Brown Motion

It was the day J C arrived.  2,017 years ago or so some believe.  And since then the devout have ensured it is remembered across this planet as a day to party.  For us it is a time to take a break from work.  Enjoy as a family.  Usually out and about a place we have never seen.  This time a staycation.  A made up yuppie name to indicate we were with in shouting distance of our abode yet keeping up with the enjoyment part. With no familial obligations and tree cutting or decorating or other chores to attend to we went to San Francisco to check out the merriment by the bay.  The day was a crisp but partly cloudy affair.  Temps were pleasant in the fifties. The transit to and fro surprisingly not too crowded.  We got to ride the ancient Cable Cars without much waiting  - the trick is to take it from just outside the Embarcadero BART off California and not go to Powell street.  The latter is always crowded - the line ...

A film with a message.   While somewhat squishy at times it is conveyed in a light-hearted comedy format with Simon Pegg in the driver's seat.  Directed by a Brit the title of the film is ' Hector and the Search for Happiness'. A psychiatrist in London is disillusioned with his predictable but rich lifestyle and decides he wants to discover what makes people happy.  The outcome is a random trip around the globe that takes him to the altitudes of Tibet and the metropolis of Shanghai to African wilds and finally the jungle called Los Angeles.  Each interaction with people he meets is summarized in one line messages that he jots along the way. In all these instances he discovers individual moments of what makes people happy and how they define their lives in search of meaning.  He has some yoda-ish ahas including the one in the monastery in the Himalayan foothills where the monk advises him that what he seeks is all within.  The film ends with a ca...

Not sure what or how long a Nick is but today was a day to remember.  I was talking to a buddy of mine over the cell phone, minding my business along a sidewalk of a store front.  I heard it before I saw it.  Suddenly a white sedan was bearing down on me.   Accelerating as it kept coming and there was nowhere for it to go but through me, into the place of business.  The other option as the scene unfolded would have been to avoid hitting me and hit a tree.  If I was able to move out. I did. And the car promptly aided by its driver kept going and slammed into the plum tree.  Parked in straight line on the same sidewalk where I had a conversation underway seconds ago. This is what it looked like after it was all done. Sign in the store seems to suggest something to the driver? The driver a 94 year old female relatively put together walked out after someone helped extract her from her seat.  I called the local police. Luckily for e...

Among the rare few films or stories about someone that pursues a passion not for glory but for passion alone this is one. Seymour (Bernstein) is a documentary made by Ethan Hawke about an eponymous classically trained pianist.  It is a biographic that the artist agreed to over the course of his getting to know Ethan and is filmed in NY where he lives a monkish life at a ripe old age of 90. While Seymour could have attained fame and gone on to perform variety of world stages he backed out 50 years ago in part due to the nervousness of being on stage and the constant pressure to live up to someone else's expectation. Instead he chose to do what he loves - teach, make new music and enjoy the time spent with the piano.  The film is full of Confucian sounding quotes from the master some of which are listed below.  He has wondered aloud as to why we do not see/hear of any new Bachs or Beethovens and some of that can be explained when you read this. The piano is like a...

Is it me or do other people wonder about non-sentiments that are sent out at certain times of the earth's position relative to the sun? Happy Holidays  (what kind of vacuous comment is that?  Believe me no one will really know if you are one that takes holidays or if you did if you were happy during that term) Merry Christmas, Kwanza, Diwali  (what exactly is Merry?) Have a Great Day  (starting when?) Bless you  (when did you get a priest license?) Good morning - afternoon - night  (I have not yet checked the pollen count so should I believe you?) Top of the morning Happy New Year  (are you sure?) Peace on Earth (the arrogance I say) and on and on... Whilst it may have been a way for humans to communicate during times they had nothing better to do today's humanity tends to utter these words or worse send them via hundred forms of electronic exhaust or in printed form (tree huggers can have a fit) an...

I think that phrase is somewhat of an understatement.  Let me explain.  If Harvey was a shoe (all resemblances to things living or dead is purely coincidental and unintentional) in a shoe closet then  what happened this year can only be described as the shoe rack falling down. Sexual Harassment, Groping, Touching, Inappropriate Behavior are all euphemisms to describe Rape.  Rape occurs when power is used as a tool to intimidate another person.   A 1994 film called 'Disclosure' highlights the case and resembles the examples in variety of industry we see today. Heck I would argue that we do not even need new shoes so the idea that they would fall is meaningless.  This is explained by the following soon to be observed phenom - There are no news readers or talk show hosts There are no movies being made There is nothing to govern so there is no governing going on There are no sports being played There are no more power players Why?...

Humans are very strange.  Our behavior in many instances is molded to be intentionally and sometimes not, politically and culturally correct.  We do not say what is on our mind rather fall into a well worn groove that is defined by society that we inhabit. These behavioral traits I suppose define us as a species that does not mostly want to rock the boat.  The cost of said rocking might be exclusion from the cult that is humanity.  Belonging to the cult is not what I like to do.  It seems to me unnatural.  We have been gifted with a brilliant nervous system which should allow us to be anything but nervous about our interactions. Recently we went to visit someone in the extended family because they had produced an offspring.  Now here itself the human experience becomes to me retarded.  People who we would otherwise barely go see given logistics et al are suddenly in the limelight because of their ability to procreate? Then on actual visitat...

It had been a while that I read something from the author who mastered the art of cranking out stories based on the injustices within the justice system.  John Grisham. A guy from the south of the United States who tried his hand at being a lawyer himself who then found he was better at capturing scenes he had seen into a story and packaging them for mass consumption. This latest installment is based in Florida, a swampland for all intents (I have been there on many occasions) but with pockets of civilization along the coasts.  The story revolves around the politics of America and its treatment of the indigenous people that habited the land and how they have been sequestered in areas called reservations. The story line works its way to show the economy run by gangs making money off the casino trade along with other illicit enterprises and a crooked judge that skims off the top in a win win  deal with the wrong kind of people. The protagonist is a single fema...

An independent studio (Sundance Selects) made documentary about food and culture.  Culture of Los Angeles.  A city that I and the family have come to love.  For a variety of reasons. Many centered around the plethora of food the expanse offers.  A microcosm of ethnic communities that migrated to make a life for themselves. A true definition of America the beautiful. In this vast grid of highways and streets lives a food critic.  A native of the city, a former cellist and classically trained music lover, a writer and Pulitzer prize winner called Jonathan Gold. The documentary is about the reveal of who Gold is.   For a while an anonymous and respected food writer he has a knack for story telling.  This skill is used with a versatility to describe communities in which the food is made and their history.  A lot many local eateries that are inhabited by common folk got reviews that brought them into the limelight and literally made for suc...

In Palm Springs CA for a conference for a couple days gave me a chance to do something different in the wee morning hours when I tend to awaken.  I decided on an impromptu road trip.  This time into the San Jacinto mountain range just south of the city I was based in. The name for this mountain comes from a saint of the Spaniards.  The mountain peaks at a summit of almost 10,000 feet but my objective was to drive some distance while gaining altitude that would afford a good morning view of the towns in the desert below.  Below is the scenic wonderland as seen in the 6 to 7 am hours looking north from the mountain for the most shots. The road that traverses the mountain is scenic highway 74 which runs over a 100 miles all the way from the desert through the high mountain  and descends to the coast in Orange County CA. Spotted a random bohemian from Oregon practicing his guitar in the early hours along the highway.  Said ...

Going to L.A is always exciting because after a decade of visiting it there is always something else to do, see, eat, visit. This time it was no different.  Below are some snaps along the way. First up is the Design Institute in Pasadena where Ansel Adams once taught and the alumni include famous car designers that work for luxury brands including Tesla, Aston Martin etc. Down the hill is the Rose Bowl - a mecca for football lovers.  100 year old stadium was recently renovated.  For me it was simply a chance to walk in the parking lot (having no affiliation toward the sport itself) as the sun was setting watching the rays bounce of the San Gabriel mountains and spill into the San Fernando valley below. Another day we ventured to the coast and strolled Venice beach.  Took in all the human activity along with the kaleidoscope of color, both natural and man made that is a sight to see.

Los Angeles hides many towns within the city limits.  So labeled by virtue of their history and density of businesses owned by an ethnic minority and the crowds that frequent them. This trip in L.A was to explore the charm of these pockets of diversity in a crowded metropolis.  We began the trip by first visiting the old transportation hub - L.A Union Station.  Where trains from different regions along with multiple bus routes converge to take a traveler to and from the city. Now American transit systems and the infrastructure such as the Union Station certainly lack the efficacy and operational cleanliness of transport hubs in Europe.  It is evidenced by the relative apathy the traveling public shows to the system in part because the system does not operate frequently to be viable and neither does it connect from any point A to B given the vastness of this country. Hardly any traffic on the busiest weekend in America (Thanksgiving) save for a few old ...

A sizzle is personal - what I might find sizzling may not be another man’s steak but so is Thanksgiving! For some it’s about thanking friends and family to some it’s their health and some the excitement of waking in the wee hours to get themselves that deal on the latest flat screen to ‘replace’ the living room drywall.  Ya. The screens are now so big even Home Depot is selling more screens than drywall sheets.  Why mount it when your entire wall is a screen?  For us it’s a bit of this and that but most importantly it is a big Thank you to America where we - 1.  Celebrate this holiday and enjoy time as a family which inevitably means a chance to 2.  Travel the great big country in search of adventure and history and FOOD - the holy trifecta At times big traffic aka carmageddon-ish scenes combined with atrocious parking fees or lack of space to park our chariot scenario notwithstanding we love to hit the open highways as a threesome and check out t...