Eva Cassidy - Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain

Whale of a time

Had a cool experience today. A friend of Leslie's invited us to participate in a whale watching trip out of Oceanside this afternoon.

Forty five people went out, but not only was it a good time on the water but also a high energy music and meditation session.

I believe that the ringleader was a friend of Leslie's named Tania, who does periodic tibetan bowl grooves at the Hilltop Center.

Vern and Renée accompanied us.

Everybody there seemed very warm and conscious.

The music was powerful, the giant gongs and drums announcing our approach to the cetaceans and ocean dwellers like a cacophonous Roman Galleon.

The whale watching tour company was Oceanside Adventures. Very nice and professional crew.

We ran into a lot of dolphins but unfortunately no whales today. Didn't affect my happiness in the least.

A couple people who work on the dock said that military maneuvers were scaring the whales away.

It was pretty socked in and overcast. Nice to be out on the water but not ideal for photography.

I really didn't have it today and didn't care, frankly. Fumbling around and nothing really presented.

Brought the nikkor 70-200mm 2.8 vr with a teleconverter but it was either too close or too far and I never did dial it all in.

I feel bad that I don't use that lens enough. It was expensive and is great, particularly for portraits. But it is big and solid and metal and bulky and not really comfortable on your body the way the 24 -70mm is. Still, good to get it out once in a while.

Pissed that I missed the Luiseño Powwow this year. It was a perfect lens for that. Last week, never got the word.

Not having much luck with photography, I played a few tibetan and crystal bowls and had myself a good time. Might even get my old tibetan bowls out of the cupboard and play one of these days. Would like to go back out on the boat too. He said they had a special $29.00 sunset cruise sometime during the week. Like to rent the whole boat for my sixtieth birthday, with a bunch of pals. Grey whales might be happening in early November, who knows?

It seems very quintessentially California, a nice om session for the whales, humans and dolphins.

Told Vern I really couldn't see it happening back in Tuscaloosa or somewhere like that. You know, the people that think that we Californians are so weird.

The dorje bell and bowl group thing was just really nice. Drummer was amazing and powerful. The sound was clean and illuminating.

Someone had a dij. We did a lot of this sort of thing in the seventies and eighties. New thing for the boat company and I think that they liked it.

My idea would be to put a speaker underwater and see how the ocean animals dig the frequency we were producing.

I hope that Tania does this again. I will let you know. This one filled up fast.

I am a quite cynical man and I found it fun and refreshing.Very far out.

Afterwards we had a very nice meal at a new place for me, 608. I look forward to writing about it soon. Highly recommended.

Al Green - What am I gonna do with myself?

Young egret, Lindo Lake

Zephyr - I'm not Surprised

Birdbrain

Leslie and I did the swap meet in Long Beach this weekend. First time selling outside in about 17 years. Cut our teeth out there.

It felt good to be out on the pavement, unleash my inner New York barker. I almost forgot about him. We made money, on cheap stuff, let it go. Got swarmed.

Hot as hell out there, didn't have time to catch a breath or walk around much. Bought a new popup tent, sure is easier than putting pipes together like in the old days. Guess if things ever get really bad, I can head back to the asphalt, where our business was born.

I decided that I owed myself a day yesterday with the new lens, which I am still learning to use. Very few people are instant successes at everything or even anything and only fools think they can instantly master new technology. It takes me a while but I am finally getting it.

This lens is spooky sharp. I can now do things I could never do before. I am about to hit you with a bunch of pictures. Please click on one to see all of them full size.

I drove down to Santee in the afternoon. Cool spots down there for birdwatching. First Lindo Lake. Some whacked out looking motorhomers were feeding black crowned night herons, albeit against the rules. Little jewel of a lake for birds.

Most of these shots were taken from ƒ2.8 to F3.2. Incredible low light lens on my great low light camera, the Nikon D7200, which has now been fine tuned. Made quite a difference.

I saw egrets up in the eucalyptus trees, like last time I was there but this time I could capture them perfectly with the fast new nikkor 400mm ƒ2.8 fl telephoto. Just marvelous, I would say. Can't wait for my next outing. Can't wait for Yellowstone later this summer. This lens is everything I ever hoped for and I can even hand hold it for a few minutes before I collapse.

I finished up at Lindo and decided to drive over to Santee Lakes. Only cost three dollars and I still had a few hours. Took about a thousand shots. Could bore you to tears with bird shots.

In the far distance I saw an osprey flying around carrying a huge bass. Sadly he didn't fly close enough for me to get a great capture. But you certainly get the idea.

Big ass fish. Got home in the twilight, tired and famished but saw a hummer in the tree. One last picture!

Caledonia Mission

Evil Istari

I recognize that if I get geeky and mention J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of The Rings, it is quite possible that I will lose many of you, hopefully only temporarily. Although I abhorred the film adaptation, count me in as a major fan of the books of Middle Earth.

The reason I bring it up is that I was listening to Lawrence O'Donnell in the car on the way home and he had talking heads on discussing the bold Trump agenda that got him elected. Remember that massive agenda? Build a wall, the Mexicans will pay for it, kill Obamacare, rebuild infrastructure, give the wealthy a big tax cut, a big slough of fat promises.

Promises that at this point, with the worst popularity numbers ever recorded by an American President, frankly don't have a snowball's chance in hell of ever coming to fruition. And most sane people at this point see that the guy inhabiting the oval office is plainly unhinged, if not a sociopathic lunatic, although he is the conservative horse and his base remains largely unaffected and unwilling to dismount.

Saruman - Hildebrandt Brothers

I think he has a doppelganger in the Lord of the Rings. No, not Sauron, he isn't smart enough or maybe even evil enough for that job. Saruman.

To you non Tolkienphiles, Saruman is the head of the Istari, a group of five wizards who come to battle the forces of evil in middle Earth. But Saruman has the power to ensnare in his voice and many are trapped by his promises.

His voice is so powerful that Gandalf himself almost falls under his spell.

Saruman falls from grace, loses his magic and becomes a wicked cartoon of his past nobility. He tries to seize the ultimate power and rule from the ancient fortress of Orthanc at isengard. His deceit is unmasked and finally his staff is broken by Gandalf.

Tolkien writes that the Istari's chief temptation (and that to which Saruman fell) is impatience, leading to a desire to force others to do good, and then to a simple desire for power. Because he has the power of charm in his voice that can snare the witless. And he acts like him in many ways. I was reading a British scholar named Tom Shippey's notes on the subject and something he wrote rang true.

Saruman talks like a politician ... No other character in Middle-earth has Saruman's trick of balancing phrases against each other so that incompatibles are resolved, and none comes out with words as empty as 'deploring', 'ultimate', worst of all, 'real'. What is 'real change'?"

Real? Fake? Does't it sound surprisingly familiar. I am not going to draw this out but after Saruman's agenda is thwarted he decides to leave a mark by destroying whatever he can in the Shire, the birthplace of his principal antagonists.

Donald gazes into the palantir of Orthanc

And I thought back to Trump. Pull out of Paris, bring back mountaintop removal for coal mining, pulling back regs on ozone, methane, dangerous chemicals, gut the EPA, destroy the school system, shrink the National Parks, do everything in his power to destroy the positive legacy of his predecessors.

When Frodo meets Sharkey at the end of Return of the King, in the company of Wormontongue, he offers him a way out of his predicament but Saruman says that he will get more satisfaction out of seeing the hobbits pain at witnessing the destruction he has caused in the Shire.

And I think that is pretty close to what we have going on in Washington today with our President. His pride is excessive, his wrath is white hot, his anger palpable and in the end he only wishes to smite those that would thwart him and destroy all that is good. Donald, your staff is broken.

Death Valley monochrome

Tracy Nelson and Mother Earth

Daily Grind

Les at the grinder

My god, the blog looks so frilly. That won't last long. Was reading the daily stupidity index, wait that is not p.c., I forgot, these people are merely ignorant, scuci.

Seven percent of all American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, according to a nationally representative online survey commissioned by the Innovation Center of U.S. Dairy.

In case you need me to do the math, that is approximately 16.4 million fellow Americans that you are currently sharing the oxygen and driving on the same roads with.

The article continues:

...in some populations, confusion about basic food facts can skew pretty high. When one team of researchers interviewed fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders at an urban California school, they found that more than half of them didn’t know pickles were cucumbers, or that onions and lettuce were plants. Four in 10 didn’t know that hamburgers came from cows. And 3 in 10 didn’t know that cheese is made from milk.

Three in ten didn't know cheese came from milk? Wow.

I need to study the whole dumb quotient more carefully. I remember that a very high number of high schoolers couldn't find Mexico on a map. I found an old study and its even more terrible than that, 11% of American students couldn't find the United States on a map. Probably worse now.

Alan Caron wrote a nice article on this trend to idiocy last year that I will now cannibalize titled America is suffering from a dangerous knowledge deficit. 

Eighteen percent of Americans believe that the sun revolves around the Earth.
Forty-two percent of Americans believe God created human beings less than 10,000 years ago.
Three out of four Republicans in the U.S. Senate and half of those in the House deny the validity of climate change.
Only 40 percent know we have 100 senators in the U.S. Congress.
For the first time in America’s history, this generation will be less educated than the last. Where we once led the world in the number of young people with college degrees, we’re now in 12th place.

It is really disheartening but does add a little perspective when you start wondering why certain folks might have been elected.

This man says American stoopid is a matter of ignorance, not stupidity. Whatever.

Eddie 'Playboy' Taylor

Shakedown voyage

A friend in Fallbrook has a large private lake that teems with bird life. I don't like to bug him but arranged to shoot the new nikkor 400mm 2.8 fl there this morning to put it through its initial paces.

Stuck it on the Wimberley gimbal head and the heavy duty Induro tripod.

There were a bunch of ducks, including galinules and ruddy ducks, pied billed grebes, other stuff.

Not real happy about the focus so I took it over to Ken's this afternoon. We set up a canted yardstick to shoot at and fine tuned the camera to the lens as well as to the tc - 14eII teleconverter and lens combo.

I hope that I can dial it in soon. It passed some tough and rigorous inspections so it is obviously a case of driver error.

Will switch the VR off and play with a few things.

Try to get it right.

Paul Butterfield Blues Band: live Newport 1965

Sing me back home

I went to the fair yesterday with Leslie and two of our favorite gal pals, Corrie and Renee.

I was going as a strict civilian, just enjoying myself, no camera but the phone, so don't expect nothin' special.

We headed first for the flower exhibits. Mostly glads, orchids, dahlias and roses out yesterday.

It is admittedly difficult for me to say this but in all modesty, our glads back home had nothing to be shamed about in this bunch. In fact they may have picked up a prize or two.

But the dahlias were so amazing. Probably my favorite all time show flower but I don't think I have ever actually grown them.

There were so many and they were all stunning. The flower arranging was nice too, as it is every year.

Of course the fair is not the fair without eating some toxic and disgusting grub. I started with an ear of corn, graduated to the chocolate covered bacon, shared an eclair and then downed a bratwurst and kraut at Roxie.

I can happily report that I laid off the Krispy Kreme triple cheeseburger, the fried oreos and the bacon wrapped chicken. That is strength and fortitude.

We made our way to the gem and mineral collection and then the fine woodworking.

New shoes with cheap orthotic gels, feet in general insurrection mode so I walked over to the paddock to get a seat on the grass for the concert and take a load off. Leslie went over to see Collective Soul, said they were great.

Charley and Elvin were playing together with only a keyboard, bass, guitar player, jack of all trades named Bob Welsh for accompaniment. Last time I saw them at Slims, they both had big bands, guess it is a cheaper way to ride and tour this way.

Did you know that Elvin was a National Merit Scholar who majored in physics? Charlie mentioned that they hadn't ever played much together, even though they both cut their teeth in Chicago at the same time. They mentioned their favorite respective south and west side blues clubs.

Took them a few songs to find a flow but they did. Charley mentioned that they had a hundred years of the blues between them. Not a great mix. They got to the song old school and it started really sounding pretty good. Hints of the electric wizardry that powered the Butterfield Band when they were the gold standard in Psych blues. And Charlie is just so damn good.

Not to keep bagging on the age thing but it was the oldest crowd I have ever been a part of, I was the spring chicken, didn't see any oxygen tanks but was definitely hit by the thought that the aficionados of the kind of music I like are not getting any younger. Hope to score the Depends™ concession one day.

We bailed and drove to Escondido and then north. Found a sixties and a soul station and all sang our way home at full volume. Very fun and nice night.