Out of Comfort Zone

For some time, I had been lapsed into a mode of reading and viewing only mysteries, or rather, British or Scandinavian mysteries. Uncomplainingly, Paul would watch with me, but quickly drift into a dreamland, instead of experiencing the entire story unfold on the screen. 

During our latest trip in New York, I went through a rebirth process of sorts, and found myself turning into a reasonably flexible viewer. My platter became as wide as a feline’s, too.

To recall, I have not found it particularly painful to take myself out of my comfort zone. But two elements are critical: mental preparation and determination to have a good time. The following are some movies/TV programs we enjoyed during and after our trip:

DURING THE TRIP August Osage County (2013)

Car of the Future (2008)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Draft Day (2014)

Grand Hotel Budapest (2014)
Her (2013)
Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2014)
Luther (2010) 
Noah (2014)
Pitch Perfect (2012)
Reykjavik Rotterdam (2008)
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011)

Simple Plan, A (1998) Under the Skin (2013)

We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004)  AFTER THE TRIP Captain Phillips (2013) Chef (2014)

Interstellar (2014)
The Lunchbox (2013)
Looper (2012) 
A Most Wanted Man (2014)  
My Brother is an Only Child (2007)

Ray (2004)
The Roosevelts: an Intimate History(2014)

Theory of Everything (2014)
Zero Dark Thirty (2012) 
 

A Mother Teresa Break: Rain Held for Jack O'Lantern Blaze

Paul and I went to 2014 Jack O'Lantern Blaze. The blaze site was left behind Shop Rite of Croton-on-Hudson. One could either park on the shopping center site or go through the arch entrance. The lot was full.

Never in our entire life did we see so many pumpkins, and so many creative ways to present pumpkins. Five thousand pumpkins were employed to be gravesides, building or wall decorations, flora and fauna, animals, etc. we especially liked the use of accompanying lighting, sound and other special effects, plus a whole spectrum of Jurassic park families, and Chinese dragon.

Little did we realize that we stayed there for more than two long hours until Paul's camera chip was almost full and our feet went frozen. But there were still more things to see.

All in all, we loved our experience, it was very rich visually and culturally. We now knew a lot about Croton's local history and colorful local characters. The event was well manned with tight security and friendly staff, fit for all ages, particularly in earlier time slots.

We had been worried about the weather ever since we booked the only available tickets for the night of 11/6/2014 alerted by our niece Wendy. But we were blessed with a Mother Teresa break: it rained all day Thursday 11/6 until 7 pm. The full moon even popped out to join us.  

Watching The Hunger Games

Paul and I finally watched the long delayed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013).

It was a tense movie: characters, like in any sci-fi film, are always on the run, hunted and haunted by their hellish worlds. Because of her sympathetic tendency towards the downtrodden, Katniss and her partner were thrown into a demonic forest, attacked by burning clouds, fictitious animals and countless sufferings to stay alive until she shot into and broke the artificial dome of sky (reminding us of scenes in The Truman Show).

It is also an extremely successful movie. The two and a half hour running time did not seem long at all. When the end came, it was almost a relief, as one would wake up from a torturous nightmare, to know that the revolution had earnestly begun, and District 12 no longer existed. Probably this is where the attraction of the sci-fi genre lies. The mashup of spectacular Roman chariots and the Third Reich's Nuremberg rallies flanked by those vertical banners designed by Albert Speer, plus District 9's story, have totally dazzled newer generations born and living in cyberspace. The eternal worship for love and youth have also captured older generations nostalgic for their fleeting days. No wonder by the end of October 2012, 327,000 visitors had flocked to Hendersonville, NC to experience Hunger Game's forest and DuPont's High Falls after the first Hunger Games came out.

Where Was I on October 17, 1989, 5:04 PM?

Every time when I say that I came to Santa Cruz in 1989, I will inevitably be asked where I was on October 17, 5:04 pm, when 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred in northern California, the same way people born before November 1963 will be questioned where they were on 12:30 pm, when JFK was assassinated.

Unlike many locals who performed extraordinarily heroic feats by rescuing earthquake victims, or properties that day, I had a very ordinary experience, watching Stanley Kubrick's 2001: a Space Odyssey, as one of the Film Experience Class students at the Science Building of University of California, Santa Cruz. The film was not finished until months later. At 5:04 p.m., the earthquake struck the moment a scientist from the film started to speak: his voice not only boomed through the whole building, but shook the cement ground under our feet and broke many window glasses.

I had just started my American college life then and ignorantly skipped many extracurricular activities, such as group discussions and evaluations. When gathered on the lawn opposite to Porter College, I made a special effort to turn over a new leaf by asking my TA (Teaching Assistant) if we should go back to our classroom to evaluate the film. "Absolutely yes," she replied and told me and the rest of class to wait for the shaking to pass.

We never resumed our post-film discussion that evening as my TA estimated. Very soon we realized that the shaking was more serious than she expected: we lost electricity, saw smoke and fire down in the city, and chaotic traffic on Bay Avenue.

There was no city or school bus for me to leave the university to return to my home at Live Oak Avenue. For the first (and last) time in my life, I learned to hitchhike, and a passenger car transported me to downtown Santa Cruz, not far from where Paul lived. On seeing him standing at the back of the house on Clay Street, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

Travel Photographers' Forum with Wallace

On September 26, 2014, I attended Paul's Travel Photographers' Forum, with a digital slide show and discussion moderated by Wallace Baine. It was a collaboration with Cabrillo College Photography Department, Parojo Valley Arts Council (PVAC) and Santa Cruz Sentinel.

It was a well-attended event, room 1001 was packed with students, teachers and photography enthusiasts. There were five photographers whose works are still being exhibited at PVAC and the five Santa Cruz County Banks. Paul is one of the five presenters. The following notes were taken at the event.

Wallace: Travel photography is a way to capture one's experience. Travel to capture sounds (for Wallace).

Presenter 1: Shmuel Thaler
A photographer since 1987 Sentinel
As a conversation
Two parts
1. Personal Favorites. No difference. Composition and content together. Connecting people with what they do, as a geometry, landscape, color. Putting people in a place. Things just happened. Always be prepared. Context

2. Seeing things in a different way. Some kind of perspective, with landscape. We are doing things entirely new. Eye and brain, not really equipment. Highlights universality of human beings. Being aware of what is going on.

Likes to shoot with his iPhone, seeing what is going on. Going to some place entirely new. Through light, about seeing and feeling. Not let equipment get in the way.

Never shot B&W, unable to put colors in.

Presenter 2: Mary Aliter
For the last 35 years, Been to over 100 countries. Interested in tribes
Wants a flow of things. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Has covered
SE China
Colorful opportunities. Egypt. Try to see a personal in a background. Synchronicity of background. Pageantry of colors.
Her favorite places:
Bali,
Papa New Guinea,
Dead Sea, Jordan,
Masks,  India, Peru
Vietnam,
Mali,
Morocco,
South America,
Bhutan,
Ethiopia,
India.

Presenter 3: Elyse Destout
People are very important
Show fun with the people you love
Been to China 2010 and 2012
Learn about china, rich in color and culture
Solemn moments in front of temples
Flea markets
Beauty in little things
Drawn to people as a portrait photographer
Sounds, smell in 老北京爆肚味 (Old Beijing's deep fried foods)
Night scene in forbidden city.

Presenter 4: Paul Titangos
Has covered
Paris
Romania
Greece
Poland
Sudan south, north photography permits
New York
Forth Worth
Santa Cruz
Shanghai
Beijing
South West of China
Howra
Calcutta

Presenter 5: Carol Trengove
Has covered
Death series
Maui
Hellhole
Nevada
Africa
Lighthouses along the coast
Grand Canyon
Yellowstone

Q&A
1. Criteria for the images you took?
Variety
Different images say different things, broader spectrum, scattering

2. Shooting people the protocol
How to approach?

Digital makes it very easy. Showing people what you have shot. Asking or being aware of
Asking for permission, as an exchange or communication
Shmuel: catching the moment, esp. With the long lenses
Paul: agrees

3. Transition from Film and Digital Photography?
Elyse: Very reluctant to switch from film to digital so does Mary
Shmuel loves digital: speed, noiseless, transmission

Hassle with film photography
B&W not ready in digital?

4. Double exposure with Mother Teresa?

5. Vellum photograph
Shades of grey, and light

6. Shooting more or less
Your confidence to catch the moment before and after for Shmulel

7. Film makes a better photographer
Digital makes a different photographer

8. Prepare for a  trip
Three bodies, card readers,

Groundhog at First Sight

 Ever since Groundhog Day debuted in 1993 starring Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, and Chris Elliott, I have always regarded it as a mythical figure until the day before yesterday when Paul watered the side bush and disturbed a cat-size creature in my sister's backyard. It ran away along the brick path, through the gate and disappeared.

Since it is neither a cat, nor a dog, nor an opossum, nor a skunk, nor a racoon, Paul checked Internet and IDed the being and confirmed Hui's findings not long ago. Apparently her abundant backyard provides a haven for at leas one big guy. That has explained why some of her flowers, plants and vines were broken or chucked away, as no deer could easily venture in over her high fence.

According to Wiki, groundhog (Marmota monax) is also known as a woodchuck, whistle-pig, or land-beaver or 土拔鼠 in some areas. It is a rodent of Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. 

Books on Cassette

As of May 6, 2013, books on cassettes were to be discontinued at SCPL, thus ending a category since 1980's, another victim of fast growing technology. The discontinuation is per explicit order of cms manager.

So far, 6 requests have been cancelled for brand-new titles.

Through Our Lenses

In collaboration with Santa Cruz County Bank, Pajaro Valley Arts Council (PVAC) has curated  Through Our Lenses, a photography exhibit on China and India, August 27 - October 12, 2014 at PVAC gallery, and September 5, 2014 – January 9, 2015 at 5 Santa Cruz County Banks.

Paul has been selected as one of the six finest travel photographers in Santa Cruz County to exhibit his works created in his year-and-a-half in P. R. China, Philippines, India and Bangladesh in the mid 80s when the region was not impacted by global economy, plus half a dozen subsequent trips to China. His photography is known for its candid portrayal of regular people in the ordinary urban or rural street, a setting Henry Miller values most highly, “In the street you learn what human beings really are; otherwise, or afterwards, you invent them. What is not in the open street is false, derived, that is to say, literature."

Here are a number of major links to the exhibits:

1. Arts Council Santa Cruz County: http://www.artscouncilsc.org/event/through-our-lenses-china-and-india/
2. First Friday Santa Cruz: http://firstfridaysantacruz.com/walk-of-frame/
3. Good Times: http://www.gtweekly.com/index.php/santa-cruz-arts-entertainment-lifestyles/santa-cruz-arts-entertainment-/5876-walk-of-frame.html
4. PVAC Official Invitation: http://www.pajarovalleyartscouncil.org/

5. Santa Cruz County Bank in Collaboration with PVAC: http://firstfridaysantacruz.com/santa-cruz-county-bank-through-our-lenses/

6. Santa Cruz Weekly Announcement: http://www.santacruz.com/through-our-lenses-china-and-india-e2142491