Strange bedfellows department

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Because of a dead battery, I had to abandon my old Range Rover at a Park and Ride, in San Jose, last Saturday night. Michele said she would give me a ride back down to the Park and Ride and a jump start for  a xlb lunch – xiaolong bao  Shanghai dumplings – on the way.  We decided to try a new place that had great reviews – Shanghai Dim Sum 19066 Stevens Creek Boulevard in Cupertino.

As we got close, Michele realized that it was next door to a Muslim grocery store that she liked. Among other things, they have halal meat. We are trying to be more conscience about eating meat by – among other things – eating meat that has been humanely raised. To be halal, meat has to come from humanely-handled halal animals so it is a good fit for us. And – big bonus – they have goat which is not that easy to find, even in Mexican groceries.

Amish-chicken

They also have halal chicken. Raised by – and this is the punchline -  Amish farmers. 

As an after comment: as per one of my favorite recipes, we salted a couple of chicken legs and thighs, dusted them with paprika, added a little lemon,  put them in the oven on top of a bed of quartered potatoes , and roasted them. They tasted much better than your  average free range, organic chicken.  

 

 

 

 

I realized this evening – with some sadness – that I don’t know one person in the military.

Americana, Current Affairs, War

Mississippi-Flag-Memorial

I was in the Army for three years and all I knew were people in the army – and a few Air Force – now I don't know anybody. It is a shame and – in my humble opinion – a blot on our country that we – most people – have been able to take no no part in the carnage we want other people to do in our name.  Maybe, if we all had to take part, we wouldn't have as many wars.

Ask for Adenium obesum; Google will give you about 12,600 results in 0.12 seconds

Americana, Current Affairs, Evolution, Psychological Musings, Science

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Or Dorstenia foedita in 0.17 seconds with about 7,830 results*. We truly live in an an age of wonder.

My grandmother was born in the late 1880s – about 16 years, give or take 5, before Wilbur and Orville first flew the Flyer – and she died after John Glen orbited the earth.  I used to marvel at the change she went though, but it is nothing compared to the change we are going through.

True, from horse and buggy to orbit seems like a big jump.  But very, very, few people will ever go into orbit; it just isn't part of our life. But everybody – OK, maybe not everybody, but everybody with a small rounding error – has a computer and access to the World Wide Web. Really, access to an almost infinite well of knowledge.

With a smart phone – and we will all have smart phones soon – we have access everywhere, anytime. All the time.  Astounding! A huge percentage of the world's knowledge – maybe not knowledge, but facts, at least –  is at our fingertips. Literally, as Joe Biden would say. What do walruses eat? When was Hypatia murdered by religious fanatics? How far is the airport from a hotel – any hotel you want – in the downtown section of the capital of Paraguay?

We are living in a time of wonders that were inconceivable 20 years ago.

 * somehow I find it very amusing that Google can come up with results in 0.17 seconds but – apparently – doesn't have time to count the exact number of results

Big houses and the fall of civilization

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Having two bathrooms ruined the capacity to co-operate. Margaret Mead

I ran into this quote some time ago thinking about big houses and how – like everything, such as cars and wine glasses – houses have been getting steadily bigger over the last forty years. And, as we run out of resourses, I wonder if that will turn around.

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About two months ago, Michele and I saw The Social Network. One of the inferances in passing – if that is the right way to say it – is that to get rich in high tech – really rich – you have to move to Palo Alto. Now that is not true, of course, but it does become closer to true if you replace Palo Alto with the inner Bay Area.  Or, probably, any urban/inner suburban area.

In Palo Alto, houses are not very big – partially because of small lots and tight zoning true – but, also, the majority of the homes were built before 1980. My guess is that the average house built in  Modesto, far from Silicion valley – even though much, much cheaper – is bigger than the average house in Palo Alto. Houses got bigger as the available land was further and further from the epi-center of the  bay area. Because they were so much cheaper per square foot, they were cheaper, period.

So we probably have a situation where the boss lives in a smaller house than somebody working for the boss. Not always – lots of bosses live in big houses in Atherton – but often. In my imagination, after a Chistmas Party at the bosses house in Palo Alto – and a very long drive home or expensive night in a hotel – the employee will start to think about living in a smaller house.

Pixar at the Oakland Museum

Photography, Psychological Musings, ,

Tepui_landing
 

Michele and I went to the Oakland Museum for our anniversary. What I like about the Oakland Museum is that the design – by Kevin Roche – is sixties superb and what I like even better is that it is about California art. Most museums – at least most US museums – aren't local or regional, they are aspiring to be national or international. So, when I go to a museum in a strange city, I don't see great local art, I see a second rate Jasper Johns or or third rate Amedeo Modigliani. 

But, at the Oakland Museum of California, I see first rate California art. The museum has recently been remodeled and it was pretty busy when we were there. Maybe because of the remod but probably because of an excellent show – put together by René de Guzman – on Pixar. 

For me, the Pixar show was especially interesting because I feel there is a similarity between Pixar's art and my photography. Not a similarity in quality so much as a similarity in style. Looking at the Pixar individual pictures, none seems like what I would call great stand alone art. It is story telling art. It is art because of it's context.

Standing alone, the Pixar pictures are fun but in a That would be great in a kids room. That would be great in the kitchen.  sort of way.  The pictures work best when they push the story.

When I look at photographs of a place that I have been or am going to and then look at my photographs of the same place; mine usually don't have that calendar punch. For a couple of reasons:  most published photographers shoot at the golden hour which makes anything look good – including traffic – and photographers tend to shoot the same shots and use the same tricks, over and over again because they work. Like Pixar, my photographs usually work best when they are pushing a story.

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I like to think that I have lots of photographs that stand by themselves, but I have always been a better slide show photographer than a calendar photographer. I think that is why this blog works best when it is telling a story – especially about a trip.