Category — Arts & Humanities

I live in a neighborhood (Golden Hill / South Park border) with a significant Hispanic population. It’s fun to hear the language, see the kids and families, and eat the food. I found this on the lawn in the park behind my house. I like the artwork, and the fascinating exaggerated anatomy of the sexy woman. I’d like to get it translated:

If you’ve used a film SLR (Single Lens Reflex Camera), you know that the main difference over the old “range finder” film cameras is that you can see through the lens.  This SLR trick is achieved via a set of mirrors or a prism that focuses onto a focusing screen, and a mirror that flips out of the way of the film when it’s time to snap the photo. This mechanism allows you to see what the camera “sees” in a fairly direct way, through the lens. It allows for very precise focusing, and on some cameras, previewing what the depth of field will be. A DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera) builds on this tradition, and replaces the film with a digital sensor at the film plane, and electronic processing of the image information.

An electronic viewfinder is one advantage of a “point-and-shoot” or of a “prosumer” digital camera. You get a readout of what the CCD (the electronic sensor that replaces film) is “seeing”, and you can see in lower light too, and get things like histograms and other on-screen information. (A “live view” like this is pretty essential for doing infrared digital photography).  “However, SLR is still popular in high-end and professional cameras, because the pixel resolution, contrast ratio, and color gamut of an LCD preview screen cannot compete with the clarity and shadow detail of a direct-viewed optical SLR viewfinder” (Wikipedia).

Notice how on B & H (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/category/989/Digital_Photography.html) they have these three categories:
# Point & Shoot Digital Cameras
# Advanced Point & Shoot Digital Cameras
# SLR Digital Cameras

The “Advanced Point & Shoot Digital Cameras” categories is what some others call “prosumer” cameras, which is a combination of the words “professional” with “consumer”. They have larger lenses, more features, some manual settings. They have do not have interchangeable lenses like a DSLR (which can be an advantage in terms of no getting dust on the sensor, and weight).

If your concern with with making beautiful photos, the most important thing though is not the equipment. I’ve had photos in shows that I made with a “point and shoot”. There is too much focus on equipment. Too many people I’ve noticed, seem to believe they should start with a “good” camera (they even list their camera model in their postings to the meetup.com photography group, which is silly). Just the opposite is true in fact. The best way to become a good photographer is to find the simplest, cheapest camera that you can enjoy, and go out and have fun with it. I started my digital adventures with a tiny “point-and-shoot” Canon Elph in 2001. Practice making thousands of photos. That’s how you get good. And study really good photographers that inspire you. Then when you realize the limitations of that camera, it’s time to move up a step. When you outgrow that camera, move up another step. If you jump into a camera that’s too good, that is too sophisticated, you will never know how to take advantage of it’s power, nor appreciate what it can do. A simple camera forces you to get creative. The focus should not be on the camera.

The three main things that go into making a great photo are:
1. Perceptual:  A good eye (which you can develop by drawing and learning “how to see”, and taking lots of photos, and looking at art and photographs).
2. Emotional-Spiritual: Vision/imagination/creativity/ideas/feeling/risk-taking.
3. Cognitive: Technical skills and knowledge + problem solving.

With these abilities, you can take good photos with any camera. However there is a catch: you can’t take good photos under all circumstances. For instance, if you want to take a photo under moonlight, you probably can’t do it with a point-and-shoot, because its lens is not fast enough (can’t gather enough light), and the exposure times are too short. And even if it had long exposure times, there would be a lot of noise in the image.

This actually applies to all art-making. If you have the above psychological prerequisites (and everyone has them or the ability to grow them), you’ll be able to figure out and find what tools you need.

Well, enough for now.

Over what exotic South Pacific village ceremony does this fearsome Tiki god tower? Are there tropical flowers, swaying grass skirts on white sand and palm leaves in the ocean breeze? Or perhaps it’s one of those fun Tiki-styled 60′s cafe’s, motels or liquor stores from the golden age of Southern California. Getting closer – maybe it was a liquor store at one time. But now this great island god holds court over gas fumes, revving engines, grease puddles, asphalt and wrenches: Mission Bay Auto Repair. View from the road (click on the photo to enlarge):

Mission Bay Auto Repair

Don’t miss the tiki design fascia too (click to enlarge):

Tiki Garage Fascia

There is an area East of Mission Bay in San Diego, along and behind Morena Blvd, that’s the home of various low-rent commercial enterprises such as furniture outlet stores, cabinet shops, cheap Chinese take-out restaurants, auto supply stores, office supply chains – you get the picture. I went down there to pick up a bag of kibbles at Petco, and swung by a Taco stand I like there – Nico’s – to nab a carnitas plate with guacamole (a rib-sticking brunch for this Working Boy). On the way out, I spot this place. Here’s another view (click to enlarge):

Mission Bay Auto Repair

Spying this sets off a chain of intense speculation in my mind: if this were once, say, a Tiki-styled liquor store, and is now an auto repair shop, what might such a building potentially become? What are the possibilities for Tikiness? All sorts of wonderful businesses and offices might replace it. The imagination spins wildly:

Tiki Dentistry: the dentist comes out in full colorful Pacific Islander costume, complete with a necklace of wild pig’s tusks around his neck, and with Island cheer he regales you and begins a Tahitian prayer chant to speed your healthful procedure. And he has you drink some strong Kava Kava from a coconut bowl, to relax you.

Tiki French Pastry Shop, with pastries that look like tiki totem poles in chocolate.

Tiki Funeral Parlor - your loved one (or their ashes) gets taken out to sea in an authentic dugout outrigger, paddled by a strong and spiritual Hawaiian dude, about 300 pounds with immense arms and a dark rich tan glistening in the Pacific sunlight as he sweats, a string of green tropical medicine leaves around his neck, singing powerfully as he rows.

Tiki Private Investigators

Tiki Civil Engineering

Tiki Betty’s Bed and Bedding

Tiki Cheese Shop

Tiki TV

Tiki Drapery and Fabric

Tiki Corporate Law Center

Tiki Gun & Ammo Outlet and Firing Range

Tiki Catholic School Oufits & Nurses Uniforms

Tiki Eye Surgical Medical Group

Tiki Nuclear Disposal Systems

I’ll just leave the rest up to you – fill in the details, or go open your own business in a Tiki building.

Have you seen this woman?

Kristine, organizer of "Cocktails in Historic Places"

Going by the name “The Cocktail Maven”, this infamous wench, this scrofulous minx, lured upwards of 30 victims into a small, dark lounge in the seamy “Stingaree” district of downtown San Diego – within the former opium den and house of prostitution named “The Quong Building” at 416 3rd Ave. – where they were subjected to hours of interesting historical stories, delicious drinks, fun conversation and camaraderie with a lively group of characters from the underworld of San Diego’s business and cultural scene.

Cornered by the Maven woman, who claimed her name was “Kristine”, I was subjected to massive warmth and personal attention I felt was undeserved. This attractive and charming red-headed female was dressed in a beautiful orange Chinese dress, and cleverly seduced me into having fun and being social. She is a wanted woman.

I was personally forced to drink two powerful margaritas, which caused me to smile, laugh, and talk uninhibitedly, engaging in pleasant conversation with total strangers, finding much common ground in our lives in San Diego (well, once I finally managed to get the barman’s attention in the din and crush of the crowd).

Next time I’ll be more alert, and arrive early for the punishment (I was late this time, and the talk about the history of the Quong Building was related only by hearsay).

According to inside sources, August’s meetup is cancelled because the Cocktail Maven has to go out of town, but no doubt more crimes will be committed in September.

A plaque on the outside of the Quong Building details the structure’s sordid past:
“The Quong Building (1913) is not only an historical structure, it has also been the site of archaeological digs. The business gets its name from Mon Yueh Quong, a businessman who operated the structure from 1889 to 1928. The building has been listed in city directories as being used as an opium den, a restaurant, and an oriental merchandise store, all during Quong’s operation. Later years saw the building used as a house of prostitution run by the infamous Mary Smith.”

A paragraph detailing the meetup group’s purpose was obtained by reading these words scratched into the walls of a prison cell: “This group is for anyone interested in the architecture and history of San Diego. The goal is to provide a comfortable social happy hour in historically significant surroundings, and perhaps increase awareness of some of the triumphs of preservationists in the San Diego area.”

Hope to see you there next time!

Ray At Night is a monthly arts event on Ray St., in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego. It’s a big party, but with culture: galleries, music, food, and freaky people, looking at art and imbibing the refreshments and snacks.

I got there somewhat late this time. The crowd was thin tonight for some unknown reason. Met some friends – Jill, Pasha and Dave – at the “Tiki Bar” in the backyard of one of the galleries. Only had a twenty for the $2 donation for the plastic cup of Dos Equis beer, and she gave me $14 in change (I discovered later). Ah well at least it tasted good.

Went over the Andrea Rushing’s gallery – sort of an obligation to make an appearance, since I had two paintings up there. Saw people looking at one of my paintings that always attracts interest – “Girl With A Cosmic Outlook (after Vermeer)” – and got a photo of one of them:

Viewer looks at "Girl With A Cosmic Outlook (after Vermeer)" (click to enlarge)

Jill and I were hungry and I felt like pizza, so we wandered over to Florencia’s Pizza around the corner. I ordered a 10″ Hawaiian Pizza. It wasn’t bad (nothing spectacular) and I was hungry enough to eat three pieces (I’ll write a review for Yelp.com).

Jill was tired, but before leaving, I had to pop into the San Diego Art Department where I used to take classes, and take a few shots of Jim Stewart’s show (click on images to enlarge).

Jim was almost always there in the studio working on one of these nudes when I was working on paintings. He likes to paint colorful, impressionistic nudes. It was nice to see the body of work he’s built up. His oeuvre. He has a unique use of color which I always enjoyed, and I respect his dedication. In the past he’s always painted his women from the back, with their face hidden. His latest painting shows the woman’s face, and the face is nicely done:

"Valeria, Reclining" by Jim Stewart (click to enlarge)

Recently (June 18, 2008) a cover article entitled “No Shushing in This Library” appeared in The San Diego Reader newspaper about the libraries in San Diego. Featured prominently was the North Clairemont Library (Google Map link). This was rather interesting, because I knew that my father, who was an architect, had designed it – in fact I’d been up to the library a number of years ago to photograph it.

(I haven’t found my photos yet, but in the meantime, here’s the Google Street View):

North Clairemont Library, Google Street View

I didn’t expect him to be mentioned in the article, but then towards the end of the article he was! The author – Alex Finlayson – apparently lives near the library and likes it. He (or she?) mentions that it was rebuilt a couple times after fires in the 80′s, to original specifications. It was designed, I’ve now learned from my own research, in 1960.

” ‘The North Clairemont Library is among our favorites,’ says Keith York, SOHO member and moderator of ModernSanDiego.com. San Diego architect Robert Platt’s design ‘communicates like a billboard, attracting onlookers and passersby to investigate what’s inside,’ he says, singling out the unique ‘diamond-shaped fascia’ that runs across the library’s front. According to York, the North Clairemont Branch Library is ‘among the few and best examples of Googie architecture’ left in San Diego.”

Apparently it’s a well-liked library, and they have a scrapbook about the library and the fires at the branch.

This sparked off a dialogue between Keith York and I, which in turn led further motivation to the preservation of my father’s archive of work. My mother recently was moved into an assisted living facility, and her house put up for sale. All his work is in her garage, and I am the only one who has the time (or interest perhaps) to work on a preservation effort (plus the skills to do the digital work). Keith has subsequently published some of the material I’ve sent him on his site.

At this point (8/7/08), I’m in the early stages of the project, and need to write up a basic biography and timeline. I managed to find a project list (my father kept everything), and started to construct a web page of Robert Platt Architecture Projects , using that list as a backbone. I haven’t listed all the project yet, but you can start to see how much work he did! Another exciting thing for me was to see what buildings are still around. I was able, as I found addresses to add to the project list, to find a Street View in Google maps, and see the buildings, and recognize that they were definitely his – he had an unmistakable style. I’ve added links along the side of the project list web page to these Google Street Views.

Keith got excited when I showed him the drawing I’d uncovered of the Pearl Hotel. Turns out a friend of his renovated this hotel (originally called “The Sportsman’s Lodge”, and built for businessman Frank Naso). A bit later I found the folder for the Naso Hotel, which included the orignal (pencil!) plans and a wonderful concept sketch, with lots of typical R. J. Platt flair. I remember “The Sportsman’s Lodge” – the logo on the front of the building – I must have passed it hundreds times of times, growing up in Point Loma, but moved from there in the late 70′s …

Last night I watched an interesting program entitled “Buddha’s Warriors“, by the CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour. The report was about Buddhist monks taking action against oppression by the Chinese in Tibet and in protest against the military regime in Myanmar (Burma).

Tibetan Protester

I applaud their efforts to stand up against oppression. But a philosophical question occurred to me:

All things are interconnected, and helping others leads to happiness, claims the Dalai Lama. Likewise hurting others causes suffering in oneself.

What about helping those who cause suffering? This would seem to be a dilemma. For example, should Buddhist monks help the Chinese (who are causing suffering), as individual Chinese human beings, and as a group? There are a couple senses in which the monks might “help” their opponents. For example, the Dalai Lama and some others favors a conciliatory approach towards the Chinese (and autonomy rather than independence). You could argue that this is helping the Chinese, and may or may not be helping the Tibetans in the long run (it’s hard to know – I’m just posting the question). Or, let’s say a monk who is walking along in the street sees a Chinese soldier, who yesterday shot one of his brother monks during a protest. The soldier suddenly slips and injures his leg and starts wailing in pain. Should the monk stop and help him, or would that be helping “the enemy”? Where would the greater harm lie? Can the Buddhist ideals be reconciled with (Buddhist or political) pragmatism?

This topic reminds me that a few days ago I was researching the Dorje Shugden controversy. (I researched it after stumbling on this page at the Buddhist Magazine Tricycle). “The practice of Dorje Shugden is currently banned by the 14th Dalai Lama, and this has led to ongoing segregation in the Tibetan community in exile and disharmony amongst Western Buddhist centers.” (Western Shugden Society website) This controversy points up the fact that even in a religion that stresses the unity and interconnectedness of all things, politics and divisions occur.

(I used to be a Buddhist. I’m not anything now – just a plain old, flawed human being

As I re-do my blog, and very carefully re-create categories (they seemed haphazard and over-numerous in my old blog) I notice that categories multiply faster than actual blog entries (articles). How could this be? The answer is that each article can go in more than one category. In fact, I can often think of many categories that certain articles could potentially go into, but am not sure if there is a reason to actually create or use those categories.

For example, my article “The Future is in The CODE” clearly can be categorized under “science-biology”, and “computer science”, but also mentions a science-fiction author. Should I then also clasify it under “Science & Speculative Fiction”? That would probably be more appropriately a “tag”.

Another conceptual issue has to do with the hierarchy of categories. This is also related to the to a cultural issue: how we separate the “sciences” from the “humanities” and arts, even though, to my mind, they at minimum overlap, and many times are not truly separated in reality. There is much science and technology that goes into art. Depending on the person, this can be informal, learned-in-the-field technique, or well-researched and analyzed scientific approach to the materials and processes that one uses in their art-making. Likewise, there is much art in science.

This very article itself is an example of the issues involved: since it touches on both the humanities and the sciences, should I create a new blog category – “philosophy” – to cover that, as well as putting it under Writing/Literature/Publishing and “blogging”?

I’ll have to ponder this and perhaps do a little research…

Now, as far as Tags go, my impression is that tags are more particularized, whereas categories are more general and hierarchical. Think of a tag cloud: you can see how many posts have to do with a particular topic, and if you see some juicy fruit, you pick it – it’s a way of connecting that primate visual ability with that abstract linguistic human left-brain thing …

Here is the scenario:

A character who finally, after years of struggling with depression and anxiety, finds a drug that helps him be happy. He concurrently also rediscovers his abilities as a writer. Working in that high-tech field made him very ill – physically and mentally – from the stress.

He then tried his hand at photography, and had some success. Then he gets into painting from his photos. He was good at it, creating works of great technical proficiency, impressive in their clarity and mastery, but lacking in warmth and feeling. To him, the reward was in the accomplishment, in solving a problem, getting good at it, proving he could do it. The learning. Not in the doing. The doing was pure hard work

He would spend weeks or months slaving away on a painting, pushing himself to the edge of his abilities. But then, what did he have? A mere image. Something to look at for seconds, minutes perhaps. Something that people would ooh and aah at, and compliment him on. But there was no real dialogue, no meat for his mind. On top of that it brought in none of the extra money he used to pay his bills, pay off his loans and buy toys. All that intense work for a few minutes of pleasure didn’t seem worth it to him.

Then writing out of desperation, as an outlet or therapy for his frustrations and all the thoughts and questions and ideas plaguing his mind.

However the drug also takes away his ability to write because it knocks out short term memory and word retrieval, so all he can write is very poor quality material, like from an adolescent or a drunk. How does he resolve this, what ways does he try?

Without the drug, he wrote brilliant essays skewering current political, social and scientific events, but he was an intolerable, irascible crank socially, a critical ball of irritability constantly in a struggle with himself to not say what he was thinking about what his wife, or anyone else was doing, or the state of society. On the drug, he became a warm, friendly, funny, loving person. But all he could write were silly verbal gymnastics, like “perhaps the perfunctorily piddilating pooch prefers perambulating in the presidio”. Which were enjoyed by his wife, who liked his silliness, but elicited nothing but groans from his editors and literary friends.

It was no contest for his spouse: the choice between the calm, friendly, relaxed, tolerant, affectionate man, and the prickly grump was a no-brainer. They had enough money to live on from her family (her father made sure she was taken care of before he died), and the house was paid off. But to him it was a serious and terrible dilemma, of Greek proportions.

Things had only gotten worse lately – he had tried alternating weeks, on and off the medication. When he was off it, he became increasingly irritable. He’d recently gotten irate about having to pay for a “public museum” , asking the museum clerk “Is this public or is this private!? Do you sell the works here?” Fortunately, he quickly brought himself under control and calmed his nerves – a trick years of meditation had taught him.

A modern pharmaceutical Scylla and Charybdis.

On the one hand was his wife: the cute, sexy, fun, warm (and rich) infinitely supportive female with and about whom he said he felt like he’d “won the lottery”. The woman that loved him absolutely.

Charybdis – the whirlpool – was the drug. It swallowed his talent whole. His writing is what gave his life as a whole a meaning. It was the forge where he could take anything in life, any experience, any confusing or distressing thoughts, and make sense of them, or at least create art from chaos. It’s what gave him public recognition, pride, a love for work, a sense of accomplishment, a way of connecting with people in the world. It was a way for the inner and outer to mesh: essential for an inward thinking type personality like him.

Scylla was his life and work without the drug: alluring, and deadly to his marriage.

Why have a joined the Brave New World of Blogging? I avoided it for many years because I was concerned it would be too time-consuming. For starters, I already write in a journal every morning as part of my daily routine, and often write in it during the day (and night). So, I thought also writing in a blog would just add to the already long (non-money-making) list of things I do everyday, and I would be repeating content – writing double as it were – and I already felt a little guilty about all the time I get “distracted” by my curiosity, passions, interests and creative activities.

However, the reality is … more complex than that. (Reality often is). What happens is, I get interested in some topic, and spend time researching, thinking, surfing the web, saving notes and links, AND THEN, email friends about what I’ve discovered, uncovered, or created (such as photos or writings). This process of emailing different friends is repetitive: I don’t just cc: (“carbon copy”) the email, because different friends are different, with different interests, and I don’t want them to feel they were just part of a mass emailing anyway. That emailing process is repetitive of the journal writing anyway, and repetitive with the various emails I send to different audiences.

Not only that, but later I often want to find the reference to a link I sent to some friend, and have to sort or sift or search through old emails or journals to find it. Blogging software uses a database to save everything, and has search capabilities. Links are part of blog posts. As are photos. So it seems a natural solution.

I can also reach a much wider audience – both those people I already know, and anyone that finds their way here, or who I give the link to.

So … I investigated various Content Management Systems (CMS) besides WordPress (one of the two blogging packages my ISP offers to install for free), with names like Drupal, Joomla, and XOOPS. Sounds like the name of juicebars or candy, eh? I decided to stop messing around and try WordPress. I’ve tended to get bogged down in research in the past when I was looking into blogging and wanting to use a software package on my server instead of one of the services out there such as Blogger.

In the process of research I did get sidetracked this time – though in a good way – learning about such things as “cruft”, “Permalink” and the “MetaWeblog” API. I also saw terms that I’ve learned recently like “pingback” and “trackback” when I was researching “splogging”.
Why was I researching splogging? Well, that’s a long story.