In Memorium: Granite Mountain Hotshots

This afternoon the Prescott Fire Department's Granite Mountain Hotshot Crew (a Type-1 hand crew) was defending the Arizona town of Yarnell when the Yarnell Hill Fire blew up on them forcing them to deploy their shelters but to no avail as they were nearly entirely wiped out with 18 or 19 of the crew killed. This story is in its early stages so there is much more unknown than known including precisely how many were killed and if there was one survivor as some reports indicate as well as what precisely went terribly wrong today. Initial reports have half of Yarnell leveled by the fire with approximately 250 structures destroyed. Details here will undoubtedly be revised as more becomes known.
At bottom is a television news segment about the crew and their training taken earlier this year.
HERE is a newspaper article about them just one week ago as they worked the Doce Incident near Payson, AZ.

Undated, unattributed, and unprovenanced photo of the Granite Mountain Hotshot Crew.

Undated, unattributed, and unprovenanced photo of the Granite Mountain Hotshot Crew.

Granite Mountain Hotshot Crew logo patch.

Hot Shots from Cronkite News on Vimeo.

Picture of the Day - Scatological Discord

While working traffic control at the Jack's Helping Hand benefit barbeque earlier today into the evening out at the historic Santa Margarita Ranch I saw this funny bumpersticker relating to the ongoing and seemingly perpetual community division over the future of the Los Osos sewer system. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

I'm "Possessed" By This

My dear, sweet friend Erin shared this with me just now and it was love at first hearing of the music and love at first sight in seeing its cute and clever accompanying video. I'll probably watch/listen to this over and over in the coming days as I'm wont to do when I find a new musical infatuation. The artist is a European duo whom call themselves The Green Children. I love the message/theme of this song and hope to be the recipient someday of such love on all levels. I'm certainly ready to give such to another when the right person comes into my life by God's will.

West Fork Complex

I found this via Twitter several minutes ago and it resonated with me so I'm sharing it with you. The West Fork Complex consists of three fires which in the aggregate have burned over 80,000 acres as of this morning.

West Fork Complex from Hon schlapfer on Vimeo.

Tsunami As Harvester of Souls

While surfing the web recently I came across this image for the first time. I do not know who took this tragic image nor do I know the precise date or location. What I do know is that it is a scene of devastation and carnage in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Given the architecture of the structures and and the number of bodies in this image and how it looks compared to all the other images I have seen of this disaster from the perspective of Thailand and Indonesia I believe this image shows a scene in Indonesia. I have looked at this image magnified and I believe there are well over 100 bloated, leaking corpses tangled in this jetsam and flotsam.

Homophobic Batman

This hilarious (NSFW) spoof of the Batman-Joker Interrogation Scene in the film The Dark Knight is something I actually saw BEFORE I ever watched any of the actual film strangely enough. I have heretofore neglected to share this on my blog but now seems perfect given the previous post here features the original scene in the film to which this spoof refers. Enjoy, but be aware it is not for all tastes.

How Heath Ledger Earned An Oscar

Unfortunately, I did not discover how much I like Heath Ledger as an actor until after his death. I appear to be going through a Batman movie phase at present (applies only to Christopher Nolan versions only and mostly the last two movies at that). Ledger was quite deservedly awarded a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight. Below are my favorite scenes featuring him and they are arguably his best scenes in that film and perfectly demonstrate his acting genius. I have presented them to you in the order they appear in the movie. For those of you whom have not seen this movie I highly recommend you do so at once.

Quote of the Day - "Selena Kyle"

I'm not going to say what has inspired me to think of this memorable quote Selena Kyle a.k.a. "Catwoman" played by Anne Hathaway in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises but given the recent events covered in this blog I'm sure you can easily connect the dots for yourselves.

"There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends had better batten down the hatches. Because when it hits you're all going to wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us."

Real Men Drink Pink

Today I spent several hours helping with parking at the 2nd Annual Real Men Drink Pink breast cancer research fundraiser and rosé wine-pouring event held at Star Farms in east rural San Miguel, CA. I saw a lot of local wine-making celebrity as well as a great deal of wealth. Most if not all the people with whom I interacted  were very gracious and respectful. This impressed me and once again gives the lie to the myth promulgated by the class-warfare-making class whom vilifies the wealthy that they are a bunch of unpleasant people which simply isn't the case. There are jerks to be found on ALL socio-economic levels but I met none today amongst these bourgeois. Of note this day was the performance of The English Beat whom sounded very good, the amazing playlist of the event DJ featuring gem after gem of 80's musical glory (New Wave being emphasized) as well as the one medical aid call for a woman down from heat + excess alcohol consumption with San Miguel Fire responding two units for a total of 5 personnel and San Luis Ambulance sending Medic 21 with two paramedics aboard for whom I played bird dog into the scene.

I talked to the owner of Star Farms while waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive... wonderful man and a great conversationalist. Talking to him one finds out all kinds of interesting insights and observations about the sorts of people whom rent out the place... including the organizers of this event.

Twenty-two local wineries poured their rosé wines at this event in the canopy tents at left.

At times the sun came through the clouds and by the end of the day my face was fairly burned.

Vino Vice was on hand for event security.

The English Beat performing.

Michael Dusi's pink behemoth leaving near the end of the day...

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

My First Vina Robles Concert

Today I worked my first concert at Vina Robles Amphitheater as an usher down in the inner section immediately in front of the stage. I arrived at 4 p.m. and left around 11 p.m. with a half-hour break late in the concert. We arrived and at that time found out precisely where we'd be stationed in the event and what we'd be doing as well as were issued our shirts identifying our role as members of Guest Services. This is much like Star Trek where different shirt colors denote different roles on the ship. Quite fortunately, light blue shirts here are not the equivalent of red shirts on Star Trek! The one hazard we did face was the heat (at least early on) with one member of my team getting faint from heat exhaustion at one point and needing a break.

This event was our "soft" opening as it was a free concert to introduce the venue to our community and generate interest and publicity while we as a staff and indeed the entire operation used it to practice for our "hard" opening on July 6th. The first act of four (all of which I loved) was Jill Knight and the 805's (hippest act) followed by One Time Spaceman (my favorite) followed by Girls + Boys (lead singer Brianna Lee is HOT) and climaxed with the Zongo All-Stars (the highest quality act) by which point a lot of folks had congregated up in front of the stage to dance, something we did not allow earlier in this free concert and won't be allowing the rest of the concert season.

All in all the concert seemed like a success although there were a few minor logistical details we need to improve upon before our hard opening with the band Yes on July 6th. I certainly had a ball and enjoyed myself much too much for someone being paid to be there.  The property itself is brilliantly layed out and looks fabulous. Something I heard oft repeated today was "there is not a bad seat in the house" and I wholeheartedly agree. To my artistic eye the lighting in particular is visually sumptuous which I feebly tried to capture in the images below.

Note: the images below were shot on my break or after I was off the clock for the night except the first image. I am borrowing a friend's camera to which I am unfamiliar so the quality of most of the images below is lacking in my judgement so please pardon me while I get better with this machine.

This image was taken right after I signed in while we were awaiting instructions.

Taken during my meal break from the top of the amphitheater showing the stage while the final act of the night, Zongo All-Stars, were preparing to perform.

Alcohol booth

The other alcohol booth.

Moon rising over the entrance gate.

Zongo All-Stars performing following my logging off the clock.

VIP bar.

View looking into "The Barrel".

View looking out of "The Barrel".

Moonrise over the amphitheater.

Another moon shot featuring the entrance gate.

My friend Lisa whom I've known since childhood hamming it up with one of the Miller Security personnel.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes(all rights reserved).

Quote of the Day - "The Joker"

I have been going through a Batman movie phase lately (only the Christopher Nolan ones and especially the last two) and having dealt with mental health issues of mine own in decades past as I've openly discussed on this blog I find there is a great deal of truth to the following line by The Joker (played brilliantly by the late Heath Ledger) in the movie as there were in a good many of his lines in the movie. These were the very last lines spoken  by The Joker in this film and they were directed at Batman (played by Christian Bale). 

 "You see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push!"

Picture of the Day - Raging Rectangles

Coloradans are learning what we Californians have previously learned from way too many wildfire disasters in recent decades.  When a media helicopter flies over a recently burned track of land filled with a great many flaming rectangle shapes below that means just one thing: burning homes and such was the tragic case above from the recent Black Forest Fire earlier this month in the Colorado Springs, CO, area. Photo taken by unknown and found via Twitter.

Jewels Of The Earth By Diana

Since first I ever set eyes upon the jewelry design and making artwork of Diana March I have been enamored with her expert eye for selecting truly great pieces of mineral, fossil, tektite, or meteorite as pendants as well as her extraordinary sense of design and highly-skilled execution in wirewrapping those pieces into amazing works of jewelry art. As if that weren't enough her prices are incredibly affordable given what they are. On top of that she is an incredibly affable, down-to-earth, and kind-hearted person who has avoided getting all self-importantly full of herself as too often happens to artists moving up in the world.

And I won't neglect to mention her awesome husband who possesses an awesome talent for designing wonderfully creative displays for his wife's jewelry. He's also a real hoot to banter with. In these two people the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts and it is a pleasure to know them to the degree that I do.

As some of you may or may not know I am not a jewelry-wearing guy but after acquiring an Ernie Porter-collected piece of jade I recruited Diana to create a pendant and necklace for it befitting a man's man and as those of you whom have been following this blog may or may not recall she created THIS amazing work of jewelry art I wear to all special occasions.

Below are images of their display at last weekend's 53rd Annual Cayucos Gem & Mineral Show.  

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Rock Photography Set XIII

This past weekend I had the honor and privilege of participating in the 53rd Annual Cayucos Gem & Mineral Show. While there are Sunday morning while the day was typically slow in starting at Sunday's are oft wont to do I had the time and opportunity to take some images for a thirteenth installment of my Rock Photography series. I prefer natural light in my photographs so I use artificial light sparingly which in some images might frustrate some but that is how I roll.

For a peak at last weekend's show please check out Day Three and from their link through to the other days of the show.

The vertical component of Cameron's booth.

Fine orange twin double-terminated dogtooth calcite from Elmwood Mine, Smith Co., Tennessee.

Amazonite with smoky quartz from Ethopia.

Amethyst with chalcedony geode.

Quartz with rutile inclusions.

Calcite both orange/red as well as blue calcite.

Mexican orange calcite sphere with Argentine rhodochrosite egg.

Argentine rhodochrosite egg with Mexican orange calcite egg.

Big Sur jade pebbles collected by the late Ernie Porter.

Earrings made of matching Elmwood sphalerite and fluorite specimens.

Genuine and original Canadian ammolite.

Various opals both boulder opal and otherwise.

Exquisite agate geode with druzy quartz interior coating.

Afghan aquamarine crystal with natural termination.

Copper "splash" art pieces.

Smoky quartz "elestial" crystals.

"Spirit" or "cactus" quartz from South Africa.

Azurite and malachite and azure-malachite.

Galena with quartz.

Pyrite

Realgar and orpiment on galena.

Galena

Galena

Galena with realgar and quartz.

Realgar on quartz and pyrite.

Realgar and orpiment.

Galena with quartz.

Celestite from Madagascar.

Emerald in quartz.

Pyrite.

Calcite on sphalerite from Elmwood Mine, Smith Co., Tennessee.

Pyrite

Moroccan vanadinite at top.

Rutilated smoky quartz crystals.

Tiger eye with black onyx necklace by Keith Olivas.

Chrysocolla with magnetized hematite bracelet by Josie.

Exquisite glass orb on faux gold stand.

Carved black jade pendants by Keith Olivas.

Calcite

Viking Knit wire jewelry with Indonesian fossilized coral pendant all by Bev Brown.

Fossilized dinosaur bone wirewrapped pendant by Bev Brown.

Wirewrapped tiger iron pendant by Bev Brown.

Fluorite octahedrons from China.

Quartz crystal cluster.

Pyrite with druzy quartz.

Emerald in quartz.

Fluorite on sphalerite from Elmwood Mine, Smith Co., Tennessee.

Pyrite with chalcopyrite.

Pyrite cube

Spodumene variation kunzite.

Rare purple halite

Various silicon dioxide running the gamut from rock crystal to amethyst to rutilated to Moldavite tektite.

Amazonite, calcite and quartz.

Rutilated quartz.

Jade carving

Carved jade sculpture.

Crazy-laced agate pendant

Blue-green jade from the Big Sur Coast

Rough-looking botryoidal jade from the Big Sur Coast.

Mike Lyon's-discovered beach-tumbled split jade cobble found by him recently and near unto each other.
All images by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).