Entertainment, pure and simple ~ Iron Man 3

Tony Stark, played by the incredible Robert Downey, Jr, is fantastic in the new movie  Iron Man 3, the latest of the Marvel series that opened this weekend. The script is actually quite cleverly written for Downey's character with a lot of quotes that you wish you had more time to digest or at least write down. The list of credits at the end of the film goes on for quite awhile, especially for the animation and it's no wonder. Amazing special effects, pure entertainment and decent narratives are worth the price of entry to be sure.

A highlight of the movie last night was getting to go to the Pixar Studios in Emeryville to screen the movie in their theater.

Posing with the ball out front of the entrance (near the giant Luxo lamp) at Pixar

Floating Hot Tub ~ creative to be sure

Last night while at a dinner party on a houseboat in Sausalito, the most unusual site went slowly by on the bay... a floating hot tub with full Saturday party complete with dogs. It really needs no further description as only the photos can depict ...

view just before the hot tub went by from inside the gorgeous houseboat...

While half a world away in South Africa ~

The movie Searching for Sugar Man left such an impression on me two days ago when I saw it ~ it might be up there as one of my top favorite movies of all times. The story was other-worldly and proof that truth really is stranger than fiction (it's based on a true story of Sixto Rodriguez).

This article by Rolling Stone about Rodriguez: 10 Things You Don't Know About the 'Searching for Sugar Man' Star is interesting for more info.

my favorite song from the movie:



CRUCIFY YOUR MIND

Was it a huntsman or a player
That made you pay the cost
That now assumes relaxed positions 
And prostitutes your loss? 
Were you tortured by your own thirst
In those pleasures that you seek 
That made you Tom the curious 
That makes you James the weak?

And you claim you got something going
Something you call unique 
But I've seen your self-pity showing
And the tears rolled down your cheeks.

Soon you know I'll leave you 
And I'll never look behind
'Cos I was born for the purpose 
That crucifies your mind. 
So con, convince your mirror
As you've always done before 
Giving substance to shadows 
Giving substance ever more.

And you assume you got something to offer 
Secrets shiny and new
But how much of you is repetition
That you didn't whisper to him too.

Cosmic Laughter ~ I Can Hear It

Last night I attended an event at Swissnex in San Francisco ~ The Substance: LSD and Society. There was a screening of a comprehensive film about the history and use of LSD from it's invention in 1943 by Albert Hoffmann in Switzerland to today. There were many interesting facts but my very favorite piece of the movie was a narrator's voice-over observing one of the subjects being tested at a VA hospital in the late 50's "this man seemed to be stuck in a state of cosmic laughter". Though I've never tried the substance and don't have plans to ~ the cosmic laughter seemed inviting ~ the term is fantastic.

Nature at it's finest in the Spring time

This morning as I got ready to ride the horse ~ Mr. Raven came by to gather the horse hair I had brushed off during the springtime shed and he flew up to his nest and returned several times to gather every last bit of it.  I love spring time.

“Mad Hatter: “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”

“Have you guessed the riddle yet?” the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.

“No, I give it up,” Alice replied: “What’s the answer?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” said the Hatter”

― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland 

Mystery of the fog ~ what year is it?

Last Saturday in the Marin Headlands was unbelievably foggy but that always lends an interesting twist to a horse ride. I captured what I could on this video showing the start of the day through the ride. This kind of thing is even more interesting when you think that with the exception of the cell phone I carried ~ the horse, the fog, the environment is the same as it was 200 years ago.

Un hombre de paz agraciado

Last night I had the good fortune to spend time with Miguel Huezo Mixco for dinner with my good friend and colleague Cesar. Miguel is staying in Sausalito as a writer-in-residence with the Headlands Center for the Arts. There aren't many people in the world who possess just the right blend of graceful certainty, passion, insight and articulate sensitivity that impart to observant others the same sense -- Miguel is one of these people.   I look forward to reading the results of his stay in the Bay Area.

"Tribe" 2012 ~ a poem by Miguel

Miguel at left with Cesar Escalante ~ both originally from El Salvador

Wrinkling through time ~

“Time is an illusion.”
― Albert Einstein

Thinking about one of the books that most influenced me as a child and earliest memory of "reading is fun" ~ A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L'Engle .  Brilliant work and it wasn't easy to get published at the time, a testament to perseverance, brilliance and luck.

Fog and more fog

Maybe it's my Scottish DNA but the fog is my all-time favorite weather to ride the bicycle in especially across the Golden Gate Bridge. Here's a series of pieces I cobbled together today after my commute.

Traversing the fourth dimension ~ A Bicycle Odyssey

To travel through time and experience the fourth dimension, recent empirical evidence suggests riding a bicycle. Not just any bicycle by the way ~ it must be one especially crafted and/or sold at A Bicycle Odyssey in Sausalito.  The experience many people have when entering the store is like going through a wormhole and the results usually keep people coming back with fervent devotion whether for a simple tune-up, an accessory purchase, to browse the store or simply to say "hello, where's Tony?" In the past few weeks, I put together this video below in an attempt to capture the magic ~