Bruce Springsteen :: San Jose 2009

These are my pictures of the opening night of Bruce's tour supporting his "Working on a Dream" album.

I took all of these photographs using a Panosonic Lumix camera. I forget the model number, but you don't really care. Bottom line, it has great optics made by Leica.

These pictures are presented in order from beginning to end. I took over 50 pictures, and these were what I felt were presentable. It turns out that the set-list is on-line (who knew?!) if you are interested.

You can click on any image to see a larger image. All images are Copyright Daniel Hinojosa © 2009.



























If you are interested in any of these images for enlargement or other uses, please contact me via a comment to this blog.

Downhill Skating

Back in about January, I put up a post about Skateboarding. In that post I mentioned that I had some pictures around here of me skating on Coronado Street in Ocean Beach (San Diego) in the late 70's.

Well, today was clean out the dresser day. In that effort, I FOUND THE PICTURES!:

That's me up front and my brother and his brother-in-law in the background towards the top of the hill. They shared a great house at the top of the hill, so this was just something to do to blow off steam at halftime watching the Chargers, or just when we felt like it.

There were always cars parked along the street, much like there is now I'm sure. Either way, it was great fun. I had a favorite move which was to come as close as I could to the back of a car and make my cut-back off the left rear bumper:

Apparently this was before we discovered gloves... Sigh. I miss those days. That was just a lot of fun. I didn't fall on this one above by the way. Also, if you could see my socks, they matched the shoes, yellow and black stripped. Very cool. ;)

Siamese Squash?

Or is that a "male" squash?: I think I saw one of these under some guys' truck on the way to the store. Not sure.

Snake sitting

If you are at all squeamish about seeing creatures eat each other, move along. This post has circle of life type content...

I snake sit for a friend on occasion. He has a California King Snake named Zebra. Zebra is a pretty good house guest. He(she) is quite quiet, well mannered, and manages to use really good manners, particularly when eating. Meaning, he(she) doesn't play with his food. He spies it, nabs it, squeezes it till it stops arguing, and then scarfs.

Tonight's menu, medium hopper tartár:
I never name these things. Not even for the time it takes to bring it home from the pet store. These are "feeder" mice. That's what you ask for when you go to get them. I never play with them either. I wouldn't want anyone playing with my food... That just seems like good manners to me.

This is Zebra:
Ya, sorry about the focus, you don't get too good a view of his head here. He(she) looks hungry, no? I assumed he(she) was as the 'ol tongue was really going. Of course, the dinner for the night is in the bag just behind my hand, so I'm guessing Zebra knew what was up.

I was coached to let Zebra put the squeeze on the meal before I took to much interest in the process. I usually do enjoy watching. I find the act of a snake eating their prey a fairly amazing thing. Especially the whole dislocating the jaw to get the thing in there and then the muscle movement to move the meal through the digestive tract. Here is Zebra with the meal just about 2/3's consumed:

Ya, I know, I know. White mouse on a white background. If you look to the corner of Zebra's mouth on it's left, you can kind of see the mouse. To the right, if you look closely, you can see some of the fur.

Anyway, just another curious weekend of art, bovine attacks, sunrises, and the circle of life...

I went to worship today at...

The Church of the Sacred Sand and the Holy Brine...

I went to Capitola to surf this morning. Downtown Capitola was a pond. It was still oh-dark:30, so could not get any pictures. I headed to the next break, here is the temp from there:

Oy. I took a look at the surf:
I call this particular low tide a "fin-breaking low tide". I usually avoid this particular combination of tide and reef.

I went further north. The morning was wearing thin as was the surf conditions. Amazingly, this wasn't half bad:
Okay, between sets. The crowd kept growing and the temperature here was a degree lower. Most folks looked to be riding 9'6" boards and above...

Here comes the Sun:
I usually prefer to be in the water to enjoy this view. Today, I was content to enjoy the warmth of the car heater...

This is the set wave:
It was actually a little better than this.

I don't care what anyone says, I have had more moving spiritual experiences in the ocean, including a near-death experience (Blacks...) than most people have in their lifetimes. They usually occur at a session like this one. Well, when I actually get wet. One of those was just 2 weeks ago when at one of these breaks, I was visited by a sea otter.

Now, to be true, I have had one wholly non-spiritual experience while surfing. But that was because I snapped my board. That was at Black's too. Yet, that is one of my all-time favorite breaks.

Phil Jackson - WTF?

I went with my family to the Warriors game at the Oakland Coliseum where they had a run in with the Los Angeles Lakers. I chose this game to take the family to because I've been a Lakers fan since the early 70's (that's my brother's fault - thanks Jorge! ;).

During basketball season, I'll have the game on at home and don't usually miss too much of the NBA playoffs each year. This has had the net effect of my kids being basketball fans. My son plays ball as one of his favorite sports and my daughter likes to watch some ball on TV with me.

It has been fun over the years to watch the Lakers make it to the playoffs. However, my son being a big Warriors fan, I have to admit, I enjoyed their run last year.

All in all, it made for a great setup to the game last night. And what a game it was! Daughter said it was a great game and the sort of game that made her feel like watching basketball might be okay... Wow, strong praise indeed.

Once the game started, as this is the first time I have ever seen the Lakers play, I had to get a look at Phil Jackson. Here he is on the floor with Brian Shaw:
Now, the take away there is that he is about the same height as Brian. Phil having been a player himself, he of course has to have some height...

For all the coverage I have seen of the Lakers over the years, and Phil Jackson's teams in particular, including the Bulls, perhaps I never appreciated how tall he is. If the Wikipedia entry for him is to be believed, he checks in at 6' 8" tall. He's no Shaq, but hey, he's about a foot plus taller than me...

Now with that said, dude looks like some kind of humongo-giant here:
I can't say I've ever seen the Main-Stream Sports Media (MSSM) cover this aspect of the Lakers. He's a whole head taller than Kurt Ramis on his left shoulder there. Kurt's Wikipedia entry clocks him in at the exact same height as Phil!

Well, there was a game:
Awesome action... Okay, not my best sports photograph ever. Hey, I'm in the cheap seats - cut me some slack - I only have 3x optical w/12x digital zoom here people...

Anyway, I'm perseverating on the bloody Phil Jackson throne. Look at this sucker folks, it's not just me:
Yes! I checked, Don Nelson didn't have one of these (did you know Nellie's Jersey, #19 from the Celtics, is retired in the Boston Garden rafters?). Phil must truly be an NBA God. I knew he was a Zen Master... but a throne?

Ya, Kobe played, directed, blah blah blah...

And, I did get a good art shot here:
It's a good art shot because there is clearly motion, and it is in focus. Click for a larger image. I'm pretty sure that's Ronny Turiaf just under and to the left of the net.

I had fun at the game, but it left me with all sorts of questions. Like, this guy:
Out of context, it's not big deal right? Of course. Here's the context:
The dod hangs from the ceiling. I wonder what that job pays? He gets into that crows nest from a ladder that comes out out of the ceiling or somewhere.

I'm mesmerized by this Phil thing. Here is is next to Kurt - THEY'RE BOTH 6' 8"! Look behind them though, Vladimir Radmanovic looks huge too. It's the Jackson throne.
Okay, I can let it go. (Go with the force)Luke Walton spent a bit of down time sitting in it at time-outs, so I decided the guys needing a little help tried to get some of Phil-o-wan Kenobi's mojo from a little throne time. Gotta be a good thing, right?

Tied at the end of regulation:

Time ran out for the Warriors. Though, the Merc article seemed to indicate the team felt they were on the loosing end of a ref-probe... Whattaygonnado?

There was one play in OT where Baron Davis tossed up a hail Mary alley-opp attempt that if it had completed, would have brought down the house. We were on our feet. It was an *awesome* game. Worth getting home at midnight and only getting 5.5 hours of sleep for. And I still gotta wonder about who else in the league they set a special seat for? I'm thinking, not too many others. I'll bet that irks some coaches. Well, not Isaiah Thomas I'm sure...

There be whales here!

Okay, well, not a whale per se.

Much less to be true.

Okay, it's a bloody Red Fin Shark.

It's in a tank in my son's room. I've noticed as I walk by his room during the day, this fella will station himself, nose down, tail up, in the corner of the tank. Here he is setting up:

Here he is again, not quite in position, but you start to get the idea...

Then he goes all Star Trek IV on me, and I can't get focus on him...
Weird, huh? Makes me wonder if he knows something I don't. Well, I'm sure he does, I just mean in an extraterrestrial sense.

It's my own personal whale here captain...

Bike vs. Fence (sports)

Driving through my neighborhood, I seem to have just missed witnessing a drunk driving accident:
Guy musta been going, what, 10, 15 MPH?:

Apparently a hit and run, the driver is on the loose...

Tragedy - in San Jose... Sad really. When will people learn?

Bike: 1 Fence: 1 (tie)