INDIAN HILL

Colorado River, Parker Strip Need some desert time, down time, get-my-mojo-on-time.  Back to school in a month, big time school, writing MFA program time. I'm going to be one cranking dude on the keyboard. One of my favorite getaways is the Colorado River.  Laughlin, Bullhead City, Parker, Parker Strip, Havasu.  Needles?  Not so much.   Canyon De Chelly I've got a story brewing that takes place in part along the Grand Canyon and that's all I'm going to say, so it's a good reason to get some fall camping in out there. North Rim, or East Rim.  Either way, on up to Moab maybe, Chinle, Durango.  I can feel a road trip coming on. Tenaya Lake, Yosemite Couple of weeks ago I was up in Yosemite for only a day.  The high country.  Gorgeous isn't the word.  Spectacular grandeur. Up on Tioga Pass Road, Lake Tenaya sparkled with deep blue water and steep granite scarred with centuries of glacier scraping.  Tall timb...

     After a beef link sandwich and macaroni and cheese at Cassie’s, I drove west. Juan organizes the artists and coordinates the project.      Around and through the Art’s District, I turned down the lane alongside the tracks.  I could see the artists were at work, and I slowed down and asked if I could shoot some photos.  ‘Yeah, cool,’ the man said.  Four or five artists were working on the wall.  In September I’d shot a few photos and posted them as Industrial Chic http://indian-hill.blogspot.com/2010/09/industrial-chic.html .        After I pulled over and stopped, I checked with another man and asked if it was okay to shoot.       ‘You into shooting graffiti?’ the guy said.      ‘I’m into art.  I don’t call this graffiti.’   I explained that I’d been here before and had talked to another man after posting Industrial Chic .  Sti...

US 395 more or less divides the Mojave Desert and the Great Basin desert , and travels north-south from Hesperia up past Lake Tahoe and into the Cascade Range in Northern California. US 395 continues up to the US-Canadian border. Along the way, Randsburg is a dusty ghost town that plays host to dirt bikers who buzz the desert on weekends like mounted hornets on steroids. Otherwise, during the week, in the morning, it's quiet and friendly. Not much happens in Randsburg, California. It's not a candidate for massive downtown redevelopment funds. It's not trying to amass fortunes to get an NFL football stadium, and nowhere to be found are mass franchise marquee logos like Macs or Starbucks. You get your coffee at the General Store, where a couple of savvy waitresses hold their own against a small group of regulars who greeted me with appropriate skepticism, and begrudgingly acknowledged me with muttered hellos , good mornings . It's all I ask. I ain't posing as...

Rubidoux Drive-In The pure passage of time rarely does any of us any favors.  Its inexorable movement towards what we know is inevitable becomes more pronounced with, what else—the passage of time itself.        However, one advantage of a longer perspective is that nostalgia, used in limited dosages, can provide rich, delicious memories.  The memory as it ages attains a patina or veneer of truth that we can harness to learn from our past.  Or at least keep those memories alive that we choose.      I sometimes strip away the present and the assault of media-overload by taking day trips down old country roads.  In Southern California, the freeway is the preferred method of daily transportation and weekend travel for most.  We jam into the closest five-lane and merge as quickly as we can into the fastest lane possible and strain to keep up with the flow of traffic lest we become the target of the tailgater....

     Lido's gripping a metal cane and he's limping .  I stop and hit the window.  ‘You hanging out?’ I say.      ‘Waiting to catch a train.’      ‘Where are you going?’      ‘Rancho.’      ‘I’ll give you a ride.  You going across the street to the bakery?’      We meet up at the corner table just outside the door.  He settles in, puts the cane down.  I ask him about his foot and he gets that vague, distant look, and starts in with a disjointed series of half-phrases, hints, references to Indian ceremonies, going over to ‘the other side’, almost dying, being in a hospital for a month.      ‘The foot was burned to the bone,’ he says.       With Lido, when he gets going on his Indian references, I find it’s best to nod as if I know what he’s talking about, even if I don’t.  This ...

      It’s around 10:30 AM when I turn off into Nevada City and find a parking spot along the main street.   Around the corner is the Café Mekka, a place I’d been in a few years ago, a funky, high-ceilinged coffee house with comfortable old velvet covered sofas and small tables where a few people sit with computers, holding forth with coffees in the warm Gold Country morning.   Locals wander in, checking in with the owner-proprietor Cory who fills my order for a latte.   He’s okay with me taking a few photos and I try and become unobtrusive, snapping natural light shots of the interior, catching a couple engaged in conversation across the room, another with a computer rigged up and glowing.   Cory has perfectly drawn the flowery spot of cream on the top with a simple design that signifies a knowing barrister.   He gives me his email so I can link him up to my blog post.     The Mekka has broken-in comfort   The Mekka...

     "I'm seeing a lot of things I never thought I'd see … No one's explained anything to us … I find it ironic that Mr. McCourt has not come down to address the players at all. I just don't understand that." — Dodgers first base coach Davey Lopes.     Los Angeles Times  Tuesday June 28, 2011   The fans will get a new owner.  Players will be paid, traded, optioned, waived, they will retire rich men rewarded for reaching the pinnacle of their profession.  Networks will prosper, advertisers will take a wait-and-see approach, pinpointing the optimum time and place to secure future airtime.  MLB will wipe mud from their eye, Frank McCourt will slink into the desert, withered and shriveled.  Jamie?  Nothing that a good salon makeover won’t cure; a new hairdo, facelift, clothes and shoes from Rodeo Drive, sell a house or two, Louis Vuitton bags to hold the cash.      Who gets hurt?  Hot dog ven...