Prose and Photographs

Rough Day at Sea

I started writing prose and poetry in my late teens and it peaked in the 1980's! Most of the writings were on scraps of paper, some barely legible and recently I've been turning the scraps into digital form! This blog is an attempt to memorialize the past work and to feature some new work! The early work themes ranged from romantic, to spiritual, political and gibberish!

The Gravity of all Things!

We live our lives unaware of the invisible force.

Yet our very existence is at risk every moment.

Newton figured out the math but never the why?

We travel the solar system with ease and precision,

As gravity sling shots us from planet to planet,

Allowing us to stretch deeper and deeper into space!

Physicist discovered sub atomic particles in an atom,

Naming them quarks, bosons, pions and gravitons?

Much is known about these particles, all except gravitons!

Gravity is our constant companion and our executioner,

Every molecule in our body is being tugged at all times,

By a force once forgotten for a second will be instant death!

Mountaineers know this danger well and wisely fear it!

As do roofers, painters, window washers and the like,

Every successful move is the result of gravity’s grace!

Scientist struggle with black holes, anti-matter and dark matter,

And theorize about alternate and parallel universes,

They readily admit that it’s all a mystery to them.

Dark matter makes up 84.5 % of all mass in the universe!

It appears mathematically but has never been detected or observed.

It makes the math work thru gravity calculations but offers no logic!

The holy grail of physics is discovering a universal force theory

Tying together the strong and weak forces and of course gravity,

And gravity is the most pervasive and least understood phenomenon.

All of existence sprung from the big bang 13.8 billion years ago,

Hurtling everything known into existence including consciousness and life!

Nothing can exist without this mystery, dare we call it God!

December 22, 2017

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve
February 2018 

Ephemeral Utopia’s

In the morning rain, a flash in the night sky caught my eye.

An errant electron traced a zigzag path thru the air.

Silently it continued until it collided with a mountain. 

I felt the minuscule vibration of the earthly impact.      

 I climbed the mountain for more than half a day.

Until I reached the place where that meeting of spirits took place.

Fortunately for me the impact creator was about my size.

I squeezed on in and saw that some tunneling had been done.

Black tunnels scare me but something drew me in.

It was a long one least a city block deep.

I crawled and I crawled and I crawled,

Until my knees were bleeding and my head hurt from scraping the walls.

Finally I came across that negative twit.

All nervously shimmering brilliant black.

Upon closer inspection it revealed no form.

Just a mass of hysteria, no beginning, no end, no bounds at all.

Quickly, succinctly I was totally engulfed.

A new world emerged, majestic, luminous, devoid of any previous thought.

It had a sky bluer and higher than any before,

Mountains more beautiful and larger than the universe.

I willingly became a resident of this new paradise.

I danced to its rhythm’s, I swam in its fluids.

I hiked its valleys, rivers, mountains, forest planets and moons.

An existence so elegant, a symphony so enchanting.

I was skimming across a steel blue glacier just about this time.

I saw the unmistakable trace of a wild electron.

It smashed into the ice, knocked me off my feet.

The melting ice propelled me into the newly formed abyss.

4/20/1981    

 Resistenialism (ri-zis-TEN-shul-iz-um) The seemingly spiteful behavior shown by inanimate objects.  

How the Conspiracy of Inanimate objects can lead to Mindfulness!

She swung her arm to add feeling and accent to her point.

Knocking over and breaking a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon!

While checking e-mail the Hawaiian clerk inattentively flipped the wrong switch

Sending thousands of Hawaiians and the world into unbridled panic!

The tight end sees the football hurtling accurately to his waiting hands,

Sensing the massive defensive end closing rapidly in on his position

Quickly he plots his dash and path to glory, six points and the end zone,

Losing attention on the ball for the briefest of seconds it slips thru his hands!

Distracted he carelessly places his smart phone in his open shirt pocket

He spies an object on the ground and bends over to pick it up,

Spilling his phone from the pocket on to the asphalt street

Methodically and miraculously the phone disappears down an open sewer!

Recently a vengeful crack in the sidewalk tripped me and knocked me to the ground.

While slicing vegetables one day a sadistic knife decided to nick my hand.

An angry can of paint forced my foot to kick and spill its contents on the floor,

In frustration I hurl a pickle at the wall it bounces back and smashes my face!

I was dumbfounded, why were inanimate object conspiring to sabotage me?

Seems when we are inattentive earthly object take advantage and attack!

As I contemplated this, I realized my hurried life was making a mess of me,

And I needed to slow my body, my mind and soul to a more attentive state!

Some ancient teachings came back to me, when you walk just walk,

When you eat just eat, when you talk just talk, this is single mindedness!

Mindfulness is deliberate attention to the wonder and power of now! 

My mind is quiet and peaceful; inanimate objects are not misbehaving! 

February 2018                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

 After spending about 10 years on Facebook and not publishing anything on this blog in about 6 years, I've decided to abandon Facebook and concentrate on this blog plus Flickr and other sites to share my photos and writings. I will discuss my experience with Facebook and other social media sites, and look at ways to increase my internet exposure. I've been busy since my last post, moved to Crescent City California, revived my woodworking interest and built a Grandfather Clock, and was blessed with a Granddaughter, Phoenix, born in the middle of the pandemic 12/26 /2020. 

My Facebook Experience: I've always known that FB tracks most of your on-line activity and over time have devised more intrusive and outright predatory monitoring techniques. I was diagnosed with cancer 1 year ago. Naturally I attempted to find out as much as possible about the disease and did a lot of on-line searches. Like most health issues, there is no limit to the devious charlatans spreading false information and cures all over the internet and elsewhere. Naturally my on-line feed was inundated with such false and dangerous information. To me this is criminal and immoral behavior practiced and indorsed by FB. The last straw with me and Fb occurred while I was preparing a comment in response to a friends post. Before I could post the comment, I received a warning from 
FB saying this comment violated community standards, do I want to continue? I then realized FB is a fascist organization that values money and propaganda more than good honest behavior. I also realized FB and most high end internet tech companies are a trap that lures people into their clutches with false and misleading promises, that later turn to threats and harassments to bilk you of more money.  

HDR Photography....A Few Thoughts

Pillar Point Harbor, California!

High Dynamic Range HDR photography uses multiple exposures at a wider range F stop to extract more information from a photo scene!  This is not a new technique some early examples are evident around 1850 by Gustave  Le Gray who combined two B&W images to capture detail in a sky and sea image! 

Today there are HDR stand alone programs, HDR filters for Photoshop plus many cameras now process and generate HDR within the camera. I use a stand alone program called Photomatrix which I'm pleased with. Once you get certain parameters set, it delivers good results.

Here is my rudimentary understanding of HDR and why I find it useful under certain circumstances! Our eyes take in a lot of photographic information, more so than a camera. To relate HDR and our eyes you can equate F stops in a camera. If you consider the human eye is equivalent to about 24 F stops, whereas an ordinary digital camera maybe 10-14 F stops, some think 5-9 F stops is more realistic. So it makes sense if you can shoot multiple photos with a range of exposures say +1, 0, -1 you have more data or information that can be combined into 1 photo!

HDR is not without criticism as some people tend to over process their photos that results in unnatural elements in the photo. It should be noted that HDR does not add or subtract anything from a photo, everything contained in the photo was present at the scene and time of the shot! Any out door scene has continually changing light dependent on the earths rotation, the sun and cloud position! A photo taken at 3 pm will be different than the same photo shot at 3:05 pm as lighting is constantly changing for the reasons given above! Most photographers post process their work, whether a simple crop or adjustments of color and lighting.

I've done a lot of backpacking in the past and always carried a decent camera and lens. However I was usually disappointed at the final results, because the camera was not capturing correctly all the information present with one shot. Not being a professional photographer I was unaware of multiple shots and dark room skills. One of my first experiences with HDR happened on a trip to Sierra Valley in California when a thunder storm appeared and presented wonderful lighting and dramatic clouds!
I was very pleased with the results but when I showed my wife the photo, she said it did not look real. I then showed the photo to one of my friends who was on the trip with me and experienced the same scene, he immediately said that's exactly how I remember the scene!

Another aspect of HDR I'm experimenting with is taking photos directly into the sun! All photographers know taking photos directly into the sun is a bad practice and results in poor back-lit photographs. I've found you can take photos directly into the sun as the group of photos show below. The sun is just above the top frame of the photos, I cropped to make sure the sun itself was not in the photo.  The one major drawback is this technique generates lots of digital noise and extreme noise reduction post processing is necesary.

HDR Example Shooting directly into Sun

HDR 1of 3 0 Exposure Adjust	HDR 2of 3 -1 Exposure Adjust
HDR 3of 3 +1 Exposure Adjust	HDR Final Version

Pacifica Explorations

View From Mussel Rock

Pacifica is a very unique and cool little city just sitting south of it's big sister San Francisco! It's not your typical suburban town with uncontrolled sprawl endless malls and no personality! It's a treasure for wildlife, including birds, and it's a whale magnet!

Some of my favorite spots to visit are Mussel Rock, Esplanade Avenue, Mori Point, Linda Mar, Rockaway Beach, Pacifica Pier and all of the rugged spectacular coast line. Pacifica is totally bordered by the ocean along it's entire western side. Most of the land hugging the coast is crumbling sandstone cliffs in a constant state of retreat.

Pacifica Pier

Pacifica is world famous for dramatic landslides, massive surf and destructive waves.  Pacifica Pier is the big attraction when the big swells move in. When the wave action fueled by storms, high tide and King Tides, one wonders how long the pier and the facing houses will last before they are scooped up by the ocean!

A group of large apartments located on Esplanade Street in Pacifica has made national news this year and in the past due to erosion threatening the entire buildings. The apartment complex was constructed sometime before 1972 and the land in front of the buildings has been retreating steadily over the years. In 2010 2 Esplanade buildings were red-tagged and the tenants evacuated. Recently 3/16/16 a 3rd building was yellow-tagged and the tenants ordered out. At the same time the two buildings condemned in 2010 were demolished by the city of Pacifica.

Pacifica 

Massive Waves Crash Beach Homes

The most visual and exciting place to see high surf in action is right down at the Pacifica Pier located on Beach Boulevard in Pacifica California!  The pier has been famous for years as many people flock to it during high surf conditions and it often makes the evening news with

Fog Edge at Lina Mar

spectacular waves. This year has been one of the more spectacular for wave action and destruction. Beach Boulevard and the adjacent houses have been pounded and damaged this year and the future of Pacifica Pier is in question.  A little further south is the Rockaway Beach area, another pocket type beach with spectacular surf and potential for major damage and erosion.

There is still more exploring I intend to do in the more remote and rugged terrain, I've been somewhat limited by some chronic physical conditions such as Peripheral Neuropathy which in my case is foot numbness and resultant balance problems. I've decided to put my old mountain bike back in action to give me more mobility and hopefully no accidents this time around.

A Warning From History Israel Election 1996

Right wing hate speech and Hamas terror attacks, turned a 20 point lead by Shimon Perez over Benjamin Netanyahu into a last minute victory for Netanyahu!

Here is a recap of the events leading up to that election:

1993:     Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed the Oslo Accords signed by Prime Minister Yitzahak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.  Rabin, despite his extensive service in the Israeli military, was disparaged personally by right-wing conservatives and Likud leaders who perceived the Oslo peace process as an attempt to forfeit the occupied territories

.

November 4, 1995 Minister Yitzahak Rabin was assassinated by an ultra nationalist radically opposed to Rabin’s peace initiative and the Oslo Accords.  Netanyahu was the head of the right-wing Likud party and leader of the parliamentary opposition in 1995. In a film by Amos Gitai “Rabin, the Last Day”, we see Netanyahu speaking at rallies where his supporters held up posters calling for the deaths of Rabin, Peres and Arafat and the extermination or expulsion of all Arabs on Israeli-held land. He surely saw the homemade images of Rabin in a keffiyeh, or Palestinian-style headscarf, and the other images, the ones depicting Rabin wearing an SS officer’s uniform. He saw people staging a mock funeral for Rabin, carrying a coffin through the streets. He saw all those things and said nothing about any of them. Indeed, he embraced that situation as a political opportunity.

1996: After Rabin’s assassination Netanyahu’s popularity plummeted as he was seen by many Israelis as being at least partially responsible thru his hate rhetoric. Shimon Perez the Israeli Prime Minister called for early elections and was ahead of Netanyahu by 20 points early in the election cycle. 

However, the country was hit by a spate of suicide attacks by Hamas including the Jerusalem bus 18 massacres and other attacks in Ashkelon and the Dizengoff Center, which killed 59 people, severely damaged Peres' election chances. Polls taken in mid-May showed Peres ahead by just 4-6%, whilst two days before the election his lead was down to 2%. On election day Netanyahu won by 1%.

For people who feel comforted by Trumps drop in the polls, be aware of past history; let’s hope it is not repeated! Remember a few days ago there was near panic at the NY airport caused by people making lots of noise celebrating Usain Bolt’s Olympic achievements. Fear makes people irrational! 

Harmony Ridge Music

Music being one of my passions I started an on-line music business in about 1995 at the very beginning of the World Wide Web (WWW) called Harmony Ridge Music (HRM) Harmony Ridge Music Archive. I was discovering some wonderful music back then and enjoyed sharing it with family, friends and acquaintances. In particular I was intrigued by women artists especially female singer songwriters. At that time before a lot of exposure on the internet I noticed many of these talented artist were virtually unknown or had a small cult following. In starting HRM I intended to gather as much information on artist and present a complete expose on their music and life. In the early days I did a complete discography and biography on each artist including many longish sound clips. I dedicated the site to female artist and and was a pioneer in promoting independent artists thru the internet.

Danielle Dax

Danielle Dax from the UK was in particularly fascinating to me and she had a large cult following world wide, but still was virtually unknown. I was able to contact Danielle's manager in England and worked out an agreement to sell her music and other items thru HRM. Soon I had an extensive layout on Danielle including all her music for sale thru the site. At that time and for many years HRM was the Danielle Dax site and the orders started to roll in. Following after Danielle was Tanita Tikaram also from England, Joan Armatrading, Sheila Chandra, Happy Rhodes, Ani Difranco, Iris Dement, Nancy Griffith, Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams and Dar Williams. In the end I had over 500 artist listed including an extensive World Artists array from Ofra Haza and Chava Alberstein (Israel), Haris Alexiou (Greece), Kari Bremnes (Norway), Lila Downs (Mexico) and  Aziza Mustafa Zadeh(Azerbaijan) to name a few of the many. Harmony Ridge Music was a pioneer and set the bench mark for how independent artists were presented on the WWW.

Iris Dement 1994
Fat Fry Santa Cruz, CA

The business thrived fairly well in the early days on a very low budget and grew modestly for about 5 years. In the early 2000's the first crack in the armor started to become apparent and that was the emergence of Amazon and downloaded music. Frankly this blindsided me as my love was for the music and not technology. I had no interest in bogging myself deeper into web programming and I did not have the resources to hire my way out of it. As these new technologies changed the music industry many of my business partners bit the dust and Harmony Ridge Music faded into history.
When I look back on this time, I realize I probably let a golden opportunity slip thru my fingers, the mistake I made was not asking for or seeking help. Although I do have some regrets, I'm so thankful I did this because the benefits were wonderful, fantastic music, attended many performances and met great people and artist. Although it was not the success I expected, I cant imagine the regret I would have if I had not tried it!    

  Here are some personal photos of a few artists I was able to photograph in concert:

Alison Krauss 2001 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass	Ani Difranco 1995 High Sierra Music Festival
Hazel Dickens 2001 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass	Michelle Shocked 1997 Bear Valley
Victoria Williams 1997 Bear Valley	Gillian Welsh 1995 Strawberry Festival

San Francisco's Fog Back For Now

Fog Rolls into Pillar Point Harbor

We are now into the 5th year of drought for the Central California coast from Monterey to Point Reyes. Climate change and drought have significantly changed the normal weather patterns that have be entrenched in our area for as long as records have been kept. Last year in July ocean temperatures soared to near record highs in the entire Gulf of the Farallones and Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuaries hovering around 64F for many months. This resulted in higher humidity, reduced fog and increased temperatures throughout the bay area and in particular the coastal areas. The predicted monster El Niño helped but did not make a significant dent in the drought at least not in central California!

Buoy 46012 San Francisco
Water Temp July 2016 55F
Water Temp July 2015 63F

     So far May, June, July and into August the water temperatures are cool and the normal SF Bay fog pattern has returned to normal. Recently there was a typical summer heat wave in the Bay Area which created a near 47F temperature differential, temperatures in Livermore 105F temperatures in Moss Beach 58F. Pretty amazing when you consider Moss Beach and Livermore are only about 30 miles apart!

Cooler water, up-welling and other global mechanisms have conspired to attract wildlife especially humpback whales in great numbers along the coast. In the last several days, I spotted humpbacks ~3 from Mussel Rock, about 3 more at Linda Mar and about 7 from Devils Slide in Pacifica. On almost any day, whales can be spotted along the coast lunge feeding and frolicking to the delight of spectators but to the dismay of the local sheriff trying to keep traffic from blocking and clogging the roads!

Humpbacks Lunge Feeding
Near Surfers Beach

From Devils Slide
Not seen this Behavior Before