Wednesday, July 28, 2004

The joys of summer

Ripe tomatoes on a breakfast bagel, fresh from the market. Peaches off our tree in the backyard. Blackberries picked from bushes that you see along the street, as you walk the dog. Late evenings in the park, the Canada geese circling low in increasingly large Vs.

We have spent a couple of evenings listening to the Democratic convention speeches. During the talking head interludes, I have flipped to CSPAN, which is running speeches from conventions of the past. What's most shocking is the difference between the vocabulary and cultural references that the speakers used then and now. For example, I heard Adlai Stevenson refer to a quote by Thomas Carlyle. Today, the speakers use the formula of quoting an anonymous person from St. Louis who...(fill in the blank). The exceptional speaker of last evening was Barack Osama, who someday I hope to vote for, along with Gavin Newsom (who of course did not speak at the convention, since 'unity' this year means not talking about same-sex marriage).
Leah Brooks at 10:13 AM

Friday, July 23, 2004

Strange vehicles I have seen

While in Yosemite, there was an odd vehicle parked in the lot near Camp Curry - the Goldfish-mobile, I guess you would call it. It was a giant orange representation of the tiny goldfish cracker, wearing a huge pair of sunglasses on its "head". The darkened windshield is its "smile", though I thought it should be the eyes. I guess you could say it was a camper van that had been transformed into this creature. This thing was there in the lot for most of the time we were there - we didn't see it driving around or dispensing crackers or anything else. Do you suppose that the driver was just taking a couple of days off, and thought, why not drive the darn thing to Yosemite? Or was it part of some promotion?

I thought of this vehicle while perusing another blog, Grit My Teeth, and there I saw a picture of a Mini Cooper with a peanut on top. You can take a look at this ridiculous vehicle at this online roadside gallery.

I am a big fan of unusual vehicles, especially those customized "art cars", but this goldfish thing was just too commercial to fit into that category. I have a fantasy that someday I'll start gluing something interesting onto my car and before long I'll have something that I can drive in parades and get my photo into a coffee table book.

There is an art car festival coming to the SF area in September - maybe I have time to get out the glue before then??

The one vehicle I hope to see is the Big Horn. Take a look.


Leah Brooks at 2:12 PM

Monday, July 19, 2004

At long last

I have been so negligent of my blog! but only for very good reasons - being unplugged for summer fun with the kids. We took Ariana, Jeremy and Aidan to Yosemite for a couple of nights, and then we went river rafting. Last year we started a summer tradition of a week-long trip..and we had to try to top Disneyland. I think we succeeded.
 
Yosemite was as magical and amazing as usual, despite smokey mornings due to a fire up near Glacier Point that made for sepia-colored light and obscured the view at times. We stayed in Camp Curry, which I have renamed Camp Calcutta. Remind me not to stay there again. July brings millions to the park, and they all were tramping back and forth past our cabin during the wee hours. Luckily, we knew how to escape the crowds: simply go on a path that is not paved. You don't even have to leave the valley floor - just go five minutes up any trail. We saw lots of deer and visited my favorite tree in the park. Ariana heard someone talking about how her car had been smashed up by a bear, but we didn't see any bears.  We spent most of the time in the Merced River:
 


The river rafting trip was a huge success, deemed "way better than Splash Mountain" by the kids. We went with Mariah and our guide was charming, and even handled Jeremy's falling off the boat with grace and skill.



Leah Brooks at 9:32 AM

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Photos of New York

I really enjoyed shooting pictures on our recent trip to New York. The theme I found myself drawn to was architectural decoration, mosaics and friezes. Of course, there were some regular sight-seeing photos, too!
Leah Brooks at 9:34 AM

Friday, July 02, 2004

9/11 thoughts

We saw Fahrenheit 9/11 while in NY, and I was very impressed with the film. I had worried that I wouldn't respect it, since I'm not a huge Michael Moore fan - that is, the other films of his that I have seen have fallen short of good filmmaking, in my opinion. But this film was remarkably good, with a coherent message, presented in a reasonable order, with humor and incredibly powerful images.

I think that even if you don't believe everything Moore presents as the truth (and how could you?), you probably will leave the film shaken and sad, as I was. The sounds and images from the WTC attack were the most powerful - especially since we just got back from NY. Hearing the sounds of the crashes and seeing the ashes fall.

When I was in high school, I wrote a paper about the dangers of a military industrial complex. Sometimes it seems all that I feared has come to pass. What I don't understand is why the rich and powerful believe that the war economy is better than the peace economy. Why isn't it just as profitable to build infrastructure in Afghanistan as it is to blow it up? I guess it's twice as profitable to blow it up and then to build it back up again.
Leah Brooks at 5:00 PM