escaping and gobsmacked

     A Miles Davis set blended nicely into a Horace Silver quintet piece as the Pacific coast glided along through the windshield. Southbound on Highway One, watching the cobalt blue sky and turquoise Pacific wash away dystopian blues.

      Nature was giving me a brain massage, kneading away the freak show that is Washington. Art Blakey, and then Ella and Lee Morgan bringing life back to a moribund sense of hope. Being spiked up with the sheer beauty of the California coast, as far away from the evil spell as I can be.  Destination-a better mind set and Morro Bay.

     When we visited as tourists, California was always a mind cleanser. We'd come from back east wired up with the ways of politics and intrigues and work. A few breaths of air, the heat of the sun and the Cali culture made all of that seem so silly, other worldly, curious and far away.

     Feeling Highway 1 under the wheels, and in the groove the liberation spirit was rising and I had a mission.

       Oysters, from Giovanni's on the embarcadero was my assignment for a daughter's birthday party tomorrow. We've been buying oysters and fish from this waterfront since our first adventure in never never land in the late 60's. I love the product of the local fishermen, the staff, and to people watch. I was a  tourist here once and I catch a nostalgic vibe each time I see folks enjoying a vacation and cuing up in line for the take away or being dazzled by the counter case offerings.

      Today, there was some other blue magic. Black and red magic too.

     The Woodies are in town.

    Woodies at a California Surf Shop! That's about as far from the Senate and this White House that you can get, right?

    I heard a woman say to her mate, "You know you're getting old when you remember the Woodies." His retort, "Or when you don't get 'em very often." They snickered and so did a few others milling about. 

     So maybe the Saturday Night Live skits "The Californians" make you smile. We laugh too. But right now California life makes a lot more sense than Washington stupidity and seems a lot healthier as well.
      Here's a man that get's my vote-a man with a real skill and who has them waiting in line

    Cruising back up the 1, with Coltrane, Indy's own Wes Montgomery, Marsalis, Parker and Dizzy I felt better and got it through my head that all things change and pass. Whether you call it karma, universal balance, divine justice, or whatever, action gets responded to with reaction and so it has ever been. 

    I also know I'd rather spend a day on the California coast than in a Senate hearing room. You know, I knew that years ago, but needed simply to get out there and breath it, feel it, enjoy it. I'm not going out on a limb here when I say you can breath it, feel it, and enjoy it wherever you are. It's life and we only have one. We should not let fools, idiots, liars and ideologues take that from us. There are days for fighting, and there are days for recharging. Peace.

    See you down the trail. 

INSPIRED II

A DOSE OF GOOD MEDICINE

   This is a new top to a post that drew much interest. It has been revised. We gathered these images on a visit with dear friends. It was a tonic.
   Now this focus is brought to our current political rumble, which includes a fight with the media. We'll revisit that below. 

INSPIRED

   Frequent readers remember I'm a First Amendment fanatic. I'm the kind of goof who reads the Declaration of Independence each Fourth of July, and who is adamant about protecting our liberties and who holds dear the extraordinary set of bones upon which this republic hangs-the Constitution.

  All of us are entitled the full extension of  rights, privileges and responsibilities laid out for us by the founders, protected by sacrifices through generations and increased by our perpetually growing enlightenment. 

   So Washington DC is the touchstone, in so many ways.

   Ingrained in the raison d'être of these monuments and memorials are intellects, sacrifices, leadership, vision and a devotion to an ideal-a nation where all live in equality. 
   Personalities who have risen to lead are honored, beyond their days, as a challenge to us in our time.  These stone reminders are a tonic. We are humbled and inspired by what we see and remember.

Memorial to journalists killed in the line of duty.

Newseum, Washington DC

     Service personnel and journalists have given much, including their all so that we may know and live free. They inspire me.
   Politicians who rise above petty politics to move the arc of history as statesmen inspire me.

    Temples that celebrate the best of our creative dreams,  reaching and artistic output, inspire and offer a healing balm.

    And so our divided and dysfunctional Congress, beleaguered Presidency and questionable Supreme Court do not detract from the wide and long sweep of the true greatness that can and has emerged in and from this Capitol of human longings and achievement. It is not perfect.  None of the heroes who are memorialized were perfect. Like all of us, they had feet of clay and were made of the same star matter. 
   We have eras of which to be proud and periods of shame and embarrassment but it is always on a human scale, moving toward an ideal, an inch, a day, a moment at a time.

    So I take from all of it an inspiration and renewed zeal to stay stalwart in my belief that all of us, regardless of birthright, are children under the same heaven, brothers and sisters of planet earth. I may not like you, I may not agree with you, but neither that, nor how and who you were born should stand between you and full equality, even in a church.

    Your color, your gender, your ethnic heritage, your sexual orientation, your physical or mental challenges simply make you a human being, entitled to the full privileges of life.

    I thank the good Lord for a vision that it is so, and for a nation where we get better at making it so and for a place where we build monuments and temples to remind us to make sure it is always so and to recall those who have said so.
   
    Afterthoughts in this political season. Reporters and other journalists have been barred by the Trump campaign. That is stupid and it is wrong. It is also critical to note.
   If there is anything our generation should take from the history of 1933 forward is the rise of Hitler, his coopting of workers and his use of power. We witness warning signs and similar behavior. Trying to manipulate the press is troubling.
    Recourse? Some have suggested a fight back-refuse to cover his candidacy. If one outlet is barred, no coverage from everyone else. That may "vent," but it's not right nor effective.
My friend Frank, who hosted our Washington visit observes it keenly.
      "The media is always stuck between principles (protesting this kind of treatment) and responsibility (continuing to report on craziness.)
     This election offers American voters an opportunity to do a reality check and to think in view of US history and all that implies.
     

    See you down the trail.

AN IGNORED WARNING

LIFE IN FAST FORWARD

PHOTO FROM JIMMY CARTER LIBRARY

    The "hot line" direct communication link between Moscow and Washington went into service on this day in 1963.  It took 12 hours to decode, translate and respond to Nikita Kruschev's message months earlier during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

    By the time the hot line was on Jimmy Carter's desk, the technology had evolved. The dinosaur phone in the picture, once was the picture of modernity.

     49 years after the groundbreaking channel of instant communication we have come to this:

YouTube's Election hub, a child of the internet, which has revolutionized communication. Social media fueled the "Arab-Spring" and now Phillip DeFranco, the lad on the left who began his program in his basement, has more viewers than Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow and even Jon Stewart's daily show.

     DeFranco is one of the multiple offerings on YouTube's election site which puts the director's call of what to air into your hands, truly at your finger tips and on the screen of your choice.

SO IN SUCH A WELL WIRED WORLD
A WORRIED WHY?

     The story of shrinking arctic sea ice, the largest melt since tracking data began, was reported two days ago and barely drew a notice. Arctic sea ice is disappearing more quickly than any time we know of and more rapidly than predicted.

Graph courtesy of Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and THE WASHINGTON POST

     The increasingly warm summer trends indicate earth's warming and the probability the sea ice will disappear in a future summer.  Warmer Arctic waters can cause Greenland's ice sheet to melt and that can lead to many problems. The shrinking of the Arctic Sea Ice and the diminishing of Greenland's Ice sheet will likely lead to more extreme summers and winters everywhere.

    Man made?  Nature's cycle?  A combination?  Don't you think it's worth exploring?  Still you had to search to see or hear anything.

    About the time the hotline was established a network of radio and television stations, produced a docudrama. Set in the future it was the story of how a news organization covered an environmental and ecological disaster that threatened all human life.  In one chilling passage the anchor does a voice-over of historic clips, listing a litany of warning signs of impending doom, sighting years, and failed international conferences.  Warning after warning went ignored while the people occupied themselves with buying and wanting more.  Until it was too late to hide from the impending end.

     How are we using or listening to our great communication tools? Is mother earth calling our hotline?

DAY FILE

A CORNER OF THE STUDIO

   I was looking around Lana's studio when I became intrigued by the corner near the window.  It's got "personality."

   I'm fascinated by the, texture, lines, divisions and proportionality of the frame below.

See you down the trail.

A BLAME GAME & ALIEN BLOOMS

A DAY FOR A SWEET AND SOUR POST
THE SWEET COMES LATER

THE "TOLD YOU SO" FACTOR?

      The AP's Washington Bureau is out with an analysis that underscores what we all know.  The recovery from the recession is weak.

       It was about 3 years ago when economists and politicians were fretting over ways to recover that a dividing line was drawn.  A group warned that plans on the table were inadequate, but others were screaming about the cost of the stimulus on top of bank and hustler bail outs.  There was also the odd hysteria over the deficit.  What came out of the political stew was a plan that seemed to the best informed (as I define them) a recovery plan that was bound to be weak and weaken even more, several quarters out.

       A glut of housing, because of the "real estate idiocy" scam and crash meant that a normal recession rebounder-homes and building-was out.  On top of that government spending at the federal, state and local level continued to be cut. It is lower now than it was 3 years ago.  In addition the government has cut jobs, which on top of the already tall unemployment numbers is more bad ju ju. Three strikes against a robust comeback.

      Folks may not like to admit it, but government spending has always been a shot in the arm for recoveries from recession. Less spending, and well, you see where it is. Especially critical when real estate and credit quarters remain weak. The stimulus plan was too short and short sighted, but political realities being what they are, the better alternatives never flew. Austerity in the face of a staggering economy is silly.  We are seeing the effects of it now.

DAY FILE

SUCCULENTS

      A couple of my old broadcasting pals have chided me for including so many images of plants in these posts.  Before moving to the Central Coast, the only thing I knew about succulents was a cactus.

    Lana has loved them forever.  Her mother, a master gardener was into succulents.  This is a perfect climate for them, so I am gaining a rapid appreciation.  Their blooms, and some of the succulents themselves look other worldly.

    Lana was particularly excited about the frame below-a bloom on a burro's tale.  She says she's never seen one.

See you down the trail.

IS THIS DANGEROUS TAMPERING?

DO WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING?

     I ask you these questions after reading the Interior Department's plans that call for killing barred owls to save the spotted owl.

     This is another example of "man as nature's referee." I wonder if it wise?

      In this case the spotted owl, at the center of a long and loud case in logging country in the Pacific northwest 20 years ago, is still in decline.  Back then the government set aside millions of acres to protect the spotted owl, but its population has dropped 40 percent in 25 years.  Now Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says this plan is "a science based approach to forestry" that will affect millions of acres of national, state and private land in Washington, Oregon and California. It is a complex strategy that involves forestry, jobs, land management and the killing of the barred owl.

      I don't doubt the sincere concern, but really wonder about the wisdom of meddling with this balance of life.

      25 years ago we stepped in to try to prop up the spotted owl and those plans have failed.  Is this one any better?  Should nature be allowed to run its own course?  We are now killing California sea lions in the Columbia River to protect salmon.

      Nagging beneath all of this is the question, where does it all end?  Let me know what you think.

DAY BOOK

SPRING SCENES

Some in two takes

A weird confluence of angles on a hill. 

 Tricky pruning.

 Shadow play on the garden shed

 Leaning succulent bloom

 The muses of the potting bench in a shadow stairs

 more shadow play

See you down the trail.