THE PERFECT CANDIDATE? & I'LL TAKE AN OXYGEN STRAIGHT UP

A CANDIDATE FOR THE FUTURE

   For years my Walter Mitty imagination kicks into high gear while in the shower. Not sure of the connection, but it's a place for great creative thinking.

   So, today I became the perfect presidential candidate, or conjured the qualities of one. What are the characteristics?

    A person who says the election is really about judgement, facility of mind, integrity and clarity of vision.  

    It is OK, absolutely OK to say that a mind can be changed. It is a sign of higher human reasoning, to do just that, reason, think about and even change your mind on an issue.  That is not flip flopping. Flip flopping is prevaricating or obfuscating. Reasoning is a good thing, this perfect candidate would tell the press and voters.

    It is asinine to presume to look for a man or woman "who has all the answers."  Those answers can come only through study, deliberation, consultation and a sense of history.  So, as perfect candidate, I'd say so.  I'd outline general principles, a foundational construct of values and delineate the names of policy experts, scholars, historians, political scientists, economists, military strategists, philosophers, theologians, artists and entrepreneurs whose advice and counsel I'd seek and who would shove back at me, while testing and forging my ideas. 

    I'd also be upfront with the voters and say, despite what my grand goals or visions might be, the reality of my Presidency would be determined by what happens in the world and through a kind of dance and/or wrestling match with the US Congress.  I can propose, but the truth is, what really happens is a result of the process of working and living with the other branches of government while confronting what ever nature, fate, Providence and other humans as individuals or as nations foist upon us all.

     So, the heck with gotcha games, playing to opinion polls, letting speech writers and strategists put words in your mouth, or worse, in your mind.  The heck with fanny kissing the big dollar fat cats or super pacs. We'll tell Americans what they are really doing is choosing a human being, who evinces qualities of leadership and judgement, who is ready to sacrifice for the common good of all, even those who will hate and vilify you. They will have a chance to vote for someone who is steadfast, honest, candid and wants to see a better day for all.

     Yea, you go boy!  Then I turned off the shower.

   

MAKE MINE PURE

     Have you been to an Oxygen bar?  I caught this one on a 

recent odyssey through Las Vegas.  They are all over the place and in some communities are as popular as coffee shops.  

     You pay the "bar tender" and you get a few hits of Oxygen, in a flavor or color of your choice.  Just in case

the air you are breathing is not enough for you, you can

buy some.  Yep, we can now buy and sell the air we breath.

See you down the trail.

MIKE WALLACE, GOLDEN & AN S CAR GO

WHAT MIKE WALLACE DID TO 60 MINUTES

     I was lucky to work in the same area as Mike Wallace, when he was still one of the CBS Convention team correspondents.  I was covering the campaign for a radio group, but it put me in the same press room and general neighborhood.  Back then I thought it odd to see Wallace in that kind of role, because I thought he was best as an interviewer or interrogator and that is the point of this.

     Mike Wallace had the ability and skill to talk to anybody about anything.  He rarely, if ever, pulled punches.  He could get into places and talk to people in a way that amazed us all.  If Wallace was scheduled to do an interview, the 60 Minutes audience was sure to be even larger.  

    The original 60 Minutes team was superb, but Wallace and his pointed, rapier technique was indeed the point of the spear that took that show into the heart of America. 

      Wallace was a performer on a news magazine, an experimental approach to journalism, that took broadcast journalism into the Top 10 most watched shows. It created a new heft for broadcast journalism, proved to network executives that news was not only good for people, it could be good for business. 

     Wallace's style and punch also put people on notice.  There was an old joke "You know you are going to have a bad day if, when you show up at the office, Mike Wallace is waiting for you."  He helped "out" a lot of villains, confronted power, made it entertaining and he worked hard.  He stayed much longer than most and television and broadcast journalism were bigger and better because of it.

THESE HELP MAKE THE GOLDEN STATE

GOLDEN

With help from Sweet Talk Radio

here's a few seconds of "breath it in" time.

   DAY BOOK

NOVEL RIDE 

See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :) REBIRTH & RENEWAL

IS IT THE AIR AND THE LIGHT?

      You know how you get one of those "ah hah" brain bumps
when you see or hear something that brings you to a recognition of a new thought or insight?  I think I did it to an artist who had studied neurochemistry and photography.  His paintings were extraordinary displays of light. I asked him        "Do you think the renaissance could have occurred further north where there was less light and Mediterranean climate?"
       His eyes and crinkling smile indicated he was genuinely delighted by the question. "That is a good question.  That is a  very good question?"  
       Being a professor, I sensed, he was going to give it some thought.
       Well, this non professor has given it much thought since something theatre professor Gilbert Bloom said, in passing, years ago.  He noted the Greek Festival of Dionysus probably
wouldn't have happened in something other than a warm spring or summer climate. That was probably the ah hah bump that put me on a bridge to the idea that great creative efforts can often be charted to places where the light is good, the sun abounds and where in the spring there is a festive spirit of rebirth.
       Paganism of several variety, certainly partied hearty in the spring. It is also the time of Passover and Easter, both of which derive from sunny climes. 
       Who doesn't feel a bit of a charge when a warm sun sweeps across spring blooms? Renewal is spoken.

WHERE THERE IS A COAST 

THERE ARE WAVES

     Local experts say this past week brought the biggest waves to the Central Coast in a few years-up to 16 feet with
an 18 second period. There were some big walls of water, hanging up there for long moments.  It is thrilling to watch
the planet forces at work in the Pacific.

SPECIAL VIEWING
THE WEEKENDER's :) featured video this 
weekend has been around a bit, but I thought
it would be a good fit for this weekend
when Jewish people observe Passover and 
Christian's celebrate the resurrection.
For that matter it's perfect if you are neither
and just simply a living biped.
This is a 3 minute film that no less than Ridley Scott celebrated. It is very good.

And then, a less celebrated film,
but a little Central Coast tribute to the 
weekend.  Music by Ma Muse from Chico.

Enjoy.  Peace.
See you down the trail.

SPRING, LOVE, GLISTENING

AREN'T WE ALL LOVERS IN THE SPRING?

     It was a warm and green day in the spring of my junior 

year of high school when a line from Shakespeare became a 

kind of emotional anthem.  It captured the Easter green and fragrant blooming world of the exterior and the still unplumbed, mysterious joy and stirrings of young hormones and puppy love.

It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey-nonny-no,
That o'er the green cornfield did pass
In spring-time, the only pretty ring-time,
When birds do sing, hey ding--a-ding-ding,
Sweet lovers love the spring.
 From As You Like It
William Shakespeare


DAY BOOK

A GLISTENING WORLD

     I got a little damp getting these shots, but what a magnificent spring view!

See you down the trail.

A WONDER OF THE WORLD

ONE OF THE WONDERS?

     The sculptures at the Hoover Dam are the centerpiece of a tile inlayed plaza that is a type of earth calendar and cosmic communication piece.  It places the Hoover Dam in a league with the Pyramids and the Roman Coliseum. And
there is some truth to that.

   More than a hundred humans lost their lives in the building of the Boulder Dam from 1931 to 1935.  Later dedicated to former President Herbert Hoover, it was the largest concrete project ever undertaken and employed thereto for untested techniques.  It remains a colossal achievement.

    Built in Black Canyon on the Colorado River, it impounds Lake Meade.  Constructed under President Franklin Roosevelt, it is a hydroelectric generation source. A consortium of parties, Six Companies, won the bid and built the project for around $42 Million.  They finished almost a year early.
    Nearly a million people visit the Hoover Dam, now a tourist site as well.  Highway 93 used to run across the top of the dam, but the traffic has now been diverted to another amazing construct, the by pass bridge, just recently opened.

    Here on the border of Nevada and Arizona are a couple of
examples of human endeavor, built large and indeed planetary markers.

See you down the trail.

A DUMB JUSTICE & EVENING LIGHT

EXCUSE ME MR. JUSTICE KENNEDY
GO BACK UNDER YOUR ROCK

     There are good arguments to be had over the Supreme Court decision allowing jailers to make more invasive searches.  It resolves what has been conflict in other courts about the balance of privacy and security. 

     As a journalist I've been in prisons, jails, detention centers and lock ups.  Those places are populated by some who indeed are dangerous. But I've also encountered people in control of those situations who are A)not the most elite of their corp and B)who seem to "enjoy" having people under their control.  In fact I've met some jailers who are simply brutal and sadistic.  Allowing them to operate without control is not a good idea. I doubt if they've read the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.

      What is heinous, offensive and, to my way of thinking dangerously ignorant behavior for a Supreme, is the position of Justice Kennedy that the circumstances of the arrest (in the case being heard) were of little importance.  Read that again, the circumstances of the arrest were of little importance! I'm sorry Mr. Justice, but the circumstance of every arrest, regardless of whether petty or a major crime is important.  Yes, the Supremes make high altitude decisions about principles and interpretations, as in this ruling, but they should never overlook, forsake or take for granted the circumstances of an arrest. 

     The power to arrest, or the act of being arrested, is a pivot point in the very Constitutional relationship of individuals to a government.  Our rights as people are affected by our granting of power to governments.  The individual good submits to the greater good of the commonweal.  This is the stuff of political science, philosophy and theory and the debates cross history.

     In this particular case, it was a bad arrest, not called for and simply one more example of inefficiency, poor record keeping, bad police work and perhaps even racial profiling.

      For Justice Kennedy to overlook such "circumstances" so he can sink his teeth into what is truly an important matter to decide is wrong.  For him to say circumstances don't matter is stupid.

     I'm sure some students of the law or the Supreme Court will find my logic to be that of a rube, but right is right regardless of whether you are wearing a black robe, or being falsely arrested.  Circumstances matter.  They are real.

      Theory is born of real experiences.

DAY BOOK

EVENING LIGHT

      Shooters-photographers, videographers, cinematographers-call it "the golden hour," that evening light, saturated with color. It is as though the light is playful and magical. It's one of my favorite times to shoot.

      The sun acts as spot light, or sets up interesting shadows.

See you down the trail.

A PARTY OF A BOMBS AND ALIENS

HAS AREA 51 HIRED A PR AGENT?

      So maybe it just takes the curiosity and questioning nature of an old journalist, but I've got to wonder what the federal government, or at least a sliver of it, is up to with the legendary and notorious Area 51.
      BACKGROUND: The National Atomic Testing Museum,an
affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is a first class and 
highly informative museum. (Link to it above to see that is so.)  
      It deals, in detail, with the history of American nuclear development and testing.  It is a credible, balanced and historic record, done in an accessible and even entertaining way. I've been there before and urge all visitors to Las Vegas to leave the strip and the usual Vegas past times for something very special. Yes I know telling Vegas visitors and habitue's to visit a science museum is a kind of odd duck drill, but I persist none the less. It is of course next door to where the testing was done, so despite the Vegas address, it is a serious place and good for the public record.
     NOW THE CURIOSITY: As you see above Aliens are hanging around the somewhat staid and straightforward museum. It is part of a brand new AREA 51 MYTH OR REALITY exhibition.  
     Here's the teaser video.

If you'd like to read more, here are a couple of links.
Huffington Post piece by Lee Spiegel
and
A Dateline Zero post by D.E. Paine

     I think the exhibit is a bit on the hokey side, but it also

contains some surprising documentation and data about 

the air base, facilities, history and air craft of Area 51, Groom Lake Airbase. 

     The exhibit is a blend of serious and silly.  The tone of the display is Men in Black, but inside are documents, records, displays and video pieces that weave an intricate fabric of

flight research, reverse engineering, investigative journalism, testing programs, schematics of the compound, 

maps of the runway, including what is perhaps one of the world's longest, the government's flip flop on the infamous Roswell incident and campy culture, plus more.  

      It is this curious mixture of pop culture, UFO conspiracy ideas, military flight experimentation and serious science that has raised my curiosity.  There is a more open acknowledgment of Area 51 history, fact and achievement than I have seen in decades. And that the museum and the cooperating government agencies mix it with the popular lore of the Area 51 myth is even more curious.

      A couple of the stronger video elements include an 

interview with the director of the SETI-Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, program and an appeal by a former Air Force General and scientist saying it is time to allow the military and science to consider UFO's and aliens in a serious way that does not damage reputation or credibility.

       So I ponder, what is the real message here?

       But then again, it is Las Vegas, and maybe this all should stay there.  What do you think?

POST CARDS FROM THE EDGE

   My buddy Jim is standing next to the cut out of the actual

Miss Atomic Bomb of 1957.  And for those of you with visual problems, her cover up is indeed the mushroom cloud.  
   As a kid, I had nightmares about the mushroom cloud, especially on those days we'd see a film strip of nuclear blasts and then do a "duck and cover" drill beneath our desks.  

   I remember Mrs. Rogers threatening to give me a "paddling if I didn't get under my desk like all of my class mates."  I protested that if a nuclear bomb was to hit anywhere near Muncie Indiana, the desk would be scant protection, so what was the point?  I'd rather watch the windows blow in than get under the desk. 

     However, I might have been less anxious if I had seen a film strip of Miss Atomic Bomb. It's all in the spin isn't it?
     See you down the trail.