Well had all these painting of mines on the walls of our living room for the past three decades or so
Seems they multiplied faster these last few years
At the Mrs’ suggestion
Wanted to clear the walls for a spell, didn’t know quite what to do with em all
They kinda personal
Then a beautiful Brazilian architect named Ana knew a guy, worked for a guy –
Another architect named Ben
One with a gallery and community space, out in the Sunset District of San Francisco off the N Judah muni metro line
Called Birdhouse Gallery, at 2548 Judah Street between 30th and 31st Avenue
And they set me up with a show in a place with white walls, proper hangers and the whole deal
I’m still in a state of shock and surprise
Had to get this app called instagram and join the modern generation of addicts to publicize
The show is there till the end of the month or so
If you are in the neighborhood, c’mon by and say hi
Or mark your calendar for the storytelling days on August 23rd and August 28th, 6-9 pm
The first one already passed, it was about snakes
Christian snakes of satan and fallen angels, Chinese snakes of commerce and year of the – , Taiwanese aboriginal snakes of the ancestors, and the Amazonian constrictor snakes that mimic vines and rivers and carry the natives atop the milky way in canoes
Next time will be about birds. Birds of the soaring skies like eagles, and birds of the water like the anhinga and loon. Flights of feathers and spirit across and between borders boundaries and worlds
This is a slideshow for the OH56 Machines class offered in the Environmental Horticulture and Floristry Department at City College of San Francisco. After the lecture, we will go out back, stack some firewood, cut some bricks, and knap some obsidian. Something like that. Through trial and error, you will find out that eucalyptus is really hard to split, green or seasoned!
My kid is learning how to surf In nor central california The conditions where we live are thus: Inconsistent beach break Water is cold Foggy gray a lot Crumbly sections Count on closeouts Shifty appearances Wave counts low Seasonal shortages Spring and summer onshore winds Some beginners Handful of almost pros Heaps of bodies upon bodies Speckled black dots and white boards On a backdrop of brown and blue It aint no wave pool – Gentle predictable and clean Or a tropical long lined dream – Glassy warm easy take offs With that crystalline sunlit color Its not even a steady point break – With a sloping gradual peel Nay o nay o Its about the exact opposite haha Try to imagine what that looks like haha Describe the learning process as: Challenging with minimal short lived hard won rewards
Anyhow He asked me a question ‘Whats a good surfer?’ Or maybe he said ‘who’s a good surfer’ Cause that is the goal right? To be good
Whey Put the mind out to the pasture of ponder The spectrum is so vast The consideration, analysis and dissection What it means to be good Is it the tricks and number of turns The size of the wave conquered Or its inherent dangerous quality you have appeased Airs launched and noses walked Seconds of tube ride Liter globs of fin spray Radial arc diameter of the cutback in feet Grace of roundhouse arm waving Pop pop of the up-down hop Ability to rip and destroy the wave to shreds Show her who’s the boss What is a good surfer? Hmmmmm
Instead of pointing my kid to the top ten rankings Or the most sponsored names You know like scorecard good Most liked and popular well marketed good Get every wave good Look at me good Youtube click algorithm good Gonna confine my criteria Of a good surfer To folks I know in person Like know know By feel, style, observation over time Seen em in action In occasional scenarios Varying circumstances To my uneducated, lack of judgment, its always 2-3 eye They all good, but in different ways Or else they, haha, wouldn’t be out there The more I think about it The qualities I most admire in surfers are internal And not always visible without the magnification of time Seen from another facet Its kinda like art or music Whatever speaks to you and resonates with your sensibilities Is muy bueno Here is my very limited and subjective view Of what and who is a GOOD SURFER
This one kid Joey Naple Call him Roo, Kanga The Boa, the stallion Aka the Eternal Grom EG They guy is just so consistently engaged A total monster Always out there Injury or no injury Huge or little mush Summer or winter Swapping out suits for a daily double session Two or three different boards in the car, just in case… Ocean beach one day Surfline says like 8-12 poor with occasional 15 Large swell conference from different directions all converging The waves’ discussion is of course jumbly and sloppy cause everyone talking at the same time Wind on it too There is nobody in the ocean Up and down that whole three mile exposed stretch Nobody zippo zero Except haha the lonely Roo And he be catching waves When I waver He says ‘when in doubt paddle out’ Haha am I supposed to take him seriously The shore pound is so barrage the surfboard hits the sand when I duck dive And the inside curling wall does not relent There is a massive overlapping white water spreadsheet all columns filled The current is north south at 300 feet per second Haha paddle out?! The other cool thing about the Roo Is that he is a student of hydrodynamics and board design If I have questions about this and that shape So and so brand or a particular fin arrangement I can always ask him And receive a considerate thoughtful answer He understands the interface of the object that sits Between human and nature The dynamics of flow Surfing – he is a frothing, saliva dripping, Pit rott mix on a hunt for pigs Waiting for the podenco hound to sound off Not surfing, he has the demeanor Of a calm compassionate school teacher It is the weirdest combination And kinda frightening If you ponder the consequences Or meaning of it (Luckily I do not) So that is one good surfer
Another swell rider I met through the Roo His name is Dean Levy Dino for short like Barney or t rex Okay some guys take off on the wave is like this Just aggro rush for the peak Arms flailing fast Paddle maybe criss cross right in front of you they don’t care Legs kicking for that extra boost You can see it in their face Says its mine all mine everything is mine All power no grace no give just take Well Dino is a 360 from that orientation On the take off he is very very quiet Like when you close the door turn the doorknob quiet Roll your feet when you walk tip toe quiet A shadow withdrawing into the shade still Kitten soft Petting a lamb suave Effortless timing cosmic convergence gentle Very sick to witness But wait, its not over yet Sometimes he does no bottom turn Eery subtle launch super smooth One stitch into the next Threading the needle Coming up through the fabric zig zag He goes Then disappears into the hollow For a long time before coming out Like, no way he pulled that off And after exiting he is not like shaking his fist thumping his chest claiming He just paddles out for more Like after you wipe your ass or have a sip of coffee Like absolutely nothing happened Me im double taking like this is normal? Shaking head incredulous This is OB eh? Its not easy to get those… Part of Dinos steadiness We attribute to his micro hog stature Low center of gravity and bottom leverage Hard to explain Although in surfing you are really just on the surface of the wave Bobbing up and down with the energy flux Dino mindset swirls from a profound depth Oceanic water molecules and body fluids All harmonized at the same frequency There is definitely more to it I just cant figure it out Is alright Dino is a good surfer
Bundled along with Roo and Dino is another feller His name is Colin Horn So I ask him Whats your style What your favorite moves Why do you like surfing Questions like this All he coughs up is this Sorta wry don’t know nothing smile Eyebrow tilt, upturned shoulders Palms open to the sky quizzical look Like he really not sure what he is doing out at OB So I point at the picture of mr Horn On a 9 6 gun on a 20 foot wave at OB Sliding down on a right hand face Thats you right? What do you have to say for yourself? What do you mean you are ??? But nothing, that same ho hum huh questioning eye Head cocked to the side lips pursed ‘I’m not that good; I just go straight’ What?! Speak up boy! Still nothing Hilarious He has this Persistent Patient Manner through difficult stretches of sea is how I call it Just Keep Going Guess it comes from being a swimmer doing laps Or from caring for others like a nurse does day after day A very good surfer Almost a bit too humble and self conscious If that is possible But thats okay Since that leads to reflection So in addition to the waves He catches those sunlit rays that bounce off the peaks In the morning light And makes em into woodblock prints
The grand daddy who introduced me to this OB crew Is a medium sized carnivore His name is Lucas Wiley Some kinda beep beep harhar Wiley coyote Of the cartoons Cept he aint no abuelo, nor a true canine More a young upstart kid from so cal I only surfed with him a few times though A bit at OB, once in Santa Cruz One day was crap windy at pacheco or lawton He drifted one way down the beach and I the other The other day was packed pleasure point He was out on a rainbow Costco soft top snagging em away from the locals Only detail I remember was that he has a big smile when he catches the wave All teeth showing, incisors molars the whole mouth That sort of elation that looks like he just won a million dollars Or the moment after a lion downs the gazelle Blood dripping off canines Belly not yet full, but the hunt a success Rather than being on some african plain though He is in the midst of a watery slope Echoing laughter A good surfer
This one dude I surfed with quite a bit From the piers at la jolla shores to the taco shacks by rosarito He is the papi named Bruce Barbarasch Barby, Barber Rash, Barbin Skate, Ecurb for short Like many skaters turned surfers he has impeccable balance He carves waves in the same manner as a huge bowl or a smooth pool Not really tricked out, Just a consistent gale force But more than that He actually looks like he is having fun surfing He not real overt about it, not like an idiot with a big grin haha When he hits the lip, the uncurling part of the wave Its a matched – lets play cards back and forth encounter He not angry about it Nor computer machine like either, all routine and calculated His manner of surfing To describe it Is very human I suppose is the word He bubbles with excitement about being in the sea Kettle boiling water at the cusp when it starts to chuggle bit of a smile Maybe its the sight of the next set rolling in Or another rise on the gravely slope on the way through a valley of doug firs Its that same face of inner amusement Kinda weird I even have to mention this Its just that most of the folks surfing out there Take it really way too seriously They bring the baggage of town to the openness of the sea And they bring all of corporate and tribal frenzy with them – Its limited resources, must compete! You in my way, get outa here ya kook! I’m the top dog, get every wave And so on and so forth So tiring you can feel the frustration and neediness emanating forth Not sure what happened to that sharing aloha spirit Mother Nature generosity Happy gush of that sliding down that first wave Well Brucey has that gift of appreciating Don Barbarasch, el señor del mar Momentarily, think Brucey swapped out surfing for sailing and bicycling Oh well, he is still a good surfer based on past episodes Once a surfer, forever a surfer For sure I know that she (the mother ocean) misses him too
Its been a long time I’ve seen this one guy out in the water His name is Chris Coggan But I know he a good surfer From the pictures I’ve seen The tales he tells And the ripped physique even as a middle aged retiree haha Well when I surfed with him on a regular basis He was a body boarder North peak at Blacks He was charging half knee up, barreling Flying off the top loopity loop stuff In general, The boogie board riders are kinda denigrated, probably still this way Call em speed bumps, hazards, squishy lumps and so on Like you are somehow less of a man for staying so close to the zone And laying down flat, not being upright I like the variety of surfing styles Especially seeing how I myself like to body surf time to time And the body is even lower on the carved totem pole Than a hunk of foam Anyhow, Chris he switched stance sometime soon thereafter And stood up I can only dream of following him on his global surfing adventures Kid got crazy stoke And a tongue and songs to match hehe The particular quality that makes him good Is that thing that probably irritates school teachers to no end That ADHD ability to suck in the universe and spit it out transformed Being an infinitely wound music box mechanism Just stop!!!! But he cant help himself haha
If you say ‘good surfer’ I say Steve Yamamoto Ya gotta have a look at this dude Would like to pat this one down He a racing dog Whippet or greyhound Where you can see the ribs and lungs Bellowing cardio fitness Shoot and the mus! We have never wrestled before Would like to but kinda scared cause he is of Japanese ancestry And you know the Japanese They skilled ninjas and samurais and judokas and sumo and all that intimidating biz Back to the mus Imagine like beef jerky kinda red brown fibers Not dried up Tough well worked and honed strip bundles Throughout the whole system And a trotting, oh hee hee, running gait Like a happy puppy fluffing along He is an example of a person who is – Durable and staminaceous Small machined endurocapacitor bountiful with longevitality Comparatively speaking, he is an elder in the surfing community He got white hair! The whole head! Im like what up with this dude Why you not in the tub soaking Or on a cruise ship sipping cocktails in the lounge With a green jacket and yellow cummerbund listening to Sinatra Why you are not taking strolls on the deck Or sitting on a park bench feeding pigeons reveling in memories of yesteryear Why you out in the cold cold sea streaking cross faces With that ferocity He buzz you like a twenty year old Lean like a twelve year old Smile like he still a baby Except for pictures, where he looks shocked and in the lineup A criminal lineup Not a surfing lineup He is improving with age on that note though Maybe he let go Some of that tensed lip And relaxed the eye lids a tad, But don’t fall asleep! Gramps!! Stevie hooked into something Perhaps has something to do with being a knee boarder Always getting barrels Did I mention that? Some young folks don’t even know what that is around here Like its a rare or never contacted species – knee boarding Okay its where you wear fins, like a diver or a sponger And get up half way, on your knees, on the board Not standing The same posture as when you bowing thank you on a tatami mat to the sensei Or sitting on the floor of a Korean restaurant Eating a myriad of dishes like kimchi, pickles and tofu chunks On your knees! Again, some folks whining or complaining Its not fair, its not really surfing, half men half women whatever Are these commenter people even out there on a medium sized day? Why they even care Just try it one day, you might even like it You try to generate speed in a squat scrunched over! Yup ol Yams He is a good surfer
Lastly we have mr David Margulies Bros This guy is like the three headed dog that guards hell The cyclops And the hydra kraken All rolled into one Very hungry Waits at the edge Sits deep Eyes alert Spin on an atom Takes the Biggest set wave Pipes The definition of charge Very simple If I write more Kinda spooked I would actually diminish the accomplishment and training it requires To do what Margie does So I will end here then My list of good surfers I have the honor and pleasure of knowing
In summary then, for me Some characteristics of a good surfer are: Consistency and enthusiasm Grace and flow Stamina and persistence through dense heavy waters Humor, happiness and mischief Good timing and the ability to do magic tricks Eye for the waves way outside And the matador courage to charge ‘em
Good luck and the biggest hoots To all ye young and upcoming surfers May you enjoy surfing as much as these folks do Full of ups and downs Peaks and troughs Nasal drip and bony ear growths Clammy wetsuit Sandy floor board Car warmed towel And camaraderie with huevos rancheros Sea birds Marine mammals
Its a lifetime relationship Love and commitment With our mami mommy mamacita muyyy guapa The sea
This slideshow takes us from the farms then matorral of southern Spain to the nurseries and ornamental gardens of California. We are focussed on two species of lavender – Lavandula pinnata and Lavandula multifida. Along the way we encounter taxonomic confusion and mish mash, botanical verbiage, and reach a somewhat satisfactory ending.
Mission Azul 