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Christmas Sonnet

This Song from John Lennon resonates with me. But not for the reasons one may at first surmise. For me the challenge is contained in the lyrics “So what have you done?” Doing, going, is what matters. A young woman making her way up the stairs of a very old Catholic Church in the cold of a Milwaukee Wisconsin night, tripped. It was Christmas Eve. She had been on her way to Midnight Mass, as was the tradition for many Catholics of the time. I was born sometime around 6 am the next morning. People always ask me if I

Life Channel: Family Photo Album

It was not so long ago, that I shot everything on film. The reasons for that are mostly archive based. Film provides an analog image which can be scanned to whatever resolution and file size a client requires. But then the 5D Mark 2 came along and with a parallel arrival of imaging program technology, it became possible to equal and in some ways exceed the imaging potential of many films. Even in motion picture. I have an amazing amount of work sitting in image vis a files and huge binders. My sons have both worked scanning those into my

Jeff White

Jack Johnson and Ben Harper. “My Own Two Hands” A song for Jeff. Maybe listen to it while you read his obituary which was written by Gregg Tally. Jeff White 1938 – 2010 Sandyland resident Jeff White passed away Friday, December 10, 2010, after a long battle with multiple sclerosis. Jeff was a lifelong waterman who was very much a part of early Santa Barbara surfing, influencing many young surfers through the years. He founded White Owl Surfboards, the Surf-N-Wear chain of surf shops, and he cofounded the Beach House with Roger Nance. He was a Velzy gremmie in his

The Zuri Files: Westside Ventura

I have a unique job, in that most of the time, I am drawn to subjects and they to me, not unlike a moon to a planet. I have never been able to figure out who is what in that constellation. But it probably does not matter. This week saw a LOT of computer time as I worked on wrapping my commercial work for the year. As I plowed the pixel fields of my hard drive borne library, I came across a project I had shot with Zuri Star as a collaboration of sorts. Zuri is a pretty remarkable recording

American Christmas

We have a problem residing in our country this Christmas. “Which one?” you might jump to respond. The problem of which I write is one of recall, memory. Memory is a fundamental component in establishing progress for a vast array of reasons. But where our communities are concerned, it is even more pertinent. I believe that we as a Country have forgotten what it means to be American. I really do. We had grown fat and insular the past several decades. The affect was pinged out and the world responded to this, as an opportunity to parasitize this Country, to

The Lineup

The image above is a tight shot of the crowd in the lineup at Pipeline one day a few seasons back. Pipe is located on the North Shore of the Island of Oahu. Generally, a lineup is a pretty near perfect example of a social and cultural hierarchy, and how those tend to stratify according to ability, dominance, and-or reputation. So surf breaks in a manner of speaking, are analogous to society at large in many ways. And just like in land based cultures, someone always seems to come along that no one gives credence to, who through persistence, talent

No Substitute

My sons are both adept musicians. Josh in fact, is especially gifted. He rang me up one day and asked for some help, possibly shooting a music video. I tentatively agreed, but the short of it was Josh meant, umm…. in three days. I had heard No Substitute before and was really impressed by the lyrics. I had not seen Josh perform more than a few times, as he is pretty much a songwriter-computer nerd-artist who happens to play a lot of instruments. I penned a script, rang Rob Dafoe, we assembled a plan, and three days later, with a

An Earthen Chalice

I sometimes ponder the connection we humans have to the land. The bond is a deep one for us all. Some are more cognizant of that than others. I think the reason for this is rooted in specifics related to culture. Recently I connected with a woman on Facebook. In a series of e mails we found out that we were related, as we traced our knowledge of family history back to the Big Island of Hawaii. I recalled a visit I had made awhile back to a Heiau there. Temples are very sacred places for Hawaiians. As I strode

Beholden on a Thanksgiving

Ah kids. They enter our world, turn it upside down, and at some point we realize that we had it all upside down in the first place. In my thirties, I had no immediate plans for having children. Managing a growing company, working a morphing athletic career, and looking at a rapidly changing world, inspired no confidence in myself to manage the additional responsibilities of a child. Let alone two. My wife at the time, Ronnie, had other ideas. So in the course of three years, when what I had assumed were foolproof measures that we were taking to avoid

Vision

Vision is one of those multifaceted aspects . It is indirectly related to motivation. When one embraces motivation, and engages it, the word transmutates from noun to verb, as action is required But what is vision? Here is a great example. Often a communicator has a vision for how to motivate people that is not readily apparent, as it is rooted deep within the thought processes and soul of the artist. I do the vision quest thing a lot. I will follow a thread of interest, let it develop within me, and when it is ready, a lot like the

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