make time for design
the blueprint is on your soul
sabbath made for man

mistress

i went out on another hwy 40 ride the other day. this time i wanted to get up into the snow line. before i left my wife asked me where i was headed and i told her i wasn't quite sure. jokingly she said to me "you seeing someone else on these trips out?" i assured her that my only date that day was the road. and as i rode along i began to ask myself what is it that draws me up and down this old road?
part of it is like learning a song by practicing over and over. it becomes familiar, a part of you. the old roads have so much more romance. you're gliding up and down hills twisting back and forth with the landscape instead of cutting through it. the scale also is more human on two lane roads, and i feel i am a living conscious part of all of it. like God's child out to play. and as i passed beneath the one lane train trestles i felt the closeness of the transcontinental railroad and was transported back in time.

you move through little towns along the old main streets and then out again into back country. i passed roads with names like "yankee jim's" and "you bet" and saw so many folk walking along the roadside apparently unaware that this used to be the highway.
and as i rode along i also saw the lincoln highway markers reminding me that this is a part of america's first coast to coast road. i thought about lewis and clark and their quest for a river passage that would link the two coasts and when it was discovered there was not one, thomas jefferson's ultimate decision that there should be a "national road" instead.

i guess that's the other thing i'm interested in. so many people when they ask directions say "how do you get there?", and i'm always wondering how did we get here?

what dreams do we make
stuffed here together alone
waiting to be picked

after all this time
people see no worth in you
oh but i still do

eyes forward head straight
to receive information
time's up pencils down

lonely

while researching the lost dolls post from the other day i came across something that i wasn't prepared for. when i entered my "dolls" search i got back a strange article about these really high end sex dolls bought by creepy introverted guys who end up spending a lot of time and money with them. very bizarre. the more i thought about it, it reminded me of a twilight zone episode called "the lonely" where jack warden, a prisoner in isolation in the future on a desert planet is given an android woman by one of his sympathetic prison guards on one of his supply stops.
at first he is repulsed by the idea of interacting with a robot, but as time goes by he begins to accept her as a real woman. i can't help thinking how very close we seem to this concept these days. and it isn't just the sex doll. the internet, video games and other virtual interactive media draw so many people in to these pseudo-relationships. it doesn't seem like it will be too long before the synthetic human is a reality too.
it's funny and sad to me that in this present age where we are supposedly more connected by technology than at any time in history, we seem to be more isolated communally more than ever before. think about that as you pass strangers in your travels. there are a lot of lonely people out there...

purpose under lock
remember where to look and
find the key today

laying low today. enjoying the last bits of rain...

take so many licks
fight like an indian brave
to redeem your self

lost dolls 001

i saw this orphaned doll a couple years ago in a parking lot and stopped to pick her up. it's tough to know sometimes when you find one in this condition what the story is. was this abuse and neglect or are these marks of love and ownership, and somewhere some girl or boy cries at the loss? "mom, we have to go back!" tough to say. like all relationships, it's probably complicated.
anyway i guess i'm not alone in the wondering. not long after picking up the little doll i came across a great book by randall whitehead called lost dolls. it's full of some great imagery he's found poking through garbage dumps and flea markets. some of it pretty disturbing. there's something inside that causes us to act out on these little representations. i know i'm guilty. i've sent a few g.i. joe's on suicide missions and used to pluck the heads off barbies to stick in my bicycle spokes.
definitely check out the rest of randall's photography here as well. he's a nice guy and one of my favorite shutterbugs.

soft white all is new
your cover is deafening
listen to the snow

accidental

this shot was taken recently by my friend jess on a ride up the bodega coast. apparently as he stopped to take a photo, he was assailed by a yellowjacket and as he swatted it, his camera dropped, taking this picture. here's to happy accidents that happen off the road!

you only give me
edited glimpses to the
window of your soul

pirates

these few frames are from one of the films i picked up over Christmas. it's called "pirates" and i don't recognize any of the characters in it. all in all though, a pretty funny picture from somewhere out of the past. watch out for pirates today...

walk out to winter
in the wood between the worlds
i swear i'll be there

favorite things 06

in the 1930's designer buckminster fuller who is most famous for designing the geodesic dome set out to create what he called a "dymaxion revolution". his ideas were pretty radical at the time and would serve today's environmentally conscious designers well. the idea simply put is to get the greatest output possible from the smallest input. i love this idea in theory, and many things come to mind which represent it, among them are the moped and the toy camera. we can imagine stretching these beyond their original design like riding a moped to south america or chronicling the entire trip with a throw away camera. i could also add to that list my little accordion.
the accordian's roots can be traced back thousands of years to a chinese instrument called "the cheng" which was created to reproduce the sounds of the phoenix. hundreds of years later the cheng was brought to europe and underwent varied transformations until in the 19th century in vienna it came to resemble the familiar oompa producing instrument we know today.
although my squeeze box is much smaller and has just one octave it is my little axe for making music. sadly i wish i were able to make it better, but i must practice. i think everyone should make a little music somehow and having gone beyond learning all of the songs in the little book that came with it i'm beginning to learn a few new ones. so now if i do ever get to make that trip to tierra del fuego, i know what to pack for times around the campfire. minimum input - maximum output.

moto review - 82 yamaha xj650

while staying with my friend todd last week (todd is a kindred brother of all things moto) i got a chance to ride the latest adoptive cycle to find its way into his garage, a 1982 yamaha seca xj650.
first though, a few words about todd. if old motorcycles respond to an invisible magnetic field, its properties are from todd. many of us dream of magical barn finds where by word of mouth or divine inspiration we find our self knocking on some old guy's door and asking what's in the garage as if led there by a field of dreams type of call saying "i don't know why i'm here, but i just had this crazy idea that you might have some old motorcycle in your garage that you might want to part with" to which the owner would reply "well come to think of it, yeah i do" and would then lead us out to an old shed, hurricane lantern in hand, guiding through a dusty entrance until he finds the light and then...behold, your eyes come to rest on an old canvas tarp laying over something in the back corner. the old guy pulls it back and, voila! an all original 1955 vincent with less than 2000 miles on the clock. "how much do you want" you ask timidly. "oh, i don't think it's worth much anymore" he says "a couple hundred bucks ok?"
alright, now it's time to snap out of the dream. but while the rest of us scratch our heads and wonder where where the good deals have gone, they are regularly finding their way into todd's garage. this latest gem came as a part of a bigger deal whose details i won't go into here as they'll only serve to make you cringe.

although it still has a few kinks to be worked out, for the most part this bike ran smoothly. electric start and a little choke had it warming up nicely and in a few minutes we were on our way. the first thing you notice is the seating position. the two-tiered bench style takes a little getting used to as you slide around trying to find a comfortable sitting position and the pegs feel like they are somewhere between touring and sport bike. and although i didn't feel cramped on our little nighttime ride, i imagine over a longer outing it might be an issue.
compared to my everyday bike the seca feels much more modern, and it's the first four cylinder bike i've ridden. but despite that it felt very well mannered as we sped around town. taking off from a start the shaft drive is even and smooth and there's plenty of power from 3-9000 rpms as you turn the throttle. and as a city bike i thought it handled itself well. it never felt too big cruising from stoplight to stoplight.
but when we got it out on the backroad it really roared to life. pick a line, tap the throttle and it locks in. and the cross braced frame felt solid as we blew though the old lake road. i would have liked to do more of that kind of back roading as the seca just seemed to want to straighten out the twists.

and in overall appearance i think this is a very good looking bike. it fits well in a transition era where sportier bikes still retained a solid classic look. i would place it in the same aesthetic category as the kawasaki gpz in that regard. they later added a little cafe fairing for this bike which is a nice touch. in a couple years the game would be completely changed and all that beautiful metal would get replaced by plastic bits.
in 1982 the movie tron came out, and looking at the side panels on the seca they feel very tron. 1982 was also a year about survivors. rocky 3 pumped survivor's "eye of the tiger" into our brains and would ultimately work its way into every guy's workout mix tape. and in 1982 i listened to asia sing "soul survivor" again and again as i navigated pitfall harry through quicksand and crocodiles on atari 2600. and looking at the seca, which is now worthy of classic status, it too is a survivor.

lost stories from hwy 40-part 3

so my journey home the other day from downtown wasn't a complete loss. as i picked up old hwy 40 moving out on 16th street and then onto 160 briefly before exiting at del paso, i cruised along this great stretch for a while. this part of town is pretty rough and has clearly seen better days. but there's still a lot of magic happening as old ghosts move silently around the fading architecture.
they're still serving the hot coffee at lil joes though on a saturday morning and the place is hopping.

the old bowling alley makes no sounds, but i can still hear them trying for the 7-10 split and crying out across the years.

and in the morning hours a leftover nitehawk still strolls the boulevard. this one told me "i didn't do it..." to which i replied her secret was safe with me. to which she answered "i don't got no secrets baby" and smiled as she hoofed it on down past.
yeah, it's hard to believe now this little thoroughfare used to daily move the cars up and down between reno and oakland. people don't want to slow down their freeway speeds to roll on with city traffic. but we miss so much. how's your sat-nav gps going to tell you about all the characters you miss as you blow by on the high speed motorway in a hurry to get nowhere?

kodak 304

i finally got around to developing the film in my old kodak 304 instamatic camera the other day. i originally picked this camera up over a year ago at thrifttown. it's getting harder and harder to find these in the thrift stores. this one only set me back five bucks. i like it because it reminds me of the one bobby brady used in the episode where he took up photography. (i've even got a working flash cube should the need arise)

anyway, like all good purchases that are too good to be true, i soon realized there was nowhere to buy film for it anymore, except on the internet, and then it had to ship from australia! (it takes 126 stock which is very similiar to 110) so i plunked down thirty more bucks for three rolls figuring the time of its disappearance was imminent, and had them slowboat it to me. while i waited for my little package from down under i searched the internet for all the information i could find. this is what is great about the internet. i was able to find and download an original manual and learn the whole history of this camera from its early inception in 1963 as the kodak 100 (designed by frank zagara) which at the time was kodak's latest heir to the brownie legacy meaning it was a cheap and simple camera for the masses.

after a few hiccups in learning to load and advance the film, i was soon on my way. i carried the little camera around with me through the end of the summer and into the fall and snapped away. then after i'd shot the roll i packed it away and we moved. a few months ago i pulled it out of a box and remembered the film was still inside. after calling around i also found that i had to go all the way into downtown sacramento to get it developed. apparently i not only bought some of the last stock from the aussies, but found one of the last remaining shops that actually processes the stuff. and they have to send it out.
so, on saturday i got the call that it was ready and rode down to pick it up. when i went to pay for the roll my eyes got real big as the lady told me "that'll be thirty dollars." what?! are you kidding me? apparently mr. eastman's dream of cheap affordable cameras for the masses has been sideswiped. reluctantly, i handed over my hard earned cash to the lady. i couldn't back out now. as i walked back to my cycle, a little poorer and not much wiser i looked through the prints. 23 out of 24 made it through. pretty good i guess. and although it was nice to look back through these shots that had been a little time capsule, as i added up the cost ($70 not counting gas to the camera store) i had to ask myself had it all really been worth it?
i can think of lots of other things i could use $70 for. well anyway, i guess i'm going to have to find the answer to that question sometime soon, because i still have two more rolls of the stuff!

do you see color
in ten thousand shades of gray
or just black and white?

monsters

we went to a birthday party yesterday and my kids all came home with party favor bags. i discovered one of these discarded boxes laying on the floor last night and was immediately intrigued by this little generic candy packaging. in a world where everything else is bright, colorful, corporately trademarked, easily identifiable and tied in with a mass of other products, this one is just kind of benign.
when i was a kid i loved the old time monsters and this one clearly has the big three - dracula, frankenstein and the wolfman. i guess they are probably up for grabs now in the public domain and most kids today would have no clue who lugosi, karloff and chaney were. still, it was nice to inadvertently step back into a world of memories for a few moments staring at a discarded package.

staring out at you
from my seventh floor window
come by and see me

t bird

i got this toy car from my dad. it's a white 1962 thunderbird. i used to roll it around a little when i was a kid, but it mostly sat on dad's dresser as i remember.
i discovered it again recently unpacking a box from the garage and brought it inside. i had rememebered on the bottom of the car there was some writing and checking it out again it has all kinds of information about the actual ford thunderbird like "4 new thunderbirds for 62" and "special three phase rust prevention treatment" and "unique swing away steering wheel". apparently this was a dealer's promotional model back in late 61. i know when you go into most dealerships these days they've clearly figured out how to sell you a lot of swag to go along with your purchase, but i was surprised they had been doing it this far back. as best i remember my dad never had a thunderbird although he always was a ford man owning a ranchero, falcon and f100 truck among others. i guess he used to go down to the dealership sometimes and just poke around like i find myself doing sometimes. maybe he picked this one up in hopes it would someday turn into the real thing.


anyway, one day my son and i saw the real thing parked outside of a target. pretty cool. the swing away steering wheel was pushed to the side and the whole thing had the look and feel of the original batmobile. later we saw one (probably a little newer) in our local 4th of july parade.
now this little model sits on my bookcase, although the kids do roll it around some too. it's a high miler that still has a lot of life left in it.

awake the sleeping
puppetmaster and begin
to see through new eyes

walkies

another snapshot from a recent walkabout to work. i went by today to grab something. it is amazing to me how different everything is in the daytime. am i becoming a creature of the night?

pola-lounger

so as i thought, my vintage 108 polaroid film from 1977 was completely dust. however it was not a total loss. i still had a lot of fun shooting all of the invisible images. there's so much joy in just clicking through and then pulling that tab after each shot, even though there's nothing there to develop. after i was finished i had quite a pile of paper on the floor and as i pulled out the film cartridge i examined it a little closer. i'd forgotten how cool these little tin cartridges were. i took it apart and began to play a little. in a few minutes i had constructed a model chair. so you see, even in their garbage the polaroid people found ways to keep us all artful. it makes me more than ever want to try to support the latest effort to help save polaroid from extinction.
learn more here.

lazy days have passed
picking daisies from the grass
to float as new boats

time to walk off some of that holiday feast...

didn't i see you
jumping out of your big shoes
on watt avenue?

to boldly go...

happy new year! i thought it would be appropriate to start the year 2010 out with a little 70's tribute to star trek as we find ourselves now firmly rooted in the 21st century. if you saw the new star trek film you're already aware that all the old familiar characters now reside in a new parallel reality. and it's in that same vein that you'll find this story. there's a chekov knockoff called mr. connors, lt. uhura is white and sulu is black!
and although they didn't secure any of the original cast to voice this record, the three main characters are pretty competent. the kirk actor is definitely shatneresque, spock is shakepearianly stoic and the guy who voices mc coy is hilarious.
from 1975 power records, here is star trek: the crier in emptiness. a read along book and 45. so grab your phaser, don't forget to turn the page when you hear the bell and prepare to beam aboard here.