UP THE COAST

SNOW AT THE PACIFIC COAST

       A rare sight comes into view on the Pacific Coast Highway just north of Lime Kiln State Park.  Snow capped peaks cresting over the blue Pacific.  Locals say the next storm may drop the snow level to 1000 feet, which will cover more of the Santa Lucia coastal range. This is a rare view.

Poppies have begun to bloom, creating golden orange carpets on bluffs above the coast.

DAY BOOK

CARMEL BY THE SEA

SHADOWS AND LIGHT PLAY

A Photo journey

See you down the trail.

MAGIC IN THE DARK, STILL

CINEMA NUT

REEL THOUGHTS

      We've been in the dark and eating popcorn with some fervor.   

      UNKNOWN, ANOTHER YEAR and THE ILLUSIONIST in last couple of days. They provide us 3 lenses on films, movies and the art.

       UNKNOWN

       A thrill ride. Action Thriller is the genre and they are corrrect. Liam Neeson plays this role well and has before.  Diane Kruger and January Jones fill the screen nicely.  Kruger is convincing. Aidn Quinn makes you want to punch him. Frank Langella visits with a role that should have been fleshed out.  Bruno Ganz as the old Stasi spy was a scene grabber. You get a visual and cultural immersion into winter in Berlin as treated by Jaume Collet-Serra who directs music videos and TV commercials.  Plausibility issues-but the film is only a ride and the popcorn is decent.

       ANOTHER YEAR

        This is a film. A British drama based on an academy award nominated original screenplay by Mike Leigh, who also directed.  It is a craft piece to be sure.         Cinematographer Dick Pope did magic in capturing seasons in a garden, and gave the actors a powerful canvas to excel at that kind of acting that comes in the eyes, or an expression while demonstrating degrees of nuance. 
           Lesley Manville as troubled Mary is superb. Her pathos is extraordinary.  Jim Broadbent at Tom Hepple is magical with his wry manner played subtly. So is Ruth Sheen as Gerri Hepple, her compasion and warmth and then later disdain flys from the screen.
All of the supporting roles are well played.  The film is warm, human, captivating, a bit sad but sweet.

     THE ILLUSIONIST

       An animated tour de force by Frenchman Sylvain Chomet, who directed, adapted the wonderful screenplay by Jacques Tait and even composed the original music. Art Director Bjarne Hansen and character designer Pierre-Henri Laporterie plus the visual effects and animation artists combined to create a brilliant and charming world for the Tait and Chomet story to play out. A French Illusionist finds that television and the movies  eclipse his live performance so he takes a small job in Scotland where he meets a young woman.  Both of their lives are changed.   
        The story is delightful, the music is sweet and the animation is enchanting. The art is   terrific.


        I fell in love with the movies when my brother and I would pay 25 cents to enter the old Windsor, Strand, or Grand theatre on a Saturday mid day to watch serials, shorts, newsreels, cartoons and then a feature.  We were out of the house most of the day, giving  Mom a break and giving us a world of adventure.  Film or movie, and I'll argue there are differences, are a passion.  Even Lana enjoyed spending the better part of a day and half in the theater, munching popcorn and being entertained.


       




           
          

      

UNREST-PROTESTS-STRATEGIC PATHS & BEAUTY

AN UNCLEAR FUTURE

     Over coffee with three wise men, as we rambled over the unrest and protests in several nations, history interjected itself.  

      I recalled an evening when Senator Dick Lugar and Congressman Lee Hamilton, both then leading thinkers on Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and National Security, unpacked the riddle of the changing globe from '89-91.  The Berlin Wall came came down in 89, the breaking up of Yugoslavia carried on from '89-91 and the Soviet Union unraveled into 15 countries in '91.
      The assessment at that time applies today.  Difficulties in finding a path forward, resolving ancient anger and settling on a workable government will come to fill the space where today there are sparks and aspiration.

 FINDING THE SOLUTION

    You marvel at the rapidity of getting people into the streets and forcing governments to  respond.  Though unleashing sentiment guarantees only more process and sometimes it is violent, as in Lybia and Iran.  
    Tito, who was both a Croat and a Slovene, kept Yugoslavia together, though often with repression and an iron boot.  Once strongman leaders are upended, or die, the power that once held factions away from each other's throats, weakens and other players find new strength. 
   The disintegration of the Soviet Union put fifteen new countries into play and the rumbles began. It gave us a lab to watch power sharing and resolution.
     It is likely the somewhat intoxicating quality of revolution by social media will wear into a more tedious and less prominent and more grueling process. That work will will grind away, considerably more slowly than fomenting change.

SNOW IN THE SANTA LUCIAS

PM

     Snow is common in California's higher elevations.  The latest storms delivered 4-9

feet In the Sierra with snow also dropping to lower elevations.

        In this area the Santa Lucia coastal range runs from 2,500 to 3,500 feet, tall enough for a dusting as a cold rain moved through the coast. By sunset the taller peaks had a paint job. Just a few hours later, the white stuff was already beginning to shrink in the sun and coastal temperatures.

AM

       Spring continues it energetic transformation, fueled by the recent rain.  Our ridge, Top of the World, has captured 25.5 inches so far this season.  

       The climate of the Central Coast is such that winter is our time for rain which means the green season.  Summer is golden and Autumn is brown as rain is rare after March.

SPRING DAY BOOK
Here are a few shots where color and clouds provide some light play.

This explosion of color is from the west side Paso Robles wine region on Vineyard Drive.

Buds should be breaking on the vines in the next month. 

 The rolling Santa Lucia highlands are "Irish" green and set against the vast blue of the Pacific horizon.

The undulation above is on Highway 46 from the Cambria area to Paso Robles and is one of America's most beautiful drives. Snow doesn't last long here. That's fine!

See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :) EXPANSIVE THOUGHTS GOING, WHERE?

Happy Weekend.  In the spirit of Joy 
here is our WEEKENDER :) Enjoy.
JUST LET YOUR MIND RUN WILD

CAN YOU SEE THE FACE IN THIS ROCK?

Or if trees spoke, what might these two have to say to each other.  One is charred, the other is not.

Can you imagine trying to design a growth like this?

     THE UNIVERSE IS AN ANSWER, 

NOT A QUESTION.

What do you think about that?

What do you think about?

      Writers will sometime uses a drill wherein they look at an object, or pick a line of copy and just begin to write, to let it go almost spontaneously, as in a stream of consciousness. It is a liberating experience.  
       I suspect that we can sometimes lose our sense of playfulness. Practices like this can kick us into action and into a better space.  

      I love the words of Jesus that we must be like children to enter into heaven.  What a wonderful concept. Well, this weekend, look back over the images in this post and be playful.  Give your self a few minutes of free "therapy", unwind and just imagine. 

WHERE WOULD YOU GO IN THIS CAR

OR THIS?

WHAT WOULD IT FEEL LIKE?

HOW WOULD IT SOUND? 

WHAT KIND OF REACTION MIGHT YOU GET?

JUST CROSS THE LOG AND FOLLOW THE 

STREAM OF YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS

AND SEE WHERE YOU FIND YOURSELF.
LET US KNOW, IF YOU CARE TO.

SEE YOU DOWN THE TRAIL.

INSENSITIVITY BREEDS

SOME THINGS YOU DON'T JOKE ABOUT

Lara Logan, shown here in 2005, is chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

     I felt compelled to join a Twitter based conversation that swirled around comments made by Nir Rosen an NYU fellow and writer.

    I will not repeat his indiscretions, but will note they were made about the brutal assault on CBS Correspondent Lara Logan in Cairo.

    I am a loud advocate of the First Amendment and believe that a commitment to free speech must, some times, suffer the excesses of zealots and idiots. There is however, an however an in my thinking.

    I learned from my parents, free thinking, politically sophisticated, well read and wise people, there are some things you just don't joke about.  Civility, decency, good manners do matter, even if we seem to inherit an increasingly course and unsophisticated age.

    I'm including my comments about Rosen, as posted at a couple of places.

Brutality to a journalist while trying to report is no laughing matter. Insensitivity breeds. Rosen should know better. Now he understands that loutish behavior should be called out.

     The nature of the attack on Logan only makes Rosen's comments all the more reprehensible.  Rosen wrote an eloquent apology, to which I responded on SALON.

Knowing Better

Yours words are compelling. Your lack of judgement was disgusting.

I too have been in tough places, on assignment. You've been there, you should remember always to keep your wits.

My greatest disgust is, in knowing that you have been in danger, to see you make light of it. Yea, I know about the fatalistic self defense of men and women under pressure and in danger that emerges as humor. But when one of our own is down, it is never, NEVER a source of humor.

Insensitivity breeds. A journalist under attack is never a laughing matter. That is the lesson. Sorry for your plight, but how would have it?

    Rosen enjoyed the right to say and write what he thought, however ill conceived. The school was right to make it clear his behavior was unacceptable. 

     If this is an issue for which you have passion or interest, you might check here.

JOAN WALSH AT SALON.COM NOTES OTHER NEANDERTHAL THINKING ON THE ISSUE.

     I don't believe it is a matter of right or left, despite some opinions to the contrary. 

I think it is really a matter of decency. 

     What do you think?  Did the school do the right thing?  Should we not be offended by 

comments like those of Rosen?

      Leave your thoughts.   See you down the trail.

NEW UNDER THE SUN? SOLAR FLARES-COSMIC TROUBLE?

            ARE WE PAYING ATTENTION?

       NASA

    MASSIVE SOLAR X FLARE                                                         

       An ultraviolet image from NASA'S Solar Dynamics Observatory on Valentines Day captured what is said to be the largest flare since December 6, 2006.

       The X-flare is an intense extreme ultraviolet emission of radiation coming from a sunspot on the surface of the star. Strong flares can have an impact on communication and electronic grids on earth. The British Geological Survey issued a geomagnetic storm warning. 

       The sunspot that is the source of the flare is reportedly growing rapidly. Already displays of Northern Lights have been seen further south than normal.

       Solar flares can affect satellites and satellite navigation systems. A 1972 geomagnetic storm crippled long distance telephone service in the Midwest. In 1989 a solar flare set off a geomagnetic storm that knocked out power to 6 million Canadians.

        There is what is called a periodicity of sunspot activity, greater activity every 11 years, and as NASA scientists say the sun is awakening to a new period of greater activity. Some experts believe the greatest geomagnetic storms will come in 2012.  

        Scientists differ on the seriousness of the likely impact, but the world is more dependent on communication and computer systems and satellite based technology than during the last period of solar storms.  There have been calls for the United Nations, an international scientific consortium and leaders of of governments to begin planning possible defensive measures and preparing for what could be massive disruptions.

THE NASA SITE IS A GOOD LINK TO MORE INFORMATION FROM THE SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY TEAM

BRITS TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY

The British government and media have devoted significant time and attention to the upcoming cycle of solar flare activity.

FOLLOW THIS LINK TO A RATHER SOBER REPORT ON THE POTENTIAL HARM AND DANGER OF THE COMING SOLAR STORMS.

DEATH IN DEATH VALLEY

BE NOTHING BUT SERIOUS

     As spring deepens and summer nears, more adventure seekers will point toward Death Valley. That is an equation for danger.
      It is an extraordinary span of the planet, but you must take it seriously.  You may remember scenes from old westerns where survivors crawl across great expanses of sun baked sand, passing bleached horse or cattle skulls, looking desperately for water.  Well, the inspiration was Death Valley.
       We had our own near miss.  As you can see in these series of photos, a blow out put us off to the side of the road and look at the road.

Photo by Linda Rendleman

  Fortunately it was early enough, so the temperatures were not yet lethal.  We had trouble however.  The last tire rotation was done with an automatic lug bolt tightener, making it impossible to loosen with only the jack handle/lug nut tool.

Photo by Linda Rendleman

         We were traveling with a couple of friends, Jim and Linda, and their presence was comforting, but still of no help.  The nearest semblance of civilization was some 20 miles away, and in Death Valley that is an incredibly long hike.  We were spared that task though by a young man from Chicago.  He wore a Chicago Firefighters T-shirt and while his wife and two young children sat in their car, he opened his tool chest, produced a hammer, a better jack than those provided by the auto maker, and soon he had helped us replace the blown tire and was off on his way.  

Photo by Linda Rendleman

     If Death Valley is on your travel agenda, prepare for it.  Make sue your tires are up to the challenge of heat and rough roads.  We thought we had.  I'd suggest a small took kit, a lubricant, patch repair, a hammer or top of the line lug wrench and/or jack. You should travel with plenty of water, food supplies, clothing and/or protection from heat and cold, first aid or medical supplies, make sure someone knows your intended route, and stay on marked roads. It is a remarkable, but forsaken area.  Problems can arise and people experience trouble.  When we drove into the only service station in hundreds of miles, seven other cars drove in or were in line as we purchased a spare.

     Every month some one gets into some kind difficulty and some are not so fortunate.

DEATH BY GPS-AN EXCELLENT AND RIVETING STORY BY TOM KNUDSON OF THE SACRAMENTO BEE

Have a great adventure, but keep in the mind the old scout motto-
"be prepared."
We'll see you down the trail.