Date: 2008-09-05 00:24 Subject: some photos... Security: Public Music: Clarinet Quintet #1 by Mozart Tags: ashland, photos

J couldn't get the embed tag to work. I am going to experiment.





Enjoy the fruits of my success!

Date: 2008-09-04 00:39 Subject: Ashland Security: Public Location: Ashland, OR Mood: ecstatic Music: Sinfonia Concertante in B flat - Haydn Tags: ashland, photos

It is always good to be in Ashland. I am here to be with Jax away from work. We have always had a blast traveling together. I am here for Lithia Park and the 120 year-old holly tree and other really gorgeous trees and the river that runs through the park. I am here for the theatre and I am here for Shakespeare. The sun and the weather here are damn gorgeous too! I love Ashland. I love the stores, the art community, the theatre, the bookstore, the last remnants of the hippies that float through, the restaurants, and the people. All of that will always be here. I even like the Best Western or whatever the hell this place is. The girl at the counter (yes, girl) said when we checked in "remember that a free continental breakfast will be served in the lobby each morning." I said "that sounds like a great deal, but what continent." She smiled and said "I think it is American." God bless her! That is the most honest answer to that question I have ever heard! They have been treating us well here. Usually, this place is a last resort or the place we stay when we are just passing through, but Jaxi basically booked this vacation with six days notice! We are here to see Arthur Miller's "A View From a Bridge," Shakespeare's "Othello" and "Midsummer Night's Dream" and a play called "The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler"; two tradgedies and a comedy. This is all an amazing feat for J on such short notice.

Here are some photos.

Date: 2007-03-25 21:04 Subject: Back in the US of A Security: Public Location: American Soil Music: Clarinet Quintet #1 -- Mozart Tags: photos

We spent the week-end in Victoria. I have not been there since 1971 or '72. I really like Canadians and their government. Some of my childhood heros were Canadians (e.g., Adolf Hungry Wolf, Captain Kirk, Marshall McCluhan, and Steppenwolf). Victoria was really great, amazingly friendly people. We were there to see the natural history museum and to just walk around the city. The hotel had really deep bath tubs -- perfect for soaking tired bones in. It was great to be running around with J with just little day packs to travel with. We used to do that a lot more. I swear we could have lived out of those day packs at one time. Victoria is a fascinating city and we just scratched the surface. It has the oldest operating Chinatown on the contintent but SF is a lot larger and is really a WORKING Chinatown not just operating. It was still very cool with alley ways that you should and definitely should not go down into. The food there is terrific too -- there are a lot of Buddhists and liberals there and it really is an international city so there were a number of vegan resturants. There was a great Chinese vegan place (which in my opinion is where some of the best vegan food comes from). We also hit some great pubs. There are a lot of Irish in Victoria. We also had a martini in the Bengal Room at the Empress; part of my world-wide quest for the perfect martini/manhattan. This place is very old school tie and a concierge come up to me and discreetly said "mind your hat sir." I had forgotten to take it off after walking five steps past the threshold. Huge leather chairs, old colonial stuff, and the aspidistras flourish. I want to explore more of Canada. I want spend time in Vancouver and fortunately J is really wanting to go. That would be a great place for the 4th of July. Many people when they come back from a vacation say "the people were great" but was talking to a barmaid in a pub about the fact that in all my change I had only seen the Canadian two dollar piece and never the dollar. This goes into an economic theory that J and I have about the two dollar coin being an infinitely more useful coin that the one dollar. She says "you have been here two days and you haven't seen a loonie?" They call them that because there is a loon on it. She reaches into her apron pocket and gives me one. When has a server ever given money?!? Needless to say she got it back and then some in her tip. Anyway, here is startling photographic evidence that Victoria is a damn beautiful place:

http://geocities.com/geoffcain/images/victoria/victoria.html

Date: 2007-03-18 22:17 Subject: Legare's Cafe (Community Center) Security: Public Location: University Place, WA Tags: photos

This week-end I went down to help Jonathan "open" the cafe. I thought for sure that we would still be pulling pipes out of the floor or something. This place has been opening "in a couple of weeks" for months now. This coincided with J needing some time to finish some projects, finish writing a book review, and filling out job applications without having to suffer through my latest insanities. I was not really thrown out of the house this week-end but she did have a lot of work to do. I was shocked to show up in Portland to not just a fully realized cafe, but the cafe we have been talking about for 18 years: clean well lighted place for writing, amazing and truly international coffee menu, great inexpensive food ($3.50 brie and greens baguette). It even opens with good art on the walls. I show up and I just help move one small truckload of crap and then I get to spend thirty hours with Jonathan drinking amazing coffees, going on tea tastings in the Foo Bonn Center, and staying up hella late for a tasting that featured a 40 year-old Modena balsamic vineagar. Really an amazing day. All of you middle-aged prodigies from Petaluma, you former refugees from Christine's, Markey's, and Aram's, would have wept to see your native son do you proud. It is like a slice of North Beach right here in the North West. The place itself is a work of art -- the pictures do not do the experience justice, but here they are:

http://geocities.com/geoffcain/images/legare/legare.html

Date: 2006-11-27 15:19 Subject: J won't post these... Security: Public Location: Tacoma, WA Tags: photos

...she probably doesn't want to think about it right now. But here are some pictures

Date: 2006-11-13 09:49 Subject: Random posting of random things... Security: Public Location: Tacoma, WA Music: Suite No.3 in G Major, Prelude -- Bach Tags: photos

Managed to get a lot of work done this weekend. I did some garage cleaning and tool organizing. I should have gotten more work related work done but I got a little of that in too. I am putting together some course development guidelines for the college -- HEY! be careful -- you could fall off the edge of that seat! Got out for a couple of good hikes in over the weekend. We went to the Glass Museum to warm up in the hot shop. Great place to dry your clothes. Later we drove through Pt. Defiance Park. A raccoon was sitting on the side of the road. When we pulled over, he just stuck his hand out. I am expecting them to talk any minute. The pictures were taken the $10 camera on "hella artistic" setting:

Date: 2006-10-24 11:49 Subject: Downtown Charlotte Security: Public Location: Charlotte, NC Mood: homesick Music: Gnosis -- Klause Wiese Tags: photos

Here are some pictures from historic downtown Charlotte. One picture is from a Jesuit church. Most of the graves are from before the Civil War.

( Read more... )

Date: 2006-10-22 19:12 Subject: Charlotte, NC Security: Public Mood: sleepy Music: Prelude BWV 998 -- Bach (Classical Guitar) Tags: photos

This conference has been a really productive time -- and I have just got started. I have met some really great people who have some terrific ideas (but I guess that was the point). Speaking of points, I am also making it a point to meet people and talk to them about what they are doing. I am trying to be more gregarious and social. At my own workshops in Tacoma I find that what the participants bring is just as significant as the reason we all got toether in the first place. This is a civilized town with Starbucks and veggie pizza, etc. Not at all what Faulkner made it out to be. I am posting pictures from my $10 Walgreens camera. It is called "Innovage" -- I am not sure what I think of that name! Anyway, here they are:

( Read more... )

Date: 2006-10-19 10:42 Subject: New Camera Security: Public Location: Tacoma, WA Mood: artistic Music: Heures séculaires et instantanées -- Eric Satie Tags: photos

I picked up a camera for $10 at Walgreen's. It is the Holga of digital cameras. It is a perfect webcam for yahoo chat. As a still cam? It is quite artistic:

Date: 2006-08-11 21:15 Subject: Incredible day... Security: Public Mood: artistic Music: belladonna -- angina p. Tags: photos

Okay this is why we are here. We went to the museum of glass today to see Chihuly at work. In the northwest, we are supposed to have this blase feeling about the man. It is that whole no one accepts a prophet in his own home town. We don't give a damn. We think that yes, all the criticism is true; he is pretentious, obnoxious blah, blah, blah, but he is one of the few people in this world that have a right to be. I am old enough to know what glass art looked like before him and I am old enough to know what life he breathed into the form. I love this man. I love his art, his pretentions, his drawings, his visions, his humanity, his crazy yellow pants and all of it and I don't care who knows it. In California, we thought the man was a revelation.

We had a long day of sleeping in, a good breakfast, awesome French press cofffee, incredible art, a Gin tasting (free from the bartender) and incredible martinis.

Here is photographic evidence.

Date: 2006-08-10 14:45 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public Mood: chipper Music: Gran Vals -- Tarrega Tags: photos

There are more dahlias coming in. I planted a wide variety that come in at different times.

These are just huge, fluffy, and from another planet...	Here is a closer look
We water and care for just one of these -- our celtic roots...	The tomato plants (trees?) are nearly 6 feet tall!

Date: 2006-07-30 18:09 Subject: Weekend Report with Geoff Cain Security: Public Mood: accomplished Music: Duality by Electrostatic Tags: photos

This was a really great weekend. I finally got around to celebrating J's b-day. That gives you an idea of how busy I have been. I am two weeks behind in real life. Hey and guess what? I took on some more work because it looks like things are slowing down a bit! Anyway, we went out to dinner on Friday. J wrote about that already. We had a great time in Seattle although that shooting business was really freaky in retrospect. I knew something bad was going down because of all of the helicopters and ambulances going up one way streets. Very hard core.

We got a lot of great housework and gardening done on Sat. My sister came over for dinner. I love that for two reasons: it is always good to connect with family. Second, J is always inspired to make home-made ravioli or some such good food. Worked on some paintings in the evening (rip offs of Raushka -- not quite as proficient but certainly cheaper).

Sunday we went to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. We saw a lot of wildlife: elk, eagles and knights of columbus. Ba-dum-ba! Actually we did see a lot of wildlife -- a river otter, a tiny vole, a mother and adolescent racoon actually hunting in the mudflats (not digging through trash). It was a really gorgeous trip and a much needed re-connection with nature. It is only a twenty minute drive from here and it is a 5.5 mile walk -- much needed re-creation.

Here is a page I made about today: http://geocities.com/geoffcain/Desktop.html

Date: 2006-07-14 15:46 Subject: It's been a while... Security: Public Location: University Place, WA Mood: cheerful Music: Guan Shan Yue Tags: photos

I have not posted in a bit. I think I mentioned to some that I was sick so what I would have to post would be all too predictable. I am up and around again. The MD declared me 4.0 and ready to roll so I get to go to Pasco, WA for a Distance Learning meeting. The more I think about it, the funnier it sounds; I am driving 4 hours to a distance learning meeting -- shouldn't I be there virtually or something? It will be a good chance to meet with other distance learning people in the state and I am driving our dean and it will be a good chance to get to know him better -- he is a jazz and NPR fan so the time should pass quickly.

My niece will be here this week -- I am sorry I have to miss three days of that but we are going to the zoo tomorrow. There will be lots of jacknapery on my part -- I am a great one for scaring children at zoos and such: pretending animals have bitten me or escaped (casually dropping comments in line like "Imagine those zoo keepers arguing like that -- one of them wants to close the entire zoo just because one tiger is loose.")

Today, to celebrate a day without a fever, I decided we needed to take the Holga, the digital camera, and the polaroid and go out and make photos. I wanted to revisit Lakewood and revisit some of the crazy buildings we found:

Date: 2006-06-26 21:49 Subject: Happiness is a warm bacterial infection... Security: Public Location: UP, WA Mood: mellow Music: "Dream of a Witch" by Berlioz (from Sym. Fantastique). Tags: photos

It has been really great reconnecting with Jon. Not that there is a lot of reconnection; we always are pretty well tuned in - we are just geographically closer now too. Went with Jon to Manzanita, OR for The Gathering, a group of friends, oneophiles, jackanapes, and various cafe hipsters and flipsters from both coasts. Most of us fit into more than one of those catagories. It teetered between "The Gathering" and "Children of the Corn." I showed up a day early so we could get an early start the next day but wound up staying up late drinking wine anyway. That was one of the themes of the week-end.  He is going to be a father AND a cafe owner. We had two houses -- one for the "lets-drink-jack-daniels-at-ten-in-the-morning" crowd and the other for the "non-punch-your-own-head-through-the-wall" types -- you know, boring people. It was a gorgeous week-end. I am really going to enjoy exploring the coast further.

Date: 2006-06-20 17:42 Subject: Bloomin' Flowers Security: Public Location: University Place, WA (eternal now) Mood: accomplished Music: Mahler's 1st -- that crazy 4th movement Tags: photos

Here are some pictures of this bush of lilies -- I had no idea what these were until they blossomed (isn't that the case for so many things?)