SWCAMBORNE

Joel G went diving yesterday and took this amazing picture:

and 18 more on Flickr

Even though I don’t have a clue what the creature pictured is I can use the term “amazing” without hyperbole for three reasons:

• The water is almost never this clear in Southern California
• Joel has been taking underwater photos for only six months
• A man was killed by a shark in the water near here yesterday morning

Good job Joel. Click in the face of danger.

I saw this lady strutting through the parking lot at PJTC.

Having a peacock or hen nearby is an extremely lucky omen.

Dave Barry the very funny columnist for the Miami Herald wrote this article:

“A Journey into My Colon and Yours.”

It made me laugh out loud.  I recently had my colonoscopy and  all I can say is “what he said!”

Sample line:  “I didn’t eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor.”

Here is a link to Dave’s Unofficial Web Site

I received this from my sister-in-law a renowned Danish expert:

We in Denmark cannot figure out why you are even bothering to hold an election.
On one side, you have a bitch who is a lawyer, married to a lawyer;
she opposes a lawyer who is married to a bitch who is a lawyer.
On the other side, you have a true war hero married to a woman with
a huge chest who owns a beer distributorship.

Is there a contest here?”

Jack Smith was a columnist for the Los Angeles Times for many years in the 70′s, 80′s and 90′s. His writing was wonderful and we read him faithfully, went to hear him speak and bought his books. We had many wonderful conversations about his writing and our taste was shaped by his. Bird watching, libraries and Mexico are good examples. He died in 1995.

My shelf of Jack Smith books

Nurit and her friend Karen L. went to the Huntington Library a few weeks ago to hear a talk about Jack Smith. I was on the Beyond Borders Road Trip. The occasion was a celebration of the opening of an exhibit of Jack Smith’s papers which were donated to the library by his sons.

The flyer

It is nice to remember the simple pleasures of life and to be reminded to keep seeking them out. There is a Jack Smith memorial bird walk at the Huntington on May 10, 2008 Reservations: nrussell@huntington.org or 626-405-2125.

It is the beginning of the wedding season and I have a new business idea. What the wedding industry needs is aroma consultants. For a thousand dollars or so a trained and certified scentologist will design and coordinate the scents of your special day.

The business’s unique selling proposition is that they will create a unique scent for your wedding that, whenever it is encountered in the future ,will subconsciously remind all of the participants of the special day.

I smell a winning idea here. Wedding money is spent with abandon and this is a new way to trap some of it.

People are already talking about this idea:

“Leading bridal beautician, Lubna Rafiq observed that whilst many brides spend ages choosing the perfect outfit and jewellery and work hard with their beautician to achieve the perfect look for the big day, they pay absolutely no attention to how good they should smell and the perfumes they wear. Make no mistake, it matters!

Your choice of fragrance not only says a lot about your personality, the perfume you use should also befit the occasion. With this in mind Lubna has come up trumps with the most seductive shaadi scents for 2006.” From Your Dream Wedding UK

“ Not only can you create a unique fragrance that will remind you of your special day forever, you can reward your bridal attendants by allowing them to create their own signature fragrance as your thank you for their participation.” From Urban Botanic Seattle

But they are seeing it as an addition to an existing business not as the goldmine it will become. One brilliant entrepreneur with a great name and nose can capture this mind space.

Happy Pesah, Good Yontiv or Happy Passover

Passover is when we Jews celebrate our escape from slavery in Egypt. The ritual for Passover follows the customary way that we celebrate all of our holidays. Brilliantly summarized by David J. the basic pattern is “They tried to kill us. We survived. Lets eat.”

My favorite, non-food, part of the Passover celebration is the requirement that you not only tell the story but also talk about it. It makes us think about freedom and its blessings. Passover is a home based ritual. It does not require a Rabbi or a Synagogue. Therefore ordinary people in a diaspora, can keep the ritual and therefore the specialness of the people alive for many generations.

If you have never been to a Passover Seder speak to one of your Jewish friends about being invited next year. It is a very interesting cultural and anthropological experience. Read more about Seders Here.

Read my Passover and Migration Blog here.

“Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.”

Napoleon Bonaparte

Photo from Wickopedia

This idea is complicated and it might be completely wrong but I think it contains one of my brilliant insights. When we go codger diving a lot of guys take a lot of pictures. Most of the codgers don’t take many photos when they are above water but underwater they are snapping away like there is no tomorrow. Are thing more beautiful underwater? I think our photography habits are because we have not trained ourselves to see the beauty of close ups and narrow focus in our daily milieu. The underwater world was new to most of us as adults so we see it with eyes still filled with wonder. We see new beauty. But in the above water world where we have always lived we have become inured to the beauty around us and have stopped seeing it. I suggest trying some close-up photography of ordinary things in your above water world to solve this paradox.

These pictures taken in my back yard and juxtaposed with some underwater photos from Curacao will illustrate what I’m talking about:

Bottle brush

Bottle Brush Close-up

Coral close-up

Sea anemonea

Calla lily

Calla lily close-up

Moray eel

Yellow birds

Pond fish

A sea horse

So I’ve made the best case I can with the pictures I have available. You can see more pictures that I use to try to make my case for Backyard Scuba on flickr .

Perhaps there is another reason for this photography paradox. If so let me know. It is a puzzle I’d like to understand.

About 45 minutes north of NYC on I 87 is the Storm King Art Center. It is one of the worlds premier large outdoor sculpture gardens.

“Storm King  Wall” by Andrew Goldsworthy

They have Calder’s, a beautiful Henry Moore, the famous running fence by Andrew Goldsworthy and many more large and magnificent pieces.

Henry Moore

I have visited twice. The first time with Nurit and Rebecca and even though it was raining we loved the place. This time I was by myself, it was overcast but not raining and I liked it even more. I’m looking forward to visiting it when the sun is shining. I have put up a short slide show on Flickr.

Isamu Noguchi

So if you are in the NYC area, you like art and it is a sunny day I recommend trying to visit Storm King Art Center.