Parrots and Pantries

Sunday an old friend and her husband picked me up and we got to talk a bit.  But we past a small be screechy park and they pulled over and said, "The Parrots."  These were the parrots of Telegraph Hill.

I haven't seen the film about them, but here's what "the Parrot Man" says about it on his blog:

Most people who've seen The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill agree that it's not quite like any other film, and seldom what people expect it to be. Most anticipate a nature documentary about some birds. Then it goes someplace else entirely. One of the most common types of e-mail that I receive is from some guy who was made to watch the film against his will and then ended up transfixed—and moved. Few people can ever say what the film is about exactly. Or even what kind of film it is. Is it a documentary? Judy thinks it is because she thinks of herself as a documentary filmmaker. I think of it as a poem, because, like a poem, it has many different levels.

How do friends and visitors know what's in your kitchen cabinets when they want to help you set the table or put away the dirty [clean] dishes.  My son and some of his friends have labeled them.  But then there was a request for something more visual.  They've got something, but I thought actual photos would be even better.  Like this one.


We're at the airport ready to go back to LA.  I'm ready to go back to Anchorage actually.  But the weather has been delightful here in San Francisco - just on that edge between a jacket or not.  Cool in the shade or wind, but warm in the sun.  I'll get this up and try to catch up later.

Half Moon Bay Dog Sitting

The invisible web of interpersonal relationships led us to the beach in Half Moon Bay Saturday night to walk the dog of a friend of my son's who was out of town for the holiday weekend.  We spent the night with Juke Box and walked him again the next morning.  My son had lived here for a while and there were lots of favors traded back and forth, such as watching out for each other's dogs and other affairs.

"Historical records show that the Native American culture of the Ohlone lived in harmony with nature for many thousand years, the human population being limited by the availability of food. The way of life changed during the 18th century when the Spanish arrived on the San Mateo coast, in the search for Monterey Bay, the Spanish started the Portola expedition where they had spent two days resting near what is now the town of Half Moon Bay. They stopped here once again on their return trip and named the area the plain of "Los Ansares" or the plain of wild geese. WIth the founding of Mission Dolores (Mission San Francisco de Asís) in 1776, the San Mateo coast area came into use for grazing of mission livestock. Following secularization of the missions, in 1834 eight ranchos were granted along this section of the coast. Cattle ranching was primary agricultural activity, and San Mateo's hide and tallow trade thrived. The beach at Half Moon Bay was a gathering spot for trading and socializing between rancheros, sea captain and other visitors.

The first Americans arrived in this area in the 1850s. The Mexican settlement known as Spanishtown, a commercial center for the rancheros, was called "Halfmoon" by these Anglos; the bay itself was named "Halfmoon" due to its shape. In 1867 the local post office was identified as "Halfmoon Bay", and the spelling was changed to Half Moon Bay in 1905. Agriculture was big in Half Moon Bay at the turn of the 20th century and farm produce such as brussels sprouts, artichokes, and mushrooms along with dairy products presented quite a transportation problem. The Ocean Shore railroad was incorporated in 1905 and was serving Half Moon Bay by 1908 the tracks were laid over what is now much of Francis Beach. During the 1920s the gentle beaches of Half Moon Bay were ideally suited for the needs of the bootlegger. Rum Ships cruised off shore, unloading millions of dollars worth of illegal booze across Half Moon Bay where Francis Beach was a perfect spot for unloading the cargo. During World War II an army post was set up at the beach to protect from Japanese invasion and bombing raids, further north bunkers and long range cannons were built to support the coastline." [Wikipedia]

"Ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis) is a succulent native to South Africa, but common in chaparral habitats around the world. Though it was once grown in California, Australia, the Mediterranean, and similar areas as a decorative plant, it has become an invasive species and a threat to native vegetation. Ice plant is hardy and quick to reproduce, easily growing into a thick ground cover that chokes out other plant life and depletes soil nutrients. The only reliable way to control ice plant is to uproot it physically."[Wisegeek]

"In Japan, the mustard flower is celebrated as a simple symbol of the beginning of spring. It is also planted in the fields of Yokohama and crafted into large mazes. In the United States, mustard blossoms often grow wild. One piece of historic trivia indicates that this is due to Spanish soldiers marking their trail throughout the country by scattering the seeds of this particular flower. In Napa Valley a similar story is told of missionaries creating a trail of seeds between Missions so that when the winter ended and the mustard flower began to bloom, they could trace their way back to where they came from. Despite their interesting appearance and fascinating history, mustard flowers are, of course, best known for its edible qualities. In Roman times, mustard flowers were considered an aphrodisiac, and were frequently mixed into love potions. Today, however, the seeds of this flower are mostly crushed and mixed with vinegar to create the spicy, fragrant condiment used in a variety of dishes."[from FlowerInfo]

  These two hammerheads were really sand sharks someone created on the beach. 

"There are eight different species of Hammerhead shark. All the species have the remarkable projections on both sides of the head, which probably is they reason why these sharks can detect electronic signals of no more than half a billionth of a volt. The head is probably used during electrolocation. By separating the receptors, the Hammerhead shark can receive signals in stereo. The oddly shaped head also seem to act as a wing that the Hammerhead shark uses for close-quarters maneuverability. The head looks somewhat like a flattened hammer, which is the reason behind the name of the Hammerhead shark. The nostrils and eyes are located at the tip of the extensions. All Hammerhead shark species have proportionately small mouths. The size of the eight different Hammerhead sharks varies between 2 and 6 metres. The largest Hammerhead species, the Great Hammerhead shark, will typically weigh around 230 kg (500 pounds) but can reach a weight of 450 kg (1,000 pounds). Three Hammerhead species can be dangerous to humans: the Great Hammerhead shark, the Scalloped Hammerhead shark and the Smooth Hammerhead sharks."[from Aquatic Community]

 As we walked the trail and beach, all we heard were birds and surf.  And then we headed into town for a busy afternoon seeing old friends. 

Klez-X (cellent)

Saturday night we went to see Klez-X at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.  This group is special.  Each person on stage surprised me when it was their turn to step out and show what they could do.

In the first piece, the thought flashed through my mind - the opening of Rhapsody in Blue is klezmer music.  How could I have not figured that out before?  Or am I imagining this? So now I've been able to google this and I'm not the first to think this.  From Music Stack:

Many klezmer musicians, or Klezmorim, eventually immigrated to the United States, widening klezmer music's appeal in the early part of the 20th century. Early examples of klezmer musicians in the United States include David Tarras, Naftule Brandwein and Mickey Katz. These Jewish American immigrants proved immensely influential in the development of jazz music, even inspiring the introduction to George Gershwin's famous "Rhapsody in Blue." The rock era left klezmer largely forgotten. But the 1970s and onward welcomed a bit of a revival for klezmer and Jewish music. Groups like The Klezmatics, The Klezmorim and The Klezmer Conservatory Band branched out and incorporated other music styles such as cajun, jazz and even ska into traditional klezmer music.

And in The Book of Klezmer: The History, the Music, the Folklore Yale Strom quotes Mickey Katz:

Before I even played a note on the clarinet I used to go to the Yiddish theatre with my parents, which later influenced my playing and perception of what Jewish music was and what the audience wanted to hear.  I began playing the clarinet when I was eleven in grade school on an old beat-up instrument that was used during World War I.  In order to have lessons I went to an uncle’s tailor shop on Saturday afternoons and played for all his customers and earned $1.50.  I was aware of Yiddish songs as a youngster because my sister sang professionally at lodges and other Jewish organizations.  And klezmer music I knew because I played it at weddings and other Jewish events. Then in high school I formed a band and that’s when I began my legitimate career as a musician.  I was playing clarinet and sax - a lot of jazz and concert music.  In fact I was the second clarinet player in the world to play Rhapsody in Blue.

. . . I was hired because I was the only guy who could play it with all the shmears and glissandos and everything. [emphasis added]

I just have to mention all the people because they were so good.  Danny Hoffman was the violinist and composer of many of the songs played.  He currently lives in Israel and this was the first time in a while the group has played.  Danny made the violin sing.

Then we got to know Jeanette Lewicki who played accordion and sang.  She'd go through an English translation of the song before singing it and then, wow, her voice and her heart brought the Yiddish back to life.

I guess I skipped Sheldon Brown - clarinet and sax - because he's the guy who gave me the Rhapsody in Blue connection when he played.  And he also made the links to jazz obvious too.

Then, probably the biggest surprise, was when the trumpet player put down his instrument and came up to the mike.  Stephen Saxon began very casually to make a few vocal sounds.  And before I knew what was happening, his 'sounds' became an amazing scat piece that would have made Ella jealous as he scampered over the notes from low to way up high all sounding perfect to my lazy ears.  He'd take a note and slide it slightly up and down and around teasing it and the audience.  And later he performed magic on some traditional prayer music. 

The drummer, the base, and the trombonist were all fantastic.  They're all listed on the website. And all of them seemed to be so comfortable working as a group.  A wonderful concert.

Note:  the photos above were all taken after the concert - Saxon was still on stage putting things away, and the others were setting up for dancing in the lobby area after the concert. 

Go hear some samples on their website.   They're all great. 

San Francisco Looking Up

Walking around downtown San Francisco, looking up is a good thing to do.  Looking street level one's eyes encounters too many people who are doing poorly.  There were many interesting faces and bodies, people I wanted to talk to.  I wanted to find out how things got this way with them.  But I don't feel comfortable taking pictures of people who are down and out unless they give permission.  So, I spent a lot of time looking up.

Una Pizza Napoletana

Back in December I got this message from a Juneau friend who heard we were going to be in San Francisco:

while in SF, I also couldn't recommend this place more
highly: http://www.unapizza.com/sf/menu.html We ate at his place when he
was in NYC and it was the best pizza I ever had, including at Pizzeria
Bianco in Phoenix, AZ (2nd best).

I found out about where it was Thursday evening, and Friday night we ended up not far away and I recommended we go.  Thanks Paul.  It was wonderful pizza - light and tasty.

Georgia O'Keeffe Caught With Porn and Other Mr. Fish Creations

Yes, Anon, we're in San Francisco where my son and his wife live.  Among many things Friday, we found ourselves in E6 Gallery on Market and Gough.  The work cuts right down to the painful truth. 

Even with the reflections on the glass (sorry). 

The Gallery website has this:

ROBERT BERMAN GALLERY is pleased to present the original drawings and unique multiples of Dwayne Booth aka Mr. Fish - political cartoonist and author of GO FISH (how to win contempt and influence people.)

In the appendix of his book, Mr. Fish dissects the journalistic responsibility he faces as a cartoonist to make it make sense. It being his raw emotional output in response to a given stimuli (government, society, et al) manifesting itself via pen on paper without regard to the cleverly pointed punchline that will accompany and ultimately define it. In his inaugural gallery show, he eschews that responsibility; the political cartoons hanging vulnerably on the walls in their original illustrated state, stripped of any captioning and absolute clarity. If the objective of a political cartoonist is to speak clearly than the goal of this exhibition is to express freely. The drawings are a celebration of the technical mastery and unbridled emotional truth of Dwayne Booth – the Clark Kent to Superman’s Mr. Fish.

 I remember the conversation that caused the lightbulb to go on and I suddenly understood the underlying symbolism of Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers. 

[You can double click to enlarge these images.]

These pieces were all for sale.

Tim Sullivan was monitoring the gallery when we were there and gave me permission to take pictures for the blog. 



This work is so deliciously wicked, it hurts.

If you go to Mr. Fish's website, you can see that I missed him in LA AND San Francisco.  You can also see a lot more examples of his work there. 

Where Are We Now?

This should be pretty easy to figure out.  I did skip posting the picture of the Prius taxi cab because it had the name of the city. 

Been busy, will get more up before too long. 

Pier Review 2 - Amazing Surf

I posted about the Venice Pier a little over a year ago.  Tuesday I checked it out again.  The day was sunnier, but not as clear.  But the surf below was big and bad.


The waves were not curving, but simply crashing down like a waterfall.

There are surfers (black spots) above and below this wall of water.

 This pier is much less flashy than the Santa Monica pier.  The surf pictures in this post were taken off the left side.

UPDATE:  Here are more waves from Venice Pier with my better camera.  And finally Rafael catching a great white shark from the end of Venice Pier.

"to be a blessing to every person he puts in our path"

The Los Angeles Times Sunday edition had an article entitled "The religious right bankrolls Santorum."

"The faith component that Rick and I share is that we know that we're here to be a channel of God's love to others, his hands and feet in a hurting world, and to be a blessing to every person he puts in our path"

This is from Foster Friess, "a retired mutual fund executive based in Wyoming, [who] gave $300,000 to the superPAC in 2011 . . . He contributed at least $250,000 more in the last month. . . "  Some of the Fox videos on his website identify him in the title as "Billionaire Foster Friess."


What does one have to believe to say he's a channel of God's love?  To say he's here "to be a blessing to every person he puts in our path?"

How is Santorum a blessing to GLBT folks?  How's he a blessing to a woman whose health is threatened without an abortion?

I try to make such questions more than rhetorical.  Santorum and Friess might say something like, "I'm trying to save them from themselves, show them the error of their ways so they may find everlasting peace in heaven."

What sort of view of the world must one have to take that sort of position?  I can think of a few:
1.  Certainty that one is right.
2.  True and unwavering belief in one's interpretation of the bible.
(The first two can easily go hand in hand.)
3.  A Machiavellian cunning that allows one to use people's faith in God to manipulate them with words from their holy book.

I'm sure there are more possibilities.  I'm eager to hear them.

It's possibile that  Friess and Santorum really believe that they channel God's word.  And people on the other side of the religio/political spectrum feel they are as right about their positions as these two.

Who is Foster Friess? 

The website that bears his names lists a few "key issues":

Government

Promoting the principles of limited government and exposing the burdens of excessive regulation that stifle American ingenuity, creativity, and enterprise

If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 33

You can see Hamilton's words in context here. He appeared to be exasperated with people opposed to clauses in the proposed constitution giving Congress power to

"to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers by that Constitution vested in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof"; and the second clause of the sixth article declares, "that the Constitution and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, and the treaties made by their authority shall be the supreme law of the land, any thing in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."

Hamilton, of course, argued for a strong federal government.   From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

Though fully conscious that monarchy in America was impossible, he wished to obtain the next best solution in an aristocratic, strongly centralized, coercive, but representative union, with devices to give weight to the influence of class and property.^[8]

Most of the key issues listed on the site - education, climate change, health care - can be solved, the site says, via the free market.  Immigration needs the borders protected - they don't mention the private sector, but neither is government mentioned for this one.  Helping Peaceful Muslims is another of the key issues. (Think Progress says Friess has funded a number of Islamophobic organizations.)  Nothing about the economy.  But there is a final one:

Enduring Values

Combating the negativity in our culture with uplifting, inspiring stories reminding us of the best American principles

As the great political philosophers from Plato and Aristotle to America’s own Founding Fathers have observed, democracy very quickly turns to tyranny when the people are not generally virtuous. To defend our system of ordered liberty, we must always be vigilant, and we must always strive to strengthen our culture, or our free society will be overtaken by government.

(At left) George Washington at prayer.

How did the Friess funded Red, White, and Blue Super Pact add to combating negativity in the Florida Republican primary and the last three caucuses?

I searched his website for "Koch" but nothing was found.

Alternet reports a Koch brothers conference in Palm Springs two weeks ago where the whole  550 room  Esmerelda Renaissance was rented for the private event and connects Friess with the Koch brothers:

A private plane owned by wealthy mutual fund manager Foster Friess flew to the area the morning of the conference, and left the day it ended. Friess is a social conservative who has gained headlines recently for his massive backing of a super-PAC supporting Rick Santorum. He has also attended the Koch meeting in the past.

 The Foster Friess website also has a video of Friess accepting the Paul Weyrich Award.

The award honors Paul Weyrich, who, according to Wikipedia, was a co-founder, with Coors funding, of the Heritage Foundation and the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress which,

was among the first grassroots organizations to raise funds extensively through direct mail campaigns. It also was one of the first organizations to tap into evangelical Christian churches as places to recruit and cultivate activists and support for social conservative causes. In 1977, Weyrich co-founded Christian Voice with Robert Grant. Two years later, with Jerry Falwell, he founded the Moral Majority. Weyrich coined the phrase "Moral Majority".^[8]

And

Over the next two decades, Weyrich founded, co-founded, or held prominent roles in a number of other notable conservative organizations. Among them, he was founder of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization of state legislators [and heavily funded by the Koch brothers]; a co-founder of the Council for National Policy, a strategy-formulating organization for social conservatives; co-publisher of the magazine Conservative Digest; and national chairman of Coalitions for America, an association of conservative activist organizations. The CSFC, reorganized into the Free Congress Foundation, also remained active.

Weyrich died in 2008, but Friess is alive and active.

Aside:  From the moment I saw the name Foster Friess, I couldn't help think about an ice cream cone.  So when I finished writing this I googled Foster Freeze.  And sure enough, there was the company that was around my California childhood all along.  And it's still around, one not far from my mom's place.  So I got on my bike to add a photo to this post.

Birding Puzzles - Caspian, Royal, or Elegant Tern?

It was crowded at the beach Monday even though it was grey.  Identifying gulls drives me crazy.  There are so many that look alike, and the juveniles change each year too.

I did notice that these had 3 dots on the ends of their black wings and yellow beaks with black tips and bit of orange.  The legs are greyish/pink.  (I'm only looking at the mature birds now.)  So there are several gulls that come close - Western gulls seem to have the black on the bill as juveniles and the orange as adults.  Maybe these are moving from one to the other.

But then I saw these guys.

I'd seen them before, but couldn't remember what they were called.  I thought of Bonaparte - but they have more rounded black heads.  Emperor?  When I got home I saw the name - Elegant Gulls.  But there were two other, very similar, terns.

From Sibley's Field Guide To Birds of Western North America  (click to enlarge)  Check the heads.

One's black clear across.  The other two had white foreheads. The book shows the whiter forehead from August to February and the blacker forehead from March to August.  It's mid-February now, so they could be changing. In any case that would seem to eliminate the Caspian Terns.   Now look at them compared to the gull.

The gull (in front) is much bigger, and the Elegant Terns are the smallest of the three terns.  Now look at them flying.

The wingtips of the Royals in the book seem to be darker than the Elegants.  I'm guessing these are Elegants.  (And last time I found one like this here, my birder friends said it was an Elegant.  So I'm hoping Dianne will check and confirm.)