BACK IN TIME and RESERVATIONS IN A LAKE OF FIRE

THE DARK LORD AND EGYPT

   Dick Cheney and Egypt have things in common. That follows below, but first-

INTERSECTIONS OF TIME

Reunion Ramblings

   Strange to be a visitor where once you lived. Things look differently, and indeed they are.

       Arriving in time to "enjoy" a severe weather outbreak, wondering if the locals realize how precious is the rain.
    It has been a while since my last thunderstorm and it is an appropriate commencement for a kind of "magical mystery tour."
     Even more appropriate the Beatles' movie of that name played on the local PBS station as I prepared for a 50th reunion. 50th?! Really?

   But first, there were tasks.  Miles to drive. Indiana countryside, flat and rich with corn well on the way to "knee high by the fourth of July."

   Obligations and remembrances down the road, while also

 invoking an old family custom-a visit to the Pizza King, after cemetery visits or funerals. 

    Memories too of college dates. Where else can you find a barbecue hamburger, thin crust delicious creation, still changeless after 50 years?  

 More highway views, ingrained memories,  

  more changed vistas, 

 and calming traditions and sights.

Amazement at bushes, trees and a lawn we planted, now a few years on.  Our design worked, as a park like setting ensues. Happy that we've made a place more green.

Amazement too at who we have become, while still only 18, in some place in our being.

    While old institutions gain a new face. The Indianapolis Museum of Art continues to re-invent itself and to spread its influence

   even to the new trendy Alexander Hotel, where art is celebrated and abounds.

         Reunion journeys where memories old and new gather.
     I grew up learning of Madame CJ Walker, probably America's first African American woman millionaire. Now she's a work of art, though I over heard young members of a wedding party identify her as a "famous singer." Time does its tricks! 
 What do I wish I could have again, or take back to my home in California? Certainly I'd take an abundant cure to our drought.

  And we leave a piece of history behind, while taking the memory. 40 years ago my radio employer staged what became known as the Great Raft Race. As old is often new, it is the subject of media attention and there is discussion of a reunion of another sort. That is one I'll sit out, though an old image of my colleague Bob, in the cap, and me booms out from the past. Those were the days.

    Confluences in the river of time. A 50th High School reunion. Stirrings of a 40th anniversary for a major cultural event and I'm still at a loss to believe my generation has made so many orbits around the sun.

     Years ago when Lana and I settled into our first house, a neighbor, a great old guy in his 80's, rode his bike over to our porch to visit. He said he didn't have the endurance he used to, even though he could only think of himself as an 18 year old.  At the time we thought what an odd notion. Now we are beginning to understand.
      As the great Indiana writer Kurt Vonnegut puts it,
"and so it goes."

RESERVE SPACE IN THE LAKE OF FIRE

   Dick Cheney and a recent ruling by the Egyptian courts are travesties. The judge and the discredited ex-vice president would be bound and gagged and put in public stocks were this my world to control.

   The Egyptian courts have sentenced 3 journalists to long prison terms for telling the truth.  

    The truth is something Dick Cheney does not tell. He is a liar and probably indictable on several charges of corruption to say nothing of his potential as a war criminal.  Cheney  became so toxic that even the not so bright George W. Bush and his other advisers shunned him in the last term as though he was a ham sandwich left in a car trunk over the summer. That same idiot is running his mouth again.

  America should not forget those weapons of mass destruction that Cheney "knew" were in Saddam's Iraq. Nor that Iraq would become a Democracy. Or that Iraqi oil money would repay the war effort, etc. Nor should we forget Cheney's famous "One Percent Doctrine," which contributed to the ill fated invasion of Iraq and war on terror all the while Cheney's old Haliburton pals and subsidiaries earned billions in war profiteering in no bid contracts.  

    Pulitzer winner Ron Suskind's book One Percent Doctrine, published a few years ago, reveals how Cheney's sick mind and devious politics spun us into the web of violence, war, death and bad diplomacy that plagues the planet now.

    No one should take a word this malevolent jack ass spews with anything but contempt.  It is after all a free country, despite Cheney's poisonous misadventures and crime. In his transplanted heart he probably applauds the decision of the Egyptian court.  You can't help but think this evil cretin has contaminated that new heart with his own hovering greed and darkness. Dick Cheney is the worst of America. 

     See you down the trail.

PARTY AT THE CASTLE

BETTER THAN XANADU 

    Until a few days ago I could never say, "We partied at the castle."

   "Twilight on the Terrace" a fund raiser by the Friends of the Castle, permits you a chance to imagine the parties 

 hosted by William Randolph Hearst at San Simeon, his mountain top castle, six miles from our more modest ridge top abode. 

  We've been to great parties and feasts and have seen a bit of this planet, but San Simeon is certainly one of the very top party places in the world.

 The evening light on the mountain top is gorgeous.

   Now I understand why Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, David Niven, Clark Gale, Carole Lombard, Robert Taylor, Howard Hughes, Winston Churchill, the Barrymores, Jean Harlow, Errol Flynn, George Bernard Shaw among others, liked to party up at the Castle.

    Great local wine, food, music and views that literally do not end. And it should be noted, modern guests are offered a more varied menu and certainly more wine than W.R. permitted his celebrants. That's why David Niven learned to sneak in bottles and hide them in bedrooms! 

     See you down the trail

GENERATIONS OF THE TIE-DYE NATION

GROWING, CALIFORNIA STYLE

    26 Years has brought changes to a California music tradition.

   Live Oak, a project of San Luis Obispo public radio station KCBX has filled the oak forests and wilderness between the San Raphael and Santa Ynez  mountains with California and independent music in a Father's Day weekend festival that has not only become tradition, but a generational matter.

    Live Oak is the best of the Tie-Dye nation-Peace, Love and Dirt, as they say. There's been a lot of love. Each year new generations of Live Oakers appear.

   People have dated or met at Live Oak, fallen in love and so the Live Oak demographics keep growing.  Grand parents to grand kids, Live Oak is a festival of smiles, mellow moods and great music-acoustic, country, jazz, gospel, blue grass, new grass, Mexican, California home grown, and genre bending artistry from bigger names to up and comers.

   It's a picnic under the oaks, and for those who camp or 
RV, it's a jam session that never ends.

   Acts play the main stage, a hot licks stage and Stage Too

 here under more oaks, where the artists answer questions and discuss their writing, recording and try out new material.

  Amidst the name sake Live Oaks, napping brings a particular style-

    This is a particularly telling moment from Live Oak.  The kilted man, sans shirt, and his buddy protect a watermelon  especially prepared with an adult beverage. He glady shared spoonfuls or sipping straws with friends. When little Live Oakers expressed an interest, the fellow wondered to a concession stand and returned with slushies. Kids and parents were satisfied.

   Live Oak is a music festival that is family friendly and entertaining at every turn.

ALSO HOME GROWN

the garden report

   Despite our drought, a week of record setting heat and an invasion of cucumber beetles, Lana's crop of fava beans

has been impressive. Here's a portion of one's days harvest.

The inner husks on the right.

    I rhapsodized about favas in a previous post--the art of the second shuck- including an upclose look at a method of shelling and husking. Though Lana and daughter Katherine swear a quick blanching makes it easier, it seems somehow "less athletic." Still, what a product!

  See you down the trail.

THE TREATMENT OF WOMEN-A CHEF-ON THE WATERFRONT

PROTECTING WOMEN

    I come at this with the bias of being the father of two daughters, a man who loves his wife, mother and have always been comfortable in the company of women. 
   Equality is an either or thing for me-either we all are equal or it does not exist. One of my cherished trophies is the Good Guy award from the Women's Political Caucus.   NOW spoke to me at a time when they rebuffed other journalists, not because of my views, but because I was fair. 

   I'm angered by much of what I see with regards to women, their safety, their reputation and their individual freedom, threatened by actions in places like India and the US Congress. You all know the stories and the sound bites. It is criminal how some things are allowed. The insensitivity demonstrated by men, often in power is wrong and stupid.

A SUBTEXT TO AN IMPORTANT FILM

THE IMMIGRANT

     Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix brilliantly lead an excellent cast in portraying this story of Polish immigrant sisters trying to pursue their dream in 1921 American. What happens is awful, but all too real. The treatment and exploitation of women is powerfully told. Cotillard's character however shows a strength of character, faith and dignity despite what is thrown at her. Some of it is thrown by Phoenix who delivers a nuanced and complex character who creates a masterpiece of acting in a scene where he rages at himself as he attempts to explain how he could do what he did to someone he loved. But he did, and men still do, though at least laws have changed.

     My father's mother and her sisters came through Ellis Island with their mother in their journey from England to join their father and brothers in America. The memories of the crossing and their reception, several years before the time depicted in the film, never left these women, who were strong, educated and from a family of means. 

    Mary Elizabeth, in the center, was educated though in her life, widowed with my father as her dependent, she worked as a char woman, but remained every bit the prim and proper Englishwoman. She had more dignity and gravitas about her than most of the reactionary politicians or any of the misogynists who crawl across history.

    She was strong, as was my mother and her mother. The elders were survivors.  My mother was a depression survivor and bride of a WWII combat soldier. She was a career woman and heaven only knows how many ceilings she had to crash or abuses she had to suffer as she assumed management roles. When I reflect on what these women in my life accomplished, and see the graphic and gritty portrayal of The Immigrant, anger rises for those with attitudes that belong in the caveman past, or in modern ridicule, scorn, rejection or even jail. 

     The Immigrant also tells of the extraordinary challenge faced by any and all who came, or come, to America, looking for a better life. Strong film. Wrenching. A story with modern implication.

SERVING UP SOMETHING DELICIOUS

 CHEF

   Jon Favreau's film draws many ooohs and aahhs and tons of laughter as the director actor ties together a charming and delicious yarn that prompts audiences to applaud. It's a great romp across America as an estranged father connects with his darling young son and man do they eat well along the way!  Foodies will love it. Chef's and food industry pros will relate, music fans will boogie in their seats and you'll leave ready to whip up a feast of your own.

    Favreau, known as a big budget action film director puts Scarlett Johannson, Sofia Vergara, John Leguziamo, Robert Downey Jr, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Platt and Bobby Cannavale, through a great script and adventure.  Gary Clark Jr plays a great kitchen personality and little Emjay Anthony is wonderful as the son. Leguziamo is particularly good in his supporting and sous chef role. This is an entertaining  ride on a food truck that will leave you feeling good and hungry.

BAY WATCHING

 Closing up shop

 Bringing a bouquet?

 Not today

 Close to the bay and with a view

 Tried and true

Not today too

    See you down the trail.