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East Bali Poverty Project: Field Notes

The February 1963 to January 1964 eruption of Gunung Agung, Indonesia’s largest and most devastating eruption of the twentieth century, was a multi-phase explosive and effusive event that produced both basaltic andesite tephra and andesite lava. A rather unusual eruption sequence with an early lava flow followed by two explosive phases. (Research Gate) Imagine living in a jungle on the slopes of a massive mountain. Your village is composed of several small huts nestled within densely vegetated terrain. Life flows in the tempo of your mountain culture, and is different from that of the people who live far below you,

Earth Day: 2016

I am not a huge fan of the entire Earth Day movement. I see it as a politically inspired facade where people masquerading as leaders, do and say stupid shit, and pretend they care about you and I and the blue marble we spin through space and time on. As my colleague, Photographer Chris Burkhard put it in his instagram post of a stellar image shot in Alaska: “Every day is Earth Day”. I see it similarly. The image above was a shot at the end of the day, “Earth Day” 2016. It is a single frame from a time

International Manifesto: A Child’s Game

Marin Havassy is the 6 YO daughter of two talented artists-creatives. Growing up in a world surrounded by art, nature, water, and an increasing immersion in Costa Rican culture, she emotionally and cognitively illustrates a point made to me by Jean-Michel Cousteau awhile ago: “If you want to change the world, begin with a conversation regarding the welfare of our children. Everyone cares about that. This is a conversation which I really want to have with the leaders of the world” This is a thread running through a dialog held in common we experienced, while visiting our ocean ohana this

Of Mice and WOmen: Bali

To be clear, I am here on Bali at the invitation of my wife Donna, and working under the auspices of her Company, Betty Belts-Betty B doing art and project development. One of the more well traveled people I know, where in the course of her life, she has been to so many far flung parts of the world, that one would never suspect she could learn more than she had prior to our meeting. But in fact, she has, and continues to do so. This charms me completely. On the heels of a divorce over a decade ago from

Bali Journal, Week 2

We left Ubud by taking a winding route by our friend Gusti’s home, and then made our way out to the shore of E. Bali to spend a bit of time at the beach, as well as catch up with Michael Lorenti, a fellow member of 1% for the Planet with his company Sensatia Botanicals. Ketut, and her husband Willie drove u,s and we made sort of a family type outting of it, with the four of us. The tempo of life while being much more leisurely here, is pretty intriguing on several levels, especially when we got to have

Bali Journal: Week 1

This first week has been hectic, sort of no surprise, as the travel and shoot modus all of us use, is deeply embedded at this point in my life. We are staying on the outskirts of Ubud, off the beaten tourism path in the compound of a Balinese family and the home of A fascinating Yogi- fitness authority named Jocelyn Gordon. We did a little bit of motion capture for her website, Hoopyogini. Fun and she is quite elegant in every way (good subject) Days are a series of time lapse projects, design meetings for Donna and Betty B with

Outward Bound: LAX to Denpasar, Bali

It has been three years since I have been on Bali. The last trip was expeditious, in that aside from all the work stuff in my own imaging programs and working for Donna’s company, Betty Belts, I went there specifically to ask her to marry me and we had gone separately. In the time since I am amazed at the shift which has taken place. She and I joined lives in an amazing Hawaiian-Chumash ceremony at my home break and that of the Chumash, at Refugio beach on the Gaviota Coast, where we saw and felt the presence of God

Running and Gunning

Whew, just off a series of e mails with Lorenzo De Stefano, who is Director of the film Hearing is Believing which I am the Director of Cinematography on. The crew will be down at the Blue Whale in LA filming a performance by Rachel and the remarkable Taylor Eigsti for the project Thursday night. I on the other hand, will be on Bali working on some development projects for my wife’s company, and meeting up with a couple film makers there to possibly create something rather exotic. Life is hectic in a good way. This week saw a fantastic

True Generosity

There is a place on Bali which my wife insisted we visit. It is a Botanical Garden. Seems sort of obsequious, the idea of building such a thing in a place where one could plant a broomstick and it would grow. But I assure you it is anything but. The place is a model of true generosity. The man whose dream and life works this was, is gone now, having become part of that more grand sonnet which time plays with us all. But his gift, it grows on. And it is beautiful beyond comprehension. German writer Stefan Reisner authored

A California Opus

Chapter 5 in the California Series. I have not always lived in California. My Dad was going to college on the GI Bill in Milwaukee Wisconsin, at Marquette University. I had never asked him why, being from Hawaii, he chose the Mid West. He met my Mother there. That was where my two Brothers and I were born. We were sick a lot as infants. The family pediatrician had told my parents that our Hawaiian genetics may have been to blame, as we did not tolerate the cold of hard, Midwestern Winter very well. In fact, I ended up in

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