1913 woody pickup truck
Posted at
Monday, February 07, 2011
4:58 AM
Paradise Recording studio in Santa Cruz
Will also is the studio manager and engineer, along with head engineer Rich Williams, at the Paradise Recording studio in Santa Cruz, and they recently posted some samples of their work at http://www.paradiserec.com/clients.htm. Click on the list of songs on the right to hear the eclectic list of songs from different musicians.
I asked Will to describe what they do: "The best thing to me about this place is that we use analog tape to get a sound that feels good. Analog recording is like a hand built home, whereas digital recording is analogous to a prefab house. This way is old fashioned, imperfect, and feels better. But we also have custom gear that is being used all over the world..."
Posted at
4:38 AM
Beach adventure #2
Came upon these little surfers' shacks (surfers who get this far have to be pretty motivated). Check out the footing here. Sun getting low, so I started heading back. I got so immersed in beachhcombing I seem to have missed the cliffside trail and by the time I realized this I was pretty far south of it. Sun now setting and of course I had no light and there are very few exits from the beach on this stretch of the coast, with its crumbling steep cliffs. Hmmm… I made the decision to head south where I knew there was an arroyo with a (sort of) trail.
As it got darker, I started to run. Not looking forward to spending the night huddled under a cliff until dawn. Oh yeah, I was lightly dressed, had no cel phone, and it was a new moon, so no help in the luminosity dept. Dumb fuck!
Stress level rising, getting darker, shit! Then -- is that a human figure up ahead? Yes, it was, I'd made it to the arroyo and Megan and her 2 kids were heading up the trail. You hop around a flowing creek going up and have to pul lyourself up in 2 places with anchored ropes. After walking through a muddy field, Megan kindly gave me a ride to my truck and I was able to come home to a warm fire, (ahem) big shot of cognac, and good meal.
If it don't kill you,
it's good for you.
Posted at
Sunday, February 06, 2011
3:25 PM
Beach Adventure
They say with age comes wisdom, but this combo seems to have eluded me. I started sliding down the steep trail wearing light Sanuk sandals and ended up on all 4s on parts of the trail. Also, I had a cut on my foot from a barefoot walk on the beach a few nights earlier, and the beach was mostly sloping with rocks that had to be hopped upon or navigated around.
But it was a glorious day, there were clear tide pools brimming with sea life. I started finding bits of polished abalone shells and filling up my backpack with shoreside treasures. In all my 40 years living here I'd never been this far along the beach -- going where I've never gone before, nothing more exciting. (Same thing driving down a never-before-travelled road -- heaven.)
Posted at
3:21 PM
Happy sunrise on Lake Chapala
Posted at
Friday, February 04, 2011
11:42 AM
Bike ride up coast yesterday
I tell ya, when I get on my new bike, it feels like I'm on a motorcycle. Each time I take the first couple of cranks going down the road, I can't believe how good it feels. Here we go! Yesterday I headed up the coast off-road. The bike with its air shocks takes potholes and rocks with ease. Surf was up, tide low, air filled with sweet negative-ion-charged sea air.
Then I rode out to a secret pond in the hills, where swimming is great in the Spring:
On the way home as sun was setting, here was a herd of 14 deer. Never seen a flock like this.
Each day of my life right now seems so filled with interesting stuff I can only get a fraction of it down.
Posted at
8:51 AM
Beautiful woodshed by Swedish architect
"Good architecture comes in all shapes and sizes and this time in the form of a woodshed. The small building is well planned and designed so that the wood can be store airy and dry, and the layout makes the wood easily accessible, yet leaves room for sawing and splitting. The architect behind it all is Jonas Palmius."
http://www.google.com/translate?u=http://www.belowtheclouds.com/en/2010/09/23/vacker-vedbod/&sl=sv&tl=en
Posted at
6:19 AM
Winter's Bone a sensational film
This film is so fresh and honest, it took my breath away. It made me realize what mediocre krap Hollywood turns out, with its super stars, special effects, and massive budgets. This low budget film is tough, real, and beautiful. There are several stunning camera sequences, like when Ree is searching for Thump (wait til you see this guy!) at a cattle auction. Hats off to director Deborah Granik; I'll watch every movie she directs from now on.
"With an absent father and a withdrawn and depressed mother, 17 year-old Ree Dolly keeps her family together in a dirt poor rural area. She's taken aback however when the local Sheriff tells her that her father put up their house as collateral for his bail and unless he shows up for his trial in a week's time, they will lose it all. She knows her father is involved in the local drug trade and manufactures crystal meth, but everywhere she goes the message is the same: stay out of it and stop poking your nose in other people's business. She refuses to listen, even after her father's brother, Teardrop, tells her he's probably been killed. She pushes on, putting her own life in danger, for the sake of her family until the truth, or enough of it, is revealed. (Written by garykmcd) "
Posted at
Thursday, February 03, 2011
8:15 AM
Back on the sk8board!
Shot last week with a sensational GoPro HD Helmet Hero camera attached to my helmet.
Posted at
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
1:21 PM
Nearly 11 Percent of US Houses Empty
"…Homeownership is falling at an alarming pace, despite the fact that home prices have fallen, affordability is much improved and inventories of new and existing homes are still running quite high.
Bargains abound, but few are interested or eligible to take advantage.
More concerning than the home ownership rate is the vacancy rate. The Census tables don't tell the entire story, but they tell a lot of it. Of the nearly 131 million housing units in this country, 112.5 million are occupied. 74.8 million are owned, and that's only dropped by about 30 thousand in the past year. 38 million are rented, but that's up by over a million year over year. That means more new households are choosing to rent.…"
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41355854
Bargains abound, but few are interested or eligible to take advantage.
More concerning than the home ownership rate is the vacancy rate. The Census tables don't tell the entire story, but they tell a lot of it. Of the nearly 131 million housing units in this country, 112.5 million are occupied. 74.8 million are owned, and that's only dropped by about 30 thousand in the past year. 38 million are rented, but that's up by over a million year over year. That means more new households are choosing to rent.…"
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41355854
Posted at
8:13 AM
VW bug on steroids
Spotted this in a neighborhood is San Leandro yesterday morning. Baja, here we go!
Posted at
7:34 AM
Small stone hermitages in Northern Spain
Belgian photographer Sebastian Schutyser has spent the last seven years working on his his ‘Ermita’ project in Northern Spain: early christian and Romanesque hermitages in rural areas. Stunning photos.
Posted at
5:14 AM
South Carolina church built with 2-ft. thick rammed earth walls
"Church of the Holy Cross, also known as the Holy Cross Episcopal Church, is an historic church in Stateburg, in the High Hills of Santee near Sumter, South Carolina. It is located on land donated earlier by General Thomas Sumter, a resident of Stateburg, and its walls were constructed of rammed earth. Its 2-foot-thick walls were erected in 1852 by using wooden forms to hold local clay as laborers, probably slaves, tamped it down with a special tool, forcing out the water."
http://www.eartharchitecture.org/
Posted at
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
4:00 AM
Subscribe to:
Posts(Atom)
