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August 27, 2008
A New Energy Weekend
Sometimes we forget how nice it is to be on or near the water. Last weekend, it was hot inland, so we visited WindSong, our 1970 Ericson 35 Mk II sailboat at Marina del Rey (MDR).
On Saturday afternoon, we drove to world famous Venice Beach. For those who wish to be part of the 
scene, the Venice Beach Boardwalk is the place to be. For those of us who like a beach sans crowds, the stretch closest to the Marina del Rey breakwater is best. Despite the dearth of parking near the sand, we decided to try it.
After circling the area for about fifteen minutes, we realized that our Nissan Titan Off-road 4X4 should be able to go where others fear to tread. We held our breath, dialed in low-range 4-wheel drive, then tapped the throttle lightly. We stopped on the sand, within yards of the beach.
As soon as we parked, another 4X4 truck attempted what we had just accomplished. With his lift-kit and aggressive tires, he spun his wheels until all four were kicking sand. His truck came to rest looking like a 4-wheel drive commercial. His only problem was that he was 
stuck there for fifteen minutes.
One of the highlights of visiting MDR in the summertime is the unsurpassed day sailing on nearby Santa Monica Bay. From any boat slip in the marina, you can be sailing on the bay in less than fifteen minutes. Expect cool and overcast conditions until early afternoon, even in the summer. The cloud cover keeps you cool and comfortable as you sail past Venice Pier, then on to Santa Monica Pier, where this high-tech trimaran passed us by.
Turning at Santa Monica Pier, we tacked towards the MDR South Entrance. As hoped for, the sun came out, reflecting silver light across the sea. As we delighted in the brisk breeze, Ben played his "Young Man and the Sea" role, all the while keeping us on course.
Later, the less fortunate received a tow from Vessel Assist, while Bay Watch, LA County stood by. In the background, you will see your Alaska Pipeline at work. The tankers moored ;..jpg)
offshore from El Segundo are unloading there via undersea pipeline, connected to refineries onshore.
The first time I saw this sailboat, I did not know what to think. I have seen graphics on racing sails before, but they tend to be iconic, rather than photographic. Despite its blatancy, I like it. Coors has a legendary quality from the early 1970s, when it was in short supply and bootlegged around the country by truckers. Additionally, one can get quite thirsty while out on the water.
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Sunset is always a special time of day at Venice Beach, where it meets the Marina. Having spent as many hours sailing the bay and walking along this shore, I know that the Main Channel at Marina del Rey is at the center of the arc of Santa Monica Bay. The Sun, wind and waves converge and focus vortextural energies on that place, showering and splashing a joy of life both to and from our universe complete.
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June 27, 2008
Mrs. Tipperwillow's Afterlife Adventures
During my attendance at the Quantum Leap Celebration in Taos, New Mexico in September 2007, I met Krista Markowitz, author and fellow spiritual seeker. Krista was then in the process of completing a six year writing effort to bring her “Mrs. Tipperwillow”, a magical “sort of cow” to the wider world audience. Now, I am happy to report, Krista has published her book and it is available to all.
Although the book will thrill readers both young and old, it will be particularly meaningful for a child who has recently lost a loved one or who faces the possibility of a shorter stay on planet Earth than might otherwise be expected. For anyone facing an imminent passing from this physical life to the non-physical state of being that some call death, this book is for you. Upon finishing the book, any reader’s latent fear of death will transmute to laughter and perhaps a few tears of joy.
Mrs. Tipperwillow's Afterlife Adventures, a series of three stories under one cover following the afterlives of six children in the spirit world, written by Krista Markowitz and lovingly illustrated by Jenny Markowitz is now available in 6"x9" format, in either hardback or soft cover version through www.amazon.com.
Check out Krista’s website www.tipperwillow.com or Google by name for book description. If there are enough on-line sales through Amazon and through bookstores within the next several months, the magical “sort-of-cow” will automatically appear in select Barnes and Nobles bookstores for sixty days!
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James McGillis
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February 28, 2008
Results of the 2006 Midterm Elections
November 9, 2006
Now that the midterm election is over, we can all relax and just enjoy the play-out of the new energies. Will anything "really" change? Probably not much will change, at least on the visible surface. There will be some old familiar faces on TV - Carl Levin, Charlie Rangel, even that flaming liberal, Henry Waxman. That should be fun.
Just yesterday, #43 reached again into #41's old bag of advisors for a new Secretary of Offense. Still, his pig-headedness and "take the fight to the enemy, even if we don't know who they are or where they live" will keep the lid on change at any easily accessible level (Faux News, etc.). #43 has become sort of like Ariel Sharon (brain dead, to be sure), but always predictable in his use of force, in a "Dick Cheney" sort of way. Rover tried to "lean 'em to the right" one more time, but a small majority of the electorate was more afraid of leaving #43 in unchecked power than they were of the "San Francisco-Liberal", "Tax & Spend", "Soft on Terrorism" Democrats.
The "fight" is not over, except for those who realize that "fighting" gets us nowhere. The Democrats should run Jackie DeShannon and their theme song should be, "Put A Little Love in Your Heart". On the other hand, wasn't she British, thus ineligible for the presidency? While you are reading the rest of this article, let us all think of an American woman for whom we would vote in a presidential election. OK? You will find my choice at the end of this diatribe, but no fair peeking. You have to think of at least one of your own.
The only problem, if there is one, is that we never seem to get (back) to the future. By the time that we all have heated & cooled cup holders in a car that can parallel-park itself (comfort and practicality, all in one package); we laugh, shrug and simply accept it as normal. If something transported you back to 1958 and visited the Auto Show at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in LA, you would be impressed with such new technologies as "Power Steering", which was brought into play because automobiles were becoming as heavy as the hydraulically-control jet fighters that they were meant to emulate. You may have noticed that SAAB has brought back their jet fighter lineage recently, proving that there is nothing new under the Sun.
To continue our theme, do you remember the Rocket Oldsmobile? You do not hear much about rockets anymore, unless they use 5000-year-old Chinese guidance technology, as fired by Hamas. No hydraulic boost needed there! Of course, do not forget the high-tech Israeli rockets that seem to reprogram themselves to take out apartment buildings full of (formerly) extended families in Gaza. Is this the "Revenge of the Rockets" or perhaps the ultimate extension of the 1950s MidEast Crisis?
Do you recognize this "Old Friend"? Yes, she is the one who started it all - the "Space Race" that is. It is one of six spare Sputniks, left over after "bigger, better, more, longer, lower, wider" (kudos to GM for their last original concept) satellite technology took over. We traded with the Russians (did we not call them the "Ruskies" in the old days?) for two Russian names to be placed in the Rocket Science Hall of Fame. Ironically, she is not much bigger than the now infamous Michael Jordan-signed basketball that Madeline Albright supposedly bounce-passed to Kim Jung Il as an enticement for him to give up his nuclear arms if not missile) ambitions. She (Sputnik, not Madeline) still looks good, after all these years. Is anyone out there old enough to remember the fear that she (Sputnik) struck in the hearts of Americans? We dreamed about stainless steel basketballs falling on us from the sky. It was scary enough to have millions of us school kids doing drop & cover drills. Be sure to cover your eyes so that you won't be "blinded by the light" as you are vaporized.
For whatever reason, I did not take any pictures of the bent/spent, rusty/trusty German V-2 Rocket engine that they had dug up out of the White Sands of New Mexico, but you would be amazed to see its gyro-controlled, vectored-thrust, multi-nozzle rocket engine. This is not bad for 1938 "technology". You gotta love the German sense of style, in those days. Their WW-II (The Big One) combat helmets became the stylistic prototype for Darth Vader's "hat" in Star Wars (Episodes 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9, but not 2, 4, 6 & 8, where he sported a French Beret). Sorry, I did not mean to bring up the French. For those who are still hoping we find WMDs in Iraq, I know it is a sore subject.
Back to our rocket: After exhausting its fuel, this little jewel would parachute down and the spike on the nose would act like a dart, penetrating the sand, leaving the missile intact, to fly another day. For those of us who grew up in Burbank, the name "Lockheed" on the tail makes for a wistful sigh(t). For fans of jet fighter technology, our little yellow "bumblebee" seems to have the wings and tail of an F-104 Star Fighter designed and built by Lockheed. During the 1960's and early 1970's, the F-104 was our main defense against "The Red Menace". NATO pilots, many of whom were Germans (didn't they used to be the enemy?) called it a "manned rocket". Now we know why.
From the Saturn-V Moon-rocket motor on the left (note the full-sized adult next to it), to the early Nike Missile, shown in elevated (firing) position. Later, the design morphed into the Japanese whale harpoon, used to blast the ocean's whales into submission and near extinction in what they called a 'fair fight'... the blubbering whales being reduced to a bumper-sticker-defense, as in "Nuke the Unborn Gay Whales"), to the forward-theater, nuclear-capable missile on the right (deployed in "Western" Germany, with red-blooded Americans ready to fire us all into Armageddon, if we so much as lost a single foot race in a USA/USSR dual track meet). We can see how enamored of missile technology we really were in the 50's & 60's. It makes you wonder how we made it out of "that life" alive.
We shot all these pictures at the Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, NM. It is a mere 30 miles from the "Trinity Site", named for "ground zero" of the world's first nuclear blast, which occurred there in 1945, thus causing many witnesses to see "The Father, The Son and an image of their own "Holy Ghost" rising to heaven on a mushroom cloud). All of that aside, you can imagine how shocked I was to look out the window, only to see this ancient rocket achieving lift-off from what was supposed to be a static display area. I caught this one-of-a-kind, ground-shaking event on camera, for you to see.
Meanwhile, back here on Mother Earth, and especially in Iran and North Korea, what will the "real future" bring? (Can you say, "Bring 'em on" with a straight face?)
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February 23, 2008
.jpg)
The Lost Mural of Artist Denis O'Connor
According to an obituary in the February 21, 2008 edition of the Los Angeles Times, the famed muralist Denis O’Connor died on December 26, 2007, although his family did not announce his death until last week.
By clicking on the word obituary, here or above, you can read the interesting story of his life and art. For anyone living in Los Angeles in the 1960s or 1970s, Denis’s public art was the visible mainstay of the often-ornate Home Savings & Loan buildings constructed at that time.
The Home Savings branches built during that time featured gold leaf trim and Italian marble fascia, supplied by Ahmanson’s own marble quarry. Eat your heart out Getty Trust.
With his recent death, there is new interest in the nearly eighty murals that O’Connor created for the company. As time passed, and the company changed hands, several of the murals disappeared during renovation or the destruction of old Home Savings buildings. .jpg)
Since only in death does an artist receive full appreciation for his or her work, it behooves us all to find, catalog and preserve the amazing public legacy that Denis O’Connor left to us. I hereby challenge WAMU to step away from their idiotic television and print ad campaigns in favor of discovering, preserving and promoting their own under-appreciated public art collection.
I will start the ball rolling by telling everyone that one of Denis O’Connor’s best works lies intact, but long hidden behind a false wall in the main room of WAMU's Burbank, California branch, located at the corner of Burbank Blvd. and San Fernando Road.
Whoo-Who, WAMU. Let’s get serious about the public trust.
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››
scene, the Venice Beach Boardwalk is the place to be. For those of us who like a beach sans crowds, the stretch closest to the Marina del Rey breakwater is best. Despite the dearth of parking near the sand, we decided to try it. 
stuck there for fifteen minutes.
offshore from El Segundo are unloading there via undersea pipeline, connected to refineries onshore.
.jpg)
Although Home Savings sold out to 
