100 now and still going up. The pool beckons. It's mid 60's back in Cambria. Lana, who sometimes believes Cambria can be chilly, is lamenting how the heat "just knocks it out of her."
I didn't like the sweltering heat in humid climates, but the warmth here is entirely different. Stay hydrated, in a pool, shade or AC and you can enjoy the almost magical light
of the sun splashing over the mountains and desert.
(On the road)Fleeting and random quizzing while in transit.
Why does freeway traffic bunch and slow as it does when you are no where near an intersection, road construction, accident or any discernible cause of delay?
How do people put up with it, day after day. (My infrequent forays into the LA traffic sector smack me with the question. I can do it occasionally, but everyday?
How can 93 degrees at 10:00 PM feel cool? It does as we leave a restaurant between Cathedral City and Palm Springs. The 101 earlier in the day was moderated by a dip in a pool. It is true however "it's a dry heat?"
Why do some people get the "art genes?" It was fascinating to watch my friend Steve provide a tour of a sample of his extraordinary work of over 50 years. The attentive included Lana who is also compulsively creative and talented and our eldest Kristin who is following in the senior's footsteps. Watching artists discuss art is like looking on at a secret world where the words may be common but connote an unspoken magic.
My grandmother and her sisters used to call it "decoration day," the day you took flowers to decorate the graves. It was always a Memorial Day tradition, to take flowers to the cemetery and to listen to the Indianapolis 500, "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing," on the radio.
It is a weekend to remember, not only those who were lost in the service to our nation, or those who served, but to remember all of our family and loved ones.
My father and Mother, pictured above were diligent about remembering. That is probably why, whenever I am in Indiana, I visit the cemetery and place flowers.
This weekend I'm across the country, but I remember those trips over the decades. I also remember generations who now rest in peace, especially brothers John and Jim, taken in their prime.
John David
James D
If you wish, here is a beautiful moment of reflection.
NOW ABOUT SMILES
HERE'S SOMETHING TO PUT A SMILE INTO YOUR WEEKEND. BE SURE TO WATCH THIS.
Thanks to my friend The Travel Answerman John VanKirk
for the tip on this WEEKENDER'S :) Video. Take a European holiday from right there in your seat.
Hats off to Joege Niggli for a sensational piece of work.
NEW SCENES
FROM
THE OLD WEST
I shot these as the Friday Lunch Flash Mob, down in size due to the windy gale coming off the Pacific, celebrated the birthday of our pal John Madara.
An extraordinarily talented man, John was a father of
"The Philly Sound" and early rock and roll.
He wrote and/or produced many early hits including At the Hop-Danny and The Juniors, 1-2-3 by Len Barry, You Don't Own Me-Lesley Gore, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay-Danny and the Juniors.
For years John produced movie sound tracks, was music supervisor for television programs, produced Wayne Newton in Las Vegas, wrote music for TV specials and has recently
completed a musical screen play. A fascinating career for a dynamic and great guy. A personal aside-I enjoy watching John, watch a musician or band perform. His entire body seems to be measuring, processing and observing. Must be the hit maker producer at work. He can't help himself.
Hall of Fame and legendary radio news man Fred Heckman was my news director as I was breaking into a major metropolitan news scene.
"If Democrats and Republicans are both bitching about you, if liberals think you're a conservative and conservatives think you're a liberal then you're doing a good job. We are an equal opportunity offender."
Long before Fred's advice I'd read the wisdom of the
old "Sage of Baltimore" H.L. Mencken. The journalist, editor, essayist said the role of a journalist was to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."
Those formed my creedo in all of my years in journalism.
ENTER THE NEW AGE OF "NEWS"
I took delight in the story that university research finds that Fox News viewers are the least well informed.
Delight, I say, because Fox introduced deliberately staking out a political/philosophical position as a foundational rationale to their approach to news coverage.
Now some will argue "the liberal media bias" already existed and that Fox News was at least honest about where they were coming from. You might recall however they made their mantra "Fair and Balanced." In all honesty they were neither, but it was a brilliant positioning and marketing strategy developed by Roger Ailes. It immediately created the perception the other media was not fair or balanced.
Ailes started developing his idea when he was a partisan employee of Richard Nixon, the President with an enemies list, less than a harmonious relationship with the media, trouble with the truth and that little think called Watergate. Yes, that's when Ailes first started babbling about creating a network with a point of view.
My gripe is not so much with the politics as with the idea
of creating a "my side vs. your side" approach to news.
Back to the admonition of my old mentor. Doing it right has everyone angry at you. Conservatives, Republicans and right wingers probably find little to be upset with about Fox. But
perhaps now they should be. By adopting a "perspective" and hewing to a "party line" you destroy your claim to credibility
and damage the overall process. I'm not ignoring MSNBC.
They have responded by taking a liberal perspective.
Maybe in this age of satellite, cable, Internet and broadcast offerings there is room for networks who are lackeys for an ideology or point of view. Maybe, but they should not call themselves news or journalistic enterprises.
Bravo to the academics who are willing to test, measure and survey issues like quality of information, knowledge and such. Of course I can hear a few Fox viewers saying "well what do you expect from liberal academia?"
Roger Ailes is like putting draino in a wine bottle and calling it a well aged vintage. This report is a bit like a consumer taste test. Truth is just that.
DAY BOOK
A VISIT TO THE SHORE
How's that for a change of pace? See you down the trail.
I'd heard that packs of wild bucks had been rampaging through open spaces and through gardens on this side of the Pacific Coast Highway.
This morning Lana spotted a pack working on the green space just north of our place on the ridge.
As you view these inhabitants of Cambria please understand they evoke a wild swing of reaction from their two legged neighbors.
There are some who feed the deer, a practice generally frowned upon by most, including wild life experts.
There are others who fantasize about deer steaks and other cuts.
If only we could "thin" the herds, some say. Bring in hunters they clamor. Too dangerous in a village others will counter. Then bring in bow hunters is a response.
Listen carefully in the grocery, coffee shop or on the street and you'll hear people recount how their gardens have been trashed and what can or should be done about it. In the meantime the herd is growing and we've seen larger packs than in years past.
So far our deer fence has worked. Were it not for the fence, this pack of bucks would have been all over the blooms Lana is, this year, being able to enjoy. In the meantime we co-habitate, sharing roadways and green spaces, natural and cultivated. And the discussions continue. This is the old west and there are ways of controlling an over population. Ways that some would be eager to employ. I've enjoyed a dinner of deer on many occasions. The secret, a great bow hunter told me, is to fell a buck with a single shot to the heart, causing them to die rapidly without fright and without pumping adrenaline into the meat. I suspect this last paragraph may earn me an upbraiding from some. And a plaudit or two from others. And likely I'll hear it at Lilly's Coffee Shop, or the Cookie Crock Supermarket, or on the tennis court. Wherever, I will have had to drive carefully to get there. Guys like the fellow below are all over the place and seem to love to dash into the road. Does that say something about their intelligence?
Or is it just the verve and swagger of a young buck in the spring?
After the film moved from our favorite foreign and art house to a mainline cinema complex we figured we should finally check it out. So glad we did. This had gotten by us and after seeing it I can't understand why.
It is a marvelous little film with an engaging story, great acting, beautiful cinematography and is thoroughly enjoyable and uplifting.
Directed by Lasse Hallstrom (Chocolat, Gilbert Grape and Cider House Rules) the screenplay by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours and The Full Monty) is a joy to see play out. Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Kristin Scott Thomas and Amr Waked are all superb.
Given the credentials of all involved you can understand why it is such a first class film. I don't know whether we were out of sync or if the ad budgets are woefully low for this gem of a film.
As we talked it over we concurred that McGregor's acting was perfect and that the Kristin Scott Thomas role as
press secretary to the British Prime Minister spot on. The cast is good and even great all around.
As we used our pin hole lens to chart the progress of the eclipse and as I viewed photos sent by friends and media coverage I was struck by a realization. Though we live with amazing communication technology, build empires, farm in arid lands, change the course of rivers, and are stunned by IPO's and Idol shows, all of those things that might make humans think we are planetary powers, we are still awe struck and marvel at a force of nature over which we have no control. And in that was the kernel of the realization.
After all is said and done, we are barely more than the first bipeds who watched an eclipse. We may "know" the science behind it but we are still just inhabitants of a blue planet staring at the center of our solar system and watching a cosmic ballet and marvel at it.
GREEN SPACE HELPS TELL THE STORY
The history of Chinese influence on this part of the Central Coast has been advanced thanks to a project of
Greenspace The Cambria Land Trust.
The Chinese Temple, an artifact of the time when Chinese were part of the Cambria cultural mix has been restored, curated and just opened to the public.
Historical items are painstakingly displayed inside the the Temple.
Greenspace opened the Temple to public display and included an historical timeline, telling the story behind the Temple at its current location.
The Temple was part of a complex of buildings that grew up in the area of Cambria where the Chinese lived.
Once standing alone, the Temple was incorporated into what was known as "The Red House" as the Chinese cultural heritage consolidated into one location as the population began to diminish. The Temple was that portion of the building marked by the white tag.
The temple was built in 1885. In 1925 it became part of the Red House, the Chinese cultural center. Eventually it languished for decades.
Greenspace Photo
In 2007 Greenspace moved the Temple to its current location and began external restoration.
Greenspace Photo
Greenspace Photo
The inside work was completed this year and the Red Temple is now the jewel in the beautiful Greenspace Creekside Reserve on Center Street in Cambria's historic East Village.
The Chinese flourished in this area in the 19th Century. In northern San Luis Obispo County many were kelp harvesters. The product was gathered, dried, processed and shipped to China. Earlier the Chinese helped build the west coast rail lines and then worked in the Cinnebar mines. They've been described as tireless and fearless workers, picking at rock and mountains.
Local historians report that when George Hearst obtained coast land, he pushed the Chinese out of the area by shoving their bluff and cliff side homes into the Pacific. He was the father of William Randolph Hearst the builder of the castle at San Simeon. For a variety of reasons the Chinese eventually left this area of the central coast and migrated to San Francisco where a vibrant culture remains. I'm sorry there is not a larger Chinese population on this part of the Central Coast. I'm grateful Greenspace has done such a marvelous job of capturing and preserving the history. If you get to Cambria, make a point of touching this part of history. See you down the trail.
