Miami Vice

I like to think that I have good tastes when it comes to movies, but that was recently called into question after I gave Michael Mann’s “Miami Vice” an enthusiastic thumbs up and told everyone to watch it.

It turns out that my family and friends unanimously agree that “Miami Vice” sucks. They say it’s a stupid, unrealistic, over-melodramatic waste of time.

That’s weird, because I’ve watched it four times since it came out and rank it right up there with my favorite movies of all time, which include titles like “High Noon,” “Casablanca,” “Remains of the Day,” “Goodfellas,” and the Godfather series.

Well, maybe “Miami Vice” isn’t in the same league as those flicks, but it’s a favorite. Admittedly, it has a razor-thin plot and resembles some sort of fantasy world that might be concocted by a 14-year-old boy – fast cars, fast boats, guns and gratuitous sex.

I think it’s a beautiful ride – a montage of pretty pictures all strung together with a rockin’ soundtrack. I’m not sure who you give the credit to – Michael Mann or some cinematographer – but the shots are masterfully framed. They’re downright gorgeous, oozing with romance, adventure and danger. They more than make up for the weak plot.

Oh, and it doesn't hurt to have Gong Li in a film. The truth be told, I'd be happy watching her read from the phone book for two hours.

(Photo source: The big, bad world of the internet.)

So, yeah, I like “Miami Vice.” Wannna make something out of it?

CSI: Klamath

A good time was had by all...

Haiku:

In San Mateo
I feasted all day and night
like a sweaty hog.

Moonstone Beach/Little River.11.19.07

Is it something or nothing? It's just enough nothing that I wouldn't want to pay something to have it printed. But since megapixels are free, I'll call it something. No color adjustments or cropping. This is straight from the camera.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The other day I had a conversation with a friend who has five cats. That’s a lot of felines, but still below the acceptable threshold of 10.

We both agreed that when you exceed 10, it’s time for some sort of intervention because you’re getting dangerously close to being a stereotypical “crazy cat lady.” (I considered using the term “crazy cat person” to be gender neutral, but I don’t recall hearing about males with that many cats. It seems like the people who maintain giant herds of cats are almost always female.)

CP and I have four cats, two of which were adopted after they simply wandered into our yard. The other two were rescued from the shelter. That means we’re probably safe from being snatched up and locked in the looney bin, at least for the time being.

On the other hand, if the mental health professionals knew about my bicycles they might have second thoughts. Over the last year, my bicycle collection swelled to 15 bikes!

All of the recent additions I got for free or really cheap, so they didn’t cost me anything of real value other than lots of space in my garage. But the fact that I collected so many bikes was highly questionable, especially considering that some of them were old clunkers. What the hell was I doing collecting shitty old clunkers when I’ve got a couple nice road bikes and a really nice mountain bike?

I guess it’s because I like different kinds of bikes and like to select which one I want to ride based the length of the trip, weather conditions and a variety of other factors.

For example, when getting around town on a rainy day like today, I like to use my 10-speed Schwinn Suburban, shown below.



It’s a heavy, old clunker, but it appeals to me. It’s mostly made in America, with lots of heavy steel parts. Earlier in the year the bike was sitting on the sidewalk on Thiel Road with a “free” sign on it. I grabbed it, took it home, disassembled the whole thing, painted it and put it back together. It’s a nice, sturdy, slow ride. It has a utilitarian look that I find interesting. I also like getting around on something that I’ve literally torn apart and rebuilt from the ground up.

I’ll keep the Suburban for the time being, but I’m trying to whittle down the rest of my collection. Within the last month or two, I’ve sold the electric bike and given away five others.

That still leaves me with nine bikes, which is probably four too many. Five seems like a normal number.

Then again, I’m pondering a project that would give me an excuse for collecting a gross amount of bikes – at least temporarily. It would be part of some sort of charitable project involving bicycles. I still don’t have the details worked out. It’s just a rough idea rattling around in my head. It may or may not go anywhere.

Ride to Luffenholtz.11.13.07

When 4:15 p.m. rolled around I dropped everything, hopped on the bike and pedalled north.



Through this grove of alders I saw a white horse running on the beach below. It would have made a spectacular photo, but alas it was too far away. So I had to settle for this photo.



My Cannondale is nice and light, so it was easy to carry down the steps to Luffenholtz Beach. Other bicyclists sometimes call it an "old bike" or "vintage bike," which throws me because I think of it as my "new" bike. I think it's a sweet ride. Once I add a triple crank with a granny gear, it will be perfect.



Mother nature put on a nice light show.



Luffenholtz Creek was running strong.



The sun dipped.



Fortunately, I had a blinkie on the back of the bike and my miner's headlamp for the ride home in the dark. I took this shot of myself while coasting down a hill, and somehow managed to do so without crashing. Don't try this at home.

The coolest thing ever

At today's Hammond Trail celebration, there was valet parking for bicycles. This fellow took my bike, "parked it" and watched over it while I hiked the trail.

The Project is over

I spent a good portion of yesterday digging holes for fence posts, carrying materials around and mixing cement. So by the time the evening rolled around and it was time for a special meeting of the MCSD Board of Directors, I was pretty darn tired. But, hey, how long can a workshop last? My bet was two hours. I arrived a little before 7 p.m. in good spirits. Then, more than four hours later...



... I took this photo. I got home and still had work to do. I didn't get done until shortly after midnight. Then I had to unwind.

So this morning I slept in, which put a crimp in my plans to participate in this photo project. Plus, I still had a lot of construction work to do, as well as newspaper work. So I squeezed a few photos in here and there. I fell short of the goal of one photo per hour.

Next time I would do it differently. Still, it's all good fun.

Check out 12 Hours In Photos.

The Project – 12 Hours In Photos

Last week I wrote a lengthy post titled “The Project,” which was about my home improvement plans. After posting it, I somehow managed to delete the whole thing.

That’s good, because I really wanted to reserve “The Project” title for something that will take place tomorrow, Nov. 8. I was invited to participate in a project called 12 Hours In Photos. About 17 people from “all over” will take a photo an hour, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and then upload them to the 12 Hours In Photos blog. The photos could start appearing on the blog right away, or it could take hours, maybe even a week. It’s up to the participants.

Oddly enough, a lot of the people participating have something in common with me – they enjoy bicycling, taking photos, and then posting photos on their blogs.

I suspect I was invited to participate because I stumbled across some of their blogs and left comments. Then Jerome from Rockyford, Canada, probably clicked on my name and came across my blog. When he thought of this idea, he invited me to participant.

I’m looking forward to it, although Thursday isn’t shaping up to be the best day for taking photos. I’ve got all sorts of boring work-related tasks that I need to complete, none of which seem conducive to photography.

So I’ll just wing it and see what happens.

Evening fog ride

It was cold and foggy this evening when I went on a short ride. I had planned on making it a real workout, but I ran into a problem – the fog collected on my glasses and I could hardly see the road ahead. So, I decided to relax and turn the ride into a short photo expedition.



I accidently let the flash go off when taking this photo. I was going to delete it, but upon closer examination I like how the flash captured the water droplets in the air.



On the way back, it was getting dark. I put my camera on a fence post, set the shutter for 15 seconds and took this shot. I made zero adjustments to the colors, so the camera did all the work.



I was approached by these two thuggish-looking ghosts on Fischer Road.



Since I was playing around with slow shutter speeds, I took a shot of Roger's Market. Cars were coming and going, as you can see by the colorful streaks.

Uh-oh...

I pushed the wrong buttons, accidently deleted a few things and may have screwed up my blog. Ugh.