FALL'S EYE PLEASURE and GONE GIRL AS A JOKE?

AUTUMN PAINT

  Tis the time of year when the blogosphere fills with fall color. Here's a contribution.

   Mid October in the Sierra Nevada is a treat. Providence provides a majestic palette.

   Perpetual gratitude to Ruth Armstrong who first alerted us to the wonders of the eastern slope and to Art Edis who suggested a fall color expedition in the June Lake region.

     Color hunters from around the globe share the mountain roads, lakesides and vistas in a joyful and hushed reverence. 

GONE GIRL

a divergent view

   The David Fincher film based on Gillian Flynn's well read book and powerfully written screen play is getting a lot of buzz. Fincher is a superb director and superb too are actors Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike and Kim Dickens. Pike's role is award nomination worthy. Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry bring a lot in their small but important supporting roles.

   Some reviews have focused on the tight intrigue and mystery while others have plumbed the portrayal of marriage, manipulative madness, deceit and how truth can be quite a relative thing.  Fincher does all of that while moving a compelling story line ahead.  All of this is good.  Some of this is serious.  The brutality and deceit are troubling.  Still I left the theatre thinking what a clever joke it had been. I don't know if that is because of Flynn's writing or Fincher's directing or my sense of things after a life in journalism.

    Gone Girl was entertaining, with an emotional ride, but in the end was a kind of satire.  Look at how silly the media, especially cable news, and stories that spark feeding frenzy mobs really are. What does it say about the media and those who consume this stuff?  Look at how mercurial are fame and reputation.  Look at how vulnerable and relative "truth" is.  Look how a clever and deceptive mind can lead police, justice and media astray. Look at what happens in relationships.  Look what is says about honesty in being who you are.  Yep, Gone Girl does all of that and I think Fincher and company did it all in such a way that at the end we really need to chuckle and perhaps shake our heads. 

     I suspect most viewers wonder what happens next. You may have your own theory. The audience at our viewing left with a range of reaction and vocally so, which I understand happens with this film. Intense, even searching drama it was, but I wonder how many may see the humor in it all?

     See you down the trail

    

A SPECIAL FEELING-THE WEEKENDER

DOES IT WORK ON YOU?

     It was a late autumn afternoon when mom told me to put on a jacket and my tennis shoes.  She said we were going for a walk, one I'll never forget.

     I was a typical pre-teen boy, interested only in basketball and football and never seemed to see much else in the world.  On this afternoon we walked to a city park, full of oaks, elms, maples and sycamores.  It is the first time I remember seeing leaves afire in oranges, reds, yellows and rust.  Honestly, never noticed the colors before, at least not in a way that registered.  Sure I remember raking dry old brown and crisp leaves and building leaf forts, but on this particular afternoon my world gained a sense of color.

    I still enjoy the color and again this year our drive took us to the eastern slope of the high Sierra.

A MELLOW WEEKENDER

VIDEO DOUBLE PLAY

   Here are a couple of versions you may not be familiar with, but they will provide you with a quarter hour of memories.

   First the incredible Eva Cassidy illustrated by the paintings of Leonid Afremov. 

    And the styling of Eric Clapton

   Happy leaf hunting.

   See you down the trail.

IN THE SIERRA

UPPING THE ALTITUDE

     Tall pines and towering peaks create a jagged and spired frame. The night is deep, a sky rich with stars.  Wind rakes through trees and the night hums with a Sierra wind as pines whisper sing and aspen rattle. The air is crisp, intoxicating with energy and mountain scent. A meteor rips the star field, and leaves a shinning trail. My legs quake as though the mountain electrifies.
      This part of the range is between 9 and 12 thousand feet. Rock and granite peaks that nestle high meadows and alpine lakes. 

    Three hours of climbing put us a little shy of 11 thousand.  Both of us felt the altitude.  The payoff though was majestic scene after scene and moments for precious meditation.

MOUNTAIN ENERGY

      Evening clouds in the eastern Sierra, south of Yosemite
near June Lake. 

     Wake up sunshine.

A CLASSIC

       A recent moment in the Carson Peak Steakhouse, a mountain staple.  For more than 50 years diners have enjoyed  steak and trout in this eastern slope hide away, in the  forest outside the mountain village. 

GOOD ENERGY

      At a lodge a waiter from Hawaii who came here in a snow storm many years ago, says this part of the Sierra is a kind of energy vortex.  He seems to be a mellow and happy man.
     There are more happy notes, coming.

      See you down the trail.     

    

WINNERS-LOSERS-GAMBLERS-SLOTS IN THE LAKE?

YOU-WE-WON!

    Watch dog groups and the political press have calculated that despite the billions spent on obnoxious advertising, it had little or no affect on how we voted.

THE BIGGEST LOOSER

Photo courtesy of Patrick T. Fallon New York Times

    Chump #1 ---Sherman Adelson, the casino magnate who dumped millions including on Newt Gingrich. The New York Times reports he spent tens of millions on 8 candidates, all of whom lost.

THE BIGGEST JACK ASS

     I'm surprised a New Yorker has not flattened this idiot's nose.  His team of body guards are effective.  His latest tirade, including calls for a "revolution" make him the number one candidate for western civilization's most egotistical fool. 

    He's a con man and hustler who NBC should drop after his latest temper tantrum. NBC Anchor Brian Williams made note of Trump's tweets on election night.

"Donald Trump, who has driven well past the last exit to relevance and peered into something closer to irresponsible here, is tweeting tonight" 

    Maybe the Peacock network could stage an ultimate fighting match between the two.

OPPOSITION RESEARCH

    I offer these thoughts realizing they may provoke a firestorm of response as did yesterday's post.

MITT ROMNEY

     He was a shape shifter. A true moderate by Massachusetts standards who posed as a conservative to win the Republican nomination.  Then he tried to shift back to the center and may be the only candidate in modern history who can claim a 360 degree position on every issue.

PRESIDENT OBAMA

     Insular, self confident, trash talking in hoops cocky, and smugly detached from those he disdains.  Extraordinarily bright and professorial but his disdain for the kind of one on one salesmanship or "backslapping" helpful in the job has diminished his power. Think of his personal style vis a vis Reagan or Clinton. 

     He's a great speech maker and had an incredible political organization.  Now he needs to demonstrate an adroit use of power to guide "the ship of state through the shoals." He needs to stretch himself.

A CLOSING TRIBUTE TO ALL THE GAMBLERS-

THE SLOT ROCK

     Fishermen try their luck in June Lake.  
     Is there also a cache of one armed bandits?

   The legend of the June Lake Slot Machines is told in this historical monument.  Colorful, legend, lore and rumor. Presented by one of the gold country's historical players,
E. Clampus Vitus.
Learn more about ECV here at the wikipedia link

   A modern old west tale.

   See you down the road.

THE BOULDER

A MATTER OF BALANCE

The scene is from near June Lake California.
The boulder is one of those fascinating balancing acts of nature.
The sign reminds me of a miserable cold time in childhood
when I heard my dad use unusual words as he 
wrestled with twisted and rusted chains on a bitter cold night when we were driving home in the old Buick Roadmaster. 

Photo Courtesy of auto.howstuffworks.com
Hard to imagine a beast like the Roadmaster not
having traction.
We had 4-door model, large enough that
when we made our trips to Colorado, my brother John and I had what was almost a "room" in the back seat.  He had a bed on the seat and I had a full cot that fit between the front and back seat and still left room for our legs when we were just sitting.
I guess with a car that heavy, you want to make sure you get traction. Snow tires came after the old Roadmaster
was retired.  
BTW-Since our move to California, we have avoided those higher elevations where as the sign says
"chains are required."
But I'd love to have that old Roadmaster.
See you down the trail.

BEYOND HUMAN SCALE

AWESOME

              The Sierra is a profound face of this planet.

     An October system brews over Tioga Pass.

    The range creates or builds a unique whether and climate. It breeds a bio/botanical environment in a rugged and wild beauty.

 Morning sun lights up a mountain wall in the June Lake region.

     Nature is a bold and massive exclamation, offering views that reboot the mind.

   

 Alpine lakes tuck between peaks at 7,500-10,500 altitude.

     These mountains can be spiritual and soul stirring. More exquisite than imagination while defining a perspective. The frailty of human strength goes up as an ablution.   

Mount Tallac 9,735 ft Near Richardson Camp

   They celebrate a purity as they rise toward the heavens. Ponder the imagination that went into creating these scenes.

Shadows, morning sun and moonlight.

     Mountains have a power on me. As kids we made trips to Colorado to spend time with my father's cousin who was homesteading above Boulder.  The Rockies took hold of something in my heart.  Dad took us to or through the Great Smokies a few times and again the mountains were magnetic. 

         We count as a blessing that we live so near the Sierra

and close to California Mountain Ranges.
      Looking at these mountains dwarf all the hype, hub-bub and hoopla of our human drama of the campaign. Those granite spires were here long before us and they will remain.
      See you down the trail.