Don't Worry Baby

Move along, nothing to see here

You think there would be any talk from the GOP about letting things blow over, granting a mulligan or two, time to forgive and forget and all that, if the roles were reversed?  

Imagine if a Democratic leader had presided over an insurrectionist attack by his minions on our nation's Capitol?  

Think the Republicans would turn the other cheek?

Now all of a sudden it should be a time for healing. Let's move forward. For the sake of the nation.

The hypocrisy is astounding.

It doesn't matter

Stills, Hillman and Rick Roberts all co wrote this song while in Manassas. They each in turn later did their own version of it. This is Rick and Firefall, an underrated band.

Ain't no mountain high enough

Squeeze Play

As an antique dealer I usually have a good amount of silver in my shop and I watch the markets rather closely. Rarely does the melt value match the price point of beautifully crafted silver but if the price goes up high enough, almost anything will burn.

I always find it curious that just when silver or other metals are about to take off, they get reigned back in so easily. Even when the supply of physical silver is practically nonexistent. Doesn't make sense, does it?

There is obvious manipulation going on and this man does a pretty good job explaining it. The government does not want the price of gold and silver to go up. And so people start playing and trading with invisible metals that do not exist, the big guys and hedge funds manipulate the market and the government looks the other way and pretends not to see because its purposes are being served.

J.P. Morgan was caught "spoofing" precious metals last year. Their fine was a mere slap on the wrist, the rather cheap cost of doing business. And then it was back to business as usual.

I saw an interesting comment on the subject this morning from a reader over at one of the financial columns, don't remember which:

How would people feel if horse racing allowed you to bet on which horse would finish in last place? That wager is not allowed because there's far too much much potential for abuse by the owner, the trainer and the jockey. Short selling is an anachronism that dates back centuries to an era when paper certificates were the legal proof of ownership of stock in a company. People were given a grace period after a stock sale to produce a valid certificate. Clever traders figured out that if a company was falling apart financially they could sell shares that they didn't have and buy them back later during the grace period when the share price had fallen. Short selling is an idea 20 years ahead of its time. Unfortunately, its time was 1850.

This is a good video. This man gets it. As he points out, the bullion banks are acting as a cartel, in league with the big banks. And in order to supposedly save the monetary system they are more than willing to hurt the chumps in the game who are dumb enough to think it is being played straight.

Stupid Cupid

Hammering Hank

You remember I mentioned that Aaron was a grump. He sure wasn't here. This is a first part of two good interviews. What a great bunch of pitchers he mentions. Weren't we lucky to have seen Seaver, Gibson, Koufax, Drysdale and Palmer in our lifetime?

Speaking of Aaron, I recently received a 1963 Milwaukee Braves team baseball signed by Aaron, Spahn, Torre, Eddie Matthews and Cloninger, among others. 

Could be yours. Five hundred simoleans.

Hank hit .319 that year, 41 home runs, 141 ribbies. Perhaps his second best year statistically, he was third in the MVP voting.

Mystery Train

Nothing shakin' on shakedown street

Sioux Buffalo Horn knife with beaded hide sheath and parfleche - Blue Heron Gallery

Ricardo sent me a note the other day and mentioned that there was not a lot of action on the blog, hardly any comments, hint, hint. Reality is I have been working for several months cataloging an extensive collection and I am about three quarters through. Honestly, I am completely exhausted and my back is out.

Yesterday I picked up another wonderful and large collection of early Plains and Plateau beadwork. Honestly, I have been on a tear.

I have a lot of work to do before I am finished photographing and listing the stuff both on my website and on the few remaining spaces for the Objects of Art virtual show on February 24th.

So work is going to take precedence. That is the way it is. I don't have much else to give right now. Business is good and I am not getting off the train while it's moving.

Last year was my most prolific year yet for writing. The last time I had a big year, 2013, the next year I went quiet for a long time. My worst year. Might happen again. 

But if you can hold out there might just be more music and photos. Only so much in the tank. My wife and my financial well being and stability has to take precedence.

Pima basketry horse and wagon with padre beads
- 28" long, Turn of the century - Blue Heron Gallery

Covid has been pretty good for me in a financial sense. Hate to say it, it sounds terrible and the human side of the tragedy is staggering and horrific. But it has put me to work. Odd that I don''t really miss the shows from a money standpoint but I do miss my friends and compatriots. Pushing my web presence has certainly not hurt in the pandemic interim. You do what you got to do.

*

Sioux scalp knife collected in Pine Ridge

It is getting harder to bare my breast and get personal on the blog. The election nonsense was so traumatizing and we all spent a lot of time trying not to step on each other's toes. Tempers were raised, friendships were splintered, feelings were hurt. There was a considerable amount of more nasty, anonymous trolling.

I'd rather not wade into all that, less tension over here in the shallow end of the pool. My readership has increased about 40% in the last year, almost approaching 2011-12 numbers before Google changed their algorithm. The bigger it gets the harder it is to really share for me, not sure why. Less familiar perhaps. More like talking to strangers. Don't want to expose.

If I had the money and druthers I would be writing more short fiction, which is a vehicle for speaking truths that are shielded and personal and which might otherwise offend or bother people. But I don't have the time, luxury or inclination to give that part of myself that really matters at the moment. Sorry.

Hope that I am feeling it again soon.

*

For the second time in a month I have lost a painting. Searched a day last time, finally found it in a place I had looked a hundred times. Today it was a painting I sold Michael. I have his money in my pocket and the painting is gone. What am I going to tell him? And I will have to pay Dixon for it and take a little bath.

Four hours tearing apart every cranny of my shop and no luck.

I went to the chiropractor on the coast and called Ken on the way back. He told me to sit down for a few minutes, take a breath and remember where I put it. I walked into the gallery and walked straight to it, in the very place I left it, can you imagine that?

Thank you Ken. Thank you everybody.

Alone Again Or

Utterly flawless version of the Bryan MacLean classic on a nylon string Spanish guitar. One of the joys of YouTube to discover relatively anonymous, unknown people with such talent. This is one of the great songs of Arthur Lee and Love.

Hope I don't fall in love with you

Gavilan morning

 

I love these chilly winter mornings when the fog hangs low in the river valley and the orange trees start to bloom their beautiful red flowers. Pardon the tumbleweed.

Great Rain

Paranoia strikes deep

Friend of mine had a planned power shutoff today. Lives near bye. 

When the power came back on he had to reconnect to his router. 

One of the available networks that popped up was FBI Surveillance Vehicle. Hmmm. Would you mind closing those blinds?

Please and thank you

I have been truckless for a long time, last one I had was the Ford 150 and that was decades ago. I need one, am tired of using my car and van for a truck.

I am looking for a used ranch truck, preferably a small Toyota or Ford size. Uglier the better but in good mechanical shape. Would like to spend less than 4k if possible. If you hear about a small pickup for sale would you please let me know?

Peregrine

 

While the king was looking down, the jester stole his thorny crown...

 

Sixty two years ago today. The day the music died.

Tift Merritt - Traveling Alone

Townes

Calling all lurkers. Who the heck are you?

 

While I know many of you, many being long time friends, some of you I have met through the blog, there are many more that I do not know personally or anything about. If you are a regular reader of the blog who has never introduced yourself, please make my acquaintance with a comment.

You don't have to give me a last name, or even a real first name. Just a little about yourself and where you hail from and perhaps the principal reason you choose to visit this site. That is, if you don't mind. Thank you so much for coming around and paying a visit.

Twilight time

 

David Bromberg

Your pictures

 

Allan sends a shot from the Bat Caves somewhere in the Southern California desert.

Jeff's daughter Stephanie Fulk grabbed this shot of the northern lights up near Fairbanks.

Big Dave snapped this after the rain the other day in Pacific Heights.

Ray has a new creampuff 1963 Thunderbird.

Kick the football, Charlie Brown

The GOP is suddenly all about unity. I was reading a ridiculous opinion over at The Hill and came across this accurate comment from a letter writer named RGBRAY. 

His points are worth remembering. These folks are masters of the sleight of hand, three card monte, misdirection game.

Obama tried unity, but the Republicans sabotaged the bills.

the Recovery Act was made smaller at the GOP's insistence, but more than 99% of Republicans voted against it. On immigration, GOP lawmakers told then-President Barack Obama to focus on security and enforcement first. He met their demands, at which point Republicans killed a comprehensive reform bill anyway.

On health care, Republicans pushed for a market-based system, largely dependent on private insurers, and Democrats spent literally months trying to make GOP members happy. It didn't matter. In Obama's new book, he shares an anecdote in which Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was asked whether he'd support a health care reform bill that included all of the changes to the ACA the Iowan wanted to see. "I guess not, Mr. President," Grassley replied.

Another Senate Republican from 2009, Wyoming's Mike Enzi, later conceded that he negotiated with Democrats in bad faith, stringing Dems along for months and weakening the Affordable Care Act blueprint, though he didn't have any intention of voting for it.

The lesson is hardly subtle: Democrats investing months of effort, and watering down their own worthwhile proposals, is a pointless exercise. As the L.A. Times reported over the weekend, it's a lesson the party has become preoccupied with.

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Hunting Mad Honey

Bob Marley - Talkin Blues

Bobby Darin

Rock Soup

We were talking about going hungry and hard times this morning at coffee. I never went hungry more than a couple times in my life. 

We were poor and ate an overabundance of mush for a spell when I was a kid but always had at least something to eat as far as I can recall.

Later when I was hitchhiking around the country during my post summer of love drop out wanderlust phase I went hungry a couple times but they were few and not really worth mentioning. 

I was a little astounded when my friend Jay started telling us about being stone broke and eating rock soup in the late fifties or early sixties when he lived and breathed hot rods and every dollar he could find went into his dragster.

Rock soup?

I may have this a little bit wrong but he would put a big rock in a boiling pot of water and then work from there. Add spices and eat it for supper.

Tonight I looked up Rock soup and it appears to be a folk tale and morality play that wends its way through many European cultures including Russia, Germany and Hungary.

The Stone Soup is a European folk story in which hungry strangers convince the people of a town to each share a small amount of their food in order to make a meal that everyone enjoys, and exists as a moral regarding the value of sharing. In varying traditions, the stone has been replaced with other common inedible objects, and therefore the fable is also known as axe soup, button soup, nail soup, and wood soup.

The story proceeds like this:

Some travelers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot. Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the very hungry travelers. Then the travelers go to a stream and fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing. The travelers answer that they are making "stone soup", which tastes wonderful and which they would be delighted to share with the villager, although it still needs a little bit of garnish, which they are missing, to improve the flavor.

The villager, who anticipates enjoying a share of the soup, does not mind parting with a few carrots, so these are added to the soup. Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travelers again mention their stone soup which has not yet reached its full potential. The villager hands them a little bit of seasoning. More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, the stone (being inedible) is removed from the pot, and a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by travelers and villagers alike. Although the travelers have thus tricked the villagers into sharing their food with them, they have successfully transformed it into a tasty meal which they share with the donors.

The funny thing is, I believe that Jay was being straight up. I really think he did make a soup based around a rock, this was no morality play. Unless he had us going but I don't really think so.

* 

After we talked about his pebbly repast I asked the guys if they knew where the dish cioppino comes from?  Not Italy but San Francisco actually. The fishermen on the dock would chip in whatever was left over at the end of the work day so that their unfortunate comrades could eat if they had a bad day.

Cioppino was developed in the late 1800s by Italian immigrants who fished off Meiggs Wharf and lived in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, many from the port city of Genoa. When a fisherman came back empty handed, they would walk around with a pot to the other fishermen asking them to chip in whatever they could. What ever ended up in the pot became their Cioppino. The fishermen that chipped in expected the same treatment if they came back empty handed in the future. It later became a staple as Italian restaurants proliferated in San Francisco.

The earliest known recipe was published in 1901 in the San Francisco Call. The word itself is not a linguistic contraction/variation of "chip in" as I had been led to believe but is actually taken from a classic soup from Liguria, Cioppin.

It ain't fair

 

Al Franken, one of the smartest, funniest and most pro active Senators in our country, was forced to resign for allegedly trying to kiss a talk show host and once touch another woman's clothed buttocks.

He was summarily drummed out of the Senate by members of both parties including Schumer, McConnell and Gillibrand, before he could even plead his own case.

Now we have congress people like Marjorie Taylor Greene openly calling for the assassination of elected officials in the Democratic party and nobody says a peep, in fact she gets a plum committee assignment. 

We have over fifteen elected representatives breaching the capitol in a failed insurrection and few will say a peep.

Lauren Boebert can taunt a survivor of a school shooting and call him a pussy and that is evidently okay but Al Franken gets his walking papers for a little grabass, like he is the first Senator or politician to have ever gotten frisky.

I'm not excusing his behavior but I really liked the guy and think the country could use him right now. He never should have resigned.

Tarred and feathered, thistles and thorns...

Mother drone saves rare Griffon vulture

 

Allen's Hummingbird - San Elijo

 

Come Together - Joe Cocker

49 Bye-Byes

Hawk aloft

 

Memories

Hawk in shadow

Saturday political rant

I got one of those dear john letters the other day. It was over. The letter was polite and respectful but it basically said that the person didn't want to hear from me again because he hates my politics. It did bother me because I love my liberal and conservative friends equally and don't enjoy alienating anybody. And I have known and been friends with this particular guy for over twenty five years.

But I obviously pissed him off. This was the link that put him over the edge. In retrospect I guess it is one of those "don't you see what assholes belong to your side" posts and in retrospect nobody wants that thrown in their face. Like me having to answer for anarchists burning shit down in Portland or Minneapolis. For the record I don't believe in political violence in any form, from any side.

Anyway it is so remarkable how few people do cut me off totally, this is the second in the last year or so and both did so politely. No "You are a fucking asshole and are going to burn in hell" stuff. 

I have to walk a fine line sometimes. I am what I am and you are what you are and we are defined by about the age of seven I think and people don't change much, if ever. And you can't please everybody, you have to be true to yourself. Or restrict discourse to plants and birds. As the bard so eloquently said, To thine own self be true.

I am not exactly democratic with the blog, more like a sensitive despot. I don't publish unsigned troll comments that are real nasty unless I feel like it and I try to cut off unsupported ad hominem attacks against fellow bloggers.

I have had several conservative friends tell me that I need to show more balance. One friend tells me that he has to grit his teeth when he reads it. Thank you for your honesty. I will try to understand your point of view better, I don't want to preach to the choir. 

I got this comment the other day and didn't post it but do want to print it here because it is rather instructive.

This narrative doesn't hold water for me. That if we wanted to burn it down we would have, so shut up. Might be true but this past effort was pretty concerted and beyond vile. Somebody needs to own these guys and figure out how we got here. And I don't want to break bread with any of them because frankly they are so creepy. I don't want anything to do with the MAGA base that elects a Boebert, King, Gohmert or Greene.

The first reaction from the right I read after January 6 was that a couple trespassers broke a few windows and now everybody is freaking out. Then the story was that the riot was full of antifa plants who were steering and fomenting the violence. Now it was directed by the nefarious Lincoln Project, at least according to Giuliani.

This is bullshit. From what I have read there was exactly one man associated with antifa there, a black guy who was merely filming the destruction. One guy.  And like these rioters were ever going to take direction from him... From the arrests it is clear to me that the insurrectionists were pure MAGA and the right needs to own that.

And it was not just a few windows broken, of course. These assholes were playing for keeps. Five deaths and numerous injuries. 

"Between USCP and our colleagues at the Metropolitan Police Department, we have almost 140 officers injured," union chairman Gus Papathanasiou said in a statement released Wednesday. "I have officers who were not issued helmets prior to the attack who have sustained brain injuries. One officer has two cracked ribs and two smashed spinal discs. One officer is going to lose his eye, and another was stabbed with a metal fence stake."

Sounds like a war to me. The Capitol Police chief said that his department was not set up for five hours of continuous hand to hand combat.

Metropolitan Police Department acting Police Chief Robert Contee, who ordered more than 1,000 of his officers to help defend the Capitol, provided his own testimony to the closed-door congressional hearing, telling the committee, "This assault on the Capitol has exposed weakness in security in the most secure city in the country."

The unprecedented attack had police "engaged in literal battle for hours," Contee said. "Law enforcement training neither anticipates nor prepares for hours of hand-to-hand combat."

You have to wonder why the National Guard were issued orders to be disarmed by the Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller prior to the riot? Almost like somebody knew what was coming? Of course this is the guy who was praising Russia so.

People on the right think it is time to "move on" usually with a false equivalence shot across the bow that mentions BLM and antifa. We have members of congress taunting school shooting survivors and promoting theories that democrat leaders kill children and drink their blood. Jewish cabals with rayguns. And the party for the most part is totally mum. I guess it is a very big tent and pretty much anything goes. 

And we not only don't censure a Marjorie Taylor Greene, we give her a seat on an education committee. Amazing country we got here.

Plant spike

I am not really sure what kind of agave this is. If I remember correctly I bought it from Waterwise Botanicals.

The beautiful maroon spike is now about ten feet tall. 

I know that it is not agave americana attenuata because I have a bunch of those. not desmetiana or lophantha either. Grows more like blue glow than anything else but doesn't pup like blue glow.

My best guess is that it is an agave angustifolia variegata hybrid, a Caribbean agave or a variegated tequiliana. So the sixty four thousand dollar question is will the plant survive a spike or not. 

It wasn't supposed to flower for another five years but guess what? Stuff happens...

I asked an agave expert I know at Serra Gardens and he told me that I should cut the spike in half after flowering. 

Don said that I might get puplets (or whatever they are really called) on the remaining spike. He showed me some similar plants with their progeny. Will give it a shot. 

He has a beautiful and wondrous purple plant in his garden that he won't sell me. I need to take a picture.

I have an agave tequiliana that is not variegated throwing a big fat spike right now too but it has offshoots galore. I am also planting a lot of new stuff in my lower succulent garden lately. It is really coming into shape. Dwarf bottlebrush is not liking the cold but the mule palm and the brahea clara look pretty happy. Planted a sabal too as well as a California red bud tree. Looking forward to the transformation.

I will post pictures when this spike opens up and flowers. I met some aloe sellers from Arizona this week. I told them about how cold it gets at my place (11°) and they could not believe that things survive there. Things live that are not supposed to. But they do. My mortality rate is high but that which does not kill us only makes us stronger.

Red Dirt Girl

Red shouldered in landscape mode

 

Before the rain

I decided to work a half day yesterday and head out to the wildlife preserve in the afternoon. Honestly I have not had a day off in three weeks, been working weekends getting ready for my virtual show. So I was due. Supposed to pour and I might not not have another chance for a while.

Every time I go out and get to enjoy an evening there I realize it is the best time of day. The longer the better. Even beats the sunrise.

Was cool and I kept a jacket on. Got a nice walk in. I called the ranger before I left and he told me that certain roads were closed including the Walker Ponds. I made due.

I shot and juggled three lenses. I wish that I could afford another camera body but I can't and want to wait for a D850 successor in any case.

So every turn found me having to swap a lens.

It is like that sometimes.

Loved the warm evening light.

I made a dumb move that I didn't realize until now as I process the pictures. Had the exposure compensation down a stop all day. Easily fixed but rookie move nonetheless.

Sat in my car and watched a male harrier stalk its prey against a lovely cirrus sky for a while.

The views of San Jacinto and Gorgonio are pretty spectacular right now.

And I never made contact with another human all day.

Sort of how I like it.

I did see a large flock of cattle egrets. Notice their brown brow.

Here is a snowy egret for comparison.

A stately bird in the evening light.

On this shot I didn't have a chance to adjust my speed to my customary 1/2500th of a second for birds in flight. I shot at 1/800th. Soft if you are a pixel peeper but still acceptable. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

A red shouldered hawk hiding in the trees.

Some northern shovelers coming in for a landing.

Wednesdays and Saturdays are duck hunting days. Somebody left a decoy.

Loggerhead Shrike

I didn't get a good shot but this is the back end of a female vermilion flycatcher. I saw the male last time. They are both beautiful.

I saw a lovely and well fed feral cat hunting yesterday, also a first for me there.

And that is all I got for now. Back to work!

Soros and the Rothschilds destroyed the planet with a raygun and all I got was this stupid t-shirt

From JPost:

My latest creation. You want one? Maybe I will get them printed...

Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story

Baseball talk

I think the push to change the name of the Atlanta Braves is beyond ridiculous. What in the hell is wrong with Braves? Not like the Washington Redskins, which is plainly derogatory. I would think anybody would be proud to be referred to as a brave. People say change it to the Hammers but that sounds a bit contrived and gratuitous to me.

Speaking of the hammer, of course Henry Aaron is dead. Hammering Hank was a hell of a player and hitter, he took a lot of crap for breaking the white guy's home run record, was subject to a lot of racial abuse. 

And he always seemed bummed out, much like my favorite player of all time, Willie Mays. They both seemed very unhappy.

I may be getting an Aaron signed Milwaukee Braves baseball to sell from Roxanne. Will include a picture if I get it.

*

Lasorda passed pretty recently. I always thought that although he had the gift of gab, he was not a very nice guy underneath, he was a bit of a bully. I never liked the Dodgers, being a native San Diegan, we always were like red headed stepchildren to the guys in blue. Scoreboard, they won World Series's and we didn't but I didn't have to like them and never have.

Ron Perranoski

I used to know the late Duke Snider. He didn't like Tommy much either. I once asked him why and he said because Lasorda had the Dodgers fire his best friend, pitching coach Ron Perranoski. Stabbed him in the back. Lasorda was the only Dodger not invited to Duke's funeral. He told me that he thought he was a fake too. Not real classy to speak ill of the dead but they are both gone so I think I can finally spill.

I was talking baseball with my friend Warren this evening. He said he lost interest in baseball in 1957. A lifelong Brooklyn fan, he could never forgive or forget. 

He posed the conundrum, you have two bullets in your gun and Stalin, Hitler and Walter O'Malley in a room. Who do you shoot?

He said you shoot O'Malley twice.

* 

Loughlin told me that I have to watch the Battered Bastards of Baseball, a Netflix documentary of the now defunct Portland Mavericks baseball club. Scores a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, I need to see it.

*

The Big Red Machine of 75 and 76 had the greatest lineup of my lifetime, at least offensively. How does the 1976 team compare to the 1927 Yankees? This guy says they were better.