Living After Your Own Fashion-A Henry Miller Primer and Beware of the Yellow Dirt

ASPIRING TO BE NONE OTHER THAN HIMSELF

      Wind from the Pacific drives the rain and blows it across the grazing slopes, hard onto decks, pounding it into the rocky bluffs and the sand at the shore. It blows a Henry Miller February Rain and loosens pensive jottings like a current of thought reaching from nights long ago along Big Sur, Ragged Point, San Simeon and Cambria gathered now in a timeless eddy.

      Miller, the experimental, category busting and banned  author arrived in Big Sur in a February wind-pushed rain like the event that soaks the world beyond the window behind my computer screen, down the jagged coast highway from his point of arrival. Miller observed that poet Robinson Jeffers sang of this region and before him Jack London drew inspiration. 
      Comparable to regions of the Mediterranean or the Scottish coast, with a climate and vibe of its own, it captivates thinkers and form breakers. First citizens saw their ancients, moderns sense spirits, artists and writers are inspired and naturalists are awed where mountains, sea and forest commune. Miller wrote of these things in telling of the  people he met and the influence of this place on them.

       I've been slow reading and absorbing his 1957 work

Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch. Since the late 60's I have taken emotional, spiritual and creative sustenance from Big Sur and the central coast. Big Sur was the power that brought us here to live. It is the place that renews and nurses life's fraying. And so Miller's tome is a bit of an inner echo. I see evidence in our village of this special natural-psycho-bio clime.

       In his neighbors he found "Ideal material for the making of community." He wrote they may have "arrived from different paths, each with their own purpose and one as different from the other as marbles from dice." In Cambria,  rich in history and independence, we too see our "characters." Living here induces an authenticity. The people Miller saw were "all somewhat peculiar" or "naturals." 

      "Each and everyone of them fed up with the scheme of things and determined to free themselves of the treadmill, lead their own lives...None of them demanding anything more fantastic of life than the right to live after their own fashion."
      To append Miller, I wonder if life itself cannot cast you on waves that wash you onto your own shore of desiring to live after your own fashion. But I'm stuck on knowing why some take a trail where others stick to the highway. I was struck by this as I read Bruce Taylor's blog wherein he pondered how he transformed from the kid in his high school graduation photo to "the old pirate" in the more recent photo.
        These characters are around us whether in our urban climes or on a rocky coast or forest. Perhaps that pirate, artist, bohemian, rascal or whatever lurks within and needs only the slightest invitation to come alive, a place, a group or a friend. 

WASH AWAY THAT YELLOW DIRT

    The Jimmy Seals and Dash Crofts tune from the 1970's came to mind when we returned to find our home coated in yellow dirt.

    Simply a brush against an object and clothing was painted.

  Pine trees had candled and then a wind did its bidding. A neighbor said it was such that a "yellow out" blinded the ridge line. She said it was impossible to see the mountains or  anything beyond a couple of feet.

   And so now our long desired rain can wash us, too.

   See you down the trail.

  

IT'S WILD and NOT SO

SHOW TIME

   There's been an unusual amount of commotion along the Cambria to San Simeon shoreline this year.

Photo by Mike Griffin

   The warmer ocean has brought an extraordinary number of humpback whales closer to shore.

    It is a great enjoyment to hear the oohs and ahhs and wonderment of tourists who maybe seeing their first whale up close.

   The Central Coast has been a beautiful western stage this summer.

BEARS

     I am an unabashed fan and enthusiast of Yosemite National Park, wishing that everyone could visit and feel the experience.

     The park prepares excellent video reports and this piece on bears, featuring some almost unbelievable historic footage is too good not to share with readers of this blog.

Enjoy.

A SLO TREASURE

  We recently discovered the Leaning Pine Arboretum on the Cal Poly campus in San Luis Obispo.  What a jewel it is!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

    See you down the trail.

LIGHTS AT THE CASTLE and BETWEEN TAKES ON THE TODAY SHOW-BACK THEN

YULE NIGHTS

 We had the good fortune of an invitation to see the Christmas decorations at San Simeon, the Hearst Castle.

   It is a visual blitz of texture, detail and history.

 Halls are decked.

 The juxtaposition of the tapestries hint at multi dimensional story lines.

 The kitchen is a world unto itself.

  It was a windy and foggy night on the mountain as we moved around the massive grounds.

   

A visit to the indoor pool, beneath the tennis courts, 
before our drive down the mountain to reality.

Some nights as I stand gazing at the deep star field arching from the coastal mountains to the wide sea it's easy to imagine that six miles up the Pacific coast the Hearst Castle is a door to another world. Crossing the threshold is magical.

THROWBACK 

JANE PAULEY & TOM

   The Today Show broadcast live from Indianapolis in the mid '80s.  As the local NBC affiliate anchor we did live reports around the NBC Today Show live telecast.  During a break Jane Pauley and I chat.  We were friends from her pre television days in Indianapolis.  We shared a high school speech and debate instructor as well.  Jane remains one of the most authentic people who have achieved great celebrity. 

HUNGERING FOR MORE?

    The Hunger Games Mocking Jay is not as good as the first two films in what has now become a franchise. Jennifer Lawrence is still exceptional as is Donald Sutherland as the contemptible character President Snow. Julianne Moore was especially good in this installment. Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Elizabeth Banks continue in their well portrayed character roles. Same for Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth. Acting is not the issue, it is the thinning of impact and weakening of integrity that happens when a good idea gets overplayed.  

    Hunger Games was always about being a commercial success, but the narrative theme and social comment woven into the dystopian drama had more impact in the first book and films. Now it is beginning to feel like serial and as good as she is, we know Lawrence is capable of more than the script is giving her.

    Still, there are moments. The frightening politics of a too powerful state, of huge economic gaps, of surrendered liberties and a manipulative media are still vivid. I also thought of Syria, Iraq and Libya when viewing the affect of war on communities.  

    It's time to resolve this conflict, for liberty and justice to prevail and for Donald Sutherland/President Snow to get his smug face and well coiffed beard stomped in the muck, at least. On further consideration, it may be those widening economic divisions that undergirds the sense of justice that flys with the Mocking Jay.

   See you down the trail.

THE AIRLINER MYSTERY and A THUNK ON THE HEAD

THE WORLD'S ATTENTION

    It's the kind of mystery most of us connect with. We could imagine ourselves or a loved one being on board. We are surprised to learn despite, our presumptions, it is easy to lose an airplane. Those transponders, radar blips, engine tracking computers, air control towers, radio frequencies and etc. are more tenuous than we might like to think about.

    Coffee chatter in Cambria is no more informed than anywhere else, but we are populated by pilots-civilian and military, airline employees, engineers, frequent travelers with well used passports and some well informed folk. So the local buzz is hot.

    "It was an inside job." 

    "Someone knew how to cut all of the plane's signals." 

    "It landed somewhere before the search began." 

    "Some one hacked into the guidance systems."

    "It went down in deep water."

    "Maybe it was like a Bermuda Triangle thing."

     And on and on and on.  

     It's odd how some things grab the world's attention.  Ukraine, Russia, Crimea, violent weather, Venezuela, stock prices and more are there to occupy our minds, but the missing plane trumps them all.

     An unresolved mystery can not be ignored, even if we supply, mostly, conjecture, guessing and whole cloth fabrication. It keeps the talkers talking and the listeners wondering.

THE EUCALYPTUS ATTACK OF SAN SIMEON

     Frequent readers know about our Friday lunch flash mob that assembles each week below the famed Hearst Castle. It's like a continuing lunch hour confab.

    Notice those Eucalyptus trees in the background?

    Well, one of them decided to offer up a branch to the assembled luncheon mob. 

   Trouble! It came down directly on Lana's head and Diane's face and Ruth's arm.

  Lana has a knot on her head and a headache.  Diane may end up with a shiner. She thinks the cut on her lip could limit her kissing time.

   And then at a neighboring table, temporarily unoccupied, food left in the basket, a thief swoops in and makes off with a sandwich while an accomplice ends up empty handed, or beaked, as it were.

    Some of life's turns are easier to take than others. And in some, you find gold.

   See you down the trail.