July 2013 Photographs and Perspectives

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This Wikileaks Guy’s Days are Numbered

Monte Carlo Harbor, Monaco, May 1997

I just saw a headline saying he started a political party and is “announcing his candidacy”.  I don’t need to read the article.  The only name he can use to accurately describe his party is ”Delusional , Self-Important, and Destructive Treasonists/Terrorists.”  What an appealing platform.  If he’s running for public office, that means he’s coming out of his cowardly exile/seclusion.  The good thing is that this will ferret out his followers and we’ll know who the real enemy is.  I can’t possibly be the only person who feels this strongly about how completely wrong in every way this nutcase is.  Hey pal, if you’re so virtuous, why are you in hiding?  Why can’t you even think of returning to your home country?  OK, I fought my instinct and read a bit of the article.  He’s living in London yet wants to run for the Australian Senate while he’s fighting extradition to Sweden, where he’s” wanted for questioning on sexual assault allegations.”  The last part of that sentence is uninteresting to me, may be based on vindictive fabrications, and detracts from how much of a real criminal he is.  If they can get him on those charges, I’ll be happy to take what I can get in getting back at this guy.  Undermining and terrorism are not constructive.  Undermining is a delusional and warped weakling’s version of being contributory and confident.  Undermining on any level is a loathsome and cowardly trait.

The commune of Eze, near Nice, France, May 1997

The topic I mention in the title will be addressed once he makes himself publicly visible.  In essence — unless reality sets in and he remains in seclusion — once he starts making himself an openly public figure, his days are numbered.

I generally try to be objective about things but this guy is just wrong and to an extreme.  To illustrate just how wrong he is, he’s the hero of the NSA computer-programming traitor/terrorist who will never be allowed to return to this country or his home.  He will never be able to see or face his parents again.  And he always has to look over his shoulder.  I can’t imagine him getting a solid night of sleep for the rest of his life.  (I can’t and I didn’t even do anything wrong.)

The Trevi Fountain and The Palazzo Poli, Rome, May 1997

The two will likely eventually make easily-accessible public appearances together because they’re self-important enough to feel they need to address their supporters in person, at which point my title comment will be answered in a very resounding way.  A literal killing of two birds with one stone. Two loony birds.

I really don’t like talking casually about what I’m implying but something has to be done to prevent similar acts of this sort of press-send-and-hide terrorism, and that’s exactly what it is; terrorism.  And, like all terrorism, it’s destructive and cowardly.

Anybody got a better idea?

DPW

July 25, 2013

  This Morning‘s Water-Gittin’ Expedition

At 5:00 this morning I walked down to the brook across the road for the first time in weeks to replenish my aquarium water.  On the way down, I bang my buckets together to warn any animals I’m coming.  The main focus of that warning is any mountain lion.  Because it’s been so long, when I got to the brook I took my time looking around in every direction, including above and below, and every view was striking.  It rained during the night and the dead leaves carpeting the forest floor had a darker color than usual and, even in the dim light, the greenery was enhanced by the sharpened contrast.  The vegetation’s fullness and color were augmented by the overcast skies and the not-quite-risen sun.  None of those things came across well in the pictures I took or I’d have posted them.  When I got up in the middle of last night and stepped outside, which I do almost every night, the moon lighting up the overcast skies allowed me to see everything around me.  When the skies are clear and if the moon is not full, the night view is pitch black because our road doesn’t have streetlights and neither I nor my closest neighbors use exterior lighting at night.  The different dimension the yard takes on at night is very soothing.

Look at the tops of the trees; if they fuse together any more over the brook they’ll morph into Kauai’s Fern Grotto.  I’m not a beach person but I love the lush vegetation of Kauai.  It’s the one Hawaiian island you should visit, although the big island of Hawaii has some very beautiful green areas and it’s fascinating to see all the lava beds.  They give you an understanding of how the islands came about in the first place.

Because there wasn’t much light this morning, the brook pictures are not clear but you still get the feel for what it was like. I took three low-angle videos of the brook which, again, have low lighting, to give you a feel for what it’s like for me to get on my hands and knees on the rock in the middle of the brook to collect the water.  Just like when I hunted and fished as a kid in Montana and Wyoming, the real benefit was being surrounded by nature.  That’s not completely true; my mom is an excellent and resourceful cook and knew great ways to prepare freshwater mussels and crawdads (both of which we caught in a very clear, sandy stretch of the Missouri River in Great Falls, MT.  I just made my crawdad very nervous), trout (brook, brown, cutthroat, rainbow), catfish, sturgeon, striped bass, deer/venison, elk, pronghorn, duck, pheasant, grouse, quail, and rabbit.  I liked everything she cooked and my favorite of the game meals was her venison chili.

I’ve always wanted to have property with a stream on it but this is close enough (for now).  When I go down to the brook, I wear a mosquito net head cover because it’s not enough for the flying bugs to bite you; they kamikaze dive into you and they’re relentless.  Even the bugs in New York are psychotic. One thing I didn’t have in LA or the Bay Area was bug problems.    http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/07/02/new-tick-borne-illness-could-be-worse-than-lyme-disease/  I’m concerned enough about ticks, which I knew were a problem here in the summer in Dutchess County, that, in addition to the head cover, I wear full sweats with my hoodie on, rubber boots, and rubber gloves. I kill myself for that crawdad.

Carrying two buckets of water (at 37 pounds each) one hundred yards up a steep hill with uneven footing is a great strength, endurance, and balance workout and I have to stop twice on the way to catch my breath and let my body recover (see the last sentence in the previous paragraph).  To put it into perspective, carrying two 35-pound dumb bells up the full length of steps at a major stadium is easier.   Dumb bells are less cumbersome than buckets of water and steps offer more stable footing than the uneven ground where I have to walk over or around fallen trees and avoid tall grass/weeds because of ticks.  Try carrying two 35-pound dumb bells up one flight of stairs.  If I did a water run twice a week, I’m sure I could quickly condition myself to do it without stopping but I don’t need the water that frequently.  My initial thought when I first saw the brook was that it would be the source of my aquarium water and it is.  It’s much more fulfilling than turning on the tap.

Me

My neighbor, who’s lived here thirty years, thinks I’m crazy for doing it and for hand-shoveling the snow off our 50-yard winding incline driveway, hand-mowing our grass, and using gardening shears.  To provincial New Yorkers, anything different and outside their limited realm of comprehension is wrong and to be gossiped about immediately.  Hilarious.  He uses a gas-powered snow-blower, riding lawn mower, and lawn trimmer.  He also drives his trash to the bin at the bottom of his driveway in his SUV.  To put it mildly, I’m in much better shape than he is.  Yes, there’s something wrong with me.  Until I showed him pictures, he had no idea there was a waterfall next to a cave-like rock formation on the brook directly downhill from his house.  Similarly, he was shocked to find out the brook sustained life after I showed him pictures of the trout fry and crawdad in my aquarium when I first caught them.  In my first three months here I discovered things he didn’t know in the thirty years he’s been here.   If anything, he inspires me in an unintentional way to continue doing all those things until I’m physically unable.  Besides, I didn’t move to the country to be in a hurry for anything.  Not only are all those things great outdoor exercise, they’re also very meditative and therapeutic.  I benefit from every angle.

My column articles are like John Cougar Mellancamp’s lyrics; I think everything I observe is noteworthy.

Hope you like the videos and pictures.

DPW

July 24, 2013

All the video clips below and the pictures used for this diary entry, except the supermoon, were taken this morning.  The last picture of the sun coming through the trees was added August 4, 2013 to compensate for how dark the brook pictures are.

2013 07 24 Stone Church Brook low angle   2013 07 24 Stone Church Brook low angle (1)   2013 07 24 Stone Church Brook low angle (2)

Since I mentioned the cave and waterfall and this column is about photographs, I found these pictures taken April 18, 2013.  There’s nothing you can use as a reference to gauge the size of the cave or height of the falls.   I couldn’t get a straight shot of the cave because the other side of the brook directly across from the cave was almost vertical and the ground was uneven.  There was also nowhere in the stream I could stand.  In the third picture of the view looking outward from the cave, I’d have to stand that far back and across the brook to get a direct shot.  I’ll remember that for the next time.  I can walk into the cave with overhead room to spare.  The waterfall is at least thirty-five feet high and runs at about a forty-five degree angle with several tiers and, with the logs that crossed it, it didn’t photograph well.  I also didn’t want to stay long because the sound of the falls was deafening, especially in the cave, where it resonated.  The second picture is the inside of the cave.  You can see up and out so it’s really not a cave but I can’t think of how else to describe it.  I’d guess that big rock is about nine feet tall.  The third picture is taken from inside the cave.  I left my water bucket because I had to use both hands to grab onto the rock to get into the cave.  Basically, horizontal rock-climbing.  I’m not interested in going down there until bug season, especially tick season, is over.  Look at how barren the trees are.  It’s like the Amazon now.  

Even my asides turn into articles.

Added August 4, 2013:

I feel compelled to explain the reasons I included that picture of me:

-It hammers home the point about the benefits of me doing things the way I do them instead of turning on the tap and using gas-powered flab-inducing machinery/gadgets.  And instead of being lazy.  It’s directly related to that segment of the article.  I can’t think of a better way to punctuate what I’m talking about.  I don’t go to a gym or lift heavy weights.  If you look at it objectively, it’s very effective in proving my point and nothing more.

 -I first think of it as a good picture more than I think of it as a good picture of me.   The picture is actually more about lighting than anything else.  I take pictures to track my fitness progress.  I’m more fit now but I’m not confident I’ll ever be able to replicate that lighting.  I don’t see the picture as being suggestive, lewd or vulgar because that’s not at all my intent.  Besides, it may be one of the best pictures I’ve ever taken (as the taker, not the takee).  It just happens to be of a shirtless guy and I just happen to be that guy. 

 -How many movie reviewers do you think are built like that?

 Supermoon, June 24 2013 4:30am

I told myself I wouldn’t pay attention to the Florida murder trial and or say anything more about it after I made the comments here June 24 in my original column, which seems to have size limitations because I can no longer access it, which is why I started this new column.   Because I have the news on during the day if I have the TV on at all, it was unavoidable even when I changed the channel.  I finally stopped watching CNN but it still made NBC Nightly News, which I watch out of habit and comfort.   Related headlines on internet news sites also made ignoring the case impossible, although I read none of the articles.  I made this entry last the moment I found out about the verdict.  All I could think about was the victim’s parents, who, understandably, have looked defeated and deflated in every picture or interview since the incident.   This addition was attached to the bottom of the June 24 entry but I wanted to put it up top for a few days then just make it an addendum to the original piece.  Here it is:

Added July 13, 2013 11:22pm:  This verdict was exactly what I predicted and I hate saying “I told you so.”   Everyone associated with this trial should be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves, especially the all-female jury (who projected their own fear into their decision), the incompetent prosecutors (who should demand refunds from the law schools they went to), and the checked-their-souls-at-the-door defense attorneys who took the case.   I honestly think I could have won this case given the opportunity.

THE REASON HE STUDIED THE “STAND YOUR GROUND” LAW SO INTENSELY AND THOROUGHLY WAS THAT HE WANTED TO PUT HIMSELF IN A POSITION TO KILL SOMEONE LEGALLY AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HE DID.

Not only did he do it, he’s been rewarded for it.  This neanderthal has redefined the “premeditated” in “premeditated murder” and “stand your ground” laws really need to be scrutinized to avoid similar incidences.  I want him taken out NOW.  All this verdict has done is given the green light to similar delusional and desperate lunatics to do the same thing.  My heart goes out to Trayvon Martin’s family, who have now suffered two major and very personal losses because of a pre-premeditated, ill-intended, and racially-motivated total stranger who took the law into his own demented hands.  Their son did absolutely nothing to contribute to this progression of events, other than being young and black, in the wrong place at the wrong time, and defending himself from a total stranger with whom he did nothing to provoke an interaction.  And not having a gun and shooting first.  Let’s hope the wrongful-death civil trial has an outcome that will result in some semblance of justice because it’s twice too late for real justice to have been served.

DPW

July 13, 2013

Appreciate a Writer’s Work/Dislike His Hate

In a message dated 7/9/2013 2:27:34 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, scott writes:

Dan,

Check out this article and let me know what you think.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/orson-scott-card-is-a-bigot-and-a-homophobe-but-how-should-that-impact-our

I loved reading the Ender Wiggin’s series and bought almost all of Orson Scott Card’s books, but that was before I knew he was such a homophobe.

In reading the article, I immediately thought of you and wondered “What is Dan’s opinion?”

Hope all is well with you.

Scott

—————-

From: Dan
To: scott
Sent: 7/9/2013 8:35:23 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: I liked how short and succinct that article was

I can’t write like that.  I go on forever with anything I write.

Thanks, by the way, Scott.  It is.

The article brings up points I make in several articles I’m currently working on, one of which is that we need to utilize and support public libraries because they’re a resource we can’t afford to lose.  The article’s suggested halfway point in the resolution of this dilemma is a perfect one; just borrow the books from the library instead of buying them and campaign for others to do the same.  Hitting someone in the wallet is often the most effective activism.  An ongoing theme I have in articles I’m writing is that I separate a person’s art — or whatever it is that made them a public figure in the first place — from his private life and personal opinions, although this guy’s opinions aren’t private because he’s so active about them.  One non-artist example I have is that of Pete Rose, who will never be voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame because of the gambling thing.  I think the omission is wrong because it has nothing to do with his playing career, which was outstanding and exemplary.  He didn’t throw his own games and ultimately didn’t negatively impact anyone.  If it’s an issue of him being a bad role model, the answer is simple; find a better one and don’t ignore people lower on the success scale.  Rich and famous people don’t have to be good (or smart or talented) and good people don’t have to be rich and famous.  When I was in the financial services industry, one thing I repeatedly (plagiarized and) said that I know pissed people off was, “behind every great success/fortune is an undiscovered body/crime.”  I personally don’t gamble but there are a lot of worse things to be than a gambler. Like someone in the financial services industry.

One criterion to use in deciding how to react is this:  how effective and detrimental is this author’s anti-gay activism?  The irony of someone like this guy is that, while some people with a similar lack of perspective and a similar need to validate themselves by hate will agree with him, he’ll make others realize how irrational, misguided, and repellent their own hatefulness and, specifically, anti-gay feelings are and second-guess them.  When someone second-guesses their own hatred, that battle is won.  People who validate themselves by what they hate just reveal  — among other things – their own inability to be thoughtful, objective, open-minded and respectful of the decisions and privacy of others which, to any rational person, obliterates the credibility of the haters and nothing they say carries any weight. 

If no one is being hurt or violated and no crime is being committed, who cares what other people do?  People who are well-adjusted, open-minded, and tolerant of diversity won’t be influenced by this author and he’ll just make them more certain and give them confirmation — not that they need it — of their own healthy perspective.  Anyone who’s negatively influenced by his homophobia — I never thought that was the right word for the way it’s used because its literal translation is “fear of people who are the same” and its most literal interpretation would be identical twins who are afraid of each other — would be influenced by the same hateful stance from another source anyway.  More importantly, people are now smart enough to recognize that when someone objects to homosexuality to this extent, there’s usually something behind it.

Remember how, in “American Beauty”, Lester Burnham’s anti-gay ex-Marine neighbor (Chris Cooper, excellent as he is every time out) turned out to be a closet case who was so conflicted that he murdered Lester after Lester rejected his advances?  That character put an inordinate amount of thought and energy into being gay-hating and it was obviously more about suppressing his own desires and, ultimately, it was about his self-hate.

The “American Beauty” scenario isn’t limited to fiction at all; it’s very prevalent and the reason so many men are anti-gay.  Movies can be a lot of things and, in this case, it’s social commentary.  There really is no other logical reason – other than just an intolerance for diversity — and citing Leviticus 20:13 just doesn’t work anymore.  Why not just club women in the head and drag them by the hair back to your cave?  The “American Beauty” scenario’s mentality is behind the misquoted but still-effective Shakespeare line, “me thinks thee dost protest too much” (the actual “Hamlet” line is, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks), which implies the reason someone protests strongly about an issue is they feel an associated guilt.  For the people who base their hateful stance on the claim that homosexuality is a moral choice, the only way they can support that claim is to admit they feel and suppress a sexual attraction to members of their own gender, which makes them gay, which means they’re living a lie, and have made their lives unnecessarily very, very complicated.  That’s a lot of misdirected, wasted, and lost time and energy that could have been used in so many other and better ways.  What it is is tragic on a personal level.

The reason many women have a problem with homosexuality is the idea of men being attracted to other men makes them feel unattractive, which is something a lot of women struggle with anyway and that struggle continues their entire lives and it dictates how they interpret things and what they say and dominates their overall behavior.  With a lot of women, you can’t comment on the beauty of another woman because they interpret it as an attack on their own attractiveness.  This reaction is clearly insecure and irrational but, again, not uncommon.  Try it yourself and comment on another woman’s beauty to a woman and check out her reaction.  Chances are her defense mechanisms will be activated and she’ll disagree (unless you’re talking about someone like Angelina Jolie where there is no argument).  The flip side of that same mentality is, if you want a women who (non-)thinks like that to like you, all you have to do is compliment her looks.  This is not a revelatory statement; it’s pretty much common knowledge, however unspoken.  To further complicate things, women like this, especially in an office environment, will actually resent you for NOT complimenting them, no matter how well you treat them otherwise.  Women who don’t have this mindset know what I’m talking about and I have to acknowledge them because I appreciate them.  When women (or men) have low self-esteem to that extent, they’re basically being abusive to themselves and won’t think twice about taking others down with them and the result is hate.  People who think on this level generally don’t matter in ways that do, nor should they.

The broader a person’s perspective is, the more comfortable they are in their skin and the less judgmental they are about the way others live their lives.  Guys like this author (but not necessarily the author himself) will spend the rest of their lives compensating for the guilt they carry as a result of having their own same-sex experiences or suppressing their desire to have them and I think that’s all it really is.  The emphasis placed on homosexuality is so massively and wildly disproportionate relative to the issue’s actual importance (it shouldn’t be important at all) that it won’t allow people to just live their lives and it really influences and distorts people’s perspectives in ways it shouldn’t, and I mean that for people who are both strongly pro and con on the topic.  Both stances are reactionary and are reflective of the importance placed on how people feel they are perceived, which is the basic definition of insecurity.  If people wouldn’t victimize and harass them, gays wouldn’t be driven to overcompensate with the off-putting public behavior they exhibit, for example, in gay pride parades.  Even I find that behavior objectionable so what are Ma and Pa Kettle supposed to think?  That’s being retaliatory and is an overreaction to the over-action of gay-hating.  The focus of this email is gay-hating but the thinking applies to hate directed toward any group (unless that group is based on hate themselves and, even then, there should be a better resolution).  Again, that’s a point I bring up in several of the articles I wrote.

People need to take that pressure off themselves and others and just live their lives, as long as that doesn’t involve imposing and projecting anything that’s violating, invasive, detrimental and negative onto others.  When they come across someone who voices disapproval, they (within reasonable limits) should just let it roll off their shoulder.  You can’t control what other people think or say.  Once the interaction with the hateful person is over, the hater is out of their lives but that hateful person still has to deal with himself when he goes home and the real loser in this scenario becomes obvious.  Hate is not something that only exists when it makes public appearances, it continues to fester in private and is ready to make repeat performances on a moment’s notice.  That existence can’t be healthy.  It just can’t.

Ultimately, everyone has to resolve this dilemma within themselves, and it’s a good metaphor for how to resolve other conflicts that come up in life.  If the objecting readers join forces and threaten to boycott the author if he doesn’t keep his anti-gay rhetoric to himself, then the issue of our first amendment rights is raised and the boycotters-to-be become the bad guys.  Besides, trying to get a writer to give up his first amendments rights is like, uh, …er, …

Huh, I ran out of words.

Dan

————————–

DPW

July 12, 2013

The above bombardment of color is all pictures taken within the last week.  Most were taken in New Milford and Danbury, Connecticut.   The red and yellow lilies and the black irises (below, taken last month) are in my front yard.  A significance of the pictures is that I’m not even a flower person and had to be told those are lilies.  Except for the irises, I still don’t know (or need to know) the names of the other flowers.   It’s not even about the flowers, it’s about the color.  If cats were this colorful and would stay still long enough for me to take their pictures, this article would be littered with (PI) brightly colored cats against green backgrounds.

Give Commercial Voice-Over Actors On-Screen Credit

Crystal Springs Reservoir off Highway 280, Redwood City, San Mateo County, CA May 20, 2011 2:09pm

There’s not much I like on television but I like lot of commercials (although I always fast forward through them when I watch “Jeopardy” on my DVR) and, having worked in corporate marketing and sales (and even if I hadn’t), I appreciate good marketing.  Second for second, commercials are generally more entertaining than TV shows or movies because they have to be by their inherent time-constricting nature.  Commercial makers have fifteen, thirty or sixty seconds to get their message across as effectively as possible so they really have to get your attention and do it in a way it stays with you for as long as possible after the commercial is over.  Many do it with humor (like Geico and Progressive – both of which also use ongoing characters and the induced comfort that comes with familiarity adds to their appeal — and most beer commercials), fast food and chain restaurants do it by making their food sizzle, simmer, smoke and glisten better than it actually does, and some do it by being so intriguing you stick around to see how they end and what product is being sold.

Mariette Hartley, James Garner, and Polaroid camera

Many commercials use likeable celebrities as their viewer-magnet.  Remember the 70’s and 80’s Polaroid commercials with James Garner and Mariette Hartley?  Garner is the very definition of “likeable” and Hartley was an unknown when they started, which made the commercials more credible.  They made three hundred of them together and the two were so convincing as a couple that she had a t-shirt made that said, “I am not James Garner’s wife!”  Whatever she was, she was made that by those commercials.

San Francisco Marina, Golden Gate Bridge, fog. Taken from Alioto’s. May 20, 2011 6:00pm

I like trying to figure out who familiar voice-over actors are when I watch commercials with narration.  John Goodman and Alec Baldwin are easy.  So is Thomas Haden Church, although I didn’t realize he did them until I saw Alexander Payne’s “Sideways”, a movie that finally gave him a role that allowed his full personality to come out and is indelibly his.  “Wings” never held my attention but Church clearly was the most interesting part of the show.  Most voice-over actors, however, are not easy to identify for me.  Wouldn’t it add value to give a quick, small, unobtrusive, in-the-corner credit to the voice-over actors at the end of commercials?  It would for me.  Maybe there’s a reason it’s not done but it would make me pay attention more.  It would be a game-changer and I can’t be the only person who’s thought of it.  Making commercials more interactive creates a bond with their intended target.  In sales, you first need an audience, then you need to get their attention, then you need to connect with them.  Connecting with them makes them leads.  That’s the beginning of the sales process.

I think it would make it fun to run a new commercial for about a week so we can try to figure out who the actor is for ourselves then post the actor’s name after that point.  Besides, the credits would induce viewers to watch the commercials in their entirety and the fast forward button on DVRs would get less wear.  I can see how people who don’t like change wouldn’t warm up to the idea.

Hal Douglas, “Comedian” trailer

This is one of my all-time favorite movie trailers and it’s a perfect example of both a great commercial and the value voice-over actors bring to them.  It’s for the Jerry Seinfeld documentary movie, “Comedian” and it features Hal Douglas, whose name and face are likely unfamiliar to you but whose voice isn’t (I acknowledge the double negative and I find them confusing myself but I like how they make me think and this is an instance when it’s more effective than making my point the other way).   I dare you not to laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVDzuT0fXro

I rest my case.

DPW

July 11, 2013

Happy Independence Day

When I stepped out onto my deck yesterday around 6pm, I startled this white-tailed buck (look at the antler nubs at the top of its head in the clip) and it stumbled as it instinctively started to bolt.  I called out, “whoa, hey”, in the same disarming tone I’d use to let a person I surprised know that I’m not a threat and there was no need to flee.  The deer stopped, looked at me, then cautiously resumed walking around the yard, eating the weeds.  I kept waving – the closest I could come to tail-wagging, something a deer would understand as being friendly – and talking.  The more I waved and talked, the more relaxed he became and began wagging his tail in response to my friendliness.  In the stills, look at how closely he holds his tail, showing that he’s being cautious.  He also keeps one eye on me.  In this clip, he wags his tail vigorously as he eats.  2013 07 03 deer wagging its tail (3)

When I went back inside, he stopped wagging his tail and just stared at the door.   When I went back out, the tail-wagging and eating resumed, letting me know he was enjoying my company.    I do the same thing with the squirrels in the yard when I startle them and their reaction is the same; they stop running and continue what they were doing.  For the most part, mammals (and even some other animals) are like well-adjusted, clear-thinking people and they do things for a reason and are generally receptive to friendliness if you convey it.   The deer around here are very skittish and take off at any sign of people near them, which is a good instinct.

On my 6am walk this morning, I saw my first Downy Woodpecker, which was much smaller than the Pileated Woodpecker in the pictures and videos I posted before.  The video is much better than the pictures.  I guess he’s fanning his tail in the second picture.  2013 07 04 Downy Woodpecker (2) best

Here are some clips of Stone Church Brook, which parallels parts of my walk, taken this morning.  This picture had the best color of the ones I took this morning. It was very overcast.  The moon picture was taken in my backyard June 29 at 5am.  I had to compensate for how vague and gray the woodpecker pictures are.

2013 07 04 Stone Church Brook 1     2013 07 04 Stone Church Brook 2       2013 07 04 Stone Church Brook 3

Have an enjoyable and safe holiday!

DPW

July 4, 2013

The Curious Insecurity of Writers

One thing I’ve learned – especially with guys I knew in LA who were writers — is that people who pride themselves in and validate themselves by their writing can be very competitive (in an unhealthy way) and insecure if they find writing they think (but are unlikely to admit) is superior to their own threatening.  What’s the threat?  It’s not like it’s detrimental to your writing (unless you allow it to be).  Your writing is still your writing and unique to you.   Instead of being envious of writing you consider superior, use it to inspire yourself to improve your own writing, and writing is something that can always be improved upon, which is one of the great things about it.

What I like about sports, both informal and as part of an interscholastic or intercollegiate team, is that, if someone is better than you, you usually respect and appreciate them and their talent and you hope to pick up pointers to improve your own game.  When I beat guys that had the reputation for being better than me, they were usually the first to congratulate me, which always caught me off guard but which I always appreciated. And I never found them threatening or intimidating.  If anything, their reputation inspired me to try to beat them.  Competing against and/or learning from people better than you is how you become better and it helps bring out the best in you.  The essence of sports is that everyone does what they do as well as they can and may the best competitor win fair and square and have fun doing it (at least it should be).  Sports are fun (at least they should be).  This mentality also pervaded over the most talent-driven companies I’ve worked for, which is why they were so good at what they did.  Call me naïve but I don’t see why it can’t be the same for writing.

My crawdad, July 7, 2013

I don’t pride myself in my writing or validate myself by it; I just try to do it as well as I can (and, hopefully, constantly get better) then leave it to do other things.  In emails to my editor, I refer to my own writing as the “s” word.  I don’t even think my writing is that good but I’ve been complimented on it since grade school and I recognize it’s better and more interesting than a lot of writing.  I’ve worked with people who, based on our email exchanges, write at least as well as I do.  My thinking is much better than my writing.  My vocabulary is limited – which is why I use the words “very”, “really”, and “great” as often as I do – but I know how to use the words I know very well.  (See?  Actually — that’s another one — if you take “very” out of that last sentence, its meaning becomes ambiguous, although there’s still a little ambiguity.)  Besides, I got other stuff going on.  For one thing, I’m much more proud of the crawdad I caught in the brook across the road two months ago and seem to be successfully nurturing.  I love nature, it’s the only thing that’s real.

Oakland Shipyards, San Francisco, view from the Oakland Hills, December 20, 2012 8:29am

A guy who generously gave me the book “Life of Pi” in 2009 is a movie lover and told me he tried “to write on the side”.  He couldn’t be a nicer guy.  In the years I’ve known him, he’s always been responsive to my emails.  When I sent him the link to my review of the movie, thanking him again for giving me the book, he never responded and hasn’t responded to subsequent emails even though he responded to an email I sent him the week before.  Hope he’s OK.

A guy I know who teaches college writing responded to a lengthy email I sent him by saying, “You’re really a good writer, man!”  This is a guy who basically reads other people’s writing for a living.  Coincidentally, he wrote that the day after I was asked to do movie reviews for this site.  I’ve known both guys for more than ten years and, after all that time, they both brought up the topic on successive days.  Now that I’m actually doing it, the compliments are much more cautious and the exclamation points are gone.

Griffith Park Observatory, Los Angeles, December 29, 2013

Oh, here’s a good one:  I sent an email to a movie reviewer whose column was regular reading for me at one point.  It was in appreciation of his column and I included some experiences I had while I was in the film industry, which included making pitches to big actors, directors and producers, one of which helped ignite the career of the winner of a 2012 major-category Oscar winner.  I also talked about the Oscars I attended – which was the basis of and genesis for the article I recently wrote – then wrapped it up with the pictures of the Oscar ticket and program and AMPAS envelope and links to some of the reviews I did.  I asked a buddy to proof it and he said it was “powerful” in both content and the way it was written and not something the recipient would likely be prepared for.  That was two months ago and I’ve still received no response.  It occurred to me that my experiences are something a regular movie reviewer could only dream about, much less be told in the admittedly entertaining way I shared them.  Read the article and let me know at which point you lost interest.  This guy’s non-response was better than any compliment he could have paid me.  At least he has his choice of beautiful bridges from which to leap.  People who lack the courtesy to respond to phone calls and thoughtful emails are a personal pet peeve.

Bridge on the Lehigh River near Bethlehem, PA, January 27, 2013 9:00am

There was a recent and well-timed rerun of “Family Guy” – like most comedy, hit or miss but, when it hits, it’s exceptional TV – where Brian (a talking dog), who has always aspired to be a writer but with no success, finally has a successful local stage production and milks it for everything and every compliment it’s worth.  Stewie (a talking baby), who has always taunted Brian for his failure as a writer, is so impressed that he’s inspired to write his own play, which Brian, now very self-important and condescending, thinks is adorable but has no interest in reading .  Upon returning home one night, Brian finds the stage play on the sofa with a Post-It note (I could never bring myself to call them “stickies”) that says “please read me”.  Brian begins reading it with a smile of amusement.  The more he reads, the more the smile goes away until he drops the treatment on the ground like Salieri did when Stanzi left that Mozart original with him.  Brian, in looking for advice, tells his brother, who lives in LA, that Stewie’s play is “miraculous”.  His brother immediately responds, “Tell him it’s terrible.  Never, ever compliment the work of another writer.”

Frame from the Family Guy episode, “Brian’s Play”

When Stewie finds out his play is going to open on Broadway, Brian admits to Stewie that the script was so good it depressed him because it made him realize how untalented he really was.  He tells Stewie he wishes Stewie would have waited until Brian had passed on before producing such a great work, since Stewie has his whole life ahead of him and Brian’s dog-years are numbered.  In a wonderful ending, Stewie’s play flops.  Brian, who attended the opening, asks Stewie what happened since what he saw onstage wasn’t like the written play at all.  Stewie said he made a few last-minute tweaks and doesn’t understand what happened.  He sabotaged his own play to make Brian feel better.  I could do an entire article on the psychology of both Brian and Stewie and their dynamic, which runs the entire range of situations from birth to death and includes time-travel and dimension-travel.  But I don’t wanna.  Here’s a sneak peak, which gives you the storyline for the Family Guy episode, “Brian’s Play”.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkbcecZUyis

Here’s Stewie taunting Brian about his writing non-career.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghw7_RGi9aI

Those high notes had to hurt Seth McFarlane, who voices both characters.

The Gates by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Central Park, New York City, February 26, 2005

Here’s how much I don’t validate myself by my writing or knowledge of movies:  When I started doing movie reviews for this site, I let my friends and family know little by little and didn’t tell a single person I was doing it until the day the first one posted.  I still haven’t told everyone I know.  I sent emails with links to reviews to people I’ve known for 10, 20 and even 30 years.  Almost every one of them — the ones who responded —  even before they got to talking about the writing itself, told me they had no idea I liked movies as much as I do.  That’s because, in my interactions with them, I focus on our shared interests, which is how you nurture a relationship.  If you were to talk to me on a topic I like, you would think it was the most important thing in the world to me and that I had no other interests.  Everyone has been very complimentary about the writing and the majority refer to it as “fresh” or “refreshing”.  Are you guys talking about my writing or Mountain Dew?  Look at the very last line in my review for “The Great Gatsby.”  That line will tell you all you need to know about what I think of my own writing.

If I ever get to the point where I’m insecure about writing, assuming I ever start actually writing (as opposed to opinionating, which is not creative at all), I’ll quit the moment I recognize it.  And I will recognize it.  If anything, I want to be exposed to great writing, which “Life of Pi” clearly is.  Besides, I got other stuff going on.

DPW

July 1, 2013 (The lily pictures were taken in my front yard June 21, 2013 2:15pm)

Between the rain storms, Dutchess County, Hudson Valley June 28, 2013

We’ve been getting a lot of rain lately here in Dutchess County in the Hudson Valley and will get it for another week.  Coming from the Bay Area (specifically, the San Joaquin Delta) and experiencing numerous droughts, as long as I’m not driving and everyone and their property are OK, I love the rain and equate it with life, so I’m enjoying this rainy spell.  And it really RAINS here.  Even when the rain isn’t accompanied by wind, it still comes down hard and it won’t take a full second of standing in it to drench you.

This clip, taken standing outside my front door, is from June 25 at 5:03pm.  The real show isn’t the rain, it’s the trees.  Beautiful.  MVI_0830

This clip was taken seconds later.  I get slapped with a sheet of water, which made me stop recording.  It also made me laugh. MVI_0832

I took this pan of my front yard during another rainstorm yesterday, June 30 at 3:14pm.  The trees are virtually still, unlike the violent heaving in the other two clips.   MVI_1014

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