crystals

This slightly fuzzy shot is a natural copper formation, spreads like a little bonsai tree. If I had a macro lens, I could do this stuff justice.

This guy reminds me of the monitor. Both Rick and Garry's version.

Check out the Paleofacts website. Some wonderful things to purchase at importer's rates, straight from the source, in all price ranges.

Delmore Brothers - Blues Stay Away From Me

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Mon, 28 May 2012 20:03:00 +0000

Merle Travis & Johnny Bond - Blue Railroad Train

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Mon, 28 May 2012 19:58:00 +0000

Doc Watson

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Mon, 28 May 2012 19:53:00 +0000

Frank Donadee from Collector Magazine stuck a video camera in my face at Long Beach last sunday and started asking me questions about guitars and guitar players. He wanted to know my favorite guitar player. I immediately blurted out Doc Watson.

Doc Watson is an American legend and institution. I have seen him four times, once with his late son Merle. To see him is to love him from your heart. Pure as the driven snow and an extraordinarily sensitive and soulful musician. A true virtuoso who doesn't need to be flashy and has always remained humble and kind.

Doc is real sick. The 89 year old man had surgery to repair a colon blockage yesterday and reports are that it was a very tough day. I hope that he pulls through okay. I can not imagine a world without him. Feel privileged to have him exist in my lifetime. Thank you Doc.

Eye, eye

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Mon, 28 May 2012 18:31:00 +0000

I learned something new and remarkable about myself last week. I have a client that practices the somewhat obscure vocation of developmental or behavioral optometry. It was time for a new pair of specs. It had been three years since my ophthalmologist had given me a comprehensive check and since my regular ophthalmologist is cutting back and in the slow process of retiring, I thought that I would check out the new doctor, just to try something different and to support someone who has supported me. What I learned was actually pretty incredible.

Norman Rose is a Doctor of Optometry who practices in Escondido. The name of the office is the Premier Eyecare Optometric Center. Here is a link to his website. Leslie accompanied me and I met his courteous and very friendly staff. The walls of the office are covered with testimonials from people and parents whose children had benefitted from his care and treatment. His staff initiated a battery of tests on me with some equipment I was unfamiliar with.

Dr. Rose came in to the room. A tall, gentle and affable fellow, his accent rings with evidence of his roots in upstate New York. He had told me something about his approach before, a neural, nutritional and somewhat radical, behavioral approach to eye problems. He had told me that my regular eye doctor might not be entirely aware or supportive of his unusual approach and methodology. I had tried to get the two of them together but hadn't managed. A blurb from his website:

Dr. Rose is a Developmental / Neuro-optometrist. He treats children and adults who have reading and learning difficulties, patients with dizzyness and vertigo, patients who are progressively becoming more nearsighted, patients with a turned eye or amblyopia ( lazy eye ) and patients with a history of stroke or traumatic brain injury who have visual, cognitive, perceptual and balance difficulties. He also examines infants at six months old for eye diseases , turned eyes and potential amblyopia (lazy eye) development.
Dr Rose is a member of:

The American Optometric Association
The California Optometric Association
The San Diego County Optometric Society
The Neuro-Optometric Rehabiliation Association
The College of Optometrists in Vision Development
The Orthokeratology Academy of America
He is licensed to practice Optometry in New York, New Jersey and California

He put me through a battery of tests. And then made a stunning discovery. At about 15', my brain shuts my left eye out of the vision equation. He held a disc with green and red lights on an x and y axis. At a certain distance I lost touch with the horizontal lights. This was confirmed with additional depth of field testing. He explained to us that the eye was only one component of the vision equation, with the brain having a far greater contribution. And mine had been instituting a neural kill switch, maybe for a long time.

This explains a lot about my problems driving near barricades and parking garages, my life time's annoying habit of tapping my accelerator pedal. My vertigo. No one had ever detected it before. I have always had a hard time with distance and depth of field. And this has been since I was 17. A lot of my physiologic symptoms and behavior suddenly gained clarity and clarification. Things began to start make sense.

In addition we discovered that my Lens Crafter® glasses were not even close to the prescription that I had previously ordered, a phenomenon that has really hit the news lately as being unfortunately quite common. He found the beginnings of a left cataract, evidence of cholesterol and sun damage and made a few more prescient comments. Talked about nutrition and the need for supplements, and daily dosage of cruciferous vegetables. I am set to embark on a rehabilitation regimen with Doctor Rose.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate this doctor. Visiting him was a real eye opener. I like him, respect him and I advise anyone experiencing vision problems to call his office at 760-743-6540. He is located at 1299 East Pennsylvania Ave., Suite B in Escondido, behind the old Vineyard shopping center in a yellow building. Tell them that the blast sent you.

Excellent read.

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Sun, 27 May 2012 14:05:00 +0000

How Boaz Weinstein outsmarted J.P. Morgan.

Johnny Winter - Be Careful With A Fool

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Sun, 27 May 2012 00:43:00 +0000

I can already hear a certain person's comments, too many notes, etc. I think that virtuosos are different. Peacocks like to strut their stuff. With their mastery, if they want to embellish it is fine with me. Texas blues players are a different breed than chicago, than mississippi...

Tube ride

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Sat, 26 May 2012 23:55:00 +0000

Conservatives like to grouse that all will be better once the government gets off business's back, with all of their infernal regulations and interference. Businesses if left alone, will police themselves. Just ask Jamie Dimon over at J.P. Morgan.

This is why the news out of San Onofre is so disturbing. The nuclear power plant has been shut for over four months while federal regulators try to pinpoint the reason that the tubes that carry radioactive water in the new steam generators are eroding and failing at such an alarming rate.

This week comes the news that the piping is a new alloy, that had never been tested by the feds and that it was installed as a routine maintenance item on new bracket supports in order to get around government review. Over 1300 pipes to date have been classified as beyond repair.

Of course, the way that the power monopoly game works, you can rest assured that the ratepayers will take the ultimate hit for the risky business that the power companies have been engaging in and we will pick up any eventual tab. That is a given.

Fukushima. You think it can't happen here?

*

The Catholic church was not being shown in the greatest of lights in Philadelphia last week. Monsignor Lynn says that he was instructed by his Cardinal to keep those accusing his priests of sexual abuse in the dark. He says that he did what he was told and never really wanted the job.

The worst part was when he said that he didn't turn one of his priests in for molesting kids because he molested women too and that meant he wasn't really a pedophiliac. He apparently kept a shred list of priests who were suspected of molestation in a safe, where it was discovered a few years ago.

From Chicago Tribune - Reuters:

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A senior church official on Thursday defended his response to a child abuse victim who was told that a predator priest could not be punished because he had sex with women too and therefore was "not a pure pedophile."...
On the witness stand on Thursday, Lynn was asked about a delay in his response to a child sexual abuse complaint filed in 1998. In the complaint, a former seminarian, identified only as Tim, said he was repeatedly sexually abused by Reverend Stanley Gana, who was removed from the ministry in 2002, according to a scathing 2005 grand jury report about the widening church scandal.
"Monsignor Lynn asked the victim, who had been forced to have oral and anal sex beginning when he was 13 years old to understand that the archdiocese would have taken steps to remove Father Gana from the priesthood had he been diagnosed as a pedophile," the grand jury report said.
"But Father Gana was not only having sex with children and teenage minors, Monsignor Lynn explained, he had also slept with women, abused alcohol and stolen money from parish churches," the grand jury report continued.
"That is why he remained, with Cardinal Bevilacqua's blessing, a priest in active ministry. You see, Tim,'" said Monsignor Lynn, ˜he's not a pure pedophile.'"
Lynn is accused of covering up the abuse of priests including Gana, who was never charged with a crime and who was reassigned from parish to parish as complaints surfaced.
"Father Stanley Gana, ordained in the 1970s, sexually abused countless boys in a succession of Philadelphia Archdiocese parishes," the 2005 grand jury report said.
"He was known to kiss, fondle, anally sodomize and impose oral sex on his victims. He took advantage of altar boys, their trusting families and vulnerable teenagers with emotional problems ... He molested boys on a farm, in vacation houses, in the church rectory. Some minors he abused for years," the grand jury said.
Lynn, who is not accused of any molestation, faces the possibility of 28 years in prison if convicted.

Bird brain

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Sat, 26 May 2012 23:29:00 +0000

I can't seem to leave the valley anymore without running into hawks. Red tails everywhere. Red tail woodstock, seemingly from every high branch or telephone pole. Whole mess of them this morning. Saw my namesake flying around too, our valley's resident blue heron aloft with its majestic wingspan. I also espied another very psychedelic colored little bird in the bushes that I have never seen before and think might be very rare but couldn't squeeze off a shot with my slow camera.

I was supposed to meet with my photo group at the coffee shop as we do every saturday morning. I decided to be late, figuring that it was more important to take pictures than to talk about taking pictures. Managed to get there finally in spite of myself.

Animal Zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Sat, 26 May 2012 00:14:00 +0000

Obama's real class warfare

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:37:00 +0000

Music, music, music

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:21:00 +0000

Timothy Leary, Mystic Arts © Bill Ogden

Busy week, picked up one of the most amazing estates I have ever handled. Gay designer from Houston with Alzheimers, poor guy. Gallery now filled to the brim with male interest bronzes, some really great material. Bob Dylan's birthday yesterday, thank you Grumpy, he is a spry one hundred and seven. Alan Seymour's too, not nearly as old as Zimmy. He just stopped by on his way to see California Painter Bill Ogden with the very Ogden painting featured in the new issue of Surfer's Journal. Fleet of birds shat on my van in a massive organized attack this morning. Car show sunday. A big thank you and shout out to Randy Walters, for sending me a new copy of Alberto Manguel's A History of Reading.

Yesterday I was carrying packing blankets in when a blanket corner caught a painting, which caught another painting which fell over onto a lamp, which came crashing down to the floor, but not before grabbing my prize 1981 mint, koa Taylor guitar with the florentine cutaway and the extra wide neck, my favorite guitar and sending it hurtling to the floor two feet down. I stared at the fruits of my infamy, dumbfounded and couldn't even look at the carnage for several minutes. What is done is done. I picked it up, waiting to see the snapped neck and puncture wounds and there's not a scratch on it. Miraculous. Forget that atheism stuff. I'm a believer.

Stan sent this over:

Check this out!

Right now:

Listening to Chris Whitley (and going to see his daughter Trixie next week…talented people.)

but here's the thing. I needed to upgrade my sound system.

So I bought a 25 year old Yamaha Class A, 100 WPC….holy crap

EBAY. 70 bucks plus shipping….a steal.

I also picked up an immaculate Carver 900 yesterday from an architect. It is in showroom condition. That was 125 and worth 250 in this kind of condition.

I have a wonderful pair of Infinity bookshelf speakers with double suspended woofers. I got them from Janis Ian as a gift in 1979.

So am looking forward to re-listening to all my favorite music for the next ten or fifteen years or until my hearing goes away!

It's all good.

Stan

FELLOW MUSIC LOVERS...THIS IS QUITE POSSIBLY THE MOST INCREDIBLE MUSIC E-MAIL I'VE EVER SEEN.
AFTER CLICKING ON AN ARTIST, LOOK TO SEE ALMOST ALL OF THEIR FAMOUS WORKS, THEY ARE THERE , with the lyrics!!
FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE. ENJOY AND PASS THIS ON.

1) Elvis Presley 2) Roy Orbison 3) Beatles 4) Abba 5) Bee Gees 6) Michael Jackson 7) John Lennon 8) Celine Dion 9) Frank Sinatra 10) Creedence Clearwater Revival 11) Julio Iglesias 12) Queen 13) Neil Diamond 14) Paul Mccartney 15) Rolling Stones 16) Pink Floyd 17) Bruce Springsteen 18) Elton John 19) U2 20) George Harrison 21) Cliff Richard 22) Tina Turner 23) Bob Marley 24) Andrea Bocelli 25) Dire Straits 26) Barbra Streisand 27) Eagles 28) Madonna 29) Simon & Garfunkel 30) Ac/Dc 31) Bob Dylan 32) Dean Martin 33) Andr? Hazes 34) Tom Jones 35) Eric Clapton 36) John Denver 37) Eros Ramazzotti 38) Deep Purple 39) Led Zeppelin 40) Rod Stewart 41) Status Quo 42) Louis Armstrong 43) Fleetwood Mac 44) Bryan Adams 45) Jimi Hendrix 46) Barry White 47) Nat King Cole 48) Santana 49) Michael Buble 50) Gipsy Kings 51) David Bowie 52) Adriano Celentano 53) Robbie Williams 54) Charles Aznavour 55) Metallica 56) Doors 57) Shakira 58) Beach Boys 59) Cat Stevens 60) Bon Jovi 61) Ub40 62) Joe Cocker 63) Whitney Houston 64) Phil Collins 65) Enrique Iglesias 66) Ricky Martin 67) Ray Charles 68) K3 69) Zz Top 70) Van Morrison 71) Ringo Starr 72) Stevie Wonder 73) Gloria Estefan 74) Supertramp 75) Jethro Tull 76) Black Sabbath 77) Marco Borsato 78) Guns N? Roses 79) Neil Young 80) Chuck Berry 81) Billy Joel 82) Sting 83) Kinks 84) R.e.m. 85) Laura Pausini 86) Genesis 87) Who 88) Monkees 89) Animals 90) Simple Minds 91) Prince 92) Aretha Franklin 93) B.b. King 94) Iron Maiden 95) Pearl Jam 96) Christina Aguilera 97) Alice Cooper 98) Depeche Mode 99) Nirvana100) Gary Moore Top 70 Songs: 1) Always On My Mind - Elvis Presley 2) Fernando - Abba 3) Dancing Queen - Abba 4) Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison 5) Spanish Eyes - Elvis Presley 6) Are You Lonesome Tonight? - Elvis Presley 7) Chiquitita - Abba 8) Massachusetts - Bee Gees 9) Love Me Tender - Elvis Presley 10) Imagine - John Len non 11) Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley 12) California Blue - Roy Orbison 13) My Way - Elvis Presley 14) Billie Jean - Michael Jackson 15) In Dreams - Roy Orbison 16) Blue Bayou - Roy Orbison 17) Only The Lonely - Roy Orbison 18) I Have A Dream - Abba 19) Yesterday - Beatles 20) Mamma Mia - Abba 21) Thriller - Michael Jackson 22) Amazing Grace - Elvis Presley 23) Unchained Melody - Roy Orbison 24) Can?t Help Falling In Love - Elvis Presley 25) Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley 26) Ave Maria - Celine Dion 27) And I Love You So - Elvis Presley 28) Blue Moon - Elvis Presley 29) Hey Jude - Beatles 30) I Started A Joke- Bee Gees 31) My Way - Frank Sinatra 32) Hotel California - Eagles 33) A Big Hunk O? Love - Elvis Presley 34) Bridge Over Troubled Water Elvis Presley 35) The Winner Takes It All - Abba 36) Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival 37) Ben - Michael Jackson 38) Waterloo - Abba 39) Stayin? Alive - Bee Gees 40) Words - Bee Gees 41) How Deep Is Your Love - Bee Gees 42) Crying - Roy Orbison 43) Blue Suede Shoes - Elvis Presley 44) Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley 45) Beat It - Michael Jackson 46) A Day In The Life - Beatles 47) Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen 48) Let It Be - Beatles 49) Only You - Roy Orbison 50) Sweet Caroline - Roy Orbison 51) A Hard Day?s Night - Beatles 52) Bad - Michael Jackson 53) Earth Song - Michael Jackson 54) Woman - John Len non 55) Imagine (live) - John Len non 56) Heal The World - Michael Jackson 57) Stand By Me - John Len non 58) Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond 59) O Sole Mio - Andrea Bocelli 60) Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel 61) Man In The Mirror - Michael Jackson 62) Strangers In The Night - Frank Sinatra 63) Black Or White - Michael Jackson 64) Only You - John Len non 65) My Sweet Lord - George Harrison 66) What A Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong 67) 24 Horas - Julio Iglesias 68) Everybody Loves Somebody - Dean Martin 69) I Just Can?t Stop Lovin You - Michael Jackson 70) Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson

Dave in Japan sent over this must read from Rumpus, Steven Almond's incredible column, this week in greed.
Incredible early photos courtesy of Hudg - Atlantic.

HoboBeans brought over her mayan calendar ragnarok/armageddon/rapture end of the world compliance stickers. Nice. Fungusamongus 12/21/12, a very interesting number.

Naturally speaking.

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Fri, 25 May 2012 16:18:00 +0000

I read a lot of stupid things that people write. There were two opinions in the San Diego Union this week that vie for the title of most imbecilic waste of ink. The first is Roger Hedgecock's moronic piece, Humans are the natural world too. If anything captures the full scope of the limited reach of the antediluvian mind, it is this article.

"All living organisms on this planet have an impact on all other living organisms. We live in an ecological system that is constantly changing as species interact with each other.

In other words, species come and species go. Do you really miss the carrier pigeon? Or the dinosaurs?"

In a time that species are being lost at an incredible rate, and with the human species and all other lifeforms being so inextricably woven together, this type of primitive thinking encapsulates in a nutshell the problems that we face if we hope to survive on this planet.

*

The other article is by the Union's outdoor and horseracing writer Ed Zieralski. Z has been a longstanding apologist for those folks that get their kicks killing other animals for trophies for their walls. This article is titled Another possible blow against game management.

Once again, California’s politicians have caved to animal rights zealots and made a decision about game management that could impact the state’s wildlife in a negative way.On Monday, the California Senate voted 22-15 to end the legal use of dogs to hunt bears and bobcats, two of the state’s top predators. Just like mountain lions, which are protected, black bears and bobcats prey on young deer. Bobcats are stout enough to bring down mature bighorn sheep.Animal rights activists contend the use of dogs is “inhumane and unsporting,” according to Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.The legislation, co-authored by Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, will move to the state Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.But what the politicians and the animal activists don’t get is that they’re taking away another very useful tool from California hunters, who, by their very nature and methods, help control the predation by bears and bobcats on other animals such as deer, bighorn sheep and game birds like turkeys, quail and pheasants. And what is overlooked is that hunters, by helping to control the population of these predators, also help in preventing these animals from venturing into neighborhoods to eat pets or cause problems. The bigger the population the more chance one of them will be kicked down to somewhere like Santa Monica, where a mountain lion was killed Tuesday morning on the corner of Second Street and Wilshire Boulevard.Let’s hope the California Assembly members have enough common sense to see through all the propaganda and defeat the bill. Let hunters, who pay big dollars for the right to take care of apex predators, help control these populations of bears and bobcats. Otherwise, the state will have the same problem it has now with mountain lions, and that’s having to pay state and federal hunters to kill them when populations expand to the point where they start showing up in folks’ backyards and eating their pets, or in the case of bears, raiding the garbage cans and threatening public safety.At least these animal rights activists haven’t gone after the right to hunt wild pigs with dogs. How that escaped them I don’t know. Wild pigs also eat young deer fawns and even cattle. And right now the ever-growing population of wild pigs in San Diego County is a lot more of a hot-button issue than bears (of which we don’t have any) and bobcats, of which we have thousands.At least these animal rights activists haven’t gone after the right to hunt wild pigs with dogs. How that escaped them I don’t know. Wild pigs also eat young deer fawns and even cattle. And right now the ever-growing population of wild pigs in San Diego County is a lot more of a hot-button issue than bears (of which we don’t have any) and bobcats, of which we have thousands.Hunting any predator or wild pig with dogs is a useful tool that allows a hunter to get close enough to make a quick, fatal shot at a mountain lion, bear or bobcat that has been treed or cornered. And it also allows the hunter to decide whether the animal is the right one to kill. If you don’t believe this, ask any federal or state hunter about the best way to hunt apex predators. They do their best hunting at night or with dogs during the day.Today, in the wake of this ill-advised move by the California Senate, one that, as usual, lacks any form of common sense, there are more fears, justifiably, among the state’s hunting advocacy groups that this is just another step by these animal rights zealots to end all hunting with dogs, including duck and upland bird hunting, in our once-great state. Eventually, their goal is to end all hunting in California, and judging by what they convinced the Senate to do, they’re getting there.

There was a great letter in the paper yesterday that probably answers Ed better than I can which I can't currently find online. I will try to dig it up. In Ed's way of thinking, the only animals that count are those game animals that hunters can kill. Zieralski has always been a fierce advocate and taken one sided stances on these issues, a strange position for a supposed journalist. He was a fierce defender of State Fish and Game Commission President Dan Richards' freebie trip to Idaho to kill a mountain lion for a mount.

I have lived in a wild place for most of my life and have never feared mountain lions or bobcats. There was a lion at the end of the road at Tanner's place two weeks ago and I see bobcats all the time. People might lose an occasional poodle, tragic but that's what it means to live in the country. I am not a hunter and have no problem with the hunting of deer and game but don't get people that get their jollies taking down bears or lions or little bobcats.

Apex predators have existed and have been killing game animals since time immemorial. It's called nature. They aren't mean or evil, they are serving a vital function in a complex ecological chain. We don't need to interfere or manage anything. Nature does a damn good job by itself and doesn't need our help, especially not the help of a bunch of testosterone addled yahoos chasing down poor wild animals with dogs.

“Today’s vote was about partisan politics.The Legislature is trying to restrict liberty and change the rural lifestyle of many Californians.”
State Senator Doug LaMalfa, California 4th District

Shanghai Noodle Factory

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Wed, 23 May 2012 22:55:00 +0000

Race is on.

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Wed, 23 May 2012 22:51:00 +0000

I posted a link the other day called evil google. I don't know if any of you checked it out or not. It is actually an AlterNet article by David Rosen titled The Terrifying Ways Google Is Destroying Your Privacy.

I know that I am somewhat old school at this point and you can call me a hopeless romantic but I am a big believer in all that privacy stuff. And the article is quite illustrative in the ways that human beings and their corporations are people too cousins manage to eventually sell their soul. Perhaps not entirely consciously.

Google is of course the perfect candidate for fallen angel in this narrative. They started out as the apostle of the hip generation's new paradigm of truth and righteousness. Their celebrated moniker was "Don't be evil." Have they gone over to the other side? Or is it ludicrous to expect any business to not be just as rotten and dirty as the next guy? Now he is wagging a puritanical finger in our collective face.

"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." Google CEO Eric Schmidt, 2008

What a frightening statement. What are Schmidt, McNealy and Zuckerberg really telling us? That technology, especially really slick flashy technology, trumps personal privacy and the Bill of Rights? This is the modern day equivalent of "if you've got nothing to hide, what do you care if we paw through your underwear drawer?"

Of course, they are now working hand in hand with a government that vacuums up your whole information ball of wax and harvests it for who knows what? Every letter, every keystroke, every search request, all mined for some marker so that they can place you in some file labeled seditious in big stencil letters. A government that a few short years ago would never have dreamed of steaming your envelopes open to read your private mail without a warrant now has unlimited access to your every word and your physical GPS location as well. Oh, that's right, we're fighting a war on terror. Looks like terror won.

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Abbie Hoffman was certainly never a large influence but I heard him say something once that I have appreciated for most of my life. He talked about how people manage to get co-opted. Maybe it's keeping up with the neighbors, possibly grabbing for the bagful of silver, maybe just a case of moral amnesia. But all of a sudden you find yourself batting for the other side and you don't remember how you got there.

I don't know Eric Schmidt. Google makes my life oh so much easier, gives me this sweet blogging platform, for nothing. They can't even advertise on it. I'm just not into it. They own real estate in every single strata of the information geological formation. Be more difficult to give up than coffee. So maybe I am sacrificing my own ethics by utilizing their services. Some of the photographers on my Fallbrook Shutters site want me to move the site off Google. They say that Google's fine print gives them the rights to reproduce all of their photography. I guess copyright is also now a thing of the past, joining its pal privacy.

Because I don't think that the whole world has a right to know my private business. Regardless of whatever Eric Schmidt thinks of my viewing habits, circle of friends or even my politics for that matter. Of course Eric is in the information business. He is going to want more outlets to sell information and more information to sell. To the police, to the advertisers, what have you.

Not much different than the timber barons, or the people that want to sell off Alaska and Utah, or mine right outside the national parks. Morality has a way of losing the contest with money, nine times out of ten. Bet on money every time. And people engaged in selfish, evil or otherwise despicable behavior have an innate capacity to suddenly see themselves as really doing god's work.

We have talked a lot about the legacy that we are leaving our heirs in this country, especially in regards to environmental devastation. Perhaps our surrender of our most basic civil liberties will be an even more tragic occurrence.

Love - Live And Let Live

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:32:00 +0000

Millard sent me this note this morning:

As noted in New York Times today, Wednesday, 'Forever Changes' to be included in the National Recording Registry, Library of Congress: 'included because it is culturally, historically or aesthetically significant'. Along with 24 other chosen works as diverse as Leonard Bernstein's 1st performance with the NY Phil, Grateful Dead, Booker T, Donna Summer, Bo Diddley, 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' and Prince.

Sweet!

Animal Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:13:00 +0000

We have some new faces of late in the neighborhood. The kids next door are in 4H and I saw their cute yorkshire pigs scampering around the pasture on my way home from work the other day.

I had to patiently wait for this brown varient king snake to do his sideways slither across the canyon road yesterday. Speaking of king snakes, Renée shot this picture of one above her door last night. Fell to the ground quickly after the shot was taken.

And Brett was walking down at the end of Rainbow Creek when he came upon this little baby rattler, coiled up no bigger than your fist.

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Of course, this time of year, I am really thinking a lot about birds. I have noticed that different areas of town are home to different species of hawks. My Santa Margarita River Valley is predominately red tailed hawks along with some smaller species like Swainsons. I rarely see red shouldered, who probably steer clear of their larger cousins.

Wilt and Gird and the south end of town is more red shouldered territory.

René has a red shouldered hawk living in her tree. We identified it both visually and through one of the many bird call identification sources on the web. Visit this link to hear its distinctive call.

Renée also thought that she had recognized the sound of the canyon wren on her sunday morning walks up Monserate Mountain. She had become familiar with the bird on her trips rafting down the Colorado. After listening to the clip she knew it was a positive match.

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A story about birds at a dinner party the other night furnished me a new word for my vocabulary. Sharon told me that she lives near Wilt Rd. and heard an unfamiliar and piercing sound and battle in the middle of the night recently. The next morning she found a dead owl on the ground, probably a common barn owl. She went to a vet who told her that the owl had one enemy, a red tailed hawk, but that their paths rarely crossed, the owl being nocturnal and the hawk diurnal. What is the name for an animal that is active both day and night and the newest word in my arsenal? Cathemeral.

An animal that is primarily active at dawn and dusk is called crepuscular. Claude Levi Strauss called these animals twilight animals. Matutinal is a creature primarily active in the pre dawn, vespertine, dusk.

*

So with that I leave you with a few more bird shots from yesterday afternoon and this morning. The juvenile red tailed hawks are starting to venture over to the next valley, Brian saw one walking on the road near Riverview. Soon, if history proves correct, they will disappear from the valley entirely.

Top 10 new species - Arizona State.

You better find somebody to love

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Wed, 23 May 2012 01:41:00 +0000

A new study from Cornell University published by lead researcher Anthony Ong in the journal Psychology and Aging shows that lonely hearts are aging hearts and that they increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. So get out there and love.

"I think it's helpful to distinguish the emotional pangs that are associated with acute loneliness from the more chronic feelings of distress that accompany perceived deficits in the quality of our social relationships," Ong said.

"Viewed from this perspective, acute loneliness may be seen as adaptive, signaling us to repair social connections. However, it is the persistence of loneliness over time that may set the stage for health problems in later life," Ong said. "I think one of the most important and life-affirming messages of this research is the reminder that we all desire and need meaningful social connections."

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I am reading Pynchon, really for the first time. I had tried before but nothing clicked. Juggling Slow Learner, a compendium of early works that propelled him to his first novel E with a couple other books, Bourdain's A Cook's Tour, Melville's Encantadas and just revisited Hesse's Journey to the East.

Isn't it strange how books that I loved as a precocious punk kid can suck so bad in adulthood? Billy Budd was like that for me last week as was this Hesse book and Narcissus and Goldmund. What the hell was I thinking?

Anyway Pynchon is damn good and he brings something up in the introduction to this book that I found interesting. He says that science fiction and fantasy appeal mostly to a readership that has never come to grips with the concepts of death and mortality. So they invent a distant never ever land. Intriguing line of thought and inquiry. Writers seem to have a closer relationship with death than other artists. Think Plath or Brautigan. Musicians tend to drink or drug themselves to death, writers grab the bull by the horns.

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I had such an incredible day today. In my professional duties I met a woman who happens to be the daughter of one of my greatest literary heroes. Unfortunately I don't believe that it would be appropriate to out her so I won't but her father was a brilliant writer and major influence for me. My New York book editor mother had corresponded with him when I was young and I talked to him on the phone once when he called our home.

I told his daughter that she had just met somebody who had carefully absorbed her father's every word and I believe that she was touched. It was so incredible for me to see the furniture he had made by hand, his photos and books and most of all to meet his daughter. Such a privilege. These are indeed special and magical times for me.

I have had the misfortune of meeting several of my heroes. Sometimes it is a letdown. I have never been let down in meeting a writer, one of the few crafts that can not be successfully constructed by the happy accidents that we occasionally see in music or painting. One of the most difficult and complex artforms, language.

Hug a scribe. It will do your heart some good.

The Sensational Nightingales - "Somewhere To Lay My Head"

noreply@blogger.com (Blue Heron) — Mon, 21 May 2012 23:36:00 +0000