Ron Munn

Another great pal of mine. One of a kind.

One For My Baby (And One More For the Road)

Sanké

I joined Leslie for an interesting performance of African dance and gymnastics on Sunday. 

It was held at a private residence in Morro Hills, I was gifted a ticket.

The small troupe was from Guinea in West Africa and consisted of a performer, his daughter and wife. 

It was called Sanké, which means roots in the Susu language of West Africa.

We were called together by the drums and then treated to a performance of contortion, which is a major part of the artistic culture of Guinea. 

The daughter was lithe and graceful.

The affair was a potluck and the food was delicious. Leslie made brownies, the non adulterated kind. They were snapped up so fast I never got one.

The next dance was from the Termine people of neighboring Sierra Leone. 

The male performer wore a woman's dress and mask and performed a dance. 

We then heard a traditional Malinke rhythm that is played when a woman is released from some sort of problem or burden.

We ended up seeing a tumbling routine and then learning traditional Guinea dance forms.

Everybody did well but me, not really feeling it and being a klutz.

We talked to the performers afterwards and they were kind, bright and beautiful people.

Very nice afternoon!

Josh Turner, Elle Cordova, Toni Lindgren

Bromeliad Ballansae flower spike

 

Grew six inches in two days and still going.

Buttigieg takes Fox apart

Take the money and run, Buttigieg on Thiel and Vance:

Robert Palmer

Veepstakes

There are parties and then there are policies. I tend to be more interested in the latter. Choice, the environment, Ukraine, you know my hot buttons...

But there is also the question of manners and temperament. And the contrast between the potential Presidential slates this year could not be more dramatic.

One side resembles a WWE or MMA carny show and the other ticket all seem remarkably sober. One side continually degrades the opposition and calls them dumb as a rock and trash. The other comports themselves with respect and good manners.

BigDave sent me a good article from Common Dreams, Hey, Trump, who's the real garbage?

I don't want to sound like a cheerleader but let's compare the two vice presidential possibilities. 

On one side is Vance, a man that thinks that women who are beaten by their husbands should stick around for the sake of their kids, who does not believe in abortions even for those poor women who have been raped or impregnated by incest, wants to cut off aid to Ukraine and let Putin take over the country, a Christian nationalist who doesn't think that people that never had children have the same right to vote as those that do, where do I stop with this man?

Contrast that with the Dems. Cooper, Kelly, Beshear, Walz, Shapiro, Pritzker, Whitmer, Buttigieg. All composed, taciturn, bright, able administrators who don't engage in the lame high voltage theatrics. Grounded, not volatile, not a single one of them. Even.

I honestly would be happy with any one of these people as Vice President and potentially running our country one day, if need be. I like them all.

The contrast could not be more clear.

Booker T and the MGs

Damn Irish

I had to laugh when I read the headlines two weeks ago. Six foreign nationals arrested for ATM skimming scam. Supposedly the people arrested were Irish and Romanian. But it took less than a second for my feeble old brain to figure out that this was a gypsy ring.

The gypsy or Roma travelers are huge in Ireland these days. But you are not allowed to say Gypsy any more because it is not politically correct so you instead have to say "Irish and Romanian nationals."

Took one look at their last names to figure out that my deduction was correct. 

The Codreanu family, at it again, with a Ciuciu and a Zamfir mixed in as well. All Roma.

These people have practiced the art of thievery for hundreds of years, scamming, pickpockets, it is a matter of pride for them. Why pretend they are not gypsies? I got scammed by a gypsy girl with a kid and her mom at a gas station in Northern California but told them I knew it was a scam, just felt for the little girl.

They are shameless.

I was reading about the pickpocket problem in Italy, it is terrible. Damn Irish again.

Saturday riff

The beautiful Fallbrook Spring is definitely in our rear view mirror and we are getting into the time of serious summer heat. Still every season has its charms and the Santa Margarita River Valley is beautiful any time of the year, even without the purples of spring.

I was driving home the other day and I saw a blue bird hopping along the high canyon road that I travel on every day leaving and coming home. I wasn't sure if it was a small scrub jay or a bluebird (could have even been a blue grosbeak I suppose) but it had a big blob in its mouth.

I slowed down to take a gander and a big toad jumped out of its beak, free, the bird flew away. I laughed, the bird was definitely fighting outside of its weight class and pay grade. Fight in the dog, not the dog in the fight.

I came home the day before yesterday and there was an osprey on the power pole with a huge fish in its mouth. The sea eagle is such an expert hunter, with its gigantic sharp talons.

I stopped and grabbed my phone but couldn't catch the fish from my angle.

Shame.

The truth is I haven't carried my camera around for about three months. I've been busy and on sabbatical. I am ready to bring it home. Miss shooting, I have missed a lot of good captures.

When I hear people say their cell phone is plenty I have to laugh.

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My bromeliad ballansae is starting to bloom again and fluoresce, three of them right now.

The plant is so happy and spreading like visual wildfire.

Just starting to get the flower spike, which will turn into a giant peppermint tower in a matter of weeks!

Yesterday the cereus started with its beautiful giant blooms under the Pindo Palm.

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My arborist dug this rock up in Rainbow the other day. 

Anybody know what it is? 

I am guessing tourmaline of some kind. Or quartz. But I am not a rockhound.

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This little fellow is popping up in my garden too.  Not quite sure what, yet.

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Todd has been trimming my palms and the place feels good.

I am going to stay home tomorrow and hopefully catch some pictures of birds.

The quail are taking over.

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I walked Los Jilqueros today and tried to recognize the calls of the oak titmouse and bewick's wren,

I respect those people with ears for bird identification.

I don't have it.

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Some current events stuff.

How did an alchemist in the sixteenth century have shards of a mineral that nobody had discovered or had a name for yet?

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Astronauts stranded in space.

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Here's a beauty. Customers who save on electric bills could be forced to pay utility company for lost profits

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At the Burlingame High School Library, a place that is for everything but books apparently.

According to school records, only about 50 books were checked out by students during the 2023 fall semester. In response, the administration has decided to take a different approach, rebranding the library as a student union—a communal space for students to interact and complete school work.

At the beginning of this transition last year, the school moved the College and Career Center into the library. This year, this school is removing any book that has not been checked out for over a decade.

While school officials say the change is meant to cater to student needs and interests, it also feels like a capitulation to the basic fact that many in my generation simply don’t read much anymore...

Fifty books? Why do I find this horrible?

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Speaking of this, some of you know but many do not know that I write educational curriculum for teachers and have been doing so for about twenty years to supplement my income. 

My last course was called Pushing too hard, Fighting Toxic Perfection. It is based on a recent book about how many parents are pushing their kids to excel so much that they are developing mental health problems when they get to college.

I was talking to the college dean I work for the other day and asked how the course was being received? He said that the response was lukewarm, frankly it has not been selling well. I asked him why and I got my own wake up call.

He said that many of the teachers come from public schools in underprivileged areas. If they can get a kid to graduate high school it is a success. Toxic parents pushing kids to overachieve is not a problem there.

I was a scholarship prep school student whose parents valued learning and pushed us to read, from a voluminous home library. But I forget that everybody is not like me. And stupid and ignorant parents tend to raise stupid and ignorant kids, we see it every day.

And it looks like the kids have stopped reading. I am such a dinosaur, I am still pissed off about people talking loudly in the library. State of education is very sad.

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Blond man in ancient Chinese tomb.

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I don't care which side of the aisle you lean politically, we are all sick of the text messages from the national committees looking for money. I made one donation, to Jon Tester and now they won't let me alone, no matter how many times I text STOP. Same with Leslie. This sucks.

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Biologist says evolution moves faster than Darwin. How long ago was Rupert Sheldrake saying this?

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I don't want to get political, there is enough of that out there and you know where to find it. I will say that Netanyahu has no business talking about American protests and calling Americans idiots. I love Israel, want them to exist and survive but he has created a lot of the problems there by not treating the Gazans like human beings. You can't kill a whole people to take care of Hamas. You create a stronger Hamas by doing that. Time for a cease fire and hostage return and you can go back and kill again another day, Bibi... But you might think about a workable solution for both peoples. This one is untenable. And your continual pandering to the uber religious right in this country is both nauseating and divisive.

I don't know where Kamala Harris really is on Israel, I hope she is not a progressive. And I am not sure if she will be elected. But I think she will be tougher on Israel than Biden and I hope she will be smarter than Obama, who was completely clueless on Iran. In any case I hope that Netenyahu stops interfering in our country's political process with his Trumpy crap, he is alienating a lot of Democrats, including many Jewish democrats who love Israel.

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Supervisor Desmond sent out an email yesterday about two battery storage fires in the county unincorporated area. Would be nice to know where and why? And I would feel a lot more comfortable if it was not a private mitigation company in charge of response. Nothing to see here...

Businesses in the surrounding area were put on standby for evacuation while firefighters maintained a 600-foot safety barrier due to dangerous levels of hydrogen. A shelter in place order was also issued to Donovan State Prison, located about half a mile from the storage facility“We went into defensive action. We knew this was a battery storage facility. There’s some toxic gases and high heat that are attributed to that, so we called in extra support with the hazmat unit and the bomb squad to give us the extra tools,” Cornette explained.A special device was used to help monitor air quality levels. Cal Fire and other crews pumped water into the building’s fire suppression system to help douse the lithium-ion batteries.The 250-megawatt Gateway Energy Storage facility is owned by LS Power and operated by subsidiary Rev Renewables. Neither company returned our request for comment as of Thursday.

This is an asterisk point for a future I told you so if I ever saw one. People will be pointing at each other and saying, they were in charge...

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Last night's puff pastry. Spinach mushroom and sausage and apple currant, thanks to RoxAnn for her Dorset apples.

Whitehawk

I am pleased to announce that the Blue Heron Gallery will be exhibiting at the Whitehawk Ethnographic Show in Santa Fe August 9 through 12, 2024. 

I have been doing these shows for about thirty years and always look forward to them.

More information on the show here.

Christine’s Tune

Terry DeWald

I've been waiting for this!

Mailbag and this and that...

Shawn in Thailand sends this over, printing photographs on plants.

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They used to think oxygen could only be produced by photosynthesis underwater. They were wrong.

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Shawn also sends pictures of catfish on a stick. Bangkok?

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Speaking of fish, BigDave is in New York City eating at one of my favorite places, Barney Greengrass, the Sturgeon King, with his friend Dave Winer.

I am trying to convince him to go to the met and see the arms and armor show, my favorite.

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Ricardo in Thailand wants us to know that the tide doesn't really ebb and flow...

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Terry Schurmeier reminds me that the 25th annual Great Southwestern Show is fast approaching. I will try and show up.

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We had a lowrider show in Fallbrook Sunday. They left trash everywhere, worst I have ever seen.

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Terry D sends a note from Tucson.

Luckily with no swimming pool maintenance fees or chlorine bills.

Just have to share it all with the tad poles and frogs, which is just fine.

Kermit The Frog

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My sister Liz sent this - Trump and Martyrdom

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Village News put a pic of yours truly in the local paper this week, with arborist and pal Roger Boeddart. 

Thanks to Kent for telling me  about it.

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I deleted the post about getting ghosted. My friend saw it and said it was nothing I had done, they needed space.

I took it offline.

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Pete Buttigieg on what makes Vance tick? Simple really, $.

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Terry DeWald sent me the following:

So true!

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Renee lets us know about a blooming corpse flower.

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Ted Fleming sends some beautiful pics from Kauai.

Great job, Ted!

John Mayall

I've Got A New Road Under My Wheels

Jerry Miller, one of the founders and fine guitar players in Moby Grape, has passed. Moby Grape never got their just due but they were great musicians and had vocals that rivaled anybody, including CSNY. Really one of the earliest country rock bands, which they get no credit for whatsoever.

I once asked my buddy John Morris (Woodstock, Fillmore East and Rainbow Theater) why the Grape never made it bigger than they did and he said that their manager was a pain in the ass. But they sure could sing.

Santa Barbara Show

How the Devil came to Reverend Hill - Clare Leighton

I am back from my show in Santa Barbara. While it was not what I had hoped for it was not a disaster either. I will live to fight another day.

Long trip up, in traffic. 

I met an old client in the parking lot and bought my painting back for what she paid, the one I sold her twelve years ago.

I was happy to see it again, one of the best and most powerful canvases I have ever sold.

Cleveland Museum tag on the back, Rolf Stoll, 1932, Two nudes.

I set up my lights and brought my boxes in and then set up my case, something I rarely do on the first day.

But I had time and what else was I going to do? Sit in one way traffic back to Carpenteria?

I think the booth looked good, a bit more modern than usual, aways a guessing game trying to figure out what people will want.

I sold some stuff off the wall but nothing expensive. 

People were not in the mood to spend big money on art or at least not with me.

A few art sharpies came by that liked my Santa Barbara material but they won't buy unless they can steal.

I did sell a lot of native material, baskets, my chumash mortero, my acoma olla. 

All the stuff I should have saved for Santa Fe in two weeks.

But hey, if they want it I have to sell it. 

Will be interesting to see what I fill the booth with in New Mexico.

But it is pretty tiny and it won't be much of a problem.

I did buy well. I bought a Paul Landacre woodcut for a client and sold it.

I bought a nice Maria and Santana blackware pot. I bought a pretty three color galle vase.

Hurricane in a cornfield

Lovers

And I bought an incredible collection of wood engravings by the English American artist Clare Leighton (1898-1989). 

Twenty seven of them, to be exact. 

Supposedly I was offered the collection twenty years ago, I have a vague recollection.

The time must not have been right.

She came to America in the 1920’s and created lovely regionalist works that depicted life in rural America. 

Works in the same league and proficiency as Benton, Wood and Landacre.

My pieces were from her time in North Carolina in the 1930's and 40's. 

Small editions, impeccable. 

I absolutely love her work and got some amazing examples. 

This collection was assembled prior to 1949 and I have all the letters and documentation. 

Some of the works are quite rare and are only found in museum collections.

It will be fun to sell.

Landing

tobacco loopers

If you have a chance to see these, please give me a call and stop by.

Not much else to report. 

Lots of meals at Esau's cafe, a prime rib and greyhound at the Tee Off that knocked me on my ass.

A nice walk on the bluffs in Carpenteria.

All in all, a good trip, as I said. 

It started out strong Friday and then slowed to a crawl but you never really know how things will go these days. 

I usually stay over, being exhausted from  a long week and packing out but I had to meet a client first thing Monday morning and was forced to do the midnight slog.

It hasn't stopped since. I am hoping to get a day off to relax and chill before the hamster wheel starts spinning again.

We will see.

Jeff Tweedy - Simple Twist of Fate

YouTube feeds

I recently heard that more people watch YouTube every day than television. I know I certainly do. 

YouTube is the second most visited website in the world, after Google.

Launched in 2005, it is also owned by Google.

There are 3.7 thousand videos launched to the platform every day. It is a populist forum, mostly unfiltered. I love the fact that I get such diverse feeds on my algorithm as rural Pakistanis struggling to survive in remote canyon villages, Indonesian fisherwomen going about their lives on the delta and Vietnamese pimple miners. So much random material.

I thought that I would share with you some of my favorite channels.

Xiaoma. The remarkable polyglot from Chicago has done an incredible job learning arcane languages and becoming a global ambassador.

Eric Rosen. My favorite chess streamer. Brilliant guy, great teacher. Quiet, gentle, humble.

Vegas Matt. A zany Las Vegas gambler that lets me cathartically scratch my gambling itch and it doesn't cost me a dime.

Drumeo.  A channel dedicated to drumming that asks drummers to drum on pieces that they are not familiar with. I really enjoy this channel.

NDYak Angler. The most calming voice on YouTube, a very chill North Dakota based kayak angler. I love watching Matt fish for Muskie.

Cactus Quest. A new channel for me but very cool.  From Lophophera to Opuntia. These botanists are crazed.

Chef Jean Pierre. My favorite YouTube chef, have learned a lot from this guy. Classically trained but doesn't take himself too seriously.

There are many more. Brad Owen for poker, Chad Zuber for survival skills, a variety of Africa Cams, Chinese martial arts movies, Stan Mills for hiking around Yellowstone. What are you hooked on?

Red tailed, Red shouldered, Red tailed, Male Northern harrier