Art Ludwig visits my town once in a while, and, if I have time, we go out in search of adventure. Last night there was a real high tide so we took paddleboard (me) and kayak (Art) and headed into the channels of a nearby estero. Of all the many times I’ve followed this watery route, this was the best. No wind down in the marshes, glassy water. 6 PM, a cloud cover but not too cold. Wonderful light, way more subtle than bright sunshine. Tide flowing in, pulling us along. Birds everywhere. My 12′ Joe Bark ultra-light paddleboard flew over the water. We went through the serpentine channels (20′ or so wide at this tide).
At a point I beached my board on a mud flat. My foot sunk knee-deep when I stepped off the board and when I pulled it out, there was a layer of inky black goo on my leg. Hmmm…a mud bath was obvious, but it wasn’t exactly warm weather. I made a decision, one that I’ve followed a lot lately. I’m going to get cold, or uncomfortable, or in a slightly dangerous situation, but if I push myself to go for it, it always pays off; I get energized.
I took off my short-sleeve wet suit, scooped out the goo and applied it. I mean, this stuff is right here, nearby, waiting to be used in a ritual of purification, so to speak. What a planet!
Art came paddling over as I started coating myself with this beautiful sticky, slippery goo. He was amused; he got out on the mudflat, grabbed my camera, and started shooting photos. When I was pretty well coated I took a big blob of mud and plopped it on my head. Art was laughing so hard he almost fell in the water. Hey this was fun! This is also an expensive skin rejuvenation methodology as practiced in many a snooty spa.
I washed it off as best as I could (next time I’m going to leave it on my face until I get home). We went on into the open part of the lagoon and there were at least 1000 birds, never seen so many pelicans, terns darting and swooping in swallow-tailed black and white elegance. We skirted the huge family of birds, just far enough away to observe, but not stampede them. You never know when a moment like this will happen. A lot of things have to come together.
So much is going on in my life right now I have a hard time finding time to blog. In a hurry:
1. My book on Canadian carpenters is in the final weeks (of a 3-year odyssey). Two days ago I finished a 4-page last-minute addition of curved-rib saunas that I think are the best pages in the book. I’m reworking the intro for the 20th time and doing cover layouts. Rick has almost finished doing color separations (of some 1200 photos). After agonizing over paper choices for a few months, we picked Somerset Matte (with 10% recycled content) as our paper; it’s a beautiful paper. The book is gonna be made in the USA.
2. I just got my best skateboard ever.
Dervish” model: note how trucks mount above deck, giving you a lower center of gravity
The decks on Loaded boards are made out of thin layers of laminated bamboo. They’re springy and the good riders accelerate by pushing down with each turn and rebounding, pushing the board forward. These are unique boards. get on one and you’ll be hooked. Cruisin’ with style. You guys in yr. 40s and 50s who have skated in the past and given it up: like surfing, skateboarding has continued to evolve. The decks, wheels, trucks keep getting better. Check out Loaded boards at: https://www.loadedboards.com/. The Purple Skunk longboard skate shop on Geary at 23rd in San Francisco has a bunch of these you can try out.
3. A few birds in my life lately:
Great Blue Heron. These are ultra wary birds. I was reading in our 2nd story bedroom and he coasted into the deck; never knew I was there.
Mourning Dove
American Goldfinch
4. “The things I used to do/I don’t do no more.”
On the radio Saturday was an interview Mike Bloomfield did with old Chicago blues master Robert Nighthawk in the ’60s.
Bloomfield: “Have you ever done religious music?”
Nighthawk: “Well, I don’t like workin’ for two different men — pause — You know, I work for the devil now.”
Since my last posting, I’ve been to LA and back, spent a night in Pismo Beach (a great area), revisited my house and a beautiful free-flowing-creek canyon in Big Sur, shot 100s of photos, swam with dolphins at Malibu. “Hey Lloyd,” Elise shouted from the beach as I was swimming, “there’s an animal in the water.” Vrooom! I was on the shore. No worries. It was dolphins, cruising and playing, a good omen. LA was spectacular with clear air all week.(It had rained a few days before.) There’s a gracious city there if you know hot to get to its mellow parts.
We’re in the final of final weeks of getting Builders of the Pacific Coast ready for the printers. We’re aiming for October release. As of today I’m adding two pages. Beautifully crafted wood saunas too unique to pass up.
This book is looking — ahem — stunning. We’re betting the farm on it.
My life has been so full lately, what with the book (we still don’t have a cover) and adventures on the roads and in the wilds, I haven’t had time to blog. I’ll try to get more current. I’ve got a bunch of pics from the last month I’ll post.(I’ve already got a ton of material since the Builders book), filed in the HomeWork 2 folder.
Toys from LA: I got a new 12′ (Surftek) Joe Bark racing paddleboard and it flies through the water. Am getting a new bamboo Loaded skateboard (check their website, these are unique boards). I’ve been in about 20 bodies of water in the last month. Creeks, ocean, bay, lagoon, pond. Am transitioning back from 20 years of running on the mountain to paddling and surfing. Like a dolphin, back to the sea.
Here’s a photo from my latest trip (I got content, more than I know what to do with.):
Meditation room in canyon on west coast, afternoon sunlight
Sunday evening I took off on foot with a backpack and sleeping bag for a beach of my acquaintance north of here. The next day was my birthday — don’t ask! — and I wanted to watch the sunrise on the ocean. That day I had just finished the rough layout of the last two pages of my book Builders of the Pacific Coast, so it was a double special occasion. I like the idea of heading out into the world in quest of adventure on foot, with no wheels or fossil fuels. It’s about a 3-mile hike and when I got to the spot, where a creek comes down to the ocean, lo and behold, here was this little driftwood shack.
Perfect. I’d just finished 3 years working on a book about builders on the coast, who often built houses out of logs from the beach, and here was a little driftwood shack by an anonymous builder. I unloaded my pack and sleeping bag inside and took a walk on the sandy beach. When I got back I checked out the construction: the roof had been made by leaning boards against a 10-foot-or-so-long branch of a log that was firmly anchored in the sand. There were nice little touches here and there, like a starfish over the doorway and it was roomy inside. I sat on the sand and watched the sunset.
Doorway focused on point where sun sets
It was cold and windy so I lit a driftwood fire outside and huddled around it watching the stars. I crawled in my bag. The waves were pounding, since this is open ocean, and you could feel its power, this ceaseless never-resting engine of water and foam and sand and energy and life. The next morning I packed up and headed home. The wind had stopped, and the tide pools were green and clear, birds were diving, and I picked up shells (below) in the warming sun. It was so fine. I was almost ecstatic. I didn’t have to get on an airplane, or even drive, to get to this paradise. I came back full of ocean energy.
Builders of the Pacific Coast
I’m coming to the end of a 3-year odyssey working on a book about a unique bunch of carpenters along the Pacific coast, from San Francisco up to British Columbia. It’s been a long haul. Over a 2-year period I made 4 photo-shooting trips up the coast. Then organizing, writing text, and sorting through 8000 photos off and on for a year, and in the last 5 months, doing rough layouts (I use an old Hewlett Packard $250 color copy machine to size photos, then tape them down to layout pages, along with text. Retro, I know, but I like to do it manually before digitally.)
At that point the pages go to art director David, who rearranges where needed, and does artistic upgrades; then to Rick, meister of InDesign and Photoshop, for building the pages. Lew helps with editing and design. We’ve evolved into a great team for making these highly-illustrated books, but we’re s-l-o-w.
We’ve just completed our 3rd round of changes, and our 3rd printout of color spreads, on plain paper. Now I have a pile of about 240 pages, and just yesterday put them in order. I had to get the entire book done before I knew how to arrange it. I rewrite and rearrange stuff continually. It’s a long and costly process, but it’s the only way I know to make a book. This way you’re creating and changing things continuously while in the production process, as opposed to the normal stagnant method of sending off a manuscript with pics to be put together all at once. I’m about 6 months behind schedule. It will be in the stores by November.
In fact this morning I got up early and put together the last page, with photos of the driftwood shack.
Late news flash: Our Canadian distributors are using this photo from our book as their catalog cover:
Printing
Guess where we’re going to print this 4-color book? The USA. We got quotes from 5 Asian printers, as well as Courier in the US. We’d save a lot of money printing in China on non-recycled paper as opposed to the U.S. on recycled stock. After much agonizing we opted for the latter. There are real issues associated with printing books in China. The pollution at the plant where HOME WORK was printed was hard to believe (I saw it first-hand), and there’s the issue of the cargo ships from the orient burning rot-gut polluting oil because there’s no smog control on the high seas. So this time instead of flying to China for a press check, I’ll be going to Indiana. Chelsea Green and their green approach to printing has been an inspiration. Publishers interested in responsible paper usage, here’s a good place to start:
Publishers Group West (our distributors) and Avalon Travel Books threw a party a few weeks ago at PGW headquarters in Berkeley where the energy was insanely high. The if-it-doesn’t-kill-you-it’s-good-for-you principle is obviously at work with PGW because having survived the bankruptcy of their parent corporation and a year of intrigue and uncertainty, PGW has roared back to life. Hats off to their new owners, the Perseus Books Group, for not fixing something that wasn’t broke. I know I sound like a PGW Polyanna, but gosh darn it, this was something phenomenal. Hundreds of people, great food and drink, everyone was sparkling. Once again afloat and stylin’.
Oldest log cabin in Arizona, built in 1864, now at a building museum in Prescott, Ariz. From my trip there last month
Websites
Monk needs help opening book; if you’re a book person, you’ll love this:
The laughing baby:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXXm696UbKY
A stunning website, 3000 photos of hunting whales the old way:
Counterculture Green by Andrew G. Kirk (2008, University Press of Kansas) is an accurate and insightful analysis of the role Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth Catalog played in laying a pragmatic foundation for environmentalism as we know it today.
City of the Mind, a book about London by Penelope Lively; a powerful writer.
Music du Jour
Patsy Cline, The Definitive Collection. The song Crazy — talk about romantic! — was written by Willie Nelson. A gorgeous version. Then listening to her sing Lovesick Blues led me to get out the original, by Hank, which is on a CD, Hank Williams — Low Down Blues — all blues songs by Hank, amazing stuff…
I went down to the river,
To watch the fish swim by,
But I got to the river so lonesome I wanted to die, oh lord,
And I jumped in the river but the doggone river was dry.
Pig Vehicle of the Year
2008 Porsche Cayenne Turbo “luxury sports sedan.” 500 hp; weight 5100 lbs; mileage 12 mpg city; cost: $93,700. Just who drives something like this?
Skating On
Just before the PGW party I was skating down a hill in Berkeley and a car pulled out at the bottom. I baled, that is, jumped off the board, and speed and gravity overcame leg strength and I hit the pavement, sliding prone. Thank god for my padded gloves; otherwise I wouldn’t have flesh on my palms. No skin contacted pavement, but I got a couple of skin burns from pants skidding on pavement. I’m going to the BEA book convention in LA at the end of the month and plan on skating in Beverly Hills with friends late at night. Wide streets, smooth pavement, well-lit.
I’ve been in the obsession zone lately, finishing 3 years of (off-and-on) putting together my book Builders of the Pacific Coast. The last 10 per cent is the hardest. I’ve been working on the intro for a week now. I have a ton of things to post on the blog, I’ll mention them here rapid-fire and then get back to the book.
Recent adventures, thoughts, stuff, without further ado: I finally went to Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti in Arizona, shot pix some of which I’ll post, and found problems with the artist/genius concept of an “organic” city. Parts of it are OK, the people living there are very nice, but there are flaws. The older I get the less I think of leaders. Details later. Took my pal Sherm to good-vibes Ashkenaz nightclub in Berkeley last night to see the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra, music of the ’20s and ’30s. Sherm somehow manages to flirt from his wheelchair. Great dancing, young and old.
It’s been co-ho-ho-hold. 30 degrees last night. Cold winds blowing in from the ocean. Last week it was 80 degrees on Sunday. Weird! I went to the beach and swam across the channel to Stinson beach. The tide was coming in from the ocean which has been cooled by weeks of wind and Lordy was it cold. We need more rain. I decided not to train for the Dipsea Race this year, just too much other stuff to do. My maniac mountain warrior running friends have all embarked on the heavy painful 2-months-to-go training runs. I miss Mexico. It’s been too many years since I’ve lain on my back on the beach studying the stars, too long since I’ve been in warm water. Next year I’m going to Baja for 6 weeks Jan-Feb to hang out with my friend Chilon, sleep on the beaches and in the desert arroyos, surf AND put together a book tentatively called DEEP IN THE HEART OF BAJA. I haven’t been running, paddling or surfing much at all lately, keeping nose to finishing this book, which reveals itself to me progressively day by day. At this point I’m shuffling pages, putting them in order, coordinating corrections from the builders, trying out all kinds of large-size graphics for the front matter (first 9 pages of the book), poring over the pages for the third round of corrections and changes. Got a new skateboard with a drop-down deck (Landyachtz in British Columbia, the same territory as my book). I love to skate even though I’m in the 3% percentile of skill (100 being the highest). It’s not like cycling, which has all kinds of skill levels. Skaters are one and all talented and graceful athletes. I work around the house on weekends, fixing stuff, building the compost piles, watering plants, fiddling with the chickens, getting firewood, doing a myriad of homesteading chores. We’re talking to 5 different printers for this new book. We want to print it in the USA, but it looks like it will cost us $12,000 extra to do so (on recycled paper) as opposed to non-recycled in China. A dilemma. Stay tuned. Back to the book.
Web stuff:
Stumbleupon, I found out about this on CoolTools (kk.org)
Kelby Online Training, a great way to learn Photoshop. Light Room, InDesign, Illustrator, etc. The web at its best
The whalehunt, 3000 photos of present-day Eskimo whale hunt. Stunning web design
Music Du Jour:
-Twang Ditty, Young SF country band channeling Merle and Patsy Kline
-The Three Pickers, CD of concert in North Carolina of Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, and Ricky Skaggs
Once this book is off to the printers I’ll get back to posting stuff more often.
“I pulled into Nazareth…” I got into Prescott (Arizona) around six last night. It was March 30, the day my cousin Michael Kahn was born 72 years ago, and I was coming from a celebration of Mike’s life and art at his creekside sculptural compound of buildings near Cottonwood, Arizona. Mike left this world on December 22, 2007 (the winter solstice), a victim of Pick’s Disease, a degenerative brain disease similar to Alzheimer’s. His wife Leda organized an outdoor gathering, and about 125 friends of Mike’s and Leda’s showed up to talk about and remember the life of this gentle man who touched many people’s lives with his art and presence.
Mike several years ago
There were 10 pages of Mike’s buildings in my book Home Work: Hand-made Shelter. The NY Times did a large article on Mike’s buildings (called “Eliphante,”) on January 31st, titled A Handmade Home
I’ve been socked in for months now, finishing my book on builders of the Pacific Coast, so it’s been great to get out on the road again. 80 degrees in Phoenix, all riiight! after a cold Northern Calif. winter, felt good, like Baja, and then rolling northward in a rented Nissan Sentra, through saguaro-studded desert, then into the higher elevations north on I-17, with an elegance in the landscape, different shades of red earth, hillsides of blooming yellow flowers, and then a cut by the side of the road that was a delicate light purple. I did a double-take.
As I got close to Mike’s, a Credence song came on KCLD, the “Good old rock & roll” station in Flagstaff. Things were feeling good. I turned up the volume. The party the next day was great. Good vibes, good people, good food. In between talking to a bunch of Mike’s friends and family, I shot pictures, and the images describe his work better than words. Here are just a few of many.
Inside “Eliphante”
Door to “Pipe Dreams,” the building containing Mike’s latest paintings
When I get out on the road, I’m overwhelmed with people and places and things I run across. I can only get a fraction of them on to my blog. I figure I need two clones to do everything I want to do. More and more I’ve come to employ randomness in my travels. Finding places to stay by instinct, whatever is available at the end of the day wherever I am, and asking locals where to eat or hear music. On this trip I allowed an extra couple of days to mosey around, so I left Eliphante around 4 in the bright desert sun and headed for Prescott. I ended up checking into a 106-year old 79-room hotel in downtown Prescott, with a morning sun-facing 3rd story room looking down on a park, with wi-fi, HBO, and free full breakfast in its bistro. It wasn’t until an hour after I arrived that I realized I’d checked in to the Hotel St. Michael. On Mike’s birthday. Cosmic. I should add that Mike and I were close when growing up. I was a year older, and both he and I (and our dads, who were brothers) all looked alike. One guy at the gathering said he looked at me across the yard and burst into tears, I looked so much like Mike.
It’s a sunny morning in Prescott, which turns out to be a great town. Good food abounds, lots of music, there are “fixer-upper” dumps for under $200K, air is clear, sun bright, it’s a relief to get out of money-choked California.
I just got back from an ergonomic conference* in Orlando, Florida. We had a booth and did demos of our stretching software, StretchWare. StretchWare reminds you to stretch at your computer; the stretches appear on-screen at chosen intervals during the day.
This was the first time we’ve exhibited the software publicly, and the response was extraordinary. We developed the software 9 years ago and it seems the world has caught up. Suddenly people seem aware of the importance of computer users taking care of their bodies. In a funny way, it seems to parallel the “green” consciousness of the times. We had a constant stream of people at our booth for the entire two days. I have over 50 business cards from ergonomic managers who want to test it. Some of the companies: Honda, Intel, Boeing, Monsanto, Alcoa, Hewlett-Packard, Traveler’s Insurance, GE, Armstrong, Mitsubishi… heavy hitters.
These people didn’t have to be sold; they were at the conference because they’ve already recognized the value of promoting employee health — it was preaching to the choir.
We’ve been selling site licenses (for all employees of a given firm) for years (click here and look in the right hand column for a list of companies using it), but this is a whole new octave. It seems as if the general consciousness has changed.
StretchWare is based on our book Stretching, by Bob and Jean Anderson. It’s sold over 3 million copies worldwide and is in 24 languages. StretchWare is a great little program. It works in both Mac and Windows, is robust (written in C++), small in footprint, intelligently designed (ahem, ahem), and is based on the experience of a world-class stretching authority (unlike any of the competing programs).
*11th Annual Applied Ergonomics Conference
Shameless Commerce Dept.: If you work for a company and are interested in you and your fellow workers trying StretchWare, we’ll send you the program free to try out. Or, there’s a free 30-day download of the entire program here.
Here are some early rough layouts of our forthcoming book. I’ll try to post some every week or two. Book should be out by June. For more previews, go to our website.
Tim Biggins’ island home
Dean Ellis’ steel-framed house overlooking the sea
I love this picture of SunRay, the barefoot builder, shot in 1995. SunRay is one of the three featured builders in our next book, Builders of the Pacific Coast “The men don’t know, but the little girls understand.” (The Doors) -Photo by Corwin Fergus
