Give them guns & It was this big....

let's just end this stuff

     I've been listening.  I'm a good listener. As a reporter I'm a professional listener. 

     So, you listen long enough and some place in your cranium rationality gets strangled, choked by exhaust fumes we call politics. Used to be one could take it in and, like the energizer bunny, keep on clicking. That went south sometime in the last year. We are talking survival now.

     Give them guns. Give all of them guns. The candidates, the handlers, the pollsters, the traveling media, the anchor set media, the studio audience, the protesters, the t-shirt billboard wearing partisans-who may already have guns, the House of Representatives, the Senate, except Mitch McConnell, K. street firms, every PAC, the Koch brothers, George Soros, Ken Bone and find old Joe the Plumber and give him a plunger and mop.

       Give the rest of us a bunker. And then give us an all clear when the last round has been fired. Then fire up the band with some John Phillips Sousa. Then cue up Moby's latest -Moby and Void Pacific Choir's These Systems are Failing. Then we'll just listen to the quiet and concentrate on our breathing and then try something entirely new-thinking.
      (Will this qualify me for the NRA Golden Gun award?)

it was this big

     My friend Ray fishes in the Sierras. He's partial to float tubing on alpine lakes on the eastern slope.  Three times this year the weather has conspired against his gentle floats under blue skies. Wind, chop, rain and snow have conspired against him, but Ray is a fisherman and he persists. Thank you Ray.

      This baby was 18 inches and some four pounds as he encountered Ray's lure as a gale was bout to beach him, again. Instead it "got landed" before Ray. Rays says he'd left the net behind and so this guy was in the tube and out of the tube and back in the tube where it stayed, before it was iced.
    A day later it was in my fridge and the next day it had been celebrated as such. Lemon infused olive oil, dill, lemon wedges and thyme bathed and pampered it in a "spa moment." It then got to the sauna, 400 degrees.  Normally it would have been saluted on a grill, but the muse said, "bake this big boy." 

    Soon it was further decorated, celebrated and added to another ring in the circle of life.

     Thanks Ray.  God bless the high Sierras and those who dwell there in, in all of their incarnations.

      See you down the trail.

IMPRESSED-DISAPPOINTED-DIVERTED AND TRICKY GOING

POPPING UP

   Having been so taken by the extraordinary sky scenes in the recent Bruce Taylor post, linked here, I was pleased by a couple of clouds that popped up behind these slopes in the Santa Lucia Mountains as viewed from our deck.

   Skies here are normally clear so as former mid-westerners we get excited when clouds appear. I hope you'll take the link above to see Bruce's beautiful shots that remind me of JMW Turner paintings. 

THE TROUBLE ABOUT CELEBS

    A life in the news business and one is rarely surprised by how people behave, but there are still disappointments.

    If Cosby did what he's accused of and there seems plenty of indication he did, it's despicable. And sad.

     Now they say Tom Selleck "stole" or used public water for his estate. Why? Our neighbors in Cambria pay water suppliers and none of them have the wallet of Selleck.  

     Not sure where the investigation involving Subway pitch- man Jared Fogel is going. Hope he's cleared of any wrong doing. What they're investigating is a sick and heinous problem and crime. Actually feeling sorry for Subway, though their ad agencies and marketing people get some quick work.

    And that's the point. We've become a celebrity and fame obsessed culture haven't we?  Think of how much time, space and ink these pieces have gotten while we ignore real news. How about this the troubling news we are into a new Cold War? We've managed to ignore a lot of other "issues," "threats," "problems" and the like so the old national security beat in the back of my head agitated up an admonition. I call your Selleck and raise you a Putin!

      

TRICKY ANGLING

    Can you spot the fishermen in this frame?

    They guide their kayaks into the kelp beds of the coast near Morro Rock.

   See you down the trail.

DOWN TO THE SEA

PACIFIC TRADITIONS

    Over the course of three weeks we've taken great delight in watching guys from elsewhere on Kawela Bay take to the big water in an outrigger.

   Historians say Polynesians who first traveled to the Hawaiian Islands used outriggers.

   Fishing here requires an eye on the breaks coming over the reef.

    On another day on Kawela Bay a family puts out to surf together. 

  A new generation of surfers in training.

   On each outing the outrigger fishermen appeared to be successful.

   Even inside the reef the north shore can produce heavy surf requiring mindful attention.

    The lateral float support, the outrigger, makes the canoe hull more sea worthy and stable. From Australia through Polynesia migration across big water as well as fishing was accomplished by outriggers.

     Paddling an outrigger in seas that routinely toss up 20 foot waves adds a new dimension to fishing from a boat.

      See you down the trail.

     

A REAL AMERICAN IDOL & SOMETHING NEW FROM THE WATERS

THE PASSING OF AN ICON

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

    In many ways Dick Clark was the curator of American pop culture as well as one of its progenitors. His boyish charm helped ease counter cultural influences of Rock into American mainstream life.  American Bandstand not only made stars and hit records, it made the connection between  boomers and music.

    Clark always seemed the cool and upbeat host and DJ, but he was also a skilled production executive and businessman.

He built an empire from his production of television specials, game shows and show business ownership.

     I met Clark a few times, first as he promoted Dick Clark's caravan of Stars, then later as he tended to his restaurant franchise business.  The last time was as the production company I was the head of did business with his giant company.  

      Of course, like Guy Lombardo before him, Clark is linked in many minds with New Year's Rockin Eve.  I had very mixed feelings about his staying on the air, after his debilitating  stroke.  It was difficult to see the smooth television persona struggle.  But it was also good for us, to see this determined and driven personality refuse to submit to a condition.  

     Clark pioneered much of contemporary American entertainment.  He remained a pioneer to the end.  Many

men of his age, wealth and condition would have simply backed away, but he stayed in the pop culture spot light he

helped illuminate.  

      This is not meant in an unkind way, but Ryan Seacrest is 

the likely heir to the role in Americana that Clark created. It

may also be that a Seacrest stardom would have been impossible without the pioneering of Dick Clark. He was an original.  Maybe even an American Idol.

WARNING

THIS IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH

    I was fascinated to learn of a new catch coming from about 10 miles out from Morro Bay at a depth of about 130 fathoms.  

      Here, in less than a minute, is a video to tell you more.

See you down the trail