Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun

Thursday, December 11, 2014

ADDED VALUES: MUGGING THE PICTURE-THE US IS BETTER THAN THAT-SENSATIONAL SEASONAL-EXPECTING A BABY

YOU TALKING TO ME?
  Rhapsodizing over the increasing appearance of green after three years of historic drought, I drew the interest of a party also occupied with a patch of green that I wanted to shoot.
  Perhaps ho hum elsewhere, this is a splendid early Christmas gift on the California central coast.
   Perhaps fences do make good neighbors.
  Another slope and more contented cows.
 Separated by a road and fence, a grazing field especially for bulls.


THE CIA TORTURE FILES
    A couple of things are clear. George W. Bush lied to the nation when he denied torture was being used. The US did to prisoners what repressive regimes have done elsewhere. The torture did not yield significant information. Senator Feinstein is correct, the US is big enough to admit wrong. Damage has been done. The torture empowered our enemies. It is and was dirty business.

SEASONAL AFFECTATIONS







  The Christmas scenes are from the Cambria Garden Center displays, always a favorite.
THROWBACK EXPECTATIONS
   A family gathering about this time of year in 1985 as we were expecting the arrival of Katherine, our second daughter. She arrived a few days before Christmas or she just might have been named Noel. As I recall Lana had just felt a couple of kicks.


    See you down the trail.

Monday, December 8, 2014

CAT AND UMBRELLA-IS PRIVACY FREEDOM?-GOODBYE CHARLIE

THE CAT AND THE UMBRELLA
  An umbrella drying on the spa provides a perfect place for a Hemingway nap, interrupted by camera sounds.
  "Hmmm. You woke me up bub!"
  "Ahhh!  Big stretch and look at these polydactyl paws."
  "Looks like little sister Joy is curious." 


  "Hey, I was here first!"

  "Good, she's gone.  Now if Mr Camera would leave me alone I could get back to napping."

TIME WITH THE CITIZEN
   The complex detail and playing time will rule this film off  people's list, but it is a film citizens should see.  CITIZEN FOUR is a nearly two hour examination of leaker Edward Snowden's act of leaking the documents that alerted the world to the pervasive surveillance under which we live.
    Most probably have an attitude about Snowden and what he did, but it's my take that until you've looked very closely into this, as documentary maker Laura Poitras has done, you've made your judgement without benefit of intimate, revealing, complex and important detail.  CITIZEN FOUR is about detail and implication. My bias is journalism; information gathering, fact checking, analysis with opinion or judgement coming last.  
    Even with all I have read and studied, I was still undecided about Snowden- a patriot, hero, trader, goat, grandstander? I've been given a closer examination of the leaker, his motivation, the absolute lying by US Government  officials, the specifics of the surveillance, the handling of the story around the world, an ultra-pervasive British spying program and the relationship between Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who broke the story and Snowden. 
    It's still a confusing situation on which to draw a judgement. It is clear to me Snowden was a young idealist and perhaps even a bit naive in his actions.  Seeing him now in Russia, you see a changed man. He looks worn, fatigued and even beaten emotionally. He says he did the right thing, but I sense he didn't fully estimate the toll it would take.
    Did he do the right thing?  Paths diverge at this point.
Those whom this nation tasks with its protection, security and law enforcement face a more difficult and lethal challenge than civilians can begin to understand. It is a hostile world and information and intelligence is a tool and weapon. Technology has provided keys to amassing that information. But should all citizens be subjected to a loss of privacy in an effort to provide security.  As an analyst in the documentary says, privacy is freedom and liberty. Loosing any privacy is a loss of freedom.
     It is not as though a monolithic dictator or fascist regime is using the gathering of the data to their specific advantage, but it is only a step from having the data to that kind of reality.  
     Presently information is being collected and gathered by a variety of agencies and in numerous ways. Now, this is a muddled kind of security, but the lack of federal coordination and the inability federal agencies to communicate well and to cooperate is a hedge against the information's singular mis-use. Still, in my mind, that is no defense. The point is, we are all suffering from a loss of privacy. Some of it we give up willingly. Social networks and commercial organizations gather and collect lots of data. It is something else when the federal government lies to us about what they are doing and what they are doing with what they gather. It is quite more serious when they use the cover of national security. Politicians have used that cover before, for all of the wrong reasons.
     Some have said if you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear. That is faulty thinking and is tantamount to  permitting a stripping away of any expectation of privacy, your most intimate freedom. That thinking is a slippery slope.
     The public has a right to know almost everything. The safety of agents, troops and critical operations must be maintained and that by nature puts some information out of public view, but in our process of governance there should be congressional oversight and judicial review.  We have a right to know that we were being spied upon and that our government lied about it. Had it not been for Edward Snowden, all of this would have been academic if not non- existent.  Did he violate a law? Yes. Did he tell Americans that his government was also violating the law? Yes again. He also revealed how.
      Attend Citizen 4 with friends and you may disagree with what it means to you individually, but it raises the kind of issues a democratic republic needs to address in the 21st Century. It is a bit slow, even tedious, but freedom is worth all of that.
IN THE SURF






    
GOODBYE CHARLIE
     Charlie Skinner, president of ACN died with his boots on but I hate it. As the extraordinary HBO series The Newsroom comes now to the finale, Sam Waterston's expertly portrayed old hand news executive goes out in a rant and rage. The networks new owner, a tech company billionaire is imposing  his silly but all too real reliance on social networks to guide news content and well, old Charlie's heart just couldn't take it.  I was particularly fond of the Waterston character who's life and death could have been drawn from real case studies. That is the beauty and brilliance of Aaron Sorkin's drama-there's a whole lot of truth in that fiction.

See you down the trail.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

LIGHTS AT THE CASTLE and BETWEEN TAKES ON THE TODAY SHOW-BACK THEN

YULE NIGHTS
 We had the good fortune of an invitation to see the Christmas decorations at San Simeon, the Hearst Castle.
   It is a visual blitz of texture, detail and history.

 Halls are decked.


 The juxtaposition of the tapestries hint at multi dimensional story lines.




 The kitchen is a world unto itself.


  It was a windy and foggy night on the mountain as we moved around the massive grounds.

   
A visit to the indoor pool, beneath the tennis courts, 
before our drive down the mountain to reality.





Some nights as I stand gazing at the deep star field arching from the coastal mountains to the wide sea it's easy to imagine that six miles up the Pacific coast the Hearst Castle is a door to another world. Crossing the threshold is magical.


THROWBACK 
JANE PAULEY & TOM
   The Today Show broadcast live from Indianapolis in the mid '80s.  As the local NBC affiliate anchor we did live reports around the NBC Today Show live telecast.  During a break Jane Pauley and I chat.  We were friends from her pre television days in Indianapolis.  We shared a high school speech and debate instructor as well.  Jane remains one of the most authentic people who have achieved great celebrity. 
HUNGERING FOR MORE?
    The Hunger Games Mocking Jay is not as good as the first two films in what has now become a franchise. Jennifer Lawrence is still exceptional as is Donald Sutherland as the contemptible character President Snow. Julianne Moore was especially good in this installment. Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Elizabeth Banks continue in their well portrayed character roles. Same for Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth. Acting is not the issue, it is the thinning of impact and weakening of integrity that happens when a good idea gets overplayed.  
    Hunger Games was always about being a commercial success, but the narrative theme and social comment woven into the dystopian drama had more impact in the first book and films. Now it is beginning to feel like serial and as good as she is, we know Lawrence is capable of more than the script is giving her.
    Still, there are moments. The frightening politics of a too powerful state, of huge economic gaps, of surrendered liberties and a manipulative media are still vivid. I also thought of Syria, Iraq and Libya when viewing the affect of war on communities.  
    It's time to resolve this conflict, for liberty and justice to prevail and for Donald Sutherland/President Snow to get his smug face and well coiffed beard stomped in the muck, at least. On further consideration, it may be those widening economic divisions that undergirds the sense of justice that flys with the Mocking Jay.

   See you down the trail.

Monday, December 1, 2014

URGES, FORCES OF NATURE AND HOPE IN "EVERYTHING"

JADE SEASON
  Seasonally appropriate, one of our Jade plants is looking festive.
DEER ROMANCE
   This young buck, one of my transitional neighbors, attempts to be low profile.
  It is just after the rutting moon, earlier this year and he's in the rut frame of mind.
  These fawns, out for a stroll are driving Mr Young Buck  crazy.  They decide to cross the road and head down slope,
  and he takes note.

AND, WE COULDN'T BE HAPPIER
 The solar panel and battery-converter box are soaked in the first wave of what promises to be a rainy week on the California central coast. 
   Irrigation rain barrels tied into the downspouts fill quickly though by photo time the rain amounted to just .2, an amount of little consequence in many places but a valued two-tenths here. 

REDMAYNE AND HAWKING
     Eddie Redmayne's extraordinary portrayal of Stephen Hawking should earn him an academy nomination though it is even more significant in its imprint. In adopting the physical manifestations of Hawking's disease Redmayne helps to make even more prominent the unprecedented accomplishments of Dr Hawking. 
     Redmayne is nothing less than brilliant, as it should be in  giving screen life to one of the leading minds in history. In his tortured poses and when he can no longer speak, Redmayne projects an indomitable spirit and magnetic personality. Hard to do as an actor, but then again it underscores what a towering accomplishment it is that Hawking has achieved by A) staying alive, B) expanding scientific thought and theory, indeed The Theory of Everything as the film is called.
     The story is taken from the book by his first wife Jane Wilde, played magnificently by Felicity Jones. They met in University and she persisted in staying with him through the early agony of the diagnosis of ALS. Jane was his partner until they separated in 1990. They are the parents of three.
     It is not missed though the film dusts over the truth of his relationship with nurse Elaine Mason who became the second Mrs. Hawking. It's been published that during their 17 years of marriage Dr. Hawking was unhappy and possibly the object of abuse and injury.  The film avoids all of that and the role of Elaine is played by a celebrated Royal Academy graduate and veteran actress Maxine Peake. 
    The personal journey is rich and revealing and lends itself to a great love story, but more than anything it is a celebration of life.  As Hawking said where there is life there is hope. What he has done with a life devastated by the horrible disease is perhaps miraculous. My deepest appreciation is for that element of this multifaceted and textured film. Everything about the Theory of Everything is magnificent.  Everything is about hope!

AND IT IS THAT SEASON
   A Morro Bay oak with Holiday aspirations.

    See you down the trail.