sorrow

I've known this song for a long time, but for the life of me loose the lyrics in my head.

I spotted some mystery song on my itunes play list and it caught my attention. Finally, when I'm in front of my computer and can actually do something about it! HA! I found it:



kick ass.

At the L@ne

Post-dawn patrol - about 7a at the L@ne...
I've seen m1dd1e peak larger, but this was mighty sweet.

Sets were at fairly long intervals, but reasonably consistent.

Me? I had a meeting... Unfortunately, not with Mr. Zoggs... :-(

I made it back to the rail at about 4p. The wind had picked up.


There were crowds, but nothing like I would have expected.



Not quite Victory at Sea. The wind didn't seem to keep folks out of the drop. Nice split peak offering here:


Just on the edge of the barrel:



Just in front of the cliff, he made the cutback and came up off the lip.



Okay, I'm not using a digital SLR. This picture turned out much better than I had expected. This one reminds me of the opening sequence of Hawaii 5-0.


I'm hoping to make it out tomorrow or Monday, though I'm expecting it to drop off.


What? You're waxing up your board now? Uh huh. thought so... Cheers Mate!

Obama.

Ya, that's how I roll. Found this on Valleywag:



whatever you do, vote when you are given the honor.

Total Eclipse!

Having been a fan of science, Space science in particular, stuff like this always excites me:

Read the whole story while you're at it! Then, don't miss the show...

Peanuts

In Santa Rosa CA., there is perhaps one of the finest museums' I have ever visited. Not fine because of the quantity of the works presented, or of the myriad of names of famous painters and sculptors.

Fine because I grew up as a fan of the comic strip "Peanuts" by Charles Schultz. My dad was to be found at the breakfast table or the dining room table in the evenings with his nose in the newspaper. He would chuckle when reading the funnies and it was inevitable that when queried as to the source of the humor, the cause was of course, Peanuts.

My wife and I took the day this past weekend to visit the museum. I have been wanting to go for a long time and this was about the first chance we have had. I wasn't disappointed at all. Not only does the work presented invite the fan to glow in fond memories of strips we know. It also allows the viewer to go back in time and get a feel for the skill and love that was put into those strips. The 2 images here are from the very entry. Simple lines, but they speak volumes of the characters they depict.

Here is a "close-up" of the one of Linus. I always appreciated the calm and pensive demeanor Schultz always imbued in this character. I was never inspired to use a 'security blanket' because of this guy, but I have always appreciated the peace of mind one would bring.
Now, about this point, you're probably wondering why the heck these pictures are so small. Well, it was a big screw up on my part. Two actually... First, I forgot the digital camera. Totally spaced out and left the bugger at home. Then, somehow, the settings on the phone cam had been reset to minimum instead of the VGA setting.

The museum was nicely done. It wasn't so crowded that you felt that you might be missing a bunch of work. It's 2 stories high. On the bottom part is a small video viewing room that had a nice overview of the artist. Outside of that in the first hall were some cases with some of the strips as they had been inked and submitted for reproduction. It was cool to see the actual cut and paste of the logo on the box pattern and often inked on as part of the strip would impede on that.

On the outside walls are these two images of Charlie Brown and Lucy. Funny how we call him by first and last name, but all other characters are only a single name. I have always been a fan of Lucy (Van Pelt) in her Psychiatrist role. She was given a wisdom that was of course beyond her years.


There are also lots of articles and supporting notes that talks to the artistry and skill of the artist. A few times, you read how Schultz was able to, with just a few simple lines, relay strong emotion with which we all can relate as well as pathos.This image does that as well as any I have seen.

There are also a few other images like the one here to the right. This is a really nice painting of Snoopy in his pilot form. This character was a favorite. I never really nailed down why. It could be the Quixotic effort to take out the Red Baron, or it cold be the pilot part of the character. Either way, I like this a lot.

Now, in the main hall as you enter past the ticket podium, there is a floor to ceiling piece that you see here below. It looks light here. The deal is that this piece is made of ceramic tiles, over 3,000 of them. The artist that put this together (not Schultz), used strips that were night-time strips to make the "lines".
When you are up close, you can read each strip. didn't read a lot of them as that's not the point. It's a really neat bit of work. In the men's restroom (and I suspect the women's room too I assume), there were some of the same comic strip tiles in a trim strip around the walls. I was quite surprised that they didn't have any of those for sale. I would have bought a bunch of those.

There is more in the place including a replica of the office where Schultz did his work. After this, we walked across the road to see the Redwod Empire Ice Area, or more commonly known as "Snoopy's Home Ice". It's a full size ice rink where annually I believe, there is a Senior Citizen hockey tournament. I wonder if the NHL has inducted Charles Schultz into their Hall of Fame. I did a cursory search but didn't find anything obvious. Seems like a slam dunk...

Then, across the way is the 'real' store where they sell all sorts of things "Peanuts". There is also a large hockey supply section. Upstairs there, is more history of Peanuts and some of the pictures of the Sr. Citizen hockey tournament teams. I liked this neon sign for Snoopy's Ice Cream, which I never saw in a store...

All in all, it is what I was hoping it would be. It was a stroll through fond memories, fun strips, fine artwork, and what is clearly a work of love for an artist that has touched many lives. Not the least of which was mine. A tip of the hat to Charles Schultz and to this museum.

p.s. - It's also a "Research Center". I failed to ask what they research there...

Kilt

Just received my ThinkGeek advert email. I don't mean to advertise, but this ad is just damned funny:



ok - ya, I' just jealous of the accent... sigh.

Negatives!

I bought one of these from ThinkGeek.com and it arrived this week! The picture of me skating in an earlier post is direct from a negative - that's why there/s dust and crap you don't get in pure digital.

I've dug up my portfolio and am scanning a few things, mostly as a test process. Here is a picture I took as part of an assignment for a class a friend of mine and I took in our senior year of High School via San Diego State. It was a week long trip to Yosemite. At the time, the Lower and Upper River camp sites were still open. This was from the shore of our site on Lower River:
It's an absolute favorite of mine. A 16x20" version has been hanging in our house for many years now. About time I had it re-printed. snif... I miss the days when I did this work myself.

So, over time, I'll share some more of my historical work that includes a lot of concert work, of which, unfortunately, I only have a fraction of what I had. I'll tell more about that later.

The bottom line for me is, photography has always been a passion. I'd love to get back to it. For now, revisiting this old work and doing some cleanup and balancing floats my boat.

Skating

I used to skateboard more when I was younger. Like I surf a pseudo-longboard now, when I skate, I have a long board too.

Somewhere in this house, there is a picture of me riding down Coronado St. in O.B. This was something like, 1978 or 1980. I can't find it, but when I do, I'll post it up. For now, here's another picture about the same time period - skating in Ramona Estates before the streets were crowed. Hell, before the streets were actaully used by cars...













Anyway, I saw this:

glumbert - Rollersuit in the Swiss Alps

It took me back. Okay, well, it's not the same, but, kinda...

Wrestling - REAL wrestling

Saw this on the Yahoo.com home page today:


I can't wait to see the "pro" wrestlers try that. Probably won't happen as you can't do that with a folding chair under your arm...

Props to the wrestler who went on to pin and win.

Shark Bite

I posted up my mavs write up to the Surfer Magazine discussion forum. Someone asked if I had had thought of great white sharks when i was out there.



I did, but, like I said in the forum, I just don't think it's a problem... The guy above seemed pretty cool about his encounter. I surf. If I get taken down by gus, I'll want you to repeat - "It beats dying on the freeway."