Brown Motion

During the course of the first Word War and after, a bunch of Europeans fled to America.  Among them were Portuguese.  Some of them traveled over time all the way west and landed in California.  Specifically around the bay area of San Francisco. To sign praises of their lord Jesus a branch of devout Jesuits built a church.  That was 100 years ago.  During this centennial year of 2019 we visited this Portuguese church in the Little Portugal neighborhood of eastern San Jose, California. Impressive as it is it offers a place for quiet reflection and is a sea of calm in an otherwise busy highway intersection bordered by working class communities.  Below are some scenes from this wonderful building and its surrounds. Named for the five (holy) wounds Jesus suffered during crucifixion the Latin  Cinco Chagas  is the phrase used to name this church. Beginning with the view of a stained glass from the outside as you walk toward the south facing ma...

Three girls puking while wearing 18th century gowns no less.   And much of this by either candlelight or dusk.  This to me was the plot for the 'Oscar for best actress winner film' called 'The Favourite'. Directed by a Greek and containing several English and American actors this story of Queen Anne was somehow a certain crowd pleaser for it garnered applause for the lead role. The protagonist is a heavy set Queen, bordering on delirium, who through postpartum depression and not having access to an iphone or Google comes off angry and capricious. Several instances of the film contain otherwise beautiful looking actresses puking their guts out in everything from expensive vases, to spittoons to the wild jungles.  I personally never enjoy period movies for a variety of reasons but humored my better half by sitting to watch this rather longish tale of woe.  It is perhaps a good capture of a period in English history in terms of costume and drama but it is ...

Whoa! It is time in our household to help our only offspring to undock from what has been home for the past seventeen years and help seek out a new home aka a higher learning institution.  This undocking is not just physical, it is emotional, it is about leaving familiar and diving into multiple unknowns. A time of escalating stress it turns out.  Not having any personal background in the business of education as it is run in America we the parents are coming in as underdogs.  Admittedly there is a world of information available beyond a few strokes of a keyboard that was not the case a quarter century ago, when we went and got our engineering degrees. Exactly.  That too can be a curse.  TMI.  Inputs and chatter across virtual boards and physical.  On the track and field, or in speech meets, parents with multiple offsprings and one in college are shelling out their tricks and tips voluntarily.  Now mind you this is not true of all school di...

The other day my wandering eye saw this duck.  So I took a picture.  As in put it on tape.  Well you know what I mean?  Tape now replaced by zeroes and ones. 'Shot on iphone' as the manufacturer of this fruity device would call it.  The amount of digitized information in the world today is growing at the rate of petabytes each day.  PETA would not like that phrase I think. Some might say I pinned this duck in the interest of sharing it.  They call it Pinterest.  Go figure. It is a big figure.   That idea alone is worth billions.  Market valuation apparently.  Marketers salivating.  Capitalism at its crony best. So you might be wondering how did a lowly duck picture end up becoming an icon for large money movements?   Right - it quacks me up too.

Not to discount the fact that I was with my best half (me being the better adha) on today's nature walk, we together enjoyed spring's bounty in our neighborhood.   What the 19th century English poet, Wordsworth refers to as Jocund Company was to be found all over the hills in the east bay of San Francisco.  No daffodils to be seen but a variety of lupins like growth and many other tiny sprouting wild flowers who I cannot name. Enough color to put a modern day crayon box to shame, this wall to wall extravaganza had to be walked in to enjoy. Quite inspiring and breathtaking the trail walk was interrupted methodically by the metronomic chirping of a crowd of red winged blackbirds. Morning sunshine finally made an appearance in an overcast sky, as we wrapped up our photogenic journey. Charged up the dying battery for the week ahead. Enjoy!