THANKS

THE GIFT

Dad used to remind us to make the most of each day.

This day, set aside as a special time for reflection, family, friends and celebration is a great pause on our journey.

Make the most of it. Enjoy.   

  May you all know the serenity and strength

of the ancient Sequoias.

 Happy Thanksgiving!  See you down the trail.

GRATITUDE IS UNDER VALUED

LOOKING FOR IT

      I'm grateful for a walk my mother took with me one autumn day as the oaks, sycamores, elms and maples were resplendent.  She said it was one of the most beautiful falls she had seen.  It was an unusual thing, a hike in the park with my busy and laboring mom. As we strolled beneath old and ancient trees ablaze in red, orange, yellow and crunched over the leaves on the path I noticed the world, maybe really for the first time.

     Natural beauty stirs a deep awe in those who are sensitive to it. 

 PIER LIGHT

Seeing it again

subtle changes in seconds

     Thank you to the cosmic set designers!!
     See you down the trail.

SOME CARE, SOME DON'T

WONDER WHAT IS SAYS ABOUT US

    Our mid 20's daughter offered as to how she is sick of hearing about the latest "sex scandal."  A wise and sensitive young lady, she suggested that perhaps America's sexual dysfunction leads to this prurient interest. May be. Might also be the historic interest in seeing people in power revealed as having feet of clay or human foibles like the rest of us.  And do you think there could also be a little truth to the adage "sex sells?"

      But, I also wonder about the betrayed spouses and children.  How do they live with the ignominy?  May well be some less than happy thanksgiving tables at a few homes.

     It could be a chapter in a book and maybe a turn in Cambria history.

     A popular young couple work hard, invest a lot of sweat equity turning an abandoned restaurant into a new and modern pub and steak house but in the first week of operation depart, the result of a break with their business partner.  

    There had been high hopes for the prime location.  Reviews were mixed. Now people are told the place will be headed in a new direction. What does that mean?  What was behind the split?  Locals are buzzing. 

     I've got an idea out of left field. Why doesn't Stephen Hearst, VP and General Manager of Hearst Corporation Western Properties, step in and create a real steak house, a premiere place for the world class Hearst Beef, grown just up the road?  It could also be the perfect venue for the Hearst Wine vintages that are also making an impact on the market.  Seems a perfect show place for their product, a unique dining spot in a somewhat crowded local restaurant scene. LA and San Francisco visitors beat a path to Cambria already, and a truly top quality steak house could add to the lure.  Marketing and Ad dollars are not a problem for the Hearst Corporation and this is after all their true "terroir."

    So from here in the peanut gallery, it's an easily offered option.
    BTW, for those who may not know.  Stephen is from the same clan as William Randolph Hearst-he of the Hearst Castle that tops a mountain just 6 miles away.  It is California State Parks most visited tourist spot. And the Hearst empires continues still.

    FINALLY, SOME GOOD NEWS ABOUT A GENERAL

    The headline is borrowed from my friend and fellow blogger Frank who send this interesting little bit of history.

Attention old surf rock fans-they may surprise you.

     See you down the trail.

      

THE WEEKENDER-VIDEO MAGIC

A CLOSER LOOK

     Thanks to those who either posted or emailed comments about Lana's first place award in the Cambria Allied Arts juried show.  For those who said they'd like a better look-here tis-

Lone Palm Trail

16 X 20 Oil

You can see more of Lana's art at her

blog by linking here.

REEL NOTES

SKY FALL

     50 years into the franchise, and the James Bond thrillers

are not only still entertaining, but perhaps better than ever.

     Gone are the campy innuendo lines, gratuitous Bond and gorgeous woman falling into bed scenes and the over the top special effects and weapons.  In it's place is a cleaner story line, real character development, cleverness and an aging Bond in a cyber security world.  Daniel Craig continues his chiseling of a life like Ian Flemming created MI 6 agent.  Where Sean Connery had charm, Craig has melancholy. Dame Judy Dench as M is wonderful and Javier Bardam as bad guy Silva is again deviously twisted and masterful.  Albert Finney and Ralph Fiennes both turn in great supporting character roles.

      This is the 23rd Bond film and director Sam Mendes provides you a thrill ride and taut drama.  Thomas Newman's music is brilliant, especially his ability to reprise classic Bond themes at appropriate moments of historical vignettes.  If you like big budget, big films that are pure entertainment, this is a great popcorn film.

HOW DID THEY DO THIS?

The Weekender Remaps time

    Here is a video mind boggler, that demonstrates a special effect edit technique called time remapping.  Thanks to Beverly for sending it along.

     Have a great weekend.  See you down the trail.

A HUBBY'S PRIDE & A SURPRISE FROM THE ATTIC

BEING HER #1 FAN

     She takes it humbly with a kind of chuckle, but I'm a proud fan and bragging about it.  Lana took first place in  the Cambria Allied Arts Association juried show. It's a big deal because Cambria is an art colony and the competition is tough. The Plein Air oil was done near one of our favorite hiking trails.

FROM HERE

     I am hard pressed to understand how General Allen could 

produce 20 to 30 thousand e-mails and still be getting the job done. 

     Also miffed why guys as sharp as he and General Petraeus would engage in romantic conversations using DOD and CIA computers.  Duh!!!

FROM THE ATTIC

     Found this classic in an old photo file.  This is from the way back machine.  The lad in the T-shirt is Cris "Moto Groove" Conner, the Daliesque artist and social conveyer back in the day.  The bearded gent is Bruce Taylor aka The Catalyst of Oddball Observations Blogger fame. The kid in the back is this blogger.  This was taken in the old WIBC/WNAP Newsroom on what I think was Taylor's last day before decamping to Arizona.  BTW-notice the typewriters, old audio board and the shirt and tie combinations? What were we thinking?

DAY FILE

The California Skies

     See you down the trail.

MEDITATIONS ON MEN, WOMEN & EROS

A PRAYER FOR PETRAEUS

" LORD GIVE ME CHASTITY-BUT NOT YET"
Saint Augustine  354-430

     It's too bad for the whole cast that any of this is now front page and 24/7 news.  

"Deceiving others, that is what the world 

calls a romance"

Oscar Wilde

     How does it begin?  A touch, a look, a playful flirtation that goes too far?

      Sad that a good man with stellar service to his nation is deposed by private actions and sad too that we are denied his capable skill.

"The surest protection against temptation is cowardice."

Mark Twain

      We are right to question though, why a chief of intelligence would leave the kind of trail that investigators have chased.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave...when first we

practice to deceive."

Walter Scott

Quoted by Senator Sam Ervin during Watergate

"And thus I clothe my naked villainy

with odd old ends stolen out of holy writ;

And seem a saint, when most I play the devil."

William Shakespeare, Richard III

  As editorial cartoons and pundits have noted, Petraeus is not alone in his submission to lust.

"I've looked on many women with lust. I've committed

adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will

do this and he forgives me."

President Jimmy Carter

"We are never like angels till our passion dies."

Thomas Dekker  1572-1632

   And so our national soap opera turns.  But I wonder, 

should we really care?

"The saints are sinners who kept on going."

Robert Louis Stevenson  1850-1894

DAY FILE

CALIFORNIA TEXTURE

   See you down the trail.

PRESIDENTIAL PIPE DREAM & THE SESSIONS

PRESIDENTIAL PIPE DREAM

     ANNOUNCER: And now to the Oval Office and the President of the United States.

       PRESIDENT OBAMA: " My fellow Americans, the election is over and it is time to get to work addressing the very serious challenges that face us as Americans.  So today I am issuing a special invitation which, if accepted, will help move this great nation forward, beyond our gridlock and stalemate.

       Today I am inviting former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George HW Bush, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton to chair a special working group at Camp David.  The former Presidents will preside over the deliberations and will jointly draft the final report.  

       I am today inviting past Presidential nominees Romney, McCain, Kerry and Gore, along with Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi and Speaker John Boehner.  I am asking the group to assemble the day after Thanksgiving and stay at Camp David until they have finished their work.  

       I am asking this group of outstanding American leaders to draft a roadmap.  It is a roadmap to our future. I charge these great patriots to establish a structure for cooperation, a general strategy for a federal budget and a vision forward for America.

      While these leaders meet I am asking a consortium of academic, research and public opinion leaders to convene as resource group to propose bold and new ideas for our national leadership to consider in their deliberations. 

      So far the following resource people have accepted this 

challenge- Amory Lovin of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Elon Musk of Space X, Economist Paul Krugman, writers Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks and Tom Friedman,  John Lechleiter, CEO of Eli Lilly, the new Purdue University President Mitch Daniels and Bill Gates of the Gates Foundation.

      Invitation to others in medical and technological research fields have also been issued and I await their acceptance.

      I am asking these great Americans, under the leadership of our former Presidents, to gather, discuss, debate, argue, resolve and then draft a document that will help to guide this nation to a greater fulfillment of its potential and its destiny as a world leader in the 21st Century. I would ask these Americans to present to us, by the end of this calendar year, what we can call a road map to our future."

      Well, we can dream can't we?  Who else would you invite?

AUTUMN IN THE VINES

REEL NOTES

THE SESSIONS

     This unique film explores the deep reaches of intimacy with an honesty and clarity. It is fully entertaining while being charming, bold, heart warming and challenging.

     The Sessions moves you to the edge of uneasiness but pulls you back to a comfortable place. It has moments where you wonder if you are trespassing too deeply into human relationships and sexuality, but writer and director Ben Lewin uses this as a canvas to examine life, love and faith.

     Based on the life and writing of Mark Obrien, a Berkeley writer and poet who spent most of his life in an iron lung, the film is illuminating, but not for everyone.  Those who might be squeamish with dialogue about premature ejaculation, seeing a sexual surrogate work with a quadriplegic, or watching a priest wrestle with granting permission for out of marriage sex might want to avoid it. However it is a sensitive and enormously well done film.

     The acting is award worthy.  William Macy as the flabbergasted priest, John Hawkes as Mark O'brien and Moon Bloodgood as attendant Vera are all superb.  It is Helen Hunt as the sexual surrogate who deserves something more. 

     Acting must be a difficult challenge under perfect conditions.  But to be told your role requires full nudity would, in my world at least, make your day at the office more demanding.  Hunt, as Cheryl is full of grace, compassion and complexity.  A mother, wife and surrogate she helps a client discover his full manhood, but against her better intention, falls in love. How that is played, resolved and passed along is the heart tugging appeal of this film. 

    Hunt's portrayal of her own inner conflict, along with Macy's counseling and Hawke's exploration, failures and desire to live full, though frail adds to a very special film. It is a unique love story.

     See you down the trail.