TUNES AND TIMES

NOTES FROM THE VILLAGE ECLECTIC

     SEAL BITES GOOD SAMARITAN

          A Cambria man who came to the rescue of a large male elephant seal is nursing an injured arm and hand.  According to The Cambrian Danny Harris saw a group of people from a tour bus tormenting a large male who had strayed from the normal nesting area. Harris stepped between the bull and the ocean and the seal grabbed his arms with it's mouth.

        The bulls can total 5 thousand pounds and while they look slow, they can move quickly and their teeth are used as weapons.  The bull in question had wandered some 4.5 miles south of the nesting and birthing beach at Piedras Blancas and had settled in at San Simeon Cove.  

     ANOTHER FLICK OF THE ZEBRA TALE

     The storm of controversy and invective may be slowing down.  David Fiscalini says the hides of the two Zebras shot on his ranch will be donated to a charity to be used as a fundraiser.  Steve Hearst, great grandson of William Randolph Hearst who introduced the Zebras to the Central Coast at his San Simeon Castle, has said it is time to put the incident to bed.  

     The latest revelation adds a quirky twist to the story.  Apparently dozens of Zebras have lived on other ranches for generations.  More than likely they are descendants of earlier "escapees" from the Castle.  

      As a midwestern guy, I find this entire episode as exotic as the animal.  Wild zebras, shot on range land with competing cattle ranchers tossing accusations while Central Coast residents join the verbal fray.  This is not a story you are likely to see anywhere else.

RHYTHMS AND BEATS

U 2's BONO WITH ANOTHER VOCALIZING

     Politicians have given the Irish singer high marks for his understanding of intricate global issues and for his political intelligence.

TODAY HE AUTHORED A NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED ABOUT SARGENT SHRIVER. LINK HERE

ENJOY A PRE WORLD WISE BONO AND ONE OF THEIR BEST 

AND OUR BUDDY FRANK GOES TO THE VILLAGE

CHECK OUT VINYL STATS HERE

ONE MORE SOLO FLIGHT

     This lone shore bird at sunset is a tribute to those who came to hear my presentation today at the San Simeon Bar and Grill.  It was called FACT TO FICTION and included a recap of my years of adventure as a journalist/producer and the transition to novelist.  The room was full, the sun was warm but your attention was gracious and your questions were spirited and probing.  I'm sorry some were turned away, but the Newcomers Club was served by your enthusiastic response.  Thank you.

TWO SOURCES

TELLING STORIES
BY WHAT PATH

      In speaking to a local group this week I will cover journalism and reporting. I've been refining the comments and reminiscences.  In looking back,  I've been reminded of how the standards were then.

      You've probably heard the old story about the cub reporter who, on day one, is confronted by the editor who asks "Kid, does your mother love you?"
      "Yea, sure," he says wondering  why the editor asked him.
      "Well, get two sources to confirm it and then get back to me."
    Back in the day, we needed to two sources before broadcasting or publishing. Simply by watching you can see how much opinion, speculation, gossip and spin has become the staple of extended coverage.
     Sadly, reality television, and the ubiquitous presence of a camera and the Internet, has changed the operating principles of far too many news or information packagers.  We used to have "ethical debates" about how much a camera's presence affected the story we were covering.  Times change.

LINK HERE TO A STORY THAT IS A CASE IN POINT

THIS LEADS THEN TO A PARTING OF THE WAY

ROCK ON

     Great friend and rock maven Frank Phillippi has joined the blogosphere and we are the beneficiaries.  He's got vinyl and he's got something to say.

VINYL STATES HERE

DAY BOOK

Here Santa Rosa Creek has broken the spring levee and flows directly into the Pacific.

Oceans of earth, sky and sea

The old and new

SAND TILE

HOPE AND SOMETHING A LITTLE QUIRKY

     THE SARGE WHO MANY FORGOT

     Reflections on the life of Sargent Shriver, who died today at 95 recall his linkage to the Kennedy dynasty-he was a brother in law. There are memories of his work as Director of the Peace Corp and some recall his run for the Vice Presidency.  More recently the patrician Democrat was the father in law of the Governor of California, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, husband of Maria Shriver.

     Yet some of Shriver's greatest legacy comes from his service in the Johnson administration when he served as Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity. Some historians have made much of his falling out of favor with Bobby Kennedy after the assassination of President John Kennedy.  Shriver stayed on with LBJ, as Director of the Peace Corp.  Bobby and LBJ carried on a long rumble.  In the Johnson administration, Shriver also ran the OEO and created an impact that continues now.  Head Start, the Job Corp, Community Action against Poverty, Volunteers in Service to America and Legal Services all began and flourished under his guidance. 

      Many powerful and famous live and die in Washington. Fewer leave a mark.  Shriver did.

FOR THOSE WHO ENDURE WINTER

     We spoke with friends in the Midwest.  

       "You remember.  It's one of those damp, cold, gray days.  Just dreary," he said. 

       Indeed we do remember, without a speck of fondness.

This is one bit of today's brightness.  After decades of the Midwestern midwinter

gloom, I am like a kid enjoying that special lift you get from early spring-

which comes to this part of California in January.  Incredible.

DAYBOOK

Dedicated to those of you in the land of winter

Morning fog in the valleys

A Narcissus 

Succulents flirting with the sun

A Breath of Heaven bloom

Do you know what this is?

Morning dew on arm of a deck chair.

Freshly plowed and fertile, next to a grazing field behind

Hollister Peak.  This is between the Pacific and the Pacific Coast Highway.

The moon rises, almost full as the setting sun lights the Santa Lucia Highlands.  The shadows come from our ridge-Top of the World.

NOW SOME NEW MEDIA

Where art, music and imagination dance

     

OTHER DREAMS

     Martin Luther King Jr slips more deeply into history.  Increasingly, generations know him only as a martyr, remembered with a federal day, an historical figure, one of those who dwell someplace between myth and public education history texts.
     Ignorance of history is arrogance.  We can recall a legion of poor decisions made without benefit of the knowledge of history.
     Here on the Central Coast of California, in our own area of the north county of San Luis Obispo we enjoy a rich bouillabaisse of history where diverse culture and ethnicity have cavorted and created a unique patch of this planet.
     Chumash and Salinan tribes, whalers from Cape Verde and Portugal, Chinese seaweed harvesters, Japanese abalone harvesters, Californios and heirs of Spanish aristocracy, greeted those "Americans" of European ancestry who pushed west.  In later times ranchers and fishermen, miners and lumbermen joined the stew.  Swiss, Scots, English and others came.  In the 20th Century emigres from Mexico and others from points east in California and across the US came.  Educators, artists, musicians, bohemians, aerospace engineers, carpenters, craftsmen, performers, retirees and dreamers have continued to come.
     All have come to this sun kissed coast of craggy rocks, sand, pine forest, undulating highlands and mountains with their own dreams.  This is a land where freedom has been lifted, and endowed upon thought, lifestyle, culture and sense of being.  There have been exceptions and limits, though mostly aberrations. Freedom is always about becoming.  It is never stagnant or it is not freedom.

DAYBOOK
Scenes and light on King Day

     I was grumbling earlier today, mad at myself for having an off day on the tennis court. I was struggling with keeping my backhand in the lines on long shots or out of the net.  Then later at coffee with the doubles partners, a gentlemen in his 80's, a former member of the foursome who has been forced to retire by leg and knee troubles, said
    "Is it my imagination or have you guys gotten better in the last few weeks?"  We all kind of muttered something.  I said something about "well you know somedays..."
   He just grinned and said  "Boy, you guys don't know just how lucky you are."   
    AMEN!

VOICES FROM THE VILLAGE

 TALENT ABOUNDS

BEAUTY PREVAILS

     After another painted sky, the local namesake Painted Sky Studio, opened for an evening of extraordinary performance.  Central Coast girl made good, Inga Swearingen, a frequent performer on Prairie Home Companion, packed the historic Cambria recording studio with the attentive.

     Inga's beautiful voice and styling held the audience in rapture, but it was the use of her voice, as a kind of jazz/scat instrument that simply blew people away.

You get a sense of her sweet style and her improvisational brilliance in this video.  In the last 30 seconds of this tune she breaks into the kind of performance that was the staple of her appearance at the Painted Sky.
                                  Link to Inga-click here or watch video

     Round Mountain, who is Char and Robbie Rothschild from Santa Fe opened and later joined Inga.  These are enormously talented musicians with original material and musical virtuosity.  Char alternated between guitar, trumpet, flute, bag pipes and accordion.  On several numbers he played the accordion and trumpet or flute or small bag pipe simultaneously. He also played the guitar while playing the trumpet at the same time.  You have to see it to appreciate the full power.  Robbie is an extraordinary mandolin player and vocalist.  He also plays a long stringed west African instrument.  They've traveled widely and amassed a unique quiver of talent and stylings.  They too received a standing and abundant appreciation of the Painted Sky audience.  More about these remarkable young men at this link.

                                     Round Mountain-a paper and background.

"The peace in the garden will enter your heart when you are sleeping"

Lyrics from a Round Mountain song

REEL THOUGHTS

CASINO JACK

     This is a film for those who A) like the work of Kevin Spacey, B) have an interest in the influence peddling business of lobbyists , C) would like to gain  insight into the sordid

and money loving world of Jack Abramoff.

     It is brilliant on all three counts.  Spacey is again superb and portrays a complex, conflicted Jack Abramoff.  Barry Pepper as his sleazy sidekick is terrific. The film was able to take the intricate chicanery and explain it by making it entertaining.  Tom Delay and a few other Washington notables come off as jerks.

     What Abramoff did and what Spacey plays so well, is the selling of influence.  Spacey's Jack just can't understand why what he did that was wrong, since so many beneficiaries of his money passing and influence peddling were never touched. If you see it, pay attention to the near climatic scene as Spacey is in the bathtub while his wife explodes.  She utters one of the real truths about so much of modern Washington politics "It's all bull shit."

But then another great line came from one of Abramoff's partners  "K street doesn't like the limelight."   Thanks to a fine film, the K street ethos is getting plenty.

MORE ON THE KINGS SPEECH

     I continue to hear from other that they too consider the film one of the best ever.  Many say simply it is the best film they've ever seen.

      Here are the comments from a hard nosed Washington veteran who can be a prickly critic.  

         Run don't walk to see this one....Angolophilia gone wild....Academy Award           performances abound....drama, suspense, hidden history, humor and the kind of feel good show that had the audience clapping at the end.  It will make your day!

      He asked that I not use his name.  Perhaps he prefers to keep his reputation as a hard ass in tact.  The point to be taken--this is a great film!

DAYBOOK

A sense of this weekend on the Central Coast.

Sadly, this starfish had washed ashore and was dry when Lana found it.

Weeds are also early arrivals of spring in California.

AND YET ONE MORE ZEBRA TALE

     Spotted in the old saloon, frequented by locals, were people wearing zebra striped armbands in sympathy for the three Hearst Zebras that were shot after they wandered onto the Fiscalini ranch.  But also spotted were a couple of ranchers, with zebra hide ribbons around their beer bottles.  The sentiments differed.  The stares were penetrating.

Stay tuned.

     

RANGE LAND WHISPERS AND WONDER

MORE ZEBRA TALES

INTRODUCING DAY BOOK

AND A HOOPSTER WHO WILL BLOW YOU AWAY

     I don't know how St Francis thought about Zebras, but more of the wild exotic have been dispatched here than in your average neighborhood.

     What follows is simply a recap of what some north county people have been talking about since the news broke in the San Luis Obispo Tribune that three Zebras from the Hearst Ranch were shot by local ranchers after the wild animals roamed onto their ranch.

Furtive words in the shadows at San Simeon

     The castle bathed brightly in the sun atop the mountain behind the long tables where the Zebra tales were told.  As the pacific glistened behind a nearby arch in a San Simeon home the gossip, speculation and amusement accompanied lunch.  We are sitting in Hearst Country. Their wine is poured in a tasting room behind the store/sandwich shop in the historic building they recently purchased.  It's a favorite lunch spot of locals and sometimes you'll see Steven Hearst, great grandson of William Randolph amble through.

     There are several who will tell you this latest incident is nothing new.  Some complain that with their 83 thousand acres, there are many places where the Hearst fences are untended. People say zebras have been escaping for as long they remember.  Some who claim to know say the rancher's son shot the zebras after he saw them on their land and called to ask his father if it was OK to shoot.  A long time resident says the Hearst people themselves have shot Zebras. All of this is heresay.
     There are published reports of a land easement dispute between the Hearsts and the Fiscalinis, one of the shooting parties in this last incident.  Both families have long histories here.

     Some will tell you it is too costly to get a helicopter and harness to gather the wild animal back to the Hearst Ranch.  Others say the Zebras could have been tranquilized.

     I asked, and there was a split opinion, about who owns the hides?  Three zebras are now being tanned by one of the few tanners around.  This continues to remind me of a variation of an old western. But this a new western tale and instead of cattle rustling and water wars, wild zebras are at it's center.  Yep, it is California!

DAYBOOK

     Now something we hope to do frequently.  A Daybook of scenes, capturing the mood, light and sense of a day.

THIS MAY BRING TEARS TO FRANK'S EYES

AND THOSE OF OTHER OLD HOOPSTERS

     Frank is my long time friend and fellow round ball fanatic.  He plays regularly still and is also still working on a jump shot.  

     I've spent a lot of my life on a basketball court.  I loved it from the time my dad gave me a ball and showed me how to dribble.  He was a star.  He played for a powerhouse team as high school boy and before and after WWII he played traveling AAU and what is now semi pro basketball.

    I never achieved acclaim but I love the game and still like to rumble.  I've played with professional and college stars in media leagues and have seen great talent but this is extraordinary.  Frank, this may be  more than you take.

Click here for access to a KOMO Seattle story that will amaze you

A MATTER OF MOUNTAINS

FROM THE COAST TO THE HIGH SIERRA

     It is probably a product of many winters in the mid-west, but this is the time of year we begin to think of spring.  In fact, here on the Central coast, we begin to see early evidence of spring's rebirth. The Pacific moderates the temperatures in the Santa Lucia coastal range, so even in early January, when most of the nation suffers winter's wrath, we get greening of the grasses

and the first blooms

as the exotics provide a comical touch.

HOW ABOUT A LIVING SNOW CONE?

      Three and half hours from here, in Yosemite, spring comes with a different force.

Each spring Yosemite experiences an act of nature which is extraordinary.  I've endured blizzards, ice storms, and heavy snow cover, but the early spring Frazil Ice is new to me. Take a look, courtesy of Boing Boing and Yosemite National Park.  

And the Zebra shooting controversy continues-
STAY TUNED