Lonely Tonight

I just discovered "Lonely Tonight" by Inva (released earlier this year) while goofing around on Youtube right before heading to bed. It's a great progressive house track combined with an amazing visual tour of Southeast Asia, Thailand in particular. I know nothing about Inva but according to the comments to this video on Youtube, it is derivative of Andy van Kayne's "In The Name of Love" HERE which is also goosebump-inducing although I'm unconvinced of the connection at this point.
*Note: updated 1/21/2018

Things I Would Wish Upon My Enemies

Santa Margarita Ranch Big Barn

Yesterday afternoon into last night I worked a wedding at Santa Margarita Ranch. I spent a couple of hours after it ended in the big barn in back helping with breaking it down and cleaning up where the dinner and dance occurred. I had an opportunity to capture these images which I feel capture the atmosphere of the historic structure. To me this is one of the most amazing spaces found anywhere in which to hold a wedding. It is also a very moody place possessing a much different feel in the dark in the middle of the night alone.

Post-cleanup view of the barn space.

The masonry component of this structure is reputed to be the oldest extant masonry structure in California.

Do you see what I see in this image?
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Brother Jonathan Speaks Truth To Black Power

I spotted this tonight and was blown away by this man's wisdom and straightforwardness. Truth, Brother Jonathan, speak!

Quote of the Day - Alfred Pennyworth

While watching and/or pondering upon the recent rioting fig-leafed under the faux indignation about recent events in Ferguson, MO, I keep thinking of this quote from the film The Dark Knight:

"Some men just want to watch the world burn." ~ Alfred Pennyworth

Overheard ~ Pour Out The Whitey

Same close friend who gave me THIS last December also came up with this gem tonight:

"Paso Robles area residents protest Ferguson verdict by pouring out 'white' wine." ‪

‪#‎Ferguson‬ ‪#‎neverforget‬ ‪#‎firstworldproblems‬

A Gentle Giant

Still-frame of security camera footage of the harmless, big lug Michael Brown playfully robbing a convenience store a short time before Brown earned the prestigious Darwin Award for his inspired performance assaulting a white police officer (which is code for "racist"). As I type this, parts of Ferguson, MO, are being spiritedly burned in exhuberant protest of the  injustice dealt to the zero, er, hero Michael Brown for whom his killer repeatedly smashed his face (the cop's own)  into Brown's fist.

OBEY And Read This

A couple of nights ago I re-watched the 1988 John Carpenter film They Live for the first time in quite awhile. In addition to other pop cultural references contained therein I noticed the origin of the OBEY advertising campaign which campaign I had noticed before, obviously, but that came AFTER the previous time I watched the movie. The aforementioned counter-culture ad campaign created by Left-wing activist street artist Shepard Fairey began in 1989 as an odd ode to the late Canadian wrestler André the Giant entitled "Andre the Giant Has a Posse." Fairey has admitted the Carpenter film influenced his own "obey" idea. Fairey later created the now famous (or infamous) Barack Obama "Hope" poster in 2008 whose basic image he illegally appropriated from another person's photograph. This iconic image has gone on to inspire innumerable satirical incarnations.   

Still image from the film They Live.

Stylized artistic rendering of previous image.

"Andre the Giant Has a Posse" image.

The most iconic political image thus far in the 21st Century.

The circle is completed with this satirical take on "Hope."

I'm Entranced By iTrance

I recently discovered this trance track entitled "iTrance". It is a collaboration of Tiesto and Disco Fries. The associated video is amazing and fits well with the music. As with another recent offering HERE it features many of the things which turn me on in life.

The "Is Tiesto Back?" seen on the video is a reference by the creator of the video who is presumably a Tiesto fan to Tiesto's drift away from trance over the past several years to other genres of electronica and electronic dance music which has frustrated many of his original fans who are stuck in the past.I doubt he is "back" because he seems to live in the present.

Picture of the Day - Red-Tailed Hawk + Orange Clouds

This evening Paso Robles witnessed an unusually colorful sunset. I was out of position to capture its full glory but did manage to catch this scene from the street in front of my house. Note the bird of prey at center. It is also worth noting these clouds were rapidly drifting from right to left (in a south-southeasterly direction) caught up in the Sundowner Wind pattern afflicting the Central Coast tonight. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Dear Paso Robles PD, Et Al

I am Kim Patrick Noyes. I live at an address in Paso Robles you can easily find. In fact, two of your finest met me in my alleyway a number of nights ago while they checked on a periodic neighbor. I thought they were there to check an abandoned stolen bike left in the alleyway the day before for which I had just phoned your dispatcher not 15 minutes earlier. This encounter with your officers went down like every other encounter I have had with Paso Robles' finest: a professional and cordial experience with nary a thing for which to complain. The same goes for the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department. Even Atascadero's finest aren't too shabby. I speak from personal experience in each case. I'm putting this out here in the first paragraph to make it clear what follows is not a criticism.

I want you to know that dusty-dirty, sketchy-looking red 1994 Volvo 850 (pictured below) that you see putting about town sans front license plate with cracked windshield with numerous Cuesta College parking stickers and peeling paint and torn off side-stripping and busted front left headlight assembly protective cover replete with red duct tape to keep left headlight assembly in place and the missing front grill (that's a long story) not to mention the deal on its interior which I won't get into here for brevity's sake... well, that's my car. It seems that given its appearance it is a roving probable cause magnet which gets it noticed a whole lot more than other cars. This translates to its getting pulled over a lot more than other cars. I always know right away when I have a burned out light or a bad fuse because, BAM, I get pulled over immediately, which is nice in a way because things get fixed fast!  Recent example: you pulled me over the night of July 2, 2014, while APD pulled me over for the same burned-out tail light two nights later. It got fixed on the 5th. The reason for all this extra scrutiny is plainly obvious: profiling. I don't mean profiling in a pejorative fashion, but simply in an "it is what it is" sort of way. My car looks like it has a body stuffed in the trunk or 100 pounds of drugs concealed in the passenger compartment. If I were a cop I'd pull me over, too. However, for the sake of your productivity, I want to save you future man-hours (or woman-hours) in traffic stops with my car. I'm kosher (and halal) aside from enjoying pork and being a local wine snob. Yes, I drink local wines AND drive the car in question... but not at the same time!

But back to my point: I'm a very boring guy and there is nothing interesting going on inside my car other than my monstrous Chihuahua-Terrier (Terror) mix named "Tequila" barking at other dogs or anything that sports wheels or children or makes scary noises. Now she is the opposite of my car: looks innocuous enough but is most definitely up to something all the time. In fact, I'm afraid of her and request extra patrols of my alley on her account. Anywho, as for me, I am a full-time Cal Poly student who works part-time for Vino Vice Security here in Paso Robles. I'm also a proud member of the North San Luis Obispo County CERT and in what little spare time I possess I pretend to be the vice president of the Santa Lucia Rockhounds and chairman of their annual gem and mineral show (soon I shall find a replacement for my vice presidency). This is to say, I have no wants or warrants, have only picked up one speeding ticket in my life, have never been drunk, and have only experienced marijuana second-hand, at the Big Sur Jade Festival.

Thanks for taking the time to read this! Oh, and thanks for no fix-it tickets through all of those traffic stops!

The Kimobile. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Do As Pelosi Says, Not As She Does?

Obamanable Snowjob

A Tale Of Momentum & Inertia

A Lotta Nata = Awesome

I recently discovered "Nata" by Russian trance project Plexland, while surfing through Youtube links. The music is a gem of lush wall-of-sound trance while its video is a gem of timelapse photography featuring most of the themes that turn me on (aside from sex). Fifteen months ago I first shared another even more amazing track by the same artist HERE. 

The Joy Of Stairs

This is not the first time I have posted pics of Building Five (Architecture & Environmental Design) at Cal Poly. I love this building: it is so quirky and unusual and laid out like a structure in a fantasy game milieu. One of the charming features of this 4-5 story building (depending upon which part of it you refer) are the numerous angles of stairs and cool stairwells and concrete catwalks and balconies and intentionally exposed ducts and other lifelines.

This is actually a rebar and pipe sculpture. Photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Stormy Cal Poly In Three Pix

Today was stormy and for the second time this quarter at Cal Poly there were puddles of water to be found on-campus. This was the view today from the roof of Building Five (Architecture & Environmental Design) looking eastward into Reservoir Canyon.

The clock bell on the north end of Building Two (Education Building) was ringing as I shot this image with the backdrop of an El Niño-looking sky that threatened to rain here but ended up raining in the North County instead.

This is indisputably the most iconic natural feature in San Luis Obispo (Bishop Peak) as viewed to the west from the roof of Building five today with the aforementioned El Niño-looking. All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Gary's Original Sandwich Shop

Gary's Original Sandwich Shop existed briefly in the 1990's in Atascadero, CA. It was in the little building at the northwest corner of Morro Rd. and Atascadero, Ave. My mother and I picked up sandwiches there all the time when it was in business. It was so amazingly good I wrongly assumed Gary couldn't have come from around here, but was some sort of Southern California chef who headed back down south when it closed down.

Fast forward to 2010 when I started attending North County Christian Fellowship in Paso Robles, CA. There I met associate pastor Gary Del Georgio, the cooking and baking associate pastor who turned out to be none other than THAT Gary. I collect paper menus of places I frequent for food. If I like the place I keep their menu after they close down if/when that happens. I always regretted neglecting to save my Gary's menu. Photos courtesy of Gary Del Georgio (all rights reserved).

"Above" Is Below

Lately I have been drawn to listening to some of the older trance from a decade ago or older. Below is another oldie but goodie by Fable entitled "Above." It features some rather hauntingly ethereal elements that evoke an emotional sense of wistfulness bordering on mournfulness.

They're So Mean To Sean Bean

One of my favorite actors is Sean Bean. I first became aware of him in his role as Boromir in The Lord of the Rings Movie trilogy where his character is killed killed by orc arrows. I next encountered him in the underrated movie Equilibrium in which his character Grammaton Cleric Errol Partridge is shot by another such cleric. My third and most recent encounter with him was in Season One of Game of Thrones wherein his character Ned Stark is beheaded by the new king. I vaguely remember his death as James Bond's nemesis Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye but at that point I had no attachment to him and proceeded to forget about him until his LOTR appearance. I'm embarrassed to say that I have seen none of the other movies below, not even Patriot Games aside from a few sections I viewed on television.

Snow Drone

All I can say is that I'm sure glad I don't live in West Seneca, New York. This footage was taken the morning after the big storm rolled through there a day ago with uber "lake effect" snowfall.

Dude Has Been To Iraq

This is my first ever self-composed meme. Of course, I used a meme-generator to do it, but still, I have now joined the ranks of the memenators. Why you ask did I this deed? On my Facebook yesterday a conversation and meme thread emerged about Sean Penn's public spat with the South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone a decade ago. It occurred when Penn became aware that Parker and Stone were making their movie Team America: World Police and early trailers for it showed Sean Penn being satirized over his arch-Liberal political views which he takes much too seriously just as he takes himself too seriously. Below are their remarks on the matter. Note: for those of you not hip on the popular culture of the 1980's, the above image sans the words is a still from Fast Times At Ridgemont High showing Penn as "Jeff Spicoli."

"Timeless" Trance

"Timeless" is a great progressive trance track (with elements of progressive house). It was produced by Matthew Dekay. I became acquainted with this track back in 2006 when I purchased my first ever Armin Van Buuren compilation CD, A State Of Trance 2006. While recently listening to that CD I rediscovered this and now if finally makes it onto this blog.

Cal Poly Plane Crash Report

I recently downloaded the official report on the Cal Poly football team plane crash of October 29, 1960, in Toledo, OH, which killed 16 members of the team and the team manager while injuring about as many more. I have been studying the accident for a small paper I recently wrote in one of my history classes at Cal Poly. I am now leaning towards making my senior project about some aspect of the crash. I recently got motivated to get my hands on a hard copy of the accident report both for my own research as well as to donate to the Kennedy Library Special Collections Department which has a great section devoted to the crash but lacks a copy of the official report on it. Today I had two copies of the report printed by the Cal Poly printing service in the library. I shall keep one copy for myself and donate the other to the aforementioned Special Collections department tomorrow. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Enjoying a "Fool's Paradise"

I first encountered this wonderful track "Fool's Paradise" by Hanski on one of the trance or progressive house mixes I posted on here previously. This track trends in style more towards progressive house than trance although to my ear it straddles both a bit. It is quite danceable and easy on the ears if this sort of thing is your sort of thing. It is accompanied by a wonderfully scenic video featuring scenes from South America although specifically where I trow not.

Hate To Have This Hit Me On The Head

Artist's rendering of the relative sizes of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and the City of Los Angeles. The European Space Agency's Rosetta Space Probe landed upon this comet earlier today. Photo credit: Matt Wang, Flickr: anosmicovni. European Space Agency.

McConaughey's Chest-Thumping Humming Is No Fugazi

I recently watched the controversial Martin Scorsese film Wolf of Wall Street for the first time. I did this despite my reservations given the debauchery I have heard is contained therein. As it turns out that part was as bad as I imagined. However, the movie does not celebrate it but rather mocks the soulless decadence of a particular episode of Wall Street excess. It also mocks more generally the sociopathy that is endemic to Wall Street stockbroker culture.

Below is the very best scene in the movie and indeed the very best scene in any movie I have viewed this calendar year. In fact, I find my thoughts drifting back to it again and again since viewing it. Heretofore I have not been a Matthew McConaughey fan. However, this scene might be making a convert of me. It is a ferociously-funny send-up of stockbrokers. It also shows that McConaughey, here as a seasoned stockbroker giving advice to a rookie played by Leonardo diCaprio, is a much better actor than I previously realized.

Two notes of note: the chest-thumping and humming at the beginning and end were not originally in the screen play. However, McConaughey was doing it before the scene to prepare his voice. It was deemed so interesting and entertaining he was asked to do it in character in this scene. Also, this scene introduced me to a wonderful new (to me) expression "fugazi" meaning "fake." The etymology of it is rather interesting not to mention convoluted and controversial.  

Picture of the Day - Autumn At Pomar Junction

This was the autumn scene today in the vineyards at Pomar Junction during their Fall Pickup Party which I worked at today for Vino Vice, Inc. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

I Said Biiitttccchhh!!!

Surely this is one of the greatest if not the greatest Key & Peele skit in existence to date.

Picture of the Day - Poly Euc + Palm + Sun

Today when I walked out of my History 303 class in the Business Building (Building 3) I saw this scene and immediately visualized a photograph. Note the lineament of the heart of the eucalyptus tree, the date palm's head and the sun's disk beyond both.
Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Hallelujah Happy Dance

For the past six and one-half weeks of this fall quarter at Cal Poly I have endured an instructor in my four-unit global geography class who was clearly in over his head and had jumped the shark as a teacher. He was old and confused and disorganized and unfocused. He was also given to inappropriate political and ideological discussion in class which place must be a neutral one. He was a nice guy and I felt sorry for him, but also I felt sorry for us. I was willing to endure it and get my A and then perhaps after the semester mention something to somebody. However, I did not wish to rock the boat, especially as a noob on campus. Today as I waited for class to start having arrived somewhat early I noticed a man and a woman waiting outside the door to the classroom f for the previous class to end and clear out. As it turned out, the man was Terry Jones, department chair of social sciences at the liberal arts school and the woman was none other than Dr. Meg Streiff, professor of geography, who had been on sabbatical until about 48 hours previous. Apparently, the old man got himself fired from all sorts of negative feedback, more from other classes he taught than ours. I found the guy as difficult to learn from as anybody else having probably dosed off in nearly every session of his class. This is the canary in the mine for geography instructors given geography is as much my favorite topic as history or political science or emergency management. I am glad to see him gone as odd and unusual as this situation is, but feel sorry for him hope he will be alright. He would do well to take away from this experience that he should call it good for good and retire. Apparently, he was a sort of last-minute replacement himself at the start of this quarter having been brought in from Colorado. However, clearly there was a breakdown in vetting his ability which is the providence of higher-ups than Old Man Osterroth. Anywho, below are visual representations of how I felt this afternoon upon realizing the old man was out of our picture.

"Mercury Room" Rising

This track by German trance-meister Tom Cloud a.k.a. Thomas Blum which Tiesto featured in his 2007 compilation album In Search of Sunrise 6  was one of my favorites from that great album. I recently found myself thinking about it and the fact I have not posted any trance music here lately so here goes.
*Note: updated 1/21/2018

Tilt-Shifting Barcelona

I realize this is an Expedia ad essentially and I don't wish to be their pro bono mindless drone spreading their message. However, this tilt-shift videography is too cool to not share. Note: the presence of this video here is not an endorsement of the aforementioned company.

The Martian War To End All Wars

My father in Christ, Ted Weber, sent me the link to this today to watch AFTER I finished the rough draft of an important Big Paper whose rough draft is due on Monday in one of my Cal Poly classes. Funny guy, I have been bedeviled (quite literally I believe) by a mental-emotional-psychological crisis and mental block which has prevented me from starting it until tomorrow morning. Anywho, I watched this short film tonight although I was supposed to watch it AFTER I finished the paper. T\his short film really rocks and is so up my alley it confirms that Ted understands me! Thanks Ted, but sorry for not following directions!

Post-First Storm Cold Air Cumulonimbus

This was the scene this afternoon after the first storm front of the season had passed through. Cold air cumulus and cumulonimbus entrenched behind it passed through the area and gave the Central Coast periodic heavy showers. I captured these scenes from a friend's property on the West Side of Paso Robles late this afternoon.

This is north and east Paso Robles as seen from my location this afternoon as viewed looking due east.
Note: the road seen in the middle of the image is Highway 46 east of Highway 101.

View looking east-northeast.

View looking northeast.

View looking north-northeast.

View looking east.

View looking east-northeast.

View looking southeast showing Black Mountain at left.
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Loop Fire 48th Anniversary!

This was the Santa Ana Windy scene from around Foothill Blvd. in Sylmar-San Fernando area of the northern San Fernando Valley on this day in 1966 during a major Santa Ana Wind event. Twelve members of the El Cariso Hotshots were killed and many survivors injured when they found themselves trapped mid-slope and not in the black while fighting the 2,028-acre Loop Fire. There is much more to be found on this HERE and I highly recommend you watch/listen to the Gerald Smith clip. It is worth noting that this weather event also caused many record-setting high temperatures for this date (and in some cases for the entire month) from San Francisco to San Diego.
Photo attribution is unknown to me but I believe the image is in the public domain now.