Western Blues

Leo, this is a very fine image. To have captured the moon in such a position over such a contour of earth is extraordinary.

I submit a technical critique: When using Photoshop's Levels, if you remove the unused data from your shadows range (see Fig. 1), then your shadows become the truest shadows (see Fig. 2). The same effect can be achieved with highlights, but you had no unused data in that range in this image. Credit the unadulterated light of the moon.

Carry on.

Best line in the film:


“Man looks in the abyss, there’s nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.” — Hal Holbrook, Wall Street

Almost time for another trip, Boys.

COVERING:

• Waffle Houses
• Taco Shops
• Jerry Garcia
• Mountain Sunrises
• Rolling Stones
• 400-year-old Hickory Trees
• Mexican Barber Shops
• Boy Scouts
• Enhancement of Garden Soil
• Steve McQueen
• Fast Mustangs

AND MORE !!

HEH HEH HEH

It seems whenever I think I've got it all figured out, something happens to hose it all up. Not always something eventful, but some thing, none the less, intrudes on my fragile sense of peace.

When life seems its' tamest, subjective reality takes over. Today's a good example. Am I happy or content? No, but what else is new? Anyways, it was quiet and there were no serious waves.

This is where I work and spend most of my waking hours. I eat 2 of 3 daily meals here. I've lived in the office and slept in the nurse's office. I guess I find it humorous that, from a satellite, it looks like a digestive system.

The biggest concern on my mind of late is whether the next hurricane (Rita?) is gonna hit Galveston. I don't live for apocalyptic disaster, but with their frequency of late, they seem like the events to worry over. Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown died in New Orleans just a few days after being fetched from the flooding stench.

The bible exhorts us not to fret and also to keep our tongues from evil. Psalm 92 says not to... "be afraid of terrors by night or the arrows that fly by day..."This is Beverly Hills from 3800 ft. Nitsa lives around here somewhere. From 3800 ft. (and from knowledge) all I can tell is that the sun shines there a lot. Whether it's a happy place or not is a mystery to me.

I don't know exactly what I'm getting at, but something's trying to chew off what little bit of butt I've got left. I feel lost in a world that thrives on certainty and all I feel certain of is how lost I feel.

In the past, the lost feeling would make me depressed, but now it's my best friend. Go figure.

Get your duckies in a row and just keep plodding along. It's comfortable because it's what I know, but it doesn't make it any better. It just makes it familiar. Quiet desperation is that way I guess. Once you get past the anxiety, it's tolerably easier.

This is near where Chester lives. It's cloudy right now. I know. I lived near there for years. The clouds are what makes for an extremely gloomy image, even from space (approximately 4700 ft.).

Witty comments and sarcastic banter don't always cut it. I've learned of late how to shut up and listen. It's a stretch, but I think I'm getting better at it. It's always easier to snap and rant and rave. But when your raving goes nowhere, it's just a lot of wasted air.

"God night, sweet prince, and flights of angels send thee to thy rest."

-Bill Speare. Last line of Hamlet

Although you cannot see the telltale trunk in this silhouette, this is a shagbark hickory tree. Carya ovata

I estimate 400 years old, because these are very slow-growing trees.

This hickory tree is so big around, my buddy and I could not touch hands if we tried to reach our arms around the circumference of the trunk. My friend slept in a hammock lashed between the tree and a nearby fencepost. I slept on the blue tarp in the foreground. This photo was taken at dawn.



Hickory wood at my exclusive campground was abundant, thanks to the tree. However, on one occasion, I had to tie a bowline ("the king of knots"), passed the loop beneath my armpits, then threw the other end of the rope over a low-hanging limb, then had a friend hoist me up to the crotch of this giant tree. From there I was able to liberate a few dead branches using a saw. Hickory wood fires burn extremely hot with very little fuel. Steaks are usually cooked (literally seared) within 4 minutes, using a sharp stick (also obtained from the natural surroundings) to hold the meat very close to the white-hot embers. The meat is cooked and all the juices stay inside.


Candle light is sufficient for a quiet evening of reading and reflection. Also it is sufficient available light for a photograph. This is a self-portrait taken inside a homemade lean-to shelter on a particular night when I camped alone at this fabulous site.

IN THE TOP PHOTO, you can see my Geo Metro contains three buckets of clay soil that I dug out of my garden back in Ohio. I would transport it to a field beyond city limits and dump it.

Then, I would take the empty buckets to a friend's farm (see photo below). My friend had cattle, and I would refill those buckets with cow crap.

Then I would transport it back to my garden, and "inject" it below the surface of the soil simply by working my spade. Good exercise. Long-range soil enrichment benefits.

My 1.0-liter-engine Geo Metro could haul three 5-gallon buckets at a time. You don't always need a pickup truck to get things done.

Fifteen gallons of soil replacement therapy per trip. It was a project with no time limit.

My friend's farm -- a 180-acre wonderland of mostly ancient hardwood forest -- had this really cool 400-year-old hickory tree at the corner of a soft pasture, where I would occasionally build a campfire and sleep beneath the stars. Naturally, I used dead, dry, well-seasoned hickory limbs that abounded on that enormous tree to make my campfire, which was most excellent for searing delicious steaks.

That's me, wearing a Venturing uniform. Venturing is a relatively new branch of Boy Scouts of America. It is open for boys and girls, ages 14-20. A Venturing Scout who achieves the difficult Ranger Award has achieved the rough equivalent of the rank of Eagle Scout, although nothing can compare to an honestly earned Eagle.

There are young women who earn the Ranger Award who are capable of long treks into the wilderness, capable of surviving extreme challenges, and capable of kicking most men's asses.

In addition to the Venturing uniform, I also briefly wore the Boy Scout uniform while serving as Scoutmaster of a revived unit in a small village, and I simultaneously served on a four-county District Committee in Ohio as the Popcorn Sales Chairman (thus, this photo) and Public Relations Chairman.

This photo contains two key elements inspired from photographic lessons taught by the famous Larry Widen (just Google his name and you'll see what I mean) while we studied at Ohio University:

-- sunglasses
-- American flag

One more thing: People wanna bash the Scouts over gay issues. Why do some people want to force gay issues into Scouting?

Isn't it enough to let children have an innocent childhood, and teach them a few valuable outdoors skills?

Why do we need to discuss sexuality with children other than to prepare them with general tactics in order to fend off predators' attacks?

I dunno. The guy's been dead for 10 years and I can still get a laugh out of him. Today was a lousy day in the desert, for me anyways. I guess I needed a little laugh to make things right with the world. I found this and I found it funny.

(Post script: Garcia lost the top part of his middle finger at the age of 5. His brother accidentally axed it off while the boys were cutting firewood on a camping trip. Later, Jerry's dad was killed, swept away by the undercurrent, while fishing in the Columbia river.)

Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile...

Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) is driving a 1968 Mustang GT.

He gets into a little road rage incident with some shotgun-wielding bad guys in a Dodge Charger. The bad guys are incinerated.

They don't make chase scenes like this anymore. Too many safety regulations. Computer animation does all the heavy lifting now.

Obviously this was taken right after we departed from the Mexican fast-food restaurant.

Leo has some funny tics.

Here he is.

Spends hours every morning at McDonald's with a bunch of geezers, sipping coffee, bitching about nothing in general.

Shuffles through Wal-Mart .

Scratches his crotch and butt frequently.

Watches re-runs of "Hee Haw."

Smokes the foulest-smelling cigars imaginable.

Drives a 1972 Chevy, which only has 30,000 miles on it.

The Harding Memorial in Marion, Ohio, is the final resting place of the 29th president of the United States, Warren Gamaliel Harding (1921-23), and his wife, Florence Kling Harding.

The memorial was built entirely from funds donated by the public.

Every year, the local Boy Scouts hold what they call their Harding Pilgrimage. They march through the city and stop at the memorial for a ceremony.

Then the crypt is opened. It's a cool-looking inner courtyard that is kept locked all the rest of the year.

Notice the kids playing atop the tombs? Should have heard the cranky old bastard yellin' at them kids to get off of dem graves! I wanted to tell the sourpuss: LIGHTEN UP.

The girls are long gone. Chester is irregular. Mike's too green. Leo's not producing. Somebody's gotta keep this blog going.

Here. This will show you I'm not totally naive and idealistic.

"Missing" (1982), starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, is one of my favorite movies.


***


Sept. 11 a Dark Day in Chile, Too

By EDUARDO GALLARDO, Associated Press Writer Sat Sep 10, 8:10 AM ET

SANTIAGO, Chile - Sept. 11 is dark day in Chile too: the anniversary of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's bloody military coup. And as in the past, it finds Chileans not just sad, but angry.

Violent protests have broken out in several cities, leaving four people injured and at least 20 detained. The government warned of "zero tolerance" for anyone who tries to incite unrest Sunday.

"This is not the Chile we want to build," said President Ricardo Lagos, urging his South American nation to remain calm this weekend.

Pinochet seized power Sept. 11, 1973, toppling democratically elected Marxist President Salvador Allende, who committed suicide during the military bombardment of the government palace.

The general went on to govern Chile for 17 years. During that time, 3,197 people were killed for political reasons, according to an official report prepared by the civilian government that succeeded Pinochet in 1990. More than 1,000 others — the "disappeared" — remain unaccounted for and were presumably murdered after being picked up by Pinochet's security forces.

But while hundreds of former military officers are being tried on human rights charges, only a few have been convicted, including four generals. Pinochet himself has been indicted twice and still faces hundreds of lawsuits, but has been spared trial because of his poor health.

A group of right-wing legislators this week introduced a bill that would pardon any convicted military men who have completed 10 years in prison.

The government suggested it may accept the bill as a step toward reconciliation.

"It's important to see how we can advance in healing wounds," said Lagos, but some of his own supporters angrily rejected the legislative proposal.

Today the 89-year-old former ruler has virtually disappeared from public view, even as he battles lawsuits stemming from the abuses of his era. He also faces tax evasion charges related to what prosecutors say are multimillion dollar secret bank accounts he owns overseas.

Pinochet appears isolated even from some of his staunchest supporters who steadfastly backed him in the face of human rights abuse accusations, but have not defended him in his money troubles.

Last month, Lagos pardoned retired army Sgt. Manuel Contreras, who was midway through a 10-year prison term for the 1982 killing of a prominent union leader opposed to Pinochet. The president said his decision was intended "to send a strong signal" of reconciliation but, instead, it caused an uproar.

Even Lagos' supporters protested the pardon, another sign that reconciliation remains elusive.

"One works hard to get a human rights violator indicted and then he is pardoned," complained Lorena Pizarro, who heads a group of relatives of dissidents who disappeared at the hands of Pinochet's security forces.

"Those who are guilty must be punished," she told The Associated Press. "We will continue to fight to gain even more convictions."

Pizarro's group has filled lawsuits against several suspected rights violators who took orders from Pinochet.

On the other side, Gen. Juan Guillermo Toro, who heads a group of retired military officers, complains they have suffered discrimination.

Toro said the Contreras pardon was a rare exception and that scores of former leftist guerrillas who killed soldiers and others while waging armed struggle against Pinochet's regime — or even after civilian rule was restored _also have been pardoned.

"Justice must be the same for everybody. That's all we ask for," he declared.

Sheesh. I left the camera in the car, in 100+ heat no less, and this is what happened to the film. This was a fire in the Santa Rita mountains a while back. The negatives are tweaked really bad and the emulsion is not long for this world. But, damn, it's a cool image.

Two beers, $12. Two concert shirts, $70. A chance to spend the evening with the greatest rock and roll band in the world... Priceless.
Photo by Chester Arthur Burnett

At 62 years of age, the boys show no signs of slowing down. Last night's show in Milwaukee was 2 hours of powerhouse rock and roll, plus a blues jam with the legendary Buddy Guy.
Photo by Chester Arthur Burnett

Funny how they dwell on the obvious. Nose? No doubt.

Ted, Is there a stem on the apple?

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just leave me the hell alone.

2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire.

3. It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

4. Sex is like air. It's not important unless you aren't getting any.

5. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

6. No one is listening until you fart.

7. Always remember you're unique. Just like everyone else.

8. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

9. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.

10. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

11. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

12. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

13. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

14. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

15. Some days you are the bug; some days you are the windshield.

16. Don't worry; it only seems kinky the first time.

17. Good judgment comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

18. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

19. A closed mouth gathers no foot.

20. There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.

21. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

22. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

23. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

24. We are born naked, wet, and hungry, and get slapped on our ass ... then things get worse .