Category Archives: Friendship

Sculpture created from drift on the Emeryville Mud Flats by Arran Stephens.

Arran Stephens and the Emeryville Mud Flat Sculptures

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In 1963 I became acquainted with Arran Stephens, a young artist,  and did a bit of work with him that represented my first foray into color photography in my brief life in the SF Bay area as a freelance artist. Arran, at 19 years of age, had a one man show at the Batman Gallery, the avant-garde gallery in San Francisco at this time. Here are a couple of images from the shoot for the gallery owner to use in promotion and for publication in a local art magazine.

An Assemblage by Arran Stephens from the Batman Gallery Show.

Arran Stephens Construction for this Batman Gallery show

“Treasures”: an assemblage of Arran Stephens shown at his Nov. 1963 one man show in SF.

A Couple of Paintings from the Batman Gallery Show.

Painting by Arran Stephens of a young girl holding a doll.

“Young Girl with Doll”, a painting of Arran’s shown at his Nov. 1963 one man show in SF.

Large painting of a religious figure.

“The Hierophant”, the featured painting at Arran Stephens Batman Gallery show, Nov. 1963 in SF.

Emeryville Mud Flats “Sculpture Garden”

Perhaps to unwind after the show, the timing is not all that clear 54 years later, Arran, with my help, decided to create a couple of sculptures for the growing number viewed by travelers heading south on US 80 going to the Bay Bridge into San Francisco. More and more of these works would appear as beat turned into beatnik and young artists and rebels wanting to participate in the mystique of San Francisco flocked to the area. It also appears that art students at the surrounding schools got their boots on and built many pieces. Politics took its place too, especially as the Vietnam war became a seemingly endless national ordeal and an “End the War” sign, sometimes changed to “Fuck the War” took its place in the mud. Later, concerns of environmentalists and developers would force a cleanup and a ban of these ephemeral pieces.

Photos of a Mud Flat Sculptor and his Works

Should we call it “Tick Tock: the Beach Clock” …

“High Horse” reveals itself on the beach …

Side view of “Tick Tock”: inspiration in the drift wood at Emeryville Mud Flats …

The artist Arran at Emeryville Mud Flats: with his beach sculpture.

For more info on the Mud Flats of Emeryville including the history of the site and the sculpture see ORIGINS: FIRST OF A THREE-PART SERIES ON THE HISTORY OF THE EMERYVILLE MUDFLAT SCULPTURES. All three parts are linked at this site and available.

All titles for the sculptures and other art were made up for this article, maybe Arran will have me change some of them when he gets a look … but my notes did not include their names.

You may wonder, what happened to this promising artist?

Arran and I both left the SF Bay Area about the same time in 1964, in my case, after resting for a few months with my parents in Kentucky, in November I drove into devastated post earthquake Valdez Alaska to work for the Highway Department in their materials lab. Arran went to NYC and had about the same luck with making a living from his art as I did with photography–not much. At some point he scraped up enough money to move to India and was accepted into an ashram where the guru helped him find a radically different life, and later a wife, and all that has been close to perfect for Arran, who was already seeking the spiritual when we were both in the Bay Area.

Arran is now the patriarch of Nature’s Path, a breakfast food company that is stocked in all our local grocery stores. You can hear about his history in this Tedx Talk in Waterloo, Ontario.  He is semi-retired now and has once again picked up brushes to paint happier more spiritual works full of color, as you can see from the gallery section of Arran’s blog. The blog also shows that Nature’s Path has the 2nd largest share of the packaged organic food market in the U.S., according to a Wall Street Journal article in 2014.

Politics in Our Little Town

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It’s Wednesday and Jennifer and her friend Patte have returned from a Town Hall in Bremerton Washington with our local Congressional representative, Derek Kilmer. I stayed home and followed Elon Musk’s latest report on Tesla, then had dinner with them at the Great Wok in Port Orchard WA. Later, at home, I watched Robert Reich’s recent talk at Google.

The Town Hall was attended by an SRO (Standing Room Only) crowd and was worth the drive according to the ladies.

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Robert Bernard Reich is an American political commentator, professor, and author. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. (Google)

Politics is part of the whole, and we have, in my opinion, a mad man at the helm of the ship of state, hardly a good thing. I just finished watching a new post to YouTube, “Preparing Our Economy for the Impact of Automation & AI“, by Robert Reich speaking at Google Talks, a man whose advice many of my friends are predisposed to heed, I believe, and for good reason—he is honest, wise, and vastly experienced in government and the crafting of policy. Strongly recommend you listen to it. Reich has many good ideas and recommends “Indivisible” which is already familiar to our local group of activists.

Also spent time online with Mr. Musk as he continued reporting progress on his vision, in a more orderly fashion than of late, SpaceX having launched another rocket in the past week that sent supplies to the ISS and which sent its first stage back to Cape Kennedy to a successful landing for use again and maybe again and again … as part of his dream of creating a Mars colony, by making it at least an order of magnitude cheaper than it would be with big one time use disposable rockets. Speaking of which, have you seen any strange strangers lately, if so they may have technology to make the 39 light year jump from TRAPPIST-1, a dwarf star with four earth like planets recently announced by NASA, and perhaps one of them sent us The Donald. But seriously, read all about this star in the constellation of Aquarius (The Dawning of?) and its planets in this Futurism post.

The most encouraging news out of Tesla Inc (formerly Tesla Motors) relates to the continuing integration of Tesla with SolarCity and another firm, Grohmann Engineering, that leads the world in highly-automated methods of manufacturing. The result of this integration will make it easy to step into a Tesla store (also available online) and order an electric vehicle, the solar roof to fuel it, and the home battery packs (Powerwall) which will power the home when power is down due to weather or other causes. The price needs to come down before this will make the difference needed to curtail the outrageous planet rape that is underway. Remember, Musk sees the cost of his vehicles, batteries and solar panels continuing to drop in price due to economies of scale, improvements in battery design, and fine-tuned factory automation that will make Tesla products become a rapidly growing agent that ultimately will make a great deal of difference in reducing global warming.

Aerial view of Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo New York.

Tesla’s Gigafactory 2, in Buffalo NY, is now hiring according to The Buffalo News.

Instead of lagging in preparation for the launch of his mid-range priced Tesla Model 3 it sounds like the company is coming down the center of the runway for an initial start of assembly in July and ramping up to 5,000 vehicles/week through the following months of this year towards the goal of 10,000/week sometime in 2018. Remember that Tesla already has about 4,000 pre-orders booked with $1000 deposits. The batteries for it are already coming off the assembly line at the Gigafactory 1 in Nevada, ahead of schedule. Also announced today are plans to double the number of Supercharger stations from 5,000 to 10,000 in America for long distance driving in 2017.

The Gigafactory 2 is the solar panel and roofing factory in Buffalo, now mostly complete and already hiring for the beginning of major production this year. Plans are underway for three more Gigafactories, at least 2 more in N. America. Tesla has his designers and engineers working on plans for Tesla trucks and a possible cross-over SUV on the Model 3 frame.

Musk’s role in job creation has had a deep impact on thousands of lives, and on a global
scale. Between all of his companies, Musk employs over 35,000 employees globally,
of which 30,000+ are in the US, according to teslarati.

This week my best fortune cookie said “Beware of Wall Vendors – We Bought Great Wall – Mongols Still Have Not Paid”

Cheers!
Ron

Totem Salmon book cover

Tick tock, repeat …

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Summer is butting in on the tail end of Spring. The cherries from Eastern Washington are coming to market early by weeeks and our rhodies have dropped their blossoms.

I guess it’s a good thing, but it’s making me calendar nervous. We have a long list for the warm season that involves a lot of yard and house maintenance and are booked for an upcoming vacation to California’s Lost Coast. That’s the extreme NW coast after the scenic Hwy 1 gives up and heads inland. You want a 4 wheel drive, or at least something with good clearance. The area lacks the population to get much money for road upgrades out of the state coffers. An old friend lives there and led efforts to restore a King Salmon run in one of the few rivers in the NW that was never damned.

The book is Totem Salmon by Freeman House and I highly recommend it.

Time to go, I’m feeling that clock pressure…

Ron

Seaweed and sunflower star on right.

Seaweed and sunflower star on right.

Today, we let our family & friends on Facebook know about our little blog site… It’s not all that far along, but by mentioning it I’m hoping it will keep our “feet to the fire” to continue to improve it.

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Mottled Sea Star (Evasterias troschelii)

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Sally, James Kelsey and Jennifer examining the life exposed by an extreme low tide in Southworth WA–June 15, 2011.

Also on my mind today is an excellent series of articles running in the Kitsap Sun on the problems of Puget Sound. It is excellent piece of work and should be widely noted. If you go to the Kitsap Sun link above and want more, search for “Puget Sound” on that site to find and read several other articles, including today’s Sea life on the bottom of Sound is in trouble. 

The pictures of starfish and the tide pool gazers, Jennifer and friends Sally Anderson and James Kelsey, were taken during an extreme low tide around the Washington State Ferry dock in Southworth, WA. This dock is also our usual route to Seattle.

It was an amazing treat to visit this low tide with Sally as she was able to provide critter names and a naturalist’s knowledge of the habits of much of what we saw that day!

Thanks Sally.

 

Photo of a Sunflower Star during a minus tide at Southworth Washington

Sunflower star (Pycnopodia helianthoides), our largest “starfish”

Great Weekend with Nancy & A Road Trip

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Saturday  (22 March 2014)

Nancy's Family in Anchorage

Nancy’s family in Anchorage in the 70s

The day before our trip we had a conversation with our friend of many years, Nancy, who lives in what I call “Far Redmond”.  I suppose it has another name among those who originally settled there, but it is well east of downtown Redmond, and you get the impression you are starting up into the foothills of the Cascade Range as you approach Nancy’s apartment.

Our friendship with Nancy spans many 30 years and many locations including Valdez and Anchorage in Alaska; Amman Jordan when Nancy’s husband Bill worked there about 1980, and finally, when Bill and Nancy retired to Montrose, CO. Nancy’s dear husband and master geologist, Bill, passed away in 2010, and Nancy moved to Redmond to be closer to her daughter who lives close by in Duvall.

At any rate it was decided Friday that it had been too long since we allowed ourselves the pleasure of some real quality time together, owing partially to some family needs, and partially to the time a journey requires from one side of Puget Sound to the other. So Nancy agreed to come over and spend some time with us.

We found a ferry leaving from Southworth at 9:15 am that would allow us to arrive at Nancy’s by our agreed upon time of 11:30 am. Weather was good and we arrived on time.

While discussing what cuisine would be right for lunch, and I mentioned Garlic Crush, a middle eastern casual place run by a Lebanese immagrant and former Microsoft employee in Bellevue, Nancy said “YES, I have not had that for a long time”, and Garlic Crush became our first stop.

I took a liking to Garlic Crush when Jennifer was working for Microsoft, not far from the restaurant. I love items on the menu here like hummus, baba ghannouji, falafel, shawarma and spanokapita. We shared all these things and some fine warm pita and life was good.

It is also worth noting that this is perhaps one of the real bargains in Bellevue, but don’t expect fancy table service. You place your order with the cashier and sit down with a number. The place is very popular for good reason.

After lunch we drove to W. Seattle for a little stroll around Alaska Junction (sometimes just called “The Junction”) with a dip into a favorite bakery, Bakery Nouveau, where we picked up some pastries for breakfast the next day and Nancy picked out a loaf of bread. Cursing our lack of time, Sunday Farmers Market was in session close by, we caught the Fauntleroy WSF ferry to Southworth about 4:20 pm and drove home around 5:15 pm to setup Nancy in the spare bed room for the weekend with us.

Jennifer had a prior arrangement for a dinner event with her sister-in-law, Karen, so that left Nancy and I on our own. As Nancy had no tour of Bremerton yet, we decided to go there for dinner. We arrived in time to go to my favorite lunch spot, the Salvadoran cafe called El Balcon, that I used on occasion while I was still doing IT for the Kitsap County Historical Society Museum which was just a half block away. I love this little hole-in-wall which only seats about 10 or 12, but plans to open a larger location by May. We had papusas and tamales plus their excellent salsa. All very good.

Sculpture photo from Bremerton WA of a fish catching a fisherman

Bremerton’s Fish catching a Fisherman

After supper we took a walk through the recently renewed downtown street area and Nancy, still a Coloradan at heart, enjoyed seeing the controversial fish/fisherman $250,000 sculpture that was created in Boulder Colorado. Next we stopped into Toro Lounge, almost across the street from El Balcon, for an after dinner drink and some of their excellent Papas Fritas, truffle fries served with curried ketchup. We chatted until it was time to pick up Jennifer at 9:00 pm back in Port Orchard. From there we drove home and all sat around the dining room table and talked until we just had to hit the pillows.

Sunday, 3/23

Started the day talking at home with Nancy. We brunched on Bakery Noveau pastries and fresh fruit before heading to the Dragonfly Cinema to watch Philomena, based on a true and very sad story about the Catholic mistreatment of young Irish women in the mid 20th century who had the misfortune of out of wedlock pregnancy. After we film we met with our movie friends, REEL Friends of Dragonfly Cinema, to discuss the film at the One Ten Lounge. The discussion was intense with most of the group moved by the story and finding a lot to say about it.  All three of us were glad to have seen this film.

Philomena Trailer on YouTube.

We decided to go out to dinner with Nancy and were joined by two “REEL Friends”, Patte and Amelia. The consensus Port Orchard restaurant and universal favorite for us was Bay Street Bistro.  The intense conversation of One Ten Lounge continued but moved on to many other subjects than the ones of Philomena and was aided by some wine and the great food. I had the complete dinner offering which featured a halibut entrée that was so good I’d eat it once a week if I win the lottery. We were so into our conversation we probably pressed our time of departure a bit, but got the message, finally, that the staff needed to clean our corner of the bistro so they could go home. It was about 10:30 pm and I don’t think anybody wanted to go home, but we did.

Monday, 3/24

After some coffee and a light breakfast we made the run up to Poulsbo to check out a new restaurant run by a chef that had previously run a decent gourmet spot called Mor-Mor for 10 years on the main street, which he recently closed to do something entirely different, a 50’s themed diner named Green Light Diner. I loved the Veggie scrambled eggs that Jennifer and I shared, but the biscuits were not made in the diner and were less than stellar. This is not the way to the heart of my lady! Of course we were spoiled in Anchorage by James of J-CAP Cafe where we often rode our bikes for brunch when the roads were dry. James was old school southern and his buttermilk biscuits were the best. I tried, but I could not talk him out of a recipe or any kind of instruction!

House Post of Woman by Gene Jones at Suquamish Museum

House Post of Woman at Suquamish Museum.

After lunch it was raining hard and besides that the aquarium was closed so there was no chance to visit the Great Pacific Octopus that usually resides a half block away at Poulsbo Marine Science Center. So we jumped back in the Subaru and headed for the Suquamish Museum, a favorite place of mine, and for the generously low senior price of $3 each we had a chance to immerse ourselves in the story of those who have been here the longest–the Suquamish people.

Then we buzzed down to Winslow on Bainbridge Island and caught the WSF ferry to Seattle. The sun came out for us in Suquamish and stayed out for awhile making this a nice run.

After arriving in Seattle about 3:30 pm we headed straight for Redmond hoping to avoid the ugly traffic that piles up quickly about this time of the day. Our Subaru that we call “Moon Unit” had other ideas. Before we could clear Bellevue we noticed that the brake light would not go out and the charging light indicated the battery was in trouble. We stopped at the Chaplin’s Bellevue Subaru where it was quickly diagnosed as a bad alternator. Our luck was in high gear of the good kind, as the part was in stock and there a tech available who could give us prompt service. We left about 4:45 pm in the midst of the big traffic jams but let our GPS guide us through back streets out to Nancy’s place in Redmond arriving around 5:30 pm.

Putting a great cap on our wonderful visit we stopped at one of Nancy’s favorite restaurants within walking distance from her apartment, the Silver Spoon Thai Restaurant. The ladies had a large selection of appetizers, and I ordered the spring rolls, the best I can remember, and a mildly spiced Thai soup, Tom Jurd with bean curd and shrimp, which I loved.

Sadly, we dropped off Nancy after dinner at her apartment and made the run back to the ferries. We found a good match to our driving time at the Seattle docks, a ferry leaving at 7:55 pm and got home via Bremerton in good shape about 9:30 pm.

Bottom line, we had a million laughs and few tears and we had the time and closeness to really renew our three way friendship.  We vowed to do this again soon.

Ron Potter
Manchester, WA

Hello World?

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Well, maybe world is a bit much, but hello family and friends.

Stay tuned, Jennifer and I will make some blog posts here.

Things are slow at Barking Lions, but oh what a summer. Sunny enough the past month to make LA people jealous. But we worry, are we going to be the next to go on water rationing.

Ron