The last time we went to Baker Beach, we saw a few birds. I don’t know what they were…maybe sanderlings? I took a long time to post these as I was trying to identify them. Maybe one of you will know. They were fun to watch at any rate.
Happy Caturday to all. Hopefully all of our friends who are enduring the blizzard are doing well. To make this official, I will NOT call a winter storm by a stupid name. Our National Weather Service doesn’t name them. The Weather Channel and affiliates have done so and it’s nothing more than a marketing ploy. When NOAA decides to name a storm, I’ll be on board.
Lastech is finally recovering from the cold in his dode, so hopefully we’ll have another adventure soon. In the meantime, here are the stars of the show.
For a change of pace, here is a bit of humor starring Ricky Gervais.
Forty-three days until the beginning of Spring, we are ready to say goodbye to bad colds and high gas bills, aching bones and gray mornings. As Winter plays its last notes like water on metal…
… The Sun is barely warmer than the Moon.
Naked branches without color…
Damp earth holds on to bird tracks for warmth…
Yet, already the ice has begun to crack.
Give us a few months of color before we welcome Winter back, only to curse again.
My apologies for not having posted much. Sometimes life gets in the way. Lastech has a cold in his dode and I had a fall. The first is miserable and the second was downright stupid (and preventable). Lucky for me, aside from a few bruises, the only thing broken was my pride.
Now for the furkids as it really is their day to shine.
Hubby was in the kitchen when he felt eyes watching him.
Speaking of hubby… He was taking pics of Tito and took his glasses off. Oops!
And now for a bit of humor
There are things they hide from us, or at least do when we’re not looking. They have secrets, which some people hate, but when you finally get to shed light on a cat mystery, the satisfaction is second to none.
Item one: the tufts of white hair we found lying about were Tito’s. I know this because one morning in the last few days, I opened my eyes to see Jenny pin Tito down Greco-Roman wrestling style with a lock and a throw. Tito tried getting up, but his attempt ended up with him hitting the ground again. In between throws, Jenny turned nervously towards the bed to see whether I witnessed anything, her head surrounded by fluttering tufts off Tito’s back.
The second mystery, while not quite amounting to one, was how could half pound potatoes find their way across our kitchen floor?!?
We still haven’t caught her doing it, But Jenny has precedents with smaller taters, and can be seen here practicing the wide-open jaw-lock necessary to “lug a spud”…
What it is with her and potatoes we have no clue. But she sure does like bringing them to bed…
A couple of days ago, we were driving by the upper reservoir at McLaren park when I spotted something white down by the water.
If you mouse over the photo above, you’ll see the milestone.
As for the white object? It was a beautiful bird.
Most San Francisco visitors I encounter seem eager to run through certain areas of the City, just so they can snap a few pictures here and there, before returning to their hotel satisfied they’ve pretty much seen it all… Fools.
It is like this:
The photos below were taken at tremendous risk, hence the shaky quality of some shots, but one does not simply tangle with raccooneers and expect to hightail it fully intact.
For those few who understand there’s more to the park than meets the cursory glance, I say go to the Conservatory of Flowers, Bison paddock or Stow Lake, all those storied places worth hours if not days of exploration, “but I do warn ye, if ye value yer life: ye stay well clear o’ North Lake. Place be full o’ monsters with ’em little teeth”.
We ain’t – I mean we’re not talking about cute Strawberry Hill over in Stow Lake with them owls and their neighbors, the blue herons. No.
I’m talking about that gloomy islet, New Barbary Coast, where Charlotte Raccoon (née Badger) and the others, like the Harpes, scourge of squirrels and raiders of birds’ nests, ply their trade from dusk ’til dawn…
One last word of warning: don’t feed the raccooneers, they’re turning into fat b****s… This ain’t no Disney movie.
Yes, evidently the fur flew. I don’t know when or how. It was done in stealth mode or I would have heard it. I awoke to a cold apartment and got up to turn the heater on and when I got to the hall there were a bunch of tufts of white hair lying about. It was white hair, but it wasn’t Miss Jenny’s. You see, Tito’s hair is only charcoal at the tips. He’s white underneath. I also saw tufts sticking out of his fur that had not hit the floor yet, so it was clear that Miss Jenny was the offending party.
What was she doing?
Was she creating a wig? Did she think she might look like this? (Our thanks to shironekoshiro at Youtube)
Sadly, she would have probably looked like this instead. (thanks to Cheezeburger).
Whatever happened, it was during playtime as I’ve seen no evidence of malice. They are nestled together on the cushion as I type.
“Beyond the black rainbow” – (110 minutes, Canada, 2010 -NR)
How this film came to be is very easy to imagine, as described by the writer/director: a typical awkward teenager browsing video stores in the ’80s, staring at video jackets of R-rated films his parents won’t allow him to watch, conjuring visions of what the movies are like.
‘Struth… But what makes it a little more unusual is that the kid’s father was George P. Cosmatos (1941-2005), who directed some popular movies in America and abroad, such as “the Cassandra crossing“, “Rambo II” and “Tombstone“. There isn’t much to find online about either father or son, and the elder Cosmatos’ decision to move his family to Victoria, British Columbia, reflects a strong desire for privacy and normalcy well away from Hollywood.
[…]1983. Dr. Barry Niles (Michael Rogers) runs the Arboria institute, created by his mentor Mercurio Arboria (Scott Nylands).
Dedicated to the development of human potential through technology and experimental medication, the facility houses a young girl named Elena (Eva Allan) with telepathic powers reined in by drugs and electronic voodoo in the form of a pulsating pyramid…
This is about as much of the story behind “beyond the black rainbow” which I’m willing to tell, because going further would only be laying out my own interpretation of a very personal film. “Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing. It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different.” – Sherlock Holmes in “The Boscomb Valley mystery”.
Although “beyond the black rainbow” is very interesting visually, some would argue it isn’t anything particularly new. When I first saw the film’s trailer, I wondered: is that an early De Palma I missed? The stark decors with deep shadows and bright blue or red light, the mirrored surfaces and characters’ look…
But “beyond the black rainbow” is not imitation it is reflection, Pan Cosmatos’ imagined version of what 1980’s films were like, and an attempt at coming to terms with the loss of his parents. I suspect that a viewer’s take on the film will be very personal: much of what happens on screen, as well as the back story, is ‘hinted’ at.
Watching “beyond the black rainbow” is an experience of sorts, the combination of sharp visuals, slow pace and tonalities made me feel as though I was in some altered state. The unfortunate result being that I fell asleep twice trying to finish the film.
This in itself makes it somewhat difficult to recommend the film: it certainly doesn’t fit the usual “midnight movie madness” mold of entertaining weirdness. It does however has an appeal shared by “the Lathe of Heaven” (the 1980 version), and “altered states“, exploring themes which are not readily translatable to the screen.
I want also to single out the performance by Michael Rogers as Dr. Barry Niles, whose strange, androgynous appearance becomes clear in the last few minutes of the film. His interpretation of a brilliant mind pulled between different realities, with muted lassitude, disgust and rage was subtle and fearsome at once.
“Beyond the black rainbow” gets four jellybeans.
Lastech works graveyard and last night was his Friday. Following his suggestion, we made a quick trip to the park hoping for cool, frosty pictures. Quiet it was, for a short time.
We started off at the Japanese Tea Garden…
It was nice while it lasted…which was less than 15 minutes. We heard the obnoxious and icky sound of horking (Lastech: she means puking) coming from the other side of the garden. Jeebus! It’s really not a good idea for a girl to party all night and then go out to the park while NOT dressed for the cold and still inebriated.
We made our escape before I found myself wanting to join in with a sympathy hork. Ugh!
We crossed the street to the arboretum in order to restore our moment of zen. Ceiling Cat be praised, we found it.
The last photo is a rare sight in San Francisco. Frost is rare here and frozen water more so.
