Sunday, January 8th

[Cornflake]

Good morning. It'll be sunny and 40s-60s here. I'm up earlier than usual for a Sunday so I can try to photograph waterfowl at a spot I've never visited. Birds aren't a passion for me the way they are for some people but photographing them is always a pleasant challenge.

Not much to report. Enjoy your day.

Wordle 568 3/6*

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[millring]

In 1814 we took a little trip...

[jdd2]

Almost spring weather--was out both friday and today on a bike, and the coming week looks fine, too.

[Cosmic Wonder]

I’m up. Too early. The kids signed the papers on the new house, and the old house, and the movers came yesterday, so are waking up in the new house this morning. Rumor has it they will want help moving some more stuff that the movers didn’t take yesterday. Their new house is in SW Portland where we used to live, and walking distance from Mac’s Mom’s place. At keast they didn’t relocate to New Zealand, which was apparently in the cards. We got to dog sit their little chihuahua mix yesterday, which was nice. Well behaved and likes to cuddle.

Mike

Wordle 568 2/6

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[TKennedy]

A pretty, sunny white day here. Should hit 18 and light wind. A perfect day for outdoor winter activity.

[Marty]

G. M.

3F- 25F mostly sunny.

It's Sunday, so Sunday stuff.

71 Days Until Spring.

[PaulKay]

Eric and I are switching from recording videos to practicing for the new gig we have coming up at the end of January.
So we will try to get through all the material we have for that 3 hour gig today.
We haven't had a gig for at least a year, so I am quite a bit rusty.

We also have been picked up by the AFFIX Group for potential future gigs yet to be determined.

[paleo]

I'm back home in Iowa. We drove straight through yesterday, Breckenridge to Urbana. Approximately 900 miles and we spent 14.5 hours making the trip. It was snowing from Breckenridge to Georgetown and the roads were not good until we got to Denver.

We all had a great time with great conditions and survived with no injuries, however a friend of my oldest grandson, who had skied with us on Wednesday and Thursday wasn't so lucky. He was skiing with other people at Keystone on Friday and hit a tree. Face first.

He isn't sure what happened, he was skiing the trees, and woke up in the hospital. Broken jaw, and missing a lot of teeth. He's gonna have painful few months, but should fully recover.

[epaul]

4 degrees right now, but something good must moving our way as the high is projected to hit 24 and kick us off on a mild week. So far this winter has been on the mild side, just a couple days of plug-in the car weather (-20 low) with no serious stretches of articness. We have a long January to navigate, but a mild first week is a good start to it.

(the tough cold snaps are the end of February ones that hit when you think you are on the home stretch to Spring... and instead get blasted with the coldest days of the winter. January is staid and predictable. (late)February and March are squirrelly.)

[billhammond]

Jan 8, 2023 11:45:44 GMT -5 paleo said:

We all had a great time with great conditions and survived with no injuries, however a friend of my oldest grandson, who had skied with us on Wednesday and Thursday wasn't so lucky. He was skiing with other people at Keystone on Friday and hit a tree. Face first.

He isn't sure what happened, he was skiing the trees, and woke up in the hospital. Broken jaw, and missing a lot of teeth. He's gonna have painful few months, but should fully recover.

Ouch! One of my first instructions I got about tree skiing was "Aim for the white spaces -- if you look at a tree there's a good chance you'll hit it."

[Dub]

Had Howard started the daily, he’d have posted this.

[david]

Avoiding "target fixation" is taught in driving courses too.

Sore fingers from guitar practice this a.m. but at least I am playing.

I have been trying to thin out my unused stuff and sold my Carbon Acoustic OX yesterday. I liked the guitar, I just was not playing it, and not going on the kind of adventures that required a graphite guitar. The fellow I sold it to, Tim Werstor, is a very good player and will get a lot more use from it. I look forward to seeing him on stage with it.

[Cosmic Wonder]

Jan 8, 2023 12:24:11 GMT -5 david said:

I have been trying to thin out my unused stuff and sold my Carbon Acoustic OX yesterday. I liked the guitar, I just was not playing it, and not going on the kind of adventures that required a graphite guitar. The fellow I sold it to, Tim Werstor, is a very good player and will get a lot more use from it. I look forward to seeing him on stage with it.

If you ver feel the need to thin out the Martin mahogany 000, call me first.

Mike

[John B]

We spent the weekend in Brown County State Park. Friday night was a full moon hike around Ogle Lake. Saturday morning was an off-trail hike (guided by a ranger) to parts of the remains of Kelp Village, which existed before the park was created. In the 30's most of the buildings and evidence of the village's existence were hauled off as at the time it was just a bunch of derelict buildings. The cool part of the hike was that we were joined by two unexpected guests: the great-nephew of the 12-year-old the village was named after (who was probably in his 70s or 80s?), and a woman who was born in the village in 1927. Very, very cool.

Here are some full moon hike shots, all from an iPhone. Any red in the photos is because we all had either red headlamps or flashlights.

Right before the hike, as the moon was rising.


Looking back down the path at the hikers behind me:






And some of yesterday morning's frost.

[billhammond]

Jan 8, 2023 12:24:11 GMT -5 david said:

I have been trying to thin out my unused stuff and sold my Carbon Acoustic Composite Acoustics OX yesterday. I liked the guitar, I just was not playing it, and not going on the kind of adventures that required a graphite guitar. The fellow I sold it to, Tim Werstor, is a very good player and will get a lot more use from it. I look forward to seeing him on stage with it.

[t-bob]

Finally I came to the beach it’s really cold I walked just a little bit
Sunday1/8/23 noonish
I’ll be back




I saw a lot of things what happened all over Marin county and I noticed that so much change so quickly……. The pandemic.

Obviously change happens - occurs

BUT it's so damn quick like the flu19…….
The Marin Headland Hostel
Restaurants
Companies

[t-bob]

I’ve got some video if I can find it. It’s been incredibly cold and windy. Almost nobody was on the beach.

[Cornflake]

My daughter is in your general area, Bob, and it doesn't sound great right now.

[t-bob]

Jan 8, 2023 19:40:10 GMT -5 Cornflake said:

My daughter is in your general area, Bob, and it doesn't sound great right now.

It's a little winter but in about two months it'll be beautiful.

Maybe I'll say hello to your daughter in the beach (Rodeo Beach near Sausalito) and maybe you'll be in Marin county

[t-bob]

John McEnroe : in the realm of perfection ------- by the reviewer Matt Fagerholm

“At least I’m consistent!”, tennis champion John McEnroe once claimed during a quarrel with his son Kevin, to which the boy replied, “Consistently an asshole.” The pain that registered on his father’s face as these words left Kevin’s mouth continues to haunt him decades later, yet there’s no denying that his angry remark carries the unmistakable ring of truth. After all, McEnroe’s name has arguably become more synonymous with hotheads than any form of greatness. Just the other day, I was watching a rerun of “The Great British Baking Show” in which host Noel Fielding referred to a contestant routinely prone to outbursts as “the John McEnroe of baking.” Indeed, McEnroe’s profane bullying of umpires and penchant for smashing his racket to the ground earned him the nickname of “superbrat” in the U.K. His on camera tantrums don’t appear to be the behavior of a mature adult but that of an insufferable crybaby. No wonder his children grew up deeply confused by the childish example set by their father. If the tennis court is indeed a theatre stage, as dubbed by Billie Jean King, then McEnroe put on a show worthy of Jerry Springer—in between playing some of the greatest matches in sports history.

Barney Douglas’ new Showtime documentary, simply titled “McEnroe,” finds its titular 63-year-old subject in a pleasingly reflective mode, suggesting that he has grown more palatable with age. Lukas Tucknott’s strikingly artful cinematography deliberately imitates the noir aesthetic of Michael Mann’s masterful 1981 debut feature, “Thief,” in which its protagonist was doomed to a life he strove to fight against, one of perpetual alienation. Tennis is by its very nature a lonesome sport, requiring its players to rely solely on their own skillset while blotting out the pressure that aims to distract them at every turn. Throughout the picture, we see McEnroe wandering in the middle of the night down the streets of Douglastown, New York, rendered near-vacant by the Covid-19 pandemic. The sting of regret is noted in his voice as he freely admits that a lack of empathy has been his greatest character flaw. Sometimes this stylistic approach verges on silliness, such as when McEnroe’s fellow top-ranked player King is made to look as if she’s talking to herself in an empty train station. Yet it sure beats the monotony of the standard talking head approach, and some of the film’s most haunting images utilize subtle visual trickery to make McEnroe look as if he is peering at his own doppelgänger with newfound clarity.

There’s also an inspired use of effects that evokes another cinematic classic from the four-year period in which McEnroe was the world’s reigning tennis champion, 1982’s “TRON.” Douglas illustrates how McEnroe perceives the court as a giant invisible grid in which he can plan out each of his moves with mathematical, split-second precision. The film does a fine job of detailing how McEnroe was a formidable force to be reckoned with from the moment he made his debut at the French Open and Wimbledon in 1977 at the mere age of 18. Whenever McEnroe stops complaining and simply plays, the archival footage of him darting back and forth on the court, scoring hits that would be out of reach for most mortals, is utterly thrilling. Though the film initially promises to follow its subject into a dark night of the soul wherein he wrestles with demons, “McEnroe” is every bit as much a celebration of his legacy as a gifted bad boy. As his celebrity emerges as the equal of the rock ’n’ roll stars he routinely parties with, Steve Williams’ editing occasionally has the slickness of a music video, showing how his obnoxious persona was embraced in some quarters as a rebellion against stuffy British propriety. He craved to be the target of Beatlemania-style attention, only to be hounded by paparazzi that plagued his first marriage to Tatum O’Neal, who is conspicuously absent among the film’s interview subjects.

To be fair, many of McEnroe’s idols and eventual competitors in the sport such as Jimmy Connors and Vitas Gerulaitis could hardly be considered refined in manner themselves—with the major exception of Sweden’s Björn Borg. The fascinating rivalry between these two men has been previously chronicled onscreen in the 2011 HBO documentary “McEnroe/Borg: Fire & Ice” and the 2017 narrative feature, “Borg vs. McEnroe,” both of which remain unseen by me, yet the new interviews Douglas conducts with Borg are so good, one almost wishes that this film was equally about him as well. Borg recognized in McEnroe a kindred, fiercely driven spirit, yet his coiled composure served as the perfect counterpoint to his opponent’s bombastic nature, leading to a protracted tie-breaking match more nail-biting than any duel between superheroes. By demonstrating how one could withstand immense stress without flying off the handle, Borg provided McEnroe with an invaluable lesson, which made his sudden decision to retire at age 26 all the more devastating. Losing his greatest rival made it impossible for McEnroe to fully enjoy his greatest years of success, which he spent hoping that Borg would return, even if it meant that he’d get bumped down to the number two slot in the rankings.

As dawn approaches in Douglas’ film, we see how—after a series of sobering losses, both personally and professionally—McEnroe appears to have found his ideal mate in singer Patty Smyth. In a way, she seems to be the partner he has been searching for all his life. Though much of McEnroe’s psyche remains a mystery, the documentary is persuasive in noting how at least part of the man’s ever-brewing frustration stems from the unresolved relationship he had with his father, John McEnroe Sr. (who vocally detested being called “senior”). He served as his son’s devoted legal advisor for years, but was unable to show him the level of affection normally bestowed by a loving parent. The closing moments of “McEnroe” are resoundingly hopeful, as we see the once frightening record-breaker now determined to give his kids the very thing he was deprived of in his own youth, while perhaps finally allowing himself to appreciate his own achievements as well. Still, McEnroe insists that he is never at total peace, and his smile at the end of the film indicates that he prefers it that way."


My “old” tennis was like Mac’ serves(left) and Stan Smith or Stephen Edberg (right) net and strokes