PRISTINE THERAPY

RESURGENCE

     They are an elixir, these spring blooms, a tonic for the soul. Begging a closer look they absorb our attention.

    In brief moments wonder, beauty and fascination beguile us.

   Gentle antidotes to the maddening slurry of public affairs.

  It is akin to a default resetting of our psyche. Pristine therapy.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BOX

   No, it doesn't matter the box is entirely too small or that they are smashed. By whatever logic or reason that compels them, Joy and Hemingway have taken to a type of yin and yang bunking in a tiny box. This will last for a couple of nights and they will wonder to yet another unpredictable berth. We'd love to know the "logic" to their ways.

NEWS SCRAPS FROM THE FUTURE

    An obscure note from a meeting in Geneva foreshadows an intersection that could alter the fate of humankind. Harvard Law School and Human Rights Watch has issued a call to stop "killer robots."

    At the Convention on Conventional Weapons in Switzerland Human Rights Watch has expanded its case for the concept of "meaningful human control."   Put simply they make the good case that no robot should be programmed to kill nor should a tank or a weapons system be programmed to fire without human involvement. 

     This is not a sci-fi flight of fantasy, rather it is one of the profound ethical issues of our age.Do yourself and future generations a service by linking here for background.

THIRST

    There is also the study that reports 80% of China's well water across the plains is contaminated and unfit for human consumption. That is a time bomb!

YOU PROBABLY NEED THIS NOW

      See you down the trail.

POWER OF THE PROBE AND LAUGH

REVEALING LIGHT

Sun rise sweeping away pockets of fog in Cambria Ca.

    Investigative journalism resembles the good knight leading a charge against the high and mighty and the rich and powerful.

    An historic effort involving some 370 journalists from more than 75 nations is beginning to shape history itself. Already heads of states are stepping aside, powerful men and women are going into hiding, governments are shifting, legal probes have begun and this is just the beginning of the aftermath of the so called Panama Papers.

   Full disclosure here-much of my professional life was spent doing investigative reporting and documentaries. I'm biased but I consider the work one of life's most valuable callings. The recent film Spotlight provides a realistic glimpse into the work of investigative journalists. It requires devoted attention to detail, massive reading and research, hours spent pouring over documents, interviews, often with those who want nothing to do with you, or with victims of any number of crimes, offenses or disasters. I found time with the hurt, abused, cheated, ignored or helpless a continual grounding in the reason we devote so much of our life to pursing information and facts and looking for evidence of justice, help or understanding.

    The International Consortium of Investigative Journalism is unprecedented. The 11 million leaked documents have been organized and attacked by reporters, editors and writers around the world. Tax cheats, thieves, bankers, lawyers, government insiders in many nations are targeted. A team of journalists is laying out information and doing what no government in the world has done. This kind of exposure will bring heat as well as light.

    The Sacramento Bee, one of the McClatchy news group, a participant in the ICIJ, wrote, "The level of venality revealed by what are being called The Panama Papers, is mind-boggling and infuriating. It's the globalization of corruption and even more contemptible are political leaders who loot the public treasuries of their poor nations."

    Before this is over we will see more names and organizations. Russia's Putin, Mexico's Pena Nieto, the Chinese President, Pakistan's Prime Minister, Saudi Royals, Iceland's Prime Minister, athletes, film and entertainment figures, and others of "the rich and famous" are implicated. 

   Documents now come in digital files. Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are in awe of the Panama Papers leak. In my era leaked documents were Zerox copies of sensitive information hidden or tucked in file cabinets. Stone age, huh? 370 journalists from many nations working together on a digital platform is exhilarating. Traditionally journalists are considered watch dogs. In this era of legislative nursery schools riven with impotence, gridlock and populated by ideological cry babies and in a time of money driven politics, it's encouraging to know the power of the press still has a bark.

AND INVESTIGATIVE LAUGHS

     Some of the best investigative work comes from unlikely messengers-comedians. 
      In the last year HBO's John Oliver has tackled thorny and intricate issues with depth, understanding and ending with a laugh. Last Week Tonight has provided moments when the profane, illegal and corrupt are exposed as absurd and laughable. He is not alone. Seth Meyers of NBC's Late Night achieves humorous elucidation with his segment A Closer Look. Meyers is a brilliant writer. He probes, explores and lampoons leaving you informed and laughing. There is more of the same from Samantha Bee in her weekly TBS Full Frontal. Sam also examines with a lens that can include a contemporary feminist calibration. Her piece on the destruction of rape kits being a case in point.
      Oliver, Meyers and Bee are focused and tough. They are from the Jon Stewart style and school of Journalism. They put before the public critical matters, in an exploratory and examining manner. They are so adroit so they also make us laugh. We pay attention. 

      Whether by an international consortium or clever writing and performance, the matters these communicators bring before us demand our attention despite what power and privilege would prefer. Its good to see innovation in investigative story telling. 

WHERE'S WILSON?

     Driftwood architects had a field day on Moonstone Beach after a few days of active surf. Mindful of something from Castaway.

TO ONE MORE APRIL DAWN

   See you down the trail.

PICTURE PERFECT & WAITING FOR THE NEXT DANCE

GLORIOUS SPRING

   Spring blooms spray the hills rolling to the Pacific behind Cayucos California.

   Echium bathes in spring sun.

   Color explodes.

    A wind chime serenades.

   Walkers trek to iconic Morro Rock.

    Walking on water?

   A box set. Hemingway and Joy ready for a snooze.

CONFESSIONS OF A BASKETBALL JUNKIE

     It's tough now. The Big Dance is over, the confetti has been swept away. It ended well, one of the most competitive and hard fought games in the history of the men's championships, but that makes it tougher, the withdrawal harder. 

      When Villanova's Kris Jenkins left fly a three point buzzer beater, basketball fans were in ecstasy. North Carolina and Villanova had spent 39 minutes and 58 seconds of extraordinary athletic and emotional effort. After a month of tourney play when 66 other teams had failed to get to the summit, that a game could come down to a final shot with two seconds left is an exhilaration stupendous.

       But now it's over. No more Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sundays of back to back games. That unique harmonic rush of arenas full of thousands cheering, balls and shoes on hardwood, rims rattling, the CBS sports theme, announcers and analysts who become like friends and neighbors no longer fill the sound scape.

      Growing up in Indiana, home of Hoosiers, and the Hoosiers, Bulldogs, Boilermakers, Cardinals and Fighting Irish this guy fell in love with the game.  We started playing in the second and third grade. High School basketball is a thing of legend the world knows because of the above mentioned Hoosiers. But college basketball is my addiction and that jones is fevered during March. It is indeed a madness, but April brings the hard comedown.  

       I get mildly interested in the NBA playoffs but it is somehow different, less passionate and without the same buzz. My daughters remind me some of their happy family memories include the almost festive air of the home during basketball season, the aroma of chili, or pizza or chicken wings, or burgers in the air with that hypnotic audio mix of a game on the tv and dad and mom in varying states of enthusiasm or despair. Now we must wait another year as we rehab and withdraw. 

      But there are sports classic channels and youtube. And course there is tennis, which conveniently fills the calendar. I love tennis. I no longer play basketball, but I play tennis and I love to watch it. The Opens and the Slams are great, but it is oh so quiet and there are no last second shots!

    See you down the trail.

INSIDE TRUMP'S CLOSET and CONTENTED DIVERSIONS

CONTENTMENT

close up

Grazing slopes on Turri Road, San Luis Obispo County

    Silly to ask perhaps, but at what point and for what reason does a cow decide to stand or to rest?

FAVA UPDATE

   Frequent readers may recall recent photos of this year's fava bean crop, showing great promise. The days of promise have arrived.

     As Lana noted and as memorialized in this 2013 post Romancing the Fava, the Fine Art of the Shuck, it takes a lot of work to get the fava ready for inclusion in a menu. Picking, cracking the pod to shell it and then freeing the morsel from an inner skin. But the flavor is unlike anything else and thus coveted.
     I told Cambria artist and Italian cuisine maven Bruce Marchese, who seemed overly pleased that we had harvested our first batch, I was putting barbed wire and guard dogs around our fava bed.
     

WITH RESPECT TO THE CATALYST

    My friend Bruce Taylor, who blogs as the Catalyst at Odd Ball Observations, frequently treats and teases his readers with posts of food. Often they are items that he has made or that his beloved SWMBO has created. SWMBO, also known as Judy has delighted Lana and me with delicious dishes for more decades that would be polite to mention.

    Recently Bruce posted about a crispy fried egg. This is not that, but something he may wish to try. It begins skillet life as a fried egg, but at a propitious moment is suddenly scrambled, but only briefly. The white is set and the yolk is only a few moments from still being runny. By the time Mr. Camera arrived to snap the evidence, the yolk had set up a bit more than is desired. If you try it, get to that moment of scramble, then spatula it onto your plate and begin to eat. Leave the camera out of the equation and you'll have yolk that is that special exquisite place between solid and liquid. If you like that sort of thing.

SYMETRY

&

 HOME MADE POT STICKERS & HOT AND SOUR SOUP

RUMMAGING IN TRUMP'S CLOSET

      Though I do not see eye to eye with David Brooks on some policy questions I think he is a thoughtful essayist. I find agreement with much of what he writes about ethics and philosophy. I urge you to read this piece on the sexual politics of 2016.

     It is my belief that all are welcome in the American political rumble, even those with views I deplore. However people are responsible and accountable for their behavior. That means of course that voters should be thoughtful and even studied. That is not the case too often. We acknowledge it with the identification of LOW INFORMATION VOTER. Regardless, candidates are still liable for what they say, do, advocate and for the effect they have.

      I suspect some of you are offended by the images above but as I follow Trump and his artful manipulation of the media and his use of propaganda techniques, and read again his racist, sexist, ethnocentric remarks and see a void when it comes to specific policy objectives, other than building a wall, and see his bullying and bellicose manner I am reminded of history. So I've spent time reading about Germany from the end of WWI, the rise of Nazism, Adolph Hitler's oratory, the consolidation of the workers movement, the outrageous beer hall putsch, the writing of Mein Kampf, the growth of the Nazi party and all that followed.  Of course there many differences and circumstances.  But it is the similarities that worry me.

     Here we are when conservatives and liberal are both surprised and even outraged by Donald Trump's ascent. His own party is worried sick. Pundits, commentators and analysts are surprised his quest for the Presidency is real. Donald Trump is not Adolph Hitler nor is he a Nazi. But the similarities should worry us all.

     See you down the trail.

FEEL FREE TO MOVE ABOUT

"The death of dogma is the birth of reality."

Immanuel Kant, Philosopher

Passport Tenacity

      This is a great planet to travel, if it weren't for a class of human being, the damned trouble makers-zealots and maniacs.

      That suicidal terrorists can strike is something to weigh as travel plans are made, but we hear more frequently "we can't change how we live or they win."

        Heroism can be mustered up in small ways, like courage to live undaunted. Living unfettered of worry, fear and paranoia is no small thing when we do it together. Fearlessness and stoutheartedness are powerful responses.Valor can be an attitude, too. Refusing to dwell on the what if, frees us. After all, it is our freedom the zealots and maniacs target. Determination and spirit can make us gallant to live as we wish, to live free. 

"The tragedy of man is what dies inside him while he still lives.

Reverence for life is the highest court of appeal."

Albert Schweitzer, Doctor, philosopher, humanitarian

Can you see me?

   Joy on a romp in our paperbark tree. Almost hidden.

    Ooops! Busted!

    See you down the trail.

LIFE WINS & WINNERS

    Looking at nature has become my lead antidote when news like that of Brussels rips the fabric of civilization. Heart break and mourning struggles against a sense of anger that fuels a desire for revenge. Isis must be destroyed, but there is little I can do, here. Sages tell us peace starts with our self. If not solace, if not reigning peace, at least a glimpse of that in the abundant resurrection of spring life. It helps. 

 CUBA CHANGES

          I'll be glad to return to Cuba. It will change, now that we are warming our relationship with the Island. Eventually it will be painted, rebuilt, refurbished and brought into the 21st Century. 
      The Cuba of Hemingway was an exotic brew of colonial aftermath and Caribbean passion but it was changed by the money of those who went to party, becoming a storied and sensual playground. After the revolution the Island fell into a prismatic melancholy, tattered and even rejected but still vibrant, alluring and intoxicating. Ghosts of the grand elegance and shadows of revolution curled like opposing shapes, unhappy companions, blown by trade winds down the decaying boulevards past crumbling mansions where squatters claimed grandeur and made their own joy. Music in alleys, dancing on stoops, laundry like flags on balconies, old cars Mad Max like, restaurants in homes, buildings falling into piles, areas of blackouts, festival spirit and poor but happy people. That is the Cuba I will remember and long to see again. But it will morph. 
      Obama's visit is the flipped switch that will now begin to 
return modernity, tourism and business. The forbidden jewel will be accessible again and that special, unique place trapped between diplomatic war and its inherent desire to make merry will begin to disappear. The new Cuba will shine no doubt and perhaps in ways like before the revolution. But that Island stuck between Castro's rise, Hemingway's departure and Obama's arrival will shrink away. That is the Cuba I love.
       Links to previous posts from the Cuba File.

The Cuba File Archive

•        The Old Man and the Sea-Meeting Hemingway's boat Captain
• Cuban File-Street Scenes
• Cuba File-The Shrine of St Lazaro
• Inside Hemingway's Home

THE BUILDER OF INSPIRATION

    Once these older boys were part of a creative factory that changed radio and influenced television, advertising and promotion.

     These fellows are part of Jim's team. From the left, Mike Griffin, Bob Christy, Jim Hilliard, this blogger, George Johns. Hilliard began as a young radio star who ended up a broadcasting mogul and business genius. He had that genius and ability to inspire when he assembled a team in the late 60's that created new forms of modern radio. We had fun and  made it up as we went along. Recently we gathered in Cambria. For some of us it was our first time together in almost 40 years. Wow!  Did the stories and memories flow.

     Here's a link to Bob Christy's blog post on the reunion.

     Here's a link to observations by one of our favorites, Bruce Taylor, who though he was not at the reunion was part of that late 60's group. 

      It would sound like tooting our horn to detail the accomplishment and impact of that Fairbanks Broadcasting team. We just did it and back then kept moving on to the next goal. Now with benefit of hindsight, the record gives us a sense of pride. But more important was the warmth of old friendships and simply being together again. The old National PD, George put it together. He can still format winners and Jim can still lead us over the next hill. Winners, willing to pay the price.

     See you down the trail.

SEX & TENNIS and WHEN REAL MEN CRY

LEGACY

   Lone chimneys dot California wilderness and mountain areas. Sentries, guarding the past of what was once a place of life and settlement they are also powerful testament to enduring. Some things last and remain. So it is with life and human legacy.

REAL MEN TEARS

   The Detroit Free Press said it was his "most impressive moment after the worst loss," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo in tears, voice cracking after his highly ranked Spartans lost to little Middle Tennessee State. One of his key players Denzel Valentine said it had been his job to carry a team but he let them down and that's when a tearful Izzo reached out to touch the neck of an obviously hurting kid. Tom Izzo is one of the real and genuine guys in big time college coaching. Of course he was disappointed in the team's play and their loss but he was more concerned, even compassionate about how much it hurt his kids.

     Chris Mack coach of Xavier that lost on a last second shot  was interviewed live after trying to console his highly ranked team. He emerged solemn and shaken and was asked what it was like. He said, "that is a tough locker room right now, really hurting."

     There were other such moments as the NCAA tournament  played down to the Sweet 16. Even the professional analysts, Clark Kellogg, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley were moved by the emotion, especially the Izzo comments and concern. Some may poo poo the emotions but one needs to remember despite their size and skill, they are still  really kids, many in their teens and most will never go on to play professional ball, so a tourney loss is the end of a dream and the ruin of hope. A coach, a good coach, cares about that as well. And so it is healthy, I think, to see a man who has drilled and trained an athlete, to respond to the kid, or young man with concern and compassion at one of the worst moments of their young life. And if tears flow, that's not only human, real and caring, it is also manly. Real man, manly!

AND THERE ARE MINDLESS WORDS 

     It didn't take long for most of tennis and much of the media world to fire back at Raymond Moore. He is the now besieged CEO of the Indiana Wells Tennis Garden and BNP Paribas tournament, one of the prestige venues in the world.

      Players, commentators, journalists and fans heaped scorn on Moore for his comment, on the day of the Championship Finals, that women tennis players had ridden the coat tails of men and that women players should go down on their knees to thank players like Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal.  

      Even if that was true, and it is not, it certainly is not wise to make such a sexist and outrageous comment to anyone, especially the media. Patrick McEnroe quickly said Moore should resign. Serena Williams and others have called the comments offensive. 

       I have not seen marketing studies to verify it but my hunch is the women professionals are every bit as much a box office draw as men. The top ranked women, like their male counterparts are millionaires from prize money and endorsements. 

       Oracle mogul Larry Ellison who owns the complex and tourney is expected to have the last word on Moore's unfortunate comments.

OBSERVED

   We caught this lovely scene and sound as we drove home from dinner in Cambria.

      Someone hired Voces Tapatias Mariachi to serenade those living in this apartment just off Main Street.

   It was a lovely pre sunset desert.