Wayback Wednesday #20060726

Lots of people enjoy fishing. I once enjoyed angling for fish and netting king crabs, but being spoiled by the abundance in Alaska, it just isn't the same anywhere else. My rod and reel and tackle box are long gone now. A lifetime quota of fishing joy has already been spent!


Let's spin the big wheel and see where we land today ...

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Nineteen Sixty-Eight!

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Ketchikan, Alaska was my home during my first, second, and third grades in school. Sunny days are rare in Ketchikan, but when weather permitted, my father often took me out fishing. Salmon, trout, and many other fish are big and plentiful here, and put up quite a fight on the rod and reel. I remember the excitement of my bait getting a bite, but more often than not I seemed to catch sharks or other useless fish. The photo below is one of my catches. Dad helped me unhook this shark and released it back in the water. Can you tell I'm a little bit scared?


The three other photos are of the family VW "bug" near Ketchikan's "Liquid Sunshine Gauge" (rain is known as "Liquid Sunshine" here), one of the ubiquitous seaplanes, and a view of the rustic coast. I don't think I have any photos of me with any "real" fish or king crabs, but I did catch lots of them! Really!

CSN&Y in Concord

The tempo was set from the first song played by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at this evening's outdoor amphitheatre concert in Concord, California: "Flags Of Freedom" from Neil Young's new album, "Living With War."

With 7 of this album's 10 songs on the set list, this was much like a Neil Young concert with a little help from CSN.

Neil Young's near-falsetto voice sounds as strong as ever, in fact, it may be improving with age. Crosby, Stills, and Nash still sound good, but those high notes are a bit tougher to hold. Despite that, the famous harmonies of all four, three, or sometimes just two of them still sound sweet.

What's just as good as always, perhaps even better, is the guitar mastery of all four. Every time I hear CSN&Y live, I'm reminded how well they simply rock and how good they are live -- truly their natural habitat.

This was an ideal summer evening concert, with warm weather and a gentle breeze, lounging with friends on a not-too-crowded lawn.

Many lyrics from songs old and new were relevant to the Iraq War, and the fervor was as sincere on the stage as it was in the audience. At one point, the stage went dark except for a spotlight on an oversize microphone stand dragged to the stage by a roadie, who then slowly tied a huge yellow ribbon on the stand. (I saw the same ambiguous act at a 1991 Neil Young concert in Seattle, when another Iraq War was raging.) Immediately following this, the whole stage lit up as the band kicked off "Let's Impeach The President." The song's lyrics were displayed on huge monitors, encouraging the audience to sing along, including the "Flip! Flop!" of the chorus (which included video sound bites of some of President Bush's embarrassing contradictory statements). "For What It's Worth" followed, appropriately. The show closed with an intense and extended "Rockin' In The Free World" and then an encore of "Woodstock." After 35 songs and 3 hours, one of the best concerts of the year was over ... but the awareness that we are Living With War carries on.

Crosby Stills Nash (& Young!)

Summer concert season continues ... Tomorrow night it's Crosby Stills Nash & Young in nearby Concord. I'm looking forward to the great live show these guys put on, both the old classics and especially the new songs from Neil Young's Living With War. A politically charged show is expected; after all, this is their "Freedom Of Speech '06" tour, and this is the Bay Area.


Today, I mentioned to a young acquaintance that I was going to see Crosby Stills Nash & Young on Tuesday. She thought I was talking about a law firm. Poor girl.

The Night The Lights Went Out In New York City

Most of the US is experiencing a heatwave now, and San Francisco is no exception. New York City is not only sweltering, but part of Queens is without power too. All these factors make me think of an old favorite album, Heart's Little Queen. Why? Well, I was living in New York City on July 13, 1977, when the entire city lost power during a heatwave. And the moment things went dark and silent that night, this very LP was playing -- loud -- on my turntable. I was listening to Kick It Out -- the last track on side one, and as the analog turntable gradually slowed its 33 1/3 revolutions per minute to no revolution at all, this little rocker gracefully wound down: Kick out your motor and drive, while you're stiiilllll aaallliiiiivvvveeeee ... kiiiiiiiiiccckkkkk ittttttttt oooooooooouuuuuuuuuuttttttt t t t t t . . .

This album, new at the time, was in high rotation in the Summer of '77. Ann and Nancy Wilson (who are, esentially, Heart) rock hard and also deliver gentle acoustic folk sounds on Little Queen -- like a female version of Led Zeppelin. "Barracuda" was the big hit single, but the majestic "Love Alive" is my favorite. The Gypsy/Renaissance-style clothes, props, and settings on the front and back covers add a certain Tolkien-forest fantasy feel to the whole album. Heart burst on the scene with the outstanding debut Dreamboat Annie the year before, but reached the apex of cool with Little Queen. As a sixteen year old boy then and even now, as I listen to the music and gaze at the album, how could I not bestow all my reverence to them?

We -- all eight million of us -- survived the blackout. No one had air conditioning, but we had candles and flashlights and battery-powered transistor radios were plentiful. Ironically, ice cream and frozen food were abundant: instead of letting the contents of freezers spoil, everybody consumed all they could and shared the excess.

When the lights came back on late the following night, the needle went right back on side one, track five of Little Queen.

Wayback Wednesday #20060719

Confession time: I am a pack rat. I have boxes and boxes of stuff saved from as far back as the early seventies. Most of it might be junk, but some things have been worth holding on to, like old photographs. Now if only the memories of all the details of these old photographs were as easy to store and retrieve!

Let's spin the big wheel and see where we land today ...

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Nineteen Seventy-Seven!

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There is so much mystery attached to this old Polaroid. At least somebody (me? who knows?) had the foresight to write "May 29, 1977" on the back. This much is certain: That's my friend Mike and me on Governors Island, New York. We're on the bleachers, not paying attention to whatever is going on down on the field. The man holding a baton indicates there is a band playing. I'm wearing my Chuck Taylor All-Stars and my Captain America T-shirt. Mike is drinking a Nehi grape soda and he's not-so-subtly showing off his bicep.

I'm still fighting the curly hair here. From about age 12 to age 17, I liked my hair long, but I wanted it straight. Forcing a part in my hair, constant combing, holding and pulling my hair proved a losing battle.


Who took this photo? What is this event? Why is the photo torn in half? Why do I have a black eye? Add these to the growing list of history's mysteries.

Scene From A Rooftop

"Hey, dude, I'm bored."

"Me too."

"Hey! Let's go hang out up on the roof! I'll bring my little brother's SuperSquirter™ and some beer."

"Cool! We'll blast away people down on the street! No one will see us!"

Wayback Wednesday #20060712

Have you ever been in a silly mood, with good rock music blaring, props aplenty, and a Polaroid camera handy? This is a potentially dangerous combination. The resulting photos record a snapshot in time, but they could be quite embarrassing. Oh, well, the past is the past, right?

Let's spin the big wheel and see where we land today ...

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Nineteen Seventy Nine!

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Written on the back of these four Polaroids is "New York, January 9, 1979." This would be a Tuesday -- hmmm, a school night! Having fun with me is my high school pal, Brooklyn born and bred Roger. From the look of the albums laying around, we are probably listening to Led Zeppelin or Ted Nugent. That's a toy guitar I'm playing with. The hat is a paper party favor leftover from who knows what party. Those glasses -- probably from Spencer Gifts -- have a battery compartment which powers its "windshield wipers." All these toys are long gone now, and I've lost contact with Roger. On the bright side, the sideburns and mustache are long gone, and the 'fro has long since been tamed.

Marina Chicks

Another "Should have had the camera" episode:

On my run this sunny afternoon, I paused at this workout station to do some chin-ups. Another guy approached the chin-up bar at the same time, and asks "We can share, OK?" I respond "sure." He poops out after a few chin-ups, and when I'm done and slowly resume my run, we meet up again, both of us going west.

He asks me if I can answer a few questions. "I am tourist from Israel. Are we in the Marina District?" "Yes." "Is this where the 'Yuppies' live?" "Umm, well, yes." "Is this where I find 'Marina Chicks?'" "Uh, yes, that would be true, I guess." "I want to go to coffee shops and meet 'Marina Chicks.' Where are the coffee shops?"

I pointed him down Fillmore Street and told him there's plenty of choices after a few blocks down. I wished him well and ran off.

He had obviously read some kind of "insiders" travel guide for San Francisco. I wonder if he'll get what he's looking for?

Wayback Wednesday #20060705

Sometimes you don't realize how much you miss something until it goes away. When what you once took for granted is gone, all you have are memories. And maybe, just maybe, some photographs, too.

Let's spin the big wheel and see where we land today ...

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Two Thousand One!

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On August 5, 2001, on vacation in New York City, my friend Steve and I spent a long afternoon in the south tower of the World Trade Center's twin towers. With my camera in tow, as always, I took dozens of photos from the rooftop observation deck. It was an overcast, foggy day and I wasn't happy with a single one of the photos.

A month later, the photos took on a new perspective.

Even as poor as the clarity and exposure was, there will not be another chance to get shots like these. Here I am on the viewing platform of the south tower, with Governors Island (the former military base where I grew up in the 1970s) in the background. We moved there right after the World Trade Center twin towers were completed. Imagine the view from Governors Island! The towers symbolized the "gateway" to our "front yard," Manhattan.

The photo below is "stitched" from three photos, looking north over Manhattan. It was too hazy to see even the Empire State Building, and I was annoyed with the World Trade Center's north tower blocking the view of the Hudson River. The photo on the left is no longer an annoyance, but a sad, sad memory.



Here are some more photos from that hazy August afternoon on the top of the World Trade Center -- photos once thought of as near-worthless, now precious:

Happy 230th, America!

Today is Independence Day here in the United States, when we celebrate our life, our liberty and our pursuit of happiness. Some parts of our long history have been shaky, but we've never been so divided that we've fallen. One concept, novel two centuries ago, that has held us together and kept us strong is our freedom of religion -- and simultaneously, our freedom from religion. We can not be coerced into any religion, and we are not prevented from practicing religion, or even inventing new religions. The way to do this is to guarantee a strict "hands off" on matters of religion by the government. Everything flourishes when this "wall of separation" stays strongly in place. Those who practice religion are protected and those who practice no religion are protected.

So let's thank our Founding Fathers for their freethinking foresight, and let's thank our veterans for defending our nation's values. And let's have some beer and some hot dogs and some apple pie and let's all enjoy the fireworks this evening!

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Titanic

Titanic: saw the exhibit, read the book ... and now watched the motion picture. Actually, I saw this movie on its opening weekend back in 1997, expecting a major bomb, as it was rumored to be at the time. To my surprise, I actually liked the movie. Now that I've learned a lot more about the Titanic lately, I had to see the movie one more time. (It's not easy to find a spare 3 hours 15 minutes!) I was impressed with the detailed accuracy of the characters and events; less so with the fictional love story. Nevertheless, this movie absorbed me and held my attention throughout. That's the sign of a good movie, especially when it's twice as long as the average movie.

There is a glimpse of a man drinking from a flask next to Jack and Rose at the rails of the poop deck as the ship sinks: could this be chief baker Charles Joughin? This real-life character should have been more fleshed out in the movie. But I guess there will never be a Titanic 2.

A Night To Remember

A friend who knew I would be seeing the Titanic Artifact Exhibition loaned me a copy of Walter Lord's classic 1956 book "A Night To Remember" which I read in one sitting today. This is a gripping minute-by-minute narrative that is based completely on public records, archives, and memories of actual conversations that were recounted by survivors. No embellishment is here and none is needed. Like the exhibit, the book begins with the ship's construction (and the builder's and crew's overconfident attitude), the voyage, the tragedy, and the aftermath. Many of the passengers, crew, and staff's lives are richly detailed. For example, consider the ship's chief baker, Charles Joughin. He remained cool, calm, and collected as he learned the ship would sink. Nipping whisky all the while, he had his staff remove all the baked loaves of bread and distribute them to the lifeboats. He helped the women -- some still reluctant -- get in the lifeboats, sometimes by force. When all the lifeboats were gone, and with the ship becoming vertical, he drank more whisky and waited for the inevitable by putting on a lifejacket and calmly climbing to the rounded rails of the poop deck, which was now the highest point of the swiftly sinking ship. As this last part of the ship submerged, Joughin calmly stepped off into the water, without even getting his head wet. Thanks to his moxie (and perhaps the whisky too), he was able to tread the water until help arrived and be among those few who survived the tragedy.

The eight-man Titanic band is also detailed. These men were in an unusual category: neither passengers nor crew, they could not get in the lifeboats or lead people. So they did the only thing they could do, to the very end: keep on playing. (They played happy ragtime music, not "Nearer My God To Thee" as is commonly thought.) The first song I put on after reading "A Night To Remember" was Harry Chapin's "Dance Band On The Titanic." It was a fitting coda to the book: Jesus Christ can walk on the water / But a Music Man will drown / They say that Nero fiddled while Rome burned up / Well, I was strummin' as the ship went down ...