Back to Stanford

I drove down Hwy 280 Thursday night to see the screening of 8 films by grad students in the Stanford Graduate program in Documentary Film and Video. Jason Sussberg and friends made a 6-min documentary on our home, and it was one of those screened. I like the way it turned out. Will post a link soon. I drove down Hwy 280 in the twilight, past Crystal Springs reservoir, and when I turned off on Sand Hill Road, I got a sharp flashback to 1953, driving my '46 Chevy sedan down to start as a freshman at Stanford. I'd barely gotten into Stanford (wouldn't come close nowadays!), and the campus then was completely surrounded by rolling hills. As I drove down the road (now Silicon Valley etc.),

Hoover Tower appeared in the distance, and it was a moment.

These days I marvel at the Stanford stonework. Never noticed it as a student. The stone came from a nearby quarry in the 1880s when the Stanford Quad was built. As I wandered around, the Quad felt very much the same as it did 50+ years ago. Above is Encina Hall, where I lived my first year. Right, 120-year old stonework, south exterior Quad.

View of Mt. Tam This Morning

While I was driving into San Francisco around 6:30 AM this morning, Mt. Tamalpais from the ridge just before dropping down to Muir Beach. 

San Francisco's New Composting Ordinance

Gavin Newsom, the Mayor with Hair, has instituted an ordinance that will require SF residents to put all food scraps, plant clippings and paper products with food residues in a green bin for pickup. About time! This means that instead of going to a landfill, decomposing in ugly fashion and producing methane gas, this material will get composted and turned back into fertile soil, applied to crops, and regenerated in fruits and vegetables. It's always struck me as weird to put food in with plastics and other garbage in cities. Just not right. Not good planetary stewardship. We've been composting for over 40 years. All food scraps we generate go either to the chickens or in one of my 3 compost bins, at left. These are 5' square, with 1 x 12's that slide in grooves routed out in posts to make different heights. I turn from one to the other, then into garden. The word is re-cycled. Article in SF Chronicle.

Exploring With the Boys

Yesterday I went exploring with my friends Sasha and Jonas at Muir Beach. These guys are like mine sweepers, combing every inch of the ground, beach, and creeks for animals and insects (dead or alive), plants, feathers, seed pods…Hey Lloyd, look at this…Hey this is so cool…Lloyd, what's this? We ended up picking up squashed salamanders, feathers, a bird's foot, and a cormorant head, which I'll render into a skull for them. Wonderful to see kids get such joy out of the natural world. Of course they wanted to know why this rock was cracked.

Bow and Arrow Fishing in New Guinea, 1937

This morning I went poke poling for eels and this afternoon I ran across this wonderful photo.

Photographed by Francis Edgar Williams (Australian, 1893 - May 12, 1943)

Title: Man fishing from tree stump

Papua New Guinea, Papuan Gulf, Biai

Date: Nov. 1937

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art/"Works of Art"

Caught Three Eels On Reef This Morning

It was a minus tide and I got up at dawn, put on waders, grabbed my eel pole (20'-long bamboo pole with hook on end) and went out on the reef — a spot I'd never tried before. First off I stumbled and fell almost face first in a pool. But, I baited up (clam scraps) and started poking the bait into cracks. It's called poke poling. In about an hour I caught 3 eels. I was elated, because in my last eel foray, I got—as they say—skunked. Eels are kind of prehistoric. I'm going to smoke them. I also picked up some nori seaweed and incorporated it into an omelette when I got home. Mighty fine. Now at the Mac with a latte made with Blue Mountain Jamacia beans. NTS stands for not too shabby…

I'm on an ocean roll. Yesterday I also got up before sunrise and went to the hot springs. It's down a very steep slippery cliff trail, not for the faint-hearted, and sometimes is working, sometimes not. Yesterday, foggy morning, hot water (high in sulfur and lithium), then a jump in the 54º ocean and—what a way to start the day. I got 3 times as much work done as normal yesterday.

I constantly marvel at what the world around us has to offer.. It's all right there. You just have to get out and explore…

Right now I'm listening to The Meditations doing 3-part harmony on Turn Me Loose,  Beautiful. Pure reggae. The Meditations—Deeper Roots—the Best of the Meditations/Heart Beat CD HB 158

Ain't It The Truth?

Also sent me by Alan Wherry:

"You just become, like a flower becomes the fruit. It's all built in within you. Allow it to work out." 

-- H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi  

http://www.sahajayoga.org/

Carved Cliffside Cave Homes in Iran

Just sent me by Alan Wherry:

 

"In the north east of Iran at the foot of Mount Sahand in Kandovan, the villagers live in cave homes carved out from the volcanic rock. The age of some houses is more than 700 years."

This area is very similar to the more famous cave homes in Cappadocia, Turkey (as featured in our 1973 book Shelter).

For Google photos of Mt. Sahand, see: http://bit.ly/JI9CB

Music in My Life

Music plays a huge part in my life. 2 of my 3 sons are musicians. I studied the violin for 7 years, played the ukulele in a high school quartet (which included Bill Bixby (My Favorite Martian, the Hulk…), lately been playing the jug (and soon getting a wooden washtub-type bass). Music is one of my tools in doing page layout and other creative ventures (along with sin semilla and caffeine). getting on the right side of the brain, ah yes…

I love blues, bluegrass, cajun, (good) reggae, country, Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Satie…. BUT what grabs me like nothing else — maybe because it was such a fresh and exciting part of the '60s revolution — is real, pure rock & roll. Oh yes!

We watched the most wonderful concert on PBS a few nights back, catch it if you can. It's Great Performances: Eric Clapton - Crossroads 2007.  Albert Lee, Vince Gill, John Myer, Jeff Beck (ooh-wee!), Buddy Guy, Sheryl Crowe…one of those rare, magic times when it all came together. The guitar work! Mature musicians communicating on a high level. It was dazzling. See it if you can (I don't know if PBS is still running it).

Screening of 6-min. Documentary on Lloyd This Thursday at Stanford

About a month ago, a crew of MFA students from the Documentary Film & Video program of the art department at Stanford came out to Bolinas for 3 days, interviewed me, and shot it in 16 mm color film (celluloid!) This Thursday night there will be a screening of 8 documentaries, including LK's (6 min.), at Annenberg Auditorium, 435 Lasuen Mall, Stanford, CA 94305. They shot me talking about building one's own house, the '60s,  skateboarding, turning the compost pile, working in my shop, washing dishes. Info on screening here.