Yosemite

When I was in college studying photography, Ansel Adams gave us a talk. I took notes inside my photography textbook, and seemed, at the time, most impressed that Adams, called Edward Weston by his first name.

Adams, Weston, Lange and Cunningham were my gods at the time. Oh, it was some rare air I was breathing in the lecture hall that night.

I was 19.

When I married at 22, we honeymooned in Yosemite. My favorite honeymoon picture is one of me standing next to a framed, genuine Ansel Adams print. I've got a goofy grin and am pointing at the print like, can you believe this!

I searched in vain for that picture and found this one. I didn't have a very good camera back then, but I was filled with passion and possibilities.

What put Adams in mind this morning, is the fire burning toward Yosemite.

I can not bear to think Yosemite might be lost.



Living through the Meriwether Fire last year, I know, no amount of politically correct spin can change the fact that, sometimes, once something is gone, it's gone.

As in adios, bye-bye, ain't never gonna be the same again.

Yosemite has already taught us that lesson once. Hetch Hetchy, smaller mirror image of Yosemite, was destroyed when the powers that be, dammed the Tuolumne River to provide water for San Francisco. Rumor has it, losing that fight killed John Muir.

Here's what it used to look like.

Here's what it looks like now.

Done in by a dam.

All my thoughts today are with firefighters fighting to save a National Park.

Dream Big

X Files - Movie 2 - Spoilers

Remember - The Truth Is Out There?

No, it isn't.

Now we have, I Want To Believe.

Yeah, well, okay.

When Duchovny left the series, so did I. X Files turned into a mushy, continually unresolved mess and that made it boring to me.

(Although, it certainly prepared me to become a fan of LOST

Everything anyone missed from the last season is tied up nicely in the first ten minutes which is kind of like not missing it at all.

I went into the movie expecting to bask in the glow of fondness for characters I watched for years. Kinda like the first X files movie.

Alas.

Chris Carter broke his own taboo to bring the characters to a logical conclusion or some other inane reason to give us this.

Sexual tension made this pair interesting. Would they? Could they? Did they? Do they wanna?

Once they're in bed, the story is over.

When Mulder snags Scully in a lip lock, can I just say, ick.

Oh well.

This movie plays like an extra long and not scary TV episode. I coulda waited for the DVD. There are a couple nice laughs. One, I'm sure, entirely unintended. (Kind of like the first X Files movie.)

One -- pictures of Bush2 and J. Edgar Hoover bracing a door Muldar and Scully must walk through to rejoin the FBI. Everybody laughed.

Two -- the team takes a psychic, consulting on the case, to the "crime scene" to test his veracity. He says, "this isn't where it happened," and walks across the street to the house wrapped in yellow crime scene tape. Everybody laughed. We could all be psychics.

One bright light shining out of the mediocrity is Billy Connolly as the psychic, pedophile priest. He is dark, creepy, surprising, scary. You know, like the X Files used to be.

Americana

I love the county fair.

Nothing beats this rural American tradition.

The animals.

4H kids learning there is more to putting food on the table than just opening the cupboard.

The carnival.

No kiddo with me this year to try to entice me on an upside down ride. Not like that ever happened. Pony ride's about my speed.

The food.

Which is why I started this post at 2 AM post fair -- indigestion induced insomnia.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. I believe whatever doesn't kill you, didn't try hard enough.

2. If you're good at something, enjoy it.

3. Why so serious.

4. Something is out there, it's an X File Sequel .

5. If my life were a sitcom, it would be titled -- My life would be a PBS Special.

6. Sitting on my back porch I see Trout Creek.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to post fair indigestion, tomorrow my plans include the gym and Sunday, I want to see a movie!

Boats

From Monday's A Bitch.

1. Have you ever been on a cruise?

Nope.

2. Do you own a gravy boat?

Yep. Where else would one place the gravy?

3. You've become the proud owner of a brand new boat.What do you name your vessel?

USS Little Fish. Very, very old, very, very, very IN joke. But I like it.

4. What is your favourite movie about boats?

Titanic.

5. Do you get sea sick easily?

Haven't had the chance, but don't think so. Don't get air sick or car sick, so don't think so.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. If I could be a fly on the wall I would worry about fly swatters.

2. Jealousy is pointless.

3. When I see a shooting star my wish would be that ?.

When I was a kid, I used to wish for a horse on every shooting star I saw. And I never got a horse until I grew up and bought one myself. Does this mean I'm too old to wish on a star? Maybe.

4. I'd rather be lucky than good any day!

Which is an old Irish saying, but I think Simon and Garfunkel got this one right -- "I'd rather be a forest than a street."

5. Certain songs when I hear them make me wanna cry.

I'm so sentimental, but others make me want to boogie, which I do in the privacy of my own home where no one will see.

6. If time were in a bottle it would be easier to save.

7. And as for the weekend, no solid plans this weekend. Will just roll with what comes along!

2 Tired 2 Think Up Something Myself

1. Do you make an effort not to step on cracks?

Sometimes. That's odd, isn't it?

2. When was the last time you got caught in the rain?

Called to rescue pregnant girl, in labor, stuck in mountains.
Stood in rain, four hours.

3. What was the last movie you saw?

Theater - The Happening.

At home - The Bank Job.

4. What would you say is the nerdiest thing about you?

I like computers, way too much.

5. You work on a large cruise ship. There an explosion in the engine room and the ship is sinking. There is only enough room for 30 people in the rescue boat and including you there are 31. You are the only person capable of driving the boat, and the people are demanding you choose the one who stays behind. Time is running out. How do you pick the person who you will leave to die?

Republicans, Insurance Claims Adjusters and the guy who designed the parking lot at my local Hastings -- out of the boat.

Found this one here.

Good Advice 4 Screenwriters

Great article over at 1000 Dollar Film. Link is here.

In my experience, the ability to take notes comes when the writer approaches the writing as a professional endeavor not a personal quest.



In order to attain the impossible,
one must attempt the absurd.

Miguel de Cervantes

The Further Adventures of The Naughtiest Puppy In the World

One Year Anniversary

I went on my first medical call as an EMT, one year ago today.

Being an EMT, has enlightened me to human behavior in ways, I never would have imagined.

People will mention in passing, something that will kill them, and focus on a symptom that is merely annoying.

People of a certain generation, determined not to be any trouble, will change their story to mimic your expectations, should you be so transparent.

Not everyone is good in an emergency.

Sometimes the nicest thing you can say to a person is, "Help is on the way."

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Oh, I can't wait until I have a

2. ____ is the first thing I see when I open my refrigerator.3. I never leave home without

4. If I were a condiment, I would be ______ because ______.

Full of fat, not good for you, but oh so, scrumptious.

5. ____ is really high up on my list of pet peeves.

6. The last thing I thought of before I went to bed was

because she came in and kissed me goodnight.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to
tomorrow my plans include

or maybebut definitely some
and Sunday, I want which is how I manage to not lose any weight with all the freakin' exercise I've been getting.

Freedom's Just Another Word . . .

Because of that New Boy and all his cousins . . .

the peony that yearns to be free.

New Boy In Town

Photo Theme Thursday - Photography

Which is . . . me in the darkroom.

This is a very old picture.

Well, maybe not THAT old.